NYC126

A couple of years back they were close or the best carrier in Chicago, and during the last 12 months, they fell back to the end of the line.  Even better in Denver, they led the overall award for 4 straight quarters, and now it has fallen back to the end of the pack. I hate to agree with Massa Son, but this is where scale plays a big role, the twin bells only need to drop millions on upgrades or densification without hurting their wallet and its put them back to the top on any particular market.

1 hour ago, bigsnake49 said:

About $68B-$70B which is a lot lower than the $100B that Verizon has.

When you are Verizon with 152 million customers, 132 billion on revenue, and spend 17 billion on CAPEX annually without having to do expansions since you already cover the whole US everything comes in handy.

22 hours ago, RedSpark said:

The #WhySprintNow Road Shows have wrapped up apparently:

 

This was basically the farewell tour. Also, it is funny these executives are still trying to sell the deception about improving the company when they are putting all their energy and resources in the nation's Capital in order to get this merger through.

This merger is pretty much approved in my opinion. ATT and Verizon are making moves on their data plans which indicate this.  Verizon got three plans:

Go unlimited  80/mo with only 480P video

Beyond  unlimited 90/mo (720P video)

Above unlimited 100 dollars/mo

And if you want 1080P video you need to chime in 10 dollars extra

Meanwhile, ATT is forcing unlimited users to buy skinny TV bundled plans.

Once the merger is approved I think Verizon will raise the price of their Beyond and Above unlimited plans...... because of 5G.

52 minutes ago, mirskyc said:

Not sure if anyone saw this yet. While Sprint didn't really move a head of the competition they did improve in all the categories besides overall performance. Not sure how that works since Overall should be based on the other 5 categories. 

 

https://www.rootmetrics.com/en-US/rootscore/map/metro/new-york-city-and-tri-state-area/2018/1H

The NYC tests also include at least half of New Jersey and the suburbs. Those areas still need a lot of work, plus you add the Altice small cells stuff  I think better results down the road, but with this merger thing going we will never know how great the network will get if this transaction close by the first half of 2019.

5 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I always wondered why Sprint was pushing for that reserve in the 600 MHz auction and then completely backed out saying how it didn't need it.

Perhaps this really was the plan all along as you said.

If Masa wasn't such a big spender on ARM ($32 Billion!!!), Boston Robotics, Uber, etc., Sprint could have bought that 600 MHz, had a healthy amount of Capex to go along with it, and it wouldn't be merging with T-Mobile with a claim that: https://allfor5g.com/sparking-the-5g-economy/

Only T-Mobile Can Create the FIRST Nationwide 5G Network

There is only one company that has the right mix of available spectrum, financial strength and management expertise to create the FIRST nationwide 5G network. That is the New T-Mobile! The lifeblood of the wireless industry is spectrum and to build a 5G network, you need the right mix of available lowband, midband and high band. Only the New T-Mobile will have the right mix of available spectrum. With Sprint’s expansive 2.5 GHz spectrum, T-Mobile’s nationwide 600 MHz spectrum, and other combined assets, the New T-Mobile plans to create the highest capacity network in U.S. history. The U.S. must move quickly and our leadership can do just that. T-Mobile deployed nationwide LTE twice as fast as Verizon and three times as fast as AT&T.

----------------------

What a sad situation this is.

What piss me off is they gave up all the company away without having any veto power in the board but hey at least they made Pink Mobile to pick the whole 36 billions of debt. This power play was designed by the Japanese banks, they made Son squeeze hard.

10 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

That's a great point.

Sprint went from saying "'600 MHz is 'spectrum of the past'" because of its 2.5 GHz Spectrum holdings (explaining that's why it didn't need it)... and so it pulled out of the 600 MHz auction.....

to now saying this about 600 MHz:  https://allfor5g.com/sparking-the-5g-economy/

Only T-Mobile Can Create the FIRST Nationwide 5G Network

There is only one company that has the right mix of available spectrum, financial strength and management expertise to create the FIRST nationwide 5G network. That is the New T-Mobile! The lifeblood of the wireless industry is spectrum and to build a 5G network, you need the right mix of available lowband, midband and high band. Only the New T-Mobile will have the right mix of available spectrum. With Sprint’s expansive 2.5 GHz spectrum, T-Mobile’s nationwide 600 MHz spectrum, and other combined assets, the New T-Mobile plans to create the highest capacity network in U.S. history. The U.S. must move quickly and our leadership can do just that. T-Mobile deployed nationwide LTE twice as fast as Verizon and three times as fast as AT&T.

-------------------------

It feels a bit surreal to be honest.... I don't know if we were supposed to believe this stuff about not needing 600 MHz all along or what, but it's a huge about-face in terms of a position. Misleading?... Yeah... I think so.

