kelmelzer

People from the Grove have to drive to the top of the mountain between there and Marion on US 16 to get Verizon signal.

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Sprint has 3 towers in the entire county and all are 1x. My hometown is just north of the Grove (Marion) and I grew up between the two. I barely get a bar out in the back yard of my parents, but they have Verizon service. They have no issue getting several bars of LTE indoors when I'm visiting. Ugh...

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I made it to W'boro today, and found NO 4G love. :(There was robust 1xRTT and eHRPD (which, as usual, kicked me off a data connection) and no LTE according to Signal Check. I tried toggling Airplane mode several times (what a pain now, thanks to 4.3!), but no luck.The first 2 screenshots are when I switched back to CDMA mode to make sure I could get data at all, and the 3rd shows what happened on CDMA/LET mode: Nada.Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

We might want to send that error to the Signal Check dev that's on this forum and see what that code means.

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I am currently setting at 7 Elleven at exit 94 off I-64 in waynesboro, va and i have no 4g on sprint but fast 3g. I am getting 1.5- 2 mb download and about 1-1.5 upload... and the same for when i drive down into town. I will let you guys know what i get at the last waynesboro exit in a little bit.

Are you on eHRPD or CDMA EVDO on your signal status screen?

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The last time I recall hearing it, it was something like 50% of all their wireless revenue was from Sprint. nTelos is not a well run business. It could not handle losing 50% of its wireless business. Seeing how the typical American business works on a profit margin of 7%, a 50% loss of business would be catastrophic and likely result in bankruptcy.

 

That's why Sprint's threats to overlay nTelos coverage with Shentel were so powerful. nTelos is probably begging Sprint to just buy them out. However, nTelos also has a lot of non strategic assets that makes a purchase a pain in the ass for Sprint. I'm not sure how this is going to play out.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah, I rechecked.  Typically their wholesale revenue is about 1/3rd of their overall revenue (about $40m out of $120m per quarter on average).  For some reason, I thought it was closer to 10%.  Their operating income per quarter is typically $15-20m, so obviously that would be a hit.

NTELOS would be relatively cheap. There is also the fact that NTELOS has its own backhaul. Their parent company, now known as Lumos networks has a lot of fiber in the region which more than likely feeds their towers. That may be problematic in the event of a sale. It might be an issue to buy wireless operations only to be tied up with infrastucture. Sprint left the local incumbent carrier market years ago, so they may not want to buy Lumos. Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

This is incorrect.  Lumos (LMOS) and NTELOS (NTLS) actually split off not too long ago to form their own individual publicly traded companies.  There is no ownership interest of one with the other; they are merely business partners now.  Ntelos obviously has lots of contacts with Lumos as they are neighbors in Waynesboro more or less, so they can easily set up fiber agreements.

Shentel provides coverage from Harrisonburg to points north along I-81. NTelos covers most of area south until about Abingdon.

It's SW border is actually at Wythe County, so it's basically after Rural Retreat. Smyth County/Marion which is SW of there is really screwed since they are entirely 1X on that 81 corridor and somehow not in the Nashville market like Abingdon and Bristol but instead Southern Virginia.

As far as a buyout. Ntelos' market cap is approximately 1.5% of Sprint's, and I am actually a shameful Ntelos stockholder as much as I bash them. Ntelos' cap has nearly doubled in the past year as well, so it's not a preferable time to buy them either. They somehow have been very profitable to own in the past year due to that and have a great dividend to go along with that.

If you look at their revenue charts, they itemize their wholesale revenue, and while it is still a decent amount of their overall revenue, I doubt the statement that they are afloat only thanks to Sprint's wholesale agreement.

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Can't get my PayPal to work correctly so I haven't been able to become a sponsor. I read a day or two ago it was Beckley/Bluefield Waynesboro/Christiansburg initially. Luckily i'm in Beckley!!

Oh yeah, it was Waynesboro, Staunton, Bluefield, and Beckley.  Unfortunately, no New River Valley or Roanoke.

Today I was in the Morgantown mall and stopped in the nTelos store for my monthly dose of laughs. "when are you guys going to get LTE in Morgantown?". Was my standard question. This time the rep said "i think early next year but they are installing it in Beckley and some Virginia cities right now". He went on to ask me how many lines I had and I told him I was with Sprint and that I was aware they used nTelos towers throughout much of WV. He said I was crazy for having Sprint in WV as it was more expensive than nTelos for the exact same coverage. I told him I was on Sero and his comment was that id never be allowed to upgrade again and still keep that plan. Then he went on the say that Sprint phones will not be allowed to use nTelos' 4G LTE network because the companies agreement was for 3g only. He said that nTelos customers won't be allowed to use Sprints LTE network either.

 

Any truth to this or is this typical worker bee jargon? If Sprint is not over building in WV and there is no 4g agreement then I'd be screwed.

By the way, I managed to get the 4 markets were LTE is initially launching from the live chat last night:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4969-ntelos-q3-2013-conference-call-upcoming/?p=239096

Maybe someone else can get a start date out of them?  In a conference this week, they said "in time for the holiday selling season", so maybe that's in a couple weeks?

Better not be true. It sounds too dumb almost to be true. Only letting your customers have LTE in a few cities in WV and VA? That just seems ridiculous. Fingers crossed someone more knowledgable can answer that question.

 

 

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If you follow some of nTelos' recent presentations, they state they are building out LTE in their wholesale footprint to serve Sprint.  Maybe in their non-wholesaled footprint (eastern VA, etc.), their LTE buildout won't be shared at all since Sprint obviously has that covered on their own.

