T-Mobile, MetroPCS Merger Very Close > Good

Good

You don't really just need 3 providers. You can keep a 4th and the forth can be the discount provider that has no contracts, offers customers discounts for bringing their own phones, including the iPhone and actually giving directions on how to set it up. Who ever is in number 4 will be that carrier. But with Sprint itself it is going to need to change the way it does busienss. by them raising their prices even after they cried about not being able to compete against TMO-USA/AT&T Mobility. And now they're telling people they are considering charging extra for their LTE network. That will NOT keep people happy, even regardless if they offer unlimited data. What is next with them, overages and shared plans? I wouldn't doubt it at this point, especially when they have a HUGE network build out to pay for.

Sprint is designed as a growth company, like all of Craig McCaw's other companies.

The problem is that the wireless industry is starting to saturate. Once the growth in data plans ends, the players will only be able to grow by taking customers from each other.

At that point, Sprint's lack of profitability and high debt load will really put it at a disadvantage against the other national carriers. This is especially true with an enlarged T-Mobile.

And that is their problem- money. Sprint will run out of it and fast if they don't find something to get customers. the iPhone will only last for so long. Once TMO starts rolling out their HSPA fully they'll be taking iPhone5 customers from AT&T and alike. People will be shopping on price and nobody but TMO is set up for that. Sprint think's they're better than TMO when it comes to pricing, when in reality, they're NOT a ATT Mobility or CellCo style of company.

Sprint will end up being an MVNOE and moving on that side. It would make sense for them with all of the MVNOs they currently have using their network. The only other option would be them selling out and the owners of TracFone taking over, and turning them into a true discount provider.

Hell- As of today Straight Talk is now using the Sprint Home Device and giving away home phone for $15 a month with EVERYTHING included, $20/30 will net you international calling on a home phone. Something Sprint would never do.

reply to Linklist
T-mobile has the advantage here because of the current 3G network in place. Even if they couldn't upgrade towards LTE the fact that I can pull up to 20Mbps on a HTC One S and 8Mbps on a Galaxy Nexus unlocked proves that the investment they did towards their 3G network has paid off with real world results. Sprint who has EVDO cannot provide such speeds without a large investment towards infrastructure and with the many changes from Nextel too Clearwire and now LTE. This caused Sprint to lose money and in the process question the overall thought process based on those decisions.

Althought Sprint Vision sounds great, this has been on the board since the Nextel merger and only now they are actually talking about some kind of deployment towards that idea.

Sprint will be forced too upgrade towards LTE for data speeds too even keep up with T-mobile's 3G network.

If we exclude data speeds from this equation then a more equal footing will be coverage. I believe Sprint has more coverage than T-mobile and I also make the assumption that they do have a roaming agreement with Verizon for 1XRTT.

Once again I would prefer T-mobile too improve coverage over speeds. One can argue that coverage and speed goes hand in hand but what matters most is still it's primary function and that's a phone.

So with that said....at this time T-mobile has the advantage and Sprint will need to reorganize itself before it can make any progress which will make any progress slow and painful.

The merger with MetroPCS will assist T-mobile with prepaid accounts and damage Sprint's MVNOs in the process because of data speeds.