RedSpark

Exactly. Sprint is underselling itself so much here it’s ridiculous... but that’s the pitch it has to make to attempt to justify a merger.

None of these are sufficient justifications for a merger in my opinion, because they can be fixed with increased capex and support from SoftBank as the parent company. A merger simply lets SoftBank off easy and subjects the consumer to the negative effects of a consolidated carrier market... and there’s no going back from that in the near/long term. The “Merge or we lose in 5G” argument is such a PR stretch it’s ridiculous.

No it doesn’t. The whole idea of leading or “keeping up” with China for 5G is a farce in my opinion.

Yup. If the money isn’t available, you wind up with a Ferrari that doesn’t have fuel. So much potential. So little money.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/what-is-your-5g-future Legere is pushing this hard with his trademark infomercial style... Are those “separate company” network maps believable for four years from now?

I hope an analyst asks Sprint about VoLTE at the next Earnings Call... This is getting ridiculous. An expanded satisfaction guarantee is a bad idea in my opinion when you can't yet offer simultaneous voice/data via VoLTE on a majority of devices. This seems like an expensive proposition in the making...

Not that I’ve heard... I’m on an iPhone XS in a supported market so I’ve had it for a while now. I get what you’re feeling. It would seem ridiculous for Sprint to have a 5G launch without officially launching VoLTE... but it’s certainly possible that could happen.

Interesting.... I think it would have been better to wait for VoLTE to go live on more devices.

Here are the speeds at Capital One Arena...

Here’s a big carrot for California... https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2019/04/10/t-mobile-promises-41-billion-investment-in.html

Spot on. Hopefully the Massive MIMO deployment is much more aggressive/saturated than the 8T8R deployment was at the outset. I’m hoping this isn’t a “showpiece” deployment.

Barron’s take on the merger: Sprint’s Merger With T-Mobile Is Taking Too Long. Why It’s Time to Worry. https://www.barrons.com/articles/why-the-sprint-t-mobile-merger-is-taking-so-long-51554904750

Masa actually bought a house which neighbors Marcelo’s: https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article42616254.html It’s now on the market for $9.2 Million: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/11/18/claure-masayoshi-mission-hills-mansions-for-sale.html Did he actually ever go inside?

Sprint would have been first if the capex spigot wasn’t turned off for so long. It’s finally back on, but that was a couple years of no substantial network investment if I recall correctly. Heck, Sprint is still trying to get Band 41 to all of its sites (and Band 26 as well).

Saw bringing the heat once again... Sprint has a real opportunity to shine here with 5G.

Looks like Dr. Saw just deleted that Tweet and posted a new one:

😂

Dr. Saw lays out the case for the merger...

SoftBank stopped the bleeding, but it’s failure to follow on with a substantial capital infusion left Sprint listless, and unable to effectively compete post acquisition. This was so irresponsible and stupid. As a Sprint shareholder made me really frustrated. I believe that SoftBank’s failure to do so actually weakened and devalued Sprint to such a degree that Sprint wound up becoming the minority merger partner, with T-Mobile in charge. Masa couldn’t have had this in mind at the outset or during his previous merger overtures. At no point did I hear Masa or Marcelo say anything about being the minority partner. Sprint’s cleanup process could have happened under Hesse, and I don’t believe he would have gone along with Capital being held back. That’s why he was shown the door in my opinion. Marcelo was handpicked to be a yes man to Masa.... and here we are.

🤣

It's hard to believe it's come to this, but you're absolutely right. Part of me wants this merger to fail just so SoftBank is stuck with Sprint on its ledger. Sprint finally got its house in order, but SoftBank starved Sprint of essential capex for years in the process. All of those network plans that Marcelo and Masa spoke of were complete vaporware. Now Sprint has to do a traditional network build as the market analysts always said, and if this merger fails, it will need to do it on its own. Because of SoftBank's decision to have Sprint sit out the 600 MHz auction, SoftBank actually put its own asset in the unenviable position of having to build a 5G network without the propagation (and economic) advantages of low band spectrum should the merger fail.

Back in June 2018 Sprint said that they “expect to complete the substantial majority of our tri-band upgrades by the end of fiscal 2018.” (https://newsroom.sprint.com/triband-upgrades.htm) The earnings call/report for the end of Fiscal 2018 should be in out about a month from now, so we’ll see what this actually means soon!

What about a duty to the shareholders and what’s fair to other stakeholders? People don’t invest in Sprint stock for the dividend.

Sprint drops Target as a retail sales channel: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-drops-target-as-a-retail-sales-channel Guess the units weren’t moving there?

I didn’t think Marcelo would BS us to such a degree. I didn’t think Masa would either. If 5G launches this May in the initial launch cities without VoLTE being officially launched, I won’t be surprised.