For some reason, AT&T’s Galaxy Note Edge is costing consumers $105.99 more than the Sprint version, yet Sprint’s version sells for $40 more on-contract.
French Telecom Company Iliad Pulls T-Mobile Offer
French telecom company Iliad today announced their intention to pull their second offer for the acquisition of T-Mobile from parent company Deutsche Telecom
Sprint to Dump T-Mobile Bid and Replace CEO
Today is not a good day in Sprint land as according to a report the Wall Street Journal, the company’s board of directors has voted to abandon the acquisition of T-Mobile USA amid insurmountable regulatory hurdles. Sprint originally made an offer to buy T-Mobile USA to the tune of $32 billion dollars with the parent company of Sprint, Softbank, leading the negotiations and discussions about where the combined company would move post-merger. The problem with this deal was that it was met with a lot of regulatory concern from virtually every single governmental agency involved, not to mention tons of public outcry. The Department of Justice (DOJ),
T-Mobile US Gets Offer from Iliad for $15 Billion
A French telecom company roughly 1/6th the size of T-Mobile US (in revenue and about 1/2 by market cap), by the name of Iliad has just put up an offer to buy 56% of T-Mobile US for an approximate $15 billion in cash. This would theoretically still leave some shares of T-Mobile US in Deutsche Telecom’s hands, but would mostly wash them of the company and give them cash (instead of a mixture of cash and shares, which is what Sprint is supposedly offering). As of right now, there are still no official figures for the T-Mobile/Sprint merger deal, so we don’t exactly know what T-Mobile
Virgin Mobile Laughs Away Net Neutrality with New Plans
As if Sprint wasn’t already fairly out of touch with their consumers, they’ve once again found a way to make it clear that they are. This time, they have done it through a series of new plans through one of their prepaid subsidiaries, Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile is one of Sprint’s prepaid subsidiaries, including Boost Mobile as well, that has recently undergone some plan pricing changes in order to try to attract consumers amid competition from T-Mobile which has forced other carriers to be more competitive with their plans as well. Since Sprint’s adjustment of Boost Mobile’s plans, it makes sense that Sprint would also
Sprint and T-Mobile Tentatively Agree to $32 Billion Deal
Once again, the T-Mobile and Sprint deal continues to move forward now that we have an actual purchase price. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the general terms of the deal between Sprint and T-Mobile have been worked out and that the two companies have agreed to a $32 billion sale of T-Mobile, which actually seems a bit low when you consider that T-Mobile’s current market cap is $27 billion and they are getting a mere 20% premium over their current price. This deal has gotten a lot of regulatory flak before it ever happened and will likely continue to as the two companies try
T-Mobile Overtakes Sprint as No.3 Buyer of Smartphones in US
Since most people’s contracts are usually 2 years long, you don’t usually see any significant movements of subscribers from one carrier to another. They happen slowly and quarterly, after all, it would take at least 8 quarters for a company to theoretically lose all of their subscribers if every single person wanted to leave. So, it comes as little surprise that Sprint still holds the numbers 3 spot in terms of subscribers when compared to T-Mobile. Based on T-Mobile’s last earnings call, they ended the first quarter of this year up 2.4 million with nearly 50 million customers, coming ever closer to Sprint’s 54 million.
T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon are Launching VoLTE This Week
T-Mobile is the first to roll out their VoLTE network starting with Seattle today, followed by AT&T and Verizon tomorrow. However, these are not nation-wide deployments as they will be slowly rolling VoLTE (Voice over LTE) out slowly across their networks in very specific markets little by little, eventually reaching full network saturation. Additionally, it appears as though there are only certain devices on each network that will be able to utilize VoLTE and those devices also vary from carrier to carrier. But ultimately, the good thing about VoLTE deployments is that it does mean that users on all three carriers will be able to
Boost Mobile Introduces $40 "Unlimited" Plan, Thanks T-Mobile
Boost Mobile, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint, today announced that they would be offering new plans for those looking to get cheaper unlimited pricing. Boost Mobile has traditionally been Sprint’s budget carrier offering, offering cheaper devices and cheaper plans, so it comes as no surprise that they are now coming out with an offering designed to compete with T-Mobile’s latest ultra-cheap offerings. However, keep in mind that Boost Mobile is Sprint’s biggest pre-paid user base, which does not help with post-paid numbers but does ultimately affect the bottom line. In the past, Boost Mobile offered users to lower their bills by $10 a month
Kill Switch for Smartphones Bill Dies in California Legislature
Back in February California State Senator Mark Leno proposed a smartphone kill switch in conjunction with multiple law enforcement agencies and the smartphone carriers. While they claimed that this bill would reduce smartphone theft and crimes that result from attempted smartphone theft, it really would give absolute power into the hands of the carriers in ways that would overstep consumers’ rights. Sure, smartphone theft is an increasing form of theft, but the amount of smartphones out there relative to the amount of smartphone thefts is minuscule. But according to CNET, the bill died in the California State Senate because it would be ‘bad for business’
