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

[RedSpark]

Some interesting news on how Sprint's been preparing its network for the upcoming Republican Convention in Cleveland and Democratic Convention in Philadelphia:

 

Network Preparations in Full Swing for Republican and Democratic National Conventions

[lordsutch]

I think the NASCAR sponsorship made more sense a decade ago when it was at the peak of its popularity. The lack of rural coverage in NASCAR's core region is also incongruous with the fan market; I'm sure there are lots of famously sponsor-loyal NASCAR fans who'd have signed up for Sprint except it doesn't have coverage where they live or work.

 

But now I don't see it as a good marketing outlet; the NBA is a smarter play. And I think the soccer sponsorships should give good bang for the buck; NBC has been doing great ratings with the English premier league, even in markets like Norfolk, Atlanta, and Dallas that you wouldn't think of as "soccer country."

[JonnygATL]

I think the NASCAR sponsorship made more sense a decade ago when it was at the peak of its popularity. The lack of rural coverage in NASCAR's core region is also incongruous with the fan market; I'm sure there are lots of famously sponsor-loyal NASCAR fans who'd have signed up for Sprint except it doesn't have coverage where they live or work.

But now I don't see it as a good marketing outlet; the NBA is a smarter play. And I think the soccer sponsorships should give good bang for the buck; NBC has been doing great ratings with the English premier league, even in markets like Norfolk, Atlanta, and Dallas that you wouldn't think of as "soccer country."

Oh here in Atlanta it is major soccer country, for an American city anyway. So many immigrants from Mexico and Central and South America, Europe and Africa..all of whom are deeply passionate about what they might term true "football." Moving here to the A from Cincinnati and having been born and bred in Kentucky, i was very surprised to see the strong support and affinity for soccer here. I guess that is part and parcel of being a rapidly rising global city.

[lilotimz]

Oh here in Atlanta it is major soccer country, for an American city anyway. So many immigrants from Mexico and Central and South America, Europe and Africa..all of whom are deeply passionate about what they might term true "football." Moving here to the A from Cincinnati and having been born and bred in Kentucky, i was very surprised to see the strong support and affinity for soccer here. I guess that is part and parcel of being a rapidly rising global city.

And the new Cincinnati soccer team pulls 20,000+ attendance numbers for third division soccer matches out of thin air! Atlanta has a new MLS team too.

 

Soccer's expanding in the US and Marcelo is quite invested in bringing MLS to Miami with David Beckham so undoubtedly well see sprint being plastered over many soccer stadiums very soon.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

[Fraydog]

NASCAR skews so Southern, redneck, and blue collar that it is not a great demographic from a business standpoint.

 

 

Not to mention the rural component of the demographic. Now if AT&T became the Cup Sponsor, that would fit. Southern and rural. Maybe Cricket could do a bunch with it as well. Same goes for Verizon even though the South is not in their strongest areas like the Great Plains or Northeast.

 

In Sprint's case, their spectrum portfolio and customer base skews urban. Maybe if 800 MHz EV-DO and good Southern coverage was part of Sprint's plan, the sponsorship would have worked. Unfortunately the financial chaos of Nextel happened.

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[Arysyn]

I just read the closed thread about S4GRU's donation difficulty the site had for this month, until people helped resolve it. If this had been another month or so, I definitely would have helped, just right now tied down with money I'm waiting to be refunded to me. I'm glad to hear everything worked out this month though.

 

For those who aren't aware of forum software technicalities and such, S4GRU is running what I and many others view as the best forum software available. I've always been very impressed the site runs using Invision Power Board rather than the other three big paid version forum softwares. IPB is the most expensive of all the forum software, but it is well worth it. It is like the best of Sprint and Verizon.

 

I'm still surprised how I haven't heard much about the wireless industry lately, despite my interest lessening. I did get an email from Sprint though, that mentioned the unlimited plan at $75 for the first line and $45 for the second line. I'm not sure if this is a new offer or not, but it is a pretty good deal.

[RedSpark]

Thoughts on what he'll say?

 

Sprint CFO Tarek Robbiati to Speak May 25th at the J.P. Morgan 44th Annual Global Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Conference

 

 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 18, 2016 - Sprint (NYSE: S) Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati will speak at the J.P. Morgan 44th Annual Global Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Conference in Boston, Ma., on Wednesday, May 25 at 8:40 a.m. ET.

A live audio webcast of this session may be accessed at www.sprint.com/investors. A replay will be available shortly after the actual presentation time.

