bigsnake49

Verizon is going through a massive small cell densification effort and I doubt they will need spectrum anytime soon. They still have not reformed their 850MHz for LTE. T-Mobile can also densify using small cells. Then of course there is the LTE-U/LTEAA small cell effort. Will they be using 3.5GHz at some point?

I have yet to see any of my friends or neighbors put up any OTA antennas. I have seen all of them signup for Netflix HBO GO or Showtime GO or Sling and or Watch ESPN. I understand if you live in the boondocks OTA is attractive but I would like to know what is the percentage of actual OTA of local stations vs cable or streaming where all of those are available. I get cable for free and besides a few football games use it sparingly. Streaming has taken over. Not DVR's recording OTA, streaming. No commercials.

There will be many, many rounds of auctions. People are cutting the cord so broadcast spectrum should be losing value. People like to watch what they want when they want. The only thing that they want to watch simultaneously is sports and that's about it. Do I really care that there is a re-run of the 3rd episode of Criminal minds on some UHF channel at 11:30. No, I go to Netflix and binge watch the damn thing. I watch news online. Pretty soon I will cut the cable cord entirely and I am not the only one. And not a millennial by any stretch of the imagination. Broadcast TV is losing its attractiveness.

I thought that Sprint should have done something with this band instead of selling it. As in move some of the Public safety to 900MHz and expand the 800MHz band by the same amount. Of course they had no money to do it with, so it was a pipe dream.

Having been involved with Sprint in a peripheral way, I saw the old "telecom" mentality. Both Nextel and T-Mobile had the mentality of a startup. Sprint, layers upon layers of bureaucracy. Nextel, just get it done! The cost metrics for Sprint are much larger than for T-Mobile. They really need to get those down to compete.

Band 70 comprises Dish's current AWS-4 spectrum (2000 MHz to 2020 MHz), its H Block downlink spectrum (1995 MHz to 2000 MHz), and unpaired AWS-3 uplink spectrum (1695 MHz to 1710 MHz). The 3GPP agreed to the specifications three weeks ago; formal approval will enable the development of devices and infrastructure supporting Band 70. http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/3gpp-approves-band-70-allowing-dish-combine-three-spectrum-blocks/2016-06-16 I know that I am asking you to speculate, but what do you think of the possibility that Dish invests in Sprint or T-Mobile in return for getting their spectrum hosted? Is Dish just a spectrum speculator or are they interested in being a wireless operator?

If they're doing so well, why sell?

Wow, what twisted logic!

I had the same experience with AT&T, which at the time had vast stretches of no service in Georgia and South Carolina. I think they might have improved since then with the purchase of the Alltel (ATNI) spectrum in those states.

It will be a lot less than the AWS-3 prices.

What will you be using your service for? Both Sprint and T-Mobile have pretty reasonable overseas plans and so does Google Fi. If you're going to be using data heavily, you will be better served by local SIMs.

$46B including $5B of Voicestream debt.

MCI/Worldcom pretty much split the BRS spectrum. Sprint used theirs for cable wireless and then wireless internet. My wife's office used them for a while (Sprint Broadband Direct). I don't think that MCI did anything I think both Nextel and Clearwire were experimenting with Flash OFDM at one time. As far as valuations, yes they were very high. I think DT paid $40 B for T-Mobile? The problem that I have with the Nextel acquisition is not necessarily the total price. It was the fact that the Nextelians left in droves and that it deprived Sprint of funds to pay for network expansion. Oh, I forgot the $5B that Sprint had to deposit against potential rebanding costs. So the merger actually cost them $55B.They could have acquired AT&T or Cingular for that.

$50B dollars would buy a hell of a lot of spectrum/sites and customers. Nextel owned the other half of the BRS. Sprint already owned the other half. Clearwire brought in the EBS leases.

I use the FiSwitch app to switch between T-mobile and Sprint or auto-select.

They have not fully reformed their cellular and PCS holdings yet. Plus AWS-3.

Actually it was that Dish was concerned about PCS-H interference to it's AWS-4 spectrum but the FCC shut them down: http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/aws-2pcs-h-block-spectrum-auction-guide Unlike you, I believe that Sprint should do well to acquire PCS-H since it clearly is deficient in mid-band spectrum. I also would not mind some of Dish's AWS-3 spectrum. Does anybody think, looking back, that maybe Sprint would have been better off with Dish rather than SoftBank?

There is a possibility that there will be yet another air interface which has not been decided upon and will not be decided upon until probably 2020. There are other architectural features that maybe implemented earlier.

The Nextel merger was a disaster from the get go. It cost them $35B, it forced them to acquire Nextel Partners for another $9B and their varied affiliates for another $6B, it forced them to spend money on Wimax. The Nextel customers churned away in droves. They should have merged with all the CDMA carriers besides Verizon and organically grow and densify their network. Instead the merger deprived them of money to grow their network for 10 years. They still have not managed to straighten out the IBEZ and Riverside County areas.

Well, you might have known, but the rest of us did not know that Ntelos had 857 sites or that Shentel promised to add 150 sites to the network.

The carriers can play in the 3.5GHz sandbox all they want! Just keep out of the WiFi area.

I am totally against, LTE-U, LTE-LAA or any other LTE in WiFi channels. Let them use 28GHz or any other frequency. Hands off WiFi! Work with the cable cos on having ubiquitous WiFi where appropriate.

I think you were misdiagnosed, AJ! You sound like an Asperger's to me. Lord, I apologize, and be with the starvin' Pygmies in New Guinea! Amen. .

Sorry to interrupt but I found an interesting article on rcrwireless about the Shentel/Ntelos merger: http://www.rcrwireless.com/20160418/carriers/sprint-affiliate-shentel-talk-spectrum-network-plans-tag17 According to the article, all Ntelos spectrum will be assigned to Sprint which will then allow Shentel to deploy it on their network. They will upgrade all 857 Ntelos sites and expand the network by 150 sites. They will deploy band 26 and 25 throughout the network and band 41 in the population denser part of the coverage area.

I think so too. They should collect annual rent from the beauty contest winners but not too much that it severely impacts their ability to deploy a network.