Merging Sprint and Tmo Physical Networks.

[WiWavelength]

LTE is the wireless cause célèbre.  In a short span of time, CDMA1X, EV-DO, W-CDMA, etc., have become peripheral, almost irrelevant.  As such, Sprint-T-Mobile could gain significant traction simply by having both LTE networks broadcast both Sprint and T-Mobile PLMN IDs (MCC-MNCs).  That is exactly what T-Mobile did to get MetroPCS subs on the magenta LTE network.  People spend so much time on LTE these days that integrating the 2G/3G network technologies could be put on the back burner with little consequence.

 

AJ

[dedub]

LTE is the wireless cause célèbre.  In a short span of time, CDMA1X, EV-DO, W-CDMA, etc., have become peripheral, almost irrelevant.  As such, Sprint-T-Mobile could gain significant traction simply by having both LTE networks broadcast both Sprint and T-Mobile PLMN IDs (MCC-MNCs).  That is exactly what T-Mobile did to get MetroPCS subs on the magenta LTE network.  People spend so much time on LTE these days that integrating the 2G/3G network technologies could be put on the back burner with little consequence.

 

AJ

 

With a device like the nexus 5, do you know if it it could access/roam on to tmo's band 4 lte while also keeping sprints triband active? essentially becoming quad-band lte? like having a second clearwire network?

[S4GRU]

With a device like the nexus 5, do you know if it it could access/roam on to tmo's band 4 lte while also keeping sprints triband active? essentially becoming quad-band lte? like having a second clearwire network?

 

Yes, it is possible.  With a Sprint SIM, I don't think it scans Band 4, if memory serves.  But with an update from Google it could.

 

Robert

[dkyeager]

If this merger were to happen, I could see Sprint being far more aggressive with advanced LTE.  Merging would make expansion into new territories far easier to cost justify.  As far as competing with ISPs (per recent presentation to the Chamber of Commerce), the fact that many of these same firms supply backhaul to Sprint sites might present an issue.

 

Additional factors in merging the physical networks would be the shape of the actual deal.  If approved, FCC and Justice department could make it a smaller deal from a market or frequency perspective.  The pressure on Sprint to perform (increase market share, more profits) would increase.  Would expect that Sprint be required to promise support for GSM users for several years.

[richy]

It would be interesting to see if the FCC could force sprint to increase coverage over time as part of the deal. In theory they can request them to purchase dancing pink hippos and teach them Norwegian. I like how Son is playing this. There are significant savings \ economies of scale and I think customers could also benefit from a merged network in the longer term. It's good to see that it isn't too difficult to merge them. If anything just bump the LTE bands over to Sprint and give everyone 2 years to buy a cdma \ lte phone, subsidized if required, then that frees up more of tmo's spectrum for sprint lte.   

At least if it happens it shouldn't be too traumatic, and if a full merger doesn't happen there could be some sense in a network sharing agreement to cut costs and use the savings to increase coverage and capacity (obviously there would need to be safe guards to prevent one pinkish carrier destroying network quality). 

[amcferrin90]

Can you imagine the advertising fun Verizon and AT&T will have with this? "Hey T-Mobile customers (former Sprint customers), we're back!". It NOW becomes apparent why TMO has gone no contract, once Sprint takes over TMO, all them former Sprint customers are gonna go looking elsewhere.

 

I see merging the two networks like this, generally speaking. Sprint has good coverage in Urban areas and poor coverage in Rural areas. TMO has great service in Urban areas and no service in Rural areas. Merge the two together and you'll have great coverage in Urban areas and poor coverage in Rural areas. Still less than Verizon and AT&T. I'm not seeing the benefit yet, that is all technology aside. So what about roaming? This is how TMO customers survive the no coverage areas, roaming on AT&T. So how exactly is that going to work out? I bet not.

 

Sprint has yet to address the expansion of their footprint. They're trying to do it without adding more sites. That's great to a point. It doesn't address the users who live or operate where there is minuscule Sprint footprint anyways. Adding TMO is not going to help this. AT&T builds a brand new tower smack in the middle of a Rural area, loads it up with 3 antennas per sector like Woodstock 24/7 was coming and moves on to the next. Until Sprint expands their footprint they will always be last no matter how much technology they have.

