Softbank Mulling Sprint / DISH Combo

[StanDarsh]

Difference being, I'm stating facts and just because you don't like it doesn't make it not true. I can understand you had (past tense) a bad experience...but unless you're CURRENTLY a Sprint customer, you can't, and don't have room to comment on their CURRENT performance. Period.
You can't take what you encountered 5 years, 10 years..whatever ago, and put that into what you undoubtedly think people will experience today/tomorrow.
Your speculation doesn't equate to factual events.

 

[ChadT41]

How about the opinions of regional managers that travel multiple states and are far more familiar with the service than you and I? Can I trust them? Because even they admit it is worse now than it was when I had service with sprint. I went to high school with a few of them, so I get the non PR response. You are not presenting anything that changes how America as a whole has felt about Sprint for a long time, which is why they got bumped.

 

[dare2be]

I can't even imagine anyone considering the deep south as "the heartland" by any stretch of the imagination!

Looks like it's a revisionist trend since about 2010, referring to the southern bible belt as "heartland", according to Wikipedia.

Heartland (United States) - Wikipedia

 

[comfortably_numb]

Looks like it's a revisionist trend since about 2010, referring to the southern bible belt as "heartland", according to Wikipedia.

Heartland (United States) - Wikipedia

Anything to make The South look and feel less "Southern" I suppose.

 

[Cheddar_Head]

Yep, and even here in San Francisco and the nearby Silicon Valley, Verizon is still the best even though in the neighborhood I live in which is in the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco, it seems Verizon doesn't have good signal either but it's usable. I've been using Cellular and PCS phones since 1989 and when Sprint first came out, there were some areas inside SF outside that didn't work at all. TMobile and Cingular, what was known as AT&T's Orange network after the Cingular acquisition was even worse as it was really picky about where it will work so you can be at the front of a Walgreens store and it works but not in the back. T-Mobile was known as VoiceStream in CA and basically in California/Nevada, before AT&T bought Cingular, they didn't have a network as they basically used Cingular's towers while Cingular used T-Mobile's network in NY. T-Mobile later bought the Cingular CA/NV towers because of the AT&T/Cingular acquisition so they've had a network since. I've used Google ProjectFi for a week last year which basically uses both TMobile and Sprint and it seems to be good at my residence. Just don't know how T-Mobile is elsewhere since it's a lot cheaper and comes with more benefits like the unlimited international data roaming as I mentioned earlier.

Small point, Cingular bought AT&T Wireless and then changed their corporate name to AT&T, meaning all us AT&T Wireless customers now got to deal with Cingular's "FAMOUS" quality support. Cingular did this in an effort to ditch that reputation for screwing their customer's but it failed and now AT&T is just a bad as Cingular was. Cingular AKA Southern Bell.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Cingular AKA Southern Bell.

You mean "Heartland" Bell? We're not supposed to say "Southern" anymore! Tsk, tsk.

 

[MitchDeerfield]

The combined company will be called Sprish.

 

[dare2be]

The combined company will be called Sprish.

I prefer Dint, as in Didn't

 

[comfortably_numb]

I prefer Dint, as in Didn't

Dishn't

 

[ncted]

Small point, Cingular bought AT&T Wireless and then changed their corporate name to AT&T, meaning all us AT&T Wireless customers now got to deal with Cingular's "FAMOUS" quality support. Cingular did this in an effort to ditch that reputation for screwing their customer's but it failed and now AT&T is just a bad as Cingular was. Cingular AKA Southern Bell.

One reason Cingular was able to buy AT&T Wireless was how terrible AT&T's customer service was, especially after the number porting fiasco AT&T Wireless Services - Wikipedia.

FWIW: I got great customer service from Cingular and continue to from AT&T. I cannot say the same for the several years when I was with Verizon -- mostly I just got attitude from them. It might vary with location, but, in my former BellSouth Mobility PCS market, customer service has always been better than the other carriers, and I've had to deal with most of the big names over the years. On the rare occasion I have had to actually call an AT&T CSR, I have also found the experience to be pleasant and helpful. In helping my parents in Upstate NY and my brother in coastal SC, I would say the experience has been consistently good from my perspective. Perhaps I am just lucky, or perhaps it is because I know exactly what I want and generally understand how things work with wireless carriers, so I can ask the right questions to avoid misunderstanding. Although, the latter would suggest I would have a consistently good experience with all carriers, and as that has not been the case, probably the former.

 

[Cheddar_Head]

One reason Cingular was able to buy AT&T Wireless was how terrible AT&T's customer service was, especially after the number porting fiasco AT&T Wireless Services - Wikipedia.

