Sprint Q4 2014 earnings report

[bigsnake49]

I am hearing that a lot of the PS wants to move to the 700MHz. There is a movement afoot to forgo LMR and go strictly PTT over LTE and devote the PS 700MHz LMR band to LTE as well. It won't happen overnight but it will. That will free up the 800 SMR band.

[dkyeager]

Fully rebanding on the canuck side wont happen till late this year or early next year  which will allocate enough for 5x5 LTE 800 + 1x800. Full rebanding in the southern border will happen late this year and well into next year for 3x3 LTE 800 + 1x800.

 

The issue I have is the added additional buffer zone that Sprint seems to have attached to the IBEZ that reaches into Columbus Ohio.   This type of limitation does not affect places like Lutsen, MN.

[amcferrin90]

How can the numbers be skewed? 

 

That whole stretch of road is -90 or better, especially considering how an AT&T tower went up two years ago. I'm -83 in my house where they report -104. That's the blatant truth. When a person knows how to rig the results and flaw the data, then the test data means absolutely nothing. 

 

 

 

 

I want to know how Root Metrics came up with this score:

 

 

When comparing Sprint to AT&T on these maps:

 

 

That's all I got. Man that Sprint map looks really sick.

[lou99/maximus1987]

That whole stretch of road is -90 or better, especially considering how an AT&T tower went up two years ago. I'm -83 in my house where they report -104. That's the blatant truth. When a person knows how to rig the results and flaw the data, then the test data means absolutely nothing. 

 

 

 

 

I want to know how Root Metrics came up with this score:

 

 

When comparing Sprint to AT&T on these maps:

 

 

That's all I got. Man that Sprint map looks really sick.

 

They're not gonna give you their algorithm. That's their secret sauce. 

[derrph]

That whole stretch of road is -90 or better, especially considering how an AT&T tower went up two years ago. I'm -83 in my house where they report -104. That's the blatant truth. When a person knows how to rig the results and flaw the data, then the test data means absolutely nothing.

 

 

 

 

I want to know how Root Metrics came up with this score:

 

 

When comparing Sprint to AT&T on these maps:

 

 

That's all I got. Man that Sprint map looks really sick.

I live in Columbus Ohio and from my experience on a call I never have issues. The callers on the other end don't ever say I'm breaking up. My HD calls are the same way and my data is beyond great throughout the city. So idk what's going on with that map or how often its updated.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[lou99/maximus1987]

I live in Columbus Ohio and from my experience on a call I never have issues. The callers on the other end don't ever say I'm breaking up. My HD calls are the same way and my data is beyond great throughout the city.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

Didn't someone say on this forum that rootmetrics app sucks because it always measures the 1x signal (or something)?

[derrph]

Didn't someone say on this forum that rootmetrics app sucks because it always measures the 1x signal (or something)?

That I am not sure if they did that was a comment that I missed or I just wasn't on here that day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

The 2nd Place ranking in Columbus shows overall performance for the 2nd Half of 2015, in which Sprint scored second. That includes call performance, texting performance, data performance and data speed. With an algorithm that combines all four into their overall score.

The maps shown includes ALL activities reported by their app, from RootMetrics drivers and crowd sourced app users over many quarters. Not just the 2nd Half. Also, I would guess that RootMetrics does its driving in a market over a certain week in the half and not over the entire 6 months. Columbus was a lot better in November than it was in July. So when it conducted testing in the half could make all the difference.

And when you think of how Sprint used to perform with all the dropped calls which are now mostly gone and how Sprint performed when on 3G or just intermittent B25 LTE, you have to admit that it has improved that much in Columbus.

The problem is when you have an inferior network for so long and you monitor every problem with the network (like we tend to do) we still focus on all the remaining problems. And since we stare at a list of all the problems around Columbus, we think there is no way that Sprint could now be second. We live in this imperfect Sprint bubble where we assume all the other providers are perfect and will not be satisfied until Sprint is as well.

I can tell you as an ATT and Verizon customer that they are not perfect providers. They have holes. They have problem areas. It is feasible to me that Sprint can now compete and sometimes even beat out other providers in some markets. And Columbus is pretty far along for Triband users. And it still keeps getting even better. Not bad for a late to start NV market.

[derrph]

The 2nd Place ranking in Columbus shows overall performance for the 2nd Half of 2015, in which Sprint scored second. That includes call performance, texting performance, data performance and data speed. With an algorithm that combines all four into their overall score.

 

The maps shown includes ALL activities reported by their app, from RootMetrics drivers and crowd sourced app users over many quarters. Not just the 2nd Half. Also, I would guess that RootMetrics does its driving in a market over a certain week in the half and not over the entire 6 months. Columbus was a lot better in November than it was in July. So when it conducted testing in the half could make all the difference.

 

And when you think of how Sprint used to perform with all the dropped calls which are now mostly gone and how Sprint performed when on 3G or just intermittent B25 LTE, you have to admit that it has improved that much in Columbus.

 

The problem is when you have an inferior network for so long and you monitor every problem with the network (like we tend to do) we still focus on all the remaining problems. And since we stare at a list of all the problems around Columbus, we think there is no way that Sprint could now be second. We live in this imperfect Sprint bubble where we assume all the other providers are perfect and will not be satisfied until Sprint as well.

 

I can tell you as an ATT and Verizon customer that they are not perfect providers. They have holes. They have problem areas. It is feasible to me that Sprint can now compete and sometimes even beat out other providers in some markets. And Columbus is pretty far along for Triband users. And it still keeps getting even better. Not bad for a late to start NV market.

I can agree. Columbus has come along way and everyday there are changes. I can also say that I've made some Sprint believers out of a few of my friends around town. One switched from Verizon and she sees no service difference except at her job where she was only getting 3G in lower part of the hospital she now has lte.

 

Two T-Mobile customers one my brother well he just got fed up with them lying and saying nothing was wrong with the tower and there went back and forth for 3 weeks about it but he sees a difference in service call wise and my friend when we went out of town to Nashville and I had lte about 80% of the trip and 3G 20% and he would have lte only coming towards major cities other than that he was on 2G and he ended up switching while we were down in Nashville.

 

But anywho it just goes to show that Sprint is not trash like it was 2 years ago but it's just getting people to try it out and to break that assumption that Sprint doesn't work period.

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[utiz4321]

Any one else super excited to hear that one of their focuses this year is to densify the network with small and macro cells? Because I think that was my favorite part of the call.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Any one else super excited to hear that one of their focuses this year is to densify the network with small and macro cells? Because I think that was my favorite part of the call.

Yes that's good but they need to fix their backhaul issues: there's still thousands of sites left.

[Fraydog]

RootMetrics has a sucky app for individual measurements. That's a big part of this problem. Meanwhile Sprint and Sammy have busted ass in Columbus. Sprint actually beats T-Mobile in Columbus for everything except the extreme speed crowd. I would wager most would take reliability over Ookla wins though.

[S4GRU]

Yes that's good but they need to fix their backhaul issues: there's still thousands of sites left.

Sprint can't just do any one thing. They need to do it all. They need to focus on B41 backhaul throughput and B41 small cells and DAS. And they need to plan and work on B41 CAx2 and CAx3. And they need to work on getting B41 to every site. And they need to work on this new B41/B25 uplink CA.

 

They have to do it all. They need the right amount of people with the right experience and they need to budget the right amount of capex to do it all.

 

People need to stop saying they need to stop X and focus on Y. When W, X, Y and Z are all needed. The future is just important as the present. Because the future becomes the present every second.

[joshuam]

Obviously Sprint knows more about their business than we do. Marcelo is the right person for the job today and likely into the future. Sprint's network is better today than it was a year ago. Period. It's not going to get worse in 2015, it's going to get better. Much better.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Obviously Sprint knows more about their business than we do. Marcelo is the right person for the job today and likely into the future. Sprint's network is better today than it was a year ago. Period. It's not going to get worse in 2015, it's going to get better. Much better.

But it matters how fast it gets better vis a vi tmobile.

[Deval]

Yes that's good but they need to fix their backhaul issues: there's still thousands of sites left.

 

There are also thousands of sites which are upgraded, leaving only a small % left nationwide.

[Deval]

But it matters how fast it gets better vis a vi tmobile.

 

Only if you have a short penis and are compensating.

 

Otherwise plenty of folks are fine with it.

[Fraydog]

Only if you have a short penis and are compensating.

 

Otherwise plenty of folks are fine with it.

Well, I have been wrestling with this for a while, and I am conflicted.

 

It is correct to say that speeds don't matter beyond a certain point. However, that point is always shifting and increasing. I don't want to be like Bill Gates when he said "we only need 640k" and not anticipate for the future. Network speed is most certainly important. However it is only one factor of performance. That's why companies like RootMetrics measure for call, text, and data reliability. That's how Verizon got to #1 in this country. They used their CDMA platform along with a superior gifted low band spectrum position to beat the industry into submission. Now granted, they bought a lot of that coverage out. That said, I cannot think of a single area of the United States where they didn't improve the existing network after buying it out.

