5 ms·

Good luck with that. I'm pretty sure that it has been the case in 99% of scenarios were consolidation always ended up in a shittier experience for the consumer

by adoxyz 3y ago

Good luck with that. I'm pretty sure that it has been the case in 99% of scenarios were consolidation always ended up in a shittier experience for the consumer and employees regardless of the promises the merging companies made. But money talks at the end of the day.

akira2501 3y ago
> But money talks at the end of the day. The whole reason to form the monopoly is to extract that money from the citizens. They have the money, the players merely want it. So, no.. apparently the money does not talk at the end of the day. Corruption clearly does.
scarface_74 3y ago
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.
  - 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.
  - 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
- 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?
onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
I tend to agree. But it's pretty difficult to prove any of this, because you don't know what would have happened if there wasn't a merger.
- akira2501 3y ago
  > because you don't know what would have happened if there wasn't a merger. Yea.. but "not merging" isn't something that had to be approved by the DOJ. It's a false equivalence.

by adoxyz 3y ago

akira2501 3y ago

> But money talks at the end of the day. The whole reason to form the monopoly is to extract that money from the citizens. They have the money, the players merely want it. So, no.. apparently the money does not talk at the end of the day. Corruption clearly does.

scarface_74 3y ago

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.
- 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.
- 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
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?

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago

I tend to agree. But it's pretty difficult to prove any of this, because you don't know what would have happened if there wasn't a merger.

akira2501 3y ago
> because you don't know what would have happened if there wasn't a merger. Yea.. but "not merging" isn't something that had to be approved by the DOJ. It's a false equivalence.