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Google announces Project Fi: Partners with Sprint and T-Mobile for Network Access (previous title: Google to start it's own Wireless Service; using T-Mobile/Sprint for it's Network Footprint.)


IamMrFamous07

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I received my invitation couple of days ago. I just don't want to use a 6" phone. It's a tablet!

 

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AJ

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Has anyone done any sprint tower mapping with Fi yet? I imagine it may be more challenging with T-mobile being available too. I suppose you could force the Sprint network.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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Has anyone done any sprint tower mapping with Fi yet? I imagine it may be more challenging with T-mobile being available too. I suppose you could force the Sprint network.

 

I've tried. It's hard. Signalcheck pro doesn't update correctly. You have to manually open the map to see which band you're on. The notification icon doesn't update properly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've tried. It's hard. Signalcheck pro doesn't update correctly. You have to manually open the map to see which band you're on. The notification icon doesn't update properly.

I received my Nexus 6 and Fi welcome kit on Tuesday. I've been testing it as my main phone (and using my Sprint number through Google voice on a secondary Google account) and some things are great, some not.

 

I haven't had signal check issues I don't think. But I've noticed that it likes to stay almost exclusively on t-mobile. Even with a strong band 25 presence, it stays on EDGE, OR W-CDMA. Have you noticed a GSM preference?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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I received my Nexus 6 and Fi welcome kit on Tuesday. I've been testing it as my main phone (and using my Sprint number through Google voice on a secondary Google account) and some things are great, some not.

 

I haven't had signal check issues I don't think. But I've noticed that it likes to stay almost exclusively on t-mobile. Even with a strong band 25 presence, it stays on EDGE, OR W-CDMA. Have you noticed a GSM preference?

 

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Is Sprint fast in your area? If band 25 is congested I could see it going to hspa instead due to it likely not being as congested.

 

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Is Sprint fast in your area? If band 25 is congested I could see it going to hspa instead due to it likely not being as congested.

 

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I usually get 4-15mbps (I know that's quite the range) download around here. It is just starting to come online though. However, in the more rural parts of my morning commute, sprint is definitely stronger and most likely uncongested being as it's around 530am.

 

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I usually get 4-15mbps (I know that's quite the range) download around here. It is just starting to come online though. However, in the more rural parts of my morning commute, sprint is definitely stronger and most likely uncongested being as it's around 530am.

 

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Interesting. I know where I stay Sprint is the signal champ but the speed chump. It will likely prefer tmobile most of the time. Yesterday my invite was 8-12 weeks and today its 1-2 weeks.

 

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Interesting. I know where I stay Sprint is the signal champ but the speed chump. It will likely prefer tmobile most of the time. Yesterday my invite was 8-12 weeks and today its 1-2 weeks.

 

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Ahh the wait sucks haha. I'm still not sure if I'm going to stay with it. My primary sprint line is the ED1500. It'll be tough to choose.

 

As far as the signal issues, a quick toggle into airplane mode makes it connect to the Sprint signal. IIRC, it's about a -85 to -95 dBm signal. But the EDGE signal is -80 or so.

 

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Maybe it cant change as fluid as we thought it could. I notice tmobile sticks with either band 12 or band 4 no matter how many times you airplane mode it. It will have a 118dbm before it switches to band 12 and once it switches it stays there regardless of what you do including restarting your phone or even a profile update. Sprint switches flawlessly most of the time.

 

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Maybe it cant change as fluid as we thought it could. I notice tmobile sticks with either band 12 or band 4 no matter how many times you airplane mode it. It will have a 118dbm before it switches to band 12 and once it switches it stays there regardless of what you do including restarting your phone or even a profile update. Sprint switches flawlessly most of the time.

 

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Unfortunately, t-mobile doesn't have the 700mhz spectrum in my area. US Cellular has it all. So I'm stuck to band 4. I believe I saw somewhere that it takes a bit for the signals to 'learn' or adapt to the areas signals. We'll see if that holds true.

 

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I received my Nexus 6 and Fi welcome kit on Tuesday. I've been testing it as my main phone (and using my Sprint number through Google voice on a secondary Google account) and some things are great, some not.

 

I haven't had signal check issues I don't think. But I've noticed that it likes to stay almost exclusively on t-mobile. Even with a strong band 25 presence, it stays on EDGE, OR W-CDMA. Have you noticed a GSM preference?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Yes, I cancelled my Fi account today for that reason. It makes very poor decisions on which network to use, almost always attempting to hold onto a faint T-Mobile signal when a strong sprint signal is available.

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Yes, I cancelled my Fi account today for that reason. It makes very poor decisions on which network to use, almost always attempting to hold onto a faint T-Mobile signal when a strong sprint signal is available.

