Arysyn

Centurylink has a very small footprint. Won't really benefit Sprint in terms of reduced tower backhaul costs.

 

I'd be surprised if Centurylink has fiber to any node in my market.

 

But I would love for them to buy Centurylink. Increased tier 1 backhaul. Could help a lot with making their wireless core infrastructure better, faster. I think tier 1 is also a solid business to be in. I'd love for them to deploy FTTH in existing CenturyLink residential markets. I'd have three 1Gbps options.

I'd probably pay upwards of $300 monthly just to get working 1gbps FTTH at my home right now. Comcast basically is doing nothing about my issue at home, where I'm barely getting 150mbps, and they are saying it might be power/signal issues, but again doing nothing to fix it. My downstream power levels are around 7-9dbmv, and the SNR is around 39db.

 

It is frustrating AT&T doesn't have Fiber here, and the highest speed of Uverse is a75mbps plan, but that might go down to 50mbps, which is that plan's minimum. I might reconsider AT&T if the 100mbps plan were available here, but it isn't.

I'd think so. Level 3 would probably make the most sense (no consumer-facing business for Sprint to worry about; all that fiber could probably be integrated into Sprint's enterprise solutions with relative ease) but yeah either of those would be cheaper than Charter.

 

I feel like Charter would only make sense if Sprint wanted to offer bundles, but that just seems like it would be too much headache.

I know Sprint doesn't have the money to do it themselves, besides that they are better off focusing on the wireless network build, but I'd really be interested in a company buying Sprint which has advanced Fiber connections throughout the U.S.

 

I'm having a headache dealing with Comcast trying to fix my gigabit internet plan speeds, where I'm getting around 100mbps to 150mbps when I ought to be getting around 1gbps over DOCSIS 3.1

 

If Sprint were to be bought by one of these companies to get cheaper Fiber and into the consumer market in general by owning Sprint, perhaps they could start doing Fiber at home connections, which I mentioned the other day here on S4GRU.

 

If that happened, especially here in Chicago where Sprint loves doing the advanced stuff first, I'd immediately be back with Sprint. It would be a really bold move by Sprint, which owned by a technical-based company, rather than some mass market consumerism entertainment company, would be interesting and probably be really good for Sprint.

Sprint had a map displaying recent tower upgrades such as voice, capacity, and data speed upgrades during NV as AJ stated, it was found at network.sprint.com back a couple years ago. AT&T use to have a map sort of like Sprint's back during AT&T HSPA+ upgrades but was not as detailed as it only show by market and did not give exact cell site locations. T-Mobile as far as I can recall did not provide any type of map.

Thank you for the information. I haven't looked in a while, so perhaps I got lost track of time. Also, while I like the idea, I can understand how it might be a problem considering the competition. I do wonder if there will be some sort of change to these coverage maps at some point soon, considering the latest Open Signal reports.

Not to get political, but perhaps this is why John Legere got into a Twitter fight with Donald Trump. They do things to get a reaction that earns them fans, then the power and influence these men seem to have over these fans cause them to do, say, and even believe in things they normally wouldn't.

 

So, as Trump convinces people to think and express some crazy things, Legere convinces people to believe T-Mobile is more than a wireless carrier, its the "Uncarrier", a way of life, and to the Magentans, certainly beyond scientific reasoning and rational thought.

 

John Legere claims T-Mobile is doing wonders in addressing consumer "pain points" and using the example of T-Mobile Tuesdays as giving back to customers, when it really just is giving away free stuff and discounts into appeasing customers into believing T-Mobile cares about them.

 

This apparently holds a stronger effect in certain media than science.

A few highlights from the T-Mobile Press Release regarding the OpenSignal reports :

 

“Better matters. But BEST sure as hell matters more,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “I’ve always said, ‘Shut up and listen to your customers.’ Well, now, customers across all US wireless providers have spoken—through billions of their network experiences—and they’ve told us loud and clear that America’s Un-carrier has built America’s BEST unlimited network.”

In addition to the OpenSignal results, T-Mobile’s LTE network was also fastest for the 14th quarter in a row according to Ookla Speedtest.net data, which is based on millions of actual customer experiences.

“It’s a clean sweep for the Un-carrier!” said Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer for T-Mobile. “For the past several years, T-Mobile customers have been riding on America’s fastest LTE network. But that wasn’t good enough for us. Now T-Mobile’s network is the fastest, the most responsive and has the most reliable LTE signal in the nation. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”

OpenSignal reports T Mobile Network very strong!

