Boosted20V

Alas, if Sprint could only get their backhaul providers in check the network as a whole would be performing so much better right now. Luckily for Shentel (and a huge assumption on my part), they are the backhaul in their service area.

Anyways, this is good news and can't wait to see the spicket flowing in other Sprint markets!

From what I remember in an earnings call they supply ~20% of their own backhaul.

Also:

With the completion of its 4G LTE Network and cable upgrades, the Company anticipates that its fiscal year 2014 capital expenditure will total approximately $74 million. Shentel expects that capital expenditure per segment will break down as follows:

The $74M will be allocated 24% to maintenance CAPEX, 24% to capacity, 30% to network expansion and 22% will be spent only upon the success of obtaining new revenue generating projects.

Shentel released their Q4 earnings and had a solid increase of contract customers. So for all of the hate directed toward the Sprint brand, apparently in areas where the network is strong, consumers respond:

The Company announced that net postpaid subscriber additions increased 50.4% to a record 6,054 for the fourth quarter primarily due to an aggressive customer acquisition campaign and reduced churn as a result of the Company's recently completed 4G LTE upgrade. Net postpaid subscriber additions for fiscal year 2013 were 10,829. Shentel's postpaid churn rate in the fourth quarter was 1.69% compared to 1.87% in the same quarter last year. Year-end postpaid customers increased 4.1% to 273,721. The Company's 2013 annual postpaid churn rate was 1.75%.

He quotes every other providers peak speeds, but mentions Sprint's advertised speeds and holds it against them. Mentions other carriers aggregating bands which hasn't been done, and says Sprint won't do the same. Certainly had a bone to pick going into writing that article.

To bad sending a text has nothing to do with LTE, more like 1xrtt and if your phone crashed while sending one. It is more of a problem with your phone

Agree. B41 will have no bearing on the ability to handle call/text volume, I don't believe(or did I read that texts can be passed through LTE via eCSFB?). This should all still pass through the 1x side.

I now have had three Shentel sources tell me that Sprint and Shentel have come to an agreement on Band 41 and they will begin deployment before the end of the 2nd Quarter.  And possibly sooner if they can get equipment faster than currently scheduled.  It is believed to just be an urban overlay, and not going to be over the whole Shentel network.  At least for now.

 

In my mind, I see it Harrisburg, Hagerstown and Harrisonburg for sure.  And likely in Altoona, York, Martinsburg and Winchester.  The types of places that could go either way are Gettysburg, Chambersburg, Carlisle, Lebanon, Charles Town, Strasburg/Front Royal, etc.

 

Robert

Wow, good to know. I live right next to a WiMAX site. I'm surprised a company as small as Shentel can afford the cash outlays of these modernizations. I know it was a big topic in their earnings calls regarding their large amount of capital investments. Glad to see it though. However, I'm curious what will occur here since Sprint owns the old WiMAX sites post Clear merger and Shentel rents their own space on towers or owns their own towers.... will the old WiMAX sites be turned over to Shentel? Or will many be decommissioned and simply co-located on Shentel racks?

Shentel came to an agreement with Sprint to roll out B41? I can't see them rolling out much B41 yet as the population density in their areas just isn't that high to necessitate it. Can't wait for 800mhz LTE though.

Wow! if everything said is true, my bill is going to go up a pretty significant amount. Doesnt look good for people who dont have a lot of phones.

Agreed, I have a 4 line family plan and I see no point in moving to a Framily plan as it currently stands. Getting less for more, outside of unlimited voice minutes which I hardly use any of.

What do you think is going to happen for those who are on the Everything Plan?

I'm waiting to see what happens but I'm guessing you'll be on the hook to pay the price you always have but won't be eligible for upgrades. If you would want to upgrade, I'm thinking you'll have to go on Easy Pay and pay that in ADDITION to your Everything Plan.

I have a family plan with 4 different contract end dates, 3 of which aren't yet upgrade eligible. If I move these lines to the Framily plan, the lines which aren't upgrade eligible are still in a contract until their normal contract end dates, correct? Even though I move to Framily, technically I'll still have contracts on those lines?

There is very little if nothing to be excited about the end of subsidies for me.  And we can thank the magentans and all their "contract free" bliss for ushering it in so soon.  Interested to see how it plays out it comparison to the 3rd party retailer sales those of us who are savvy shoppers have become accustomed to...   If Best Buy wants to drop the price of a $650 device to $500 one weekend, will sprint be willing to easy-pay that lower amount, or is amount amortized by Sprint going to be rigid?   I've always paid a considerably lower subsidized cost for my devices than the cost if bought directly from sprint.

 

Agreed. Disguised price increases for those who use upgrades.

Carriers hate sudsidies and upgrades anyone that works in the cell world will tell you that. This month im making $1.50 for an upgrade on my commission, while a new line that signs the same contract and pays the same price will get me a commission of $8.68-$15.86 for each sale depending on what multiplier tier i finish at.

 

I think that makes it pretty obvious what carriers deem important.

