Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[bigsnake49]

10 hours ago, derrph said:

I agree. Sprint users will gain the most from this merger in the ways of better coverage and more consistent speeds. 

Brand loyalty especially with these carriers is just not worth it most of the time cause they owe us nothing. If you’re not liking the quality of service or whatever, switch and go to a carrier that’s going to work for your needs. There’s no use in just settling just because you’re rooting for the underdog and stuff. 

Are you not a Sprint customer? Sprint customers will benefit the most from this merger. Be happy or take your own advice and leave.

[bigsnake49]

13 hours ago, red_dog007 said:

Instead of being glad with the merger, go to one of the three other carriers that will satisfy your needs.  

Especially with these large acquisitions, the consumers never win unless there are restrictions placed on the merger that directly benefit  or protect the consumers.

In this case, the only people who might benefit are Sprint customers.  But these guys could just switch providers if they really needed to change providers.

I am a Sprint customer. I have a line through my employer and another one because of the $15/month special. Now I also have 4 lines on Cricket that will probably be transferred to Charter Mobile as soon as they announce it. 

[red_dog007]

14 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Are young counting the mmwave holdings of AT&T and Verizon? Or the fact that there will be a lot of spectrum that is being opened up in the CBRS, 3.7-4.2GHz, 6GHz? 

Are you not a Sprint customer? Sprint customers will benefit the most from this merger. Be happy or take your own advice and leave.

B14, B66, B71, B5, B2, B30

The fact that 3G/HSPA still exists, some bands have not been deployed on yet, or that some of these have not been deployed as heavily yet. Then there is unlicensed spectrum too that carriers are getting their feet wet with.

How many Sprint direct customers will really see a benefit though?  Not everyone will.  I know if this merger goes through, I won't see a single benefit. Sprint continues to get faster. My speeds are as fast as everyone elses.  Many already get talk/data over LTE.  My lines are at > 90% over LTE. VoLTE will be live by then.  Sprint is continuing to dump billons into the network this year.  They have a lot of extended LTE roaming that makes up for a lot of TMobile's coverage.  The only difference I will see the change from Extended LTE to being on TMobile's network.  In the areas I go, it will be a reduction in coverage so I hope the extended LTE agreements stay in place.

Then there are the MVNO users. This place has the chance to get slammed extremely hard.  I think only government merger mandated rules will protect MVNOs but will contain a sunset.

 

Edited June 30, 2018 by red_dog007

[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, red_dog007 said:

B14, B66, B71, B5, B2, B30

Don’t forget B12/17!

[bigsnake49]

1 hour ago, red_dog007 said:

B14, B66, B71, B5, B2, B30

The fact that 3G/HSPA still exists, some bands have not been deployed on yet, or that some of these have not been deployed as heavily yet. Then there is unlicensed spectrum too that carriers are getting their feet wet with.

How many Sprint direct customers will really see a benefit though?  Not everyone will.  I know if this merger goes through, I won't see a single benefit. Sprint continues to get faster. My speeds are as fast as everyone elses.  Many already get talk/data over LTE.  My lines are at > 90% over LTE. VoLTE will be live by then.  Sprint is continuing to dump billons into the network this year.  They have a lot of extended LTE roaming that makes up for a lot of TMobile's coverage.  The only difference I will see the change from Extended LTE to being on TMobile's network.  In the areas I go, it will be a reduction in coverage so I hope the extended LTE agreements stay in place.

Then there are the MVNO users. This place has the chance to get slammed extremely hard.  I think only government merger mandated rules will protect MVNOs but will contain a sunset.

 

AT&T does not have band 71 anymore. They sold it.

[red_dog007]

23 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

AT&T does not have band 71 anymore. They sold it.

Ah, I knew they were looking at selling it.  Actually went through...  So, goes to show that spectrum really isn't an issue.  

[derrph]

3 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Are you not a Sprint customer? Sprint customers will benefit the most from this merger. Be happy or take your own advice and leave.

