bigsnake49

ivivla2 aside, it does point out how pathetic Sprint coverage is in some places. Some of us insisted that Sprint merge with Alltel & USCC and RCC a a few other regionals. At least the customers would have probably stayed instead of leaving in droves. I know that there are some here and Sprint management at the time that only want to concentrate on urban areas, but there are bragging rights when you have rural coverage and that translates to customer goodwill and customer retention. You also get money from the USF fund when you also have a local landline co. I wish that the FCC had given Sprint a full 10+10 everywhere by moving some 800Mhz denizens to 900Mhz but then imposed buildout requirements on them. Of course also insist that PS get off their butt and re-effing band instead of dragging their feet.

So more cows can now get their signal.

Or not! The station may turn down the signal a bit.

I don't know. I remember they won a lot of licenses and particularly if I remeber correctly in the more heavily populated areas.

They (Verizon) certainly have alot of lower A licenses for not being interested.

Here's some interesting maps at Gigaom: http://gigaom.com/2013/07/15/a-birds-eye-view-of-the-att-leap-wireless-merger/

Thanks, AJ, they do add capacity in some markets!

AT&T-Leap.

AJ, do you have a graph like that for the PCS side?

It is the same tradeoff that Sprint will face again: How far to extend coverage. There is a point where you start losing customers if they think you have bad coverage even though they will never go where you don't have coverage. So how many customers are you prepared to lose to balance out the cost for providing service?

They could have recaptured a lot more of the IDEN folk if they could have added 800Mhz voice and EVDO, but then they needed IDEN people of the network in order to do that. A chicken and egg situation.

There are channel 51 exclusion zones. Those tend to be rather large, unncessesarily so in my opinion. Channel 51 will be the first one to go in the incentive auction. It will be much easier to deal with interference concerns from a cellular set up than a 150,000-400,000 watt transmitter 70 miles away. I have not seen the spectrum map after the latest Verizon divestitures, but Verizon owns a hell of a lot of the A block and will probably be the largest beneficiary if those channel 51 exclusionary zones went away.

That is still a goal, according to my sources. T-Mobile is basically putting itself up for sale. Witness Legere's statements in the other thread re:Dish's vision. According to my sources Sprint and T-Mobile have been talking, with a hiatus to allow T-Mobile to close the Metro merger and to set the integration effort in motion. I will ask my sources whether they have resumed or not. Since both companies are majority owned 78% for Sprint and 74% for T-Mobile and the free market for the stocks is relatively small, stock price will not be the dominant determinant in a merger. The price and relative ownership percentage will have to be negotiated after very arduous negotiations.

Consolidation is all around us, Sprint needs to participate to beef up its subscriber count, its coverage as well as total revenue.

I hope we hear a lot more of the New Sprint's plans at their 2Q meeting.

They still need the scale.

Unless they sell them all at once, which means T-Mobile is acquired.

Or Sprint could trade all their WCS spectrum for some PCS spectrum. I definitely would like for Sprint to acquire USCC and some regionals but I was hoping that they had also acquired Leap. As far as USCC is concerned they could transfer all their 800Mhz rural spectrum and have them host it. USCC has a good reputation among the rural folk and would be worthwhile to maintain the brand.

Not when you have two dominant players like AT&T and Verizon. The other two cannot compete. Not unless they join forces. T-Mobile and Sprint will merge, Sprint will not acquire them. Softbank will be the dominant partner and DTthe minor partner. The techical integration problems can be overcome. There's no culture problems between the two companies or between their customers. They're both after the same customers.

I think the fantasy is that there can be 4 viable competitors, the reality is that there can be only 3. Verizon and AT&T had the 850 Mhz spectrum as well as the landline business to subsidize their wireless expansion in the beginning. I would not be surprised if the feds actually let it go through. Maybe with Sprint having to divest the EBS spectrum. Both T-Mobile and Sprint are deploying LTE. There's your convergence point.

Watch Sprint go after T-Mobile.

Reprint T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) CEO John Legere hinted at a new prepaid offering from the company, called Apollo 15, that will target Leap Wireless' (NASDAQ:LEAP) Cricket-branded prepaid customer base. In addition, he said he is 'intrigued' by Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) Chairman Charlie Ergen's vision of combining the company with a wireless carrier, but added that the two companies aren't talking. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Legere said that the company isn't looking to buy Leap but will instead go after the company's customers with a new prepaid offering. "The best way to think about Apollo 15 is T-Mobile network, T-Mobile devices, Leap customers," Legere said, according to the WSJ. Read more: T-Mobile CEO hints at new prepaid plan, says he's 'intrigued' by Dish's vision - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-ceo-hints-new-prepaid-plan-says-hes-intrigued-dishs-vision/2013-07-12#ixzz2Yr51ULTn

T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) CEO John Legere hinted at a new prepaid offering from the company, called Apollo 15, that will target Leap Wireless' (NASDAQ:LEAP) Cricket-branded prepaid customer base. In addition, he said he is 'intrigued' by Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) Chairman Charlie Ergen's vision of combining the company with a wireless carrier, but added that the two companies aren't talking. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Legere said that the company isn't looking to buy Leap but will instead go after the company's customers with a new prepaid offering. "The best way to think about Apollo 15 is T-Mobile network, T-Mobile devices, Leap customers," Legere said, according to the WSJ. ................................................................. Read more: T-Mobile CEO hints at new prepaid plan, says he's 'intrigued' by Dish's vision - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-ceo-hints-new-prepaid-plan-says-hes-intrigued-dishs-vision/2013-07-12#ixzz2Yqiyf6Bx I guess he wants Softbank to hurry up and offer because he's about to start flirting with Dish.

I pay that much to AT&T for 4 smartphones, so ....

I have advocated that they do the same a long time now. I have also advocated that they help the rural operators deploy 700MHz band 12. Heck if they can do that then they don't need to worry about 600 MHz spectrum.