Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[RedSpark]

5 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

From page 13

• Finally, in lieu of purchasing spectrum and investing in its network, AT&T paid $49 billion to purchase DirectTV and $85 billion to purchase Time Warner, more than the sum total of all of AT&T’s spectrum purchases.

lmao 

[Paynefanbro]

ExteNet strikes exclusive venue deal with T-Mobile 

https://www.fiercewireless.com/private-wireless/extenet-strikes-exclusive-venue-deal-t-mobile

Quote

In a deal that ExteNet is calling unprecedented, ExteNet announced an expanded partnership with T-Mobile where the mobile operator is the primary carrier for ExteNet’s contracted venues.

— — — — —

Every new venue contract couples ExteNet’s infrastructure deployment with T-Mobile as the first committed carrier. The agreement includes the deployment of infrastructure in large sports, entertainment, hospitality and transportation venues.

— — — — —

In the agreement with T-Mobile, ExteNet said it will rationalize T-Mobile’s small cell framework and upgrade existing infrastructure, making everything streamlined, more efficient and faster. This could mean taking out old Sprint gear or keeping it. All of this will be done without any service disruptions, according to ExteNet.

 

[BucketHead25]

I finally received an email yesterday announcing my Sprint account will have a new look, T-Mobile.

[RedSpark]

3 hours ago, BucketHead25 said:

I finally received an email yesterday announcing my Sprint account will have a new look, T-Mobile.

They must be doing this on a rolling basis. All I got yesterday was a bill/autopay notification.

I'm really looking forward to leaving the Sprint website behind. They're barely keeping the lights on there.

[JonnygATL]

On 12/1/2022 at 3:18 PM, RedSpark said:

They must be doing this on a rolling basis. All I got yesterday was a bill/autopay notification.

I'm really looking forward to leaving the Sprint website behind. They're barely keeping the lights on there.

Yeah I thought this would have been completed LONG ago.  

[dkyeager]

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/fcc-grants-first-batch-25-ghz-licenses-minus-t-mobile

Does not include T-Mobile for whatever reason. "51 of the 68 total long-form applications".  Miller, David is one of the finalized winners in Ohio.  Could just be a speculator.

Edit: More details on David Miller from FCC filing:

I certify that as the date of this additional supplemental filings that I have not entered into joint
ventures, partnerships, agreements, or understandings of any kind with any party related to the
licenses in my application.
While I currently have no specific plans for the licenses, I may elect to partner with Wireless
Internet Service Providers (WISP) in eventually selling the licenses or considering joint ventures
that aid in their ability to provide service. Secondly, I will likely consider selling the licenses to
telecommunication service providers as they seek to consolidate their holdings in this
frequency band. I have no understandings or agreements with such providers or service
providers at this point as outlined above.

 

[Trip]

It doesn't include T-Mobile because AT&T objected to the T-Mobile applications.  The fact that anything at all was filed will add time.

- Trip

[RedSpark]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:34 PM, JonnygATL said:

Yeah I thought this would have been completed LONG ago.  

Sprint's backend systems are probably a mess of legacy junk/bloat that just increased over the years, but were merely reskinned for marketing appearance. You can clearly see sections of the Sprint website where this is the case. Whole sections of the site look like they're from 10-15 years ago.

T-Mobile has to figure out a way to extract the Sprint customer data and put it into a compatible form to be seamlessly imported into T-Mobile's system. It's clearly a gargantuan task that's taking them much longer than they expected, because I'm sure they can't wait to shut down the sprint website, save a bunch of money/time that it's costing them to maintain it, and put in a URL redirect that it's done.

[schmidtj]

22 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint's backend systems are probably a mess of legacy junk/bloat that just increased over the years, but were merely reskinned for marketing appearance. ...

The official IT term for that is: "A Pig in Lipstick".

[RedSpark]

48 minutes ago, schmidtj said:

The official IT term for that is: "A Pig in Lipstick".

Yup. There's probably some machine at Sprint HQ running on Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup with a sign on it that says "Do Not Restart or Unplug".

[RedSpark]

It's pretty remarkable how quickly T-Mobile has built out its 5G Ultra Capacity network when you realize that it involves integrating Sprint network assets.

Compare it to Verizon's progress on its "5G Ultra Wideband": https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/verizon-reaches-175m-milestone-5g-ultra-wideband

[schmidtj]

11 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Yup. There's probably some machine at Sprint HQ running on Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup with a sign on it that says "Do Not Restart or Unplug".

I was going to guess “OS/2”

[dkyeager]

23 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint's backend systems are probably a mess of legacy junk/bloat that just increased over the years, but were merely reskinned for marketing appearance. You can clearly see sections of the Sprint website where this is the case. Whole sections of the site look like they're from 10-15 years ago.

T-Mobile has to figure out a way to extract the Sprint customer data and put it into a compatible form to be seamlessly imported into T-Mobile's system. It's clearly a gargantuan task that's taking them much longer than they expected, because I'm sure they can't wait to shut down the sprint website, save a bunch of money/time that it's costing them to maintain it, and put in a URL redirect that it's done.

I prefer the term "spaghetti code".    Typically easier to recode from scratch than to attempt fixes.  Personally think T-Mobile is making a mistake by not throwing more consultants at it, myth of the man month considerations aside. 

T-Mobile should at least ask for customers who want to be converted sooner and use them as beta testers. 

