Softbank - New Sprint - Discussion

[Rawvega]

They already roam on those companies, so no need to acquire them. It does not help their coverage at all.

I disagree. Of course it helps their coverage. It changes roaming coverage to native coverage. That helps! When you have native coverage you're more in control of the quality of your subscribers' wireless experience. Moreover, roaming has always technically been limited, but it's gotten even more restrictive with the MyWay and Framily plans with only 100 Mb of data roaming allowed. That roaming also is usually only going to be at 1x. Going from a 10 Mbps LTE connection to 100 kbps roaming can be inconvenient to people. Buying the smaller carriers also gives a subscriber boost and the reach to potentially acquire more subscribers. Buying the smaller carriers also should give them a swath of 700A spectrum that they could use to bargain with T-Mobile for cash to offset the purchases and/or PCS spectrum.

 

Verizon and AT&T also could've gone the roaming route in the majority of the lesser populated parts of the country, but instead chose to make strategic acquisitions to offer the broad coverage maps. A lot of people desire (perhaps irrationally)that kind of coverage despite the fact that most of those people will never even use it in a lot of those off the beaten path places. Select acquisitions to help Sprint broaden their native coverage map could also help them shed the poor, highway only coverage stigma.

 

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[Fraydog]

Buying some smaller carriers and successfully integrating them also gives Sprint ammunition against the charge of "you can't integrate different networks into your own." 

[TheForce627]

I disagree. Of course it helps their coverage. It changes roaming coverage to native coverage. That helps! When you have native coverage you're more in control of the quality of your subscribers' wireless experience. Moreover, roaming roaming had always technically been limited, but it's gotten even more restrictive with the MyWay and Framily plans with only 100 Mb of data roaming allowed. That roaming also is usually only going to be at 1x. Going from a 10 Mbps LTE connection to 100 kbps roaming can be inconvenient to people. Buying the smaller carriers also gives a subscriber boost and the reach to potentially acquire more subscribers. Buying the smaller carriers also should give them a swath of 700A spectrum that they could use to bargain with T-Mobile for cash to offset the purchases and/or PCS spectrum.

 

Verizon and AT&T also could've gone the roaming route in the majority of the lesser populated parts of the country, but instead chose to make strategic acquisitions to offer the broad coverage maps. A lot of people desire (perhaps irrationally)that kind of coverage despite the fact that most of those people will never even use it in a lot of those off the beaten path places. Select acquisitions to help Sprint broaden their native coverage map could also help them shed the poor, highway only coverage stigma.

 

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Well said! Im more in favor of sprint buying some regionals and expanding their native footprint with their new 800mhz holdings than purchasing T-Mobile.

[bigsnake49]

 

They already roam on those companies, so no need to acquire them. It does not help their coverage at all.

 

Canada tried to establish 4 or more but that did not work very well because it is hard to overcome the lack of lower frequency spectrum plus the built in advantage of incumbents.

 

Dish is very hesitant to become a 5th provider, why? If competition is good with 4, why not with 5 or 6?

 

it is who competition is good for.  it is good for consumers not companies.

 

 

Not if they can't make money at it. Not if they can't make the necessary investments for the future. Then they will collapse and die or get absorbed. Competition work much better if you have approximately the same size companies. And you can't have a race to the bottom.

 

T-mobile wants to be bought, whether by Sprint or Dish. I think that they are way too expensive for Dish's taste. Softbank on the other hand....

Edited February 1, 2014 by bigsnake49

[WiWavelength]

To be fair, the Obama Administration has also overseen a good degree of consolidation in the industry.

 

In its own "death by a thousand cuts" approach, maybe SoftBank can avoid much regulatory scrutiny by just buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom one market at a time.  Every week, add another top 100 market.  Start with Omaha! Omaha!  T-Mobile has a license protection network there but does not sell local service.  So, no competition would be lost.

 

AJ

[lordsutch]

They already roam on those companies, so no need to acquire them. It does not help their coverage at all.

