Marcelo Claure, Town Hall Meetings, New Family Share Pack Plan, Unlimited Individual Plan, Discussion Thread

[Mr.Nuke]

• Always told not to touch anything in first 100 days when becoming a CEO, I couldn't help myself. Completely changed value proposition on day 4.
• Asked managers why would someone come to Sprint? The blunt answer is you wouldn't.
• More expensive, coming out of traumatic network experiences, Adverting a plan I had trouble understanding.
• Family share pack- Same price or lower price than AT&T or Verizon with double the data.
• Network needs to be good for customers to come. Applauds Hesse for bold move with rip and replace of network.
• Spectrum is the differentiator. Again accelerate deployments.
• I monitor the network every day.
• When I got here plan was lets deploy 2.5 across 30,000+ sites. Changing deployment to focus on areas that need it first. Where the network is over capacity. Then focus strategically on certain cities.
• No need to plaster the nation with 2.5, we need to get some early wins early on.
• Ultimately Price + Network will be a winning value proposition.
• With low margins cost structure management is key. Has entire department monitoring spending
• We tried to compete everywhere. When you do that you cannot win. Laser focus on certain areas that are winnable.
• Wants to be fast, flexible nimble.
• Talks about responding to T-Mobile's buyback program within a day. Advantage of having brightstar connection as BS is largest player in the world there.
• Took job because he loves the challenge of being the underdog. We have 16% of the market there is 84% of the market out there.
• Tremendous opportunity to make things more simple. Ads are confusing among competitors
• Tokyo and Softbank shows the power of 2.5, good capacity at reliable speed means there will always be customers that want your service
• Masa is a very unique person.
• Masa is a winner. Has long-term view on an investment. He never comes in on an investment and gets out.
• Masa's priority get more incoming customers than leaving.
• recent first couple of days of customer gains were first since Masa owned Sprint
• Certain things Softbank has we can learn from. Wants to get Masa a lot more involved than past. Past was sharing best practices alone. Masa is 100% committed to providing help we need.
• Masa had weekly meetings with top 25 Sprint employees. Ended that. Masa trusts me. We talk once a week though and I use him as my bouncing board
• Open relationship with employees. Used salespeople in stores to help with plan pricing.
• Scraped press release for family plan instead held bbq at headquarters with employees
• 600 plus emails from employees identifying problems in first day
• lowest customer satisfaction rate in U.S.
• 2.5 areas are seeing high satisfaction rate.
• Being the value player right now is the only choice.
• Talking about iPhone plan being unique and different than everyone else. Best value for wireless.
• reiterates strategic 2.5 deployment in key places.
• Softbank has investments/partnerships with over 1,000 companies. We'll always look for shareholder value partnerships
• Masa was determined to get T-Mobile. But it came to a point where the government said it wasn't going to happen
• Still believes in consolidation. But we cannot complain about that anymore. We've got to compete with what we have.
• We've got to be the new disruptors of the industry.

[joshuam]

Claure says they have changed their 2.5 deployment plan, going to focus on capacity issues first, then focus on certain cities to get to 100% rather than just all sites. No need to plaster the entire country with 2.5.

 

Sent from my Galaxy S5 on the Sprint Network

[S4GRU]

No potential customer cares about NV equipment being installed or not, they care about LTE coverage or not. They don't care if the slow 3G network sucks a little less because NV equipment is installed, the bar is 'is there good 4G' coverage.'

Fine. Then it will mean nothing to them when he says Network Vision is completing. So nothing to get worked up about, huh?

 

People can go to the Sprint coverage maps and zoom in to where they have color gradients for LTE. And the maps are accurate where the BEST color is shown. Sprint has very reasonable prices. And people can try their service themselves and return them if it doesn't work well for their needs. These are the things they care about.

 

But we do care about the details. We are not them. We are a wireless enthusiast site. We care that 3G sucks a little less because of new equipment. We care to discuss about Network Vision equipment and where it's installed.

