RedSpark

Nice YouTube video of a Site Upgrade with 2.5 GHz.

If I turn roaming on, am I at risk of hitting the domestic roaming limit here in the DC area? This isn’t something I wanted to pay attention to or risk having service frozen/cancelled over. I have all the Auto Update over cellular functions on my device enabled.

I would like to as well.

Massive MIMO is actually a very cost effective upgrade for both LTE and 5G: Dr. saw shared much more detail about the cost efficiencies of Massive MIMO are realized in this article: https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/sprint-cto-parts-curtain-carrier-s-5g-buildout-process-goals-and-phones Saw today said that, after Sprint’s technicians install the antenna/radio units and the baseband units, the carrier later will have to install a channel card into the baseband unit in order to turn on 5G services. However, he said that work will cost much less because technicians won’t have to climb the tower in order to install the channel card; instead, they can drive to the base of the tower and install the channel card into the baseband unit at the bottom of the tower. Then, Saw said, Sprint can activate 5G services through a remote software upgrade. The company has promisedto launch its nationwide mobile 5G network in first half of 2019. Interestingly, Samsung’s Nyffeler explained that the company’s antenna/radio units will be able to support both 5G and LTE services—and will be able to remotely allocate more spectral capacity toward one technology or the other. That means, Nyffeler said, that Sprint will be able to dynamically take 2.5 GHz spectrum away from its LTE network and allocate it to its 5G network as customer demand grows, without technicians having to climb the company’s towers. Saw cautioned that Sprint would likely keep a significant amount of spectrum dedicated to its LTE network since its customers currently use that technology. _________________ This sounds pretty awesome. Because Sprint has so much 2.5 Spectrum, it’s able to do this. The more Massive MIMO sites there are, the better the LTE network will be today and the better the 5G network will be in the future.

I wonder when we’re going to see this on the ALU (Nokia) gear here in the DC Market. I hope they’re swapping out the legacy Clearwire equipment for Massive MIMO.

The NYC update is great news. Hopefully the next “city update” comes soon, before the halo effect of this one fades. You could make a case that it would be better for Sprint to announce this kind of good news for multiple cities at once... if it’s actually possible to do that. It may not be given Sprint’s deployment/upgrade pace.

WiFi is coming in 2019: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/04/buckeye_fans_will_finally_have.html “Ohio State had signed a contract with Verizon in 2012 to bring WiFi to the stadium and basketball arena by fall 2015, but the installation did not occur. WiFi was put on hold as Ohio State sued the company.” “University officials said the lawsuit is still pending.”

Based on this earlier Tweet, New Orleans seems like it’s about to get some upgrades:

Based on the size of the Redaction Blocks/Text Size in Footnote 75 of the Public Interest Statement, the Massive MIMO deployment figure appears to be in the 4 digit range in 2018, reaching the 5 digit range in 2019.

That’s a great question and point you raised. We experienced this with 8T8R antennas where it seemed like the news about them vastly exceeded the actual deployments. Sprint laid out its 5G deployment expectations in its Public Interest Statement on Pages 23-25: https://newtmobile.com/content/uploads/2018/06/T-Mobile-Sprint-Public-Interest-Statement.pdf It’s not a particularly rosy picture. There’s a lot more detail in the subsequent pages. The specific number of Massive MIMO sites Sprint expects to update in 2018-2019 and by 2020 is redacted.

That’s a great point. We’ve seen this happen with Sprint before, where it would gain the lead in a flagship market like Chicago only to lose it after 6 - 12 Months as the other carriers catch up. Is the pace of network improvements at this point primarily limited by available capex, available work crews or available equipment? I hope they can bring some strand mounts or other rapid network improvements to the Bethany Beach, DE and Ocean City, MD areas. I was there several years ago and the network coverage was terrible. I currently have family there now on Sprint (with an S8+ and HTC U11) and they’re telling me it’s still terrible.

Is that the one in Brooklyn?

I have some family that went out to Bethany Beach, Delaware for vacation this week. Spoke with them today via Google Hangouts and the first thing they told me was that they were on WiFi because Sprint’s coverage/speeds were terrible (They have an HTC U11 and Samsung S8+, both fully updated.). Sure enough, I checked out the Rootmetrics “Fastest Speed Found” Map Layer for the Bethany Beach area and it shows a slew of slow red hexes signifying slow data. The other carriers show much better. Same for the “Best Technology Found” Map Layer. This isn’t a terrain issue. This is a site density and capacity issue. (I helped them report the issue via the My Sprint App) If T-Mobile Roaming can help address this in the event the merger fails, and until Sprint’s Capex catches up, so much the better.

Hopefully there’s a price drop this year as well for the iPhone X v2. Does “Data Roaming” have to be enabled under settings to roam on T-Mobile? I currently have voice/data roaming disabled.

