WSJ: Sprint looking at T-Mobile purchase

[maximus1987/lou99]

Isnt 20 billion pretty cheap for 45 mil customers and their spectrum?

I do agree tmo knows down the road sprints network will be much improved and on par with the big2 and tmo will be looking to play catch up and that will cost $$$$$$

whats funny though is 20 billion... That alone is probably why sprint is moving forward.... 20 billion for 45 mil subs which will put you right where you wanna be.....

ATT was willing to pay $39 billion and that was before TMO upgraded 37k towers and before adding 9 mil metros.

 

$20bil is simply market cap, not what sprint would pay.

 

Sure ATT was willing to pay a huge premium to become sole gsm carrier but that doesn't mean that sprint will get away with not paying a premium to the stock price. The premium is standard in takeover bids.

[IamMrFamous07]

If the deal was to go through. Will sprint be forced (or should sprint) sell of tmobiles aws licenses to regional carriers or to the big 2?

[WiWavelength]

If the deal was to go through. Will sprint be forced (or should sprint) sell of tmobiles aws licenses to regional carriers or to the big 2?

Divest T-Mobile's AWS? You must be kidding. No, that would not happen.

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

If the deal was to go through. Will sprint be forced (or should sprint) sell of tmobiles aws licenses to regional carriers or to the big 2?

 

No, but they might elect to sell some of their EBS licenses to the big two or Dish. They will have 800 MHz SMR, AWS, PCS and BRS/EBS spectrum. If they want to do some horse trading to keep their spectrum holdings at 4 bands they might want to trade their SMR holdings for 600MHz after the 600MHz auction.

Edited December 14, 2013 by bigsnake49

[maximus1987/lou99]

No, but they might elect to sell some of their EBS licenses to the big two or Dish. They will have 800 MHz SMR, AWS, PCS and BRS/EBS spectrum. If they want to do some horse trading to keep their spectrum holdings at 4 bands they might want to trade their SMR holdings for 600MHz after the 600MHz auction.

And lose 800-1xA voice? Ain't happening. Edited December 14, 2013 by meilu

[bigsnake49]

And lose 800-1xA voice? Ain't happening.

What I'm advocating won't happen right away.  600Mhz auction won't happen until 2015 and it will probably take until 2016 or 2017 before 600Mhz is ready to be used. By that time, VoLTE should be ready. 1xA will be immaterial by 2017-2018.

[irwinshere]

Also remember that even if T-Mobile and Sprint merge, they will only have around 53M postpaid customers (per WSJ). That a lot less than Verizon's 95M postpaid and AT&T's 72M.

I thought sprint had nearly that many customers themselves. How many prepaid customers do tmo and sprint have?

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

[maximus1987/lou99]

What I'm advocating won't happen right away. 600Mhz auction won't happen until 2015 and it will probably take until 2016 or 2017 before 600Mhz is ready to be used. By that time, VoLTE should be ready. 1xA will be immaterial by 2017-2018.

Cue pounding from AJ.

 

I'll do some prep: you think Sprint is gonna buy everyone a volte phone to replace 1xA? Sprint said its gonna keep CDMA until sometime very early 2020s.

[bigsnake49]

Cue pounding from AJ.

 

I'll do some prep: you think Sprint is gonna buy everyone a volte phone to replace 1xA? Sprint said its gonna keep CDMA until sometime very early 2020s.

 

Yes, so does Verizon, but I don't think it will last that long. Once VoLTE has been perfected, then the next phone you buy will only be a VoLTE one with no Circuit Switched Fallback and you won't notice the difference. It will simplify things tremendously for both the carriers and the handset makers. No need for SV-DO or SV-LTE.

Edited December 14, 2013 by bigsnake49

[bigsnake49]

I thought sprint had nearly that many customers themselves. How many prepaid customers do tmo and sprint have?

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

30.1M postpaid, 15.3 prepaid and 7.86M wholesale for Sprint. 21.4 Postpaid and total of 21.4 prepaid and wholesale for T-Mobile.

[WiWavelength]

Yes, so does Verizon, but I don't hink it will last that long. Once VoLTE has been perfected, then the next phone you buy will only be a VoLTE one with no Circuit Switched Fallback and you won't notice the difference. It will simplify things tremendously for both the carriers and the handset makers. No need for SV-DO or SV-LTE.

 

Do you mean e/CSFB?  Both SVDO and SVLTE are now basically out of the pipeline.

 

Also, I see that you removed your statement about the speed/ease of T-Mobile-MetroPCS integration.  I was going to address it, but have you retracted it?

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

Do you mean e/CSFB?  Both SVDO and SVLTE are now basically out of the pipeline.

 

Also, I see that you removed your statement about the speed/ease of T-Mobile-MetroPCS integration.  I was going to address it, but have you retracted it?

 

AJ

 

No I thought it was kind of peripheral to the discussion, OT. We can address it if you like.

[irwinshere]

30.1M postpaid, 15.3 prepaid and 7.86M wholesale for Sprint. 21.4 Postpaid and total of 21.4 prepaid and wholesale for T-Mobile.

Ok that makes sense. Thanks.

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

[WiWavelength]

No I thought it was kind of peripheral to the discussion, OT. We can address it if you like.

 

The ease of T-Mobile-MetroPCS integration has been due to two factors:  it is limited to LTE so far, and the two operators share AWS as their LTE band.  The eventual CDMA2000 changeover will be more painful.

