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

[red_dog007]

Sprint already is a tier 1 backbone.  They have a lot of fiber.  They would actually have to buy CenturyLink as CenturyLink recently purchased Level 3.  So that is a LOT of fiber.  They'd get CenturyLinks small last mile business that I hope Sprint wouldn't be forced to upgrade.  Most of it is old DSL they have never bothered to upgrade. 

 

For last mile, a company like Charter would be a lot better as they have a large last mile footprint.  The towers would more than likely still have fiber, but this will not largely push FTTH.  Coax still has a lot of life in it.

 

If Sprint bought CenturyLink and got all this tier 1 fiber, they wouldn't be deploying this directly to towers.  They'd have to run hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber just to serve their towers, and that would be costly. 

[bigsnake49]

Sprint already is a tier 1 backbone.  They have a lot of fiber.  They would actually have to buy CenturyLink as CenturyLink recently purchased Level 3.  So that is a LOT of fiber.  They'd get CenturyLinks small last mile business that I hope Sprint wouldn't be forced to upgrade.  Most of it is old DSL they have never bothered to upgrade. 

 

For last mile, a company like Charter would be a lot better as they have a large last mile footprint.  The towers would more than likely still have fiber, but this will not largely push FTTH.  Coax still has a lot of life in it.

 

If Sprint bought CenturyLink and got all this tier 1 fiber, they wouldn't be deploying this directly to towers.  They'd have to run hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber just to serve their towers, and that would be costly. 

 

 

There's fiber to the nodes in DSL deployments.

[red_dog007]

There's fiber to the nodes in DSL deployments.

 

Centurylink has a very small footprint.  Won't really benefit Sprint in terms of reduced tower backhaul costs. 

 

I'd be surprised if Centurylink has fiber to any node in my market. 

 

But I would love for them to buy Centurylink.  Increased tier 1 backhaul.  Could help a lot with making their wireless core infrastructure better, faster.  I think tier 1 is also a solid business to be in. I'd love for them to deploy FTTH in existing CenturyLink residential markets.  I'd have three 1Gbps options.

Edited August 5, 2017 by red_dog007

[Arysyn]

Centurylink has a very small footprint. Won't really benefit Sprint in terms of reduced tower backhaul costs.

 

I'd be surprised if Centurylink has fiber to any node in my market.

 

But I would love for them to buy Centurylink. Increased tier 1 backhaul. Could help a lot with making their wireless core infrastructure better, faster. I think tier 1 is also a solid business to be in. I'd love for them to deploy FTTH in existing CenturyLink residential markets. I'd have three 1Gbps options.

I'd probably pay upwards of $300 monthly just to get working 1gbps FTTH at my home right now. Comcast basically is doing nothing about my issue at home, where I'm barely getting 150mbps, and they are saying it might be power/signal issues, but again doing nothing to fix it. My downstream power levels are around 7-9dbmv, and the SNR is around 39db.

 

It is frustrating AT&T doesn't have Fiber here, and the highest speed of Uverse is a75mbps plan, but that might go down to 50mbps, which is that plan's minimum. I might reconsider AT&T if the 100mbps plan were available here, but it isn't.

[rackhivee]

 

I'd be surprised if Centurylink has fiber to any node in my market.

 

But I would love for them to buy Centurylink. Increased tier 1 backhaul. Could help a lot with making their wireless core infrastructure better, faster. I think tier 1 is also a solid business to be in. I'd love for them to deploy FTTH in existing CenturyLink residential markets. I'd have three 1Gbps options.

CTL has a lot of fiber to the node in a major portion of the legacy Q markets. They're in the process of upgrading a lot of their DSL Network to vectoring equipment so they can push 100 Mbps to a portion of their customers, because of distance limitations. I would hate for Sprint to buy CenturyLink, as the red tape is horrendous and most of the company still follows either CTL guidelines or Qwest guidelines for design/construction/capital expenditures like 2 different companies. Add Sprint's Tier 1 land line service and everyone would be calling this Nextel 2.0. No, thanks. Not to mention it's likely that CTL already serves Sprint cell sites wherever they offer service as a main service provider.

[richy]

Sprint already is a tier 1 backbone.  They have a lot of fiber.  They would actually have to buy CenturyLink as CenturyLink recently purchased Level 3.  So that is a LOT of fiber.  They'd get CenturyLinks small last mile business that I hope Sprint wouldn't be forced to upgrade.  Most of it is old DSL they have never bothered to upgrade. 

 

For last mile, a company like Charter would be a lot better as they have a large last mile footprint.  The towers would more than likely still have fiber, but this will not largely push FTTH.  Coax still has a lot of life in it.

