RedSpark

I would love if Sprint would build out all major freeways and grows from there into small comunities along the Interstates. Let's look at I-15 between LA and Las Vegas, there is still no LTE coverage and coverage is spotty. Same for I-5 between LA and Sacramento. Coverage has improved but I don't know why Sprint is not finally handling this strech of major roadway.

Sprint has to account for where people are most of the time and how many people will benefit when it prioritizes network improvements.

There's only so much funding and it has to maximize ROI on its build.

I agree, having continuous LTE between Los Angeles to Las Vegas makes sense to have. However, the number of people who will actually benefit is greater if Sprint prioritizes investing in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I think that's Marcelo's thinking on this. The build between Los Angeles and Las Vegas will come in time.

Finally, as far as Network Metrics go, RootMetrics tests metropolitan markets, not the highways between them. If Sprint wants to show progress on these numbers/awards, it has to focus investments in the metro markets themselves, not on the highways between them.

I understand the band reconfiguration areas pending, but I'm talking about general coverage outside the IBEZ.  Why are there holes in Sprint's LTE coverage on major highways?  The other three carriers appear to be focusing on general coverage while Sprint's taking the metro-only approach.  There should be a lot more expansion.  If T-Mobile can do it with just 700Mhz 5x5, then Sprint can do it with 5x5 on B25 and B26.  I won't bring AT&T/Verizon into discussion because they have other branches that benefit them (ISPs, backhaul providers, etc.)  I'm not ranting at all, I am just curious how T-Mobile has managed to still be profitable while growing at such a rapid pace.

If I had to guess, not all 800 MHz is turned up yet. Or perhaps there's continued evaluation being made re ROI for optimizing deployment. Others can offer much more on this than I can, but that's my best guess.

I am surprised no one has posted this here. Looks like sprint has quietly brought some small cells online.

 

And even more noteworthy its live!

 

https://twitter.com/RFtelecomGuy/status/704689378182963200

Looks like it's in Miami based on other Tweets he's made.

Also, appears to be supported by Wireless backhaul from Fastback Networks: http://www.fastbacknetworks.com/

Does Sprint have any sort of deadline for 800Mhz buildout?  It seems so unreasonable to have nationwide 14mhz and still be behind one of the four carriers in terms of coverage.  I know PCS G block deadline is coming up for Montana (hence why Cedar is making progress now.)  I am curious if there's any sort of geographic requirements in the SMR spectrum.

 

That being said, I am glad Sprint is making efforts to allocate more usable spectrum in the PCS range.  Some markets that are waiting for Nokia equipment should benefit greatly from the increase to 10x10 or 15x15 on B25.

See Sprint's recent FCC filing (March 1, 2016) which discusses its 800 MHz Band Reconfiguration progress and scheduled timelines: http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001493430

Sprint just appointed Robert Hackl as the new Chief Experience Officer and President of National Sales, joining on April 1st.

It'll be interesting to see what direction he takes things based on his background:

For the past three years, Hackl was commercial operations director at Vodafone in Germany. He was able to engage employees and re-ignite a sense of pride in the organization. The company saw employee Net Promoter Scores, or eNPS, increase substantially, which translated into strong results. He created a high-performing team that topped sales targets and improved customer NPS to become an industry leader in Germany.

 

Prior to Vodafone, Hackl was at T-Mobile in the United States from 2010 to 2013. He played an integral role as the senior vice president of channel management in driving higher sales, greater efficiency and a turnaround in the overall customer experience and churn. He also delivered impressive results when he was a group senior vice president at Deutsche Telekom Europe and CEO of TELE2 Austria.

He will replace Bob Johnson who is leaving on April 29, 2016 after 14 months in the role. However, Bob has been with Sprint since 2005 and prior to that he was at Nextel since 2002.

WiMax still alive in SF. Although it wasn't explicitly listed as being shutdown in this round (or any round), it seemed likely.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

Yeah. It's strange how it was left off the shutdown list... Last day will be March 31st regardless.

Sprint has some of the lowest retail doors compared to the other three, of course they need more locations.

I thought the Sprint/RadioShack deal resulted in an additional 1,435 store locations... Is Sprint still behind in locations versus the other 3 after that?

As of July 2015, Sprint had 4,500 locations, "making it one of the largest retailers in the U.S."

Sprint Announces Joint Venture with Dixons Carphone

Plans to open up to 500 Sprint-branded retail stores nationwide.

 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), February 29, 2016 - Sprint (NYSE:S) and Dixons Carphone, the leading European wireless and consumer electronics retailer, today formally announced a joint venture to open and operate up to 500 new Sprint-branded stores across the U.S. The agreement comes after a successful pilot program launched last year, which resulted in strong sales performance and increased customer satisfaction ratings at pilot retail stores in trial markets. The joint venture is expected to help fuel Sprint’s retail transformation, including the expansion of its retail store footprint.

 

Under the agreement, Sprint and Dixons Carphone Connected World Services (CWS) division will build and operate new Sprint stores in multiple U.S. markets. The two companies will fund the startup costs of the joint venture equally and will each have 50 percent ownership interest.

 

 

I guess the pilot program from last year went well? Does Sprint really need more retail locations? Perhaps if they could build a new tower site at each one?

bad decision.

 

 

But hey

 

 

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Sounds like it had to be done. The customer base wasn't ready for it and the metrics must have shown that.

Yeah but people on legacy plans never had two years taken away from them. They where offered loyalty credits to inciting them but they weren't forced from them. To my knowledge at least.

 

 

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As I recall, Subsidized Upgrades were being offered on a reactive basis for upgrades and add-a-lines.

So I am assuming you will have to pay more monthly if you are on one of the newer plans. I don't really get the point.

