bigsnake49

You can still get it without the ads for $229. But if you don't mind the ads it's $179.

Maybe Sprint can use their 800Mhz mainly for VOLTE.

If this comes to fruition what is Comcast going to do with the miserly 5x5 non-nationwide sliver of 600Mhz spectrum they bought at the auction? Can they buy the 10x10 near nationwide that Dish bought?

A T-Mobile/Sprint partnership would make sense from a network deployment savings standpoint. Although with having to support so many bands, I am not sure of how much savings can be realized from a combined network. Maybe they can trade AWS for PCS or vice versa.

Now it's only $179 but with lock screen ads and Amazon apps.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that LTE-U and LAA strand mounted hot spots/small cells in the 3.5 and 5GHz bands.

Just be aware that the bands it supports are rather limited. But then it's only $229.

The possibility of cable cos investment/acquisition of Sprint has been suggested here in this forum for a while. I think it's a win/win situation for both parties. Sprint can get strand mounted WiFi/LTE small cell on cable cos cable plant, wifi calling on specially equipped routers, cheaper backhaul/fronthaul, tighter integration between fixed and wireless voice networks, access to content and some money to finish building the network. Cable cos get cheaper MVNO rates, extending of their cable plant wirelessly and get access to cord cutters to sell content, wireless backup to security systems, etc. Those are off the top of my head.

Pure Android, no custom anything.

For those on T-Mobile on a budget, the Nokia 6 is available for $229. Here is the band support: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 WCDMA: Band 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 LTE: Band 2, 3, 4, 7, 12/17, 28, 38 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/the-nokia-6-comes-to-the-us-for-229/

I could see them acquiring Shaw+Rogers.

I could see Softbank expanding in Mexico and Canada.

I think that they have one coming up for 2020. Dish/Ergen speculated that the price per Mhz would keep going up and up. The first attempt was when they tried to buy Sprint and then Clearwire. I don't think they were ever serious about acquiring either they just wanted to drive up the price of spectrum. They did the same thing during the AWS-3 auction. But they grossly miscalculated. From 4x4 MIMO to massive MIMO, from LTE-U on 3.5MHz, and 5g on mm-wave to small cell and mini macros, spectrum prices have been driven down. Traditional wireless operators hate him for driving up prices and will not cooperate with him unless they get a great deal.

Dish and Charlie Ergen has always fascinated me but is it or he out of his depth? Dish has accumulated a vast amount of spectrum including nearly national 10x10 in 600MHz spectrum. I don't for a moment believe the cockamamie IoT story. Verizon does not seem interested in acquiring Dish or its spectrum. They are concentrating in small cells, LTE-U and 5G/millimeter wave. AT&T also does not seem interested. T-Mobile and Sprint have plenty of spectrum and will also participate in the LTE-U effort. So where does that leave Dish/Ergen? What about Comcast? If you're going to go into wireless why only acquire a puny 5x5 sliver? Is there another player that might be interested in entering the market. Tim Farrar suggested Amazon in partnership with Dish and the cable cos. What does each partner get out of it? Dish gets plenty of bandwidth for its Sling service. Cable cos get plenty of spectrum for a nationwide network and get to market to millennials and cord cutters that live on their phones. They can also bundle wireless service with their other offering for a quadruple play. Amazon gets a network for their delivery drones and wireless service for their video/music offerings and their tablets. What say you?

The merger will be an all stock merger. Neither entity can afford to buy the other. As it is, right now T-Mobile has a higher corporate value at approximately $80B while Sprint has a $70B value. So it seems that unless Softbank comes up with a few billions to even up the stakes, T-Mobile or DT will be the controlling entity. I expect that at some point after the merger, the resultant company will come up with a public offering to the public to get some value out of the company.

If T-Mobile and Sprint merge then I am interested in finding out how the networks will get merged. I know that in the beginning they will probably leave the networks alone and just roam on each other. But I am interested in how the actual Base Stations, RRHs enodeBs and other network elements will get merged. How fast can Sprint move off CDMA and off into VOLTE?

For me it was highly disappointing that AT&T had large gaps in coverage on I-10 and I-80 and then on California Hwy 128 around Lake Berryessa.

I am certainly very happy that merger discussions are entering the serious phase and even more happy that it is an all stock deal therefore ensuring no added debt. I do believe that the combined company will have a $60B debt load which is very comfortable for a company that size. I want to discuss first of all their combined spectrum situation. Here is a list of their spectrum holdings: 1. 10x10Mhz+ of 600Mhz 2. 5x5Mhz of 700MHz 3. 7x7 Mhz of 800MHz 4. 30x30 MHz of PCS 5. 20x20 of band 66 6. 120-160 MHz of Band 41 If they are not forced to divest spectrum, as you can see they have plenty of spectrum for the foreseeable future. According to may thinking they have plenty of low to mid band spectrum the site to provide reliable voice and data under LTE. Band 41 can then be targeted for 5G. If I am the FCC I will make sure that they deploy everywhere they have low band spectrum to give us 3 carriers for every square mile.

All of the carriers on both sides on the border have interference issues and inadvertent international roaming. Sprint's IBEZ issues are mostly caused because of the stupid schedule the transition administrator came up with in which IBEZ areas came dead last in the schedule. No reason why they could not have been done in parallel. The whole rebanding was a total cluster you know what and the FCC shares a lion's share of the blame. Don't get me started!

Some good news for Sprint Milwaukee subscribers: http://www.rcrwireless.com/20170619/carriers/sprint-upgrades-milwaukee-network-adds-stores-tag6

I don't think so. HPUE will come in handy in VOLTE where the uplink coverage stability will be paramount.

What made T-Mobile is the AT&T breakup fee and the $5B of debt that the parent company forgave. Oh yeah not having to support 3 networks and a bloated bureaucracy. And a network management team focused on execution.

Softbank has not invested anything in Sprint besides their initial investment because of contractual obligations with the Japanese banks that financed the deal. I am definitely in favor of the merger just so they can be competitive as far as spreading out costs over a larger customer base. Now of course I want certain conditions on the deal.

There are parts of the country outside the big cities where their winnings in the 600Mhz band are not occupied by broadcasters. Those are free to develop.

Sprint's equivalent to Nextel's pump & dump or T-Mobile's uncarrier moves? Get as many subscribers as you can as fast as you can before you merge? What's to prevent people from getting a year's worth of free service and then move to another carrier?