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

[Johnner1999]

Techno Buffalo is not much better either. They use to be a lot better in the previous years. Now the comment section is full of trolls. I use to like the verge, but they have gotten very political.

The Verge rocks, and Re/code as well.

[GoBigRed79]

He just posted there today.

 

http://bgr.com/2014/08/19/ios-8-release-beta-download-gm-notes/

[Johnner1999]

He just posted there today.

 

http://bgr.com/2014/08/19/ios-8-release-beta-download-gm-notes/

Huh

 

My bad.

 

http://bgr.com/2010/04/26/were-taking-bgr-to-the-next-level-mmc-acquires-bgr/

[bigmachine]

I can understand why Sprint's overall data performance may still fall behind Verizon and AT&T with B26 and B41 still being rolled out, but the call and text performance are surprising.  Why is Sprint not faring as well in the voice and text RootMetrics testing?  In Los Angeles, I haven't had a dropped call in months.

[sbolen]

BGR article on new Sprint's plans isn't positive...nothing about prices, all related to Sprint's "dilapidated network".

 

http://bgr.com/2014/08/19/sprint-vs-t-mobile-network/

 

Link to RootMetrics report that puts Sprint in last place now: http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/special-report-2014-1h-us

Nice of them to at least include this at the end:

That said, RootMetrics did find some glimmers of hope for Sprint going forward and said that “as Sprint continues its tri-band Spark rollout, its speeds could shift into a higher gear.”

[MacinJosh]

Well the Boy Genius, left BGR a couple years ago I think. and sold the site.

He owns the site still, but I think he got "bought out" by Legere as his site is so much for T-Mobile anymore it makes me sick.

[GoBigRed79]

I can understand why Sprint's overall data performance may still fall behind Verizon and AT&T with B26 and B41 still being rolled out, but the call and text performance are surprising.  Why is Sprint not faring as well in the voice and text RootMetrics testing?  In Los Angeles, I haven't had a dropped call in months.

 

This one does make me scratch my head.  Here in Omaha even when we were in the toughest days of the upgrades my call and text quality were never bad, even if the data was unusable.  Call quality has never been a complaint with me compared to my experiences with other carriers in the area.

[Rawvega]

It's BGR. I would never expect much from them in the way of journalism.

 

Especially that tool, brad reed. 

[Mr.Nuke]

This one does make me scratch my head.  Here in Omaha even when we were in the toughest days of the upgrades my call and text quality were never bad, even if the data was unusable.  Call quality has never been a complaint with me compared to my experiences with other carriers in the area.

This was specifically their Omaha report. http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/rsr/omaha-ne/2014/1H  Sprint is pretty much up there with the Big 2 on every metric but speed and that will change when 8T8R is deployed.

[irev210]

So I've been thinking about the new offerings a lot over the past day.

 

Here are my thoughts:

• Promotional pricing seems like a bad idea - spend a lot of money to acquire subs for them to likely churn off when the promotional period ends.
• Sprint's pricing is somewhat confusing.  They really need to move towards SIMPLE.
• Offering more data doesn't really help their cause.  You are only attracting high usage subs.  You are basically hoping that new subs don't use their 20GB a month so you get the same $ per sub.
• Not offering value to existing subs.  This continues to be a huge problem for sprint.

 

What they should have done:

• I think that Sprint could have really been a leader on adding devices to an account.  If you are paying for 20GB of data, they should really offer the value on the device side of things.  $5/month for a tablet, $10/month for a phone, free hotspot, etc.
• Make things SIMPLE.  A bunch of different data tiers, blah blah blah.  It's just stupid.  You need to be DISRUPTIVE.
• Get as many people onto one SIMPLE, EASY to understand plan.  AT&T has done a great job with this to actually DRIVE margin expansion.  T-Mobile offers to pay customer ETFs and it really doesn't cost T-Mobile anything to do this (you are required to turn in your old device, which they resell and ends up washing out most of the ETF they pay).

 

I think if they just focused on one message driving significant customer value they could have a chance.  Instead, they copy what their competitors are doing, toss in a promotional period, and offer double the data (with their fingers crossed that subs won't end up using it).

[drhenning]

I was curious about whether anyone has an idea of Hot Spots would be free now with the new data bucket plans???  I did note on the release that roaming data is still limited to 100MB unlike the 300 suggested with my current plan...  I don't roam much typically but this weekend I was in northwest LP Michigan along Traverse Bay  and got good LTE about a mile from me but needed to use roaming data from a Verizon tower across the water and then drove around the other areas all in roaming data or with nothing ( Sprint coverage map shows white where I was driving)..    It looks like I won't hit 300 since I'm back home now..  

