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

[WiWavelength]

I will say as a millenial, living in NYC metro area, the ease of access with public transportation is amazing, and the less wear and tear on my car makes me happy. Thankfully this market has affordable housing with yards not too far away in NJ or Westchester County.

 

Enjoy that long commute from across or up the river -- especially if it is on public transportation.  Meanwhile, as I have told you, if you were to transfer to Overland Park, you could have a nice house in a cul de sac with lots of Indian neighbors only 2-3 miles tops from the Sprint Campus.

 

 

AJ

[Deval]

Correct...but VoLTE is on by default, and I don't know why Root Metrics would want to turn it off for their tests?

 

I wasn't sure if it was enabled by default, read somewhere that not all of their calls are on VoLTE.

[Deval]

Enjoy that long commute from across or up the river -- especially if it is on public transportation.  Meanwhile, as I have told you, if you were to transfer to Overland Park, you could have a nice house in a cul de sac with lots of Indian neighbors only 2-3 miles tops from the Sprint Campus.

 

 

AJ

 

Yeah my wife would kill me

[maxsilver]

I will say as a millenial, living in NYC metro area, the ease of access with public transportation is amazing, and the less wear and tear on my car makes me happy. Thankfully this market has affordable housing with yards not too far away in NJ or Westchester County.

Yep. It's my #1 and #2 complaint about the Midwest. There is no useful public transit in most of these cities, and no middle-class-affordable urban housing in most of these cities (unless you qualify for government subsidy). The design of life here economically coerces most people into owning a single family home in a suburb, driving everywhere, and working at that one job forever.

 

If you like all of that, if you want to live in a suburb next to Sprint's campus and work at Sprint for the rest of your life, then life is perfect and you wouldn't even know this was an issue.

 

But if you might want to change jobs in the next 40 years without uprooting yourself and/or family, or if you have a spouse who wants to find work in some other field, or you don't want to maintain a poorly-cheaply-constructed suburban house + lawn, it would really suck to be stuck there.

 

It's the big "Midwest" problem. It's a problem in Kansas City. But the exact same problem exists in Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids, and Toledo, and Dayton, and many other cities.

[IamMrFamous07]

Not sure if this was posted but Sprint plans to use its entire Spectrum portfolio. Not sure that means all 120mhz of 2.5.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-08-18/sprint-to-use-entire-spectrum-for-competitive-edge-ceo?cmpid=yhoo

[lennyj17]

http://www.cnet.com/news/wait-what-sprint-boasts-superior-coverage-to-t-mobile-study-says/

 

http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/blog/special-reports/2015-1h-national-us#the-united-states-winner

[joshuam]

I wasn't sure if it was enabled by default, read somewhere that not all of their calls are on VoLTE.

 

If you don't disable it, and you are connected to LTE, the call is routed over VoLTE. It is an IP based call...connect time is insanely fast, otherwise not much difference for a user.

[PythonFanPA]

For instance, Kansas City has http://www.kc2-0.com/about/about.htm .

 

The two points in that that seem to have merit from a grounded/based-in-reality perspective are the issues of diversity/minority and quality of schools.  The first is likely something that, while there may be efforts that could aid this to some degree, probably realistically only time can change - the second is something that could be addressed more rapidly given the right people and focus in the appropriate governmental/oversight positions.

 

The rest seems to boil down to issues of perception, and glaring statements such as "Lack of materials or lack of updated materials that provide information on the assets of living and working in the KC region" basically say to me that there needs to be a better job all around between the companies in question, chambers of commerce, etc to sell/market the positives and to break down the perception-based barriers from a prospective employee's side of the fence - and also to thoroughly underscore the cost of living differential while at the same time offering the same if not slightly better salary for like positions.  There will still be people so grounded in their urban environment/mindset who won't bite even then, sure, but I don't believe for a minute that people who would bite with the right education and incentives simply don't exist in metro areas.  My wife is living proof of one such person actually.

