RedSpark

John Saw with a pretty thorough update on Sprint’s progress: http://newsroom.sprint.com/putting-spectrum-to-work.htm

Consolidating to 3 Major Carriers is a bad idea in my opinion. I do agree that Softbank has been depriving Sprint of funds in favor of other projects. Perhaps that’s Masa’s way of forcing Marcelo to get rid of the bloat that has dogged Sprint for years... and honestly, if you look at the cost savings that Sprint is achieving now, it’s unbelievable. Literally Billions of dollars of savings. All of this money was wasted for years and didn’t go into the network. Sprint has a chance to stand apart with a 5G Network based on 2.5 GHz. I’d like see them succeed on their own. I believe it can happen, but we’ll know soon either way. T-Mobile might call itself the uncarrier, but it may become the recarrier after merging with Sprint, if it hasn’t already in some respects.

This is pretty sleazy on the part of T-Mobile, and the FCC called them on it: https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/16/tmobile-fine-rural-areas-fake-ring-tones/ Falsifying ringtones? That’s a whole new level of shady, and Legere had to know. I for one don’t want this merger to happen...

It boggles the mind for me why major retail chains don’t ensure that they have good wireless coverage in their stores, especially if they invest in having a Mobile App which is a core feature of their business for coupons, payment, prescriptions etc.: CVS, Walgreens, Safeway, etc. Sprint’s Magic Box is a great tool that can be widely deployed to address this issue. If it’s not already underway, Sprint needs to meet with the regional heads of these companies and work out a deal of some kind to place these boxes. People have certain types of coverage issues: Home, Work, Errands/Travel. Any of these can cause someone to churn out, but I think Errands/Travel Coverage has the most impact on churn/satisfaction, especially since WiFi Calling is usually available at home (except for Nexus/Pixel people) and perhaps slightly less available at work. This is aside from the fact that customers will spend more time (and more money) where they have good coverage.

How can we get Sprint to do this?

I hope Sprint is working on this.

True. I hope they’re making progress on this as well. Magic Box can also run on Band 25. I assume that’s dedicated spectrum as well?

Agreed! @nexgencpu @Terrell352: Since you already have Dr. Saw’s attention, could you Tweet this CVS Magic Box placement partnership idea at him? Perhaps they’ll also consider Safeway, Walgreens, Costco, Denny’s, IHOP, etc. There’s also Jaime Jones, Mid-Atlantic President (https://twitter.com/jajones83) Anyone contact him before?

Sprint used to have the Direct2You program which it ran through MasTec. (http://www.mastec.com/uploads/CorporatePresentation.pdf) https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-confirms-death-direct-2-you-phone-delivery-service The numbers didn’t work I guess. If this is a partial revival of the program for the purpose of placing Magic Boxes at business customers, that makes more sense. However, Sprint needs to go beyond this trial and establish Magic Box partnerships with the leading national retail chains that its customers go to and where Coverage is an issue. I’d like to be able to submit a list of locations for this to Sprint so they can follow up.

True about Malls. The Magic Box supports up to 64 simultaneous users. This is well below the “congested” threshold of the Magic Box which puts out a 20 MHz Channel of Band 41. In the case of my local CVS, there are usually less than 64 people in the store at any one time. Split by four major carriers and factor in other prepaid, and there’s plenty of capacity for Sprint. Even if you account for the outdoor coverage of the Magic Box, not everyone is on Sprint. It’s ridiculous to have a CVS Mobile App that you can’t actually use in the store due to poor coverage. This affects coupons, prescriptions, payment, etc.

This is a good start, but it has to go beyond customers. Sprint needs to place these devices in major national chain locations. I know of several business locations that could use them here in DC: The CVS I go to; The Safeway I go to. Both locations have huge glass windows to the street which would support a Magic Box deployment. I wish there was a way to officially submit Magic Box locations for Sprint to follow up on. I’ve submitted reports in My Sprint and put “This ‘business name’ location needs a Magic Box” in the Notes but I’m doubtful anything will happen. Hopefully Sprint sets up something more official.

Congrats @nexgencpu on the retweet by Dr. Saw! https://twitter.com/nexgencpu/status/984077102180954112

Tell them you’ll stay longer and spend more money on food and drinks (and so will other Sprint customers) if they get one! Perhaps this new partnership with MasTec will help Sprint get more of these out to businesses. I wish there was a way to officially nominate a business for one to Sprint.

Interesting development today: https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/sprint-confirms-magic-box-deployment-trial-mastec I think this is a great idea to get more Magic Boxes out there.

Congrats @Terrell352 on the Retweet by Dr. Saw! https://twitter.com/Terrell352/status/983926676341043201

So who started this rumor... and why?

I really hope not...

SoftBank selling Brightstar? https://in.reuters.com/article/us-brightstar-m-a/softbank-seeks-to-sell-cellphone-distributor-brightstar-sources-idINKCN1HD2GK Seems like a mistake especially since Sprint uses it to turn around devices from annual upgrades at cost.

Dropping by Apple perhaps? https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/983359439867559936

Oh man.... haha. At least we know they’re awake over there.

Speaking of Coverage.... Sprint’s Coverage Map was just updated today (4/6/2018): http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp DC’s Coverage appears to be messed up now. A bunch of LTE Plus Coverage over Downtown is missing.

I think it would be nice to have a dot/list on the map to indicate Massive MIMO deployments in major markets.

I hope to see more of these slider map comparisons posted once Massive MIMO launches in the first six cities this year: http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-unveils-5g-ready-massive-mimo-markets.htm Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

I’d love to see this comparison for other markets across the country as Sprint makes progress on its network upgrades this year.

I noticed this interesting addition to the “Why Sprint” section of the Website: Coverage Map Comparison Slider for Kansas City area (2014 vs 2018) https://www.sprint.com/en/landings/network.html?INTNAV=TopNav:WhySprint:Network Scroll down towards the bottom to see it.