dro1984

The sad part is, true or false, the companies, Sprint and T Mobile have spent millions of precious dollars making sure they filled all the paperwork, answered 1000 questions 2 or 3 times on capitol hill...(unprecedented for merging companies) and a review that never stops for this merger. The alleged fraud that is being brought up would be a nothing story at this point if the merger would have gone as scheduled and as 100's of others have before it. All the additional time spent waiting and in litigation now is so wasteful on so many fronts. The government and the bureaucrats have done a great job at weakening a very weak company already and one that was strong but is being force to spend( waste) money. So the strong (AT&T and Verizon) can continue on... un-impeded... and the small will get smaller or fade away.

Merger close?... It's a big wild guess! Nothing has gone as it should nor does it continue to go as normal.

Are you back on Sprint now?

This is a perfect example why the merger would be good. When you combine what T Mo has with Sprint... and T Mobile's willingness and ability to work on the network ... it could only help this situation.

so mdob07... you didn't answer the question... is this a Shentel area?

I agree. Not sure how diligent they will be in providing a good 600MHz path and depth. I do read on TMO News, that they are progressing with 700 deployment as well, but the main focus has been 600. Do you think this merger will ultimately be completed?

Red_Dog, Your posts are usually good ... you've tought me a lot, so thanks... but I have to say this... 1. Merger has not gone through. So no worries. 2. T Mobile 600 being deployed at a record pace as many on here have admitted to. Give it time. (Sprint would take years... just got Sprint 800 MHz in my area and how long has it been??) It works for crap anyway. 3. Sprint doesn't give up 800 for 3 years as it was written. They can also lease back, so I don't understand what the worries / issues are? None of it can be deployed instantly. 4. T Mobile owns very little 700 MHz, (5 or 10 MHz? and I don't think it's nation-wide) I think less than Sprint has 800 MHz... but they too are installing it as much as they can. Sadly, at the rate of all the states suing them, blocking and so forth on purely political reasons... not even sure this will actually happen. Now they're all crying that the FCC should/must open it up to public comment before their final vote . With a year and a half into the review, and the millions of pages of material submitted, there is no need or more review and re-review. Until then, .. your Sprint service should remain the same.

I guess I'm confused by the potential congestion issues? Seems like a lot of spectrum potentially available in Brad the Beast's area? I don't think Verizon or AT&T has that much for the area... So is that a non-issue when all available spectrum is factored in?

Has anyone written to their states Attorney Generals office to voice their approval of the merger and ask them to withdraw from the lawsuit? I have, as Michigan is one of the 14 states involved in the lawsuit. I highly suggest if you want this to go through and you live in one of the suing states, to take a moment and google your states attorney generals office email and send a note! If you live in Michigan, you can use this address: miag@michigan.gov

Great article!!! It says everything including the migration plans! This is very great news for all of us!! I am very excited to have this all cleared up. Hopefully the court case is short and sweet. .. and get thrown out!

The main difference is the call itself... one is (4G LTE) is done in a typical wireless call fashion.... VoLTE is a voice-call over the data side of the network... The "experts" on this forum can pick this up and explain further. Basically VoLTE allows a more efficient use of the network because the call is treated like a packet of data...

By the time it becomes an issue, everyone should have new phones. No Band 12/66 or 71? That's old equipment in electronics age. When the transaction is complete, I'm pretty sure T Mobile will offer special deals to those with older Sprint handsets. I'm sure goal #1 will be to get everyone on the "efficient" part of the network to aid in closing down the Sprint side asap to help aid in refarming Sprint's. You have to remember, Sprint doesn't even have VoLTE everywhere yet and probably won't now. That network will be shut down / broken down into pieces as soon as possible from how T Mobile works. Use Metro PCS as an example.

You guys are too much! A little B26 goes bye-bye for a bunch of 600mhz. And Sprint gets to keep 800 for 3 more years... are you really going to miss it that much?! Way more useful and a lot more of it considering they can use some or all of Dish's 600 holdings as well as their own. I'd say a divestiture was a foregone conclusion, but if that's all they had to give up (spectrum-wise) I'd say it was a great deal!

Ok guys... Play nice. There's alot of ego on this forum. Put it aside! Anyway... a really good USA Today new story today. A couple of points of interest in it: T-Mobile and Sprint must still resolve a lawsuit filed in June by 13 states and the District of Columbia to stop the merger. But representatives for several states say they are now reconsidering their involvement based on the news of a federal deal and its agreed-upon changes. T-Mobile says it's confident a settlement can be reached. For the past six or so years, T-Mobile has been the little guy forcing AT&T and Verizon to make changes. Adding Sprint's customers base allows Legere and his company to take that competition to the next level. Click here to read article: One big reason the T-Mobile-Sprint merger will be good for consumers

They had said on the briefing that it was going to be a few weeks as the agreement is written up and formally signed by all parties. Sounded like the a week or two into August....

