T-Mobile looking to raise money to buy more spectrum

6. JC557 (Posts: 1788; Member since: 07 Dec 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.

8. lsutigers (Posts: 821; Member since: 08 Mar 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.

17. JDogg5281 (Posts: 73; Member since: 09 Aug 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.

18. lsutigers (Posts: 821; Member since: 08 Mar 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.

20. _PHug_ (Posts: 463; Member since: 11 Oct 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.

5. Pattycakes (Posts: 22; Member since: 20 Oct 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.

7. JC557 (Posts: 1788; Member since: 07 Dec 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.

9. lsutigers (Posts: 821; Member since: 08 Mar 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.

11. JewBakaUCFG (Posts: 176; Member since: 25 Sep 2012)

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

13. lsutigers (Posts: 821; Member since: 08 Mar 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.

15. JDogg5281 (Posts: 73; Member since: 09 Aug 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

19. lsutigers (Posts: 821; Member since: 08 Mar 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.