JeffDTD

I pay Verizon roughly $220 a month for 26GB (24GB+2bonus) for 3 lines, inclusive of device financing and taxes. This includes an employer discount, same percentage as I'm eligible for on Sprint. They charge me a flat 7% tax. No surcharges, autopay fees, or any other extra fluff charges. We make do and usually have data left over. Not counting the 1 year of free credits sprint is currently offering lines 3-5 on an unlimited family plan ( Its good for 12 months- 1/2 the length of a contract or device financing plan, not reflective of even a typical commitment long discount) The 3 lines on Sprint would cost me $130+devices 25+25+10 = $190.00. Cool. But I haven't forgotten about Sprint's surcharges and administrative fees. I recall them more than doubling the actual taxes I paid when I had sprint. The pricing gap becomes very small between Sprint and Verizon in my case. My point? If I could pay sprint the same I pay to verizon for "unlimited" throttled data on the combined assets and coverage of Sprint and Tmobile, I would. Project Fi is proof that user experience can be great. Its really not about having a network thats identical to Verizon. Its about having a more seamless experience. I'd also argue there is very little disparity in pricing now for higher demand users, only what we get for the price we pay.

I think im ready for the merger you guys. I want to get the hell away from Verizon and save some money too. And ill pay the same price for unlimited or a larger bucket, if some of the coverage pain points can be lessened. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very intrigued about Tmobile cutting taxes and fees, or bundling them in the plan prices. While this may just be my experience, ending taxes and surcharges and bs crap fees is going to leave Sprint as the most offensive "extra crap on top of the price" carrier. The taxes and surcharges continue to play a role every time I consider bringing lines back to sprint. I have never comprehended how 3 carriers I've had (sprint, att, verizon) can have such different % of taxes of surcharges on top of the price for the same billing address.

Guesses? Debating short term strategy. Marketing strategies and promos. The guess that they want to increase sprints value is a good one. Measured/levered expansion and maintenance of the network is key- there isnt ever going to be a windfall of money for massive expansion. Sprint's strategy will continue to be to do just enough to keep customers happy. And who knows? Son may be dreaming about a true merger at this point of sprint and another company with another investor. I think he will keep his promise to Trump of investment, but im not convinced thats a horizontal buyout Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All this merger talk. Blah. Son is a lot of things, but transparent he is not. Whatever he is thinking, its naive to assume its predictable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The gains are pure speculation. Any "disruption to the norm" in Washington is always met with gains and losses. The ATT/TW tie up's fate will set the tone going forward. If there are post election undercurrents about that being denied, its never too soon to sell your S stock.

First, let's not hang on the phrasing used. English remains his second language. "better" is not "bigger" and in sprints case it never will be. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sprint has really held its own these last two quarters. Great to see 60M customers total again. I'm confident Marcelo will cut another billion in operating cost as he pledged to do. The old sprint was run by a group of people whose business acumen had matured in a 90s wireline culture. They weren't ever going to see it much differently. Keep cutting the fat, Marcelo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If steaming HiFi audio is a priority for a user, then by all means sign up for a verizon plan and enjoy the freedom to stream (and pay for) the highest quality there is. As for the rest of us, lets hope carriers are able to continue to manage traffic in ways that allow unlimited to be offered. It's absurd to me that anyone shopping a budget carrier, whether sprint Tmo or a prepaid carrier- expects unlimited HiFi steaming at a cut rate price Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't think there will ever be a mass effort to fully upgrade these GMO sites until the next era of sprint leadership and ownership. Sites will be done here and there, but with more questions than answers about Sprint's evolution to LTE and decommissioning cdma, not to mention M&A.... I gave up on the GMO dream. I also gave up on getting b41 broadly deployed in my state. There's no point in hoping for something that doesn't fit the best use of sprint's money in the short term Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If I were going to switch back, I'd much rather jump for the $60 unlimited plan than a $200 one time credit. I'd also expect many retailers are going to be offering $100-250 gift cards again throughout the holiday season for upgrades and new lines Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RE Softbank, are the trolls and tech media going to sandbag Sprint from now on every time Softbank makes a move that doesn't involve Sprint? Softbank is still a multinational telecommunications corporation with a market value of more than 65B and an approx 80B enterprise value. Future acquisitions that are cashflow positive to Softbank after all associated liabilities will grow the value of the company. Anything to disparage Sprint, I suppose.

