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

[joshuam]

Just cruzin at my T-Mobile store

 

 

It always cracks me up when a cell carrier has shitty service at one of their stores. A local mall in Maryland for the longest time had a Sprint Corp store, and anywhere in the mall was extended 1x on Verizon. Except near the store, they had a repeater. Seriously...how can you sell service that doesn't even work in the location you are selling it? Store is still there, but band 26 means LTE inside now, thankfully.

[dnicekid]

no one of the best if not best band 41 performers arounds. Note 5 is ridiculously good at all 3 bands.

My note 5 kills my 6s plus

Def agree note 5 is a beast!!

[Johnner1999]

Just to play devils advocate:

 

 

I don't think that older iPhone has the needed 700MHz band - granted not sure the location either....  but in malls I have found that the 1900-2600MHz spectrum doesn't work well at all - no matter the carrier.  

 

but again just to be fair if you speed tested an iphone 4s on Sprint I doubt it would be as good too. (though I think that is a 5 shown above... not sure)  

 

 

Just cruzin at my T-Mobile store

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2015 by Johnner1999

[JimBob]

Verizon and AT&T making $17/subscriber per month in 2015, while T-Mobile and Sprint are losing $0.39

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/analyst-verizon-and-att-making-17subscriber-month-2015-while-t-mobile-and-s/2015-11-23

[BlueAngel]

I've been living under a rock since the Note 5 release. It actually performs well in real life despite the poor RF ratings on paper?

Really well, almost as if they were lying.

 

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[maxsilver]

Wow. That's a huge stats failure.

 

Lumping Verizon and AT&T financials together, and Sprint and T-Mobile's financials together, as if they are the same company is an easy way to paint a hugely misleading picture.

 

"Apple and BlackBerry, collectively, are loosing money on every phone sold!"

[cletus]

I've been thinking about BingeOn some more this morning and I will bet it is a net win for Tmobile over all it's customer base. Basically, if you know how much bandwidth services use you can see it might work out.

 

Netflix has 3 settings I am aware of: Low @ .3GB/hr, Medium @.7GB/Hr, High @ up to 3 GB/hr. Netflix has actually like 7? different resolution settings but these are the rates it advertises.

Youtube (not yet included) 480p uses roughly 400MB/hr and 720p uses slightly more than twice that at 800-900MB/hr while 1080p is like 1.4 GB/hr

 

You'll notice the huge bandwidth hog, Twitch (720p @ ~1.3GB/hr or higher) is absent and this is also probably because it isn't cached content.

 

I'll bet they get those bandwidth rates slightly lower with the expectation that mobile users might not notice the slightly degraded quality because, hey, it is "free". All in all I don't think this is necessarily a huge HUGE deal. It may cause more strain on the network if their bet that people won't double their usage doesn't pan out but on the whole I bet truly unlimited users @720p or 1080p (roughly triple the bandwidth) are much bigger strains on the network.

[bigmachine]

Interesting short profile on some of the new Sprint hires:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article46081495.html

[nick]

I've been thinking about BingeOn some more this morning and I will bet it is a net win for Tmobile over all it's customer base. Basically, if you know how much bandwidth services use you can see it might work out.

 

Netflix has 3 settings I am aware of: Low @ .3GB/hr, Medium @.7GB/Hr, High @ up to 3 GB/hr. Netflix has actually like 7? different resolution settings but these are the rates it advertises.

Youtube (not yet included) 480p uses roughly 400MB/hr and 720p uses slightly more than twice that at 800-900MB/hr while 1080p is like 1.4 GB/hr

 

You'll notice the huge bandwidth hog, Twitch (720p @ ~1.3GB/hr or higher) is absent and this is also probably because it isn't cached content.

