Sprint sale rumors again

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earthling
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

Loss of Telcom jobs in KC metro since 1990, mostly due to Sprint demise (as well as decline in local/long distance employment, which was case for all the carriers). Peaked at 30K, only 4500 total telcom jobs left, so even less at Sprint. Though apparently it doesn't include contractors. The Star says Sprint still has(edit: correction) 6K local employees with additional 1500 contractors. And many Sprint roles are not classified as telcom roles.

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https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
Last edited by earthling on Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
earthling
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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The DOJ has approved the Tmobile merger. There are still law suits from 12 states but most reports seem to imply it's resolvable.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/26/t-mobil ... y-doj.html

Having dealt with M&A planning within IT world, would expect... Back office jobs will probably be first reduced/consolidated, would expect most end up in Seattle. Combining the support/billing might take a couple years, maybe more (and those jobs could end up in KC). It may take years for them to shut down Sprint's CDMA network so imagine those jobs will be around for a while, such as the operations center in KC.

Will be interesting to see KC impact long term jobs wise. Big mergers tend to result in significant jobs losses after several years but is possible TMO keeps a fair number of jobs in KC due to cost of biz/living in Seattle. Is hard to imagine KC maintaining any true 'telcom' related jobs past 5 years though.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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And will be interesting to see if Sprint Center gets a new sponsor/name. No guarantee Tmobile will sponsor.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by brewcrew1000 »

earthling wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:34 pm And will be interesting to see if Sprint Center gets a new sponsor/name. No guarantee Tmobile will sponsor.
What corporate sponsors we do we have left that would even do it. Garmin? Another Hospital?

Our Corporate presence is so weak when it comes to civic sponsors/naming right.

DST would be perfect, its similar company to the new Milwaukee Bucks Arena sponsor (Firserv) but I don't know if they have much civic pride anymore, the company seems to be going downhill ever since they sold it
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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Children’s Mercy got naming rights to Sporting Park for free, I believe. I’m sure SKC got a good write off for donating it. I don’t see a another hospital or locally focused company wanting Sprint Center rights. Needs to be regional/national company to get the full benefit. AMC doesn’t make sense. Lockton? H&R Block? Garmin? Hallmark?
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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Does the sprint center even need to be sponsored? I think I’d prefer it just be called “KC Arena” or something instead
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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I hate name-sponsored venues. I know some places have to do it to bring in enough income to stay open, but it bugs the hell out of me.

Everytime I see or hear Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland,I want to puke.

When I worked in NYC, Cornell University Medical College renamed the medical college Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University to get a big donation. The alumni balked, but it still went through. I remember thinking at the time "Why can't people just do the right thing and donate the money without needing to have things named after them?" It's one thing to get a wing named after you, but to change the name of a long-time college or institution? That's just too vain to contemplate.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by TheLastGentleman »

Since we’re on the topic, I wish Celebration at the Station wasn’t so explicitly sponsored by Bank of America.
earthling
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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Not a fan of sponsor-named venues either but it will still happen for the arena. Hopefully something that's not obnoxious sounding. Hallmark Center wouldn't be bad.

BTW, Star says Sprint has a 25 year agreement but the agreement apparently allows for a name change. Given the rights are already paid for long term, it might be renamed Tmobile Center.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by missingkc »

Sprint has always been telecom analysts' whipping boy. So, a question for the smart, informed, opinionated folks on this forum: when was Sprint's fate as a loser sealed? Was it at the original selection of frequencies? Was it the purchase of Nextel? Was it the abandonment of the original traveling Sprint Guy (my pick)? Or, what else sealed their fate?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Br ... ORM=VRDGAR
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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Nextel hurt hard. WiMax was a mistake
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by brewcrew1000 »

