T-Mobile's Chief Hopes to Overtake Sprint by 2015

[larryt510]

In any case, I wouldn't count Tmo out of the race. They are definitely in a down period but they gained about 10mil customers in the past 6 yrs or so, largely at Sprint/Nextel's expense.

But haven't they been losing some of those customers over the past year or two?

[Wireless Junkie]

But haven't they been losing some of those customers over the past year or two?

T-Mobile has been losing customers left and right at their horrible networks expense.

They are down to only 22 million postpaid subs now..

[monkeyboy]

But haven't they been losing some of those customers over the past year or two?

yeah, sure, they lost some... as stated, they've been in a down period... but I don't think Sprint has any business to gloat about it, given Sprint huge losses in the past 6 years, and their likely upcoming losses as the final 5-6mil iDen customers decide what they'll do...

and *both* carriers seem headed toward prepaid... you can't ding Tmo for heading towards prepaid while praising Sprint for the "foresight" to buy up VM and be so aggressive about Boost.

The VM iPhone experiment will be very telling... traditional wisdom is that not all that many American customers will be willing to spend $550 on the iPhone to save on the monthlies... particularly if that $550 is sitting right beside the $200 iPhone... Certainly Tmo's experience with its subsidy-free plans bears that out...

[bigsnake49]

I think both T-Mobile and Sprint have a hard road ahead of them but both are making the right moves to right the ship. The only way either are going to grow is to either buy the remaining prepaids (MetroPCS, Cricket). Cricket is ripe for the picking, while Metro's finances are a little bit better. If Sprint's stock price was not so darn low, they would have bought Metro already. As soon as Sprint's stock price recovers, expect either or both to be swallowed.

[billm261]

The VM iPhone experiment will be very telling... traditional wisdom is that not all that many American customers will be willing to spend $550 on the iPhone to save on the monthlies... Certainly Tmo's experience with its subsidy-free plans bears that out...

The majority of prepaid subscribers are either broke, credit challenged or outright cheapskates IMO.

It's hard to spend that kind of money on a phone but at least it's being offered.

If T-Mobiles coverage didn't suck so bad where I use it, I'd buy an unlocked Nexus for 400.00 over the iPhone.

T-Mobile was late to the prepaid game as well as the MVNO sector.

They will never catch up to Sprint.



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[Airb330]

The majority of prepaid subscribers are either broke, credit challenged or outright cheapskates IMO.

It's hard to spend that kind of money on a phone but at least it's being offered.

If T-Mobiles coverage didn't suck so bad where I use it, I'd buy an unlocked Nexus for 400.00 over the iPhone.

T-Mobile was late to the prepaid game as well as the MVNO sector.

They will never catch up to Sprint.



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I'd use that Nexus as well but like you said TM's coverage sucks. It's funny because in my area of NJ, near Philly, they have way more towers than necessary. They are on every site around me. Coverage actually beats the other 3 carriers. But then, in Philly, they aren't too great. And in Delaware and semi-rural areas of PA, they are useless and (as of now) do not roam on AT&T. Maybe T-Mobile can turn it around once the at&t hspa roaming comes online. Most people I know would consider Sprint, but never T-Mobile.

I really wish T-Mobile and Sprint would work together on LTE. Forget voice and cdma/gsm, but if they pooled resources on the AWS and PCS bands maybe they could save money and get LTE online faster. Though it seems Sprint's NV plans make sense at least, it would have been nice to see more partners besides Clear. See Orange/T-Mobile in the UK or O2/Vodafone for LTE in the UK.

All I know is I am moving back to Sprint after seeing Verizon's horrendous new plans. I'd pay roughly $42 more a month just to use 2-3GB of data. I'd imagine a lot of people will at least think of switching. I'm 26, and it amazes me how many people are on their parent's Verizon family plans...so I bet people will just suck it up and pay.

[billm261]

I'd use that Nexus as well but like you said TM's coverage sucks. It's funny because in my area of NJ, near Philly, they have way more towers than necessary. They are on every site around me. Coverage actually beats the other 3 carriers. But then, in Philly, they aren't too great. And in Delaware and semi-rural areas of PA, they are useless and (as of now) do not roam on AT&T.

Go south of New Castle County DE and T-Mobile all but falls off the map and is also pretty pathetic with it's GPRS and EDGE data. Oh, you had better stay on RT1 or 13 also for a glimmer of hope. Sprint is rock solid.

You never know about Verizon's new plans though. 2 smartphones with unlimited talk and text with 4GB of shared data is 150.00 a month. With Sprint it's 149.99 but with unlimited data so for some it may make no difference or be the deal breaker for others.

[Antenna]

The majority of prepaid subscribers are either broke, credit challenged or outright cheapskates IMO.

It's hard to spend that kind of money on a phone but at least it's being offered.

If T-Mobiles coverage didn't suck so bad where I use it, I'd buy an unlocked Nexus for 400.00 over the iPhone.

T-Mobile was late to the prepaid game as well as the MVNO sector.

They will never catch up to Sprint.



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Sprint flouroshed in prepaid because they BOUGHT boost (via nextel) and virgin mobile. Tmobile grew organically, so kudos to them.

And Sprint may have more coverage, but Wimax was a costly detour, and their evdo network is so slow, many users couldn't even get siri to work on the iPhone, pretty lame to me.

Give Sprint 4 more years, and they will have to merge or sell out, like 2011 Tmobile.

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[fraydog]

Antenna, I think you forget about the enhanced cost structure Sprint will gain through Network Vision. Kicking Nextel to the curb allows Sprint to junk that costly clunker. Sprint also has something else T-Mobile doesn't have, beachfront spectrum. How do you expect T-Mobile to compete lacking sub 1000 MHz spectrum? Even AT&T laps them in coverage.