 

I'll bet they get those bandwidth rates slightly lower with the expectation that mobile users might not notice the slightly degraded quality because, hey, it is "free". All in all I don't think this is necessarily a huge HUGE deal. It may cause more strain on the network if their bet that people won't double their usage doesn't pan out but on the whole I bet truly unlimited users @720p or 1080p (roughly triple the bandwidth) are much bigger strains on the network.

but the real question is how much additional streaming will be done?  If some one regularly used 1.5 gigs per month with Netflix and limited it because of concerns of running out of high speed data, now that same person paying the same price can stream 20 gigs of Netflix albeit at a slower rate per hour.  It will be interesting to see if the reduction on rate will be enough to offset the increase in frequency.  and lets not count out the small percentage of people that will cut their home internet and exclusively use t mobile hot spot, since the majority of home broadband is used for streaming video. imagine 3-4 Netflix streams all using mobile hot spot for hours and hours everyday.  

[cletus]

but the real question is how much additional streaming will be done?  If some one regularly used 1.5 gigs per month with Netflix and limited it because of concerns of running out of high speed data, now that same person paying the same price can stream 20 gigs of Netflix albeit at a slower rate per hour.  It will be interesting to see if the reduction on rate will be enough to offset the increase in frequency.  and lets not count out the small percentage of people that will cut their home internet and exclusively use t mobile hot spot, since the majority of home broadband is used for streaming video. imagine 3-4 Netflix streams all using mobile hot spot for hours and hours everyday.  

Well,

Think about it this way: If someone on unlimited sees this and goes "Oh! I can save money and still watch Netflix the same amount!" They will use LESS bandwidth than they are currently using. I am not saying many people will give up unlimited but.. some very well might.

 

In your example of using a hotspot: An unlimited user can ALREADY do this and besides, 3-4 people running 480p netflix streams might not even hit the same bandwidth a single unlimited user on high quality settings might be pulling. The difference is larger if you are comparing 3-4 high quality streams vs 3-4 480p streams.

[markjcc]

Just to play devils advocate:

 

 

I don't think that older iPhone has the needed 700MHz band - granted not sure the location either.... but in malls I have found that the 1900-2600MHz spectrum doesn't work well at all - no matter the carrier.

 

but again just to be fair if you speed tested an iphone 4s on Sprint I doubt it would be as good too. (though I think that is a 5 shown above... not sure)

Band 12 is 5Mhz.

 

This is tmobiles high band vs sprints high band.

 

Band 4 vs 41. Fair comparison.

 

 

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[Fraydog]

Or John is acting like a poser acting all big and stuff to look good on the Press, when internally it's killing T-Mobile.

https://twitter.com/milanmilanovic/status/669160037475090432

 

It's going to get really interesting to see people get defensive. I was always in the camp of "T-Mobile isn't going to do this" yet they did.

[Johnner1999]

Well,

Think about it this way: If someone on unlimited sees this and goes "Oh! I can save money and still watch Netflix the same amount!" They will use LESS bandwidth than they are currently using. I am not saying many people will give up unlimited but.. some very well might.

 

In your example of using a hotspot: An unlimited user can ALREADY do this and besides, 3-4 people running 480p netflix streams might not even hit the same bandwidth a single unlimited user on high quality settings might be pulling. The difference is larger if you are comparing 3-4 high quality streams vs 3-4 480p streams.

bingo -- this is a way to show moderate unlimited users to save money. While ensuring less unlimited users at the nozzle.

 

 

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[Johnner1999]

Band 12 is 5Mhz.

 

This is tmobiles high band vs sprints high band.

 

Band 4 vs 41. Fair comparison.

 

 

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sort of

 

Unless I'm wrong but sprint has more spectrum on band 41. Where as T-Mobile is trying to push more people onto band 12

 

Not saying the post is not representative...

 

 

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[markjcc]

sort of

 

Unless I'm wrong but sprint has more spectrum on band 41. Where as T-Mobile is trying to push more people onto band 12

 

Not saying the post is not representative...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

T-Mobile is not pushing people to Band 12, they are pushing to Band 4.

 

Regardless, T-Mobile preformed poorly in a mall where they have their antennas installed.

 

I also have a ZTE hotspot which has access to all the T-Mobile current bands even band 12, still piss poor slow

 

 

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[Johnner1999]

T-Mobile is not pushing people to Band 12, they are pushing to Band 4.

