Wall Street is reporting that DISH and T-mobile in Merger talks

Even still, I'm considering TextNow for cell service, but I know nothing about their service/reliability (on Sprint network). Their unlimited talk/text and 500MB per line at $19 per line is intriguing.
 
Dish has to do something soon or they will default on the early spectrum licenses they picked up. You just don't go out and stick up a couple of antennas on posts and say you met the deadlines (but Charlie might try it).
 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/bets-are-placed-will-dishs-ergen-seal-a-deal-1433441530?KEYWORDS=dish

WSJ has also been skeptical that Charlie will actually close a deal. He has been so close so many times without actually doing it!

That doesn’t mean there aren’t skeptics. Mr. Ergen has had near brushes on deals with MetroPCS, Clearwire, Sprint, Hulu and DirecTV, and in each case, he walked away empty-handed. A few years ago, AT&T Inc. believed it was close to acquiring Dish, but talks fell apart at the last minute, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

“Ergen is the king of starting deals that never get finished,” saidJonathan Chaplin, an analyst at New Street Research, an investment research firm. Mr. Chaplin said that despite the logic of Dish and T-Mobile coming together now, he gives the deal only a 50-50 chance of getting done. “He’s a notoriously difficult counterparty in a negotiation.”

They also metion his card playing:
On a trip to Las Vegas last month, Charlie Ergen didn’t stay long at the blackjack table. Miffed that a rule in place for the Pacquiao-Mayweather boxing match cut winners’ payouts by 30%, the Dish Network Corp. chairman and CEO walked away after only a few hands.On a trip to Las Vegas last month, Charlie Ergen didn’t stay long at the blackjack table. Miffed that a rule in place for the Pacquiao-Mayweather boxing match cut winners’ payouts by 30%, the Dish Network Corp. chairman and CEO walked away after only a few hands.
 
I'm surprised they let him in. I thought the casinos there had barred him.
 
I like both of these companies and hope they do merge. After what he did with T-Mobile, I'd like to see what uncarrier-type things Legere could do with DISH.

He's a great CEO. Verizon, AT&T and sprint have all came out with their finance plans, edge,next because of him. Only Verizon now requires the entire edge balance be paid off, which is stupid for their customers. He's definitely shaken things up. I can see with Dish, he could say ok that annoying HD fee gone, nonsense receiver fees, they're gone too. That is if Charlie will allow him to do that.
 
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I'm glad because I have both DISH and T-mobile. IF that means I can a discount for having both. But mostly I wish that they had a stronger signal at my work site. I can barely get a phone call in or out unless I am outside .
T-Mobile's coverage is among the weakest of all larger cell carriers. Where I live in NC, T-Mobile is almost useless.
 
T-Mobile's coverage is among the weakest of all larger cell carriers. Where I live in NC, T-Mobile is almost useless.
Funny thing I found out when I had to got to Hatfield, Arkansas -where my aunt lives-for evacuation for Hurricane Rita in 05 and Ike in 08 , was that T-mobile worked in that area. That area is really in the country and surrounded by a forest and a mountain. T-mobile works well in my area where I live,but not in the area where I work near Sabine Pass. Supposedly by the end of this year Hwy 87 will have better towers and all the upgrades to 4g will be completed and my work area will be better for reception-according the T-mobile csr I spoke to. I even got a month's credit because of the messed up reception in that area.
 
Funny thing I found out when I had to got to Hatfield, Arkansas -where my aunt lives-for evacuation for Hurricane Rita in 05 and Ike in 08 , was that T-mobile worked in that area. That area is really in the country and surrounded by a forest and a mountain. T-mobile works well in my area where I live,but not in the area where I work near Sabine Pass. Supposedly by the end of this year Hwy 87 will have better towers and all the upgrades to 4g will be completed and my work area will be better for reception-according the T-mobile csr I spoke to. I even got a month's credit because of the messed up reception in that area.
Gotta give you crap, in friendly banter Mike. You are definitely the king of credits round here. I really should take a note on how to get some of these...
 