 

Obviously regardless of where you live or what environment you're naturally comfortable in, your first instinct isn't going to be move, and obviously companies in areas with a higher population density naturally have it easier - that goes without saying in both cases.  That said, proper focus and effort as it relates to education and marketing, along with strong enough incentives, can overcome perception and create a positive trend over time.

 

Some of the more successful people/businesses in the world are those who buck the notion that something is difficult to achieve and not worth the effort, and end up proving a stereotype or assumption wrong.

[jamisonshaw125]

I wonder. Once Sprint peaks the speed cap that they have been stuck at (even though somehow I clock speed tests over 20 almost every single time I run one but root metrics can never mange to record one, nationwide, /several of which I've done in this market and that are listed on root metrics)...what will T-Mobile have to offer? 

 

Music freedom? Some perks? Crappy voice quality and edge to LTE to edge rural deployment? I'm glad I stuck with Sprint. I would've regretted leaving. With wideband already starting to show the strain in urban environments, I wonder if those millennial who were so quick to jump ship for the immediate LTE relief of data juicing power, will jump back to Sprint. Especially with that iPhone offer...We all now iPhone users use a ton of data.

[ericdabbs]

But what do we make of urban focused T-Mobile when they complete their rural upgrade project to put PCS LTE on the EDGE sites out in the boonies? Where would that put them when everything is said and done?

What tmobile needs more is to buy up the remaining 700 A-block licenses when it makes sense and deploy it as quickly as possible. For now tmobile should focus on converting all the EDGE towers to LTE and deploy mass 700 LTE where it currently has spectrum in.

[twospirits]

And once again, we have the twitter T-Mobile ultimate journalistic fanboy opening up his trap about the rootmetrics report...

Funny how he doesn't mention in his disclosure that he uses T-Mobile for years and that his publication PC Mag downplays Sprint at any turn they get. 

 

TS

[Steve Dean]

It is funny that all he focuses on the data.  You would think that the overall experience would be the final score. 

 

From other posts that I have read (I believe) Sprint was in the same boat with data as TMUS.  Yet, TMUS was last.

 

Oh well, let him and others like him continue to drink their magenta Kool-Aid.  Hopefully there will not be a Jamestown incident with said Kool-Aid when TMUS finds out that they will be last for a long time.

[caspar347]

Not sure if this was posted but Sprint plans to use its entire Spectrum portfolio. Not sure that means all 120mhz of 2.5.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-08-18/sprint-to-use-entire-spectrum-for-competitive-edge-ceo?cmpid=yhoo

Way back in 2013 shortly after the Softbank buyout Hesse said the master plan was to have 6 B41 carriers running in every market that had 120mhz+ of 2600 spectrum. The setup would have two 3xCA sets basically.

 

But Hesse is long gone and plans have probably changed.

[JimBob]

CEO of Patterson Advisory Group calls for Sprint to set a "defined victory", such as adding 23 million customers within four years.

 

http://www.rcrwireless.com/20150818/opinion/reality-check-sprint-at-claures-1-year-anniversary-tag12

[IamMrFamous07]

Way back in 2013 shortly after the Softbank buyout Hesse said the master plan was to have 6 B41 carriers running in every market that had 120mhz+ of 2600 spectrum. The setup would have two 3xCA sets basically.

 

But Hesse is long gone and plans have probably changed.

I remember that. When Marcelo came on board said he only plans to add Spark only at High capacity sites. Then possibly monetize some the 2.5 spectrum. Now I think they planning to go back to Hesse's original plan

[utiz4321]

CEO of Patterson Advisory Group calls for Sprint to set a "defined victory", such as adding 23 million customers within four years.

 

http://www.rcrwireless.com/20150818/opinion/reality-check-sprint-at-claures-1-year-anniversary-tag12

That is a good one, but finishing NV 1.0 would be nice too.

[Fraydog]

I suspect that jamesinclair has never been to Kansas City.  Even if he has, he is ignorant about characteristics of the metro.

