Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[dro1984]

31 minutes ago, danlodish345 said:

No they never played in the AWS auctions.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 

I remember now... another botched stupid Sprint move:  Partnering with Lightsquired.    (eyes rolling).. 

FCC stalls Sprint / Lightsquared LTE due to GPS interference.   The idea was to partner with Lightsquared who would then wholesale LTE on lower band (1550 mHz) frequencies than Sprint had and was able to use at the time.  Sprint thought it would help get LTE out faster to more people.      More spectrum interference issues, GPS issues....  Sprint should be a pro at this.   All they wanted was spectrum that interfered with everything else.  Sprint's motive was to always save a buck, but in most all of their disastrous decisions, it ends up costing them much more than if they would have just bid in the FCC auctions.      Does anyone question all the money Sprint wasted on bad moves?   Glad I bought that Wimax phone with it's $10 premium data charge.   

Magenta can't come fast enough after having lived through this. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by dro1984
add spectrum frequency

[danlodish345]

I remember now... another botched stupid Sprint move:  Partnering with Lightsquired.    (eyes rolling).. 

FCC stalls Sprint / Lightsquared LTE due to GPS interference.    More spectrum interference issues, GPS issues....  Sprint should be a pro at this.   All they wanted was spectrum that interfered with everything else.     Does anyone question all the money Sprint wasted on bad moves?   Glad I bought that Wimax phone with it's $10 premium data charge.   

Magenta can't come fast enough after having lived through this. 

Sprint made so many bad moves it crippled their ability to build out an efficient Network outside of urban areas. Where I live it's very urbanized and yet only two miles off the highway the network goes from great to piss poor. Swiss cheese to the point where there is roaming Holes well within their own native footprint. It's sad. But this is all Sprint's fault for sitting out all of these auctions.

 

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[twospirits]

1 hour ago, danlodish345 said:

Sprint made so many bad moves it crippled their ability to build out an efficient Network outside of urban areas. Where I live it's very urbanized and yet only two miles off the highway the network goes from great to piss poor. Swiss cheese to the point where there is roaming Holes well within their own native footprint. It's sad. But this is all Sprint's fault for sitting out all of these auctions.

 

 

 

 

Well I can honestly say that there are some areas here in the urban jungle of NYC that I find myself going back to pre-2008 signal levels and I'v come to the realization that it either has to be the lack of cells or NIMBY residents not wanting cells near them. Which is weird, cause if one goes by the maps, almost every inch of NYC should be fine and covered.

As for it being all Sprints' fault for sitting out on the auctions, I'm not sure that is 100% correct. They may have had not choice or lack of money to participate.

TS out

[danlodish345]

Well I can honestly say that there are some areas here in the urban jungle of NYC that I find myself going back to pre-2008 signal levels and I'v come to the realization that it either has to be the lack of cells or NIMBY residents not wanting cells near them. Which is weird, cause if one goes by the maps, almost every inch of NYC should be fine and covered.
As for it being all Sprints' fault for sitting out on the auctions, I'm not sure that is 100% correct. They may have had not choice or lack of money to participate.
TS out

Well I can also say that the South part of my town disturbingly lacks consistent band 41 coverage. And I am disappointed in Sprint none the less. So the one thing I do have to say is that in my eyes I do see them at fault too because if use their money to acquire Nextel they wouldn't be in this situation. Nor if they upgrade using that silly WiMAX technology that was more prevalent at the time. So Sprint in their own way borked themselves out of having decent low band Spectrum Holdings to build a proficient Network. Unless they can somehow dig themselves a this I will not see them as anything more than urbancore cell phone carrier. Also I'll say this once again as well Sprint waste so much money on silly gimmicks like those stupid robots and those ridiculous advertising campaigns. I mean okay I get it that advertisement is needed to obviously bring brand awareness. But wasting billions upon billions that could be poured into the network to expand it and even maybe a slight chance of acquiring some decent 600 megahertz Or so. So I still see this as Sprint fault.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

Yes, hindsight is always 20/20.  None of these were completely bad moves in the time they were made, but just ended up in the wrong side of history in retrospect.  If Sprint's decisions throughout time have always been wrong, then why are you even here in 2019?  Get constructive or get going.  Thanks.