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-tops-latest-opensignal-s-latest-network-study-while-unlimited-weighs-verizon-at-t

To add to this :

 

http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/08/02/t-mobile-wins-every-single-one-opensignals-state-mobile-networks-awards/

 

I'm sure this will get John Legere the bragging rights he absolutely loves!

Sprint did. But those site upgrade maps were taken down several years ago.

 

AJ

I may be thinking either AT&T or T-Mobile with the tower upgrade listing information, as I know I saw this about a year ago, though its been a while from now that I last looked at a coverage map.

 

Cell phone coverage itself has become quite good to where checking a coverage map doesn't seem as important anymore, other than particular bits of information that is more band-specific. Such as for example, band41 deployment and densification. This would be really nice to know as Sprint has more capex spending available for it.

 

The more Sprint deploys and densifies band41, the better Sprint will be, and not only Sprint itself, but how much better Sprint can be in contrast with the other carriers. The service would be unbeatable, despite the costly process of making it so with massive amounts of in-area band41 coverage.

 

Although as a disclaimer, I'm not advocating for wider coverage in areas to expand service, but rather to improve upon currently served areas where Sprint customers need.

Now to think of it, I may be mistaken about the T-Mobile mention regarding the monetary listings in areas, for listing the number of tower upgrades, not specific monetary figures. Perhaps Sprint could show where recent developments are without the cost being shown.

See page 24 of the Investor Update.

 

"Capital Expenditures - Network and Other": $1.121 Billion

I wish there were a way to find out how much money Sprint spent in a particular area of towns/cities, more specific even than just by market. The reason I mention this, is because between all the marketing regarding the vast speed improvements in the area and the lack of actual major reports of progress from third party reviewers, it would be reassuring of Sprint to give detail of spending in certain areas.

 

I think T-Mobile may have done this in the past perhaps they still are, I don't know. It isn't that I don't believe Sprint, just that these local capex financial figures would be nice to know. It also would be great to have a step by step development plan the way it use to be in some ways.

Masa says "I'll add everyone" MUHAHAHAHAHA

 

Ok I'll stop now.

Well, despite my response to Mr.Nuke, I don't doubt Masa very likely would love to own Apple, though I doubt he'd even try to involve Sprint in it. Just too much conflict with Android device manufacturers.

Why not add Apple as well?

Apple? They don't have anything that can be part of a service bundle package for one. Another thing is the immense conflict of interest involved between hardware sales at Sprint with Android devices.

 

Basically the same reasons for not including Apple as to those Magentans who use to strongly advocate for Google to buy T-Mobile. Both companies serve multiple carriers and a carrier ownership of one of them would be a massive monopoly.

 

Its much different in the case of Sprint, T-Mobile, and Dish, as both Sprint and T-Mobile could benefit from having Dish in the same way AT&T benefits from having DirecTv. The two carriers merging together also is something Masayoshi Son obviously wants too, so the three companies combined makes for a powerful competitor to AT&T with no serious conflict of interest.

 

One more thing, as I gave the example of earlier involving the combined company having plenty of spectrum they could divest while still having plenty of usable spectrum, it isn't completely a monopoly. Unlike the issues involving a hardware/software manufacturer like Apple.

Me too! But that would be difficult to get through FCC and Justice Department approvals.

The way I see it is that while it may be challenging, it isn't impossible, especially since the administration is pro-business and Donald Trump seems to like Masayoshi Son.

 

Now while I don't agree with how Masa has operated Sprint thus far, considering my disagreements with some of Softbank's business decisions, I like Masa's original thinking of Sprint and the plans he had when he was thinking big for Sprint in his wireless empire. Those are ambitions I certainly admire, and if Masa decided to take this on and not get discouraged, he'd have my full support along the way.

 

I think if Masa were to look at the one area he might have trouble with in the merger, which is total amount of spectrum, he could form a plan to take in presenting the government a strategy of selling off certain spectrum and helpful cooperation with other carriers in spectrum swaps.

 

I wrote about this not too long ago here on S4GRU, where I looked at Dish's 40mhz of AWS-4 Sprint could use as 20x20 spectrum. Then if Masa repurchased the AWS-3 spectrum Dish gave up in the tax situation after the auction, he could arrange a spectrum swap deal deal with AT&T for Sprint to have 20x20, while giving AT&T some PCS spectrum or AWS-1 spectrum from T-Mobile.

