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And the alternative was that Sprint would have gone out of business. Sprint hadn’t made money in over a decade

ewoodrich 3y ago
My brief experience with Sprint a couple years before the T-Mobile merger had basically unusable coverage. Was genuinely surprised how far it had fallen.
- whaleofatw2022 3y ago
  They stopped maintenance on some cell sites in anticipation of selling to 'anyone'. Source: used to deal with permits for them in a metro area.
  - no_wizard 3y ago
    except Dish network, because they tried multiple times[0] Ultimately they got some assets in the merger though [0]: https://www.cnbc.com/id/100637184 https://www.cnbc.com/id/100637184
- yborg 3y ago
  And T-Mo inherited all that and is now the bottom feeder. It's just a matter of time before one of the other two merges with them to "increase customer value and create jobs".
  - rnk 3y ago
    yields of course layoffs. Tmobile has been laying off people with the reason being overlap between the companies.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    T-Mobile acquired both Sprint and MetroPCS to increase their spectrum allocation. I literally travel all over the country and don’t have an issue with T-mobiles service Right now I am in small town south GA and getting 120/40 on cellular.
    - kulahan 3y ago
      Meanwhile I live in a city of 300k people about a mile away from the capitol building and I can't get cell access when on the incorrect side of the BK down the road.
  - S201 3y ago
    Anecdotal: I've been quite happy with T-Mobile's coverage for many years now. At least where I'm at they have just as good, if not better, coverage than Verizon does.
    - Arrath 3y ago
      I was quite happy with T-Mobile's service for the last 5 years, in that I had no signal at all at my house and my work phone was, conveniently, T-Mobile! The universe enforced me being unreachable outside of work hours and I didn't mind that at all.
  - wannacboatmovie 3y ago
    "Bottom feeder" is a funny way to describe the only carrier in the US with a realistically functioning 5G network.
johnnyanmac 3y ago
Probably not a surprising fact, but fun fact: Sprint tried buying t-mobile first and it was blocked by courts. It was quite surprising to hear it happening the other way around since I thought Sprint was always larger than T-Mobile. But yes, the nextel merger and the bad gamble with wiMax definitely sunk them long term.
- astura 3y ago
  AT&T was blocked from buying T-Mobile, not Sprint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_purchase_of_T-Mobile_USA_by_AT%26T https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_purchase_of_T-Mobile...
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    Both happened: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merger_of_Sprint_Corporation_and_T-Mobile_US https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merger_of_Sprint_Corporation... >In December 2013, multiple reports indicated that Sprint Corporation and its parent company SoftBank were working towards a deal to acquire a majority stake in T-Mobile US for at least US$20 billion...On August 4, 2014, Bloomberg reported that Sprint had abandoned its bid to acquire T-Mobile, considering the unlikelihood that such a deal would be approved by the U.S. government and its regulators I guess saying it got blocked is subtly inaccurate, though. They simply stopped because they weren't confident in getting through antitrust.
    - mschuster91 3y ago
      > Sprint Corporation and its parent company SoftBank Why am I not surprised to see that name. Is there anything that SoftBank touched that's not a complete failure? What the fuck have they been doing besides burning Saudi oil sheik money?

My brief experience with Sprint a couple years before the T-Mobile merger had basically unusable coverage. Was genuinely surprised how far it had fallen.

whaleofatw2022 3y ago
They stopped maintenance on some cell sites in anticipation of selling to 'anyone'. Source: used to deal with permits for them in a metro area.
- no_wizard 3y ago
  except Dish network, because they tried multiple times[0] Ultimately they got some assets in the merger though [0]: https://www.cnbc.com/id/100637184 https://www.cnbc.com/id/100637184
yborg 3y ago
And T-Mo inherited all that and is now the bottom feeder. It's just a matter of time before one of the other two merges with them to "increase customer value and create jobs".
- rnk 3y ago
  yields of course layoffs. Tmobile has been laying off people with the reason being overlap between the companies.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  T-Mobile acquired both Sprint and MetroPCS to increase their spectrum allocation. I literally travel all over the country and don’t have an issue with T-mobiles service Right now I am in small town south GA and getting 120/40 on cellular.
  - kulahan 3y ago
    Meanwhile I live in a city of 300k people about a mile away from the capitol building and I can't get cell access when on the incorrect side of the BK down the road.
- S201 3y ago
  Anecdotal: I've been quite happy with T-Mobile's coverage for many years now. At least where I'm at they have just as good, if not better, coverage than Verizon does.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    I was quite happy with T-Mobile's service for the last 5 years, in that I had no signal at all at my house and my work phone was, conveniently, T-Mobile! The universe enforced me being unreachable outside of work hours and I didn't mind that at all.
- wannacboatmovie 3y ago
  "Bottom feeder" is a funny way to describe the only carrier in the US with a realistically functioning 5G network.

johnnyanmac 3y ago

Probably not a surprising fact, but fun fact: Sprint tried buying t-mobile first and it was blocked by courts. It was quite surprising to hear it happening the other way around since I thought Sprint was always larger than T-Mobile. But yes, the nextel merger and the bad gamble with wiMax definitely sunk them long term.

astura 3y ago
AT&T was blocked from buying T-Mobile, not Sprint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_purchase_of_T-Mobile_USA_by_AT%26T https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_purchase_of_T-Mobile...
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  Both happened: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merger_of_Sprint_Corporation_and_T-Mobile_US https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merger_of_Sprint_Corporation... >In December 2013, multiple reports indicated that Sprint Corporation and its parent company SoftBank were working towards a deal to acquire a majority stake in T-Mobile US for at least US$20 billion...On August 4, 2014, Bloomberg reported that Sprint had abandoned its bid to acquire T-Mobile, considering the unlikelihood that such a deal would be approved by the U.S. government and its regulators I guess saying it got blocked is subtly inaccurate, though. They simply stopped because they weren't confident in getting through antitrust.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    > Sprint Corporation and its parent company SoftBank Why am I not surprised to see that name. Is there anything that SoftBank touched that's not a complete failure? What the fuck have they been doing besides burning Saudi oil sheik money?