centermedic

The htc one was released a 2 or so weeks before the S4 and that didn't help.

If you remember it was supposed to be almost two months prior. A two week window is to small to capture somebody else s sales in a significant amount.

"Forcing people onto" VZW and AT&T has made the duopoly what they are in wireless.

 

Do you think that acquired AT&TWS, Alltel, RCC, Dobson, Centennial, etc., subs were thrilled? A lot of them were not. But inertia itself is a powerful force. Most of the acquired subs got over it and stayed because that was the path of least resistance.

 

AJ

In all of those cases there was a certain amount of customers who defected. While that is to be expected it is worth noting that Verizon and AT&T had decent reputations when these acquisitions took place. I fear that there will be a significant defection of former T-mobile customers if Sprint takes over.

No matter how good its network will become, it's too late to get back customers. It will stop losing them. If it drops it's prices then it wil not have money for network upgrades.

That flies in the face of conventional wisdom. On top of that it suggests that mobile customers are more entrenched than your average consumer. I see no evidence of that. In fact I see evidence that they are very transient. Proof of this is contracts. Forcing people onto Sprint will not work. Showing them a good product at a competitive price will.

Well your going to be waiting until April then that's when htc normally gets there phones out to the masses.

After the requisite delays and lawsuits. Hopefully they can avoid all that this time. They almost have to as they cannot afford to release after Samsung.

Impressed. I made a big bet on both Sprint and Tmobile and have over 50% profit. I actually made more investing than working. My reasoning for buying Sprint still holds regardless of if the merger occurs so I am in for the long haul (another couple years) . My price target is $25 and at least the same price to earnings ratio as Verizon since the market tends to over compensate for momentum runs.

Wow, I have a target price of $25 also. History shows that merger and acquisitions either put upwards or downwards pressure on stock immediately after the deal closes. If the t-mo deal goes through it may put downward pressure on Sprint stock creating a chance to short the stock.

There is no way either T-Mobile or Sprint will make substantial gains against the big two. Yeah, T-Mobile may gain back some of the customers it lost the last 2-3 years, but is unsustainable. T-Mobile lost money (granted not much) last quarter. The iPhone does not come cheap. So in a stalemated mature market what do you do? Yeah everybody will make some money, but where is the growth going to come from.

 

I am fully for the merger. I also would be fully for putting some buildout requirements for at least the semirural areas, as in, the resulting entities have to cover all highways and towns over a certain population.

Sprint has some major cash behind it right now. I would that cash be used to drive t-mo into the ground and pressure the other two than to add a bunch of customers who actually hate Sprint(increased churn), and add a bunch of debt that may financially restrict the company. I think the long play here is to build the network to attract the customers. Not a short cut that adds debt.

The tie up of Sprint and Nextel was touted as the "merger of equals," although people look back at it as more of a buyout. 

IIRC at the time it was or at least it was on paper. I have to go back and check but I believe both companies had similar revenues although we know now that only one company had a future.

Please, oh please, do not call it a merger. It had better be a buyout. I don't see SoftBank working out a deal with Tmo still retaining any rights post closing. He will want ultimate and total control and will buy out that privellege. This is not about joining forces.

 

Or I could be completely wrong.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

You are right Robert. As the rumor goes it is a buy out. I was talking in generic terms.

Anybody concerned about the T-Mobile deal? It may present the opportunity to short the stock.

I am firmly against the merger. I will also have to review the entire deal before I make a decision about my stock holdings. Other than taking a competitor off the table I really don't see where the value in this deal is. What it does do is add a bunch of debt.

Surprise, surprise Joan Lappin is still bitter. 

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joanlappin/2013/12/26/the-five-top-fibs-told-by-sprint-management-in-2012-13/?partner=yahootix

OMG! First, I really dont like articles that don't provide references. As she provided one reference which in itself was an opinion. This makes here entire piece an opinion. Second, if you take it for granted that everything in her article was true, then it only amounts to a hill of beans. Much of what she believes was said was nothing more than strategy. The savvy investor knows the difference between lies and strategy. Geez, she needs to find something else to write about.

