T-Mobile/Sprint merger: what it means to its customers

[MoodyBlues]

You're probably aware that T-Mobile has acquired Sprint, but what does it mean for you if you're one of their customers? This AP article breaks it all down in a quick read.

What do you think about this merger? Should it even be allowed? (Final confirmation may not come until as late as April 1st. No, really!) Will you be affected by it?

 

[MrJavi]

I wonder if they will continue to support CDMA Sprint phones after the merger is completed or simply just faze that out and force us all to buy GSM T-Mobile phones ater on doen the line.

 

[mikedt]

I wonder if they will continue to support CDMA Sprint phones after the merger is completed or simply just faze that out and force us all to buy GSM T-Mobile phones ater on doen the line.

They haven't made CDMA only phones for several years now. And recent ones are also LTE and HSDPA capable. I did read a while back that Verizon in the US was turning off their CDMA networks by 2020, so presumably Sprint may do likewise. Canada ceased CDMA a couple of years ago. And that leaves China Telecom as the only major CDMA carrier in the world AFAIK.


They easiest way to tell a CDMA only phone, is they don't use a SIM, and don't have an IMEI.

 

[MrJavi]

They haven't made CDMA only phones for several years now. And recent ones are also LTE and HSDPA capable. I did read a while back that Verizon in the US was turning off their CDMA networks by 2020, so presumably Sprint may do likewise. Canada ceased CDMA a couple of years ago. And that leaves China Telecom as the only major CDMA carrier in the world AFAIK.


They easiest way to tell a CDMA only phone, is they don't use a SIM, and don't have an IMEI.

Thank you my friend, that good to know. Then mine is cdma. It has a sim and an imei.

 

[DonB]

Thank you my friend, that good to know. Then mine is cdma. It has a sim and an imei.

Then no, yours is not CDMA, if it has a Sim and IMEI #, yours is GSM

 

[MrJavi]

Then no, yours is not CDMA, if it has a Sim and IMEI #, yours is GSM

My network carries is Sprint and it cdma but if my phone is indeed gsm capable then I shouldn't have issues converting to T-Mobiles network later on down the line. Thank for the correction, I missed that.

 

[DonB]

My network carries is Sprint and it cdma but if my phone is indeed gsm capable then I shouldn't have issues converting to T-Mobiles network later on down the line. Thank for the correction, I missed that.

Correct !!!

 

[jhtalisman]

My network carries is Sprint and it cdma but if my phone is indeed gsm capable then I shouldn't have issues converting to T-Mobiles network later on down the line. Thank for the correction, I missed that.

As long as the bands used are compatible with your phone, that is.

 

[Fox Mulder]

As a Metro customer I expect (and hope) it will mean nothing.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I'll be unaffected, since I'm on Consumer Cellular. But the skeptic in me suspects rate increases are in the near future for those who will be affected.

It sounds good and everything that merging two giants will allow them to offer their customers more choices, better prices, etc., but, yeah, I don't think it'll go that way. Time will tell.

 

[MrJavi]

I'll be unaffected, since I'm on Consumer Cellular. But the skeptic in me suspects rate increases are in the near future for those who will be affected.

It sounds good and everything that merging two giants will allow them to offer their customers more choices, better prices, etc., but, yeah, I don't think it'll go that way. Time will tell.

I also agree with you @MoodyBlues. My thoughts are that they will keep rates low for a few years. After that, T-Mobile's rates will begin to rise due to upgrading their network to 5G. If their smart, T-Mobile will charge, on average, a few coins under the othe two competitors.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Part of the deal is an agreement by Legere to keep rates unchanged for 3 years.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Part of the deal is an agreement by Legere to keep rates unchanged for 3 years.

Thank you for that.

See, I didn't actually read the entire article, since the merger doesn't impact me one way or the other. So I didn't know!

 

[puppykickr]

They easiest way to tell a CDMA only phone, is they don't use a SIM, and don't have an IMEI.

The device I am on right now is CDMA only, made in 2017 (purchased in 2018) and has both of these things.

