I have to tell you. I have been speaking to so many people about 5G. It seems that the front-runners are AT&T and……….. Sprint! That’s right. AT&T is no surprise because they are always on the front bleeding edge of technology along with Verizon. That’s why we are so enamored with #1 and #2. They … Continue reading Who has enough spectrum for 5G! →
I have to tell you. I have been speaking to so many people about 5G. It seems that the front-runners are AT&T and……….. Sprint! That’s right. AT&T is no surprise because they are always on the front bleeding edge of technology along with Verizon. That’s why we are so enamored with #1 and #2. They are willing to try new things and make it work. Deep down we love that about Verizon. They will take the hit to make it happen. VoLTE, LTE, WCDMA, FIOS, U-Verse, and more. AT&T is
usually quick to follow Verizon, but we all know they wait for Verizon to learn the expensive and painful mistakes! We all know that AT&T and Verizon have bought up a lot of cmwave and mmwave spectrum for fixed, but let’s talk about mobile spectrum here.
Yes, I said Sprint!
However, did I say Sprint? YES! By golly, Sprint has all that 2.5GHz spectrum that they have been rolling out at a snail’s pace. They could do so much with it. There’s just one obstacle, and that is Sprint’s management. Well, that and the BILLIONs of dollars of debt. We all thought Softbank would be the magical wizard to turn them around. Hey, that didn’t happen right away, but they did a great job, along with Marcello Claure, in getting the debt reduced, you know, down from over $30B to maybe $24B. Don’t you worry, Wells Fargo is right there to defend them, and offer them more financing? They love those interest payments. So, would I, I could live off that for the rest of my life. If only I had the Billions to give them in the first place.
(By the way, I challenge Claure to a one on one soccer match! If we don’t get physical, I think I could outrun him. If he hits me, that 6’ 6” frame of his would probably flatten my little 5’ 10” frame.)
Back to the point, 5G spectrum, which Sprint has plenty of and we want to see them deploy. I believe they have the chance to leapfrog everyone, including Verizon if they could roll it out. However, it’s like the kid with the new muscle car and no money for gas. Hard to show off when you’re pushing the car.
They have the spectrum, and I really think that massive MIMO LTE would take them into 5G quickly. We have all seen their past deployments. Network Vision, which wasn’t so bad, but they found a way to create too many options. They thought they knew best having over 30 options at every tower. Sounds great because there are so many choices, but the reality hit when they had confusion, miscommunication, and lack of coordination. Great plan, poor execution. Whereas Verizon’s deployments are rather simple, usually less than 10 configurations to keep things simple and streamlined. They have the one-off models, but for the most part, they keep it simple and streamlined, don’t they?
What about the spectrum that Sprint has? They have a great asset if only they didn’t have the substantial debt and a history of botched deployments. I know we all thought Clearwire had a great plan, but that isn’t around any longer either. In fact, I think the sites are finally all off air.
Will Sprint be able to deploy cost-effectively and leapfrog the other carriers? I hope so, but history is against them. They really should let the regional manager do their own deployments, that would make more sense.
Verizon has 5G spectrum, but fixed or mobile?
Verizon is not the heaviest in mobile spectrum. They haven’t invested like the others, but they are very strategic. They are getting the biggest bang per bit. They have been able to build enough sites, use CRAN, and break down the coverage in an absolutely brilliant way. They have less spectrum than AT&T, but they have done so much more. WOW!