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Mr.Nuke

S4GRU Staff
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Posts posted by Mr.Nuke

  1. On 8/11/2021 at 10:38 PM, Dkoellerwx said:

    Our first (known) Sprint casualty in the Omaha market. Sprint used to be the third tier, but equipment vanished between Friday and today.

    I spotted another one today that is a co-located site. Unfortunately T-Mobile is still only running B2/66 on a lower rack to boot. To me at least, the even more odd thing is Omaha has a significant amount of sites permitted right now, but this one is not.

     

     

    • Like 1
  2. On 3/21/2021 at 5:17 AM, Dkoellerwx said:

    Suddenly all the of the Sprint sites around me are showing as Sprint "keep" sites. I'm sure it'll be different market by market, but so far it seems like they are keeping more Sprint sites around here than they are dropping.

    Omaha probably isn't indicative of an "average" market in this merger. T-Mobile HAS to keep a fair amount of Sprint sites here or else they'll fail.

    • Like 3
  3. 5 minutes ago, bbostwick8 said:


    *Shrug* That’s what we were told in the company meeting.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    I actually stumbled on the affiliate agreement tonight in edgar (I was surprised to find it). Note what goes into the calculations on 11.7.2 and 11.7.3 and especially what doesn't in 11.7.3 (e)

    Quote
    13. Entire Business Value.  Section 11.7 of the Management Agreement is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:
     
    11.7                        Determination of Entire Business Value.
     
    11.7.1                  Appointment of Appraisers.  Sprint PCS and Manager must each designate an independent appraiser within 30 days after giving the Purchase Notice under Exhibit 11.8.  Sprint PCS and Manager will direct the two appraisers to jointly select a third appraiser within 15 days after the day the last of them is appointed.  Each appraiser must be an expert in the valuation of wireless telecommunications businesses.  Sprint PCS and Manger must direct the three appraisers to each determine, within 45 days after the appointment of the last appraiser, the Entire Business Value.  Sprint PCS and Manager will each bear the costs of the appraiser appointed by it, and they will share equally the costs of the third appraiser.
     
    11.7.2                   Manager’s Operating Assets.  For purposes of determining the Entire Business Value (as hereinafter defined), the following assets shall be included in the Operating Assets (as defined in the Schedule of Definitions😞
     
      (a) network assets, including all personal property, real property interests in cell sites and switch sites, leasehold interests, collocation agreements, easements, and rights-of-way;
     
      (b) all of the real, personal, tangible and intangible property and contract rights that Manager owns or uses in conducting the business of providing the Sprint

    PCS Products and Services (including, without limitation, Manager’s right to use the LTE Data Core and to use Brands under the Trademark License Agreements), including the goodwill resulting from Manager’s customer base;
     
      (c) sale and distribution assets primarily dedicated (i.e., at least 80% of the revenue is derived from the sale of Sprint PCS Products and Services) to the sale by Manager of Sprint PCS Products and Services.  For example, a retail store that derives at least 80% of its revenue from the sale of Sprint PCS Products and Services is an Operating Asset.  A store that derives 65% of its revenue from Sprint PCS Products and Services is not an Operating Asset;
     
      (d) customers using the Sprint PCS Products and Services;
     
      (e) handset inventory;
     
      (f) books and records of the wireless business, including all engineering drawings and designs and financial records; and
     
      (g) all contracts used by Manager in operating the wireless business including backhaul service agreements, service contracts, interconnection agreements, distribution agreements, software license agreements, equipment maintenance agreements, sale agency agreements, and contracts with all equipment suppliers.
     
    For the avoidance of doubt, references in this Section 11.7 to “Sprint PCS Products and Services” shall also include products and services that have been not been designated as Sprint PCS Products and Services, but which Manager and Sprint PCS have agreed to treat as Sprint PCS Products and Services for purposes of the Management Agreement.
     
    11.7.3                   Entire Business Value.  Utilizing the valuation principles set forth below and in Section 11.7.4, “Entire Business Value” means the fair market value of Manager’s wireless business in the Service Area, valued on a going concern basis.
     
      (a) The fair market value is based on the price a willing buyer would pay a willing seller for the entire on-going business in a change of control transaction.
     
      (b) The appraiser will use the then-current customary means of valuing a wireless telecommunications business.
     
      (c) The business is conducted under the Brands and existing agreements between the parties and their respective Related Parties.
     
      (d) Manager has continued access to the spectrum and the frequencies actually used by Manager under this Agreement.
     

      (e) The valuation will not include any value for the business represented by Manager’s Products and Services or any business not directly related to Sprint PCS Products and Services.
     
    11.7.4 Calculation of Entire Business Value. The Entire Business Value to be used to determine the purchase price of the Operating Assets under this agreement is as follows:
     
      (a) If the highest fair market value determined by the appraisers is within 10% of the lowest fair market value, then the Entire Business Value used to determine the purchase price under this agreement will be the arithmetic mean of the three appraised fair market values.
     
