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

[dnicekid]

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?

 

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I sometimes encounter slow speeds in the city. The speed difference to me is fine. This relates to previously mentioned speed tests and root scores. My question is could this be some sort of cost cutting measure sprint has implemented by reducing potential speed/cap on certain towers?

It doesn't make sense to max out @ 100 here where maybe there's 1000 sprint customers when say 60 is fine and saves $150 a month.

 

We all know about the massive amount of spectrum. But 2xca should be keeping us at speeds better than 20. For a second sprint speeds were faster than the others. But now seems to be falling back. Only 1mil adds nationwide cause that much havoc?

[Paynefanbro]

 

 

I sometimes encounter slow speeds in the city. The speed difference to me is fine. This relates to previously mentioned speed tests and root scores. My question is could this be some sort of cost cutting measure sprint has implemented by reducing potential speed/cap on certain towers?

It doesn't make sense to max out @ 100 here where maybe there's 1000 sprint customers when say 60 is fine and saves $150 a month.

 

We all know about the massive amount of spectrum. But 2xca should be keeping us at speeds better than 20. For a second sprint speeds were faster than the others. But now seems to be falling back. Only 1mil adds nationwide cause that much havoc?

It's 1000x more likely that Sprint just gained more customers than them cutting back on backhaul. That or someone in your area is using a lot of data. It has been stated numerous times that the cost cutting measures aren't going to affect network performance. Also, are the other carriers in your area pulling 60Mbps on average?

 

In fact Sprint is currently in the process of increasing back haul in order to support the number of small cells going online as well as the third B41 carrier going online sometime in the future.

 

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[utiz4321]

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.

You can't worry about capex too much. The product these companies sell is directly correlated to capex spending.

 

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[JustinRP37]

You can't worry about capex too much. The product these companies sell is directly correlated to capex spending.

 

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That is not necessarily true. Once the equipment is up on the tower, there is still plenty they can do with backhaul, which could involve just buying more bandwidth. This would not necessarily be expensed as a capital improvement. While there is definitely a strong positive correlation to capex spending, we have to see what happens with the small cells. 

[RedSpark]

Anybody else tuning into the event featuring Tarek Robbiati (Sprint CFO) starting shortly? (Scheduled for Today at 8:40AM ET)

 

http://investors.sprint.com/news-and-events/past-events/event-details/2016/JP-Morgan-Global-Technology-Media-and-Telecom-Conference/default.aspx

 

Snazzy hold music...

[RedSpark]

Recap of Tarek Robbiati's comments today: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-we-will-lease-some-spectrum-assets-spectrum-leaseco-within-next/2016-05-25

 

"We are at a point where the majority of our traffic is carried on our 2.5 spectrum," he said. "In two years what has happened is that the deployment of 2.5, the deployment of carrier aggregation software, allowed us to rebalance our traffic dramatically between all the LTE bands, including 1900 and 2500 [MHz]. And so that changes the customer experience because when the customer is able to use two-carrier aggregation on 2.5, then the customer experience in terms of speed is fundamentally different."

 

This is especially interesting considering the makeup of devices on Sprint's network. 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.

 

More recap of Tarek Robbiati's comments today: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-we-will-lease-some-spectrum-assets-spectrum-leaseco-within-next/2016-05-25

 

Robbiati explained that deploying small cell sites costs 60 to 70 percent less than deploying larger macro cell sites. "You don't have to spend a lot of money in a 5G world to create a 5G network, especially if you have a huge amount of spectrum," he said. "You've got to deploy them differently with cheaper cost structures to maintain … doing it the old way is not going to work."

 

Transcript will likely be available here soon: http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/S/transcripts

 

UPDATE: Transcript is live: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3977755-sprint-s-management-presents-44th-annual-j-p-morgan-global-technology-media-telecom

[banananuts87]

All the CAPEX speculation doesn't concern me. It'll be nice if the $3,000,000,000 went towards getting all of the macro sites running with appropriate backhaul and then go from there.

 

So many sites here in CT which aren't broadcasting LTE and lack fiber.

[grapkoski]

All the CAPEX speculation doesn't concern me. It'll be nice if the $3,000,000,000 went towards getting all of the macro sites running with appropriate backhaul and then go from there.

 

So many sites here in CT which aren't broadcasting LTE and lack fiber.

 

As a Florida-native that still manages an office in Tampa, I am going to blame Frontier for being a complete disaster. I do concur though that hopefully they can get the backhaul provisioning in check. Although, I am not sure how Sprint accounts for backhaul upgrades - I'd assume it depends on the agreement with each provider. (E.g. do they only charge 'one-time/setup expenses' to CAPEX, whereas the rest is just an operational cost) Either way, the uptick in microwave backhaul should help bring more rural/suburban sites LTE online.

[nick]

I sometimes encounter slow speeds in the city. The speed difference to me is fine. This relates to previously mentioned speed tests and root scores. My question is could this be some sort of cost cutting measure sprint has implemented by reducing potential speed/cap on certain towers?

It doesn't make sense to max out @ 100 here where maybe there's 1000 sprint customers when say 60 is fine and saves $150 a month.

 

We all know about the massive amount of spectrum. But 2xca should be keeping us at speeds better than 20. For a second sprint speeds were faster than the others. But now seems to be falling back. Only 1mil adds nationwide cause that much havoc?

It's just increasing data load, every carrier experiences it.  As soon as people realize the data works well they will begin to use it, as more people use it the slower it gets.... The slower it gets the more carriers or cell sites sprint and any other carrier will need to add just to keep up, mobile data usage is currently on a ramp with no end in sight.   