missingkc wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:06 pm Sprint has always been telecom analysts' whipping boy. So, a question for the smart, informed, opinionated folks on this forum: when was Sprint's fate as a loser sealed? Was it at the original selection of frequencies? Was it the purchase of Nextel? Was it the abandonment of the original traveling Sprint Guy (my pick)? Or, what else sealed their fate?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Br ... ORM=VRDGAR
I always thought they had bad leadership. If they had Tmobiles CEO 10 years ago they would be the ones buying T-Mobile. John Legere worked under Dan Hesse at Sprint for a few years
earthling
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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missingkc wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:06 pm when was Sprint's fate as a loser sealed? Was it at the original selection of frequencies? Was it the purchase of Nextel? Was it the abandonment of the original traveling Sprint Guy (my pick)? Or, what else sealed their fate?
Overall seems to be poor management decisions. Nextel acquisition appeared to be the major trigger point of downward spiral (they should've grabbed Alltel instead, which Verizon grabbed). WiMAX was more of an unfortunate outcome than a poor decision. Sprint had to use the Nextel 2500Mhz spectrum acquired or lose it (Fed requirement) and LTE wasn't quite ready yet so Sprint went with WiMAX. The industry didn't so they had to switch to LTE, which was costly. They also took too long to convert Nextel's dying iDen network using 800Mhz to CDMA, which would've have helped Sprint's coverage (and it did when they finally did it but competition grew their coverage faster).

I did a short stint there years ago. Sprint PCS (cell division) had a reputation as a creative type of startup vibe in early years and had some good momentum at first operating somewhat independently but the old guard good ole boys club management from the traditional Sprint biz side saw the writing on the wall with Local/Long Distance and they moved into PCS and started to destroy it. That's the take many had when I was there anyway.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by beautyfromashes »

AT&T did deal with Apple for iPhone. Sprint stuck with crappy flip phones. Done deal.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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iPhone did boost AT&T and it impacted all carriers but Sprint was first with Palm Treo smartphones long before iPhone (starting 2003), had BlackBerry too before iPhone - so not stuck with flip phones. Sprint and Verizon didn't get iPhone til later when iPhone finally got CDMA support. Sprint also had iPhone before Tmobile US. WiMAX did boost Sprint at first as they were first with 4G phones, but it was a short burst that fizzled when others went LTE.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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Palm Treo and BlackBerry (I had one) did not compare to iPhone. They deserve to be tied in to the flip phone description.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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iPhone snobbery noted but Treo and BlackBerry were hardly in the category of dumb flip phones. Power users didn't care for how restrictive iPhone was initially, but iPod consumers preferred iPhone's simplicity. And iOS never did lead in sales at any point in history. By the time iOS overtook BlackBerry/RIM, Android was taking off. RIM actually rose during the initial iPhone years and was killed mostly by Android.

http://www.e357.net/beingernest/wp-cont ... _Sales.png

iPhone did boost AT&T for a period but it likely wasn't as much a factor for Sprint's demise as other factors. And when Softbank took over Sprint around 2013, they were still ahead of Tmobile. Tmobile at the time didn't have a network any better than Sprint on avg but made the first 'Uncarrier' marketing move and it worked, eventually passing Sprint in customers then Tmobile's parent investing more in US, improving network at a faster rate. Softbank never kept pace with investing in Sprint.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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CDMA + WiMax + poor leadership. They had a huge technology gap, invested poorly, and gained a very poor reputation along the way as the industry was going through big changes.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by beautyfromashes »

I sold Sprint phones while working my way through college. I’d sell literally 100s during a weekend. Couldn’t sell Samsung flip phones fast enough. Came back the next summer after iPhone and couldn’t sell a dozen.

No one cared about network...and still don’t. It was all about the device. Sprint made the mistake of seeing their product as a business device sold through corporate channels. In fact, land lines died at it was a consumer product purchased by households for the most part. But, yes, it was a large array of mistakes that took them down.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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Network was a bigger deal than you remember. CDMA was slow as fuck as the world transitioned to data over calling and texting. And they invested in WiMax that no one ended up calling about while everyone else transitioned to LTE.

You also couldn't travel international with your phone.

TMobile was able to pretty aggressively build out a competent GSM LTE network, and Sprint couldn't. TMobile was also an early supporter of Android, and that helped them get through the iPhone exclusive years and get press from the tech media.

At the same time they could offer international deals, being your own phone, no subsides, etc. Because they were on the international standard. Sprint had shitty technology from them and Nextel. And no CEO smarty enough to fix it.

I agree with you on the business vs. consumer point you made though.
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