[metildaa]

Doubtful, T-Mobile has shown it is quite profitable without Sprint, taking on Sprint's debt and assets will force T-Mobile to act like a classic telecom company much moreso than they already do.

T-Mobile is only interested in buying Sprint for their 120Mhz of 2.5ghz spectrum, as they would be able to use that to build a 5G network with much wider spacing (similar to Clearwire's spacing every 16 blocks) versus Verizon and AT&T who will need to place radios every 2 to 3 blocks using mmWave spectrum (and mmWave won't work indoors either).

Sprint and T-Mobile could easily come to a network sharing agreement where T-Mobile builds out 2.5Ghz and Sprint can use the network, similar to Telus/Bell in Canada. This would be a much more reasonable option than merging and losing the only carrier (Sprint) that has consistently provided downward pressure on cell plan prices.

[carnagii]

Profitable, but still only $40B in revenue compared to $126B for Version, and only $4B net profit compared to $30B for Verizon. Verizon's net profit is closer to T-Mobile's total revenue. https://s22.q4cdn.com/194431217/files/doc_financials/2017/an... https://www.verizon.com/about/sites/default/files/2017Verizo...

That is not a sustainable competitive position in a capital intense industry.

Spectrum is part of the deal but hardly the only one. Retail consolidation would be a big cost savings. Refinancing Sprint's debt ($40B) with T-Mobile's better credit ratings would save hundreds of millions per year in interest expenses. CAQ for mobile customers is very high, so Sprint's customer base is worth quite a bit.

The really important question is how the deal will affect the competitive landscape for 5G. Neither Sprint or T-Mobile have the scale to effectively compete on 5G and Sprint in particular is in bad shape due to their low credit ratings and high borrowing costs. If T-Mobile doesn't merge with Sprint, either a larger company does, or Sprint continues to circle the drain with low-value services and slowly dies.

If Sprint loses customers then all else being equal this benefits AT&T/Verizon more because, if those customer migrate in proportion to existing market share, they get more of them. So Sprint going down weakens T-Mobile's competitive position.

Whether or not merging with Sprint actually improves T-Mobile's competitive position depends on execution but there is at least a plausible story there.

At this stage of the industry the opportunities for competition at the infrastructure level are limited and regulators should be focused more on maintaining a competitive market for MVNOs that are offering differentiated products like Google Fi and cheap pre-paid options like Mint.

[joecool1029]

> T-Mobile is only interested in buying Sprint for their 120Mhz of 2.5ghz spectrum

Sprint is the one doing the buying. Rather, Softbank.

If T-Mobile wanted to acquire a cheaper shitbag company for spectrum, there's no better target than DISH since they have been squatting on 75mhz of AWS-3 nationwide with nothing to show for it.

But DISH's spectrum situation is going to time out next year and then we will see if the FCC actually does anything.

Network sharing won't happen. Sprint built a weird network, they are already doing an upgraded 2500mhz deployment supporting the 5G stuff as well as their current TDD-LTE devices: https://news.samsung.com/us/sprint-samsung-5g-ready-massive-...

FYI, if this plan falls apart Sprint gets a T-Mobile roaming deal out of it. Who knows what the cost is though. AT&T charged TMUS like $17/MB to roam in early days of their breakup deal on B-IV WCDMA.

[carnagii]

> Sprint is the one doing the buying. Rather, Softbank.

It is a merger, but Softbank will get a smaller stake than DT. "The new company will be about two-thirds owned by T-Mobile shareholders and one-third Sprint, with board representation in line with economic ownership, one of the people said." https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/27/t-mobile-sprint-merger-near-...

There is a decent picture about half way down in this article: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/t-mobile-sprint-merger/

Softbank is selling at a loss here according to earlier reports that they paid $21.6B for a 72% share in Sprint https://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-and-softbank-announce-com... and the merger values Sprint at $26.5B, of which 72% would be $19B.