Sprint and T-mobile merge. Thoughts?

[GoodSteward]

I have been not-so-patiently waiting for T Mobile to do something great with the Layer3 tv merger, and so far it is nothing. I will decide once things actually start happening.

I assumed by now we would have at least heard an update.

[Tabs]

From a technical standpoint, there is nothing T-Mobile needs from Sprint.

However, as it has been pointed out, the real reason is quite possibly to eliminate the #4 competitor from the field, solidifying your #3 position, and have a potentially good shot at becoming #2 into the future.

I generally look at M&As with a skeptical eye as well. In this particular case though, I personally don't disapprove.

[corn18]

I've participated in a few acquisitions in my current company. Done well, you can cut 10%-30% of cost from the target and nothing bad happens. You don't need 2 HR, Finance, IT, etc... departments. Then you start to consolidate facilities. Then you cut costs on what's left. A lot of people lose their jobs. You can view that as heartless or good business. Or you can play the nice guy and let the inefficiencies degrade your profits.

What does that mean to the consumer? Depends. For Sprint + T-Mobile, I have no clue.

[Tabs]

Almost forgot to mention, but both T-Mobile and Sprint are also the two biggest players in the reseller market. There's a technical term for that, but I forgot what it is. But basically, there are secondary markets like Tracfone, Ting, Google, Virgin, etc. etc. that actually uses Sprint and sometimes T-Mobile towers. These companies make bulk buys from T-Mobile/Sprint and others, and then resell it to us at generally much lower rates.

Of course, there are some limitations and compromises, but I think this group is quite familiar with what they are. They are also beside the point. The point is, this merger makes it such that there's only one major player in the reseller market. That may or may not be an issue for us down the road and looking for cheaper deals, so yeah, it's something worth keeping an eye on.

[GoodSteward]

Almost forgot to mention, but both T-Mobile and Sprint are also the two biggest players in the reseller market. There's a technical term for that, but I forgot what it is. But basically, there are secondary markets like Tracfone, Ting, Google, Virgin, etc. etc. that actually uses Sprint and sometimes T-Mobile towers. These companies make buy bulk from T-Mobile/Sprint and others, and then resell it to us at generally much lower rates.

Of course, there are some limitations and compromises, but I think this group is quite familiar with what they are. They are also beside the point. The point is, this merger makes it such that there's only one major player in the reseller market. That may or may not be an issue for us down the road and looking for cheaper deals, so yeah, it's something worth keeping an eye on.

Is the term MVNO what you are looking for?

And that's a good point, I wasn't thinking about them being the major reseller market leaders. They are not the only players, but they are the ones you always see tied to all these new super-budget companies like Freedompop and MintSim. Verizon and ATT do get into the prepaid market too, but you don't see the really cheap options through them.

According to their advertisements on this, their main goal was to get to 5G nationwide first. Nobody can do it on their own, according to them, so by coming together and combining money and spectrum, they believe they can. If they can do what they say they will, they will not move to #2, they will move to #1. They are the only one that I have seen actively building out their network in a mad dash. As I've stated before, I'm frequently seeing better signals on my wife's Tmobile vs my work Verizon, and I've tried various phones and get the same results. Verizon and ATT are oversaturated, and they are spread too thin. It won't take long for Tmobile and Sprint to start offering better service all the way around, which will force ATT and Verizon to follow, as they have.

[GoodSteward]

Let me quickly explain one of the recent moves Tmobile made that I think is going to massively change the market in the coming years. Tmobile bought the 600mhz spectrum last year from the FCC for billions. For those who don't understand what it means, the lower the frequency band the farther the signal can go and the better it can penetrate buildings, trees, etc. Verizon has been at the top of the coverage map due to having the most mature, nationwide 700mhz LTE band network. Others have started catching up with their 700mhz LTE bands, but Verizon has had more in place longer. The problem is that they have slowed down any expansion of it, while Tmobile has been pushing hard to catch up. This LTE band is why you get such good signals outside of major cities and have at least a little signal in the middle of nowhere, as well as deep in the middle of a building. It is also why Sprint never does. They don't have a low-frequency band like ATT, Verizon, and Tmobile. Sprint only gets down to 850mhz. Even small moves down in the frequency band make a major difference. This is why 2.4ghz wifi stretches much farther than 5ghz in your home.

The 600mhz band is going to cover a lot better than the current 700mhz band. The problem is TV networks have been using it up to this point and have to get off of it. Also, the rollout requires new equipment to broadcast it for cellular, as well as the modems in phones need support for the new LTE band. Only a few handsets have come out with it. It will take a few years to roll out into a mature network due to all this. Once Tmobile implements this new 600mhz frequency nationwide, it will cover better than Verizon and ATT. And Tmobile is the ONLY one that has it.

Put all this together with their hope for 5G, and they are building to be something really big.

[msomnipotent]

According to this, http://www.spectrumgateway.com/600-mhz-spectrum

600 mhz should start soon. It says they start Q3 of this year, and I know that they reported Q1 earnings in April and Q2 in July of last year. The map doesn't show any major metro area being used and most of the Midwest is blocked out.