 

Sprint is located in Johnson County, KS, which is the 81st wealthiest county in the country (per median household income).  No county in Florida, by the way, makes the top 100.  And where Marcelo lives in Mission Hills, KS, it is fully the 13th wealthiest community in the country (per capita income).

 

The nonsense about not being able to attract talent to Kansas City is, well, nonsense.  People come to work here, and they stay here because they like it.

 

AJ

 

Even with clowns like Brownback in office? I suspect he's hurt the business climate of that state, ironically while posing to be pro-business. Even still Sprint could locate their people in Missouri as far as living and stay in the KC area. It's not a bad drive from Blue Springs to Overland Park. 

[Fraydog]

And once again, we have the twitter T-Mobile ultimate journalistic fanboy opening up his trap about the rootmetrics report...

Funny how he doesn't mention in his disclosure that he uses T-Mobile for years and that his publication PC Mag downplays Sprint at any turn they get. 

 

TS

Maybe Sasha could answer why Ookla changed the testing criteria of their broadband testing to favor companies like Comcast. I also believe that if Comcast pulled such a stunt with Ookla that they could also be susceptible to the same stunt with T-Mobile. 

 

After Ookla pulled NetIndex, there is NO good reason anyone with a brain should ever take them seriously anymore. The old NetIndex data that measured wireless over all metrics pointed out Verizon as the overall speed winner, not T-Mobile, because it pulled off all forms of data usage, not just LTE. And in many cities, where there isn't any 700 MHz spectrum or where many people don't have 700 MHz phones, it's extremely common for people to fall off LTE to 3G (or even EDGE!!!) on T-Mobile. Ookla just decided arbitrarily to throw that out. What's more likely to happen on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint is that one will stay on LTE in the first place. I credit T-Mobile for pursuing the low band they can get but if you want honest, accurate measurements, you have to factor in everything. 

 

Finally Mr. Segan needs to realize app coverage is important. It isn't about the biggest e-peen but providing 10Mbps and up in the most places possible. Very few applications need more bandwidth than that. He mentions VoLTE but that runs off approximately 24 Kbps, that's not a huge strain on the network. That said consistency of coverage is important with VoLTE, even still, and that's why Verizon and AT&T have taken a slower, more measured approach to VoLTE. Verizon is opt in and AT&T is turning it on by market, yet people are decrying their VoLTE deployments as slow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[WillM]

Garden State Plaza, right?

Bridgewater Commons but the same goes for GSP.

[GoBigRed79]

$10 says BGR ignores this report

 

For the record, 1PM CST and BGR is still silent on this report.  Rest assured, if T-Mobile had beaten Sprint in this report, Brad Reed would have had his Sprint trashing post out at 8AM.  Obviously he is still trying to figure out how to spin the report to continue his agenda.

 

And yes, I realize BGR is not really relevant and has become mostly tabloid clickbait trash, but I like calling them out when they take every chance they can to trash Sprint and worship Legere.

[jeffcarp]

Yep. It's my #1 and #2 complaint about the Midwest. There is no useful public transit in most of these cities, and no middle-class-affordable urban housing in most of these cities (unless you qualify for government subsidy). The design of life here economically coerces most people into owning a single family home in a suburb, driving everywhere, and working at that one job forever.

 

If you like all of that, if you want to live in a suburb next to Sprint's campus and work at Sprint for the rest of your life, then life is perfect and you wouldn't even know this was an issue.

 

But if you might want to change jobs in the next 40 years without uprooting yourself and/or family, or if you have a spouse who wants to find work in some other field, or you don't want to maintain a poorly-cheaply-constructed suburban house + lawn, it would really suck to be stuck there.

 

It's the big "Midwest" problem. It's a problem in Kansas City. But the exact same problem exists in Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids, and Toledo, and Dayton, and many other cities.

