ericdabbs

Well at least Sprint will finally do the right thing and give all current Unlimited Freedom customers the ability to upgrade for FREE to the 10 GB hotspot and HD video streaming. One step in the right direction. However Sprint is still failing to make an effort to offer current loyal customers not on Unlimited Freedom (ex: ED1500, Framily, Unlimited All-In, SERO, etc) any deals that would be save them money. Sprint should offer a 5 lines for $130 deal for current customers and I bet they will be a ton of Sprint customers flocking to that deal.

That is part of the reason why Sprint should look at it as an incentive to want to get people to jump off of their legacy plans until a simplified Unlimited Freedom plan to reduce their SOCs. But the problem is Sprint has to open the opportunity to allow current customers to take advantage of it or else nothing is going to be done about it. With the removal of 2 year contracts, which I am sure was the main reason why people were hanging to dear life to their legacy plans, it makes sense now to try to get people to convert to the new plans. The only thing that I wish Sprint would make a change to their Unlimited Freedom plan is to improve their bogus 2G streaming speeds after 10 GB. I mean seriously 32 kbps which is basically nothing should not even been allowed. At least make it 128 kbps to make it somewhat useful.

I say Sprint has 1 chance to not screw this up like ATT did with their unlimited plan. It better be good because hopefully Sprint is going to feel the heat about the porting out numbers this weekend defecting to other carriers.

Well if Tmobile and Sprint merge, I sure as hell hope Tmobile management is in charge. At least they will get the job done with the 2.5 GHz spectrum and deploy the PCS spectrum assets.

Actually that would have been true for Sprint if they owned the H block since it would have been neighbored the S-band. However since Dish owns both the PCS H block and the neighboring AWS-4 (S-band) block I don't know if that is still very much the case. In fact LTE band 70 which was assigned by the 3GPP (1695-1710 MHz uplink and 1995-2020 MHz downlink) combines the H-block and AWS-4 (S-band spectrum). It doesn't seem like Dish will use the original PCS H block uplink spectrum (1915-1920 MHz) that was assigned to it which would have caused some power issues on the uplink.

I don't think most current Sprint customers care for a "loyalty credit" vs. being able to take advantage of promos. I mean honestly I think from getting the pulse of current customers if they can move their ED1500 or other legacy plan lines to the new Unlimited Freedom plan that they would be willing to stay. There are some perks with the new Unlimited Freedom plan mainly the 10 GB hotspot tether that most legacy plans do not have that feature included in their plan which is enticing to a lot of folks. Given now that a lot of adults have multiple devices that require connectivity, I can see why people would be willing to give up their beloved ED1500 plan which for the longest time was hailed as the best plan to maintain despite all these new promos and move to the new plan. If you simply look at Tmobile, you have people who are now even talking about giving up their Simple Choice plans to jump to the new Tmobile One which for a long time was a no-no due to the fact that it had SD video streaming and crappy 3G only hotspot. Who would have thought that they would be the case and Tmobile is actually encouraging folks to jump to the new plan. I get the math and I appreciate the analysis but I think at this point with this price war going on from all the carriers, maintaining customers should just be as important as attracting new ones for damage control. It is leaving a bitter taste in a lot of current Sprint customers and I am sure a decent amount of customers will be flocking to other carriers mainly Verizon and Tmobile starting today. People choose Sprint for the value proposition which is why the 50% off deal was popular and actually gained some momentum. If people are stuck in more expensive legacy plans now, people will start to evaluate their plans and seeing if its worth staying if they can get better service elsewhere for the same price. Once you lose that loyal customer, it will be hard to grab them back which we all know there is a cost for customer acquisition. A paying customer is always better than not having a customer and of course the word that gets spread around from former customers about Sprint service reputation can have a negative effect as well.

I would really love to see Tmobile grab Dish network. They have a lot of spectrum especially in the AWS-3 band, S-band and Sprint's beloved PCS 'H' block that is just ripe and ready for deployment and I know Tmobile would make great use of it and actually deploy the spectrum instead of just talking about it. That would really help solidify Tmobile's mid band spectrum portfolio and make them a stronger competitor.

Yes the promo is for new customers only. Also the 2G speeds (32 kbps) after 10 GB is a bit ridiculous. I mean the point of it is tethering so is there even any point of offering tethering at such slow speeds. I think Sprint should have at least offered 128 or 256 kbps which is still a far cry from Tmobile's 3G (512 kbps) and Verizon's 3G (600 kbps) of continuing tethering after 10 GB for the rest of the month. Sprint loves to boast about how much spectrum and capacity that they have and how they can supply capacity for the masses for years to come but yet they are so chicken on proving that they have that capacity by offering some more competitive speeds.

Thanks for the info. Yeah but unfortunately this is not good enough. Why isn't Sprint upgrading ALL customers who signed up from Unlimited Freedom since August 2016 to the new plan? Tmobile is upgrading all of its One plan customers from the beginning to the HD video streaming and 10 GB hotspot tether. Its already bad enough that existing customers who are not on Unlimited Freedom can't take advantage of this offer but Sprint is totally ignoring the early adopter customers of Unlimited Freedom too. That is just bad business.

Tweet pic from John Legere https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/831265363140628481 and not to mention the press release pic which is the same thing states that. Tmobile Employee who confirmed from reading internal documentation. https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/5u1fuo/new_hd_video_will_just_need_to_be_enabled_one/dds0fxx/?context=3 Reddit link from asking Tmo Chat https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/5uet4y/t_mobile_confirming_256_kb_speed_with_t_mobile/

This is good information. There is nothing to be afraid about because this helps the community here to understand what to expect if they are an existing Freedom Unlimited customer. It is such a shame that Sprint is so blind in trying to acquire new customers that it forgets about trying to retain its current customers.

Man I really wish Sprint would bump up the international roaming 2G speeds from 64 kbps to at least 128 kbps to make it decent. Even Tmobile is doubling their international roaming 2G speeds to 256 kbps starting tomorrow on the Tmobile One plan.

Its great that Sprint finally decided to match Tmobile's and Verizon's offer of the 10 GB of high speed hotspot tether and HD video streaming by default. http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-launches-best-unlimited-hd-plan-ever.htm However there are still 2 issues which still do not solve Sprint's problem. 1) Are the folks who signed up for the 5 lines/$90 promo before Fri, 2/17 going to get an automatic upgrades to the HD video streaming and increased high speed hotspot tether from 5 GB --> 10 GB? Its not clear from the press release if this is true. Hopefully Sprint is smart enough to automatically upgrade all Freedom Unlimited customers since the introduction of this plan to the HD video streaming and 10 GB hotspot tether beginning Fri, 2/17. 2) The 5 lines/$90 promo is NOT available to current customers. I still see a ton of Sprint customers porting out to other carriers simply because of no offers being given to loyal customers. Need to make this offer available to all customers so they can simplify their billing system and give them a reason to want to sign up for the Freedom Unlimited plan. Hell Sprint can even make it a limited offer starting Friday, 2/17 where for a limited time current customers can take advantage of this same offer as new customers to just stop the initial port out bleeding.

Ehh...I think I really appreciate the free international 2G roaming (speeds now doubled to 256 kbps) on Tmobile when travelling and plus the fact that my cousin joined Tmobile during the Buy 2 Get 2 Free lines promo back in Nov and has an available line ready for me to jump. Not to mention finally that the price is still cheaper than Verizon especially now with Taxes and Fees included. I am really hoping that a ton of folks from Tmobile jump to Verizon's unlimited plan due to the congestion that you eluded to. Also I am not in those areas of LA very often so I am too worried as long as other areas that I frequently go to are sufficient. I have no doubt that Verizon's speeds in LA are still overall better than Tmobile but as I seen as my reasons above, I am pretty certain about moving to Tmobile. Also I am praying that ATT offers their unlimited plan to all customers and has a price point competitive to Verizon to help take the load off of Tmobile.

If AT&T knows what is best for them, they would just completely get rid of the DirecTV requirement and just allow its customers to use unlimited. The AT&T network is strong enough with their large amounts of spectrum to be able to handle the mobile traffic. Hopefully AT&T responds soon so that Sprint who always lags can finally join in on the fray.

I agree I dont want to see a Sprint/Tmobile merger. If a merger did occur it just seems like it would take the goodness of the Tmobile brand and have it tainted with the Sprint brand. Sprint needs to learn to compete instead of just trying to buy its way out. Its not that freakin hard to compete with the news that came out of Verizon and Tmobile. 5 lines/$90 temporarily is utter crap especially since it is only for new customers. I am sorry but its true. Why can't Sprint just make it HD video and 15 GB of high speed hotspot tether and bam that should instantly put them back into the game.

I wonder what Sprint is going to do to counter these moves by Verizon and Tmobile in the past 2 days. Sprint cannot afford to stand pat and do nothing or else their net adds are going to drop like a rock. With all that 2.5 GHz spectrum that Sprint boasts about, it is simply unacceptable to be offering non-HD video streaming especially with small cells launching and 3xCA launch later on this year. Sprint should be able to handle that traffic with no problem and if not there is something simply wrong with the way Sprint is deploying the network. The market has spoken and people are not willing to accept non-HD video. Based on the reaction so far about the Verizon Unlimited plan, people are willing to pay more to get 10 GB high speed hotspot tethering AND HD video streaming. Even though AT&T is going to implement Stream Saver in early 2017, it seems like there is a way to manually opt out of it and maintain HD video streaming (which I am sure a lot of people will do) with the purpose of Stream Saver is to help those that on data buckets to make their data last longer. Sprint should change their tune and immediately make changes to their Unlimited Freedom plan to compete with Verizon and Tmobile by offering HD video streaming. In addition Sprint needs to increase their 5 GB hotspot tether to at least 10 GB high speed hotspot tether to compete. However I feel that Sprint should "One up" the competition and offer 15 GB high speed tethering to try to claw back some of the customers. The fact that Sprint only offers promos to new customers is ridiculous. Fundamentally Sprint needs to get it out of their heads that retaining current customers is way more important than trying to get new customers. What is the point of attracting new customers if Sprint loses 2x as much in current customers defecting since they are not able to take advantage of its promos. Tmobile allows their current customers to take advantage of new promos (ex: Buy 2 get 2 lines free) which has been key for them in maintaining customer satisfaction so Sprint needs to do the same for its current customers or they will be dead in the water. So many people are ready to jump off of Sprint (including myself) just in a split second from what Verizon and Tmobile are offering.

I really hope it is limited to 720p which to me is good enough. I am glad that Legere decided to match Verizon's Unlimited plan with HD video offering but I don't want it to kill the network with 1080p streaming. Also I am glad that Legere matched the 10 GB hotspot tethering which to me makes more sense and will take advantage of that for sure. For once, I want to say thanks to Verizon for being "Uncarrier" and pushing Tmobile (and hopefully Sprint soon) to retract their non-HD video offering and up their high speed hotspot tether buckets. This move really has me considering jumping to Tmobile or Verizon since Sprint has not been reacting fast enough in Los Angeles to provide better coverage and speeds. It is simply taking way too long for Sprint to make progress.

I wonder if Sprint completely abandoned trying to work roaming agreements with carriers from the other missing countries since they don't seem to care at all that some of the major countries are still missing on their map.

I am hoping badly that this new Verizon Unlimited Data plan will cause data hogs to flock back to Verizon to help reduce capacity on the Tmobile network especially in areas that are spectrum constrained. Maybe this move by Verizon will make Legere reconsider some changes to the current Tmo One plan to make it more competitive. However I think Legere might want to see actual porting/churning stats first before making any decisions on changes to the current Tmo One plan.

I think it is great that Verizon is jumping back into the Unlimited Data game and not only that but the additional perks (10 GB high speed hotspot data w/ unlimited 3G hotspot afterwards , HD video streaming, 500 MB/day Canada/Mexico roaming) are closing the gap to what Sprint and Tmobile are currently offering. This is what competition is all about and for us consumers this is a good thing. Good ole John L made Verizon squirm when they were starting to bleed customers. Hopefully this spurs AT&T to drop their requirement of Direct TV and reopen a similar unlimited data to all customers. I think this Verizon marketing campaign is also great for Tmobile and Sprint because hopefully it will force all the data hogs back onto Verizon and relieve capacity. In addition hopefully this move by Verizon will force some changes to the Tmo One and Sprint Freedom Unlimited plans to make it more competitive to Verizon. For Sprint, I would like to see them bump their 5 GB of high speed hotspot tether cap to a minimum of 10 GB to match Verizon or better yet make it 15 GB to surpass Verizon. Also a bump to Global Roaming speeds from 64 kb/s to 128 kb/s to be on par with Tmobile. Maybe it could even kick Sprint's butt into gear and raise capex FY to increase spending on network buildout (especially on small cells). For Tmobile, I would like to see them bump up their "unlimited 3G" hotspot tether speeds from 512 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps to make it usable. Also maybe consider a cut in price of the Tmobile One+ International plan from $25 to $15 will help spur more folks to sign up for it.

I was highly shocked when the FCC first said that they would clear 126 MHz and figurwd that it would fizzle when it actually came to bidding. I agree with you that 84 mhz is actually the sweet spot within the 600 mhz band without having to dodge around Ch 37. I think the resulting seven 5x5 blocks is good enough considering that some broadcasters were unwilling to give up their spectrum and get to keep their channels for all the TV loving folks. The bottom line is that more low band spectrum will be available for the carriers to further bulild their LTE network and that is a plus for everyone. AWS-3 auction set some very unrealistic expectations for how much money it could raise especially dish network who tried to play with the big boys but ultimately failed when it defaulted on 3.3 billion of its AWS-3 spectrum. Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

You are probably right in that the Pixel and Pixel XL phones are 2 of the candidates. However I gotta think that they must be eluding to the 2017 flagship devices. I am guessing the HTC 10 is on that list.

No the Pixel and Pixel XL are not on the list. According to the article, 7 devices total 6 new devices added to the list iPhone 7 iPhone 7 Plus Samsung Galaxy S7 Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge LG V20 LG G5 1 existing device that had 3xCA enabled HTC Bolt

But I am pretty sure just like Sprint, the coverage is getting better day by day. I think Tmobile will make a stronger push to deploy small cells in 2017 to catch up with the other 3 carriers. I would like to see Tmobile make a stronger push to deploy more B12 LTE on as many cell sites as they can.