 

Don't cling to every word that Marcelo says and to add additional meaning to it as of he is saying every part of the network is fine. Put into context, he has said quite the opposite. But the fact is Network Vision is substantially complete. Even if you don't like what that means.

[joshuam]

Someone told Claure it takes 60 days to change price plans... He said that is unacceptable.

 

Sent from my Galaxy S5 on the Sprint Network

[S4GRU]

 

• Spectrum is the differentiator. Again accelerate deployments.
• When I got here plan was lets deploy 2.5 across 30,000+ sites. Changing deployment to focus on areas that need it first. Where the network is over capacity. Then focus strategically on certain cities.
• No need to plaster the nation with 2.5, we need to get some early wins early on.

His B41 changes are wise. Since he focuses on things laser like and quickly, this will help Sprint's image dramatically. And hopefully quickly. If they put B41 on every heavy usage LTE site first, in all markets, people will really start to see and feel progress all over.

 

The nationwide plan of B41 is Masa's by my understanding. The fact he had the cahones to to tell Masa, we must focus on heavy usage sites first is a very good thing. It also means Masa respects him to let him make a big change.

 

I'm getting more and more optimistic every day. I like that he says he's checking in on the network daily. Feels aggressive. I bet he is challenging no every time it's heard.

[IamMrFamous07]

Claure says they have changed their 2.5 deployment plan, going to focus on capacity issues first, then focus on certain cities to get to 100% rather than just all sites. No need to plaster the entire country with 2.5.

 

Sent from my Galaxy S5 on the Sprint Network

Hmm. Makes sense

[joshuam]

His B41 changes are wise. Since he focuses with laser like focus and speed, this will help Sprint's image dramatically. If they put B41 on every heavy usage LTE site first, in all markets, people will really start to see and feel progress all over.

 

The nationwide plan of B41 is Masa's by my understanding. The fact he had the cahones to to tell Masa, we must focus on heavy usage sites first is a very good thing. It also means Masa respects him to let him make a big change.

 

I'm getting more and more optimistic every day.

This!

 

Sent from my Galaxy S5 on the Sprint Network

[marioc21]

His B41 changes are wise. Since he focuses on things laser like and quickly, this will help Sprint's image dramatically. And hopefully quickly. If they put B41 on every heavy usage LTE site first, in all markets, people will really start to see and feel progress all over.

 

The nationwide plan of B41 is Masa's by my understanding. The fact he had the cahones to to tell Masa, we must focus on heavy usage sites first is a very good thing. It also means Masa respects him to let him make a big change.

 

I'm getting more and more optimistic every day. I like that he says he's checking in on the network daily. Feels aggressive. I bet he is challenging no every time it's heard.

 

So basically he's saying we're going back to the original plan with 2.5? That was the original plan after clearwire purchase wasn't it? Building 2.5 hot spots basically to take care of capacity crunches? 

 

Also, kind of tells you that Hesse was having to placate Masa for better part of the last year.  

[marioc21]

Most everyone here didn't care for the hamster so you may appreciate this quote from the FierceWireless twitter account:

 

Marcelo Claure: There wasn't a compelling value proposition at Sprint. We were marketing a hamster talking to people.

 

 

 

 

[lilotimz]

So basically he's saying we're going back to the original plan with 2.5? That was the original plan after clearwire purchase wasn't it? Building 2.5 hot spots basically to take care of capacity crunches?

 

Also, kind of tells you that Hesse was having to placate Masa for better part of the last year.

No.

 

The original clear plan only focused on putting sites on the areas where capacity was very much needed.

 

What Marcel is doing is shifting the focus to the areas that need it the most but still deploying to as many sites as possible. It's just that the priority is urban areas with need for capacity now. He isn't going to not deploy 8t8r areas because it's just not in an area that needs that extra capacity now. It'll get deployed eventually.

