Over the years
our pals at Deutsche Telekom haven't exactly played the most aggressive game in the States, but finally we have word about the first possible suitor for the ailing Sprint. Although the rumor originates from German paper Der Spiegel and doesn't cite sources, word has it Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA are making the possibility of snagging Sprint (and all its
heavy baggage, read: Nextel) a "top priority" in a bid to take a competitor out of the game and pick up the number three spot. Supposedly formal negotiations haven't even begun yet, but if you thought the integration between Sprint and Nextel was messy, just watch what happens when you bring a third carrier into the mix -- and did we mention the infrastructure would be GSM with AWS, PCS CDMA, and iDEN, all competing for spectrum and handset allocation? Good luck guys.
[Thanks, Khattab]
posted May 3rd 2008 12:28PM
So what happens with american version of t-mobile? do they merge ala nextel and sprint? we all know how that ended up.
I'm just imagining a Yellow 'T'
or a magenta needle dropping
NICE
Itl be 2 needles in the shape of a T.
this seems like a pretty terrible idea.
As much as I would like T-Mobile to expand, I was thinking more in terms of a faster 3G rollout here in the states.
SprinT-mobile?
I don't even care, as long as I keep receiving my EVDO rev A.
Not going to happen, but interesting to consider. Sprint may be ailing, but it could make you a lot of money. Not catching on... well consider that it's been on it's way down for a while now and like most things in this stage has been considering being sold to the right buyer. Wait for the shares of Sprint stock to drop low enough ($2/share or so) and the buyer will jump in and swoop it up and the merger will skyrocket the stock prices and there's your money... just like the at&t and cingular one.
Messy indeed... Sprint is STILL sorting the mess with Nextel...
Messy and hilarious all at once...yet oddly interesting. A cdma/gsm hybrid 3G superphone...hmm.
Sprint already sells GSM / CDMA hybred phones. They're great for traveling because you're almost guaranteed a signal thanks for being able to roam on both networks.
One question: Why?
I mean, I understand all the "eliminating a competitor" stuff, but from an technologically-efficient standpoint it really doesn't make sense. I don't know what kind of costs are associated with maintaining GSM, CDMA, and iDEN networks separately are, but maintaining both CDMA and iDEN isn't working out well for Sprint, let alone what would happen when you add in GSM to the mix. And on top of that, you now have to sell phones with three different radios in them.
I could understand Verizon making an offer to pick up Sprint if any such deal were to be made, since Verizon also runs CDMA, but this whole GSM/CDMA/iDEN thing just doesn't make sense to me.
I like this because as a sprint user, I love call quality and services but hate the fact of not switching phones. Thats where GSM comes in. Then theres the CDMA and iDEN lovers, making sprint a retailer for all people. A lot of awesome tmo phones including alot of wifi smartphones could make it to sprint also. I'm actually wanting this. Big Time.
@cubswillwin
Alot of awesome tmo phones?
For VZW to purchase Sprint would be useless. No one who currently stays with Sprint is going to like to pay VZW money nor like losing individual deals (ie SERO, AcctSrvs deals, retentions etc.) things VZW is too stiff to offer.
Plus since VZW has a wider network and a chunk of the 700mhz spectrum, it'll be a redundant purchase.
T-Mobile has alot to gain, data being the elephant & better voice.
Hex-band phones?
You guys forgot about WiMax.
The WiMAX business doesn't affect their cellular offerings and isn't positioned the same way. XOHM might actually be an added bonus to T-Mobile (were it not for their inclination toward LTE).
How many customers does Sprint have? I know T-Mobile has around 30 million. If Sprint has around 50 million it should move T-Mobile to the #1 spot in customers.
Don't they still need to allocate spectrum and resources (product development) to XOHM?
Sorry, that was supposed to be in response to Ryan, in response to me. =)
Hmm.. Presumably they can gradually give the CDMA etc customers GSM handsets and convert the spectrum to GSM?
or use all 3 standards you know. There are alot of CDMA lovers on sprint 'cause they think it's more secure. Dunno 'bout IDEN tho. It's supposed to be banished soon.
