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

[clbowens]

Sprint has to consider the "value" of keeping nearly all of the massive BRS/EBS 2600 MHz bandwidth to itself and away from competitors versus selling, profiting, and letting those same competitors help Sprint grow the band 41 domestic ecosystem.

 

AJ

And hopefully if they DO sell some B41, they use that money to buys LOTS of 600 Mhz spectrum, then that auction comes around.

[Yuhfhrh]

I think they should definitely sell excess spectrum in areas where they have more than 120Mhz.

[JossMan]

Now the question is, how much of the 2.5 spectrum are they going to sell?

[maxsilver]

Selling off some B41 actually sounds like a really good idea.

 

They don't need most of it, and they're not getting full use out of the spectrum they keep (they aren't going to lease the extra cell sites they need to do a dense deployment of it.)

 

Honestly, 80mhz of EBS is all they need. (This would be roughly similar in capacity comparison to 2 carriers of 20+20 -- or more than 2x the capacity of T-Mobile's "wideband" LTE, with similar-ish customer counts).

 

If they sell the rest, that would generate a ton of revenue they could use to densify urban areas and prep for 600mhz auction. It would also help with their spectrum screen issue, and probably jump the stock price up noticably.

[IamMrFamous07]

Selling off some B41 actually sounds like a really good idea.

 

They don't need most of it, and they're not getting full use out of the spectrum they keep (they aren't going to lease the extra cell sites they need to do a dense deployment of it.)

 

Honestly, 80mhz of EBS is all they need. (2 carriers of 20+20). That's still 2x the capacity of T-Mobile's "wideband" LTE, with similar-ish customer counts.

 

If they sell the rest, that would generate a ton of revenue they could use to densify urban areas and prep for 600mhz auction. It would also help with their spectrum screen issue, and probably jump the stock price up noticably.

I agree with this. I believe also sprint has a good supply of PCS spectrum as well. I know currently they haven't talked about aggregating the PCS spectrum but maybe in time it may be a good idea

[Paynefanbro]

Selling off some B41 actually sounds like a really good idea.

 

They don't need most of it, and they're not getting full use out of the spectrum they keep (they aren't going to lease the extra cell sites they need to do a dense deployment of it.)

 

Honestly, 80mhz of EBS is all they need. (2 carriers of 20+20). That's still 2x the capacity of T-Mobile's "wideband" LTE, with similar-ish customer counts.

 

If they sell the rest, that would generate a ton of revenue they could use to densify urban areas and prep for 600mhz auction. It would also help with their spectrum screen issue, and probably jump the stock price up noticably.

There is no 20x20 carrier in BRS/EBS on Sprint.

[WiWavelength]

Honestly, 80mhz of EBS is all they need. (2 carriers of 20+20). That's still 2x the capacity of T-Mobile's "wideband" LTE, with similar-ish customer counts.

 

Something may have slipped your mind.  This is TDD, not FDD.  There is no "2 carriers of 20+20" that is "2x the capacity of T-Mobile's 'wideband' LTE."

 

AJ

[maxsilver]

Obviously -- I know it's not FDD. It was just an analogy for approximate data capacity comparison.

[WiWavelength]

Obviously -- I know it's not FDD. It was just an analogy for approximate data capacity comparison.

 

It was not obvious -- "2 carriers of 20+20" sounds like two 20 MHz FDD carriers or two rounds of 2x 20 MHz TDD carrier aggregation.  Please just be careful with your verbiage.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

Here are the problems with a potential BRS/EBS 2600 MHz sale, folks...

 

The FCC approved the entire Clearwire acquisition -- with no divestment.  That was not a big surprise, but it was still a spectrum coup.

 

The 600 MHz auction may never happen anytime soon.  Do not count on it.  It also may prove too pricey for anyone but VZW and AT&T.  Do not sell your assets and save your pennies for a day that may never come -- or never come your way.

 

Sprint cannot compete with the Twin Bells on overall native footprint.  That ship sailed with Republican influenced FCC decisions 2000-2008.  Currently, Sprint can barely compete with lowly T-Mobile on overall data speeds.  Right or wrong, those are the metrics that presently drive the industry.  If Sprint lets go of some of its spectrum treasure trove, that may be akin to letting the Trojan horse inside the gates.  If AT&T, for example, can acquire 40 MHz of BRS/EBS spectrum and run 2x 20 MHz TDD carrier aggregation, Sprint loses most of its competitive advantage.

 

AJ

[IamMrFamous07]

Here are the problems with a potential BRS/EBS 2600 MHz sale, folks...

 

The FCC approved the entire Clearwire acquisition -- with no divestment. That was not a big surprise, but it was still a spectrum coup.

 

The 600 MHz auction may never happen anytime soon. Do not count on it. It also may prove too pricey for anyone but VZW and AT&T. Do not sell your assets and save your pennies for a day that may never come -- or never come your way.

