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I realize my contributions won't be about Sprint or anything in the US market...so please feel free to move to a 'foreign' section. Before I start any new threads or post further, I thought it might be interesting if I share what I know on my local carriers. Here we go... The Big Four in South Africa MTN (MTN Group reported 210 million subscribers in April 2014; big push into rest of Africa) Vodacom (51.5 million subscribers reported in July 2013; owned by Vodafone UK) Cell C (12.3 million subscribers reported in November 2013; "the underdog") Telkom Mobile (1.6 million subscribers reported in September 2013; "new kids on the block") LTE takes off Telkom Mobile, previously "8ta", were the early adopters and conducted a very visible LTE trial during the period November 2012 - August 2013. MTN and Vodacom followed suit. From what I could see, they conducted closed trials. Cell C has yet to adopt LTE. SA spectrum - MTN operates their 3G and LTE networks in the 1800MHz band. They use FDD for LTE. - Vodacom also operates the 1800MHz band, also using FDD for LTE. - Telkom Mobile use 2100MHz for 3G and 2300MHz for LTE. They're the only carrier to use TDD. - Cell C operates in the 2100MHz bands offering 2G and 3G only (as at August 2014) Personal use of each carrier for LTE Telkom Mobile uses TDD so get very high speeds; I've hit 73Mbps but have seen demos of 100Mbps; Uploads max out at 7-9Mbps; This is my voice provider. MTN uses FDD and the speeds are much more synchronous; I've hit up to 50Mbps but have seen other users getting 71Mbps; Uploads max out at 21Mbps. This is my home fixed broadband provider. Vodacom uses FDD and the speeds are a mixed bag yet performance is good; I've not seen many reports on LTE speeds but have personally hit around 16Mbps down and 9Mbps up, best case; I use this carrier for my iPad 4.

Now that I've posted an intro to South African carriers, I'm comfortable to share some images of our base stations this side of planet Earth. I'd really appreciate help identifying everything since our equipment is common. Oh, this base station is located at a local school and serves a really large area. This is my base station I have clear LOS to. It's 1622m away. What is what here? All the sector antennas seem old yet this site was upgraded within the past year to 100Mbps LTE. Again, not sure what antenna this is, or what belongs to who. I suppose it'll be difficult for you guys too given the country difference. MTN owns this site but also hosts Telkom Mobile equipment. There is only one large BTS shelter from what I could see. Interested to know what this is... Close-up. I hope the high resolution photo I took is in tact because I can read the writing on the original. Cabling... A lot of cabling... Company that provided the cooling for the BTS shelter.