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Does Sprint have plans for service for WiMax home customers when the network shuts down?


KnarfOH

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Sprint offers a 30 GB plan with a special LTE router. Although I believe it is $110 a month. I know, outrageous. But it beats satellite and actually you could do a lot with 30 GB.

 

I'm in a similar boat as you in PA. I live 1/2 mile from where the cable stops. The cable company wanted $22,000+ to extend their lines to me and my 8 neighbors. No way. And we are over 20,000 feet from the CO from Verizon for DSL.

 

Luckily for us, there is a state law in PA requiring all telcos to provide DSL to 100% of their territory by the end of 2015. You can speed the process up by gathering people to sign a petition. I did that for my area in October 2012 and a DSLAM is currently being installed and hooked up as we speak. So, I know how frustrating it can be. We've been living with a 3G hotspot for almost two years.

 

I would say to either keep pushing AT&T, or look into the LTE router. I would have been interested in it, but didn't want to shell out the money since I knew DSL was eventually on the way.

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Sprint offers a 30 GB plan with a special LTE router. Although I believe it is $110 a month. I know, outrageous. But it beats satellite and actually you could do a lot with 30 GB.

 

I'm in a similar boat as you in PA. I live 1/2 mile from where the cable stops. The cable company wanted $22,000+ to extend their lines to me and my 8 neighbors. No way. And we are over 20,000 feet from the CO from Verizon for DSL.

 

Luckily for us, there is a state law in PA requiring all telcos to provide DSL to 100% of their territory by the end of 2015. You can speed the process up by gathering people to sign a petition. I did that for my area in October 2012 and a DSLAM is currently being installed and hooked up as we speak. So, I know how frustrating it can be. We've been living with a 3G hotspot for almost two years.

 

I would say to either keep pushing AT&T, or look into the LTE router. I would have been interested in it, but didn't want to shell out the money since I knew DSL was eventually on the way.

 

You can get 30G LTE plan through bmi.net for $89.99

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Not sure why Sprint want to shutdown WiMAX. Unlike iDEN, they don't really need those 5Mhz.

WiMax is on 10MHz TDD carriers in most instances.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

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But Sprint has 100Mhz on 2.4/2.6 Do they really need the 10?

I think Sprint has internal contingency plans to reduce its EBS holdings as needed as other spectrum opportunities arise.

 

Also, know that the EBS/BRS bands are not contiguous. The largest contiguous piece is in BRS is approximately ~50MHz. There are lots of 4, 5, 6, 15 and 20MHz fractured pieces that are not contiguous with anything. And not every piece is in every market. The total amount of 2600 spectrum varies drastically by market, dependent on which BRS licenses Sprint has and the local lease agreements for EBS.

 

In some markets, Sprint only has a whole bunch of fractured pieces and not the big BRS swath. WiMax becomes very cumbersome to keep moving around to keep clear of LTE demands. Especially if they have to pare down their EBS/BRS holdings in the future to pick up choice spectrum.

 

It sounds good just to keep WiMax going in perpetuity. But the WiMax network has a real cost to Sprint. And if it isn't making them money, it's time to move on. And WiMax maintenance costs will just go up and up as WiMax equipment material costs are rising as companies jump out of the market.  Plus Sprint is not producing any new WiMax devices.  They are getting long in the tooth and their WiMax customer base will continually shrink as these people are forced to upgrade equipment.

 

Face it, WiMax is dead. Stick a fork in it. We all are already writing the obituary.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

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wimax is dead, and no one here cares, sure.

 

but the wimax network held up pretty much fine for the most part, in the face of all the 'abusers' and along with the non-abusers, for the last 4-some years.

 

Just because clearwire business failed, doesn't mean the network couldn't, didn't, or can't handle it (be it wimax, or lte), because clearly it did and has handled it.

 

In any case, sprint is not or has not yet directly communicated it's future plans with it's current wimax customers, other than the publicly stating that wimax will eventually be shut down.

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wimax is dead, and no one here cares, sure.

 

but the wimax network held up pretty much fine for the most part, in the face of all the 'abusers' and along with the non-abusers, for the last 4-some years.

 

Just because clearwire business failed, doesn't mean the network couldn't, didn't, or can't handle it (be it wimax, or lte), because clearly it did and has handled it.

