AT&T fires a PTT shot across Sprint's bow

[Danielj1981]

Lol, not sure man, the SDC device work pretty well and are almost as quick as iDEN in terms of instant connect.

Ur probably right man lol

 

I guess it's the sentimental side of me that wants Nextel to take the Idea of PTT to the grave with it! :-)

[Deval]

Ur probably right man lol

 

I guess it's the sentimental side of me that wants Nextel to take the Idea of PTT to the grave with it! :-)

Trust me, I am in the same boat as you.

[hxnk134]

[double]

Edited July 13, 2013 by hxnk134

[hxnk134]

If Sprint's plans were to keep PTT service and capitalize on the market, then they have really blown it. If their plan was just to let it fade into oblivion and allow their customers to get pilfered by the competition, then they are doing a fantastic job. http://s4gru.com/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/dazed.gif

 

Robert

I don't understand why it's so hard for Sprint to transition Nextel customers to Direct Connect. It's voice, not data, so there's no issue of "it won't work fast until NV is finished" and Direct Connect is available on roaming, albeit slower setup times, right?

 

[hxnk134]

I'd rather see AT&T fill in remaining EDGE with HSPA+, modernize the rest of their core, accelerate on LTE, and acquire enough spectrum to deploy LTE over their footprint by 2014, but what do I know?

They'll have 270 mil LTE end of 2013 and 300 mil LTE end of 2014.

 

That sounds like what you want.

[hxnk134]

I have an interesting factoid as a follow up...

 

When AT&T took over the divested Alltel (former WWC) properties, it started by overlaying W-CDMA 850. So, big swaths of acquired coverage in the Rocky Mountains and the Dakotas were depicted with those diagonal blue lines, indicating "3G Handset Required."

 

But here is the cuckoo part. Since then, AT&T has been going back and underlaying GSM 850. I have watched the progress on AT&T's coverage viewer over the past year or two. The Dakotas used to be W-CDMA only -- except for those old AT&TWS GSM 1900 protection sites we wrote about in my Bob Quinn rebuttal last year -- but are nearing completion of GSM underlay, while the Rocky Mountain states are still almost entirely W-CDMA only, just as you experienced in rural northwestern New Mexico.

 

Check out the AT&T coverage viewer. AT&T itself may act like a tool, but its coverage viewer is a decent tool...

 

http://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html

 

AJ

Why do you think they're doing this? Is M2M really that lucrative? Doesn't ATT have enough market power to force M2M to move to HSPA+? I know Sprint signed that thing with ublox for 1xRTT but again, is M2M that lucrative?

[S4GRU]

I don't understand why it's so hard for Sprint to transition Nextel customers to Direct Connect. It's voice, not data, so there's no issue of "it won't work fast until NV is finished" and Direct Connect is available on roaming, albeit slower setup times, right?

There are a lot of iDEN customers who do not like Sprint Direct Connect. Additionally, Sprint could have handled the transition much better. It caused a lot of customers to leave for greener pastures.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[hxnk134]

There are a lot of iDEN customers who do not like Sprint Direct Connect. Additionally, Sprint could have handled the transition much better. It caused a lot of customers to leave for greener pastures. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

They don't like it because it's technically inferior or why?

[S4GRU]

They don't like it because it's technically inferior or why?

I don't know why. There are probably as many reasons as there are customers who left. I'm only speaking to the large numbers of iDEN customers who would not migrate to Sprint Direct Connect and Sprint's inability to retain them.

 

I have heard anecdotal reasons from members in these forums who switched to SDC. I would summarize their opinions en masse as...meh.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[bigsnake49]

I don't know why. There are probably as many reasons as there are customers who left. I'm only speaking to the large numbers of iDEN customers who would not migrate to Sprint Direct Connect and Sprint's inability to retain them. I have heard anecdotal reasons from members in these forums who switched to SDC. I would summarize their opinions en masse as...meh. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

They could have recaptured a lot more of the IDEN folk if they could have added 800Mhz voice and EVDO, but then they needed IDEN people of the network in order to do that. A chicken and egg situation.

[S4GRU]

They could have recaptured a lot more of the IDEN folk if they could have added 800Mhz voice and EVDO, but then they needed IDEN people of the network in order to do that. A chicken and egg situation.

I agree. I think coverage is the biggest reason why people left Nextel and did not go to Sprint.

 

If these direct connect people were important to Sprint, they could have kept all the Nextel sites that would add CDMA coverage and put Network Vision on those and 800, so it could be fired up on June 30th. But that would have been a lot of work and money. So Sprint must have thought there was not a return for these folks.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[bigsnake49]

It is the same tradeoff that Sprint will face again: How far to extend coverage. There is a point where you start losing customers if they think you have bad coverage even though they will never go where you don't have coverage. So how many customers are you prepared to lose to balance out the cost for providing service?

