Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, talking to the Financial Times, has said today that the carrier is now actively considering deploying WiMAX and LTE for their 4G networks.
Currently, the company only offers 4G through WiMAX.
That decision is leading many to speculate that a long rumored merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA is a possibility, given that both would use LTE for their 4G needs.
The merger makes no sense now, as T-Mobile uses GSM/UMTS for 3G while Sprint uses CDMA. Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile has entertained offers to sell its American unit.
T-Mobile is the fourth biggest carrier in the U.S., with 34 million subscribers, while Sprint is third at 48 million. Both trail leaders Verizon and AT&T by a large margin.
When asked about a merger, Hesse said there was “logic” behind a move like that: “I don’t see a need to scale larger, but if there’s an acquisition that makes sense for us, I do want to have a balance sheet that would give me the flexibility of making good acquisitions when we see them.”
Result for: financial times
According to the Financial Times, Google Inc. is “99.9 percent” sure to shut down its Chinese search engine. The newspaper cited a source familiar with the situation in reporting that talks between Google and the Chinese government over censorship have reached an apparent impasse.
The report said that Google is likely to make a decision very soon but that it will take some time to follow through on its plans. The company would carry out an orderly closure to take steps to protect local employees from retaliation by authorities.
On Friday, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, warned Google about its decision to stop censoring search results for Chinese users. “If you don’t respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you,” he told reporters.
Google shocked the business world and ignited tension between the United States and China in January when it revealed that it would pull out of China if it would not offer unfiltered search results. The move came after Google was targeted by a cyber-attack sourced in China aimed at its Intellectual Property and the e-mail accounts of Chinese activists.
Result for: financial times
In a letter to the Financial Times, BT Group Chief Executive Ian Livingston suggested that persistent file sharers caught breaking copyright laws should face fines instead of technical sanctions proposed by the UK government. He said that suspending service for persistent infringers as spelled out in the Digital Economy Bill could deny a fair hearing for the accused.
Instead of the technical sanctions outlined in the DEB, Livingston said people could choose to pay a penalty or fight the accusation. Those who dispute accusations could take their case to a new tribunal instead of the courts. The suggestion brings BT in line with the Open Rights Group, which believes such a system would be fairer and less risky than the proposed suspensions and other sanctions.
In the letter - which was also signed by the bosses of TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Orange, as well as Facebook, Google, eBay and Yahoo! - a recent amendment to the Digital Economy Bill faced considerable criticism. The amendment made last week would allow copyright holders to injunct ISPs and force the blocking of specific web addresses.
The measure would be used to fight against files posted on “locker services”, such as Rapidshare. “Endorsing a policy that would encourage the blocking of websites by UK broadband providers or other internet companies is a very serious step for the UK to take,” the letter reads.
“Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended.”
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