[payturr]

Thoughts on what he'll say?

 

Sprint CFO Tarek Robbiati to Speak May 25th at the J.P. Morgan 44th Annual Global Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Conference

"We now have our 2.5 network reinforced in major cities under LTE Plus thanks to carrier aggregation and MIMO. Our speeds have essentially doubled and are much faster than the competition according to Nielson ratings. Our densification plan is rolling out and in affected neighborhoods the customer response has been positive in terms of speeds and coverage. We will have 2/3 of major cities covered by the end of next year. We've cut a lot from our budget and Claure keeps finding new ways to do so without damaging the quality of the network. We posted a positive operating income and will continue to increase in subscribers thanks to the increased LTE Plus coverage. We're on track to posting a positive net income."

 

Not too hard to predict what Sprint management say at this point. 

[ingenium]

"We now have our 2.5 network reinforced in major cities under LTE Plus thanks to carrier aggregation and MIMO. Our speeds have essentially doubled and are much faster than the competition according to Nielson ratings. Our densification plan is rolling out and in affected neighborhoods the customer response has been positive in terms of speeds and coverage. We will have 2/3 of major cities covered by the end of next year. We've cut a lot from our budget and Claure keeps finding new ways to do so without damaging the quality of the network. We posted a positive operating income and will continue to increase in subscribers thanks to the increased LTE Plus coverage. We're on track to posting a positive net income."

 

Not too hard to predict what Sprint management say at this point.

Only 2-3 major cities covered by the end of 2017? That doesn't seem like that much, considering the relative ease and low cost of small cells.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

[ingenium]

 

 

I did get an email from Sprint though, that mentioned the unlimited plan at $75 for the first line and $45 for the second line. I'm not sure if this is a new offer or not, but it is a pretty good deal.

That's an older plan from several months ago. I heard it was being phased out in the middle of April. Each additional line gets cheaper, and the 4th is free. Then I think the 5th+ lines have the same pricing as the 3rd line. For 4 lines it price matched the ATT unlimited plan for DirecTV customers.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

[nexgencpu]

Only 2-3 major cities covered by the end of 2017? That doesn't seem like that much, considering the relative ease and low cost of small cells.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

Pretty sure he meant two third of major cities. 

[red_dog007]

Rootmetrics speed test went down 15Mbs. 30 to 15. Even though 2nd carrier B41 was added. Kinda interesting.

[nexgencpu]

Rootmetrics speed test went down 15Mbs. 30 to 15. Even though 2nd carrier B41 was added. Kinda interesting.

More customers (Sprint added over 1.2 million last year or so) and more of them on Band 41.

[RedSpark]

See Page 5 of the Quarterly Investor Update for the distribution of Triband and CA-capable devices on Sprint.

 

Tri-band LTE phones represented 69 percent of the 25.3 million ending postpaid phone connection base compared to 37 percent at the end of the year-ago quarter and 64 percent at the end of the prior quarter. During the quarter, 90 percent of postpaid phones sold were tri-band.

 

Carrier aggregation capable phones, which allow for higher data speeds, were 74 percent of postpaid phones sold during the quarter, increasing the number of these phones within the phone base to 28 percent.

[WiWavelength]

Oh here in Atlanta it is major soccer country, for an American city anyway. So many immigrants from Mexico and Central and South America, Europe and Africa..all of whom are deeply passionate about what they might term true "football." Moving here to the A from Cincinnati and having been born and bred in Kentucky, i was very surprised to see the strong support and affinity for soccer here. I guess that is part and parcel of being a rapidly rising global city.

 

 

"Oh, Atlanta is a beautiful city.  Many consider it the jewel of The South.  You know, it's in Georgia."

 

"Hey!"

 

AJ

[dnicekid]

More customers (Sprint added over 1.2 million last year or so) and more of them on Band 41.

I don't get that. If 2.5 is so glorious why with ca is he getting those speeds? Outside of signal strength, b41 is supposed to handle that traffic. I have seen and experienced slower speeds as well. Could this be network management? How do other carriers not cripple their network with more customers? Especially since sprint has 40+ MHz running in most markets? What are they running?

 

I know the speed will vary and conditions and such play a huge role but when you take the amount of customers + spectrum at given ratios I think sprint should be running faster. Not just the same or worse

[NYC126]

I don't get that. If 2.5 is so glorious why with ca is he getting those speeds? Outside of signal strength, b41 is supposed to handle that traffic. I have seen and experienced slower speeds as well. Could this be network management? How do other carriers not cripple their network with more customers? Especially since sprint has 40+ MHz running in most markets? What are they running?