FWIW: I got great customer service from Cingular and continue to from AT&T. I cannot say the same for the several years when I was with Verizon -- mostly I just got attitude from them. It might vary with location, but, in my former BellSouth Mobility PCS market, customer service has always been better than the other carriers, and I've had to deal with most of the big names over the years. On the rare occasion I have had to actually call an AT&T CSR, I have also found the experience to be pleasant and helpful. In helping my parents in Upstate NY and my brother in coastal SC, I would say the experience has been consistently good from my perspective. Perhaps I am just lucky, or perhaps it is because I know exactly what I want and generally understand how things work with wireless carriers, so I can ask the right questions to avoid misunderstanding. Although, the latter would suggest I would have a consistently good experience with all carriers, and as that has not been the case, probably the former.

Glad you got great service but prior to the purchase of AT&T wireless Cingular had the lowest rated customer service of all the cellular carriers, there's a reason they chose to use the AT&T name. Anecdotally, I got excellent service from AT&T wireless, they had a program where you could ask for a replacement phone and they would send you a refurb for $25 and no contract extension, that disappeared as soon as Cingular bought them. In addition Cingular wanted to shut down the old AT&T TDMA network, they wanted me to get a new phone and pay $36 per line to change to the Cingular CDMA network, yeah sure pay so you can save money. Held out for two years until they waived all fees. YMMV but there was a reason they ditched the Cingular name.

 

[Almighty1]

View attachment 127552

Another great site I found is AntennaSearch - Search for Cell Towers, Cell Reception, Hidden Antennas and more. stick in an address and it finds all tower leases within a certain mile radius of that address. It found both the Verizon towers in my area.

The screenshot above shows the complete tower info for one within 10 miles of me.

Thanks for the site, for some reason, the closest tower to me for Verizon does not show the actual address, not sure if what they show is correct or not. It seems only the City and Counties own towers are in the registered section while the cell providers are all in the unregistered section. To be honest, I didn't actually have a smartphone until 2009 so when I said Verizon Wireless had good coverage, that was probably the 1xRTT network and not 3G or 4G.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Thanks for the site, for some reason, the closest tower to me for Verizon does not show the actual address, not sure if what they show is correct or not. It seems only the City and Counties own towers are in the registered section while the cell providers are all in the unregistered section. To be honest, I didn't actually have a smartphone until 2009 so when I said Verizon Wireless had good coverage, that was probably the 1xRTT network and not 3G or 4G.

View attachment 127557

So it's on top of that church steeple?

 

[Almighty1]

So it's on top of that church steeple?

No, that's a single family home next to the church it seems if they marked it correctly. What's weird is that there seems to be only 2 Verizon towers in this area according to this list when you would think it would have way more than that as Verizon (originally as GTE MobilNet) has always had better coverage than AT&T in this city of hills which is 7 miles squared or 49 square miles. Cellular One/Bay Area Cellular Telephone Company = AT&T. Pacific Bell Mobile Services probably belongs to T-Mobile as T-Mobile bought Cingular's California Network. There seems to be more towers from the competition in the same area. Wonder who actually is on the American Towers? I assume that Nextel basically is Sprint.

 

[comfortably_numb]

No, that's a single family home next to the church it seems if they marked it correctly. What's weird is that there seems to be only 2 Verizon towers in this area according to this list when you would think it would have way more than that as Verizon (originally as GTE MobilNet) has always had better coverage than AT&T in this city of hills which is 7 miles squared or 49 square miles. Cellular One/Bay Area Cellular Telephone Company = AT&T. Pacific Bell Mobile Services probably belongs to T-Mobile as T-Mobile bought Cingular's California Network. There seems to be more towers from the competition in the same area. Wonder who actually is on the American Towers? I assume that Nextel basically is Sprint.

View attachment 127558

American Tower leases towers that have multiple carriers on them. The one near me has VZW, Sprint, Tmo, ATT and USC on it

 

[ncted]

Glad you got great service but prior to the purchase of AT&T wireless Cingular had the lowest rated customer service of all the cellular carriers, there's a reason they chose to use the AT&T name. Anecdotally, I got excellent service from AT&T wireless, they had a program where you could ask for a replacement phone and they would send you a refurb for $25 and no contract extension, that disappeared as soon as Cingular bought them. In addition Cingular wanted to shut down the old AT&T TDMA network, they wanted me to get a new phone and pay $36 per line to change to the Cingular CDMA network, yeah sure pay so you can save money. Held out for two years until they waived all fees. YMMV but there was a reason they ditched the Cingular name.

Yeah, I remember the $25 refurb deal. AT&T was desperate to keep customers, so they came up with all sorts of ploys to keep people happy. I've heard other people complain about Cingular in the past, although, mostly in the old SBC territory. Mergers always leave some customers unhappy. Verizon did not treat Alltel customers the best either. Apparently they were just supposed to be happy to be on the "best network." Anyway, prior to the merger, AT&T was scoring much worse than Cingular according to what I could find:

Wireless consumers unhappy with cell phone companies | chronicle.augusta.com

It is the Internet, so I imagine you could find something that contradicts that if you like. What is more interesting in the discussion around Sprint is they were next to last in customer satisfaction back then as well, so it isn't like things have changed a whole lot since then in that respect.

