When are we going to see more launches?

[tndank]

I'm sure this has been asked and covered, but what are typical turnaround times from equipment going up on the tower and a usable LTE signal being broadcast? Days? Couple weeks?

[bkrodgers]

Well call me proud, which I am very proud of Sprint, but their competitors have been showing off their LTE networks this whole year (especially Verizon) and Sprint hasn't. I am well aware that Sprint still has lower coverage than those two (gaining, especially on ATT) but it would help them A LOT marketing wise, and I have said this before on here, to pull a Verizon LTE commercial stunt that they aired back in Dec 2010. (The barn and the lightning)

 

We all know Sprint is doing a heck of a lot to its Network at rates faster than any other carrier because they are re-doing it ALL. But what would help them consumer wise, both existing (to keep them on their network) as well as bringing new customers in is to market that they in fact have "The Network of the future underway". I would love to give Sprint Marketing department a piece of my mind as it is amazing what one commercial, done correctly, can do to the minds of American consumers. It would give Sprint the push they need in Q1 2013.

 

But to connect those two points, if all these new places are popping up, I would like to see slightly more publication about it from Sprint so all these journalists can quit bashing them about how their network will never equal that of VZWs or ATTs. Just my take on things...

 

The problem is that this isn't the type of thing where most people care about what's coming. Sprint's just playing catch up right now, and you can't market that until you have it. Sprint may well be building a network that will be better and more future-proof then their competitors a year from now, but today, there are very few places where they can market what they have. The technical details of why NV will position Sprint's "network of the future" to at least keep up with, if not surpass, the competition are of no interest to the vast, vast, vast majority of consumers. That's why their ads lately have been very vague and pretty much limited to "hey, we have the iPhone and unlimited data," and "you don't have to share your data." There just isn't anything to sell. Any marketing they do in areas that are not significantly complete only will draw attention to their problems.

 

Now, I would like to see them provide more information to store reps and stop training them to lie about never having heard about any problems at all with Sprint's network.

Edited January 3, 2013 by bkrodgers

[Deval]

The problem is that this isn't the type of thing where most people care about what's coming. Sprint's just playing catch up right now, and you can't market that until you have it. Sprint may well be building a network that will be better and more future-proof then their competitors a year from now, but today, there are very few places where they can market what they have. The technical details of why NV will position Sprint's "network of the future" to at least keep up with, if not surpass, the competition are of no interest to the vast, vast, vast majority of consumers. That's why their ads lately have been very vague and pretty much limited to "hey, we have the iPhone and unlimited data," and "you don't have to share your data." There just isn't anything to sell. Any marketing they do in areas that are not significantly complete only will draw attention to their problems.

 

Now, I would like to see them provide more information to store reps and stop training them to lie about never having heard about any problems at all with Sprint's network.

 

As someone who has worked in Sprint retail, I can verify that we are NOT trained to lie about problems. Not sure what you have experienced, but I know I always trained my teams properly.

[WiWavelength]

The problem is that this isn't the type of thing where most people care about what's coming. Sprint's just playing catch up right now, and you can't market that until you have it.

 

But that is exactly what VZW did with the "lightning" LTE commercials referenced in a post up the page. VZW marketed the future. When those commercial started running, how many VZW markets had live and accessible LTE? Any? Even now, roughly two years later, how many smaller VZW cities and rural areas are still without LTE?

 

One interesting bit of data analysis that I gleaned from the top 50 market share numbers that we recently hosted is that only 40 percent of VZW's subs live in the top 50 markets. The other 60 percent, the majority live in smaller markets. Compare that to Sprint and T-Mobile, which have 55 percent and 60 percent, respectively, of their subs residing in the top 50 markets.

 

The relevant takeaway from that is a lot of VZW subs in smaller markets, meaning a lot of VZW subs overall had to wait a while for LTE. Yet, that did not stop VZW from selling them the future.

 

AJ

[bkrodgers]

 

As someone who has worked in Sprint retail, I can verify that we are NOT trained to lie about problems. Not sure what you have experienced, but I know I always trained my teams properly.

