Everything 800mhz (1xA, LTE, coverage, timeline, etc)

[bigmachine]

What I expected. SB county failed to meet their deadlines again. Why am I not surprised.

I don't know if San Bernardino County failed to meet its deadline. It just doesn't look good based on readily available public records.

 

I'm still trying to get more information on what needs to be addressed before rebanding can be completed.

 

EDIT:

This is the most recent list of items to be completed under the Frequency Reconfiguration Agreement (FRA) that someone uploaded.  This is from 2013 and may have been amended since:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/263921281/Sprints-Reconfig-Agreement-With-SB-County

[Wiley_11]

San Bernardino Rebranding.   

 

'Notwithstanding that they have not executed an FRA, the Parties represent that they “have

resolved all disputed issues and are in pre-contract agreement.”3 The Parties have agreed on a schedule

for execution of the FRA and the TA has attached the schedule to its pleading. By June 9, 2015, Sprint is

to submit a completed but unexecuted FRA to the County. The County will review the FRA and obtain

the approval of the County Board of Supervisors. We understand, based on a telephone conversation with

the TA Chief Mediator, that in order for the FRA to appear on the Board of Supervisor’s meeting agenda,

the FRA must be submitted to the Board of Supervisors no later than one-month before its next meeting"

 

https://www.fcc.gov/document/county-san-bernardino-california-and-nextel-communications-inc

[utiz4321]

San Bernardino Rebranding.

 

'Notwithstanding that they have not executed an FRA, the Parties represent that they “have

resolved all disputed issues and are in pre-contract agreement.”3 The Parties have agreed on a schedule

for execution of the FRA and the TA has attached the schedule to its pleading. By June 9, 2015, Sprint is

to submit a completed but unexecuted FRA to the County. The County will review the FRA and obtain

the approval of the County Board of Supervisors. We understand, based on a telephone conversation with

the TA Chief Mediator, that in order for the FRA to appear on the Board of Supervisor’s meeting agenda,

the FRA must be submitted to the Board of Supervisors no later than one-month before its next meeting"

 

https://www.fcc.gov/document/county-san-bernardino-california-and-nextel-communications-inc

So, it sounds like the only thing holding them up is getting the board of supervisors to stamp approved on the last proposal. Why is that so hard?

[bigmachine]

So, it sounds like the only thing holding them up is getting the board of supervisors to stamp approved on the last proposal. Why is that so hard?

 

It's up to the individual departments to forward an item for the Board to vote on.  Apparently that hasn't happened yet.

[Samappz]

This issue with San Bernardino is ridiculous. It is probably slightly hurting them on rootmetric tests around the area and in Las Vegas and such where b26 is not available. That is if rootmetrics is thorough enough with their indoor testing.

[RAvirani]

This issue with San Bernardino is ridiculous. It is probably slightly hurting them on rootmetric tests around the area and in Las Vegas and such where b26 is not available. That is if rootmetrics is thorough enough with their indoor testing.

It is definitely hurting sprint. B25 penetration is terrible. I live in Seattle. I know ????.

[ericdabbs]

It is definitely hurting sprint. B25 penetration is terrible. I live in Seattle. I know .

 

B25 penetration is not that great but I think the bigger thing that affects usability is capacity and a 5x5 block just doesn't cut it.  Fortunately there are plenty of areas that have B41 LTE that my phone routes me to which make it usable. 

[Paynefanbro]

B25 penetration is not that great but I think the bigger thing that affects usability is capacity and a 5x5 block just doesn't cut it.  Fortunately there are plenty of areas that have B41 LTE that my phone routes me to which make it usable. 

 

That's so true. If you take a look at T-Mobile's reddit, TMoNews, etc. you'll see that are saying that their average speeds on Band 12 are 4-5Mbps. I think that pretty much confirms that a large part of the slow speeds problem is what you just said. For a large portion of the country, 5x5 doesn't cut it.

[S4GRU]

But for Sprint and Tmo B26/B12 is supposed to be just for areas where you wouldn't get a signal at all. Outside existing LTE coverage and indoor coverage. 4-5Mbps in places where you wouldn't get a signal at all should be welcome by customers. Especially since those speeds will meet the needs of 98% of uses. Customers need to remember they recently had no service in those areas.

 

AT&T only has a 5MHz B17 carrier in my area too. AT&T has a very significant percentage of square miles of coverage where they only have one 5x5 for low band. So this is not just a Tmo/Sprint deal. Verizon is the only carrier with a 10x10 nationwide low band carrier. And in most places it performs like a 5x5 because of the heavy traffic on it.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

[Samappz]

I wonder how sprint managed to do well (supposedly) in Las Vegas rootmetrics without b26. Any thorough indoor testing would reveal the lack of building penetration unless sprint turned up the power on all antennas during the rootmetric testing phase.

[Thomas L.]

I wonder how sprint managed to do well (supposedly) in Las Vegas rootmetrics without b26. Any thorough indoor testing would reveal the lack of building penetration unless sprint turned up the power on all antennas during the rootmetric testing phase.

 

The geography of Las Vegas. It's as flat as a pancake, I'm sure the density is high enough on the strip, where the majority of large buildings are, that it is workable. 

[ericdabbs]

I wonder how sprint managed to do well (supposedly) in Las Vegas rootmetrics without b26. Any thorough indoor testing would reveal the lack of building penetration unless sprint turned up the power on all antennas during the rootmetric testing phase.

 

I still think Sprint still has needs work on the LV strip.  It might work decent outside sometimes but towards the Wynn area, there are a couple of Sprint sites that have yet to be upgraded to NV which are badly needed to provide better coverage.  Not to mention that the strip desperately needs 800 MHz CDMA and LTE which they have yet to do.  Outside of the strip Sprint has been able to deploy at least 1x 800 CDMA in the mean time which I am sure has helped improve their voice coverage overall.  Hopefully the San Bernardino county PS rebanding issues are resolved by end of 2015 so that LA/OC and Vegas can deploy LTE 800 sometime in 2016. 

