Deutsche Telekom looking to pick up Sprint?
[Thanks, Khattab]
[Thanks, Khattab]
Relevant Posts
- Helio's flame going out: stores to shutter, customers heading to Virgin? (19 days ago - 24 Comments)
- Sprint "seriously considering" spinning off Nextel (65 days ago - 9 Comments)
- Verizon "in talks" to buy Alltel for $27 billion (35 days ago - 39 Comments)
- Verizon gets official with $28 billion Alltel acquisition (34 days ago - 29 Comments)
- Reuters: 3G iPhone announcement for Italy Monday, or Tuesday (33 days ago - 1 Comment)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Danny @ May 3rd 2008 12:47PM
Number 3 spot? If DT's USA mobility unit picks up Sprint, that would catapult them to the number one spot.
Dean @ May 3rd 2008 1:32PM
lmfao.
that has got to be the dumbest thing i've ever heard.
Rex @ May 3rd 2008 1:36PM
Say wha...? And here I thought T-Mo's 3G; no 3G; 3G voice, no data; now maybe data again was messy. Wow. Whatever happened about organic growth?
There is, of course, one silver lining in all of this. If it is more than a rumor, never again will we have to put up with a Sprint-lover posting: "When will Sprint get the Blackberry Curve?"
Neoprimal @ May 3rd 2008 3:11PM
"And here I thought T-Mo's 3G; no 3G; 3G voice, no data; now maybe data again was messy. Wow. Whatever happened about organic growth?"
Apparently the only place you get your 'news' from is Engadget, since it's the only site that has reported Tmobile's 3G rollout the way you've so eloquently put it.
Anyway, I don't particularly like the idea of a merger. As someone who has moved from ATT to Sprint to Tmobile I can say I'm as happy a wireless customer as you can have. I'm worried that any kind of merge will take the focus off customer happiness to other things. Give me faster data and I'll be in mobile utopia.
Anthony @ May 3rd 2008 1:52PM
Dan hesse would never let tmobile buy Sprint out, seeing as tmobile is # 4 in the nation. Plus you have to consider all of Sprints efforts to fix customer service this year, it'll make them #1 or 2 considering all carriers cust service sucks right now, nothing but positive experiences there this year so far....
Matt @ May 3rd 2008 4:12PM
Dan Hesse is not Jesus you know. He answers to a board.
rawmustard @ May 3rd 2008 2:15PM
People just can't help bringing up this rumor every month. Hell, a Sprint-DT merger seems to have been rumored since 2000, if a quick Google News search is any indication.
ChiefTB @ May 3rd 2008 2:52PM
I hope not! I like my T-Mobile just the way it is. I don't want all that CDMA/iDEN/WiMAX bullshit with crappy customer service and frustrated customers to drag it down.
Jeff @ May 3rd 2008 2:56PM
Deutsche Telekom was originally gonna pick up Sprint PCS when they entered the US market in 2000. But they decided buying out Voicestream and Powertel was a better idea, since they were already GSM. Thus T-Mobile USA was born. Sprint wouldn't be a horrible acquisition though... they'd get tons of 2.5Ghz spectrum to deploy LTE or WiMax services, 1900Mhz spectrum that they could pair with the 2100Mhz part of their AWS winnings (with FCC approval of course) to provide Euro-style UMTS for their customers overseas when they come here, and they'd become a Tier 1 internet backbone provider (SprintLink). They'd just have to kill Nextel as quickly as they could. That could drag them down for a while.
michael @ May 3rd 2008 3:55PM
hmmm. lets see.... the only two companies with $99.99 unlimited plans that include unlimited mms.....t-mobile just announced 7pm nights to be included in their new $1 a day pre paid plans...Sprint could definatly use some UMA technology because those Air Raves are a waste of time and money (sorry sprint but it just didn't work like i thought) and T-Mobile could definatly use some 3g rev. a in their phones... that would bring Sprint/T-Mobile to i believe 90 million customers...definatly making them number one stateside and worldwide. wow. now just get rid of nextel and boost mobile (with those annoying commercials) and it looks like you got a very odd cellular puzzle finally coming together....