Fair enough. But it makes the job of Tech Support much harder. Tech Support is already pretty bad anyway, on the whole.
How about just selling dual-mode phones? Samsung and LG make a lot of nice CDMA/GSM phones here in China; they usually go GSM-less and end up on Verizon but if this goes through they'll probably end up on Sprint intact (which is a good thing; increased network coverage always is).
Pals? *cough*engadgetmobile*cough*
In before Deutsche Bag.
No.. No.. No..
I dont wanna get used to saying T-Moble Cup..
I hated Nextel Cup, then Sprint Cup..
I just wanna have back the good ole Winston Cup..
This is gettin outa hand..
this doens't look like a swallow up buy out really. I think your safe.
maybe it would simply be NASCAR T-Cup (all Deutsche Telekom divisions are T-Something: T-Mobile, T-Home, T-Systems...)
but would you rather have a teacup, or a T-Cup?
DO IT!
i tripple dog dare you!
comments are coming in quick man!
Cubs Will Lose.
sticks and stones may break my bones, but stupid comebacks can never hurt me :P
@cubswillwin
Yes, and most of them are yours.
Hey, CUBS, there used to be a guy on Halo 2 PC that went by the name of CUBSWININ07...didn't happen to be you, did it?
that was me why?
@ aaron
I agree :)
It was you? You used to be quite a regular.
regular?
Horrible, horrible and most horrible. I've stuck with T-Mobile as the underdog - good customer service, cheap data plan (slow but steady, fine for 95% of things I want to do) and all that GSM freedom goodness, putting up with their poor coverage. But if they merge with Sprint I'm sure it will just result in higher prices and worse customer service. I can't see the point in trying to mix GSM with CDMA - DT should let Sprint wither on the vine, that's a great strategy to eliminate competition. Unless they are afraid that Verizon will buy them - which is the only company that should.
Der Spiegel probably thinks that everyone in the world uses GSM, nowhere in the article do they mention that Sprint uses not one, but two totally incompatible network systems with no easy way to evolve into one big network.
It doesn't have to. GSM and CDMA can coexist easily under one roof(and iDEN is long overdue to be phased out). Start selling dual-mode phones- GSM for voice, and CDMA for voice+data. That's how it is in China- the dual-mode phones run voice only on GSM and put the data load on CDMA because it's faster (seriously- until TD-SCDMA arrived on the scene CDMA 1x was the fastest data service available in China).
"did we mention the infrastructure would would be GSM"
Am I the only one who noticed the two "would[s]"?
I saw that on first reading, too.
How much wood wood would would a woodwoodchuck chuck if a woodwoodchuck could chuck woodwood?
You're lucky Chuck Norris isn't around.
Is it so damn hard to release a cdma/gsm phone you can find those all over asia and just say fuck it to iden.
What is the reason people like iden anyway besides the damn walkie talkie feature.
Cellphonesignal has a post on a phone that is GSM/CDMA 1900/850
http://www.cellphonesignal.com/t-mobile-phones-accessories/3223-weird.html
Haven't we learned that mashing together networks, like this, just doesn't work?
Yea, not like this.
I, for one, Welcome our german overloards.....
I used to work for Sprint, and now work for T-Mobile.
If they do this I'll seriously kill myself.
put up or shut up
2nd such rumor....one from each side of the Atlantic. There has to be some smoke to this one.
GSM can utilize CDMA technology for transmissions. Don't confuse JS-008 and CDMA. Its not as tricky a proposition as one would think.
T-Mobile for the consumer side, Sprint/Nextel for the business side. GSM for voice, JS-008 for data. Hmm.
The Sprint-Nextel merger difficulties have had far more to do with corporate culture & product management issues than technological issues.
Vivo (a joint venture of Portugal Telecom and Telefónica) already does this thing here in Brazil. Consumer services are mostly GSM-based, while business and data services are CDMA-based, at least until they launch their UMTS/HSDPA networks, later this year.