[Rawvega]

 

I guess that's one way of looking at things. 

[S4GRU]

Can you imagine the advertising fun Verizon and AT&T will have with this? "Hey T-Mobile customers (former Sprint customers), we're back!". It NOW becomes apparent why TMO has gone no contract, once Sprint takes over TMO, all them former Sprint customers are gonna go looking elsewhere.

 

I see merging the two networks like this, generally speaking. Sprint has good coverage in Urban areas and poor coverage in Rural areas. TMO has great service in Urban areas and no service in Rural areas. Merge the two together and you'll have great coverage in Urban areas and poor coverage in Rural areas. Still less than Verizon and AT&T. I'm not seeing the benefit yet, that is all technology aside. So what about roaming? This is how TMO customers survive the no coverage areas, roaming on AT&T. So how exactly is that going to work out? I bet not.

 

Sprint has yet to address the expansion of their footprint. They're trying to do it without adding more sites. That's great to a point. It doesn't address the users who live or operate where there is minuscule Sprint footprint anyways. Adding TMO is not going to help this. AT&T builds a brand new tower smack in the middle of a Rural area, loads it up with 3 antennas per sector like Woodstock 24/7 was coming and moves on to the next. Until Sprint expands their footprint they will always be last no matter how much technology they have.

I doubt that Tmo customers would flee. There would be no difference to them immediately. And most of the long term differences would be improvements.

 

The duopoly wouldn't run ads like that. They would be too wonky and hard to understand.

 

People are not Tmo customers because of the Sprint footprint. Tmo tends to have less of a rural footprint than Sprint. Sprint not having more of a rural footprint makes it harder for them to attract duopoly customers, not Tmo customers.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[bigsnake49]

Let me just say that I am severely disappointed in both Sprint's and FCC's inability to resolve the IBEZ exclusionary zone problem. I would think by now they would be able to use the band unimpeded. Between the interminable rebanding, IBEZ exclusionary zones and the the Solink sharing, that band has been nothing but problems. Maybe they should have chosen the 900Mhz band to base their sub 1Ghz deployment. What a total cluster that merger was....At the time I advocated they merge with Alltel/USCC/Metro and Leap/other rural cos. Boy that would have gone so much smoother...

[bandwithhog]

I would not even worry about the fact that Sprint and TMo have different networks because both are running LTE and that it the path both will go. There was no joint path for Sprint & Nextel. In addition, many questomers would be able to roam on both networks as many Sprint CDMA phones have GSM radios included and provisioning the chip to look for a CDMA or GSM network could be done right away without much hassle. In the long run you move customers to a single platform (let it be CDMA/LTE) and keep a core within large cities for roaming customers from overseas available.

[dnicekid]

I guess the question is will it ever happen?

 

If it does happen which spectrum/bands of Tmo or sprint would masa be willing to sell or get rid of?

 

Should sprint keep all of the 25/2600mhz; would it make sense to keep a decent amount of Tmo towers for spacing the 25/2600?

[xdfgf]

I guess the question is will it ever happen?

 

If it does happen which spectrum/bands of Tmo or sprint would masa be willing to sell or get rid of?

 

Should sprint keep all of the 25/2600mhz; would it make sense to keep a decent amount of Tmo towers for spacing the 25/2600?

I would be surprised to see SprinT-mobile unload any of the 2.5/2.6ghz considering the way talk about it as a foundation for future network advancements. Softbank also has a lot of experience working with it in Japan and there is a large global customer base developing for TDD on that spectrum. It seems like backwards logic to dump it even if they have tons of it.

 

Maybe they'd dump the 700 and some of the AWS? 

[blakebaa]

Would the LG G2 be capable of T-Mobiles LTE network? Or is it JUST the Nexus 5 and iPhone 5S/C?

[MacinJosh]

Would the LG G2 be capable of T-Mobiles LTE network? Or is it JUST the Nexus 5 and iPhone 5S/C?

Sprint LG G2 is not compatible with T-Mobile's AWS LTE network, but can use Band 2 PCS LTE when and where they start deploying it.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[blakebaa]

Sprint LG G2 is not compatible with T-Mobile's AWS LTE network, but can use Band 2 PCS LTE when and where they start deploying it.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

Ok, so at least there will be another band for more capacity and coverage for us G2 users! 

