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Sprint Affiliate commits to Network Vision and LTE

S4GRU

Entry posted by S4GRU

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by Robert Herron
Sprint 4G Rollout Updates
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 3:35 PM MST

 

I know some of you who live in Sprint affiliate coverage areas are concerned about Network Vision deployments and whether they’ll ever make it to your area. And rightfully so, since too many affiliate areas are still covered with 1xRTT networks, having never even been upgraded to 3G EVDO. This has created some concern among Sprint affiliate customers because there has been zero news to date about how, when or even if affiliates will get Network Vision upgrades. Well, I have some good news.

I can now confirm that at least the Sprint affiliate Shentel is working on a Network Vision upgrade plan for next year. Shentel (Shenandoah Telephone) released in their 3Q-2011 statements that they are gearing up their funding of approximately $120 Million to upgrade their towers to the Network Vision standards in 2012.

Shentel has a largely rural footprint in Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland and South Central Pennsylvania. And given that Shentel is doing their upgrades mostly in 2012, these areas will likely receive the benefits of NV as well as LTE rollout much farther in advance than most other rural Sprint customers in the country.

If you are in a non-Shentel affiliate area, don’t lose hope. I take this as a hopeful sign that Sprint is actively working with affiliates to bring Network Vision to be network wide. Some have feared that Sprint will ignore the affiliate areas and just let them come around whenever they want, if ever. But it’s probably more likely that affiliate rural customers will see Network Vision and LTE sooner than Sprint’s own rural customers. Which are likely to be the very last customers to get LTE…at the end of 2013 or early 2014.

 

Source: http://www.jsicapita...unications.html

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miguell2

From my understanding Shentel has always been very responsive to trends in the industry and from what I hear their relationship with Sprint has been very lucrative, they paid the upfront cost of installing the towers in their service area (Shenandoah Valley, WV, MD) mostly rural areas with their own already existing fiber and in return they get to be the only guys selling Sprint products. I believe they have roaming agreements with VZW as well and their coverage is top notch. It only makes sense for them to keep investing on that network.

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thtguyuknw

Being that I formerly lived in a Shentel area, I can attest to them being very fast to upgrade. They had EVDO in their rural area's before Sprint had EVDO in Richmond, VA. I wonder about NTELOS. which also is a large affiliate in rural VA, WV and NC. They have always been on the forefront of Sprint technology as well. selling their own branded CDMA phones but providing network for Sprint as well. I live in the Tampa Metro area now and EVDO is slower here than it was up there. and Wi-Max is nothing to write home about either. :) can't wait for NV/LTE in Tampa Bay

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S4GRU

Being that I formerly lived in a Shentel area, I can attest to them being very fast to upgrade. They had EVDO in their rural area's before Sprint had EVDO in Richmond, VA. I wonder about NTELOS. which also is a large affiliate in rural VA, WV and NC. They have always been on the forefront of Sprint technology as well. selling their own branded CDMA phones but providing network for Sprint as well. I live in the Tampa Metro area now and EVDO is slower here than it was up there. and Wi-Max is nothing to write home about either. :) can't wait for NV/LTE in Tampa Bay

 

The only remaining Sprint affiliates are Shentel and Swiftel. Sprint bought out all the rest.

 

Robert

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thtguyuknw

Ntelos is less and affiliate and more of a wholesale network provider. But the funny thing about that is all the hardware is Sprint's Hardware. I remember going into one of Ntelos' Datacenters in Waynesboro, VA about 8 years ago, I was a contractor working in their internal IT dept. and all the Wireless support hardware had tags that said Property of Sprint

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leerage

Any news on Nex-Tech? When I travel home I'm on the Nex-Tech towers... would be awesome if they have some LTE plans :)

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S4GRU

Any news on Nex-Tech? When I travel home I'm on the Nex-Tech towers... would be awesome if they have some LTE plans :)

 

No news about Nex-Tech. Don't even know if any strategic partnerships will go with a NV type of deployment, or LTE.

 

Robert

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