bigsnake49

Wait, wait, wait, wait for just a moment!!!! You need an LTE network already to utilize 700MHz block E? Holy chyte!!! Seriously though, can AT&T buy it and aggregate with their own unpaired D block? The more I look at Dish's spectrum holdings, the more I think that AT&T should buy them from Dish. Then AT&T does not need to participate in the 600Mhz auction.

No, new devices will have to be brought out. Filters will have to be redesigned. We're almost at the point of software controlled filters but not just yet.

I hope that 800 is implemented everywhere and anywhere that Sprint has coverage and they have a solid plan of improving coverage every year. I want to see Sprint trucks with multiple antennas on the roof like I see Verizon trucks.

I have couple of highways in mind. Solid native coverage on I-95 in Florida from North of Jacksonville all the way down to Miami and State Road 528 from I-4 to I-95. There are major gaps in native coverage right now on those two major highways. I am hoping SMR helps.

If they provide solid coverage in the urban, suburban and exurban as well as the highways. I'm not really concerned about native coverage in the really rural areas. If a person lives on their farm far out of town and far from the highways, then I don't think Sprint should cover them. However I do think they should cover the roads that in Texas call Farm to Market or in Florida we call country roads.

If Sprint continues to nickel and dimes us as far as their native coverage is concerned, then I will leave them. I only have one line with them instead of the 4 I used to have. However if they provide really solid coverage in the places I travel and live and work, then I might think about bringing the other 3 lines over.

We will see what the rules of the auction are going to be.

Not guaranteed! There are other players that might bid for that.

There is no reason for a new high power broadcasting network and new hardware on devices. There are multicast protocols available.

I don't mind watching something a bit longer on my iPad. Not on my phone though.

Well they better get the same Upper C Block in Canada that they did in the US. Otherwise roaming is not guaranteed since there is no interoperability between the different bands in 700MHz

Yes but the order for Canada is going to be pretty small. Unless they are going to replace part of their LTE network or use AWS as more than hotspot duty.

Now of course, does Candada follow the US 700MHz band plan? I hope not! That one so freaking messy.

Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) said it is currently broadcasting eight channels of mobile video in 13 locations across the country, and is considering expanding that effort to a total of 40 markets in the United States. The offering is not commercially available, but represents Dish's continued experimentation with the 700 MHz E Block licenses the company won during the FCC's 2008 spectrum auction. According to filings with the FCC, Dish's Manifest Wireless subsidiary is testing an Advanced Television Systems Committee--Mobile/Handheld (ATSC M/H) mobile video broadcast network in locations including Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Pittsburgh. In some cases, the network covers the entire city. Dish is using Pericle Communications Company to test the performance of the network. Dish said it "has been actively exploring sites and site leases beyond the current test sites, and has a tentative agreement for access to additional broadcast sites in roughly 40 markets across the U.S." The company said the results of its current tests will "inform decisions going forward as to when additional sites will be activated for mobile broadcast video services." Read more: Dish considers expanding 700 MHz mobile TV service to 40 markets - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/dish-considers-expanding-700-mhz-mobile-tv-service-40-markets

Now, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil would be much bigger prizes. NII maybe up for sale. Is Softbank interested?

Yes, but if they're buying Wind, they're getting a pure WCDMA network that needs to be upgraded to LTE and will probably need 700Mhz in the upcoming auction to be competitive with the big three.

If they actually have 52,000 macro sites + 6,000 Metro DAS, then that's great for their customers. But unless they improve in couple of places where I stay and work, I could not use them. But a great network does not guarantee sucess. Ask Verizon in Florida.

I don't think they reported the number of sites after 2008 in their year end reports.

From those reports they went from 35,400 in the beginning of 2007 to 44,000 at the end of 2008. That's a hell of a lot of brand new sites in two years. If they did it, more power to them.

No, Macro DAS are full power. Micro DAS, such as repeaters in office buildings and package stores are low power, low gain.

Why would they not add full sites including 3G?

SELECTED DATA FOR T-MOBILE USA YE 07 Q4 07 Q3 07 Q2 07 Q1 07 YE 06 Q4 06 Covered population8 284,000 284,000 283,000 282,000 280,000 277,000 277,000 Customers, end of period2 28,685 28,685 27,734 26,877 26,020 25,041 25,041 Thereof contract customers 23,914 23,914 23,181 22,624 21,937 21,211 21,211 Thereof prepaid customers 4,771 4,771 4,553 4,253 4,083 3,829 3,829 Net customer additions 3,644 951 857 857 980 3,351 901 Minutes of use/contract customer/month 1,125 1,123 1,130 1,150 1,090 1,030 1,020 Contract churn 1.90% 1.80% 2.00% 1.80% 1.90% 2.20% 2.10% Blended churn 2.80% 2.80% 2.90% 2.70% 2.60% 2.90% 2.90% ($) ($ million) ARPU (blended) 1, 9 52 52 53 53 52 52 52 ARPU (contract) 57 56 57 57 56 55 56 ARPU (prepaid) 19 20 18 19 19 22 21 Cost of serving (CCPU)3 25 25 26 25 25 25 25 Cost per gross add (CPGA)4 300 300 280 300 310 300 300 Total revenues 19,288 5,068 4,894 4,780 4,546 17,138 4,523 Service revenues1 16,892 4,371 4,332 4,195 3,994 14,511 3,813 OIBDA5 5,350 1,327 1,412 1,386 1,225 4,712 1,172 OIBDA margin 6 31% 30% 32% 32% 30% 31% 30% Capital expenditures7 2,677 1,009 500 546 622 2,608 675 Cell sites on-air10 37,900 37,900 37,000 36,400 35,800 35,400 35,400 http://www.t-mobile.com/Cms/Files/Published/0000BDF20016F5DD010312E2BDE4AE9B/0000BDF20016F5DE01187B5EBB2BA144/file/TMUS%20Q4%20Press%20Release_FINAL.pdf That's from the year end 2007. As you can see they only had 37,900, and from the 2008 info above, they only added 1,100, so where did the other 5000 sites come from? Do you see why we are sceptical? PS. Sorry about the formatting. It looked OK when I copied it. Go to the reference to see the formatted data.

OK, here's a blurb from the 2008 fourth quarter and year end results: T-Mobile USA continued to improve network coverage in the fourth quarter of 2008, adding approximately 1,100 new GSM/GPRS/EDGE cell sites, bringing the total number of cell sites at the end of the quarter to 44,000. T-Mobile USA continues to invest in the UMTS / HSDPA (3G) network, which now reaches 107 million people in 130 cities. http://cache.t-mobile.com/Cms/Files/Published/0000BDF20016F5DD010312E2BDE4AE9B/0000BDF20016F5DE011FB943D848D0CB/file/TMUSQ4PressReleaseFINAL.pdf But that brings up more questions, as in why would they be adding 1,100 GSM/GPRS/Edge only sites at the same time they're expanding their 3G network to cover 100 Million people during 2008?

Neither Sprint nor T-Mobile have been historically known as DAS rich carriers. Metro on the other hand... My disbelief is based on the fact that T-Mobile was historical known a 35-37,000 site carrier. All of a sudden this 51,000 site number appears without an announced large scale new site buildout program. So color me a sceptic.