[bigmachine]

FINALLY!

 

The agreement between San Bernardino County and Sprint (Nextel) is on today's meeting agenda!

 

1.    Approve Amendment No. 5 to Revenue Agreement No. 08-1221 with Nextel to revise the agreement from a system re-tune to a system upgrade for the 800 MHz rebanding project, increasing the reimbursement to the County for services and materials by $7,606,071, from $850,297 to $8,456,358 (subject to reconciliation for actual upgrade costs) and providing for incentive payments of up to $450,000 if all frequencies are cleared by certain target dates, for the period from December 17, 2008 through project completion.

2.    Approve Amendment No. 6 to Agreement No. 09-56 with Motorola, Inc. to revise the scope of work to include additional services and related equipment for rebanding upgrades in the amount of $6,150,220, plus applicable taxes, with no change to the total contract amount of $95,644,786 for the period of January 27, 2009 through December 31, 2020. 

3.    Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to execute change orders and certifications, upon recommendation by the Chief Information Officer and subject to review and approval by County Counsel, for Agreement No. 08-1221 and No. 09-56, provided that any such change orders and certifications further the purpose of the 800 MHz rebanding project and does not result in additional costs to be incurred by the County or extend the duration of the respective Agreements.

(Presenter: Jennifer Hilber, Chief Information Officer)

 

INCENTIVES:

$200,000 if the County finishes rebanding "desert frequencies" by June 30, 2016.  That drops down to nothing by October 2016.

 

The "non desert" frequencies need to be cleared by January 2017.  The County could get $250k if they clear these frequencies by September 15, 2016.

 

[S4GRU]

These are not fast timelines...

 

A separate payment of up to $450,000 in incentives will be

made by Nextel if all frequencies are cleared by certain target dates as follows: (a) for desert

frequencies, Nextel will pay $200,000 if these frequencies are cleared by June 30, 2016; the

incentive decreases to $150,000 if these frequencies are cleared by August 15, 2016, the

incentive further decreases to $100,000 if these frequencies are cleared by October 15, 2016;

and no incentive is payable if these frequencies are cleared after October 15, 2016; and ( for

non-desert frequencies, $250,000 if these frequencies are cleared on the later of September 15,

2016 (if unblocked) or 3 months after notice to proceed is received from Nextel (if blocked);

$200,000 if these frequencies are cleared on the later of November 15, 2016 (if unblocked) or 5

months after notice to proceed is received from Nextel (if blocked); $150,000 if these frequencies

are cleared on the later of January 15, 2017 (if unblocked) or 5 months after notice to proceed is

received from Nextel (if blocked); and no incentive is payable if these frequencies are cleared

after January 15, 2017 (if unblocked) or 5 months after notice to proceed is received from Nextel

(if blocked).

It may be another year before they have B26/LTE 800 in Vegas and Southern California. I don't see why it would take that long. It seems like other large agencies got it done in 6 months.

 

NOW WE KNOW WHY SPRINT IS NOT RUSHING TO ADD 800 RRU'S IN SOUTHERN CA. Because they know it's still another year out.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

I can't believe San Bernardino County was able to push this off so long. The resolution took two additional years, and now the implementation is taking another year.

 

To me it looks like Sprint is just giving in to all their demands anyway. They should have just done that back in 2013 if that was going to be the final result.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

[bigmachine]

I can't believe San Bernardino County was able to push this off so long. The resolution took two additional years, and now the implementation is taking another year.

 

To me it looks like Sprint is just giving in to all their demands anyway. They should have just done that back in 2013.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

 

It really doesn't make a lot of sense.  I really hope the NGN densification makes our wait less painful.

[S4GRU]

It really doesn't make a lot of sense. I really hope the NGN densification makes our wait less painful.

At least we know where the line is now.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

[MacinJosh]

Stupid San Bernardino County! They are the worst county for re-banding ever!

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPad mini using Tapatalk

[JonnygATL]

Stupid San Bernardino County! They are the worst county for re-banding ever!

Sent from Josh's iPad mini using Tapatalk

It really is completely ridiculous. Sprint really isn't even an option for those folks in SoCal compared to the other big 3. Just too many holes without 800. And until that changes there is no way I'd use Sprint if I lived there. The times I've been in Los Angeles and San Diego, I was appalled at how inferior the Sprint network was out there compared to here in the Southeast.

[Samappz]

This San Bernardino news is terrible.

[bigmachine]

Sprint really isn't even an option for those folks in SoCal compared to the other big 3. Just too many holes without 800. And until that changes there is no way I'd use Sprint if I lived there. The times I've been in Los Angeles and San Diego, I was appalled at how inferior the Sprint network was out there compared to here in the Southeast.

 

I don't think it's nearly THAT bad.  Maybe I've been lucky, but if I had the experience that you're suggesting I would have switched to Verizon a long time ago.

 

Having said that, Sprint coverage in Atlanta is definitely superior to the coverage in Los Angeles.

[Samappz]

San Bernardino SMR will be another year at the minimum according to meeting notes from the board meeting today. This is terrible news for the large affected area.

[RAvirani]

San Bernardino SMR will be another year at the minimum according to meeting notes from the board meeting today. This is terrible news for the large affected area.

I don't think the fcc will allow that

[Samappz]

Sprint has agreed with this timeline, and is even providing incentive bonus payments if certain checkpoints are met starting by July 2016.

[RAvirani]

Sprint has agreed with this timeline, and is even providing incentive bonus payments if certain checkpoints are met starting by July 2016.

 

Why aren't they pushing for an earlier date?