Sprint to AT&T: You’re doing it wrong

By on Jun 21, 2011 at 12:01 PM
Business June 21, 2011

Following the lead set by its chief executive Dan Hesse, Sprint has been one of the most outspoken opponents of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion T-Mobile USA takeover. Hesse said the deal would “stifle innovation” and hurt U.S. wireless subscribers, and Sprint subsequently voiced its concerns formally on numerous occasions. Among AT&T’s main arguments are the deal’s potential to bring high-speed 4G LTE coverage to over 95% of the U.S. population, and the fact that it needs T-Mobile’s spectrum in order to curtail the massive strain on its network. In a new filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, however, Sprint explained that AT&T’s acquisition is not necessary in order for the carrier to alleviate its network woes. Sprint contends that AT&T could increase its network capacity by more than 600% over the next three years simply by putting its current resources to better use. “AT&T could increase its capacity by developing its warehoused spectrum, accelerating its 4G network buildout, and implementing a more efficient network architecture,” Sprint said in a statement. But AT&T responded immediately by questioning Sprint’s knowledge on the subject considering the carrier outsources the management of its own network to Ericsson. “A company that has outsourced the management of its own network shouldn’t be giving advice to others,” an AT&T spokesman said.

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  • Andy Howard

    ‘“A company that has outsourced the management of its own network shouldn’t be giving advice to others,” an AT&T spokesman said.’
    Yeah, well your mom should be giving advice to others.

    Why is AT&T acting like Sprint has never managed their own network and acting like the only reason Ericsson is because Sprint is incompetent? Obviously Sprint managed their network fine for years and if I recall correctly, they are basically saving a ton of money by outsourcing it. Duh.

    • Anonymous

      How exactly do you save money by outsourcing management of something you have in place

      • Anonymous

        If I remember correctly, Sprint sold off their towers a while back so they wouldn’t have to maintain them.  They license the use of the towers they had, but don’t have to foot the bill for upkeep etc.  That is at least part of the reason they outsourced.  They get the full benefit without having to worry about a lot of the hassle.  Same reason the Russians let the SGC keep the Stargate.  USA paid the bills while the Russians got to use it…

      • Anonymous

        Nice reference.

      • Brad

        Easy.  When outsourcing, you don’t have another company come in that is only managing your own stuff. That would cost more.  No, what you do is contract with a company that manages the resources of many other companies.  That one company can manage the resources of multiple companies with only one set of staff.  The outsource company may have a bigger employee base than any of their individual customers would, but nowhere near as much as all the independent customers’ support staff combined.  In this arrangement, there is a huge savings in manpower alone.  Also, since the outsource company hires staff that specializes in the technology they’re managing, they can provide better service than your own staff could, because you probably can’t afford to hire the big experts you need to handle things effectively in-house.  And even if you do have your own staff, that doesn’t mean they’re doing it smartly.

        Outsourcing, if done right, allows a company to focus on its core business without having significant distractions and costs dragging it down.  While I wouldn’t say Sprint is fully recovered, I think it’s definitely making a strong comeback, and I can’t help but think their outsourcing effort was a wise move.  Obviously something is working for them.  AT&T, to me, feels like a big, greedy behemoth that thinks it can get whatever it wants (you could say Verizon is like that too, I guess).  Sprint, on the other hand, being the underdog, is being forced to remain innovative and competitive to survive.  While I don’t believe their network is up to par with Verizon, which is why I will stay on Verizon for the time being, it’s come a long way, and should I ever have reason to leave Verizon, I think Sprint would be at the top of my list for alternative options.

        And in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I do work for an IT outsourcing firm (fully US-based), but not one related to cellular networks in any way.

    • Anonymous

      Word

      • http://www.poweredonmedia.com/ Shaun Collins

        How long have you been sitting on that gem? Hopefully not long.

    • Anonymous

      Also, AT&T owns a lot of spectrum and has a bigger bank than Sprint. If Sprint could afford to do it they would. AT&T would rather prevent competition than spend money to improve their network and make their customers happy

    • Anonymous

      If sprint were competent they would be making $ wouldn’t they

      • Anonymous

        And we are talking about the same retards that spent like $35 billion or so buying Nextel.  And they want to tell another company (one that actually turns a profit) how to maintain and use their spectrum?  From what I understand, Sprint as well sits on a horde of unused spectrum, they need to follow their own advice first.