I first read that these were included. I was shocked to see Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands in there. Then I reread your post and see you say these are the only 4 NOT in the latest PRL to scan 800. Oops.

 

22449 and 22450 are no surprise to me. These are PR/VI with no 800 and nTelos land with no 800. However, the first two kind of surprise me. Parts of 22433 get 800 and all of 22429.

 

This PRL makes me think that starting June 30th, all site acceptances are going to start including CDMA 800, whether 3G or LTE is accepted first. And they probably are going to go back and fire up CDMA 800 quickly on existing completed sites too. Come on June 30th!

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Yeah, nTelos doesn't care what anyone else is doing regarding 800mhz.  I wonder what will happen in nTelos-land here once Nextel is shut down.  Is that under the exclusivity agreement as well?  I think Sprint can do 4G-related things here, but anything other than that has to be nTelos-run.

My friend in Winchester, VA (Shentel Land) got 55015 and sent me this pic from indoors. Good stuff! They are on the ball up there.

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Hah, having lived in Williamsburg for several years, that area is technically called The Peninsula. The rest (the so-called Seven Cities) is called Tidewater.

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Found a copy of the transcript (thanks to SeekingAlpha) today, and here are some more updates/corrections to what I posted yesterday:

• As the demand for 4G services grow, we remain on track to launch in our first LTE markets in the western portion of
  our footprint during the second half of 2013, and we expect to complete our initial rollout by the end of 2014.
  As Steb mentioned, we're also replacing the 2G equipment that remains on 12% of our cell sites to make them
  compatible with 3G EVDO. It should be noted that the upgrade to 3G at these cell sites is included on our
  previously announced CapEx guidance. Once complete, 100% of our network will run on either 3G or 4G LTE. Not only do we believe this investment makes our retail service more competitive in certain parts of our footprint, it will also drive incremental data usage and revenue from our wholesale agreement with Sprint and other roaming partners.
  
• As it pertains our strategic network alliance with Sprint, we continue to work closely with them with a focus on
  our long-term partnership. We realize the importance of Sprint to our business and continue to believe we are
  favorably positioned to provide network services to them beyond the terms of our existing agreement.
  
• (Re: percentage of sites with LTE) The end of 2014 will be 70% of POPs covered. It's a similar number of sites, it's not -- it's a little less than 70% of our sites to get there, but it's in the neighborhood.
  
• (Re: billiing dispute/relationship with Sprint) Barry, as it relates to Sprint, I did mention in my prepared remarks that we continue to work closely with them, and I'd say we continue to have very good dialogue with Sprint and strongly believe we're in the best position to provide network services to them beyond the terms of our current agreement. As it relates to our open disputes, as I've said before, these types of billing issues come up from time to time in our business. And in this particular case, it certainly makes good sense for us to work towards resolution of those disputes in the context of our long-term partnership with Sprint. In terms of going into any kind of further detail or particular detail around our discussions or next steps and so on and so forth, that wouldn't be appropriate to do at this time, but certainly, as we have more to talk about, we'll be providing updates along the way.
  
• (Re: Softbank/Clearwire/Dish being a big distraction for Sprint and engaging nTelos less past 6 months) Well, I wouldn't make any assumptions around the level of engagement. And likewise, I also won't comment in any detail on the level of engagement.
  
• (Re: looking forward to rest of year) 4G is becoming a bigger part of the reality within our footprint each and every day, so we're going to continue to ramp up our 4G build and make sure that we're in a good position to continue to compete. Clearly, we're not being penalized today for not having launched 4G yet. (??????) But I don't know if we can necessarily count on that forever, which is, again, why we've got a very specific plan about how we're going to get to 4G.
  
• (Re: 800mhz voice and lack of exclusivity pertaining to 4G) Q: "Shenandoah, on their call, last week mentioned that they're in the process down the street, not against you guys, of rolling out some voice on 800 service, 800 megahertz service. Have you noticed anything in your territory that would suggest or can Sprint do anything and deploy on 800?" A: Two questions there. Is there anything going on in the footprint? No. And voice on 800 could be done but it would have to be done through us. Q: "what does that mean, done through you?" A: Well, there's exclusivity language on our existing contract with Sprint, right, that's effectively anything sort of 3G and below in terms of services. Q: "Right. So 4G would be different but anything 3G data or voice would have to be done through you through the exclusivity period of July '15?" A: Correct.
  

There's hope maybe Sprint can do 4G rollouts on their own! Not sure how feasible that would be though...

Definitely. I have a good friend in Winchester that I've visited the past few months. I even talked him into leaving VZW for Sprint due to the great rollout there.

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• Any voice over 800 would have to be through nTelos
  

Hey guys,

Longtime lurker here and somewhat disappointed Sprint user due to living in an nTelos-controlled region (Roanoke, VA area). I'm eagerly awaiting the LTE rollout hopefully sometime this year, so I'm listening in on the nTelos conference call this morning. I'll try to update the thread if anything of interest comes up for this area regarding LTE.

It can be joined here:

http://services.chor...ntls130507.html

Presentation can be viewed here:

http://ir.ntelos.com...&T=&iid=4110676

• Upgrading remaining 2G/1x towers to 3G/EVDO in the area this summer
  
• Remain ontrack to launch LTE initially in their western markets by the end of 2013
  
• Remain ontrack to complete the "initial launch" of LTE by the end of 2014 (ugh)
  
• Believe they are important to Sprint and have a favorable position with Sprint past the end of their agreement
  
• Wholesale revenue from Sprint actually dropped 1%, apparently tied to voice subscribers (isn't surprising Sprint people in this area were tired of dealing with their waiting game and jumped ship to Verizon which is fully rolled out here, even in super rural areas)