RedSpark

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/16/softbank-to-sell-up-to-two-thirds-of-t-mobile-stake.html Hopefully they have to sell the rest one day. What an embarrassment. Frankly, I'm glad that SoftBank will have less of a stake/interest in New T-Mobile. It's clear that Son had no idea what he was doing with Sprint and he'd probably bring that incompetence to the New T-Mobile as well. Seriously, what does Son bring to the table? Nothing... absolutely nothing at this point.

I haven't noticed any difference yet. How could I tell on an iPhone?

True. However, the number of 5G customers is going to ramp up substantially once the iPhone 5G is released this fall so they need to be ready for that when it drops.

Neat!

Expecting a 5G iPhone in the Fall. T-Mobile's 5G network using Sprint's 2.5 GHz should be much more built out by then so it will be a better experience overall as well.

T-Mobile has the ability to devote substantial capex to a buildout. Sprint never could get ahead of its debt load to do that, and it certainly didn't get any help from SoftBank to do that either. Also, T-Mobile can take advantage of greater economies of scale for its build out than either Sprint or it could do alone. Also, T-Mobile had to have an orderly shutdown of Sprint's nine 5G markets (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C.). Now that that has seemingly occurred, I would expect T-Mobile's 2.5 GHz rollout to kick into gear in these major markets. Finally, we are (were) in the midst of a COVID-19 shutdown/delay of many regulatory processes. Hopefully T-Mobile was able to work through this as best it could. Hopefully things reopen soon and T-Mobile can fully execute on its network plans.

Amazing. Look at how much spectrum T-Mobile now has vs. Verizon/AT&T.

An excellent and very detailed writeup by Milan.

Wow. That's quite a burn. 🔥🔥🔥

There should be a surge of T-Mobile 2.5 GHz 5G lighting up in the coming weeks as a result. T-Mobile moves very quickly.

It's been a good run folks. May its spectrum live on.

A couple interesting news-bites: https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/dish-reluctantly-extends-its-600-mhz-spectrum-loan-to-t-mobile and... https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/t-mobile-seeks-ok-for-39-ghz-tests-3-markets

Very nice.

Sprint has updated its VoLTE Page as a result of the merger: https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/services/volte.html Support for additional devices has been listed. A couple of things I noticed: “By enabling VoLTE, you will get access to expanded coverage on the T-Mobile network with capable devices.” and this change to Wi-Fi Calling: How does VoLTE work with Wi-Fi Calling? Wi-Fi Calls will transfer to VoLTE when Wi-Fi coverage becomes poor and VoLTE is available. For this automated transfer to take place, VoLTE must be turned “ON”. Starting in April 2020, Sprint is updating most VoLTE-capable devices to prefer Cellular networks over Wi-Fi Networks. This means that if your device has Wi-Fi Calling enabled, it will only be used if the cellular coverage in your area is poor. If you are on an active call using VoLTE and the coverage does decline, the call will attempt to transfer from VoLTE to Wi-Fi when the device is connected to a strong Wi-Fi signal.

I hope everyone affected has a landing zone somewhere.

https://www.t-mobile.com/business/government/first-responders-connecting-heroes Our first "Uncarrier" announcement....

Holy cow. T-Mobile is a force to be reckoned with.

Saw is living his best life now...

Here's what Verizon's been up to for 5G: Of course, that only benefits people who can access mmWave... which has an 800 foot radius off of the cell site and poor building penetration. In fact: Verizon is having to go with the "Magic Box" approach for mmWave here. How about that...

That's true. The Board specifically sabotaged Hesse's plan to acquire MetroPCS. That spectrum would have come in handy. Of course, they oversaw a bunch of other strategic failures over the years. So it goes....

I completely agree with you. Masa's strategic blunder here was simply a repeat of the kind of managerial errors Forsee made. I've never seen such a succession of executive failure and incompetence at a single company over so many years as I've seen at Sprint. It's appalling, but it explains everything. I hope it's studied.

Oh I'll bet he's smiling bigger than ever now. https://twitter.com/DanHesseNews You could send him something. (https://danhesse.com) 😎 Looking forward to that layer cake as well here. I'll bet we get it pretty soon as DC is one of Sprint's 5G markets. T-Mobile will want to shut that down and get its 5G up and running here in time for the iPhone surge this Fall. EDIT: Here's what Marcelo has to say....

I bet Hesse is feeling pretty good today. I plan on getting the iPhone 5G this year.

Completely agree. What a colossal failure. Bigger than Forsee/Nextel in my opinion. To think that he placed substantial value in WeWork and little value in Sprint tells me everything I need to know about him.

Indeed. If Masa had put all the money he threw at Uber and WeWork into paying down Sprint's debt load (if not funding additional network capex instead), he probably would have gotten a better ROI. Instead, he barely did enough to keep Sprint limping along to the merger closure and lost big on these other distractions. Justice.