With
T-Mobile UK and Orange now having to (potentially) learn to play nice, Deutsche Telekom is already looking ahead to its next big target:
Sprint Nextel. According to a
Telegraph report, the telecom giant, with an estimated value of $60.45 billion, has called in advisers from Deutsche Bank as it reportedly prepares to submit an offer to the $10.6 billion-valued Now Network within the next three weeks. The assimilation of Sprint and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile US under the same umbrella could give second-place AT&T a fight with a 78.2 million-strong customer base... but that said, we wouldn't anticipate any quick or smooth merger given the US carriers rely on substantially different bands (CDMA vs. GSM) for service. Hey, there's always WiMAX might come into play. Obviously there's a lot of unanswered questions here, but at this point it's all speculation given no actual offer has been thrown on the table -- and we bet
Hesse will have some choice words on the matter. Keep an eye out on this one, things could very quickly get very, very interesting here.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
posted September 13th 2009 5:19PM
Look at those cigarettes.
Yeah this is classic Corporate/Legal/Marketing morons getting together and spouting "Customer Base", "Market penetration" and "Brand recognition" while the Engineers are banging on the door screaming "For the love of god we cannot make 3 different network systems run together!!!!!!"
It will happen and then in 3-5 years the same Corporate/Legal/Marketing morons will be discussing spinning off companies for "Streamlining", "Market Focus" and "Brand optimization".
I think this is more about standardizing the next generation 4G network (LTE).
With regards to T-Mo acquiring Orange, T-Mo is pushing Voice over LTE via Generic Access (VoLGA), while Orange supports circuit switch fallback (using GSM, UMTS, or CDMA2000 1x networks for voice while LTE is used only for data)
With regards to T-Mo acquiring Sprint, well Sprint is pushing WiMax, and T-Mo wants LTE.
This has been tried many times and the reason it never goes through is because the people "running" the company (not the scape-goats who get fired) but the people who have been consistantly been running the company in the ground will be the first ones to get the boot. And if they do get lucky and get new jobs (yeah right) they will have to actually produce results, and that requires effort. so they will fight it tooth and nail.
I think Sprint will say no! They have come to far and another merger will set both company's behind GSM + CDMA + iDEN+ WiMAX + LTE = We are dumb asses. There is no way this can happen! T-mo sucks ( Where I live) ATT, Verizon cost to much! Sprint is just rignt! Slowing getting back on their feet and making something of them self's!
Now since T-mo is such a small company if the folded into Sprint and went CDMA WiMAX (LTE) then It might work but getting all of Sprints customers to go GSM will never happen not for a long while any way!
T-Mobile has operations all over Europe, as well as landline and broadband operations. Sprint has only America.
I was really excited when T-Mobile bought out SunCom here....and then they came.
We cant get any new phones without having to pay an extra ~$100 unless we switch to a more expensive T-Mobile plan. They treat people on SunCom plans like second class citizens :(
I was thinking about this the other day when I heard T-Mobile (Deutchtelekom) had purchased Orange(France Telecom)UK and become the UK's largest carrier.
My thoughts, since Vodafone has always been famously happy with it's 49% share in verizon, if T-Mobile could acquire that instead of Sprint, a failing company by anyone's standards, it would be set!
I just paid two ETFs and switched to T-Mobile to get the hell away from Sprint. Please don't tell me I'm getting dragged back.
T-Mobile;s the bigger of the two if you count the whole world. I think T-Mobile's absorbing Sprint, not the other way around.
Correction:
AT&T - 79.6 Million Subscribers
T-Mobile - 82.3 Million Subscribers
This is if Sprint is bought.
GSM 2G (GPRS, EDGE) - Mobile is scheduled to start being discontinued in upgraded 3G HSPA markets sometime in 2010 this has somewhat to do with the reason of the HSPA 21 upgrade.
CDMA (IS-95,1X) - is scheduled to be discountinued on several carriers(Regional Carriers would most likely keep theirs.)
CDMA (EVDO) - Is scheduled to stay over the next few years however T-Mobile can choose to discontinue this & use their Newer WCDMA IV 1.7 & 2.1 GHZ 3G network.
GSM (UMTS/HSPA) - T-Mobiles 3G network can be installed on any CDMA or GSM network.
Wi-MAX - Can be used for Internet data services for PC(also can contract a deal to cable companies to use their service) Hotspot services due to the fact it uses 802.16 technology just like 802.11 you find in your routers it can be used for access point service just like the hotspot service uses currently. This is NOT a 4G network(False advertising)
LTE - Will still be used as T-Mobiles main network. Alway said to have extra blocks.
Very Unlikely, Sprint is coming back strong