I am and have been been for years thank you very much. 

Also my response was an added thought. The person was wishing Sprint had participated in the 600 auction. Which is why my comment was about forgetting brand loyalty and go to a carrier what works for them best. 

[utiz4321]

4 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Are you not counting the mmwave holdings of AT&T and Verizon? Or the fact that there will be a lot of spectrum that is being opened up in the CBRS, 3.7-4.2GHz, 6GHz band? 

No. Count them, divide by 8 then multiple the capex need to deploy such spectrum 8 times (because each would have to deploy) and what does that world look like? Certainly not as good as the market we have now.

[RedSpark]

This merger is also happening because of mismanagement by Marcelo, and as a Sprint shareholder, that makes me pretty upset.

One thing I’ll never understand is why at his direction Sprint spent so much money on retail stores, whether it was the RadioShack deal or overhauling the retail stores themselves.

Marcelo repeatedly said retail store distribution being lacking vs its competitors was an issue of concern.(https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2017/06/sprint-ramps-distribution-push-adding-jobs-opening-60-new-stores-new-england)

I disagree. Aside from the subpar state of the Network, the poorly functioning Sprint website should have been the primary issue of concern. If a retail store is dingy or outdated, that only affects the people who go to that store. However, if the Sprint website doesn’t work well, that can affect tens of millions of people, current and prospective customers alike.

Same goes for a tower site, which can affect thousands or tends of thousands of people or more. Poor coverage at an airport can affect millions of customers on an annual basis alone.

Marcelo had his priorities completely wrong on this and virtually all the money spent on physical retail should have been thrown into Network Capex... $200 Million for Tidal included.

[nexgencpu]

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

This merger is also happening because of mismanagement by Marcelo, and as a Sprint shareholder, that makes me pretty upset.

One thing I’ll never understand is why at his direction Sprint spent so much money on retail stores, whether it was the RadioShack deal or overhauling the retail stores themselves.

Marcelo repeatedly said retail store distribution being lacking vs its competitors was an issue of concern.(https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2017/06/sprint-ramps-distribution-push-adding-jobs-opening-60-new-stores-new-england)

I disagree. Aside from the subpar state of the Network, the poorly functioning Sprint website should have been the primary issue of concern. If a retail store is dingy or outdated, that only affects the people who go to that store. However, if the Sprint website doesn’t work well, that can affect tens of millions of people, current and prospective customers alike.

Same goes for a tower site, which can affect thousands or tends of thousands of people or more. Poor coverage at an airport can affect millions of customers on an annual basis alone.

Marcelo had his priorities completely wrong on this and virtually all the money spent on physical retail should have been thrown into Network Capex... $200 Million for Tidal included.

I think your misdirecting your disappointment. Masa really wanted the merger to happen from day one, Marcelo did the most he could with the limited budget that was set fourth.  In fact, I think he did a stupendous job making Sprint a lot slimmer and manageable. Even with the limited funding (V outspent Sprint by quite a massive margin) they still were able to grow subscriber count, and managed to create pretty cool tech like the Magic Box and the massive explosion of small cell(especially in terms of legislation) and Massive MIMO all happened under Marcelo's limited budget reign.

While the Radio Shack partership seemed like a bad deal, in hindsight, a ton of those stores ended up being Sprint stores that are still around, and I'm sure they got a sweetheart deal with leases (that's why ex-RadioShack execs were suing Sprint) The Tidal investment on the other hand was weak at best, but even then, $200 million is a drop in the bucket and will barely move the needle in terms of Capex.

[RedSpark]

17 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

I think your misdirecting your disappointment. Masa really wanted the merger to happen from day one, Marcelo did the most he could with the limited budget that was set fourth.  In fact, I think he did a stupendous job making Sprint a lot slimmer and manageable. Even with the limited funding (V outspent Sprint by quite a massive margin) they still were able to grow subscriber count, and managed to create pretty cool tech like the Magic Box and the massive explosion of small cell(especially in terms of legislation) and Massive MIMO all happened under Marcelo's limited budget reign.

