FCC Just Couldn't Stop Voting

Mon, Jul 28th 2008 4:12am

Filed Under:
fcc, mergers, roadblocks, spectrum

Companies:
at&t, clearwire, sprint

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

AT&T Wants To Throw Some FCC Roadblocks Into Sprint, Clearwire Joint Venture

from the good-luck-with-that dept

In a move that is clearly designed to just piss off and waste the resources of a competitor, AT&T has filed papers with the FCC opposing Sprint and Clearwire's plan to merge their WiMax divisions, which was announced a few months ago (found via Broadband Reports. Of course, AT&T has a chummy relationship with the FCC, who has allowed it to merge with telco after telco without many real conditions (and even telling it that it can ignore some of the conditions it agreed to to get those mergers approved).

In this case, AT&T claims that it isn't really opposed to the merger, but it's filing opposition papers because it feels that Sprint and Clearwire aren't receiving the same level of scrutiny that AT&T received in its mergers, specifically with regards to it spectrum holdings. This seems like grasping at straws by AT&T just to throw some sort of extra paperwork roadblock in the path of the new Clearwire, which is an obvious competitor.

Wireless

Tue, Jun 24th 2008 12:52am

Filed Under:
mergers, mobile phones

Companies:
alltel, at&t, sprint, t-mobile, verizon wireless

19 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Before Getting Bought By Verizon Wireless, Alltel Tried To Buy Sprint, T-Mobile And AT&T Wireless

from the merger-mania dept

After being rumored for years, Verizon Wireless finally bought Alltel earlier this month. However, Alltel's CEO has now admitted that the company wasn't just looking to be acquired these past few years. It had, itself, aggressively looked into buying Sprint, T-Mobile or even AT&T Wireless at times. In fact, it tried to buy Sprint three separate times. The other two certainly seem like longshots. Deutsche Telekom appears to have no real interest in getting rid of T-Mobile, and depending on which version of AT&T Wireless you're talking about, it would have been difficult to convince the various parent companies involved that a sale to Alltel made sense. And that, of course, ignores the fact that T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless were from the GSM camp, rather than the CDMA camp. Still, it is interesting to see that the smaller Alltel was looking at buying its way up the food chain.

Deals

Thu, Jun 5th 2008 4:24pm

Filed Under:
mergers, mobile phones

Companies:
alltel, verizon wireless

69 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Verizon Wireless Finally Buying Alltel

from the get-a-room-already dept

It's only been rumored for about four years, but it looks like Verizon Wireless is finally buying Alltel. It's yet another merger in the space, with this one letting Verizon leap over AT&T to declare itself the largest national carrier. Considering the space, I'm sure there will soon be a flurry of "who's next?" articles showing up -- though most of the big obvious mergers are now out of the way. One assumes this should also mean the end of the ridiculous lawsuit Verizon Wireless had filed against Alltel for misleading advertising.

Predictions

Mon, May 5th 2008 4:10pm

Filed Under:
integration, mergers, mobile networks

Companies:
deutsche telekom, sprint, t-mobile

14 Comments | Leave a Comment..

So Many Reasons Why Deutsche Telekom Won't Buy Sprint

from the pin-drop dept

There's a rumor going around that Deutsche Telekom is thinking about buying Sprint. This is a bad idea for any number of reasons. Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile, which competes with Sprint, and which has certainly fallen way behind AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint in terms of coverage and next generation network deployments. At the same time Sprint has definitely faced some tough times recently that have weighed heavily on the stock. So, you could see why Deutsche might initially think about it. T-Mobile is behind in the game, and merging with Sprint could (emphasis on could) jumpstart the business a bit. Plus, it's reasonable to think that Sprint may be undervalued these days. But... it's still a bad idea. T-Mobile and Sprint use totally different network technologies. Sprint is still dealing with the mess of trying to integrate Nextel's iDen system into its own CDMA-based system (which is part of the reason the company has been in trouble lately), and dumping a third totally incompatible technology into the mix doesn't seem wise. You could (again, emphasis on could) argue that Sprint now has some experience merging totally incompatible networks, but so far it's not exactly good experience. All in all, this seems like someone tossing out a suggestion. It's hard to see this as a legitimate possibility.

Deals

Mon, Feb 11th 2008 10:34am

Filed Under:
desperation, mergers

Companies:
danger, microsoft