I'm still going to wait it out. I've got a week and a half left on the return period. I may pause the service, pay for the phone in the instalments and transfer it to my Sprint line. The only thing that I LOVE is roaming is unlimited, data wise. That's nearly enough to keep me. Maybe what I could do is pause the service, then when my Sprint allowed 300mb of roaming data is used up (I work in a place where I there is no native coverage), turn the Fi back on and maybe tether my N5 to my N6. I'm still undecided.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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After hearing all of these issues with Google Fi, I've decided that even if I get an invite from them, I won't be using the service, unless the rate drops to $5 per gb from the current $10 per gb. At this rate, it doesn't seem that Google Fi will be much of a success.

 

Also, I'm hoping Sprint/Softbank will be able to buyout T-Mobile to help with site density and coverage. Especially considering the reported cost issues associated with building a massive macro network, where buyout of an existing one along with its subscribers, seems to be a better deal for me. I think Masa ought to be exploring workaround ideas to getting T-Mobile.

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After hearing all of these issues with Google Fi, I've decided that even if I get an invite from them, I won't be using the service, unless the rate drops to $5 per gb from the current $10 per gb. At this rate, it doesn't seem that Google Fi will be much of a success.

 

Also, I'm hoping Sprint/Softbank will be able to buyout T-Mobile to help with site density and coverage. Especially considering the reported cost issues associated with building a massive macro network, where buyout of an existing one along with its subscribers, seems to be a better deal for me. I think Masa ought to be exploring workaround ideas to getting T-Mobile.

I'm no expert, but isn't there issues with the amount of spectrum that both companies own?

 

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I'm no expert, but isn't there issues with the amount of spectrum that both companies own?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

A while back, I mentioned a particular spectrum issue I had with Sprint in the PCS band, which was giving me the slowest speeds of all Sprint's spectrum. At some point, I was told there were two 5x5 carriers of PCS, which if true, seems to be where the problem was with it for me. I'll continue to explain this...

 

If the information I received was incorrect, and the PCS actually is 10x10, while that would be better as one full carrier without carrier aggregation , it basically would be the same/similar as to what T-Mobile had around here in the Chicago market at 10x10 AWS until recently.

 

I expect that the reason my experience on T-Mobile was better than Sprint at the time, is due to T-Mobile having more sites for better coverage, which from reading the reports here on S4GRU, it seems Sprint is working pretty quickly on getting more sites activated around here. Once that coverage is closer or even exceeds T-Mobile's, then there will be only one more thing for Sprint to do, in making it obliterate T-Mobile in the Chicago market, I'll mention about in a bit.

 

So, back to the spectrum issue...

When T-Mobile had 10x10 AWS, while it didn't have some of the coverage issues Sprint has around here, or at least to where I've been, granted T-Mobile has some bad areas around here too, it had speeds that weren't all that much faster than Sprint's PCS areas. After T-Mobile's boost to 15x15 though, it got much better, even though now there are signs it is starting to lower back down a bit.

 

There is something to this though that T-Mobile can't compete with Sprint on, which is Sprint's huge amount of band 41 spectrum. When I had Sprint, I'd be anxious every moment it was on PCS waiting for it to switch to band 41. Whenever it did, the speeds would be much faster than on PCS, which this was before carrier aggregation was turned on, where now there are 40mhz out of 120mhz in use.

 

T-Mobile, if they allocate all of their PCS to LTE, which I've heard there is 30mhz of, though please correct me if I'm wrong about that, would give T-Mobile a total of half of Sprint's band 41 spectrum. Sprint also has the PCS spectrum, which I've heard is a total of 30mhz of, again please correct me if I'm wrong on that. If aggregated, that PCS spectrum could provide 15x15, which since Sprint already has a lot of band 41, its doubtful their 15x15 will reduce much like T-Mobile's seems to be doing. However, Sprint really needs to make band 41 a big deal on its network, a priority over PCS, if they really want to go big with this in competing against the other carriers.

 

I hope Sprint the best with this.

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A while back, I mentioned a particular spectrum issue I had with Sprint in the PCS band, which was giving me the slowest speeds of all Sprint's spectrum. At some point, I was told there were two 5x5 carriers of PCS, which if true, seems to be where the problem was with it for me. I'll continue to explain this...

 

If the information I received was incorrect, and the PCS actually is 10x10, while that would be better as one full carrier without carrier aggregation , it basically would be the same/similar as to what T-Mobile had around here in the Chicago market at 10x10 AWS until recently.

Not sure why you are questioning the fact that there are two 5x5 carriers. That is a solid hard fact. Yet you act like we were lying to you.

 

The ONLY difference between running two 5x5 carriers and one 10x10 carrier is the peak speed (and slightly better edge of cell performance). The capacity remains the same. In fact, two 5x5 carriers can handle data abusers a little better, because they can be split between the carriers instead of bogging one down for everyone.

