joshuam

"Uncarrier 10" announcement on 10 november.

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier-x-coming-november-10.htm

Theme: "We never hit pause"

Sprint...2.07% port ratio with Sprint.

"I would expect Sprint to post positive numbers for the quarter, they are doing a good job" - John Legere

Live stream of the call:

I switched 4 lines over to T-Mobile this past quarter, still have one on Framily on Sprint. I live in a band 12 market, and honestly never even see HSPA in all of central Maryland. I get solid coverage inside buildings. Sprint iPhones seem to really struggle with band selection, and so they drop to 3G and park there. Once Sprint wraps up band 41, I think they will finally be able to tune band 26 for coverage instead of capacity. But until then, their just isn't enough density in Maryland to make Sprint a viable option.

2.3M net adds. 843k post paid adds. Pretty good quarter for T-Mobile.

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/t-mobile-delivers-industry-leading-customer-and-financial-growth-in-q3-2015.htm

Just out of curiosity, would a bump in speed to 1.5mbps be too much for an unlimited carryover after the initial high-speed data allotment is used? 128kbps isn't even enough for hq music/mp3 streaming. I just don't see how ending overages are going to be good for these plans, at least offer the option for it, or make the speed cap more usable.

If you NEED more high speed data, you can just change your plan at any point with no penalty. I don't understand what point you are trying to make?

Bill certainty is much more important to more customers. It has worked well for T-Mobile, so Sprint would be stupid not to do it as well. 128Kb is plenty to keep the device usable (gps, email, even social media). You need higher speeds for most all streaming, so if that is important to you...then you can just upgrade your plan.

There has been alot of talk in the 600mhz auction thread of the spectrum. I have some ideas with that, but also one for this thread addressing T-Mobile's promotions, the latest one they brought back from a few months ago I think is both good and bad.

 

The bad part, which many of T-Mobile's promotions have, is their ignorance of individual lines. I suggest T-Mobile has one that gives the customer an option for affordable per gb, or slow but usable throttling.

 

My idea is for one line at $45 monthly, which includes unlimited talk & text. Data can be chosen one of two ways. The per gb option is $1.50 per gb, essentially making it - $60 monthly for 10gb, $75 monthly for 20gb, $90 monthly for 30gb, etc. The throttling option remains at $45 monthly with unlimited data, though the data speed is throttled at 1.5mbps which is fast enough for FLAC music streaming and standard definition video, perhaps with some light buffering.

Carriers have a reason for pushing family plans though, so I don't expect that to change. When your have multiple lines, it makes it much harder to switch carriers.

I don't mind overages, as long as they were sensible, say $5 per gb or less. However, the current overage rates on carriers is way overpriced at $15 per gb.

But the majority of consumers don't want overages. That is why unlimited plans became popular. Because nobody wants a surprise bill. This is one of the reasons T-Mobile has done so well.

I really think Comcast is better working with Verizon. Also, if a Republican administration wins, I can envision a possible merger between Comcast and Verizon, which would be much better for Comcast than a merger between them and T-Mobile and a merger between them and Sprint would be.

Verizon and Comcast are not going to merge.

Personally, I like the deprioritization decision Legere made. Best decision he ever made. It was the right call. No second guesses from me. And it's the right move for Sprint now.

 

Also, I can confirm from some of our friends that it looks like Sprint is internally working on a 2G throttling of tiered plans above their stated limits. Essentially removing overages and making a tiered plans virtually unlimited.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

Smart move to get rid of overages. It is a BIG differentiating factor between the duopoly.

iOS 9.1 is out today. Anyone downloaded yet? Does it fix field test?

Sprint's NY tax issue still lingering apparently.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-must-face-300m-lawsuit-underpaid-taxes-new-york/2015-10-20

Verizon is NOT backing out of 600Mhz auction (though not a priority for them).

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizons-shammo-well-be-600-mhz-auction-more-interested-high-band-spectrum/2015-10-20

Also, this could be pretty big news for T-Mobile. The parents might be coming to help them.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-20/deutsche-telekom-said-to-consider-sale-of-t-mobile-netherlands

While not everything is T-Mobile's fault, I, and most certainly everyone can blame T-Mobile for certain things shown to have as negative effect, along with blaming T-Mobile's CEO, John Legere, for things he's said clearly on behalf and/or in his position of the company.

 

At least on one occasion, though I've heard from others he has said similar things to this extent, when he told T-Mobile customers that they could stream/ use data as much as they want on their samsrtphones (something to that extent, though it's been a while since I heard the exact statement that I don't remember it exactly.)

 

However, here is an article with an interesting quote :

 

http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/unlimited-entertainment-getting-hbo-and-more-on-the-road/

 

"The CEO of T-Mobile John Legere is actively encouraging binge watching on his cellular network. But unlimited is only available on smartphones, not for tablets and especially not for mobile hotspots."