[newboyx]

I was curious about whether anyone has an idea of Hot Spots would be free now with the new data bucket plans??? I did note on the release that roaming data is still limited to 100MB unlike the 300 suggested with my current plan... I don't roam much typically but this weekend I was in northwest LP Michigan along Traverse Bay and got good LTE about a mile from me but needed to use roaming data from a Verizon tower across the water and then drove around the other areas all in roaming data or with nothing ( Sprint coverage map shows white where I was driving).. It looks like I won't hit 300 since I'm back home now..

Hotspot is included in the new plans.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[JeffDTD]

Honestly, make that "no access fee" promotion good for the remaining 12 months of a devices financing and I think we would have a deal with less things to get barbed about.

 

I still sense a name change in the future. It just needs a smaller merger to justify the rebranding costs

 

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[Deval]

My two cents.

 

These plans were never meant to impress existing customers, rather, they were created to specifically bring Sprint to mind when switching carriers. 

 

Say a family has AT&T, and wants to switch. They start window shopping, and for the first time, they see a Sprint family plan with simple pricing, at a cheaper price point.

 

That's the user base they are going after, not the existing ones, who have ZERO REASON to actually switch their plans, NOR are they being FORCED TO.

 

I'll repeat this again, NO ONE IS FORCING EXISTING CUSTOMERS TO SWITCH THEIR PLANS.

[mhammett]

If you think retail cellular pricing is confusing, spend a day in my shoes. My network has varying prices depending on whom I'm connected to and where as transit costs vary based upon network and transport costs are based on location. Then dynamically adjust the traffic paths based on Internet changes... all while trying to not go broke.

[sbolen]

I still sense a name change in the future. It just needs a smaller merger to justify the rebranding costs

Like, perhaps, a US Cellular acquisition to transform Sprint into SoftBank/SoftBank USA?

[Paynefanbro]

I can understand why Sprint's overall data performance may still fall behind Verizon and AT&T with B26 and B41 still being rolled out, but the call and text performance are surprising.  Why is Sprint not faring as well in the voice and text RootMetrics testing?  In Los Angeles, I haven't had a dropped call in months.

 

I've only dropped one call in all of my time on Sprint.

[jamisonshaw125]

That root metrics test is complete poppycock in my eyes. I said a hundred years ago when I joined this forum that I would take reliability over crazy fast speeds any day, any time, and anywhere. I had some spare time this morning and decided to go through every single state and compare the differences in points.

 

As you can see based on the results, Sprint often scores significantly higher in 27 states while T-mobile is only a few points ahead of Sprint in 20 states, at least in the game of overall reliability. Keep in mind that these are not tests based on only data speeds, but reliability of voice, text and data speeds.  I often find that speed test comparisons are flawed simply because T-Mobile has more spectrum deployed (at the moment) and sprint's network deployment is still underway. Combined with the fact that Sprint only has 5x5 on b25 and b26 in most places, we can all attest that lower speeds are inevitable until b41 shows up. B41 has yet to show itself as a distinguishing factor but in a few markets, however, we all know that will be improving in the upcoming year.

 

The highest difference in points was in Nebraska, with Sprint coming out 24.6 points higher than T-Mobile. The lowest was 0.1 points, of which I have decided to call a tie in my eyes. T-Mobile, on the other hand, was only able to achieve at most 11.7 points higher than Sprint. In the markets that Sprint is not beating Tmobile in overall reliability, Sprint is trailing closely behind. T-Mobile averages only 4.06 points higher in the 20 states T-Mobile scored higher than Sprint. Sprint scores an average of 8.6 points higher in the 27 states that it scored higher than T-Mobile. This is significant. 

 

Overall, despite the negativity of BGR and other reports which will soon infect the internet, I can call this a win for sprint! I know that this report would've shown Sprint either dead last or right on par with T-Mobile a couple years ago and even as close as a year ago. I look forward to the future of Sprint, and am glad that I stuck it out through the chaos. T-Mobile better watch out. Best network my ass.....

 

Edit: I would also like to point out that in Nebraska, Sprint scored 8 points higher than at&t in overall reliability.

[joshuam]

I've only dropped one call in all of my time on Sprint.

 

I honestly can't remember the last time I dropped a call with Sprint. I used to frequently have dropped called with Verizon in my area (i'm sure it's improved, i've been with Sprint for several years now). But switching to Sprint for me at the time, was a big improvement. 3G speeds were still decent compared to Verizon at the time, and I had access to WiMax once that launched (Baltimore was the first market).

