Let's get serious about this proposed US Cellular buyout.

[bigsnake49]

Dish wants to partner with Sprint and they still might. By when does Dish have to build out their spectrum? Did they get an extension? If they have to deploy soon, I'm sure they are feeling the pressure. The reason that Ergen wants to talk to T-Mobile after the AWS-3 auction is that if he wins the 1695-1710MHz uplink cheaply, then he can pair it with 2180-2200 MHz downlink. He can then partner with T-Mobile and get it approved for inclusion in whatever LTE band AWS-3 is included. If he can get it standardized, then it is much more valuable. If he does that he also has another chunk of 25x5 MHz (the 2000-2020Mhz + PCS-H) chunk. He will also have to have that standardized and he thinks that Sprint should be interested in it since it is adjacent to PCS-G.

 

The analysts and Dish think his spectrum is worth a lot more than the carriers do. If his spectrum was standardized, then it would be worth a lot of money, but until it does get standardized and included in a band then it is not. He will bring a lot of spectrum into the equation but it comes with caveats. For Sprint, it is the partnership to deploy EBS spectrum for fixed broadband in the rural/exurban areas that's most valuable because it might allow them to fund rural expansion. I am sure that they are crunching the numbers to see at what revenue number per subscriber it makes sense. Could they get subsidized by the federal government to provide rural broadband? 

 

Also Sprint has a lot of roaming agreements with rural providers. Those include non-compete clauses. How will Sprint get around the non-compete clauses? Acquire their partners?

 

Feel better guys?

Edited September 8, 2014 by bigsnake49

[bigsnake49]

I do agree with the original premise of the thread of buying up not just USCC but as many rural carriers as possible, form a rural subsidiary and have them slowly but surely deploy Sprint's SMR spectrum in as many places as it makes sense.

[S4GRU]

There is a limit in the number of subscribers a CCA member can have. I think it's 78 million, trying to recall from memory. If Sprint buys enough rural providers, it could throw them out of the CCA. But not the RRPP, since that is solely a Sprint program.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

There is a limit in the number of subscribers a CCA member can have. I think it's 78 million, trying to recall from memory.

 

Is that pegged to 25 percent national market share?  That math seems to compute.

 

AJ

[Mr.Nuke]

 I think it's 78 million, trying to recall from memory. If Sprint buys enough rural providers.

You are basically correct from your memory. It is 80 million in their bylaws.

Is that pegged to 25 percent national market share?  That math seems to compute.

 

AJ

That may have been what they were going for, but it is a hard number in their documentation.

[S4GRU]

Is that pegged to 25 percent national market share?  That math seems to compute.

 

AJ

 

Never thought about that.  Very well could be.

 

Robert

[bigsnake49]

There is a limit in the number of subscribers a CCA member can have. I think it's 78 million, trying to recall from memory. If Sprint buys enough rural providers, it could throw them out of the CCA. But not the RRPP, since that is solely a Sprint program.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I don't think there are that many subscribers in the CCA, except for T-Mobile. So Sprint does not need to fear that happening.

Edited September 8, 2014 by bigsnake49

[S4GRU]

I don't think there are that many subscribers in the CCA, except for T-Mobile. So Sprint does not need to fear that happening.

 

It's not so much as fear, but throwing that out there as a known commodity as discussions go on.

 

Robert

[WiWavelength]

Is that pegged to 25 percent national market share?  That math seems to compute.

You are basically correct from your memory. It is 80 million in their bylaws.

That may have been what they were going for, but it is a hard number in their documentation.

 

The 25 percent is a sound figure of merit.  I have long said that if I were Spectrum Czar, I would have prohibited any operator from licensing greater than 25 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses.  But, as it stands, VZW and AT&T each hold nearly 50 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses, firmly cementing themselves as the duopoly.

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

The 25 percent is a sound figure of merit.  I have long said that if I were Spectrum Czar, I would have prohibited any operator from licensing greater than 25 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses.  But, as it stands, VZW and AT&T each hold nearly 50 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses, firmly cementing themselves as the duopoly.

 

AJ

Yep, and Sprint could have had some of that if it had bought/merged with Alltel/USCC/RCC/Dobson?. Now granted that was rural companies/spectrum, but then nobody would have complained about their rural coverage. But they didn't and here we are.

[mozamcrew]

The 25 percent is a sound figure of merit.  I have long said that if I were Spectrum Czar, I would have prohibited any operator from licensing greater than 25 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses.  But, as it stands, VZW and AT&T each hold nearly 50 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses, firmly cementing themselves as the duopoly.

