Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[newyork4me]

34 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Sprint is so far behind in Los Angeles, it's not even funny. I doubt they have more than 10% market share and than probably all prepaid. And yes, everybody. is using tall buildings' rooftops nowadays.

Bingo.  You are making my point for me.  They have no market share, but a network that is now better than it would reflect.  Their 5G launch will also put them way ahead of geographic coverage for 5G compared to their competitors too.

[bigsnake49]

1 hour ago, newyork4me said:

Bingo.  You are making my point for me.  They have no market share, but a network that is now better than it would reflect.  Their 5G launch will also put them way ahead of geographic coverage for 5G compared to their competitors too.

You're not hearing me. Their network sucks and it will take macro sites to make it better. The kind that T-mobile has in abundance in the LA basin. 

The macro site that was servicing my location was taken down for some reason or another. It was replaced by couple of small cells which do an adequate job outside on the street but cannot penetrate inside to save a life. In removing the tribune macro site they removed both band 26 and band 25 antennas. The band 41 signal cannot reach indoors at my place. It needed both band 25 and 26. So this band 41 utopia of your does not work from and I believe it won't work for a lot of other suburbanites. Let me repeat again. Band 41 small cells are not a replacement for triband macro sites, they are supplemental as in when there is a coverage gap that cannot be bridged by a macro site because there is no tall building or a standalone antenna. The other circumstance is when a macro site is overloaded. You need both kind of sites to have an adequate network.

[dkyeager]

I have had the same debate with various network engineers from various carriers about Sprint in my area.  T-Mobile ranks better yet has about the same number of macro sites.  Much fewer if you count b41 only macro sites (former Clear).  They also have almost no small cells.  Sprint has far more small cells than AT&T, yet maybe half the number of Verizon.  The primary conclusion is lack of proper backhaul.  CapEX pays for some fancy site equipment, but backhaul comes out of the operating budget. 

Lack of low band capacity is another especially for interior use, which would be solved by more tribanding of former Clear sites, yet that is moving quite slowly. 

If there was more consistency in site deployments, I figure the network would be easier to manage / optimize.  There is a tremendous mix of network technologies in play in the traditional metro area: B25 - a few 5x5, then mostly 10x10, 5x5+10x10, 15x15 then various mixtures of 256 QAM and 4x4 MIMO, and 4 or more sectors at some sites,  B26 - 5x5, 3x3, some with 4 port RRUs plus a few multiple sector sites, B41 - low 1 carrier and 2 carrier small cells , B41 2 CA 2x2 MIMO Mini Macro sites (mostly former Clear), 8T8R sites with 3 CA and up to 4x4 MIMO, a few of these with 5 carriers, a few Massive MIMO sites.  Blessed to have all these, but plenty of places for problems to hide.  Likely boils down to limited resources.

When you go to rural sites, the opposite is often true: Sprint sites are very consistent while the other carriers have plenty of ground mounted radios and museum sites. VoLTE at least did force more LTE consistency for the other carriers.

I figure this is enough for now.

[JThorson]

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/291245-sprint-is-practically-begging-regulators-to-approve-t-mobile-merger

Quote

If the deal doesn’t go through, Sprint would get a modest breakup fee from T-Mobile

I didn't think there was a breakup fee if the deal falls through; besides the roaming agreements?

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, JThorson said:

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/291245-sprint-is-practically-begging-regulators-to-approve-t-mobile-merger

I didn't think there was a breakup fee if the deal falls through; besides the roaming agreements?

It is very particular.  My guess is T-Mobile would have to say no to conditions of approval put forth by DOJ and FCC and Sprint would need to meet credit, and possible financial and customer requirements.  It is for $600 Million.

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by dkyeager
Edited for exact amount and conditions link

[dkyeager]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-13/t-mobile-sprint-are-said-to-consider-concessions-to-save-merger?srnd=premium

Separate out some of the prepaid.

[greenbastard]

14 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Both of you need to stop going to the two extremes. 

I assumed it was a given that when we talked about "Urban", we also meant suburban America. For the purpose of this discussion, suburbs and downtown areas are all "urbanized" areas while a site on I-10 near Sonora, TX is rural.

Sorry for the confusion.

[greenbastard]

10 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

It was replaced by couple of small cells which do an adequate job outside on the street but cannot penetrate inside to save a life. 

This has been my experience as well. Small Cells are not a good way of filling coverage holes (particularly for B41 and indoor coverage). Small Cells are only useful for balancing congestion.

