Sprint Declares Their Network Vision 'Substantially Complete'

[greencat]

 

I'm sorry, what do you think cell sites are made of? We say built from the ground up in that Sprint actually replaced every single piece of their network during the Network Vision process. That's something that none of the other carriers have had to do.

 

Stop trying to be a smartass for the sake of argument.

 

So you don't make any distinction between replacing network equipment and actually constructing a site from the ground up? I think I see the problem here. That and the apparent inability to have a critical discussion without name calling.

 

The fact remains. NV 1.0 is not "complete."

[Trip]

No, it's not complete, and was not claimed to be.  The word "substantially" modifies the word "complete" to indicate it is not 100% complete.

 

And while I wouldn't choose the word Paynefanbro used, you definitely appear to be nitpicking over wording.  Building a new tower when one already exists and would make no difference in coverage in a location is not only wasteful and unnecessary, but local permitting boards would almost certainly reject it.  Replacing all the equipment on a tower, including the equipment on the ground, is as close to "ground up" as you're going to get in many locations. 

 

- Trip

[S4GRU]

So you don't make any distinction between replacing network equipment and actually constructing a site from the ground up? I think I see the problem here. That and the apparent inability to have a critical discussion without name calling.

 

The fact remains. NV 1.0 is not "complete."

NV1.0 is Substantially Complete. Period.

 

If you do not think so, then you are ignorant of the term substantially complete. All you do is troll S4GRU. And you are now done.

[P_M_G]

I agree.  Triband everywhere will differentiate Sprint.  It is very exciting.  It just needs to be deployed faster.  If they take too long to get it, all their competitors will have moved on to their next big things and Spark will be old and passe.  Marcelo and Masa need to put together a plan that gets this done as soon as physically possible and fund it.  Even if it means borrowing lots and lots of money.

 ^^^This

 

is what worries me....coming from the OG EVO and the promise of blazing fast 4G (WIMAX) that never appeared....and then VOILA....WIMAX is dead and NVLTE is on the way with blazing fast 4G...and VOILA....NVLTE is now being replaced/modified with SPARK.....and what's next if, as Robert says, "Spark will be old and passé"? Sprint NOVA?

 

Maybe I'm just too gullible as an early adopter of technology but I've now burned through 4 years of promises of a beautiful internetz experience only to keep being told my device (EVO, GS3, M7) isn't compatible with the new network after the current one my phone did work (in certain limited locations) with was deemed obsolete.

 

I'm still gonna get an M8 though (early adopter or no, I won't buy a phablet).

[jamisonshaw125]

I think it's time everyone stops comparing WiMAX to 2.5 ghz b41 LTE (Spark). It's a completely different time for sprint, and the management will not make the same mistakes again.

And besides, we've already seen how fast spark is being deployed in certain markets and I'm sure it's only going to pick up from here... The WiMAX days are gone. Hesse is gone, along with the I can't make a decision management.

Masa and Marcelo are here and they make decisions in literally the time span of a few hours. Matching the 100 deal for 2 lines from T-mobile proved it. They're both here to get stuff done! Sprints gotta rise up again after being in the shitter for so long. Great prices, an unimaginable amount of data capacity, new network, HD voice, 1x800 nationwide and MOAR! It's a recipe for success.

If you build it correctly, they will come if the price is right lol.

 

Edit: turns out the 2 for 100 was cancelled. But whatever, there is still unlimited everything for the iPhone, and $60 for non iPhone devices.

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Crapatalk

[sigxbill]

The area I drive mostly is covered by 16 towers, 6 of which are still 3G. I find myself on 1x at least 25% of the time, and slow 3G 50% of the time. And the area those 16 towers cover is populated by approximately 150,000 people... So I am holding my breath that all the years of waiting for competitive data service, while watching my friends on other carriers enjoy great service now, will pay off ...