 

The last bit is deciding which of the two spectrum Sprint could more easily amount to having 20x20 of, PCS or AWS-1, possibly selling the other as part of a deal, if needbe. The best plan, imo, is to have three sets of 20x20 in the midband, then sell the remainder of the midband if necessary for the deal.

 

Considering Sprint's 120mhz of band41 Sprint could divide into half for 60mhz down, 60mhz up, basically equals the 60mhz down, 60mhz up in the combined midband. From there, Sprint could sell off their 800mhz spectrum and T-Mobile's 700mhz spectrum, and the remainder of 600mhz after provisioning 20x20 of it for nationwide use, leaving them a total of 140mhz downlink and 140mhz of uplink spectrum, granted if Sprint divided use of band41 evenly.

 

This scenario would have Sprint giving up alot of spectrum to satisfy regulators, while still having plenty for its own use between wireless, and of course for Dish digital entertainment.

Word in Japan is Son is now going after Dish. I like this idea as it will bring additional spectrum to the game.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/dish-network-becomes-latest-telecom-stock-to-spike-on-report-softbank-may-buy-it.html

I like the idea too, but I'd like for it to be a Dish/Sprint/T-Mobile combination.

Softbank invested 1 billion into OneWeb (thus owning half of it) and although the proposed merger with Intelsat collapsed last month, OneWeb plans on going forward with their satellite plans. Buying Dish may fall into play not only with the spectrum that Dish holds but also with OneWeb plans of bringing service to rural and unserved areas around the world.

Thus,

Grabbing Dish, a share deal with Charter/Comcast, buyout of T-Mobile, then a total buyout of Charter/Comcast. (not necessarily in that order) and this all falls nicely into the World Domination plans of Masa. muwhahahahahaha

 

 

 

Sorry about that, I was channeling him for a moment. lol

You forgot the part where a light shines down upon him, granting him full powers over the land and sea, where the light leads him to finding a magical staff, and a hat, and then guides him to pull a sword from a stone. With that in his grasps, he goes upon a conquest to take over the world. First stopping by at AT&T, then Verizon, then the FCC. From there, he combines all the national U.S. carriers into one. Then when he finally has all the U.S. wireless companies under his control, he makes plans for an announcement that everyone awaits anxiously for, wondering what it could be...

 

Then, he speaks... With one voice, he says "Twice the Price".

Congrats to Sprint in getting its financial house in order. That being said, I am still in favor of T-Mobile and Sprint merging because of the tremendous fixed cost investment it takes to have a nationwide network. I hope that Softbank at some point or another invests in acquiring the 600Mhz spectrum from Dish, Comcast and some smaller companies and then lease it to Sprint. 7Mhz is not enough to compete with the other three.

The best thing I'm hoping for either is for Sprint to continue with billion dollar network investments, or to do that also while merging with T-Mobile and picking up Dish along the way. This would increase the 600mhz spectrum Dish has with T-Mobile, and bump up the minimum from 10x10 to 15x15, which considering many places T-Mobile already has 15x15, this would make those 20x20.

 

Having that much low-band spectrum would make T-Mobile's current spectrum allotment which already is great, even better, while also giving the combined companies a vast amount of spectrum they probably would never have an issue with having not enough spectrum.

Sprint Reports Net Income for the First Time in Three Years with First Quarter of Fiscal 2017 Results

 

http://investors.sprint.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2017/Sprint-Reports-Net-Income-for-the-First-Time-in-Three-Years-with-First-Quarter-of-Fiscal-2017-Results/default.aspx

Sounds like good news!

I believe, might be miss reading your long post though

 

You can’t think of cable companies as being locked to their native region.

 

Most will soon offer OTT solutions on a national level.

 

This is what the “foreign “ companies are looking at for future profits And mobile ties perfectly to it.

 

 

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You may be misreading what I wrote, but then again I'm not quite understanding what you're saying either.

 

What I mean is this... Initially both Comcast and Charter were going to get Sprint together in some form of deal. That would have been quite large, both in terms of coverage where a cable company had a wireless service, and in terms of scale that would give these cable companies more power, motive, reasoning; basically the means to be able to push for more consolidation in cable.

