RedSpark

2.5 GHz Auction Update: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/25-ghz-auction-raises-103m-tepid-first-day It’s the FCC’s auction, to be sure. But it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to call it “T-Mobile’s 2.5 GHz auction.” After all, the “un-carrier” is all about 2.5 GHz in the 5G era and it stands to gain the most from this event. After the first round on Friday, gross proceeds totaled $103,467,300. Rounds 2 and 3 are underway today.

When sufficient spectrum meets sufficient backhaul. Spend the money T-Mobile. Spend the money.

Some more info from the Earnings Call yesterday: https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/t-mobile-adds-723k-subs-q2-despite-shaky-economy T-Mobile said it achieved a significant milestone with the shutdown of the Sprint network. Nearly two-thirds of the 35,000 targeted sites had been decommissioned as of the end of the quarter, and the company expects to complete pretty much all the decommissioning by the end of the third quarter. Substantial progress!

Yikes. Migrating the customers over must be a real mess if that's the case. Perhaps they're waiting for more people to move onto "easier to migrate" Sprint plans or to just churn out?

Per the Factbook: https://s29.q4cdn.com/310188824/files/doc_financials/2022/q2/Q2-2022-Investor-Factbook-vFinal.pdf Page 14: Sites (Combined LTE + 5G): 88K Macro Cell Sites, 39K Small cell/distributed antenna systems sites. As that "Ultra Capacity 5G" POPs number/percentage keeps climbing this year and in 2023, we should expect T-Mobile's Rootmetrics performance to further improve.

Great point. When will we know the outcome of Auction 108?

It's impressive how quickly T-Mobile is integrating Sprint's network assets. Its dramatic improvement over the last time period in the Rootmetrics report reflects that.

Includes 200GB of Hotspot per line at $50/month for 6 or more lines. Definitely says something about T-Mobile's network capacity. Each line gets an iPhone 13, and they're throwing in all of the benefits of the Sprint/Magenta MAX Plan: Unlimited Premium Data, Unlimited In-Flight Wi-Fi, International Roaming, etc. The Sprint/Magenta MAX plan normally comes with 40GB of Hotspot included. You can upgrade to 50GB (+$10/Month) or 100GB (+$35/Month) of Hotspot. I guess if you need/want more Hotspot, it's an option.

Curious to hear how much network integration progress they’ve made in the last quarter.

I guess this news means that all of the Sprint DAS installations are now offline as well? Can T-Mobile assume ownership of these installed systems and retool them for T-Mobile network access?

Everyone with a Sprint SIM right now.

I'm curious how many Sprint SIM's are still active. Maybe we'll find out at the next Earnings Call? (Sometime in Late July/Early August I'm guessing.)

Dish, T-Mobile agree to new terms of master network agreement https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/dish-t-mobile-agree-new-terms-master-network-agreement "Dish and T-Mobile today said they’ve agreed to new terms related to their master network services agreement (MNSA). As a result, Dish will pay lower rates to T-Mobile for the use of T-Mobile’s network, with these reduced rates applied retroactively to January 22, 2022. And Dish has agreed to a minimum purchase commitment to T-Mobile of $3.3 billion over the course of the MNSA. The MNSA was first entered on July 1, 2020 with a seven-year term, so there are five years remaining on the agreement." Interesting development.

Glad to hear you got the info you needed and that it worked out to switch to MAX. That's correct: It's 40 GB of hotspot per line, and you can add-on more hotspot for specific lines via the website under "Change Services" if you need to. Yeah, I felt the same way, and the pricing comes out to be very close to what we were paying on Unlimited Freedom. If you're going to use/enjoy them routinely, then the additional features are worth it IMHO: 4K Streaming, Unlimited Gogo Wi-Fi, International Roaming, Scam Shield Premium We've been on Sprint for a while too. We were on an Everything Data 1500 Plan, which I recall got Unlimited Minutes thanks to Marcelo's "Loyalty Benefits". We then switched to Unlimited Freedom (with the Free HD add-on that Sprint originally wanted $20/month per line for.... remember that?) because the pricing was better with "iPhone for Life", vs. the "Loyalty Credit" for staying on a Legacy Plan. Now we're on Sprint MAX and enjoying these newly announced benefits. Some family on our plan just traveled abroad and they're already making use of the new International Roaming High Speed Data, so it was definitely worth it to switch to MAX for us.

No problem. Do the math and see if it's a better plan for you. Sprint Max is a better value for what we need/want/use than what we had before. (Unlimited Freedom)

These are the plans/pricing currently being offered on Sprint: https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/plans/unlimited-cell-phone-plan.html We were on Unlimited Freedom, but I switched our lines to Sprint Max for these new benefits/features: 4K Streaming, Unlimited Gogo In-Flight Wi-Fi, International Roaming, Scam Shield Premium, etc. Sounds like Customer Service was offering you the Sprint One Plan with SD Streaming and 5 GB Hotspot. Sprint Max offers add-on hotspot if you need more than what comes with it (40 GB). You can add-on to have 50GB (+$10/Month) or 100GB (+$35/Month) of Hotspot on a per-line basis. We have T-Mobile SIM's in all of our devices, but our account hasn't been migrated to T-Mobile Billing yet. I'm sure that will happen soon. If the Rep you get doesn't seem to know what's going on, end the chat and try again with someone else. Also, you can have the plan change be effective immediately. You don't have to wait until the monthly billing cycle date for it to start.