 

[puppykickr]

Here in the United States, there are two ways to go, GSM and CDMA.
AT&T uses GSM and Verizon uses CDMA.

All of the other carriers rent towers from these two.

As Sprint uses CDMA, that means that T-Mobile does also.
And that means that they are both already renting space on Verizon towers.

What happens is that if you are a customer of AT&T or Verizon, you get better service than if you are a customer of one of the services that rents.

A 1st company customer will get full speed (if available) while a 2nd company customer will get throttled speeds when the tower becomes congested.
You also will hardly ever get a 'fast busy' signal if you are a 1st company customer, while they can be quite common with a 2nd company service.

That is why it is better to go with AT&T or Verizon, rather than these secondary companies.

 

[mikedt]

The device I am on right now is CDMA only, made in 2017 (purchased in 2018) and has both of these things.

Are you sure about that? What device have you actually got there?

Because if a phone takes a SIM and has an IMEI, that means it's GSM/2G and HSDPA/3G capable. and a 2017/18 phone will likely have LTE/4G as well, unless it's something budget or cheapo. CDMA only phones will only have an ESN and/or an MEID.

 

[mikedt]

FYI and from the horse's mouth, Verizon is definitely pulling the plug on CDMA.
https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-218813/
Starting January 1, 2020, Verizon will no longer allow any CDMA (3G and 4G Non-HD Voice)

 

[puppykickr]

Are you sure about that? What device have you actually got there?

Because if a phone takes a SIM and has an IMEI, that means it's GSM/2G and HSDPA/3G capable. and a 2017/18 phone will likely have LTE/4G as well, unless it's something budget or cheapo. CDMA only phones will only have an ESN and/or an MEID.

I do have one of those 2G GSM devices, but it is 3G capable (it's an oddball) but that is not this device.

This device is a cheapy, and it does say that it has LTE capability.
I never see the icon, because I pulled the SIM out.
I only use this device with Wi-Fi, so its cellular capability never mattered to me at all.

But it was marketed as a Boost Mobile device, and they are a CDMA tower using secondary company.

ZTE 558VL running 7.1.1

 

[puppykickr]

FYI and from the horse's mouth, Verizon is definitely pulling the plug on CDMA.
https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-218813/
Starting January 1, 2020, Verizon will no longer allow any CDMA (3G and 4G Non-HD Voice)

Notice that they are not pulling the plug so quickly.

This year, they are only disallowing new plans with CDMA devices.
If you are using one and do not change your plan then nothing will change for you.

Beginning in 2021, supposedly customer support involving these devices will suffer.

I say supposedly, because I find it very difficult to believe that any aspect of Verizon customer support could be any less than it already is.

That is why I will always do my utmost to stay as far away from Verizon as I can.

At any rate, with the timeline that they have set, the devices involved will be on their last legs anyway as the batteries powering them will be dying.

The two cellular devices that I use are on AT&T and Sprint.

The AT&T is a GSM oddball Blackberry knockoff from the era of 2G to 3G changeover.

The Sprint is an el cheapo that has both GSM and CDMA capabilities.

I have not paid any attention to AT&T's changover plans, but if it is possible I would love to have both systems on one device, from both carriers.

The AT&T is an emergency device for when travelling and I cannot get a signal from a Verizon tower.

Believe it or not, this has actually been useful in the past.

That, and the fact that I am sentimental of the number, which I have maintained since 2001.

That was back before GSM, when AT&T still used TDMA, and Verizon was using CDMA.

That is just how old CDMA technology is.

 

[puppykickr]

Here in the United States, there are two ways to go, GSM and CDMA.
AT&T uses GSM and Verizon uses CDMA.

All of the other carriers rent towers from these two.

As Sprint uses CDMA, that means that T-Mobile does also.
And that means that they are both already renting space on Verizon towers.

What happens is that if you are a customer of AT&T or Verizon, you get better service than if you are a customer of one of the services that rents.

A 1st company customer will get full speed (if available) while a 2nd company customer will get throttled speeds when the tower becomes congested.
You also will hardly ever get a 'fast busy' signal if you are a 1st company customer, while they can be quite common with a 2nd company service.

