TMO & MetroPCS merge, Sprint wants in

[Dari]

And you know what SoftBank could buy with that money? Spectrum. Sprint already has enough spectrum with Clear, Nextel, and their own. Problem is they haven't refarmed or used most of it. It is spread out.

What makes you think Dish will part with those spectrums so cheaply? They're virtual gold. Also, Dish is also trying to buy Clearwire...

 

[Dari]

Fuck Dish.
If Sprint sells to them, they can forget me ever coming to their network.
Hesse has done wonders for Sprint since he's been there.

I hope SoftBank ends up with Sprint.
If anything we need more international CEO experience to come in, fight dirty, and break the US domestic monopoly of AT&T and Verizon.

You do realize that Verizon is half-owned by a foreign company, right?

 

[ImDonly1]

What makes you think Dish will part with those spectrums so cheaply? They're virtual gold. Also, Dish is also trying to buy Clearwire...

They (Sprint/Softbank) don't have to buy spectrum from DN. The FCC is going to auction off more spectrum later or buy from elsewhere.

You do realize that Verizon is half-owned by a foreign company, right?

Not for long.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57...afones-share-of-verizon-wireless-says-report/

 

[bearxor]

The dish offer is not just a distraction. Dish has been buying a lot of spectrum worth billions of dollars and that is very attractive to Sprint considering how terrible their network speeds are. All Softbank has is money and expertise. If Dish's offer was not valuable they would not have priced theirs lower than Softbank's...

It's a distraction for Sprint. I know on the surface everyone is giving the Dish offer the consideration it warrants, but I don't believe anyone is seriously considering the offer.

Sprint's network speeds aren't terrible because of a lack of spectrum. Sprint has the spectrum through what it owns and through it's clearwire partnership. Once iDEN gets taken down, Sprint has almost 40mhz of spectrum nationwide (I think it's like 18mhz up and down) to roll out LTE. To put that in to perspective, Verizon only has 20mhz of spectrum nationwide. That's why they're adding AWS coverage. That will give them an additonal 20mhz nationwide. That puts them ON PAR with Sprint's current 800mhz holdings. Additionally, Clearwire is building out a 40mhz LTE network and they have an extra 80mhz of spectrum they don't know what to do with in most markets and Sprint owns 50% of Clearwire right now.

Meanwhile, Dish has 45mhz of bandwidth that they've already been denied once in trying to build a LTE network out on (though they'll probably get to eventually). Dish doesn't bring anything to the table for Sprint. Softbank has deep pockets, and that's what Sprint needs. They need to get iDEN shut down and all of it's users on PCS. they need to build out a 15x15 LTE network on 800mhz and then carrier aggregate it to Clearwire's 20x20.

I still expect Dish to be a major player at some point, but it won't be this year. Softbank will just match Dish's offer if Sprint shareholders are wavering. Honestly, I'm starting to think that, between Dish trying to interfere with Sprint's purchase of Clearwire and Softbank's purchase of Sprint, that maybe Dan Hesse stepped on and scuffed Charlie Ergen's shoes at a party or something and refused to replace them.

 

[ImDonly1]

Meanwhile, Dish has 45mhz of bandwidth that they've already been denied once in trying to build a LTE network out on (though they'll probably get to eventually). Dish doesn't bring anything to the table for Sprint. Softbank has deep pockets, and that's what Sprint needs. They need to get iDEN shut down and all of it's users on PCS. they need to build out a 15x15 LTE network on 800mhz and then carrier aggregate it to Clearwire's 20x20.

I believe dn has gotten fcc approval to use the spectrum for a lte network.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/12/dish-gets-fcc-approval-to-build-next-generation-lte-network/

That article says dn has spectrum in the 2000-2100mhz range. Nothing great really. Sprint has enough spectrum from clear in the 2ghz range.

 

[Dari]

It's a distraction for Sprint. I know on the surface everyone is giving the Dish offer the consideration it warrants, but I don't believe anyone is seriously considering the offer.

Sprint's network speeds aren't terrible because of a lack of spectrum. Sprint has the spectrum through what it owns and through it's clearwire partnership. Once iDEN gets taken down, Sprint has almost 40mhz of spectrum nationwide (I think it's like 18mhz up and down) to roll out LTE. To put that in to perspective, Verizon only has 20mhz of spectrum nationwide. That's why they're adding AWS coverage. That will give them an additonal 20mhz nationwide. That puts them ON PAR with Sprint's current 800mhz holdings. Additionally, Clearwire is building out a 40mhz LTE network and they have an extra 80mhz of spectrum they don't know what to do with in most markets and Sprint owns 50% of Clearwire right now.

Meanwhile, Dish has 45mhz of bandwidth that they've already been denied once in trying to build a LTE network out on (though they'll probably get to eventually). Dish doesn't bring anything to the table for Sprint. Softbank has deep pockets, and that's what Sprint needs. They need to get iDEN shut down and all of it's users on PCS. they need to build out a 15x15 LTE network on 800mhz and then carrier aggregate it to Clearwire's 20x20.

I still expect Dish to be a major player at some point, but it won't be this year. Softbank will just match Dish's offer if Sprint shareholders are wavering. Honestly, I'm starting to think that, between Dish trying to interfere with Sprint's purchase of Clearwire and Softbank's purchase of Sprint, that maybe Dan Hesse stepped on and scuffed Charlie Ergen's shoes at a party or something and refused to replace them.

I though Sprint could not use that iDen spectrum because it's used by first responders?

 

[lothar]

You do realize that Verizon is half-owned by a foreign company, right?

And?

Despite Vodafone owning a 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, Vodafone does not have any management control over Verizon Wireless.
Not sure what your point of bringing this up is because all Vodafone does with Verizon Wireless is sit back and collect dividends.
Again, Vodafone has zero management control over Verizon Wireless.

 

[lothar]

I though Sprint could not use that iDen spectrum because it's used by first responders?

Nope.

 

[bearxor]

I believe dn has gotten fcc approval to use the spectrum for a lte network.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/12/dish-gets-fcc-approval-to-build-next-generation-lte-network/

That article says dn has spectrum in the 2000-2100mhz range. Nothing great really. Sprint has enough spectrum from clear in the 2ghz range.

Good news. I hadn't heard yet. Last I heard was from almost a year ago and the speculation was that they'd have to wait about a year before they got the green light.

They had to drop some if their bandwidth to alleviate concerns Sprint had that their spectrum would interfere with Sprint's PCS holdings. I'm not sure how much they dropped.

I though Sprint could not use that iDen spectrum because it's used by first responders?

There's no regulation or anything on this. Unless something's changed, Sprint still plans to start shuttering iDen in June of this year.

You might be getting this crossed with the extra bandwidth freed up from the DTV transition that the FCC wanted to auction off but was promised for a first responders network. This includes some 800mhz narrowband spectrum.