Deutsche Telekom chief rules out acquisitions in US

...Interesting, Thanks for the article!

 

He may reconsider his words if the other 3 major carriers continue to purchase smaller providers. Even now, it looks like TMO is being left behind.

 

Well he said as long as they maintain the "critical 15m subs" then he's happy. LOL

 

I don't know what's so critical about 15m??? But oh well, whatever works for them. They do, to me too, look like they're left behind.

 

T-Mobile is last from all the National Carriers, it would surprise me if ALLTEL bought or merged with someone and passed T-Mobile in the near future.

 

Lol, that would be funny!

 

They probably are betting that Cingular won't be purchasing many more carriers if any at all. Therefore, they assume they have time on their hands when it comes to purchasing the smaller GSM carriers. Since Suncom most likely won't be bought out by any of the larger carriers, they probably see no need to rush.

 

Well they see no need to rush, but they need to get more spectrum for once.
I hear a lot of people that want GSM only go with the new AT&T/Cingular, rather than with T-Mobile because of the broader coverage areas and Rollover. T-Mobile really needs to get going!

 

The spectrum is not available today. The auction starts January 26. I'm not sure how many times that needs to be repeated, although the criticisms continue. There is nothing they can do before then. DT has stated repeatedly they are committed to the US, UK, and Europe. They are selling off most of their other mobile holdings - they just sold about half of their stake in MTS for a billion or two to use the money elsewhere. DT said they will spend 2B Euro in the US on licenses. Let's see what happens at the auction.

T-Mobile actually has a higher percentage of data revenue as part of APRU than most - it is currently 6% which is the highest I have seen (AT&T, Cingular, Verizon). The bottom line is that for most consumers, they have no need for high speed wireless right now. Wireless forums such as these are not representative of the general population. One of my TM sources is a retail store manager. He reads HoFo and just goes on and on to me laughing about how out of touch that user base is compares with the rest of the customer base. Not that their issues aren't legitimate (some are, some aren't) but those services just aren't in demand. That's why TM has Caller Tunes - that's what the customers want.

That said, they do need to get EDGE out in 05. I read another article today suggesting that TM Europe might use some Flarion OFDM, evidently they just won a 450MHz license, I forget which country.

I don't think their selection of phones is poor - it is much better than it was a year ago. My e315 is great, and two of my family members use the Blackberry 7100t - that is a cool device.

TM US is the biggest piece of TM. It is their focus going forward. As far as the mythical critical mass of 15 million customers, the point is that if you have 15, 25, or 50 million customers, the financial benefits don't get any better as the size increases. TM Int'l has 67 million customers. They get all the benefits of scale they need.

 

If you'd like links showing DT's recent comments stating their focus in the US, UK etc let me know.

 

2B EUROS? Are you kidding me...? That won't buy them much.

 

Maybe DT is going through some problems they rather not admit and this is their excuse to justify their lack of initiatives and unwillingness to compete.

 

It's about $2.6 Billion US. Enough to probably get specturm everywhere they need it in the smaller and midsize markets.

 

And maybe they are looking for someone to buy them out, like AWE was doing. Maybe Suncom or Dobson could & become a Natl. Carrier.

 

DT is not interested in selling TMO-US....

 

Sure, I'd be interested in reading more.

 

Some of the better ones are from the Financial Times, but they require registration after a day or so. Here's one from Bloomberg....the articles came out when DT sold off about 1/2 of their stake in Russian operator MTS - even though it has doubled in about a year (MTS and TM USA were about the same size a year ago! - not ARPU though)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=a.iWX4dLZytI&refer=germany

 

It looks like T-Mobile will bid on spectrum in the following markets on 1/26/05:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/58/licenses_selected.txt

Search on Cook Inlet/VS GSM VII PCS

Use this file to search for your BTA

http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/utilities/data.xls

Click on the BTA tab at the bottom

 

There are licenses in 120 BTAs and two MTAs available in the auction and TMO is bidding on licenses in every single one of them.

Here's the full list:

