AT&T Moves to Block Xohm, Clearwire Merger

it's agreed that sprint has lost a million customers in the first quarter alone. this is a very rough situation however a lot of the fact that this happened is because when the merger of sprint and nextel was in the very early stages, nextel began offering maximum deposits of only 100 dollars and as low as 50 dollars. this led to bad subscribers and this info was not readily available to sprint. so sprint was left with the albatross around their neck. once subscribers started to fault on their payments sprint was at first pretty easy on these subscribers. but nice wasn't paying off so sprint had to put the pressure on to collect. these customers didn't want or could not stick with sprint. Enter leap wireless (cricket). many defected to this ...
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Umm... it does not matter whether its agreed that Sprint lost one million customers or not, it's a fact.

I don't think you can even remotely come close to comparing the merger of AT&T -Cingular, to the one of Sprint & Nextel. One went good and one did not.

Sprint has had to deal with the same bad customers that all other carriers did and do. Sprint did the most damage to themselves when they lowered their own credit requirements. They did everything possible to stay competitive expect, serving the customer.

You posted very interesting information. I think if you pronunciate correctly your message will have a far greater impact on its readers.

Just some thoughts....

Yes, but to give sprint credit, merging 2 gsm carriers is MUCH easier then 2 seperate technology, with different customer care (as far as techs are concerned) and the fact that NEXTEL, not sprint had a talking area much akin to metro pcs...so just think about that. CDMA vs iDEN, cdma has a much superior talk area, and the people that had nextel...(please hold while the nextel subscriber you are trying to reach is located) complained about the service, because they had a sh** talking area, but great customer service, and sprint had sherry from the caymans...and decent coverage was a recepie for disaster

Are you sure that AT&T was all GSM before the Cing Merger?

Not 100% but pretty sure that AT&T WAS all GSM before the merger with Cingular.

BUT, and this is a big BUT, AT&T had very recently converted from TDMA to GSM. All on their own.

So regardless of the problems with Sprint/Nextel and their merger of different technologies, AT&T had the same basic problem. 2 networks. What did they do? Chose the better one, forced everyone to get a new phone, and while some people werent happy at first, everyone has no forgotten about the fact that those "jerks" at AT&T made them give up their brick Nokia phones.

Sprint decided on a different, and INCREDIBLY STUPID plan. That plan was to keep 2 different technologies alive, and by doing so they kept the two companies very seperate for a while too.

I...
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😁 Eddie that's funny.

With in the last few years there was a CDMA-GSM merger. If it was not the AT&T-Cingular. Then does anybody know who it was? Maybe I am not remembering correctly. Somebody will put me in my place on this one, I hope.

That was a great comparison of the two mergers!

ElTriste said:
Yes, but to give sprint credit, merging 2 gsm carriers is MUCH easier then 2 seperate technology, with different customer care (as far as techs are concerned) and the fact that NEXTEL, not sprint had a talking area much akin to metro pcs...so just think about that. CDMA vs iDEN, cdma has a much superior talk area, and the people that had nextel...(please hold while the nextel subscriber you are trying to reach is located) complained about the service, because they had a sh** talking area, but great customer service, and sprint had sherry from the caymans...and decent coverage was a recepie for disaster

Nextel's problem was more to do with capacity than coverage.

To your point. Sprint has realized their issues and has executed major changes to facilitate going forward. this does not happen overnight. They need to go through the valley before getting to the mountain. To my point. The AT@T-Cingular merge was NOT that good nor very smooth. It led to a huge amount of lawsuits from angry customers claiming they were forced to drop their current plan and buy new phones because of certain incompatabilities with the two companies. But they recovered as a major company. Verizon was another victim of poor decisions and the result was the layoff of thousands causing a large backlash of angry customers. But they recovered too as a major company and rehired many employees back. It happens. This is Busines. Sprint...
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I think the AT&T-Cingular merger went smoother then you implie, but that is debatable and won't get us anywhere.

I am a huge Sprint fan and have been from the beginning.

Sprint has to be upset about going through "the valley" once again. It wasn't to long ago they were on the top of the mountain.

I also feel that Sprint maybe making a move on some of the 85 markets VZW is going to be divesting - whats your thoughts?

And I hope your right about the recovery.

It's nice to know you are a Sprint customer as myself. It definitely has been rough times for Sprint. They have been the whipping post for jokes for awhile. But that will change very soon. It's anybody's guess on the VZW divesture but it doesn't appear Sprint is a contender in the buy. To acquire more subscribers would make sense and it certainly would give them roughly 13 million more customers, but on a technological point , with them selling off most of their towers to buy into more seems rather pointless. the areas that would be acquired would not expand the coverage all that much. But again, it's anybody's guess. The future of communications is in the Data process rather than standard voice calling and fewer towers will be needed for t...
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I'm not a Sprint customer, just a fan.

