Displaying items by tag: Sprint

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.

Ericsson published its Q4 financial results which highlighted that the Swedish telecom vendor did not experience much growth.

The vendor stated that the protracted merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint were to blame for the 9% drop in North America.

However, despite this, Ericsson experienced plenty of growth in the North American region at the beginning of the year.

Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm commented on this and stated, “Due to uncertainty related to an announced operator merger, we saw a slowdown in our North American business in Q4, resulting in North America having the lowest share of total sales for some time. However, the underlying business fundamentals in North America remain strong.”

The vendor also experienced 1% growth in Q4 and 4% in the overall Financial Year of 2019. Despite their lack of growth in North America, the company did quite well in other markets such as the Middle East and North East Asia.

Their Q4 growth gross margin accounted for 37.1% which is essentially in line with their 2020 target.

In the previous fiscal year, the vendor’s operating income was at a loss of 1.9 billion Swedish kronor and it is now valued at 6.1 billion kronor. Also, the adjusted operating income increased to 6.5 billion kronor compared it the respective quarter last year of 2.6 billion kronor.

There was a decline to 14.5 % in the networks operating margin, which the firm attributes to an increase in investment and the occurrence of the Kathrein acquisition.

Ekholm also added, “Operating income was impacted by increased operating expenses. The increase is related to the Kathrein business acquisition, increased investments in digitalization and added resources to strengthen security as well as our Ethics and Compliance program. For 2020 we expect somewhat higher operating expenses, which will not jeopardize our financial targets.”

Whereas their Q4 net sales increased by 4% and was valued at 66.37 billion kronor compared to the respective quarter last year which (63.81 billion kronor). Sales were adjusted due to currency and comparable units and it was reported that there was a 1% increase year-over-year.

Ericsson has stated that they will be proposing a dividend for 2019 of 1.50 kronor per share at their

Ericsson has stated that at the Annual General Meeting, they will be proposing a dividend of 1.50 kronor per share for 2019. This is an increase compared to the 1.00 kronor per share from 2018.

T-Mobile announced that it became the first to launch 5G wireless service across the United States, although it will be slower than some might expect for the new generation of connectivity. The number three US carrier said its 5G network covers 200 million people and "goes through walls," outperforming the limited 5G deployment of larger rivals Verizon and AT&T earlier this year. While the network is supposedly live today, no one is going to be using it until later this week: the first two phones to support it go on sale this Friday.

"T-Mobile have made very bold promises that can only come to fruition with the vast wireless spectrum holdings, the combined T-Mobile and Sprint will have. State attorneys general who oppose the merger on antitrust grounds are concerned about its potential impact on competition and wireless service prices. However, the promises T-Mobile made today make it difficult for any regulator to continue contesting the merger.

“T-Mobile is promising unprecedented moves for any wireless carrier, which begs the question: Can the New T-Mobile pull this off? The answer is yes. We’ve said all along that the New T-Mobile will result in one of the first and most comprehensive 5G networks in the world given the spectrum assets of both T-Mobile and Sprint. Unlike 4G, emerging 5G networks require carriers to have access to several different frequency bands, in order to meet all 5G’s promises around ultra-high-speed data transmission and latency. T-Mobile has a large swathe of 600 MHz spectrum and will have access to Sprint’s highly coveted 2.5 GHz spectrum, provided the merger closes.

“Among the specific promises made by T-Mobile today, is a 10-year commitment for free 5G access for first responders at every public and non-profit agency, such as police, fire and emergency medical services (EMS). The company also declared that the New T-Mobile will close the ‘homework gap', with a $10bn commitment to offer free online access and hardware to some 10 million homes with children that are without service.

“On the pricing front, the New T-Mobile threw a bombshell at competitors by promising a prepaid service plan at $15 per month for 2GB of high-speed data, 4G or 5G, and 5GB of high-speed data at $25 per month. That heavily undercuts all prepaid service plans, where competition for budget-constrained customers is at its greatest.

“T-Mobile executing on all of these promises will heavily impact AT&T and Verizon, both competitively and in terms of corporate goodwill. These carriers cannot sit back without a response.”

The $26 billion merger deal between US telecommunication operators T-Mobile US and Sprint has received the backing of a key official at the US communications regulator FCC (Federal Communications Commission).

A leading US consumer watchdog has voiced their concerns regarding the details of the proposed merger agreement between mobile operators T-Mobile US and Sprint.

US telecommunications operator Sprint has posted a disappointing performance in its financial returns for Q4 in 2018.

The US government has confirmed that the proposed merger deal between telecommunication operators T-Mobile US and Sprint will undergo a forensic examination in an effort to determine whether or not the deal represents the best interests of consumers.

US telecommunications operator Sprint has achieved a 5G milestone following a pilot trial in the sun-kissed city of San Diego.

Sprint, which is owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank announced that it had completed a successful 5G OTA data transmission on its live network. Sprint CTO John Saw has expressed his delight at the success of the 5G project, and claims that it will provide a huge step forward in relation to the operators’ overall plans to launch next-generation services in the forthcoming months.

Sprint disclosed the details of the field test and revealed that it was conducted using 2.5GHz spectrum on the operators’ commercial network with radio equipment from Finnish vendor Nokia and a mobile test device from Qualcomm.

In addition to this, Sprint also disclosed that the trial demonstrated a successful handoff between 4G and 5G connectivity while streaming video, conducting Skype audio and video calls, and sending instant messages. Its test follows the completion of a 5G data transmission in a lab during December 2018. The operator earlier this week announced plans to release a Samsung 5G handset in 2019.

“Sprint 5G is now out of the lab and in the field as we prepare for our commercial launch in the first half of this year,” Saw said in a statement.

Nokia North America CTO Mike Murphy noted Sprint’s use of 2.5GHz spectrum for 5G will allow it to reuse existing 4G sites to provide both indoor and outdoor coverage: “This first standards-based call is thus a critical step towards Sprint’s offering of a 5G service to its customers.”

T-Mobile US recently claimed a similar milestone with what it said was the world’s first 5G data call and video call using 600MHz spectrum.