 

Sent from tapatalk

And I understand companies want growth, it makes sense. But when you're dropping subs, it's just as important to keep existing subs as to gain new ones.

Its been repeatedly said here in the midwest on Framily calls with all corporate stores that phones will no longer be sold on subsidy starting very soon.

 

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I have a family plan on ED1500 with staggered contract dates. So if they nix subsidies, I'll have no choice but to jump to a Framily plan. I would think Sprint would keep all the 2 year contract upgrades they possibly could but I guess not. 

I would have to imagine that as long as they haven't bumped you off of your old ED1500 plan that you can still get upgrades subsidized. Otherwise, what a freaking rip-off. I'm not paying for the ED1500 plan price without a subsidy included. Is the thought really that they are going COMPLETELY away from subsidies even on older plans?

I don't think SoftBank would even consider putting that much into the merger especially with already taking on sprints debt load.... I am not to fond of the merger anymore.... I still think that primary focus should just be completing network vision but putting it on turbo charge mode and getting it DONE!!

I misspoke in my earlier post. The ATT merger valuation was $39 billion. Apparently, DT is asking in that range:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-19/deutsche-telekom-says-t-mobile-value-returns-to-at-t-deal-levels.html?cmpid=yhoo

Looks like DT is pushing for a valuation of T-Mobile in the vicinity of what ATT was willing to pay. I can't see paying $50+ Billion for T-Mobile. What a mess.

Route 863 and Red Rd in Weisenberg Township, Lehigh County in the New Smithville area

I noticed that "anomaly" on the map. If you look at network.sprint.com it isn't listed as having 2 data speed upgrades which pretty much every  other LTE site is at the very least. I think this may have been incorrectly updated in Robert's maps.

There's a "yellow" site that I still can't seem to get LTE from after months of being displayed like that... Can that sometimes happen?

A site in the Lehigh Valley? Which one? I've scouted around most.

CDMA is more advanced than GSM. I believe you're thinking Of WCDMA.

So I am looking to sign up for Sprint service via Ting. Here is my question. Am I better off getting a wimax device such as the SII Epic 4g Touch because cleveland has good wimax coverage or should I get a 4G LTE device and hope that LTE gets substantially better.

I wouldn't want a Wimax device at this point. I would definitely go with an LTE one. Sprint has stated they'll keep Wimax up until 2015 I believe, but still, those are some old phones.

Has anyone used Tmo's coverage map recently? They have updated it since I last checked to "pull the wool over the eyes" in essence. The differences between technologies are now marked by very, very, very subtle color changes (all purple colors). I know my house is covered EDGE only, but one could easily be mistaken into thinking they have at least HSPA. I love their contract strategies, hate their coverage.

Even the pink for high-speed coverage doesn't denote which. When you click on an area, it will then say 4GLTE, 4G, or 3G depending.

Are you assuming that Sprint powered by Softbank is the ONLY option for T-Mobile USA to remain viable?  This is the same argument AT&T used.

 

Not at all. They can remain independent if they really chose to, but they will have no money for spectrum and upgrades if they keep hurting margins.

If T-Mobile goes it alone, do you really believe they can afford to keep offering such incentives?

Neither Sprint or Apple have made any clear statements as to what happened. It was definitely a 7.0.2 update problem, as every single reported case of this specific issue occurred with 7.0.2. The only reliable fix seems to be getting a phone with 7.0.1 or earlier and going straight to 7.0.3 (or now 7.0.4). Managing to bypass 7.0.2 always seems to solve the problem.

 

From my understanding, the iPhone5 for Sprint and Verizon are basically the same phone, and when the phone is first booted is when it's decided whether it's a Verizon or Sprint phone (maybe done during manufacturing?). My best guess is that the 7.0.2 update somehow screwed up that setting on SOME iPhone5's, causing a Sprint phone to look for Verizon networks or something crazy like that. A few comments noted that the phones could probably be fixed by sending them back to Apple as they're the only ones that can reset that particular setting, but obviously it's a whole lot easier to just swap it out for a working phone that doesn't touch 7.0.2.

Agreed on everything. The phone we were swapped to was on iOS6 and when updated to 7.0.4 everything went swimmingly. It is BS however that Apple won't acknowledge the issue.

My mom's iPhone experience just this. Since the 7.0.2 update, it could NOT authenticate a data session over 1x or 3G, LTE worked fine when in range. The phone would attempt to connect to 3G, then bounce back to 1x. When using either, however, it gave an error for the data session. As in, even slow 1x data wouldn't work. I found a few threads of people complaining about a similar situation. We went to the Apple store today. The "genius" tried to tell us it was a Sprint issue and that he really couldn't explain it. He claimed they would replace the phone for a measly $270. After asking to speak to the manager, they waived the fee and swapped the device. I restored a back up to the phone, works perfectly now. SOMETHING got botched with 3g/1x authentication with the 7.0.2 update. Another iPhone on my account went straight to 7.0.4 from 7 and it was fine. Just a heads up for those experiencing this.