Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[Flompholph]

Can you guys stop with the "Sprints dead if this does not get done." Sprint was suppose to die years ago when Wimax failed.

dro magic boxes are repeaters/Small cells. Not sure what you think they are.

 

[dro1984]

You're right.   Sorry.  No offense intended.   Sprint is a healthy and viable company with enormous growth potential.   with all the promised advances and everything we've been told, it will probably do very well.   

Edited October 26, 2017 by dro1984

[Dkoellerwx]

1 hour ago, dro1984 said:

You're right.   Sorry.  No offense intended.   Sprint is a healthy and viable company with enormous growth potential.   with all the promised advances and everything we've been told, it will probably do very well.   

You don't have to then go and be all sarcastic. But seriously, people have been calling for Sprint's death for years. This really isn't all that different. If anything, Sprint is in a much better place than it has been in years. It can survive on its own. 

[Tengen31]

You don't have to then go and be all sarcastic. But seriously, people have been calling for Sprint's death for years. This really isn't all that different. If anything, Sprint is in a much better place than it has been in years. It can survive on its own. 

The Death, Doomed crap is completely ignorant. The others whom actually want bankruptcy to happen are even worst. This crap needs to stop. People whom also keep dwelling on the past need to get over themselves. The past mistakes are just that mistakes. That time is dead and gone. It's now time to move on. Marcelo and his team had nothing to do with any of that. It's very unfair.

 

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[JossMan]

5 hours ago, dro1984 said:

You're right.   Sorry.  No offense intended.   Sprint is a healthy and viable company with enormous growth potential.   with all the promised advances and everything we've been told, it will probably do very well.   

Positive growth, check.  Large amounts of LTE spectrum, check.  Adding customers, check.  Competitive, check.  Yea it is doing well and has enormous growth potential without T-Mobile.  

Reading some of your previous posts about Sprint makes me think your just here to troll.      

[dkyeager]

According to root metrics, the real world coverage of T-Mobile and Sprint does not overlap as much a people think. Just by combining there would be a significant reduction in roaming from 26 to 28% to 16%. Many other interesting points as well.

http://blog.ihs.com/sprint-and-t-mobile-combined-the-implications-of-a-merger?utm_campaign=pc10030&utm_medium=social-network&utm_source=twitter&hootPostID=d3417d530a26b24dfc9e949c097b2e29

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[bigsnake49]

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

According to root metrics, the real world coverage of T-Mobile and Sprint does not overlap as much a people think. Just by combining there would be a significant reduction in roaming from 26 to 28% to 16%. Many other interesting points as well.

http://blog.ihs.com/sprint-and-t-mobile-combined-the-implications-of-a-merger?utm_campaign=pc10030&utm_medium=social-network&utm_source=twitter&hootPostID=d3417d530a26b24dfc9e949c097b2e29

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I think that at some point they will need to promise to match or exceed Verizon's coverage.

[dkyeager]

They have started to look at integration issues.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile-us/t-mobile-sprint-ready-board-committees-to-decide-on-merger-sources-idUSKBN1CU0FN

 

[bigsnake49]

For those that think that Sprint is overleveraged, T-Mobile has an approximate $28B debt load. If it wasn't for the $5B debt forgiveness from DT at the time of the MetroPCS merger and the $6B AT&T breakup fee, T-mobile would be thought as beleaguered.

[dro1984]

9 hours ago, JossMan said:

Positive growth, check.  Large amounts of LTE spectrum, check.  Adding customers, check.  Competitive, check.  Yea it is doing well and has enormous growth potential without T-Mobile.  

Reading some of your previous posts about Sprint makes me think your just here to troll.      

Not a troll.   Been a Sprint customer since 2000.   17+ years.  Lots of broken promises.   I don't like being told what  to say (EVER!) to never say anything negative about Sprint.  I do not "drink the Kool Aide" here or anywhere else.   I'm conversing in an open forum.   Without my corporate discount, their single plans are the same cost as everyone else, so don't come with leave if you don't like it.   I like Sprint but wish they'd truthfully get there act together., but I've been saying that for 10+ years.     By the way, they posted a net loss yesterday.   Not a profit making company regardless of what you all say and one with huge dept. Bigger than any of the other players.   Is the company healthy?  No.    Are they adding customers.  Yes, with free plans, they are adding.      Are they making money... ??  well...I and everyone else except some of you here, say no.     It's all real.  

