Sprint & T-Mobile USA May Team Up For 4G
The Wall Street Journal posted an article yesterday saying that Sprint is considering letting T-Mobile USA invest in Clearwire, Sprint's 4G WiMAX partner. Sprint currently owns 54% of Clearwire. Everyone knows Clearwire is in desperate need of cash to continue building out its network, and allowing T-Mobile USA to invest would give them some of that needed money.
Some of the members of Sprint's Board of Directors are opposed to the idea:
"Some Sprint directors are fighting hard against a T-Mobile USA investment in Clearwire, one person familiar with the matter said. Giving T-Mobile a big Clearwire stake means "making a competitor stronger in an area of competitive advantage" for Sprint, this person said. Directors "are still struggling" with choosing their Clearwire investment strategy and haven't set a deadline for a decision, another person familiar with the matter said. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has yet to endorse a particular approach, people familiar with the matter said."
Which side are you on? Do you think this would be a good or bad idea?
Source: WSJ via DSLReports
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Will this make any difference for the average user who does and have 4g their area yet?
Looking at the business side of this it will be good for Clearwire but not so good for sprint. T-mobile has cheap prices like sprint and with a better network behind them they could take some of the customers sprint has finally been able to convert. I live in the Pittsburgh area and i’m originally from Philly so I have been using 4g which is a good technology that needs to be rolled out, but money is needed, but letting a competitor mooch off your progress i don’t think is smart, at least right now. Sprint should continue to be the first and only carrier with 4g at least until another carrier independently gets theirs up and running.
I’d rather see more competition. Let T-Mobile roll out their own network. I don’t want to see T-Mobile partner with Sprint. As a consumer the more 4G networks (or competition) the better.
T-Mobile doesn’t have the resources to roll out 4G in a time frame that won’t leave them way behind everyone else. This is why you always see Deutsche Telekom (owns T-Mobile) looking to buy or merge rumors.
I see it as making it an easier transition if sprint were to merge with T-mobile. They would both be using the same network configurations. That is my hope anyway
wll if i remember correctly, they roam of of each other networks anyway … i think this partnership if done correctly would have to hinder competition in any way, but if done right will be a way for sprint to keep wimax viable… letsf ace it, sprint kind of jumped in the deep in bettin on wimax way ahead of the curve just to find out the other co. out there are gonna go in the opposite direction with LTe… that industry decision is help LTE to be considerd the future standard of 4g… now sprint and clear for that matter is splittin there energy and resource tryng to figure out how to make wimax LTE compatible so they don’t get left behind the curve. A move like this would get T-mobile on the wi-max bandwagon making it more viable, and competition stemming from that will be even greater… plus if sprint and clearwire go for the deal, the funds will help sprint and clear finish rolling out 4g to all missing area as well as making it LTE compatible… and if that happens, in the long run a network that is supported by wimax and 4g tech could help to propel both sprint and t-mobile ahead of the “big 2″ verizon and AT&T… better 4g tech leads to more hardware supplier interest and better high end devices coupled with grate rates attract more consumers… could be a win for both… again… “if done right”
Sprint is CDMA and T-Mobile is GSM so they dont use the same network, the only thing that would be the same is the WiMax they are using. Sprint probably wants some of their 7.8 Billion back to invest in LTE trials instead of putting all the eggs in the WiMax basket. Smart for right now but bad in the long run for Sprint.
I will give you guys ONE BIG Reason why this is a good idea!
The 10 Dollars Extra fee for 4G that everyone is bitched about would be history , bringing T-Mobile onboard will give Sprint the much needed cash to roll out 4g in more cities and wont have to TAX its current user base. That Also means MORE 4 G phones…
Now from the business point of view all those commercials about we are the only ones with 4G wouldn’t air anymore and Sprint wouldn’t have any advantage over the competitor T-mobile. This would force ATT and Verizon to go 4G even faster….
