RedSpark

Updated to iOS 12.1.1 which just dropped. VoLTE is now live on the iPhone XS (not sure about older devices). Once you update, it's automatically enabled. Sprint clearly wants iOS users to migrate over to it.

iOS 12.1.1 just dropped...... Woohoo!!! Bring on the VoLTE! Works on my iPhone XS and a friend’s iPhone 8. Don’t have anything older than that to test.

The addition of HPUE has definitely improved performance on my iPhone XS over the iPhone 8 I had previously which didn't have it. Aside from the user reports here, this is the closest we got to "real world testing" for HPUE, and here's what it showed: https://newsroom.sprint.com/new-hpue-report.htm In December, P3 engineers drove 36 miles around the Chicago metro area gathering about 4,000 test samples along a fixed route. They tested two Samsung Note 8 devices running in parallel, one with HPUE active, and one without, to provide a side-by-side comparison. P3 found that HPUE increased Sprint’s 2.5 GHz coverage by 24%. And as a result of spending more time on our faster 2.5 GHz spectrum band, average download speed jumped 49%.

If it's picking up 100+ users on the sector as the Network person described in his Tweet, it doesn't seem like it's reaching the more dense downtown area of Bethesda. What's the coverage radius/area on Massive MIMO site like this?

Isn't that also what HPUE promised for 2.5 GHz?: https://newsroom.sprint.com/breakthrough-hpue-innovation-to-benefit-tdd-lte-networks-worldwide.htm With HPUE, our outdoor 2.5 GHz coverage strength becomes nearly identical to our 1.9 GHz coverage. And indoors, where 60 to 70 percent of all wireless traffic is generated, HPUE enables our 2.5 GHz spectrum to achieve 90 percent of the indoor penetration that is currently achieved by our 1.9 GHz spectrum. The result? An even better experience for our customers with increased coverage, more capacity, and faster speeds.

Good points. I'm glad we're getting more details on this as well. Hopefully 5G will make a substantial difference in those downtown areas. Certain parts of Washington DC and some of the surrounding areas like Bethesda have gotten much more densely populated in the past few years and the network hasn't always kept up with that growth.

Very nice....

Yay!

https://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-5g-overview.htm We already knew DC was on the initial list of cities for 5G, but here are some more details on the deployment: The company’s 5G technology rollout is underway with equipment deployed and currently being tested in multiple cities across the country. Sprint 5G will begin with contiguous footprints in the downtown areas of these first nine cities, allowing for its on-the-go customers to stay connected to 5G through the city center. For example, in LA, Sprint will offer mobile 5G service all the way from Dodgers Stadium to Santa Monica. Please make it to Bethesda's city center as well! We're getting densified here.

https://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-5g-overview.htm Here's some new info on Sprint's 5G deployment plans: Availability Sprint plans to begin its mobile 5G rollout in the first half of 2019. Its first nine 5G markets include some of the largest cities in the country: Atlanta Chicago Dallas Houston Kansas City Los Angeles New York City Phoenix Washington, D.C. The company’s 5G technology rollout is underway with equipment deployed and currently being tested in multiple cities across the country. Sprint 5G will begin with contiguous footprints in the downtown areas of these first nine cities, allowing for its on-the-go customers to stay connected to 5G through the city center. For example, in LA, Sprint will offer mobile 5G service all the way from Dodgers Stadium to Santa Monica.

Nice job Sprint!

Waiting on iOS 12.1.1.... https://tenor.com/WIbs.gif

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/first-600mhz-5g-test Bellevue, Washington — November 20, 2018 — T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) plans to bring 5G to everyone, everywhere, and together with Nokia, the Un-carrier just took a big step toward making that a reality. The companies just completed the world's first 5G data transmission on low-band spectrum (600 MHz) … and they did it on the Un-carrier’s live commercial network. Low band 600 MHz spectrum is key to building a nationwide 5G network, as it reaches much farther than other frequencies. That's certainly a big step forward....

T-Mobile is renovating its Bellevue HQ in anticipation of the merger: https://www.t-mobile.com/news/new-hq-remodel $160 Million over 3 years. Good times over T-Mobile....

Anyone in the market for Masa’s house? https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/11/14/masayoshi-son-marcelo-claure-mission-hills-mansion.html He must be pretty confident the merger is going to go through if he’s listing it. Same for Marcelo.

That’s a good point. They also must have real confidence in the network to perform well if they’re upgrading the hotspot allotment by this much.

