RedSpark

ATT has began the process of entirely ripping out their Alcatel-Lucent GSM / WCDMA / LTE infrastructure for a full Nokia Flexi 10 setup. Meanwhile Verizon began replacement of Alcatel-Lucent markets with Ericsson equipment while T-mobile declined ALU's bid for their network modernization program. 

 

That should tell you something about the equipment of one vendor who no longer exists. 

Interesting. Where does the ALU gear come up short?

Do you see Sprint eventually migrating everything to one platform?

Infeasible.  Not one of the big four domestic operators uses the same infrastructure vendor across all markets.  Supply chain.  Not enough equipment to go around quickly.

 

And, in some cases, Network Vision, for example, certain vendor infrastructure plays more nicely with certain legacy infrastructure as some sites are upgraded, others remain legacy during the lengthy network overhaul process.  Ericsson CDMA2000 is Nortel legacy intellectual property.  Alcatel-Lucent CDMA2000 is Lucent legacy intellectual property.  Samsung CDMA2000, on the other hand, still is Samsung intellectual property.  But Sprint had only one or two Samsung legacy markets. 

 

AJ

Appreciate the info on that. Is there a performance disparity between equipment types?

In California, the three other carriers exclusively use Ericsson.

 

 

Northern half sprint uses samsung. Southern half sprint uses formerly Alcatel-Lucent CDMA LTE equipment and now Nokia LTE equipment.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

Why the geographical split for equipment type in CA?

Why didn't Sprint go with one equipment provider (i.e. Samsung, etc.) for nationwide deployment? Wouldn't that be easier for network management?

There's a difference between going live and having phones support wide band, ultra high spectrum.

 

600 MHz band will be ready faster than any '5G' technology is rolled out.

By definition according to John Saw (Sprint CTO), 2.5 GHz is "beachfront" spectrum for 5G. So that's going to be ready much sooner than the 600 MHz spectrum is available for deployment, which according to Tarek Robbiati (Sprint CFO), won't be until 2021. (http://tinyurl.com/z5xct5w)

See Saw's comments here: http://www.pcmag.com/news/343816/sprint-planning-will-bring-lte-plus-home-to-you

 

In Saw's view, 5G is a "dense network using high-band spectrum," which conveniently places Sprint as a leader, as one can see its 2.5GHz band as the very lowest band of that high-band spectrum.

 

"2.5 is going to be the low-band, beachfront spectrum of 5G," Saw said. "Ten years ago, everybody laughed at us, but I think it's come full circle, and everybody now recognizes the value of high-band spectrum for 5G."

 

Would it make sense for sprint to buy 10x10 or 15x15 of 600

Sit on it densify, with small cells then when it's ready to be deployed (600) trade or sell the 800?

Tarek said it wouldn't make sense to participate as there wouldn't be enough spectrum for Sprint to do what it wants to do and that the spectrum would also not actually be deployable until 2021.

LightReading had an article about this... The link doesn't copy well because of () in it, so here's the shortened link: http://tinyurl.com/z5xct5w

"This auction is at best going to give a block of 2x10MHz spectrum," Tarek Robbiati said at the Citi 2016 Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference. "For a really, really high-speed network you need at least 2x20MHz of contiguous spectrum."

Furthermore, Robbiati suggested, the spectrum won't be available for use until 2021.

Also, bidding on the Auction would tie up a bunch of money that can be used to more quickly densify/expand Sprint's existing network and pay down debt.

Montana?

 

It's a spectrum protection network. Very low priority but not as low as GMO lands. 

And as for filling in the existing Sprint Coverage, should we expect to see a focus on eliminating costly roaming areas or more of a focus on overlaying LTE in existing 3G areas?

Nope. Not with the paltry sum of money they dedicated to network expansion for the entirety of 2016.

 

Almost the entire years funding is towards existing coverage network capacity and coverage improvements.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

So on the Coverage Map, should we expect to see more LTE Plus/LTE continue to cover the remaining areas of 3G on the existing footprint?

Is Project Cedar still moving forward?

I'm waiting for the map on their site to reflect what was said on the earnings call. When that'll happen I don't know.

I'm waiting on that too. Not sure what's going on there, but Marcelo should look into this.

I'm sure not too much has changed in coverage.

Sprint said during the recent Earnings Call that "Total LTE coverage now reaches nearly 300 million people, including approximately 70 percent being covered by the 2.5 GHz spectrum deployment."

That sounds like an increase to me.

I like seeing Sprint make moves in small cell deployment, but after talking on Twitter via direct message with Sprint CEO line, I found out there are no planned upgrades for Alabama in the near future.... (what's near future, I'm not sure)...

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

:-( Sorry to hear that.

Frankly, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on with Sprint's public reporting of coverage, especially since its Coverage Map says: "Coverage Updated 03/29/2016".

I don't know what's involved with keeping the Coverage Map up to date, but it's a bit upsetting that Sprint doesn't put more of a priority on having the map updated more frequently. It's not like they don't have the data.