Robert

[danlodish345]

Yes, hindsight is always 20/20.  None of these were completely bad moves in the time they were made, but just ended up in the wrong side of history in retrospect.  If Sprint's decisions throughout time have always been wrong, then why are you even here in 2019?  Get constructive or get going.  Thanks.
Robert

I'm here because I'm interested in seeing what happens. So I'd love to see what happens. If Sprint can keep moving forward on its own and hopefully keep bettering their Network then I'd like for them to prove me wrong. But only time will tell and obviously the decisions they make they well obviously impact the company. But only time will tell and I'd like to see what happens. I'd love to be proven wrong. I'll say that.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

Just now, danlodish345 said:

I'm here because I'm interested in seeing what happens. So I'd love to see what happens. If Sprint can keep moving forward on its own and hopefully keep bettering their Network then I'd like for them to prove me wrong. But only time will tell and obviously the decisions they make they well obviously impact the company. But only time will tell and I'd like to see what happens. I'd love to be proven wrong. I'll say that.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 

Please follow the posting guidelines and stay constructive with negative comments.  Thank you.  

Robert

[RedSpark]

1 hour ago, twospirits said:

As for it being all Sprints' fault for sitting out on the auctions, I'm not sure that is 100% correct. They may have had not choice or lack of money to participate.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-cfo-robbiati-600-mhz-spectrum-past

According to the prior CFO (Date: November 30, 2016):

“We did not participate in the 600 MHz (auction) not because we didn’t have money at the time, or we were under-resourced for it,” he said. “It is simply spectrum that is spectrum of the past. The world is moving toward high-capacity wireless data networks, and in that world the best and most efficient spectrum that is needed for that… is mid-band spectrum, the spectrum that we have, the 2.5 GHz spectrum.”

Assuming he's being truthful here, Sprint's non-participation in the auction wasn't due to a lack of money.

Robbiati also noted that the TV broadcasters’ airwaves currently up for grabs may not be available for several years. The FCC has issued a 39-month repacking plan for that spectrum, enabling the broadcasters to move to other airwaves while their former spectrum is reshuffled for wireless use.  

“Why invest in 600 MHz spectrum if that spectrum doesn’t really cater for the future, and also it’s spectrum you cannot deploy for four years?” Robbiati asked rhetorically. “And it doesn’t have an ecosystem in support as widespread as 2.5 spectrum, which is the largest ecosystem in the world.”

Based on T-Mobile's progress on 600 MHz to date, he seems like he was incorrect on this.

[twospirits]

 

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-cfo-robbiati-600-mhz-spectrum-pas 

snipped...

Based on T-Mobile's progress on 600 MHz to date, he seems like he was incorrect on this.

Interesting. 😉

[PythonFanPA]

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-cfo-robbiati-600-mhz-spectrum-past

According to the prior CFO (Date: November 30, 2016):

“We did not participate in the 600 MHz (auction) not because we didn’t have money at the time, or we were under-resourced for it,” he said. “It is simply spectrum that is spectrum of the past. The world is moving toward high-capacity wireless data networks, and in that world the best and most efficient spectrum that is needed for that… is mid-band spectrum, the spectrum that we have, the 2.5 GHz spectrum.”

Assuming he's being truthful here, Sprint's non-participation in the auction wasn't due to a lack of money.

 

If you take it *that* literally and only read it at face value without understanding all the factors/variables in play, you could have that perspective I suppose, but just because one has some 'money' doesn't mean they're not going to try to manage it responsibly and use it in the most responsible way given their current set of circumstances.

I have money/cash on hand too.  I also have a mortgage, 10k+ credit card debt (mostly inherited/trying to pay down over time) and 30k of student loan debt (also inherited), and while I might want to ideally, I'm not going to go invest in Tesla or SpaceX or whatever forward-thinking type of investment expenditure I could pull out of my butt right now either.  Much less go buy a Lamborghini (disclaimer:  I'd much rather have the Lambroghini than invest in some hoity-toity company anyway).

