Sprint seeks access to confidential documents in proposed AT&T, T-Mobile merger

By on Apr 26, 2011 at 6:01 PM
General April 26, 2011

It’s no secret that U.S. wireless provider Sprint is not a fan of the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger. The company’s CEO, Dan Hesse, has been very forthcoming with his concerns — mainly that the merger will create a duopoly between AT&T and Verizon Wireless — and now the carrier is looking for even more anti-merger ammunition. Bloomberg is reporting that Sprint representatives have “signed confidentiality agreements in advance of possibly gaining access to filings that won’t be available to the public.” The merger, were it to go through, would relegate Sprint to a distant third-place amongst U.S. wireless carriers, having just over half as many customers as its next competitor, Verizon Wireless. AT&T is seeking FCC and Department of Justice approval for the blockbuster merger that is expected to be complete within the next year.

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  • Anonymous

    Go cry a river Sprint. Just because T-Mobile is #4 of the large US cell providers, you dont want to be called the last of the major cell providers if the merger goes through. GSM shouldnt even matter to you anyway… if anything, so many people will be pissed thats already on T-Mobile, they just may come to Sprint.

    • Anonymous

      Yea i agree, im kinda tired of hearing about how unfair it is that a company bought TMO, when they were trying to but that company themselves. U should of made a more attractive offer than AT&T. I kinda wanna see this deal get shot down, so AT&T can use the same arguments/complaints right back to Sprint to foil their own potential merger with TMO.

  • Travis “CityBoy” Sinclair

    Hey Sprint, why don’t u worry about testing the iphone and try to make a profit for a quarter finally. What has it been like 14 quarters in a row without a profit??

  • Doucheinator

    Dude Sprint, you sound like a whinny little bitch now.

    • Anonymous

      What should they do? Sit by and watch?

      • Anonymous

        No, they should spend their time/money into beefing up their company and getting newer cutting edge phones to lure people to join them. If Sprint got more coverage and had better phones, people would sign up. Instead, they cry that other companies are becoming bigger and making Sprint look smaller… your basic penis-envy scenario.

      • Anonymous

        They did that… the Evo was the best Android device last summer. The
        Nexus S 4G is due out in a few weeks. The Evo 3D is coming out in
        June.

        They just smoothed over their relationship with Clearwire. They’ve
        switched over to modular basestations so that they can easily add new
        tech to their network quickly and cheaply.

        They’re keeping data unlimited and uncapped. Plan prices are low. The
        network buildout needs a little more time. In the interim, what can
        they do?

      • Anonymous

        So I guess it would be OK to look at private internal information that Sprint has, just to see how bad this may effect them? They would have a defecation fit.

  • Jon

    Gotta side with Sprint on this one…

    As an AT&T subscriber, I like my service (for the most part) and would love to have a more reliable network, but this merger is going raise prices. Best case scenario is that prices aren’t actually raised, but more restrictions are implemented on features effectively raising the cost of our service. I mean come on, why would struggling T-Mobile all of the sudden adopt AT&T’s data cap strategy when it knows people don’t like it… AT&T can claim they had nothing to do with that, but I’m not buying it.

    • Allen Walker

      Raise prises? You’re obviously an idiot..

      • Anonymous

        Your comment was either incredibly stupid or slightly clever.

      • http://profiles.google.com/djblois Daniel Blois

        Actually Jon is correct. The Merger will raise prices. AT&T and Verizon (as well as any other business) chooses a price that would get them the amount of customers they want. T-mobile has cheaper rates which brings down the price that both Verizon and AT&T can charge and still get the customers they want. Without the lower rates of T-Mobile they will be able to raise their rates more.

      • Wirelessmodz

        no you are the fool here prices will be raise not lowered . as a tmobile sub . i dont like this idea or want it att sucks and they charge to much .allen you are as dumb as the picture you got there

    • FixYoSelf

      T-Mobile’s current data cap-less strategy is CLEARLY stated as “for a limited time,” as is Verizon’s. Data caps are coming for ALL carriers soon, especially if Sprint converts to LTE.

  • Allen Walker

    Jesus… Sprint cries almost as much as Steve Jobs..

    Almost..

    • Anonymous

      Was that supposed to be funny?

  • Anonymous

    Are you guys kidding me?
    One major GSM cell provider is going to be horrible, mostly because it’s AT&T, I have Sprint but I want to switch to T-Mobile but no way in hell would I think about it if this shit goes through.
    AT&T Will be bigger then all companies and be the only GSM provider (SIM CARDS for you noobs).

