Sprint Reportedly Bowing Out of T-Mobile Bid (was "Sprint offer" and "Iliad" threads)

[thepowerofdonuts]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/30/5669598/sprint-will-try-to-buy-tmobile-in-june-or-july

 

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-30/sprint-said-to-plan-t-mobile-bid-after-pushing-banks-for-funding.html

 

I was looking for this since you folks are normally pretty quick. It will be interesting to see a timetable for this.

Edited April 30, 2014 by thepowerofdonuts

[EmeraldReporter]

I saw that just now, so I jumped to S4GRU to say a little something.

 

Looks like I'm just in time! I think that the horde of Magenta agents blind to T-Mobile's future shortcomings, and the Sprint Haters of the world will make it very difficult for us Sprint fighters/loyalists to out-speak their banshee yells when the FCC files public comments.

 

I'm in college, so I think I can make a well-rounded 20,000 word report/essay in support of the merger.

 

Even though we'll probably be outnumbered 10-01 in the number of comments that will be submitted by the public, I hope that sound reason and logic will give the FCC enough reason to allow this to happen.

[doakills]

Last I remember reading on the topic of the FCC approval; it has to do with spectrum holdings. Can't site it, but I did read it on s4. Basically its been thrown down that in order to have any chance in future auctions and or merger sprint would have to let go in an agreement "spectrum". Now i'm not sure if this would be doable by lets saying T-mobile letting there 1700 go? leaving them to there 1900 / recent 700 holding? This would then allow them to later bid for 600mhz I'd assume on a equal playing field unless wheeler made a decision against that. 

 

Also the other group that would have to approve this is the DOJ... They would have a side with the FCC with what ever they decide to run with. However, they would also probably throw down the combining of the two companies as an issue, leading to a potential monopoly (even though it wouldn't).  So not sure how Son plans to counter that honestly, but the FCC seems the easier fix of the two. lol

[Hurrcayne_dre]

I hope they don't allow it and I am not a banshee or hater. I was a Sprint customer from 98 who left in 2011. I just came back this year but after living through the Nextel crap, Xohm that later Clear fiasco I had enough and left.  No fix what you have currently. 

[JimBob]

I am okay with a possible merger now that Sprint's network is starting to reach a satisfactory state.

 

However, I do not want Softbank/Sprint to overpay for T-Mobile US.

[utiz4321]

I have been so against it, but I have changed my mind.

[JThorson]

I have been so against it, but I have changed my mind.

What made you change your mind?

[utiz4321]

What made you change your mind?

The percent of the profits of the industry controlled by the big two vs the first industry. Also the fact of the high fix capital required to run a wireless network.

[centermedic]

I am still against the merger.

[IamMrFamous07]

I am still against the merger.

Why so?

[IamMrFamous07]

I'm for this merger but my only concern will be the spectrum holdings. Will this new company be required to divest spectrum? And where does Dish fall into this?

[centermedic]

Why so?

I still fail to see how this merger makes Sprint a better company. I think the money is better spent building a better company and driving t-mo into the ground to the point that if you want to buy them then you can get them cheap. Also consider this, Sprint would inherit all of the well documented shortcomings of T-Mo along with the alleged data whores who left sprint for t-mo.

[jamisonshaw125]

Yeh I don't want the data abusers back. We do have b41, but even b41 has it's limits.

 

I am still meh about be merger.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

[JossMan]

I am against this merger, Sprint should focus on itself and its network.  Once Network Vision/LTE is 100% complete and Spark is in the top 100 cities, Sprint shouldn't have a problem luring customers back onto its brand new shinny network coupled with the framily plan and any new goodies Sprint has up its sleeves.  

[IamMrFamous07]

I still fail to see how this merger makes Sprint a better company. I think the money is better spent building a better company and driving t-mo into the ground to the point that if you want to buy them then you can get them cheap. Also consider this, Sprint would inherit all of the well documented shortcomings of T-Mo along with the alleged data whores who left sprint for t-mo.

 

Idk I see both sides of the argument for this merger. My only concern about this merger is the network deployment. I know Network Vision is already funded but I hope this merger doesn't put things on hold.

 

I guess we should wait and see what Softbank/Sprint presents when they make an official offer.

[Terrell352]

There are some cities where band 41 will not be that band 25 and 26 will not be able to handle alone. In my city there are a few towers that I know of that slows to 0-1mbps during peak hours. Then again there is not band 26 or 41 here so 5x5 band 25 is not much.

I am against this merger, Sprint should focus on itself and its network. Once Network Vision/LTE is 100% complete and Spark is in the top 100 cities, Sprint shouldn't have a problem luring customers back onto its brand new shinny network coupled with the framily plan and any new goodies Sprint has up its sleeves.

