T-Mobile/Sprint merger update
T-Mobile and Sprint could seal their deal as soon as next week,
according to Reuters
. T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom may be able to consolidate the merged entity on its books without actually owning a majority stake in the combined company.
Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche of Wells Fargo notes that if DT does not need to end up with majority ownership, it could potentially pay more per share because it will be buying fewer shares. This morning Sprint stock is up 8%, and T-Mobile's shares are up 1%. Meanwhile all three of the publicly traded tower companies are trading lower. CCI and SBAC are both down more than 4%.
Sprint says it
plans
to launch mobile 5G on a 5G phone within the first half of 2019
. The carrier has targeted 9 cities for its launch, 7 of which it has named. Sprint is laying the foundation for 5G with 128-antenna element massive MIMO radios, which it says can deliver up to 10 times more capacity than current LTE sites. Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia have all partnered with Sprint to test and develop massive MIMO radios.
Huawei under investigation?
Bloomberg
reports
that the FBI, the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Commerce Department are all investigating Huawei for allegedly selling sensitive U.S. technology to Iran and thereby violating U.S. sanctions. The Commerce Department has already slapped China's second largest telecom equipment maker, ZTE, with a 7-year export ban. Analyst Earl Lum of EJL Wireless doesn't think the U.S. government will impose the same ban on Huawei.
"Any company supplying technology, semiconductors, components in the wireless industry has Huawei as their largest customer (meaning 10%+)," said Lum. "Imposing an export ban on Huawei Technologies would be the equivalent of wiping out 20-35% of top line revenues from most of the semiconductor and technology companies in the U.S."
(Lum is the author of the industry's
most detailed forecasts
for the wireless network infrastructure markets that Huawei dominates.)
The FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee is considering
recommendations
to state governments that include regulations for the real estate and construction industries. Some of the proposals would require conduit and network access points in new buildings as well as renovations, and others would limit the prices building owners could charge for access to their network infrastructure.
So far none of the proposed rules have been finalized or sent to state governments. The FCC's goal is to create a template for state legislatures that will help them craft laws to encourage more widespread access to broadband.
