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marioc21

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Posts posted by marioc21

    Sprint proxy filing shows deal talks with 4 entities before SoftBank agreement

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Reuters has a story out today regarding a Sprint proxy filing with the SEC. Basically it lays out 4 other potential deals that Sprint tried to work out between 2011 and 2012 before they agreed to the Softbank deal. The companies are coded as W,X,Y,Z. The reuters article speculates that W was most likely MetroPCS. Two others are probably TMo and Dish. Not sure who the fourth would be though.

     

    http://www.reuters.c...E91402J20130205

     

    I've searched the SEC Edgar database and haven't been able to fine the actual proxy filing yet.

     

    Found it: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1560158/000119312513036887/d425100ds4.htm#toc425100_48

     

    The background of the merger section is what you want to hunt for. It starts at page 78 of the filing.

     

    Definitely seems like company "y" was Tmo. And it looks like they pushed hard to work out a deal. Also, definite that buying Clearwire was requirement of Sprint/softbank deal.

    • Like 2

    Network Vision/LTE - Richmond & Southern Virginia Markets

    in Markets

    Posted

    Any Updates on NV/LTE coming to Richmond? Going up there this weekend, does anyone know how the 3G speeds are up there?

     

    If you're wandering the downtown/financial/government district areas speeds might be slow. I generally don't see much above 100 -200 kbps down. That is during the workday though. On weekends it might be faster. If you're anywhere outside of downtown speeds should be better. I usually get in the 500 - 800 kbps range. Still not blazing fast but usable.

    Sprint Officially Launches Boston, Austin, and several more LTE cities today

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Sprint makes official offer to acquire Clearwire

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Today there's news that Sprint has made an official offer to acquire the remaining 48% of Clearwire stock it doesn't own. Sprint is offering $2.1 billion for the rest of the Company.

     

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-offers-2-1-billion-121233205.html

     

    (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp (NYS:S) is offering $2.1 billion to buy the rest of wireless internet provider Clearwire, to get full ownership of its wireless spectrum.

    The bid, at $2.90 a share for the 48.3 percent of Clearwire that Sprint Nextel does not already own, values Clearwire at around $4.2 billion.

    Sprint to retire $2.28B in debt

    in General Topics

    Posted

    This is essentially a refinancing. I saw a news release yesterday that they were putting out a new public debt offering. The new debt was being used to retire current debt. It does mean that their cash from the soft bank deal can be used for other things instead of debt repayment.

    Sprint still selling WiMax phones?

    in WiMax

    Posted

    Did you guys know that the stopped calling it the Epic 4g Touch? It is now just the Galaxy s2

     

    To be fair wasn't Galaxy SII always part of the name? Didn't it come to market as the Samsung Galaxy SII Sprint Epic 4g Touch? The longest name for a smartphone ever?

    Network Vision/LTE - Shentel Market (Shenandoah Valley/Hagerstown/Harrisburg)

    in Markets

    Posted

    Speaking of ShenTel, they had their most recent earnings call last Friday. Not much new information, but there was this little gem:

     

    http://seekingalpha....ipt?part=single

     

    We still anticipate that we will be able to complete Network Vision projects by year-end 2013 for the original budget projection of 115 million. We had planned to launch LTE at the end of the third quarter, but delays from our vendor related to logistics execution and material shortages has pushed our timeline back several months. We now plan to launch LTE just prior to Thanksgiving on sites that carry approximately 37% of our current 3G data usage and cover approximately 45% of our 2.1 million covered POPS.

    By year-end the sites where LTE will be in service will carry approximately 50% of our current 3G data usage, and will cover just over 50% of our covered POPS. The service will be available to our customers along Interstate 81, from (inaudible) north through Winchester, Virginia, Martinsburg, West Virginia and Hagerstown, Maryland. We also have significant coverage in the Greater Harrisburg, Liquorville, and Hershey, Pennsylvania areas.

    In addition, other major benefits of Network Vision are the additional 3G and backhaul capacity that is also available at these LTE sites.

    I will now turn it back to Adele.

     

    So Thanksgiving is the new target time for ShenTel LTE. Enjoy.

     

    Here's a big from the Q&A concering number of cell sites:

     

    Ric Prentiss - Raymond James

    Right, okay. That's great. And then a couple of questions, it's still early in Vision, but could you update us on the number of cell sites you plan to do each year, and also Sprint has mentioned they expect to see some roaming expense savings kind of on the home on home concept. Are you guys expecting to see any roaming benefit as you roll out Vision?

    Christopher E. French

     

    (inaudible) first question, we anticipate that we will have close to 200 sites done by year-end of the 510 that we have, so about 40% of our sites will be finished by year-end. On the roaming, if that really doesn't impact us because roaming is part of the net service fee. So when our customers are roaming that actually is the cost that's picked up by Sprint. So I guess our building of Network Vision will benefit Sprint in that there will be less roaming by our customers within our footprint, but it will have no financial impact on us.