Good news and bad news. Th bad news is I only have insurance on the wife's phone. The good news is my upgrade is on January 1 st. So, as much as a cracked screen absolutely drives me crazy, I am going to try and wait to see what HTC comes out with.

Why not wait to see what is in store for Q1-Q2 2014? I have the same phone as you do and while I am looking forward to upgrading , I want to future proof my choice as much as possible. I know that you can make the argument that the next big thing is always right around the corner but it just seems like my current upgrade cycle always puts me right at the edge of the next great phone....

I agree. I cracked my screen but I'm going to hold off on a new phone. My upgrade is 1/1 and if the M8 was not coming out in a couple of months I would get a Nexus 5.

They send it out to their repair facility and the repair facility will fix and return it, or send back a refurbished unit in it's place.  I've replaced mine 3 times so far.  Takes a couple of days, and they will normally charge you a $50 refundable fee if you need them to give you a replacement phone to use while repairs are being completed.

Ugghhh. Ok, I guess that's not that bad since I need my phone for work.

On my way to best buy to resolve my screen issue. Anybody have any experience with best buys insurance program?

Merry Christmas everyone. Please remember everyone who has to work today in order to ensure our safety and freedoms.

Grrrr. Cracked my screen tonight. Luckily I have insurance with Best Buy.

Well, New York was another special case.  Prior to the AT&TWS merger, Cingular had no native presence in the New York metro.  T-Mobile had the same problem in California.  It was really quite embarrassing for national operators Cingular and T-Mobile to be absent from New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, and/or San Francisco.

 

So, they struck a network sharing agreement.  In essence, Cingular got to use the T-Mobile network and sell service in New York, while T-Mobile got to do likewise in California.  I suspect that is your recollection.  Then, the network sharing agreement was terminated as part of the Cingular-AT&TWS merger -- with T-Mobile buying the somewhat redundant Cingular network in California.

 

AJ

Now that makes sense and it does sound familiar.

Based on your location, I have to assume that you are speaking from experience in the Carolinas.  But do not generalize from that, as the Carolinas were basically a black hole for T-Mobile -- it had no native footprint.

 

To help smooth approval of the Cingular-AT&TWS acquisition, AT&TWS (SunCom) in the Carolinas was divested to T-Mobile.  That finally gave T-Mobile a native network in Carolinas; prior to that, T-Mobile had no choice but to roam on Cingular or AT&TWS.

 

Elsewhere in the country, roaming on Cingular or AT&TWS was not common.  And that still holds true today.  When VZW and Sprint can come to terms on a national roaming agreement but AT&T and T-Mobile cannot, well, that is a failing of the latter pair.  Plus, T-Mobile data roaming allotments are a pittance.

 

Like it or not, T-Mobile is just not very roaming friendly.  In so many cases, you have T-Mobile, or you have nothing.  So, you really have to like T-Mobile to put up with that.

 

AJ

Actually I'm a born and raised New Yorker! My statement was based on the fact that T-Mo had A roaming agreement with Cingular. Now where they could roam I have no idea. I also know that AT&T was not interested in continuing those roaming agreements.

iirc tmo basically freddie krugered most of the areas where you roamed previously. The whol eof east Maui has no tmo service, absolutely no chance of getting any as there is a 10000ft volcano in the way, but you don't roam on at&t anymore. You used to be able to, but not anymore. Vzw and at&t have service there and sprint roams on vzw. Tmo you are left to whistle. 

 

I had to chuckle today, theres actually a second small area of tmo lte on island, speeds are 3mbps down, 6.5 mbps up. So not overloaded then Back on the other side its 17mbps down, 12 up. Can't wait for NV to get rolling here, darn permits! 

In defense of T-Mo...they had a roaming agreement with Cingular. After the AT&T/Cingular merger the new AT$T decided to let those roaming agreements expire. T-Mo had to decide if they were going to build out, negotiate with AT&T at a higher price or stand pat. Their business decision was to stand pat.