[hxnk134]

It is the same tradeoff that Sprint will face again: How far to extend coverage. There is a point where you start losing customers if they think you have bad coverage even though they will never go where you don't have coverage. So how many customers are you prepared to lose to balance out the cost for providing service?

It's a calculus that TMO has erred in greatly

[hxnk134]

I agree. I think coverage is the biggest reason why people left Nextel and did not go to Sprint.

 

If these direct connect people were important to Sprint, they could have kept all the Nextel sites that would add CDMA coverage and put Network Vision on those and 800, so it could be fired up on June 30th. But that would have been a lot of work and money. So Sprint must have thought there was not a return for these folks.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Why does it matter if Direct Connect is available on roaming?

[S4GRU]

Why does it matter if Direct Connect is available on roaming?

 

Do you realize you are asking me to discern why people who are former Nextel customers why they were not moved by the concept of SDC roaming?  There is no way for me to answer your question.  I am not advocating their departure, I am just talking about the fact they left.

 

Robert

[hxnk134]

Do you realize you are asking me to discern why people who are former Nextel customers why they were not moved by the concept of SDC roaming? There is no way for me to answer your question. I am not advocating their departure, I am just talking about the fact they left.

 

Robert

Given your contacts, I just assumed you knew at least one guy who moved their company's Nextel accounts to ATT and why.

 

Is it possible the fact that ATT PTT works over HSPA+ and LTE would have been a factor in ATT's success?

[S4GRU]

Given your contacts, I just assumed you knew at least one guy who moved their company's Nextel accounts to ATT and why.

 

You must have missed this post:  http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1336-att-fires-a-ptt-shot-across-sprints-bow/?p=168350

 

Is it possible the fact that ATT PTT works over HSPA+ and LTE would have been a factor in ATT's success?

Who said anything about AT&T's success? How many of former Nextel customers went to AT&T? That information is not out there. We know the rate people did not move to Sprint from Nextel. But we don't know where they went exactly. We know some went to AT&T. I find it odd that you would assume that AT&T has been successful based on the conversation we have had in this topic.

 

Robert

[hxnk134]

You must have missed this post: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1336-att-fires-a-ptt-shot-across-sprints-bow/?p=168350

 

 

Who said anything about AT&T's success? How many of former Nextel customers went to AT&T? That information is not out there. We know the rate people did not move to Sprint from Nextel. But we don't know where they went exactly. We know some went to AT&T. I find it odd that you would assume that AT&T has been successful based on the conversation we have had in this topic.

 

Robert

Well TMO doesn't have PTT and Verizon ... I haven't ready anything about them being aggressive with PTT and Nextel customers so who else is getting them?

Edited July 13, 2013 by hxnk134

[S4GRU]

Well TMO doesn't have PTT and Verizon ... I haven't ready anything about them being aggressive with PTT and Nextel customers so who else is getting them?

 

Verizon has to be reported as aggressive in order to for you to think they picked up some of these customers?  I'm not sure I've seen any reporting for me to even label AT&T as aggressive in going after them.

 

Robert

[digiblur]

A family member's company moved from Nextel to AT&T. No push to talk necessary really since they had mobile to mobile. They tried Sprint on their 50+ lines but the lack of coverage in and around the city and the salesman telling them they needed new updates and PRL updates everyday made them return all the phones in a 2 day usage period.

 

So push to talk isn't everything anymore. It was great in the days where you had to watch your minutes.

[hxnk134]

A family member's company moved from Nextel to AT&T. No push to talk necessary really since they had mobile to mobile. They tried Sprint on their 50+ lines but the lack of coverage in and around the city and the salesman telling them they needed new updates and PRL updates everyday made them return all the phones in a 2 day usage period.

 

So push to talk isn't everything anymore. It was great in the days where you had to watch your minutes.

Then why did Sprint focus SOOO much energy on PTT? Cause they were desperately hanging on to customers?

Total guess but I think Son would rather they lose every PTT customer than have to invest a penny more in PTT (beyond what's already planned for NV). Meaning, again a total guess, Son won't be investing in any LTE-PTT solution.

Edited July 13, 2013 by hxnk134

[koiulpoi]

My anecdotal personal experience was that the vast majority of Nextel subscribers, in the year leading up to the iDEN shutdown, did not use any DC at all, or used it to fewer than 5 contacts. A large percentage of those we moved over went to smartphones without SDC, and many who ended up on the Dura-line or an Admiral never bothered. "Nobody uses it anymore", I got told dozens of times. Some came back later, regretting trying SDC. Not because of performance or coverage issues, but because things like SMS and email have done away with the need for PTT.

 

While large corporate/business accounts may be different, I don't think VZW's lack of a powerhouse PTT solution, nor ATT's PTT push did much to effect Nextel customer migrations.

 

Again, anecdotal, but many of those I heard of leaving, went to VZW because "the coverage is better". ATT's reputation here in West Michigan seems kinda... terrible. I actually had a situation where a customer threatened to leave for ATT, and a different customer told him "That's a mistake."