     

    One last bit. Didn't know this was done earlier this year but ShenTel extended it's affiliate agreement with Sprint through 2024.

     

    While we have no additional information on the transaction, other than what has been shared in the public domain, we do know that our affiliate agreement survives any change of control with Sprint. As you know, earlier this year the initial term of our agreement was extended to 2024. Given our great relationship with Sprint, we expect many years of continued partnership between our companies.
    • Like 1

    Sprint to buy spectrum, customers from USCC

    in General Topics

    Posted

    In the other thread there was a question about rolling out 10x10 LTE carrier, I can't see Sprint doing that in the near future as some of their current LTE devices only support 5x5Mhz:

     

    Galaxy Note 2

    Galaxy Victory

    Galaxy S3

     

    I'm guessing there are more, I couldn't find a break down on the Viper, Nexus, etc

     

    I think of all Sprint's LTE phones only the HTC Evo supports 10x10. Everything else is 5x5. I'm just spitting this out from memory though.

    Sprint 3rd quarter results

    in General Topics

    Posted

    I crave the day nextel has finally died and we can look at a quarter of cdma only growth and losses.

     

     

    Other thought.... they did a great job burying that the company , overall, is serving approx ~420K fewer subscribers on 9/30/12 vs the prior quarter

     

    They still have approximately 2.3 million left. On the earnings call they stated that approximately 1.8 million of those are business accounts. Those businesses will have to make decisions about where to go soon, because Sprint was still targeting middle of next year to complete the shutdown of iden.

    Sprint Launches Direct Connect Android App

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Here's the press release:

     

    http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2439

     

    OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), October 24, 2012 - Sprint (NYSE: S), the industry’s push-to-talk pioneer and market leader, today announced the launch of Sprint® Direct Connect® Now, a downloadable Android application that enables push-to-talk capabilities on the Kyocera Rise and additional devices, including the LG Optimus Elite™, coming soon.

    nTelos 4G update

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    My concern with nTelos is what band they place LTE in. It seems to me that they do not have the PCS resources on their own to deploy a 5x5 LTE carrier. Unless Sprint allows them to use G Block (which I saw no reference to), then they may deploy it in AWS.

     

    It appears to me they have enough AWS resources free to deploy LTE on it. Since their planned LTE devices support AWS and PCS, the PCS support may just be for Sprint roaming. We will have to wait for more details to confirm anything though.

     

    The problem with AWS LTE deployment is Sprint devices would not be able to use it. Except for maybe the iPhone 5.

     

    Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

     

    Seems like they're in a "rough" patch right now. There's mention of a pricing dispute in the presentation. As well as noting that the agreement with Sprint runs through 2015, but Sprint has rights to "overbuild" starting in 2014. I would think for Sprint it would make more sense to keep using Ntelos rather than try to build out their towers in the same areas.

    nTelos 4G update

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    If you look at the financial presentation they reference it gives more details about the LTE plans. Nothing concrete, but you get information about time frame for completion and number of cell sites, pops, etc.

     

    http://ir.ntelos.com...76&DID=15974178

     

    Here are the bullet points from page 14 or 15 from the presentation:

     

    LTE Deployment

    • Launch first markets by 2H 2013
    • Complete initial buildout by year-end 2014. 70% of covered pops.
    • Devices supporting band class 2, 4 and 25
    • Estimated $60 to $65 million of CapEx spending.

    NTelos Slide.JPG

     

    Good information on the status of the NTelos-Sprint relationship further on too.

    • Like 1

    Sprint Receives First Cash Infusion from SoftBank

    in General Topics

    Posted

    They may retire debt. However, I think SoftBank has a very specific idea in mind for Sprint with that money. And I would be surprised if SoftBank is focusing on Sprint debt before they take it over. This is liquid cash that Dan Hesse needs to do something with. An acquisition? Maybe. Network Vision acceleration? Maybe. Maybe even something else. But debt payments doesn't seem likely, as Sprint has all their payments worked into their cash flow for this year already figured.

     

    SoftBank hasn't even wrested control of Sprint and have regulatory approval yet. For them to be loaning money to Sprint in advance, it must be something very important to Mr. Son in the short term.

     

    Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

     

    You're right. Something is else is probably coming down the pike. Sprint's next debt obligation in 2013 is only for $300 million. They repaid about $470 million earlier this year. Their next major debt payment isn't due until 2014. (Although it's a big debt repayment of about $1.4 billion.) So this is gives them an awful lot of cash to play with. At the end of the Q2 they reported having $6.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Add this to the pile and you've got some spreading around money.

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