ChadBroChillz

I feel like having 52000 sites with the same coverage as Sprint is very inefficient. I believe that number is similar to what has been reported for ATT/Verizon. I would think they would want to trim some of the excess, especially if they have plans of any sort of expansion of their LTE/FauxG network once they get some 600Mhz.

Will Sprint participate in any future mobility fund auction?

 

"FCC kicks off $300M Mobility Fund auction for rural mobile broadband"

 

Read more: FCC kicks off $300M Mobility Fund auction for rural mobile broadband - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/fcc-kicks-300m-mobility-fund-auction-rural-mobile-broadband/2012-09-27#ixzz2XpYO7EjN 

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I understand that it couldn't participate in the first one cause it was busy not dying but what about in the future?

 

This would be a cheaper and lower-risk way to get its foot in the door in rural areas.

We probably will not know until they set up another one. I am sure Sprint would be more willing this time around. 

Having multiple variation of LTE, is that cost effective? Wouldn't it make sense to either go TD-LTE or just LTE for all spectrum Sprint/Clearwire hold? Shouldn't Sprint make a decision as to which one will be the last one standing? Or maybe LTE Advance is what will be the last one standing phasing out TD-LTE/LTE?

Their PCS and SMR are paired, while the 2.5Ghz is unpaired. I do not believe their will be a problem. From my understanding, NV is technology independent. Sprint can deploy TD-LTE/LTE/CDMA all on the same NV cell site.

Also, carrier aggregation of the TD-LTE spectrum would give them more than enough capacity and speed to win any pissing contest.

If Charlie does nothing, FCC has to wait 6 years until it can reclaim it. That's the FU.

That is a very small FU. That is like Dish saying "well I didn't want it anyways."  The FCC would still be the winner, plus wouldn't dish face strict fines and fees for not meeting build out requirements? If that is the case, then it would make the FCC an even bigger winner.

If Charlie wanted to sell the spectrum and merge with DirectTV all along, the FCC can't force him to spend billions to launch service.

 

If they do try that, he can sit on the spectrum for 6 years until the FCC can reclaim it in a big FU to the FCC.

 

Isn't it better to get it in ATT's productive hands than keep it fallow for 6 years?

How is it an FU to the FCC? FCC reclaims it, then uses it to sell to another party. That looks like free money to me. Possibly use it to for mobile spectrum in the future. That would be a big FU to Charlie. Dish is the only one that losses from being forced to sit on the spectrum until it is taken away from him.

Building up the Duopoly is the last thing the FCC wants to do, even if it means letting Dish sit on the spectrum.

I would not be surprised if Atlanta was on the list of first round markets. We are a pretty strapped market in terms of spectrum. limited access to lte 800, because of SoLinc; and we do not have 30Mhz A-F like many other markets. I also believe Sprint has a high marketshare here.

Agreed. Triband compatibility will likely be reserved as a selling point for a future model (this is my opinion based on historical Apple marketing strategy).

Adding antenna support has never been a feature that Apple ever boasts about. They did not create a new iPhone number when Verizon started selling the iPhone. Sure it was CDMA based, but it had the same internals as the ATT iPhone that they started selling months prior. The new Tmobile iPhone also did not get its own special number.

Also, marketing new frequencies will not fly. Do you honestly believe their customers know anything about spectrum? or most wireless users?

I actually believe there is a good chance that the new iPhone will support Tri-Band LTE. Softbank is a key seller of the iPhone in Japan, and has TD-LTE on 2.6ghz spectrum. China Mobile and Apple have been rumored to launching a China Mobile iPhone, and of course China mobile also uses 2.6ghz TD-LTE. The 2.6Ghz frequency is becoming a very popular frequency across the globe. Now, most of those countries are Band 7(FDD), but I would not be surprised if Apple threw in TDD.

I believe we will see a revamped pricing structure that is similar to Tmobile's new plans( with subsidy included of course). I also believe Sprint will follow suit and bundle unlimited text and talking with their new plans.  

I believe it will be something along the lines of:  

the unlimited talk/text/.5-1Gb data for 60-70,

unlimited talk/text/1.5-2.5Gb data for 70-80,

and unlimited talk/text/data for 80-90.  

I also believe tethering will be included in the capped data plans.

I believe Sprint was also seeking damages for being forced to raise their offer, so it may not be completely moot. 

I believe it is around 72.25( 50.2 from Sprint + 45% of 49 from minority), but that is only currently. If Dish kills Sprint's bid, then Sprint will get 115 million and be able to buy shares off the open market since the standstill agreement will be waved plus the dilution from the convertible bonds. Also Mount Kellett Group has pledged their shares to sprint no matter the outcome of the vote. 

Julius Crest response: Et tu, Mount kellettus?!?!

It is over.

9% plus 64 % almost guarantees Sprint wins. If Sprint's deal fails they would have over 75% votes to push a new deal.

I would love if Sprint was able to extract the upper portion of 2.5Ghzspectrum from Clearwire and leave the rest to dish, but Dish for not want that. They clearly went after the portion that Sprint wanted. They want to force sprint into a one sided network sharing deal or to get all of clearwire, then move on to Tmobile.

IMO, Sprint needs to get their vote killed, then make a rebid before Dish has a chance to get their IRA signed. The lawsuit could force clearwire to wait before signing the deal, plus with the market the way it is, I do not see Dish getting the 25% needed to get the deal going.