 

In any case, sprint is not or has not yet directly communicated it's future plans with it's current wimax customers, other than the publicly stating that wimax will eventually be shut down.

 

I disagree.  Before the LTE network started siphoning off traffic, there were widespread 1-2Mbps WiMax reports at major urban/suburban sites.  Here lately, WiMax is a champ, because they are running like 15-20% of their peak subscribers now.  

 

It's amazing how quickly people forget.  But maybe that is good news for Sprint's turnaround too.  Maybe when the Sprint network consistently offers an average speed over 10Mpbs, and lots of peak experiences above 40Mbps, people will soon forget its data past too.

 

Robert

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Sure, when you have a max of about 10mbs, its going to vary under heavy use areas.

 

As a launch day evo 4g, and evo 3d owner, in a 'mostly' built out but not quite finished area, where wimax was available, service ranged between 2 & 10 megs, which was still infinitely better than the few 100kbs of 3g service available at the time.

 

Even when things were down to 1-2 megs, it was still *usable* and no doubt better than the alternative 3g.

 

Where it was available, wimax was, in my experience in various states across the nation, extremely durable and reliable.

 

Even now, and in multiple areas across the states that I have been to, sprint LTE has never been as completely dependable and usable wimax was.

 

Maybe that was not the experience that others had, but that is mine.

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Sure, when you have a max of about 10mbs, its going to vary under heavy use areas.

 

As a launch day evo 4g, and evo 3d owner, in a 'mostly' built out but not quite finished area, where wimax was available, service ranged between 2 & 10 megs, which was still infinitely better than the few 100kbs of 3g service available at the time.

 

Even when things were down to 1-2 megs, it was still *usable* and no doubt better than the alternative 3g.

 

Where it was available, wimax was, in my experience in various states across the nation, extremely durable and reliable.

 

Even now, and in multiple areas across the states that I have been to, sprint LTE has never been as completely dependable and usable wimax was.

 

Maybe that was not the experience that others had, but that is mine.

 

I agree with many of your points.  I used to hold a lot of the same views.  But if WiMax was competitive still, Sprint never would have adopted LTE at all.  The market changed.  People want performance way greater than WiMax.  And even if Sprint wants to offer a service like what Clearwire did with WiMax, it would be far wiser to shut down WiMax and offer that service via LTE hosted on the Network Vision platform.

 

WiMax is done, in every way.

 

Robert

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I have noticed one thing about Sprint LTE vice WIMAX service.  When I do speed test I get much more consistant speeds than I did on WIMAX.  WIMAX always used to jump around quite a bit during speed tests on my phone, whereas sprint LTE generally doesnt it generally stays the same throughout the testing maybe getting a little bit better towards the end.  But that is my experience.

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Robert, I agree with your last post, but this forum is littered with a lot of negativity if not outright hate towards wimax and wimax users. 

 

Wimax --> LTE, like betamax --> vhs, like hd-dvd --> bluray.

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Robert, I agree with your last post, but this forum is littered with a lot of negativity if not outright hate towards wimax and wimax users.

 

Wimax --> LTE, like betamax --> vhs, like hd-dvd --> bluray.

I'll take LTE over WiMax any day. The battery drain on my Evo 4G, Photon 4G and Epic Touch was outright ridiculous. A product that I had to turn off every second that I wasn't using it. You also have to consider this dedub, you experienced a stable WiMax on a network that Band 41 now runs on. Anytime I've been on Band 41 it has been EXTREMELY stable and speeds have been amazing. I've been on unloaded WiMax sites and have never been able to achieve what I've been getting on Band 41.

 

WiMax was cool and fun, but it's time to move on to something that can bring us more.

 

This question isn't directed at you per se, but why are so many people still in love with WiMax? Is it just the guaranteed unlimited home internet for $50? If Sprint currently offered Band 41 with unlimited home internet for $50 would it still be the same love for WiMax?

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If Sprint currently offered Band 41 with unlimited home internet for $50 would it still be the same love for WiMax?

Yes. This really is the issue with the majority of remaining WiMax customers. They want unlimited home ISP usage for dirt cheap. I can't blame them for wanting. But it's not likely to happen. Unless something like that comes out of the DISH joint venture trial.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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I had a launch day Evo 4G; WiMax was downright terrible in Jax.

