At some point in 2012, we expect AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile to be approved and the first steps of the process of integrating the two networks to take place. Among the many people who disapprove of this deal, Sprint has the most to lose. Dan Hesse, Sprint’s CEO (pictured above), has been touring the country to spread the message that if AT&T and T-Mobile merged it would create a highly uncompetitive wireless space. We agree with him, but we’re also aware that there’s a ton of back room deals being done right now to ensure that little will interfere with AT&T’s plans. In what amounts to a move of desperation, Sprint filed a massive 299 page document with the FCC that explains how AT&T can improve their network capacity by up to 600% if they just made some better decisions about how to allocate their resources. They say AT&T has spectrum they’re not even using today, and if they made use of it they’d double the capacity of their network; if they deployed small cell cites to areas where coverage is a problem, they can triple capacity; if they update their infrastructure equipment to best of breed LTE hardware, they could get a 600% in capacity.
While it’s nice of Sprint to “do AT&T’s homework”, as Phone Scoop puts it, we know nothing is going to change. AT&T donates money to several organizations who have each submitted their support for their acquisition of T-Mobile. Jarrett Barrios, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, was one of those who showed his support, forgetting to disclose that AT&T contributed plenty to his group’s cause, and he recently resigned because of that decision. Like we said earlier, there’s a lot going on behind closed doors that will make sure this deal goes through.
It’s the American way.