Why would people tender to dish when they can sell on the open market for 30 cents more.

 http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/dish-says-it-wont-submit-a-new-offer-for-sprint-ahead-of-deadline/

True. So lets say if dish doesn't compete for sprint do you think sprint and SoftBank will make another offer for Clearwire or do you think they will just ride it out after the lawsuit and wait until November. I just hope this Clearwire battle doesn't delay Clearwire's rollout and triband lte phones in Q3

The cannot amend the EHA without approval of one of the board member, and I doubt that would come since the board now approves of Dish's offer. 

Do you guys think Dish will make an offer tomorrow? At this point you never know with dish but I would think they would have made a decision today. If they do make a decision, can't sprint just deny the offer?

I do not think so. Too many poison pills to deal with. The deal has to be fully financed, which means paying fees on the loans to finance. and that does not guarantee that the offer will be chosen. They would likely be forced to add in a 2-3 billion dollar termination fee. They may be forced to pay Softbank back the 3.1 billion dollars worth of shares they got at 5.25/share from Sprint, which I believe have gone up to a total price of around 4.2 billion, because of Sprint's current stock price. Sprint's bond holders oppose the offer.  Also any offer Dish brings would just put the new company in further debt. They already raised the price on Clearwire. 

What does EHA stand for?

Equity holders Agreement, it contains all of rights and rules of the equity holders/investors. 

They do not have to wait until November. If Sprint's deal fails, they will have 68% of the vote. That will give them the necessary amount of votes to amend the EHA. The only thing they are missing is 1 independent board member approval, since they have Intel, Bright House/Concast and Eagle river approval

Unless Sprint is planning on becoming a fixed wireless broadband supplier, I expect that as soon as Sprint customers are off wimax, they will shut all of wimax down. I believe Sprint could increase their profits by doing so, but I am not sure if it is in the cards. 

You're right. That would be awesome for us to get that spectrum back. I'm just annoyed with all this arguing back and worth and endless bid wars. Dish has spectrum so it might be in softbank's best interest to work with dish maybe after everything is done

While Dish does have spectrum, I do not believe it has very much value to Softbank-Sprint.  

He is probably thinking of the guard band that separates Sprint SMR from Public Safety SMR. 

Ok, so I called Sprint again to confirm as I was getting different answers and none of it was making any kind of sense. But as of right now this promotion isn't happing, Sprint said they are letting customers know about this now so that later *this year* they will make an announcement via email, text and newsroom for the folks who are on WiMAX to either get a free smartphone (any smartphone on the Sprint market without using an upgrade or extending their contract another two years) or cancel their service without paying ETF and or stay with their WiMAX phone but without being able to use 4G WiMAX. So again, Sprint won't allow customers to take avantage of this as of yet.

I am not surprised. I believe Sprint still has to pay a fixed fee for every WiMax device regardless of whether it actually uses the WiMax network, but I believe next year or the year after, Sprint will switch from pay a fixed fee to paying per usage, so Sprint could be planning on shutting down service, so they do not have to pay Clearwire anything for the remainder of their WiMax contract.  If they actually got Clearwire, they could use this clause to just replace WiMax equipment with LTE instead of LTE/WiMax like clearwire is doing now. 

Sorry for the typos was hurrying. Is everything still on for softbank's buyout vote next week?

 

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The vote is in 11 days. Next week is when Dish has to make its "best and final offer". 

I believe Softbank's offer now has too many obstacles for Dish to make a new offer. Dish cannot get all of Clearwire's Spectrum without Sprint.

Dish also will not have enough votes to stop sprint from changing the EHA to remove the 75% requirement. The only thing stopping sprint would be the investor rights agreement, which sprint has said they will sue to kill.

This is assuming Dish gets the chance. I believe the IRA does not come into effect until Dish has met the minimum requirement and the deadline has past. That gives Sprint 7 days from when their deal is killed to make an enhanced offer.

Well, we know what Dish is going to be using Clearwire's spectrum for. I would like for Softbank/Sprint to detail their plans for the spectrum. And no, they don't need it all for mobile. So besides the cable cos not wanting the spectrum to fall in Dish's hands what is Sprint going to use it for? They will not use it for proving fixed broadband since that will take business away from the cable cos. At this time, it looks like Sprint/Softbank are operating as puppets of the cable cos. What are they getting in return? The only thing I can think of is very sweetened backhaul deals.

 

Let's just say that Sprint/Softbank ultimately prevail. They add at least $4-5B worth of debt. Hotspot duty for the spectrum will not make up for the debt they are assuming. Remember the EBS leases are just that. Leases that expire. What happens if the educational institutions that have these leases decide to extract their pound of flesh from Sprint?

 

Softbank/Sprint what's the endgame?

I believe their end game is nationwide( urban/suburban areas) coverage with the spectrum. ATT/Verizon/Tmobile are all planning on deploying 20x20 lte. Sprint's current holdings will not allow them to compete with that speed and capacity. Clearwire will.

Maybe they do plan to offer fixed broadband. Or maybe Sprint wants the CableCos to drop their partnership with Verizon for Sprint. Sprint could be looking for a wifi offloading deal. We will not know until it is too late. Sprint wants to keep that edge. I would be happy with someone using that spectrum to offer fixed wireless broadband.

I also believe Dish is not being complete honest with their intentions. If all they wanted was 2.5 spectrum, I am sure they could have gotten some if they made an offer for the leased spectrum, but they went after the BRS. Also if they plan on using 2.5 for fixed wireless, then what about their spectrum.

I have no problem with crest extracting the best price they can, however their method is where I have a problem. They have tried to block the deal as well as put Clearwire in risk of bankruptcy to force a deal they feel is fair. They have filed almost as many as Dish has against Sprint.