JeffDTD

Somewhere this morning, Charlie Ergen turned over his bowl of cheerios and got milk everywhere

If not lawsuits from shareholders, a lawsuit from another carrier seems highly likely

I can't help but think Ergen has a distaste for doing business with sprint. Is there negative history there?

As a sprint enthusiast , my first action is "greedy clear investors bla bla bla"...... But I can also appreciate the frustration that some of them must have with their investment. Clearwire and sprint convinced them to invest their money in a network endeavor that should have had limitless potential. Yet under majority ownership of sprint, much of their investment has eroded and they are now being asked to cash out and be done. Whether its correct to do so, it's easy to point a finger at sprint. Could sprint offer to swap stock with some of the investors and allow them to see if their investment is capitalized through sprint growth? It should also cause a bit of reckoning amongst them... Sprint invited clear to be a part of network vision and clear refused. Had they agreed to cooperate In the beginning, there's a chance their stock price wouldn't be as depressed as it is...they could already be selling/reselling LTE In a few places and there would be more optimism around their wholesale access sale ability in the future. As it stands, they are waging to show up " last of the pack" or with the tail end of the pack in most markets. Clear is a big unfortunate lost opportunity.

I would be shocked if they accepted that

Edit:delete

Think thats a samsung thing ...

The additional attention shown the tmobile/metro merger from the DOJ and FBI ( I was hesitant to believe that) scares the crap out of me for sprint. All we need are a couple of Asian crazed congressmen to go on a witch hunt (and I know the difference between my Asian countries) but its elected officials we are talkin about here... If there's any slop thrown in the pen, they sing suuuuweeee! I mean, what if they told sprint no on the SoftBank investment? It would put sprint on a bender to reorganize or find an American investor.

AJ, walk us through what you see dish doing with clear spectrum. Using it to deploy on tmobile's towers? Is there any other reasonable deployment strategy that doesnt include sprint?

Agree with you and AJ.... As far as "going rogue".... Short of getting in bed with verizon or att, how far could they really stray from sprint's clutch given their situation and that all their prior threats have been empty.........has att's big plans for the wcs spectrum resolved other investors hesitance with this spectrum and mitigated their incompetence in selling network hosting? Depending on investor opinion, the pending SoftBank ownership presents a golden opportunity for clear to act like a real jackass. Cue flashback: iPCS (inbred bastard wireless)

The paint on the exterior back of the phone, at least on the white galaxy 3, is prone to tiny little hair line cracks if it has direct impact with things like keys. It's a flaw in the paint and barely noticeable except in the right lighting, but aggravating none the less

First 24 hours with it : "oh my it's so big... I don't know if it right" Second 24 hours: " oh my it's so big.... And so right!"

Just wanted to detour for a sec and share that I bought a note II on eBay and sold my gs3 and accessories. Loving it! In hand feel, screen quality and sound....... it feels more like a jumbo successor of the galaxy 2 epic blablabla than the big brother of the gs3. Got really lucky .... The note will cost me right at $210 after subtracting my profit from the gs3. (And have to add back the $99 I paid for the gs3). I was frankly surprised as it sold in less than 12 hours for my buy it now price.

I always assumed the lte / nv strategy was strategic, touching markets with the highest concentration % of sprint users on maxed network resources and those places most simple to deploy and plant the lte flag. The first is very calculated while the later is random, a la verizon. Just looking at how many people live in a city or a market has no bearing on how many sprint users are there and how their general network experience may be. The sour grapes are just unnecessary. Sprint is still one of the two budget carriers. Trolls need not apply... cough up the bones and go ride the red unicorn if sprint is such a meanie. Haha and I also still dont understand why my market wasnt first. Oh wait, there arent many sprint users here and competition is saturated here by a 4th carrier. Oh it hurts so bad lol.