T-Mobile could buy Sprint/Nextel and then slowly phase out the iDEN and GSM networks, considering the most powerful and popular choice is CDMA of the three. It would be hard but in the end it would be worth it. Go T-Sprint/Nextel (Get More Power) (TM).
T-Mobile could buy Sprint/Nextel and then slowly phase out the iDEN and CDMA networks, considering the most powerful and popular choice is GSM of the three. It would be hard but in the end it would be worth it. Go T-Sprint/Nextel (Get More Power) (TM).
See what I did there.
Oh, I see what you did there.
Imagine T-mobile coveting Sprint's customer base, wide coverage and broadband data network, but ending up with their customer service. Uggggh.
Sounds like a headache! Managing all GSM, CDMA, and iDEN?!
Hörst du mich jetzt?
this doesnt seem right. the only think that i think t-mobile would like out of this deal is access to sprints evdo network.
Once again, another reason to switch to AT&T.
If T-Mobile actually manages to buy out Sprint (along with Nextel), T-Mobile's customer service will most likely turn to mud.
Still better than AT&T service.
Which would still be far better than AT&T (Cingular) service I have received....after being with them from pre-Pac bell, I forget the carrier out of Sac, CA that started the customer Cell phone service in the 90's...., to PacTel, Cingular and At&t I moved to T-mobile...I can reach a person 24/7, and 90% of the time I get a fair settlement to my issues, whereas, the AT&T would take hours/days as they dis not service CA after hours, and 'credit hounds' when I refused to pay until they would address the over-billing,,,PUC also helped a little...had to response to about 5 collection companies over a three year period, they seem to keep trying very 6 mos to see if I would pay the approx $15. Yet, every time I was able to finally reach a person at (Cingular) that person would say they see I did not owe the monies and it was an error and they would fix it...Not so...T-moble was also about $35 month less for the same type of plans and higher data speeds until At&t upgraded Cingular.
Step 1) Get the phone makers to make GSM variants of the Sprint phones (the rumor, etc.); offer cheap lateral upgrades for moving from the same phone to the equivalent phone. (added bonus: T-Mo will have a better phone selection!) ... treat Nextel/iDEN as a separate red-headed-step-child business.
Step 2) where possible, re-use spectrum and equipment from Sprint to bolster T-Mo infrastructure/capacity/etc.
Step 3) Profit!
Not going to happen.
1) Deutsche Telekom wanted to buy Sprint back when Worldcom was bidding for the Sprint. Deutsche didn't have enough interest in the company to compete for a fair price.
2) Sprint runs over 50% of the US government's data, including the military. I find it very hard to believe the US gov't would be willing to give that control over to Germany.
Calm down, everyone. Hesse is here to save the day.
When you think about it, it's quite possible. The combined entity would be too big for the government to accept (anti-monopoly and all that) so they'll have to spin something off. Well, they can dump the government/military stuff and focus solely on the consumer side.
T-Mobile is already starting to deploy CDMA or an upgraded version known as UMTS. This will be rolled out in the major cities as a spectrum add sometime this year, When I say major cities/markets I am referring to Miami, Chicago, Huston, New York etc. All the other smaller Markets will be following suite and deploying probably early 2009.
The customer over time will not ever see any change in their service ass phones will have duel band and where GSM is weak UMTS is strong and where UMTS is weak GSM is strong which will give the customer the best experience. Eventually the plan I assume will be to roll out full 3G but at the moment only more voice and some high speed data un suburban areas. Edge, GPRS will also although slower but will always be available.
As for the Sprint buyout I think this is all just hype. I see not benefit in this buyout. T-Mobile has never been number one however, they have always spent money wisely and slowly take the market as needed. They are strong where they are at. They do not have as many sites or as many customers but have out performed where saturated. They have continued to blow the competition away winning the JD Power award in customer service 6 years in a row.
I hope this Sprint deal does not happen. I think it will end in more layoffs. Sprint is really hurting and has been for some time. They are really in need of someone bailing them out and I think this is all just talks to get hype about it.
Layoffs? Good- Sprint's Customer Service needs to be dumped anyway.
UMTS is based on WCDMA which is not the same as the CDMA that Sprint and Verizon use.