I'd take that statement of more 'placing emphasis on/playing to where your current strengths are' and choosing to downplay the other perspective, because of the type of scenario illustrated in my comments above.  If they had little debt and money to burn, sure, they could have participated in 600 as well, but it didn't make sense for them at the time given the next-gen road ahead, their current spectrum and factoring in their overall financial situation.  With anything other than the federal government it seems (insert your own joke/jab here), tough financial issues forces you to make tough choices.  And even then, as Robert pointed out, those tough choices unfortunately don't always turn out to be right.

[danlodish345]

 
Interesting. [emoji6]

Is there really any way to prove that eliminating a competitor would really help consumers?

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[JimBob]

13 hours ago, dro1984 said:

...so nothing changes with this company... one bad decision after another.      Merged with Nextel, (poorly executed and full of mistakes)...gets 800 and 900 mHz which it can't use and has to give back/sell 900 and then reband the entire public safety network in the country in order to use the 800 it has ...  has to write the entire Nextel thing off the books years later...  then it chooses the wrong 4G (Wimax) when within a few weeks, others including AT&T and Verizon and everyone else chose LTE.   They never really deploy Wi-Max except to a few small chosen spots and never very dense just to appease the FCC for it's claim to 2500 mHz.     Then it stops updating it's network until they have to fix it and decide on a "Rip - and Replace" which just about kills service to many long time users, me included for a long period... Then Son comes along and decides to buy the majority of the company so he can merge it, not realizing it has to be approved by the US government.     It was a real eye opener, and a sad state of affairs... but  especially when in the 2G and 3G days, Sprint was a leader and a disruptor!   They had good phones... I had a Samsung "Blade" a full metal version of the Moto Razr... great phone!    Sprint had some of the first color screen phones (Sanyo), the Motorola Razr (I believe AT&T was allowed to carry Razr's first)...       They (Sprint) were the carrier to be with back in the day.      I miss those days... I'm hoping T Mobile can do what Sprint used to do better.      

Let's not forget the liar Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure.  Paid $100 million+ to make Sprint drop from #3 carrier to #4 carrier and get sold to someone else.

The new Sprint CEO (Coombes who?) was given $15 million last year and gets a bonus $26 million if the merger occurs. (Claure gets an additional $61 million)

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/06/27/new-sprint-ceo-compensation-golden-parachute-plans.html 

[dkyeager]

While you guys are being Negative Nancys, I urge you to look at all the wireless carriers from a public policy perspective.  Most of the time when a small carrier has faltered, were they not offered up to the Duo by the FCC?  How does that fit in with having a competitive marketplace that so many seem to prize?  If you had four healthy major carriers would they have the same incentive as two smaller carriers desperate to survive/grow?  Personally I think they would be more content to retain their niche.  I do think the New T-Mobile would be more competitive ... until they gained full financial parity.  But since they desire to not only take on the Duo but the cable industry as well, I think that will be quite a while.  And during that time the entire competitive landscape may entirely change, thus stability may not be achieved.

Will the current competitive landscape stay the same absent a merger?  Unlikely, but who know what direction it will go?  Many new players could enter, even in entirely new ways.  Perhaps we will go through a new cultural revolution where privacy and personal relationships become more important.  Will people go back to the past? Unlikely, but they could always strike out on an entirely new unpredicted path.

The key current test for Sprint is will they have 5G covering small but reasonable areas in their initial markets for the new LG 5G phone to use that offers a significant increase in speed, especially uploads?  I think the regulators want to find out before making their decision.

[bigsnake49]

For those that think that if Sprint/T-Mobile merge the end of the wireless world is near, look what happened in Japan. Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant is constructing a greenfield wireless network. Who says that some kind of consortium involving Dish won't be able to do the same here?

