Sprint considering a move towards LTE while T-Mobile merger rumors re-emerge

By on Jul 13, 2010 at 10:23 AM
General July 13, 2010

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Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse sat down with the Financial Times and re-confirmed the wireless provider’s option to pursue LTE if and when the time is right. According to Hesse, Sprint and Clearwire are in the enviable position of having access to ample 4G spectrum that is able to support LTE on top of the current WiMAX network. This over-abundance of 4G spectrum, and the possibility of deploying LTE, is causing analysts to re-consider the potential for a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. Rumors of a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile surfaced in 2008 but the talks reportedly stalled because the two companies use two very different and incompatible wireless technologies (*cough*Nextel*cough). If both carriers adopt LTE, a merger is more likely as Sprint would receive a boost from T-Mobile’s 33 million subscribers and T-Mobile would gain much needed access to 4G spectrum. Hesse acknowledged that there was a “logic” to the merger but failed to comment on the possibility that the two wireless providers are in discussions.

[Via Phonescoop]

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  • JL

    http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/lte.htm

    For someone who made a comment about LTE being more technolgically related to cdma, check out the above link – in particular:

    “Designed to be backwards-compatible with GSM and HSPA, LTE incorporates Multiple In Multiple Out (MIMO) in combination with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in the downlink and Single Carrier FDMA in the uplink to provide high levels of spectral efficiency and end user data rates exceeding 100 Mbps, coupled with major improvements in capacity and reductions in latency. LTE will support channel bandwidths from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz and both FDD and TDD operation.”

    • T

      GSMs 3G… is CDMA… just so you know. The GSM *Association* has you confused. There is a technology GSM, which died with EDGE, and the GSM Association, which holds *all* GSM operators worldwide and Verizon, and they all agreed upon the radio technologies and frequencies to use them on to make sure they remained backward compatible with GSM.

      • T

        In an attempt before the replies… the 3G technology the GSMA deployed is W-CDMA… which is a version of code division multiple access… similar in that sense to legacy CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint, yet totally different in how it was deployed and what radio frequencies it uses. GSM, as a technology, is TDMA. Time division multiple access. Don’t let the acronyms fool you when they are used. GSM these days refers to the Association of companies that deployed a 2G technology when we went from Analog to Digital. CDMA these days refers to a few companies, including the one that created W-CDMA in Japan, that went with the CDMA 2G technology when we went from Analog to Digital. So in short… GSM 3G = W-CDMA technology. CDMA 3G = CDMA2000 technology.

  • frogstomp

    Bring the merger… make two crappy carriers one good one

    • The Robot Devil

      And which “good one” do you work for?

  • Get Android Enjoy Freedom

    This comes in a good time, these 2 companies will merge you will see, and the iPhone 4 with all of its problems will come to Sprint / T-Mobile on the 4G network. This will all go down in September, right before x-mas, apple will come out with iphone that will use 4G and Sprint with T-Mob will be building LTE on top of WiMax.

  • JFA

    If anything I see deutsche telekom buying off sprint, it makes more sense since T-Mobile’s whole reason for coming to te states was to expand its market. The CEO of deutsche telekom said himself that there are no plans to sell T-Mobile anyway.

  • Dan Hesse

    Yes, we definitely want a merger. People have said they would rather have a MyTouch Slide over an EVO because they feel that having a slow phone helps them work on “having patience” and helps them increase their “anger management” skills.

  • daEducator

    A Sprint – TMOB merger will be cool. I hope TMOB adopts some aspects of Sprint’s plans – such as unlimited nights that start at 7pm instead of 9pm. A good compromise will be unlimited nights that start at 8pm.

    Another thing could be unlimited calls to mobile phones.

    I’ve been with TMOB and I loved it. I left because of price and limited coverage, especially in small towns outside the major free-ways.

    I am currently on Sprint SERO which is the best plan out there. I also have excellent Sprint coverage where I live, work, and play. If there is no Sprint signal, I get to roam on VZW.

    So, in my experience, CDMA has been cheaper for me. I still love GSM mainly because of SIM cards, and ablity to easily use an unlocked GSM phone, and ability to use your phone in a different country. A merger will be great.

    • The Robot Devil

      Rumors involving a TMO merger pop up every few month. I doubt it will ever occur. But what would happen is what happens whenever one carrier takes over another carrier. You would see a new set of rate plans and pricing. If you have an existing TMO or Sprint plan you could keep it. If you change to one of the new plans you would not be able to go back to your old plan.

  • Android is ok

    That’s all we need 2 more crappy carriers getting together. The first being Sprint and Nextel. I guess Sprint is the common denominator.

  • Capt.Obvious

    4G Spectrum? LOL!!!

  • Bouniqwua@TeenMobile

    This would be the largest congregation of thugs and food stamps for mobile ever!

    • The Robot Devil

      Be sure to show your comments about TMO and Sprint to your supervisior at AT&T or Verizon during your next perfomance review. I’m sure you get high marks and a big fat raise!

    • Jon

      Neg for the stupid comment.

    • chellykay88

      lmao. A very true statement. I work in a place where we offer multiple carriers and when I help someone with Sprint or T-mobile; 9 times out of 10 they are hardcore white trash….

      • The Robot Devil

        But you have to serve the “hardcore white trash”…what does that make you?

    • http://ranggaw0636.student.ipb.ac.id/ ranggaw0636

      stupid troll

  • MikeD

    If the big 4 (possible merger will make it 3) all go LTE, It would be AWESOME.

  • orac

    SprinT-Mobile The Nations only GSMCDMAHSPAIDENEV-DOLTEWiMax Network!

  • RAS

    I would have thought Sprint would have learned something about trying to merge two different technologies with the $33 Billion buyout of Nextel. Sprint has now completely written off that $33 Billion, by the way. That’s some “oops”, huh?

    So now they want to try again with CDMA and GSM? Dan Hesse should ask himself: “What would Christopher Walken do?” Less mergers and more cowbell!

    • Celz

      Only difference is Iden is a proprietary network standard wholly owned by a single corporate entity that has no financial reason to further develop it.. Motorola is much more than Iden.. Iden is a small portion of the handset business..

      When Sprint bought Nextel Motorola was doing great no one cared about 3g, all phones were chunky, so the super fast walkie talkie feature was a big bonus because text messaging wasnt unl yet and IM sucked.. Shortly after the buy out Moto killed its own Iden network by releasing the very thin Razr and the very hi tech Razrs shortly after…

      Moto ushered in the 3G thin phone wars with Samsung and that killed Nextel..

  • politicalslug

    Not a chance. Buying Nextel nearly killed Sprint. Buying T-Mobile would be akin to Time Warner buying AOL (I realize it went the other way around, which is even stupider, but being less stupid this analogy is more applicable). Sprint would never recover from the debt. Not gonna happen. Backpedaling on WiMax is Sprint’s future. Everyone benefits from sharing technology. LTE is the most viable stepping stone toward true 4G. Not WiMax. Sprint knows this and they’ll follow the current when necessary.

    • Celz

      Yea Sprint will make the switch to LTE once it passes WiMax.. But right now WiMax is the better tech, as in its ready to be deployed

  • http://alghienkad06.student.ipb.ac.id thea

    nice

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