That is why it is better to go with AT&T or Verizon, rather than these secondary companies.

Replying to my own post here, as I did a little (very little) research into T-Mobile and found that they use GSM.

I had assumed that because Sprint is on CDMA that T-Mobile must be as well, or else the merger would not make sense.

But, that is an outdated mode if thinking.

The device that I use that is connected to Sprint is on CDMA, but also has GSM capability.

So, now I must believe that this is rather common, due to the fact that my device is about as cheap as they come.

So my thinking originally was that the two companies would have to use the same technology or else it would be a huge mess to change the towers or to get the customers to switch devices.

This is how it would have been back in the days of phones only being able to be used on one technology, which is when I delt with cellular technology.

So in that respect my thinking was wrong, and has been superceeded by the capabilities installed in a $25 cellphone.

Great, now I am depressed.
(not really, just a hahaha)

 

[Unforgiven]

I think most phones sold in the US now have the capability to use any network so long as they aren't carrier locked and the carrier isn't a pain about unlocking them.

 

[kate]

Here in the United States, there are two ways to go, GSM and CDMA.
AT&T uses GSM and Verizon uses CDMA.

All of the other carriers rent towers from these two.

That's incorrect, there are 4 nationwide carriers with their own towers:
AT&T
Verizon
Sprint
T-Mobile

With the merger Sprint and T-Mobile will combine, and then Dish Network plans on building their own new nationwide cell network starting with acquiring Boost Mobile customers.

There are also regional carriers with their own towers - US Cellular and C-Spire are two.

As for pricing... who knows, but I hope they stay low.

 

[puppykickr]

That's incorrect, there are 4 nationwide carriers with their own towers:
AT&T
Verizon
Sprint
T-Mobile

With the merger Sprint and T-Mobile will combine, and then Dish Network plans on building their own new nationwide cell network starting with acquiring Boost Mobile customers.

There are also regional carriers with their own towers - US Cellular and C-Spire are two.

As for pricing... who knows, but I hope they stay low.

Sprint has not had their own towers for a long, long time. PCS.
Not since when they bought Nextel.

Sprint had so few towers that they were going to go under.

I know that they use CDMA because I have one of their phones.

And T-Moblile is using GSM, which is based upon TDMA, which is what AT&T uses(d).

I only know this because I had the misfortune to sell these things back when there were the 4 options, TDMA (AT&T) CDMA (Verizon) PCS (Sprint) and whatever junk Nextel was using before Sprint bought them.

All the towers worked off of one of those and also had analog capability (except for PCS).

Back then you could get a phone that could use multiple frequencies, so that you could use analog or one of the digital frequencies- but the same device would not be able to utilize different systems, ie. TDMA and CDMA.

Now it appears that they are making devices that do have that capability.

The problem is that it is too little too late, because now CDMA is on its way out.

CDMA was always inferior anyway, and should have been phased out long ago.

To be honest, if a phone was all that you wanted, the old analog phones had much greater range and reliability for calls.

I had a few years of horrible cellular service when I was finally forced to get a digital phone and stop using my old analog one.

In fact, I lost a lot of work because the stupid digital phones just did not get a signal worth a crap half the time.

 

[kate]

Sprint has not had their own towers for a long, long time. PCS.
Not since when they bought Nextel.
Sprint had so few towers that they were going to go under.
I know that they use CDMA because I have one of their phones.

Yes, Sprint uses CDMA.

But they do not use the Verizon network as you mentioned in an earlier post, Sprint has it's own antennas and cell network. Same with T-Mobile, they have their own network and don't use AT&T.

They use each other for roaming, but all four have their own cell network (until Sprint and T-Mobile combine).

 

[Unforgiven]

Just to clear up a little disinformation about towers, most of them are owned by individual companies and the carriers lease space on the for their arrays. There could be all of the major carriers with arrays on a single tower. Also, they may not be towers at all, but the tops of tall buildings, church steeples or any other tall structure geographically positioned where an array is needed.