SoftBank Said to Weigh Investment in Mexico’s Iusacell

[dkyeager]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-22/softbank-said-to-weigh-investment-in-mexico-s-iusacell.html

 

Bettter roaming in Mexico would help Sprint.

[cdk]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-22/softbank-said-to-weigh-investment-in-mexico-s-iusacell.html

 

Bettter roaming in Mexico would help Sprint.

 

I have a dream now where they take control of Lusacell and buy NII's Mexican spectrum as well...

[dnicekid]

Could masa be taking on to many projects at the same time? Or this could be a sign of confidence with Marcelo at the helm?

 

I would rather see him buy us cellular or someone else here in the states- but I guess 717mil is cheap to take a shot that could have a big payoff???

 

It would be nice to have mexico as native coverage and fully deploy in the ibez.

[bucdenny]

Could masa be taking on to many projects at the same time? Or this could be a sign of confidence with Marcelo at the helm?

 

I would rather see him buy us cellular or someone else here in the states- but I guess 717mil is cheap to take a shot that could have a big payoff???

 

It would be nice to have mexico as native coverage and fully deploy in the ibez.

 

We really need IBEZ, San Diego is suffering.  We only have a single band B25.  Every where else getting B26 and B41.  B41 permits in San Diego is a tease.

[S4GRU]

Could masa be taking on to many projects at the same time? Or this could be a sign of confidence with Marcelo at the helm?

 

I would rather see him buy us cellular or someone else here in the states- but I guess 717mil is cheap to take a shot that could have a big payoff???

 

It would be nice to have mexico as native coverage and fully deploy in the ibez.

 

 

SoftBank purchase.  Not Sprint purchase.  Other than having the same parent company, this will not impact Sprint directly.  Masa is doing other deals and will get his own Marcelo for Mexico.

[orangeblue]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-22/softbank-said-to-weigh-investment-in-mexico-s-iusacell.html

 

Bettter roaming in Mexico would help Sprint.

 

Iusacell is the T-Mobile of Mexico, good in the city and not much rural coverage. 

 

I have a dream now where they take control of Lusacell and buy NII's Mexican spectrum as well...

 

Now that would be sweet especially since NII is currently in bankruptcy. NII has currently a market cap of $12 mil.

 

Could masa be taking on to many projects at the same time? Or this could be a sign of confidence with Marcelo at the helm?

 

I would rather see him buy us cellular or someone else here in the states- but I guess 717mil is cheap to take a shot that could have a big payoff???

 

It would be nice to have mexico as native coverage and fully deploy in the ibez.

 

This would open a lot of cross border options again, much like Nextel used to have. 

[Conan Kudo]

SoftBank purchase.  Not Sprint purchase.  Other than having the same parent company, this will not impact Sprint directly.  Masa is doing other deals and will get his own Marcelo for Mexico.

It's much more beneficial for SoftBank because Iusacell is a GSM/UMTS/LTE operator. If SoftBank takes a stake in it, then it can synchronize and expand procurement operations for network gear and devices between the two companies much more than it can with Sprint and itself.

[WiWavelength]

Iusacell is a bad brand name.  It reminds me of the low rent apartment complex, Awana Place.

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

It's much more beneficial for SoftBank because Iusacell is a GSM/UMTS/LTE operator. If SoftBank takes a stake in it, then it can synchronize and expand procurement operations for network gear and devices between the two companies much more than it can with Sprint and itself.

Iusacell used to be a CDMA carrier. Did they actually rip out the CDMA network or do they maintain both?

[bigsnake49]

Iusacell is the T-Mobile of Mexico, good in the city and not much rural coverage. 

 

 

Now that would be sweet especially since NII is currently in bankruptcy. NII has currently a market cap of $12 mil.

 

 

This would open a lot of cross border options again, much like Nextel used to have. 

 

Yes, It is a great opportunity to combine the two companies. NII not only has some 800MHz spectrum (I don't know how much), but also a 15x15 MHz block of AWS spectrum.

[Conan Kudo]

Iusacell used to be a CDMA carrier. Did they actually rip out the CDMA network or do they maintain both?

The CDMA network is gone, as of the end of the second quarter of 2014. All the information about the CDMA network and the CDMA->GSM transition pages are gone. The Unefon brand (which was used for CDMA in the past) has been relaunched as a GSM/UMTS operator. Iusacell is planning on launching LTE in the first quarter of 2015 now.

 

It doesn't affect Verizon, since they switched Iusacell roaming to GSM/UMTS back in the fourth quarter of last year, like they did with Telus at the beginning of last year.

[bigsnake49]

Whoever invests in Iusacell or NII or the castoffs of the America Movil will still have a hard time competing against America Movil which will still have 50% of the market. They want whoever picks up the 20% that America Movil divests to be a new entrant. So basically 4 companies will have to fight for the 50% of the market: Telefonica, NewCo, Iusacell and NII. Now if they could somehow get it down to three companies total, maybe they can compete. I have no idea if the Mexican regulators will allow them to share networks or not. Mexico is a very large country. You have to have substantial <1GHz spectrum to compete.

[cletus]

Iusacell is the T-Mobile of Mexico, good in the city and not much rural coverage. 

 

 

Now that would be sweet especially since NII is currently in bankruptcy. NII has currently a market cap of $12 mil.

 

 

This would open a lot of cross border options again, much like Nextel used to have. 

This is a pretty good point. Also, I used to have tons of soccer teammates where the whole family had nextel service because of wanting to chat quickly across the border with relatives. I think these days many people just use a calling card cheapo phone for Mexico calls and then have an iPhone for service here in the US.