Mr.Nuke

Yes, and 2.5GHz is not exactly the right spectrum for it. Now 2.5 is fine when you're out and about but it will not penetrate very far into a cement block house in Florida. You will/do need mid and low spectrum or small cells. Suburban and exurban is where a lot of us live. Sprint needs to expand its coverage both in pops and area by whatever means possible

I'm sure you'll disagree, but at home you shouldn't be relying on 2.5 at home for internet service.

As I've said, I doubt the speed limitation is going to be on Sprint for long. I really wasn't arguing this, nor do I believe anyone who've responded to me have, as its been fair conversation on both sides.

 

Time is going to see what develops with this, and I've certainly given my opinion on it from what I see/read happening in audio.

Quit quoting multiple long posts. Your post here didn't need to quote anyone at all.

People do care about audio. There are two very large audio enthusiast forums online with thousands of members very passionate about audio, particularly HiFi audio through headphones :

You are talking about a really niche market segment. It is akin to people who care enough about wireless networks to post on a site dedicated to one carrier. I don't believe Deval's "on one cares" was meant to be taken literally. That said, the needs of a niche market shouldn't outweigh the economic and network realities of the company as a whole.

How do I find the local regional manager for Minnesota(great plains area)? I fouind Luke langer, but he seems to be for sales.

It is McMahon and he has responded to me via twitter in the past.

Wow, you guys are a bunch of downers! What makes you suddenly think Sprint is failing again when the last quarterly report looked so good?

Yeah they only lost $302 million in the quarter...

Not necessarily true. http://www.newsgeneration.com/broadcast-resources/top-100-radio-markets/?doing_wp_cron=1472130951.6330699920654296875000

 

New Haven/Hartford are #30. Besides. CT is so much smaller than those you mentioned.

You called an entire state a top 50 market. By that metric every state is equal. Furthermore, I don't know that I'd use media market DMAs to define wireless markets.

Look what I found on the Sprint Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sprint/comments/4y2oiz/subsidy_2year_contract_dies_on_826/?st=irya8vhf&sh=8de50b64

 

Looks like they will be forcing us off. Will be making a lot of people mad!

That isn't what it says at all.

As of 8/26, Sprint retail stores (both corporate and indirect dealer) will no longer be able to process subsidy transactions, period. For existing customers who look to upgrade or add-a-line with subsidy, they can do so via sprint.com or telesales. Those will be the only Sprint channels to offer it.

 

If indeed they do limit it so that you only upgrade via telesales or online in some aspects they are making it more difficult for the average consumer to upgrade via subsidy. In other aspects the savvy existing customer will enjoy the experience of not having speakers, screen protectors, and other random add-on products jammed down their throats. Sprint isn't in a position right now to cut off subsidized upgrades all together in the near term. This move seems like a smart business decision right now as if you get someone in the store seeking an upgrade the staff has the chance to up-sell on offers or new plans. For everyone else that is smart enough or does the research the previous upgrade path remains.

 T-Mobile is also lagging behind Verizon in Iowa, Nebraska,

Iowa is an interesting situation given the iWireless. As is Nebraska given that they've historically run a protection network here. Omaha and Lincoln are seeing mass T-Mobile building permits filed that would seem to indicate a full build out for both cities fairly soon.

I dont get it, you guys are happy they removed comments? people need a place to vent and sprint bashing is not allowed on here, now they are just going to be even worse on the sprint reddit page.

Even if you agree with that, fierce wireless, essentially a professional trade publication was hardly the appropriate outlet for their "venting."

Even having more money doesn't mean you have to spend it haphazardly.

I don't think anyone is advocating Sprint throw money around. You said throwing money at it wouldn't get sites done any quicker. That is the statement people are taking issue with.

Although a sunk cost, I'd call permitting several thousand sites and not doing anything with them spending a bit haphazardly. Given that it was Claure's original plan to put band 41 panels on the majority of sites to leverage Sprint's "vast asset" the spending haphazardly argument for that approach falls a bit flat for me. That is what he wanted to do... We'll see how the small cell strategy plays out over the coming years; it certainly is initiative. That said, it is also fairly clear it isn't Sprint's optimal strategy either.

Sprint did not claim that it was no longer planning to spend $15 billion over 3 years. Sprint issued a lower guidance for this year only due to regulatory issues. That means that when the regulatory hurdles are cleared, spending will increase. Expect to see a jump in FY2017 when many of their expenses actually hit the books.

They haven't exactly said they're still going to either. When asked on the earnings call last quarter if we should consider this a deferral he said no.

 

Although we have today is we have an estimate that we intend to spend around $3 billion of CapEx this year. In the case that those approvals come faster out of which so far we're satisfied the way they are coming, we will be spending potentially more than $3 billion. If these approvals get delayed, then we will move us forward. But what I want to make sure we leave it clear is there's not an intent to basically defer CapEx into fiscal year 2017.

 

Basically, we want to spend as much as it's necessary in order for us to provide a good experience to our customers and continue with densification of our network.

The potential issue here is even it wasn't a deferment for financial reasons at the time, in effect it is. Marcelo has done a great job of cutting costs, but fairly soon you run out of things to cut. Spending $3 billion this year means you can still get to $15 billion by spending $6 billion each of the next two years. Delay it further and the math starts becoming more dubious especially if Sprint is still bleeding money elsewhere. We'll see what the guidance is on the next earnings release.

