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T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, seems interested in buying Sprint Nextel, according to this Engadget article, which is based on a report from German newspaper Der Spiegel.

Sprint already has enough problems trying to absorb Nextel’s incompatible network. The combined company has bled subscribers ever since the 2005 merger was announced. Check these articles from the Wall Street Journal and Engadget for more of the gory details, including this quote from February 2008:

Sprint lost more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than the company is worth.

Add GSM to this mix and Sprint’s “deal from hell” would only get worse. However, DT has been rolling out UMTS, a 4G technology that supports GSM and CDMA, in its European and US markets.

The interesting part pf all this is that Nextel may not be included in the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal and Engadget. Spring may spin off Nextel, giving the push-to-talk provider its independence.

Related posts on billso.com

• 23 April 2008: Amazon’s Kindle hasn’t caught fire yet
• 22 Feburary 2008: Sprint and Boost vs Mobi PCS
• 20 January 2008: Nokia, Sprint announce layoffs
• 29 September 2006: ESPN sacked, Helio scrambling

Here’s a bit of chill in the broadband economy.

Monday, rumors swirled that Sprint would lay off several thousand workers this year, after laying off 5000 employees last year. The Nextel network integration has taken more time and money than anticipated, while the company’s WiMax venture stagnates.

Mobile telcos live and die on corporate sales. Nextel customers have been loyal to a fault, but that annoying push-to-talk feature is old news. Companies want lower prices, more features, and superior coverage.

Tuesday, Nokia announced it will layoff 2300 workers at a German manufacturing plant. Production will be moved to lower-cost countries like Romania. Nokia has laid off 9000 more workers in its joint venture with Siemens.

InformationWeek mentions both companies in this article.

In this Reuters article that appeared on Friday, German politicians have vowed to punish Nokia for the plant closure.

Another Reuters article on Friday confirmed that Sprint is laying off 4,000 workers. The company has also confirmed that over 900,000 subscribers have left Sprint in the last year. Sprint stock took a 25 percent dive on the news.

Here’s a brief article from BusinessWeek about Bionade, a soft drink that is organic, brewed, tasty and very popular in Germany.

I want some. Perhaps I’d like the ginger-orange flavor best.

TechRepublic has a photo gallery of Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 1 through 7, along with pictures of some old PCs. I doubt any of these PCs from the 80s ran IE, as version 1 was released in 1995. This industrial film from 1994 helps set the mood.

Meanwhile, a German website has some photos of Apple prototypes and products from the same period. Check out the 1983 iPhone! Reminds me of Minitel, an online service that most Americans have never heard of, even if it’s still popular in France. See these BBC and Wikipedia. articles for more information.

“Flaming” is, according to this article in today’s New York Times, “thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard [that] would be put more diplomatically — or go unmentioned — face to face.”

This article is an excellent discussion of some reasons why e-mail and IM users flame each other:

• The perception that the Internet is “anonymous”
• The use of anonymous user accounts
• Lack of face-to-face contact
• Time lag between sending a message and receiving a reply

I’ve taught online courses for over a year now, and I’ve developed a new appreciation of these reasons. That’s why I do my best to respond to student e-mail within 24 hours.
The only exception that I have is the weekend and holidays, when I try to take some downtime and recharge.

Response time is one reason that I don’t use WebCT. It’s much easier for me to respond via Gmail, especially if I’m on my PDA. Pipeline and WebCT just won’t work on a PDA.
Also in today’s Times is an article on the European Union’s Data Retention Directive, which will go into effect in 2009. Several European countries are already modifying their laws so that governments can easily track Internet and mobile phone users.

The Netherlands has developed a draft version of their data retention law that would force telecom providers to store GPS information for all mobile voice and data calls. This has become much easier to do with the widespread adoption of GPS technology in mobile handsets and cell towers. Data would be stored for at least 18 months.
A draft version of the German law outlaws anonymous e-mail and forum accounts. Google and many other webmail services require only two pieces of information to open a Gmail account (user id and password). The German law would require a verifiable identity, and the law may be difficult to enforce. As the article points out, this draft is a major surprise as Germany has long been considered a bastion of consumer privacy rights.

As I have often warned students, e-mail and forum posts might be retained for years. It’s always a good idea to save a reply as a draft, and then review it a few minutes later. Writing and sending a caustic reply might seem efficient, but if the message cannot be recalled or canceled, the results may be dramatic.