T-Mobile really, really wants the Sprint merger to go ahead, and it's promising an even more affordable plan if it's allowed to combine the two networks. The New T-Mobile Connect prepaid plan, revealed today, would include 5G access but at half the price of the current cheapest plan the carrier offers in the US and Puerto Rico.
T-Mobile's 5G network will launch nationwide across the US on December 6th, the carrier has confirmed today, as part of a big push to convince regulators that the company's merger with Sprint should be given the go-ahead. The 5G deployment will use the carrier's 600 MHz spectrum, which is typically slower than the mmWave 5G that T-Mobile has already activated, but does come with a number of advantages.
While the big four carriers in the US typically spend their time bashing one another in press releases, today they've announced a new team up to work on cross-carrier messaging. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint revealed what's officially called the Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI) today, which they say will help "drive the next generation of messaging for consumers and businesses."
The MacLaren version of the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G is coming to the United States exclusively to T-Mobile USA. This is the first time OnePlus has suggested that they'll bring the "Pro" version of the phone to the USA, with all previous indications being that the phone would only be released in regions outside of North America. Further, this is the McLaren version of the phone, meaning it'll be the most extravagant OnePlus smartphone thus far released.
Sprint's 5G network is ramping up with what they call "True Mobile 5G" in Phoenix Arizona. This is just one of a collection of commercial launches of 5G service for Sprint made live in cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Sprint currently suggests they'll soon cover approximately 2100 square miles (with approximately 11 million people expected to be covered in total) "in the coming weeks."
Sprint and OnePlus are finally launching a phone together, and they're going the whole hog from the outset with confirmation that it'll be 5G enabled. The news means another big carrier name promising shelf-space to OnePlus, not to mention the fourth 5G device for Sprint itself.
Documentation agreed to by the Department of Justice, T-Mobile, Sprint, and DISH, dictate that new carrier locking policies are now on the books. Before you go any further, note that these agreements were not made by AT&T, Verizon, or any other carrier other than the three carriers mentioned in the first sentence of this article. In the court documents viewed by SlashGear today, locking principals agreed to by these parties apply to "all methods of locking, (including any limitation on the use of an eSIM to switch between profiles*) for any postpaid or prepaid mobile wireless device that they lock to their network."
The future is officially, legally bindingly, inclusive of eSIM. Official court filings released today stipulate that both The New T-Mobile (with Sprint) and DISH "agree to support eSIM technology on smartphones, including working with handset equipment manufacturers to support eSIM-capable phones to the extent such phones are technically capable of operating on [aforementioned carriers'] wireless networks."
Today DISH stood to gain in a BIG way thanks to the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA approved by the United States Department of Justice. T-Mobile USA and Sprint will become one carrier, but they'll need to divest control of a whole lot of STUFF to DISH in order to make that merger possible. DISH will effectively become a "national facilities-based wireless carrier," and will deploy the "Nation's First Standalone 5G Broadband Network."
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) just approved the merging of the companies T-Mobile USA and Sprint, with a set of requirements. The requirements include - primarily - a "package of divestitures to Dish." In divesting with DISH, DISH will (according to DOJ) be able to enter the USA as the Forth Nationwide Facilities-Based Wireless Competitor.
Sprint and T-Mobile, in case you haven't heard the news, are two companies that really want to merge. Regulators with the US Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, however, are apprehensive about letting the deal go through because it would effectively leave the market with just three major carriers instead of four. In order to sway the opinions of regulators, Sprint and T-Mobile have agreed to sell off some assets, namely Boost Mobile, which is a prepaid carrier owned by Sprint.
The marriage of T-Mobile and Sprint has been years in the making and, depending on who you ask, it's either happening soon or not at all. The merger of the two carriers has been swaying this way and that but the latest rumors suggest that there is just one hurdle left and it's a big one: convincing the US Department of Justice. Fortunately for the carriers, help seems to be on the way but from the most unlikely of sources: Amazon.