I speculate this: Son isn't wanting to stay involved "just because" he isn't satisfied with some parts of the business, but also because he sees opportunities and has ideas to make progress. He understands opportunity. His desire to stay around is a huge plus for SoftBank and hopefully sprint Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aesthetics. In places where a large portion of the small cells have to be erected on polls where there isn't already broadcast equipment in use, I would expect city planners to continue to be very critical in most large metropolitan areas. Regardless, if small cells are going to carry the next generation of wireless data, the sooner Sprint can get the process started the better.

One debt bashing article with a closing kiss of death from none other than Mr. Muppet himself, the biggest sprint hater in the telecom-pinion editorial interwebs and everyone loses their minds? Cmon folks. Sprint suddenly cannot be saved? Really? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Satisfaction is as much about a decent network as it is a customer's perception of value. Sprint appears to have hit a sweet spot between network and pricing. If the discounts are sustainable until the next significant network change, we are in a good place . Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It would be very naive to expect Softbank to directly invest 8B in Sprint. Think more along the lines of 1-2B in additional credit/borrowing facilities for Sprint's small cell deployment. Or heck, maybe it's a couple billion to fund the undercover bidder spot SoftBank could have in the 600mhz auction. Whatever it is, SoftBank's financial health is more important than just helping Sprint. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Without delving into the radical political fray that our options for president apparently have in store, I suspect Uncle Charlie wants to wait until we elect the next President to determine what he does with it (hold and dare vs sell for less than it may be worth one day). He is a miser- a penny pinching curmudgeon. Unless he is paid a fancy premium on value, he is going to need a strong motive to rationalize his "loss" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And to be fair, population density plays a big role in the decisions to spend. The capital necessary to significantly grow coverage in the states I mentioned is disproportionate to the pops to be gained. Despite the idea that Sprint isnt focusing on population reach, they absolutely do care- and are going to spend to grow that number- as meticulously and calculated as possible (just like TMo)

MS and AL are "if we have to" land for Sprint. Customer totals are low and do not warrant expansion. Basically, Sprint will maintain and slowly upgrade portions of what is there, not because they want to but because it was already there

Does your definition or "more innovative" mean cheaper or more gimmicks/freebies at higher prices? With unlimited available for as little as $37.50 a line on a family plan, its hard to appreciate how we can discuss health of the company and any reduction in pricing. I actually admire tmo's ability to raise pricing and reduce bucket sizes by successfully selling binge on's advantages. Sprint cannot be success at $1 a GB or anything ridiculously cheap like that. Not without realignment of the industry

The porting ratios are representative of the incentives available. Besides unlimited data/direct tv bundle, verizon and sprint are offering better value on shared data and better promoted/understood acquisition and retention promotions than ATT. Customers arent flocking from ATT to tmo for the network.. Its the price Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice. And what will Muppet and co say when Sprint announces net adds? Sometimes I think the narrative of impending bankruptcy has more to do with certain critics dreaming about sprint's best spectrum/network assets being acquired by more favored competitors than it does actual hatred of the company. If the kerfuffle about the G word continues, it will be part of a larger narrative much the same. Many people see both sprint and tmo as subpar. They are both often embraced by the budget minded community. Marcelo's desire to "do something more genuine" or to be more authentic by traveling and sitting down with customers is by no means a "giant failure" because of a blunder in a 30 second piece. I personally hope they continue releasing videos of customer comments, perhaps ones that are thorny on sprint. Let him answer - its an incredible opportunity for the ceo to reset expectations about the future of the network

The "no activation fees" party was nothing more than a carrot to bait people out of contracts. They are backtracking on all of those carrots now. And its only a matter of time before all of the old fee padding habits returns to all the carriers to accompany "contract freedom" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Legere can go get 5G flossed out of his G-String as far as im concerned Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk