T-Mobile to Buy Sprint?

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Ok so a few of our readers (thanks guys!) mentioned a possible T-Mobile purchase of Sprint here in the US and it got me extremely curious, so of course I did some snooping.

The new CEO of Deutsche Telekom of Germany (the owner of all the T-Mobile’s worldwide, including our T-Mobile USA), Rene Obermann apparently is very serious about revamping T-Mobile.

First he tackled T-Mobile UK, which was the third largest wireless carrier in the UK until Mr. Obermann put together a a joint venture between T-Mobile UK and Orange. After the merger T-Mobile is now the largest wireless carrier in the UK, well ahead of the former 1st and 2nd place wireless providers, O2 and Vodafone.

After that, he now seems to be aiming at T-Mobile US, which is the 4th largest wireless carrier in the US at the moment. He plans to merge T-Mobile US with the 3rd largest wireless carrier, Sprint. This merger would put T-Mobile US neck and neck with the 2 largest US carriers, Verizon and AT&T.

Now that is all fine and dandy, but I have a big question. How do you take a CDMA network and a GSM network and merge them? I would assume the company would have to go one way or the other (and in all likely hood and to my approval, it would most likely go GSM). If that is the case though, what would they do with Sprint’s current infrastructure? Would they just put their own transmitters on Sprint’s existing towers perhaps? I would assume they might do that and then there has to be someway they can integrate Sprint’s much more advanced data network (4G PLEASE!). With 4G coming around the corner for Sprint in the form of WiMax, perhaps T-Mobile will simply start using WiMax 4G with their existing GPRS/EDGE network. Truthfully that seems to me to be the best option and phone manufacturer’s will begin to comply by adding WiMax into their phones anyway (since a good percentage of the world is heading that way, with the other majority heading to LTE for their 4G network).

So T-Mobile with Sprint’s 4G, a HUGE coverage map, and cheaper monthly rates than AT&T and Verizon? Sounds like a success to me.

What do you guys think? And any of you guys with more technical knowledge have any idea of how this merger could work?

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  • david .l

    what is gsm? and i would love tmobile to keep the simcard stuff and this is big news!!!!

  • Neo

    Hopefully T-Mobile can use what’s left of the iDEN network from Nextel. Then it would help T-Mobile’s coverage. iDEN is a hybrid CDMA/GSM/(other technology) network. It would help with phone call/edge coverage, but I dunno about better 3G coverage. If I were Oberman, I would drop the CDMA tech or sell it to Verizon, and put up GSM towers where the CDMA tower was. Then continue with the upgrade of the 3G speed to 21mbps or whatever is next.

  • T2theJ1990

    Funny thing is I’ve been saying for quite a while that T-Mobile and Sprint or another company should join.

    After all Sprint and Cox did Pivot at one time.

    If T-mobile, Sprint, and Cox all joined forces Cox could spred farther. T-Mobile and Sprint priceing.

    We’re talking a major comp with AT&T then.
    And Now that Verizon has the deal with Direct TV…

  • jae

    Kill tje cdma phones ….I said kill killll….. them all…!!!!!!
    Lol. :$

  • angrylarry

    so that’s why sprint gets the android hero phone, i knew sumptin was up!

  • david

    I don’t know how this would pan out but i would love for this to happen, TMo’s a great company great customer service but its behind on the technology front, with sprints 4g tech they would really be a worthy adversary to them other to networks…

  • VR

    YES! I HOPE THIS IS ALL TRUE! 4G + G1 = super fast mobile lol

    thank you for this information Unlockr. im going to do some research now. ^_^

  • vroomk4

    YES YES YES YES DO IT NOW>>> lol the tmobile get HERO 😉

  • tanman8719

    hey guys im an indirect dealer in la and tmobile is my number one seller, the only down fall is the coverage and data speeds (they are not slow but compared to 3g edge is).. so I would love for Deutsche Telekom to buy out sprint.. would be very instresting.. if anyone obtains any knowledge about this subject plz email me at abdulkhaled89@yahoo.com

    THNX

  • JBSolstice

    iDEN is not a hybrid network derrived from CDMA, it was built by motorola a few decades ago using TDMA (Time division multiple access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). Long before CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) was even around. CDMA Came about by TDMA. (TDMA and GSM both being 2G) (Global System for Mobile Communications) CDMA is used by Verizon and Sprint which is why on those networks the data transfer rate is far superior to TDMA/GSM/iDEN networks, however on TDMA/GSM/iDEN networks the call quality and reliability are superior to CDMA. So if T-Mobile and Sprint can successfully merge the two technologies, not an easy task by the way, then they can easily become the most dependable and fastest network in the united states.

  • JBSolstice

    P.S. Edge network sucks! So very slow compared to 3G. if t-mobile and sprint do merge it would make more sence to use 4G as their main Data network and use 3G as their backup network. keep Edge (aka 2G) out of the mix!!!

  • JBSolstice

    (Global System for Mobile Communications) is GSM

  • JBSolstice

    And lets not forget the daddy of them all. FDMA (frequency division multiple access)
    FDMA->TDMA->CDMA
    GSM
    I guess GSM is like someone from the deep south… no branches… until it met up with TDMA and birthed iDEN.

  • Let’s hope this happens. I’ve been a customer going on 9 years straight. I want to see this. Not entirely happy with Tmobile’s service, but their rate plans are the best.

  • zefie

    I really don’t understand all the love for GSM. Do people really enjoy all their electronics buzzing from interference? Having to turn off your cell phone if you are video taping something? Having shitty call quality? Having your call drop with “full service” (fail AT&T)? Really, what am I missing about GSM that is so great?

    • Zefie,

      I’ve always used GSM and never had any of those issues, my phone stays on when video taping (that would be an issue with the RAM your phone has not GSM vs CDMA), and interference has never been an issue, my call quality is fine, and I use T-Mo so not sure about the dropping calls (which happens on all carriers at some point) but isn’t very often, not too mention Sprint was rated most dropped calls not too long ago (hence the firing of the CEO and hiring the new one).

      All I know is that GSM is the way the rest of the world works, and because of that the manufacturer’s all make GSM phones, the only reason CDMA companies get phones at all is because they have the manufacturer specially make them for them, so they choose what phones you can have. With GSM I can grab any GSM phone and put my SIM in and have full working service.
      And I don’t know if that is a reason for you to like GSM, but for someone as nerdy as me who likes the latest and greatest phones, I don’t want to have to wait for my carrier to choose what I can use and can’t is all.
      Other than phone choice though, CDMA and GSM are very similar as far as the end consumer is concerned, so not saying one is better than the other, I just like phones so I need GSM 🙂

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