[MacinJosh]

Ok, so at least there will be another band for more capacity and coverage for us G2 users!

I wouldn't call it another band based on the fact that Band 25 LTE is Band 2 LTE + PCS G-Block

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[blakebaa]

I wouldn't call it another band based on the fact that Band 25 LTE is Band 2 LTE + PCS G-Block

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

Touche.

[MacinJosh]

Touche.

I'm sure if this merger does take place, we will start seeing some phones certified with AWS LTE included ahead of time, or right after an announcement of the merger.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[dnicekid]

I would be surprised to see SprinT-mobile unload any of the 2.5/2.6ghz considering the way talk about it as a foundation for future network advancements. Softbank also has a lot of experience working with it in Japan and there is a large global customer base developing for TDD on that spectrum. It seems like backwards logic to dump it even if they have tons of it.

 

Maybe they'd dump the 700 and some of the AWS? 

Is the 700 as valuable as tmo people make it sound? Sometimes I think it might be a mistake for tmo when considering the issues that come with it. I would think sprint would keep 25/2600 but I believe dish (assuming they start up) would want some of that and vzw/att would be pushing real hard to make sprint give some of that up as well as aws.

[Conan Kudo]

Is the 700 as valuable as tmo people make it sound? Sometimes I think it might be a mistake for tmo when considering the issues that come with it. I would think sprint would keep 25/2600 but I believe dish (assuming they start up) would want some of that and vzw/att would be pushing real hard to make sprint give some of that up as well as aws.

The issues are no worse than what Sprint has had to put up with. At least in T-Mobile's case, it knows that there's light at the end of the tunnel in the next three years. Sprint doesn't have any such assurance with SMR rebanding, unfortunately.

[S4GRU]

The issues are no worse than what Sprint has had to put up with. At least in T-Mobile's case, it knows that there's light at the end of the tunnel in the next three years. Sprint doesn't have any such assurance with SMR rebanding, unfortunately.

Sprint can install Band 26 on all but 8,000 sites in the IBEZ. That means it can deploy LTE 800 on approximately 80% of its sites now. Tmo doesn't even have anywhere near 80% of its sites within their upcoming 700MHz A Block spectrum. And when you consider Channel 51 contours, the difference between Sprint's usable 800 spectrum and Tmo's usable 700 spectrum is vastly different.

 

I'm sure it will change over time for Tmo. They will likely pick up more 700 in the future. And they may even come up with some practical CH 51 interference resolution. But Sprint will also have the IBEZ problem solved in the future too. I will take Sprint's current 800 situation over Tmo's current 700 situation, IMO.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[Paynefanbro]

Is T-Mobile even deploying 700 to nearly each cell site in the same way that Sprint is? They mention rural deployment and show how it'll be less than half the price to deploy 700MHz in rural areas compared to AWS. 

 

Does that mean they'll half-ass their deployment by skipping sites and other such stuff just to "accomplish" their goal faster?

 

(Pardon my language)

[MacinJosh]

Is T-Mobile even deploying 700 to nearly each cell site in the same way that Sprint is? They mention rural deployment and show how it'll be less than half the price to deploy 700MHz in rural areas compared to AWS.

 

Does that mean they'll half-ass their deployment by skipping sites and other such stuff just to "accomplish" their goal faster?

 

(Pardon my language)

I fully expect T-Mobile to half-ass their 700 rural deployment. And that means many people still won't have a usable signal in their homes. Pahrump has 7 or 8 cell sites. T-Mobile only needs to deploy 700 to 2 sites to cover the entire town, and some people who still won't get usable service in the end. Cheap cheap deployment.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[koiulpoi]

...dissimilar site spacing requirements...

It's true. Around here, Nextel sites needed to be MUCH closer than Sprint sites. Just ask iPCS. *shakes fist*

 

As an aside, I met a fellow the other day who knew people who worked at iPCS, and considered it a point of pride. I raised an eyebrow.

 

On-topic, a good VoLTE solution will eventually negate a large number of these issues.

[Destroyallcubes]

Yes, it is possible.  With a Sprint SIM, I don't think it scans Band 4, if memory serves.  But with an update from Google it could.

 

Robert

In global mode it scans all bands, at least on the .15 baseband. Ive even latched onto ATT band 2 with a sprint sim here