Edited October 26, 2017 by dro1984

[Flompholph]

This is a sprint tech forum not a sprint complain forum. The internet is vast you can go somewhere else like twitter and complain. Threads have been shut down in the past for complaints the mods have been very lenient on what has been said don't be surprised if this thread gets shut down due to sprint complaints. They are probably lenient because a throw your crazy merger on the wall thread needs to be made.

Do you know the debt of the others to make the claim that "Sprint's debt is bigger than any of the other players"? 

Is the company healthy? Yes not sure how that would be a no. Debt? But if you look at the other four it is the one of the lowest in debt. LTE coverage is over 95% of the Interstates atleast in the eastern half of the US.

Do you have the numbers on the number of people that took up the free phones that you care to share with the class?

Are they making money? Year to date yes they are up $158 Million. Are you saying they should not have made a big push with magic boxes this quarter after they saw demand? 

[Johnner1999]

^^^^^^ [emoji122] [emoji122]


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[JustinRP37]

I'm seeing a lot of discussion about debt in here. Just to clear things up, most companies have massive amounts of debt. All wireless carriers have a bunch of debt. It is NOT cheap to build out a network. However, the reason why Sprint is 'beleaguered' is because of its debt load per customer, continual losses, and over the past decade subscriber additions (losses). It is OKAY and actually a good thing to take on debt if it means you will gain more customers, thus more revenue, thus expanding your market reach. This is why the debt of T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon is safe debt. It is safe to say that Sprint HAS turned a corner, but it MUST continually make subscriber gains and continue to stay net positive to pay down debt. Sprint has also leveraged a lot of assets to help ease the pain of the debt. Further, when you have poor financials, which Sprint had for years, your credit market is much tougher. You will be subjected to much higher interest rates, just like when you forget a credit card bill you are hit with a penalty APR. Don't forget Sprint is literally rebuilding their Puerto Rico network, had damage in Florida, Texas, and California. That hurt this quarter's financials a bit and they even admitted that. They are definitely on the right path, but people want miracles overnight. That does not happen and there are still many risks in the future. 

[bigsnake49]

12 minutes ago, JustinRP37 said:

I'm seeing a lot of discussion about debt in here. Just to clear things up, most companies have massive amounts of debt. All wireless carriers have a bunch of debt. It is NOT cheap to build out a network. However, the reason why Sprint is 'beleaguered' is because of its debt load per customer, continual losses, and over the past decade subscriber additions (losses). It is OKAY and actually a good thing to take on debt if it means you will gain more customers, thus more revenue, thus expanding your market reach. This is why the debt of T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon is safe debt. It is safe to say that Sprint HAS turned a corner, but it MUST continually make subscriber gains and continue to stay net positive to pay down debt. Sprint has also leveraged a lot of assets to help ease the pain of the debt. Further, when you have poor financials, which Sprint had for years, your credit market is much tougher. You will be subjected to much higher interest rates, just like when you forget a credit card bill you are hit with a penalty APR. Don't forget Sprint is literally rebuilding their Puerto Rico network, had damage in Florida, Texas, and California. That hurt this quarter's financials a bit and they even admitted that. They are definitely on the right path, but people want miracles overnight. That does not happen and there are still many risks in the future. 

Actually Sprint has refinanced a lot of it's high interest debt and will continue to do so by putting up spectrum as collateral.

[gusherb]

19 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

You don't have to then go and be all sarcastic. But seriously, people have been calling for Sprint's death for years. This really isn't all that different. If anything, Sprint is in a much better place than it has been in years. It can survive on its own. 

Absolutely, they're presently far better positioned to continue on into the foreseeable future than they were in the last 10 years IMO. Anyone that remembers the tragic mess the network was 5-6 years ago should understand this. 

[JustinRP37]

46 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Actually Sprint has refinanced a lot of it's high interest debt and will continue to do so by putting up spectrum as collateral.

I never said Sprint was not doing that. All I was saying is they had to take out debt on less than ideal terms in the past, which was due to their credit downgrade when things looked bleak. Yes they are paying down high interest debt by leveraging spectrum. It is still debt, but it is on more ideal terms. It is part of the business gamble. 

