greenbastard

The opinion of not being able to afford a phone because you buy on installment didn't really have anything to do with the ongoing discussion. It's all fair game at this point.

To be fair, a phone ≠ house. But point taken.

I can say for sure that Houston's northern and western suburbs haven't seen any small cells. Sprawl has beaten both Sprint and T-Mobile. Unfortunately only T-Mobile is trying to catch with a macro here and there while Sprint is trying to get by with low CAPEX.

Nice. I called to see what my buyout is and when they asked why, I told them it was due to 2 year agreements ending. The guy said they could offer me an installment for a new phone that was as competitive as 2 year agreements. I laughed and helped him do the math as to why installments aren't comparable to my old 2 year agreement. Unless they got my installment payment down to $8.33, anything else was a waste of my time. T-Mobile and at&t with installments are a better value than Sprint would be with installments. The only advantage Sprint had is now gone.

Not going to happen. Operators love bloatware and most phone manufacturers have not made phones that support all domestic carriers. Even apple has moved away from full universal support for the iPhone7. If the installment doesn't include any interest, can you blame people for passing up on paying a phone in full and instead paying a monthly fee? I personally don't see an issue with installments. No different than people who use credit cards, go to school on loans, or buy cars using credit.

The worst part is that before the Manhattan densification, most NYC users here claimed Sprint was already good. A lot of them were the first to defend the propagation issues B41 faces by using Manhattan as an example. So why spend resources in a market that didn't really need it? San Diego or San Francisco could have used those resources over Manhattan right off the top of my head. Those markets are terrible Sprint markets. It's just another questionable move by KC HQ. If Son ends up buying T-Mobile, he needs to pull out of KC and just stick with the Seattle HQ.

Stores could easily be rebranded, or the Sprint name could easily be kept. This speculated merger (and it's just that, a speculation) could go multiple ways. Maybe T-Mobile becomes a prepaid brand while Sprint focuses on post-paid, vice versa (ala At&t buying Cricket). As for the employees, they could easily stay on after the merger if Sprint lays off T-Mobile office staff (but then again letting go of Legere would be stupid). Softbank promised new jobs, but never said anything about buying and laying off other properties.

I don't think cutting down on Capex is a good thing. HPUE can only help so much. It definitely won't help with the massive load most towers see on B26. I'm also skeptical about how much HPUE will really extend the range of B41. If Sprint really is slowing down network development, then they are probably taking a 'wait and see' approach. I'm sure they are eyeing a merger of some sort with T-Mobile. No sense in spending money if you're just going to have to rip and replace small cells to add B4 support. If Sprint was really interested in saving money, they would have never bought into a failing music streaming service.

I did an RMA thru Fi (not because of bootloop) a couple of weeks ago and I was expecting a refurbished unit. Fortunately I got a new unit inside the original N5x box with a new charger. That was odd, but I am happy nonetheless.

Very good near towers. At least 50 Mbps with CA. Unfortunately, that's it. Once you lose Line of Sight from the towers, you're at the mercy of overloaded Band 26/25 (which pretty much means indoors). Houston has a few 8t8r antennas, but mostly Clearwire so no 3 CA readily available. As far as the woodlands, you will find service works well in high transit areas (mall and businesses along the freeway), but terrible in residential areas. The growing sprawl has been too fast for Sprint to keep up with. Overall, Sprint is dead last in Houston as far as data speeds. But Sprint is also probably the best carrier for call reliability. I don't recommend Sprint here in Houston and have deterred friends from switching. I'm in the process of leaving.

If they did, then they either haven't turned them on or have only focused on the immediate area surrounding the stadium and practice facility. As far as the neighborhoods nearby, I saw nothing but clearwire B41 or B25/26

No. Sprint only has 30 MHz in PCS+G band in Houston (all non continuous and scattered). But I do expect it to happen soon as it has in other markets with 30 MHz of PCS spectrum. There is currently one voice carrier (channel 350) and 3 EVDO carriers (325, 775, 750 iirc) in the PCS band and the usual 5x5 LTE carrier on the G block. Sprint is only focusing their efforts in the Stadium area and midtown area (which really needs it). Unfortunately, Midtown is only seeing COWs (as is downtown I think). All small cells (which I have yet to find) are alleged to be around the stadium.

Sprint gonna Sprint.

It's not back on my account.

Not that I want to get ahead of myself, but you'd figure they would only have to divest assets in areas both Verizon and Charter have a presence in.

Here is a quote from their press release. http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-is-ready-for-iphone-7-and-iphone-7-plus-sprint-is-offering-an-incredible-opportunity-to-get-a-free-iphone-7-available-on-sept-16.htm

This promo? It says installment credit, so it means it's not a lease.

Call it in. They'll probably get it fixed and there's a chance you'll get credit added to your account for the inconvenience.

I used to have at&t. I remember one time my phone decided to stop working in the middle of a 2 year contract. I couldn't walk into an at&t store and buy a $400 phone outright (college) so I did the next best thing; walked into Walmart and bought a 20 dollar GoPhone. Slipped my sim in and off I went. Who would have thought a greedy company such as At&t would allow such thing? Well, can't do that with Sprint. They create so much unnecessary red tape for their own good. They should just get out of the BYOD game if they're going to be so damn strict about it. They're like soup Nazis for phones.

Probably just coincidence. Didn't San Francisco get a second B25 carrier even though they only own a total of 30 MHz of PCS+G block spectrum?

I wonder if the Tidal purchase caused that much of a spike on Sprint searches that it lead people to S4GRU?

Ever heard of a little conglomerate called SoftBank? They own or have stake in several diverse companies.

Who said anything about "helping"? If a move like that does happen, it won't be to help Sprint, but more to line Charter shareholder's pockets. But I doubt something like this happens. If this were an office pool, my money is on SoftBank buying T-Mobile and finally shutting down the Sprint HQ. Sprint hasn't been successfully run in a very long time and T-Mobile has been the flavor of the month for a very long time. Also shorter flights between Japan and Seattle.

Mob mentality. Every forum has it (even this one).

The maps are very unreliable. Texas has some squares (literally) of LTE plus, but I know for a fact that B41 doesn't reach that far. LTE plus coverage is very deceitful. Voice seems to be the only honest coverage on that map. It's almost dead on accurate.