RedSpark

1 minute ago, Terrell352 said:

They probably set up a small cell and made sure it was a bad location for the other 3

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For 5G it would have to be a Massive MIMO site I believe, but otherwise you’re right: They probably speed tested the other carriers here to do this.

Fine Print probably says “does not include upload”.

Sprint now has about 3,000 Massive MIMO sites deployed, which gives us a good idea of their 5G footprint. They’re going to need a lot more than this though.

That’s an interesting approach...

16 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

Churn is also down YoY, despite of them weaning people off crazy promotions.

It's all a show for the merger. Dire situation it is not. 

Also, you say Capex is not helping?! I hope you mean you personally, because deployment is still on-going. 

The crazy promotions should have been spent on capex instead.

Those promotions were all for nought in my opinion. They didn’t wind up creating enough long term customers out of them. The underlying product didn’t convey a sense of true value without being on a promotion. People left because they didn’t perceive Sprint as a brand worth the regular cost.

All these crazy promotions did was defer the customer losses we’re seeing now for a year or two or three. They didn’t make sense to do in the first place.

Sprint missed a real opportunity for effective capex in the past few years, customer losses be damned, because they’re happening right now anyway and Sprint is well behind the curve on where it should be on its network. If the product improves, people won’t leave if they perceive value.... but if it doesn’t measure up, they won’t come in the first place.

1 minute ago, tyroned3222 said:

Again as I mentioned. Although numbers are getting better sprint is not seeing any money! No return on investment at all, they lost 111 million for the quarter.. you carry to numbers over 4 quarters those are huge losses
https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2019/08/02/sprint-first-quarter-continues-losses.amp.html?ana=yahoo&__twitter_impression=true


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The interest expense that Sprint is carrying alone is just punishing: “$619 million, which ate up $455 million in operating income and left the company with a $111 million loss.”

I agree with you completely. The level of capex that Sprint is spending just isn’t enough to get ahead of the curve to reverse this trend. Instead, the amount they’re spending is effectively returning zero. They aren’t profitable and they aren’t gaining customers.

2 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

1.2B in Capex spent isn't the sign of a company that is completely defeated...

For comparison "T-Mobile spent $1.8 billion on cash capex, excluding capitalized interest, compared to $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018 and $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018."

If you truly look deep into the numbers, Sprint really didn't do that badly at all. Especially considering they have rangled in most of those super discount heavy promotions. In fact, most wallstreet analyst had them pegged worse than they did. Even ARPU is slightly up Y over Y.

At the end of the day, Its really about looking doom and gloom to finally get that merger approved, that is Masa's number one priority. 

 

Sprint’s capex still hasn’t been enough to change the trajectory of the company, and the net losses show that. It’s enough to say they’re doing something, but it’s not enough to result in a major network transformation to gain customers.

Should this merger fail, I believe Softbank will have to pitch in some major capital.

2 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

Honk Honk, welcome to clown world.

 

🤡🌎

Yeah, this is not a good look, capex surge or not. The capex hasn’t made a difference yet.

The fact that people aren’t staying with Sprint without promotions means that Sprint’s underlying value proposition isn’t working, and that’s because it’s not perceived as a product that people are willing to pay more for, as is the case with Verizon (if their marketing and network awards are taken at face value) when the promos run out.

When you do the math on 175k net losses, that’s almost 2,000 lines lost per day for the quarter! That’s not a sustainable trend line.

How do you do fellow kids?

Maybe it’s just me, but this isn’t how a CEO should appear going into an employee town hall meeting on the heel of 175,000 net losses.

5 minutes ago, Terrell352 said:

They didnt mention how many towers have 2.5ghz on them. Last we checked it was 80%. I was hoping it is 85% by now.

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Since they didn’t report it, I have a feeling not much progess was made on that.

Unless I missed it, they also didn’t say how many customers are still on Subsidized Plans.

As there’s no actual Earnings Call, these questions aren’t able to be asked of management.

Perhaps Saw would respond to a tweet question?... Unless legal tells him not to.

5 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

It'll be interesting how the 5G plays out.  Right now, costs are up on Sprint if you want to be part of 5G.  Having to be on their absolute newest top tier plan.  Does Sprint even allow you to have a 5G phone and not be on the Unlimited Premium plan?

This is the avenue that which New-TMobile will be able to easily raise rates buy pushing customers to newer plans, or having add-on for existing plans.  At the least a huge whole for reps to exploit. 

As it is, 5G is more expensive.  even without this merger prices are going up.  Only time will tell if these newer higher prices become normal, or if 5G access will be sold on current priced lower tiered plans and/or without needing to buy 5G add-on to your plan.

No. Apparently, you can’t even activate a 5G phone without the Unlimited Premium plan on the account.... unless you have a legacy ED plan.

Good points here.

Fiscal 2019 First Quarter Earnings are out...

with a “Message from Management”.

The company had 175,000 net losses in the current quarter compared with 57,000 net additions in the year-ago period and 8,000 net losses in the prior quarter.

Sprint ended the quarter with 54.3 million connections, including 33.1 million postpaid, 8.6 million prepaid, and 12.6 million wholesale and affiliate connections.

175k net losses... ugh.

At least there are ~3,000 MIMO units on air now, but this gives you a sense of the pace of Sprint’s 5G deployment....

