Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[cooltech6597]

On 1/4/2024 at 1:34 PM, iansltx said:

A bigger deal would be 4+ CA over n41 + n41 + n77A + n77C, as that would get T-Mobile to 255 MHz TD in a number of areas (20 MHz DoD + 40 MHz C-Band) on 4CA, plus whatever they can pick up on n71/66/25 in that area (likely to hit 15-20 MHz consistently). Comparable speeds without expecting a super aggressive PCS/AWS refarm quite yet.

I was wondering why they didn't do the testing with 2xn77 as well... especially since their report for 4ca last March shows 3.3gbps with 225mhz, so the latest report only increased by 20mhz in total bandwith. If they tested with 60mhz of additional n77 they would have probably been able to get close to 4gbps. 

[jonathanm1978]

1 hour ago, dkyeager said:

The nice thing about getting a Samsung s series factory unlocked phone is you can get a cheap second carrier for places without T-Mobile signal or for the few times a year the network goes down.

Is that an esim thing now, or can you do physical sim + esim with that? I have firstnet and I'd love to be able to something like that.

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

You have the option to do a trade-in with Samsung with your paid-off device.

You’re asked “yes/no” for Trade-In and it walks you through it either way.

If someone else is offering a better trade-in value you can go with that instead.

Definitely going to have to look at this whenever I decide to move from the S23U. I waited 3 years on the last upgrade and got lucky that I upgraded right before Sprint billing was switched over to Tmo. In fact, my call with Sievert's office even verified that for me.. dont remember verbatim how she told me..but basically if you had devices financed with Sprint, all of that was just accepted to Tmo and you continued that regardless of the limit placed on the account by their newly implemented "Hard R r-tard" rules for sh*tting on the sprint folks. I had a screen problem with my GN20 and NOBODY could repair it..even with the protection plus plus super plus whatever plan... so I kept it for a few months after the break, then decided maybe it would be a good idea to upgrade prior to what I anticipated would be a nightmare to move over to Tmo billing.

[dkyeager]

3 hours ago, jonathanm1978 said:

Is that an esim thing now, or can you do physical sim + esim with that? I have firstnet and I'd love to be able to something like that.

 

Physical sim + esim with North American phones two have two active carriers (both phone numbers plus default data with fallback). Using Google voice can give you a 3rd phone number.

[schmidtj]

8 hours ago, dkyeager said:

The nice thing about getting a Samsung s series factory unlocked phone is you can get a cheap second carrier for places without T-Mobile signal or for the few times a year the network goes down.

I did exactly this with my iPhone. I went with Visible as backup and was very skeptical about doing so based on comments on Reddit. But after almost a year Visible has been problem free for me (knock on wood). And that includes upgrading my eSIM only iPhone last September.  Visible is a Verizon owned provider and at the time I signed up I had two options. (1) Their standard plan subject to deprioritization and all the MVNO negativities or (2) their "Plus" plan with fewer negativities. So for $35/mo for my one line it isn't a bad deal. Full disclosure, their support is pretty much nonexistant and they have no physical store presence so I don't thing I would ever use them as my primary provider but for a Verizon backup to T-Mobile it's been working fine the very few times I've needed it.

[schmidtj]

8 hours ago, RedSpark said:

If someone else is offering a better trade-in value you can go with that instead.

Decluttr.com wasn't bad last time I used them but it's been a while.

[iansltx]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:09 AM, jonathanm1978 said:

So, if I wanted to do something like this with Samsung, I assume to start with -- the initial phone -- would need to be paid off thru T-mobile (the one that I currently  have thru Tmo is leased S23 ultra). So I would have to finish the lease, buy out the device from them, unlock it and then trade it in to Samsung.. 

 

Don't know about leases, but back when Sprint did subsidies I traded my S20 in to Samsung for an S21 well before the contract was up. Phone was locked but Samsung didn't seem to care. A lease is different though of course, if it's indeed a lease.

[iansltx]

On 1/10/2024 at 11:36 PM, jonathanm1978 said:

Is that an esim thing now, or can you do physical sim + esim with that? I have firstnet and I'd love to be able to something like that.

My setup has been a T-Mobile physical SIM and a secondary eSIM for the past bit (I also have a Boost pSIM but that gets used less). My secondary carrier of choice (on the same phone anyway) is US Mobile (VZW MVNO); their bottom tier unlimited plan has a decent amount of priority data and 5 GB of hotspot for $25/mo, and I can buy that a month at a time so if I'm just bouncing between areas where I don't need VZW for awhile I can let the line lapse and pick it up weeks later without losing the number.

Unlocked eSIM is also nice for international roaming, as last year I swapped between an international eSIM from US Mobile and one from Airalo, as the two had different partner networks and IIRC I still couldn't actually pay for better intl data on T-Mobile (maybe it's changed with the T-Mobile plan migration). Even used an international physical SIM in a case or two, though having my T-Mobile SIM in the phone for free intl texting and low-speed proxied-through-the-US data was super useful.

