bigsnake49

No, I get good band 41 coverage outside. Inside my house however it's totally hit and miss. In certain spots I do connect to a 1x site from 10 miles away.

I certainly hope so. Cause connecting to a 800Mhz 1x site from 10 miles away is not my idea of fun.

No matter what they still need to put all three bands on all their sites then fill in with small cells. Execute, execute, execute!

Uh, oh...T-Mobile gets sued for accounting shenanigans: http://www.rcrwireless.com/20161128/carriers/t-mobile-accused-misleading-investors-hazy-metrics-tag2 I agree with them, it is kinda of hard to find the information in their Quarterly Reports.

Here are my thoughts about 5G based on the articles I have read: 1. Not mobility related. The devices will be either stationary or nomadic (think walking) 2. It will be an overlay, an addition to the existing LTE networks not a replacement 3. It will require a new air interface 4. It will be implemented using small cells, inside buildings, in malls, package stores, stadiums, office buildings. 5. It will provide massive bandwidth but also require massive backhaul. 6. It will be implemented in 2.5MHz and above 7. Some of the spectrum will be shared, ala 3.5GHz CBRS band, other owned. 8. Sprint will be the last to implement it, they will adopt a wait and see attitude 9. Not all implementations will be carrier provided. Think cable cos, building and venue owners. 10. At higher frequencies it will require Massive MIMO and Multi-user MIMO as well as Beam Directing

The existing LTE networks.

5G is an overlay not a replacement for LTE. It will be based on small cells since the spectrum proposed for it is not known for propagation.

As Claure himself said in the quote I referenced before, It will be a media player that will be tied up with Sprint. I tend to favor the Cable Cos but I could also see a Dish tie-up. You get the traditional pay TV crowd but then you can also get the millennials that do everything on their phones. Dish has some interesting AWS-3, band 66 spectrum that can be used/traded for some PCS spectrum or sold outright. I am a firm believer in midband spectrum and Sprint is somewhat lacking in that regard. The cable cos although lacking in spectrum have the media licenses, the cash flow and the backhaul/fronthaul to guarantee a great network. I think there will be some interesting developments in the next year. I would not be surprised if there is a T-Mobile/Dish and a Cable Cos/Sprint tie up or vice versa. I also believe that there will be some kinda of deal to repatriate cash from Apple/Microsoft and other multinationals back to the US as long as it's invested in this country. That's a lot of cash and it has to go somewhere.

Not so. Why do you think we have this auction?

I don't know if this has been posted already so here it goes: "Sprint has become a target for acquisition in recent months given both its subscriber gains and the increasing interest in tie-ups between wireless carriers and content providers. “I would say that our strategic value to many has significantly grown, as we’ve had a lot of bankers placing more calls than usual over the weekend, which is definitely quite interesting because of what is going on in our industry,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said during a recent earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “Now, I think the (AT&T/Time Warner transaction) validates the point of content providers and wireless carriers can go hand in hand. It’s happening in other parts of the world.”" http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/wireless-likely-to-consolidate-following-incentive-auction-but-trump-question-looms So while a Sprint/T-Mobile tie up might not be in the works, a tie up with a content company might not. Dish or cable cos? Disney?

Yep, since 35% is the percentage that you need in this highly capex intensive business.

And T-Mobile and Sprint might have been able to afford the network upgrades.

Yeah, Verizon is still raking it in and so is AT&T. T-Mobile and Sprint are still limping along. Look at the free cash flows of the 4 and tell me what has competition wrought?

Plenty of competition between the big 3. Plus I do believe that we will see the cable cos finally get in the wireless game.

Maybe eventually they can share a network and just become two separate marketing companies. As they just found out, it costs a lot of money to upgrade your network to the latest standard.

Yeah, it's time to implement that plan, no more farting around.

Reading through Light Reading's articles about Sprint, I came upon this nugget: "...CEO Marcelo Claure told an audience of financial analysts in New York City that Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) is planning to lease a tranche of its spectrum out to potential interested parties "as soon as possible."..." http://www.lightreading.com/mobile/spectrum/sprint-ceo-well-lease-spectrum-as-soon-as-possible/d/d-id/726249 I don't think that this is the sale and lease back of its own spectrum. So who might be interested?

Meanwhile Century Link is merging with Level 3. Is Zayo next and would the resulting company be interested in Sprint? It could solve a lot of the fronthaul/backhaul problems. http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/wireless-interest-fiber-might-lead-to-bidding-war-for-level-3

TV broadcasters did not pay for their spectrum. They were given it for free. To extend your analogy, let's say that a public housing project was built in what is now considered prime real estate. A private developer comes in and wants to buy the land from the government for a large amount of money so he can built high rise condos on the spot. Not only that but he will built a new public housing development in another spot. What shall the government do?

Spectrum is a public resource and it should be used in the most economically efficient manner. I believe that is cellular communications. My beef is why the hell are we paying the broadcasters to vacate.

Interesting new article by our friend Milan on the performance of the Intel and Qualcomm variants of the iPhone 7. The qualcomm variants (Sprint and Verizon and unlocked) perform 30% better than the Intel variants. The Samsung S7 performed better than the iPhone7 by a significant margin. http://cellularinsights.com/iphone7/

I want that spectrum to be used to generate higher GDP. I do believe that wireless carriers will do that.

For me, it's the FCF measure that's more important. Now I know that Sprint has a few loans coming due that it needs to pay off so I can understand their emphasis on generating cash. But eventually they need to start spending more money on their network. I hope they don't find themselves in the same quandary that they found themselves between 2005 and 2012.

Fi Project now lets you add additional lines for $15/line. https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/11/google-project-fi-group-plans/

Yeah, T-mobile service was out for a day or so in Melbourne, at least where I was. Signal strength of -126 to -128. Sprint service held up better.