Gotta give you crap, in friendly banter Mike. You are definitely the king of credits round here. I really should take a note on how to get some of these...

All you have to do is ask in a friendly way to what ever company you are doing business with(-DISH), how they can help reduce your bill ,because their fees are getting too high and the constant yearly price hikes are really getting to be too much. Stand your ground when they say you could downgrade to a lower pack and tell them that are already as low as you want to go. Also say that you are getting all kind of advertising from DIRECTV to give you better service at a much lower price + a $200.00 Credit card- which they were , and they will give you something. Also helps that you have been with the company for as many years as I have. I will have been with them 19 years next January with three DISH accounts in my name. I do the same with all my utilities and phone and internet companies. I demand better pricing and service. But I don't get mean and use profanity and act like an ass. I am always professional and treat them the way I would like to be treated. The "Golden Rule " pays off in life if you practice it . :angel2
 
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All you have to do is ask in a friendly way to what ever company you are doing business with(-DISH), how they can help reduce your bill ,because their fees are getting too high and the constant yearly price hikes are really getting to be too much. Stand your ground when they say you could downgrade to a lower pack and tell them that are already as low as you want to go. Also say that you are getting all kind of advertising from DIRECTV to give you better service at a much lower price + a $200.00 Credit card- which they were , and they will give you something. Also helps that you have been with the company for as many years as I have. I will have been with them 19 years next January with three DISH accounts in my name. I do the same with all my utilities and phone and internet companies. I demand better pricing and service. But I don't get mean and use profanity and act like an ass. I am always professional and treat them the way I would like to be treated. The "Golden Rule " pays off in life if you practice it . :angel2
As a former CSR, and supervisor for Dish, I do thank you for that. I am sure aany CSR will say the same. I have mentioned before that if you are stern and professional at the same time, it makes the agent want to work to help you out more than if you are just a jerk. I hate to say it, but when I worked there, everytime we got "That Guy", we gave him whatever we had to, by company standards and to shut him up, but by no means went out of my way if he truly did make my agents regret coming to work that day. We would then go outside to the smoke pit and he would become the joke of the day(we had a lot of jokes of the day). I can tell you I have hurried people off the phones because they were just uninterested and jerks all around, but I remember one case in particular, where it was the sweetest old lady ever and she just wanted her TV working again. She had some physical limitations, but no limitations on her determination, and I tried to get her to do anything other then the physically hard trouble shooting(moving the box to check cables and unplug) as much as possible. When it came down to I preemptively offered her a free tech if she could not get behind the box because she was really working at it, and was on the phone with me an hour, but we got it up by tightening cables and resetting the receiver. She thanked me for trying to avoid that, and I did not even care that it ruined my whole call time. She was why I liked working customer service. She was the type of customer I wish everyone was, and she got some freebies from me for being the model customer all around. She was just a good person to deal with in every aspect and to this day if I could find her, I would buy her some flowers and let her know that she was the reason I stayed determined from then on out. Never again had it taken 15 minutes to unplug a power cord, but it was worth every minute of my time.

I am thinking about calling Verizon for a credit, and throwing TMobiles name out there, but I am a little upset over some of the Verizon charged fees, such as "Maricopa County Assessment Fee" and "Mesa City Assessment Fee". It very clearly says that it is not a tax on the bill, and does not explain what it is towards on their website, except for a VERY vague description. It increased $3 this last bill, while my taxes and service fees remained the same. Makes no sense to me, and I know Sprint never charged that, and people outside of Mesa(Gilbert Tempe and Chandler) get charged the Mesa fee also.
 
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I agree with the sentiments in this thread. I always try to be as pleasant as I can to the CSRs, because I know they are not the ones that have raised prices, and so on. They are merely enforcing the rules set forth by the company. I recently removed some services from my wireline ATT bill, (switched to Comcast internet), and on a Saturday, was able to talk to a very nice lady in lower Michigan. She actually was able to offer me a retention promo that let me keep some of the POTS line services I had for 12 months for the same exact price as the basic line with no extras. I felt like it was a very productive call. (I have a security system connected to my POTS line, so am keeping it for now. Eventually I'll upgrade to a GSM-line security system or something like that.)

