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Verizon Gives Sprint A Second Look |
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Verizon Gives Sprint A Second Look
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Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:10 pm
Amid the flurry of merger activity within the wireless industry, Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest phone company, is taking a closer look at Sprint.
In the wake of the SBC and AT&T announcement, people close to Verizon say information gathering and due diligence has begun this week, though no formal discussions have been initiated. Representatives from Verizon have declined to comment.
Industry analysts agree that consolidation is needed in the highly competitive wireless services industry. "I think in Verizon's case, they are being pushed," says Telecom Pragmatics analyst Sam Greenholtz. "I don't think they are ready yet, but they have to look at players like Sprint -- they don't have any choice."
As for the likeliness of a successful merger, analysts say antitrust officials may have objections. A combined Verizon Wireless and Sprint company would have more than 50% market share in urban cities like New York.
These rumors come after the Sprint buyout of Nextel in December, in which Sprint CFO, Bob Dellinger said in an interview Thursday that the company was "excited about what we are doing with Nextel," adding, "that's where our focus is."
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| 1. Posted by realboy2005 |
Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:04 pm |
If Verizon Wireless does it, they'll be #1 in America again... I don't think that's a good idea considering that GSM is rated #1 voice quality all around the world.... If it's not GSM - that sux.
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| 2. Posted by cheshirekat528 |
Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:15 pm |
I sure hope this doesn't go through. I've had great service, both customer service and phone service, from Sprint over the past two years.
I was previously with VW and it was a nightmare! Constant overages, horrible customer service, the voice quality was poor at best, the phones were very low quality, they extended my contact every time I made a change to my plan, etc. There was really nothing positive about my experience with them at all!
It would be a shame to have to switch, but I would definitely cancel if VW was attached to my phone in any way.
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| 3. Posted by GSMDude |
Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:27 pm |
I don't even see how their networks will become compatible. You can't use Sprint phones on Verizon and vice versa. If it does go through they'll have to put in a lot of money to upgrade their networks.
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| 4. Posted by 2stepps |
Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:35 am |
If Verizon is foolish enough to try and swallow the third largest wireless carrier they will go the way the the thunder lizards did: They should be looking at carriers that they don't have to spend twice what they paid for the company upgrading the network so that all are the same. Sprint is already buying Nextel, thats more towers that will have to be upgraded. Sprints plan call for 08 or 09 for full conversion. One of the things that will help Sprint absorb Nextel is that the phones only last for a couple of years before they need replacing because of new features and capabilities of the phones and the services being released all the time.
I can remember when mobile phones were just car phones and only a certain few could afford them and the number was severely limited due to the technology and the spectrum that was available.
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| 5. Posted by tnilcnotlaw |
Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:52 pm |
I don't even see how their networks will become compatible. You can't use Sprint phones on Verizon and vice versa. If it does go through they'll have to put in a lot of money to upgrade their networks.
Sprint and Verizon are already roaming parteners so if you had one of their phones unlocked it could work with the other.
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| 6. Posted by tnilcnotlaw |
Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:58 pm |
If Verizon Wireless does it, they'll be #1 in America again... I don't think that's a good idea considering that GSM is rated #1 voice quality all around the world.... If it's not GSM - that sux.
Code Division Multiple Accsess (CDMA) is actaully the most advanced system and actaully has better voice quality. The only thing Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) has on CDMA is international coverage
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| 7. Posted by tnilcnotlaw |
Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:01 pm |
I have not heard news of a possible Verizon & Sprint Merger. Please tell me where this info comes from.
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| 8. Posted by Maui_vx6100 |
Sun Apr 17, 2005 4:51 am |
http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp#result
cdma is worldwide with more than 240m phones in use
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| 9. Posted by JSS |
Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:33 am |
recently, analysts have noted that sprint is not likely to maintain is current rate of growth and revenue and foresee a tough road ahead with sprint. while the nextel merger seems to have lead people to think that sprint will increase its competitive edge, that is likely not going to be the case. because sprint does not have the size of network that can compete with verizon or the new cingular, they will still be in a negative or possible no win situation. they will have substantial integration expenses with the technologies needing to be intermingled and will not gain much, if any coverage advantages as nextel's proprietary IDEN network has never been particualrly large.
however, verizon could gain much. since verizon is in a better finaincial situation. the acquisition of sprint would be a gain. sprint currently has coverage area that verizon can use (such as a good portion of kansas) and as such expands the area that would be a home coverage area. the majority of ontergration in technology would be nil as both use CDMA based technologies and all VZ handsets are dual band/trimode capable.
the only issue i foresee is that verizon may not want the nextel IDEN stuff. since verizon has now tackled the latency issue, the PTT service seem to be reasonable comparable. i just don't see that large of an advantage with nextel in the mix.
I don't think that's a good idea considering that GSM is rated #1 voice quality all around the world.... If it's not GSM - that sux.
definately, GSM has a larger worldwide user base. however, i'm not sure that the '#1' voice quality position sticks. CDMA has always been more reliable and efficient single. voice quality is native to the equipment and has little to do with the actual style of service and digital packet delivery is just that. as such, quality tends to be in the handset and not the TDMA vs CDMA.
