Sprint Screwed Regardless of whether AT&T and T-Mobile Merge or Not

Sprint lost a long time ago when they failed to integrate their CDMA and iDEN networks.

 

I think it's still in Sprint's best interest to delay this merger for as long as possible (even if they can't stop it). Will give them a longer period to pick off customers from T-Mobile as well as possibly getting AT&T to have to divest much more than they wanted to (25% instead of 10%). Certainly much better than just sitting back and letting AT&T do whatever the hell they want to (a la Verizon). lol

 

I have to agree. Their thing with Nextel really did them in. They f'd up big time with that. There is no doubt.

I also agree here. Allowing AT&T to have a pretty much a free hand with this merger will leave Sprint so far behind. They will become the value carrier that T-Mo was and most likely end up suffering the same fate as T-Mo further down the road. Thus causing Sprint to shut down or get bought out only leaving AT&T and VZW...and of course that will be very bad. The longer this merger gets held off, I agree that it will allow Sprint to leech customers off T-Mo and also cause bigger divestitures from AT&T/DT/T-Mo. Of course, I think if Sprint were to have any chance, the deal would have to be killed, IMO.

 

I know I'm sidetracking here a bit but, I've been thinking. Having a value carrier (T-Mo) is nice for consumers for a while. You have cheap prices, ok service (depending on who you talk to) and life is good. IMO, if you stay the value carrier for too long, you end up shooting yourself in the foot with not making enough money to keep afloat. You seem to end up in the position that T-Mo is in right now. They're losing money and customers. They don't have the money to really do some serious network expansion that would warrant much needed price increases. If T-Mo increased prices now, customers will say "f it" and pay the higher price with another carrier that will give them better service/coverage. T-Mo is stuck between a rock and hard place and they're falling apart. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out.

 

Well Sprint could still have other options such as a buyout of Metro PCS which would make them a much stronger No. 3 contender. But that's a long shot to happen.

 

True. However, isn't MetroPCS still considered regional? I honestly don't remember. Assuming it actually is, I don't like the idea of regional carriers being picked off because they tend to offer excellent deals/prices to people who don't leave their general area.

 

They could still be acquired and maybe if you combine Leap and Metro together you will have a national carrier and Sprint could acquire both. Far fetched I know.

 

LOL, that's an idea. At any rate, I still feel that if we end up having only big tier 1 operators because of these mergers that we'll end up with Ma Bell of Wireless operating under 3 different divisions. They all play the damned game of monkey see monkey do and well know customers will be the ones that will be screwed in the end. 0_o

 

If the merger goes through than Sprint will need to go on a buying spree. They'll need to buy and integrate everybody quickly. The government made it clear a long time ago they don't want more than couple large carriers. Sprint needs to prove it can be one of those few.

 

Interesting, I didn't know that the gov't. actually has a preference of only a couple large carriers. That duopoly would actually be tolerable IF and ONLY IF these two companies actually competed. Problem is, VZW & AT&T play monkey see, monkey do. They might as well be one company with how they operate.

 

I prefer this idea: combine Leap, Metro PCS, and T-Mobile.

 

That actually doesn't appear to be a bad idea at all. ^_^