bigsnake49

He's bragging about his WiFi connection probably via cable or fiber.

Crude

It is a rather cruse way to say way out in the boondocks ;).

They better come clean on all these limitations on the kickstart page.

http://newsroom.sprint.com/best-time-to-switch-to-sprint-ever-try-sprints-great-network-get-unlimited-for-15-per-month-per-line.htm At the bottom of that page it says, "...Excludes taxes, surcharges and roaming." But on the kickstart page it says that it includes international roaming. Under Legal Disclosure it says, "Unlimited Kickstart: Up to 5 lines. Incl. unlimited domestic calling, texting & data while on the Sprint network. " I wonder what happens when T-mobile roaming is enabled.

I visited that page and it even includes international roaming. Does it include domestic roaming? There is no note of that.

That is an excellent plan as long as you don't want high resolution movies or high FLAC bitrate.

I wonder if they will talk to actual smaller wireless companies that Sprint in particular roams on about the effect of the merger on them.

It seems that the DOJ has reached out to Sprint and T-Mobile MVNOs about the effects of the merger. Something tells me that one of the merger conditions will be that the pricing structure for MVNO be frozen at the current levels for let's say 3-4years. I also think that they will probably have another condition relating to coverage and 5G deployment targets within 3-4 years. https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/doj-reaching-out-to-mvnos-amid-proposed-t-mobile-sprint-combination

Civilians do have to share the band with Public safety and utilities with lower priority to both. It will definitely help but could get congested at times.

Probably because 700MHz is not on every site.

They could definitely get some of the Sprint assets, such as enodeBs, remote radio heads, antennas even the EPC.

It's the 70% buildout deadline.

Here's a reddit post that explains the coverage:

Google Fi coverage is an amalgam of the coverage of those three companies, including any roaming partners. I am not sure of any other feature parity. Compare the coverage maps.

Everything is bigger and better. As a former Texan, I can attest to that!

Tell us how you really feel @MrZorbatron! I think that most cellular players exaggerate their coverage. Yes, I suspected a long time ago that T-Mobile was one of the most egregious. Now according to the merger presentation, they will end up with 85,000 macro sites. That will be enough to match the coverage of pretty much everybody. Like you, I appreciate not having dropped calls or undelivered texts. In my area on my T-Mobile MVNO, I don't get any but can't say it won't happen elsewhere. Once Charter offers service via their Verizon MVNO, I think I will move my 4 personal lines there. My business line will stay on Sprint/T-Mobile, well, because I can't control that.

You have 3 networks that you can be on depending on the availability and strength, T-Mobile, Sprint, USCC.

They're still bragging about 2.5 GHz. Although in that article he does say that 5G will be better with T-Mobile in that they can leverage low, mid and higher bands for an ubiquitous 5G experience.

As a side effect of the proposed merger, FreedomPop is creating the Unreal MVNO taking advantage of the regulatory environment created by the mergers in extracting pricing concessions. They clame to offer $15/mo unlimited service that is competitive with post paid offers by the two carriers. I am suspicious so I signed up for their beta program :). https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/freedompop-s-unreal-mvno-uses-sprint-t-mobile-merger-to-offer-15-unlimited-service

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. But have some news for the horse's (ass, as in donkey) mouth. Charlie Ergen, at the Connect(X) conference gave a few details about their upcoming network: 1. It will cost approximately $10B which is what a brand-new nationwide network costs, which leads one to believe they will not partner with anyone else 2. They have 654 days to deploy Block H spectrum 3. The network will follow the NB-IoT standard and then 5G-IoT standard when that becomes available 4. It will be heavily virtualized with network slicing 5. It will be designed not for smartphones (longer data sessions) but for the shorter data sessions of IoT 6. They don't have the money right now so they operate like a startup For all the handwaving, don't be surprised if they don't sell network capacity to non-IoT (say MVNO's) at some point. https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/ergen-s-5g-buildout-ambitions-for-dish-could-pass-10b

Even after merging, the new T-Mobile will face an uphill battle. First, AT&T because of FirstNet will have to touch everyone of their sites and so they will probably deploy all their spectrum on their sites. So I presume they will deploy CA, 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM on all their sites. They will also deploy new sites for First Net so they will add their bands on all the new sites. Verizon will have real competition on their hands. New T-Mobile better not bring a knife to a gunfight.

The former founder of Boost calls for divestitures from the combined company but not of spectrum but of the prepaid brand(s). I'd be OK with that. https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/boost-founder-angles-for-divestitures-from-sprint-t-mobile-merger

Not when Verizon just bought 1GHz of mmwave spectrum. Those were the policies of the past. If it does not get approved, it would the loss of jobs and the fact that it might not be good for consumers. Although when I look at the table on this page, comparing unlimited plans, it is already evident that the other three are not really competing and Sprint's lower prices are not working since they did not manage to steal anybody from the other other three. To me it is evident that were Sprint to remain independent they need massive investment in their network since competing on price is not enough anymore and low prices just deprive their network of investment.

The reason that neither Verizon nor AT&T are worried about this merger is that that even after the merger Verizon mostly and A&T to some degree are going to have twice as many postpaid subscribers as the New T-Mobile. Verizon's markings are still going to be fat and so will AT&T's. It will take a year to get the merger approved then about three years to fully integrate the two companies. Meanwhile the two behemoths will do everything in their power to poach postpaid subs from the new T-Mobile.it is imperative that the resulting company execute on all cylinders. from network integration and expansion to marketing to billing system integration.