Sprint Sees 2.5 GHz Band as 'Jewel' in Its Spectrum Arsenal
Sprint CEO Michel Combes confirmed Friday that his company and T-Mobile have launched an “integration office” as they await what they hope will be regulatory approval of their deal (see 1809120017). The companies plan to be “ready on day one” when the transaction closes, Combes said at a Goldman Sachs conference. He stressed the importance of Sprint’s massive 2.5 GHz holdings to the company’s future.
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There has been a “positive dialogue” with regulators, Combes said. The companies still expect closing in the first half of 2019, he said: “Things are moving in the right direction.” States, the FCC and DOJ are reviewing the deal (see 1809140045).
This year “has been the year of big investment for Sprint in its network,” Combes said. The investments will pay off whether or not the T-Mobile deal is approved, he said. “We are in ramp-up mode” on capital expenditures, with plans to spend as much as $6 billion this year, he said. Spending has increased as the carrier opens new sites, he said. “We are very comfortable with the level of capex investment that we are putting in our network this year.”
The 2.5 GHz spectrum is Sprint’s “jewel” but was in use on only half of its sites at the end of last year, Combes said. It is now on more than two-thirds of Sprint sites, he said. “We intend to roll out 2.5 … on most of our sites by the end of the year.” A few sites may have to be addressed in 2019, he said. The FCC is considering changes to rules for the band (see 1809100045). Sprint is also deploying massive MIMO across its network, he said. The technology “is our secret weapon,” allowing Sprint to use the 2.5 GHz band for 4G and 5G at the same time, he said.
The company has seen its capacity double as a result of its network upgrades, “which is quite significant,” Combes said. Customers will notice the differences, keeping subscribers from leaving the network, but it’s too early to assess the effect on churn. “It takes a bit of time for customers to really realize that [the network] has improved,” he said. Sprint plans to do lots of outreach in coming months on network improvements, he said.
The carrier is “super excited” about small cells, Combes said. The company had 15,000 in use at the end of the last quarter, with plans for 35,000 more, he said. Sprint needs help from the FCC and the states in speeding up deployment of small cells. “We have always been very vocal on this” and support FCC draft rules (see 1809140012), Combes said. “If we want to be able to roll out our network and be successful on 5G we need [the rules] to improve,” he said. Sprint has found it is faster to deploy in the 20 states with small cell laws, he said: “There are still ways to go even faster so that’s what we’re looking at.”