WillM

Free money for two years is a subsidy in reality so I'm not sure you'll see much downward pressure on pricing. Better than the hidden subsidy model though.

Where are they getting those numbers from? I thought you could get talk text and 2gb for $60 and a subsidized phone?

Yes. Their perception is really horrible in some markets. It's to the point where people don't even consider them but like you said they had it coming. There are some good Sprint markets but there seems to be more bad ones. I signed up with them here in NJ in 2007. Nobody I knew had them then and the same goes for now. It seems most people who are using the network here are on Boost or some other MVNO. I had a problem with my iPhone about a year ago. I went to an Apple store one morning and the guy decided to swap it out. He came out with the new phone but then excused himself and had a little meeting with a few other employees. When he came back I asked if there was a problem and he said they rarely sell a Sprint phone so they didn't know the procedure to activate a replacement unit. The LTE rollout is taking forever here and we haven't really seen any upgrades in quite some time. Even the upgraded sites are often lackluster. It's the reason I'll most likely be leaving when the next iPhone comes out. I've pretty much lost faith in them finishing this work. I just want to be able to use my phone in the places I go and too often I can't do that now. That is where the perception comes from. It's poisonous as once people leave it's really hard to get them back. It's not all bad as they have good markets too. I go to Boston several times a year and things are a lot better there. Not as good as Verizon but light years better than here. I know it's tough to compete against Verizon and even AT&T in the Northeast Corridor but it's not impossible. In the end though having cheaper plans are nice but people won't accept the weak or unusable coverage you get in return. Sprint just has to try harder. Only then will the perception begin to change around here.

So what does VZW gain by holding on to the subsidy model? I'm just not seeing it. I've heard their CEO talk about it before from a standpoint of having to worry about credit worthiness more with payment plans but beyond that what do they have to lose?

Can a call on WiFi handoff to a mobile network?

Wow. I had no idea that plan existed. I thought their cheapest single line was $75/mo. That's enough data for me too as I'm on wifi a lot. I'll be out of contract with Sprint as of October so this just makes it that much harder to stay. I'll wait to see what they offer.

$35 for talk/text/3GB? That sounds nice but the big question is can the network handle it if there was an influx of new subs? I can tell you here in my market it could get them in a lot of trouble. Take a look at the not complete maps and you'll see how much work is left to do here. Plus most people in NJ are on VZW or AT&T. I doubt they would be content with current coverage and performance. They are far superior to Sprint here at this point.

You've never seen a company get distracted by merger talks or a merger? It's not uncommon. I think it's safe to say the ink was barely dry on the Softbank purchase of Sprint that this guy was already teeing up TMUS despite the overwhelming odds it wouldn't get approved. And what was the first thing they did after throwing in the towel? They fired Hesse. They knew he was ineffective and not the guy for the job anymore but they kept him in place to keep the seat warm for you know who. Without the merger distraction they could've moved him, and others, out a long time ago and gotten someone better suited to the next chapter in the companies history.

It's too bad he wasted all that time trying to do the impossible T Mobile acquisition. Lots of billionaires think they can make a square peg fit in a round hole. Too much time spent on lining up financing and trying to woo regulators who were probably never going to approve. Instead they could've moved Hesse out awhile ago along with others who are used to a more glacial style of progress.

I'm with you. The network here in NJ is just as bad. We are around 60% LTE and most of the times the phone fights like hell to get off of it. I was in NYC and took NJ Transit back home on the Raritan Valley Line and literally couldn't use my phone most of the way. If you look at the maps most of that area has been upgraded supposedly. And roaming is mostly useless in this state. In incredibly densely populated areas you can't get coverage indoors too often yet they sent out a message to me last winter that the network will mostly be done in a month. Whoever thought that was a good idea should be fired. And making the running list private is a bad idea. Some people are rude, petty and immature in their comments but those stats are reality. Having them out in the open can only spur Sprint to do better.