While the Radio Shack partership seemed like a bad deal, in hindsight, a ton of those stores ended up being Sprint stores that are still around, and I'm sure they got a sweetheart deal with leases (that's why ex-RadioShack execs were suing Sprint) The Tidal investment on the other hand was weak at best, but even then, $200 million is a drop in the bucket and will barely move the needle in terms of Capex.

I respectfully disagree.

Although Masa wanted this merger to happen (and that’s not a guarantee), Marcelo hamstrung the company even further by not directing funds to where they should have gone... at least in my opinion.

The Website affects more people than any physical retail store. The money should have gone to fixing the website.

The network is the product. Every penny that wasn’t tied down to something business essential (wages, etc.) should have gone into the network to improve it. Call me crazy, but I’d make the case that Sprint should have mortgaged or sold its physical plant itself to free up funds for Capex.

Is Massive MIMO actually happening? We haven’t heard an update on the initial or “follow-up” cities in some time. What we do know is that much of the network still lacks Band 41: http://newsroom.sprint.com/triband-upgrades.htm

When our customers are on our 2.5 GHz band, they get our fastest average download speed. This is why we’re blanketing the country with this powerful spectrum. We now have 2.5 GHz deployed on roughly 60% of our macro sites and expect to complete the substantial majority of our tri-band upgrades by the end of fiscal 2018.

End of Fiscal 2018 is a long way away: April/May 2019 if my math is right. Hopefully “substantial majority” is close to 100%...

The radio shack deal was a distraction. The car phone warehouse deal was a distraction. Tidal was a distraction. All of these things are examples of projects which took money/time from where it should have gone: the website and the network... and this included getting some 600 MHz in the auction.

[nexgencpu]

36 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I respectfully disagree.

Although Masa wanted this merger to happen (and that’s not a guarantee), Marcelo hamstrung the company even further by not directing funds to where they should have gone... at least in my opinion.

The Website affects more people than any physical retail store. The money should have gone to fixing the website.

The network is the product. Every penny that wasn’t tied down to something business essential (wages, etc.) should have gone into the network to improve it. Call me crazy, but I’d make the case that Sprint should have mortgaged or sold its physical plant itself to free up funds for Capex.

Is Massive MIMO actually happening? We haven’t heard an update on the initial or “follow-up” cities in some time. What we do know is that much of the network still lacks Band 41: http://newsroom.sprint.com/triband-upgrades.htm

When our customers are on our 2.5 GHz band, they get our fastest average download speed. This is why we’re blanketing the country with this powerful spectrum. We now have 2.5 GHz deployed on roughly 60% of our macro sites and expect to complete the substantial majority of our tri-band upgrades by the end of fiscal 2018.

End of Fiscal 2018 is a long way away: April/May 2019 if my math is right. Hopefully “substantial majority” is close to 100%...

The radio shack deal was a distraction. The car phone warehouse deal was a distraction. Tidal was a distraction. All of these things are examples of projects which took money/time from where it should have gone: the website and the network... and this included getting some 600 MHz in the auction.

While it would be great to just say, Hey! our product is the network, forget marketing, sales, partnerships, perks etc. Business does not work that way. You have to take a balanced approach, not enough marketing? no customer awareness, not enough stores? then there is no place for customers to go, no partnerships? how do you compete against T-mobile offering free stuff every week or MLB packages and Netflix packages, ATT is practically giving away DirecTV packages with a cell plan. Knowing what we know ($25 billion more needed to fully deploy the network), do you really think them allocating $1 billion away from those things and into the network, that it would have made any difference?

About the 600Mhz auction, my sentiment is unchanged. While its decent spectrum, and would have done wonders for sprint 5 years ago, Sprint's position made it wildly impractical to go on that en devour, too many roadblocks with many TV stations still occupying that spectrum, no device/macro support and a looming merger with that very same company. Them(T-mobile) even being adamant that they were going all in at the auction. 