https://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-launches-new-campaign-highlighting-better-than-ever-network-paired-with-best-value-in-wireless.htm Yes, the Sprint Network has come a long way! In fact, today Sprint offers 30 percent more LTE coverage3 and reliability customers can count on. Through its massive Next-Gen Network investment and roaming agreements, Sprint is helping customers connect in more places from coast to coast, with its largest-ever total LTE footprint. By unleashing its deep spectrum holdings, Sprint is also dramatically enhancing network performance for its customers. Sprint LTE Advanced is now nationwide, offering customers speeds up to TWICE as fast as before for movie, music and game downloads, photo sharing and web surfing when connecting on the latest capable flagship devices. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/11/06/sprint-ups-mobile-hotspot-limits-50-gb-launches-faster-4-g-network/1898490002/ Users of Sprint's "Unlimited Plus" and "Unlimited Freedom" will now have 50GB of full-speed 4G LTE data per month, up from 15GB for Plus and 10GB for Freedom. Users of the company's pricier "Unlimited Premium" plan will see their hotspot data rise to 100GB from 50GB. and Those with older unlimited plans, such as the company's "Everything Data" unlimited plan that didn't have mobile hotspot, will soon be able to utilize the 50GB of hotspot data as well. The increased hotspot data is available for Plus and Premium users Tuesday with "Freedom," and "Everything Data" users able to take advantage Friday. There is no cost to get the new hotspot data, and for Unlimited Plus and Premium users, Sprint will simply add the feature automatically. Those on some of the company's other, older unlimited plans may need to log into their accounts on Sprint's website to add the feature. ............ Great news on this stuff...

Yes: https://newsroom.sprint.com/iphone-xs-iphone-xs-max-apple-watch-series-4-arrive-at-sprint-on-sept-21-iphone-xr-available-from-sprint-on-oct-26.htm “Fastest iPhones on Sprint’s Next-Gen NetworkWith advanced features and HPUE (high performance user equipment), iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR will offer better network coverage, including indoors, and the best-ever iPhone network performance on the Sprint network.”

I agree with you. It would be a fascinating read. We kept hearing for years about how Network Vision was going to make things easier, that Sprint's trove of 2.5 GHz was its unique competitive advantage and that Carrier Aggregation was essentially a software update after the new equipment was installed. (We're now hearing the same thing for Massive MIMO and 5G: that everything is just an equipment install/swap and software update away.) However... the equipment wasn't actually installed at an appreciable pace because there wasn't enough capex. According to Dr. Saw's blog post, as of a year ago, 2.5 GHz was deployed on only approximately 50% of Sprint's sites. Now it's on roughly 70% of its sites, and they say they're going to have it on a "majority" of Sprint's sites by the end of Fiscal 2018, which is 3/31/2019. I guess we'll see what "majority" ultimately winds up being. Marcelo's public messaging masked what was really going on. Things were made to look bigger than they were. The true gravity of Sprint's precarious position was finally revealed in Sprint's FCC filings, especially this one from September which I mentioned earlier: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1092573429427/Sprint Ex Parte - FULL Dow Draper Presentation - 9.21.2018 - REDACTED.pdf You can't compete on cost cutting alone... and we're nearing the end of that by now.

Indeed it should. Nobody anticipated the interference issues ahead of time?

In my honest opinion, the financial results themselves don’t show the deeper issues with the fundamentals that the company is facing and the stock bump itself was favorable merger speculation in light of Sprint’s continued underperformance. Sprint’s Dow Draper laid out the fundamentals to the FCC: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1092573429427/Sprint Ex Parte - FULL Dow Draper Presentation - 9.21.2018 - REDACTED.pdf Slide 7: • “As a result of our network performance limitations and perception, Sprint has consistently had the highest churn in the industry and failed to retain its subscriber base” • “Sprint is the only carrier with rising churn over the last several years” • “Postpaid customer survivability over 18 months is only [redacted] we are losing a substantial portion of our base” Slide 10: “Sprint is becoming a smaller company and is actually losing scale, whereas achieving sustainable growth requires Sprint to increase scale” Slide 11: • “Sprint has eliminated about $10 billion in annual costs, allowing it to boost near-term profitability” • “But cost cutting is nearing its limit and becoming more difficult” Slide 13: • “Despite cost cutting, Sprint still must spend significantly more per subscriber, per month, to support its wireless offerings, illustrating scale disadvantages from low subscriber share” Sprint’s latest financial numbers didn’t show what’s going on below the surface. Sprint’s net/gross adds and churn do. Dow’s presentation was on 9/21/2018. We’re around 40 days later. Sprint’s on the edge of a death spiral in my honest opinion.

iPhone XS/XS Max are Gigabit-Class LTE. iPhone XR is LTE Advanced.

That's a great question. I'd like to know this as well. What we do know is that Dr. Saw said: "The key driver behind our improved data speeds is the deployment of more 2.5 GHz spectrum. Today 2.5 GHz is deployed on roughly 70% of our macro sites – compared to about 50% one year ago – and we remain on track to complete the majority of our triband upgrades by the end of this fiscal year." The answer depends on two things: 1) What "majority" actually means; and 2) Modeling the upgrade pace to the end of Fiscal 2018 which is actually 3/31/2019. Sprint went from ~50% to ~70% Triband in a year.... with limited capex. They've got 6 months to hit the ~30% of sites that remain, but saying "majority" gives them quite a bit of wiggle room. We'll see.

In my opinion, that bump is based on merger speculation, not Sprint's underlying fundamentals. The company is approaching a dangerous inflection point of high churn combined with net-losses and an overall shrinking competitive scale. This is exactly what Sprint stated in its filing with the FCC in support of the merger.

This isn’t very good news at all. Sprint is approaching dangerous territory here.