Let's get serious about this proposed US Cellular buyout.

[dnicekid]

If someone buys FreedomPOP, Sprint would have the right to cancel the MVNO. And that might be the purchasers plan. Sprint's not on the hook for anything.

 

If it was a big provider, they would probably want to move the Freedom POP business model to their own network. AT&T (or whomever) would not want a subsidiary that is a Sprint MVNO.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

 

Would sprint be able to "cut" the contract immediately??? Offer those to byod to sprint or lose service??

[S4GRU]

Would sprint be able to "cut" the contract immediately??? Offer those to byod to sprint or lose service??

They could immediately at the close of the deal, if they wanted. Or they could keep it going and try to pick up subscribers of their own with a special deal. Depending on who's buying it, they may not want to keep it hosted on Sprint very long, either. More info is needed on who's buying them to really speculate further.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[centermedic]

But now Sprint is on the hook for those "free" plans including those "free" devices

Negative. These are contract free plans. Sprint can change them if they want if they buy freedompop.

[dnwk]

Negative. These are contract free plans. Sprint can change them if they want if they buy freedompop.

 

If Sprint buy  Freedompop

And it will be a PR problem for Sprint, if they change the term unilaterally.

No Contract doesn't mean you can change the "Term of sales".

Sprint could stop providing free 500M a month service. But those device were not sell to users. They were loan to user with a deposit. And it will be difficult to refuse a refund for device deposit.

 

If others buy:

 

Whoever buy it has to deal with it

[centermedic]

If Sprint buy  Freedompop

And it will be a PR problem for Sprint, if they change the term unilaterally.

No Contract doesn't mean you can change the "Term of sales".

Sprint could stop providing free 500M a month service. But those device were not sell to users. They were loan to user with a deposit. And it will be difficult to refuse a refund for device deposit.

 

If others buy:

 

Whoever buy it has to deal with it

I cant comment on the phones(freedompops website is a mess) but I had to buy my Hotspot outright. Besides, with less than 1 million customers if  deposits have to be refunded it would end up being a drop in the bucket. I'm sure it would be factored in with what Sprint (or any other suitor) feels freedom pop is worth. In any case, if the price is right Sprint should not allow another company to buy freedompop.

[dnwk]

I cant comment on the phones(freedompops website is a mess) but I had to buy my Hotspot outright. Besides, with less than 1 million customers if  deposits have to be refunded it would end up being a drop in the bucket. I'm sure it would be factored in with what Sprint (or any other suitor) feels freedom pop is worth. In any case, if the price is right Sprint should not allow another company to buy freedompop.

 

I don't think Freedompop is worth buying. I think most customer were lured by free plan or extreamly low cost plan.

[centermedic]

I don't think Freedompop is worth buying. I think most customer were lured by free plan or extreamly low cost plan.

Depends on the price.

[dnwk]

Depends on the price.

 

Like $1? sure

[centermedic]

Like $1? sure

Thats your opinion.

[bigsnake49]

Getting back to USCC, they might as well buy Cspire as well. I thought they should have bought Leap and Metro, USCC and Cspire instead of T-Mobile. Could have sold off the AWS or traded it for PCS.

[dnicekid]

I hope sprint buys them all!

People will start to take them even more seriously... Especially att/vzw..

Tmo and Sprint can't compete where Tmo doesn't have coverage... That would def make the big 2 start to look over their shoulders out in the boonies where they thought they had things on lock...look out for double the data- headed your way soon!!

[Stew503]

I hope sprint buys them all!

People will start to take them even more seriously... Especially att/vzw..

Tmo and Sprint can't compete where Tmo doesn't have coverage... That would def make the big 2 start to look over their shoulders out in the boonies where they thought they had things on lock...look out for double the data- headed your way soon!!

I agree. I think that is the only way that Sprint or T-Mobile will be able to survive long term. They need comparable coverage to AT&T and Verizon or else it's only a matter of time before the big two decide to cut prices and put T-Mobile and Sprint out of business.

[jbom]

I agree. I think that is the only way that Sprint or T-Mobile will be able to survive long term. They need comparable coverage to AT&T and Verizon or else it's only a matter of time before the big two decide to cut prices and put T-Mobile and Sprint out of business.

 

Price cutting might not be sustainable for VZ and at&t either, given their obligations and other expenses they have to adhere to. A mere $5 price break for Verizon customers every month, would take out about $6 billion a year in revenue.

 

To get on the level of T-Mobile, Verizon would have to give up many more billions of revenue. And their balance sheet isn't exactly peachy with $240b in debt and all.

[Stew503]

4 billion profit in just last quarter alone. And that's even after they reported their first subscriber loss. T-Mobile went in debt by buying out contracts and still barely put a scratch on the VZ giant. http://m.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/04/24/verizon-loses-wireless-phone-customers-gains.html?page=all&r=full

[WiWavelength]

Getting back to USCC, they might as well buy Cspire as well. I thought they should have bought Leap and Metro, USCC and Cspire instead of T-Mobile. Could have sold off the AWS or traded it for PCS.

I hope sprint buys them all!

 

Yeah, Sprint should just buy VZW or AT&T.  Heck, buy them both.  We're #1!  We're #1!  MOAR!

 

AJ

[joshnys8913]

Getting back to USCC, they might as well buy Cspire as well. I thought they should have bought Leap and Metro, USCC and Cspire instead of T-Mobile. Could have sold off the AWS or traded it for PCS.

I already mentioned this earlier in this thread..... Minus Cspire lol 

[lynyrd65]

Yeah, Sprint should just buy VZW or AT&T. Heck, buy them both. We're #1! We're #1! MOAR!

 

AJ

Hostile takeover!

[bigsnake49]

I already mentioned this earlier in this thread..... Minus Cspire lol 

Hey count your blessings ! I don't agree with people very often !

