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

[red_dog007]

I think when Marcelo sees the numbers not working too well at the physical retail level, but much better on the online level, hopefully he'll change his mind about spending so much money on physical retail, and really focus that online.

 

Even groceries are getting more and more online nowadays and likely moving to a model with huge warehouses where people don't go shopping as often, saving money on gas, the environment, etc. All the reasons we here for why this is being so heavily promoted.

 

The one difference I have with this physical retail vs online shopping deal, is instead of warehouses, I'd like to see a convergence between physical warehousing and shopping where people still have the choice to shop amidst huge mega buildings, or go up to a counter to shop via a screen, smartphone, or preselect items at home to pick them up. Sprint and other carriers could be right up front digitally assisting purchases while able to make sales all at the same space.

The younger generations, including myself, LOVE shopping online.  It's the way to go.  Making online shopping experience easier and faster, these teir one providers need to accomplish.  MVNOs survive and thrive off being online only, or being a piece of plastic next to the gift cards.  I fully understand needing to keep stores around, but leave that up to 3rd party retailers or something. Maybe Sprint is doing?  In my city, there are like almost a dozen Sprint stores in the area, but only one of them is actually corperate.  What is annoying though is when a 3rd party can't do something, they send you to the corperate.  That should be fixed as well.

[RAvirani]

Just went through the details of the swap in my area (the Seattle area) and it looks like Sprint is trading for a contiguous 15x15 block of PCS spectrum (C4+C5+G)! The question I have is: did the Samsung PCS radios Sprint uses ever get recertified for 15x15 LTE operations? If they did, Sprint could run a 15x15 PCS LTE carrier here but if not, Sprint would be forced to end up doing 10x10+5x5...

[Tengen31]

Something in Chattanooga would be awesome.  Sprint here has 1.5Mhz / 7.5MHz / 5MHz blocks in PCS.

chattannoga does have 10x10 tho

[Tengen31]

Just went through the details of the swap in my area (the Seattle area) and it looks like Sprint is trading for a contiguous 15x15 block of PCS spectrum (C4+C5+G)! The question I have is: did the Samsung PCS radios Sprint uses ever get recertified for 15x15 LTE operations? If they did, Sprint could run a 15x15 PCS LTE carrier here but if not, Sprint would be forced to end up doing 10x10+5x5...

Last i heard not yet. They have 15x15 in parts of florida ( yes not a samsung market ) but, it would likely happen, thats the whole point of swapping.

[RAvirani]

Last i heard not yet. They have 15x15 in parts of florida ( yes not a samsung market ) but, it would likely happen, thats the whole point of swapping.

 

Yeah, Ericsson equipment is certified for bandwidths greater than 10 MHz FDD.

 

I think you're right in that we're still waiting to see certification allowing Samsung and Alu equipment to run 15/20 MHz FDD carriers.

[RedSpark]

Sprint’s Claure praised for $5B in cost cuts—with more on the way

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-s-claure-praised-for-5b-cost-cuts-more-way

 

"BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure “deserves praise for succeeding where those before him had failed.” Over the past three years, he explained, Sprint has cut its cost base by roughly $5 billion through initiatives including the shutdown of Sprint’s WiMAX network, discounting Sprint’s NASCAR sponsorship and layoffs."

 

Amazing how much cost he took out of the business.

 

--------

 

"Indeed, Sprint’s CFO recently promised the carrier would double its spending on its network this year after cutting it back dramatically in 2016. Specifically, Sprint’s Tarek Robbiati said Sprint would spend $3.5 billion to $4 billion each of the next three years “as we ramp up our densification and utilize the expanded toolbox of the various cost-efficient coverage and capacity options,” according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of Sprint’s recently quarterly earnings call."

 

Looks like Sprint needed some breathing room on its debt. Now it can move forward with higher CapEx.

[red_dog007]

Are the mini-macro B41 gear not as good as the 8t8r stuff in terms of coverage?  Powerout and such?  Can the mini's do beamforming even?

 

Just curious cause the part of town that has mini B41, going inside a store (walmart or food city) drops to B25, yet where the 8t8r sites are at, I still get B41 inside stores (lowes, walmart, hhgregg, etc) all located in different areas around the tower.

 

Maybe the mini's aren't at full power yet?  They seem to have decent coverage outside.

[Arysyn]

Are the mini-macro B41 gear not as good as the 8t8r stuff in terms of coverage? Powerout and such? Can the mini's do beamforming even?

 

Just curious cause the part of town that has mini B41, going inside a store (walmart or food city) drops to B25, yet where the 8t8r sites are at, I still get B41 inside stores (lowes, walmart, hhgregg, etc) all located in different areas around the tower.

 

Maybe the mini's aren't at full power yet? They seem to have decent coverage outside.

Is HHGregg still in business by you? The one thing I like retail for is selling televisions and appliances. Everything else online. Its a shame many of stores are closing.