 

That said, in the long run, Sprint is going to have a superior position for network speed over most of their US competition if they just deploy 2.6 GHz across the entire country. This doesn't also just help for speed but also the ability to provide capacity and also assists the race to sleep for devices, making usage more energy efficient.

 

Sprint's main task here should be technological leadership. The goal should eventually be to set technical leadership for others. Going to all IP based networks that have better coverage and are lightning fast while being standards based are simply the better way to do that.

[utiz4321]

There are also thousands of sites which are upgraded, leaving only a small % left nationwide.

While a true statement it fails to take into account that sprint's network was designed for a 1900 evdo network in mind and was starved of capital for years while sprint pursued WiMAX. Given the propagation differences between 1900 and 2.5 lte with what the network was design for, the lack of investment for years in sprint's core cmda network and the limited 800 spectrum the non upgraded sites create large gaps in sprints lte coverage and overburnded 800 lte in many places.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Only if you have a short penis and are compensating.

 

Otherwise plenty of folks are fine with it.

 

I'm talking about getting to "good enough" data speeds.

In rural areas where it's only the duop, whoever gets there first with usable, consistent data at a better price will win.

[Deval]

Well, I have been wrestling with this for a while, and I am conflicted.

 

It is correct to say that speeds don't matter beyond a certain point. However, that point is always shifting and increasing. I don't want to be like Bill Gates when he said "we only need 640k" and not anticipate for the future. Network speed is most certainly important. However it is only one factor of performance. That's why companies like RootMetrics measure for call, text, and data reliability. That's how Verizon got to #1 in this country. They used their CDMA platform along with a superior gifted low band spectrum position to beat the industry into submission. Now granted, they bought a lot of that coverage out. That said, I cannot think of a single area of the United States where they didn't improve the existing network after buying it out.

 

That said, in the long run, Sprint is going to have a superior position for network speed over most of their US competition if they just deploy 2.6 GHz across the entire country. This doesn't also just help for speed but also the ability to provide capacity and also assists the race to sleep for devices, making usage more energy efficient.

 

Sprint's main task here should be technological leadership. The goal should eventually be to set technical leadership for others. Going to all IP based networks that have better coverage and are lightning fast while being standards based are simply the better way to do that.

 

Don't get me wrong, Marcelo and crew are not sitting there with thumbs in their ears and blinders on their eyes. They know that speed is essential, but it shouldn't be at the expense of true network density, which is what they want to focus on.

 

Once the holes are filled in the core network, they can focus on other things. The beauty of fiber/ethernet based sites is the scale able nature, so getting it upgraded is relatively painless. 

 

But all that is moot if there are coverage gaps, and I strongly believe that Marcelo and team know that, and are working towards a solution. 

[WiWavelength]

Only if you have a short penis and are compensating.

 

But what if it is a short yet really fat pipe?  You know, hung like a can of tuna.  Kind of like Sprint BRS/EBS.

 

 

AJ

[Deval]

While a true statement it fails to take into account that sprint's network was designed for a 1900 evdo network in mind and was starved of capital for years while sprint pursued WiMAX. Given the propagation differences between 1900 and 2.5 lte with what the network was design for, the lack of investment for years in sprint's core cmda network and the limited 800 spectrum the non upgraded sites create large gaps in sprints lte coverage and overburnded 800 lte in many places.

 

And those are being worked on. It will take time, and as long as the focus remains on greater network density, things will get better.

 

As for Sprint's network design, I have been using Sprint since 1999, so I'm well aware of the limitations. I also know the strengths, and can gladly say that the service works for me, has worked for me, and will continue to work for me. 

[Fraydog]

I'm talking about getting to "good enough" data speeds.

In rural areas where it's only the duop, whoever gets there first with usable, consistent data at a better price will win.

Lots of markets where Sprint is already there or really close. 10 Mbps is quite usable for most people now. Of course that will increase over time, the difference is Sprint has a scalable platform that can deal with that once 8T8R is in place.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Lots of markets where Sprint is already there or really close. 10 Mbps is quite usable for most people now. Of course that will increase over time, the difference is Sprint has a scalable platform that can deal with that once 8T8R is in place.

 

I guess for that reason tmo won't seek to compete with sprint in rurals. Just put up a "travelers network".