Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[Terrell352]

On 5/9/2020 at 7:43 PM, 1dante said:

That definitely makes sense. I hope they are upgrading the area. 

I was there last week by the college and all of downtown. No 5G at all. Meanwhile in Ocala they have turned on five 5G towers already.

[1dante]

17 minutes ago, Terrell352 said:

I was there last week by the college and all of downtown. No 5G at all. Meanwhile in Ocala they have turned on five 5G towers already.

That’s good to know. Im sure they’ll make their way up soon. 

[Terrell352]

That’s good to know. Im sure they’ll make their way up soon. 

I seen some 5G heading to Gainesville on i75. So its coming soon.

 

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[RedSpark]

Sprint consumer brand headed for summer sunset

Quote

On the consumer side, “we’ve always been planning a summer timeframe,” Sievert said. “With COVID-19, we moved it out into the mid-summer instead of the early summer, and this is when we will essentially be advertising one flagship postpaid T-Mobile brand as well as operating a unified fleet of retail. The retail piece is why we slowed down just a little bit.”

T-Mobile hasn’t talked about an exact date – although some reports have pegged it as August 2 – but that’s when the company will present a unified value proposition behind the flagship postpaid T-Mobile brand. That value proposition will be activated by a fully trained, “fired-up team of people across all of our retail fleet, which will be branded T-Mobile,” Sievert said.

 

[RedSpark]

T-Mobile lays out $60B, five-year buildout plan for 5G

Great background. The sheer amount of Capex here is impressive. I got so used to seeing drips and dribbles from Sprint over the years. It was really sad.

Some more background here: There's no slowdown in sight for T-Mobile's industry-leading 5G expansion efforts

[PhillipJames89]

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

T-Mobile lays out $60B, five-year buildout plan for 5G

Great background. The sheer amount of Capex here is impressive. I got so used to seeing drips and dribbles from Sprint over the years. It was really sad.

Some more background here: There's no slowdown in sight for T-Mobile's industry-leading 5G expansion efforts

I’m excited. This merger was needed for Sprint

[Tengen31]

I’m excited. This merger was needed for Sprint

60 Bil is great but that equals to 12 bill per year and vzw and att will spend 40 bill more, so if TMO wants to get there they need to spend more than that

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[Bennyjet29]

60 Bil is great but that equals to 12 bill per year and vzw and att will spend 40 bill more, so if TMO wants to get there they need to spend more than that

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Does that 40 Bill more include spectrum auctions for acquiring mid band spectrum that both VZW & AT&T severely lack? The synergies that Sprint & T-Mobile have, they should be able to get away with 12 Bill a year while steadily rolling out MMWave. Plus we do not know if Dish will buy some 600 MHz or how long they will pay to utilize the New T-Mobile network. [emoji2375]


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[Tengen31]

Does that 40 Bill more include spectrum auctions for acquiring mid band spectrum that both VZW & AT&T severely lack? The synergies that Sprint & T-Mobile have, they should be able to get away with 12 Bill a year while steadily rolling out MMWave. Plus we do not know if Dish will buy some 600 MHz or how long they will pay to utilize the New T-Mobile network. [emoji2375]

 

 

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Dish already owns 600 and doesn't have to pay to use the TMO network for the first 7 years and that 100 million for att and vzw will be just network,vzw needs it way more than att. Att will only buy CBRS in limited areas and could go after Cband but vzw will buy the most

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[bigsnake49]

Dish certainly has to pay T-Mobile for being an MVNO.

[Tengen31]

Dish certainly has to pay T-Mobile for being an MVNO.

Not for the first 7 years that's a stipulation to get the merger to pass. TMO didn't have to pay att when that merger failed for the first 7 years.

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[Cardsfan96]

23 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Not for the first 7 years that's a stipulation to get the merger to pass. TMO didn't have to pay att when that merger failed for the first 7 years.

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I thought it was just giving dish a certain, very good price for the first seven years. Not free use.

[Mr.Nuke]

45 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Not for the first 7 years that's a stipulation to get the merger to pass. TMO didn't have to pay att when that merger failed for the first 7 years.

Where is that coming from? It isn't accurate... And the T-Mobile AT&T situation isn't really analogous here at all.

56 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Dish certainly has to pay T-Mobile for being an MVNO.

 

20 minutes ago, Cardsfan96 said:

I thought it was just giving dish a certain, very good price for the first seven years. Not free use.

Correct. They're basically getting the best MVNO deal in the history of U.S. wireless, paying very favorable wholesale rates, but they're still paying.

[red_dog007]

17 hours ago, RedSpark said:

T-Mobile lays out $60B, five-year buildout plan for 5G

Great background. The sheer amount of Capex here is impressive. I got so used to seeing drips and dribbles from Sprint over the years. It was really sad.

Some more background here: There's no slowdown in sight for T-Mobile's industry-leading 5G expansion efforts

At least it isn't a cut.  That's roughly $12B a year.  Sprint and TMobile combined where already at this level.  Just getting shuffled around now to new priorities.  It's kinda unfortunate cause Sprint almost finished their Tri-Band build out and now we have to sit through it yet again with TMobile.

[RedSpark]

1 hour ago, red_dog007 said:

At least it isn't a cut.  That's roughly $12B a year.  Sprint and TMobile combined where already at this level.  Just getting shuffled around now to new priorities.  It's kinda unfortunate cause Sprint almost finished their Tri-Band build out and now we have to sit through it yet again with TMobile.

Difference is that T-Mobile under-promises and over-delivers. That's something we're not used to having with Sprint.

Sprint's Triband build-out was still not dense or expansive enough to be competitive.