 

The airlink was very fragile and all over the board. Speeds were decent for the time (actually pretty impressive most of the time). But, the propagation was nowhere near what Clear B41 is and will be even more dated when 8t8r B41 gets rolling. WiMax was especially bad at cell fringes and ate battery power up like crazy.

 

Another thing to consider was how inefficient WiMax was with spectrum. LTE is much more spectrum efficient.

 

Sprint had the right intentions with WiMax, but the move to LTE by the industry killed WiMax and for good reason. LTE is just better, especial now that the industry has embraced the technology with innovation/technological advancement.

 

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

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I'll take LTE over WiMax any day. The battery drain on my Evo 4G, Photon 4G and Epic Touch was outright ridiculous. A product that I had to turn off every second that I wasn't using it. You also have to consider this dedub, you experienced a stable WiMax on a network that Band 41 now runs on. Anytime I've been on Band 41 it has been EXTREMELY stable and speeds have been amazing. I've been on unloaded WiMax sites and have never been able to achieve what I've been getting on Band 41.

 

WiMax was cool and fun, but it's time to move on to something that can bring us more.

 

This question isn't directed at you per se, but why are so many people still in love with WiMax? Is it just the guaranteed unlimited home internet for $50? If Sprint currently offered Band 41 with unlimited home internet for $50 would it still be the same love for WiMax?

 

Battery issues are not because of wimax per se, its because of the manufacturing techniques used to implement the requisite additional circuitry on top of the existing basebands, there were no 'integrated' 3g/wimax soc's to save battery.

 

Initial LTE devices were much the same, see for example vz/htc thunderbolt which was as much or more a battery hog as the wimax devices.

 

Wimax, as far as I know used 10x10 carriers. B41 lte is using 20x20, as I recall.

 

Further, since LTE was a later standard, I am sure it has other efficiency gains over wimax.

 

As to both you and Robert, its not just 'home' internet, its also a vast variety of unlimited portable hotspots, which I highly suspect were a lot more popular than the home isp modems.

 

So, its *not* just about downloading 100's of gigs to your house, its about worry free portable broadband for tablets and while perhaps not so much any more, but I personally ran my LTE phone on WIFI via WIMAX hot spot.

 

Because either the LTE service was non-existent, or the wimax service was more reliable or superior.

 

In any case, its $55/month, not 49 any more.

 

And yes, as this very thread started, its not about wimax in particular, its about the lack of information from sprint about existing wimax customers, that are still paying for a service that sprint still sells, future plans.

 

I can only speak for myself, I would be perfectly happy with a speed capped (but otherwise unlimited) LTE hotspot or home modem that capped at 8-10 mbs, which is about equivalent to the existing wimax service (that they have had for years that hasn't killed the network!!), which when used over the 20x20 b41 spectrum should be a cost saver vs wimax and won't kill the uber speed of mobile b41 especially with future carrier aggregation.

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As to both you and Robert, its not just 'home' internet, its also a vast variety of unlimited portable hotspots, which I highly suspect were a lot more popular than the home isp modems.
 
So, its just about downloading 100's of gigs to your house, its about worry free portable broadband for tablets and while perhaps not so much any more, but I personally ran my LTE phone on WIFI via WIMAX hot spot.

 

And yes, as this very thread started, its not about wimax in particular, its about the lack of information from sprint about existing wimax customers, that are still paying for a service that sprint still sells, future plans.

 

Sorry, I was lumping home ISP into the same boat as Hotspots.

 

I'm not sure of many places (if any) in the country where WiMax coverage isn't overshadowed by Sprint LTE coverage of some sort and sometimes even B41. So by the time WiMax goes by the waste side, Band 41 coverage will already blanket those same areas. Majority of tablet users use less than a GB of data per month and really rely on WiFi, so I'm not sure of the need to have unlimited Tablet Data on the go where you have to do something you can't do on your smartphone. If you have a business purposes for extra data on a Hotspot, Sprint offers relatively high cap data plans to accommodate those people.

 

I believe Sprint doesn't have an official plan for WiMax customer's yet. They know when they need to have a plan by though. They're looking at the options they have, because they know that's an income stream that can be positive if it can be utilized properly.

 

Look at it this way, taking out the status of the network at this very second, even after all of the changes, Sprint will still offer the best value than all the other providers when it comes to data. They're just tired of having their network slammed when none of the other providers are allowing it to happen to them. So if those users aren't satisfied with the changes that Sprint are making, they have their own right to leave, but I think those users will find out Sprint still provides the best data for the best price.