 

My experience here in St. Louis is that multiple people in multiple stores will say the exact thing when I bring up any network problems. I stop by sometimes to look at new phones as they come out and it comes up when they ask why I'm not ready to upgrade even though I'm eligible. First they say I'm the first person they've ever heard complain about data speeds, which I find completely implausible based on what I and everyone I know in St. Louis on Sprint are experiencing. Then they say they use sprint all over town and it works great. I tell them Web pages take over 2 minutes to load and speed tests show under 150 Kbps, and they say "oh, well you should use wifi if you want it to be faster than that." But they'll steadfastly insist they have a great network right now, even as they acknowledge that if you want to watch a video or listen to music you need to find a wifi hot spot you can use. The conversations often include the same basic responses, which is why I suspect that they're being trained to respond this way.

 

I realize their job is to sell, but when the problems are as significant as they are here, they'd do much better to acknowledge and apologize for the current problems, and talk about the future. That's where that could have a benefit.

 

[Dkoellerwx]

It's possible they're not lying about being able to use the network...

 

I lived in STL for four years up until this summer, and never had trouble loading web pages, using navigation or anything like that. And that was on 3G. When I could get WiMax, I had no data troubles whatsoever.

[bkrodgers]

 

But that is exactly what VZW did with the "lightning" LTE commercials referenced in a post up the page. VZW marketed the future. When those commercial started running, how many VZW markets had live and accessible LTE? Any? Even now, roughly two years later, how many smaller VZW cities and rural areas are still without LTE?

 

True, but the timing is important. At the time of the commercials, LTE and 4G were new. Getting over 5Mbps on a phone was revolutionary at that point (Sprint WiMax build outs already starting to fizzle at that point). It could be marketed as the future because it was new. But what Sprint is building now will -- again, from a consumer perspective, not a technical one -- only serve to catch them up to what VZW, ATT, and TMo have today. I don't think you can market that until it's much closer to done than it is. NV may position Sprint to lead in the future, but as far as what it will deliver immediately on completion relative to where they are now, it's a catch up move.

 

[bkrodgers]

It's possible they're not lying about being able to use the network...

 

I lived in STL for four years up until this summer, and never had trouble loading web pages, using navigation or anything like that. And that was on 3G. When I could get WiMax, I had no data troubles whatsoever.

 

It's been going downhill fast in the last year, and there are parts that are not as bad as others. It also varies with time. But I know a number of other people on Sprint and I don't know of anyone who consistently gets acceptable speeds. I find it hard to believe them when they say they've *never* heard a complaint.

 

My only point is that whether they're lying or not, they're being completely dismissive of problems, even when demonstrated on their state of the art phones in store. I think that's where they could be marketing the future better, rather than trying to dismiss problems and not being provided any accurate information to share.

 

I recently stopped in to check out the Optimus G, and during one of these conversations the rep told me the US Cellular sale meant Sprint had bought USCC's LTE network in STL (which never launched and as far as I know was never built), and Sprint was working on integrating the LTE network hardware he claimed (incorrectly) they bought in the deal into Sprint, and Sprint customers would have access to it very soon. I knew that was wrong (and told him so), but another customer might not. Giving the reps information and training them to handle questions about the network problems would let them help market the upcoming network, rather than pissing people off and misinforming them.

Edited January 3, 2013 by bkrodgers

[Deval]

I think what Sprint will do is market LTE, in those markets where it is available, and tout Unlimited, along with it.

[koiulpoi]

I realize their job is to sell, but when the problems are as significant as they are here, they'd do much better to acknowledge and apologize for the current problems, and talk about the future. That's where that could have a benefit.

Is the store you're going to a Repair Center? My experience has been (especially working as a S&R tech) is that most reps are woefully underinformed about Sprint, the network, technologies, etc. Sales reps in repair centers not only have to deal with more issues (so they hear it from the customers), but they also glean info from the techs as they explain how they fixed things, and why.

 

That being said, our company policy as a Preferred Retailer is to be upfront and honest about things. One of the top drivers of a high level of customer satisfaction is, after all, setting good expectations. If you lie and say the network is better than it is, you end up with unhappy customers. Naturally, focusing on the bad rarely gets anything done, either. Me, I go for the "Network Vision is coming AND IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME" approach. Tell the truth, but be enthusiastic.

[bkrodgers]

Is the store you're going to a Repair Center? My experience has been (especially working as a S&R tech) is that most reps are woefully underinformed about Sprint, the network, technologies, etc. Sales reps in repair centers not only have to deal with more issues (so they hear it from the customers), but they also glean info from the techs as they explain how they fixed things, and why.