Look at it like playing fantasy sports with salary caps. Imagine overpaying for a quarterback(the network) and not having enough funds for decent linemen(marketing) to protect him. No matter how good your QB is, he will be at a massive disadvantage without protection from the line.

[RedSpark]

20 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

While it would be great to just say, Hey! our product is the network, forget marketing, sales, partnerships, perks etc. Business does not work that way. You have to take a balanced approach, not enough marketing? no customer awareness, not enough stores? then there is no place for customers to go, no partnerships? how do you compete against T-mobile offering free stuff every week or MLB packages and Netflix packages, ATT is practically giving away DirecTV packages with a cell plan. Knowing what we know ($25 billion more needed to fully deploy the network), do you really think them allocating $1 billion away from those things and into the network, that it would have made any difference?

About the 600Mhz auction, my sentiment is unchanged. While its decent spectrum, and would have done wonders for sprint 5 years ago, Sprint's position made it wildly impractical to go on that en devour, too many roadblocks with many TV stations still occupying that spectrum, no device/macro support and a looming merger with that very same company. Them(T-mobile) even being adamant that they were going all in at the auction. 

Look at it like playing fantasy sports with salary caps. Imagine overpaying for a quarterback(the network) and not having enough funds for decent linemen(marketing) to protect him. No matter how good your QB is, he will be at a massive disadvantage without protection from the line.

Sprint’s “lack of retail distribution” issue could have been pushed way into the future. Marcelo got distracted by this. The network is what customers use and notice on a daily basis.

T-Mobile is printing money. It has achieved critical mass and is beginning to chip away at AT&T/Verizon. But it’s also better at marketing than anyone, although Verizon and AT&T are finally getting a clue. Sprint spent its money on NASCAR and NBA Sponsorships with no defined return on investment and when the network was so lousy you couldn’t get coverage or usable service at the event. But oh look, shiny fast cars and Ms. Sprint Cup.

To use your figure of $1 Billion, yes, that’s a substantial amount for the existing footprint. At $100k per macro site (ballpark), that’s 10,000 improved or upgraded sites (upgraded sites may be less). That would get noticed by customers. Focus them on the worst performing areas.

As for the 600 MHz, T-Mobile is already putting it to use. Sprint on the other hand has very limited 800 MHz holdings overall and a substantial amount of customers on its network can’t access it due to IBEZ.

The writing was on the wall for this merger when Sprint sat it out.

[nexgencpu]

18 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint’s “lack of retail distribution” issue could have been pushed way into the future. Marcelo got distracted by this. The network is what customers use and notice on a daily basis.

T-Mobile is printing money. It has achieved critical mass and is beginning to chip away at AT&T/Verizon. But it’s also better at marketing than anyone, although Verizon and AT&T are finally getting a clue. Sprint spent its money on NASCAR and NBA Sponsorships with no defined return on investment and when the network was so lousy you couldn’t get coverage or usable service at the event. But oh look, shiny fast cars and Ms. Sprint Cup.

To use your figure of $1 Billion, yes, that’s a substantial amount for the existing footprint. At $100k per macro site (ballpark), that’s 10,000 improved or upgraded sites (upgraded sites may be less). That would get noticed by customers. Focus them on the worst performing areas.

As for the 600 MHz, T-Mobile is already putting it to use. Sprint on the other hand has very limited 800 MHz holdings overall and a substantial amount of customers on its network can’t access it due to IBEZ.

The writing was on the wall for this merger when Sprint sat it out.

You do realize that Tmobile has massive debt right? and now they're about to tack on Sprint's debt. This venture will not be easy no matter how you slice it. 

Your not taking into account the amount of time it takes to deploy newly built sites(adding 600Mhz to existing sites would not be enough, since 800Mhz has mostly proved that). If Sprint had 600Mhz years ago, your strategy would make a bit more sense. Small cell would not be such a big part of the equation and a couple of macro sites would make more of a difference. But with 2.5, site density is key, so small cells make all the sense in the world, so I understood the Mobilitie strategy.