[centermedic]

4 billion profit in just last quarter alone. And that's even after they reported their first subscriber loss. T-Mobile went in debt by buying out contracts and still barely put a scratch on the VZ giant. http://m.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/04/24/verizon-loses-wireless-phone-customers-gains.html?page=all&r=full

Thats a bit of cherry picking. Verizon added tablet customers which offset the handset loss and gave them positive growth in overall subscribers. Also, Verizon has such a healthy profit margin that they can afford to lose a few customers. What becomes paramount for them is to maintain the profit margin that they have.

[Josh]

Other websites have been floating the notion that Sprint/Softbank should be going after dish now that t-mobile is off the table. I wanted to get some opinions here about what our readers think about that.

 

From the way I see it, the problem is that sprint will have to not only add support for the additional spectrum to future phones, which will take months after a deal closes, but they will also have to add new equipment to the towers. The new base station equipment will be able to handle the new spectrum, so it won't take quite as long as NV, but it will take significant time until customers see a real world changes. It wouldn't be a bad combination for sprint, but would do little to change the perception of sprint and although the satellite TV business would bring extra revenue, I don't know if it is a growing business.

 

I believe US Cellular is still a better play for Sprint/Softbank as they have rural coverage that sprint doesn't have and valuable low band spectrum. The customers and existing infrastructure could be integrated quickly and easily, and spectrum that sprint owns could be added to the US cell's towers and vice versa. They would then be able to consolidate some tower locations and front office operations, saving money in the process.

There are other smaller companies that could be potential acquisitions, but few that would have as immediate or broad of an effect.

 

I'm not saying that dish wouldn't be a good thing for sprint eventually, but I'd rather see a partnership where dish paid sprint to deploy their spectrum on Sprint's towers (network hosting was something sprint said they wanted to do). It would help Sprint's bottom line, allowing sprint to more effectively compete, and allow them to afford 600Mhz spectrum and make strategic a acquisitions.

[cdk]

Other websites have been floating the notion that Sprint/Softbank should be going after dish now that t-mobile is off the table. I wanted to get some opinions here about what our readers think about that.

 

...

 

I'm not saying that dish wouldn't be a good thing for sprint eventually, but I'd rather see a partnership where dish paid sprint to deploy their spectrum on Sprint's towers (network hosting was something sprint said they wanted to do). It would help Sprint's bottom line, allowing sprint to more effectively compete, and allow them to afford 600Mhz spectrum and make strategic a acquisitions.

 

Very much my lines of thinking, Dish is someone to partner with not buy. I listed a few potential aquisitions that would be a better fit in the Softbank/Sprint thread.

[Josh]

I know that this is not a formal bid, but dish did say they were waiting until after sprint failed to buy t- mobile... Although to be fair, they thought sprint would actually try and get shot down, then have to pay a break up fee & dish could swoop in and they would have extra time. Now that sprint backed out before entering, it is common speculation that dish will try and purchase someone... I have heard on some sites that they will make a second pass at sprint, but now it seems like people are thinking it will more likely be T-mobile.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Dish-apparently-paving-the-way-to-make-formal-bid-for-T-Mobile_id60348

 

I still think that dish will be better off partnering with sprint, rather than buying T-mobile... But that is because they primarily want to be able to serve more people video services, and care less about the phone side of things.

We'll see how it all plays out, but i sure hope it doesn't end with T-mobile having all that additional spectrum, as that would make them a much tougher competitor.

[bigsnake49]

I know that this is not a formal bid, but dish did say they were waiting until after sprint failed to buy t- mobile... Although to be fair, they thought sprint would actually try and get shot down, then have to pay a break up fee & dish could swoop in and they would have extra time. Now that sprint backed out before entering, it is common speculation that dish will try and purchase someone... I have heard on some sites that they will make a second pass at sprint, but now it seems like people are thinking it will more likely be T-mobile.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Dish-apparently-paving-the-way-to-make-formal-bid-for-T-Mobile_id60348

 

I still think that dish will be better off partnering with sprint, rather than buying T-mobile... But that is because they primarily want to be able to serve more people video services, and care less about the phone side of things.

We'll see how it all plays out, but i sure hope it doesn't end with T-mobile having all that additional spectrum, as that would make them a much tougher competitor.

Dish wants to partner with Sprint and they still might. By when does Dish have to build out their spectrum? Did they get an extension? If they have to deploy soon, I'm sure they are feeling the pressure. The reason that Ergen wants to talk to T-Mobile after the AWS-3 auction is that if he wins the 1695-1710MHz uplink cheaply, then he can pair it with 2180-2200 MHz downlink. He can then partner with T-Mobile and get it approved for inclusion in whatever LTE band AWS-3 is included. If he can get it standardized, then it is much more valuable. If he does that he also has another chunk of 25x5 MHz (the 2000-2020Mhz + PCS-H) chunk. He will also have to have that standardized and he thinks that Sprint should be interested in it since it is adjacent to PCS-G. The analysts and Dish think his spectrum is worth a lot more than the carriers do. If his spectrum was standardized, then it would be worth a lot of money, but until it does get standardized and included in a band then it is not. He will bring a lot of spectrum into the equation but it comes with caveats. For Sprint, it is the partnership to deploy EBS spectrum for fixed broadband in the rural/exurban areas that's most valuable because it might allow them to fund rural expansion. I am sure that they are crunching the numbers to see at what revenue number per subscriber it makes sense. Could they get subsidized by the federal government to provide rural broadband?

[S4GRU]

I have a tough time reading long posts without paragraphs. I give up after two sentences.

[Paynefanbro]

I read it all, but I agree you should try to split it into at least two paragraphs. Long blocks of text become bothersome.