 

 

Sent from my LG G4

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Not sure why you are questioning the fact that there are two 5x5 carriers. That is a solid hard fact. Yet you act like we were lying to you.

 

The ONLY difference between running two 5x5 carriers and one 10x10 carrier is the peak speed (and slightly better edge of cell performance). The capacity remains the same. In fact, two 5x5 carriers can handle data abusers a little better, because they can be split between the carriers instead of bogging one down for everyone.

 

 

Sent from my LG G4

I sincerely didn't mean that in a bad way accusing anyone of lying to me. It has been awhile since it was mentioned to me, so I wanted to write about this not claiming it was for sure, in case I forgot exactly what was meant or I misunderstood again, like I did about the FDD/TDD issue when I was discussing the band 41 downlink/uplink differences.

 

I had really bad speeds on the PCS band everywhere I went on the Kyocera devices, which while I do fault the devices for that, the PCS band on the Nexus 6 when I had Sprint the first time around weren't great, and they were not as good as T-Mobile back when TM had 10x10. Of course, Sprint was always great for me on band 41.

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. In fact, two 5x5 carriers can handle data abusers a little better, because they can be split between the carriers instead of bogging one down for everyone.

 

 

Sent from my LG G4

Only if the abusers are running a constant stream of live HD video.

 

Other that that, a 10x10 carrier is a lot better thant 2 5x5 carriers since it provides better peak speeds and it gets people on and off days sessions quicker.

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Someone had mentioned to me here a while ago, that the PCS spectrum could be aggregated with band 41, which I think would be the best usage for it. While I was told here about the two 5x5 carriers, someone mentioned there is a third 5x5 PCS carrier available, which if the three could be combined using CA, if it made it like 15x15, then that would be a good option too.

 

These ideas were mentioned when I brought up the idea of Sprint selling the PCS band, which I had no intentions of saying it to upset anyone by claiming that because it didn't work for me that it was useless, that being the reason I mentioned to sell it. That was how it sounded as I was saying, though I didn't, and I never meant it that way at all.

 

What I meant by it, was to counteract what the media analysts were saying at the time suggesting Sprint sell some of its band 41 spectrum. I wanted to bring the issue up again now, because I suspect they may mention that idea again soon, as they are talking again about Sptrint's financial losses and with the need for funding at the 600mhz auction.

 

My opinion about this is clear and simple. I'd rather Sprint not sell any of its spectrum, but instead get more funding from Softbank if it needs it for any reason. If Sprint must sell some of its spectrum though, or is considering selling any of it, then I'd rather they sell PCS spectrum, instead of selling band 41 spectrum. Although, I'm not making the suggestion they sell any of the spectrum until it gets to the point, which hopefully it will not, but only if we here on S4GRU began seeing reports of Sprint looking to sell spectrum, when we might engage in discussions of which spectrum we think is better for Sprint to sell, and which to keep.

 

Again, I'm not a fan of PCS, but I agree with the suggestions which have been made to me here with ideas Sprint could better utilize the PCS spectrum. While hopefully Softbank will heavily fund Sprint in the 600mhz auction, as I'd love to see Sprint get as much of it away from T-Mobile as possible, if Sprint were to get 15x15 of the 600mhz spectrum, they could sell some 800mhz spectrum if needed, though I certainly hope they won't need to do that.

 

In the scenario Sprint were to get 15x15 of the 600mhz, they could move voice onto the 800mhz, then aggregate the 15x15 on the 600mhz with the 15x15 on the PCS, if that were possible, or at least just aggregate the PCS alone, and have a strong low band, a strong mid band, along with a super extremely strong high band.

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Sprint selling PCS spectrum is definitely not an option. As a matter of fact, they have very little spectrum in the mid and lower bands when compared to their rivals, especially continuous spectrum. So why would they put themselves in an even worse position? A lot of their phones out in use today aren't triband and rely on PCS, so selling spectrum would make a lot of phones today pretty obsolete.

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Someone had mentioned to me here a while ago, that the PCS spectrum could be aggregated with band 41, which I think would be the best usage for it. While I was told here about the two 5x5 carriers, someone mentioned there is a third 5x5 PCS carrier available, which if the three could be combined using CA, if it made it like 15x15, then that would be a good option too.

 

With how it is being implemented now, carrier aggregation of three 5mhz pcs carriers would not be like a 15x15 carrier, it would be 5x5 + 5x0 + 5x0. Uplink would stay on the primary component carrier until uplink ca is developed. Band 25 and band 41 CA should be able to work pretty well, because they could change the TDD ratio to utilize more download on the secondary component carrier which would be less "wasted" spectrum.

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