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

[derrph]

1 hour ago, notsrealinc said:

Here's a link to the FCC Filings from where the coverage map and monopole news is from:

https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1092573429427/Sprint Ex Parte - FULL Dow Draper Presentation - 9.21.2018 - REDACTED.pdf

There's a lot of other stuff in here too.

Hmm. Gotta say what you must to get this merger to pass. I was pretty shocked with how similar the results of TMo and S are. Worse case if they are denied the merger (highly doubt), Sprint just needs to focus on their current footprint (which they started to do now) and get that together and then expand. They could shine in the 5G world IF they played their cards right. 

[derrph]

Personal best in Columbus OH 

 

https://imgur.com/a/fYPUJnb

[utiz4321]

On 9/28/2018 at 3:59 PM, notsrealinc said:

Here's a link to the FCC Filings from where the coverage map and monopole news is from:

https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1092573429427/Sprint Ex Parte - FULL Dow Draper Presentation - 9.21.2018 - REDACTED.pdf

There's a lot of other stuff in here too.

Sprint can not succeed as an idependant company. The required investment is too high and the return isnt there. 

[utiz4321]

On 9/28/2018 at 1:13 PM, mystica555 said:

Video. If I buy an unlimited plan, and I take 1080p video, perhaps I require it to be archived at Google while on the go, so that if I don't get to wifi "soon" i still can share the video with friends.  I also take large amounts of photos on the go, and also like video would prefer to wait 1 minute for 50 pictures to sync, vs 10, or perhaps never at all if I'm in an area where uploads commonly max at half a megabit.

If you arent stremaing the video why do you care how fast it uploads? 

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

Sprint can not succeed as an idependant company. The required investment is too high and the return isnt there. 

* Is your opinion

[utiz4321]

1 minute ago, Dkoellerwx said:

* Is your opinion

Well, you didnt write it. 

[Dkoellerwx]

1 minute ago, utiz4321 said:

Well, you didnt write it. 

Qualified because you speak in absolutes when that is not possible. 

[utiz4321]

1 minute ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Qualified because you speak in absolutes when that is not possible. 

I think it is clear that everything here is opinion. I think it is also clear that everything anyone ever says in the future tense is opinion. But good looking out. 

[Johnner1999]

the Verge article sort of backs up what many here have voiced as concern for a very long time now!  Yet the ruling class still rebukes it - interesting. 

 

I will say The Verge article isn't exactly well written nor researched to be the proverbial smoking gun!  Rather it has some hints of being comminshed by Sprint, T-Mobile or Softbank...  honestly that is fine too as long as T-Mobile is allowed to buy Sprint and finally put that spectrum to good use!  Especially if TMO can build out 2.5 as fast as they did with 600!  

 

We all win!   

[mystica555]

9 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

If you arent stremaing the video why do you care how fast it uploads? 

Well, as specified before, I do share photo and video with friends.  A lot of the time, I explicitly take my phone out of my pocket to snap a few pictures then take a short, say 30 second video.  That 30 second 1080p video at Default quality in OpenCamera, is nearly 70 megabytes in size.  4K? nearly 200. 

Photos that come out of it are also similarly large, due to my penchant for taking HDR. I tell OpenCamera to keep all 3 HDR stops as individual photos, because Google Photos then goes and makes a more artistic looking HDR image than the phone can; the phone's onboard HDR is more 'here is what it actually looks like, including the really bright and dark parts' vs 'super-saturated artistic photo' so I rely on Google to make the better image.  I also have software I use on my own computer if I really need to do something like a large photo-stitch that nothing on the phone can do reasonably. 

So to outline a scenario the other day: Photos of a train bridge for our light rail I hadn't been to before. 30 second clip of the train going over the bridge, panning around the shot. 25 more photos of that train at the station, departing the station, then the view while crossing at a walk-through crossing gate, the station up close, at distance. My friend in South Dakota is a rail-fan and hasn't been back to Colorado to see the new Aurora light rail since leaving the state back in 2009. 

Video clip: 73 megabytes. 