How about that.... DISH will file its FCC buildout report no later than July 14, 2022. https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/dish-confirms-its-offering-5g-more-20-us-population "They estimated Dish would need about 4,000 cell sites to cover 125,000 square miles intended for the 20% target." "The next deadline is 70% of the U.S. population by June 14, 2023, and New Street estimates that will require 17,000 cell sites covering 375,000 square miles, based on the geographic coverage milestones that Mayo outlined during Dish’s analyst day."

See the FAQ's at the bottom of this Page where Sprint is mentioned: https://www.t-mobile.com/benefits/travel Which customers on Sprint plans can take advantage of these benefits? Everyone on qualifying plans gets these benefits, including those on Sprint MAX and ONE plans. If you have free in-flight Wi-Fi and/or free global data today, you’ll get full-flight connections on more flights and even faster international data starting June 21. Some international benefits will require a T-Mobile SIM. Everyone with an active voice line on a compatible plan gets a year of AAA on Us, and anyone eligible for T-Mobile Tuesdays can unlock discounts on Shell gas and hotels, rental cars and more on T-Mobile TRAVEL via the T-Mobile Tuesdays app. Here's what I can glean from it as far as the in-flight texting and Wi-Fi goes: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-in-flight-texting-and-wi-fi T-Mobile customers on eligible plans including Magenta and Magenta MAX and Sprint customers on Sprint ONE and Sprint MAX plans can take advantage of this great benefit. So that doesn't seem to include your Unlimited Freedom plan. As for International Roaming: https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/coveragebeyond Starting June 21, when touching down in a foreign country, T-Mobile customers will get 5GB of free high-speed data each month, up to 5G speeds where available, in 210+ countries and destinations on T-Mobile’s most popular plan, Magenta MAX, and on the Business Unlimited Ultimate plan. No passes to buy. No hoops to jump through. No BS. That doesn't seem to include your Unlimited Freedom plan either. Plus, customers get the same experience of 5GB of high-speed data in 11 European countries — Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia — on Magenta, most business plans and equivalent Sprint plans thanks to T-Mobile’s partnership with Deutsche Telekom. Essentially, everywhere a phone says “T-Mobile” customers will get the highest speeds available for their plan. This might include your Unlimited Freedom plan. Ask Customer Care. And T-Mobile is doubling the speeds worldwide across all 210+ countries and destinations (from 128kbps to 256kbps) so customers’ phones just work from the moment they touch down for things like basic navigation and email. This is in addition to the free texting customers already enjoy in those destinations. And it all comes on top of 5GB of high-speed data and free calling and texting for Magenta, Magenta MAX and eligible T-Mobile for Business customers in Mexico and Canada. This first part might include your Unlimited Freedom plan. Ask Customer Care.

T-Mobile on track to gain ‘synergies’ from Sprint merger "They’ve already done one-third of the 35,000 target sites to be decommissioned and are well on their way to complete the rest of them by the end of this year." "As of April, some 37% of Sprint subscribers completed the migration to T-Mobile." "During T-Mobile's first-quarter earnings call, Osvaldik said they were looking at 2024 to achieve the full $7.5 billion of run rate cost savings from the merger." Some great info/context in this piece. Definitely worth a read.

The other carriers must be charging them exorbitant rates for roaming on their networks. I hope T-Mobile keeps on building out native coverage to eliminate roaming as much as possible. That 600 MHz spectrum goes a long way and it's got to be much more efficient to build it out compared to other spectrum.

In light of T-Mobile's Uncarrier Announcement today, this page has info on the Sprint Plans that are eligible for GoGo Wi-Fi, https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-in-flight-texting-and-wi-fi Data Most T-Mobile rate plans are eligible for one free hour of Wi-Fi and unlimited texting on Gogo-equipped flights to, from, or within the U.S. You can surf, email, and post to your heart's content. Those rate plans include Magenta and T-Mobile ONE plans, among others. Sprint customers on the Sprint ONE plan are also eligible. Some T-Mobile rate plans are eligible for unlimited Wi-Fi and texting on Gogo-equipped flights to, from, or within the U.S. These include Magenta MAX, Magenta Plus, PlusUp, and ONE Plus, among others. Sprint customers on the Sprint MAX plan are also eligible. To upgrade to an eligible plan, log in to your T-Mobile account, log in to your Sprint account, or contact customer care. Most video streaming is not available with this benefit. I switched our lines to Sprint Max for this benefit.

Pretty nice.

That's pretty great! Our lines are on the Sprint Max plan with T-Mobile SIMs. I ran the numbers and it came out to be a better value to switch from our Unlimited Freedom plan. This reminds me of how SoftBank gave Sprint customers roaming access in Japan way back when: https://shop.sprint.com/global/pdf/shop/japan_roaming_add_on.pdf

Is sufficient backhaul already laid to the sites, or will new lines have to be dug/run/provisioned?

Curious what this will be: Update: