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Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands is scheduled to be in the Second Round of Sprint Network Vision/LTE Deployment in 2012...or is it sooner???

S4GRU

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blog-0683333001331427583.jpgby Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Saturday, March 10, 2012 - 5:05 PM MST

 

Today, Sprint 4G Rollout Updates is prepared to tell you about another Round Two market in Sprint's Network Vision/LTE deployment plans for 2012. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. More specifically, Sprint's PR/VI market.

 

Sprint's schedule calls for this market to be a Round Two market. But is it actually a Second Round market? Sprint's original deployment plan from last year had the Puerto Rico market in the first round. This made a lot of sense because the PR/VI market is rather small and there are a lot of characteristics of this market that would make it ideal to start an early deployment and gain a learning curve from.

 

However, sources within Sprint have told us that the Puerto Rico market was moved to the Second Round deployment some time in the last quarter of 2011. We have been prepared to report the PR/VI market in the second round for awhile now. However, now we are getting word that Samsung may be working to start deployment to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands this month. So in the worst case scenario, Puerto Rico would start work this Fall, but now it could be starting even sooner. Maybe it really never left the First Round at all?

 

Sprint's PR/VI market

 

Sprint's PR/VI market basically covers the entirety of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This includes the Puerto Rican cities of San Juan, Mayaguez, Ponce, Bayamon, Caguas, Carolina, Aguadilla, Arecibo, Fajardo and the islands of Vieques and Culebra. In the U.S. Virgin Islands it includes St. Thomas and Charlotte Amalie, and the islands of St. Croix and St. John.

 

After Network Vision is complete, there will be 266 sites in this market. The main island of Puerto Rico will have (249) sites. The Puerto Rican islands will have (2) sites at Vieques and (1) site at Culebra. The Virgin Islands will have (8) sites at St. Thomas, St. Croix (5) sites and St. John (1) site.

 

One item of note though. Sprint plans to only deploy Network Vision/LTE on PCS 1900 in this market. Sprint does have 800MHz spectrum holdings in Puerto Rico. It appears that Sprint does not have rebanding of the 800MHz spectrum underway in this market. At the earliest it seems conceivable that Sprint could start deployment of 800MHz spectrum here is 2014.

 

gallery_1_5_2260.jpg

Sprint's PR/VI Market. There are 260+ Network Vision sites shown for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in this map. Click on image to enlarge.

 

We won't stop digging for you!

 

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates will continue to scour through the data and gather deployment information for your use. We hope to bring you more details about Sprint's plans in Puerto Rico. Once we know more, we will deliver the info to you.

 

With the release of the PR/VI market today, that brings the total of Network Vision markets announced to 24. We have created a thread in our forums where we are keeping track of all the markets announced by Sprint and S4GRU.com. Click on this link here to view the Network Vision Market Running List.

 

Stay tuned to Sprint 4G Rollout Updates. On Monday we will be announcing the next two Round Two markets for Sprint Network Vision and LTE deployment. We will be talking about in a few hours in advance in a S4GRU Live Chat at 9:30 PM Mountain Time. Come join us!

 

Patillas_Puerto_Rico.jpg

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 

Information about the source: The information for all of our Network Vision information has been freely provided by several sources close to the Network Vision program who choose to remain anonymous. No source information will be released to protect anonymity.

 

Special thanks to S4GRU Member digiblur for creating the Puerto Rico Market map! Thank you!

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crash_pr

No, I am not from PR, but you are correct, of course-those areas are sparsely populated. However, it appears that AT&T covers those sparsely populated areas better no doubt due to their 850MHz spectrum. Even the old Centennial Wireless covered those areas better even though they only had PCS spectrum. In fact, even though AT&T bought them out, I'm pretty sure that they've left the CDMA network up for Sprint (and probably other CDMA carriers) to roam off of in those interior areas of the island. However, I suppose for a cash strapped company like Sprint, that can't be a priority right now. I'm wondering when the other shoe will drop and AT&T decides to shut down their CDMA network. I wonder what roaming alternatives there are for those sparsely populated areas. Open Mobile? Does Claro still operate their old CDMA network?As far as the USVI, it seems like the cell sites they have *should* provide adequate georaphic coverage for St. Croix and St. Thomas especially after CDMA800 is eventually added (St. John appears to need at least one more cell site for the east end no matter what). However, what about capacity? Five cell sites for @ 50K people on STX seems a bit thin capacity wise. Eight sites for @ 51K people on STT is a bit better I suppose. I wonder what AT&T and T-Mobile's cell density is like in the USVI for comparison.themuffinman, how is the coverage and quality of service there in St. Thomas as of right now?

Since the latest PRL update Sprint is roaming on open mobile. I think AT&T shut down the centennial network on february 29.

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crash_pr

We need that 800Mhz band in PR without that i beleive sprint wont get far covrage wise around here.

 

Sprint has been having lots of issue lately from drop & blocked calls. Very slow data speeds. The manager for Puerto Rico said to me that they are investing in their old network capacity while working with the network vision. But i dont know if i can beleive her because that was many months ago and i still have the same issues. If you go to the stores the will tell you the story about "problems with the towers".

 

Sprint need to get their stuff togheter if the want to keep customers.

 

They even gave me an airave for my home coverage... a place were i had coverage 2 years ago....

 

Right now im evaluating an at&t LTE phone and i have Epic 4G Touch and the diference in coverage is very marked and speeds are impresive compared to sprint. i dont know if at&t is using their 700Mhz band but their in building coverage of LTE is very good.

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