bigsnake49

Very good advice, I hope that Sprint takes it!

He would be a fool if he did not. If I was T-Mobile, I would be performing a sexual act on Charlie right now. Because it would relieve them of the pressure to participate in the AWS-3 auction which they don't have the money for right now. Come to think of it Sprint should be doing the same thing if only to keep them out of T-Mobile's clutches. Dish/Ergen is eyeing Sprint's 2.5 GHz because it will allow them to offer fixed broadband, OTT video and VOD. Meanwhile they bring a lot of spectrum that Sprint can either use, like the 25x5 chunk comprised of PCS H Block plus the 2000-2020, or sell,1695-1710 uplink paired with 2180-2200MHz downlink. Not to mention 6MHz of 700MHz E block. Not to mention the nice cash flow. So Dish/Ergen is the belle of the ball right now, no matter what Neal Gompa says .

You don't think they have different people working on different things? It's not like the network people were involved in the M&A. Maybe in the beginning a year ago they asked them who to do the network integration, but other than that...

I was actually counting ATT's D block as well in the 24MHz. You have plenty of uplink bandwidth in other places. Give me your downlink and I will give you my uplink. Is that why the 1695-1710Mhz which is going to be used for uplink in the coming AWS-3 auction only has ~$500M reserve, whereas the paired spectrum has a $10B reserve? You would think that people would be rushing to buy uplink spectrum if it was so valuable.

They have never fared well at dslreports. Nothing new.

If I was running T-Mobile I would sell to Dish. Between Dish's 700 E block and buying the rest of 700 A block you have total of 24MHz of 700Mhz. Forget about 600Mhz auction. Hell if Dish sues to stop the Direct TV/AT&T tie up, they can probably get Block D for cheap from AT&T. Dish is spectrum rich to the point where T-Mobile does not need to bid in any of the upcoming auctions. Not only that but Dish brings some cash flow and video content. It will be a pretty tough combination. Sprint will be left as the only pure wireless play. Everybody else would have some kind of media play.

None of us have any idea of what Sprint will do with fixed broadband. I believe they will offer some form of it in conjunction with Dish in the more suburband/exurban/rural areas. I think it will be some kind of metered service. All of us will have to wait and see.They will not offer it in areas that are well covered by cable or U-Verse or fiber, but then again they might. I think the plans that Dish and Ntelos are offering should be a good guide.

Here is something that will be happening in Asian countries: Cloud RAN (Radio Access Network). Basically, moving the basestation functionality from the site onto the cloud where you can use generic hardware to do the processing.With both data and control instructions flowing directly from the cloud onto the RRH via fiber. It supposedly will result in 30-60% savings in deployment costs and 71% savings in power. Of course you will use a lot more fiber bandwidth, that's why I have been advocating for Sprint to buy fiber loops. Anyway, here is the article talking about it: http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/special-reports/c-ran-plotting-next-generation-wireless-inside-base-station-hotel

Yes it does.But that assumes that you are fully using all of the subcarriers of all the aggregated channels.

The iPhone 6 will have B41. The question is will it have CA? If it based on the MDM 9635, it will!

Actually Sprint is pretty lean as it is at 38,000 employees, about the same as T-Mobile. Now, that does not mean they can't streamline things so that decisions are made quickly and implemented just as quickly? No, I am sure they can find things to improve.

I fully agree with you. Sprint starved their network of upgrades for far too long after the Nextel merger. I am hoping they don't go down the same path.

Yeah, Level 3 does bring a lot of debt. twtelecom had a fair amount of metro fiber, but nowhere near the ILECs. The reason I have been proposing acquiring somebody with fiber is that if Dish and Sprint start offering fixed broadband OTT video and VOD, they will need a lot of backhaul bandwidth. I am also thinking ahead to the use of Artemis' system to multiply the bandwidth delivered. The front haul for Artemis system will require prodigious amounts of bandwidth.

They don't need Level 3 backbone, they need their metro fiber loops

Zayo definitely. I wanted Sprint to buy tw telecom or level 3 for their fiber loops.

Yes, but also tons of opportunities for business integrated communications.

From an earlier article endorsing the T-Mobile/Sprint merger: As such, I wonder if Masayoshi Son’s big vision goes beyond just combining these two carriers and includes an acquisition (or two) of wireline assets too, so as to create a true rival to AT&T and Verizon. Centurylink would be the obvious property to go after there, with a significant footprint across much of the middle of the United States, and a growing presence in enterprise services too. A Sprint-T-Mobile-Centurylink merger with significant backing from SoftBank could be really powerful. http://www.beyonddevic.es/2013/12/13/why-sprint-t-mobile-makes-sense/

Actually T-Mobile's plans are at $25/user. I am assuming you are talking about the 4 line 2.5GB/line plan. If Sprint also offers a $100/month 12GB truly shared plan with $25/additional line and 3GB per line extra added to the plan I think that would be competitive. They also have to have something compelling on the 1, 2 and 3 line plans. Offer 30 day try out plan. Advertise the plan heavily where they have a good network, Chicago or NYC?

Very well thought out and written article.

I have been perusing a lot of the wireless websites and besides the rabid magentans, the rest of the comments have been pretty sanguine about the possibility of a price war eroding the abilities of US carriers to invest in infrastructure. Some people are saying that regulatory objections may have done the industry a disservice.

Yeah, I agree with you 100%, but we have one already. It's called "General Topics" . Oh, you want a sub forum? Sure!!!

Make that the top 100 markets and I am with you.

Keep your eye on Dish now that T-Mobile is out of the picture. I don't foresee carrier aggregation beyond 3 20Mhz channels. In suburban/rural areas, they don't even need that. Dish/Sprint can use the leftover spectrum for fixed wireless/VOD. In urban/suburban they can use it for OTT video. Dish has been working on OTT video licenses since the beginning of the year. That is where the play will be. There will be some interesting horse trading of spectrum for spectrum and spectrum for network access/revenue sharing. Both Son and Charlie Ergen are very shrewd businessmen. They will get it done.

I have taken 81 down from Harrisburg, P.A. to 64 to Richmond. I have also gone into Delaware and taken 9 to 13 down to Virginia Beach. Anything to avoid DC .

Yeah, DC traffic is insane man. They need to do something to bypass that mess! Yikes!!!!!