Photos on average:  94% JPEG quality. 4.5 MB per each of "-2EV" "0" "+2EV" and the photo app's own merging of the 3 together as 4 images total.

25 snaps = 100 actual photos uploaded, all between 4 and 5 megabytes each. So we'll say ~4.5 for purpose of calculating here, and round slightly.

73+112 = 185 megabytes for what essentially takes me 5 minutes to walk around and shoot. 

Now, we compare "time until I can share with my friend" or perhaps "time until I can be safe knowing that if I DO manage to drop my phone on the train seat and forget it like I did with my HTC-G1 that I won't lose photos in the process",  in best and worst case scenarios. 

Sprint, B41. Best case scenario, sitting next to a tower, about 11 megabits/sec. 2.25 minutes. 
Sprint, ECLR/EPCS 5x5 in either band: about 8 megabits/second, but the uplink quality varies less and it won't go from "sorta working" to "dead" if you turn your head 90 degrees. 
T-Mobile, B2 15x15 : Best case scenario, again next to a tower, 35 megabits/sec. 42 seconds, not including round-trip delay between each file as the backend at Google finishes 1 file, and another is sent. 

Approximate 95% Worst case scenario as experienced with each carrier; there are differences of course, but I will provide a range of what has been seen in similar cases at cell-edge where things go sort of crappy.

Sprint B41: 0.5 megabits/second = 50 minutes. 
Sprint EPCS/CLR : 2-4 megabits/second = 6-12 minutes 
T-Mobile B2 15x15: = 10 megabits/second = 2.5 minutes
T-Mobile B12 5x5 = 5 megabits/sec = 5 minutes as it's lightly loaded and depreferenced when other signals are available.

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to shoot the video and photos, quickly walk over to sit down at a bench, then as soon as possible compile them into an album to then send. I don't want to wait nearly an hour, if in a bad area for signal. I'm ok anywhere between 1 and 10 minutes really. Past that, it gets a bit tedious. 

More timeslices in the uplink on B41 and the best-case scenario would more closely match a 10x10 LTE deployment instead of a 18x2 split as it seems we get now per 20MHz TDD channel.. 

Edited September 30, 2018 by mystica555
I did not realize CTRL-Enter was "Send" and expected it to give me a newline without paragraph break.. I guess that's shift enter.

[RedSpark]

14 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

Sprint can not succeed as an idependant company. The required investment is too high and the return isnt there. 

The presentation was an admission of certain facts/truths that I was hoping wouldn’t be true.

I was hoping Sprint’s “secret sauce” Mobilitie build would defy gravity and the naysayers... it didn’t unfortunately. (Page 3)

I was hoping Sprint’s debt load wouldn’t be insurmountable, but it appears that the company is actually losing competitive scale as time passes (Page 10) and that its debt load (Page 15) will prevent Sprint from making enough capital investments to reverse that trend. (Page 12)

I was hoping there would be more cost-cutting that could help turn things around, but we seem to be near the end of that now (Page 11).

The most stunning admission however is about Sprint’s Postpaid Customer Survivability over 18 months (Page 7)... it’s redacted, but it’s prefaced by “only”... which sounds pretty bad. There’s not a sufficient scale of loyal customers. That’s a death spiral.

As for investment/return... Masa never gave Sprint the necessary capital infusions for it to truly compete. That would have been the “investment/return.” If this merger fails to go through, Masa will be holding nearly the entire bag on this asset which he failed to adequately capitalize. At that point he’ll be relegated to getting a worse deal from another partner (given these disclosures) or be stuck with Sprint as a drag on his portfolio and reputation in its current state. At this point as a Sprint shareholder, I say he deserves either.

Edited September 30, 2018 by RedSpark
Fixed spelling again

[derrph]

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

The presentation was an admission of certain facts/truths that I was hoping wouldn’t be true.

I was hoping Sprint’s “secret sauce” Mobilitie build would defy gravity and the naysayers... it didn’t unfortunately. (Page 3)

I was hoping Sprint’s debt load wouldn’t be insurmountable, but it appears that the company is actually losing competitive scale as time passes (Page 10) and that its debt load (Page 15) will prevent Sprint from making enough capital investments to reverse that trend. (Page 12)

I was hoping there would be more cost-cutting that could help turn things around, but we seem to be near the end of that now (Page 11).