 

If Sprint bought CenturyLink and got all this tier 1 fiber, they wouldn't be deploying this directly to towers.  They'd have to run hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber just to serve their towers, and that would be costly. 

 

Just as a point of interest, a tier 1 provider actually has a fairly specific definition. It's a carrier that doesn't pay for domestic (or at least for their native coverage area) transit for egress. They basically use just peering domestically. It's a bit of a shady definition used to protect a few entrenched large companies.  Cogent used to love to call themselves a tier 1 when in reality they weren't. They also used to be shocking quality unless you really knew what you were doing. 

Sprint is most definitely a top tier carrier on a cellular and fiber basis, not sure if they are genuinely considered a tier 1 fixed line operator though. Plus the definition probably changed since I worked in the field. 

Sprint really shouldn't have to own such a large fiber network, it should be more economic for them to buy it in. However, I get the feeling they really need to own their own to protect themselves from predatory pricing and shady business practices from competitors. 

[red_dog007]

Just as a point of interest, a tier 1 provider actually has a fairly specific definition. It's a carrier that doesn't pay for...

They aren't huge in terms of line ran, but they are a tier 1 player. http://drpeering.net/FAQ/Who-are-the-Tier-1-ISPs.php Edited August 5, 2017 by red_dog007

[bigsnake49]

Centurylink has a very small footprint.  Won't really benefit Sprint in terms of reduced tower backhaul costs. 

 

I'd be surprised if Centurylink has fiber to any node in my market. 

 

But I would love for them to buy Centurylink.  Increased tier 1 backhaul.  Could help a lot with making their wireless core infrastructure better, faster.  I think tier 1 is also a solid business to be in. I'd love for them to deploy FTTH in existing CenturyLink residential markets.  I'd have three 1Gbps options.

 

Level 3 has a lot of metro fiber and so does Zayo.

[JossMan]

Centurylink has a very small footprint.  Won't really benefit Sprint in terms of reduced tower backhaul costs. 

 

I'd be surprised if Centurylink has fiber to any node in my market. 

 

But I would love for them to buy Centurylink.  Increased tier 1 backhaul.  Could help a lot with making their wireless core infrastructure better, faster.  I think tier 1 is also a solid business to be in. I'd love for them to deploy FTTH in existing CenturyLink residential markets.  I'd have three 1Gbps options.

Don't forget... Sprint wireline ---> Embarq ---> Centurylink

[BlueAngel]

Heh looks like johnny boy didn't like my comment on twitter.

 

[tyroned3222]

Is this multi beam antenna part of sprints network or just to provide additional capacity

 

 

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[lilotimz]

Is this multi beam antenna part of sprints network or just to provide additional capacity

 

 

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Properly link to who posted that image. 

 

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/893975380985622528

 

tri sector configuration on 8T8R radios to provide extra capacity. 

[bigmachine]

Are there 18 RF ports on that antenna? How does that break down to 3 sectors from 8T8R radios?

[lilotimz]

Are there 18 RF ports on that antenna? How does that breakdown to 3 sectors from 8T8R radios?

 

8T8R have 3 modes. Single transmit chain 8T8R. Dual transmit chain 4T8R. Three transmit chain 2T2R. 

 

Thus here it's 2T2R + 2T2R + 2T2R per radio for three transmit chains to give 9 sectors. 

[nexgencpu]

8T8R have 3 modes. Single transmit chain 8T8R. Dual transmit chain 4T8R. Three transmit chain 2T2R. 

 

Thus here it's 2T2R + 2T2R + 2T2R per radio for three transmit chains to give 9 sectors.

 

Man, what kind of backhaul would be ideal to feed this monster??

[red_dog007]

Depends on the total load really. 3xCA apparenrly isn't enough with just one sector, that's ~240Mbps.

 

Having that many sectors reduces the chances of a sector getting loaded and more fully utilizing the towers backhaul.

[red_dog007]

CTL has a lot of fiber to the node in a major portion of the legacy Q markets. They're in the process of upgrading a lot of their DSL Network to vectoring equipment so they can push 100 Mbps to a portion of their customers,

Wish they'd finally get off ADSL here. It's an old Quest market. Not sure if they have fiber to any node here. Unless they run it under ground, I haven't seen any on the poles. They provide fiber backbone to a local ISP (at least 10G, maybe 20G by now) but won't even offer a business down the street from their local HQ fiber when we need 3Gbps.

 

If they are just now getting to vector, they need to skip it and go straight to G.Fast.

[lilotimz]

Wish they'd finally get off ADSL here. It's an old Quest market. Not sure if they have fiber to any node here. Unless they run it under ground, I haven't seen any on the poles. They provide fiber backbone to a local ISP (at least 10G, maybe 20G by now) but won't even offer a business down the street from their local HQ fiber when we need 3Gbps.

 

If they are just now getting to vector, they need to skip it and go straight to G.Fast.

 

G-fast is practically useless outside of a few hundred feet from the node. The only area where it makes sense at all is high density MDUs where it'll be too costly to rip out all the old wiring at every building.

 

Vectoring over 17 MHz and even 30 MHz can easily get massive improvements at distances <4000 feet with those around 1000 feet or less able to get well in excess of 100 mbps per twisted pair.  My parents ATT FTTN  17 MHz connection at 800 ft syncs at 120 / 30 on a single twisted pair and qualify for their 100 / 20 tier. Bonded pair or 30 MHz would be even a bigger improvement at shorter distances like that. . 

 

 

Man, what kind of backhaul would be ideal to feed this monster??

 

The amount needed to feed 120 MHz of spectrum (20+20 x3). 

[red_dog007]

G.Fast still seems like it is as fast as VDSL at the further distances.

 

I know G.Fast has been making movement in Europe but it seems like it's making progress in the States as well.

 

http://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/at-t-to-extend-g-fast-to-more-markets-year

[rackhivee]

Wish they'd finally get off ADSL here. It's an old Quest market. Not sure if they have fiber to any node here. Unless they run it under ground, I haven't seen any on the poles. They provide fiber backbone to a local ISP (at least 10G, maybe 20G by now) but won't even offer a business down the street from their local HQ fiber when we need 3Gbps.

 

If they are just now getting to vector, they need to skip it and go straight to G.Fast.

I wish At&t was doing vectoring, I might reconsider them for my service if they offered 100 Mbps. G.fast as far as all the things I've read is most useful for apartment buildings. Saves them from having to rewire buildings. Fiber is the way to go but comparing 40k for vectoring to 250k plus for deployment of fiber at every neighborhood, Wallstreet would lose it. If you have anything available higher than 10 Mbps you probably have fiber to the node, in everything I've seen I have never encountered T3 ATMs at these DSL sites. Mostly up to 8 T1s. Maybe bonded pairs for up to 100 Mbps ethernet at rural sites where fiber is too expensive, but even those are going away with the Connect America Fund.

[RedSpark]

Still going at it...

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/08/07/sprint-and-t-mobile-again-exploring-merger-report-says/544504001/

 

Marcelo did say this about the "near future" during the Earnings Call: (http://www.seekingalpha.com/article/4093250)

 

Raul Marcelo Claure - Sprint Corp.

So, Jonathan, as you can appreciate, we don't discuss a lot of what happens as it relates to potential M&A, and we're going to leave that to final announcement that should be coming in the near future.

 

What I can tell you is the discussions – we're having discussions with everybody. And I think our job, when we took over Sprint three years ago, was to give Sprint – bring Sprint back to having options. And I can tell you that today, we have plenty of options, and we've had discussions with a lot of different parties. Obviously, companies that are in the same industry as we are, and companies that are not.

 

I was a bit surprised to see Charter's announcement in terms of that they had no interest in buying Sprint. To be clear, Sprint was never offered for Charter to buy. It was a part of the bigger play that has been reported, but I was a bit surprised to see an announcement coming like that from Charter. At this point in time, we continue discussions with different parties. And I can tell you that we are incredibly encouraged, and I think an announcement will be coming in the near future. So, we feel very good in terms of the options that we have built, and the potential transactions that we could have.

[Johnner1999]

Seems like TMO is fast tracking it's 600mhz infrastructure.

 

I'd be un-amused if they get further than Sprint LTE did in a fraction of the time.

 

 

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[danlodish345]

Seems like TMO is fast tracking it's 600mhz infrastructure.

 

I'd be un-amused if they get further than Sprint LTE did in a fraction of the time.

 

 

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I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to do that. Sprint has a mountain of debt. T-Mobile has much less that and actually has cash coming in positive cash flow. I know that Sprint just posted a profit again for the first time in 3 years. So it's interesting to see what's going to happen.

 

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[dro1984]

T-mobile also sticks to a game plan and not change it's focus 3 or 4 times.

[Johnner1999]

T-mobile also sticks to a game plan and not change it's focus 3 or 4 times.

I was sarcastic. Of course they will finish it. Oh and I suspect it will get results too.

 

 

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