[Terrell352]

Does Sprint have 120mhz of 2500 or 160mhz of 2500? If 160mhz is right, then what parts of the country do they hold this kind of spectrum?

 

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[WiWavelength]

Does Sprint have 120mhz of 2500 or 160mhz of 2500? If 160mhz is right, then what parts of the country do they hold this kind of spectrum?

 

It varies.  BRS/EBS spectrum holdings can be 160 MHz total in some markets, much less in other markets.

 

So, I cannot answer your general question.  And I no longer am doing that level of spectrum tracking for free.  Too much work.  I already have contributed enough pro bono over the past dozen years.

 

AJ

[NYC126]

Does Sprint have 120mhz of 2500 or 160mhz of 2500? If 160mhz is right, then what parts of the country do they hold this kind of spectrum?

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They have mentioned several times the average is 120mhz in the top 90 markets. Regardless I don't think Sprint will need to deploy additional spectrum after 3xCA with 4x4 mimo down the road. This might Change unless they start adding a lot of customers per quarter.

[dnicekid]

They have mentioned several times the average is 120mhz in the top 90 markets. Regardless I don't think Sprint will need to deploy additional spectrum after 3xCA with 4x4 mimo down the road. This might Change unless they start adding a lot of customers per quarter.

 

 

 

 

They should definitely deploy more in any big market

It would make for a huge advertising campaign and future proof the additional customers jumping ship. But only big markets

[Terrell352]

They have mentioned several times the average is 120mhz in the top 90 markets. Regardless I don't think Sprint will need to deploy additional spectrum after 3xCA with 4x4 mimo down the road. This might Change unless they start adding a lot of customers per quarter.

Most of the other carriers would sti be able to match Sprint in download speed of 600 with there own 3xca. Sprint will have to do better than that.

[Paynefanbro]

Most of the other carriers would sti be able to match Sprint in download speed of 600 with there own 3xca. Sprint will have to do better than that.

Yes they'd be able to match speeds in the near term but they wouldn't have the excess capacity that Sprint does. Sprint would be able to keep those speeds up for a long time while the other carriers would have to spend millions if not more on spectrum going forward.

 

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[Terrell352]

Yes they'd be able to match speeds in the near term but they wouldn't have the excess capacity that Sprint does. Sprint would be able to keep those speeds up for a long time while the other carriers would have to spend millions if not more on spectrum going forward.

 

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I csnt speak for tmobile but the twin bells will be capable of 5xCa if it comes At&t 2,4,5,17,29,30 Verizon 2,4,5,13 AWS 3. Add 4x4 MIMO and depending on the spectrum they could still compete with Sprint even if Sprint had 4xCA.

[Paynefanbro]

I csnt speak for tmobile but the twin bells will be capable of 5xCa if it comes At&t 2,4,5,17,29,30 Verizon 2,4,5,13 AWS 3. Add 4x4 MIMO and depending on the spectrum they could still compete with Sprint even if Sprint had 4xCA.

And Sprint will be capable of 6xCA without cannibalizing their EVDO or 1x network. If/when Sprint shuts down EVDO/1x, they'll have another 10x10 to 15x15 in PCS and then the 5x5 in SMR. No one compares in terms of capacity without spending millions on more spectrum.

 

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[lilotimz]

Throwing spectrum at a problem is a temporary solution at best.

 

The entity with more overall cell sites and nodes that covers and can be /is used by more people effectively will win out.

 

It doesn't matter if sprint can smack 6 20 MHz carriers on their sites if a substantial portion of its subscribers can't use it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

[Paynefanbro]

Throwing spectrum at a problem I'd a temporary solution.

 

The entity with more overall cell sites and nodes that covers and can be /is used more people effectively will win out.

 

It doesn't matter if sprint can smack 6 20 MHz carriers on their sites if the majority of its subscribers can't use it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

Agreed.

 

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[Terrell352]

And Sprint will be capable of 6xCA without cannibalizing their EVDO or 1x network. If/when Sprint shuts down EVDO/1x, they'll have another 10x10 to 15x15 in PCS and then the 5x5 in SMR. No one compares in terms of capacity without spending millions on more spectrum.

 

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Eventually Tmobile will be at the end of the line but its nothing for twin bells to drop a few billion on some spectrum.

 

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[NYC126]

Eventually Tmobile will be at the end of the line but its nothing for twin bells to drop a few billion on some spectrum.

 

 

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Especially when the Dish spectrum is sitting around. Verizon has 120mhz total of Spectrum in New York City, but they won't shut down the 1x and 3g networks anytime soon.

 

The problem with Verizon is that 3 and 4 networks are getting better and there won't be a need to pay those high prices they charge.

[EvanA]

Marcelo teasing a sale on phones for this Saturday

 

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/735620521518325761

 

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[davidtm]

Wonder if the carbon gray 10 will be available for this . . .

 

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[Rocket87]

Marcelo teasing a sale on phones for this Saturday

 

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/735620521518325761

 

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Sprint is having a big blow the roof off sale (thats seriously what its called) here is the known sales that all stores are handing out flyers for.

 

https://twitter.com/HoosierCrouch/status/735608998615875585

 

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[Calvin200]

I'll be working that referral angle HARD.  A new G5 at half price wouldn't be bad either!

 

 

Sprint is having a big blow the roof off sale (thats seriously what its called) here is the known sales that all stores are handing out flyers for.

https://twitter.com/HoosierCrouch/status/735608998615875585

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