[Breaking News] Shentel to buy out Ntelos

[S4GRU]

Anyone know which licenses will be transferred in NC? A quick search on the (buggy) spectrum dashboard turned up nothing and a quick manual check of the specmap didn't do any better. I'm guessing that the licenses are in western NC (if they exist), but all I see over there are Carolina West, USCC/King Street/Carroll, and the big 4.

 

They are VA licenses that cross the border in a few counties.  Like Caswell County, NC.  There aren't really any NC licenses, per se.

[caspar347]

Wait, I think I found it. A tiny (20 mile by 20 mile) square of their PCS B license dips down into NC. Oh well.

 

Edit: As usual Robert beat me to it.

[Trip]

Did anybody happen to catch this?  http://investor.shentel.com/eventdetail.cfm?EventID=163855

 

I'm mostly interested in what might have been in the Q&A.

 

I see in the presentation they're saying 148 tower sites are redundant.  I'll be digging to figure out which those are, I think.

 

- Trip

[S4GRU]

Did anybody happen to catch this?  http://investor.shentel.com/eventdetail.cfm?EventID=163855

 

I'm mostly interested in what might have been in the Q&A.

 

I see in the presentation they're saying 148 tower sites are redundant.  I'll be digging to figure out which those are, I think.

 

- Trip

 

From Harrisonburg VA to Chambersburg PA.  nTelos offered no unique coverage over Shentel in those areas.

[Trip]

Well, yes, I know that, but I mean which specific towers.  It does appear there are some nTelos towers, much like how there were at least a handful of Nextel towers, that may be useful to Shentel even in their own region.

 

EDIT:  Also, my count has only 98 towers in the overlap area.  Of course, I'm guessing that the nTelos stuff in Ohio that overlaps will also be taken out.  I count 36 more in Ohio and the overlap area of West Virginia.  I knew I was missing some but that seems like a lot.

 

- Trip

[Rawvega]

Transcript by Shentel executives: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3428646-shenandoah-telecommunications-shen-ceo-on-shenandoah-telecommunications-acquisition-of-ntelos-holdings-corp-transcript?part=single

 

A tidbit that I found interesting:

 

Changes to our Affiliate Agreement with Sprint are outlined on slide 11. The Affiliate Agreement was written in 1999, and simplification was incorporated in 2007. A lot has changed in the wireless industry since those two dates. And, we modified our agreement to reflect the realities of 2015 and beyond. We have extended the initial term of the Affiliate Agreement five years, to November 2029. We retained the two 10-year renewal periods, giving us the potential to remain an affiliate to at least 2049.

 

As you recall, there's always been a provision for Sprint to purchase Shentel's wireless subsidiary, if the contract was not renewed. Up to this point, Shentel would have been paid 80% of our wireless subsidiaries' entire business value, since we didn't own the spectrum brand. With this amendment to the agreement, Shentel will receive 90% of the entire business value.

 

It'd be nice if there's a similar provision in place with those slackers at Swiftel though I believe their contract still has a few years left on it… 

[S4GRU]

Transcript by Shentel executives: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3428646-shenandoah-telecommunications-shen-ceo-on-shenandoah-telecommunications-acquisition-of-ntelos-holdings-corp-transcript?part=single

 

A tidbit that I found interesting:

 

 

It'd be nice if there's a similar provision in place with those slackers at Swiftel though I believe their contract still has a few years left on it… 

 

Swiftel expires in 2018.  Hrumph.  

[lilotimz]

Swiftel expires in 2018.  Hrumph.  

 

Can always force a hostile takeover...

[Rawvega]

Swiftel expires in 2018.  Hrumph.  

 

Mid-2018 at that. http://www.brookingsregister.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=76&story_id=5230

 

This makes it seem as though Sprint could buy Swiftel's wireless business out before the end of the agreement if they were so inclined. We can only hope I suppose.

 

 

The action last week does not prevent Swiftel from pursuing the sale of its wireless telecommunications business before the agreement ends in 2018. Meyer said all options are still available for BMU.

[bretton88]

Can always force a hostile takeover...

Would be amazing, but it's owned by the City of Brookings. Some convenient campaign donations to the city council might work though

[dnwk]

Is there any native Sprint tower in ntelos area? Will the control of those tower transferred to Shentel?

[JimBob]

Shentel realigns top management following nTelos acquisition

 

http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/shentel-realigns-top-management-following-ntelos-acquisition/2015-08-17

[Trip]

One step closer:  https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/premerger-notification-program/early-termination-notices/20151591

 

FTC won't block it.  (Not that it would have been expected.)

 

- Trip

[cdk]

One step closer:  https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/premerger-notification-program/early-termination-notices/20151591

 

FTC won't block it.  (Not that it would have been expected.)

 

- Trip

 

[Trip]

On its way.

 

https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-15-1236A1.pdf

 

- Trip

[radfordra]

So I live in beckley and this is what's happening, if you are in uptown beckley you get lte. Except on certain devices, for example my tab 3, and hydro icons on FreedomPop(a sprint mvno) get lte. However my tab 4 that is still on sprint won't connect to the lte. Neither will my iPhone 5 on FreedomPop. If you leave uptown beckley and go closer to Walmart you lose lte. I don't understand why an area with tall buildings gets great lte signal but drops back down to 3G once you get into areas with single story height.