 

 

I agree on the name change, but I'm not sure SoftBank is the best name. Could be confusing as to why a "bank" owns a cellular carrier. Remember, we gotta keep in simple for the stupid people...lol

[joshuam]

That root metrics test is complete poppycock in my eyes. I said a hundred years ago when I joined this forum that I would take reliability over crazy fast speeds any day, any time, and anywhere. I had some spare time this morning and decided to go through every single state and compare the differences in points.

 

As you can see based on the results, Sprint often scores significantly higher in 27 states while T-mobile is only a few points ahead of Sprint in 20 states, at least in the game of overall reliability. Keep in mind that these are not tests based on only data speeds, but both reliability and data speeds.  I often find that speed test comparisons are flawed simply because T-Mobile has more spectrum deployed (at the moment) and sprint's network deployment is still underway. Combined with the fact that Sprint only has 5x5 on b25 and b26 in most places, we can all attest that lower speeds are inevitable until b41 shows up. B41 has yet to show itself as a distinguishing factor but in a few markets, however, we all know that will be improving in the upcoming year.

 

The highest difference in points was in Nebraska, with Sprint coming out 24.6 points higher than T-Mobile. The lowest was 0.1 points, of which I have decided to call a tie in my eyes. T-Mobile, on the other hand, was only able to achieve at most 11.7 points higher than Sprint. In the markets that Sprint is not beating Tmobile in overall reliability, Sprint is trailing closely behind. T-Mobile averages only 4.06 points higher in the 20 states T-Mobile scored higher than Sprint. Sprint scores an average of 8.6 points higher in the 27 states that it scored higher than T-Mobile. This is significant. 

 

Overall, despite the negativity of BGR and other reports which will soon infect the internet, I can call this a win for sprint! I know that this report would've shown Sprint either dead last or right on par with T-Mobile a couple years ago and even as close as a year ago. I look forward to the future of Sprint, and am glad that I stuck it out through the chaos. T-Mobile better watch out. Best network my ass.....

 

 

Great analysis! Thanks for taking the time. I agree overall it looks bad for Sprint as a headline...but to say Sprint isn't better today is a lie. In my region (central MD), it is a gazillion times better now than it was even earlier this year! Not done...but much better!

[marioc21]

I honestly can't remember the last time I dropped a call with Sprint. I used to frequently have dropped called with Verizon in my area (i'm sure it's improved, i've been with Sprint for several years now). But switching to Sprint for me at the time, was a big improvement. 3G speeds were still decent compared to Verizon at the time, and I had access to WiMax once that launched (Baltimore was the first market).

 

 

I agree on the name change, but I'm not sure SoftBank is the best name. Could be confusing as to why a "bank" owns a cellular carrier. Remember, we gotta keep in simple for the stupid people...lol

 

I think Softbank USA would be fine.  But I also like Spark as a brand name.  Spark Wireless, anybody?

[sbolen]

That root metrics test is complete poppycock in my eyes. I said a hundred years ago when I joined this forum that I would take reliability over crazy fast speeds any day, any time, and anywhere. I had some spare time this morning and decided to go through every single state and compare the differences in points.

 

Hot damn, that's some time commitment. Kudos for the good work, sir!

[S4GRU]

I don't think there will be a name change. And I'd be shocked if it was SoftBank anything. I don't think Masa would saddle his beloved SoftBank brand image unless Sprint was turned around. And if Sprint is turned around, why change the name to SoftBank?

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[GoBigRed79]

 

Edit: I would also like to point out that in Nebraska, Sprint scored 8 points higher than at&t in overall reliability.

And I can vouch for that.  Compared to even 6 months ago Sprint is quite good in the Omaha/Lincoln area.  There is still room for improvement, but as far as quality I see them as only second to Verizon in this area.  You don't need 20Mbps do really do anything on a smartphone.  And the consistent data I am getting now more then satisfies me. 

 

I have actually trolled Legere on twitter a few times about T-Mobile in Omaha being pretty much non-existent.  I never get a response out of him, but I know a market like ours is not their focus. 

[dedub]

Wish I had a boatload of cash to load up on sprint stock today, currently down another 4%.

 

It is apparent that those of us that are unhappy with these plans, are not the only ones.

 

Looking forward to the individual plans, but not optimistic...

 

you can't have individual plans that are better than group plans, else there is not much point to having group plans.