Dan, aren't you on Verizon? I didn't think you were on either Sprint or T Mo... Didn't understand the strong feelings toward Sprint or T Mo..? Are you coming back? If you are on a different carrier, then how are you able to find a "hole" in T Mo's coverage?

I agree big time. John Legere also basically said that in the earnings call, that they had much more time than originally planned to look at the networks from both sides to see what is needed to integrate. Here's a piece from the transcripts regarding this very subject: Mike Sievert Got it. I could start with the integration piece. We're really pleased with how it's going. I'll tell you that we've had a little more time to plan this than we would have expected when we launched our integration plans. And that's generally speaking been frustrating, but on the other hand, it's given us a fantastic chance to be very, very thoughtful and get out of the gates quickly. As Braxton and John reinforced in their remarks, what we have today is a plan that is fully intact versus all of the goals and ambitions for long-term profitability, enterprise value and synergy attainment that we laid out for you in April of last year. And we're very, very pleased with that. What's different now versus April from last year is that, that's backed by detailed operational plans in every function of this company. And so, we're planning to get out of the gates very quickly and hit the ground running.

Okay... so something to think about here... I have included an excerpt below, from the T Mobile earnings call on Friday. In it, it says that they will keep all of Sprint's "PCS" (1900) and 2.4G bands and gain access to some or all of Dish's 600 mhz. Combined with T Mobile's existing 600, 1900 bands, how much "depth" will that give new T Mobile spectrum wise... or (I'm not sure how to say this) but will it give them 20X20 1900 mhz nationwide or more etc and the same for 600? Has anyone taken a look at this? It could only mean really good things for all of us as far as capacity is concerned I would think.... Should help alleviate network congestion in some areas? Excerpt below: We also announced today that we have reached agreements with DISH to divest all of Sprint's prepaid businesses at close, including Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint-branded prepaid customers, as well as Sprint's 800 megahertz spectrum licenses after a 3-year period for aggregate proceeds of $5 billion. Importantly, we are going to keep Sprint's entire 2.5 gigahertz and PCS spectrum, which is so important for fully realizing the 5G efficiencies promised by the merger. Additionally, upon the closing of the divestiture transaction, new T-Mobile will enter into commercial arrangements that will support the transferred prepaid customers and provide DISH wireless customers access to the new T-Mobile network for 7 years. DISH will also have an option to take on leases for certain cell sites and retail locations that are decommissioned by the new T-Mobile, and both parties agreed to discuss how we would get access to some or all of their 600 spectrum to use on our T-Mobile network. ...I might just say on that, too, Mike. DISH's press release and their filings were very comprehensive. So if you get a chance to look through those. One of the ways I look at this is if you look at the full utilization of the 2.5 that we're acquiring from Sprint as well as the unused spectrum of DISH, this is a great day for American networks. It'd be about 150 megahertz at least of spectrum that will now be put to use that, before these sets of agreements, were not going to be. And certainly, DISH's commitments, which have penalties associated with them, are a big part of it. So I'd read those filings and certainly, DISH can comment on those.

No... it's strange. Not that it's a prime example and let's hope it doesn't repeat... but when Sprint merged / bought Nextel, they both still had their earnings calls right after. They both went into detail about the merger and surrounding information and plans. It was interesting because they were detailed (from both sides) and provided information from each company. It's not going to be a good earnings release for Sprint.... we all know that.

Very cool Trip! Were you on the Metro in Pentagon City? Kinda appeared like it. Was there a few times... I really liked it.

It could also be because their financials and customer additions are going to stink! I'm sure there will be very little on the business side to brag about. A little 5G deployment talk... and some other odd and ends. Kinda like putting perfume on the pig IMO. Talk highly of the positive and brush the rest under the balled up rug. Better they don't I guess.... just release the financials and run away.

Sprint has been very strange this way in the last earnings call also! Don't know why they are doing this... there are no secrets to any of this. This is the type of "don't tell the consumer or the investment house anything" type of management that it has become to be. Won't miss any of it and will be glad when those people running the show are gone. I was at least hoping to hear an update on the ongoing negotiations with the Suing attorney general's offices. I heard from 14 they are down to 9 that are still suing ... so that is progress. Mum's the word from Sprint... thanks Sprint. (not)

Nothing is going to happen to your 6T on B41 until the merger closes.... maybe late this year. Here's a better question.... since this merger is about 2 months late from originally planned, is there an "Updated Integration Plan" available anywhere to see? Does anyone know. It was hinted on the T Mo earnings call that they've had a lot more time to plan the integration than originally thought.... I'd like to see or hear what that is.

What did you just write? I almost complete don't understand what you wrote.. sorry. (Read what you wrote?) But if I can sorta surmise what you are saying above... Sprint doesn't have to wake up... because they're gone!