NYC126

Rumor the Germans are finalizing the Sprint-T Mobile merger in an all stocks purchase. With Sprint free unlimited plan running  until June 30th expect this merger to be announced during the first week of July. lets see what the Magenta cult says when T Mobile is charging 120 dollars for a single unlimited line. Verizon and T will love this to happen because they can raise prices again, no that they are that low anyways.

I agree. As it has always shown, they show favor to a handful of markets that they are really good in. Everywhere else they just blend in with other three if even that. It's kinda sad given the fact that they have a extremely good hand with spectrum in almost every state.

 

There's no doubt in my mind that Sprint can surpass everyone but as time goes on, this 2.5 advantage they scream about starts to fade. How it looks right now, when 5G hits Sprint will just be competitive but not the number 1 carrier when it comes to 5G. The network will be where their 4G should have been.

 

 

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We are basically 5 months away from 2018 and Sprint hasn't catched up to the competition. By the middle of 2019 the other three will be moving into 5G deployments. In fact by July of 2019 you will hear Verizon, AT&T and maybe T Mobile 5G radios being installed in their macros.

Expect to see this only in markets where Sprint as a network shines.

 

 

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That won't mean anything because there is opportunities to grab customers everywhere across the 50 states. They are thinking with a losing mentality instead of becoming ruthless businessmen.

Sprint and Samsung Test Massive MIMO Technology in South Korea

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-and-samsung-test-massive-mimo-technology-in-south-korea.htm

 

"During field testing in Suwon, Massive MIMO Samsung radios, equipped with vertical and horizontal beam-forming technology, reached peak speeds of 330 Mbps per channel using a 20 MHz channel of 2.5 GHz spectrum. Capacity per channel increased about four times, cell edge performance increased three times, and overall coverage area improved as compared to current radios."

 

And....

 

"In cities across the U.S., Sprint plans to deploy Massive MIMO radios with 128 antenna elements (64T64R) using its 2.5 GHz spectrum to increase capacity up to eight times. In March, Sprint was the first U.S. carrier to debut Gigabit Class LTE on a live commercial network in New Orleans. There Sprint used three-channel carrier aggregation and 60 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum, in combination with 4X4 MIMO and 256-QAM higher order modulation, to achieve Category 16 LTE download data speeds on a TDD network. With Massive MIMO radios using 64T64R, Sprint has the ability to push capacity beyond 1 Gbps to reach 3-6 Gbps per sector."

 

Sounds great.

That is good and everything, but if they do another deployment like the  8T8R then it will be half baked.

And VZW has approximately twice the subscriber base that Sprint has, so VZW needs approximately twice the bandwidth that Sprint does. That puts VZW Upper 700 MHz on parity with Sprint SMR 800 MHz, both in bandwidth and nationwide licensed coverage.

 

 

Tell that to Texas and Florida -- which, if you have not noticed, are two of our largest states, where VZW holds barely any Cellular 850 MHz spectrum. Yet, VZW did not bother to purchase 600 MHz licenses to supplement low band spectrum in those areas or any others. Thus, if money is not the only reason, then some operators had other, strategic reasons for not acquiring 600 MHz spectrum.

 

 

No. Wrong. Not exactly. You need to stop complaining to staff about other posters and work on improving your knowledge/analysis.

 

AJ

Fair enough but I don't think Sprint needed to lobby the FCC to reserve 600mhz spectrum if they didn't plan to participate on it. This basically allowed T-Mobile to grab all the reserves in many markets.

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So, by your rationale, no matter what VZW says to the contrary, it did not participate in the 600 MHz auction because of money, correct?

 

AJ

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2018 is almost here

Redspark

I suspect Marcelo is being disingenuous there. The state of the network and his promises suggest they do have CAPEX constraints. Further, it suggests that the "taking the cost out of the business" initiative of Marcelo have a great deal to do with that. In fact, that project illustraights the point quite clearly. He started out saying he would reduce costs with out touching CAPEX, in fact expanding it (project cedar and ocean). That turned into, it would not impact network densification and their new small cell strategy would allow them to spend less on their network while making number 1 or 2 in most major markets. That finally turned into, we didnt do anything for a year except CA and set up a couple of trial areas for new network strategies. I frankly cant understand why Marcelo has any credibility.

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You can put the CFO in the same group. He said Sprint didn't participate in the 600mhz  no because of money....LOL. That statement made lose complete faith in this management team besides Dr. Saw and  Gunther. The network guys are bright, but they are not getting the resources to execute. 

I don't think Dr. Saw will cite PC magazine in the next blog.....

Hopefully things continue to improve in Milwaukee: http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-illuminates-milwaukee-with-hundreds-of-network-enhancements-38-new-stores-and-sprints-1million-project-to-connect-milwaukee-public-schools-students.htm

 

Network improvements sound good, but I'm still not convinced that more points of retail presence are necessary.

Retail expansions are good when there is a demand for your product. Sprint service is not in demand by potential customers.

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I finished reading this report, and the thing that stood was the Sprint network is very inconsistent. Now you know why they are giving free service for a year. 

Doesn't look good for Sprint. Dead last.

Yea, Sprint and their lack of network CapEX slowed the momentum they were picking up from 2015-2016.

<Opens door, throws rock in, closes door>

 

I wouldn't be surprised Amazon buying Sprint. Since they are buying everything else lately (Whole Foods, maybe Slack,) having a telecom would make them an empire. (If they weren't already).

 

Although I still feel Sprint tying up with Charter Communications will be ideal, more so than T-Mobile. But eh, time will tell.

