bigsnake49

Then they have to deploy 800SMR in those areas. Hopefully they are not in IBEZ areas.

Not if they can't make money at it. Not if they can't make the necessary investments for the future. Then they will collapse and die or get absorbed. Competition work much better if you have approximately the same size companies. And you can't have a race to the bottom. T-mobile wants to be bought, whether by Sprint or Dish. I think that they are way too expensive for Dish's taste. Softbank on the other hand....

If this merger does not go through for one reason or another, then Sprint will have to do all those things you mentioned. They will also have to become a leaner, meaner company. So expect layoffs no matter what happens.

In reference to the DOJ, look what happened to the merger between American and US Air. Yes, the DOJ sued on anti trust grounds, the companies made concessions (gave up some timeslots/gates at La Guardia and Reagan and that was that!) The same will happen to this merger. There's always a lot of posturing before a major merger like this. I call it political theatre and opening salvos in a negotiation. I am sure they will look at each market and see if the combined company has an ungodly amount of either customers or spectrum. Don't expect a lot of customer divestitures. There will be some spectrum divestitures. Which reminds me, maybe Sprint can get rid of the 900MHz spectrum they own by giving it back to the FCC? Which can then turn around and make it part of the 900MHz ISM band?

No, I don't know of an example, but I'm pretty sure that economists can calculate the financial impact. Remember that the DOJ has to frame their objections or suit on antitrust grounds. There are no such grounds in this case, none that a reasonable observer can possibly discern. If the suit is to be framed in purely economic grounds, then all recent buyouts including MetroPCS and Leap should have been denied since they both eliminate a competitor. Or all mergers between companies in the same area.

They already roam on those companies, so no need to acquire them. It does not help their coverage at all. Canada tried to establish 4 or more but that did not work very well because it is hard to overcome the lack of lower frequency spectrum plus the built in advantage of incumbents. Dish is very hesitant to become a 5th provider, why? If competition is good with 4, why not with 5 or 6?

They can, but the problem with that strategy is that they can be sued for damages, personally!!! They have to have a really good case.

The DOJ must also justify its decision on antitrust grounds. It cannot be just on whether it might raise prices for consumers. On strictly legal grounds they cannot deny this merger. They are blustering. Now the FCC might have some objections as to the amount of spectrum and will ask for divestment.

The strategy all along has been to make Dish a competitor by: 1. Divesting EBS to them to be used for rural broadband and/or VOD/OTT video 2. Divest the T-Mobile network to them after the appropriate panels have been added to Nework vision and the appropriate cards have been added to the basestation hardware Both of the above steps will serve to offset the cost of the merger. There will not be a spectrum divestment in any of the other bands. There will be an increase in the rural coverage. So both the T-Mobile and Sprint denizens will benefit. There will a decoupling of the cost of the phone and cost of service There will be a price increase eventually to pay for said increased coverage, but not in the beginning The people advising Softbank/Sprint are not dumb. They know what they're doing. Son always wanted T-mobile as well as Sprint.

Unfortunately, that's what it will take for this merger to go through. Even then, the combined company will be at a disadvantage vis a vis AT&T and Verizon because of the much superior numbers of high priced contract plans.

Which Son already wanted. He wanted coverage that was compettive with Verizon and AT&T. None of those conditions are onerous except perhaps the dictate to keep legacy networks around for a lot longer. Actually those are were anticipated in Sprint's plans to buy T-Mobile before Softbank entered the picture. It was understood even back then that the combined entity would not be allowed to be just an urban carrier anymore.

Yeah, maybe relatively low rate telematics, smart grid and other verticals. But the economics might be daunting.

Yep, amazing what happens when you don't skip on site density! I keep telling people, if they want to see a PCS network done right, come to Florida and use the Verizon network.

Read my earlier posts as to what I think it will take take for this merger to be concluded sucessfully. Basically, they have to make it appear as if Dih will be a viable 4th competitor: Namely, they have to spinoff T-Mobile's network minus the spectrum after they have incorporated T-Mobile's antennas in their Vision 3.0/4.0. Then they have to spin off EBS to Dish.

Yes they were haggling with DT before AT&T swooped in!

Believe me I have been associated with corporations where the only way you can move up is for your boss to retire or die. There's a lot of people that are set in, their own little feudal kingdom. A friend of mine was just let go because he thought he was indespensible and he thought the $4B company he worked for would kiss his behind. The old bosses did, the new bosses did not want a single point of failure so one of the first things they did after they bought the company is to let him and his password protected spreadsheets go. So if you think you're safe in Overland Park, watch out, no matter whether Sprint and T-Mobile merge or not.

Laugh all you want, but Masa is not your typical staid executive.

Sprint deserves a lot of credit for all they work that they have done the last couple of years. But the man that wrote those big checks gets to do what he wants. And right now he wants T-Mobile's managerial team and he wants the HQ out of Overland Park.

Don't be surprised if the T-Mobile management team ends up running the combined company. Masa really likes their aggresiveness. The Sprint team is not exactly enthused about the merger. T-Mobile's pushing for it.

Yeah right! With a BOM of $199, there is no way it will sell for $300 at Best Buy!

Maybe Best Buy can use their volume buying purchasing might to lower their wholesale prices on phones. They can also make money on the financing part. and then sell you accessories. Just like the other electronics they sell.

You know Nextel employed the same strategy before getting acquired by Sprint. It's called pump and dump. They pumped their rolls with Boost people, knowing full well they could not accomodate them all in their network, falied to deploy the infamous 6:1 codec widely, etc, etc. I firmly believe that is exactly what's happening right now. They want to be bought out and they are pumping their value up.

A combined T-Mobile/Sprint even with just BRS will have a hell of a lot spectrum still.

None of either AT&T nor Verizon are starved for spectrum. They both have 850 and PCS spectrum that can be refarmed. Leap's spectrum will augment AT&T's in secondary markets. They also have WCS and B&E lower 700MHz, There are couple of AWS auctions. They will be OK. The other thing that needs to be considered is what is Carlos Slim going to do? He could acquire Dish and all of its spectrum after Dish acquires T-Mobile's network. He has about 22 Million customers spread over all the networks. He can transfer a lot of the them to his own network. It's all high stakes poker.

So, since Dish withdrew from the Lightsquared sweepstakes, what is their wireless play right now? If Sprint wants to merge with T-Mobile, they will need to create the illusion of a fourth competitor. So do they sell Dish, T-Mobile's network after of course they start hosting T-Mobiles frequencies on their own sites? They could start hosting Dish's frequencies on T-Mobiles's sites right away (of course it will take time) and then cut-over when the Sprint network is ready to host T-Mobiles spectrum. I believe they will need to divest spectrum and they might as well divest EBS to Dish. Sprint might get a few billion dollars out of the deal to help pay for T-Mobile.