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[bigsnake49]

I, too agree on B41. Get it to the heaviest sites first, then do the major cities. They do need to accelerate 800MHz 1x/LTE throughout the country. Even if I am not downloading, it feels good to have good signal all over the place.

[Mr.Nuke]

It just ended. That was very informative to see where he is coming from. I tried to summarize things as best I could with the bullet points in my post on the last page.

[cletus]

Focusing on B41 for high usage sites is what makes the difference, period. I mean that is what T-Mobile has done for it's network rollout, right? They did the downtown core areas first and then went outward and this seems like the best approach to please the most people

 

This is in S. Austin in an area I was getting only 6-7 down on my wife's iphone 5. My phone supports B41 and it is a game changer here for me. Taken yesterday:

[bigsnake49]

No.

 

The original clear plan only focused on putting sites on the areas where capacity was very much needed.

 

What Marcel is doing is shifting the focus to the areas that need it the most but still deploying to as many sites as possible. It's just that the priority is urban areas with need for capacity now. He isn't going to not deploy 8t8r areas because it's just not in an area that needs that extra capacity now. It'll get deployed eventually.

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Yes, it is the prioritization that has changed. Heavy trafficked sites get band 41 first. Then strategic cities, then the rest of the country. It makes no sense for Clewiston FL to get B41 sites when there are no Sprint customers in Clewiston. With apologies due to the citizens of Clewiston. It was the first small town name that popped in my mind .

[joshuam]

Claure admitted t-mobile is doing a phenomenal job, but now it's Sprints time to be the disruptor.

 

He also said they will soon announce the plan for which cities will be their focus.

 

Sent from my Galaxy S5 on the Sprint Network

[GoBigRed79]

Once they get B41 going strong, I think they need to offer a one time early upgrade to a B41 phone for subs that don't have them yet.  With the iPhone 6 supporting B41 that would be a great chance to start getting folks on a better experience.  There needs to be a priority to get folks on hardware that takes advantage of the new network and make it as painless as possible.  But only when it is substantially ready. 

[SuzieTuesday]

Ya never know what's moving a market but it's probably safe to say the market didn't hate the things he said today!

 

[thearch1tect]

Really encouraging to see his comments

[sbolen]

FYI: Marcelo will be on MSNBC at 9 EST. Segment is called something dumb like "Sprint's iFuture"

Nice collection of videos of Claure's appearance from CNBC:

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000309595&play=1

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000309782&play=1

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000309769&play=1

[S4GRU]

Our own Mr.Nuke has written his first S4GRU Published Article based on Marcelo's comments this morning:  http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-375-marcelo-declares-a-new-day-for-sprint-and-changes-band-41-priorities/

 

Great write up, Seth!!!

 

Robert

[xjr2amt]

Sprint will also be doing this: Buy iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus and trade in any iPhone in working condition and meets all standard buyback condition requirements, buy back value will be $200. I see sprint getting a lot of newcomers.

[jamisonshaw125]

Sprint will also be doing this: Buy iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus and trade in any iPhone in working condition and meets all standard buyback condition requirements, buy back value will be $200. I see sprint getting a lot of newcomers.

t-Mobile is offering $350 for my 5s. Sprint will have to match that when I bring in my phone next week lol..

[xjr2amt]

t-Mobile is offering $350 for my 5s. Sprint will have to match that when I bring in my phone next week lol..

Haha this is more for people with those iPhone 4's and iPhone 4s' s who are too cheap to pay for phones.

[jamisonshaw125]

Haha this is more for people with those iPhone 4's and iPhone 4s' s who are too cheap to pay for phones.

An excellent value, I agree. lol. 

[Rawvega]

Claure admitted t-mobile is doing a phenomenal job, but now it's Sprints time to be the disruptor.

 

Humility in a CEO. How quaint...

 

 

He also said they will soon announce the plan for which cities will be their focus.

 

Hmmm I don't know how good of an idea it would be to make such an announcement. Everybody wants transparency, but whenever they try to transparent about their plans it seems to get used against them. We'll see.