SK Telecom in talks to purchase Sprint Nextel?

Well this should shake up the market a tad, Korea's monster provider is purportedly in talks to acquire Sprint Nextel. No details have been released yet -- nor any solid confirmation from either side -- but we're seeing it and hearing it all over this morning. It would indeed be interesting to see Korea's largest carrier get into the market over here -- well, aside from Helio -- if only so we can get at some of those slick, slick, Korean handsets. It seems that Telecom mergers are the new black, with Bell Canada and Telus' attempt eventually falling off the rails, we'll see how SK Telecom and Sprint get along.

[Trent @ Jul 26th 2007 5:26PM]

Unless the law was revoked there is that little law that prevents foreign nationals from owning more than 30% of a communication systems. Heck Murdock had to become a US citizen before he was allowed to own the fox stations.

[Cesar Cardoso @ Jul 26th 2007 5:51PM]

Trent: AFAIR T-Mobile USA is a German-owned US carrier ;-)

[Logik @ Jul 26th 2007 6:00PM]

He became a citizen to comply with the requirement that, only US citizens could own American television stations.

[Trent @ Jul 26th 2007 6:50PM]

Yep, Tmobile is German owned but that has little to do with what I was talking about. Sprint is much more than a wireless provider, Sprint owns national hard lines that the federal government and national security agencies use (until the recent contract win by the baby bells). Owning a wireless carrier is one thing, owning hard lines, especially when there are really only 3 other companies with national networks, because of mergers, could be a major stumbling block for them. In addition, foreign ownership would prevent them from winning ANY government contract (whether or not the law says that, it will happen), and don't expect them to be allowed anywhere near anything that has to do with national security.

I just don't see the government allowing the merger, telecommunications, especially involving a national fiber optic network that probably carries 20% or more of all internet, data and voice communications nationwide is a serious loss of control of a major piece of infrastructure. It's one thing to let a foreign provider come in and build out towers and infrastructure in major metro areas and lease fiber time on one of the 5 national fiber backbones (or even build their own), it's another thing entirely to sell one of those existing backbones to a foreign country.

The government wouldn't stop SK Telcom from coming in a building new networks, but I do believe they would prevent the sale of existing infrastructure to a foreign company, especially one with such close ties to and partial ownership by a foreign government.

[Bryan @ Jul 26th 2007 9:20PM]

Trent, they could just be buying the wireless portion of Sprint/Nextel and leave the other parts such as backbone, long distance, and fiber an independent company.
I really hope this goes through as Sprint is just sucking it up with coverage and customer service, at least in my area.

[omoks @ Jul 27th 2007 12:19PM]

T-Mobile is not German owned its a subsidiary of Deutche Telecom which owns less than %40 of T-Mobile USA

[Mason @ Jul 26th 2007 5:30PM]

hmm so then in 2009 NASCAR would be "The SD Telecom Cup".

catchy eh?

[gpdrummr @ Jul 26th 2007 5:38PM]

it would be the SK telecom Cup





SD......pfft.

[Neebs @ Jul 26th 2007 6:47PM]

Thinker: SK Telecom owns a Starcraft team. THEN, what happens to 2009 NASCAR?

[gpdrummr @ Jul 26th 2007 5:32PM]

im liking this merger.
if it does happen i hope they bring their system with them, as sprint needs a much needed improvement.

[Logik @ Jul 26th 2007 5:51PM]

Bring on the awesome phones and the fast Internet connections!

[Mr Smarty Pants @ Jul 26th 2007 6:01PM]

I love Sprint, this is good news. Rev A is fast, but Sprint needs sexier hardware. My m610 is a great phone, but I wish I had more to choose from.

[letstakeawalk @ Jul 26th 2007 6:06PM]

With SK having dumped all that cash into Helio a few weeks ago, could this be a move towards bringing that company to a dominant position? Or would SK keep the Sprint/Nextel brands seperate? This could inject another level of clusterfark into that whole lawsuit between Nextel and AT&T/Cingular over the NASCAR decal kerfluffel...

[thanol @ Jul 26th 2007 8:06PM]

Maybe us Sprint subscribers will finally get decent phones now.

[NorthTXGadgetDude @ Jul 26th 2007 11:00PM]

This is not a new rumor has it first surfaced around July 10. You may want to reference the MotleyFool article. http://www.fool.com/investing/international/2007/07/11/sprints-cold-korean-reception.aspx

[Jamar @ Jul 27th 2007 12:42AM]

Maybe then we'd actually be able to enjoy the cool Korean phones featured here every so often.

[A.J. @ Jul 27th 2007 2:30AM]

hell, the phones could be exactly the same, but if this brings that CDMA equivalent of SIM cards to these shores, bring it on. It's the one reason why I hate American CDMA carriers... one phone and ONLY one phone... Helio is kinda fixing that but nothing is easier than just popping a SIM card....

[Jamar @ Jul 27th 2007 6:41AM]

That's something that China does right, not Korea. China is one of the few countries to have implemented R-UIM for CDMA. They also allow old-style ESN-activated phones as well, so you get the full spectrum of phones, from Korea to America, to domestic R-UIM phones (sure baffles the Sprint reps to see an UpStage with what appears to be a SIM slot when visiting America). I want a Korean phone- I take it to a local shop to be activated (the carrier only handles R-UIM sales, not ESN activation- they don't do it but they allow and support all post-activation matters) and use it. If I want a R-UIM phone, I take the card the data was copied from and stick it into a R-UIM phone (remembering to power down the other phone).

Of course, the US would never stand for a Chinese-owned company to take over a US wireless company. They'd undercut everyone (in China I get lovely voice rates of 2¢/minute domestic and 12¢/minute to the US from China and 40¢/min roaming to the US, as well as 1¢/text domestic and 12¢/text internationally and while roaming)else in the market.

[Eric @ Jul 27th 2007 9:35AM]

Kinda contradicts this story. . .

http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/205773.html