[Deval]

The area I drive mostly is covered by 16 towers, 6 of which are still 3G. I find myself on 1x at least 25% of the time, and slow 3G 50% of the time. And the area those 16 towers cover is populated by approximately 150,000 people... So I am holding my breath that all the years of waiting for competitive data service, while watching my friends on other carriers enjoy great service now, will pay off ...

I believe unfortunately there are things outside of Sprint's hands which cause delays in getting those sites upgraded.

[lazydog]

... So I am holding my breath that all the years of waiting for competitive data service, while watching my friends on other carriers enjoy great service now, will pay off ...

 

I don't understand this logic. Its not as if your friends will have somehow lost out once Sprint begins to offer improved service in your area. It seems like your friends made the better choice, because you can switch providers at any time, and you're only hurting yourself if you stick with a poor performing service.

 

 

All carriers have good and bad areas, so why not go with the best one in your area, and occasionally reassess your choice as conditions change.

[Dkoellerwx]

 ^^^This

 

is what worries me....coming from the OG EVO and the promise of blazing fast 4G (WIMAX) that never appeared....and then VOILA....WIMAX is dead and NVLTE is on the way with blazing fast 4G...and VOILA....NVLTE is now being replaced/modified with SPARK.....and what's next if, as Robert says, "Spark will be old and passé"? Sprint NOVA?

 

NV and Spark are different projects, running side by side in some markets. NV was not replaced. It's not quite finished everywhere, but adding Spark has not slowed down or changed the original NV rollout in anyway.

[mrknowitall526]

It's interesting to see some comments on other sites (DSLReports, anyway) are much less negative than they used to be, and some people are super informed. Of course, some of those people are probably us (myself included!) Trying to quell the trolling!

[kyle_4thousand]

Here's my 'wishlist' of network tweaks I hope Sprint will accomplish by the end of next year:

1. Density coverage 25% within native footprint with full build tri-band setups such as converting iDen and Clear sites not already co-located.

2. Convert all GMO's and remaining legacy sites to full build where possible, new sites near by where it's not.

3. Ready IBEZ sites for 800 when licenses are clear.

4. Deploy carrier aggregation on SMR and PCS in addition to BRS/EBS

5. Begin deploying small cells in mass to density B41 coverage in urban areas.

6. Deploy 10x10 PCS carriers in markets where spectrum is available, in second 5x5 blocks if not

7. Fire Swiftel and overlay coverage, merge with Ntelos and USCC

8. Convert all protection sites to full builds

9. Get backhaul to sites by any means necessary

 

Hopefully at least most of these will happen. That said I'm confident Sprint will make the right decisions with new management.

 

Edit: These are not in any specific order.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[P_M_G]

NV and Spark are different projects, running side by side in some markets. NV was not replaced. It's not quite finished everywhere, but adding Spark has not slowed down or changed the original NV rollout in anyway.

 

I know they are, but my point is NV 1.0 is "substantially complete" according to Sprint with 2.0 (Spark) making inroads right? So there's been minimal improvement in my area with 1.0 upgrades in place (per the maps) and my handsets aren't compatible with 2.0 triband/spark....if I hadn't found this site, I'd be long gone from Sprint, believing it'd never get any better.

[centermedic]

I know they are, but my point is NV 1.0 is "substantially complete" according to Sprint with 2.0 (Spark) making inroads right? So there's been minimal improvement in my area with 1.0 upgrades in place (per the maps) and my handsets aren't compatible with 2.0 triband/spark....if I hadn't found this site, I'd be long gone from Sprint, believing it'd never get any better.

California has been the home of some substantial challenges for NV. Realize that Sprint can say substantially complete and be correct while your area has not seen many improvements. Orange county probably accounts for way less than 1% of Sprints subscriber base. It sucks and I feel for you but reality is reality.

[P_M_G]

I don't understand this logic. Its not as if your friends will have somehow lost out once Sprint begins to offer improved service in your area. It seems like your friends made the better choice, because you can switch providers at any time, and you're only hurting yourself if you stick with a poor performing service.

