Displaying items by tag: John Legere

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile US has announced that it is financially prepared to close its planned merger with Sprint, based on its previously secured commitments for bridge financing and senior credit facility financing.

The company has been in communication with all banks and is confident that they are ready to fund their commitments to support the closing of the merger transaction. The two telcos continue to drive forward toward closing the merger as soon as possible.

John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, commented: ‘I’m pleased that right now we have broad support from the banks to finance the closing of this merger. We are very close to unleashing the capabilities of the New T-Mobile, and that is even more important for consumers during the current COVID-19 pandemic.’

The merger will see Deutsche Telekom in effective control of the combined company, controlling more than 69% of the shares: early on in the process, SoftBank gave Deutsche Telekom a proxy for the shares the Japanese company will own in the new T-Mobile US. The original agreement was adjusted last month to reflect Sprint’s declining value.

Legere noted: “Our nation is more dependent than ever on connectivity, and we will continue to deliver our essential wireless service today and when we merge with Sprint, with a nationwide 5G service that is broader and more robust than anything else in America. We can see the finish line and are prepared to close the merger very soon so our teams can get to work building a supercharged Un-carrier.”

T-Mobile and Sprint have said they were taking the final steps to complete a tie-up that reshapes the US wireless industry after a federal court overturned an antitrust challenge.

The decision by US District Judge Victor Marrero rejecting a challenge from New York, California and other states is expected to allow the third- and fourth-largest mobile carriers to complete their merger around April 1, the companies said.

The two firms said in a statement they were "now taking final steps to complete their merger to create the New T-Mobile."

The combined firm with have more than 100 million customers, claiming the scale to compete with larger wireless rivals Verizon and AT&T.

"Today was a huge victory for this merger," said T-Mobile chief executive John Legere, who will head the combined firm before stepping down in May.

"The New T-Mobile will be... great for consumers and great for competition."

The states had filed the suit last June, seeking to block a proposed $26 billion tie-up they argued would cause "irreparable harm" leading to higher costs that would price out low-income consumers.

The judge said however he was "not persuaded" by the contention that the new company would pursue anticompetitive behavior after the deal.

T-Mobile, controlled by Germany's Deutsche Telekom, will hold a majority stake in the new firm after the tie-up with Sprint, which is controlled by Japan's SoftBank.

Backers of the deal have argued that combining T-Mobile and Sprint will create a strong number three US wireless carrier behind Verizon and AT&T, with the resources to invest in 5G, or fifth-generation, networks.

Critics contended it would leave consumers with fewer choices, and lead to higher prices.

"This outcome puts consumers at risk," said John Bergmayer of the consumer activist group Public Knowledge.

"It is more clear than ever that we need strengthened regulatory oversight of the communications industry to protect competition and consumer rights, as well as improvements to our antitrust laws."

Avery Gardiner, a competition fellow with the Center for Democracy & Technology, said on Twitter that mergers that leave just three competitors "are almost always bad for consumers" and "almost always blocked because they 'substantially lessen competition.'"

The deal was approved by federal regulators, contingent on the divestment of Sprint's prepaid division Boost Mobile to the satellite broadcast group Dish, which will begin building a new national wireless network.

Shares of Sprint surged 73 percent on the news while T-Mobile jumped 11.3 percent.

T-Mobile has said the deal would give it the resources needed to invest more in 5G and in-home broadband compete with "Big Cable" firms.

Some analysts have suggested that the final deal may be revalued lower as a result of changing market conditions since it was announced in 2018.

Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone of Lightshed Partners said Sprint may be worth less than the original $26 billion.

"We have repeatedly expressed our view that T-Mobile should renegotiate the price of the deal with Sprint based on the longer than expected approval process and the worse than expected erosion in Sprint's business," the analysts said in a research note.

T-Mobile US CEO has confirmed the worst fears of Chinese telecommunication behemoths Huawei and ZTE by officially announcing that it will not use any equipment supplied by either vendor.

Fresh off its game-changing results in the US government’s historic 600 MHz spectrum auction and another industry-leading quarter, T-Mobile became the first US wireless company to announce plans for truly nationwide 5G. On top of expanding and strengthening its LTE coverage, the Un-carrier will use a portion of its $8 billion mother lode of low-band 600 MHz spectrum to deliver 5G coverage from coast to coast.
T-Mobile president and CEO John Legere laid out the Un-carrier’s strategy to deliver 5G coverage to customers across the country in a video blog published on May 2.

“5G will be amazing, and we can’t even imagine all the cool stuff it will bring, just like with our earlier network innovations. That’s why truly mobile 5G has to be nationwide -- period, the end,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “The carriers are using 5G to either distract from how badly they’re losing today or to give their shareholders some hope they can compete with Big Cable. Their ambitious vision for Fixed 5G to replace home internet will never provide mobile 5G coverage. It makes no sense.”
 
The Un-carrier will leverage multiple spectrum bands to deliver true nationwide Mobile 5G coverage. The Duopoly are approaching 5G much like a series of hotspots in select cities—with 5G coverage that will completely disappear once customers step outside these limited 5G zones, meaning their 5G experiences disappear too.
 
T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray penned a blog explaining the breadth and depth of the Un-carrier’s nationwide Mobile 5G.
 
“There’s no such thing as ‘5G spectrum,’ and in the next decade we’ll see everything moving to 5G,” said Neville Ray, T-Mobile CTO. “Nationwide Mobile 5G will require both high-band AND broad low-band coverage, and having unused nationwide 600 MHz spectrum means T-Mobile is in an ideal position to deliver.”
 
On top of its nationwide deployment, T-Mobile 5G will enable high bandwidth and massive throughput in urban areas using a combination of mid-band and millimeter wave spectrum.
 
T-Mobile’s 600 MHz 5G network will deliver increased radio efficiency, immense numbers of connected devices, lower latency and improved battery life and reliability, all of which Mobile 5G will make possible. T-Mobile expects to deploy 5G in its low-band 600 MHz spectrum quickly across its existing nationwide macro network, in contrast with the carriers’ millimeter wave spectrum plans, which would require a number of small cells so massive that providing broad coverage would be impossible.
 
“The 600 MHz spectrum will allow 5G to be deployed nationwide, bringing the ultimate experiences to T-Mobile’s enterprise customers and consumers throughout the United States,” said Borje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson. “We will support T-Mobile US with 5G radio development for this spectrum. Commercial availability of the product will be aligned with 3GPP standardization and ecosystem support.”
 
Beyond vastly improved speeds for mobile devices, T-Mobile expects to see a whole new class of innovative mobile applications and solutions emerge, built for broad 5G coverage.
 
“The 5G networks of tomorrow have the ability to usher in tremendous commercial opportunities for service providers, vertical industries and new entrants,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia. “Nokia is proud of its 20-year history of working alongside T-Mobile to build their next generation networks. With its future network plans to pursue Mobile 5G on 600MHz, we stand ready to take T-Mobile into the next decade.”
 
Along with device and infrastructure partners, T-Mobile will help drive 3GPP certification for 5G in 600 MHz. As 5G standards are defined, chipsets are delivered, and equipment comes to market, T-Mobile will quickly deploy 5G nationwide in a large swath of unused spectrum. 5G rollout is expected to begin in 2019 with a target of 2020 for full nationwide coverage.