Deutsche Telekom agrees to sell T-Mobile USA to SoftBank

[jamezr]

It looks very official now.....

Deutsche Telekom has agreed to an offer for Japanese mobile and broadband company SoftBank to buy T-Mobile USA, according to a news report.

Japanese news site Kyodo News, which reported the agreement, didn’t give details of the price or structure of the deal.

The deal would combine SoftBank-owned Sprint, the third largest U.S. mobile carrier, with T-Mobile, the fourth largest. The combined company would have more than 103 million subscribers, but it would still be No. 3 behind Verizon Wireless, with about 122 million subscribers, and AT&T, with 116 million.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has pushed for a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, saying a combined company is necessary to successfully compete with the two largest mobile carriers. A combined company would be able to invest in its network and push AT&T and Verizon on prices and services, he has said.

U.S. officials at the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice have raised competitive concerns about a potential merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA. Both agencies would have to approve the deal.

Officials with Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank weren’t available for comment.

SoftBank’s US$21.6 billion acquisition of Sprint closed last July.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2296340/report-deutsche-telekom-agrees-to-sell-tmobile-usa-to-softbank.html#tk.rss_all

 

[Vegastouch]

I wonder how that will affect things. I like the things TMobile is doing and want to also keep using GSM phones. Ive been with TMobile 10 years.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I wonder how that will affect things. I like the things TMobile is doing and want to also keep using GSM phones. Ive been with TMobile 10 years.

Sounds to me like Softbank wants to end its reliance on the bastard network known as CDMA and push to a more worldwide accepted GSM frequency band. With T-Mobile, it can do that. Hopefully, the Sprint side of the house is dumped, because Sprint sucks.

I do hate to see this, as T-Mobile has made a huge turnaround and gained 28 million new subscribers in the last quarter (think it was the last quarter anyway?) I was planning to switch over a few months back, but AT&T matched the T-Mobile offerings (which was something you would not have seen in years past. Competition giving consumers the advantage.)

I really hope we see something good come of this, otherwise I can see AT&T and Verizon treating their customers like second class citizens again.

 

[jamezr]

I wonder how that will affect things. I like the things TMobile is doing and want to also keep using GSM phones. Ive been with TMobile 10 years.

I am curious too......I wonder if they will keep GSM for TMO or change it too CDMA? In Japan the 2 biggest carriers Softbank and Au/KDDI use CDMA.

 

[maflynn]

I wonder what implications this will have for T-Mo's uncarrier program and what headaches it will have for any conversion to GSM. Just look at Sprint when they bought Nextel - would something similar occur?

 

[jamezr]

I wonder what implications this will have for T-Mo's uncarrier program and what headaches it will have for any conversion to GSM. Just look at Sprint when they bought Nextel - would something similar occur?

Lets hope not...that merger was a mess! Hopefully they learned from that.....

 

[Vegastouch]

Not too long ago I did read that Legere will still be running things so that would great. I hope they do stay with GSM because If they don't, that is reason enough for me to switch. And I agree, Sprint does suck and what I had before I went to T-Mobile. I guess that hasn't changed much in 10 years.

 

[pmau]

John Legere will probbaly get a boat-load of money if the deal is sealed.
He made T-Mobile famous and probably gets some sugar coating on his contract to stay.

 

[Fernandez21]

I thought Metro PCS owned the majority of T-Mobile after their merger last year.

 

[gotluck]

Please stay GSM!!

 

[Vegastouch]

I thought Metro PCS owned the majority of T-Mobile after their merger last year.

TMobile bought Metro PCS, not the other way around.

 

[Fernandez21]

TMobile bought Metro PCS, not the other way around.

Ok. I was under the impression that in the merger Metro PCS was the majority shareholder with Duetch Telecom having like a 40% ownership of the new company.

 

[jrswizzle]

Sounds to me like Softbank wants to end its reliance on the bastard network known as CDMA and push to a more worldwide accepted GSM frequency band. With T-Mobile, it can do that. Hopefully, the Sprint side of the house is dumped, because Sprint sucks.

I do hate to see this, as T-Mobile has made a huge turnaround and gained 28 million new subscribers in the last quarter (think it was the last quarter anyway?) I was planning to switch over a few months back, but AT&T matched the T-Mobile offerings (which was something you would not have seen in years past. Competition giving consumers the advantage.)

I really hope we see something good come of this, otherwise I can see AT&T and Verizon treating their customers like second class citizens again.

As an AT&T customer for the last 8 years, I don't feel treated like a second class citizen.....

Just figured I share the other side of the coin.

 

[Sincci]

I am curious too......I wonder if they will keep GSM for TMO or change it too CDMA? In Japan the 2 biggest carriers Softbank and Au/KDDI use CDMA.

Softbank is UMTS (same as NTT Docomo, ATT, T-mobile and pretty much every european carrier), not CDMA. Au/KDDI is the only CDMA operator in Japan.

Personally I don't see any reason for Softbank to switch T-mobile's network to CDMA since it's pretty much dead technology.

 

[Lloydbm41]

As an AT&T customer for the last 8 years, I don't feel treated like a second class citizen.....

Just figured I share the other side of the coin.

I've been with AT&T for the last decade and up until T-Mobile started doing the uncarrier thing, AT&T loved raping its customers of cash. Hell, they didn't even include unlimited texting as part of the data plan. They would just keep nickel and coming you to death, and they only had 3 or 4 plans available. Problem was, if you wanted good coverage nationwide, you had no choice but to stick with ATT or go to Verizon (and they are just as bad.)