I don't even see how their networks will become compatible. You can't use Sprint phones on Verizon and vice versa. If it does go through they'll have to put in a lot of money to upgrade their networks.
both carriers are CDMA based services. standard CDMA runs in the 800 MHz spectrum and PCS runs in the 1900 MHz spectrum. sprint specifically chose it's standard technology to almost solely PCS. however, verizon works with both the 800 and 1900 spectrums. you'll note that all digital handsets for verizon are call dual band (not to be confused with dual mode which was CDMA only digital with and analog band). that is to say that they are created for both 800 and 1900. verizon owns a large number of it's own PCS licenses and partners with sprint in a number of markets.
the networks are immediately compatible and have no issues with upgrade. sprint has done a fairly good job with network upgrades and verizon would need to do little to them.
I was previously with VW and it was a nightmare! Constant overages, horrible customer service, the voice quality was poor at best, the phones were very low quality, they extended my contact every time I made a change to my plan, etc. There was really nothing positive about my experience with them at all!
sorry to hear about the issues you experienced. specifically the customer service. if you had an issue, it should get resolved. from your post, however, i can't tell what the issue you might be. you had said that you had constant overages. was it due to an error or were you just over the minutes? i don't mean to sound like i'm being combatitive but if verizon presented a plan and didwhat the plan offers, i would not say that verizon made an issue for you. if verizon was making an error in billing via a mistake with the plan set up. you have every right to be unhappy.
as to the poor voice quality, digital is digital and voice quality is in the device and not the network (save for analog), was it a coverage issue? if so, were able to speak to tech support?
thing is. most carriers (even the worst), do a pretty good job and when i hear that a carrier did a poor job, i'm suspect even if it were a competitor. cellular is a pretty hard biz. i often wonder when i hear those things where the break down was. i have no question by you post that customer service didn't do it's job and likely you wre never given a chance to resolve the problems. that's not good. whan you mentioned the other issues, i wonder how much you had the opportunity to fix them.
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| 10. Posted by Texan |
Tue Apr 19, 2005 1:02 am |
Well, I love Verizon and the comment about GSM voice quality being better is way.... off base.. Verizon from my experience does not share towers because they dont have too....
And no I do not work there, actually work elsewhere. I hope they do not merge with Sprint unless they have to.
I have traveled all over the US and when noone else's phone worked, I could get coverage (even in rural KS!) Had to move around alittle but not much! There isn't a company out there that can come close to touching Verizon when it comes to coverage..
Oh, and as for overages chg's, can't blame a company when you go over your mins, need to be responible for yourself...Every company extends contracts depending on the rate plan you want...
If most people took the time to find what works best for them and stop switching companies to "get that free phone" might just be alittle bit happy 
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| 11. Posted by Samsung |
Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:56 am |
Tex is a traitor! lol j/k  . No your right though Verizon does have an Awsome coverage area! If I could stray from GSM (which I cant) Verizon would be a for sure choice for me (If I lived in the states lol). No good CDMA/TDMA SP in Canada though 
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| 12. Posted by elmo01 |
Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:01 am |
Tex is a traitor! lol j/k . No your right though Verizon does have an Awsome coverage area! If I could stray from GSM (which I cant) Verizon would be a for sure choice for me (If I lived in the states lol). No good CDMA/TDMA SP in Canada though
the bundled package I have suits my needs... I wish the MTM was for all in my service area vice just my account tho
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| 13. Posted by Texan |
Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:57 pm |
Samsung,
You are a smart man!! Might not be a traitor for long, we'll see!
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| 14. Posted by r1mk1n |
Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:06 pm |
VW and sprint merging would only be a good thing if they adopted sprint's roaming rates(no extra costs for domestic roaming, who could beat that), sprint's overage rates(only 5 dollars for a hundred minutes if you have a fair & flexible plan), sprint's off-peak hours(7 PM to 7 AM, instead of verizon's measly 9 PM to 6 AM), and basically everything about sprint except for those few verizon-only spots scattered across the nation
...and the liberals who are gonna say that a corporate trust this gimundo is cruel and unusual punishment to all of the smaller players in the CDMA phone industry...
new plan: ALL of the american CDMA providers merge, and eradicate the proprietary "north american GSM"
plus that way all my verizon friends can get a cool pm-325 like I have...lol
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| 15. Posted by KingWill00 |
Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:52 pm |
I think Verizon merging with sprint would be the downfall of verizon as a good company. I had all of the major providers, and none of them served me as well as verizon. By the way, I'm on verizon's new network where there is no roaming as well.
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| 16. Posted by Samsung |
Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:42 am |
I think Verizon merging with sprint would be the downfall of verizon as a good company. I had all of the major providers, and none of them served me as well as verizon. By the way, I'm on verizon's new network where there is no roaming as well.
Agreed not a huge fan of Sprint and they definately are not the same caliber as Verizon.
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| 17. Posted by veilfore89 |
Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:59 pm |
Yup, I am definately not big on Sprint, and although I don't have verizon I know that they handle pretty well, yet I am preferably a GSM customer for the flexibility and quality of their phones, but I think that Sprint would drag them down, but its their choice and all, lastly CINGULAR wake up and take the suggestion from Verizon and put us GSM customers up on M2M Texting! Haha, that would be sweet...!!
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| 18. Posted by Samsung |
Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:49 pm |
lol yeah GSM RULES! 
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