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Estimated time of 800 mhz rollout?


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I'm just wondering when Sprint plans to have iDEN completely shut down and enable 1X Advanced/LTE on 800 mhz. My upgrade has been up since July, and as of now my contract is expired. I am really trying to hold out on Sprint's NV but I'm getting so fed up with how things are here (note this isn't meant to be a bitching/bash Sprint post). I know they have the potential, but will their 800 mhz network be comparable to Verzions coverage when they roll it out? Currently, Verizon has by FAR the best coverage here. It's to the point where I can only stream Pandora half the time when I'm driving, both because of the slow speeds but mainly because I just don't have coverage. The majority of the time, it will stay on 1X while I'm streaming, even if I pass through an area with 3G. At my friends house last night, I'm sitting there trying to hold on to a very faint 1X signal while he has full 3G on Verizon. It's like this in a lot of areas around here.

 

Seperate of Sprints actual network, as far as I know there have been no phones released to date that will support their 800 mhz LTE, and same goes for Clearwire's 2500 mhz LTE. I don't want to buy a phone that won't have the capability to use Sprints 800 mhz LTE when it comes and be stuck with it like that for two years.

 

Now I know a lot of you are going to say, well just jump to Verzion then. Well I would, but my bill would jump about $40 considering I need a 6 GB plan. I know that's a lot, but I just started a full time job last month where a lot of the times we have no business so all I have to do is play on my phone. Checking my Sprint usage, I burned through 5.5 GB's of 4G this month. I'm willing to stay with Sprint if 800 mhz should be up in say half a year or so, and providing that the new Nexus phone(s) support it.

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  • iDEN shuts down on June 30, 2013
  • LTE 800 will start deploying right after iDEN shuts down, but will probably take awhile to complete
  • Sprint will not have any 3G on 800MHz, just 1x and LTE
  • Sprint LTE 800 signals will travel as far from a site as Verizon LTE 750 in most deployments. In a rural deployment, the difference will not exceed 3%.
  • No LTE 800/2600 capable phones will go on sale until next year

Sprint LTE 800 will probably offer about the same coverage as Sprint 3G...maybe slightly more. LTE is only good to approximately -95dBm RSSI, where as EVDO is good to approximately -105dBm. So EVDO will have more coverage from the same site on the same frequency.

 

So Sprint's LTE 1900 will not offer as much coverage as CDMA 1900. But when LTE 800 shows up, it will expand the LTE beyond the coverage area to be a little more than EVDO on 1900. But the same is true of Verizon. I have a Verizon hotspot. The LTE signal peters out around -93dBm RSSI. So Verizon's LTE 750 actually has less coverage than their CDMA 850, even though their maps show more.

 

So in places where Verizon LTE 750 and Sprint LTE 800 have both been deployed in the same area, coverage will be similar. However, Verizon has a larger network and covers areas where Sprint does not even offer service. So that will always be an issue. If you spend a lot of time in non Sprint coverage areas, then Sprint may not be the right choice for you.

 

Robert

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I would also like to add that CDMA 1x at 800 would probably be enough for your pandora streaming. It's coverage should be better than that of LTE 800 and maybe close to verizon's CDMA 1x 850 coverage. It's also being deployed right now as we speak.

 

Edit: Not only that but you wouldn't need a new phone to use it. The Evo 3D supports CDMA 1x at 800.

 

I also recommend a wilson signal booster for your car. It will make mobile streaming much more reliable.

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Nova46, if you used 5.5GB's of 4G (and I'm assuming thats wimax) then either your home or your work is sufficiently covered, no?

 

Sprint users who use a big chunk of data monthly but complain and/or debate moving to other carriers due to slow data, patches of highway or insides of buildings where they can't jump on the net, etc. can be (and I'm not calling you out) very comical to me. It comes down to whats worse: Going a few places where the data is 1x or monitoring all data usage to avoid exceeding your caps and spending more $$?

 

If you were a 2GB and less or done user, I'd say go for it.... but if you aren't , then cough up the $$ or rationalize with the fact you always have a mobile phone that , roaming or not, works as a phone. I notice your profile says "HTC Evo"... some might say it time to upgrade and even that new devices would work better in fringe areas... The Sprint.com coverage maps show 2 new towers in the Cary, NC area, so I'd say Sprint wants to be better there.