[Evan702]

Sprint flouroshed in prepaid because they BOUGHT boost (via nextel) and virgin mobile. Tmobile grew organically, so kudos to them.

Previously Virgin Mobile was a Sprint MVNO. Thus their subscriber numbers counted towards Sprint's bottom line even before Sprint bought them. As far as Boost, Sprint has been growing Boost CDMA organically as there was no Boost CDMA before Sprint merged with Nextel. As far as Boost iDEN, so what? That has been losing subscribers right along with postpaid iDEN. Nice try though.

And Sprint may have more coverage, but Wimax was a costly detour,

And yet they'll still have LTE deployed before T-Mobile...

and their evdo network is so slow, many users couldn't even get siri to work on the iPhone, pretty lame to me.

Slow, yada yada slow. So you've said before. You're rehashing. Anything new to add?

Give Sprint 4 more years, and they will have to merge or sell out, like 2011 Tmobile.

{YAWN} I'm pretty sure that I read similar statements around here 4 years ago...I think it more likely in 4 more years T-Mobile as it exists today will be no more.

[Antenna]

Antenna, I think you forget about the enhanced cost structure Sprint will gain through Network Vision. Kicking Nextel to the curb allows Sprint to junk that costly clunker. Sprint also has something else T-Mobile doesn't have, beachfront spectrum. How do you expect T-Mobile to compete lacking sub 1000 MHz spectrum? Even AT&T laps them in coverage.

You make it sound like Sprint has tons of 850 or 700mhz spectrum. They dont have enough for a nationwide network.

And they continue to hemorrhage money for failed attempts Wimax, iden, this is a waste.

Again, give it time....you will see

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[fraydog]

You make it sound like Sprint has tons of 850 or 700mhz spectrum. They dont have enough for a nationwide network.

And they continue to hemorrhage money for failed attempts Wimax, iden, this is a waste.

Again, give it time....you will see

Sent from my DROID RAZR

Sprint has 14.5 MHz of SMR in process of being refarmed on average from the Nextel shut down nationwide. That's more than the single 850 MHz block T-Mobile owns in Myrtle Beach. Also, getting a simplified and flattened network infrastructure in Network Vision will give them a greater cost savings.

You're citing history that falls back to the Forsee era without looking at the mechanics of why Sprint was bleeding money. If you look at those mechanics, and how Network Vision deals with that, you will get it. Look, T-Mo can buy out blocks of 700 spectrum in rural areas to expand their coverage or develop an LTE alliance with C-Spire and US Cellular. Instead they'll try to shack up with another provider like Metro PCS or Leap that won't solve their fundamental problem. Their issue is lack of sub 1000 MHz spectrum to boost rural coverage.

[bigsnake49]

Sprint has 14.5 MHz of SMR in process of being refarmed on average from the Nextel shut down nationwide. That's more than the single 850 MHz block T-Mobile owns in Myrtle Beach. Also, getting a simplified and flattened network infrastructure in Network Vision will give them a greater cost savings.

You're citing history that falls back to the Forsee era without looking at the mechanics of why Sprint was bleeding money. If you look at those mechanics, and how Network Vision deals with that, you will get it. Look, T-Mo can buy out blocks of 700 spectrum in rural areas to expand their coverage or develop an LTE alliance with C-Spire and US Cellular. Instead they'll try to shack up with another provider like Metro PCS or Leap that won't solve their fundamental problem. Their issue is lack of sub 1000 MHz spectrum to boost rural coverage.

I think that Sprint and T-Mobile's problem is not necessarily rural coverage. They can roam in rural areas. It is solid native coverage in suburban, exurban areas and yes, even on the highways. Take for example state road 528 from Orlando to Cape Canaveral. This is a high traffic highway. Sprint has major gaps in its native coverage and so they roam. They can really use that 800MHz SMR spectrum to reduce their roaming bill on that highway. They can also use it to expand/improve indoor coverage. If you don't want to roam and don't want to erect beaucoup sites to solidify your coverage, then you need to get some lower frequency spectrum. Can it be done with PCS or AWS spectrum? Absolutely! Verizon did it in Florida before they acquired Alltel's 850MHz in North and West Florida. It was/is an impressive network. It probably cost them an arm and a leg!

[Airb330]

Go south of New Castle County DE and T-Mobile all but falls off the map and is also pretty pathetic with it's GPRS and EDGE data. Oh, you had better stay on RT1 or 13 also for a glimmer of hope. Sprint is rock solid.

You never know about Verizon's new plans though. 2 smartphones with unlimited talk and text with 4GB of shared data is 150.00 a month. With Sprint it's 149.99 but with unlimited data so for some it may make no difference or be the deal breaker for others.

Oh I know...I'm from there. T-Mobile is absoutely worthless. I know only 2 people with T-Mobile, period. That counts everyone I know in Philly and Delaware. It is trash. Considering so many Verizon subs seem to be on family plans, maybe they won't be affected much. For individuals, these plans are an outright joke. It would be $42 more a month for me and I "only" get a 17% discount.

Antenna, T-Mobile will never catch up to Sprint. Not going to happen. Especially with network vision. I know Delaware is a flat, tiny state with a small population, but Sprint has rock solid rural coverage with just PCS. What is T-Mobile's excuse? They are just not competitive. T-Mobile also is the only carrier to not offer state of Delaware employee's a discount, and appears very stingy with corporate discounts in general. Sprint is a much better value than T-Mobile in the mid-atlantic area and it shows in the subscriber base around here.

[Antenna]

Keep saying that. Sprints only advantage is the iPhone.....period. California their network is so bogged down it doesnt operate fast at all.

Tmobile needs an iPhone and an 100% unlimited plan capped at 700 k/sec. Then they would be like Sprint, whos EVDO network rarely goes faster than 700k

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