RedSpark

I believe the main reason that Marcelo is so quiet about NGN is because of the network equipment leasing vehicle.  It is very likely network equipment vendors will likely accept some cash as payment for sprint's capital expenditure but also accept some of the payment as long term lease.  Both vendors and Sprint have every incentives not to reveal the vendors because they don't want other providers especially Tmobile (who does not have that much cash either) to request vendors to extend them similar treatments.  

Back on January 7, 2015, Sprint posted the following:

Sprint Closes on $2.1 Billion of Financing with Three New Vendor Financing Agreements and Existing Loan Expansion

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), January 07, 2015 - Sprint Corporation (NYSE: S) announced today that it has signed three new vendor financing facilities totaling $1.8 billion to purchase 2.5 GHz network equipment and related services from key suppliers. Sprint also amended and expanded by $300 million its credit relationship with Export Development Canada (EDC) as well as amended the terms of its existing secured equipment credit facility.

“These deals provide Sprint with greater flexibility and liquidity options as we focus on growing the business and investing in our network,” said Joe Euteneuer, Sprint’s Chief Financial Officer.

The three new vendor financing agreements are:

• A secured facility for up to $800 million from Nokia Networks maturing in June 2021. It is backed by credit insurance provided by Finnvera plc, the export credit agency of Finland.
• A secured facility for up to $750 million from Samsung maturing in Dec. 2022. It is backed by credit insurance provided by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (Ksure), the export credit agency of Korea.
• A secured facility for up to $250 million from ALU maturing in Dec. 2021. It is backed by credit insurance provided by Delcredere | Ducroire (D/D), the export credit agency of Belgium.

Will sprint have to continue offering the 50% promo to win customers?

 

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Sprint previously extended it because it was working. And not every one of those customers ultimately chooses the 50% off plan from the offer page or when in the store. It starts a conversation and gets people in the store or on the website. Some of those customers wind up choosing the $70/month Unlimited Plan instead ($60 for each additional line if they want to add friends/family to it), which isn't discounted.

It's a good question. We'll see.

That video gave me so much more hope!

 

 

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If you're that much of a believer, buy some Sprint stock! Investing is based on "hope" you know....  

Apparently, Marcelo just sent out a letter to employees explaining the reasons for moving up the Earnings Call:

When I looked back at what we accomplished with our network over the past year, I’ve got to tell you, it’s clear to me that we have a really good and positive story. I’m excited because no other wireless carrier made greater improvement than we did, and this gives us such a solid foundation to make our network even better. That’s why I found it so frustrating – to tell you the truth, I was really angry! – when the media reports came out with rumors about our network plans.

Last Friday, Re/code published an article saying that we were going to take $1 billion in operating expenses out of our network, and move our equipment off towers we lease. This led to more speculation by other publications and analysts, and some of them jumped to inaccurate conclusions. Some were saying we are going to make our network worse and they questioned the strength of our company’s finances for the longer term. With all of these rumors flying, we’ve seen a steep drop in our stock price.

I’m a big believer that we need to address something like this head-on, so I want to talk about it with you. And we also will tell Wall Street analysts, investors and reporters next week because we moved up our quarterly results announcement from when it was initially planned. We will be working through the weekend so we can get everything ready in only a few days. Usually we spend more than two weeks working through the final details for reporting our results. But we don’t want to wait this time because we are going to set the record straight!

Via the Sprint Subreddit

The video answered a lot of questions but they still want to stay quiet on the network upgrades so the competition does not know? You can say broad things like "X markets will see over 5,000 new sites, macro and small cells by the end of 2016." Meh, I am glad they finally answered the service disruption question. That was what most people were concerned about in regards to the site relocations.

 

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Competitive intelligence is a very important thing to keep in mind here. Sprint clearly doesn't want to give away any information that a competitor can take advantage of to the detriment of Sprint, and even the most seemingly innocuous piece of info can be a gold mine for the competition to know in terms of deducing Sprint's resources or strategy. These competing companies have multiple people on staff, or retain outside experts to do competitive intelligence modeling based on every single utterance a Sprint Executive makes.

These Sprint executives are clearly well aware of this, and I'm glad Sprint is being smart about how this is handled.