READ MY LIPS: TMOBILE DOES NOT HAVE THE BALLS FOR THIS
Oh, great. Now no one will be able to use pink OR yellow in their branding.
yeah, yeah. 'no one' is singular ...
:s/their/its/g
As one who just got sprint, I did know about this, and one of my reasons for selecting sprint wasn't just because of the simply everything plan, but I figured it would be a "legal" (or non-costly) excuse to get out of the 2 year contract if they went under/bought out and the company would be named Trintel :P (T-(Sp)rint-(Next)el
Actually, the broad use of different cellular technologies in a Sprint/Nextel/TMO merge would be beneficial, add Alltel to the mix to make it even better. Imagine a cell phone that could utilize CDMA, GSM, iDEN, and AMPS on all available bands - a phone that would work anywhere. I know I would buy it.
Sprint is indeed a diamond in the rough. The stock and company is massively undervalued considering Sprint's tower holdings, infrastructure, technology development, and that a good majority of MVNO customers in the U.S. are using Sprint's system.
Sprint's downfall has been 80% due to customer service issues, and 20% due to problems from the Nextel merger. Sprint gained Nextel's huge cellular tower holdings and loyal customer base, but unfortunately didn't assimilate Nextel's good customer service. The merger has still today remained a nightmare - Sprint is still on three different billing systems.
Sprint is in fact, one of the leaders in rolling out technology, and ownership of it's infrastructure. AT&T, and T-mobile are lagging behind in technology. Verizon is the other technology leader in the U.S., but, is a monster of corporate greed with a large base of customers with a love-hate relationship with them (love the service, hate the massive fees) that could be easily plucked with a fair deal like Sprint's $99 Everything Plan.
T-mobile is known for being the customer service leader, but, I'm not sure they would be successful in reforming Sprint's customer service after all Nextel failed at this and adding yet another billing system, and different cellular technology standard seems like a really bad idea, considering what happened with Nextel.
The best strategy for Sprint at this point would be a merger with Alltel which would create the largest coverage area in the U.S. (Alltel and Sprint both have a huge infrastructure), Offering the $99 everything plan with no contracts and no deposits, implementing one billing system, and retraining customer service. Followed by a massive marketing campaign projecting Sprint as having the largest coverage, fair to their customers, and having *new* friendly and effective customer service. In a few years they would be so big - the U.S. government would start to get concerned about anti-trust issues.
If this happens, yeah, I agree with Jamar - iDen >finally< gets put to bed (just too many formats to be thinking about, this one has such a low percentage vs CSMA & GSM). I've owned GSM (AT&T) and am on CDMA (VerizonWireless), I can only hope that D-T recognizes that THIS market could live without any formats other than those 2.
IDEN has to be offered through 2010 due to legalities.
Nascar T-Mobile Cup sounds stupid.
It is my understanding that when you buy a company, not only do you get the technology but also the spectrum. I can see how the spectrum might actually make a deal like this worthwhile.
Hmm, this is an interesting proposition. I'm a T-Mobile customer and would love to see them expand coverage and offer faster data speeds. I wouldn't like Nextel getting dragged into that merger though. And besides, I remember reading an article about the US government taking over iDEN networks for their own use in the near future. What ever happened with that?
SPRINT PLEASE KILL NEXTEL ALREADY!!!!
Sprint is a bunch of businessess.....if there is such a purchase in mind, which arm would they buy, Sprint the wireless business?
The wireless business gets into a bunch of smaller businesses such as Helio, Boost, etc.
If this was to happen, I think a it would put a large customer base up for grabs including the nextel arm...if 53 million subscribers use sprint and you intend to break the company up , there would be a lower business wide open for consumption ( helio, boost, etc ). The land line business would open up, as well as the investment into WiMax...that would actually move in the right direction for t-mobile...
Sprint is only the wireless business.............the landline side was sold to embarq a couple years ago
I don't think Sprint looks good in magenta.
I bet this is what t-mobile 3G will be. Anyway I just want t-mobile to have 3G im losing faith here.