 

 

All carriers have good and bad areas, so why not go with the best one in your area, and occasionally reassess your choice as conditions change.

 

We don't all have the option to switch whenever we want. Right now TMO is (IMO) the best carrier in my area. But even with the new family plan at $180 for unlimited data on 4 lines, I'm still going to end up paying $280/mth (or more) with 4 new phones. That's about $80 more per month than I pay now. I don't think I want to pay nearly $2000 more over the next two years.

 

Besides, no one is hurting themselves unless their lives/livelihood depend on service and I'm guessing most of them are gone already. We are just waiting for Sprint to live up to the promises and hopefully NV 2.0 will get them there sooner rather than later.

[P_M_G]

I know they are, but my point is NV 1.0 is "substantially complete" according to Sprint with 2.0 (Spark) making inroads right? So there's been minimal improvement in my area with 1.0 upgrades in place (per the maps) and my handsets aren't compatible with 2.0 triband/spark....if I hadn't found this site, I'd be long gone from Sprint, believing it'd never get any better.

 

 

California has been the home of some substantial challenges for NV. Realize that Sprint can say substantially complete and be correct while your area has not seen many improvements. Orange county probably accounts for way less than 1% of Sprints subscriber base. It sucks and I feel for you but reality is reality.

 

Believe me...I get it. The OC (especially south of Irvine) is the red-headed stepchild .... and according to one of the guys at my local corporate store, my city is one of the worst to get upgrades through (including almost impossible to add towers for some reason). 

[mozamcrew]

Here's my 'wishlist' of network tweaks I hope Sprint will accomplish by the end of next year:

4. Deploy carrier aggregation on SMR and PCS in addition to BRS/EBS

 

Hopefully at least most of these will happen. That said I'm confident Sprint will make the right decisions with new management.

 

Edit: These are not in any specific order.

 

I hope they don't do carrier aggregation with band 26. They need to keep that free for people that don't have a band 25 or 41 signal. If they want to aggregate multiple 5x5 blocks within band 25 that would be great though.

[WiWavelength]

I hope they don't do carrier aggregation with band 26. They need to keep that free for people that don't have a band 25 or 41 signal. If they want to aggregate multiple 5x5 blocks within band 25 that would be great though.

 

I doubt that you have to worry about that.  I do not recall that 3GPP has even standardized band 25 + band 26 carrier aggregation.  No standard, no dice.

 

AJ

[gnoj]

I hope they don't do carrier aggregation with band 26. They need to keep that free for people that don't have a band 25 or 41 signal. If they want to aggregate multiple 5x5 blocks within band 25 that would be great though.

It's curious that all of the other major operators have announced plans to aggregate their 700 MHz LTE with their mid-band B2 or B4 LTE. This stinks of desperation to keep up in the peak speed race, at the expense of average speeds for those at the cell edge who can only pick up 700/800. I agree that Sprint should not follow suit, even if the 3GPP does standardize the combination of B25 & B26.

[WiWavelength]

It's curious that all of the other major operators have announced plans to aggregate their 700 MHz LTE with their mid-band B2 or B4 LTE. This stinks of desperation to keep up in the peak speed race, at the expense of average speeds for those at the cell edge who can only pick up 700/800.

 

The most recent AT&T compatible handsets seems to be aggregating band 2/4 + band 17 -- in that order.  So, band 2/4 is the PCC, while band 17 is only the SCC.  It is a fakakta carrier aggregation combination, but it may address your concern about protecting band 17 for path loss compromised users.

 

AJ

[Joeynach]

Come to Atlanta and experience what a mature market feels like. It's as good as VZW or ATT on a local level in the city. It's pretty awesome.