All I want from this quarterly call is (I might be asking for a lot but here it goes):

 

-NGN update - exactly how many sites they plan to deploy by EOY, where are they now as far as employment, and which markets can expect to see it first

 

-WiMAX Shutdown / 3x Band 41 CA - this falls under NGN but details on when the roll out of Band 41 3x CA will start

 

-How many POPs are they covering with LTE (both LTE and Spark (LTE Plus) now with LTE roaming and roaming +

 

 

Bonus : A Dish Partnership lol

 

Honestly I just want Marcelo to be very open and honest. I think the problem with Sprint now is they are to quiet with their goals and it's making people worried. I understand Marcelo doesn't want to announce all of his goals because if he's not able to achieve one, he will be ridicule just like Hesse but he needs to start being more transparent with their goals.

 

Also I would like for them to end all promotional plans and just keep the new Family Share.

 

- SN I just finished my homework assignments and my brain is fried, so please don't come for my grammatical errors lol.

Some of your questions were addressed in the recent Harrison Wiley video. Hopefully the others are addressed in the upcoming 3Q2015 Earnings Call on Tuesday.

John Saw and Güenther Ottenforfer made it clear that they didn't want to give away the playbook to the competition. John also said they want to "do more and talk less." Both agreed there's "secret sauce" that they don't want to talk about for competitive reasons.

Wow: Look at how Sprint's improving, while T-Mobile just absolutely plummeted to ZERO since September 2015 in that Nielsen Market Speed Rank Wins (# of Markets with #1 LTE Speed Ranking) Chart at 2:46 in the video. BingeOn looks like it has been a disaster for their network.

See this very interesting video from Sprint. Güenther Ottenforfer and John Saw respond directly to the recent negative news reports about Network spending and explain why they've been so quiet:

Episode 3: Special edition of the Harrison Wiley Show with Güenther Ottenforfer and John Saw

They directly responded to the questions the pundits, analysts and public have been asking:

Sprint's not slowing down its network build. It is moving full speed ahead;

Sprint's maintaining its strategy is to densify the network;

Sprint's network build will not be disruptive to the customer experience.

So you either take them at their word on this or not.

Sprint has been releasing these "Harrison Wiley Show" videos on its "Yellow Fan Studios" YouTube Channel (Says "Sprint Creative Media" in fine print at the end).

Here are other videos from the series:

Episode 1: The Harrison Wiley Show with Güenther Ottendorfer

Episode 2: The Harison Wiley Show - Episode 2 with Güenther Ottendorfer

Agree. Sprint isnt typically this prompt.

 

In any case, the current perceived "state of affairs" has been created by sparse information and a typical "worst case scenario" speculation that tends to follow everything the carrier does or doesnt do. Its an unfortunate, always negative spin that is often sprints worst enemy

 

 

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Yeah, this is a very quick announcement for a 3rd Quarter 2015 Earnings Call. Less than 1 week of notice.

For comparison to past practice, Sprint announced on January, 16th 2015 that it would hold its 3rd Quarter 2014 Earnings call on February 5, 2015

Interesting.

Earnings on the 26th of this month, next Tuesday. Hopefully we're left with more answers than questions.

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-corporation-schedules-third-fiscal-quarter-2015-results-announcement.htm

I'll bet this date was moved up by a week or two due to the recent news articles.

I still think that Masayoshi Son wants Marcelo to 'right the ship' before any direct capital infusions. I don't think he wants to send good money after bad. If Sprint is blowing through money that will be wasted, why give it money? Clean house, get lean, start growing subscribers...and then time for a capital infusion. Or, as maxsilver would call it, a bailout. Which is essentially what it would be at that point.

 

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What else does Marcelo have to do to "right the ship" at this point?

So I just got an email offering a plan without access charges. Claims to save over $240/year over current plan for the same 40gb we currently share. Anyone else get the email? I just wonder if the base price can be discounted. If it can, this can save us a ton of money!

I have a feeling Sprint will be sending out a bunch of these kinds of emails based on the fact that the access charges on the Family Share Packs announced on February 20, 2015 were waived for one year.... so through March 31, 2016 per Footnote 5 on that page.... and that's coming up soon.

I'm starting to think Masa was being a little egotistical when he bought Sprint.

When you believe you have a 300 year plan, it does seem that way doesn't it?

http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/blog/special-reports/2015-2h-nfl-report

 

Sprint had the highest download speeds recorded but in 1 stadium and that's the only award they received. Other than that it was a fail for the yellow carrier just about everywhere else.

Lets see how Sprint does at the Superbowl this year. Per this Blog Post, they've been doing a lot of preparation: 2xCA on the stadium DAS, other network improvements for the region; COWs, etc. I'll bet Sprint's network performs very well this year.

And the best part: Nearly all of those network improvements stay in place.... except for the COWs of course.

Investing in the network for the Superbowl in each city/region each year pays off dividends in the long term.

We all need to keep perspective here.  Nobody would be shitting razor blades if it wasnt for the re/code article that has been called into question by multiple outlets.

 

Sprint's silence on the matter is a bit concerning, but I'm fairly sure they stay mum on that type of stuff anyway.

They have to as far as I know. They can't comment on earnings before they are released.

I normally would agree with you, but being in the rollercoaster/gamibling finance industry I am even getting concerned about the ability of Sprint/SoftBank to raise the necessary capital to complete NGN. That said, all it takes is another positive earnings report to change the story.

 

Sprint is in the process of setting up a Network Leasing Company entity to provide funding for NGN, just like the Mobile Leasing Solutions entity was set up for handset leasing. These entities can tap additional funding as needed it seems.

Marcelo is the most competent and empowered manager Sprint has had in a decade. The key word there is empowered... I truly believe if Dan had blanket authority to clean house Sprint would be in a much different position today. Large, lumbering organizations rarely last a long time unless you're a bank.  

I agree. It's a shame Dan Hesse had to fight such headwinds and incompetence during his tenure. LTE Plus (and NGN subsequently) wouldn't exist without Network Vision, and Dan was hustled out the door by Masa by the time benefits were being realized from that. Marcelo had the full support and backing of Masa to clean house, and it shows.

I'm hoping those Sprint COWS will have some giant fliers and banners on it

 

Something as flashy as this

 

I always thought a nice banner slogan for these COWs would be: "If you had Sprint, you'd be getting coverage right now."

I believe now is the time to release "the path " tell the people about ngn with more detail, clarify the whole tower issue. Say something simple like "we won't be turning off towers or interrupting service, new towers won't go live until they are fully completed. So very minimal if any difference in service" Give the people some hope! Lol

 

I know it can't be done by the 7th, I was joking but honestly sprint seriously needs a game changer.

 

Rebranding might be to late now, but what can sprint do?

I have been holding on for hope with sprint but it is really starting to look bleak.... Weren't some people saying sprint would die out in 12-24 months a short while back?

 

This will be interesting...

We'll know more at the upcoming Fiscal 3Q15 earnings call, which hasn't been scheduled yet.

The Fiscal 3Q14 Earnings Call happened on Thursday, February 5, 2015, so I'd expect it to be around the same time in February of this year: i.e. February 5, 2016 is a Friday.

I don't understand why sprint is letting the stock tank.

The tower companies denied reports and started climbing again.

 

Why hasn't someone released a statement of what's going on??

 

As far as marketing goes when will give let the sprint name rest?

We keep trying to revive it and justify keeping it. Time to let it go, buy us cellular and carry that name. THE PEOPLE have lost confidence in sprint and the mention of the name sends people running. Get creative get some plans get a name and release it Super Bowl Sunday !!!!

Sprint isn't letting the stock tank.

What do you want a statement to say?

It would cost a tremendous amount of cash to rebrand Sprint. Sprint is better off putting that money into the network. Comcast rebranded itself Xfinity... and people still hate Xfinity...

Big Game Sunday is February 7th, so that won't happen. On another note, Sprint seems very prepared for it this year, based on this Blog Post: Sprint has 2xCA on the Levi's Stadium DAS and made other network improvements (including 2xCA deployments) throughout the region. It's also bringing in 11 COWs to deploy around the region as well.

When does Dish have to use its spectrum holdings by? Is there a use/lose date?

They will be okay. I believe they are doing this on purpose. Maybe so softbank can buy more shares

SoftBank's ownership has to stay below 85%. Otherwise, it would trigger a tender offer for the remaining shares:

The company said it intends to keep its stake in Sprint below an 85 percent threshold that would trigger a tender offer for the remaining shares, a condition of SoftBank's $21.6 billion deal to acquire Sprint in 2013

.

I really liked their Zombie Framily commercial.  Probably one of their best ones.  The rest?  I don't even remember them.

The Zombie was actually for Unlimited My Way... The Hamster (voiced by Andrew Dice Clay) was in the

Sprint Zombie for Unlimited My Way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8tw94AKqOo

Sprint Zombie for Unlimited Guarantee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z2WmdzihAo

Sprint Zombie for Add-a-Line on Unlimited My Way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGsImbTFvDc

You know what Sprint should do once NGN has jumped into action? Instead of these Lamo wack commercials such as Sprint Kid, 50% off ads..

 

They should run cool and appealing adverts, Yellow is just as an appealing color as magenta is with Black.

Sprint is pushing it with fast and affordable, but they aren't pushing their improved network coverage with the acquisition and re-purposing of Nextel spectrum.

 

Look how hard T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon all putting effort into coverage and not just speed look at this example of T-Mobile's Band 12 advert.

 

(SNIP)

 

Band 12 is essentially the same as Band 26, Sprint should be marketing it out like T-mobile has with Band 12.

 

Sprint is like that realtor who has a really nice home to sell but doesn't put it on Zillow. Sprint needs to shape it's marketing division, it's gotta be more aggressive and more flashy

 

I agree with you 100%. Sprint needs to do a much better job on this. The network improvements only mean so much if they aren't communicated well or at all to both current and prospective customers... And current customers are always prospective customers for someone else.

I disagree. Yellow can be very appealing. You could make those T-Mobile style ads with Yellow, and they'd look just fine.

Here's a nice YouTube video just posted by Qualcomm (January 19th) about Carrier Aggregation, as demonstrated on an HTC One A9, which clearly shows a difference in speed and performance for the average user:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxGsC8-qWi8

It does a great job explaining in a clear visual way what Carrier Aggregation means... but why isn't Sprint doing something like this on its website or in a short commercial? How can Qualcomm do a better job at this than Sprint?

Hopefully Roger Sole does a good job handling Sprint's marketing initiatives as the new CMO. Roger is replacing the current CMO, Kevin Crull, who is transitioning over to become one of Sprint's four area presidents (Central Region) as part of One Sprint. What's interesting here is that Kevin recently joined Sprint in May 2015 as CMO, so this is a pretty quick transition that he's making.

Not sure what to make of that. Perhaps Marcelo feels Roger will handle marketing better than Kevin?

It's varied. It's these reasons, plus, Sensorly is not a complete LTE mapping service. It's crowd sourced. There are many areas where Sensorly shows Sprint 2G/3G mapped but not showing LTE. Even though LTE may be live.

 

The biggest reason is Sensorly data for the 2G/3G goes back to 2010/2011. So that mapping may be really old, and no one has since gone back and mapped LTE since it has gone live in an area. Also, many Sprint LTE devices, especially early devices, did not like to reacquire LTE after they dropped to 3G. I have been on long trips where I have gone in and out of LTE coverage but only 3G mapped.

 

So, there are many reasons why the difference. Chief of which is likely coverage. But that is far from exclusive.

 

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Being crowdsourced, isn't the number of AT&T users on Sensorly greater than the number of Sprint users due to the higher AT&T customer count vs. Sprint's customer count? Wouldn't that have an affect on the scope/coverage of the visualized mapping on Sensorly for AT&T vs. Sprint?

Pretty much anyones best guess, there are some very plausible educated guesses on here but none of them are fact because nobody has actually heard anything from the horses mouth about it really.

Unfortunately if optimized low band spectrum is a priority for ones self then moving to a carrier that has it is the best solution, like I wound up doing after being patient for a year.

Does Ericsson play any role in optimizing Band 26 as part of its network management contract with Sprint? (Which is set to expire this year after 7 long years):

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-gains-network-advantage-innovative-network-services-deal-with-ericsson-delivers-competitive-edge.htm

Yup! Im already putting money to the side so i can buy a phone that supports 3×b41 when they come out.

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I'm on the original iPhone Forever plan. Don't let me down Apple!