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T-Mobile USA in talks to buy MetroPCS
- Thread starter ZingBot
- Start date
RodgerBrooks
Newbie
Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS today announced that the companies have agreed to merge T-Mobile USA with MetroPCS.
The combined company will be called T-Mobile, and will be run by current T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere. The transaction would be a reverse merger, wherein the smaller MetroPCS will acquire the larger T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom would then have time to reduce its ownership of the firm through gradual equity sales rather than all at once. Initially, Deutsche Telekom will own 74% of the merged entity and MetroPCS will own 26%. Deutsche Telekom will give MetroPCS $1.5 billion in cash, will assume the bulk of T-Mobile USA's debt, and will provide $500 million in credit for the new company.
According to Deutsche Telekom, the new company would have "a path to at least 20x20 MHz of 4G LTE in many areas." Deutsche Telekom said MetroPCS's customers will be migrated to LTE-based hardware if/when they need to update their devices. The companies believe the combined T-Mobile USA/MetroPCS will be able to compete better with the nation's top three wireless network operators through improved handset selection, $6 to $7 billion in cost savings, and increase its B2B and MVNO opportunities. If approved by the government, the merged business would have about 42.5 million customers, still well below the subscriber numbers of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2013.
The combined company will be called T-Mobile, and will be run by current T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere. The transaction would be a reverse merger, wherein the smaller MetroPCS will acquire the larger T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom would then have time to reduce its ownership of the firm through gradual equity sales rather than all at once. Initially, Deutsche Telekom will own 74% of the merged entity and MetroPCS will own 26%. Deutsche Telekom will give MetroPCS $1.5 billion in cash, will assume the bulk of T-Mobile USA's debt, and will provide $500 million in credit for the new company.
According to Deutsche Telekom, the new company would have "a path to at least 20x20 MHz of 4G LTE in many areas." Deutsche Telekom said MetroPCS's customers will be migrated to LTE-based hardware if/when they need to update their devices. The companies believe the combined T-Mobile USA/MetroPCS will be able to compete better with the nation's top three wireless network operators through improved handset selection, $6 to $7 billion in cost savings, and increase its B2B and MVNO opportunities. If approved by the government, the merged business would have about 42.5 million customers, still well below the subscriber numbers of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2013.
Petrah
Psychotic Female
THE W
Android Expert
well according to this article metroPCS is buying tmobile USA from deusche telekom.
metroPCS has had LTE since 2010 and are attempting to get subscribers to update to LTE handsets to make way for voLTE and the eventual shut down of their CDMA network.
androiduser96
Android Enthusiast
I think its a good thing.. faster speeds, more signal in more places.
Crashdamage
Android Expert
No. MetroPCS will disappear as a brand by 2014 - 2015 at the latest.
Rover_Cellular
Newbie
I am game as long as they keep the whole sim card system sorry but I love the freedom of switching between my phones whenever I feel like it
I agree, 75% of the reason I stay with T-Mobile. If I had to program my phone every time.... what a headache.
I am game as long as they keep the whole sim card system sorry but I love the freedom of switching between my phones whenever I feel like it
T-Mobile is staying GSM, which means they will keep the SIM card. I think the real question is with MetroPCS. Currently it looks like the plan is for them to stay CDMA but, with the cost of keeping both 3G CDMA and GSM networks, you have to wonder if that won't eventually change -- particularly as SIM cards are needed for LTE.
Is this your opinion or are you basing it on something you've seen. Everything I've seen officially is that MetroPCS will stay CDMA, though as I mentioned above, it does make sense that they'd eventually move to GSM.
THE W
Android Expert
It's the plan for CDMA to be totally shut off in 2015. You can get more detailed info on on Deutsche Telekom's website. Metro had plans to do this even without the merger. The merger will allow them to decommision CDMA faster.
Tmobile will sell metro branded phones after the merger is final. Will probably be the summer of next year.
Just look in the Metro forum, we've discussed all of this very thoroughly. And yes Metro was planning to get rid of their CDMA network all along so its not a big deal about Metro's CDMA network. Metro has been planning to go to VoLTE and was planning to have it rolled out to all current coverage areas by the first quarter of 2013.
I strongly believe when the merger is truly complete in 2015 both Metro and T-Mobile customers will be far better off as one company then as individual customers.
I strongly believe when the merger is truly complete in 2015 both Metro and T-Mobile customers will be far better off as one company then as individual customers.