Must be a bad day for the M&A folks with this news as well as Fox throwing in the towel on bidding for Time Warner. Lots of fees down the drain!

It wasn't really the frequent stops as much as it was the train being packed full of drunk students. Though there were a lot of cute girls which was a positive.

Yes, coverage in the north east part of the state is generally better. Where I work on Rt. 1 is super busy and has been built up for years but coverage is too sparse in lots of areas. At least it's not as bad as Maine. I was up there last week and the network is really weak.

Tell me about it. They still have a lot of work to do in the well established areas in my area. You would think it shouldn't be that hard to cover the most densely populated State. I could be wrong but I get the feeling that NJ just isn't an important market for Sprint.

Nothing worse than taking the B line from the city out to Allston/Brookline when schools are in session. Something like 3 stops alone at BU. Not a pleasant experience!! I was there last week and Sprint seems to have some work to do down in the subway stations. I was roaming in most of the Green Line stations as well as South Station. I was a little surprised to see Verizon have coverage in between stations. Impressive unless it was just my phone being slow to update the signal.

So DT sells TMUS for $32 billion? Too bad they paid over $50 billion for Voicestream back in '00. What were they thinking back then??

Comcast offers internet and basic cable plus HBO for $50 which is a really good deal too. Not sure how widespread it is though.

I've had Comcast internet for the past ten years and my price hasn't changed when adjusted for inflation and my speeds have easily quintupled. I could probably dig up some bills from my first cell phone that would shock you too. I don't even think I had any included minutes.

Nowhere near as many as bought them for $199 or down to free. Remember too that there was no competition then either. I doubt Apple wants to go back to that model.

That's because a 0% loan for 24mo. is basically a subsidy. It's better than the hidden subsidy in that it exposes the full retail price of the phone but so far it hasn't made prices fall. Now if carriers got rid of payment plans too prices would crumble but I doubt we'll see that happen.

Nothing creates hysteria on tech blogs more than "net neutrality". To me it just seems like a solution in perpetual search of a problem. Someone posted a couple of links from Ars where they were, just like today, predicting the "end of the internet". But they were from 9 years ago! I've been hearing these dire predictions for so long but it never happens. I guess my question is what are you guys expecting the FCC to do for you? They are more or less an organization that caters to industry. You are asking them to go against their instincts. Look at the era they were founded in. That's all they know. Getting them(or Congress) involved will only screw things up more. Expecting them to deliver anything else is just "faculty lounge" dreaming. And when I hear people saying ISPs should be turned into public utilities I just think of the ones I already have which means more or less annual rate increases that were blessed by regulators. My water bill hasn't gone down over the years. Neither has my electric bill. But when adjusted for inflation I am paying the same for internet today as I was in 2004. And my speeds have quintupled. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.

I don't really see why the auctions need to be rigged in favor of Sprint or T-Mo. Both are owned by large international corporations that have money. Son talks a lot of shit about being number one. Maybe he needs to open the wallet and be prepared to outbid the others. Same for Telekom. They have money. What's stopping them from winning these auctions? Are they still pissed about massively overpaying for Voicestream? That was 15 years ago. Sell it or get over it. If you want to take on Verizon it's going to require real investment not rigging auctions and maybe winning small slices of spectrum. I'd rather see government stop hoarding spectrum but that might mean smaller bids which they don't want.

Seems like more click bait bullshit from BGR. It's what they specialize in. And of course find a way to promote T Mobile. I don't see the big deal over this auction. I've read somewhere here that the 600mhz spectrum isn't all people are making it out to be.

I think they're pretty good. They are well done with much better production and they are memorable. The previous ones seemed low budget and slapped together. They are definitely going in the right direction.

Yeah. I don't get my hopes up too much when I hear that "this could be the year" but we'll see. Ram did release a V6 diesel in the 1500 this year. They sold out their initial run in 3 days so obviously there is some demand.