ericdabbs

You are right, Dish won't make a video. I think its now up to the financial analysts to look at the presentation and dissect the numbers to see that Son is right and make recommendations that the Softbank deal is better than Dish. The general public just sees the 25 billion from Dish vs. 20 billion from Softbank and assumes its a better deal due to more cash.

Love the video. The ball is in Dish's court now. I would love to see Dish make a similar video to see why they think their deal is better than Softbank and make up for the lack of network expertise and vendor partnerships that Softbank has.

I hope those 1300 TD-LTE towers that are built are only at colocated Sprint sites. I think that none of the Clearwire only towers should have TD-LTE installed on them. Instead those plans to add TD-LTE at Clearwire only sites should be scrapped and those modified changes should be applied and added to the nearest Sprint Network Vision site. Right now we have no way to tell where those 1300 TD-LTE sites are located at.

I still think that two 20 MHz TD LTE carriers would be better served than to have one 40 MHz TD LTE carrier aggregated pipe. There is no need to have such fast speeds when Verizon, ATT and Tmobile are still deploying 10x10 LTE carriers. The bigger question is where is Sprint and Clearwire going to build out the TDD-LTE network. Certainly we know it won't be on every single Network Vision site so either way the Clearwire TD LTE network will be limited.

I don't think the "fair market value" will be that great. I would think that Tmobile's goal would be to offer a lower value to discourage people from just leaving like that even though they are suppose to be the "uncarrier".

I am just curious, if you do not want to keep the phone on Tmobile after 4 months, do you still have to cough up the $400?

I really wish Sprint would change their 4G icon to 4G LTE so that folks won't get confused between WiMax and LTE. I really like the Sprint 4G LTE icon and it would be awesome if they did it on future phones. ATT, verizon and Tmobile all have unique icons for 4G LTE so I think Sprint should do the same.

Not to mention that the iPhone 4S does not have LTE capabilities. With the iPhone 4S customer contracts up this year, I see a lot of Sprint iPhone customers reupping to get the iPhone 5S with LTE.

Definitely. The major metros that you listed should be of focus for TD-LTE deployment but in my previous post, I was eluding that Sprint needs to include other major metro areas this time like San Diego, Phoenix, Detroit, New Orleans, etc that were left out in the WiMax rollout that are normally near the top of the list for any carrier.

I sure hope not. 2500->1900->800 should be the priority for LTE coverage. 800 MHz LTE resources are scarce and should only be used when the user is deep indoors especially if 800 MHz LTE is going to be deployed at every other tower. I am more concerned about Sprint (post Clearwire purchase) that they deploy 2500 MHz TD-LTE in all major metropolitan areas including those that were left out in WiMax. LTE capacity offload is needed in every metro area and some major metro areas were left out in Wimax rollout. If Sprint's plan is to add TD-LTE to its own Network Vision towers then I feel more comfortable that these metro areas will be covered this time with TD-LTE.

I don't have to be in the industry to know that ...yes should be weather conditions where the tower workers do not climb the towers and I am certain that lightning is one of them. Even in rain, it is never safe to be dealing with powering up electronic equipment. I am sure the owners of these subcontractors already have a huge liability for its workers in dry conditions. When you add things like lightning and rain, there is no way any manager would allow their workers to work under those conditions. Safety is always number 1 in this line of work

Anyone catch any interesting QA questions about the network?

How are the removable sims working out for the Sprint LTE network? Any issues so far with activation and potentially swapping between phones? I guess there is not really that many choices to swap LTE phones with the removable sims. Maybe if someone swapped between the iPhone 5 and the HTC One.

You still haven't answered the question which many of us have already asked so far: "what is your highest priority as a wireless customer? Is it voice coverage? Is it data coverage? Is it faster data speeds?" We can't really help you answer your question if all you worry is potential issues outside of your control. It seems like from your previous response that if you moved to Tmobile, financially you wouldn't be any better off than Sprint since you plan to upgrade your device every 2 years. So if its not going to be financially driven, then what is your initial reason for contemplating the move to Tmobile? For me its not adding up because like I said...a move to Tmobile will get your out of a 2 year service contract but you will replace it with a 2 year device contract so either way you are in a contract.

i wouldn't worry with the noise related with Dish and Sprint. Its still got a long way to go given that the Sprint/Softbank/Clearwire is way closer to getting FCC approval than a Dish/Sprint deal which would still need to go through that long process. For all we know, Softbank could comeback with a counter offer that would appease the minority shareholders if it came down to it. I think Sprint is waiting to see if the FCC will approve the Softbank/Sprint/Clearwire deal in the first place and get their ducks in order as if it was the only deal on the table and see if they can get shareholder approval for the Softbank deal before entertaining any sort of deal with Dish. It would be foolish for Sprint to advise the FCC to halt its thorough review of the merger just because they may or may not deal with Dish.