 

[MikeD-C05]

They might, and might not, but the FCC can always grant an extension.

With Charlie's history with the FCC I doubt there will be any extension granted.

 

[StanDarsh]

How about the opinions of regional managers that travel multiple states and are far more familiar with the service than you and I? Can I trust them? Because even they admit it is worse now than it was when I had service with sprint. I went to high school with a few of them, so I get the non PR response. You are not presenting anything that changes how America as a whole has felt about Sprint for a long time, which is why they got bumped.

I didn't realize the all of Sprint's regional managers across the country all came from one state. Actually, one city, in the same school according to what you said. Must be a really small company..
I just can't imagine that anyone who dislikes their job would speak negatively about said company. I'd never put a company down that I work for, especially if I don't like them and feel some sort of way about how they have done in their hometown with questionable tactics...

It's pretty common...when you say something negative, then you get a couple of friends that pity your situation who also say some negative things...and before long it's a bashfest about the negative thing that you said to begin with. Psychologically speaking, it's not really surprising that you got a few friends who work for Sprint to talk bad about them. So what...still doesn't make what you're saying factual...whether or not a couple of regional associates speak highly of the company doesn't mean much. At any rate, this is petty back n forth. I'm a current customer who travels the southeastern US...and you talk to a few people. I see it first-hand..you hear about it from people who apparently just "love" their job... Either way, for 60,000,000 people (and growing)...Sprint works.
And Mobilitie is adding their mini-macro network is adding more capacity.

And nothing negative counters the fact that Sprint has more spectrum than the other 3 carriers combined. And they are finally deploying it in order to utilize it as it should be done

Thanks for the site, for some reason, the closest tower to me for Verizon does not show the actual address, not sure if what they show is correct or not. It seems only the City and Counties own towers are in the registered section while the cell providers are all in the unregistered section. To be honest, I didn't actually have a smartphone until 2009 so when I said Verizon Wireless had good coverage, that was probably the 1xRTT network and not 3G or 4G.

View attachment 127557

Towers are a thing of the past anyway. The NIMBYs don't want cell towers near them, but want cell coverage.. The carriers are using mini macros ...

 

[comfortably_numb]

I didn't realize the all of Sprint's regional managers across the country all came from one state. Actually, one city, in the same school according to what you said. Must be a really small company..
I just can't imagine that anyone who dislikes their job would speak negatively about said company. I'd never put a company down that I work for, especially if I don't like them and feel some sort of way about how they have done in their hometown with questionable tactics...

It's pretty common...when you say something negative, then you get a couple of friends that pity your situation who also say some negative things...and before long it's a bashfest about the negative thing that you said to begin with. Psychologically speaking, it's not really surprising that you got a few friends who work for Sprint to talk bad about them. So what...still doesn't make what you're saying factual...whether or not a couple of regional associates speak highly of the company doesn't mean much. At any rate, this is petty back n forth. I'm a current customer who travels the southeastern US...and you talk to a few people. I see it first-hand..you hear about it from people who apparently just "love" their job... Either way, for 60,000,000 people (and growing)...Sprint works.
And Mobilitie is adding their mini-macro network is adding more capacity.

And nothing negative counters the fact that Sprint has more spectrum than the other 3 carriers combined. And they are finally deploying it in order to utilize it as it should be done



Towers are a thing of the past anyway. The NIMBYs don't want cell towers near them, but want cell coverage.. The carriers are using mini macros ...

Towers are a thing of the past? When, in 10 years? 20? No one is going to be tearing down the tower in my back yard any time soon. I see satellite TV going belly up before all the cell phone towers come down. Sounds great in theory, but in practice, something like that takes a lot of time. They don't even forsee end of life for legacy 3G until 2021 at the earliest.

 

[StanDarsh]

Towers are a thing of the past? When, in 10 years? 20? No one is going to be tearing down the tower in my back yard any time soon. I see satellite TV going belly up before all the cell phone towers come down. Sounds great in theory, but in practice, something like that takes a lot of time. They don't even forsee end of life for legacy 3G until 2021 at the earliest.

Nobody said anything about towers being torn down. I said carriers are using mini macros to fill in gaps where towers can't reach. When's the last time you saw them erecting a tower? It aint often..and it's becoming obsolete to put up towers...especially in metro areas because the NIMBYs complain about everything they can complain about....

If you're up on what's going on, you would see that the rate at which cities are approving permits for the minis is huge.