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

The ease of T-Mobile-MetroPCS integration has been due to two factors:  it is limited to LTE so far, and the two operators share AWS as their LTE band.  The eventual CDMA2000 changeover will be more painful.

 

AJ

Yes, I'm sure there will be some MetroPCS customers that will eventually be told that their CDMA flip phone will not work any longer and they will need to purchase another phone. Meanwhile as more CDMA channels become empty they will be reused for LTE. There are no new CDMA phones being sold as far as I know.

Edited December 14, 2013 by bigsnake49

[MacinJosh]

The ease of T-Mobile-MetroPCS integration has been due to two factors: it is limited to LTE so far, and the two operators share AWS as their LTE band. The eventual CDMA2000 changeover will be more painful.

 

AJ

I think T-Mobile will make a really enticing offer for MetroPCS customers to switch to GSM/W-CDMA/LTE devices in the near future so they can kill the CDMA2000 network maybe even sooner than originally planned.

[WiWavelength]

Yes, I'm sure there are some MetroPCS customers that will eventually be told that their CDMA flip phone will not work anylonger and they will need to purchase another phone. Meanwhile as more CDMA channels become empty they will be reused for LTE.

 

I will be interested to see how T-Mobile handles the handset swap situation with low rent MetroPCS subs.

 

And roaming could be a sticking point.  By switching away from CDMA2000, MetroPCS subs will definitely lose overall roaming coverage, both in market and out of market.

 

Back to LTE integration, since each CDMA1X carrier occupies only 1.25 MHz FDD, do not expect to see much refarming until MetroPCS CDMA2000 goes away completely.  This is particularly true since nearly all MetroPCS CDMA1X is in the PCS band, and T-Mobile has made no moves about doing band 2 LTE 1900.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

I think T-Mobile will make a really enticing offer for MetroPCS customers to switch to GSM/W-CDMA/LTE devices in the near future so they can kill the CDMA2000 network maybe even sooner than originally planned.

 

And if so, that means T-Mobile will have to shell out the cash to subsidize low rent MetroPCS subs.  Good, good, make magenta pay...

 

AJ

[MacinJosh]

And if so, that means T-Mobile will have to shell out the cash to subsidize low rent MetroPCS subs. Good, good, make magenta pay...

 

AJ

They should since they bought them out.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

[bigsnake49]

I will be interested to see how T-Mobile handles the handset swap situation with low rent MetroPCS subs.

 

And roaming could be a sticking point.  By switching away from CDMA2000, MetroPCS subs will definitely lose overall roaming coverage, both in market and out of market.

 

Back to LTE integration, since each CDMA1X carrier occupies only 1.25 MHz FDD, do not expect to see much refarming until MetroPCS CDMA2000 goes away completely.  This is particularly true since nearly all MetroPCS CDMA1X is in the PCS band, and T-Mobile has made no moves about doing band 2 LTE 1900.

 

AJ

 

They don't need to do LTE in the PCS band yet. They have HSPA+ in that band which will accomodate the additional voice demands of migrating Metro customers.

 

As far as roaming, they might have to include some roaming on AT&T for Metro PCS customers on the more expensive plans.

[MacinJosh]

They don't need to do LTE in the PCS band yet. They have HSPA+ in that band which will accomodate the additional voice demands of migrating Metro customers.

 

As far as roaming, they might have to include some roaming on AT&T for Metro PCS customers on the more expensive plans.

Tiered service coverage? Wow, that would be an interesting change of marketability.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

[bigsnake49]

And if so, that means T-Mobile will have to shell out the cash to subsidize low rent MetroPCS subs.  Good, good, make magenta pay...

 

AJ

 

They might push them into higher cost plans. 

 

Prepaid does not necessarily mean low rent. AIO Wireless' $55/mo plan is not low rent.

[bigsnake49]

Tiered service coverage? Wow, that would be an interesting change of marketability.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

Maybe Sprint should market to those people?

[WiWavelength]

They don't need to do LTE in the PCS band yet. They have HSPA+ in that band which will accomodate the additional voice demands of migrating Metro customers.

But that is my point. You stated that MetroPCS CDMA2000 would be incrementally refarmed to LTE.  However, if nearly all of that CDMA1X is in PCS and T-Mobile has no present plans for band 2 LTE 1900, then the incremental refarming has no practical application.

 

As far as roaming, they might have to include some roaming on AT&T for Metro PCS customers on the more expensive plans.

 

On CDMA2000, MetroPCS has greater roaming coverage than even T-Mobile postpaid does. So, I doubt that supplemental AT&T roaming would be the answer. That would be awkward for converted MetroPCS subs to have greater overall coverage than existing T-Mobile subs do.

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

But that is my point. You stated that MetroPCS CDMA2000 would be incrementally refarmed to LTE.  However, if nearly all of that CDMA1X is in PCS and T-Mobile has no present plans for band 2 LTE 1900, then the incremental refarming has no practical application.

 

 

On CDMA2000, MetroPCS has greater roaming coverage than even T-Mobile postpaid does. So, I doubt that supplemental AT&T roaming would be the answer. That would be awkward for converted MetroPCS subs to have greater overall coverage than existing T-Mobile subs.

 

AJ

OK, so they won't use PCS 2 for LTE for a while. You got me .

 

So Metro subs might lose coverage. They're low rent, right? They might lose a few of them to Straight Talk, AIO, Page Plus or Sprint.