RedSpark

See this Article: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article39483489.html

 

Has the scoop on the resignation of Sprint's senior vice president of corporate strategy and development:

 

"Sprint spokeswoman Melinda Tiemeyer said in an email that Schwartz is leaving “because he has decided to return to Canada.” The company does not plan to fill the post but rather have those who reported to Schwartz report to others after his departure."

 

Interesting how he's not being replaced.

So here's my question:

 

Marcelo has been responding to people asking about the 23 GB threshold on Twitter. He's making some good points about how it's real time/dynamic and how a congestion check is done every 20ms.

 

However, when you look at the Network performance scores of Sprint compared to the other carriers in certain markets (Not Chicago/Denver or the other standout cities where CA has made a difference), are the slower data speeds/lower data scores for Sprint in certain cases a reflection of congestion or overall peak performance given the status of the network buildout there?

 

If it's market-wide congestion, then people hitting 23 GB in those areas are going to be throttled no matter what for the remainder of their billing cycle/month until additional capacity comes online.

It doesn't even make sense. You could make that argument on a tower by tower basis, "oh I didn't use any of my 23 gigs on this tower so I shouldn't be throttled here". The point from sprint's view and non heavy data users is you have consumed enough unobstructed data to put you in the top 3 percent of users so when you are on a busy site you'll have low priority so the vast majority (and more profitable) customers can minimize the number of negative experiences. This is reasonable and a fair way of managing resources.

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On a nationwide basis? Congestion should be handled on a market by market basis.

That doesn't actually answer the question though. I'll rephrase slightly: If someone travels to a new area that's not congested, how and why would the de-priortization tag affect their service?

Because they didn't use a majority of the data in that new area, and now they're de-prioritized there, even if they use just a bit since they're tagged.

 

Apologies for not explaining this clearly. It's just the geographical part of this that doesn't seem to make sense to me.

If someone travels to a new area that's not congested, how and why would the de-priortization tag affect them?

Because it's for the remainder of the bill cycle and if a tower becomes congested, they're affected, even though their usage in that new location could be low.

This is a nice detail that shouldn't go unnoticed..

 

"Prioritization is applied or removed every 20 milliseconds. And performance for the affected customer returns to normal as soon as traffic on the cell site also returns to normal, or the customer moves to a non-constrained site."[/size]

Agreed. But this shouldn't last for the rest of the billing cycle. Someone using 23 GB in San Francisco has no localized effect on someone using 23 GB in Chicago. Having it apply for the remainder of the bill cycle means that even if someone travels to a new area without congestion, this de-prioritization tag follows them.

John Saw (Sprint CTO) just posted this: Protecting the 97%

I agree, Ascertion.

The Everything Data Plan is a great plan which these new plans are so much more expensive than, it really shows how much rates have increased.

What I'm wondering, though I certainly hope this does not happen, is if Sprint will raise the rates on the Everything Data Plan, similar to how Verizon raised rates on their unlimited data.

If they did that, they would risk losing their most loyal customers. Sprint can't afford to do that.

It isn't odd at all.

Are there any other legacy holdover folks left?

Sprint's new $70/month Unlimited Plan includes 3 GB of tethering and has a 23 GB usage threshold at which de-prioritization applies.

 

Full Details Here: http://support.sprint.com/support/article/FAQs_about_Sprint_60_Unlimited_Plan/e8bc59f3-1893-4482-895a-38b7ed69ab65#!/

 

Sprint's new Unlimited Family pricing is $70/month for first line and $60/month for lines 2-5.

 

EDIT: Per the FAQ you can have up to 10 lines on this plan. Perhaps the website only supports ordering a max of 5 lines?

Out with the old guard and in with the new. Marcelo has been pretty much firing people and reassigning jobs left and right since he took over.

No one is safe from his touch if you do not show excellence and dedication to the cause. You're either with him or against him (and gone).

Sent from my LG-H790

Seems to be the case. On paper (http://newsroom.sprint.com/executive-team/michael-schwartz.htm), he seems like a very qualified person for the role, but perhaps his skill set or traditional mindset didn't align with Marcelo's new vision for the company.

Sprint's strategy chief, Michael Schwartz, resigns :http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2015/10/15/sprint-strategy-chief-resigns.html

Wondering what this means.

http://www.lightreading.com/business-employment/customer-experience/the-woman-behind-sprints-chicago-shakeup-/d/d-id/717858

 

I know this article is a couple of months old, but really interesting.  Sorry if it has been posted already.

It is an interesting article. They need more of these managers nationwide. NYC/DC/LA would be a good follow-on to Chicago.

The 6 (newest iPhone available at the start of testing for this round) doesn't support Band 41 carrier aggregation on Sprint or T-Mobile Band 12. Not to mention they likely need an android device to get the data they need running their program.

True. Seems like the iPhone 6s would be a good bet though: Band 12, CA, CCA compliant

I'm curious why RootMetrics doesn't just use an Unlocked iPhone for measuring results across the 4 carriers. It would remove hardware variation as a contributing factor.

That's right, I completely forgot he mentioned that. Thanks. Here is hoping they are close.. 

Hoping they meet their target, but it may not be turned up it seems to prevent overloading until enough Band 41 is deployed.

Any idea why b26 isn't filling in those coverage holes? Could it be because they still have the power output turned down and not all sites are optimized yet? If this is the case, than I think that is where the NGN will come into play.

In Feb. 2015, Saw said: "In addition, we now have 800MHz LTE on air across more than 60% of our LTE footprint" ... And "Our goal is to finish the 800MHz LTE build by the end of this year where rebanding is complete". (http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/sprints-network-gets-back-in-the-game.htm)

The entire plan for deployment for almost the entire 2015 was marcelo prioritizing certain markets or regions for most deployments. Certain regions were given the Lions share of funding, equipment allocations, manpower, and all the good stuff while others (most other markets) only had equipment deployed in specific sites on a need to have basis and even then they did not touch most secondary and tertiary sites until mid 2015.

Right now we are coming to the end of this prioritization where they've filled out the secondary and tertiary markets and are now doing the chosen sites one by one across the nation as they need it. They were never ever going to deploy 2.5 on every single site possible everywhere as that was originally Hesse plan that was thrown out in 2014 and will only come back to play late this year and q1 2016.

Sprint orders and plans deployments approximately 6-9 months ahead. This is about industry standard from initial ordering to deployment.

 

So is there going to be an improvement lull until this recent deployment is picked up on the 1H 2016 RootMetrics testing?

 

And as for NGN, sounds like that won't be reflected until the 2H 2016 or 1H 2017 RootMetrics scores at the earliest based on the 6-9 month timeframe you mentioned.

More on the Levi's Stadium DAS/Wi-Fi Build:

 

http://www.mobilesportsreport.com/2015/10/report-excerpt-levis-stadium-gets-ready-for-super-bowl-50/

 

"Because of higher than expected traffic increases for the upcoming Super Bowl, the carriers using the DAS asked for (and paid for) a complete overhaul of the DAS system, which is expected to be completed during the first part of the 2015 NFL season."

 

Per the page: "See part 2 of this excerpt tomorrow" or you can register and download the whole report.

 

EDIT: Part 2: http://www.mobilesportsreport.com/2015/10/report-excerpt-part-2-app-updates-part-of-levis-stadium-prep-for-super-bowl-50/

The Note 4 for T-Mobile does have band 12.  Rootmetrics used the Galaxy S5 in the first half of 2015 which didn't have Band 12 but have now switched to the Note 4 for the second half of the year.

Oops! Appreciate the correction.

How many times will this come up?? As Tim has said numerous times, Sprint places equipment orders 6 months in advance. They're coming to the end of this round of deployment, so there will be a lull in activity until the NGN order is fulfilled. Sprint's deployment plans haven't changed since these plans were in place at the beginning of the year.

At the end of what deployment?

 

How much equipment was ordered? For what number of markets?

I think just more B41 sites will honestly do the trick. CA is great, but it's really the amount of spectrum live in certain areas (for example, Sprint will have 10Mhz of B25 + B26 whereas At&T/T-Mobile have 20+Mhz off the same site.

I've looked at quite a few more markets that were tested in 2H and almost all of them have seen a decrease in performance. Definitely looks like they've halted upgrades in favor of the NGN plan.

Sent from my MotoG3

Halted upgrades? Why would Sprint have to do that?

It could be the devices that they are using.

Phones used during testing: AT&T - Galaxy S5 , Sprint - Galaxy Note Edge , T-Mobile - Galaxy Note 4 , Verizon - Galaxy S5

Does the note edge have CA?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Yes. And the T-Mobile device lacks Band 12 FWIW, which is a sticking point for Legere and Co....

Interesting that Sprint so far in 2H seems to be losing some momentum on RootMetrics. I thought CA being activated would be improved some scores, but the last three markets posted have all been worse scores than in the 1H. Maybe it's because of the 6 month period of ordering/planning for NGN?

Charolette, NC,

1H - 93.5

2H - 89.9

Pittsburgh, PA,

1H - 96.6

2H - 91.2

Seattle, WA,

1H - 95.4

2H - 95.2 (not that big of a drop.)

 

EDIT: The good thing is it must be from Sprint adding customers in these locations. Perhaps Sprint's Q3 numbers will look really good.

Agreed. Device-wise, it's a busy time for Sprint with iPhone Forever, and Sprint has been getting positive press for going all-in on iPhone 6s/6s Plus with a great offer/plan. However, as far as the network is concerned, it seems like we've entered a "quiet period" where it doesn't seem like much is happening on the surface.

 

Perhaps there's a lot going on behind the scenes we can't see (Project Ocean/Project Cedar, etc.), but as you said, these RootMetrics scores would hopefully show CA deployments or NGN progress.

Verizon plans to raise their unlimited data plan from $29.99 to $49.99 in November, I already pay $80/month before taxes, I'm not looking forward to be paying $100+ per month. If Verizon does raise their unlimited data plan to $49.99 then ill be switching to Sprint, first could i use my iPhone 6S Plus on Sprint? I bought it from Verizon, Will all of the bands work on Sprint? If so I can't wait to join Sprint!

Yes!

 

See: http://www.sprint.com/landings/bring-your-own-phone/#!/

 

See: http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/