Unfortunately, lack of small cell legislation, NIMBY in combination with sloppy Mobilitie work, made that plan drag out more than it should of.

 

[RedSpark]

20 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

You do realize that Tmobile has massive debt right? and now they're about to tack on Sprint's debt. This venture will not be easy no matter how you slice it. 

Your not taking into account the amount of time it takes to deploy newly built sites(adding 600Mhz to existing sites would not be enough, since 800Mhz has mostly proved that). If Sprint had 600Mhz years ago, your strategy would make a bit more sense. Small cell would not be such a big part of the equation and a couple of macro sites would make more of a difference. But with 2.5, site density is key, so small cells make all the sense in the world.

 

T-Mobile’s Debt doesn’t matter because they have enough cash flow to make the payments, and they will have enough for the foreseeable future.

If I recall correctly, Sprint’s Network is spaced for 1900 MHz. The densification Plan was predicated on a non-traditional build of 2.5 GHz small cells which many in the Wireless industry said was crazy. Sprint assured us there was a secret plan that had a different and lower cost structure. As we now know, that didn’t pan out. Marcelo said as much that they were going back to a traditional build. A substantial amount of time, energy and money was spent on this venture including waiting on permits. Sprint didn’t have to put itself in this position given the regulatory roadblocks. Huge mistake.

Sprint also doesn’t have enough 800 MHz to be truly usable for data purposes in the 5G era, especially indoor coverage which gets saturated. It’s not even enough in the 4G era. Adding 800 MHz to all sites seems essential for VoLTE, but I’m not sure how much more it can offer given the limited amount Sprint has.

600 MHz would have helped address this shortcoming, and perhaps could have been deployed more quickly and at a lower cost given its propagation characteristics for range and penetration.

[nexgencpu]

9 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

T-Mobile’s Debt doesn’t matter because they have enough cash flow to make the payments, and they will have enough for the foreseeable future.

If I recall correctly, Sprint’s Network is spaced for 1900 MHz. The densification Plan was predicated on a non-traditional build of 2.5 GHz small cells which many in the Wireless industry said was crazy. Sprint assured us there was a secret plan that had a different and lower cost structure. As we now know, that didn’t pan out. Marcelo said as much that they were going back to a traditional build. A substantial amount of time, energy and money was spent on this venture including waiting on permits. Sprint didn’t have to put itself in this position given the regulatory roadblocks. Huge mistake.

Sprint also doesn’t have enough 800 MHz to be truly usable for data purposes in the 5G era, especially indoor coverage which gets saturated. It’s not even enough in the 4G era. Adding 800 MHz to all sites seems essential for VoLTE, but I’m not sure how much more it can offer given the limited amount Sprint has.

600 MHz would have helped address this shortcoming, and perhaps could have been deployed more quickly and at a lower cost given its propagation characteristics for range and penetration.

1.9 "evdo spacing" not 1.9 LTE spacing, the hope was that 800 LTE (still don't see the point of 600Mhz for Sprint due to monetary limitations) would be comparable to 1.9 edvo (mostly is). Small cell legislation is happening now, and Mobilitie has finally got there sh*t together, and you better believe that the "new T-mobile" will take complete advantage of that.

[greenbastard]

24 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

 

Unfortunately, lack of small cell legislation, NIMBY

 

Can we just drop this excuse already? Because it looks like Verizon and T-Mobile aren't hindered by this one bit. 

[nexgencpu]

7 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

Can we just drop this excuse already? Because it looks like Verizon and T-Mobile aren't hindered by this one bit. 

Not that simple, Sprint is deploying for 2.5 spacing. V had a huge advantage from the get go with 20Mhz of low band, and even though T-mobile now has access to low band, they are still nowhere near as reliable as V in rural areas and indoors, and yes, NIMBY had a huge effect on small cell deployment and still does.

We can all agree that deploying 750Mhz is nothing like deploying 2.5.