 

Speaking of stores, after leaving from my medical test, I wanted to stop and ask a few questions at a Verizon corporate retail store, where there weren't any other customers, but my mother and I. Of course, we didn't start service there, that is for online. Then I decided to try going to Sprint so I could look at the HTC U11. We left Verizon around 10AM and were at a Sprint corporate retail store within ten minutes away. The Sprint store was so busy, there was a wait over a half hour.

 

We went a few other places then tried another Sprint store, corporate too, and it was just as busy as the other one, but there must have been an assistant to answer my mother's question about the phone, which they told her not until the 9th. I sat in the car waiting during that stop, just too warm out. Although, its a very good sign for Sprint doing so well around here in the Chicago suburbs.

[JossMan]

Are the mini-macro B41 gear not as good as the 8t8r stuff in terms of coverage?  Powerout and such?  Can the mini's do beamforming even?

 

Just curious cause the part of town that has mini B41, going inside a store (walmart or food city) drops to B25, yet where the 8t8r sites are at, I still get B41 inside stores (lowes, walmart, hhgregg, etc) all located in different areas around the tower.

 

Maybe the mini's aren't at full power yet?  They seem to have decent coverage outside.

NSN mini macs are 2T2R, comparable performance to Clear B41 sites. In my experience with the mini macs they really shine when a cluster of them are in operation.

[lilotimz]

Thanks for all your work!    

 

Here's a quick summary basically. 

 

ATT & Verizon

 

Equal 1:1 swaps primarily for C block spectrum in return for A,B, D,E, F for increase continuity for all parties. 

 

Major Markets: Dayton, FL / Seattle, WA / Pittsburgh, PA / San Diego, CA / Portland, OR / Denver, CO 

 

USCC transaction included Sprint getting additional spectrum from USCC in some markets while losing in some. 

[Arysyn]

Does someone here know the spectrum allotments for both Sprint and Verizon in the Chicago.area? I know Sprint has around 120mhz of band 41, but the rest of it and Verizon's spectrum amounts here I don't remember at the moment.

[richy]

Does someone here know the spectrum allotments for both Sprint and Verizon in the Chicago.area? I know Sprint has around 120mhz of band 41, but the rest of it and Verizon's spectrum amounts here I don't remember at the moment.

 

Offhand no, but you can find out here http://reboot.fcc.gov/spectrumdashboard/

[Trip]

Going to update my previous statement on roaming; I apparently went over my roaming limit yesterday.  I woke up this morning to the first webpage I tried to open telling me that I'm over my limit for the month. 

 

- Trip

[RedSpark]

It's nice to see Sprint doing this for coverage at venues instead of spending substantial sums on sponsorships which didn't improve the network itself:

 

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/871397147383615488

 

As Tarek Robbiati once said about the NASCAR Sponsorship:

 

------

 

Robbiati also singled out one marketing cost that Sprint already has said would end, namely its 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sponsorship.

 

Telecom companies, Robbiati said, have an unjustified love of “fast cars” in their marketing. He said British-based Orange, a telecommunications company where he worked from 2003 through 2005, had a thing for Formula 1 racing.

 

“There’s no correlation between fast cars and the branding of a network. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

 

Better, he said, to spend money where customers are making decisions, in retail stores and other sales channels, and especially locally where marketing is more effective.

 

“Customers remember this and probably will never remember the car that is running past them at too fast a speed to remember the little sticker that says Sprint on it,” Robbiati said.

 

------

 

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/technology/article47942890.html

 

What bands are on that COW?

[though]

Going to update my previous statement on roaming; I apparently went over my roaming limit yesterday.  I woke up this morning to the first webpage I tried to open telling me that I'm over my limit for the month. 

 

- Trip

 

What was your previous statement?

[Arysyn]

It's nice to see Sprint doing this for coverage at venues instead of spending substantial sums on sponsorships which didn't improve the network itself:

 

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/871397147383615488

 

As Tarek Robbiati once said about the NASCAR Sponsorship:

 

------

 

Robbiati also singled out one marketing cost that Sprint already has said would end, namely its 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sponsorship.

 

Telecom companies, Robbiati said, have an unjustified love of “fast cars” in their marketing. He said British-based Orange, a telecommunications company where he worked from 2003 through 2005, had a thing for Formula 1 racing.

 

“There’s no correlation between fast cars and the branding of a network. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

 

Better, he said, to spend money where customers are making decisions, in retail stores and other sales channels, and especially locally where marketing is more effective.

 

“Customers remember this and probably will never remember the car that is running past them at too fast a speed to remember the little sticker that says Sprint on it,” Robbiati said.

 

------

 

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/technology/article47942890.html

 

What bands are on that COW?

RedSpark,

 

I'm unsure if the same thing frustrated you as it did for me, but I remember when I use to search online looking for Sprint news on Google search, and several search results mostly appeared showing information about Nascar, which frustrated me where I'd be thinking, "Noooo!!! I don't care about the racing stuff Sprint sponsors! I wanna know about Sprint and its network!" After a while of that, I discovered S4GRU.

 

Definitely is a great thing Sprint stopped sponsoring Nascar, and hopefully is spending the savings on the network instead. By the way, how much did the sponsorship cost Sprint?

