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back to article Softbank gobbles T-Mobile ... 1 year after AT&T tried it on – report

Network integration seems to be the order of the day with mergers rumoured between T-Mobile US Inc and mega US wireless carrier Sprint, and – across the seas – Orange France and Bouygues Telecom. Reuters is reporting that T-Mobile US owner Deutsche Telekom has agreed a deal to sell the network to Sprint’s owner, Softbank Corp …

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  1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    FAIL

    Sprinting away

    T-Mobile probably has far more Sprint defectors than the other telcos - customers that wasted two years with Sprint and will never again deal with them again. T-Mobile doesn't do long contracts so these customers will fee at the first sign of decay. This merger, if approved, is a clear victory for AT&T and Verizon.

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  2. Mikel

    Sprint is actively hostile to Bring-Your-Own-Phone

    T-Mobile is not. If you like to get your Nexus direct and un-tampered with from Google for a prepaid plan T-Mobile will welcome you with open arms. Sprint won't even tell you you can get a SIM that works on their towers from Fring. They certainly won't sell you one.

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    1. Vector
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      Re: Sprint is actively hostile to Bring-Your-Own-Phone

      "Sprint won't even tell you you can get a SIM that works on their towers..."

      That's mainly because those phones you get direct from Google are GSM, so you can buy all the SIM cards you want, but they won't work on a CDMA network.

      This is going to be an interesting watch because, on the other side, if it's approved, it going to leave only one CDMA carrier or one GSM carrier. Personally, I hope for the former, but based on how the Nextel merger went, it'd be more likely the latter.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sprint is actively hostile to Bring-Your-Own-Phone

        I hate to break it to you but CDMA is dead. While the rest of the world went to GSM, then to UMTS (W-CDMA) and then to LTE, the CDMA vendors were left to jump to LTE. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and even Sprint all have LTE networks. Why would there still be a CDMA carrier?

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        1. Vector
          Reply Icon

          Re: Sprint is actively hostile to Bring-Your-Own-Phone

          "I hate to break it to you but CDMA is dead."

          I hate to burst your bubble, but in the US, CDMA is far from dead. Verizon, the largest US carrier uses CDMA for their 3G deployment, as does Sprint (AT&T and T-Mobile both have GSM 3G networks). LTE is great but it's not universally available here, which means you need a 3G fallback. Most of that fallback, by marketshare, at least, is CDMA.

          Someday, all networks and all coverage will be LTE, but we're not there yet.

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          1. Anonymous Coward
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            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Sprint is actively hostile to Bring-Your-Own-Phone

            Try again, the CDMA 3G network that Verizon and Sprint have, they don't handle calls. To make a call on their network you need to drop down to that 2.5G network called 1xRTT. This is one of he reasons why on a CDMA network you cannot use data and voice simultaneously. This is why Verizon was so hot to get LTE deployed, their 3G network was slow and had no future, so they had to replace it. T-Mobile and AT&T had plenty of headroom in terms of speed on their 3G network and could offer faster speeds.

            The fall-back you are talking about, most rural carriers offer both GSM and CDMA. So they each have equal access and one does not have more coverage than the other. So if you are a CDMA user, you need much more than 3G fall back, you need 2.5G fall back.

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            1. Vector
              Reply Icon

              Re: Sprint is actively hostile to Bring-Your-Own-Phone

              " the CDMA 3G network that Verizon and Sprint have, they don't handle calls."

              And neither do their LTE networks, at least for the moment. These are all data protocols.

              The bottom line is: neither Verizon nor Sprint will connect a phone to their network that does not have a CDMA radio and most off-the-shelf unlocked phones do not have one.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hopefully this will get blocked and various regulatory agencies will provide the following quote:

    "Sprint said the deal would severely reduce competition in the United States cell phone industry."

    So, if going from four to three would reduce competition in 2011, then going from four to three in 2014 will be no different.

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  4. Rampant Spaniel

    If they want a fourth player make dish use that spectrum it has. That way they get a strong 3rd player and have new sprint divest some high dial spectrum and setup a network hosting deal with dish to give them a jump start. Sprints network vision equipment should cope with this fairly easily. They could also force sprint to increase its footprint. There is a small chance this might work out well. There's a very large chance bribed politicians and gross ineptitude will screw it all up.

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  5. Radelix

    NO!!!

    I left the yellow bastards for T-mo and their actually functioning network. Looks like it is time for me to write several more opposition letters to the FCC, DoJ, elected representatives, etc

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