[JimBob]

Marcelo was a piece of shit CEO.  Typical short-term cash grab all bluster executive.  Remember when he promised that Sprint would have the highest network rankings and then lost the #3 carrier spot to T-Mobile?

His entire tenure was a pump and dump scheme that netted him $100 million+ in stock/cash compensation by using merger rumors, financial engineering, and literally free service giveaways to keep the stock price and company afloat before he left the crash with an even higher position.

[RedSpark]

12 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

Can we just drop this excuse already? Because it looks like Verizon and T-Mobile aren't hindered by this one bit. 

Sprint really botched it with the regulators (Mobilitie certainly didn’t help) and in my opinion, it never should have gone down the non-traditional Network build road to begin with.

Sprint made a bad situation worse... and here we are.

[nexgencpu]

10 minutes ago, JimBob said:

Marcelo was a piece of shit CEO.  Typical short-term cash grab all bluster executive.  Remember when he promised that Sprint would have the highest network rankings and then lost the #3 carrier spot to T-Mobile?

His entire tenure was a pump and dump scheme that netted him $100 million+ in stock/cash compensation by using merger rumors, financial engineering, and literally free service giveaways to keep the stock price and company afloat before he left the crash with an even higher position.

This goes back to what I said before, Masa was running the show, I truly believe Marcelo wanted to accomplish all these things before Masa put the brakes on it, and reality set in, especially easier since he had Marcelo take the public scrutiny for him.

[danlodish345]

This goes back to what I said before, Masa was running the show, I truly believe Marcelo wanted to accomplish all these things before Masa put the brakes on it, and reality set in, especially easier since he had Marcelo take the public scrutiny for him.

I'm so curious to see what happens. Obviously it's going to take a year before they make any decision on the merger.

Sent from my Moto Z3 Play using Tapatalk

[RedSpark]

29 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

1.9 "evdo spacing" not 1.9 LTE spacing, the hope was that 800 LTE (still don't see the point of 600Mhz for Sprint due to monetary limitations) would be comparable to 1.9 edvo (mostly is). Small cell legislation is happening now, and Mobilitie has finally got there sh*t together, and you better believe that the "new T-mobile" will take complete advantage of that.

Sprint never should have been in a position for the New T-Mobile to take advantage of anything. I don’t want the market to go from 4 major carriers to 3.

600 MHz may have better deployment economics than you think. We were told it was “spectrum of the past” and would take “years to deploy” by the former CFO. Given that the “New T-Mobile” is talking up the combination of 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz as the network of the future, this “spectrum of the past” rationale strikes me as total BS.

[nexgencpu]

2 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint never should have been in a position for the New T-Mobile to take advantage of anything. I don’t want the market to go from 4 major carriers to 3.

600 MHz may have better deployment economics than you think. We were told it was “spectrum of the past” and would take “years to deploy” by the former CFO. Given that the “New T-Mobile” is talking up the combination of 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz as the network of the future, this “spectrum of the past” rationale strikes me as total BS.

Look at it this way, how often do you think youll connect to 600Mhz once 2.5 is live on 80k macros and 20K small cells?

[RedSpark]

15 minutes ago, JimBob said:

Marcelo was a piece of shit CEO.  Typical short-term cash grab all bluster executive.  Remember when he promised that Sprint would have the highest network rankings and then lost the #3 carrier spot to T-Mobile?

His entire tenure was a pump and dump scheme that netted him $100 million+ in stock/cash compensation by using merger rumors, financial engineering, and literally free service giveaways to keep the stock price and company afloat before he left the crash with an even higher position.

He cut all the waste and got Sprint lean for a turnaround. Credit to him for that.

Everything else he said about beating the competition... yeah, he was wrong. Extremely wrong... and he was in a position to know he was wrong, but he kept saying it.

Did he intentionally lie on Sprint’s network improvement trajectory?... I’m leaning towards yes. I didn’t used to think this, but I feel differently now.