Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[dkyeager]

10 minutes ago, belusnecropolis said:

Looking for the connection to Charlie and this article, perhaps a . . . Russian connection?

Try this one:

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/dish-frontier-cwa-others-lead-opposition-to-sprint-t-mobile-merger

related:

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3386206-dish-altice-usa-weigh-sprint-t-mobile-merger

https://www.multichannel.com/news/dish-files-petition-to-deny-t-mobile-sprint-merger

https://www.multichannel.com/news/altice-usa-files-in-opposition-to-t-mobile-sprint-merger

[bigsnake49]

1 hour ago, belusnecropolis said:

Looking for the connection to Charlie and this article, perhaps a . . . Russian connection?

Sorry, somebody corrected the link!

[belusnecropolis]

1 hour ago, dkyeager said:

Try this one:

22 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Sorry

 

Thanks internet friends! Good stuff. 

[bigsnake49]

It seems that the Sprint and T-Mobile executives are saying the right things to make this merger happen:

1. The combined company will not eliminate any of its prepaid brands

2. They will be MVNO friendly going forward

3. They will offer a fixed wireless product at very competitive prices in 50% of the zip codes in its service area.

I think the only other major point they need to hit is to provide reasonable roaming rates to smaller wireless operators like CSpire.

"In response to questions from commissioners at the FCC, T-Mobile executives promised that, if the company successfully merges with Sprint, the combined company will not eliminate any of its prepaid brands.

T-Mobile currently operates the MetroPCS prepaid brand while Sprint operates the Boost and Virgin prepaid brands.

Further, the T-Mobile executives promised that a combined Sprint/T-Mobile, which executives have dubbed New T-Mobile, would also continue to encourage MVNOs to use its network."

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/boost-metropcs-and-virgin-to-survive-merger-sprint-t-mobile-execs-promise

 

[RedSpark]

Interesting Ex Parte Filing (Redacted for Public) by Sprint/T-Mobile about the “expected benefits” of the proposed Merger:

https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10830695812728/August 30 2018 Ex Parte Filing (Public Redacted).pdf

Believable?

[tyroned3222]

Interesting Ex Parte Filing (Redacted for Public) by Sprint/T-Mobile about the “expected benefits” of the proposed Merger:
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10830695812728/August 30 2018 Ex Parte Filing (Public Redacted).pdf
Believable?

This has turned into a ass kissing contest if you ask me

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[Paynefanbro]

1 minute ago, tyroned3222 said:

This has turned into a ass kissing contest if you ask me

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That's because that's exactly what they have to do if they want to get it approved.

[sunmybun]

i dont know how mergers work. but if it gets approved, what will happen to my business account?

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[derrph]

1 minute ago, sunmybun said:

i dont know how mergers work. but if it gets approved, what will happen to my business account?

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I believe John said a while back that if the merger goes through that they’ll create “attractive” plans but they won’t force anyone off their current plan if they like it. Hopefully that applies to business accounts as well. 

[radem]

1 minute ago, sunmybun said:

i dont know how mergers work. but if it gets approved, what will happen to my business account?

When going through a merger, all existing contracts from the merging companies must be honored by the newly formed company until they expire.  If there is an evergreen clause, which means the contract terms stay in effect until both parties agree to alter them, that must also be honored by the newly formed company.

[sunmybun]

38 minutes ago, derrph said:

I believe John said a while back that if the merger goes through that they’ll create “attractive” plans but they won’t force anyone off their current plan if they like it. Hopefully that applies to business accounts as well. 

41 minutes ago, radem said:

When going through a merger, all existing contracts from the merging companies must be honored by the newly formed company until they expire.  If there is an evergreen clause, which means the contract terms stay in effect until both parties agree to alter them, that must also be honored by the newly formed company.

i did start a new 2 year contract on one of my lines when ordering the note 9, and couple of my lines are still under contract. I do not think there will be ever a better plan for me since i still have the ED1500 with contract pricing. 

I just hope they honor my contract and let me keep my plan forever hehe.

Thanks for both of the replies

[Trip]

2 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

3. They will offer a fixed wireless product at very competitive prices in 50% of the zip codes in its service area.

I don't know how to read this.  Why only 50%?  Are they going to offer service in Manhattan where they're dense but not in the rural areas, where the service is actually needed, because they're not dense?  Or does it mean something else entirely?

- Trip

[radem]

One other thing to note is that while waiting for an expected merger to close, some companies will add a clause to some of their newly created contracts that states that the contract terms may renegotiated or the contract voided by the new company if a merger were to occur.  I expect this type of clause is already being added to new contracts for antenna location leases by both Sprint and T-Mobile.  This gives the newly formed company the freedom to keep or eliminate those lease contracts while still allowing both companies to continue expansion efforts before the merger.

[sunmybun]

I remember reading my contract with sprint, when I did the ED1500 for the first time, that sprint may alter the contract at any time. That part of the contract was always on the back of my mind. I did worry about my account whenever sprint got rid of plans and when they finally took out 2 year contracts for personal liability accounts.

Edited September 4, 2018 by sunmybun

[bigsnake49]

43 minutes ago, Trip said:

I don't know how to read this.  Why only 50%?  Are they going to offer service in Manhattan where they're dense but not in the rural areas, where the service is actually needed, because they're not dense?  Or does it mean something else entirely?

- Trip

Because I think they will have plenty of band 41 spectrum available in rural and semi rural areas but not enough left over in more urban settings.

