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Found under: Sprint, T-Mobile, UK, Merger, USA, ,

Everything Everywhere is the name of the company resulted between the merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK and it looks like thats not the only merger well see a T-Mobile child-company involved in. The German communication giant has already signed a partnership with its French counterpart and now it looks like T-Mobile USA and Sprint could be the next merger of the future.Apparently according to Dan Hesse the CEO of Sprint a merger with T-Mobile might just be the thing to do in a

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Sprint is embracing WiMAX for now, but is considering a change over to LTE for its future next-generation mobile broadband offering, the carrier’s CEO, Dan Hesse, told the Financial Times. Sprint’s comments about a potential move to LTE are also spurring more commentary on a future merger with T-Mobile, as the smaller carrier will eventually have to offer something beyond HSPA+. A merger with Sprint would create a sizeable new carrier but also bring back shades of issues from the Sprint-Nextel deal which ultimately resulted in a $29.7 billion writedown.

Hesse WiMAX consideration isn’t that far-fetched, however — as Stacey notes, WiMAX and LTE  use the same underlying technology and 75 percent of the infrastructure equipment is the same. So there’s enough compatibility to minimize network transition costs. This fact isn’t lost upon Sprint, who as far back as March of last year was reportedly testing LTE gear in what appeared to be a research effort. And Sprint should have the spectrum available since its WiMAX partner, Clearwire, has used the “L” word as well — when Clearwire received $3.2 billion in funding, CEO Ben Wolff said the WiMAX network would be built out with equipment that could support LTE in the future.

So how and why could a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile make sense? T-Mobile needs to think beyond its 2010 strategic plan and its 3.5G bet. By year-end the fourth largest carrier expects to complete a 21 Mbps HSPA+ rollout, which can theoretically support faster speeds of 42- and 84 Mbps, but requires more investment for the fastest speeds. A better strategy may be to partner with Sprint in a transition to LTE, which would create a carrier with roughly 82 million subscribers that rivals AT&T and Verizon in terms of customer base.

However, even if Sprint and T-Mobile joined forces in a leap to LTE, one carrier’s customers or the other would be stuck in a vicious transition that would make managing dual networks as Sprint did after it purchased Nextel look tame. When Sprint merged with Nextel in 2004, it was forced to maintain that carrier’s IDEN network for existing customers — something the carrier still does today even though it expected to cease IDEN support in 2007. A similar merger between Sprint and T-Mobile would mean customer and device management of CDMA, WiMAX, GSM, HSPA+, LTE and EDGE, to name a few technologies.

There’s also no guarantee that Deutsche Telekom would walk its U.S. T-Mobile subsidiary down the aisle for a Sprint pairing. Aside from the more than $21.5 billion in annual revenues that Deutsche Telekom took in last year from T-Mobile USA, the carrier’s 1700 MHz and 1900 MHz spectrum is a valuable commodity. To pave the way for a T-Mobile merger with Sprint, DT would first have to decide to pull up stakes in the U.S. Both T-Mobile and Sprint would then coordinate a joint move to an LTE network — likely for voice and data. And a long-term transition strategy to avoid another Nextel IDEN debacle is required. So while a merger of Sprint and T-Mobile sounds good, it’s not an overnight flip of the switch on devices or handsets.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• For Operators Who Bet on WiMAX, There’s a Plan B
• Metered Mobile Data is Coming and Here’s How
• 4G: State of the Union

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Check out the rest: GigaOM

Uh-oh. It seems that HTC have gotten a little carried away with creating lustable phones, with another of their flagship phones suffering from shortages.

Demand for Sprint’s larger-than-life EVO 4G has outstripped supply, with the phone now being listed as delayed without a shipping date.

The shortage is being blamed on Samsung’s inability to produce enough touch-screens — the same reason behind the delay in Verizon’s Droid Incredible.

This has upset Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, who said in the Wall Street Journal “we thought we would have more of a head start than we’ll end up having”, regarding Sprint’s move into the world of 4G.

The really bad news? Samsung won’t be able to keep up with demand until they finish their new display factory in 2012. That’s right, you can expect phone delays from now until the apocalypse.

[via Daily Tech]

Check out the rest: MobileCrunch

Sprint today announced the launch of 4G WiMAX in seven new markets, raising its total of U.S. cities covered to 43. The wireless carrier continues to progress with its planned 4G rollout in partnership with Clearwire and expects that larger markets such as Los Angeles, New York and Miami will see WiMAX before the end of 2010. Sprint advertises the faster wireless broadband service capabilities with average speeds between 3 to 6 Mbps down, and currently offers unlimited service plans for WiMAX.