Using the wcs spectrum they bought, right? I'm really interested to see the real world feedback the next carrier who uses this kind of spectrum to deploy a high speed data network receives. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the AT&T headquarters, Randall Stephenson is sipping his chai and wringing his hands .... " more! I want more! Mooooore gigabytes... Look at them? They're beautiful! ". Minion: "But sir, the technology has real world hurdles that only time can cure....the average user ....." "Did I ask you? I went without sleep for almost three years.... laying in bed at night, my sphincter knotted tight, cringing in agony as gigabyte after gigabyte slipped away .... for what? for nothing! There's money to be made... Give them speed... Let them drink and eat and huddle around for the raw exhilarating speed! Faster ! Faster!"

I too agree with this, in theory, as a move in the right direction. The biggest question I have is if tmobile will be able to pass on their actual cost for the phone on to the customer, or if we will see the full retail price used in the math. I suspect the latter and as stated, tmo doesnt have the scale to effect competition between manufacturers. Will tmo and its 3rd party retailers host temporary full retail discounts? Or do they already? Example: black friday. Thousands of GS3's were sold for an average price of 49.99 and as little as 96cents. The GS3 is a 549 phone. I browsed tmobiles website today and found an individual unlimited data plan for 59.99. If I put 100 down on the phone and financed 449 for 20 months at 0% interest, you are looking at 22.45 a month. Add that to the 59.99 plan and its 82.44 a month for 20 months and back to 59.99 for the final 4. 24 month cost of 1888.76. Add 100 back to that and youre at 1988.76. With sprint, 79.99 * 24 months gets us 1919.76. Add 100 back and you get to 2019.76. The good? Tmobiles plan would be equivalent or better than the best contract prices you could find on the gs3. You get away from the contract completely at 20 months. Of course, this model is fantastic for basic non smartphone users or budget users. Eventually, adoption of a model like this would force apple to come down on its full retail price a bit, maybe. As well, for a user willing to keep a device beyond 24 months, the savings really start adding up. Its also great for users who refuse to take a contract, which is not an option at sprint. The bad? At non discounted rates, the savings are nominal for the 20-24 month upgrader. Factor in evp discounts available at sprint , like the 10% credit union discount available to practically everyone, and we see the 24 month cost at sprint beat tmobile by 130+. Does tmobile charge activation costs? How are they with admin fees and surcharges on these value plans? Sprint really takes this to the extreme. Are tmos better?

Unless you are an executive overseeing the wireless operations, theres no need to take criticism of your employer's decision to continue to operate an archaic network personally. I work for a bank. They put food on my table and in return, I sign an agreement prohibiting myself from slandering them or sharing anything about my employment with the media or on social media. Now, are they infallable? No. Do I understand why people get mad at my employer or disagree with it? Yep. And do I privately even disdain from 100% belief that all decisions made by my employer are correct? Oh heck yeah. Your employer is good to you and we dont doubt that, but elevating them beyond personal tolerance of criticism, given the circumstances, is a little odd.

This vague statement from them could also be a result of an attempt sprint has made to court their business as a NV affiliate or buy the spectrum. If that has happened recently, this is their poker face.

The Great Southern Company closed its retail store here in Hattiesburg recently. I guess not being able to guarantee nationwide coverage in return for a contract makes retail sale nearly impossible. If the hybrids are the intended roadmap, do they realize 800mhz voice roaming wont be possible? I guess Moto could rework them, but is it worth it? Oh , that's right... SOLINC don't care.

Agree. Satellite will get u the most for your $

Im a little surprised to see this thread raging 42 pages later. I now have my wifi set to come on every day around the time I come home from work. I talked to my roommate and got him on the wifi and off of 3g and also got my parents (the verizon hogs) to start using wifi at home. You know what shocked me? All of them were unhappy with their 3g speed ( verizon has slow 3g too? Unicorns must be real!) And despite their irritation AND understanding good and well that their computers were on wifi, none of them seem to have ever even fathomed using the wifi. The initial looks I got were similar to the look a toddler would give u when a round block failed to fit in a square hole. My point? Middle and lower america is chock full of smartphone users who understand very little about their smartphones. My parents had no idea what the password on their router was or how to find it. How many people can u think of who are just as clueless? All they care about is whether or not it works, not if they are having the best experience they could have. Something as simple as keying in a password will cause many users to become disinterested. I dont believe unlimited has any chance of surviving 2015. The late smartphone adopters will be the most technologically inept