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Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market


thesickness069

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I'm not keen on paying Verizon to move out of the B block though, because it doesn't gain Sprint much of anything. If they merge with TMUS, then you just divest the B block eventually anyhow.

 

Well I included cash as part of the trade since VZW doesn't gain anything, spectrum-wise, whereas Sprint would unify all their A-F holdings, allowing them to drop another set of guard bands to include another CDMA carrier in the short-term, and allow for a 20x20 LTE carrier down the road, which is slightly more efficient than two 10x10's.  Sprint would just have to determine how much they'd be willing to pay for that gained efficiency, and be willing to walk away if VZW asks too much.

 

As for B block divestment, certainly it would be foolish to pay to get something you then turn around and divest. Sprint should move to make these deals when it becomes clear whether or not the merger will be approved, and no sooner.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

In other news, the lower B block is now officially all Sprint's! That old USCC phone I had mentioned a couple a days ago that still had native service is now roaming on Sprint's network, and my custom USCC-only PRL for my S4 now provides no service. I had expected them to turn it off tomorrow morning, but I guess they chose to do it just after midnight today. Let the watch for a new LTE carrier begin!

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In other news, the lower B block is now officially all Sprint's! That old USCC phone I had mentioned a couple a days ago that still had native service is now roaming on Sprint's network, and my custom USCC-only PRL for my S4 now provides no service. I had expected them to turn it off tomorrow morning, but I guess they chose to do it just after midnight today. Let the watch for a new LTE carrier begin!

That is very good news. I expected Sprint to take their sweet time with the shutdown. Hopefully they have a sense of urgency with adding some capacity to their own network. What should I be looking for to tell if they added an additional carrier? Anything in signal check or in the engineering screens?

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

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That is very good news. I expected Sprint to take their sweet time with the shutdown. Hopefully they have a sense of urgency with adding some capacity to their own network. What should I be looking for to tell if they added an additional carrier? Anything in signal check or in the engineering screens?

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

No, it didn't take long at all. After disabling LTE and reloading one of Digi's PRLs, I noticed that I was no longer on my usual Ch. 325 (D block) or Ch. 725 (E block) carrier, but instead on Ch. 575 (highest usable channel of this portion of the B block). With a nearly perfect signal (-73 RSSI, -0.5 Ec/Io, 8 SNR) I managed to get 2.5 Mbps down and 1 up. Sure, it was early in the morning, but I'll be curious to see if speeds remain in the 2-3 Mbps range later on in the day with all this new capacity. My usual 3G speed with such a signal was 1.5/1 before, which of course is not too shabby for Ev-DO.

 

Any new CDMA 1xA and Ev-DO carriers situated in this new spectrum will be on Channel 400-575. There's no telling exactly where they'd place the new 5 MHz FDD LTE carrier unless we know the positions of all the new CDMA carriers. However, given my discovery of the Ch. 575 Ev-DO carrier (and assuming they don't move the existing Ch. 325/350/375 CDMA carriers), I think a good estimate for the center frequency would be somewhere between 1872.1/1952.1 MHz and 1875.3/1955.3 MHz, which translates to an EARFCN_dl range of 8261-8293 and EARFCN_ul range of 26261-26293.

 

Unfortunately, my phone's LTE "Enginerring" screen throws up null EARFCN values (65535/83535) even when connected and transmitting, so I likely won't be the first to spot the new carrier. Hopefully your G2's engineering screens prove more helpful with that.

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So you're saying this new spectrum is already in use on Sprint on the evdo side. Think it's there on lte and we just have to find it? I just disabled lte to check evdo engineering and was situated on channel 725. Lte still on 8665/26665. I'll keep checking throughout the day. How widespread will this spectrum addition be? Only in the city? Market wide? Or, tower by tower basis.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

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So you're saying this new spectrum is already in use on Sprint on the evdo side. Think it's there on lte and we just have to find it? I just disabled lte to check evdo engineering and was situated on channel 725. Lte still on 8665/26665. I'll keep checking throughout the day. How widespread will this spectrum addition be? Only in the city? Market wide? Or, tower by tower basis.

