JeffDTD

For comparison sake, was the GS3 or GN2 optimized for the PCS G Block LTE?

Havent we always been told not to expect the other bands to be included in a release until "late 2013"?

I wouldn't call it a screw up. ..... If the other carriers are willing to reduce your ETF based on the remaining months in your contract, is there much difference between that and Tmobile requiring you pay the remainder of a device subsidy on , say, an iphone? Example: Tmobile customer with Iphone 5 decides he wants to leave after 12 months. Customer has 12 months of a $20 subsidy remaining, meaning the customer has to pay $240 to leave Tmobile. Its a little lower, but it still functions exactly like an ETF. Again, the benefit is with customers who use cheaper devices, use devices long term, or bring their own device purchased at a discount. Regardless whether you agree with the article..... I predict that much of the public is going to see this strategy as a gimmick This is also, ABSOLUTELY, the end of anyone using a backdoor strategy to get out of a any contract at Tmobile. While customers of Sprint can roam to get out or wait for the next change in the T&C's to get out, Tmobile's approach is simple. Nothing is going to change the money you owe for financing the device... and they are free to change their charges AT ANY TIME. The device financing is like a credit card... you pay. It also makes clear this: Should you refuse to pay for the device, its their prerogative to demand it back. While that is a point of contention with the other carriers, Tmo's ability to demand the device from a non paying customer is clear. In light of this, I think the approach is smart. Tmo gets to tell its customers "You have more freedom, yay!" and in the meantime, eliminate a source of hemmorage.

Its called a value proposition. They're giving you something "unlimited" to ease you into accepting less than unlimited data. In a sense, Sprint pioneered this "more minutes than you could ever use" play. When Hesse was new to Sprint , one of his "nukes" was the "Simply Everything" plans, offering more minutes on a family plan than most families would ever use. He upped the proposition when he added "Anymobile Anytime". For years, Sprint family plan customers in older lower minute plans complained about being 'forced' to buy 1500 minutes and begged for a lower minute, cheaper option. The truth? Sprint never wanted to sell anyone a family plan at a lower price point... . and having a conversation about the "value" of 1500 minutes "just in case" gave them something to talk about. Only a matter of time before Sprint's plans are revisited. I would guess after the Softbank transaction is complete... they won't want to mess with ARPU before thats over.

You never know....

You've peaked my curiosity... Does he have fans?

Charlie is going to be singing like a bitch in praise of whoever comes along and agrees to buy his spectrum when he is locked out of the sprint/softbank/clear castle. It will be interesting to see his positioning transition from "big carrier =anti competitive" to "selling my spectrum to this behemoth will increase competition". Like the direct tv comment, id love to see sprint break news that they have reached an agreement with a small player to divest a little bit of clear spectrum and allow another player to ride the nv deployment If Hesse is still able to influence Son heavily, I would bet money that Hesse has offered Ergen concessions and this sit down with the FCC is a result of Hesse driving his infamous hard bargain and Ergen expecting Hesse to bow down and cry like he is one of Ergen's employees. The corporate culture of dish is well known to be just about that

Not gonna throw any stones. Sprint is doing the same thing. In ATT's defense, they are in fact ruled by a big d-bag. Im sure that if ole randy had his way they would say waaaay crazier things like "all sprint calls are tapped by evil asian killers- do u want to die?"

Do u work in a corporate or 3rd party store?

This conversation circles the drain. Despite a very negative opinion of sprint in the interwebs, the cdma platform has and will continue to grow at a rate that is comparably proportionate to sprints size vs the big two. The mobile landscape will be even more about data in the next 10 years than it has been in the last five. How sprint performs in respect to price, speed, size and value will determine its future. Not a name. Or a color. Its part of the puzzle, but worthless until softbank has built an empire. And when they have , thats the time to assess a brand initiative.

Facebook is a rant locale. Whether its sprint or your job , traffic or your crazy uncle bob... People rant relentlessly on facebook.