      (b) If two of the fair market values determined by the appraisers are within 10% of one another and the third value is not within 10% of the other fair market values, then the Entire Business Value used to determine the purchase price under this agreement will be the arithmetic mean of the two more closely aligned fair market values.
     
      (c) If none of the fair market values is within 10% of the other two fair market values, then the Entire Business Value used to determine the purchase price under this agreement will be the middle value of the three fair market values.
     

    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/354963/000114036115031058/ex10_2.htm

    • Like 4
  4. On 7/7/2020 at 1:41 PM, Trip said:

    Option 1 is T-Mobile acquires Shentel.  As I understand it, T-Mobile would have to pay a price equal to the value of the entire company, but I'm not clear if that would mean paying an inflated price for just the wireless part of Shentel or if it means they have to buy Shentel outright.  In either case, it would seem to be aimed at making a buy-out unattractive, or at least, that's how I read it.

    On 7/9/2020 at 6:51 AM, bbostwick8 said:

    Under option one TMo has to pay 90% of the entire company value even though they are only getting the wireless portion of the company. As you said - this is to make a buyout unattractive.

     Entire Business Value itself appears to be a relatively made up term that I've only seen associated with Sprint affiliate agreements.This part isn't accurate. EBV is a defined calculation, and it is Shentel's wireless business only.

  5. On 5/11/2020 at 11:52 AM, S4GRU said:

    It will be interesting to see what happens to Swiftel.  Since Swiftel is owned by a government agency, I doubt it will be sold to T-Mobile.  And I don't think Tmo wants them as an affiliate.  And since Tmo already has a network inside Swiftel's territory, I don't think they need them.  My guess is they will go their own ways and Tmo should start adding n41 to their sites in Sioux Falls, Sioux City, Vermillion, Brookings and Watertown very soon.  Tmo does need to density their network though a little bit.  Especially in Brookings.

    Robert

    And that is where this potentially gets really complicated pending the agreement in place with them. I would be very surprised if they could just simply both go their own ways in the market as going concerns with any agreement still in effect. We know from the Shentel negotiations right now that with them there are basically 4 potential options: 1) Continue to be an affiliate 2) If an affilate agreement can't be worked out, T-Mobile has the option to purchase at a pre-agreed upon process price 3) If T-Mobile fails to exercise the purchase option Shentel has the option to purchase T-Mobile's network and subscribers in their service area 4) If no agreements on 1 through 3 are reached, T-Mobile has to walk away from Shentel's market. The terms may be slightly different with Swiftel, but I wouldn't be surprised if they very similar.

     

    If that is the case, it is quite possible they literally can't go their own ways very easily. This type of situation is what led to the affiliate lawsuits that led Sprint to buy nearly everyone out after the Nextel and to some extent Clearwire acquisitions. As an aside, this is also a market where Sprint only acquired any BRS/EBS very recently due to the SpeedConnect acquisition. And in the case, of Sioux City, new T-Mobile still does not have any BRS/EBS spectrum at all.

    • Like 3
  6. 45 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

    Not for the first 7 years that's a stipulation to get the merger to pass. TMO didn't have to pay att when that merger failed for the first 7 years.

    Where is that coming from? It isn't accurate... And the T-Mobile AT&T situation isn't really analogous here at all.

    56 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

    Dish certainly has to pay T-Mobile for being an MVNO.

     

    20 minutes ago, Cardsfan96 said:

    I thought it was just giving dish a certain, very good price for the first seven years. Not free use.

    Correct. They're basically getting the best MVNO deal in the history of U.S. wireless, paying very favorable wholesale rates, but they're still paying.

    • Like 5
  7. 4 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

    I noticed on my phone that T-Mobile has reordered the band priority moving B41 from second to third. Previously it went B25->B41->B26; now it goes B25->B26->B41. This explains why I have been connecting to B26 a LOT more often than I used to. My guess is this is part of the preliminary steps to phase out B41. 

    More often than not, that setting does very little other than the initial scan by the device and then the network puts the device where it wants it.

    T-Mobile from the start has said they don't want to degrade the network for customers on either side. Phasing out band 41 lte right now would be a serious degradation.There is more than enough BRS/EBS spectrum in most places especially in the near-term to allow Sprint customers to remain on 3 carrier band 41 LTE.

     

    • Like 2
  8. On 7/9/2019 at 11:34 AM, chris92 said:

    Yeah so Speedconnect and Sprint initially did some swaps back in middle of 2017 - mostly Sprint got SC's E, F, and H block for their BRS2 (and probably some money).  Last year, it looks like SpeedConnect let their Blackhawk College lease expire for the C and D block, and Sprint picked those 2 up, so now they are sitting pretty well with 100MHz+.  At their current configuration, it seems like they are only using the F, H, and G-blocks.  I haven't seen any C, D or E spectrum used around here yet.  

