Sprint Chairman: Merger With T-Mobile Would Improve 'Horrible' US Internet Speeds
March 12, 2014
The chairman of one of the largest carriers in the United States admits that Internet speeds are horrendous across the industry. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son says he has a way to fix that, according to Re/code.
Calling current Internet service in the U.S. "way too slow and way too costly," Son believes things would improve if the Obama administration would allow No. 3 Sprint to purchase No. 4 T-Mobile.
As Re/code noted:
He said that such a merger — which he stressed hasn’t been agreed to — would allow the combined company to gain enough scale to install new technology nationally that he claimed would offer speeds up to 10x current levels in homes.Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint was having second thoughts about the proposed merger after hearing vocal opposition from government officials. Son is in Washington, D.C. to address those concerns. I'm not sure how a Sprint-T-Mobile merger would automatically lead to Internet improvements or lower costs. Verizon and AT&T, both much larger than the other two, have improved the services they provide in recent years. Nonetheless, many still complain about poor service, and in some cases, rising costs. In other words, bigger isn't always better, right? See also: T-Mobile Promotion Shows That BlackBerry Users Aren't Very Loyal, and Technically, Verizon Wireless Is Now Just Verizon.
