bigsnake49

What Dish has that would work with Sprint is 2000-2020 MHz in conjuction with PCS-H which they will bid in. That is adjacent to PCS-H downlink. The combination of those spectrum blocks will give them a 30MHz contiguous block in addition to 10MHz uplink. Dish needs a large swath of spectrum for OTT video and VOD. EBS will be ideal for that.

53,000. If Sprint acquires T-Mobile, then they will have to divest some spectrum. Might as well be to Dish and it might as well be the EBS spectrum. Now, I want them to swap EBS for the 25x5 piece of PCS/AWS4 that Dish would have assembleed as mentioned above.

Dish got approval from the FCC to switch its downlink and uplink frequencies in the AWS-4 band. That would make the downlink adjacent to the PCS H downllink giving them a 25x5 if they win in the PCS H auction. They also got a one year extension on the buildout of AWS-4. In return, Dish will bid at least $1.56B in the upcoming PCS H auction and turn down the power on their 700MHz block E holdings. Dish is also in the drivers seat to acquire Lightsquared's spectrum which will then combine with their now switched uplink for another 20x20 band. They will have a really decent spectrum position at the end. The 25x5 block adjacent to PCS G is really attractive to Sprint because they could combine it with PCS G and get a nice 30x10 block. Will it be attractive enough for an EBS trade or will Dish have to throw in 700MHz block E which Sprint can then trade to AT&T? http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/boosters_bits/2013/12/dish-frequency-gambit-gets-fcc-nod.html?

In order to buy T-Mobile they will have to come up with $20+B for DT shares and then have to take over about $15B of debt. Does Dish have enough clout to borrow that kind moolah? T-Mobile just raised some debt to purchase 700MHz spectrum from Verizon and others as well as raise $1.8B in a stock sale.

They could sell T-Mobile's network to Dish sans spectrum and customers, of course. It will take a bit of time to transition the spectrum from T-Mobile's network to Sprint's. Meanwhile Dish could be deploying their spectrum and EBS on T-Mobile's network. The FCC has their 4th network, the tower companies don't lose a customer, DT is out of the US market, Softbank has their competitive carrier. I see it as a win-win-win-win scenario.

The story was broken earlier by the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg was late but at least they are providing details about the potential deal, like the banks involved. This deal will revolve around the FCC's approval and possible divestment. Congress might also get involved because they want successful auctions to pay for the PS boondoggle, aka nationwide PS data network. and while the 600MHz auction could be very successful if the broadcasters participate, the other auctions might not.

No, just use it differently. If this merger were to go through they will have to divest some spectrum. The EBS spectrum would be ideal to divest to Dish and then host the spectrum for them. T-Mobile is making agrresive moves to acquire some 700Mhz A block spectrum. They will be a a very tough competitor and have relatively low debt load. Dish, if they acquire Lightsquared's spectrum and do some fancy footwork with the FCC would have some very good spectrum assets to offer.

Nope, this was back in 2001, Sprint first tried Wireless Cable. I think they had something like 30 channels. Then they tried Sprint Broadband but it was over the same BRS spectrum. You had to have a romboid external antenna. We jumped ship when our local wisp provided us 8Mbps symmetircal for the same price as Sprint Broadband. I see the antennas on top of the buildings still, ghosts from the recent past. To answer your question, this was in the Mebourne, FL area.

Yep, VZW knows how to play this game.

Nope, it's T-Mobile's to lose. T-Mobile is making some aggressive moves.

I would have no problem whatever to see a Dish/Sprint joint venture taking advantage of EBS/BRS for fixed broadband/OTT video/Internet radio, telematics, etc. Let Sprint/T-Mobile use the more traditional mobile frequencies for mobile broadband.

I have been a firm believer that EBS/BRS are better suited to fixed broadband. In fact I had Sprint broadband on that frequency in the early 2000's. Now granted Sprint had only one fixed broadband antenna in my area to cover 100,000 people. But it was OK, better than DSL which was non-existant at the time and cable which wanted $10,000 to cross a 5 lane highway and cover our 5 story building. and BTW I'm all for the T-Mobile/Sprint combo as well.

It would be like divesting PCS H only phones right now without giving them an alternative.

It's a wonderful idea for utilizing the prodigious amounts of spectrum that Sprint owns in the EBS band.

Spark!!!! Light a fire under AT&T and Verizon's asses!

Because they would have like 300MHz of spectrum in some areas.

Yeah, by the time this merger could potentially close, TMUS would have deployed brand new AWS LTE gear all over their foorprint. Why would they totally dismantle a brand new network? They could divest all of EBS and they would still have about 60Mhz of BRS left. Not exactly peanuts, and that's on top of all the AWS and PCS spectrum.

That would be more reasonable.

No, the restriction was on Verizon's upper C band, not their Lower A band spectrum.

Because AWS is more valuable than EBS, EBS is leased vs owned, there is a network already developed on AWS that they can easily incorporate into their own.

You make a lot of sense but I don't see them divesting AWS before EBS.

I just don't want you to think that everybody else is telling the truth and Sprint is so far behind. There are many places where T-mobile's LTE coverage is very spotty, although according to them it is covered.

They don't need 60MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum right away. They will need it in the urban downtowns environments, heavy apartment concetrations, IBEZ areas, etc. They can pick and choose where they do it first. They can slowly fiull in the rest. BTW, Verizon still is filing out their 700Mhz LTE deployment.

T-Mobile will be able to sustain their momentum for maybe another quarter or two. By the end of 2014 everybody will have completed their buildouts and will have plenty of bandwidth. Then what? It will be static, and the only growth will come from other devices (connected cars, tablets, etc). So unless Sprint or T-mobile come up with something truly innovative, the only way to grow their customer base is to compete on price. How long can they afford to do that? Now even if they merge, they will be at a severe disadvantage to the big two. 53M pospaid customers vs 72M for AT&T and 95M for Verizon. The other two can afford to wait them out.

The only way this merger will fly is if the resulting entity divests substantial amounts of spectrum. I'm just guessing it will be EBS spectrum since it is leased and not owned.