Brief: Rumor: Google to buy Sprint

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

• olly

  I can think of a few reasons… but only need one very compelling one: WiMax.

  -olly

• Stefan Constantinescu

  wimax is a joke, you know it

• weisen

  Hey Stefan,

  I agree that it’s probably bogus, but what does it have to do with CDMA?

  Verizon’s doing quite well with their CDMA network (esp w/ EVDO). I certainly prefer having GSM, especially given that I travel overseas a lot, but what does that have to do with Google?

  If they’re looking for a cheap carrier to deploy some venture on, I doubt that that venture, if successful, couldn’t run equally well on GSM. Do you think that they’d be locked into some CDMA-specific software project that wouldn’t port?

  (note: I’m a medical researcher with a wireless fetish, not a wireless guy, so I fully admit that I may just be *dumb* in this regard, and am genuinely curious).

• Stefan Constantinescu

  when you go traveling how many seconds does it take you to swap a SIM card? can’t do that with the way CDMA is setup in the states. all of the coolest phones sold around the world are GSM first, CDMA (if there is enough demand for a product) second.

  over 80% of the world uses GSM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM

  why would you want a small share of something no one even cares about? even verizon said they’re switching to LTE which is the next step in UMTS’s lifecycle.

  don’t pull this wimax stuff on me either, that is a load of poop.

• Reptile

  Anyone know how many customers each wireless phone company has? or net profits or anything like that?

• Stefan Constantinescu

  If you Google their Q3 reports I’m sure you can find those numbers.

• accelerate

  Wonder how long Google would stay committed to mobile openness if they were an operator. It’d be interesting to see what they did and the other Operator’s reaction to it.

• William

  Google stocks overpriced enough to buy things like Sprint but I don’t think they need this one.

• weisen

  Hey Stefan,

  Yes, *personally* I understand what the advantages and disadvantages of GSM versus CDMA are, however I’m not really sure that this makes such a purchase useless for Google.

  Again, I doubt that they’re actually going to do this, however *imagine* that they have some long-term strategic plan to enter the wireless market. Buying Sprint/Nextel gives them 1) spectrum and 2) tower real estate. Both of these are not normally things that you can just throw a bit of money at and have the problem go away. They’re *huge* problems and such a purchase would provide a one-stop shopping solution to both.

  I’d be surprised if Google made such a purchase as I can’t imagine that they really want to get into the business of being a carrier, but making such a purchase would give them access to resources that are pre-requisites to entering the market.

  But maybe you’re right and how many seconds it takes to swap a SIM card is somehow relevant.

• olly

  Whether WiMax is a joke or not Google has already shown interest in the technology, so I could see them considering a Sprint/Nextel acqusition. It’s all about mobile ad revenue… running their own carrier would up that considerably, plus since HTC is making the Android handsets, and HTC already knows CDMA — a Google branded CDMA/WiMax handset could make sense.

  Now, do I think it would be the RIGHT move for Google? No, but I could see why the would entertain the idea.

  -olly