Scoopster @ May 3rd 2008 6:28PM
Not #1 worldwide. No one can touch China Mobile.
Jake H. @ May 3rd 2008 4:28PM
this is the thing i've been dreaming of. MERGER!! MERGER!!! i like tmobile, and i like sprint(i have a powersource sprint nextel hybrid phone right now). if they would merger i could get hotspot at home and use my wifi to make calls becasuswe i hasve low coverage at my house. YAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYY!!!!!!!!
Matt @ May 3rd 2008 4:36PM
Contain your excitement. Nothing has happen.
ekimagem @ May 3rd 2008 5:04PM
That would be weird. But yea, Nextel is only danglin along for construstion workers needs, thats about it. Sprint could definitley use some GSM phones like EVERYBODY else has.
*
*
*
*
A Sprint Sidekick....? With Sprint Music/Satellite Radio & T.V and The rest of those services? Maybe make it Touch Screen??
Id never buy another phone.....
Seth A @ May 3rd 2008 5:20PM
I have been waiting for buyout rumors of Sprint since they started laying off people and such. It would be interesting to see the fate of Sprint City up here in Kansas if such a thing would happen. If T-Mobile decided to buy it and pull all their stuff to wherever t-Mobile USA is, then the Kansas economy would suffer. We have in recent years see the effect Sprint has on all of us.
While it would be sad, I would love to see Sprint get some help. I always thought in that Alltel commercial it would be much funnier if Verizon got zapped by the Wizard and then the Sprint guy took them money, because they need it. Anywho, if it helped bring GSM more full circle in the US, I am all for it. Verizon is already going the GSM path with LTE, Sprint is the only one holding out.
Anthony @ May 3rd 2008 5:32PM
Well duh, hesse's not jesus, but he's the one who fired all the 3 tops exec's cuz they were the one's watching the company run into the ground. He's also the one who made at&t the #1 carrier, so it's exciting to see what he's going to do for sprint.
CrankySanta @ May 3rd 2008 5:52PM
Oh great. Another Hesse lover. You'd blow him if you could.
Adam @ May 3rd 2008 7:22PM
People seem to be confused as to the difference between Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom is the one rumored to be making this aquisition. T-Mobile is simply one of many many worldwide subsidiaries owned by Deutsche Telekom. Even if this did happen, which is of course still a very infantile internet rumor, there is nothing saying Sprint and T-Mobile USA would merge operations, networks, customers, etc. Is it not possible that Sprint and T-Mobile could remain seperate companies that just happen to be owned by the same daddy?
Henry @ May 3rd 2008 8:21PM
Train, meet cliff. Let us know when you finally hit the bottom.
This is about a good idea as AOL and Time Warner merging.
fini @ May 3rd 2008 10:41PM
not gonna happen. First off the FCC wont allow another merger. Second off homeland security has to approve all foreign owned acquistions in the U.S. They will never let this merger happen. Sprint has been around along time as an independent company and its gonna stay that way.
ecco6t9 @ May 4th 2008 2:24AM
So does Nascar Sprint Cup become Nascar T-Mobile Cup?
egoviri @ May 4th 2008 2:49AM
Isn't DT being sued in Germany currently due in small part to the acquisition of Voice Stream in the US without the consent or even knowledge of their shareholders? In the middle of a huge case like this, it's one of the many reasons I don't see this happening anytime soon.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,545827,00.html
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/04/14/2008-04-14T080429Z_01_L14519372_RTRIDST_0_DEUTSCHETELEKOM-SHAREHOLDERS.html
aledc78 @ Miami @ May 4th 2008 11:07AM
I like the idea of a Magenta Sprint logo... I am currently a Sprint user with no complains, but this will give many phone options... even though I'm a WM user, can you think of a Sprint iPhone????
Roger Alford @ Jun 20th 2008 1:17PM
Yes!! EXCELLENT !!!