 

Sprint cannot compete with the Twin Bells on overall native footprint. That ship sailed with Republican influenced FCC decisions 2000-2008. Currently, Sprint can barely compete with lowly T-Mobile on overall data speeds. Right or wrong, those are the metrics that presently drive the industry. If Sprint lets go of some of its spectrum treasure trove, that may be akin to letting the Trojan horse inside the gates. If AT&T, for example, can acquire 40 MHz of BRS/EBS spectrum and run 2x 20 MHz TDD carrier aggregation, Sprint loses most of its competitive advantage.

 

AJ

AJ why is the 600mhz auction becoming a drag? Sorry for my ignorance but I haven't really been following it.

 

Is it because the TV stations (if that's right) are not freeing up the spectrum?

 

Also if it does happen in 2016, how long would it take for us to get a 600mhz phone?

[EvanA]

 

 

The 600 MHz auction may never happen anytime soon. Do not count on it. It also may prove too pricey for anyone but VZW and AT&T. Do not sell your assets and save your pennies for a day that may never come -- or never come your way.

 

The FCC already approved reserved spectrum for this purpose. They'll be able to get 600MHz.

 

Sprint cannot compete with the Twin Bells on overall native footprint. That ship sailed with Republican influenced FCC decisions 2000-2008.

Really? Don't make this political.

[maxsilver]

The 600 MHz auction may never happen anytime soon.  Do not count on it.  It also may prove too pricey for anyone but VZW and AT&T.  Do not sell your assets and save your pennies for a day that may never come -- or never come your way.

 

Sprint cannot compete with the Twin Bells on overall native footprint.  Currently, Sprint can barely compete with lowly T-Mobile on overall data speeds.  Right or wrong, those are the metrics that presently drive the industry.  If Sprint lets go of some of its spectrum treasure trove, that may be akin to letting the Trojan horse inside the gates.  If AT&T, for example, can acquire 40 MHz of BRS/EBS spectrum and run 2x 20 MHz TDD carrier aggregation, Sprint loses most of its competitive advantage.

 

AJ

 

I'm not so sure of this -- Sprint doesn't really have that competitive advantage now anyway.

 

EBS/BRS isn't a major competitive advantage unless they build out a lot of new, denser-placed sites. Otherwise, your still falling back to PCS/800 with very little available capacity. Historically, they've never been willing to increase site density (although with Marcelo here, and with all this new loan debt, theoretically that could change).

 

EBS/BRS services in "Spark launched" markets, as tested by RootMetrics, is roughly matching data performance of Verizon XLTE or T-Mobile Wideband LTE. It's good. But it's not so much faster that it's an significant advantage. If AT&T had similar performance (through 40mhz of EBS/BRS) it wouldn't really change Sprint's position much.

 

Even if a 600mhz spectrum auction never happens (there's like a 99.99% chance it will, but we can pretend that it won't for the sake of your argument) then it still makes since to divest 40mhz of the 2600 spectrum, to allow Sprint the capital to compete on sites leases and footprint (which would also improve data speeds across the network, but without costing any new money to Sprint if financed through selling excess EBS/BRS).

 

EDIT : It would also take away AT&T's marketing angle of "strongest LTE". If Sprint could afford to match AT&T on a exact site-for-site basis -- by selling a chunk of EBS/BRS, then Sprint would loose no advantages, but AT&T would loose one of theirs.

[Dkoellerwx]

AJ why is the 600mhz auction becoming a drag? Sorry for my ignorance but I haven't really been following it.

 

Is it because the TV stations (if that's right) are not freeing up the spectrum?

 

Also if it does happen in 2016, how long would it take for us to get a 600mhz phone?

 

Because stations like mine are broadcasting in the affected spectrum. My station in particular just put up most of our antennas in 2011 when we became a Fox affiliate. It would be insanely expensive for us to replace them all right now in order to vacate the spectrum. That's not likely to happen. I'm not sure the 600 auction will ever come to fruition. People want their over-the-air TV, and stations aren't willing to replace equipment that is working perfectly fine. 

[caspar347]

Personally, I think they should really only sell EBS/BRS in markets with over 120Mhz.

 

They need 120Mhz to take full advantage of the 8T8Rs that they have spent so much time and money deploying and are one of Sprint's big differentiators.

 

Any market with over 120 Mhz will have unused spectrum.

[centermedic]

If that is true, it would be important to know by who and for what reason.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/news/industry/28787/ee-and-vodafone-clash-over-rootmetrics-network-test.aspx

Take it for what its worth but there does seem to be a flaw in not standardizing the devices used for data acquisition. I know, it is probably not enough to materially change the data set. However, there is the appearance of favoritism. You should not peddle your results to the public AND sell them to corporations. Its a conflict of interest in my opinion. As much as I loath Consumer Reports, that is one of the few things they have gotten right.