Yeah its market by market.  We all know this.  The poster didn't do his research.  Otherwise he would know Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Kansas City all very mature, all have 800Mhz deployed in 1X for voice/text coverage and B26 for LTE coverage, all have B41, all have 8T8R.  That being said we know many areas that are behind and currently contain no deployment of B26 or 1x800 for better voice/text coverage, they are mainly tied to IBEZ areas and weird situations where spectrum owners haven't vacated their 800mhz holdings; South Florida, Los Angeles (San Bernadino), Las Vegas, Seattle, Detroit, etc.  If you do your research on this forum you know where Sprint kicks ass and you know where they lag.  Its not difficult.

[Joeynach]

The area I drive mostly is covered by 16 towers, 6 of which are still 3G. I find myself on 1x at least 25% of the time, and slow 3G 50% of the time. And the area those 16 towers cover is populated by approximately 150,000 people... So I am holding my breath that all the years of waiting for competitive data service, while watching my friends on other carriers enjoy great service now, will pay off ...

I believe you are stuck in spectrum limbo.  San Bernadino hasn't been playing nice in terms of vacating their spectrum so Sprint can deploy 800mhz service, both 1x and LTE.  They are 100% screwing over Sprint users in this area.  Can't comment on B41 other than like you have probably noticed LA isn't a mature market for B41, don't know why, just another example that some markets are further along then others and for everyone who loves their service in Atlanta or Houston there is someone who hates theirs in Southern California or San Diego.  Is what it is, you live in a non mature market, you can wait it out and hope, or you can go to another carrier that doesn't have these issues.  Free will my friend.

[tmiw]

Two years ago I was seriously considering jumping ship because Sprint 3G was so ridiculously slow. Then I found this site and decided to give Sprint another chance by upgrading to the HTC One. In short, I'm glad I did--San Diego has improved massively over the course of the last 1-1.5 years and even when I'm not on LTE, 3G is perfectly usable.

 

Is there room for improvement? Of course! For one thing, it would be nice for the IBEZ stuff to finally get resolved since my phone falls off of B25 LTE fairly often. But once that does... 

[bucdenny]

Two years ago I was seriously considering jumping ship because Sprint 3G was so ridiculously slow. Then I found this site and decided to give Sprint another chance by upgrading to the HTC One. In short, I'm glad I did--San Diego has improved massively over the course of the last 1-1.5 years and even when I'm not on LTE, 3G is perfectly usable.

 

Is there room for improvement? Of course! For one thing, it would be nice for the IBEZ stuff to finally get resolved since my phone falls off of B25 LTE fairly often. But once that does...

Sprint 800 and 2.5 already under way. It is going full steam starting January per our sources. Keep an eye out for 2.5. First site in Mission Valley on the Marriott hotel is getting 2.5 as we speak

[jamisonshaw125]

Sprint 800 and 2.5 already under way. It is going full steam starting January per our sources. Keep an eye out for 2.5. First site in Mission Valley on the Marriott hotel is getting 2.5 as we speak

I hope b41 pops up so much that we can't update the maps quick enough.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Crapatalk

[cyclone]

Yeah its market by market.  We all know this.  The poster didn't do his research.  Otherwise he would know Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Kansas City all very mature, all have 800Mhz deployed in 1X for voice/text coverage and B26 for LTE coverage, all have B41, all have 8T8R.  That being said we know many areas that are behind and currently contain no deployment of B26 or 1x800 for better voice/text coverage, they are mainly tied to IBEZ areas and weird situations where spectrum owners haven't vacated their 800mhz holdings; South Florida, Los Angeles (San Bernadino), Las Vegas, Seattle, Detroit, etc.  If you do your research on this forum you know where Sprint kicks ass and you know where they lag.  Its not difficult.

Just letting you know that San Antonio just this month had it's first spotting of B26 on LTE and thus is not optimized or utilized on every tower, and to my knowledge we do not have any 8T8R towers in town because the majority of our B41 comes from converted WiMAX towers. Just because we are a major city or were one of the initial LTE cities for NV 1.0 doesn't mean we are being upgraded to NV 2.0 standards faster than other cities.