http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/30/56695 ... ne-or-july
I guess if they combined networks, you could end up with the best of Sprint + T-Mo coverage and vastly improved speeds. But I'm not so optimistic. And I don't think much of Sprint (would be my last choice for a big-4 carrier).
Sprint reported to be preparing offer to buy T-Mobile
Re: Sprint reported to be preparing offer to buy T-Mobile
http://windowsitpro.com/paul-thurrotts- ... ion-merger
Getting closer to happening. From a DOJ standpoint, is it better for the health of the business environment to have the "big four" where T-Mobile and Sprint are in distant 3rd and 4th place to Verizon and AT&T? Or is it better for the the 3rd and 4th to merge into a 3rd place competitor that is actually....competitive? I'm thinking possibly the latter. That's on paper. How the networks would actually work, I don't know. Everything Sprint has done since the WiMax 4G days has basically been utter trash. T-Mobile on the other hand has made more progress than any of the carriers, imo. The simplistic way I see it is possibly that T-Mo coverage could improve (and Sprint speeds could improve) but T-Mo speeds could slow down.
Getting closer to happening. From a DOJ standpoint, is it better for the health of the business environment to have the "big four" where T-Mobile and Sprint are in distant 3rd and 4th place to Verizon and AT&T? Or is it better for the the 3rd and 4th to merge into a 3rd place competitor that is actually....competitive? I'm thinking possibly the latter. That's on paper. How the networks would actually work, I don't know. Everything Sprint has done since the WiMax 4G days has basically been utter trash. T-Mobile on the other hand has made more progress than any of the carriers, imo. The simplistic way I see it is possibly that T-Mo coverage could improve (and Sprint speeds could improve) but T-Mo speeds could slow down.
Re: Sprint reported to be preparing offer to buy T-Mobile
The big issue is the two cell networks are built on different technologies. Sprint uses CDMA while T-Mobile uses GSM. Unless we all get multi-radio phones, or they convert one of the networks over, this will be an issue. They couldn't really convert one network w/o since all the phones using it would no longer work.
What this would likely mean short term is T-Sprint would need to operate both networks while rolling out yet another LTE network. Then some people would need to buy new phones to use it.
Everyone talks about the business aspects of this merger/acquisition, but no one covers the technical details. Probably there are only 3 people that care.
What this would likely mean short term is T-Sprint would need to operate both networks while rolling out yet another LTE network. Then some people would need to buy new phones to use it.
Everyone talks about the business aspects of this merger/acquisition, but no one covers the technical details. Probably there are only 3 people that care.
Re: Sprint reported to be preparing offer to buy T-Mobile
Multi-radio phones are possible today, but I'm not sure they're designed to switch between GSM/CDMA. I think the future would be VoLTE, ditching all legacy CDMA and GSM networks for calling. Then LTE-A for datas?
As far as technology discussions, I understand anecdotally that CDMA is better for the expansive US market, and may be better at cell-to-cell handoff. CDMA has nothing like HSPA, so any CDMA carrier is hopeless without LTE (or WiMAX). There's also the spectrum/band discussion. Lower frequencies seem to have better building penetration and overall coverage, but both Sprint and T-Mo seem to have a lot of higher frequency spectrum.
As far as technology discussions, I understand anecdotally that CDMA is better for the expansive US market, and may be better at cell-to-cell handoff. CDMA has nothing like HSPA, so any CDMA carrier is hopeless without LTE (or WiMAX). There's also the spectrum/band discussion. Lower frequencies seem to have better building penetration and overall coverage, but both Sprint and T-Mo seem to have a lot of higher frequency spectrum.