 

AJ

 

What is MORE bothersome to me, is how they were allowed to acquire both sides of the license in some markets!

[caspar347]

What is MORE bothersome to me, is how they were allowed to acquire both sides of the license in some markets!

Yeah. It's very obvious here with patterns in tower locations. VZ owns both CLR licenses here. AT&T has insane site density with sites wherever they could get towers approved and permitted. Verizon isn't nearly as dense (probably about half as many towers as AT&T), but they generally have towers in very good strategic places ie next to malls etc.

[bigsnake49]

Yeah. It's very obvious here with patterns in tower locations. VZ owns both CLR licenses here. AT&T has insane site density with sites wherever they could get towers approved and permitted. Verizon isn't nearly as dense (probably about half as many towers as AT&T), but they generally have towers in very good strategic places ie next to malls etc.

AT&T own both sides of CLR here. They also own boatloads of PCS. Verizon is also very spectrum rich around here.

[S4GRU]

VZW will be able to make some meaningful B2 LTE deployments when necessary. So will AT&T in some places.

[Nickel]

VZW will be able to make some meaningful B2 LTE deployments when necessary. So will AT&T in some places.

I thought the prevailing thought was that Verizon would sacrifice it's meager PCS holdings so that they could go after other bands with more gusto without worrying the FCC? 

[S4GRU]

I thought the prevailing thought was that Verizon would sacrifice it's meager PCS holdings so that they could go after other bands with more gusto without worrying the FCC? 

 

We'll have to see.

[Josh]

I thought the prevailing thought was that Verizon would sacrifice it's meager PCS holdings so that they could go after other bands with more gusto without worrying the FCC? 

 

http://specmap.sequence-omega.net/

 

It really depends on the area, in western PA it looks like they have 35Mhz PCS as well as AWS/Cellular/700.  I'm sure that they would sell some of their PCS licenses in areas where they have excess IF it would allow them to gain more nationwide spectrum.  In other words, they would act like they were helping the other carriers compete, while only doing so if it allowed them to gain more spectrum nationally.  I doubt that they will ever get rid of ALL of their PCS holdings as many customers with legacy devices might be affected, and I'm sure that they see little incentive in selling.  They would probably be more interested in swapping some PCS if it allowed them to deploy extra wideband LTE at AWS in an area they currently can't or a similar situation.

[dkyeager]

Did you guys see this from US Cellular:

 

'The carrier recently disclosed that it is working to sell additional "non-strategic assets." Specifically, the company said it is now selling 595 non-strategic cell towers "in areas outside of its core market focus." The company said Wells Fargo Securities and TD Securities are managing the potential sale.'   Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/us-cellular-launches-m2m-pricing-and-solutions-plans-tower-sale/2014-09-11 

 

I would assume they sold the real estate long ago, or are they that far behind?

[Paynefanbro]

Did you guys see this from US Cellular:

 

'The carrier recently disclosed that it is working to sell additional "non-strategic assets." Specifically, the company said it is now selling 595 non-strategic cell towers "in areas outside of its core market focus." The company said Wells Fargo Securities and TD Securities are managing the potential sale.'   Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/us-cellular-launches-m2m-pricing-and-solutions-plans-tower-sale/2014-09-11

 

I would assume they sold the real estate long ago, or are they that far behind?

 

Sprint is probably itching to buy those sites. Especially after they bought the CellularOne sites in Wyoming/Montana and a user reported a Sprint signal in their home for the first time in a town in Minnesota that was never covered by Sprint before. Sprint seems to be looking to organically expand their network rather than artificially. However if T-Mobile were to try to buy US Cellular or C-Spire, I'm sure Sprint would react in a heartbeat and outbid them.

[bretton88]

Did you guys see this from US Cellular:

 

'The carrier recently disclosed that it is working to sell additional "non-strategic assets." Specifically, the company said it is now selling 595 non-strategic cell towers "in areas outside of its core market focus." The company said Wells Fargo Securities and TD Securities are managing the potential sale.' Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/us-cellular-launches-m2m-pricing-and-solutions-plans-tower-sale/2014-09-11

 

I would assume they sold the real estate long ago, or are they that far behind?

A few possibilities, this might be a sell then lease deal like the other carriers do, or this is a sell off of the towers that they still have in markets like Chicago and St Louis where they only sold the spectrum, but not the infrastructure. I don't know how useful either of those scenarios would be to Sprint.

[MarshieZ]

Any updates on this?

[Yuhfhrh]

Any updates on this?

 

It's a distant dream.

[cdk]

Any updates on this?

 

It's a distant dream.