[schmidtj]

In T-Mobilespeak they suffered "System Challenges" aka they really effed up.

T-Mobile Systems Suffered A Massive Outage On Thursday

[floorguy]

14 hours ago, iansltx said:

Don't know about leases, but back when Sprint did subsidies I traded my S20 in to Samsung for an S21 well before the contract was up. Phone was locked but Samsung didn't seem to care. A lease is different though of course, if it's indeed a lease.

a "lease" for these purposes is all but a loan, with the difference you pay off the final balance or turn it back in at the end.

The "final" payoff is anywhere from a $1, to whatever the final payment turns out to be.

The how's and whys the phone companies worded it this way, I don't know, Probably to "show" they still had ownership of the physical phone, again, just guessing.

In the equipment world it equated to being able to finance things easier, albeit at a higher % but it was easier to get, because the financier still "owned" the equipment.   Easier to repo I suppose. Plus there are tax, sales, property etc advantages to it.

I am thinking with the MFG now getting into selling direct and having "authorized" repair places around. They no longer need the cell companies. It might also be why there is a slight freeze on the prices going up. They aren't giving up anything to the cell companies.

[RedSpark]

On 1/11/2024 at 12:36 AM, jonathanm1978 said:

Is that an esim thing now, or can you do physical sim + esim with that? I have firstnet and I'd love to be able to something like that.

Definitely going to have to look at this whenever I decide to move from the S23U. I waited 3 years on the last upgrade and got lucky that I upgraded right before Sprint billing was switched over to Tmo. In fact, my call with Sievert's office even verified that for me.. dont remember verbatim how she told me..but basically if you had devices financed with Sprint, all of that was just accepted to Tmo and you continued that regardless of the limit placed on the account by their newly implemented "Hard R r-tard" rules for sh*tting on the sprint folks. I had a screen problem with my GN20 and NOBODY could repair it..even with the protection plus plus super plus whatever plan... so I kept it for a few months after the break, then decided maybe it would be a good idea to upgrade prior to what I anticipated would be a nightmare to move over to Tmo billing.

IIRC, I was told that because I was Legacy Sprint that I was actually above my new permissible T-Mobile Credit Limit as “a post-merger courtesy” but could not finance any new devices as a result, subject to the new credit limit of $1,500.

What an absolute joke.

Go unlocked directly through the manufacturer and don’t go back.

[RedSpark]

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/t-mobile-plays-5g-sa-lead-samsung-s24-series

T-Mobile has said that more than 70% of the smartphones on its network are 5G smartphones and more than 70% of its total network traffic is 5G. Over the next couple years, T-Mobile will move even more traffic onto 5G spectrum, although it will continue to maintain LTE capability for long-tail devices, according to Castle.

The S24 works on all of T-Mobile’s bands, including n41/2.5 GHz. It also supports the 600 MHz low band and n25/1900 MHz mid-band. During tests, T-Mobile engineers clocked a top uplink speed of 275 Mbps – the fastest ever recorded using sub-6 GHz spectrum, according to T-Mobile.

Incredible.

[1dante]

My little hometown of Live Oak, Fl is getting a T-Mobile corporate store. It’s currently under construction, and should be complete within the next few weeks. 

[dkyeager]

6 hours ago, 1dante said:

My little hometown of Live Oak, Fl is getting a T-Mobile corporate store. It’s currently under construction, and should be complete within the next few weeks. 

Live Oaks looks like a very rural area with I-10 nearby. Excellent.

[RedSpark]

ICYMI, from a few days back:

Through a merger with Sprint in 2020, T-Mobile has made a massive commitment to improve Internet connectivity and mobile service for rural and small-town America. In 2021, T-Mobile doubled down on its commitment to West Virginia when it finalized its acquisition of Shentel Wireless, one of the primary mobile service providers in West Virginia. Since then, the Un-carrier has invested an additional $200 million to upgrade 5G service via 377 new towers and upgrades to 121 existing towers.

The result:

• 100 percent of interstate highways in West Virginia are serviced with T-Mobile 5G;
• 90 percent of West Virginians now have T-Mobile 5G access, up 30 percent, or 500,000 people, in just two years;
• 70 percent of West Virginians now have access to Ultra Capacity 5G which delivers median download speeds of 99.98 Mbps statewide, 41 percent faster than in 2021;
• Greatly expanded backup power sources to ensure redundancy in case of severe weather or other emergencies that may impact mobile service;
• T-Mobile is the fastest provider in the state of West Virginia, according to third-party experts at Ookla.

 

Impressive!