The most stunning admission however is about Sprint’s Postpaid Customer Survivability over 18 months (Page 7)... it’s redacted, but it’s prefaced by “only”... which sounds pretty bad. There’s not a sufficient scale of loyal customers. That’s a death spiral.

As for investment/return... Masa never gave Sprint the necessary capital infusions for it to truly compete. That would have been the “investment/return.” If this merger fails to go through, Masa will be holding nearly the entire bag on this asset which he failed to adequately capitalize. At that point he’ll be relegated to getting a worse deal from another partner (given these disclosures) or be stuck with Sprint as a drag on his portfolio and reputation in its current state. At this point as a Sprint shareholder, I say he deserves either.

Masa really just bought something here in the US just to say he bought it. He should’ve just bought he’s large stage in T-Mobile from the beginning. Because of what what little he did with/for Sprint, he should’nt have been allows to buy it. It was a waste of everyone’s time. 

[Paynefanbro]

22 minutes ago, derrph said:

Masa really just bought something here in the US just to say he bought it. He should’ve just bought he’s large stage in T-Mobile from the beginning. Because of what what little he did with/for Sprint, he should’nt have been allows to buy it. It was a waste of everyone’s time. 

He went in with the intent of buying Sprint, Clear, and T-Mobile in one go but didn't do enough research ahead of time to realize that it wasn't going to be that easy. Dish put up a fight and made Softbank overpay for Clear and then the political climate wasn't favorable to mergers so every attempt at going for T-Mobile was shot down but he kept going for the merger instead of taking that money that would've been spent on merging the two carriers and investing it in Sprint.

To him it was easier to consolidate than to compete.

[utiz4321]

8 hours ago, mystica555 said:

Well, as specified before, I do share photo and video with friends.  A lot of the time, I explicitly take my phone out of my pocket to snap a few pictures then take a short, say 30 second video.  That 30 second 1080p video at Default quality in OpenCamera, is nearly 70 megabytes in size.  4K? nearly 200. 

Photos that come out of it are also similarly large, due to my penchant for taking HDR. I tell OpenCamera to keep all 3 HDR stops as individual photos, because Google Photos then goes and makes a more artistic looking HDR image than the phone can; the phone's onboard HDR is more 'here is what it actually looks like, including the really bright and dark parts' vs 'super-saturated artistic photo' so I rely on Google to make the better image.  I also have software I use on my own computer if I really need to do something like a large photo-stitch that nothing on the phone can do reasonably. 

So to outline a scenario the other day: Photos of a train bridge for our light rail I hadn't been to before. 30 second clip of the train going over the bridge, panning around the shot. 25 more photos of that train at the station, departing the station, then the view while crossing at a walk-through crossing gate, the station up close, at distance. My friend in South Dakota is a rail-fan and hasn't been back to Colorado to see the new Aurora light rail since leaving the state back in 2009. 

Video clip: 73 megabytes. 

Photos on average:  94% JPEG quality. 4.5 MB per each of "-2EV" "0" "+2EV" and the photo app's own merging of the 3 together as 4 images total.

25 snaps = 100 actual photos uploaded, all between 4 and 5 megabytes each. So we'll say ~4.5 for purpose of calculating here, and round slightly.

73+112 = 185 megabytes for what essentially takes me 5 minutes to walk around and shoot. 

Now, we compare "time until I can share with my friend" or perhaps "time until I can be safe knowing that if I DO manage to drop my phone on the train seat and forget it like I did with my HTC-G1 that I won't lose photos in the process",  in best and worst case scenarios. 

Sprint, B41. Best case scenario, sitting next to a tower, about 11 megabits/sec. 2.25 minutes. 
Sprint, ECLR/EPCS 5x5 in either band: about 8 megabits/second, but the uplink quality varies less and it won't go from "sorta working" to "dead" if you turn your head 90 degrees. 
T-Mobile, B2 15x15 : Best case scenario, again next to a tower, 35 megabits/sec. 42 seconds, not including round-trip delay between each file as the backend at Google finishes 1 file, and another is sent. 

