At 11 Mar 2008 11:43:02 -0400 Cyrus Afzali wrote:

> The best opportunity T-M has had since taking that name in the U.S.
> following the VoiceStream deal was to buy the original AT&T Wireless
> when it could be had at bargain basement prices. At that point,
> neither had invested significant money into a next-generation network,
> they both had compatible technologies and integration would have been
> relatively easy -- at least for two companies of that size.
>
> But they passed and we have the market sector that's present now. I
> don't see it changing anytime soon unless Verizon/Vodafone wanted to
> make a run for Sprint/Nextel. That too is unlikely since Verizon's
> spending heavily to roll out FIOS across the Northeast.


Not to mention that there's really nothing in it for Verizon. When
Cingular acquired AT&T, it gained a bunch of markets it had no presence in
(like New York, and my own Denver) and obtained vital 800MHz spectrum in
many areas it had none (California for example.)

Sprint operates in pretty much the same markets as Verizon already, so what
would Verizon gain in buying Sprint? More customers? They don't need to
buy those, they can just sit back and wait for them to churn for free! ;-)