The problem with that strategy is: what happens when AT&T and/or Verizon buy them up? Sprint is likely to lose a lot of roaming coverage on ex-Alltel as those contracts expire, particularly in the AT&T areas where 1X is only maintained for roaming revenue. Sprint can't afford to lose many more roaming partners, since that will mean paying even more money to Verizon or having reduced roaming coverage (regressing to a T-Mobile-like footprint in many areas). Even wholesale network sharing deals are no guarantee of adequate coverage; see nTelos' foot dragging on LTE and before that EVDO.

 

Not to mention that there's no guarantee roaming partners will deploy compatible networks going forward as voice migrates to VoLTE. There's only so many LTE bands you can cram in a handset.

 

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[bigsnake49]

The problem with that strategy is: what happens when AT&T and/or Verizon buy them up? Sprint is likely to lose a lot of roaming coverage on ex-Alltel as those contracts expire, particularly in the AT&T areas where 1X is only maintained for roaming revenue. Sprint can't afford to lose many more roaming partners, since that will mean paying even more money to Verizon or having reduced roaming coverage (regressing to a T-Mobile-like footprint in many areas). Even wholesale network sharing deals are no guarantee of adequate coverage; see nTelos' foot dragging on LTE and before that EVDO.

 

Not to mention that there's no guarantee roaming partners will deploy compatible networks going forward as voice migrates to VoLTE. There's only so many LTE bands you can cram in a handset.

 

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Then they have to deploy 800SMR in those areas. Hopefully they are not in IBEZ areas.

Edited February 1, 2014 by bigsnake49

[Nickel]

In its own "death by a thousand cuts" approach, maybe SoftBank can avoid much regulatory scrutiny by just buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom one market at a time.  Every week, add another top 100 market.  Start with Omaha! Omaha!  T-Mobile has a license protection network there but does not sell local service.  So, no competition would be lost.

 

AJ

No, they CAN'T serve Omaha because they can't get phone numbers, remember? 

[davidtm]

. . . . Even wholesale network sharing deals are no guarantee of adequate coverage; see nTelos' foot dragging on LTE and before that EVDO.

 

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This!

 

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[Rawvega]

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler expressed his skepticism about a potential merger between Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc in a meeting with Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son on Monday, according to an FCC official briefed on the matter.

 

Son, chief executive at Tokyo-based SoftBank Corp, which acquired Sprint last year, met with the top U.S. telecommunications regulator alongside Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse.

 

Wheeler told Son and Hesse he was highly skeptical of the potential bid by No. 3 wireless provider Sprint to acquire No. 4 rival T-Mobile, according to the FCC official, who was not present at the meeting.

 

 

Read more at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-chief-tells-sprint-chair-000521569.html

 

So now supposedly the stink eye from the DoJ and the FCC. Perhaps it's time for Son to start thinking about whatever his 'Plan B' is.

[S4GRU]

Read more at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-chief-tells-sprint-chair-000521569.html

 

So now supposedly the stink eye from the DoJ and the FCC. Perhaps it's time for Son to start thinking about whatever his 'Plan B' is.

His plan for world domination using Sprint is still possible. He just needs to get past this distraction. Double down with Sprint. Fire a bunch of people, pour on a few billion to expedite finishing NV and Spark nationwide and add nationwide freeway coverage. Maybe pickup some more CDMA regional providers along the way.

 

And hit Legere right between the eyes!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[utiz4321]

Read more at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-chief-tells-sprint-chair-000521569.html

 

So now supposedly the stink eye from the DoJ and the FCC. Perhaps it's time for Son to start thinking about whatever his 'Plan B' is.

I think so too. The US regulators seem to be insistant on 4 national carriers. It will be interesting. To see if tmobile continues their aggressive pricing or decides that they might need to become a viable company again.

[WiWavelength]

Read more at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-chief-tells-sprint-chair-000521569.html

 

So now supposedly the stink eye from the DoJ and the FCC.

 

Was it really the stink eye?  Or maybe the crook eye?  Or even the evil eye?

 

 

AJ

[DaQue]

Read more at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-chief-tells-sprint-chair-000521569.html

 

So now supposedly the stink eye from the DoJ and the FCC. Perhaps it's time for Son to start thinking about whatever his 'Plan B' is.