Approximate 95% Worst case scenario as experienced with each carrier; there are differences of course, but I will provide a range of what has been seen in similar cases at cell-edge where things go sort of crappy.

Sprint B41: 0.5 megabits/second = 50 minutes. 
Sprint EPCS/CLR : 2-4 megabits/second = 6-12 minutes 
T-Mobile B2 15x15: = 10 megabits/second = 2.5 minutes
T-Mobile B12 5x5 = 5 megabits/sec = 5 minutes as it's lightly loaded and depreferenced when other signals are available.

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to shoot the video and photos, quickly walk over to sit down at a bench, then as soon as possible compile them into an album to then send. I don't want to wait nearly an hour, if in a bad area for signal. I'm ok anywhere between 1 and 10 minutes really. Past that, it gets a bit tedious. 

More timeslices in the uplink on B41 and the best-case scenario would more closely match a 10x10 LTE deployment instead of a 18x2 split as it seems we get now per 20MHz TDD channel.. 

Whocares? Why do you care if it takes an hour or 20 mins to upload your photos? Are there people on the internet breathlessly refreshing what ever page you are uploading to, hoping to be the first to see these photos? If so, you are unique and sprint is not a good pick for your needs. But 99 percent of people wouldn't care. 

[mystica555]

1 minute ago, utiz4321 said:

Whocares? Why do you care if it takes an hour or 20 mins to upload your photos? Are there people on the internet breathlessly refreshing what ever page you are uploading to, hoping to be the first to see these photos? If so, you are unique and sprint is not a good pick for your needs. But 99 percent of people wouldn't care. 

A lot of people might care that they have a reliably fast upload. I just told you why I care. I never asked if YOU cared why I cared, I just simply told you. 

I would much prefer more evenly balanced traffic flow on B41.  

And TBH, Sprint isn't great for many people's needs, that's why they're bleeding customers. Merged, SprinTMO would actively be better than either by themselves, and quantitatively better than VZ/ATT in the majority of city metro areas. Quality of implementation is yet to be seen however.

[utiz4321]

8 hours ago, RedSpark said:

The presentation was an admission of certain facts/truths that I was hoping wouldn’t be true.

I was hoping Sprint’s “secret sauce” Mobilitie build would defy gravity and the naysayers... it didn’t unfortunately. (Page 3)

I was hoping Sprint’s debt load wouldn’t be insurmountable, but it appears that the company is actually losing competitive scale as time passes (Page 10) and that its debt load (Page 15) will prevent Sprint from making enough capital investments to reverse that trend. (Page 12)

I was hoping there would be more cost-cutting that could help turn things around, but we seem to be near the end of that now (Page 11).

The most stunning admission however is about Sprint’s Postpaid Customer Survivability over 18 months (Page 7)... it’s redacted, but it’s prefaced by “only”... which sounds pretty bad. There’s not a sufficient scale of loyal customers. That’s a death spiral.

As for investment/return... Masa never gave Sprint the necessary capital infusions for it to truly compete. That would have been the “investment/return.” If this merger fails to go through, Masa will be holding nearly the entire bag on this asset which he failed to adequately capitalize. At that point he’ll be relegated to getting a worse deal from another partner (given these disclosures) or be stuck with Sprint as a drag on his portfolio and reputation in its current state. At this point as a Sprint shareholder, I say he deserves either.

You only had to look at the fact that they cut CAPEX in 2016 and 2017 to understand what was going on. The point where Marcelo misled/lied to investors about their network investments in 2015/16 was the breaking point for me. I think the only reason the FEC didn't slap fines on him was because he misled with the consent of Softbank, the majority share Holder.  Sprint has a choice: they can be the discount carrier and be unable to invest in their network, they can invest in their network and loss subs by keeping their prices competitive, some magic fairy can come and dump a ton of money in their laps and not care about what kind of ROI they get or merge with T mobile.  I favor the merger because it offers the best chance for utilizing all of sprint 2.5 resources. Here we are, over 4 years after soft bank bought both Sprint and clear, with less than 50 percent of sprint's 2.5 spectrum having been deployed. How anyone can think this company can be a viable 4th competitor on it's own is beyond me. 