 

Prior to hearing about this, and even now, seeing that perhaps its better not to have a wireless service in which to do these things, which essentially is what I believed in before. To simplify my statement, while cable companies could leverage their ownership in wireless to get more consolidation in cable, perhaps it isn't needed for them to get wireless in the first place, rather try to consolidate in cable first.

 

As I've been saying, the ultimate goal of cable regarding their aims in wireless l, is to bundle plan packages, which make the companies more money and give them essentially more power over the consumer by locking them into these large bundles of service. Yet for now, until cable companies can do this nationwide, it is worthless to buy into wireless, other than as an MVNO, because if they own a wireless company without national scale, it will be impossible to fairly offer bundles to tv packages within the wireless side

Here's an interesting twist:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/31/softbank-hasnt-given-up-on-charter-yet-sources-say.html

 

SoftBank hasn't given up on Charter, yet, sources say

 

• SoftBank looking at an offer of at least 50 percent in cash to form a company to buy Charter and Sprint.

 

• It's unclear what price SoftBank would offer for Charter shares or for the 20 percent of Sprint shares owned by the public for which it would also make an offer.

 

• SoftBank has lined up financing for the offer from three global banks and would be comfortable levering up the balance sheet, sources tell CNBC.

I wonder what happened with Comcast in this deal? If Comcast is gone from this, then I definitely do not want this to happen, particularly if it does and they start having discounted regional bundles in areas where Charter has cable coverage, leaving out the remainder of the nation where Sprint serves with wireless.

 

That would be a bad thing I really don't believe cable companies want. As I've been writing about lately here, these cable companies want national scale, which right now they're mostly stuck with being local/regional. AT&T doesn't even bundle wireless with landline, which is partly why they got Directv for that national television broadcast coverage they could use for bundling with wireless.

 

At this point, despite the disadvantages compared to going with cable, perhaps Sprint is better off going with T-Mobile. I'd really like to see both of them get Dish after they merge. That would place the combined company in an excellent position to compete against AT&T. The next thing I know I'd love to see Sprint do, is Fiber internet. If that happens, I'd switch to Sprint faster than a T-Rex can rip a caveman to shreds. ????

it doesnt look to good yet for sprint or tmobile. but the search continues !

We'll see what happens tomorrow...

Everybody ready?

 

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/892073546687623169

 

Predictions?

I'm waiting to hear about the merger arrangements.

I'd agree with - in fact I did think that way. Up untill Altice buying SuddenLink and then Optimum .... Altice USA just had an ipo and heavy rumor is they want Charter or Cox.

 

But yes I'm going way off topic. Lol. #sorry

 

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Altice may buy one of them, and possibly become the 2nd large cable company next to Comcast, which likely will take the others. I'm more open in my perspective in regards to different possibilities in the cable market leading up to the final two companies. Yet, Altice already is in the cable game, Softbank is not. What I mean is there likely won't be outside companies getting into cable at this point forward.

 

Back to the two possibilities though, they'll have to agree to share the cable lines on a national basis, which I'm thinking will not work out very well. There are different approaches to managing technology, and having competing companies forced to deal with each other on a national scale, with issues such as who is responsible for maintaining the lines, etc.

 

Nor will these cable companies settle on competing regionally while owning wireless, unable to provide bundles on a nationwide basis. The whole purpose of owning both cable and wireless, is to serve nationwide with nationally available bundles. I highly doubt these companies would be willing to just sell each others' services in contractual agreements that would be very complicated and messy to implement.

 

As I mentioned earlier, while dual cable companies is a possibility, its more likely to be just one cable company with a wireless service, which competes against AT&T and their U-Verse/Fiber and of course, wireless. Then I see there being a huge new market in local WISP operators running off of small cells and having an advanced system such as pcell.

I might not be reading your post correctly...

 

But I think too many people think Sprint would be buying Charter. If it were to happen, SoftBank is buying Charter and using it's US presence to be the tool. And I'd suspect the surviving name would be Charter or a whole new name.

 

But also as many stated here pure speculation. Hell maybe SoftBank is leaking this to worry or poke DT

 

 

 

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No way is Softbank buying Charter. We already are seeing cable company consolidation begin, but its likely going to be more of an internal acquisition, with current ownership buying each other up, rather than outside companies coming in to make purchases of already currently existing large cable companies.