 

Currently my speed has capped out at 15mbps/5mbps which is fine by me.

[S4GRU]

nTelos LTE is not fully deployed on every site. They have just a basic overlay in select cities. Full build out will not occur until Shentel takes over their LTE deployment program.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

[MarshieZ]

So I live in beckley and this is what's happening, if you are in uptown beckley you get lte. Except on certain devices, for example my tab 3, and hydro icons on FreedomPop(a sprint mvno) get lte. However my tab 4 that is still on sprint won't connect to the lte. Neither will my iPhone 5 on FreedomPop. If you leave uptown beckley and go closer to Walmart you lose lte. I don't understand why an area with tall buildings gets great lte signal but drops back down to 3G once you get into areas with single story height.

 

Currently my speed has capped out at 15mbps/5mbps which is fine by me.

 

Part of the reason why you drop to 3G is that your devices are single band. You will not be able to connect to B26 (lower band spectrum LTE for indoor coverage) and B41 (higher band, faster LTE). B25 (the band of LTE that single band devices receive) can only reach so far. If you were to upgrade to a Tri-Band device, you'd have a better experience on the network. That is of course when B26 and B41 get to your area.

 

I know the Tab 3 and iPhone 5 will only pick up B25. I'm not familiar enough with the Hydro Icon to know if it is or not.

[radfordra]

Part of the reason why you drop to 3G is that your devices are single band. You will not be able to connect to B26 (lower band spectrum LTE for indoor coverage) and B41 (higher band, faster LTE). B25 (the band of LTE that single band devices receive) can only reach so far. If you were to upgrade to a Tri-Band device, you'd have a better experience on the network. That is of course when B26 and B41 get to your area.

 

I know the Tab 3 and iPhone 5 will only pick up B25. I'm not familiar enough with the Hydro Icon to know if it is or not.

Thanks for the partial answer, but that just leaves me with more questions. Why doesn't the iPhone 5 while the tab 3 does?

 

And I have a spark device, the tab 4. That one won't connect but every other android device will. I live in uptown beckley so it's not an issue of me not having it when I'm at home. I get 3 bars on average. And the speed doesn't bother me, it's the latency since I use voip instead of normal cell phone service.

 

The issue with the dropping is when I get closer to my job, but I'm still outdoors and on foot since I don't drive. I didn't look at the device constantly because I'm looking out for cars that want to hit me if I'm not careful. Save a lot is where I think it drops to 3G, which isn't so bad until network congestion happens and the latency and speed drops to near unuasable levels.

 

Basically here is the list of devices that will connect to the lte:

Tab3

3xHydro icons (band 25 from the signal check pro app)

 

Devices that won't connect:

3x iPhone 5 (long story)

Tab4 (it's spark like you said. So why?)

[lordsutch]

Tab 4 might be dropping to 3G due to a lack of eCSFB on the towers, since it can't hold both a CDMA and LTE signal simultaneously. Triband devices won't use LTE if eCSFB is not available unless you force LTE in the hidden radio settings screen (if that's even possible on the Tab 4).

[MarshieZ]

And also the Tab 3/4 should have a better antenna/frequency because of the fact it is data only. If you put a tablet and phone side by side, typically the tablet will hold onto LTE longer.

 

Keep in mind too, if they just deployed the LTE there, it might not be optimized properly either.

 

Tbh, there are many, many factors of why LTE drops.

[travismheim]

Tab 4 might be dropping to 3G due to a lack of eCSFB on the towers, since it can't hold both a CDMA and LTE signal simultaneously. Triband devices won't use LTE if eCSFB is not available unless you force LTE in the hidden radio settings screen (if that's even possible on the Tab 4).

No eCSFB necessary on a data only device.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[radfordra]

Ntelos has had lte here for like two years but it only just started working for sprint and by association sprint mvnos on Wednesday.

 

I barely understand the concept of lte, in that there are different bands and that the lower the frequency the better the coverage area but the slower the speeds, and the higher the frequency the faster the speed but the less area it'll cover.

 

However in my case 15/5mbps up and down isn't a big deal breaker since all but that tab 4 gets 1GB of data per month for free, and the fact I simply don't care about speed since 15/5mbps suits me just fine...

 

So if you guys could point me in the general direction to read up on this stuff for a beginner. Then maybe I can stop asking stupid questions...

Edited November 28, 2015 by radfordra

[lilotimz]

Ntelos has had lte here for like two years but it only just started working for sprint and by association sprint mvnos on Wednesday.

 

I barely understand the concept of lte, in that there are different bands and that the lower the frequency the better the coverage area but the slower the speeds, and the higher the frequency the faster the speed but the less area it'll cover.

 

However in my case 15/5mbps up and down isn't a big deal breaker since all but that tab 4 gets 1GB of data per month for free, and the fact I simply don't care about speed since 15/5mbps suits me just fine...

 

So if you guys could point me in the general direction to read up on this stuff for a beginner. Then maybe I can stop asking stupid questions...

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1704-frequently-asked-questions/

[radfordra]

Is there any native Sprint tower in ntelos area? Will the control of those tower transferred to Shentel?

From my understanding from the welcometoshentel.com site

 

A shentel will get all of ntelos's towers spectrum and customers, will then rebrand everything under the sprint brand name.

 

Now if I'm wrong don't hesitate to point it out.