You think that just because they decide to partner they will remove that fee? lol wrong
^^^Exactly lol. The fee will never go away. I don’t like it either, but can’t think of one reason why Sprint would stop charging it when plenty of people seem to be willing to pay it to get phones like the Epic and EVO.
i thought it was stated that wimax towers could be converted to lte technology. as i am not all that familiar with the technology needed to run wimax but i do know that the evo and epic run two radios one for cdma and one for wimax i would assume that the tech could be used parallel to a gsm network as well. i’ve never really seen tmobile as a major threat to sprint even before wimax rolled out so why would it be any different now ? just because they would use the same 4g towers doesn’t mean that they will be using the same voice network. tmo’s coverage will be just as spotty then as it is now so the only loss of edge sprint would face is that they wouldn’t be the only 4g carrier anymore. when it comes down to it, it’s all in what you want for your service/phone. 4g didn’t stop the iphone 4 from it’s immense success, 4g hasn’t pulled sprint out of the hot water just yet either. i don’t see masses people flocking to sprint just because they have the 4g so while it is a competitive edge, it’s not the only thing sprint has going for them. i see it as a pure benefit for sprint and the consumer, a bigger push to actually get the wimax to more markets…. maybe then, once it hits columbus ohio i would consider paying the ten dollar “awesome” fee.
Don’t do it Sprint! It will come back to bite you in the Arse!!!
Does this mean T-Mobile will be 4g??? If so when id this gana happen?
@Unaufhaltsam – I was just about to point this out as well. T-Mobile doesn’t have the revenue to roll out their 4g network on their own as their parent company isn’t getting a return for their investment in the U.S. market. This really makes sense for both sides even with allowing a competitor to join the 4g party.
@adrianmuniz325 – @adrianmuniz325 –
Really, it hasn’t even been decided if that’s the route their going to go, and ur asking when its going to go live? G-damn my head hurts.
It would certainly be much handier for Sprint with 4g already in place with T-M when Sprint buys them out.
@TWO515TY – i see the $10 fee dropped very soon as verizon has been testing the market in california with the unlimited plan priced the same as sprint before the $10 fee add on.
better network, lower prices = sprint dropping the $10 fee
The ten dollar fee will NEVER go away.. Period.. Even with the 10 dollar fee its the BEST deal in the industry.. If you go to Tmo your coverage will be terrible and the price will be the same.. Go to VZW and AT&T and they charge 3 times as much for 3G data.. Stop whining you have NO other alternative.. The only people complaining about the 10 dollar fee are us forum people, and there are alternative plans like SERO and Everything plus that Sprint basically made just for us.. So get the Everything Plus plan now you magically have an Evo at a regular plan price still with 10 dollar fee but a 10 dollar cheaper plan..
Lmao you guys want Sprint to get bought out by the Red Cross so they distribute hot new phones as some sort of aid package lol.. Get real pay the 10 fee or A) pay more somewhere else or B) get worse service and pay the same somewhere else
word ^^
@crazaytalent –
This does make sense. Either way there will be pros and cons.
I doubt Sprint will drop the $10 fee. Compare its prices for data plans versus the other major carriers. Sprint charges $15 for an unlimited data pack for all phones. For the new 4G phones, you add $10 to that giving you at most $25 for data. Now compare that to Verizon. For smartphones, Verizon charges $29.99 and currently doesn’t offer a plan that bundles in data unlike Sprint’s Everything or Any Mobile plans. So Verizon is already $4.99 more expensive than Sprint AFTER Sprint’s $10 4G add-on. Unless you get a Talk, Text, Web and Email plan from AT&T (which start at $85 for one line or $150 for a family), you have to pay $15 for a data plan for a smartphone. But that only gives you 200 MB. So if you want the 2GB plan, you have to pay $25 which is the same price as Sprint’s unlimited data plan plus 4G fee. Sprint knew that it had the lowest prices and would be able to add the fee for it’s 4G phones. We’re fortunate they only added it to 4G phones as an additional fee and didn’t raise data plan fees across the board for the rest of the phones.