Assuming this merger doesn’t go through, do you think Sprint will receive any capital assistance or lender vehicle assistance (like SoftBank helped with previously for handsets and spectrum)? Respectfully, I don’t agree that the FCC document was written as a “doom and gloom” depiction of Sprint’s future prospects without the merger being approved. I feel like it was a pretty honest acknowledgment and reckoning of what I (and others) feared would happen as a result of Sprint being under capitalized by SoftBank since being acquired. It’s not the acquiring party in this merger. It’s not the anchor network. It’s being referred to as “save sites”. If this merger isn’t ultimately approved, which is a real possibility, SoftBank is going to be on the hook with an underperforming and under capitalized Sprint asset if it continues to be tight with the purse strings. If Marcelo wants to look at it that way as part of the SoftBank ecosystem, it won’t be a well-performing investment. I do agree with you that as long as Sprint can make the payments and have people lend them money, they’ll be ok in the short term. However, I am concerned about the long term prospects of the company to remain competitive with sufficient Capex in light of such a high debt load.

Marcelo is the Executive Chairman of Sprint and the COO of SoftBank: https://twitter.com/marceloclaure Michel Combes is now the CEO of Sprint: https://twitter.com/MichelCombes

Sprint has been pretty leaned out from what I can tell. It seems like every Earnings Call that they find more costs to cut. Here’s the Investor Update from the last Earnings Call: http://s21.q4cdn.com/487940486/files/doc_financials/quarterly/2018/Q1/03_Fiscal-1Q18-Sprint-Quarterly-Investor-Update-FINAL.pdf Page 14: Cost of services (CoS) of $1.7 billion for the quarter decreased $32 million year-over-year and increased $16 million sequentially. The year-over-year decline was impacted by lower wireline network expenses. and Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) of $1.9 billion for the quarter decreased by $71 million year-over-year and $161 million sequentially. Adjusting for the $81 million positive impact of the new revenue standard and $93 million of merger-related costs that did not impact adjusted EBITDA*, SG&A would have decreased $83 million year-over- year and $173 million sequentially. The year-over-year decline was mostly due to lower bad debt and marketing expenses, while the sequential decline was mostly driven by lower marketing and sales expenses. If the merger fails, I guess I could see Google being a potential merger partner. Sprint/Google have had a number of partnerships over the years like Google Voice integration. We might actually get WiFi Calling on the Nexus and Pixel! ?

Verizon is a capex monster. No doubts about it. I’m surprised SoftBank didn’t acquire Layer3 before T-Mobile got to it. That would have been a nice synergy and revenue stream for Sprint.

Yeah, he’s definitely of the mindset that the merger will be approved. This is not a given, no matter how much lobbying or influence Sprint/T-Mobile throw out there. Just ask AT&T about the “sure thing” merger with T-Mobile. AT&T threw everything it had at that and it still didn’t go through. If Sprint does have to go at it alone and deploy a competitive 5G network, it will likely need financial support from SoftBank to do it in an appreciable amount of time. Of course if the merger fails to go through, hopefully Marcelo/Masa are not content to watch their Sprint asset (of which they have an ownership stake of just under 85%) become further devalued and behind due to a lack of sufficient capital to enable it to be competitive in 5G. Maybe this is something they’ll actually/finally appreciate and take action on to rectify by infusing necessary capital to Sprint. SoftBank won’t have T-Mobile to lean on or hide behind as the anchor network as would be case through a merger.

Funny thing is that Marcelo is in an influential position as SoftBank COO to determine if Sprint will receive any infusions of capital should the merger fail to be approved. He sure didn’t sound too happy at the idea of Sprint going it alone and having to spend billions of dollars on network improvements for 5G.... Sprint’s not in a financial position to spend that kind of money, right? Perhaps that money would have to come from SoftBank?

Cool! Curious what you hear back. ?

Where do iPhones fall on the list?

New offer announced for iPhone X: $5/Month http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-exclusive-get-iphone-x-for-5month.htm Clearing out the existing inventory in preparation for the new ones coming out next month.

Hopefully Sprint doesn’t run into supply issues with the new version of the Magic Box coming out as it did for prior versions of it. I recall Marcelo being pretty unhappy with the inability to sufficiently scale Magic Box production. Not sure what the actual issue behind it was at the time. Sprint needs to go down the list of the highest trafficked national/regional retail brands and strike deals with them to place Magic Boxes across the country in all locations which need them. This is smart capex because it brings coverage to where the Sprint customers are. No doubt there are tools and metrics Sprint can use to determine this, including the “Location and Customer Data Analysis Feature” in the My Sprint App.

Agreed! The more stores Sprint makes deals for Magic Boxes with the better! I would love to see Sprint give us the ability to suggest/submit Magic Box locations/business names for them to reach out to. (Whether through the My Sprint app or the Sprint Website.) I’ve suggested this to Sprint in the past and have heard it’s supposedly in the works.