 

I was really surprised to hear Charter and Comcast interested in buying Sprint in the first place, until I thought about it more and what that could mean long-term with Comcast's close working relationship with Verizon. Without that, buying Sprint doesn't mean so much to them, and perhaps Comcast has recently had a change of mind reverting to what they and other cable companies really ought to be focusing on right now, which is national consolidation of cable, not getting involved in wireless.

 

The big reason behind consolidation is to be able to offer the biggest, best bundles of service. Cable companies really cannot do that right now with a purchase of a wireless company, because their cable outreach is regional, not national. So, those large glorious bundles would only serve regionally, rather than on a national scale. This is why it is bad for business having to do things locally and by state or region. National coverage is best.

 

So these cable companies are going to have to merge, while figuring a way to satisfy the governmental regulations concerning monopolies. What may end up having to happen here, is where there ends up being two national cable companies sharing the cable access across the country, each owning a wireless company, while AT&T takes on the layout of the third option being that of Fiber, also while owning their own wireless service. However, cable may be able to do better by claiming Fiber is an intensively competitive product to cable, and convince the government that one national cable company is enough.

 

In that case, we may be seeing two companies on a national level, one running cable and their wireless service, while the other one runs Fiber, with their own wireless service, while each company contracts to local MVNOs offering their own local Wisp services, which may satisfy the government enough to allow this.

What the eff is going on with mobile video throttling?!

 

EFF comments (and Sprint receives some mild commendation):

 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/throttling-mobile-networks-sign-things-come-unless-we-save-net-neutrality-now

 

AJ

While lately I've been leaning away from favoring speed caps, preferring a return to per gb data rates, it doesn't help the network any differently if a bunch of consumers decide just to purchase the data if they find the rates reasonable enough. If carriers did away with these throttling measures and just had an openly advertised speedcap for everything, it would help to decrease the negative publicity of being against net neutrality.

 

Carriers could have three such plans, one at 3mbps, one at 6mbps, and another at 9mbps, all with included tethering and no deprioritization. If priced reasonably enough this would become a great option for consumers who don't mind the moderate reduction in speed, while still getting what they want on whichever device, without any usage penalty. A faster 30mbps maximum plan could be introduced with a 9mbps tethering speed limit to give people who want that faster speed on their devices with the other benefits.

Hoping this happens...

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/sprint-is-said-still-in-talks-with-cable-duo-as-exclusivity-ends

The way I view this, is dependent on what plan for progress us as individual supporters of Sprint wish to see the company use, technically-speaking.

 

If Sprint went with Comcast and Charter, that likely would see Sprint finally be able to begin mass deployment of spectrum, along with network densification, that which basically was put on hold after Softbank took over and decided Sprint needed austerity more than network progress. While Sprint's financials aren't perfect, they're better, yet Sprint hasn't quite advanced the way it was on track to in finally improving on their reputation. However, even with Comcast and Charter and refocusing on the network, its going to be difficult for Sprint's reputation, especially with Comcast on board.

 

The T-Mobile deal would put a final nail in the coffin to Sprint's old reputation. It will be seen like Sprint rose from the dead with a massive rebirth into something that magically turns Sprint into a super powerful force in wireless that will be epic domination over the industry. So long as the only possible spectrum given up in a deal is limited to 800mhz spectrum, at most, between the combined networks and spectrum of Sprint and T-Mobile, it'll be a massive competitor in the industry.

 

The problem with T-Mobile, is while we can speculate who the new CEO might be, we don't know that for sure. There still is a chance it might be John Legere, which as most here know, I don't believe that will be a good thing, other than he might be one of the best people to then get a deal done to merge Dish in, which if he does, will change my mind about Legere just a bit, as I'll have to give him credit if he does that.

 

Otherwise, there is the notion that the growth Sprint will have in this case, isn't a natural, organic growth of band 41, the kind we'll likely see with Comcast and Charter. There will be a mess of merging networks and spectrum that will take some time and be a mess for a bit. I'm thinking in this case, perhaps Legere wouldn't be too bad to have around for this, as T-Mobile has proven to be good with their network development.

 

Still, those are differences between them, and its difficult to really say which is better.

There is news around the internet of a 6gb/128gb version on sale now, or soon. I didn't read too much into it though, and I"m not sure if this will be available directly from Sprint, or if its only available online, which in case it isn't, then I'm unsure whether or not it is fully Sprint compatible.