It means both managements were in cahoots. Sprint for years was fighting hard to secure a 30mhz spectrum reserve in that 600mhz auction just at the last minute to bounce of planning to participate in that said auction and let Tmobile alone go for all of it.  The whole merger thing was happening behind the scenes it just they needed to make it official to the public after a new administration was established. They are not stupid, they waited that a new antitrust chief was appointed in the DOJ.

2 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Looking at Page 17 (Liquidity) of the Investor Presentation, Sprint seems to be in fine shape as far as its Liquidity and Debt are concerned.

Another reason to block this merger.

Marcelo job is done which was to cut the fat and get the company leans for a merger or sale. 

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

I get what you’re saying. Masa put Sprint in an impossible position with no real money for Capex. He essentially had Marcelo as the hatchet man to get rid of the wasteful spending and bloated bureaucracy. However, the plan was always to tie up with T-Mobile all along and Marcelo knew that the whole time of his tenure as CEO.

I just can’t help but feel every bit of “coming soon” network messaging, up to and including the Massive MIMO/5G deployment announcement we got from Sprint on February 27, 2018 (http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-unveils-5g-ready-massive-mimo-markets.htm) was a delaying action to get us to this recent Merger announcement. There was never really a commitment to following through.

All the stories about Masa talking about Sprint’s Network Plans for the future, etc. It was all a mirage.

I think having 4 viable carriers in some form is extremely important for preserving competition.

If Softbank didn't own over 84% of the stock they would be massive class action suits against Sprint right now. They always were lying during their earning calls, there was never a turnaround for this company because that mean investments on your network. You could tell that Son never had an interest in fixing Sprint otherwise he would have made the investments on the network including getting into the 600mhz auction to get expansions and VOLTE rolling. Instead, he went on a credit card spending spree on a chip and robotic company hell he even invested in Uber too. Softbank could find a lot of money to buy ARM, but they couldn't invest at least 5 billion yearly in the Sprint network.

In order to keep frustrated customers, they came with an inexpensive band-aid fix in the Magic Box. Claure cut so much out of Sprint that he even closed call centers located here in America thus customer service started to take a hit. I hope the DOJ blocks this merger then it would force Softbank to sell Sprint for half the price to a cable company.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/regulators-probing-t-mobile-deal-162152132.html

The stock price is tanking today on the fear that less than 40% of this merger getting approved by the DOJ. 

Gunther was called to the office and was told the company strategy is to merge with Tmobile, and a combined company wouldn't keep him as the head of network technology. After that, he probably handed his resignation one week after digesting the news. The same thing happened with the CFO, and he also cashed out and bounce back to Europe. 

They are hammering the headquarter issue a lot because they know deep down this merger will kill jobs and the DOJ wouldn't like that

2 minutes ago, ericdabbs said:

I wonder who from the Sprint executive team will remain on board with the New Tmobile?  Tmobile's executive team is top notch already so I guess the only person who I can see Tmobile keep to help with the combined company is John Saw to help Neville Ray on the 2.5 GHz high band expertise.  Maybe Marcelo would be kept to help with the existing partnerships he has with his former companies.

Marcelo is pretty much gone. Softbank put him on the boards of its various businesses. Claure is going back to Miami since that is what he really wants. He was brought in to cut Sprint fat and reduce expenses which he did now he will get paid handsomely. They will keep their Overland Park campus open for a  year just to avoid PR problems. However for the last year so Marcelo has been shopping around half of the campus because is too big. This merger has been on the making since 2013, and there was never a strategy of making Sprint competitive and healthy for the long term, the s plan was merger from the start.

1 minute ago, RAvirani said:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sprint-t-mobile-boards-vote-to-approve-all-stock-merger-1525017644

Now we wait for the DoJ’s response. 

This is a done deal. Both of these CEOs wouldn’t make a joint public appearance to announce this unless they got the green light from the DOJ and FCC. 

If the DOJ comes with an announcement about “we will review this traction if it makes sense for American consumers” then this is a done deal.

13 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

And it’s official:

http://newsroom.sprint.com/t-mobile-and-sprint-to-combine.htm

 

Finally, this is over and I don't think they would go through this a third time unless they got guarantee approval from the DOJ. Marcelo traveled to D.C several times the last few months with the smoke screen about removing regulations for small cells approvals. His visits were basically to the F.CC and DOJ.

Just my two cents.

Hey let’s announce dual headquarters just to trick the DOJ that we won’t kill high paying jobs when in reality one of the reasons of this merger is to save billions on labor. 

This thing will happen unless the DOJ shot it down but it will be a win win to T-Mobile regarless because Sprint management will halt all deployments as soon this transaction is announced. Massa Son is the ultimate vulture capitalist. Having said that all the signs were there from the start. Marcelo was brought in to cut the fat and get the company ready for a merger.

1 hour ago, utiz4321 said:

It is hard to see the case that the DOJ would make. This is really a better structure for the market. We can either have 2 dominate players and two low end players or three major players. 