 

The new spectrum covers the entire Chicago market, so it should eventually be broadcast from every NV site. I have no idea whether the new LTE carrier is up yet, but I'm hopeful they've already installed the carrier cards for it and just need to fire it up remotely, like they've apparently done for CDMA. If we don't see any sign of it within the next week or two, then it's likely a matter of having to wait for a tech to install it at each site. If that's the case, hopefully they arrange to do so next time they visit each site (probably when they go to install B26 LTE) in order to expedite the process.

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The new spectrum covers the entire Chicago market, so it should eventually be broadcast from every NV site. I have no idea whether the new LTE carrier is up yet, but I'm hopeful they've already installed the carrier cards for it and just need to fire it up remotely, like they've apparently done for CDMA. If we don't see any sign of it within the next week or two, then it's likely a matter of having to wait for a tech to install it at each site. If that's the case, hopefully they arrange to do so next time they visit each site (probably when they install B26 LTE) in order to expedite the process.

Given the fact that you found a uscc evdo carrier, and that this has been in the works since November 2012, I'm willing to bet the necessary carrier cards are already installed. Is it separate site hardware for an lte carrier and an evdo carrier?

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

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Given the fact that you found a uscc evdo carrier, and that this has been in the works since November 2012, I'm willing to bet the necessary carrier cards are already installed. Is it separate site hardware for an lte carrier and an evdo carrier?

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

Yes, I believe each carrier requires a separate card. We need to also hope that they had the forethought to order the extra ~100Mbps of backhaul the new carrier will require from each site. Should be easy enough to do with scalable fiber.

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No, it didn't take long at all. After disabling LTE and reloading one of Digi's PRLs, I noticed that I was no longer on my usual Ch. 325 (D block) or Ch. 725 (E block) carrier, but instead on Ch. 575 (highest usable channel of this portion of the B block). With a nearly perfect signal (-73 RSSI, -0.5 Ec/Io, 8 SNR) I managed to get 2.5 Mbps down and 1 up. Sure, it was early in the morning, but I'll be curious to see if speeds remain in the 2-3 Mbps range later on in the day with all this new capacity. My usual 3G speed with such a signal was 1.5/1 before, which of course is not too shabby for Ev-DO.

 

Any new CDMA 1xA and Ev-DO carriers situated in this new spectrum will be on Channel 400-575. There's no telling exactly where they'd place the new 5 MHz FDD LTE carrier unless we know the positions of all the new CDMA carriers. However, given my discovery of the Ch. 575 Ev-DO carrier (and assuming they don't move the existing Ch. 325/350/375 CDMA carriers), I think a good estimate for the center frequency would be somewhere between 1872.1/1952.1 MHz and 1875.3/1955.3 MHz, which translates to an EARFCN_dl range of 8261-8293 and EARFCN_ul range of 26261-26293.

 

Unfortunately, my phone's LTE "Enginerring" screen throws up null EARFCN values (65535/83535) even when connected and transmitting, so I likely won't be the first to spot the new carrier. Hopefully your G2's engineering screens prove more helpful with that.

I imagine that all 6 of the current 1x and EVDO carriers in the market will be moved into the B block spectrum. They can also fit one more carrier into the B block so I imagine that sites near capacity will get this 7th carrier. Probably add a second LTE carrier in the E block, but that requires a second LTE card in the base station, if it's not already installed, so that might take longer than simply moving the existing CDMA carriers. 

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I imagine that all 6 of the current 1x and EVDO carriers in the market will be moved into the B block spectrum. They can also fit one more carrier into the B block so I imagine that sites near capacity will get this 7th carrier. Probably add a second LTE carrier in the E block, but that requires a second LTE card in the base station, if it's not already installed, so that might take longer than simply moving the existing CDMA carriers. 

 

No, I doubt that both the PCS D and E blocks will be cleared of CDMA2000.  That could be a PRL headache.  What could make sense is to keep CDMA2000 in the PCS D block and B block disaggregation, since both of those blocks are adjacent.  Then, use the PCS E block for another 5 MHz FDD carrier.  But I doubt that will happen soon.  The least disruptive approach is simply to add both CDMA2000 and LTE carriers in the PCS B block disaggregation.

 

AJ

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No, I doubt that both the PCS D and E blocks will be cleared of CDMA2000.  That could be a PRL headache.  What could make sense is to keep CDMA2000 in the PCS D block and B block disaggregation, since both of those blocks are adjacent.  Then, use the PCS E block for another 5 MHz FDD carrier.  But I doubt that will happen soon.  The least disruptive approach is simply to add both CDMA2000 and LTE carriers in the PCS B block disaggregation.