 

 

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This is mainly for the folks on Legacy Plans...

If you're on a new plan with a subsidized device, you'll pay a $25/month Subsidized Device Fee. Over 24 Months, that's $600!

Sprint resurrects two-year wireless service contracts

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-resurrects-two-year-wireless-service-contracts-give-customers-more-c/2016-02-26

Perhaps that's reflective of the feedback Marcelo got on his "Listening Tour".

Just got an offer from Sprint for "Get 12 lease payments on us and a $10/mo. service credit after that for the iPhone 6s."

 

This is for current subscribers that activate a new line.

 

It breaks down to: $0 for 12 months and $16.39/mo for 6 months after monthly service credit.

Are you on a Legacy Plan, etc.? Do you have a lot of lines?

Wait a second...

 

I currently receive an Employee Discount Sprint -20% on my bill every month.  Does that mean registering for this AA program would eliminate that?

It seems so...

Saw this deal was announced:

Activate a New Sprint Account and Earn up to 25,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® miles

Existing Sprint customers can earn up to 5,000 AAdvantage® miles a year simply by registering their AAdvantage number at sprint.com/AAdvantage.

Warning:

Note: This offer is not combinable with the Sprint Discount Program. Existing customers who enroll in this program will not be eligible for an SDP discount and any current discount will no longer apply.

Perhaps this makes sense for some? Thoughts on the math? I noticed Miles are earned per account, not per subscriber. Oh well.

.

Putting their own equipment over sprint sites expands b41 lte coverage further than clear ever did. Thus there is an overall expansion of b41 lte so more people can use faster speeds instead of these random Hotspot here and there.

Samsung clear b41 equipment are capable of the same advanced beam forming and other lte advance technologies. It's just not as good as 8t8r equipment.

Thanks. Can the Samsung Clear equipment do 2xCA?

That's a bummer.

 

Clear LTE equipment is terrible. I've been to Las Vegas were 8t8r was deployed and it worked pretty well. Only time I lost 2.5 was inside Casino floors and inside the rooms. Outside of that, Band 41 LTE was everywhere I drove around Las Vegas.

 

In areas such as Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, Band 41 from Clearwire sites have some terrible Signal to Noise ratio. RSRP can go from -90 dBm outdoors and then drop to Band 25 as soon as you go indoors.

The new 8T8R equipment, combined with Carrier Aggregation and Beamforming are a substantial improvement over the Clear equipment.

See the charts in this Blog Post by John Saw, Sprint CTO, which illustrate that LTE Plus devices that support 2xCA and Beamforming have better coverage, even at the Cell Edge.

Huawei goes first. Samsung will be swapped out on a case by case scenario. The vendors would love to have their own macro sites overlaid first before completely replace the working 2.5 Samsung clear sites.

One additional basic question: Why do the vendors want to have their own macro sites overlaid first before replacing the 2.5 Samsung Clear sites?

Huawei goes first. Samsung will be swapped out on a case by case scenario. The vendors would love to have their own macro sites overlaid first before completely replace the working 2.5 Samsung clear sites.

Thanks. What percentage of the WiMAX sites are Huawei?

I see you're quick to volunteer your wallet to fund such equipment to replace the existing year or two year old 8t8r equipment.

When's the Clearwire (Samsung) Dual Mode equipment, which is now supporting a second B41 carrier, getting swapped out for 8T8R equipment for 2xCA?

No B26 or 2nd B25 carrier.

 

It was the first market to be almost fully completely overlaid by ALU 2.5 equipment in 2014 because the old Clear Moto equipment was incompatible.

 

Next test should be even more impressive as it should be post ATT spectrum swap where Sprint would get 20x20 contiguous PCS spectrum which is good to go for 10 MHz LTE wherever Sprint has LTE available in the area. Any and all LTE devices Sprint ever released will experience the speed bump. 

Wow. Pretty impressive. Hopefully Sprint can take lessons learned and replicate this performance across the country.

I think that's what Son and Marcelo envision.

I can't find this report of root's site.

 

 

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The full report is not live yet, but you can still see the results in the table if you scroll down on: http://rootmetrics.com/en-US/rootscore/map/metro/las-vegas-nv/2015/2H

See where it says "1st Half 2016" results?

Looks like it was posted prematurely and pulled.

Sprint announces "Better Choice Plans"

Interesting moves on pricing. Data prices drop, but access fees go up slightly.

Sprint Continues to Close the Gap in Overall Network Performance

(By Dr. John Saw, CTO, Sprint)

Great post by Dr. Saw on the RootMetrics Report and Sprint's Network improvements. Looking at the figures Dr. Saw cited, Sprint has made incredible progress in the last 12-18 months:

• Nationally, Sprint finished third in overall performance, reliability, and text. Eighteen months ago, we ranked last in overall performance.
• Sprint now ranks second nationally in call network performance, beating out AT&T for the first time ever (previously, Sprint and AT&T were tied for second).
• Sprint achieved a total of 212 first place (outright or shared) RootScore® Awards for overall, reliability, speed, data, call, or text network performance in metro markets measured in the second half of 2015. Eighteen months ago, we received 27.

From the Gilat Skyedge II sales doc "TCP performance over satellite without special treatment is impacted due to the latency introduced by the distance between the Earth and the satellite. Typically this distance translates to a latency of between 240 to 280 msec, depending on where the sending and receiving sites are in the satellite footprint. This makes the round trip time due to propagation delay at least 480 milliseconds."

 

Half second ping times are not going to make for a very good mobile experience. Delay in opening webpages is going to be reminiscent of dial-up.

As Louis C.K. said, it's coming from space....give it a second.