[red_dog007]

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Difference is that T-Mobile under-promises and over-delivers.

I don't know about.  From what I have seen

2G->LTE was cheap. Strictly just enough to enable LTE

New LTE coverage being just a single band, in a lot of cases just PCS or AWS

700 being just sprinkled around. Its a lot better now, but taken a long time to get to where it is now, but in many cases still very much so lacking due to lack of deployment. Especially new coverage that lacks it.

600 very much a sprinkle but the map makes you think they are done with it in a given area with it.

Reguardless of how fast it takes, still gotta sit through another full buildout of 2.5GHz. 😕 65k towers, gotta average 1800 sites a month for 3yrs to get a full 2.5GHz buildout on TMobile sites.  However, with how the currently build out, I wouldn't expect them to do a full build out of it. I can see a lot of low band sites not getting midband at all still and midband only sites getting added just 600MHz. 

Then at levels smaller than macro, will TMobile be able to just import those sites into their core or do they gotta do another build out there? Aug 2019 Sprint reported 32k small cells which is actually way more than TMobile's listed 25k small cells.

[PhillipJames89]

25 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

I don't know about.  From what I have seen

2G->LTE was cheap. Strictly just enough to enable LTE

New LTE coverage being just a single band, in a lot of cases just PCS or AWS

700 being just sprinkled around. Its a lot better now, but taken a long time to get to where it is now, but in many cases still very much so lacking due to lack of deployment. Especially new coverage that lacks it.

600 very much a sprinkle but the map makes you think they are done with it in a given area with it.

Reguardless of how fast it takes, still gotta sit through another full buildout of 2.5GHz. 😕 65k towers, gotta average 1800 sites a month for 3yrs to get a full 2.5GHz buildout on TMobile sites.  However, with how the currently build out, I wouldn't expect them to do a full build out of it. I can see a lot of low band sites not getting midband at all still and midband only sites getting added just 600MHz. 

Then at levels smaller than macro, will TMobile be able to just import those sites into their core or do they gotta do another build out there? Aug 2019 Sprint reported 32k small cells which is actually way more than TMobile's listed 25k small cells.

I dont think this build out will take that long since they already have the permits and backhaul

[Bennyjet29]

Seems like we have been waiting for eternity to have a network experience similar to the duopoly but I got faith New T-Mobile will take advantage of this opportunity and keep the momentum going for the next three years. COVID-19 was supposed to slow down the buildout but with vehicle traffic cut in half in the big metros, I would not be surprised if their timeline continues to speed up until the quarantine is lifted. Just think of all the work every states DOT has been able to get done on the highways in the past two months. From a logistical stand point, New T-Mobile should have the ability to demo and ship new tower equipment at a faster pace.


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[dro1984]

I agree with Bennyjet29.         

I think the "know-it-all" arm-chair would-be COO's on some of the forums and Youtubers need to quit lamenting  over "only $60Billion on Capex."      it's been 6 weeks and some are already predicting whether this was a good or bad network merger.       I'm interested in seeing where the network stands come September or October.   I really think we have good things coming for a change...   It just needs a little time.  

I also heard on one of T-Mobile's calls this week with C Moffett, that T-Mobile admits they will definitely be competing in the upcoming spectrum auctions.   This is way more than we came to expect from Sprint.      

[Bennyjet29]

I agree with Bennyjet29.         
I think the "know-it-all" arm-chair would-be COO's on some of the forums and Youtubers need to quit lamenting  over "only $60Billion on Capex."      it's been 6 weeks and some are already predicting whether this was a good or bad network merger.       I'm interested in seeing where the network stands come September or October.   I really think we have good things coming for a change...   It just needs a little time.  
I also heard on one of T-Mobile's calls this week with C Moffett, that T-Mobile admits they will definitely be competing in the upcoming spectrum auctions.   This is way more than we came to expect from Sprint.      

The iPhone 12 launch will be the ultimate barometer/stress test for the New T-Mobile network. I love my iPhone 11 Pro Max but got a feeling I will be tempted to pay some $$$ for an early upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro Max as I just upgraded in February. Hence, I understand the urgency to first finish network overhauls in the metro areas as those will have the most 5G upgrades and usage. Bottom line, we have “hope” again of a compatible network that should rival the duopoly, which is still hard for me to fathom! [emoji1430]


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[dewbertdc]

Saw this over on the T-Mobile Reddit...

“I was able to speak to the tower crew.  This site has been planned for nearly a year now.   They’re just doing 700/AWS for now and will be adding 600/n41 at some point in the near future.   They’ve been upgrading sites in northern NJ and Central NJ with band 41 for the last several weeks.  I was told expect an aggressive buildout.”

[Trip]

2 hours ago, dewbertdc said:

They’re just doing 700/AWS for now and will be adding 600/n41 at some point in the near future.

Seriously?  Seems like a waste of effort and resources to have to come back and upgrade the site again right after building it.

- Trip

[Tengen31]

Seriously?  Seems like a waste of effort and resources to have to come back and upgrade the site again right after building it.
- Trip

All they have to do is add the B71 and B41 antennas that's about it

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[dewbertdc]

10 hours ago, Trip said:

Seriously?  Seems like a waste of effort and resources to have to come back and upgrade the site again right after building it.

- Trip

It sure does, which makes me think they're having trouble keeping enough stock of B71/B41 equipment.

[dkyeager]

8 minutes ago, dewbertdc said:

It sure does, which makes me think they're having trouble keeping enough stock of B71/B41 equipment.

It is early. Some of this could also be contractual with tower hands.  Also note that T-Mobile has a far less monolithic approach to sites than Sprint. Many sites only have two bands. (I use NSG and sit near the sites and go though each band.)