True to an extent, so it is to a companies advantage to ensure it's product requires the minimum amount of thought to achieve a satisfactory experience

 

Having said that we don't have to make THAT many choices in life, at least not big ticket items, and we have a lot of help choosing. Groceries, schooling, housing, car, cell phones, TV health insurance etc.Many of the choices we don't have to review often, most folks don't change house or car on a yearly basis. Schooling was a pretty difficult and expensive choice but its a one off choice. What I absolutely love about our society is we have choice and we have access to a wide range of information (of varying quality) to help make that choice. If you are motivated to read and put in a little mental effort you can understand most things and you can pay to outsource that effort. Can you imagine the Norks running a website like this? Robert would have been executed for 'dreaming different dreams' or whatever the current euphemism is over there for daring to think. Life shouldn't be deliberately difficult but nor should we wish it to be too easy lest we forget how to think. Many industries have also advanced to the point where there it is hard to make a bad choice, you make make a suboptimal choice but look at cars. There are less wonderful cars out there but barring going for some random import they're all pretty safe, pick one the right size that looks pretty. You might pay a bit extra in gas although even thats written pretty large on the window when you buy. Theres websites out there that you put in an address and it tells you all about the neighborhood, crime stats, house prices, schools etc.

 

Ask Robert, I am not a smart person but if I can do fine most people, unless they want to make a really specific choice, should be ok if they put a little effort in. Want to buy a tv? Walk into costco, theres not really a bad choice in there, none of them will explode or give you cancer. They even invented the wps button on routers so all you have to do is plug them in and whack the button and stuff can connect so you don't need to understand configuring it. The cell phone market is a little distorted in that respect as if you can benefit from learning a little more about the networks and the phones to avoid being disappointed, but again the information is out there and it is possible for an average person to understand.   

You are assuming that the source of information chosen is accurate.

As a very technical person who is called upon to help make buying decisions by friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances all the time, I tend to see the perspective of the less technical person a lot.  Even those, like my husband, who are very technical in their own way about the products and services they support, defer to me on certain subjects.  I believe we've become overly complex in such a way that it takes far too long to gather enough information, determine the appropriate decision factors, and weigh them all to come up with the best choice.  Reliance on things like Consumer Reports, review sites, and people like me are a natural consequence.

 

Having too many choices with too many options for any product or service can make sifting through it all too time-consuming.  I have a harder and harder time making some purchases because of this.  Even in an area I know fair amount about, I had a lot of factors to consider in buying my latest cell phone:  micro sd slot, removeable battery, RAM, ROM, screen size, processor, physical construction, tri-band, rf performance, etc.

 

The average consumer has no hope of learning enough about every product they purchase to be certain they have picked the "best" product.

Exactly.

If a customer is going to lock into a 2 year contract with a company for a service, it is the customer's responsibility to research and find the info needed to make an informed decision. That is what I did back in August when I joined here. I've been with Sprint for a good number of years. I knew there was a good chance I'd stay a Sprint customer, but I still did my due diligence of Googling for relevant info on the competition and on how Sprint was fairing with their NV upgrades. I quickly found links to the NV network thread here and began reading. Within days I had a good grasp on how the wireless network industry was and where it was going in the next two years.

 

I understand that it is important for a company to keep info available to the public and allow us to see what is important to know. I feel that Sprint does a fair job between their website, Newsroom site, various interviews and a dose of tech site articles. But, there comes a point where Sprint as a company shouldn't have to hold your hand and spoon feed you. As customers, we have to take responsibility to understand for ourselves what we are getting ourselves into when we decide on a product or service. This is why I have a Denon system at home instead of a Pioneer, a Panasonic V series plasma tv instead of a Vizio and why I have a Sprint phone instead of a Verizon phone. Heck, this is why I have a G2 instead of a single band S4. I researched and found out where I should put my money to achieve the best customer experience.

Actually I dont blame Sprint or the individual customer. I blame the media. Not everybody is tech savy and those folk need to have things spoon fed to them. Most look to outfits like consumer reports or their favorite tech website to help guide them through the techno babel. We all know how reliable that can be sometimes.

The embers are dying. Here is some more fuel for the fire...

 

http://bgr.com/2013/12/19/top-10-best-smartphones-2013-part-3/

 

Discuss...

 

AJ

The comments are entertaining.

Hilarious and pretty accurate.