dkyeager

T-Mobile has stated they believe it will take three years to combine both networks. Then you have the task of competing with the duo, which will require more sites to provide new or better coverage and certainly more bands at each site, plus conversion of various bands to 5g. The duo will not stand still. The new T-Mobile will have to hit a moving target. Middle management is of course always a target, which is an area I should have mentioned above. The key determinate for many Sprint employees is whether they will successfully adopt to the new firm. Many contractors I have talked to prefer Sprint over T-Mobile. They say Sprint gives details, lets them do their jobs and move to the next site. T-Mobile tends to ship them boxes of parts and let them figure it out. Then they stay until the integrator is satisfied, often up in the tower for hours during nasty weather. I have heard this from many contractors in recent months. Most of the T-Mobile contractors I have met seem disgruntled. There have been a few happy ones. Hopefully they do actually pick the best ideas from both companies, which may hold if the merger goes well. Sprint employees will get the ax if the merger starts going badly. Sprint efficiency would have been better if they did not always have to stop and restart projects due to limited cash flow and changing management priorities.

T-Mobile can also show up as nTelos in other parts of the country away from West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio , and Kentucky

One of the stipulations in these merger deals is often the retention of existing customers. Failure can kill the merger in some cases, but it is more frequently tied to golden parachutes for departing executives. I doubt that Sprint is losing money on these deals. Iirc, about $25 per month is built into the ED1500 plan for phones. In my view, they should give customers what they want. Without two year plans, customers are retaining their phones about 50% longer. It is hard to get people to enjoy the new features of your network without new phones. HPUE, 4x4 MIMO, 5 Carrier B41, dramatically improved throughput of the phone itself for better speeds are all missing on most phones over 2 years old. Many customers often leave their current network, get new phones, and think how wonderful their new network is when their old network would also have been dramatically better with new phones. There are some people in Reddit who downvote many Sprint posts, so I would not let that bother you.

I think the fate of the Sprint workers will depend on how the merger goes. If the new T-Mobile Merger goes smoothly and they are able to compete with the duo, then most of the Sprint employees will be needed in some fashion, especially the network guys in the markets. The toughest thing for many Sprint employees will be getting used to a firm with cash flow. Areas that are not running smoothly or support departments are most at risk - web development, accounting, finance, etc. Seattle is an expensive city, so the Sprint workers do have that going for them. Personally I would sell my house and rent, assuming if the worst happens (aka Sprint-Nextel merger) they are gone. House values would then decline. That way you could also move to Seattle or elsewhere if needed as well. Of course as people grow older they have more local obligations, hence they may feel their best option is to keep the ship afloat and hope for a merciful captain. Besides it is not a done deal yet. A single 3am tweet could sink it.

The low band spectrum is one area that I expect the new Mobile to be forced to sell some spectrum. LTE 800 is relatively low bandwidth (5x5 or 3x3, or only 1x800), but it is basically nationwide. Perfect also for the last bastion of CDMA support. I would expect the new T-Mobile's main interest would be preserving as much spectrum as possible during the 5g transition period. That way they can move available bands around as each one is upgraded to 5G. The big cash drain/opportunity will be the 2.5 remaining licenses sale which will likely be planned shortly (after the election). I would expect any merger to be approved by the time the bidding process starts.

I can definitely see T-Mobile using the word, for example "T-Mobile sprints ahead with high speed 5G". There is no doubt T-Mobile has the better brand name and Masa did definitely see that. The question is whether Sprint can be used as a sub brand at a later date. My understanding is they will be integrated on a market by market basis as the networks are integrated, which will take several years.

I have tried to gst a response out of Sensorly on this but no luck so far.

We also have the nTelos plmn showing up in strangle places likely serving the same purpose:

Softbank hopes to sell 30% of its Japanese Wireless company https://www.rcrwireless.com/20181016/carriers/softbank-moves-forward-launch-japan-ipo-report.

I have seen 5mhz in this part of the country, but never 10 or 15 especially for the third carrier. Plenty of markets would be ideally served by 20+20+15 and 20+20+10 is an improvement.

You are correct. I was just giving a practical interpretation based on current results in many markets. Unfortunately the phone manufacturers have gotten quite sloppy with the debug screens and they often don't work or don't work consistently. Network Signal Guru does report this accurately, but root is required and not all root methods work with it nor 100% of phones.

It is possible on a LG G2 to turn off 1x1900 BC1 and/or 1x800 BC10 in NSG.

One area that people often get confused on is the carrier count versus carrier aggregation. B41² typically means Carrier aggregation but not always. It does always mean there are at least two band 41 carriers at that site. B25² 10x10 means there is a second b25 carrier that is 10x10 as compared to the usual B25 5x5, thus offers twice the speeds and is a little bit more resistant to interference. Sometimes B25² 10x10 indicates carrier aggregation but typically not.

That also appears to be the Magic Box plmn.

I had the same thing happen inside a house in an area with strong Sprint signal. I believe it is because the B26 signal may have briefly dropped and then the T-Mobile signal does not let go. It was 700Mhz with more bandwidth. I airplane moded it and b26 returned.

What are the usual earfcns for small cells in your market? In most markets those would line up with 8T8R from a macro site.

We have noticed on a Magic Box in my market that speeds took a dramatic hit for a week or so while Sprint appeared to be working on changing the host site QAM, specifically 64QAM disappeared. They later it was restored. We hope that 256QAM support was added to that site, but we had no one who went up to test that.

In at least the Columbus area, rural sites are getting triband first. Of course a lot of sites were already triband. Urban areas might be last when you consider former Clear sites getting B25 & B26. The B26 will make a big difference for VoLTE. Yet to find a GMO site that they have not converted to all RRHs, which gives about a 20% boost in coverage iirc.

Interesting, the plmn is T-Mobile. Most people have seen it as Clearwire, although obviously T-Mobile based on band.

Stuck on restart is also a symptom of a network issue. I personally would go to the nearby sites and take photos. Check to see if crews are present. See if all are working. If the sites are being tuned it could take a few days.

These folks may no longer be in contract as two years have likely passed since their last phone purchase. We only have a very few cases of where people have been noticeably throttled on Sprint, so they likely already fall under this policy. I would separate the data prioritization policy from the billing in this situation as one falls under network and the other marketing (who does not want churn and should be making money when they are collecting for an unutilized subsidized phone unless there is a heavy utilization of their higher roaming allowances). An alternative view is the contract carries on month to month.

With small cells you can often see signal redirected to the small cell immediate area before it has power and then before it goes live. Seams like what I describe above would meet your definition: https://cdn.rohde-schwarz.com/pws/dl_downloads/dl_application/application_notes/1ma186/1MA186_2e_LTE_TMs_and_beamforming.pdf

Active smartphones in cars are followed by MIMO which can bring the Band 41 to your Magic Box, which then locks onto that signal. Unlike a smartphone, the Magic Box does not let go. Just do not unnecessarily reboot the Magic Box.

Decimal GCI as been there in the Premier Hunters maps for a long time. Typically we try to keep sponsor maps a little easier to understand, but could do it if requested.

The key item we are waiting for is the update of a number of former Clear sites from b41 to full Network Vision (we have lots of permits showing on the premier hunters maps). Most will have LTE 1900 and LTE 800 added with 4x4 capabilities for better performance at the edge. No word on whether they will have CDMA. Also have three permits for new sites plus discussions of others. But they do not exist until work is complete. When work begins the sponsor maps will be updated to show the known permits.