“Better than expected”? Not the best take... 😕

15 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Odd. I thought new TMobile was keeping that?

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They are “keeping” it.... sort of. Sprint sold it and is leasing it back for 10 years.

New T-Mobile will assume the lease.

23 minutes ago, mattp said:

did not know it was call a capuses

The Sprint Campus is a massive complex. You can read more about it and its history here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_World_Headquarters_Campus

Here’s a photo tour from 2011: https://www.cnet.com/pictures/a-tour-of-sprints-kansas-headquarters-photos/

1 minute ago, mattp said:

why are they selling it 

 

When asked about the transaction Tuesday, Sprint officials declined to discuss the terms of the sale, calling them confidential. 

“Sprint is leasing back the space we need, and the Sprint headquarters will remain on the Overland Park campus,” Sprint spokeswoman Andrea Shores wrote in an email. “This sale enables us to use proceeds from the sale to reinvest in the buildings we plan to use in order to create a collaborative environment for Sprint partners — along with an innovative workspace to attract top talent.”

Sprint and T-Mobile US campuses sell for more than $700 million total

Sprint sold Overland Park campus for ‘modest’ price. Why that might not be a bad thing

Sprint sold its Overland Park campus for $250.9 million — tens of millions of dollars below Johnson County’s appraised value of $342.5 million, according to research compiled by the investment research firm Moody’s.

In exchange for what Moody’s characterized as a “modest” sale price, Sprint secured a 10-year lease of office space well below market rent.

10 hours ago, Mr.Nuke said:

It really isn't strange at all given recent developments.

I find it strange.

Sprint shareholders should hear management’s responses to the questions posed by the analysts during an Earnings Call.

1 hour ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Redundant sites will be collocated and the original Sprint site decommissioned yes, but anywhere the Sprint site adds to T-Mobile coverage they will be retained, with T-Mobile bands added. Coverage should only grow, not shrink.

So basically the entirety of both networks is getting a coverage and capacity audit?

9 minutes ago, dro1984 said:

Sprint has been very strange this way in the last earnings call also!   Don't know why they are doing this... there are no secrets to any of this.       This is the type of "don't tell the consumer or the investment house anything" type of management that it has become to be.   Won't miss any of it and will be glad when those people running the show are gone.     I was at least hoping to hear an update on the ongoing negotiations with the Suing attorney general's offices.    I heard from 14 they are down to 9 that are still suing ... so that is progress.     Mum's the word from Sprint... thanks Sprint.    (not)

I guess they don’t want to be in the position of having to answer questions they don’t want to answer during the call. Could result in some awkward silences.

This move is coming straight from legal if you ask me.

Sprint Corporation Schedules Fiscal 2019 First Quarter Results Announcement

Set for August 2nd at 8am. Looks like it will only be an Earnings release with a message from management. There won’t actually be an Earnings Call. Strange.

4 hours ago, JossMan said:

Yea options can net you big money during large mergers, or large cap earning season (Google was another money maker).   Its the only time I start targeting options, I mostly only trade small and midcap stocks that are not range bound.  

Perhaps I’ll set a small amount of money aside to give this a try.

3 hours ago, marioc21 said:

The "strike price" is the price at which you can execute the option contract and actually buy the shares. 

Simple example. you buy an option contract to buy 100 shares @ $10 per share. The "strike price" is $10. Once the stock price reaches $10 per share you could exercise the option and purchase the underlying shares. Then keep the shares or turn around and sell them.

 

Thanks! That’s really helpful.

So it seems that the action point is the $10 amount. Can people wait for it to go substantially above $10? How long do people have on options?

I’m curious if the merger announcement will affect or delay Sprint’s 5G deployment plans.

7 minutes ago, JossMan said:

One options contract allows you to control 100 shares of a "x" stock, option calls are for when you believe the price of the stock will go up, option puts are for when you believe the stock price will go down.  I do not trade options much but this was a easy give me free money that this merger was going to get approved.  Basically I purchased 300 option calls at a strike price of $8.50 to control 30,000 shares of Sprint.  These options as of yesterday were only $.03/ per option = $3.00x300 per contract for a total of $900.00.  When the merger was announced at 11:30AM and as Sprint's stock started moving towards $8.00 per share these option calls increased in value.   My $900.00 entry netted me  close to $16,000 within 24hrs.  

Easiest trade I have ever made in my trading career. 

Wow! That’s incredible. Thanks for the explanation.

I’ve never done options before. This sounded like a good opportunity to do it.

I’m still a little unclear on what “strike price” means in this context though.

1 hour ago, JossMan said:

Love it!  325% on my option calls, thanks T-Mobile and Sprint you have paid for my wireless bills for the next 10 years!  🤑  Exciting times! 

Nice! Would you mind sharing more details on what you did? Just curious to learn more.

What does this mean for Sprint’s network upgrades in progress or which haven’t launched yet?

5G in Washington DC for example.

Will those be halted pending T-Mobile’s management decisions?

By allowing this merger, Masa and Marcelo are effectively getting a bailout from the market for their poor strategy and management of Sprint.

Even if there’s divestment to create a 4th Carrier, that Carrier will essentially be the new Sprint, and in similar competitive position.