 

[jrswizzle]

I've been with AT&T for the last decade and up until T-Mobile started doing the uncarrier thing, AT&T loved raping its customers of cash. Hell, they didn't even include unlimited texting as part of the data plan. They would just keep nickel and coming you to death, and they only had 3 or 4 plans available. Problem was, if you wanted good coverage nationwide, you had no choice but to stick with ATT or go to Verizon (and they are just as bad.)

Been on the same family plan for the last 8 years. Have had unlimited texting as long as I can remember, though with iMessage it's a moot point.

We pay (and have paid) about $400/month for 5 iPhones + 2 iPads. Pretty good I think.

Though I feel the carriers always seem better for those on family plans versus individual plans.

But it's like cable companies. Everyone hates them....and while I've cursed my fair share or cable/telecom companies, sometimes I think they get a bad rap.

Just try to temper my dislike is all. Plenty of people out there who are vocal about their hatred.

 

[khha4113]

Been on the same family plan for the last 8 years. Have had unlimited texting as long as I can remember, though with iMessage it's a moot point.

We pay (and have paid) about $400/month for 5 iPhones + 2 iPads. Pretty good I think.

Though I feel the carriers always seem better for those on family plans versus individual plans.

But it's like cable companies. Everyone hates them....and while I've cursed my fair share or cable/telecom companies, sometimes I think they get a bad rap.

Just try to temper my dislike is all. Plenty of people out there who are vocal about their hatred.

I have 3 smartphones with AT&T and pay less than 1/3 of yours. What is your plan? Mine is 10GB Mobile share with unlimited talk and text.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Been on the same family plan for the last 8 years. Have had unlimited texting as long as I can remember, though with iMessage it's a moot point.

We pay (and have paid) about $400/month for 5 iPhones + 2 iPads. Pretty good I think.

Though I feel the carriers always seem better for those on family plans versus individual plans.

But it's like cable companies. Everyone hates them....and while I've cursed my fair share or cable/telecom companies, sometimes I think they get a bad rap.

Just try to temper my dislike is all. Plenty of people out there who are vocal about their hatred.

Yeah, you could go with the plans that had unlimited texting for $x amount extra, but since I wasn't a texting sort of person, I went with the cheaper plan. Then my kids got older and they only do the texting thing, so I figured I would just get some basic texting of 100 texts a month. ATT wanted $30 for that. Maybe you didn't change plans very often, but over this last decade I've seen ATT and Verizon do some shady stuff. Most recent of this is the Isis b.s., the Nexus 7 LTE row on Verizon and the Lumia 1520 getting degraded for ATT. That is just recent memory.

 

[Fernandez21]

Yeah, you could go with the plans that had unlimited texting for $x amount extra, but since I wasn't a texting sort of person, I went with the cheaper plan. Then my kids got older and they only do the texting thing, so I figured I would just get some basic texting of 100 texts a month. ATT wanted $30 for that. Maybe you didn't change plans very often, but over this last decade I've seen ATT and Verizon do some shady stuff. Most recent of this is the Isis b.s., the Nexus 7 LTE row on Verizon and the Lumia 1520 getting degraded for ATT. That is just recent memory.

The problem is for a single line the price sucks, but for a family line it's much better. For the same $30 you had to pay for one line, I get unlimited texts on 5 lines and unlimited calls to any mobile, no matter the carrier.

 

[Fanaticalism]

Yeah, you could go with the plans that had unlimited texting for $x amount extra, but since I wasn't a texting sort of person, I went with the cheaper plan. Then my kids got older and they only do the texting thing, so I figured I would just get some basic texting of 100 texts a month. ATT wanted $30 for that. Maybe you didn't change plans very often, but over this last decade I've seen ATT and Verizon do some shady stuff. Most recent of this is the Isis b.s., the Nexus 7 LTE row on Verizon and the Lumia 1520 getting degraded for ATT. That is just recent memory.

What happened with Isis?

 

[Lloydbm41]

What happened with Isis?

Verizon and ATT blocked Google Wallet from working on their networks for 2 years while they got their own Isis wallet up and working. It was one of the main reasons for the slow adoption of NFC payments and Google Wallet. This is the anti-competitive crap that would never be tolerated in Europe.
Now, we see ATT going with the PMA version of wireless charging on the Lumia 1520 (unlike every other Lumia 1520 in the world and every Nokia phone capable of wireless charging AT&T sells which use Qi), which screwed many people like me over. (To top that off, they refused to sell the charging plate needed to even get the wireless charging to work!)

 

[Fanaticalism]

Verizon and ATT blocked Google Wallet from working on their networks for 2 years while they got their own Isis wallet up and working. It was one of the main reasons for the slow adoption of NFC payments and Google Wallet. This is the anti-competitive crap that would never be tolerated in Europe.
Now, we see ATT going with the PMA version of wireless charging on the Lumia 1520 (unlike every other Lumia 1520 in the world and every Nokia phone capable of wireless charging AT&T sells which use Qi), which screwed many people like me over. (To top that off, they refused to sell the charging plate needed to even get the wireless charging to work!)

Thanks, I was not aware of this.

 

[Vegastouch]

Been on the same family plan for the last 8 years. Have had unlimited texting as long as I can remember, though with iMessage it's a moot point.

We pay (and have paid) about $400/month for 5 iPhones + 2 iPads. Pretty good I think.

Though I feel the carriers always seem better for those on family plans versus individual plans.

But it's like cable companies. Everyone hates them....and while I've cursed my fair share or cable/telecom companies, sometimes I think they get a bad rap.

Just try to temper my dislike is all. Plenty of people out there who are vocal about their hatred.

That sounds pretty high to me.

 

[Technarchy]

Just say no to cdma!

 

[Vegastouch]

Isnt Verizon CDMA? Though i have seen some mention popping in a SIM card but i assume that is for world phones or something that i obviously dont know about. I havent paid any attention to Verizon. Not interested in them at all.