Take T-Mobile as an example. They added Macro sites to fill weak coverage areas where you would lose LTE. Afterwards, they looked at all their congested sectors and added small cells as a form of relief. They mostly focused on areas with high concentrations of people (apartments, shopping centers, schools, etc.) and speeds have improved.

They still have a long way to go, but their strategy is, hands down, the best way of tackling both coverage and congestion.

[bigsnake49]

6 hours ago, greenbastard said:

I assumed it was a given that when we talked about "Urban", we also meant suburban America. For the purpose of this discussion, suburbs and downtown areas are all "urbanized" areas while a site on I-10 near Sonora, TX is rural.

Sorry for the confusion.

NYC and Chicago by the lake have nothing to do with Houston with its huge suburbs that stretch almost to San Antonio. And Katy has nothing to do with the coverage on Farm-To-Market rural roads in Texas.

[red_dog007]

12 hours ago, dkyeager said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-13/t-mobile-sprint-are-said-to-consider-concessions-to-save-merger?srnd=premium

Separate out some of the prepaid.

How much would they really lose?  Say you sell Boost Mobile and MetroPCS, they are still going to use your network.  They are still going to be paying New-TMobile. :/

[bigsnake49]

6 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

How much would they really lose?  Say you sell Boost Mobile and MetroPCS, they are still going to use your network.  They are still going to be paying New-TMobile. 😕

I suggest they look at what is the most profitable/biggest prepaid brand and then sell the other 2. I am guessing Metro is the healthiest.

[dkyeager]

4 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

How much would they really lose?  Say you sell Boost Mobile and MetroPCS, they are still going to use your network.  They are still going to be paying New-TMobile. 😕

The first question is how reliable is the source?   Most of these rumors will have some basis in truth.  Does it include spectrum sales? 

At this stage I am inclined to believe most of the time is being spent on network and customer facing issues.  How many sites an where must the be retained?  Which counties will require spectrum sales?  How are CDMA only customers and areas handled, including building interiors? How are phone upgrades handled?  What about billing plans and cutovers? etc. 

[dkyeager]

1 minute ago, bigsnake49 said:

I suggest they look at what is the most profitable/biggest prepaid brand and then sell the other 2. I am guessing Metro is the healthiest.

It could just be limited to locked in rates and service levels.

[dkyeager]

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-sprint-consider-concessions-report

rules out spectrum sales.

[bigsnake49]

Yeah this is rank speculation., particularly by Bloomberg who has totally lost credibility lately.

Edited May 14, 2019 by bigsnake49

[dkyeager]

2 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Yeah this is rank speculation., particularly by Bloomberg who has totally lost credibility lately.

Fiercewireless boost the credibility a lot.

[bigsnake49]

22 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Fiercewireless boost the credibility a lot.

Not when they are quoting Bloomberg. Now we know there will be some concessions and people are just throwing crap against the wall and hoping it will stick. I am sure everybody is keeping the talks very close to the vest. Instead of selling, a brand New T-Mobile should be forced to keep all three brands to ensure competition is alive and well. 40% of prepaid is 40% of prepaid. Prepaid is not as valued as postpaid.

Edited May 14, 2019 by bigsnake49

[greenbastard]

8 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

NYC and Chicago by the lake have nothing to do with Houston with its huge suburbs that stretch almost to San Antonio. And Katy has nothing to do with the coverage on Farm-To-Market rural roads in Texas.

Then I don't get what you're trying to say.

[bigsnake49]

1 hour ago, greenbastard said:

Then I don't get what you're trying to say.

That there's urban, suburban, exurban and rural and then there's vast stretches of nothingness. Each of them require different approaches.

[RedSpark]

The latest: https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/fcc-officials-meet-to-discuss-sprint-t-mobile-merger-conditions

Filing: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/1051525545706

Document: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1051525545706/May 15 Ex Parte.pdf

[bretton88]

So we appear to have reached the horse trading stage. 2 things come to mind, first that T&S are basically going to give up whatever the government wants to make this merger happen. Secondly if we're at this stage approval is probably happening, unless the FCC requests something onerous.

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[Johnner1999]

Did I read somewhere; that Tmo was willing to sell Metro?!?


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[bigsnake49]

20 minutes ago, Johnner1999 said:

Did I read somewhere; that Tmo was willing to sell Metro?!?


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I don't think so.

[Tengen31]

I don't think so.

Someone claims they will give up all prepaid not sure I believe that as that makes no since

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[tybo31316]

Someone claims they will give up all prepaid not sure I believe that as that makes no since

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They will probably get rid of Boost and Virgin Mobile.