Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[bigsnake49]

It would behoove T-Mobile to acquire Shentel at some point in the future, maybe in 2-3 years when the capex will slow down a bit.

[red_dog007]

Shentel Capex is pretty interesting.  From 2018 to 2020 Wireless capex is going from $80M to $40-45M.  That difference is going into fiber and fixed wireless along with the planned increase in capex.  

They did acquire 2.5GHz licenses of their own.  I wonder if any of the spending on fixed wireless would benefit cellular wireless? Split deployment costs across the two groups.  At least once they figure out if they are keeping their wireless business or not.  I'd imagine if they are keeping their wireless business that there would be a lot of movement on the cellular side.

If they keep the cellular business, it'll be interesting if the agreement continues to maintain the option to expand cellular into eastern part of KY.

[RedSpark]

Am I reading this wrong or is Dr. Saw saying that Sprint isn’t going to launch additional 5G cities beyond the 10 launched so far until the Merger is consummated?

[BlueAngel]

21 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Am I reading this wrong or is Dr. Saw saying that Sprint isn’t going to launch additional 5G cities beyond the 10 launched so far until the Merger is consummated?

Probably, I just got the S20 Ultra and no 5G here at least that I know of, haven't even opened the phone yet.

[RedSpark]

1 hour ago, BlueAngel said:

Probably, I just got the S20 Ultra and no 5G here at least that I know of, haven't even opened the phone yet.

I wonder when T-Mobile will turn on roaming for 5G. You’ll be able to pick up 5G on 600 MHz and on Millimeter Wave too since you got the Ultra (also supported on the Plus model as well).

[BlueAngel]

30 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I wonder when T-Mobile will turn on roaming for 5G. You’ll be able to pick up 5G on 600 MHz and on Millimeter Wave too since you got the Ultra (also supported on the Plus model as well).

April 1st probably, setting my phone up now then I will see if I can pick up 5G but I doubt it as it's not officially launched yet here in Philly.

[RedSpark]

2 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

April 1st probably, setting my phone up now then I will see if I can pick up 5G but I doubt it as it's not officially launched yet here in Philly.

I’m hoping roaming access to 600 MHz LTE improves indoor coverage on my iPhone 11 Pro. Sprint’s 800 MHz is simply non-existent at my worksite in downtown DC. I pick up 3 sites of barely useable Band 25.

[BlueAngel]

4 hours ago, RedSpark said:

I’m hoping roaming access to 600 MHz LTE improves indoor coverage on my iPhone 11 Pro. Sprint’s 800 MHz is simply non-existent at my worksite in downtown DC. I pick up 3 sites of barely useable Band 25.

I did run into some 5G, it was amazing I even stayed connected indoors. Guess it's a soft launch in some parts of Philly here but I'll take it for now.

[RedSpark]

23 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

I did run into some 5G, it was amazing I even stayed connected indoors. Guess it's a soft launch in some parts of Philly here but I'll take it for now.

I hope Sprint’s upgrades now aren’t about just keeping the lights on and doing the bare minimum until the Merger. Saw’s reply to Sascha’s Tweet gives me that feeling however.

At this point, I can’t wait for T-Mobile to take over, enable roaming and finally put some capex into the combined spectrum holdings. This has gone on long enough.

I didn’t use to feel like this, but now I do.

[Paynefanbro]

It seems like Sprint has been doing a lot of work  for 5G but has been holding back on announcing any new cities. I have a strong feeling that when they announce that the merger is complete, the new T-Mobile will start announcing a lot of these cities and take credit.

[RedSpark]

20 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

It seems like Sprint has been doing a lot of work  for 5G but has been holding back on announcing any new cities. I have a strong feeling that when they announce that the merger is complete, the new T-Mobile will start announcing a lot of these cities and take credit.

This also helps to sell the narrative that the merger is “necessary”. Can’t have Sprint looking too good now you know.

This merger is only “necessary” because Masa wouldn’t open his wallet to put Sprint on a competitive footing after he acquired it.

You have to give credit to Marcelo and the PR folks. They really sold a story that Sprint wasn’t salvageable and that a Merger was the only way home. Somehow they were able to shroud the fact that Sprint was merely a part of Masa’s vast asset holdings. Hey, it’s what they get paid to do.

[Trip]

In this area (DC), at least, the Massive MIMO gear has continued to go online.  I can see it in the MLS data.

- Trip

[RedSpark]

17 hours ago, Trip said:

In this area (DC), at least, the Massive MIMO gear has continued to go online.  I can see it in the MLS data.

- Trip

I’m glad to hear that. Hopefully this continues.