[bucdenny]

I am against this merger, Sprint should focus on itself and its network.  Once Network Vision/LTE is 100% complete and Spark is in the top 100 cities, Sprint shouldn't have a problem luring customers back onto its brand new shinny network coupled with the framily plan and any new goodies Sprint has up its sleeves.  

 

They need to include mobile hotspot in their plans.  5GB included with T-Mobile for their unlimited plan.

[IamMrFamous07]

I am against this merger, Sprint should focus on itself and its network.  Once Network Vision/LTE is 100% complete and Spark is in the top 100 cities, Sprint shouldn't have a problem luring customers back onto its brand new shinny network coupled with the framily plan and any new goodies Sprint has up its sleeves.  

 

Its going to take more than a "New Shiny Network" to lure customers. Pretty much Sprint/Softbank will have to use "Network Vision" to restructure its own brand. Im curious to see how the "Americas Newest Network" campaign will turn out.

[MacinJosh]

If Legere becomes CEO of the combined company, I will be against everything. 1) I know how much he has spoken out against Framily & 2) He's just too noisy and crazy. Outspoken people are bad for people in the end.

[Tajustin95]

I am for this merger. I was reading everyone's opinion on it and my response to it is that Sprint cannot just simply focus on its own network with the money it is planning to use to merge, but the point of the merge is in order to get that scale for the number of towers. When Masayoshi Son talks about scale, it is in order to have the physical towers to compete with the big two. Also, for potential bidding for the 600mhz would be a lot easier with only three companies bidding instead of four in total. I don't this is my own opinion, not bashing on anyone. Just putting it the thought out there for people against it. Also, for business, I can see John Legere being the CEO because he is the face and how he puts himself out there. Making himself the marketing campaign.

[SF SOMA]

As an admitted tech dummy I still don't know how the CDMA and gsm technologies will merge which kind of reminds me of ...um the nextel merger. Forgot how much they wasted in that merger...$35 billion!!! Sprint today is worth that much which means Nextel was a waste of money. Seems like history is repeating itself?? At least it took only 10 years for sprint to start utilizing the benefits of the old iden spectrum.

 

I'm sure there is a path to get those technologies together but it's probably not that easy and another 4 years of pain at least. Always easier said than done. Just my thought.

[JThorson]

I still find it amazing how almost everyone is against it just because they think Sprint sucks. They have no knowledge of what is actually going on unlike us here. While overall I think it would be good is Sprint bought T-Mobile, I have a feeling that would cause more headache in the long-term. Would Sprint then redo part of its network to implement the new frequencies? It's hard to say until we hear more. I read they may announce something within the next couple of months.

[mideastbeast]

Hum, I wonder if they'll really replace Dan Hesse like this article says: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-going-try-buy-t-214918690.html

[MacinJosh]

As an admitted tech dummy I still don't know how the CDMA and gsm technologies will merge which kind of reminds me of ...um the nextel merger. Forgot how much they wasted in that merger...$35 billion!!! Sprint today is worth that much which means Nextel was a waste of money. Seems like history is repeating itself?? At least it took only 10 years for sprint to start utilizing the benefits of the old iden spectrum.

 

I'm sure there is a path to get those technologies together but it's probably not that easy and another 4 years of pain at least. Always easier said than done. Just my thought.

With multi-mode equipment available, you can concurrently run GSM, CDMA, and LTE all from the same site with very little problems. Tech advancements in the last 5 years has made network construction and management much easier, unless you are incompetent Ericsson. In 90% of cases, an extra set of RRU's and antennas will make it easy for Sprint to put T-Mobile frequencies at the same site if T-Mobile isn't already on said site.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[bigsnake49]

I am totally for this merger because of the two reasons given above: It is extremely expensive to have/deploy/upgrade a nationwide network and the big two suck so much of the profit out of the industry that it leaves the other two scrambling for scraps. I like the fact that T-Mobile has little debt.

 

There will be some divestiture/swapping of spectrum, possibly to Dish (possibly EBS) and then hosting of Dish's fixed network. 

 

The big holdup will not be how much spectrum the new company will own but whether it will bid in the AWS-3 auction. 

 

For those of you that think that the merger will have any effect on the deployment of NV 2.0, don't fret. NV 1.0 will be substantially complete this summer and by the time this merger closes, NV 2.0 will be well on it's way. And do we really care which frequency band is providing prodigious bandwidth? All we care about is that it is prodigious and it it everywhere we need it.

 

As far as the leadership going forward, I am afraid that it will be the T-Mobile team. They have shown that they can execute a plan a lot better than Sprint's team or at least give the impression that they do execute faster. 

Edited May 1, 2014 by bigsnake49