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Sorry, I was lumping home ISP into the same boat as Hotspots.

 

As far as wanting to keep unlimited, I think the two are pretty synonymous.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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so I'm not sure of the need to have unlimited Tablet Data on the go where you have to do something you can't do on your smartphone.

 

<off topic> I think you have pinpointed a particular issue here.

 

There really is not a lot you can't do on a smart phone (that is unlimited), that you can't do on a tablet (which is not unlimited).

 

Or vice versa.

 

They, the carriers, have created an artificial distinction between phones, and data only devices like tablets. Well maybe not so much any more with att and vz because they have gone to generic data buckets.

 

I want a data only unlimited smartphone plan.

 

I can't get it, why? see above.

 

Sooner or later, google or apple will create a tablet device with voice/txt capability and that will force the issue, why the same plans are not available on any device. </off topic>

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<off topic> I think you have pinpointed a particular issue here.

 

There really is not a lot you can't do on a smart phone (that is unlimited), that you can't do on a tablet (which is not unlimited).

 

Or vice versa.

 

They, the carriers, have created an artificial distinction between phones, and data only devices like tablets. Well maybe not so much any more with att and vz because they have gone to generic data buckets.

 

I want a data only unlimited smartphone plan.

 

I can't get it, why? see above.

 

Sooner or later, google or apple will create a tablet device with voice/txt capability and that will force the issue, why the same plans are not available on any device. </off topic>

 

But why bang your head on a wall about something that may never happen? Especially when none of us here to make it happen for you.

 

3f34030.jpg

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WiMax had a similar potential as LTE especially with later protocol releases. The problem was that the industry moved towards LTE. That would have caused the price of equipment and hand set procurement to rise significantly. Bottom line WiMax is dead because of money and not performance.

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Wimax, as far as I know used 10x10 carriers. B41 lte is using 20x20, as I recall.

 

 

No.

 

This keeps coming up. Band 41 and WiMax do not use paired spectrum. It's a single 20MHz block for B41 (for now), and a 10MHz block for WiMax.

 

 

Sent from my LG G3

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I think Sprint has internal contingency plans to reduce its EBS holdings as needed as other spectrum opportunities arise.

 

Also, know that the EBS/BRS bands are not contiguous. The largest contiguous piece is in BRS is approximately ~50MHz. There are lots of 4, 5, 6, 15 and 20MHz fractured pieces that are not contiguous with anything. And not every piece is in every market. The total amount of 2600 spectrum varies drastically by market, dependent on which BRS licenses Sprint has and the local lease agreements for EBS.

 

In some markets, Sprint only has a whole bunch of fractured pieces and not the big BRS swath. WiMax becomes very cumbersome to keep moving around to keep clear of LTE demands. Especially if they have to pare down their EBS/BRS holdings in the future to pick up choice spectrum.

 

It sounds good just to keep WiMax going in perpetuity. But the WiMax network has a real cost to Sprint. And if it isn't making them money, it's time to move on. And WiMax maintenance costs will just go up and up as WiMax equipment material costs are rising as companies jump out of the market.  Plus Sprint is not producing any new WiMax devices.  They are getting long in the tooth and their WiMax customer base will continually shrink as these people are forced to upgrade equipment.

 

Face it, WiMax is dead. Stick a fork in it. We all are already writing the obituary.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Robert, when talking about Sprint's contingency plans in order to pick up choice spectrum, what choice spectrum are you talking about? I thought neither AWS-3 nor 600MHz was going to count against the spectrum screen. Are you talking about possible spectrum swap/hosting of Dish spectrum?

 

Are they thinking ahead to the lease renewal challenges for EBS?

 

How is the purported JV with Dish playing with the need to secure EBS spectrum they don't already lease? Or acquire BRS they don't already own.

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Yes. This really is the issue with the majority of remaining WiMax customers. They want unlimited home ISP usage for dirt cheap. I can't blame them for wanting. But it's not likely to happen. Unless something like that comes out of the DISH joint venture trial.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Can you really blame people if they want cheap service? That is why people go to T-Mobile because they are suggested a cheap rate and a good network. Sprint can and should offer some DSL alternative and I am sure there is enough network management tooling available to limit to usage of fixed customers. 

Let's see what the trials will bring.

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