Nothing better then the RED Diamond going to a Nextel Yellow PinDrop (which I thought was the BEST reinvented logo in the history of mobile carriers), and from a Pink *T***MOBILE* to a Pink Pin Drop after the *T***MOBILE '///,
PEZ @ May 4th 2008 3:06PM
Also - this may have something to do with Sprint trying to roll off the Nextel portion of the company. Since iDen is TDMA/GSM based, it would be compatible with Tmo's current network - so the jump would be less.
Jake H. @ May 4th 2008 10:24PM
i've posted on a buzzaboutwireless forum that it would be amazin if tmobile was smushed together with nextel, using both networks(whichever has a better signal)for voice, and texting, then have sprint data or wimax in smartphones like the diamond and raphael. that would be amazing. forget the sprint iphone.
PEZ @ May 4th 2008 3:08PM
Just because they own them, dosnt mean they have to merge technologies.
What could happen is, DT phases out the CDMA base, and transitions everyone over to GSM based handsets, but, they would probably lose a lot of subscribers in the mix. Its more than likely nothing more than hearsay.
james smith @ May 5th 2008 11:35AM
I joined Nextel back when it was Nextel. When the IDIOTS at Sprint took over I have lost most of my good service I had. T-Mobile is far better than Sprint. Sprint service drops around 30% of my calls. T-mobile as a friend tells me, " does not have this problem". I did not want to switch to Sprint as I was directed to do by Sprint to resolve this problem. They have told me to buy a new Sprint phone and switch my contract from nextel to Sprint and all of my problems would "go away".My sister ,father and a few friends were having the same "drop call " problems with Sprint as I was. A tech with Sprints RF Dept. came to my house to get a reading from the towers and told me that the reception was perfect; I called him on his cell ( just 5 feet from his laptop) and talked to him for 5 seconds before we experienced a dropped call. The look on his face was priceless because my phone showed good and his phone showed good and the computer told him it was great....yet we dropped the call.Nexel was not the problem Sprint is the Problem and maybe just maybe T-mobile is the solution
Big R. @ May 6th 2008 1:04AM
Which phone were you using? I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of the wonderful "free" phones that are offered. People that take the free phones should realize that they are free for a reason. They suck. Spend some money on a quality phone and your experience will be much more pleasant.
Mutiny32 @ May 6th 2008 12:53AM
While I would love to see my two favorite carriers merge, the technical hurdles just are too large. It would be like a cable company buying a phone company and trying to convert to one or the other's technology. Sprint has decided to go the WiMax route for future communications, T-Mobile will go the other route, which is LTE. The two technologies are nothing alike and making one company migrate to one technology or the other would be a huge waste of technology, money, and technical resources. While CDMA is the superior technology, as is WiMax over LTE, the rest of the world uses GSM and HSPA and LTE, with the exception of Japan, Korea, and a few North American countries.
It just doesn't make sense, unless the WiMax network were to be co-developed and maintained with the existing GSM architecture and Sprint phased-out CDMA completely. But then Where does LTE come into play? I don't know. Possibly a dual-technology network where they both compliment each other in places where one technology has been deployed. This would be a good thing for T-Mobile because the WiMax network has been rolled out, it just needs to have the ground infrastructure that supports the mandwidth it demands put into place. Sprint could turn on WiMax today, but there are currently no phones who use it and the bandwidth backing the wireless network would choke. I suspect this is the case with other carriers as well, but they just aren't saying it. Sprint is actually light years ahead of other carriers in terms of a 4G rollout, being that they already have the network in place, but they're just waiting on carriers to roll-out handsets that support it.
Roger Alford @ Jun 20th 2008 1:13PM
iDen to CDMA rollout compatibility is almost complete. iDen is almost fully compatible with GSM, it wont be hard to offer iDen subscribers to pop their cards into GSM and totally work (just takes the Nextel side to say, yes, you can roam on our new native T-Mobile towers with your SIM, no not the iDEN PHONE, the SIM is compatible)
Anyway, I see T-Mobile using CDMA/GSM as a way to slowly convert from EVDO (which is maxing out currently in evolutionary path) to HSPA/LTE. Maybe keeping EVDO for "HotSpot" service type data cards only.
Its the SPECTRUM T-Mobile wants not the network, the network will be converted piece by piece larger markets first to HSPA/LTE.