Trip

They've bought some 2.5 GHz spectrum for fixed use, as shown in their presentation on page 18: https://investor.shentel.com/static-files/1de15196-74e9-42bf-9237-7f820c1a9b93 Q&A just ended. Key items: Apparently 90% of Shentel's prepaid is Boost. They don't know how the settlement impacts them from that perspective. Said that Richmond sliver expansion is still moving forward, though I've seen little evidence of that. If deal falls through, would consider expanding further with Sprint. - Trip

On the Shentel call, they cannot provide comment on the various options, as expected, but the options were spelled out. The fourth option spelled out, of course, is a mutual agreement with T-Mobile for a new affiliation agreement. - Trip

Right, I was unclear, but yes, it's the wireless business, not the whole company. I wouldn't go quite so far as to say "hostile takeover" but you're right that I've read it as T-Mobile has the option to buy, rather than Shentel having the option to sell. If T-Mobile wants to buy them out, the deal they've made obligates them to accept, though Shentel does get a very healthy payout for it, so they can only be so upset. Honestly, it's Option 1 that I fear the most. Option 3, I believe, ends up with them rebuilding their network to support 600/700/AWS, but I don't get the impression that they'd have to buy the spectrum, as that makes no sense if T-Mobile is required to shut down the competing network. But they wouldn't have the added income of the existing T-Mobile customers in the region or the discounted gear to jump start the build. Option 2 sounds like what Shentel wants to me--buy the customers at a discount to have them as added income, and get some of the 600/700/AWS gear at a discount to help get that build started. And, quite honestly, if I were in charge at T-Mobile, I would be glad to have the historically troublesome West Virginia market off my plate and in the hands of someone who has already made it competitive with less spectrum and especially with less low-band spectrum. Obviously, adding 600 and 700 in West Virginia, in particular, will help a lot. I'm just worried T-Mobile might want to be able to say they own their whole network and do it as a point of pride, even if it's super expensive to do so via Option 1. - Trip

Shentel does not own any spectrum. They operate a network they constructed on Sprint's spectrum. My understanding is that within a certain number of days of the close of the sale, the merged entity has to inform Shentel of what it wants to do. There are three options, and I'm not going to promise that I remember them perfectly. 1) New T-Mobile buys Shentel at a premium. I don't remember the details, but I recall that even though Shentel doesn't own the spectrum, the company is valued as if it owned the spectrum in the buy-out. 2) New T-Mobile sells the T-Mobile customers and network to Shentel at a discount. Again, I don't recall the specifics, but I recall something about 75% of the actual value, and New T-Mobile must help finance the purchase at a very good rate if Shentel requests such financing. 3) New T-Mobile doesn't do anything. Shentel remains in business, but doesn't get the network assets or the customers in the region. However, New T-Mobile must then shut down the T-Mobile network in the Shentel region within two years. To me, it clearly feels structured to keep Shentel in business. In options 1 and 2, Shentel gets a great deal, and even the "do nothing" option ends up with Shentel still in business and New T-Mobile not running a competing network. It seems designed to encourage option 2, or at least, that's how I read it. - Trip

Looks like Shentel's earnings call is tomorrow at 10AM. I wonder if they'll say anything about the merger. - Trip

Got back from the southern part of the state today. Wow, has T-Mobile lit up. I locked my phone to Band 71 today, and I've connected to 26 of them so far since Friday, assuming Culpeper and Fauquier are not part of the market. (They were running before Friday.) That includes near-constant connection on B71 from about the Fairfax-Prince William County line to home south of Alexandria. - Trip

Yesterday, WRC and WMPT transitioned to their new channels, clearing some of 600 MHz in the DC area. Today? https://imgur.com/a/Pg7Bclb - Trip