 

Tmobile unlimited is also back... If you could deal with the lack of voice roaming in places where theres no native network, it looks like they have deployed HSPA+ there as well.

 

My concern is that many users will hold their breath for 800mhz lte/voice and when it finally arrives (later than expected, because impatience and on-time go hand and hand with users) people will make flash pan judgement if its not absolutely amazing and tear off into the night screaming "screw sprint".

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Robert, thank you for your info and opinion. That's pretty much everything I was looking for. While Sprint seems like it has tons of potential in the near future, I think for now Verizon is looking like a better option for me. Verizon has my market blanketed with LTE and with how I use it and the places I go they just seem better suited for me. However, I'm very excited to see how Sprint turns out with NV completed. With 800 mhz 1XA/LTE paired with Clear's 2600 TD-LTE they are bound to come out on top. I certainly would revisit them when my Verizon contract ended. Definitely still going to donate to this site and keep informed.

 

Jeff, yes I meant wimax. My work has excellent service, I get anywhere from 3 mbps to 12 mbps depending on the time of day. My house doesn't have wimax anywhere near it and I have 1-2 bars of 3G. Wimax is great at my work but it's more than past due for me to get a new phone which won't support it and it's pretty awful everywhere else.

 

Streaming music is important to me, I just bought a new headunit with an aux input for my Camaro so I could finally listen to pandora in my car and now that I have it, I can't even use it half the time. Plus I don't get good service at any of my friends apartments. If I have 6 GB I won't have to worry about going over, that will be plenty for me.

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Robert, thank you for your info and opinion. That's pretty much everything I was looking for. While Sprint seems like it has tons of potential in the near future, I think for now Verizon is looking like a better option for me. Verizon has my market blanketed with LTE and with how I use it and the places I go they just seem better suited for me. However, I'm very excited to see how Sprint turns out with NV completed. With 800 mhz 1XA/LTE paired with Clear's 2600 TD-LTE they are bound to come out on top. I certainly would revisit them when my Verizon contract ended. Definitely still going to donate to this site and keep informed.

 

Jeff, yes I meant wimax. My work has excellent service, I get anywhere from 3 mbps to 12 mbps depending on the time of day. My house doesn't have wimax anywhere near it and I have 1-2 bars of 3G. Wimax is great at my work but it's more than past due for me to get a new phone which won't support it and it's pretty awful everywhere else.

 

Streaming music is important to me, I just bought a new headunit with an aux input for my Camaro so I could finally listen to pandora in my car and now that I have it, I can't even use it half the time. Plus I don't get good service at any of my friends apartments. If I have 6 GB I won't have to worry about going over, that will be plenty for me.

 

You probably need to get a data plan one tier larger than you think you need. Because once you have LTE everywhere you go, your usage will likely go up considerably. It would be a shame to have LTE and not be able to use it when you want it. I have a Verizon LTE hotspot, and it causes me great anxiety to check my data usage every day and try to meter myself out to the end of the billing period. :td:

 

Also, note that Verizon LTE speeds have been dropping considerably the past 30-45 days in most markets. They are finally getting saturated. Verizon needs to start adding some AWS LTE carriers, but none of their devices support it yet. So you will kind of be in a similar situation as Sprint and their LTE 800 devices not being out yet. Planned obsolescence.

 

Robert

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Robert, thank you for your info and opinion. That's pretty much everything I was looking for. While Sprint seems like it has tons of potential in the near future, I think for now Verizon is looking like a better option for me. Verizon has my market blanketed with LTE and with how I use it and the places I go they just seem better suited for me. However, I'm very excited to see how Sprint turns out with NV completed. With 800 mhz 1XA/LTE paired with Clear's 2600 TD-LTE they are bound to come out on top. I certainly would revisit them when my Verizon contract ended. Definitely still going to donate to this site and keep informed.

 

Jeff, yes I meant wimax. My work has excellent service, I get anywhere from 3 mbps to 12 mbps depending on the time of day. My house doesn't have wimax anywhere near it and I have 1-2 bars of 3G. Wimax is great at my work but it's more than past due for me to get a new phone which won't support it and it's pretty awful everywhere else.