Charter is in massive debt. The last thing Sprint needs is a company that won't invest on their infrastructure.

The counter argument for not participating in the 600 MHz auction is that even though B41 small cells won't reach everywhere indoors, it will still be enough to offload users from B25/26. That would then create a decent B26 experience if you happen to need it.

 

But I'm one of the few who disagrees and hopes Sprint can find a way to get more low band spectrum. They're going to need it if they want to continue to be reliable in Voice.

They didn't participate because they didn't have money for it period. 

Tomorrow PC magazine will release the annual faster mobile awards for several cities. We will see if those New Orleans speeds are accurate.

Disappointing that Apple again is not pushing the envelope with technology.  I feel they should either go solely with Qualcomm or inform Intel to step up their development if Apple is dedicated to two suppliers.  I do not understand Apple's supplier contracts. if a supplier cannot meet your market needs, you go with the one or the ones that can.  Simple economics.

 

Apple's lack of initiative in the short term does hurts them as seen with the flat results in the market.  With their long term vision to deploy upgraded models every year does help to an extent for those who need the latest and greatest when they arrive.  If they know that normal phone buyers will hold on to their phones for three years, make the phone very enticing where more people will want it.  But again, what will be missing from the next iPhone in the 2018 release?  Who knows...

Maybe Apple has been testing Iphones with gigabits chips and the battery performance sucks. 

I don't see things about haters or lovers of Sprint. This is a wireless carrier that needs to add many customers. Legere has done a great job turning his company into a cult of followers which reminds me a lot of Apple. T Mobile can have a handful of towers congested, and their customers  would  give them a pass. Sprint having  the same type of problems, and they would call it a crap carrier.

If Marcelo was as passionate about the Sprint network as he is about Soccer this company would be kicking Tmobile teeths where it matter most.... network quality.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/comcast/philly-and-suburbs-brace-for-attack-of-the-small-cells-20170601.html?mobi=true

Apparently Mobilitie is at it again regarding those ugly poles.

Verizon spectrum holdings currently  on LTE use in NYC : 10mhz(band13)+ 20mhz(band4)+ 20mhz(band 2)=50mhz.

Band 5 and AWS-3 are missing in action, but I am not so sure they own any AWS3 here. The 1x network is still around, but I would be surprised if they don't kill it by the end of the year in this market.

Let's pick another city smaller than the NYC tri state area named Boston where Sprint is dead last too.

http://www.rootmetrics.com/en-US/rootscore/map/metro/boston-ma/2017/1H

In this city Rootmetrics didn't have to test suburbs in other state( NJ), or other parts of the state like  in New York. So instead of spending 200 millions on Tidal they should had spend it all the way from New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Oh I forgot I left philadelphia  where Sprint is dead last too.

 http://www.rootmetrics.com/en-US/rootscore/map/metro/philadelphia-pa/2017/1H

overall their network is dead last in the Northeast period, and you wonder why they only reported an anemic postpaid customers quarter. we are  halfway 2017 and we are talking about mediocre network stats.

Nobody is debating whether Sprint should fix their network or not. My point is, if your like an average New Yorker, you almost never leave the city. I know a ton of folks who barely leave the island of Manhattan, let alone another state (NJ)

There are a lot of people that don't live the Island of Manhattan, but there are millions that live in the suburbs. Those folks come to work in the city, and those are the people Sprint wants to get as customers but they can't because the service sucks where they live.

People travel all around the New York metro area, whether for work, or visiting family or friends in places like Long Island, Westchester county, or  Northern NJ. Sprint is average or mediocre at best in those locations. Its a huge metropolis with so many millions of citizens that if Sprint were a smart organization they would fix the network everywhere. 

So, prospects of Sprints 5G...

 

Will their TDD config change be the light to their 5G deployment?

8T8R gear at with 3xCA, 4x4MIMO, 256QAM and Config 0 is it?  Gets Sprint what to, 897MBps?  Or maybe that 4th carrier to get them past 1Gbps. 

It was a four years ago using outdated Nokia tech that they demonstrated 2.6Gpbs  in a lab test using 120mhz spectrum in a  8T8R setting . So Nokia and the others network companies have come a long way since that time. the new tech is 64T64R with massive MIMO so Sprint won't have a problem breaking over 1Gbps  using only  60mhz of 2.5GHZ spectrum. 

Sprint problem is not the tech or Spectrum, basically is $$$$$$. If they had not money and no the debt problems the network would be at 60k 2.5hgz macro sites and over 25k small cells by now with planning to deploy the 64T64R radios this Fall.

 From hearing Massa in that call, he sounds like someone that doesn't know what else to do with Sprint. The only thing we got today was a box that you put in your window for coverage. I assumed the HPUE stuff was going to solve the indoor problem the 2.5hgz has.

42k net add phone customers with  the cheaper plans in the industry is not impressive at all. I think Sprint is about to hit the M&A game. 

It looks like Sprint's speed is imporiving in a lot of markets.  Look at the speed graph in this crowd-coursed article.

http://speedsmart.net/wireless_index/april_2017/

 

Some markets are still too slow but they are very competitive in a lot of them.

That 44.67/7.36 in Sacramento from Sprint left everyone in the dust. If they would do nationwide what they are doing in Sacramento.....

What Sprint said about this spectrum was the truth, but unless they go gangbuster and add thousands of small cells and macros to make their 2.5ghz network strong is basically nothing. Tmobile is already going into hyperdrive regarding small cells. They are talking about over thousands on the air already with another 25k coming online soon.