Found a little clip that sums it up:

 

[bigsnake49]

Son is getting T-Mobile one way or the other. If he is not allowed to merge them outright, he will merge them a bit more subtly. As in they will merge networks, they can freely roam on each other's networks in the beginning, etc. They will probably form a company that just runs the network and then the two founding companies (Sprint, T-Mobile) are MVNO's. The network company will lease the spectrum from the two member companies. So Sprint and T-Mobile will pretty much share everything but maerketing and billing systems. There will be 4 nationwide carriers in name only. Network sharing can work very well.

 

What that will do is to shut Dish completely out, unless they can come up with some cash to contribute. I don't think that they will be able to build a brand new network from the ground up. 

 

The major reason why the Feds don't want this merger is that it will drive the price of spectrum down in the upcoming auctions (with the sole exception of the 600MHz auction) so they can finance the ill conceived/ill fated PS broadband network.

Edited February 4, 2014 by bigsnake49

[Conan Kudo]

Son is getting T-Mobile one way or the other. If he is not allowed to merge them outright, he will merge them a bit more subtly. As in they will merge networks, they can freely roam on each other's networks in the beginning, etc. They will probably form a company that just runs the network and then the two founding companies (Sprint, T-Mobile) are MVNO's. The network company will lease the spectrum from the two member companies. So Sprint and T-Mobile will pretty much share everything but maerketing and billing systems. There will be 4 nationwide carriers in name only. Network sharing can work very well.

 

What that will do is to shut Dish completely out, unless they can come up with some cash to contribute. I don't think that they will be able to build a brand new network from the ground up. 

That's not really "getting" T-Mobile. Besides, network sharing is definitely a good option for both companies that would preserve the competitive pressures of both brands on the incumbents. It also allows both SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom to retain influence in the US market.

 

As for building a network from the ground up, that isn't as hard as it used to be. The US is littered with cell sites owned by tower companies. Dish just has to make deals with these tower companies to get access to the needed site locations for its gear. It would be an expensive venture, but it is doable.

[bigsnake49]

That's not really "getting" T-Mobile. Besides, network sharing is definitely a good option for both companies that would preserve the competitive pressures of both brands on the incumbents. It also allows both SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom to retain influence in the US market.

 

As for building a network from the ground up, that isn't as hard as it used to be. The US is littered with cell sites owned by tower companies. Dish just has to make deals with these tower companies to get access to the needed site locations for its gear. It would be an expensive venture, but it is doable.

 

T-Mobile USA will be either outright owned by Softbank or Softbank could be a 49% minority owner with the rights to manage T-Mobile USA. Alternate scenarios have been developed.

 

What these alternate scenarios do actually is to take out any possible leverage the feds have on buildout requirements for rural coverage either in the 800MHz SMR or the 2600MHz band. The 2600MHz band is great for rural fixed broadband. 

Edited February 4, 2014 by bigsnake49

[jefbal99]

His plan for world domination using Sprint is still possible. He just needs to get past this distraction. Double down with Sprint. Fire a bunch of people, pour on a few billion to expedite finishing NV and Spark nationwide and add nationwide freeway coverage. Maybe pickup some more CDMA regional providers along the way. And hit Legere right between the eyes! Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Drooling over the thought of this...

[IamMrFamous07]

Man after the SoftBank acquisition I feel there is so much going on with "New Sprint" I can't keep up. Not complaining but can they just accomplish one task then complete the other. Geez lol

 

I don't even know what's going on now lol

[Fraydog]

I don't want Legere to have any part of a combined company.

 

If Hesse leaves at any point I'd rather look at a technically proficient candidate externally to run the combined company.

[cdk]

His plan for world domination using Sprint is still possible. He just needs to get past this distraction. Double down with Sprint. Fire a bunch of people, pour on a few billion to expedite finishing NV and Spark nationwide and add nationwide freeway coverage. Maybe pickup some more CDMA regional providers along the way. And hit Legere right between the eyes! Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

cough... US Cellular...cough

[bigsnake49]

cough... US Cellular...cough

What if US Cellular does not want to get bought?

[S4GRU]

What if US Cellular does not want to get bought?

That's an issue with every targeted provider.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[The Dave]

Money talks.

[MacinJosh]

Money talks.

In many cases, yes. But US Cellular has been very resistant, except for the Chicago area spectrum they sold to Sprint.

 

 

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