daddydogg_00 said:
Well the possbility has been brought up of it going the other way and their are ways it would be synergistic for both companies but T-Mobile does not have the resources to buy out anybody really and will not buy out Alltel.

Not to mention there been talk of t-mobile being put up on the block.

As an alltel stock holder and despite the network difference I still like alltels chances as a national carrier if their was some kind of merger. Alltel competes with T-Mobile in so few markets it would works nicely and give alltel presence in large cities which it does not have natively now!

T mobile has alot of resources being backed up by the second largest carrier in the world. DT

Tmobile83 said:
T mobile has alot of resources being backed up by the second largest carrier in the world. DT

Yeah but their is talk of them dumping the US part of the company. Maybe Alltell will buy t-mobile. 🤣 🤣 😛

Whats even funnier is that T mobile USA makes DT the most money. That would be a cut throat deal unless it is cheaper then upgrading. Oh by the way how is Alltel coming along on their 3G network.

Pretty well three cities have EVDO Tampa, Cleveland, and Lansing with Little rock atest market and Pretty sure at least Phoenix and Charlotte will have it by years end.

You are right about the DT thing but T-Mobile has a lot of debt and needs to spend a lot of money to upgrade so it might be more cost effective to sell and take the lumps now. T-Mobile has been pretty profitable but it seems they have no intentions of getting a higher Arpu or getting higher data packages involved so PERSONALLY in my humble opinion I think they will struggle financially in the long haul with the current setup even if they keep bagging new customers at the current rate!

daddydogg_00 said:
You are right about the DT thing but T-Mobile has a lot of debt and needs to spend a lot of money to upgrade so it might be more cost effective to sell and take the lumps now. T-Mobile has been pretty profitable but it seems they have no intentions of getting a higher Arpu or getting higher data packages involved so PERSONALLY in my humble opinion I think they will struggle financially in the long haul with the current setup even if they keep bagging new customers at the current rate!

I have to agree and once they try to raise their arpu their customers may drop like flies. I say this because of their spotty coverage. I know some t-Mobile reps fans say how they get some of cingulars ...
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I heard that Cingular will keep network share for another 3 years. T mobile does have a larger network then Alltel so I think that network size is not all that important. If you look at Alltel they don't have all that great of plans or services and they stay a float in a this rapidly changing world of telecoms. I'm not saying that Alltel sucks cause for those regional customers they are probably pretty good.

Honestly with the Western Wireless purchase has the most square miles of native coverage of alll the carriers and they have some of the most competitive plans in the industry. Maybe not T-Mobile but better than many others. Alltel wants to be a major carrier. Alltel also has started 3G EVDO and has a very good network in the areas it operates in. They are very competitive in the markets they operate in.

Yeah I think it will be interesting to see what happens to Alltel over time. In five years they may be a tier one carrier like T mobile is. This will only happen if they can get even more spectrum though, either by buying out someone or in an auction.

Yea, it seems interesting, however, I think tmobile USA should spend its money in other ways such as buy some spectrum, and spend more on their capex. Right now, they have a debt not including share options of $11 billion dollars and that has increased over a year period, which worries me. I think that tmobile USA should not focus on any acquisitions but continue to focus on their core and focus growing organically instead of buy purchases. That is just my view though.

What is meant by Capex? never heard it before?

Sorry, loll, capex is capital expenditures how much a company pays for their network.

Yes, you are 100 percent correct that tmobile USA needs spectrum, to increase their network, however, they need 3g spectrum, and I am not sure if Alltel has that kind of spectrum. (Could be wrong though) I just think that they should not buy out Alltel and just try to get a niche market and to target them and try to win some spectrum (3g) when the FCC auctions it, and just stick with that.

Very god point but that is an IF they may not get the ammount of spectrum they need from the auction Im not sure how many MHZ they need but in the auction thier will only be 70Mhz of spectrum up for bids and not all of that will be up for grabs by tier 1 carriers some of it will be devided between regionals and locals.

See that is why I don’t like Tmobile USA’s position right now, is because they need the new spectrum to launch 3g products and they need to fix their network coverage wise. They have a few problems, which I hope they can fix it. in addition, if they will be able to bid during the auction wouldn’t it be smart by the other cell phone carriers to bid on the spectrum or make the bids so high that tmobile usa would be forced to buy it at a higher price so that it would hurt tmobile usa even more? That is the problem and everyone knows that tmobile USA needs 3g spectrum and they are ready to make tmobile USA pay a lot more then what its worth just like voda did with cingular and att wireless.

Seems like in July or august 2006 the FCC will a...
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I think that T mobile will get more spectrum but maybe not as much as they need. Their not on a bad track right now offering EDGE in a few months. It may not be 3G but it is real close with data rates around 90Kbs. It may be enough speed to keep their customers satisfied for a while. They do need to put 3G on back burner and keep their focus on cheaper rate plans and data plans. People still use dial up because it is affordable the same can go with EDGE. If you make it cheap enough people will buy it. T mobiles focus on the younger market might be what saves them by offering more ring tones and games and getting hip phones. Im certainly no financial analyst but I do enjoy having this discussion

Interesting points.

Where do you think tmobile USA will try to get spectrum, Rural or city and why?

Yes, but what if edge is $50 bucks or so, and you had an opportunity to pay a little bit higher for cable internet and/or wireless broadband wouldn’t you want to for the money to get the one with more speeds?

“T mobiles focus on the younger market might be what saves them by offering more ring tones and games and getting hip phones.”

Very interesting, but what about the prepaid products?

I enjoy this conversation too. 🙂

T mobile will most likely have to cut prices to stay ahead of the game. If the price is decent on EDGE like 40 dollars for unlimited data then they could appeal to the lower paying customers and manage to keep their place in the market. EDGE was cheap and easy to deploy so they should have an eassier time offering it at cheap prices.

See the keyword is IF, and who knows if that will be the price for EDGE which only goes up to 100kb/s (if that).


But, even lower paying customers will understand that $40-50 per month for only 100kb/s is terrible, for 30 or 40 dollars more per month they can get about 10X+ faster on sprint/Nextel, verizon wireless, and cingular’s network.

I just checked that Cingular charges from $20- 80 per month from limited use to unlimited use and I am sure Tmobile will offer comparable services and prices. (pc cards)


The problem is if ev-do rev o, a, umts/hspda and others are a lot faster, which they are, and it is about 30-50 dollars extra per month, economically it would be better for those types of customers to pick the faster speeds, ...
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I pay for high speed internet on my computer and it cost about 40 dollars i know of many people who just go with dial up because it is much cheaper. So my point would be that their are many people who would go with the cheaper service, it all depends on the cutomers needs and budget. I feel that Tmobile will survive what ever marketing methods they use. Every mobile carrier has had thier strugles. Personally I hope Tmobile buys out and not sell out.

That is true I guess. I mean people do have different needs, but the problem is, 40 bucks per month is pretty reasonable with the things that you can do. If you have dial up you have to pay for the 1. phone and set up a rate plan, which costs money. In addition, 2. set up an ISP such as aol or whatever that also costs money. So for only 40 dollars plus your ISP, if you want to have one, would be cheaper, in my mind then to have the dial up plus other fees plus the isp.

Cheaper isn’t always better though.

Tmobile will do well, I truly hope because they do offer good solutions and products for the younger generations, but I disagree with your point that tmobile will be the buying because they have to spend about 10-15 billion dollars o...
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