I agree with you in the future being data. I currently do business data sales. Our company builds custom computers with EVDO radios embedded. Among other things. We have the largest wireless data selections in both products and support for a thousand miles in any direction. I am a big fan of LTE, but will like to see what happens with WIMAX.

But I do disagree with you when you say that Sprint would not gain anything in purchasing the divested markets. When VZW divest SD,ND,MT,& WY (and other areas) they will sell of the network, customers , and spectrum license. All of which would be a big gain for any company. Plus they are just about the only ones with alike technology. So it will be neat to s...
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It seems to me that Sprint is changing their business model. They currently do not own any towers, so it seems unlikely they will buy some even if it gains them customers, spectrum, etc. Sprint is really looking to jump to the front in the race for the best technology and is focusing all their attention on getting there. "If you build it, they will come." Sprint's building the wireless field of dreams (or at least trying to).

I could agree with that. With the ever-changing industry. Who knows what will happen.....but it's fun to guess.

In my opinion, I think that it is a risky move that will either A) help Sprint return back up and be what it was and maybe better, or B) totally ruin everything even further.

I am just saying this in an unbiased way. But as much as AT&T is whinnig about this now, I think that they are afraid to take up this step themselves and are just going to sit on the side like all other carriers to see if the new tech will deliver so they can start trying to find a developers who will build a technology which is superior to it. They say competition brings better things, however if you are first in line there is a 50% chance you will be the one to feel the heat the most. But then again this is my opinion.

I'm not sure but I thought most of the divestion was more for in the New England states and their owning of unicell.But if your right about those areas you mentioned , what your saying absolutely makes total sense. but again it's anyones guess. you may very well be right. I have heard though that Sprint was not interested in that market.
I do have a thought on that buy though. Alltel owned a huge amount of towers in those areas whereas Verizon was roaming on most of them. Verizon didn't own a lot in that area. Verizon can now save a ton of money with not having to pay for roaming and will sell only the towers they don't need but they get to keep the customers. 85 markets is a lot but I don't believe there are enough towers that will be sol...
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The divestiture is going to come from those markets where Alltel's native network over lays with Verizon's native network and they are the only two carriers. Alltel does not have any native network in the New England area. Now if VZW is divesting that area it is not because of the Alltel purchase.

If there is only the two carriers in that area, one carrier cannot own both the A and the B side of the spectrum, hence the divestiture. Customers will stay on their respective side. VZW will have the choice to sell off their existing side or the newly acquired side. The customers, network, and FCC license will go to. If there is an area where there are more than the two carriers, VZW will get to keep them both. VZW could decide to sell off the...
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very interesting. my question though is will Sprint financially be able to make that purchase with such a huge debt? I heard Sprint is getting 670 million for their towers. what is the cost of buying up VZW's sell off's?

I have no idea what the markets will sell for. I am sure there will be many things that come into play for the pricing. It will be different from market to market.

Don't think for a second that debt will stop a wireless carrier from moving forward. Look at Verizon, they are 30+ billion in debt and they still bought Alltel. Adding another 22 billion in debt.

Money is cheap. With the right plan in front of the right investors anything is possible.

The thing is every carrier is all about adding new activations, every day all the time. You know this first hand I'm sure. And here is an opportunity for wireless carriers to add customers in bulk. I'm sure every carrier is watching the pricing and looking into it.

What better for Sprin...
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🤣 pronunciate!! 🤣

OH MY GOD, GET OVER YOURSELF! ITS OVER, DONE, NOT LOSING CUSTOMERS AT SUCH A CRAZY RATE ANYMORE!!! GET A LIFE AND STOP HARPING ON NEWS FROM MARCH!!!!!

iDen is not an exclusive to Sprint-Nextel. Just sayin'.

oh yeah ... Southern (missing) Link....
but as far as national communications coverage are there any other players?

You are correct, Apple and AT&T did a sales agreement. But any other carrier could have complained about wanting iPhones for their companies too. AT&T has nothing to worry about, they are a power-house company hands down. I'm surprised they went after Sprint and not Verizon. Once Verizon finishes their merger with Alltel, they will be the largest wireless provider with the biggest network and customer base.
Not to mention, if Srint doesn't get their customer care under control, no matter who they merge with, they won't have a customer base anyway!

it doesnt run on a different type of network in any sense. It has software to link itunes and Apple mobile apps... ATT was the only carrier that was willing to give Apple a monthly cut for that garbage, which is why theyre STILL waiting to profit from the phone deal as a whole, and why they raised the plan price on the 3g iPhone... fact, not opinion. Also, Apple announced early in 2005 a very strong distaste for CDMA networks and suggestions of a CDMA Apple phone. if you need supporting links, as always, i got'em.