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posted by janrinok on Friday August 01 2014, @05:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the its-not-over-until-the-fat-lady-sings dept.

Illad, the owner of the French internet and cell phone provider Free, has announced a $15B bid to take a controlling stake in T-Mobile.

T-mobile is currently in discussions with Sprint (controlled by Softbank of Japan) for a merger which would reduce the US carriers from 4 to 3. It is expected that the current regulators would favor a takeover leaving 4 carriers to compete

The arrival of Free in the US market would potentially be a great thing from consumers. In their home market in France, their offerings have forced their competitors to match their DSL triple play and "unlimited" Cell plans below 30 Euros per month each. They even offer cell service starting at 2 Euros per month. Whether any of this is applicable in the US market is the question they're ready to bet $15 Billion on.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday August 01 2014, @06:44PM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday August 01 2014, @06:44PM (#76470) Journal

    All the end user cares about is the final bill.
    But A slight reduction in fees won't matter if they don't improve the coverage area.

    Their APRU is on a strong downward when all the other top carriers are increasing APRU.
    I doubt the French could take in less money per user and still build out their network.
    Sprint can combine networks with t-Mobile delivering a marginally better network
    to both customer bases, but Free has nothing in country to add to the stew.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday August 01 2014, @06:58PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Friday August 01 2014, @06:58PM (#76476)

      Have you seen the profits that the existing companies are making?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Friday August 01 2014, @07:40PM

        by frojack (1554) on Friday August 01 2014, @07:40PM (#76500) Journal

        Why, yes, yes I have.

        AT&T Profit Margin 13.7% Earnings per Share $3.43
        VZ Profit Margin 12.5% Earnings per Share $4.48
        TMUS Profit Margin -0.84% Earnings per Share -0.31

        TMUS is unsustainable at this rate, and anyone expecting FREE to come in and lower prices even more
        is delusional.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 1) by Bill Dimm on Friday August 01 2014, @08:41PM

          by Bill Dimm (940) on Friday August 01 2014, @08:41PM (#76532)

          That Verizon number is for the whole company, not Verizon Wireless. From their press release [verizonwireless.com]:

          ...35.0 percent operating income margin; 52.1 percent segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP)...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @09:24PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @09:24PM (#76545)

          > TMUS is unsustainable at this rate, and anyone expecting FREE to come
          > in and lower prices even more is delusional.

          Looking at just the profit margin is doing that thing where you over-simplfy into meaninglessness.

          There are all kinds of factors that go into the profit margin which are not consistent quarter to quarter like capital expenditures which were up over 30% or one billion more than the previous year.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @06:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @06:48PM (#76471)

    I remember reading about Free a couple of years ago when they were pissing off the incumbents in europe.
    I like this development very much. If T-mobile is going to get bought I'd much rather Free get them than Sprint.

    FWIW, I am a fan of another european entry in the US cell market - Lycos Mobile. They are the only prepaid plan that does not expire your unused minutes. They are huge in europe, but in the US they are ultra-barebones and barely anyone has heard of them. For people like me who are 90% voip and need less than 30 cell minutes a month, they are the best option by far. The closest any other carrier gets is H20 Wireless, you can buy 200 minutes for $10 and it lasts for 90 days. And, like most prepaid plans, you can buy minutes with cash for both Lycos and H2O at places like target, bestbuy and dollar-stores.

    • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday August 01 2014, @07:00PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Friday August 01 2014, @07:00PM (#76478)

      Out of curiosity, if you use VOIP, what do you need cell minutes for at all? I recently ported my number and am using a tablet plan. I'm not paying 1/3 of my previous bill for more data and more features.

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 01 2014, @07:16PM

        by frojack (1554) on Friday August 01 2014, @07:16PM (#76486) Journal

        The long term plan of LTE is to get rid of cell minutes and the separate private network that supports them, and dump it all on the net in voip/sip. Some carriers already offer this.

        However, you can count on the carriers to continue to charge for cell phone minutes long past the actual conversion to voip.

        I will point out that everything going by IP is a lot easier for people like the NSA, unless or until we have client side encryption (and even that probably won't slow them down much if its left in the hands of the carriers).

        Also, be aware that at this point in history, TV, Radio, Movies, Video Calling, and Voice calling are all descending upon the TCP/IP network at the same time. And there isn't enough bandwidth to do all that, which will become apparent some time down the road.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @07:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @07:17PM (#76488)

        VOIP at home. Cell for mobile (and a 2nd cell for anonymous usage). I don't do data on my cell.

        • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday August 01 2014, @07:52PM

          by Nerdfest (80) on Friday August 01 2014, @07:52PM (#76507)

          Thanks! Here in Canada, a tablet plan with no contract is as cheap as all but the most very basic voice plans.

    • (Score: 2) by mrider on Friday August 01 2014, @07:32PM

      by mrider (3252) on Friday August 01 2014, @07:32PM (#76497)

      TracFone user here. My minutes carry over, so long as I renew my expiration date before it expires. If you let your account totally lapse, then yes they'll be gone.

      I always renew for Service Days, never minutes. Perhaps different time fill up cards do different things?

      --

      Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"

      Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 01 2014, @07:49PM

        by frojack (1554) on Friday August 01 2014, @07:49PM (#76506) Journal

        We never used the number of minutes in our plan (and I'd reduce the number minutes every time I renewed).
        We always accumulate roll-over minutes.

        My newer plan is unlimited. They've finally realized its cheaper just to give minutes away and stop accounting for them.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @08:31PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @08:31PM (#76527)

        I think the cheapest prepaid cash option on tracfone's website is $20 for 60 minutes (33cents/min) and you have to buy more minutes every 90 days. That's way more expensive than either lyca or h2o if you are a low-volume user like myself. Lyca costs $3 for 60 minutes (5cents/min), no expiration as long as you make at least one call or text every 90 days.

    • (Score: 1) by mgcarley on Saturday August 02 2014, @05:38PM

      by mgcarley (2753) on Saturday August 02 2014, @05:38PM (#76746) Homepage

      You mean Lycamobile, right? http://www.lycamobile.us/en/ [lycamobile.us]

      --
      Founder & COO, Hayai. We're in India (hayai.in) & the USA (hayaibroadband.com) // Twitter: @mgcarley
    • (Score: 1) by Bill Dimm on Sunday August 03 2014, @02:32AM

      by Bill Dimm (940) on Sunday August 03 2014, @02:32AM (#76825)

      They [Lycos Mobile] are the only prepaid plan that does not expire your unused minutes.

      T-Mobile's prepaid "pay as you go" plans [t-mobile.com] have a 1-year expiration on minutes once you reach "gold" status (spend $100, so just buy $100 worth of minutes right at the start), and all you have to do to extend your minutes for another year is make a minimum purchase ($10). I literally spend $10/YEAR for my phone after the initial $100 worth of minutes + cost of the phone.