I didn't even know retention promos existed for POTS, but there you go. I guess that it's still worth keeping a customer as long as they don't cancel entirely.
 
A small margin is usually better than no margin. I know I am only a business student, but that has been my experience, and I do understand that there will ALWAYS be circumstances. Also, basic Economics of business states that if the loss of delivering the service is less than the loss of not delivering the service(Fixed costs vs Variable costs), then you should also deliver the service. If they were losing more money producing than not producing(the loss was greater than the fixed cost), you likely would not see this offer and you would just see the acocunt shut down. I am assuming that is how Mike does it, and why he has been around the longest, but I also know from first hand experience, CSR's have no knowledge of the inside workings, and have no need for inside workings. They do what they are told is best for business, and can make some judgement calls, but ultimately any one single of them can be overturned for whatever reason.
 

I hope Verizon doesn't get their bloody hands on Dish. If they did then I could see them being as expensive as FIOS. I'd rather see Dish grow T-Mobile . if Dish did buy T-Mobile , then once the coverage gaps start filling in then Verizon will be a little worried. Right now their ad of an umbrella being held up in the rain and getting soaked in the rain if you have T-Mobile is true if you're in an area where you have poor coverage from them .

T-mobile has come quite a ways since a year ago. A lot of spots around here where I had no coverage, I do now.
 
There is no way either the FCC nor the Justice Department is ever gonna green light a merge of Sprint and T-Mobile. Either Hottges and DT is saying this to drive up the price he wants for the merge or he is a MORON. Attempting any such stupid merge of Sprint and T-Mobile just gives lawyers tons of money and wastes tons of time and weakens both companies as they are distracted with a doomed to fail merge. The competition will have moved on and someone else buys T-Mobile for a discount. Personally, I think Hottges just wants DT to get more money for this merge. I believe the only real sticking points was HOW Dish was going to compensate shareholders: some of it in stock and other products, and some in cash. Sorry, Claude but this is just Hottges saying he and DT want MORE CASH! And Charlie is most likely to give it to them. After all, this is the VERY man at DT who has been in talks with Dish all along. PLLLEAAAASSSEEE!!!

Also, at the end of that article, a DT spokesman said the quotes and paraphrases in the article were FALSE. That fails the "fact checking" and "confirmation" required before one goes to press. And this is the high journalistic standards of the New York Post. This is really grasping at straws.
 
There is no way either the FCC nor the Justice Department is ever gonna green light a merge of Sprint and T-Mobile. Either Hottges and DT is saying this to drive up the price he wants for the merge or he is a MORON. Attempting any such stupid merge of Sprint and T-Mobile just gives lawyers tons of money and wastes tons of time and weakens both companies as they are distracted with a doomed to fail merge. The competition will have moved on and someone else buys T-Mobile for a discount. Personally, I think Hottges just wants DT to get more money for this merge. I believe the only real sticking points was HOW Dish was going to compensate shareholders: some of it in stock and other products, and some in cash. Sorry, Claude but this is just Hottges saying he and DT want MORE CASH! And Charlie is most likely to give it to them. After all, this is the VERY man at DT who has been in talks with Dish all along. PLLLEAAAASSSEEE!!!

Also, at the end of that article, a DT spokesman said the quotes and paraphrases in the article were FALSE. That fails the "fact checking" and "confirmation" required before one goes to press. And this is the high journalistic standards of the New York Post. This is really grasping at straws.
That is what I was going to quote...

"
A Deutsche Telekom spokesman said the quotes and paraphrases in this story are false.

He declined to say how they were false."

Love the good ole NY Post. I have seen them on more confrontational and false stories than MSNBC and FoxNews, and that is quite impressive to out do them. Do these journalists and "papers" not know that fact checking on the internet is easier now than ever? Hell, you do not even have to type your search in with Talk To Text.
 

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