T-Mobile buying out Sprint?

[saint327]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/6180195/T-Mobile-owner-eyes-multi-billion-dollar-bid-for-Sprint.html

What do you think. Yay? Nay? Meh?

I personally would like to see T-Mobile become a stronger contender against AT&T and Verizon :) Sprint also has their pre-paid Boost-mobile service, which has been expanding here recently as well.

[ariesboy]

I'd love to see this happen! Sprint's 4G network w/ Tmo's customer service...

[Iceberg]

I've had nothing but trouble with Tmobile. I'd hate for it to happen they never want to help me out with defective crap they sell me.
It was nice in 03? When they just gave phones to Hurricane Katrina victims whom all they had to do was claim to have had the phone before and T Mobile was there to help out with that but they've just been getting worse since that.

[DaYuMu6ft7]

Iceberg ! T- Mob on the East Coast (DC, Philly & New York) works just fine


In Philly.. we have all of the major cell phone companies, plus all the *low budget* ones as well.

[deserttopping]

i vote yay. very happy with the t-mo. more market share could mean good things for customers.

[Minifig]

T-Mobiles service SUCKS in my local area, Sprint's is ... okay. AT&T dominates the local market.

T-Mobile I have no idea how much the plans cost, but Sprint is costly as sin.. and AT&T seems to be what most people say is the "middle ground"..

If it gave T-Mobile better service around here, I'd say I'm okay with it.. I guess.


I don't know though, we're getting less and less competition nowadays and that scares me. :(

[Iceberg]

So At&T bought Cingular and now T Mobile is buying Sprint? Verizon still stands alone.

[*susan*]

Didn't Verizon and Alltel recently merge?

[Fare]

Didn't Verizon and Alltel recently merge?

Yes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alltel#Mergers_and_acquisitions)

What is interesting is that all the prior mergers were with similar tech (Verizon and Alltel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alltel#Network_technology) are cdma for example). Sprint and T-Mobile are different...I hope T-Mobile wouldn't switch from GSM (I can't imagine why they would, T-Mobile Europe is GSM).

Would love to play with a pre tho...

[*susan*]

This should definitely be interesting to see what develops.

[remister]

CDMA and GSM phones, seems like an interesting mix.

[JaceMan]

I'm not a fan of all of the corporate mergers that continue to take place across various industries. Sooner or later everyone merges and we are again left without competition... the main reason that mergers supposedly take place... to create competition. It's a farce. A two company competition is every bit as bad on consumers as a two party political system is on voters. Choice drives both ingenuity and value.

Where we once had A, B, C, D, and E... now we have A and B merging to compete with E in the form of a new A. C and D not wanting to be left behind so they merge into a new C. E doesn't appreciate A creating this fiasco and now E buys out the merged C. Now A definitely can't compete with the huge E, and competition completely collapses. It happens all of the time... and way too much for my liking!

No thank you.

[deserttopping]

True, Jace, but there's a point at which a large customer base + a reasonable amount of competition can mean good subscriber rates. I don't want to see one or two mega phone providers, but a large market share isn't always bad.

No idea how cdma & gsm by the same provider would work. That doesn't sound good.

[saint327]

As for competition, it seems like three heavy weights would be able to battle in the mobile market better than two heavys and two lights. If a merger were to go through I think the best route to take regarding the handling of the wireless technologies would be to keep them both going...maybe for five years or so. Then phase in one dominant standard. That should bring us well into the 4G era where things won't be as dire seeing as how it really hasn't even been deployed yet. If they can make it work till then, I think it would be a successful venture from then on.