No, that was south of the beltway on the way to the Alexandria Wegmans, near the intersection of Telegraph and South Kings Hwy. Right now, with the south end of the Metro closed, I've not been through the Pentagon City Metro station since the end of May. Won't be again until September. I've been taking the free shuttle from Huntington to Pentagon via I-395. T-Mobile has done a lot of densifying around here, but still has some really strange gaps in service. I'm hoping they keep the Sprint sites in those areas. As an example, Sprint works in the Old Town Alexandria Trader Joe's, while T-Mobile does not, because T-Mobile has nothing at all in the northeastern part of Old Town. It's an enormous hole that is very obvious if you look at the tower sites on a map. But then go to the southwestern part of Old Town and T-Mobile has a whole pile of sites seemingly right on top of each other. Given a choice, I'd rather use the T-Mobile network in this area than the Sprint network, though the T-Mobile network, itself, needs work. But in the Shentel region? I'm never happier to be a Sprint customer than when I'm in the Shentel region, particularly when my T-Mobile phone, and sometimes my AT&T and Verizon phones too, spend extended periods of time telling me "no service". Shentel in the Shentel region, perhaps with Shentel getting even more of the network in weaker areas for Sprint/T-Mobile, and T-Mobile elsewhere with improvements, is basically my dream network. - Trip

Here it is. https://imgur.com/a/W6wxVTd - Trip

I wish I had the screenshot, but it's sitting on my US Cellular phone at home. I forgot to post that on Friday, my wife and I went out shopping and I noticed my US Cellular phone was roaming on T-Mobile LTE instead of Sprint. I was trying to get it to look at Sprint B25, so I locked it to Band 25 to try to force it onto Sprint. I then found myself connected to T-Mobile B25, which was on the T-Mobile PCS carrier. They must be running MFBI on it now. I'll post my screenshot of it in SCP after work. - Trip

The Shentel network is far and away much better than the T-Mobile network. It's not even close. I don't have a sense of number of customers T-Mobile has in that region. - Trip

Yeah, see, statements like this are TERRIFYING. That's why I want to hear an answer from T-Mobile before panicking. - Trip

I doubt T-Mobile has the right to sell Shentel's customers to others unless and until they acquire the Shentel network and customers. - Trip

It's the whole reason I'm listening. Nothing yet. Can someone else send a message on Twitter, perhaps? - Trip

Deal will not close while litigation is on-going. - Trip

DN0410, assuming I'm reading that properly, makes me think AT&T. - Trip

Unfortunately, I finally ended up with an "analyst" who was snippy and just like "does this impact your service?" and when I said no, that was the end of it. - Trip

I just replied to his tweet asking about my home site. - Trip

Blue dots are outdoor DAS facilities, I believe. And I hate to say it but that map appears to have some errors in it. There are definitely sites that have been upgraded that are missing, though I suppose they could have been done at the end of last year. But more concerning are a handful of red dots that reflect Clear sites awaiting upgrades that have not yet actually happened. My home site is marked in red on that map--it was still running Clear gear this morning. - Trip

I'm willing to give T-Mobile credit for at least publishing a map. As far as I know, Verizon has yet to publish one. - Trip

So 31451 checks if there's a 30001, but doesn't check whether the 30001 in the log is from Band 25/26 or Band 41. Maybe that would be a good way to separate it. If it looks up the lower site but it's not Band 25/26 (or is Band 41), assume it's not connected? - Trip

For now. - Trip

I really like this picture from a Washington Post article about OPM. - Trip

The idea that there is "no anti-trust concern" seems entirely at odds with what I have read about the HHI calculation for the merger. (HHI: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hhi.asp ) The HHI value of the merged company would increase its value by 400-500 in the wireless market from what I understand, which puts it squarely within the range of anti-trust concerns, which arise when the HHI value increases by 200 or more. I'm even less clear on what the point of highlighting perceived media biases has to do with anything. - Trip

The cheap walkie-talkies are usually unregistered and would cause interference when used. While you may not care, I find that wireless carriers do tend to care when there is interference in their spectrum. I don't disagree with you on public safety, though the question is "who pays for more density?" Adding sites adds cost, and I'm not clear who would pay for this massive overhaul of public safety, both moving from 450-512 and within 700/800. You didn't address the non-public safety entities in the band. There are quite a few of them. And neither of us touched the issue of the antennas not fitting in a typical cell phone. Further, I'm not sure who would buy this spectrum even if it were to be made available. - Trip