BTA007 Albany NY
BTA008 Albuquerque
BTA010 Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton PA
BTA020 Asheville
BTA027 Austin
BTA036 Bellingham WA
BTA038 Bend OR
BTA043 Binghamton NY
BTA047 Bloomington IN
BTA050 Boise
BTA054 Brainerd MN
BTA056 Brownsville TX
BTA059 Bryan/College Sta TX
BTA074 Charlotte
BTA081 Cincinnati
BTA084 Cleveland/Akron
BTA089 Colorado Springs
BTA090 Columbia MO
BTA093 Columbus IN
BTA095 Columbus OH
BTA096 Cookeville TN
BTA098 Corbin KY
BTA104 Danville VA
BTA106 Dayton OH
BTA110 Denver
BTA117 Du Bois/Clearfield PA
BTA127 Elmira/Corning NY
BTA128 El Paso
BTA135 Evansville IN
BTA138 Fargo ND
BTA142 Fergus Falls MN
BTA146 Florence (Shoals) AL
BTA149 Fort Collins
BTA159 Gainesville FL
BTA162 Gallup NM
BTA166 Grand Forks ND
BTA167 Grand Is/Kearney NE
BTA174 Triad region of NC
BTA178 Greenwood SC
BTA179 Hagerstown MD/Chambersburg PA
BTA189 Hickory NC
BTA194 Houghton MI
BTA196 Houston
BTA203 Indiana PA
BTA204 Indianapolis
BTA206 Iron Mtn MI
BTA207 Ironwood MI
BTA212 Jacksonville FL
BTA215 Jamestown/Dunkirk NY/Warren PA
BTA218 Johnstown PA
BTA220 Joplin MO/Miami OK
BTA226 Kansas City
BTA229 Tri-Cities of TN
BTA231 Klamath Falls OR
BTA235 Lafayette IN
BTA239 Lakeland FL
BTA244 Las Cruces NM
BTA249 Lebanon/Claremont NH
BTA252 Lexington KY
BTA261 Longview WA
BTA262 L.A.
BTA263 Louisville KY
BTA266 Lynchburg VA
BTA268 McAllen TX
BTA274 Manchester/Nashua/Concord NH
BTA279 Marinette WI/Menominee MI
BTA280 Marion IN
BTA282 Marquette MI
BTA284 Martinsville VA
BTA287 Meadville PA
BTA289 Melbourne FL
BTA295 Middlesboro/Harlan KY
BTA297 Milwaukee
BTA298 Twin Cities
BTA317 New Castle PA
BTA318 New London/Norwich CT
BTA319 New Orleans
BTA324 Hampton Roads
BTA328 Oil City/Franklin PA
BTA329 OKC
BTA330 Olean NY/Bradford PA
BTA331 Olympia/Centralia WA
BTA332 Omaha
BTA336 Orlando
BTA349 Pittsburg/Parsons KS
BTA350 Pittsburgh
BTA353 Pocatello ID
BTA357 Portland ME
BTA358 Portland OR
BTA361 Poughkeepsie NY
BTA364 Providence
BTA366 Pueblo CO
BTA374 Richmond VA
BTA376 Roanoke VA
BTA378 Rochester MN
BTA385 Roseburg OR
BTA386 Roswell NM
BTA391 St. Cloud MN
BTA394 St. Louis
BTA395 Salem OR
BTA401 San Antonio
BTA402 San Diego
BTA408 Sarasota FL
BTA409 SSM MI
BTA411 Scottsbluff NE
BTA412 Scranton PA
BTA413 Seattle
BTA414 Sedalia MO
BTA416 Sharon PA
BTA428 Springfield MO
BTA430 Staunton/Waynesboro VA
BTA441 Temple/Killeen TX
BTA451 Twin Falls ID
BTA460 Washington DC metro
BTA470 West Plains MO
BTA477 Willmar/Marshall MN
BTA480 Worcester/Fitchburg (central) MA
BTA491 USVI
BTA492 American Samoa
BTA493 CNMI (Saipan)
MTA050 Guam/CNMI
MTA051 American Samoa

-SC

 

I think the bigger question in people's minds around here, including mine, is why DT doesn't seem to be interested in SunCom when SunCom seems to be doing everything it can to make itself a candidate for takeover by DT.

It seems to me that DT is letting SunCom deteriorate (from a financial POV) even further to the point of "distressed inventory" before pouncing on them...plus there's really no rush to buy them since SunCom is pretty much un-acquireable by anyone else at this point. (Cingular is clearly out of the running, Sprint is unlikely to be able to buy them because of the Sprint/Nextel merger and probably doesn't want the baggage that comes with SunCom, ALLTEL is too tied up with smaller acquisitions [PSC] and likely soon WWCA, and VZW is unlikely to want the baggage that comes with SunCom of a GSM network, low-revenue and low-credit-quality customers on unlimited plans, etc.)

-SC

 

If DT doesn't make some acquisitions in the next 12 months, they are going to have stiff competition from the combined Alltel/Western Wireless company. Alltel/WWC will be the 5th largest provider in the US once they merge and they'll have a huge coverage footprint. If DT doesn't do something Alltel will replace T-Mobile as the 4th largest provider in the US. Although Alltel/WWC's coverage area would still be more rural than T-Mobile so they may have more pops in their coverage area even though Alltel would have a much larger footprint. In the wireless industry, the next 12-24 months are going to be really interesting to watch. I'm excited, all these changes... the US wireless industry of 2002 is going to bear little resemblance to the US wireless industry of 2007.

 

That's odd, T-Mobile acutally has El Paso covered perfectly. Is there anyway I can look up this location to see where they want to get this new tower?

 

It's not a tower request, they are bidding on additional wireless spectrum. It is for the whole market.

 

The only thing I can think of is that DT wants a/o needs to wait until the SuncomATTCing transaction is complete - meaning getting all the customers on the proper networks etc. That plus the financial reason you noted is my only guess, and that's all it is.

 

AT won't catch TM anytime soon. TM passed AT when they both had about 8M subs - since then TM has more than doubled, and AT has added 2M approx. WW only has under 2M domestic subscribers, so you won't see the AT/WW combination catching up to TM anytime soon.

I do agree though that wireless in 07 will be very different than it was in 02.

 

I don't think the merger will allow AT to catch TM right away but I think that once people realize that AT's coverage is better in rural areas than TM they will start switching. I think maybe in 12-18 months AT's numbers will start to resemble TM's. Not that I'll switch, except for my employee plan... hopefully I'll still be able to use my TDMA Timeport P8197.

 

Well, the way all these mergers are going, I don't know if there will be any carriers left by 2007.

 

I sincerely doubt AT will be adding 1 million customers per quarter in 18 months. TM doesn't compete against AT (or any other carrier really) in rural areas. If you live in a rural area, you probably don't have TM today anyway, so AT won't be getting many customers from AT, IMO. Looking at the map provided by TNDan in the other thread - it looks like AT won't have any spectrum in a whole bunch of top 15 markets - LA, SF, SD, DC/Balt, Phila, NYC, Boston, Chicago. Off the top of my head, I would guess that's 20% or more of the USA in population that they don't have access to.