  • http://www.facebook.com/JustinBauder Justin Bauder

    Need some ice for that BUUUUUUUURN? hahaha I’ve been waiting since 6th grade for that…

  • jay_max

    Sprint’s analysis is spot on here.  AT&T can spend far less than $39 billion on network upgrades and achieve its network goals without TMO.

    Let’s just recognize this merger for what it really is:  a bold attempt by AT&T to take out a major competitor and further consolidate the market, giving it that much more control over prices.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

       Agreed.  This acquisition isn’t just about better network coverage.  It’s about them trying to become the biggest and be able to influence the market more by eliminating a competitor.  If they wanted to make their network better, they could do so with T-mobile.  Better LTE coverage is just a by product of the acquisition but not the reason.

    • Anonymous

      but att goal was never that they could not do it.  even in that statement he said in 3 years i think the goal is to do it in half the time and have a stronger network at the same time. even in LTE build out they would be far behind verizon but with this move they can actually move ahead of them. so i see it as a chance to be market leader as opposed to playing catch up in the 4g game.

      • failboat

        should’ve done this when they were the only ones with the iphone…

    • Anonymous

      Agreed, its about controlling the market here and the FCC knows it.

      • Guest27

        FCC doesn’t know anything when it comes to technology or anything really haha their a joke!

    • Kidheated

      I completely agree. Ever since google’s meteoric rise to the powerhouse they are today, all other large companies have been trying to see what they can get away with. Especially in regards to monopolizing their respective markets. When your corporation grows big enough to tell the government what to do, there is a problem. At&t figures it can just follow suit. I hope Sprint can lay the smack down.

    • Anonymous

      Didn’t Sprint spend and do almost the same taking over Nextel?  Oh, wait, the rules of fanboism allows such things.

      • Weber

        @ VersedNJ

        Quit crying…

        Anyways, Dan Hesse has nothing to do with the purchase of Nextel, so I don’t so much question his motives and expertise as I do the previous CEO. Dan Hesse was in a tough position to dig Sprint out of a hole with 2 much larger competitors controlling much of the market…and all the while, the Nextel deal hangs over his back. I’d be willing to bet that most anyone working for Sprint today would not have agreed to the merger

  • http://twitter.com/TuckerPeterson Tucker A. Peterson

    Technically by absorbing T-Mobile’s network AT&T is in essence doing the same thing.  Having someone else do the work for them.  AT&T is full of shit on this one and they are looking at the cost to build out vs. instant revenue not anything else.  I am sure they will net more $ by paying this ridiculous amount of money for T-Mobile vs upgrading their network, waiting for new subscribers and possibly losing others during the transition.  Smart business move but be fucking honest about it.

    They should say “We have no clue as to how or when we can actually have decent 4g coverage (since our 3G already sucks 4G will probably be worse).  Instead of doing it ourselves we decided to buy T-Mobile and their customers and hope that not too many people decide to leave when we jack up the plan prices to afford the acquisitions costs and inflate our salaries and bonuses based on growth metrics inflated by this acquisition.”

    • Anonymous

      At&t has invested more into itself than any other american company over the past 2 years.. Try again?

      • Anonymous

        well why is there network so poor.. why was sprint and verizn first and second to not just 4g but 3g and 2g as well.. lol 

    • Travis Wright

      Really?? AT&T has invested billions and billions over the 100 years they have been around. They are not new to the ball game like the rest of the carriers. 

    • Travis Wright

      Really?? AT&T has invested billions and billions over the 100 years they have been around. They are not new to the ball game like the rest of the carriers. 

    • Anonymous

      Didn’t Sprint pay about the same “ridiculous” amount of money to buy Nextel?  Guess that worked out well.

      • Anonymous

        my network doesnt suck so I guess it did..

  • Anonymous

    If anything, the fact that Sprint is smart enough to save money and seek
    expertise on managing its own network says even more positive things
    about the company that AT&T would dare concede. After all, Sprint
    also offers competitive pricing plans that really suit both power users
    (like me) and light users (like my wife). AT&T, on the other hand,
    has a larger footprint than Sprint, more customers and still can’t get
    an full LTE network up and running.

    I’m not against the merger in
    and of itself; natural changes in telecommunications, along with the
    complications of integrating operations, ultimately make most of these
    mergers counterproductive. Sprint proved that in the last decade with
    the Nextel deal. But AT&T won’t solve its network capacity issues
    just by buying the smallest of the four major carriers.