There is no coercion involved. It's a lifestyle choice. If you want the New York or Chicago lifestyle then you live there but to complain like it is a negative that these smaller cities don't offer that is nonsense. People live there because they don't want that. But in actuality, most of these smaller cities actually offer both options. I've spent 20 years in the small market of Des Moines Iowa, about 500,000 people in the entire metro. There is a huge growth in urban lofts and condos with more coming online every month and there is also growth in suburbia.

 

But this idea that the Midwest forces you into working for one employer your entire career and doesn't offer spousal employment opportunities in unrelated industries is just nonsense. I'm not even sure how to respond to that but to try would be to dignify a ridiculous comment.

[Deval]

Bridgewater Commons but the same goes for GSP.

 

Ah, didn't consider that, too far for me to drive to

 

GSP was the first thing that popped in my mind, the MS store there is really nice.

[kojitsari]

Even with clowns like Brownback in office? I suspect he's hurt the business climate of that state, ironically while posing to be pro-business. Even still Sprint could locate their people in Missouri as far as living and stay in the KC area. It's not a bad drive from Blue Springs to Overland Park.

Actually there's are quite a few (~6-7000 people) in Parkville that live there to save money and commute the 15 minutes to north KC. Uber is finally gaining a foothold in KC too, so that's going to improve transit options.

 

This isnt directed at you, but saying that there's no reason to stay in KC as a current college student because there's no jobs is crazy. Cerner just expanded and has offered some of the best internships in ~800 miles for anyone looking to get into the technical field. All of the colleges around offer great internships, Sprint even offers internships in everything from journalism to technical things. The best part is they're all paid.. as for not going able to walk everywhere, well that's done people's cup of tea but more and more people (in my experience) are wanting a house and an acre or a few than a dinky apartment (and there are those too).

[WiWavelength]

Even with clowns like Brownback in office? I suspect he's hurt the business climate of that state, ironically while posing to be pro-business. Even still Sprint could locate their people in Missouri as far as living and stay in the KC area. It's not a bad drive from Blue Springs to Overland Park. 

 

Brownback and the Koch brothers can get bent.  But I am not sure that your conclusion about business climate holds true.  Under his policies, AMC Theatres moved its HQ from downtown Kansas City, MO to Leawood, KS -- just across the street from the Sprint Campus.  The Missouri side of the metro was royally pissed off.

 

Regardless, the school systems are significantly better on the Kansas side.  The Blue Valley School District, which includes nearly all of the area proximate to the Sprint Campus, is one of the absolute best school districts in the entire country.  A recent ranking placed it at #23.  The only Missouri school districts in the top 100 were ranked lower and in the St. Louis metro.  So, while I agree that Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, Liberty, and Parkville on the Missouri side are nice places to live, Blue Valley schools are a driving factor why southern Overland Park is the most desirable growth area in the Kansas City metro.

 

AJ

[GoBigRed79]

There is no coercion involved. It's a lifestyle choice. If you want the New York or Chicago lifestyle then you live there but to complain like it is a negative that these smaller cities don't offer that is nonsense. People live there because they don't want that. But in actuality, most of these smaller cities actually offer both options. I've spent 20 years in the small market of Des Moines Iowa, about 500,000 people in the entire metro. There is a huge growth in urban lofts and condos with more coming online every month and there is also growth in suburbia.

 

But this idea that the Midwest forces you into working for one employer your entire career and doesn't offer spousal employment opportunities in unrelated industries is just nonsense. I'm not even sure how to respond to that but to try would be to dignify a ridiculous comment.

 

http://time.com/money/3984383/papillion-nebraska-best-places-to-live-2015/

 

These types of rankings are pretty common for the Omaha metro.  We live in a great old revitalized neighborhood in Omaha close to downtown and 10 mins from my office.  Great music and bar scene, only thing lacking is pro sports.  But KC is less then 3hrs away if you want that.  Whenever co-workers from Chicago and New York come to town for meetings they are shocked how nice it is here.  To say that talent can't be brought to the midwest is a joke.