Residents in the new coverage markets of Rochester, N.Y., Syracuse, N.Y., Merced, Calif., Visalia, Calif., Eugene, Ore., Tri-Cities, Wash., and Yakima, Washington can use the faster network with a data card or an Overdrive mobile hotspot device, but perhaps not with a phone just yet. Sprint’s first and only available 4G handset, the EVO 4G, is currently sold out amid reports of display shortages. HTC, the device manufacturer, has contracted with additional suppliers to ratchet up EVO production, says the Wall Street Journal.

The EVO handset accesses the web over 4G — but falls back to 3G networks as needed — and can also share the WiMAX connection with other mobile devices for a monthly fee. With such capabilities, the phone is currently the flagship device for Sprint’s next-generation network, so timing of handset supply issues couldn’t be worse. As the carrier attempts to ramp up subscribers to the 4G service, it needs capable devices to woo customers. Rumors of a 21 Mbps phone from T-Mobile as early as September could put additional pressure on Sprint to quickly resolve supply issues for the EVO as T-Mobile’s new service has already shown to be faster with a supported device.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Metered Mobile Data is Coming and Here’s How

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Check out the rest: GigaOM

We heard a few murmurs about this phone earlier this week, but the actual date of its launch escaped us. As it turns out, today is the day for Samsung’s mid-range Android handset to hit: it’s riding the publicity wave of mega-phones like the EVO and Galaxy line, but sports decidedly less impressive specs. Still, it looks like a perfectly capable and fairly attractive phone, available on Sprint for $100 after a $100 rebate.

It’s got vanilla 2.1 on it, with no word on 2.2. Headed your way July 11th – more info here and an early video hands-on here.

Check out the rest: MobileCrunch

The Droid Incredible might just become a little more incredible if this find pans out. A user over on AndroidForums spotted an Incredible with both 720p video recording and an HTC — not Froyo — 3G hotspot app. Yup, those two functions would bring Verizon’s Incredible to the same level as Sprint’s EVO 4G.

Seeing as the HTC-made Incredible is nearly an HTC EVO 4G with a smaller screen, it’s highly likely that the phone is technically capable of such functions. There might have been some back-room deal with Verizon or even Sprint to cripple the Incredible to make the EVO 4G that much more special. Who knows, but we can’t help dreaming of an Incredible that has all the tasty treats of the EVO 4G smashed into the smaller package. Maybe this is Verizon’s way of apologizing for the short supply of Incredibles. [via AndroidCommunity]

Check out the rest: MobileCrunch

Found under: HTC EVO 4G, Sprint, HTC, Android, Update,

The HTC EVO 4G has gotten an update this Monday just as we told you it will. Unfortunately it looks like said update bricked some EVO devices and thus Sprint and HTC decided to stop it and check on things and make sure everything was right. It is now being reported that the issues have been addressed which means that you can get the OTA update right now without having to worry about bricking your brand new Android phone. In case things go sour again then you can absolutely get t

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Good news for the folks interested in a Galaxy S device but not satisfied with Android 2.1! According to Samsung’s official Twitter account, the devices will be updated to Android 2.2 later on: More »










Samsung Group – Android – Samsung – galaxy – Sprint

Check out the rest: Gizmodo

Got a Sprint EVO 4G? Go poke at the update button (Settings >> System Updates >> HTC Software Update) a few times — you’ve got some new goodies waiting for you..

Now, before you get too exited: No, it’s not Android 2.2 (Froyo.) It’s just a minor update — so minor, in fact, that Sprint barely seems to be acknowledging it. We’re hearing lots of reports of dramatically faster WiFi, which leads us to believe that the 802.11n chip inside the EVO has been enabled. Better yet, everyone we’re hearing from is saying that the “grounding” issue (wherein certain parts of the touchscreen wouldn’t work whenever the handset wasn’t being held, like when it’s laid on a table) is dead and gone.

Spot anything else in the update? Let us know in the comments below.

Check out the rest: MobileCrunch

A quick word to the wise for those about to party with the just-released OTA update for the Sprint HTC Evo 4G: tread carefully.

While I’m mostly hearing success stories, we’re also getting a fairly surprising number of tips in our inbox from folks saying that the OTA update just bricked (read: broke) their handset. While the vast majority of this group admits that their handsets were rooted (read: hacked for customization’s sake), some are alleging that their EVOs were daisy-fresh factory configured units.

Of those with supposedly standard units that are now broken, we’re told that the update appeared to come through a second time after updating. Thinking it was a two-part update or that they’d been chosen for some secret special upgrade, they tapped the update button again — and blammo, bricked phone. Unfortunately, a hard reset doesn’t seem to be fixing things for anyone we’re hearing from.

We just put in a quick call to Sprint CS, and the agent we talked to confirmed that they’d been getting calls about this issue since the update rolled out. The only current recommendation they’ve got, it seems, is to pop into a Sprint store and hope they’ve got a unit available for exchange.

Check out the rest: MobileCrunch