  • Ken

    When Dan Hess says to anyone considering an aquisition that he thinks they’re “doing it wrong… I think Sprints history of “successful” aquisitions should speak for itself… (read: NEXTEL)…

    • http://twitter.com/skreekia david

      buying Nextel was a great investment are you kidding me? they gained a whole country’s worth of 800mhz spectrum that alone was worth the investment. the problem was merging the 2 technologies, iden and cdma just didn’t work well together kinda like gsm and cdma wouldn’t work. and when they tried to make phones with separate technology’s, billing became an issue. this was not a bad investment, why didn’t Sprint bid on that 700 MHz block AT&T and Verizon bought? they didn’t need it they have 3 times the Spectrum those guys have. People say the merger was a bad one, sure maybe in the short term cuz of what they tried to do with the technology, but in the long run Sprint came out with a crap load of Spectrum cuz of it.

      • mlawre10

        true true and true!!!

      • macman

        Too bad all that spectrum cost them about 5 million customers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      • Ken

        They paid $32 billion for Nextel, and 24 months later took a $29 billion loss for the aquisition.  Do you know how much spectrun they could have bought for $29 billion?  Not to mention a large portion of it has to be surrendered back to the FCC for P25 build-out next year.  And Motorola dropped ‘em like a hot brick due to bad blood going back to Sprint breaking their $17 billion tech agreement back in day one.  Cocky as can be; Sprint grossly mis-managed the takeover of Nextel to the point of what now appears to be a complete network shutdown later this year.  And let’s not forget why Sprint picked-up Hesse in the first place… they fired his predecessor due incompetence… (read:NEXTEL)

      • Anonymous

        Oh you mean a block of unused spectrum that Sprint’s sitting on, but then tells other companies what they should do?  Far as I know that merger with Nextel almost put them in the grave.  I’m sure you and others read my posts here, and this may come to you as a shock, I want Sprint to do well.  But crying isn’t going to do it.

  • http://twitter.com/bugabuga Max Smolev

    Fantastic recommendations. Now, when do I get my LTE Sprint phone? :D
    Wait, you mean only AT&T can increase capacity 6x by switching to LTE? 
    And that iDen migration won’t be accelerated? Nor WiMax swapped out quickly for LTE?  :(
    Not that I’m for AT&T-Mobile, I think it’s a horrible idea. But come on, Sprint. Show everyone that you can eat your own recommendations, and catch up to Verizon. Otherwise I haz a disappoint. 

  • Anonymous

    I fear for all of us should this deal go through.  We’ve been there before with AT&T.  The last time it was broken up.  Limiting access to premium carriers in the U.S. will only worsen the current situation from a choice and cost perspective.  Not to mention, this deal will all but seal the fate of Sprint whether it be through its eventual acquisition by Verizon, or simply the closing of its doors.  The deal with TMO will essentially cut the premium players in the U.S. in half in the long run.  LOSE, LOSE for consumers.

    Can someone share any positives which outweigh the negatives here?   

    • Baller

      Your an idiot and Dan hesse is. Moron. Think about it. Who does sprint compete with? They don’t compete with verizon or AT&T, they compete with tmobile. If the deal goes thru sprint will have the lower end of the tier 1 market all to themselves. Sprint will be able to take over that market while taking a lot of metro pcs and leap customers. Sprint has no room to tell AT&T how to resolve their network issues. Sprint hasn’t built a 4g network and Ericsson runs their 3G network. They didn’t sell their towers and outsource their network to saveoney. They sold their towers to make a quick buck and make their earnings look good. Sprint is to stupid to realize that this merger is the best thing that could have happened to them. They will have a chance to steal a few million customers from AT&T with this del going thru. If the deal doesn’t go thru sprint will not gain new contract customers anytime soon. This is sprints only chance to make money for their investors but they are fucking it up by crying.

      • Weber

        Are you serious….

        Really…

        Sprint doesn’t compete with fucking Verizon or AT&T? You’re telling me they price their most popular data plan a $79.99/month, undercutting both company’s offerings by a decent margin, because they’re only competing T-Mobile? Good god you’re in idiot. Its a cheaper plan with better perks, who’s customers do you think they’re trying to entice?