People do choose carriers based on Coverage, and having a Coverage Map that hasn't been updated in over 5 Weeks is an issue in my opinion.

Of course they do. Get the money to payoff debt at cheap interest rates as well as money for a quick rapid deployment. Especially since they weren't allowed to merge with Tmo when they had the finances.

Investors will feel better as its backed by gov.

Sprint will bounce back like the automakers.

 

Yes it sounds crazy and almost impossible but it would probably help that contract along with small cell on government property.

Also, the gov wants 4 players and this market is slim pickings

So help sprint out!

 

I bet they wouldn't need it too long just like the auto industry

You know when you say "money" from the government, you're actually talking about using joe and jane taxpayer's money right?

The last thing Sprint needs is to owe money or favors back to Uncle Sam.

Sprint should ask the gov for a bailout

No it shouldn't, and it doesn't need one.

Interesting Article in FierceWireless:

Mun: Wi-Fi offloading isn't as popular as it used to be in stadiums

Some good breakdown on traffic growth over Wi-Fi vs. DAS at the Super Bowls.

"On my pride, I promise a V-shaped recovery," he said.

Not only has Son put his money where his mouth is (in buying additional shares in Sprint after purchasing his majority stake, approaching the 85% limit at which he would be obligated to buy the rest of the company's shares per the merger conditions), he's put his personal pride on the line, which is a really big deal. He's been a good friend to Sprint these past years, giving Sprint access to SoftBank's large scale engineering/financial resources and talent, while at the same time walking the tightrope in his domestic market. I believe him.

The Fiscal Year 2015 Earnings Presentation and Webcast are worth a read/watch.

I am not talking about top management, but the one at the middle and in the field. These are the ones that make things happen.

Top management sets the tone and establishes expectations for middle management and those in the field.

Marcelo has been doing a good job in bringing his people from CTO to CFO, but if the same project management crew is still there he won't see the network results that he wants.

• Günther Ottendorfer was appointed Chief Operating Officer, Technology
• John Saw was promoted to Chief Technology Officer
• Junichi Miyakawa, Technical Chief Operating Officer, who was instrumental in developing the company’s network plans is now a senior technical adviser in the Office of the CEO and a liaison between Softbank and Sprint for network strategy.

There's a whole new crew running things from the top, and Marcelo/Tarek are ensuring this works its way down the chain. This is also much easier to manage through "One Sprint" with the Four Area Presidents (West, Central, South, Northeast) reporting directly to Marcelo and the Regional Presidents reporting to the Area Presidents. Marcelo has introduced structure and accountability into Sprint.

Sprint will not be allowed to fail or be partitioned.

 

They are considered "too big to fail" by uncle Sam.

 

Though sprint as a brand may not exist in the near future.

What will the brand be?

Marcelo dishing it back to Verizon:

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/729434236801851393

Because Sprint has history of throwing money at problems with not so great results. At least now we know now they are being a lot more scrutinizing in their spending.

Right. And more importantly, Sprint is going to get more than its money's worth on this build given Marcelo's, Tarek's, John Saw's and Gunther's oversight. As has been said many times, the economics of this build are much different than what's been traditionally done. Analysts and pundits have a hard time appreciating that because their thinking is stuck on the economics and costs of using traditional tower companies and procedures. I think we'll all be surprised at the speed and cost efficiency with which this is accomplished.

Ouch, got in on a glaring issue as it stands with Sprint

The Kentucky Derby is over so Marcelo should look into this and see what's up. John Legere and Mike Sievert are clearly milking this as far as it can go.

Wow, the other carriers are using absurdly high spectrum. It seems like 5G is just going to be for special use cases, like very high density stadiums and event centers and such. I'm surprised that would really even penetrate someone's pocket, and definitely won't make it through a wall or other obstacles. Those are line of sight microwave frequencies right?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

Others here can speak to the frequency propagation properties way much better than I can, so I'll defer! But I do recall there were people on FierceWireless making comments on 2.5 GHz not going through a wet paper bag and the like.

I also find it interesting that Ericsson's FCC Application has multiple redactions, but Nokia's FCC Application does not.

Any thoughts on this?

Santa Clara and Philly will be the two test/demonstration cities for the upcoming 5G Trial during Copa America next month.

Lots of info in the article and in the linked FCC applications from Nokia and Ericsson about the frequencies/equipment/setups for each venue.

(BTW: Sprint is a Copa America Sponsor)

Check out this very interesting Forbes article about Pinsight Media, a subsidiary of Sprint that does big data, behavioral analytics and app development.

Pinsight Media is also playing a central role as the landing page for the Kansas City WiFi Project that's going live today.

Sprint just posted an article about the WiFi Project as well.

Marcelo received a warm welcome from employees at his Town Hall this morning: https://www.facebook.com/MarceloClaurePage/videos/1090072537697966/

The Transcript for the Earnings Conference Call is up on Sprint's Investor Relations Website.

Great read if you missed the call.