    • luvsxoom

      @r916 I know right noons are idiots they ask dumb question I hop they still have a flip phone boobies with a smartphone lmaooooo you’ll never understand where we coming from data don’t affect u…because you have a old as phone lol

      • luvsxoom

        Fuckin (typos) noobs I meant

      • fixYoSelf

        typos wasn’t the only grammatical problem with your post. Periods, commas … they have purpose. Go to class.

  • Anonymous

    And it’s also funny how everyone hates on Sprint, but what other company can you use ANY AMOUNT OF DATA and not be charged extra? i.e, NO CAP’s.
    And before you try and say ”data speeds are horrilble” I’m getting 1.50mbps average which is pretty good for 3g and 5+ on 4g.
    ATT is going to cap EVERYONE to what 2 gb’s? HAHAHAH have fun with that.

    • http://twitter.com/wctaylor79 Chris Taylor

      Verizon unlimited 4G LTE 29.99 a month.. no cap… Average 12 down and 32 up.. with some times 20 down and 50 up.. just sayin…

      • Anonymous

        Yeah and let’s see how long your unlimited data is actually unlimited, because I’m sure you know, it is not going to stay like that.
        Depends on your area about speeds, and just wait until you guys actually have more then just one phone with 4G and more people on it as well.
        A lot of people I know are waiting for something else besides the Thunderbolt, why? 1400mah battery isn’t going to cut it.

    • Allen Walker

      somebody sounds like a whiney Sprint rep…

      • Anonymous

        Not at all,I don’t work for Sprint, don’t plan on it.
        It’s funny when everyone hates on Sprint, enjoy your 2GB data cap’s, yes verizon’s is ”unlimited” for right now, wait a month or two and see how that goes.

      • Wirelessmodz

        sounds like you suck alot of att cock allen

  • Anonymous

    Another sour grape?!

  • http://twitter.com/robsleezy Rob Sleezy

    You know if they spent half as much money on NASCAR and half as much time bitching and telling people how unlimited their unlimited really is and actually came up with a business plan to integrate and rollover all three of their halfass WiMax, CDMA, and iDEN Networks into one LTE Network and had decent phones I believe they would have something going for themselves.

    • FixYoSelf

      learn to count, then take economics and get training on balance sheets and cash flow analysis, then you’ll realize how dumb you sound right now about having a “business plan” for rolling all three of those things into LTE. It is logistically and financially impossible right now to execute such “business plan” like that. Focus on the devices. Leave the “business plan” to the smart people.

  • Joe122

    Thank you Sprint.. Many people dont want the merge to happen.. Im glad Sprint is doing somethiing about it..

  • Dwave

    Sprint and Dan Hesse great job with patrons service and for having the lowest unlimited plan ,cost$69, for talk ,text, and data. Great plan, Great people. I would like to see AT&T,T-moible and Verizon give patrons a real unlimited plan not a part of plan for$89, they sucks.

    • http://twitter.com/wctaylor79 Chris Taylor

      Verizon is releasing the unleashed plan on the 28th.. $50 unlimited talk text web no contract..

      • Amber Lamps

        sprint has offered that for over a year now.

      • fixYoSelf

        Do you realize how EXTRAlimited this plan is. For starters, it’ll only be available in Southern CA and Florida and it’ll only be available on 3 FEATURE PHONES for christsakes! And web browsing is not FULL web browsing as provided on postpaid plans. The Unleashed plan needs to be tranq’d.

      • fixYoSelf

        Do you realize how EXTRAlimited this plan is. For starters, it’ll only be available in Southern CA and Florida and it’ll only be available on 3 FEATURE PHONES for christsakes! And web browsing is not FULL web browsing as provided on postpaid plans. The Unleashed plan needs to be tranq’d.

  • Anonymous

    The same people telling Sprint to quit whining, will be the first ones crying about paying higher prices for less service when this merger goes through. And then will be questioning why.

  • Anonymous

    boo-hoo sprint!, U.S the only country with a load of seperate wireless companies and with GSM, CDMA, it doesnt even matter what Band you have in The U.S, barely any of the phones allow you to jump to other carries if you want here unlike in europe/asia. Sprint should hope for a merger that leaves them ahead of the smaller cell service companies in the U.S with better reception, and as the 3rd Largest service provider with the most affordable plans for people who dont want to try and pay At&t and Verizon expensive smartphone and family plan prices. if they were to try and push for getting the iphone and some more android devices so many people would jump to sprint. but instead they wanna B**** about not having T-Mobile to compete with cause there scared to go up against the Big Dogs.

  • MANGO

    f*%k off SPRINT!!!!

  • MANGO

    f*%k off SPRINT!!!!

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