However, there are too many places I’ve been in DC where Sprint’s indoor coverage is totally inadequate. I have to attribute that to Sprint’s relative lack of lowband spectrum vs the other carriers and not having enough cell sites.

[dro1984]

I don't know if you folks ever went on Cell Mapper.com... but I checked my area and a few other metro areas... It seems Sprint has roughly 1/2 the cell towers as everyone else.    In my area there are 3 or 4 towers with Sprint equip.    Compared to T-Mobile that has 12.     Okay I thought... I'm doing something wrong.... I checked a different area of suburban Detroit and it's the same.....   Next I looked at some areas of Ohio.... each time coming up with Sprint having the fewest towers.      This is a critical reason I was so upset with Sprint and probably a prime reason VoLTE took so long to come our area.      This is also why I wanted the Merger.    If nothing else, tower density (and hopefully) better coverage will come in time as we migrate to T-Mo towers/ etc.  

[cyclone]

24 minutes ago, dro1984 said:

I don't know if you folks ever went on Cell Mapper.com... but I checked my area and a few other metro areas... It seems Sprint has roughly 1/2 the cell towers as everyone else.    In my area there are 3 or 4 towers with Sprint equip.    Compared to T-Mobile that has 12.     Okay I thought... I'm doing something wrong.... I checked a different area of suburban Detroit and it's the same.....   Next I looked at some areas of Ohio.... each time coming up with Sprint having the fewest towers.      This is a critical reason I was so upset with Sprint and probably a prime reason VoLTE took so long to come our area.      This is also why I wanted the Merger.    If nothing else, tower density (and hopefully) better coverage will come in time as we migrate to T-Mo towers/ etc.  

You are aware that those are all community aggregated and not actual data? Just checked my area and it is extremely underrepresented from sites I know of. You should definitely take that map with a huge salt lick

[dro1984]

Good to know.    It was ironic that Sprint is always short on sites.    (???)     I do know the are I work in... and it's spot on with the sites as far as Sprint goes.    Signal could be better, yet it's in the heart of Industrial Detroit/Dearborn MI.   

[bigsnake49]

Sprint has about 45,000 macro sites, T-Mobile 65,000 and Verizon and AT&T 85,000 each approximately.

[dro1984]

1 hour ago, bigsnake49 said:

Sprint has about 45,000 macro sites, T-Mobile 65,000 and Verizon and AT&T 85,000 each approximately.

Excellent!   Case-in-point!          

[RedSpark]

1 hour ago, bigsnake49 said:

Sprint has about 45,000 macro sites, T-Mobile 65,000 and Verizon and AT&T 85,000 each approximately.

Only so much you can do when you have a substantial disparity like that.

[dkyeager]

23 hours ago, dro1984 said:

I don't know if you folks ever went on Cell Mapper.com... but I checked my area and a few other metro areas... It seems Sprint has roughly 1/2 the cell towers as everyone else.    In my area there are 3 or 4 towers with Sprint equip.    Compared to T-Mobile that has 12.     Okay I thought... I'm doing something wrong.... I checked a different area of suburban Detroit and it's the same.....   Next I looked at some areas of Ohio.... each time coming up with Sprint having the fewest towers.      This is a critical reason I was so upset with Sprint and probably a prime reason VoLTE took so long to come our area.      This is also why I wanted the Merger.    If nothing else, tower density (and hopefully) better coverage will come in time as we migrate to T-Mo towers/ etc.  

In the Columbus OH market Sprint has more macro sites than T-Mobile. T-Mobile has just a handful of small cells versus hundreds for Sprint. T-Mobile likely has many more indoor sites. T-Mobile does test better on root metrics, likely do to better backhaul.

[nexgencpu]

50 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

In the Columbus OH market Sprint has more macro sites than T-Mobile. T-Mobile has just a handful of small cells versus hundreds for Sprint. T-Mobile likely has many more indoor sites. T-Mobile does test better on root metrics, likely do to better backhaul.

Exactly, 

Here in NYC I believe Sprint probably has equal or more Macros+SC sites  than any of its rivals.

But a lack of backhaul did Sprint no favors. 

[RedSpark]

Ridiculous. Just let this end already.

[dro1984]

I agree.    This is something else.    So many useless roadblocks.    So much wasted time and money on all this.    This should of been done and over 3 months ago before the first of the year.  

What's going on with the Judge for the DOJ who has to sign off on the agreement?  What's slowing him down?   

[Grabber5.0]

Can we just expel California from the US already?!

[Wiley_11]

43 minutes ago, Grabber5.0 said:

Can we just expel California from the US already?!

Good luck with that.                  🤣