More confusion is all this accomplishes

Thats just damn awesome... in theory

Sprint doesn't do a good job of explaining. Easy to agree. But does any carrier? I guess we can square it back to Verizon deploying at airports and (what seemed to some people) NFL Cities first. If that was the "right" thing to do, darn it, Sprint got it wrong. Sprint could have finished New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Miami first and opened the network at 100% and that still wouldn't have carried them far once the media or the anti - Sprint chorus realized they had concentrated their manpower and money in those places and was "just beginning" everywhere else. Fact: Until we're at 100%, someone, somewhere is going to be complaining. And even when we get to 100%, someone else will still hate Sprint. Reminds me of comments I read somewhere the other day about Verizon not having service in some national park way out west ..... she (the commenting woman) said something like "I had to cancel my family vacation because Verizon doesn't seem to think its important enough to get coverage here... GET IT TOGETHER VERIZON!" Oh, the pain. Verizon doesn't have coverage some places still. Those pigs. But I digress... the most common thing I notice Verizon and ATT customers doing in the last few weeks during travels to Birmingham, Orlando and Atlanta is JUMPING ON WIFI AT EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY. They scope it out. They ask for it. If its not free, they complain. Some of my undergraduates (I am an advisor/mentor) in Orlando actually refused to facetime or watch youtube because there was no free wifi at their hotel. There was lots of LTE and HSPA+ to go around on those shiny little iphones.... and they didn't care. Maybe Dan can jump on TV and show some big fuzzy maps and talk in fluffy terms to get the public excited.... But a lot of this comes down to care being able to adequately manage customer expectations. The "when will I get LTE" question should have always been answered with either "you have it now " or "we are working to deliver network improvements and LTE to the majority of our footprint by the middle of 2014". But, like digiblur said the other day... customers don't know why LTE is faster or how 4G matters... most of them just want facebook and youtube to 'load like it should". They're not mad because they're losing speed test whore-offs with uncle Ted who has verizon, they're mad because the damn phone is so slow.... And as we have all seen, 3G upgrades continue. Even for middle of nowhere bottom rung places like where I live. Most of the sites around me have gotten their 3G only ground mount upgrade and to my surprise, I've been pulling 2-2.5mb a second all over town since last week. Even at that speed test whore-off losing speed, I'm satisfied.

Who cares? Verizon beat sprint in buildout speed. Righto, champ. Its ridiculous someone took this nare bit of news and managed to get so many of us to read

Careful... lol

Leaves me very hopeful for sprint. And for tmo.... build me a value network better than what you have.

This is silly if they continue to avoid network evolution. The big question for now will be the functionality and satisfaction with these devices. Also, telling 100% of your customer base they have to upgrade to keep roaming ability?

It won't equate to anything that has been planned happening much faster. But it will equate to more funding to adequately maintain the network... and possibly cause network expansion. Good for Sprint, good for the american wireless consumer.

I get what tmobile is going for, im just confused as to how they expect this to cause them to grow. If I were a current sub in contract paying more, paying extra to convert would piss me off. If I were a current sub paying less, paying more per month would piss me off. Current customers seem to be split on how they feel about the changes.

I genuinely miss the 3G advertising wars.. 4G advertising hasn't gotten nearly as snarky as I had hoped it would.

Just remember the source... the CFO. The entire goal of this person speaking was to say rosy things about Verizon's financial future... Verizon is NOT going to sell me an LTE only smartphone in 2014 for less than they would today and odds are interoperability will be the same as it is today.. .each carrier's smartphone is on an island , gotta buy it from them.

I feel like we are beating a dead horse here, but there are areas at least in MS where the sprint coverage maps and repeated experiences do not match. On the MS Gulf Coast, you can drive on interstate 10 from one end of the state to the other and only roam maybe 5 minutes of the time... same for highway 90... but the maps would tell you to expect to roam a majority of the time. Ive actually successfully held a call from gulfport to pascagoula without a drop. I appreciate the accuracy of the maps, but that area has always confused me