[RedSpark]

3 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

I prefer the term "spaghetti code".    Typically easier to recode from scratch than to attempt fixes.  Personally think T-Mobile is making a mistake by not throwing more consultants at it, myth of the man month considerations aside. 

T-Mobile should at least ask for customers who want to be converted sooner and use them as beta testers. 

I would love to see a "Get me out of this hellscape" opt-in button to submit a request to be moved over to T-Mobile Billing.

[chamb]

I was just moved from Sprint to T-Mobile billing automatically.  I have been using a T-Mobile SIm with a S-22 for months.

You might want to re-think being moved quickly.

In my account, I was removed from the administrator status and my line was set up as a "kids line".  Of course a kids line is restricted.

My wife's line was now the administrator of the account but they did not know her name. I eventually got it all straightened out, but it sure was not moved correctly.  I have not received a new bill yet, but it does look like the options/pricing might be correct.  I am not positive on this, but hopefully the first invoice will be correct.

[jf15219]

7 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Yup. There's probably some machine at Sprint HQ running on Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup with a sign on it that says "Do Not Restart or Unplug".

From what I've read, T-Mobile's backend might be even worse, given that it regularly goes down and doesn't allow retail transactions.

I don't have any memory of Sprint's biller being like that.

The migration is more intense on the receiving side; you just need to pull data from the old biller.

I HAVE noticed that they changed how my old Framily plan displays its monthly cost on the Sprint side. Instead of a crossed out $55 with $25, it's a crossed out $75 with a $45 (to include the $20 unlimited data option). Maybe that is to help the process which will have to pull the data?

 

[comintel]

4 hours ago, jf15219 said:

From what I've read, T-Mobile's backend might be even worse, given that it regularly goes down and doesn't allow retail transactions.

I don't have any memory of Sprint's biller being like that.

The migration is more intense on the receiving side; you just need to pull data from the old biller.

I HAVE noticed that they changed how my old Framily plan displays its monthly cost on the Sprint side. Instead of a crossed out $55 with $25, it's a crossed out $75 with a $45 (to include the $20 unlimited data option). Maybe that is to help the process which will have to pull the data?

 

It means that if they ever cancel the discount or you lose it on whatever grounds they may come up with, or maybe add lines that they deem not eligible for the discount, you will be paying a much higher price.

I am not saying that is necessarily going to happen, or is their motivation,  but I am a bit suspicious.

Edited December 7, 2022 by comintel

[floorguy]

I just hope it doesnt make me reset my PW to log in every 5th time..

Sprints side has been wonky for a while. The 1 year I went to Tmo, I did like their online stuff 3-1 vs sprint

Having a biz account might be making it troublesome, but I don't know why, everything in there is pretty straight forward.

I heard it "might" be the financing issues on the sprint side.  I do know if I want to upgrade any of the lines, it still has to go through sprint, if I try on the Tmo side itll force me to pay off the few I have, vs it just bringing them over.

[dkyeager]

SpaceX files FCC request to add T-Mobile hardware to 2,016 Starlink satellites to beam service directly to smartphones: https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/fcc-t-mobile  

 

Lots of good details to digest.

[jf15219]

On 12/6/2022 at 10:35 PM, comintel said:

It means that if they ever cancel the discount or you lose it on whatever grounds they may come up with, or maybe add lines that they deem not eligible for the discount, you will be paying a much higher price.

I am not saying that is necessarily going to happen, or is their motivation,  but I am a bit suspicious.

My current guess is they are going to migrate us without the ability to choose between the $0/$10/$20 add ons.

Note that as long as you stayed on whatever you had been on they all became unlimited anyway under T-Mobile.

[comintel]

3 hours ago, jf15219 said:

My current guess is they are going to migrate us without the ability to choose between the $0/$10/$20 add ons.

Note that as long as you stayed on whatever you had been on they all became unlimited anyway under T-Mobile.

That seems quite plausible because, in the case of SWAC, for example, they seem to be migrating the two levels into two separate plans, with no obvious way to switch back and forth between them any more.  People also seem to have no easy way to add additional SWAC lines after migration, at least not self-serve, according to reports on reddit.

Edited December 12, 2022 by comintel

[Paynefanbro]

T‑Mobile Expands Leading 5G Network with Additional Coverage and Capacity

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-expands-leading-5g-network-with-additional-coverage-and-capacity

Quote

 

T-Mobile has achieved its year-end goal of covering 260 million people with Ultra Capacity 5G weeks ahead of schedule. Plus, the Un-carrier has now deployed an additional, new layer of 1900 MHz mid-band Ultra Capacity 5G spectrum nationwide to deliver greater speed and performance. T-Mobile’s overall 5G footprint expanded as well, now covering 323 million people.

 

 

 

[iansltx]

Calling n25 "Ultra Capacity" is...annoying, to say the least. It's worse than calling 40 MHz n77 5G+.

Particularly given that AT&T and VZW don't do this for n25/n66 that they have, which is comparable.

Like, PCS NR as an extra layer is great, but... 😐

[Dkoellerwx]

Nationwide n25? How do they come up with that metric? I know I've seen it reported in a few spots, but hardly what I'd call nationwide. Unless I'm missing something.

[jreuschl]

1 hour ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Nationwide n25? How do they come up with that metric? I know I've seen it reported in a few spots, but hardly what I'd call nationwide. Unless I'm missing something.

Plus how many phones support N25 SA? The recent N25 update only added NSA