The same case they used in 2011 with ATT and the same case they used in 2014 with both of these exciting companies. 

Just now, JThorson said:

One thing that really stands out to me is:

 

Wells Fargo the last supporters of Sprint are throwing them under the bus since they haven’t seen any action from from them.

I am eager to look at the quarter earnings and how much they spent this past quarter, but what will open my eyes is quarter one which close in June. That will tell me if little Massa is starving Sprint again in hope of getting that merger with T-Mobile.

For those that think that T-mobile going into the fall and be successful in the high band auction, they are delusional. The fact of the matter is the reason why they were successful in the 600mhz was due to Verizon and T sitting out something that will not happen with the next auctions. Also, Verizon is telling phone manufacturers to put the 3.5ghz radios in their products by year end which tell me Verizon will go after the 3.5ghz band with a vengeance. 

There are only 150 MHz in the 3.5ghz, cable companies, Verizon, AT&T, and Google want a piece of it. These companies that I mentioned have deep pockets and Tmobile will just be bringing a knife into a gun fight. Sprint should be deploying the massive MIMO radios everywhere while its competitors are busy with high band auctions. 

6 hours ago, ase500 said:

Actually, Softbank may very well be in a much better position.

 

T-Mobile started a clock ticking on 5G. If you really read their statement you and read between the lines, their 5G is going to be very much like their "4G" was before the started deployment of LTE. It will at best be psuedo 5G.

 

They will use "hotspots" for millimetre-wave. This means that they know none of the spectrum they currently have will really support both speed and capacity for 5G Mobile. Yes I know Sprint is the only one that has said their 5G will be mobile. There is a reason for this. However, the general public's association of anything G with mobile is a huge issue.

 

People will not take kindly to getting told that they will only get 5G in Fixed wireless or within X feet from a tower. This is why Sprint has a distinct advantage now.

 

Band 41 is becoming more valuable by the moment and the synergies of the merger are decreasing at the same rate.

 

Son wants control or at least the ability to buy control of the combined company. Calling off talks last time may have been strategic to push for a better position.

 

I have a feeling that he was offered non-voting stock, something that would have shut him out of ever controlling the company. That simple change maybe enough. If his shares and the market shares equal more than 50.1 percent and his shares are voting, he could buy control.

 

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

And this is why I would refuse a merger now. Sprint doesn't need Tmobile but CAPEX. With 5G approaching and all the small regional carriers like US cellular lacking 5G spectrum, they will be forced to sell once and for all.

Tmobile has 30 billion in debt now due to the acquisitions of 600mhz and 700mhz spectrum over the last 3 years however investors and Wall Street don't care because the company is profitable and it has the capacity to pay its bills. Also, the company is adding more postpaid customers than the other three combined every quarter.

What Marcelo did after getting appointed as CEO of Sprint in 2014 spend billions on cut and half promotions instead of investing in their core product which is the network. Then after burning a few billion Softbank engaged in talks with Tmobile about merging and the DOJ shot it down.

I just wonder what is Son and Softbank are trying to do here because at the end of the day the Germans want the combined company for themselves. Deutsche Telekom wants Sprint customer base and the 204mhz of the spectrum but doesn't want any part of the 36 billion debt that Sprint is carrying. Had Sprint would be investing around 4.5 billion on CAPEX for the last 4 years they would have a nationwide good network and would have leverage on any M&A discussions. 

According to the Financial Times Softbank was the one that started the talks about a merger again. So it seems that since Softbank has over 135 billions in debt that the board is forcing little Massa to sell unprofitable assets. They will unload Sprint to T-Mobile and they will be happy to take 25% in a combined company.

Just now, tyroned3222 said:

Right , we've had 20+ permits ready since September last year untouched as of yet ... This is softbank starting the talks again not TMO

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Like I said Little Massa went on a spending spree for the last 3 years putting Softbank further in debt. Now the banks like Mizuho which I am very familiar with who happens to own a stake in Softbank wants them to unload unprofitable assets. 

Guenther leaving or kick out when he is more needed regarding the launch of Massive MIMO and 5G sent a red flag through my spine.

Funny these talks just when the new quarter is about to start regarding spending over 6 billion on CAPEX.

Pink Mobile needs the 2.5ghz band for 5G and they are desperate for new spectrum.

Just now, IamMrFamous07 said:

Lol I don’t care whether it happens or not. I just don’t want them to put network plans on hold lol. I still expect volte this fall, 4x4 MIMO, 256 qam soon, and the 5 “5G” cities this year 

All that will be on hold like it has been for the last 3 years.

Just now, Tengen31 said:

You think SoftBank will sell and give up control of Sprint?

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I think this time it will happen, and anyone that is experiencing terrible coverage better port now because the current Sprint will not fix it.