      • Baller

        Do you really think they compete with AT&T and Verizon. Lets be realistic. If the merger does not go thru it will still be a battle beween At&t and verizon with verizon being the largest. Sprint and tmobile will continue to battle for the lower end of the tier 1 market. To be honest in a year or 2  you will be able to say that tmobile and sprint are competing with the tier 2 carriers like metro pcs and leap. If the merger does go thru the only difference is that At&t will be the largest and sprint will have the lower end market for themselves. Of course sprint is too stupid to see that. Its no ones fault but sprints that they are number 3 and so far behind the top 2. No one told them to purchase nextel in the most rediculous deal in wireless history. Its so sad that people like you really think that this deal makes a difference. At&t and verizon will continue to dominate the market and thats the bottom line. Deal with it. In another idiot move sprint is going to work with lightsquared for their 4g network buildout. So now they are going to bring in more competitors in to the market to compete with them. Good job sprint. If you really want to go under just start giving all your svcs for free and it will happen a lot sooner. Dan stop being a bitch. Whatever respect you had left has all been lost with this crying. If I were sprint investors i’d be looking for a ceo who can figure out how to compete in the market by inovating and having a good marketing campaign, not a ceo who wants to compete by holding other companys back and is too busy putting his face in all the commercials. I think this dumb ass wants to be an actor not a ceo. FYI the merger will go thru. Mark my words.

  • Homer

    Even if the AT&T/T-Mobile deal goes through, a lot of those T-Mobile customers will probably flee because they won’t want to pay AT&T’s prices… What other carrier will they go to get a reasonable rate plan? Plus Verizon will be pushing buttons with their current customers as well as potential customers with their new tiered data plans which are rumored to be absolutely outrageous. With those 2 things in mind Sprint can potentially add A LOT of subscribers if they play their cards right.

  • http://twitter.com/mbcls ask me

    a company (sprint) going down the toilet shouldnt tell others what to do!

    • what?

      it’s evident you lack any knowledge on what “going down the toilet” means

  • http://islamicexperiences.com DaBash

    “But AT&T responded immediately by questioning Sprint’s knowledge on the subject considering the carrier outsources the management of its own network to Ericsson.
    “A company that has outsourced the management of its own network
    shouldn’t be giving advice to others,” an AT&T spokesman said.”

    that’s a 3rd degree BURRRN right there.

    • ha

      they can’t outsource what they don’t manage. do some reading

    • fredd0

      ever call an AT&T call center? that is OUTSOURCED. when I call sprint, i now get someone in the U.S. who really wants to help and doesn’t have a perspective problem. ever try to explain something to someone in another country? they speak the language, but they do not really UNDERSTAND it. try explaining a pricematch to someone in india. you will want to kill yourself…

      also, in my market, sprint is WHOOPING the others.
       

  • http://twitter.com/JoshuaPingley Joshua Pingley

    I don’t care how cheap Sprint is, WiMax kind of sucks, so I could care less what Dan Hesse has to say.

    • Homer

      I’d rather pay less and use WiMax and have unlimited data than pay more for HSPA+ and be restricted to a pathetic 2 gig per month…

  • Anonymous

     This only hurts sprint. And who are they to say someone is doing something wrong? You guys suck.

    • ha

      carriers do that to each other all the time. what are you talking about?

    • Anonymous

      your name says it all not even a need to call you a dumbass, oops did anyway

  • http://twitter.com/derrickisonline Derrick -Lex-

    Damn 3rd degree burns over 90% of Dan Hesse’s body.  We need some ice STAT!  Seriously though, there’s no way AT&T snatching up T-Mobile is going to help anyone but AT&T and T-Mobile.  One less carrier means one less competitive option.  The last thing anyone needs is Verizon and AT&T conspiring to fix price plans.  Sprint, well they’ve always sort of done their own thing anyway.  The more carriers we have the more opportunity for one to say “We’re the first to offer unlimited 4G”.  Whereas now one carrier says we’re going to tier 4G data and the rest fall in. 

    • Baller

      Of course AT&T is doing this to help themselves. Any business that does a deal is about helping their business grow and make money. All you idiots who think that b/c there are more carriers you will have unlimited 4g an lower prices are idiots. If the deal is blocked all you’re going to have is maybe unlimited 3G but not 4g. All the carriers that offer unlimited data are the carriers that are not investing in a 4g network. Bottom line tiered data is here to stay. Sprint won’t be offering unlimited data to much longer b/c I don’t howuch linger their investors can continue to lose money every quarter. Dan Hesse really looks pathetic in this argument. Sprint brags about how much spectrum they have, not realizing that this makes the AT&T deal make sense. Sprint is pathetic.

  • http://twitter.com/BBmundy patrick m lyle

    AT&T is being attacked on all sides for claims that it can not defend.  As an animal, AT&T it is defending itself ruthlessly and incorrectly against Sprint whose claim is not only justifiable in its assertion that it could simply bolster/optimize its current network infrastructure, but also accurate.  Dan Hesse has brilliantly taken Sprint as a bottom feeder and made it stronger and stronger every year (recovering from that abortion that is Nextel).  If AT&T successfully buys/merges with T-Mobile, then they will lose a portion of their customer base to Sprint guaranteed.  Sprint will benefit either way, because AT&T and T-Mobile will have to give up some assets in order for the merger/buyout not to be considered a monopolizing move.

    In short:…….

  • http://twitter.com/smartphone_info Smartphone Report

    Don’t you think this is more about how AT&T is going to pay T-Mobile for their bandwidth and tower usage? Honestly, AT&T needs the extra resources, but instead of striking a deal to pay T-Mo $1.5 billion a year for 20 years of ‘leasing’ the space, they are stock swapping with Deutch Telecom for the “value” of the assets. DT is going to be the biggest winner here – and that’s why we don’t like the merger. Just like the VZW/Vodafone deal a few years back, it’s our contract dollars funding better European coverage.

    Perhaps the real answer is to let AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon share their LTE towers under a free roaming agreement. Then turn over any and all overlapping CDMA based EV-DO towers to Sprint and regional carriers to keep them competitive.This will allow the smaller carriers a chance to compete, bring T-Mobile’s coverage to a good national level, allow AT&T the extra bandwidth and backhaul it needs and give Verizon the most powerful network in the country for a few more years. Seems like everyone would win something, without having to spend much at all.

  • Anonymous

    I dont like the fact that once the merger goes through there will be a GSM monopoly in the US. VZW and Sprint may be moving to LTE for data but I’ve never read that either one has considered moving from CDMA. And at this point it would probably be very cost prohibitive to do so.

    • Anonymous

      Only problem is, if TMO-US goes out of business there would still be only one gsm carrier, if Sprint took them over, same deal as they would convert (over time) to cdma. Same thing.

  • Anonymous

    People who are on tmobile when they become Ass t&t will be glad they came to sprint where TRUE ANDROID DEVICES LIVE. Where the carrier cares MOST ABOUT THE LITTLE GUY not trying to RIP YOU OFF AT EVERY TURN FOR LESS. Ass t&t is a total joke with there SORRY SERVICE THAT IS OVERPRICED all they ever cared about was APPLE AND THAT SORRY IPHONE. BOTTOMLINE I applaud SPRINT for STANDING UP TO THESE USELESS OVER PRICED CARRIERS THAT THINK THEY CAN RUN RUFFCHOD over there customers. People on tmobile if this MERGER HAPPENS WILL BE COMING TO SPRINT mainly because all the best devices will be on sprint and Google supports Sprint just like they did tmobile. No more tmobile means that SPRINT WILL BENEFIT….

    • Baller

      Your such an idiot you dont even know what the fuck you are saying. First you say that you applaud Sprint for standing up to At&t and trying to stop the merger but then you say that if the merger does happen Sprint is going to benefit. You think just the way Dan Hesse does, no wonder your all up Sprints ass. Isn’t it sad that you say at&t has crappy service and have the most expensive plans yet Sprint still can’t take any of their customers. So fucking sad… Wow Sprint has Android. The only reason Androind sells so much is b/c all the manufactures use it b/c its free. Otherwise they would have to pay microsoft or someone else for each device they sell which will eat into there profits. If not for the fact it is free then Android wouldnt be shit. Android is a piece of crap.

    • Guest27

      Wow you are one stupid person! Just wanted you to know that!

  • Kal El

    it took verizon 6 months to cover more cities with 4G LTE than Sprint did in almost 3yrs with WiMax..

  • http://twitter.com/palfrei Peter Palfrei

    If AT&T becomes monopolic after the merge and if such monopoly hurts competition then the logical thing to do to bring the telecommunication market back to a homoeostatic state will be to switch from AT&T to other telecoms and give them enough user-base power to confront AT&T’s.

    In other words, a power shift.

  • Sub4dkg2

    As a former vzw employee, i can tell you staff is trained/forced to jam products and services down customers throats and to do it quickly so you can move on to the next customer. I was reprimanded once for putting a screen protector and case on for the customer….told i was wasting time. Vzw managers are too “kpi” pressured which puts pressure on vzw sales reps to assist customers with fear they will get reprimanded and or to put it better, selling scared. its too bad. U need a feature phone? Dont go to a vzw telecom store for the reps will say they are out and dont have any in fear of hurtn their “kpi’s” I encouraged my friends to order online….anyway, thats it for now. Thanks for reading. Emphasis on helping customers find right devices and seeing them leave store happy was always my goal.

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