[RedSpark]

RedSpark,

I'm unsure if the same thing frustrated you as it did for me, but I remember when I use to search online looking for Sprint news on Google search, and several search results mostly appeared showing information about Nascar, which frustrated me where I'd be thinking, "Noooo!!! I don't care about the racing stuff Sprint sponsors! I wanna know about Sprint and its network!" After a while of that, I discovered S4GRU.

Definitely is a great thing Sprint stopped sponsoring Nascar, and hopefully is spending the savings on the network instead. By the way, how much did the sponsorship cost Sprint?

It was definitely publicity, and Miss Sprint Cup was nice of course. :-)

 

However, it cost a lot of money that should have gone towards the network or debt servicing:

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2016/10/16/nascar-next-title-sponsor-may-bring-less-money-table/92151830/

 

CSM Sport & Entertainment CEO Zak Brown said the deal will not be as lucrative as the pact NASCAR is finishing with Sprint given the current market climate. Nextel signed a $750 million, 10-year deal to become title sponsor beginning in 2004, according to the Kansas City Star, and Sprint inked a three-year extension through the end of this season at a reduced rate of about $50 million in rights and activations fees, according to Sports Business Daily. Sprint announced in December 2014 that it would not renew.

 

So glad this is over.

[Arysyn]

It was definitely publicity, and Miss Sprint Cup was nice of course. :-)

 

However, it cost a lot of money that should have gone towards the network or debt servicing:

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2016/10/16/nascar-next-title-sponsor-may-bring-less-money-table/92151830/

 

CSM Sport & Entertainment CEO Zak Brown said the deal will not be as lucrative as the pact NASCAR is finishing with Sprint given the current market climate. Nextel signed a $750 million, 10-year deal to become title sponsor beginning in 2004, according to the Kansas City Star, and Sprint inked a three-year extension through the end of this season at a reduced rate of about $50 million in rights and activations fees, according to Sports Business Daily. Sprint announced in December 2014 that it would not renew.

 

So glad this is over.

I am too.

 

Although I doubt there ever has been a consensus around here at S4GRU about this, I'd be willing to bet and guarantee others' bets on me being the person most disinterested in sports of all the members here. I'd rather spend an entire week with John Legere talking to me 24/7 about the virtues of T-Mobile and why he hates the duopoly, heck - he can even yell at me for leaving T-Mobile, which would be more tolerable to me than my watching a sports game. No offense to sports fans though, just giving an example of my opinion about it.

 

For this and other reasons, such as caring about Sprint's network progress, I'm glad Sprint stopped sponsoring Nascar. I'm still waiting to see what that investment in Tidal is going to provide though.

[RedSpark]

Tarek was right on the money with his assessment that Sprint should end its NASCAR sponsorship.

 

I'm not sure what Sprint saw or still sees in Tidal to have put $200 Million in it. Too many other big players: Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, etc.

 

For what my opinion is worth, I'd love to see Tidal get bought out so Sprint can get its money back.

[BlueAngel]

Tidal was such a stupid decision.

[RedSpark]

Tidal was such a stupid decision.

What do you think was the strategy behind it?

[Arysyn]

What do you think was the strategy behind it?

That is a great question...

 

I thought Sprint would have announced some sort of deal for Sprint customers for free HiFi Tidal service. Now, I've heard from people saying Tidal works perfectly fine using Sprint, despite the 1.5mbps music streaming limit. Using Tidal's 16-bit audio quality, I understand that there shouldn't be any problems running Tidal at 16-bit. Although, I've heard that Tidal also is streaming some audio at 24-bit, which makes me wonder if that works or not. I've never tried it at 24-bit, so I'm not sure.

 

However, if Sprint were to eliminate the streaming audio limit, or at least do it for Tidal, while offering Tidal HiFi for free, and offer a permanent non-expiry $90 for two lines, that would be enough of a deal to keep me from going to Verizon. I think the same offer would help get Sprint alot of customers, even as they already seem to be doing better as it is (Sprint's stores were packed around here on Saturday!).

 

Doing this, would help explain the purchase, at least some sort of deal with Tidal on Sprint.

[WiWavelength]

Tidal was such a stupid decision.

 

Can we please stop whipping the Tidal dead horse?

 

Yes, the transaction may be puzzling, but that $200 million was a drop in the bucket to a corporation the size of Sprint.  It may not have been available to spend -- per corporate governance -- on anything but external investments.  Even if it had been available to spend on the network, it barely would have made a dent.  Instead, with the acquisition of a portion of Tidal, Sprint did get a saleable asset, one that may provide a return, either financial or strategic.

 

So, move on to moaning about something else.

 

AJ

[JonnygATL]

Agreed. It already happened anyway and, last I heard, the past cannot be changed.

[RedSpark]

How much does a new Macro Site Build cost?

 

How much does a Macro Site Upgrade cost?

 

How much does a new Mini Macro Build cost?

 

How much is a GMO conversion?

 

How much does a Magic Box cost Sprint wholesale?

 

Trying to square Marcelo's/Tarek's comments for planned CapEx in the coming years for what can be accomplished with additonal commited funding.