Throwing money at things won't make sites get upgraded faster, won't get permitting done faster.

Yeah it would if the reason or even a factor in sites not getting upgraded faster was reducing capital expenditures in an effort to minimize overall losses. Sprint had initially said they were going to spend $15 billion on network expansion over 3 years ($5 billion a year on average). In May, they lowered their guidance to $3 billion for this year.

At the time Claure brushed it off that they were using data to strategically target where to put additional sites and thus deferring the expense as well as looking at lower cost options like femtocells. This is in pretty stark contrast to the previous strategy where Claure had said we are going to put 2.5 on every site we possibly can and Sprint walked away from many already permitted sites*.

It seems pretty evident that more money would've allowed Claure to carry out his original plan and would've indeed lead to sites getting upgraded faster. Instead, Sprint is once again forced to try and do the best with what they've got.

*I realize Omaha isn't a major market and will never be a big market for Sprint, but just as an example they walked away from about 45 permitted 8T8R sites here and there hasn't been any observed Band 41 site activity for 10 months.

Anyone know what changes came with prl 55055 that came out?

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

That would be for the PRL thread that has been pinned to the top of this sub-forum for years...

I've still yet to connect to US Cellular LTE with my Note 5.

Sprint is having a big blow the roof off sale (thats seriously what its called) here is the known sales that all stores are handing out flyers for.

 

https://twitter.com/HoosierCrouch/status/735608998615875585

 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

I know that Sprint store...

I'm very interested to see if T-Mobile ever makes a move on Omaha. Obviously getting a local exchange is a big first step, but surely that is achievable, especially with the 531 area code overlay. Surely there's a full prefix they can claim in 531 at a reasonable price. I don't even think 402 is fully exhausted yet either.

Yeah if not having access to 402 numbers was the excuse surely they should be able to get 531 numbers.

I can say that I'm sure it works in a very narrow scope. I've had polar opposite experiences based on location.

If you zoom in far enough on the T-Mobile coverage map you get a really good idea of where their sites are at here. By-and-large it is designed to cover I-80 and I-680, which to a large degree makes sense. You have the ability to cover customers driving through on the interstate and cut down on roaming. As you note West of I-680 things drop off quickly. Your analysis of the market is significantly better than the reddit post.

My guess is with Sprint having a decent network, plus US Cellular adding a 4th player in the market, they see the market as too crowded to excel in. But the existing customers coming to visit Omaha are the ones who really suffer without a better network to fall back on.

Omaha has a history of being a crowded wireless market. I think they'd do fine here if they wanted to compete. It is a bit ridiculous for them not to be here given the size of the city.

https://np.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/4d018k/reporting_my_experience_with_tmobile_and_others/

 

Really informative and well done post regarding T-Mobile, Viaero, Sprint, and US Cellular in Nebraska and specifically Omaha.

It is a decent post, but I don't buy this at all.

NOW OMAHA was entirely blanketed by T-Mobile LTE.

Apparently Magenta is advancing on a real build out there.

They've done nothing of the sort to my knowledge. They still run a protection network here. There haven't been any new permitted sites and literally they don't sell service here. So if you are on a T-Mobile tower you are a visitor to the city or someone who moved here and foolishly kept your T-Mobile service. He mentions having coverage inside Westroads Mall, but that is right next to one of their few sites here. Without digging through permits, based solely on T-Mobile's coverage map I think they have roughly 9 sites on the Nebraska side of the Omaha metro area.

Also, the OP who started the thread had a very positive impression of Sprint's network in Omaha and Lincoln with USCC roaming working effectively in the rest of the state.

Omaha is a market where they likely could beat Verizon in RootMetrics if they finished deploying band 41.

i would but project fi is not available for my zip code 

It isn't for Omaha either.

Did Sprint gain anything in Ocala, Fl? I see they traded spectrum as well. What do we gain from this?

Read the link...

Any idea how close they are to completion?

No but given the pickup in South Dakota I'd speculate that things are on track. By-and-large per the FCC ULS database they've lined up partners where they needed to.

IDOT would disagree with you considering they're the ones that said it you can take it up with them.

The busiest spot on Iowa's roadways is on I-235 in Des Moines between 56th Street and 42nd Street where the average daily traffic in 2014 was 127,100 vehicles per day.

http://www.iowadot.gov/about/traffic.html

I-380 is one of the heaviest traveled interstates in the United States.

No a spur from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids is probably not one of the heaviest traveled interstates in the country.

http://mobility.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ccr-all-table-rankings.pdf#page=3

Edit: David's link has I-380 statistics and indeed it isn't the most traveled section of interstate in Iowa.

41176

Then they pretty clearly have some sort of lease agreement Motower http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=2590133

So it's basically the worst spectrum city in Sprint's network. Despite that, they still do a decent job here. Just a couple small cells would do the trick nicely.

Which is what we've been saying for awhile. It is the worse spectrum market I know, but the fact it is usable is great. There are places right now see El Paso that are worse off from a network perspective.

Of course it won't.       At least there is progress in other parts of Iowa and the country. I am excited to see how much better Des Moines and the Quad Cities are after the switch! I'm glad Sprint and AT&T were paying attention to the spectrum disparity and were willing to work together to improve service for both sets of customers. 

Verizon having a sliver of the PCS B block prevents a complete B for C swap like the Quad Cities or Des Moines. They still may be able to work out a C4/C5 swap for their 20 MHz of PCS B.