 

AJ

They certainly can't clear both of them at once, you are right about that. I was thinking they clear the E block first for LTE like you suggested. It looks like they will be doing that by adding CDMA carriers to the top of the B block which is what I was hoping for. That means they could eventually move the D block CDMA carriers into the B block as well, and do a D for F block spectrum swap with ATT as suggested earlier in this thread. I think the fact that they put the CDMA carriers in the top of the B block disaggregation, as opposed to the bottom where they adjoin the D block, suggests they might be undertaking to move all their CDMA into the B block in the long term. Doing that would allow them to swap/sell the D block to ATT.

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Are we sure evdo channel 575 is former USCC PCS Block B? I am currently in Naperville (and also on LTE, as the attached screen shot shows), but my evdo engineering screen shows it is on ch 575, which may be from the last time the phone actually connected to evdo, or may be current, or may be false (don't know, above my pay grade). Hoping someone more knowledgeable than I chips in. If it IS former USCC spectrum, that was fast!

Screenshot_2014-02-01-19-17-00.png

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I am currently in Naperville (and also on LTE, as the attached screen shot shows)...

 

Since this appears to be a hand written record, I am not sure that we can trust it.

 

;)

 

AJ

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Are we sure evdo channel 575 is former USCC PCS Block B? I am currently in Naperville (and also on LTE, as the attached screen shot shows), but my evdo engineering screen shows it is on ch 575, which may be from the last time the phone actually connected to evdo, or may be current, or may be false (don't know, above my pay grade). Hoping someone more knowledgeable than I chips in. If it IS former USCC spectrum, that was fast!

Run a speedtest, see if it's wide open. Then maybe airplane toggle and try to get back on a different channel, and run a speedtest. Compare results. To the more knwedgable: can channel 575 be shared between evdo and LTE? Not sure how this works.

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To the more knwedgable: can channel 575 be shared between evdo and LTE?

 

No, not on the same site.  And channel 575 is in the PCS B block disaggregation from USCC.  So, Sprint did have hardware configured and ready to go immediately following the USCC network shutdown.

 

AJ

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No, not on the same site. And channel 575 is in the PCS B block disaggregation from USCC. So, Sprint did have hardware configured and ready to go immediately following the USCC network shutdown.

 

AJ

So basically, if I'm ever connected to channel 575 on evdo or LTE, then I'm on the refarmed spectrum. Plus, LTE will show the earfcn of 8625 correct?

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So basically, if I'm ever connected to channel 575 on evdo or LTE, then I'm on the refarmed spectrum. Plus, LTE will show the earfcn of 8625 correct?

 

Yes, but your EARFCN is off.  The PCS G block downlink is EARFCN 8665.

 

AJ

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So basically, if I'm ever connected to channel 575 on evdo or LTE, then I'm on the refarmed spectrum. Plus, LTE will show the earfcn of 8625 correct?

 

It wouldn't make sense for Sprint to put Ev-DO on Ch. 575 on some sites and LTE there on other sites within the same market. I'd also expect Sprint to take the path of least disturbance and put the new LTE carrier somewhere in the rest of the B Block disaggregation, rather than clearing the D or E blocks for it. Hence my estimate that the EARFCN_dl will fall between 8261 and 8293.

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The second pcs lte carrier is live in Lakeview. My signal check no longer displays up and downlink frequencies and speeds are awesome

Engineering screens now

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

 

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The second pcs lte carrier is live in Lakeview. My signal check no longer displays up and downlink frequencies and speeds are awesome

Please post the LTE Engineering screens. You can be the very first to confirm the second carrier!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

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Please post the LTE Engineering screens. You can be the very first to confirm the second carrier!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I've been wandering today and have been on the old carrier all day. If I don't see it I'm going to go back to the spot I was in last night to get a screenshot of LTE engineering. Does anybody know why Signal Check on the Evo LTE would display frequencies for one carrier but not for another? 

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Please post the LTE Engineering screens. You can be the very first to confirm the second carrier!

 

At S4GRU, the second carrier is like the Second Coming.

 

:P

 

AJ

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At S4GRU, the second carrier is like the Second Coming.

 

:P

 

AJ

I thought we would have seen it somewhere before now.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

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