Sprint LTE and iPhone 5

[ks-man]

Saw this article regarding iPhone 5 LTE.

 

Doesn't Sprint offer LTE on the 1900 band and later on the 800 band? Is it possible that when the new iPhone comes out on Sprint that it wouldn't work with Sprint's LTE network? I would find that pretty unlikely but with Apple you never really know...

 

Here's another article that summarizes the situation. You'd have to imagine that Sprint negotiated support for the iPhone on their LTE network before they agreed to buy those trillions of iPhones over the next however many years.

[irev210]

Of course the new iPhone will work with Sprint's LTE network (PCS G-Block). The question mark is Sprint's ESMR band... will iPhone 5 support CDMA on ESMR or no?

 

Your articles are more in reference to the issues T-Mobile has had. No 3G iPhone supports HPSA on AWS, hence why T-Mobile is trying to move HPSA onto the PCS spectrum they own.

[ks-man]

I know they don't currently offer a Sprint iPad but could the chip that is in the current iPad work on Sprint's LTE network?

 

Thanks.

[digiblur]

It's not really about the chip. It's the transceiver and antenna for the desired frequency.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

[ericdabbs]

Saw this article regarding iPhone 5 LTE.

 

Doesn't Sprint offer LTE on the 1900 band and later on the 800 band? Is it possible that when the new iPhone comes out on Sprint that it wouldn't work with Sprint's LTE network? I would find that pretty unlikely but with Apple you never really know...

 

Here's another article that summarizes the situation. You'd have to imagine that Sprint negotiated support for the iPhone on their LTE network before they agreed to buy those trillions of iPhones over the next however many years.

 

I can tell you without a doubt right now that the Sprint iPhone 5 will only support 1900 MHz LTE. No LTE phones in 2012 thus far have supported 800 MHz LTE. Sprint is still in the process of doing lab testing with 800 MHz in remote areas where there are no Nextel customers. Since 800 MHz LTE will not start to come online until 2H 2013 since iDEN will be shut down by June 30, 2013.

 

Expect the Sprint iPhone 6 in Fall 2013 and Android LTE phones in 2013 to include 800 MHz and 1900 MHz LTE support.

[bmoses]

what about CDMA in the 800 Mhz range? anyone have any ideas on if the iPhone 5 will support that?

[Deval]

I'll be happy with LTE on Sprint's 1900, as long as I could do sim-voice/data.

[WiWavelength]

what about CDMA in the 800 Mhz range? anyone have any ideas on if the iPhone 5 will support that?

 

Probably not. iPhones are second class citizens.

 

 

AJ

[bmoses]

Probably not. iPhones are second class citizens.

 

 

AJ

 

lol, amen to that i really hope it does, have 9 lines on my account and a good chunk of them want iPhones, would be a shame if they miss out on one of the biggest improvements of NV

[WiWavelength]

...have 9 lines on my account and a good chunk of them want iPhones, would be a shame if they miss out on one of the biggest improvements of NV

 

Not necessarily such "a shame." Many of us would be happy to have an element of Network Vision to which we can escape and the iHordes cannot follow.

 

AJ

[boomerbubba]

lol, amen to that i really hope it does, have 9 lines on my account and a good chunk of them want iPhones, would be a shame if they miss out on one of the biggest improvements of NV

 

I think they all will be clamoring for iPhone 6 models by the time Sprint's LTE service is ready in the 800 Mhz band. Maybe iPhone 7.

 

I will probably be looking at a Galaxy S 4 or Galaxy S 5.

[WiWavelength]

I think they all will be clamoring for iPhone 6 models by the time Sprint's LTE service is ready in the 800 Mhz band.

 

bmoses is referring to CDMA1X 800, not LTE 800.

 

AJ

[boomerbubba]

bmoses is referring to CDMA1X 800, not LTE 800.

 

AJ

 

Oh. Looking back now I see that your are right. It just didn't register with me that anyone would consider CDMA 1x 800 to be "one of the biggest improvements of NV."

[lynyrd65]

Oh. Looking back now I see that your are right. It just didn't register with me that anyone would consider CDMA 1x 800 to be "one of the biggest improvements of NV."

 

It absolutely is. With Sprint's site density, inbuilding voice coverage will be unmatched. For those of us that do work in what are essentially bunkers that barely get cellular 850 roaming signal, this is a big deal (especially for people whose calls I would have missed).

 

edit: WOOHOO eHRPD status!

[WiWavelength]

Oh. Looking back now I see that your are right. It just didn't register with me that anyone would consider CDMA 1x 800 to be "one of the biggest improvements of NV."

 

After a good dozen years of hearing people assert -- rightly or wrongly -- that VZW is better because Cellular 850 MHz has superior propagation characteristics, many longtime Sprint users are more than a little bit happy to gain the upper hand with SMR 800 MHz.

 

AJ

[Deval]

Don't get me wrong, having a device that supports the eSMR bands will be huge, but just the fact that NV will have the backhaul, is huge for me.

