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I don't follow this industry at all, so I'm out of the loop. Are you saying Sprint could not have possibly reversed course? (E.g. through pricing or even new le

by bogwog 2y ago

I don't follow this industry at all, so I'm out of the loop. Are you saying Sprint could not have possibly reversed course? (E.g. through pricing or even new leadership) Sometimes when companies are trying to merge, executives from both sides will come out and say it's "necessary" and push the narrative that one or both will go bankrupt without the merger. In cases where that strategy doesn't work it, unsurprisingly, turns out to be a lie. The companies will just keep competing and figure out a way to operating as usual. (I remember reading not-too-long-ago about an example of this exact thing, but don't remember what it was) So personally, I don't trust anything a business says when a merger is on the table.

TheAmazingRace 2y ago
To be frank, I thought the merger was necessary at the time as a lowly shareholder, only a few dozen shares at best, based on what I could tell on financial reports. I really wanted Sprint to not be a complete mess and be strong again, but they made way too many boneheaded decisions back in the day and the chickens were coming home to roost.
nradov 2y ago
Sprint could not have possibly reversed course because they had already wasted too much capital on a failed WiMax network and couldn't afford to build a competitive nationwide 5G network. Their options for raising more capital weren't looking good. New leadership or a different pricing model wouldn't have changed that reality.
briffle 2y ago
if memory serves, Sprint had huge debts racked up from buying Nextel, as well as buying massive amounts of spectrum for WiMAX. They also purchased Clearwire. But WiMax never actually happened, everyone went to LTE, so sprint did as well. The main reason they were attractive to T-Mobile is that large amount of spectrum they owned, which was very valuble for 5G. https://www.rcrwireless.com/20160401/featured/worst-week-bold-look-back-sprint-wimax-network-tag2 https://www.rcrwireless.com/20160401/featured/worst-week-bol...
- sumoboy 2y ago
  A huge costly mistake for Sprint trying to grow subscribers. Nextel's network was incompatible with Sprints, just a ton of business and technical issues. Sprint was always trying to be on the forefront of technology whether wireless or fiber. They spent a ton money on a project called ION that was last mile fiber to businesses, ahead of there time but a ton of costs actually laying down fiber doomed it. Poor timing for a lot of ideas and projects I saw. Source: ex-sprint emp.

by bogwog 2y ago

TheAmazingRace 2y ago

To be frank, I thought the merger was necessary at the time as a lowly shareholder, only a few dozen shares at best, based on what I could tell on financial reports. I really wanted Sprint to not be a complete mess and be strong again, but they made way too many boneheaded decisions back in the day and the chickens were coming home to roost.

nradov 2y ago

Sprint could not have possibly reversed course because they had already wasted too much capital on a failed WiMax network and couldn't afford to build a competitive nationwide 5G network. Their options for raising more capital weren't looking good. New leadership or a different pricing model wouldn't have changed that reality.

briffle 2y ago

if memory serves, Sprint had huge debts racked up from buying Nextel, as well as buying massive amounts of spectrum for WiMAX. They also purchased Clearwire. But WiMax never actually happened, everyone went to LTE, so sprint did as well. The main reason they were attractive to T-Mobile is that large amount of spectrum they owned, which was very valuble for 5G. https://www.rcrwireless.com/20160401/featured/worst-week-bold-look-back-sprint-wimax-network-tag2 https://www.rcrwireless.com/20160401/featured/worst-week-bol...

sumoboy 2y ago
A huge costly mistake for Sprint trying to grow subscribers. Nextel's network was incompatible with Sprints, just a ton of business and technical issues. Sprint was always trying to be on the forefront of technology whether wireless or fiber. They spent a ton money on a project called ION that was last mile fiber to businesses, ahead of there time but a ton of costs actually laying down fiber doomed it. Poor timing for a lot of ideas and projects I saw. Source: ex-sprint emp.