[dkyeager]

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

ICYMI, from a few days back:

Through a merger with Sprint in 2020, T-Mobile has made a massive commitment to improve Internet connectivity and mobile service for rural and small-town America. In 2021, T-Mobile doubled down on its commitment to West Virginia when it finalized its acquisition of Shentel Wireless, one of the primary mobile service providers in West Virginia. Since then, the Un-carrier has invested an additional $200 million to upgrade 5G service via 377 new towers and upgrades to 121 existing towers.

The result:

• 100 percent of interstate highways in West Virginia are serviced with T-Mobile 5G;
• 90 percent of West Virginians now have T-Mobile 5G access, up 30 percent, or 500,000 people, in just two years;
• 70 percent of West Virginians now have access to Ultra Capacity 5G which delivers median download speeds of 99.98 Mbps statewide, 41 percent faster than in 2021;
• Greatly expanded backup power sources to ensure redundancy in case of severe weather or other emergencies that may impact mobile service;
• T-Mobile is the fastest provider in the state of West Virginia, according to third-party experts at Ookla.

 

Impressive!

A few areas where service was dropped, otherwise looks good.  Root Metrics shows a slight decline in the last six months, but they are ranked #2. Sprint (with Shentel) managed to rank #1 a few years ago.

[jhman101]

On 1/20/2024 at 8:02 AM, 1dante said:

My little hometown of Live Oak, Fl is getting a T-Mobile corporate store. It’s currently under construction, and should be complete within the next few weeks. 

They also have a large cache of disaster response equipment staged in Live Oak.  At least a dozed semi-trailers of generators and other vehicles and assets.  They have also been doing some footprint expansion in the area with numerous sites under construction and some that have already come online.

[RedSpark]

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

A few areas where service was dropped, otherwise looks good.  Root Metrics shows a slight decline in the last six months, but they are ranked #2. Sprint (with Shentel) managed to rank #1 a few years ago.

Amazing what free cash flow and CapEx can do....

Will be even better in another year.

[RedSpark]

Investor Factbook (PDF): https://s29.q4cdn.com/310188824/files/doc_financials/2023/q4/Q4-2023-TMUS-Investor-Factbook.pdf

[dkyeager]

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Investor Factbook (PDF): https://s29.q4cdn.com/310188824/files/doc_financials/2023/q4/Q4-2023-TMUS-Investor-Factbook.pdf

Fluctuations in churn, declining capital expenditures, dividends, buy backs, and inability to make some forecasts are what stood out to me. Want to see what the analysts say.

[Trip]

Sounds like T-Mobile mentioned US Cellular in passing.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4059219-us-cellular-telephone-and-data-gain-as-t-mobile-us-says-looking-at-sales-process

Given that T-Mobile is a known quantity as far as keeping sites and whatnot, that's my preference on a buyer, but we admittedly don't know what other carriers would do.

- Trip

[dkyeager]

8 hours ago, Trip said:

Sounds like T-Mobile mentioned US Cellular in passing.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4059219-us-cellular-telephone-and-data-gain-as-t-mobile-us-says-looking-at-sales-process

Given that T-Mobile is a known quantity as far as keeping sites and whatnot, that's my preference on a buyer, but we admittedly don't know what other carriers would do.

- Trip

Wonder if it will be whole or sliced and diced? And of course how long.

[dkyeager]

Other items of note from quarterly report:

Rural market share up from 13% in March 2021 to 17.5% now.  The goal is 20% by the end of 2025.  If the FCC get around to giving T-Mobile the auction 108 licenses (band 41 primarily in rural areas) they have paid for, I would expect this to easily increase.  This delay has been a real gift to the duo.

They basically set aside some share buyback money for after the dilution caused by their agreement with Softbank to issue them shares at a predetermined price point.

75% of customers have 5g phones.

****

Just compared to AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile had more than 50% of the post-paid customer growth.  Charter and Comcast need to be factored in.  Mobile-X may need to be factored in in the coming quarters with them starting in more than 1,000 Walmarts.

[Trip]

T-Mobile still has a lot of work to do in the rural areas.  I've been told some of the specific places I've asked about are supposed to get sites later this year, but even those will be islands of service surrounded by "no service."

There are definitely rural areas where they can do well (see the Shentel region, where they inherited the best network in the area), but a number of their more organic rural builds aren't as impressive as the other carriers as of yet.

- Trip

[dkyeager]

My hope continues to be that the auction 108 licenses, when given by the FCC*, will change the rural site economics for T-Mobile.  FWA will become a lot more realistic.  Then hopefully at least the rural small towns will have another choice and the Duo's rural sites will have to be upgraded.  This could be the true competition area from the merger. 

The satellite cellular coverage could also make a dramatic difference, but I expect that to take longer.

 

* Approximately 45 days left unless only government work days are counted and no other exceptions - with the courts anything is possible, but the intent of congress is now clear.

[dkyeager]

Auction 108 starts to rumble back to life. Details: