greencat

1.5 years since your post, I was in Panama City Beach yesterday (Pier Park).  The 4G (LTE 1900) was unfortunately too intermittent and definitely unavailable inside any bar or restaurant.  The 3G (CDMA 1900) was usable, but only for basic voice, texts, and slow internet usage.

 

NV 2.0 is needed to fill in the "Swiss cheese" network through much of the Panhandle east into northern Florida.

Sounds like Ft Myers coverage.

 

I'm sorry, what do you think cell sites are made of? We say built from the ground up in that Sprint actually replaced every single piece of their network during the Network Vision process. That's something that none of the other carriers have had to do.

 

Stop trying to be a smartass for the sake of argument.

So you don't make any distinction between replacing network equipment and actually constructing a site from the ground up? I think I see the problem here. That and the apparent inability to have a critical discussion without name calling.

The fact remains. NV 1.0 is not "complete."

Egh, you caught me!  

 

But back to your response, how is Network Vision a year behind schedule? I think the majority of the S4GRU community would disagree with you. I mean we are talking about 45,000+ sites nationwide not to mention the Clear sites that are receiving Network Vision love, a new network built from the ground up, countless hours of site optimizations, and advanced backhaul that AJ (WiWavelength) mentioned a few posts above that is being deployed to every site rural and urban.  Where did you get that 25% of Sprint's sites still need advanced backhaul, because it's less than 25%.  If customers do not like Sprint's service then they should leave and come back another time if they feel the need to do so.

Network Vision was supposed to be completed by June 2013, then it was moved to December 2013. Then in June 2014 it was announced that it was "substantially complete." There are markets in the 70% and 80% complete range. It is still not complete. That's how I get a year behind. 25% is my rough guess approximation looking at the number of sites that STILL don't have LTE live on them. If that number isn't exact, my apologies, but I don't think I'm too far off.

Also, spare me the "new network built from the ground up." The sites were in place. They had to replace panels and boxes/cabinets. It's not like they came in and erected a tower and laid foundation on these sites. At least not 99% of them.

Thanks AJ for your technical expertise  , a lot people live in the "I want it now" and have zero patience when it comes to waiting.  I think Sprint has done a phenomenal job in handling Network Vision in the urban and rural environments along with their nationwide LTE rollout.  All of people can't get their heads wrapped around that Sprint is basically building a new network from the ground up.

 

I do not know how many sites T-Mobile has versus Sprint, I do know that T-Mobile's network here in the Bristol and surrounding area is a rewind back to 2002 with the exception of a few spots in the Kingsport, TN area.  

Dan Hesse is that you? 3+ years of work, over a year behind schedule, a massively botched deployment,  and we "live in the "I want it now" and have zero patience" - I don't think most people would agree with your description.

It is 2.5 weeks away from 2015. 25% of Sprint's sites should not be waiting on upgraded backhaul.

It will be a tough time for Sprint stock holder if they are looking for organic growth.  Recovery from these new price lows would probably require "surprise" catalysts such as mergers/acquisitions, network sharing deal, spectrum sale, etc.  I do not understand why SoftBank is not doing share buybacks at these depressed prices.

Softbank is probably waiting for the stock to drop another 20-30%. The real catalyst is going to come when Sprint is done deploying equipment. That will help clean up their balance sheet and they might have a network customers actually think is good - but if you wanna buy low you have to be prepared to wait for that time. Expenses are just too high right now because they have to deploy all the equipment to their sites. Once that's done expenses will come down and they should turn a profit. IMO it is stupid to try and cut expenses now. Now is the time to go all out, spend as much as you need to get the network completed ASAP then cut expenses. Sprint does not have the luxury of waiting x number of years to get the network done. They're hemorrhaging cash and not doing well adding customers. 

Since Marcelo was appointed has there been an increase in the speed at which the sites are receiving upgraded backhaul across the country?

LA is a mess with regards to the rollout (87% of 3G complete after I think 3+ years of work), but they could at least get the backhaul to the sites that could use it asap.

Edit: It looks like Sprint has about 70-75% (Rough guess) of it's sites with LTE service... That seems pretty bad. And about 90-95% have the equipment at the site. So 5-10% of the sites haven't been upgraded and about 25-30% have no LTE. They have a lot of work left to do, but that means service could improve quite a bit.

The thing that gives me hope is all these towers once completed will reduce some strain on the current sites, them being over a year behind schedule kinda kills that hope.

Stay away from sprint until vz and att stop going down. Realistically see sprint around $3-3.50 in the next 3 weeks. Selling for tax purposes is also hitting stocks. Att and vz might be good buys soon as well with handsome dividends.

Any time horizon less than 2 years for sprints stock is too short. Once they have the upgrades done the balance sheet will start to look better. This is all contingent on them executing on the upgrades and actually having a network customers want to join.

If their finished network coverage looks like swiss cheese the success is going to be minimal.

You said it much better than I did. Much more understandable if those areas are the only holdouts.

Not exactly Marcelo related, but Sprint's CFO and an exec from SoftBank are giving a presentation at a financial conference today.  The audio stream is available here: http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/baml/levfin2014/id59111313956.cfm

 

Highlights so far:

 

• 800 LTE finished by end of next year

That was it.  Nothing really interesting. For anybody interested the audio recording should be available later. 

Another year to put in carrier cards seems extreme. The equipment should already be at the site. If they're still having backhaul issues that's pretty bad. Unless this is including areas like Florida where they're having so much trouble with the govts moving off the signal...

Pretty sad. Over a year behind in some areas. Others have had the equipment at the site for at least 6 months but LTE still isn't hooked up. Wonder if they'll really be done by Thanksgiving 2015.

FINALLY! Someone Who Get's It. 

 

I can't wait to see how Marketing/Branding turns around for Sprint. Hopefully this will be a whole NEW ball game. 

Remember this moment and then let us know where you see a change. Hopefully your wait will be less than mine.

I should be able to update within the next week.

And where will you go?

 

Just curious?

Probably to Cricket.

I'm saying because of the high churn and continued losses of post paid subscribers it doesn't seem like people care about the current rate plans.

I personally don't think they are plans that will keep people especially after their bill increases... But people may stay if the service gets better, obviously we all know if their service stinks they might turn right around and leave - this might be happening as indicated by the high churn rate.

Use all the anecdotal evidence you want reported from a few people at some stores. The numbers are there for everyone to see. For all the packed stores 1000s of people were in the stores of other carriers starting service and porting out of Sprint. I thought the Framily plan brought in more people and was more appealing than the current family plans.

When they have a good quarter I will give them credit. This was not it. The other three carriers all added 100,000s of post paid subscribers, but Sprint lost over 270,000.

Sprint CEO says he may lose my account in 2015

 

No 2-year contract, no sale. I have no interest in a rate hike, which is what it would end up being for me.

Unless my bill is drastically cut I will also leave, if I don't before the next Galaxy S6/ LG G4

Investors sure don't like this. S is down 6.77% after-hours.

It is definitely not a good quarter. 272,000 post paid losses is bad. I don't think people really care about the current price plans. They need to get as much LTE service turned on as fast as they can.

Will there be an update soon to the thread that this is related to?

You're not going to find any flagship device sub 5 inch screen anymore. Unless there is a tech culture change.

 

Edit: Minus iPhone.

Galaxy Alpha. disclaimer: IDK if it is coming to Sprint.

At some point I feel like we have to judge what they've done and what they're doing.

They added 300. There are 10,000's of towers out there without Sprint equipment on them in areas where Sprint needs better service. Yeah, they're going to bid on 600Mhz probably and they're going to add band 41, but for a lot of areas that's years down the line. Can these places get by with just turning on LTE 800 in the next year? How many years can Sprint survive with that type of service?

... the old-fashioned way: more people coming in, less people walking out.

  I never would have guessed that way

I'd view any net additions of postpaid phones as good. But if it is a small number, to me it'd be an indication that the pricing strategy was not having a big impact. I see some other issues and do not expect many, if any, net adds. It will be fun to see how it actually turns out.

.79 of 1% new towers of the total tower count in approx 15 months is not really going to move the needle.

With VZ and ATT adding over 1.25 million postpaid phones between the two of them and Tmob still having to report where do you think all these Sprint adds are going to come from?

If my RSRP fluctuates between 96 and 105 and avgs 99-101 what would be a reasonable expectation for band 41 strength?

If my RSRP fluctuates between 96 and 105 and avgs 99-101 what would be a reasonable expectation for band 41 strength?

Would be surprised if there was a big net addition. I think it will be pretty flat. Family was unique and that price point got people to join. The new plans are not overly attractive and the service is still too spotty.