T-Mobile and Sprint could announce their merger in October

[Poke]

Looks like it might happen this time around but we will see...

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T-Mobile and Sprint could announce their merger in October

 

[navychop]

DRAT!

(As cleaned up by automiscorrect)

 

[navychop]

My 55+ plan says "forever."

Guess I'd better get a magnifying glass and read the fine print.

 

[TheKrell]

Looks like this deal has fallen apart: Exclusive: SoftBank calling off talks to merge Sprint, T-Mobile- Nikkei Asian Review

 

[navychop]

Aw, shucks!

 

[TheForce]

Yes it is dead.

But I have an idea for T-Mobile. They should take on a secondary PO top raise cash to buy Dish Network. This would get them the spectrum they need to compete with Verizon and AT&T to be equal maybe even better than them. This is a great time to make an offer now for DISH because the stock has fallen from $65 to $50 since August and has no real catalyst for recovery. Make it a stock + cash Merger deal with John Legere CEO of the merged company.

I have no stock position in either company. But I see competition a good thing and this would increase the competition to 3 major's in the wireless business. I like Legere CEO of T-Mobile and think his leadership has been great for the company, but for him to continue, he needs more spectrum and a larger nation wide footprint. Dish Merger would do that. Am I wrong on this?

 

[lparsons21]

I would think it is something that should be pursued, but would Charlie be amenable?

 

[navychop]

Big IF. And how would Echostar factor in to this?

 

[TheForce]

how would Echostar factor in to this?

I haven't really looked at how Echostar figures into it. But I thought they operated as a separate entity now. In the business profile "Dish Network" isn't even mentioned nor Echostar mentioned in Dish's. :

EchoStar Corporation SATS is a holding company. The Company is a provider of satellite operations, video delivery solutions, digital set-top boxes, and broadband satellite technologies and services for home and office, delivering network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments. The Company operates through three segments: Hughes, EchoStar Technologies (ETC) and EchoStar Satellite Services (ESS). The Company's Hughes segment provides broadband satellite technologies and broadband services for the home and office, delivering network technologies, managed services and communication solutions to domestic and international consumers and enterprise and government customers. The ETC segment provides end-to-end video and broadcast technology products and services to businesses and directly to consumers. The ESS segment operates its business using its owned and leased in-orbit satellites. Its operations also include real estate and other activities.

Earlier this year Dish acquired some assets and employees from Echostar and gave up Huges to Echostar. Both Dish and Echostar are separate public traded companies.

DISH Network Corporation is a holding company. DISH The Company operates through two segments: Pay-TV and Broadband, and Wireless. It offers pay-TV services under the DISH brand and the Sling brand (collectively Pay-TV services). The DISH branded pay-TV service consists of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses authorizing it to use direct broadcast satellite and Fixed Satellite Service spectrum, its owned and leased satellites, receiver systems, third-party broadcast operations, customer service facilities, a leased fiber optic network, in-home service and call center operations, and certain other assets utilized in its operations. The Sling branded pay-TV services consist of live, linear streaming over-the-top Internet-based domestic, international and Latino video programming services. The Company markets broadband services under the dishNET brand. The Company makes investments in the research and development, wireless testing and wireless network infrastructure.

 

[harshness]

I like Legere CEO of T-Mobile and think his leadership has been great for the company, but for him to continue, he needs more spectrum and a larger nation wide footprint.

In that TMUS is down about 14% since August, I'm not sure they're in a much better position in terms of inertia or that John is significantly better than Charlie at being a CEO. T-Mobile is a show in a four horse race.

If the bandwidth that DISH has isn't particularly useful from a phone support standpoint, that's kind of a red herring too. I wonder if what DISH has is more IoT than conventional wireless bandwidth.

Navychop has made much of the new bands but T-Mobile is deploying them in East Jesus rather than where population and skyscrapers are prevalent.

 

[navychop]

I'd imagine T-Mobile will overtake Sprint in 2019, if not sooner.

I'd love to see projected deployments of band 71 throughout 2018.

 

[harshness]

I'd love to see projected deployments of band 71 throughout 2018.

Alas, unless you visit areas with populations of well under 75,000, you probably won't see any direct evidence if the current deployment plans are any indication.

 

[navychop]

I don't know why you think the first couple of areas were anything more than a test. It only makes sense to put signals where lots of folks will use them, and pay.

 

[navychop]

There's a lot of support for your rural thesis, with the exception of NYC and a few other cities, in this projected end of 2017 map:

maps.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-600-MHz-band-71-deployment.html

howmobileworks.com has more info

There is a 39 month rollout plan.

And yes, per PCMag Cheyenne and Scarborough were real world test sites selected as places that wouldn't cause too much of a splash.

 

[harshness]

I don't know why you think the first couple of areas were anything more than a test.

Because the next half dozen or so are also sparsely populated?

It only makes sense to put signals where lots of folks will use them, and pay.

TMobile clearly isn't of the same mind. If they wanted to know how band 71 is going to work in urban areas, they'd surely be testing in urban areas and not in places where there aren't any high density population centers.

I think they're looking at band 71 as a way to get signal to sparsely populated areas as the signal can travel farther but doesn't have the bandwidth to support higher densities.

 

[navychop]

I agree there's a lot of truth to that. But the area I'm most interested in IS rural. Near where 81 & 70 meet.

 

[navychop]

Got to remember one thing: 600 and 700 penetrate buildings much better than higher frequencies. Therefore some urban areas would benefit. Hence, NYC.

 

[harshness]

Got to remember one thing: 600 and 700 penetrate buildings much better than higher frequencies. Therefore some urban areas would benefit. Hence, NYC.

If they're going to limit their deployment to small towns, it doesn't matter what benefits the lower frequencies could offer in large cities. Unless they do a 180 on their announced deployment plans, you're probably lusting for something that simply isn't going to happen.

 

[navychop]

They're doing NYC and other urban areas now. Probably to fill in where building penetration is currently weak.

 

[harshness]

They're doing NYC and other urban areas now

According to whom?

T-Mobile's list that they released last week in conjunction with the LG phone had no major metropolitan areas.