 

That being said, our company policy as a Preferred Retailer is to be upfront and honest about things. One of the top drivers of a high level of customer satisfaction is, after all, setting good expectations. If you lie and say the network is better than it is, you end up with unhappy customers. Naturally, focusing on the bad rarely gets anything done, either. Me, I go for the "Network Vision is coming AND IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME" approach. Tell the truth, but be enthusiastic.

 

One store where I've had the experiences (several times) is a repair center, and the other isn't. I would have thought the repair center people would know more, but I've had equally poor treatment and equally misinformed comments.

 

I think your approach is the right one. No, as a salesman you can't completely go negative even if that's the truth, but there's a balance. The problem is that most reps aren't getting good info from Sprint. They give me info that directly contradicts what Robert has here (they've told me techs have been on the towers, installing LTE in St. Louis over the past 6 months). I believe the info here much more than what they tell me. I really appreciate this community, but the gap between what Robert knows and what the people in the store know is far too wide. Sprint's doing themselves a disservice by not using their reps to help manage the situation. As I said earlier, I think it's way too early in the rollout for Sprint to be able to do broad marketing of what's coming, but using their store reps to do that in a more low key way could be effective.

[kkstp09]

The first... to my knowledge showing anything other than an "LTE phone" promotion on a commercial showing LTE and unlimited and VERY nicely done. THIS is the Sprint I want to see more of!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKZyFYxQCY

[koiulpoi]

One store where I've had the experiences (several times) is a repair center, and the other isn't. I would have thought the repair center people would know more, but I've had equally poor treatment and equally misinformed comments.

I would think so as well. Repair Techs are the ones who contact Tech Support to file CTMS (Network) Tickets for customers who have non-device-related network issues. Now, there is that possibility that the area they live in and where the store is, have few issues. That's the case here: I work at a store in a rural area, which is handled by a handful of sites thinly spaced. Other than coverage issues due to cell spacing, we have few complaints about network speeds: it's rare to have an overloaded sector. If somebody asked me about the network, and I went off the single cell site by our store, I'd say "it's fantastic!". Contrast this with several sites further downtown Grand Rapids where you're worse than 1X speeds on EVDO, well...

 

I think your approach is the right one. No, as a salesman you can't completely go negative even if that's the truth, but there's a balance. The problem is that most reps aren't getting good info from Sprint. They give me info that directly contradicts what Robert has here (they've told me techs have been on the towers, installing LTE in St. Louis over the past 6 months). I believe the info here much more than what they tell me. I really appreciate this community, but the gap between what Robert knows and what the people in the store know is far too wide. Sprint's doing themselves a disservice by not using their reps to help manage the situation. As I said earlier, I think it's way too early in the rollout for Sprint to be able to do broad marketing of what's coming, but using their store reps to do that in a more low key way could be effective.

The issue is, what the reps are told, the public is told too. Almost all information passed directly to store reps (as there are hundreds nationwide) gets leaked to the press in one form or another. The "Sprint Playbook", the weekly information source for retailers, is routinely leaked.

 

That being said, I totally agree. Almost all of my Network Vision knowledge that I pass on to customers comes from the info available on this site. Without s4gru, I would be unable to answer many questions I have been asked by customers. Most reps have no idea what "Network Vision" is at all beyond 4G LTE, and even that, we are told little more than the press releases of market launches. I obviously can't (without breaking NDAs and all that) show you what's available to us on Sprint's intranet, but if I could, you would be appalled at how sparse the information is.

[brad162]

We are never told to lie, and to be honest most of the reps in my store (even the techs) just use pandora when out at the most, so rarely ever notice "slow data", i notice it and am probably the only one out of several employees that notice the slow 3G, although that's because i've used an awesome WiMax network where i lived before and know what a phone can do when paired with a properly working and non-overloaded network.

 

Honestly, even the upper management knows there are issues, but the problem is all we can do is create a network ticket, and hope something gets scheduled to get fixed as soon as possible, but in markets like Phoenix, they do not have many options until they can finally get LTE installed and nix Nextel so more wireless resources are available. Here, from what i've gathered looking at internal tools it's more of an exhaustion of the current spectrum in certain areas, that's where 800MHz and LTE will help offload and hopefully correct the issues.