I know the speed will vary and conditions and such play a huge role but when you take the amount of customers + spectrum at given ratios I think sprint should be running faster. Not just the same or worse

Perhaps the reason for this is due to not a dense network, and backhaul not optimized. With Sprint being in a cost cutting rampage I wouldn't be surprised thatany towers still don't have sufficient backhaul.

[nexgencpu]

I don't get that. If 2.5 is so glorious why with ca is he getting those speeds? Outside of signal strength, b41 is supposed to handle that traffic. I have seen and experienced slower speeds as well. Could this be network management? How do other carriers not cripple their network with more customers? Especially since sprint has 40+ MHz running in most markets? What are they running?

 

I know the speed will vary and conditions and such play a huge role but when you take the amount of customers + spectrum at given ratios I think sprint should be running faster. Not just the same or worse

All the carriers experience the same situation. Just two years ago, Att used to hit 70mbs+ in one of the locations I work in midtown Manhattan. 

 

That 70 was down to about 1-2mbs in less than a year. Same goes for T mobile, in my neighborhood they used to FLY! Now your lucky to hit 3mbs. Same for Sprint before the second carrier was deployed, it used to hit 50's and 60's on clear sites, that was down to sub 3mbs as well. Thank goodness for the second carrier, its a hell of a lot better here now.

 

So I believe its a perfect storm of more people with more capable devices doing more data intensive things. 

[caspar347]

"We've cut a lot from our budget and Claure keeps finding new ways to do so without damaging the quality of the network."

That's great, and posting a profit is absolutely critical for them at this point, but network stagnation is kinda the reason they got into this mess (network wise) in the first place. I just hope they keep this in mind and get really aggressive after profit is achieved.

[dnicekid]

I am in a rural area with 12000 people, los to 2xca,

In Sept I was always 90+

Now I can only max out at 60~ huge difference. Feels like I am only on one carrier. No matter what time of day I can't max out than that. Using a 6s+ and a note 5. This is why I suggested some type of network management?? Or part of cutting cost as far as the scaling fiber line?

[Paynefanbro]

I am in a rural area with 12000 people, los to 2xca,

In Sept I was always 90+

Now I can only max out at 60~ huge difference. Feels like I am only on one carrier. No matter what time of day I can't max out than that. Using a 6s+ and a note 5. This is why I suggested some type of network management?? Or part of cutting cost as far as the scaling fiber line?

Or maybe more people joined the network in your area because of the 90Mbps+ speeds. That seems much more logical.

 

Also is the difference really that perceivable between 90 and 60 Mbps?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[ericdabbs]

Only 2-3 major cities covered by the end of 2017? That doesn't seem like that much, considering the relative ease and low cost of small cells.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

You read it wrong. 2/3 of major markets does not mean 2 or 3 markets.

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[Deval]

I am in a rural area with 12000 people, los to 2xca,

In Sept I was always 90+

Now I can only max out at 60~ huge difference. Feels like I am only on one carrier. No matter what time of day I can't max out than that. Using a 6s+ and a note 5. This is why I suggested some type of network management?? Or part of cutting cost as far as the scaling fiber line?

 

Other than the difference between 60 and 90, which is akin to bragging rights, how is that a problem?

[payturr]

I think we're all worrying about this capex too much. It's been recently revealed that Twin Bells also cut their capex, T-Mobile is the only one increasing capex, which they need because they have many lone 700MHz towers that need UMTS and higher capacity LTE in their rural expansion. Majority of Sprint's towers are upgraded, and the remaining GMOs that need upgrades won't need as high as a capex as previous years did, especially since the cost of equipment they're purchasing has most likely dropped in price. Sprint's just gotta focus on densifying. I don't care if my speeds are 110Mbps or 15Mbps I just want some damn consistency, and Sprint is looking to deliver that consistency. Stop panicking about the capex.

[nexgencpu]

I am in a rural area with 12000 people, los to 2xca,

In Sept I was always 90+

Now I can only max out at 60~ huge difference. Feels like I am only on one carrier. No matter what time of day I can't max out than that. Using a 6s+ and a note 5. This is why I suggested some type of network management?? Or part of cutting cost as far as the scaling fiber line?

Maybe your doppelganger is out there doing speedtest as well, robbing you of your precious 30mbs..