 

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/rakuten-builds-a-greenfield-wireless-network-japan

[bigsnake49]

Want to correct some inaccuracies in this discussion:

1. Nextel did not have a lot of 2.5 GHz spectrum. Just 30MHz of BRS. Sprint through their failed Wireless TV venture that later became their failed fixed wireless venture owned the other 30MHz. But that BRS they got from Nextel came with a deployment mandate and that what brought forth Wimax. They could have chosen to implement UMTS on it but they did not. Clearwire leased the vast trove of EBS from educational institutions and the Catholic Church.

2. Sprint was a partner along with Cable companies in the first AWS auction. But they did not have money to deploy it and the cable cos sold it to Verizon for $4.4 B and the promise for cheap MVNO rates. Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile are their children of that sale.

 

[belusnecropolis]

I remember trying to watch Sprint TeeVee on my hybrid Nextel flip. It was mostly a rerun of some race, basically an old timey gif on repeat. That was the extent of content available to me. Fun times that OG bloatware.

4 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Sprint through their failed Wireless TV venture

 

[bigsnake49]

8 minutes ago, belusnecropolis said:

I remember trying to watch Sprint TeeVee on my hybrid Nextel flip. It was mostly a rerun of some race, basically an old timey gif on repeat. That was the extent of content available to me. Fun times that OG bloatware.

 

No, I am talking about their TV Venture before then. You needed an external antenna and it was supposed to replace VHF and UHF over the air broadcast TV and cable networks. It was Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS) and Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS) systems before becoming BRS.

Edited February 21, 2019 by bigsnake49

[belusnecropolis]

1 minute ago, bigsnake49 said:

No, I am talking about their TV Venture before then. You needed an external antenna and it was supposed to replace VHF and UHF over the air broadcast TV and cable networks.

Groovy thanks for the correction. I forgot about this.

*Fun times, that OG roofbloat.

[RedSpark]

If this has any bearing on things...

 

[bigsnake49]

I am pretty sure that the merger will be approved by the FTC/FCC with some CYA conditions.

 

[dro1984]

Thanks Snake!    I forgot about the TV venture/trial.    More lessons learned.     

[Thomas L.]

2 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Want to correct some inaccuracies in this discussion:

1. Nextel did not have a lot of 2.5 GHz spectrum. Just 30MHz of BRS. Sprint through their failed Wireless TV venture that later became their failed fixed wireless venture owned the other 30MHz. But that BRS they got from Nextel came with a deployment mandate and that what brought forth Wimax. They could have chosen to implement UMTS on it but they did not. Clearwire leased the vast trove of EBS from educational institutions and the Catholic Church.

2. Sprint was a partner along with Cable companies in the first AWS auction. But they did not have money to deploy it and the cable cos sold it to Verizon for $4.4 B and the promise for cheap MVNO rates. Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile are their children of that sale.

 

Could they have deployed UMTS in the BRS spectrum? It's unpaired spectrum, so it would have had to be some TDD variant like TD-SCDMA in China (which was trash), or am I misunderstanding?

[bigsnake49]

50 minutes ago, Thomas L. said:

Could they have deployed UMTS in the BRS spectrum? It's unpaired spectrum, so it would have had to be some TDD variant like TD-SCDMA in China (which was trash), or am I misunderstanding?

There was a UMTS variant that ran on TDD made by IPWireless that I think it has since been absorbed. Now UMTS TDD is part of the standard.

Edited February 21, 2019 by bigsnake49

[PythonFanPA]

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

If this has any bearing on things...

 

 6G will be the Borg hive mind stage.  We won't need to debate spectrum/SNR/chipsets etc etc anymore, we'll all be directly plugged into the collective consciousness and insta-transmit movies and media directly into our cerebral cortex.

[red_dog007]

Im not sure where China is in regards to 5G, but I can see them blitz past anyone and everyone.  When you look at some of the things they are accomplishing, its really amazing just how much and how fast they are doing things over there.  If they apply this to 5G. China Tower said they just need 3 years.  With how fast infrastructure goes up over there, I'd believe it.