[greenbastard]

3 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

Whocares? Why do you care if it takes an hour or 20 mins to upload your photos?

Slow uploads consume a heck of a lot more battery than fast uploads over LTE.

Uploading a 5 minute, 4k video on a fair B41 signal could take HOURS. Uploading that same video on Verizon, At&t, or T-Mobile usually takes a few minutes.

That's a bigger difference on battery performance.

 

Quote

Are there people on the internet breathlessly refreshing what ever page you are uploading to, hoping to be the first to see these photos?

 

For the sake of this argument....yes. Yes there are.

Edited October 1, 2018 by greenbastard

[utiz4321]

1 hour ago, greenbastard said:

Slow uploads consume a heck of a lot more battery than fast uploads over LTE.

Uploading a 5 minute, 4k video on a fair B41 signal could take HOURS. Uploading that same video on Verizon, At&t, or T-Mobile usually takes a few minutes.

That's a bigger difference on battery performance.

 

 

For the sake of this argument....yes. Yes there are.

Then sprint isnt for you. 99 percent of people don't care. Stop complaining about it and use a service that fits you needs. 

[JonnygATL]

4 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

Then sprint isnt for you. 99 percent of people don't care. Stop complaining about it and use a service that fits you needs. 

Omg. Exactly. We all know the issues, mistakes and missteps. It's just a service. Walk the blank away if it doesn't meet your needs. 

[bigsnake49]

The small cell strategy would have worked if Sprint had partnered with the cable cos for strand and pole mounted small cells like they did with Altice. The New T-Mobile still can particularly if it also involves CBRS. The cable cos are going all in on the CBRS band. A small cell that combines WiFi, Band 41/5G and CBRS will be a winner.

[bigsnake49]

I have come to the conclusion that Sprint would have been much better off if Dish had acquired them. At least they they would have brought in midband spectrum and might have even invested in the network.

Edited October 1, 2018 by bigsnake49

[Tengen31]

I have come to the conclusion that Sprint would have been much better off if Dish had acquired them. At least they they would have brought in midband spectrum.

Including the H block which sits with the G Block that would have allowed for 10x10 even tho it will be a different Band, still worth it for 10x10.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Paynefanbro]

For what it's worth, despite the failed plan to throw up monopoles everywhere, Mobilitie has installed a lot of small cells so we shouldn't write them off just yet.

However I do think that the deal with Altice was one of the smartest things that Sprint has done so far. Altice in the middle of completing their own upgrades for FTTH along with getting ready to launch their MVNO next year. The deal they made with Sprint allows them to kill two birds with one stone by upgrading their own equipment while also strengthening Sprint's network in NIMBY areas so that people using Altice's MVNO will have a great network to fall back on. Sprint should have tried the approach of offering cable companies to enhance the Sprint network in exchange for favorable MVNO agreements a long time ago.

[bigsnake49]

22 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

For what it's worth, despite the failed plan to throw up monopoles everywhere, Mobilitie has installed a lot of small cells so we shouldn't write them off just yet.

However I do think that the deal with Altice was one of the smartest things that Sprint has done so far. Altice in the middle of completing their own upgrades for FTTH along with getting ready to launch their MVNO next year. The deal they made with Sprint allows them to kill two birds with one stone by upgrading their own equipment while also strengthening Sprint's network in NIMBY areas so that people using Altice's MVNO will have a great network to fall back on. Sprint should have tried the approach of offering cable companies to enhance the Sprint network in exchange for favorable MVNO agreements a long time ago.

Not to pat my own back but I have been advocating that for ever now.

[Tengen31]

Does anyone know if the lastest thing I've been hearing is that the investors and the board will step in and tell Sprint there spending too much and cut it down?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk