T-Mobile looking to raise money to buy more spectrum

posted by Michael H. / Nov 18, 2013, 6:12 PM

T-Mobile looking to raise money to buy more spectrum

T-Mobile is still in last place out of the big four wireless carriers in the U.S., but it has been making some big moves recently. It's multi-staged Uncarrier movement has helped the company start to add subscribers after a long string of continuously losing customers. Now, it looks as though the company wants to beef up its service by purchasing more wireless spectrum.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile is looking to sell $2 billion in debt, and has said in a recent regulatory filing that the revenue from the sale could be put to use in a number of ways. But, that same filing also said that T-Mobile is "currently considering an acquisition of spectrum from a private party." This statement is very similar to what T-Mobile wrote in another recent regulatory filing regarding the $1.8 billion that the company had made by selling stock last week.

With about $3.8 billion at its disposal, T-Mobile should be able to pick up a good amount of spectrum, but as yet there is no word on when T-Mobile would be spending the money, or if it is planning to raise even more money first before going through with a purchase.

source: WSJ

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18 Comments

1. Shatter

Posts: 2036; Member since: May 29, 2013

All the Sprint users are jumping ship to tmobile and Verizon. After Tmobile finishes upgrading their coverage the other 2 carriers will be forced to drop prices or start losing tons of $.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 6:23 PM 7

6. JC557

Posts: 1919; Member since: Dec 07, 2011

I would like to see T-Mobile grow larger without the bloat. Of course if they do get the spectrum it will take some time before any towers are built due to local ordinances/ regulations and inspections of sites.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 7:01 PM 1

8. lsutigers

Posts: 832; Member since: Mar 08, 2009

Except as T-Mobile upgrades their network the big 3 are upgrading just as quickly and TMO still has the least amount of coverage which is very important to most people. Even though TMO just beat out the big 3 in terms of speed, without coverage you can only go so far. If TMO expanded their coverage area to where AT&T/Sprint are at least I would switch from Verizon but unfortunately, I have seen their network perform dead slow on 2G / Edge or no coverage at all when you travel away from metro areas / interstates.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 7:50 PM 0

17. JDogg5281

Posts: 74; Member since: Aug 09, 2012

There is nothing fast about how Sprint is upgrading. T-mobile has to mostly catch up with AT&T and Verizon. Im not putting Sprint in the same breathe as those two. Not to mention Tmobile's edge is just as fast as Sprints 3g....ohhh and lets not forget T-mobile has more 4G LTE than Sprint.

posted on Nov 19, 2013, 10:36 AM 0

18. lsutigers

Posts: 832; Member since: Mar 08, 2009

Your post in not accurate. First of all, you can't compare what Sprint is doing with Network Vision upgrades to what the other 3 carriers are doing, not an excuse, just the facts. Sprint is doing a complete network overhaul from the ground up, every tower, every piece of network gear on site (antennas, cabinets, servers, etc.) Secondly, Verizon has a huge lead on LTE deployment nationwide, AT&T is a distant second and TMO is a little ahead of Sprint, but again, you can't compare what Sprint is doing to TMO's upgrades due to the enormous scope of work involved with Sprint Network Vision upgrades. Third, Sprint's upgraded 3G blows TMO's 2G / Edge out of the water as well as Verizon's 3G. Sprint's new 3G service runs 1.5 - 2.6 mbps which is fast enough for most mobile phone usage, including web browsing, Youtube videos, etc. Just because TMO is a little ahead of Sprint on the LTE deployment timeline still does not give it the much needed coverage of Sprint and AT&T, not to mention Verizon.

posted on Nov 19, 2013, 9:01 PM 0

20. _PHug_

Posts: 482; Member since: Oct 11, 2011

Why are you trying to compare Sprint's upgraded 3G to Tmobile's 2G? The fair comparison is Sprint's 1X to TMO's 2G Sprint's 3G to TMO's HSPA & HSPA+ Sprint's LTE to TMO's LTE I just left Sprint's network because I moved to a new state and Sprint's network was either 1x or 1 to 2 bars of 3G here. I switched to TMO's $30 per month 5GB plan and I get a CONSTANT 4G (HSPA+) @ 9 mbs down or 4G LTE @ 18 - 20 mbs down for less money. My brother is getting 30mbs down on Verizon when we do a side by side speed test but he is paying more for his grandfathered unlimited plan.

posted on Nov 19, 2013, 9:58 PM 0

2. Zero0

Posts: 592; Member since: Jul 05, 2012

A touch more AWS wouldn't hurt, but I'd still love for T-Mobile to bide their time for the 600MHz auction. Then again, who knows if that's even happening yet?

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 6:30 PM 0

3. mike2959

Posts: 696; Member since: Oct 08, 2011

The infrastructure of AT&T and Verizon is massive compared to Sprint and TMO. Sprint and TMO cannot seem to find themselves, always up for sale, parent companies don't want them anymore etc. Sprint cannot get a exclusive to anything but a flip phone, and doesn't know which direction to turn when it comes to technology.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 6:31 PM 2

5. Pattycakes

Posts: 22; Member since: Oct 20, 2013

Actually AT&T wanted T-Mobile, but Sprint argued it would remove competition in the United States. So, the government ended up saying no to the merger. Otherwise AT&T would be the top Cellular Network in the USA.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 6:53 PM 1

7. JC557

Posts: 1919; Member since: Dec 07, 2011

And look where Sprint is now... Still T-Mobile is doing pretty good for itself without AT&T. If they keep it up they will become quite a competitor in the US market.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 7:03 PM 3

9. lsutigers

Posts: 832; Member since: Mar 08, 2009

Sprint / T-Mobile merger is the next step. Both company's CFO's have talked about it being the natural progression step but I don't think it will happen until 2015 when carriers networks are mostly upgraded.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 7:54 PM 0

11. JewBakaUCFG

Posts: 176; Member since: Sep 25, 2012

CDMA and GSM networks are about as much of a natural progression as CDMA and IDEN

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 9:44 PM 0

13. lsutigers

Posts: 832; Member since: Mar 08, 2009

Well all carriers are going LTE which is a GSM based technology and CDMA carriers will eventually carry voice traffic on their LTE network via VoLTE. Sprint and Verizon will mostly use CDMA to keep enterprise M2M customers happy with 3G services and will eventually phase it out and migrate everyone over to LTE until the next 5G standard is announced. So basically, the issue will not be CDMA vs. GSM or iDEN. Everyone is going LTE, and the biggest hurdle was the use of different bands but that has proven to be a non-issue as today Qualcomm can pack a ton of bands, including TDD and FDD LTE into a single SOC.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 9:58 PM 1

15. JDogg5281

Posts: 74; Member since: Aug 09, 2012

Will never happen. As we have seen with the failed AT&T merger it would remove some competion. You think AT&T would let this happen after how hard Sprint tried to crush the AT&T merger with TMobile

posted on Nov 19, 2013, 7:34 AM 0

19. lsutigers

Posts: 832; Member since: Mar 08, 2009

Actually if you look at overall coverage footprint areas nationwide, Verizon is way ahead of everyone, AT&T and Sprint are second and close to each other and T-Mobile is a distant fourth. You can't even begin to compare Sprint and T-Mobile COVERAGE areas. Sprint's network COVERAGE footprint is much bigger than TMO's and close to AT&T's.

posted on Nov 19, 2013, 9:08 PM 0

4. Pattycakes

Posts: 22; Member since: Oct 20, 2013

Reasons why I like t-mobile. 1. They offer worldwide coverage even if it's 2g it's good. I travel so it's a really good deal for me. 2. They don't charge over if you go over your data limit, they just slow it down. 3. Pre-Paid so I can upgrade anytime.

posted on Nov 18, 2013, 6:51 PM 4

10. Kreft

Posts: 84; Member since: Dec 27, 2012

Yeah yeah yeah. That's all good and well but who can wait that long. I'll be switching from T-Mobile to ATT in not too long and and am actually excited for the change. I can't put up with T-Mobile for too much longer.