[greenbastard]

10 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

I think that at some point they will need to promise to match or exceed Verizon's coverage.

I'm leaning against the merger for the sake of jobs and competition.

But if they're allowed to merge, then this should be a condition. If we are going to reduce the number of carriers from four to three in urban areas, then we may as well increase the number of rural carriers from two to three. 

[JustinRP37]

This article is actually pretty good with regards to the points I was making earlier. Sprint is in a much better position today to compete than it has been in a VERY long time. They still have issues, but bottom line is improving everyday. That does not bode well for investors looking for a merger, but does look good for consumers who want competition in the wireless industry. Further, I do think job losses could be one thing that would kill this merger. This administration seems to be all about jobs and mergers typically mean layoffs. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4116841-sprint-making-good-case. 

[Arysyn]

I've been silent on the merger deal for some time now, because besides my lack of time online lately, I haven't had as much interest in it as I use to. However, one of the reasons has been specific to the Sprint/T-Mobile merger itself not being something I thought was really possible, or even necessary for either company, and that the only greater thing about it is that it might open up possible merger attempts by other companies I find more suitable to merge with either Sprint or T-Mobile than having Sprint and T-Mobile themselves merge together.

One of the biggest arguments I've heard in favor of the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile is in terms of giving the combined entity a much more competitive scale against AT&T and Verizon regarding customer number figures. I've always been dismissive of that, thinking it to be a minor issue to have reason for merging, particularly as customers can be gained and churned through basic business decisions within normal operating procedures. T-Mobile's growth itself over the past few years is proof of that.

However, after reading some articles about this merger when I've found time and interest in doing so, especially since I'm still a T-Mobile customer who would be affected by this merger, I've considered something that makes me more understanding of this and inclined to wanting it to happen more than just the idea of added spectrum being a perk in this. I've read that the customer totals with the combined entity would be much closer to AT&T and Verizon, and when thinking about how the Duopoly got to those numbers through their own mergers and acquisitions, then the Sprint/T-Mobile merger begins to make more sense to me and my figurations on it being allowed to happen, despite the large spectrum advantage the combined company will have.

Not to say I've rethought the spectrum matter I've spoken of where I believe they'll be able to keep most of their spectrum and losing very little to the merger deal approval conditions. Yet, I believe this merger now has a stronger chance at happening by focusing on the customer count and allowing the merger on connected attributes, even those of the competition's own history of getting to where they are now, none of which is the pure internal growth many of us here on S4GRU otherwise believe Sprint is capable of. I certainly still do, but at least I understand a bit better why they want this merger so badly and how they'll be able to get it to happen.

[red_dog007]

In this Sprint/TMobile merger rumor mill, it seems there is a breakup benefit...

For Sprint.  They would get favorable roaming rates.  So Sprint would basically get TMobile's added coverage / use of B71.  Hopefully if this ball does start rolling and regulators do not approve it, this roaming agreement would be pseudo-native.

[derrph]

In this Sprint/TMobile merger rumor mill, it seems there is a breakup benefit...
For Sprint.  They would get favorable roaming rates.  So Sprint would basically get TMobile's added coverage / use of B71.  Hopefully if this ball does start rolling and regulators do not approve it, this roaming agreement would be pseudo-native. [emoji3]

Who doesn’t Sprint roam on here in the US? They will soon be known as the roaming carrier.


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[Tengen31]

Who doesn’t Sprint roam on here in the US? They will soon be known as the roaming carrier.


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Att,VZW, USCC. Att and Tmobile also roam in some areas on USCC to be fair.

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[derrph]

Att,VZW, USCC. Att and Tmobile also roam in some areas on USCC to be fair.

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That I know. I was speaking in a general sense. Sprint had a lot of roaming. Granted some is counted as native but it’s still roaming at the end of the day.


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[Tengen31]

 

That I know. I was speaking in a general sense. Sprint had a lot of roaming. Granted some is counted as native but it’s still roaming at the end of the day.

 

 

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Att and VZW have some native roaming agreement's. The either bought out smaller carriers or native roam in some areas to get the coverage they have.

 

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[RedSpark]

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/30/sprint-shares-drop-more-than-5-percent-on-report-that-softbank-is-calling-off-talks-with-t-mobile.html

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Deals/SoftBank-calling-off-talks-to-merge-Sprint-T-Mobile

So there's this now....