[bmoses]

don't get me wrong, increased data speeds will be the best benefit for me! but most of my family lives or routinely travels through areas that are covered by sprint but have issues with dropped calls cause some spots the towers are too far apart to hand off correctly, or work in buildings that eat signal for breakfast. so their biggest complaints with sprint is with that, not really data speeds. so if they want/get iPhones and don't get that benefit then NV means nothing to them.

[supert0nes]

Sprint roadmap says all phones that came out this year had to have CDMA-800, if that's any consolation, although Sprint gets pushed around by Apple pretty hard.

 

The roadmap does say that starting next year all phones have to support 800/2500 LTE.

 

I also think that there wont be any LTE-800/2500 in this version, or ATT WCS-LTE, or Verizon AWS-LTE.

 

Maybe, just maybe, a T-Mobile version will come out with AWS-LTE, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[nomoresoupforyou]

Sprint roadmap says all phones that came out this year had to have CDMA-800, if that's any consolation, although Sprint gets pushed around by Apple pretty hard.

 

I really hope they are holding Apple to that, because I'm only interested in an iPhone if it supports the enhancements that will be made in NV (outside of enhanced backhaul). You would think that supporting CDMA 800 is apart of the $15 billion deal that was drawn up between the two companies, but it's Apple we're dealing with, so you never know...

[pyroscott]

 

I really hope they are holding Apple to that' date=' because I'm only interested in an iPhone if it supports the enhancements that will be made in NV (outside of enhanced backhaul). You would think that supporting CDMA 800 is apart of the 15 billion deal that was drawn up between the two companies, but it's Apple we're dealing with, so you never know...[/quote']

 

As has been said before in the forums, if the next iPhone supports CDMA on 800mhz, it will be because they (apple) chose to add it. Not because Sprint played hardball at the bargaining table and not because Sprint told apple that they needed to add it because all 2012 phones need to support 800mhz CDMA. Sprint gave the farm to apple to get the "privilege" to sell the iPhone.

 

Sent with AOSP JB Toro on Forum Runner

[WiWavelength]

Sprint gave the farm to apple to get the "privilege" to sell the iPhone.

 

And this is why consumers should be wary of giving the farm to Apple. Sadly, consumers are rarely informed enough to see that their buying decisions oft run counter to their best interest in the long run.

 

AJ

[irev210]

As has been said before in the forums, if the next iPhone supports CDMA on 800mhz, it will be because they (apple) chose to add it. Not because Sprint played hardball at the bargaining table and not because Sprint told apple that they needed to add it because all 2012 phones need to support 800mhz CDMA. Sprint gave the farm to apple to get the "privilege" to sell the iPhone.

 

Sent with AOSP JB Toro on Forum Runner

 

I think Sprint decided to sell the iPhone because it made more financial sense for them to sell it vs. not selling it.

 

If you look at the financials, they didn't really "give the farm" to sell the iPhone. The sell through only has to be 35% or so for Sprint to meet the contractual commitment to apple. Something that, so far, has been easy for them to do.

 

Frankly, apple would be stupid not to require a minimum sell through - they did the same thing with Verizon. You need commitments from your customer for a number of reasons (logistics, advertising, design, manufacturing etc).

 

I wish I saved it, but I had an interesting chart modeling the value of a Sprint iPhone customer vs. a standard Sprint smartphone customer. Needless to say, the iPhone customer is much more profitable.

[pyroscott]

 

I think Sprint decided to sell the iPhone because it made more financial sense for them to sell it vs. not selling it.

 

If you look at the financials' date=' they didn't really "give the farm" to sell the iPhone. The sell through only has to be 35% or so for Sprint to meet the contractual commitment to apple. Something that, so far, has been easy for them to do.

 

Frankly, apple would be stupid not to require a minimum sell through - they did the same thing with Verizon. You need commitments from your customer for a number of reasons (logistics, advertising, design, manufacturing etc).

 

I wish I saved it, but I had an interesting chart modeling the value of a Sprint iPhone customer vs. a standard Sprint smartphone customer. Needless to say, the iPhone customer is much more profitable.[/quote']

 

I agree, but if someone was over a barrel in those negotiations, it sure wasn't Apple.

 

Sent with AOSP JB Toro on Forum Runner

[Deval]

Well if you want to chart it just with conversation, think about the cost of device, and service cost.

 

MRC is the same for an iPhone and LTEvo customer, $80+tax. But the build quality and return rate on the iPhone is much lower, so Sprint doesn't have to eat the cost of repair/replacement.

[nomoresoupforyou]

I don't recall where I read this, but apparently iPhone users tend to use less data than Android users. Nearly all the iPhone users I know mainly use their phones for texting and Facebook, whereas most of the Android users I know (myself included) use more data intensive processes like streaming video. It would be in the carriers best interest to acquire users who use less data but pay the same monthly fee as more data hungry subscribers.