Carrier Sprint is pathetic

[eyoungren]

So my journey with Sprint has finally ended.

My wife and I upgraded to the 6 and 6+ about five months ago and if anything call quality has gotten worse. The one factor I held on to Sprint for and my wife has suffered nothing but dropped/choppy calls with this phone. It's not a defective phone because if we leave the house and go to areas with decent to good quality Sprint coverage the phone is just fine. But now she can't even make phone calls without issues from home.

Data at home still sucks. Band 26 and 41 is minimal and Claure is promising things will get better in ANOTHER TWO YEARS!!!

I went to the T-Mobile store yesterday and ordered a Rose Gold 128GB 6s for my wife and a Space Gray 128GB 6s+ for me. Unlike Sprint, T-Mobile is shipping them to my house. Temporary numbers have been established and once the phones come in we are porting out. T-Mobile will pay the remaining lease and option payments and the ETFs for my tablets, which I will be replacing with iPad 2s from T-Mobile. I am still getting Unlimited everything (talk, text, data) but now I get 7GB of tethering data for each phone.

The price will be roughly the same. But at least I can make a phone call and get data in my house.

Just waiting for the new phones to come.

Now I can watch what happens with Sprint as a curious bystander instead of as a customer.

16 years! Soon™ finally came - just not with Sprint.

 

[tmiw]

So Sprint is passing on the 600MHz auction. I can't help but think this is a mistake that will really bite them later.

 

[eyoungren]

So Sprint is passing on the 600MHz auction. I can't help but think this is a mistake that will really bite them later.

Possibly. Possibly not.

Sprint needs to get better now. For that they have the NDN (Network Densification) plan. NDN needs to be funded. Softbank is prevented by it's Japanese lenders from giving Sprint any more cash.

Bidding in the 600mhz auction will require lots of cash. Cash that could be used for the NDN.

Even if they did bid and win it would be about 5 years before they could utilize the spectrum. Hardware needs to be built, certified and the TV broadcasters need to get off the spectrum.

It's been a debacle getting Public Safety off 800mhz so Sprint could use Band 26 for LTE. It's not going to be any less of a trial getting the TV broadcasters off 600mhz.

So, the choice is spend lots of cash now and densify the network or spends lots of cash now and wait five years.

Some other things to consider: Political ploy. If Verizon, AT&T and Sprint do not enter the auction, that leaves no one but T-Mobile to gobble it up. Wheeler of the FCC says he wants competition between four carriers. So, this could be a ploy to delay the auction until Sprint has the cash/resources to bid.

Another thought, and this is the one I believe. Claure has been positioned to make Sprint attractive for sale. Either a merger with a cable company or being outright sold. Personally, my money is on this theory, but who knows.