According to the Telegraph, T-Mobile, a. k. a. Deutsche Telekom, may place a bid for Sprint within the next few weeks, a move that if completed will make T-Mobile the second largest carrier in the United States.
We aren’t quite sure what the strategy is here. T-Mobile is a GSM carrier and Sprint runs on the CDMA and iDen standards. Sprint is one of the few carriers trying to roll out WiMax, but, with the rest of the planet going to LTE, it is kind of risky.
If T-Mobile, however, is able to pull this deal off, get WiMax, which is insanely fast, rolled out before Verizon or AT&T get LTE rolled out, then the wireless landscape in the United States will be interesting for years to come.
[Via IntoMobile]
If T-Mobile does this, the will inherit a problem that Sprint Nextel already has. They will get new phones 6 months to a year later than everybody else.
You could say the same for Vzw when compared to ATT and Tmo, but Vzw is as stable a company as both ATT and Tmo.
The problem here is the integration of the networks. Just like when Sprint bought Nextel, everything was separated. As a consumer, you’d have to see the signs to even know the companies merged.
It could be interesting if they can put out a group of world phones like Vzw. The knocks on Sprint are coverage sucks and customer service is terrible. Hopefully Tmo fires every Sprint CS rep and keeps their own and can integrate the networks into something that resembles ATT network. For the price and CS from Tmo, they’d get a chunk of market share.
It will never happen, who in their right mind wants to maintain 3 completley different networks. WiMax is going to happen, its too fast for it not to, how would DT fit into that model?
GP – don’t you think running 3 technologies and the time table to convert to WiMax or LTE would be part of the due diligence done prior to an offer? Isn’t there the possibility that DT feels WiMax is the future and they are buying Sprint to gain the technology to rthen use their capital (which is 100 times better than Sprint) to implement WiMax to the maxes?
I think it would be an interesting move. So many people have great things to say about Tmo outside of their network. With WiMax or a mobile phone that goes between gsm and cdma would solve those problems…
wow that is great 2 shit companies merging… sorry but when you put shit on top of shit it is still shit !!! lol would be a stupid ove. If DT wants Wimax just by the license to the technology !!!
With Sprint’s woes, its a good possibility Sprint is worth less than the technology of WiMax… And why would you license a critical technology? So Sprint can up the fees every year bc you “have” to keep buying to keep your users with the technology they originally bought. WiMax isn’t like Adobe.