What I don't get is how is Sprint and Softbank going to convince these minority shareholders like the Omega Advisor Group and John Paulson to vote for the Sprint/Softbank/Clearwire merger when they seem to be infatuated with the Sprint/Dish deal now?

I would suggest asking these 2 questions to yourself if this will help make your decision for you. 1. Do you travel a lot where voice and data coverage may become an issue? Sprint is in no way an angel here but with 800 MHz CDMA rolling out soon it will definitely help with voice coverage which will surpass Tmobile and not to mention 800 MHz LTE which will make data coverage more on par with Verizon and ATT for building penetration. Tmobile is great for the urban cities and if that is where you will be most of the time then you should definitely consider Tmobile as an alternative. There is no doubt that Tmobile 3G HSPA+ is way faster and consistent than Sprint 3G so I don't blame you for considering the switch. 2. Do you mind paying for the device full retail due to the additional $20/mo device contract which makes it $90/mo for 2 years? Even though Tmobile has gotten rid of service contracts they have replaced them with 2 year device contracts so you will still be shelling out $480 over 2 years. Of course after the 2 years is up, the $20/mo device subsidy goes away and you pay $70/mo of which you will start reaping the benefits.

Please don't get an e-boner.

I do not understand why Sprint continues to sell the GS2, preowned samsung epic, evo shift Wimax phones. sprint should only be promoting its 4G LTE network and leave Wimax in the dust.

Just by looking at the bottom of the panels, these dont look like Sprint tower since it only has 4 inputs (4 fatter cables). An Alcatel Lucent panel should have 6 inputs (4 for 1900 MHz and 2 for 800 MHz). Besides the antenna panel itself doesn't look like its from Alcatel Lucent

The 10 MHz of PCS H block spectrum will definitely help with expanding Sprint's PCS holdings assuming they buy up nationwide licenses. In terms of trying to obtain more PCS licenses in the A-F block especially in markets that only have < 20 MHz, I find its really hard to do given that AT&T, Verizon and Tmobile are all using PCS spectrum for 3G or 4G deployment and have no reason to divest spectrum. Opportunities like buying Leap should be in the discussion but with so much M&A going on with Sprint, I find that buying a Leap would not be advisable in the near future. If Verizon was required to divest all of its PCS spectrum OR Tmobile to divest part of their PCS spectrum in order to obtain more AWS spectrum then that would be an opportunity for Sprint to pick up more PCS spectrum in the A-F blocks.

Exactly. If ATT were to sell its AWS holdings, I feel that Tmobile already has too much AWS spectrum for one carrier and I don't really want to see Verizon gobbling up the rest either. Verizon was missing the western part of the US for AWS spectrum before they bought the SpectrumCo nationwide AWS licenses. If Verizon bought all of ATT's AWS spectrum they would have at least 40 MHz nationwide of AWS spectrum. With the upcoming AWS expansion auction for an additional 30 MHz next year, that would further bolster both Verizon and Tmobile's AWS holdings. Sure US Cellular and Cricket can make a splash for licenses but I don't expect anything big since both those companies only focus in particular parts of the US. If anything I could see ATT try to bid AWS spectrum in the eastern part of the US to get nationwide AWS licenses unless the FCC bars them from doing so. I just don't see ATT voluntarily giving up spectrum unless it was part of a deal that required divestitures.

I don't know...AT&T and Verizon seem pretty close to playing with every spectrum pool (700/850/AWS/PCS). AT&T goes even further with investing in WCS spectrum as well. I agree that Sprint needs to settle on a few bands but I feel Sprint should support bands that everyone else is also using for economies of scale. I wouldn't object if Sprint decided to add AWS band spectrum support at some point in the future whether that is through obtaining some AWS spectrum (ex: Cricket purchase) or if LTE roaming becomes available. The other 3 major carriers are planning to deploy LTE on AWS spectrum and there will be an upcoming AWS spectrum auction perhaps in 2014 to expand the AWS band.

Without 700 MHz in 5 of the largest markets, its garbage. Who holds the 722-728 MHz market in these 5 markets? AT&T? EDIT: It looks like AT&T hold the 722-728 MHz licenses in these 5 markets. I wonder why Dish decided not to buy up the licenses for these 5 large markets. I wish there would be a way for Dish to buy up the 5 missing markets from AT&T.

Exactly. Lets say for instance that Dish did end up buying Sprint. Dish could come back later and say "we discussed about expanding to rural areas but it turns out it didn't mean economic sense to do so ...so we are not doing anymore. We certainly aim to do so in the future if the opportunity presents itself but at this time it does not make economic sense". BAM at that point, Dish is able to weasel out of that hole. Words like "aim" are not contract binding words. Its very easy to talk your way out of it.