We all know the rumor mill has a way of churning out information pretty consistently, but when it comes to T-Mobile, the churning seems to happen at a pretty rapid pace. In late March, we reported that T-Mobile had at one point been considering various joint venture options (to either stay afloat or expand their network), one of which was with WiMAX company Clearwire. Apparently, according to Engadget, CEO Robert Dotson was discussing their options with Harbinger Capital Partners at the same time.
Harbinger, a New York-based hedge fund with plans of building a 4G network next year, is looking to rent their network to large companies (like T-Mobile) who can't afford to to invest in their own infrastructure. Harbinger's intent is to build an LTE network which seems to be the wave of the future for wireless data technology, as opposed to WiMAX which is already in place in several markets. Even Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has gone on record saying that LTE will be the larger of the 4G standards, and that in the future they might switch to LTE if that's what makes the most sense.
The news of T-Mobile's talks with Harbinger comes at an interesting time considering Deutsche Telekom CEO Renee Obermann just got done saying that T-Mobile intended to go it alone. However, if T-Mobile does buy into Harbinger's network, it will seemingly be a good move for the company in terms of their ability to remain competitive and keeping up with the trends that will likely leave their customer-base happy.
I'll admit I'm a bit biased being a T-Mobile customer myself, so I look forward to the opportunity to purchase 4G handsets in the near future. What do you think T-Mobile should do? Leave your comments below!
Via Engadget, Financial Times