[centermedic]

Sprint has to consider the "value" of keeping nearly all of the massive BRS/EBS 2600 MHz bandwidth to itself and away from competitors versus selling, profiting, and letting those same competitors help Sprint grow the band 41 domestic ecosystem.

 

AJ

As usual you have nailed it AJ. Any decision to sell or not sell any spectrum should be borne out strategic planning.

[maxsilver]

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/news/industry/28787/ee-and-vodafone-clash-over-rootmetrics-network-test.aspx

Take it for what its worth but there does seem to be a flaw in not standardizing the devices used for data acquisition. 

 

I'm not sure why they did that over there -- but it doesn't quite apply here. In the US, they almost always use the same device when available. (For example, this year I believe it's all Galaxy S5's on all four carriers)

 

The only time I remember them doing alternate devices is whey they had to because of technology (back when they tested WiMax devices for Sprint, or tested Leap / MetroPCS CDMA which didn't have the same devices as everyone else).

 

They do state the devices used for each network in the reports, near the bottom in the fine print, for folks curious.

[WiWavelength]

EBS/BRS services in "Spark launched" markets, as tested by RootMetrics, is roughly matching data performance of Verizon XLTE or T-Mobile Wideband LTE. It's good. But it's not so much faster that it's an significant advantage. If AT&T had similar performance (through 40mhz of EBS/BRS) it wouldn't really change Sprint's position much.

 

I apologize.  I had no idea that Sprint had already launched 2x or even 3x 20 MHz TDD carrier aggregation in band 41 but that it proved no significant e-penis advantage to speeds on VZW XLTE or T-Mobile "wideband" LTE.

 

Or maybe I just rebutted your argument...

 

 

AJ

[lou99/maximus1987]

Because stations like mine are broadcasting in the affected spectrum. My station in particular just put up most of our antennas in 2011 when we became a Fox affiliate. It would be insanely expensive for us to replace them all right now in order to vacate the spectrum. That's not likely to happen. I'm not sure the 600 auction will ever come to fruition. People want their over-the-air TV, and stations aren't willing to replace equipment that is working perfectly fine.

That's what relocation reimbursement is for and relocation won't be voluntary.

[WiWavelength]

Really? Don't make this political.

 

Whether you like it or not, it is political.  Look at the recent history, and tell me that it is not political.

 

The Republican controlled FCC during 2000-2008 eliminated the spectrum cap and the Cellular 850 MHz license cross ownership rule.  Accordingly, it approved the Cingular-AT&TWS merger and the VZW-Alltel merger, both of which resulted in massive CMRS spectrum agglomeration and Cellular 850 MHz monopoly in numerous markets.

 

The Republican motto is basically, "Let the free market sort it out."  But where is the "free market" in this industry, which is an oligopoly and practically a public utility?

 

So, do not make excuses.  Period.  Instead, ask questions -- especially of your chosen political persuasion.

 

AJ

[lou99/maximus1987]

Whether you like it or not, it is political. Look at the recent history, and tell me that it is not political.

 

The Republican controlled FCC during 2000-2008 eliminated the spectrum cap and the Cellular 850 MHz license cross ownership rule. Accordingly, it approved the Cingular-AT&TWS merger and the VZW-Alltel merger, both of which resulted in massive CMRS spectrum agglomeration and Cellular 850 MHz monopoly in numerous markets.

 

The Republican motto is basically, "Let the free market sort it out." But where is the "free market" in this industry, which is an oligopoly and practically a public utility?

 

So, do not make excuses. Period. Instead, ask questions -- especially of your chosen political persuasion.

 

AJ

Someone said alltel wanted to buy sprint but sprint declined to merge or something so sprint had opportunity to merge also

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

Someone said alltel wanted to buy sprint but sprint declined to merge or something so sprint had opportunity to merge also

 

Yes, we have known that for years -- or something.

 

Also, someone said your post lacks relevance.

 

 

AJ

[Fraydog]

Sprint could monetize parts of their 2600 spectrum to get their cell density up. It's a fairly good way, in my opinion, to get money for investment to densify their grid and get urban cell density up. Sprint is lagging in performance, in part, because their density isn't at the point of the other providers. Use the spectrum assets to get higher speeds, but if you can keep 80-100 MHz a market and still be speed competitive, do that.

 

Greater cell density is required, even with 8T8R.

[maxsilver]

Sprint could monetize parts of their 2600 spectrum to get their cell density up. It's a fairly good way, in my opinion, to get money for investment to densify their grid and get urban cell density up. Sprint is lagging in performance, in part, because their density isn't at the point of the other providers. Use the spectrum assets to get higher speeds, but if you can keep 80-100 MHz a market and still be speed competitive, do that.

 

Greater cell density is required, even with 8T8R.

 

Yep, it sounds like an accurate analysis, and sound decision to me.

 

But apparently that argument was already "rebutted" earlier in the thread. So it's no good now.