 

Along with this image :

 

http://i1.wp.com/www.rvmobileinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/T-Mobile-Binge-Watch.png?zoom=2&resize=298%2C78

So the "RV Mobile Internet Resource Center" posted an article about using T-Mobile to watch HBO. This impacts Sprint's ability to offer "truly" unlimited because why again?

If the data is accurate, and we have no reason to not believe Sprint and T-Mobile....that the top 3% of their users are using over 23GB of data...then it seems wise to deploy these methods to ensure the network is available for 97% of your customers. It's a common sense approach.

I still blame T-Mobile for telling its customers they can use all the data they want completely unrestrictive, then suddenly creating the deprioritization policy. I imagine this impacted Sprint with enough customers which made Sprint have no choice but to implement the same policy.

 

Plus, the deal created by John Legere going after those customers he claimed were illegally tampering with the throttling system must have brought over at least some of those customers over to Sprint, which now Sprint has had to implement the deprioritization policy after all this time without one. So, I think people blaming Sprint for doing this, really ought to blame T-Mobile instead, at least partly.

Everything isn't T-Mobiles fault. You can't blame them for something their CEO said, that probably 99% of consumers haven't even heard before.

 

I just wanted to mention that I too have some anecdotal evidence myself. When I was in Ocean City Maryland this summer there were several times when I was connected to LTE and I could not get any usable data so I had to toggle my phone to 3G Only, and the speeds were actually fairly good.

 

My only guess was that either the LTE on the towers in Ocean City were messed up or they were severely congested.

 

Either way 3G work great for me where as the LTE was pretty much useless the whole week I was in Ocean City MD.

Sprint is totally useless overall in OC. Some of the towers still aren't upgraded for some reason. Even Verizon is way congested there...Sprint really need another tower.

Opening bids on incentive auction posted!

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db1016/DA-15-1191A2.pdf

Just to add to this conversation.. T-Mobile had a 21GB limit before deprioritization happened, but raised that limit to 23GB a few months ago. They claimed the limit will follow data usage trends. So I would assume Sprint is doing the same thing, and that the data usage by heavy users is similar on both networks.

Okay, just got off the phone with support. The rep said that this was an automated message that made it sound like I wouldn't get any credit for my phone turn-in, when in reality, I should get the full amount credited back. This message fired off when my bill went to print, even though Sprint Returns had my phone and was in the process of an evaluation.

 

I got my phone on launch day, and mailed it back the moment I got the return package from Sprint. This is going to scare the crap out of new customers.

Ouch. Logistics on these things must be a nightmare. I imagine they write off quite a bit that is just lost or mishandled. T-Mobile had the same issue with their program. They told lease customers NOT to return in the mail like their EIP upgrade program. But nobody at support or store knew what to do the first couple days.

Go to Best Buy Mobile. Pay the $10 for the CSIM. That is even less expensive than what T-Mobile charges now, and it avoids any Sprint induced headaches.

 

AJ

Can confirm. This is a great option.

Idk how much damage this data breach will do to T-Mobile. I was watching my local news and they were talking about it but no where in that whole story was Experian mentioned. To the average person who doesn't do any reading will take that and run with it hell even cancel their service solely based on what your local news wants to put out.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's funny. My local news did the exact opposite. Solely blaming Experian, and only mentioning that T-Mobile uses them as a service. Otherwise the blame was on Experian, and their numerous data breeches this year alone.

T-Mobile could have up to $10B for 600Mhz auction... http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-cfo-600-mhz-incentive-auction-dynamics-are-positive-carrier-could/2015-09-30

They plan to bid to complete their low band portfolio to have a nationwide low band combined of 600 and 700. Then they would like to buy 600 in metro areas to supplement their spectrum portfolio in those areas (more capacity). Also some hints that merger/acquisition news coming.

Unlimited Plan price going up on 15 October...$70 now instead of $60.

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-says-hurry-in-before-its-too-late-last-two-weeks-to-get-unlimited-high-speed-data-talk-and-text-for-just-60month.htm

US Cellular would certainly explain T-Mobile's "EOY 2015" maps. Western Maryland specifically...I have family there. Neither Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile have native service. But US Cellular does.

T-Mobile also copied Verizon's XLTE with their own "Wideband LTE" This marketing stuff is getting unethical a bit, I think.

 

I don't like how carriers often have their social media teams posting on each others socially media pages, especially on their competitors executive pages.

What exactly is unethical about it? It's just a marketing term that the average consume can understand better than the network terms. Verizon used to advertise "EVDO"...but eventually changed to calling it 3G. Because consumers understood 3G better due to the iPhone. Nothing unethical about it, it's just marketing. And it happens in every industry.

Looks like Tmoble has started lighting up a large number of markets with their Extended Range LTE (700 MHz). That is good news to see how the cverage is indoors.

Most of them have had band 12 for a while, they are just "officially" launching it now.