[BlueAngel]

2 hours ago, tyroned3222 said:

This has turned into a ass kissing contest if you ask me

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Whats wrong with that if that's what they have to do to get this merger to pass?

[tyroned3222]

Whats wrong with that if that's what they have to do to get this merger to pass?

I'm just saying I don't think legally T-Mobile has to uphold any of the stuff that they are currently saying... So maybe the first few years it will hold up and then TMobile decides to get rid of it all

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[derrph]

1 hour ago, tyroned3222 said:

I'm just saying I don't think legally T-Mobile has to uphold any of the stuff that they are currently saying... So maybe the first few years it will hold up and then TMobile decides to get rid of it all

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True. I feel like the end goal here is that T-Mobile just wants Sprints 2.5. They’ll say what they need to to get their hands on it as soon as possible. Without it T-Mobile could possibly run the risk of being the slowest in the 5G world. The last thing they want is Sprint passing them with Speeds which at this rate and the way they’ve been rapidly doing upgrades to the towers is very possible.

Plus when it comes to these high band auctions, they’re  really going to have bring the big bags to compete against ATT and Verizon. Sprint is sitting pretty for 5G. Could they use the MMWAve? Yes but it’s no rush they need it. 

Its just my views.  

[tyroned3222]

True. I feel like the end goal here is that T-Mobile just wants Sprints 2.5. They’ll say what they need to to get their hands on it as soon as possible. Without it T-Mobile could possibly run the risk of being the slowest in the 5G world. The last thing they want is Sprint passing them with Speeds which at this rate and the way they’ve been rapidly doing upgrades to the towers is very possible.

Plus when it comes to these high band auctions, they’re  really going to have bring the big bags to compete against ATT and Verizon. Sprint is sitting pretty for 5G. Could they use the MMWAve? Yes but it’s no rush they need it. 

Its just my views.  

I agree, Sprint in my opinion is now a different company all together which we all know ... The new plans are now perfect I think.. with great features and decent pricing.so, they finally got that right..although risky, but Network vision is paying off sprint should now have the most up-to-date network at the base unit and antennas.. most carriers are still to this day having to go back to sites and update this so Sprint is ahead on that...I think we will see Sprint pass att ans Verizon in average speeds in the next 2Quarters..

 

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[derrph]

14 minutes ago, tyroned3222 said:

I agree, Sprint in my opinion is now a different company all together which we all know ... The new plans are now perfect I think.. with great features and decent pricing.so, they finally got that right..although risky, but Network vision is paying off sprint should now have the most up-to-date network at the base unit and antennas.. most carriers are still to this day having to go back to sites and update this so Sprint is ahead on that...I think we will see Sprint pass att ans Verizon in average speeds in the next 2Quarters..

 

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That’ll be some ish if they did pass them up. According to that doc that was posted a few posts ago, Sprints average was 23.8. Wow the wonders of investing in the network lol. They’ve had a huge speed spike in such a short time. Whats crazy is still have PLENTY room to grow their speeds. However, I feel like T-Mobile is starting to hit their ceiling on average speeds. 

[Paynefanbro]

12 minutes ago, derrph said:

That’ll be some ish if they did pass them up. According to that doc that was posted a few posts ago, Sprints average was 23.8. 

That was from 1Q 2018. As far as we know, in many markets Sprint's speeds have nearly doubled.

[derrph]

1 minute ago, Paynefanbro said:

That was from 1Q 2018. As far as we know, in many markets Sprint's speeds have nearly doubled.

Do you happen to know what their average was 4Q 2017? 

[Trip]

2 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Because I think they will have plenty of band 41 spectrum available in rural and semi rural areas but not enough left over in more urban settings.

Isn't the point of the upcoming millimeter wave auction to provide large, ultra-wide bandwidth spectrum that will likely only be of much value in urban areas, thus providing the capacity necessary?  And isn't most of the Band 41 spectrum unlicensed in rural areas because EBS spectrum never got assigned?

- Trip

[belusnecropolis]

It is crazy how putting money in gets more bits out! Glad to see Sprint moving up. Realistically they have had so much in the barn for so long it is meh seeing 2.5 rolled out from a distance, the benefits are coming. I'm betting it is merged by the time we see it locally. L2.5 can't aggregate with a channel not adjacent to it currently, licensing is very unique, and bandwidth may be plentiful, but it still has tons of separation in channels and fragmentation throughout the network. 3.5-4.2 is coming along side millimeter wave. Mid and lowband have nr assignments that make this spectrum less appealing to current debt, otherwise it would have shopped better. 

The big two really are densifying quickly. While NV was rip and replace, it has been activated on large swaths of the network this or last year alone(3g>GMOL25) on gear made in 2013. All 3 carriers in our town have updated base stations that have 3 and 4 carrier aggregation, pop~25k. T-mo still has 600 and AWS-3 to deploy here, but has bands 2/4/5 and H+ on 2, VZW is running bands 2/4/5 and ATT has bands 2/4/12/30 with 66 and 14 in the barn, Sprint has band 25 on GMO with 165MHz to bring online; to their credit they put 40MHz online last year at the beach on 5 sites with yearly visitors of about 17M. 

I am impressed with the value T-mobile has placed in it's network team to achieve success on something Sprint has said was built for every generation post the current.

[utiz4321]

7 hours ago, tyroned3222 said:

This has turned into a ass kissing contest if you ask me

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Turned into? Everything that requires government approval is an ass kissing contest. It is called, regulatory capture.