 

Streaming music is important to me, I just bought a new headunit with an aux input for my Camaro so I could finally listen to pandora in my car and now that I have it, I can't even use it half the time. Plus I don't get good service at any of my friends apartments. If I have 6 GB I won't have to worry about going over, that will be plenty for me.

 

Iike I said in an earlier post a cell signal booster helps a lot with that. I have my car set up the same way but with a signal booster cradle for my phone. It keeps the signal to my phone strong even in areas with generally weak signal where it wouldn't stream otherwise.

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The majority of the time, it will stay on 1X while I'm streaming, even if I pass through an area with 3G. At my friends house last night, I'm sitting there trying to hold on to a very faint 1X signal while he has full 3G on Verizon. It's like this in a lot of areas around here.

 

I believe I have stated this before in response to one of your posts. Regardless, I will state it again. Unless you have an SVDO capable handset, it will not handoff a CDMA1X active data session up to EV-DO. EV-DO can handoff down to CDMA1X but not vice versa. So, you will have to stop your streaming if you want your handset to reacquire EV-DO.

 

AJ

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I believe I have stated this before in response to one of your posts. Regardless, I will state it again. Unless you have an SVDO capable handset, it will not handoff a CDMA1X active data session up to EV-DO. EV-DO can handoff down to CDMA1X but not vice versa. So, you will have to stop your streaming if you want your handset to reacquire EV-DO.

 

AJ

OK,I'm assuming then my phone does not have that. Are most newer Sprint phones svdo capable?

 

Thanks for the suggestion lynyrd, I might look I t that.

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OK,I'm assuming then my phone does not have that. Are most newer Sprint phones svdo capable?

 

Yes, most LTE capable handsets are also SVDO capable. However, even SVDO capability may not necessarily enable an active CDMA1X to EV-DO handoff. I think that you and your streaming may be expecting too much of a wireless WAN.

 

AJ

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Yes, most LTE capable handsets are also SVDO capable. However, even SVDO capability may not necessarily enable an active CDMA1X to EV-DO handoff. I think that you and your streaming may be expecting too much of a wireless WAN.

 

AJ

Is the ability to listen to Pandora in the car too much to ask?

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Is the ability to listen to Pandora in the car too much to ask?

 

When dozens or even hundreds of people in the same area all want to do the same thing simultaneously, yes, it may be "too much to ask" under our current system of wireless networks.

 

That is a matter of opinion.

 

Good grief, lynyrd, you really are stretching to justify your own desires and behaviors. It is not "matter of opinion" but a matter of fact when nova is obviously running into capacity problems with his streaming usage. Why in the hell would we be having this conversation about nova's problems if Sprint's wireless network could easily support this kind of incessant usage?

 

AJ

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I think Satellite radio is a whole lot more suited for the purposes of listening to non-radio music when in the car.

I actually had it at one point but for some reason I got frequent drop outs. Not sure why, I bought a fairly nice kit. Didn't use it much after that, it might be better now though.

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Good grief, lynyrd, you really are stretching to justify your own desires and behaviors. It is not "matter of opinion" but a matter of fact when nova is obviously running into capacity problems with his streaming usage. Why in the hell would we be having this conversation about nova's problems if Sprint's wireless network could easily support this kind of incessant usage?

 

AJ

 

It can't easily support it for any number of reasons including signal strength or insufficient backhaul, most likely both. Network vision will fix the latter. The reason I'm so incessant is because I believe this is not necessarily an unreasonable load to shoulder. If Sprint can reasonably carry current traffic patterns which I believe the post-nv network will. They have little to worry about in the future as streaming music is the data intense service you can use all day (at work, at home and on the go). While streaming video is more data intensive it is much more sporadically used, most people aren't watching movies on their phone while walking down the street and definitely shouldn't be watching it while driving or at work. For this reason I feel data demand will increase much less exponentially and level off in the next few years as Smart phones reach a critical mass and users settle in to regular, predictable usage patterns.

 

edit: In other words people can only listen to so much music and stream so much video. I suspect that bit rates will go up for both services but that will be a slow transition for music and will level off quickly for video (a phone with more than a 1080p screen is madness). Since the dawn of the CD-ROM drive three file types have used the most space on media and they are pictures music and video. Streaming them is data intense but will have finite maximum usage. The max load I can imagine is a streaming 1080p netflix stream but that will be sporadic. The more constant worst case load is a 320kbit/s pandora stream which is currently not possible (it streams at 192k max). I think these loads could be accounted for in network design.

 

 

sent from my 3VO from another EVO

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I harp on this, but pandora is not the most data efficient app for consumption or uninterrupted audio.

 

The better experience is on pay apps... although asking someone who is $$ sensitive to pay for something else isnt easy

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I harp on this, but pandora is not the most data efficient app for consumption or uninterrupted audio.

 

The better experience is on pay apps... although asking someone who is $$ sensitive to pay for something else isnt easy

I pay for Pandora One and Grooveshark VIP. I like them the best. I tried last.fm and didn't like it as much but that was a long time ago. I haven't tried spotify yet.

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I pay for Pandora One and Grooveshark VIP. I like them the best. I tried last.fm and didn't like it as much but that was a long time ago. I haven't tried spotify yet.

My friend told me to try slacker, it's ok so far but I prefer Pandoras whole music genome prediction better. I should check out grooveshark. Is there a noticeable difference in audio quality with Pandora one over the standard app?

 

I also have tried Google music but it is far from a polished experience. It frequently just skips songs while in the middle of a track and a lot of the times will say that a certain track isn't available. How is one song available while the next one on the album isn't?

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My friend told me to try slacker, it's ok so far but I prefer Pandoras whole music genome prediction better. I should check out grooveshark. Is there a noticeable difference in audio quality with Pandora one over the standard app?

 

I also have tried Google music but it is far from a polished experience. It frequently just skips songs while in the middle of a track and a lot of the times will say that a certain track isn't available. How is one song available while the next one on the album isn't?

 

For me, I got it to get rid of the ads but I think it allows for a higher bit rate.

 

sent from my 3VO from another EVO

 

 

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You probably need to get a data plan one tier larger than you think you need. Because once you have LTE everywhere you go, your usage will likely go up considerably. It would be a shame to have LTE and not be able to use it when you want it. I have a Verizon LTE hotspot, and it causes me great anxiety to check my data usage every day and try to meter myself out to the end of the billing period. :td:

 

Also, note that Verizon LTE speeds have been dropping considerably the past 30-45 days in most markets. They are finally getting saturated. Verizon needs to start adding some AWS LTE carriers, but none of their devices support it yet. So you will kind of be in a similar situation as Sprint and their LTE 800 devices not being out yet. Planned obsolescence.

 

Robert

 

I concur with Robert, get a data plan one higher than you would typically think you need. My sister moved into a Verizon LTE area and had to upgrade because her data usage increased greatly.

 

Verizon currently faces the same issue that Sprint does, they have spectrum to deploy new coverage into, but no devices to support it. Rather than solely focusing on their AWS LTE build, couldn't Verizon just add additional 750Mhz towers to shrink the cell size and increase their coverage for an area?

 

I believe I have stated this before in response to one of your posts. Regardless, I will state it again. Unless you have an SVDO capable handset, it will not handoff a CDMA1X active data session up to EV-DO. EV-DO can handoff down to CDMA1X but not vice versa. So, you will have to stop your streaming if you want your handset to reacquire EV-DO.

 

AJ

 

This drives me nuts. I've got one very low signal area that I drive through on the ride home and I get 1X usually. My phone takes forever to flip back to 3G, usually I watch for it and just toggle airplane mode to get 3g

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Rather than solely focusing on their AWS LTE build' date=' couldn't Verizon just add additional 750Mhz towers to shrink the cell size and increase their coverage for an area?

[/quote']

 

Yes. But is cheaper to add AWS carriers for additional capacity than deploy on additional sites. And, Verizon is adding density with additional LTE 750 sites, when and where they have to. However, they are starting to allow their precious LTE network to start dropping below their stated LTE speeds in my area. Even with a strong signal, it is becoming common to see sub 5Mbps speeds at peak times.

 

I personally don't have a problem with sub 5Mbps speeds. It more than meets my needs. However, since I know the pass/fail rate threshold of LTE is so narrow, it starts to make me concerned about their capacity. I am hearing similar issues in many markets.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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Robert' date=' have you heard anything further regarding the proposed 800MHz LTE FIT somewhere in Montana?[/quote']

 

Nope. All I know, is that Sprint is planning two LTE 800 FIT's. One somewhere in the New Orleans market and one somewhere in Montana.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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