    Almost all the sites are using 3 B41 carriers, but only a couple sites I've seen have really great speeds (Southpark Mall site I've got 100+).  They must still have limited site backhaul for most of them.

    image.png

     

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cHdOzM5i-Jy5HtqGrqvukOSDlbfFPbLhVWfxcgR4Ljw/edit?usp=sharing

     

    It looks like that in addition to SpeedConnect letting leases drop, a few months after this post Sprint outright took control of the BRS they had been leasing from SC as well as assuming the lease on the EBS A block that SpeedConnect had.

    • Like 2
  9. 5 hours ago, greenbastard said:

    I'm talking more along the lines of the energy area known as the Concho Valley. West Texas includes everything from Lubbock down to San Angelo and Midland-Odessa. It's a pretty massive area.

    Sprint T-Mobile has EBS in San Angelo.

    5 hours ago, greenbastard said:

    Also, those maps are highly inaccurate when it comes to the 2.5/2.6 Ghz licenses (or at least last I checked). It's a mess.

    BRS and especially EBS is inherently messy for tracking, but I don't see anything that  jumps out as inaccurate on those maps i.e. in the Concho Valley, Sprint not having any BRS is accurately reflected, etc. 

    • Like 1
  10. 14 hours ago, jefbal99 said:

    I'm back to the old issues when the Q beta was brand new of SCP not reporting data, unless I'm in the app.

    Everything is dashes until the app has time to refresh

     

    Pixel 4 XL

    Try going into the system app settings for SCP and under location permissions change it to allow all of the time. That seems to have resolved a similar issue for me on 3 XL.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 2
  11. 2 hours ago, red_dog007 said:

    With all the money moving around that Softbank did at Sprint when they bought them, didn't Sprint sell a lot of their 2.5GHz to shell companies held by Softbank and lease them back?  So a lot of the 2.5GHz isn't actually owned or leased directly to New-TMobile, but New-TMobile leasing via these shell companies?

    Well post merger,  what Sprint in effect did was sell wireless equipment and spectrum to newly created Sprint subsidiaries and lease back equipment or spectrum to itself. The subsidiaries borrowed money by putting up the newly acquired equipment/spectrum as collateral. This allowed the subsidiaries to borrow at a substantially lower rate as their debt was secured by said collateral. Investors (including Softbank) bought bonds issued by the subsidiaries. The subsidiaries in turn leased equipment/spectrum back to Sprint and Sprint's lease payments to the subsidiaries are effectively paying the subsidiary's bondholders.

    So yes in the context to what you were asking, New T-Mobile is going to acquire some equipment/spectrum that is being leased via shell companies, but no the shell companies aren't owned by outsiders i.e. Softbank. And at that point, much like Sprint, T-Mobile will probably be fairly happy to continue lease payments given it is effectively debt payments at an extremely low rate. As of right now there are 3 outstanding Spectrum Co issues due in 2021, 2025, and 2028 totaling $6.125 billion. All 3 of these represent Sprint's lowest outstanding long-term debt issues interest rate wise.

     

  12. 7 hours ago, greenbastard said:

    I don't think anything specific has been said about T-Mobile users being able to use Sprint towers. Why give T-Mobile users extra coverage if you're just going to shut off most of the Sprint towers 3 years later?

    If a given Sprint tower would be giving T-Mobile users "extra coverage" odds are it is probably going to be kept post merger.

    4 hours ago, RedSpark said:

    So basically the entirety of both networks is getting a coverage and capacity audit?

    Probably not in that sense... This is one area that they were fairly forthcoming the day the intent to merge was announced.

    The combined company is going to have approximately 110,000 macro sites at the time of the merger. 35,000 of these sites will ultimately be decommissioned either due to co-location or redundant coverage (not on the same tower, but close enough). These sites will almost certainly be predominantly Sprint sites; which makes sense because they're effectively being acquired and T-Mobile's management and network teams are going to be running the show.

    Like I said in the article at the time though in terms of co-location, In actuality we'll see what they do. All things equal, if two sites are co-located the greater synergies are in eliminating the tower rack with less favorable lease terms or worse rack location. But to circle back to your question, basically in your terms T-Mobile's network is the one getting what you are calling a "coverage and capacity audit." They'll fill their network with selected Sprint keep sites they've identified that will add coverage or capacity or both, plus an additional approximately 10,000 new macro sites in the first several years post-merger. I expect this process is probably quite far along on T-Mobile's end in terms of site identification as their numbers were pretty specific at the time of the merger and they've had an additional year plus to work on this.

    • Like 2
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