 

Regardless, T-Mobile preformed poorly in a mall where they have their antennas installed.

 

I also have a ZTE hotspot which has access to all the T-Mobile current bands even band 12, still piss poor slow

 

 

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That happens to me on sprint too.

 

 

 

 

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[markjcc]

That happens to me on sprint too.

 

 

 

 

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Yes but are you comparing band 26 to band 4?

 

Band 26 should be compared with tmobiles band 12 which is built for coverage and not speed as they're only 5x5Mhz

 

 

 

 

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[WiWavelength]

Just cruzin at my T-Mobile store

 

 

Yes, that 1 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up now is definite network congestion.  And for those who want to argue that it is signal strength related, no, it is not.  You do not get 8 Mbps on the weaker uplink with poor signal.

 

AJ

[Johnner1999]

Yes, that 1 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up now is definite network congestion. And for those who want to argue that it is signal strength related, no, it is not. You do not get 8 Mbps on the weaker uplink with poor signal.

 

AJ

Hmm huh I never even looked at the uplink

 

Yeah over saturated.

 

 

 

I'd never judge though by what happens in a carrier store since I'd assume you're never really on the network, rather a microcell -- no?

 

 

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[nick]

Well,

Think about it this way: If someone on unlimited sees this and goes "Oh! I can save money and still watch Netflix the same amount!" They will use LESS bandwidth than they are currently using. I am not saying many people will give up unlimited but.. some very well might.

 

In your example of using a hotspot: An unlimited user can ALREADY do this and besides, 3-4 people running 480p netflix streams might not even hit the same bandwidth a single unlimited user on high quality settings might be pulling. The difference is larger if you are comparing 3-4 high quality streams vs 3-4 480p streams.

very true, it will only lead to a decrease in ARPU, however since binge on white lists hot spot data the same as mobile data it makes that a viable option for people with binge on to cut home internet....... cellular network as a replacement for home internet talk about crippling a network. / :  you are right 3-4 streams at 480p is a lot less data than 1080P however video consumption is far greater on a tv than a mobile device, time wise that is.   

[nick]

Hmm huh I never even looked at the uplink

 

Yeah over saturated.

 

 

 

I'd never judge though by what happens in a carrier store since I'd assume you're never really on the network, rather a microcell -- no?

 

 

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probably just the macro network, i doubt the store was so crowded it would drag down a micro cell although a micro cell at every store wouldn't be a bad idea... "Look how great our network is!!!!!" ***on this micro cell   

[cletus]

very true, it will only lead to a decrease in ARPU, however since binge on white lists hot spot data the same as mobile data it makes that a viable option for people with binge on to cut home internet....... cellular network as a replacement for home internet talk about crippling a network. / :  you are right 3-4 streams at 480p is a lot less data than 1080P however video consumption is far greater on a tv than a mobile device, time wise that is.   

Very true. The only question left is if 480p netflix is sufficient for tv viewing. I am guessing it wouldn't be good enough and would bother most people to watch on a screen larger than a tablet.

[MarshieZ]

Interesting short profile on some of the new Sprint hires:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article46081495.html

 

That's a very diverse team of people!

[nick]

Very true. The only question left is if 480p netflix is sufficient for tv viewing. I am guessing it wouldn't be good enough and would bother most people to watch on a screen larger than a tablet.

actually reddit  has a lot of comments on that, the general opinion is its good enough.  that surprises me I figured it would look fair on a mobile screen and poor on a big screen, I have not see this myself I did a test on my iphone 6 plus playing 420P it looks ok... but certainly nothing i would want on my 55 inch flat screen, so either t mobile is using some advanced form of compression, its not truly 480P (720P?)  or people just don't know what they are talking about.... this will get sorted out in time and we will see the true effects of this "free" service soon^tm.   

[Fraydog]

The article on Sprint's new executive workspace was really intriguing. It's a cubicle farm. Didn't see that coming.