Sprint Direct Connect working over NV CDMA 800mhz?

[bucdenny]

Once Nextel is died in a few months, will Sprint Direct Connect work over CDMA 800mhz when available? San Diego won't be getting 800mhz anytime soon and wondering because their 1900mhz service does not work well in parking garages in downtown San Diego.

 

Will Sprint Direct Connect benefit from Network Vision? Will it only work on CDMA 1900 or work on all 800/1900/2600?

[ericdabbs]

Once Nextel is died in a few months, will Sprint Direct Connect work over CDMA 800mhz when available? San Diego won't be getting 800mhz anytime soon and wondering because their 1900mhz service does not work well in parking garages in downtown San Diego.

 

Will Sprint Direct Connect benefit from Network Vision? Will it only work on CDMA 1900 or work on all 800/1900/2600?

 

YES!!!!! Sprint direct connect will work over cdma 800 and 1900 mhz. So this means that you will be getting the same coverage as nextel iden coverage since they both use 800 mhz. That is the point that sprint has been pitching to nextel customers for the last 1.5 years to convert to being a sprint customer.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[bucdenny]

YES!!!!! Sprint direct connect will work over cdma 800 and 1900 mhz. So this means that you will be getting the same coverage as nextel iden coverage since they both use 800 mhz. That is the point that sprint has been pitching to nextel customers for the last 1.5 years to convert to being a sprint customer.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

San Diego won't benefit until 800mhz is deployed which would be later next year. San Diego has a huge Nextel base as service was popular for cross border usage with Tijuana. How soon may we see 800mhz deployed in San Diego?

[koiulpoi]

YES!!!!! Sprint direct connect will work over cdma 800 and 1900 mhz. So this means that you will be getting the same coverage as nextel iden coverage since they both use 800 mhz. That is the point that sprint has been pitching to nextel customers for the last 1.5 years to convert to being a sprint customer.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

This is correct. Initially, QChat aka Sprint Direct Connect (SDC) did not function over 1X at all, nor while roaming, as it required an active 3G/EV-DO data connection. An update was pushed out so many months back to enable 1X/Roaming support for SDC, greatly improving the coverage area. Thus, it should function normally over 1X-Advanced on ESMR 800 MHz. Sadly, it still suffers from some performance issues when a device is in a low-signal environment and quickly enters and leaves roaming, resulting in upwards of a 5 minute delay in re-registering, during which time SDC will not work. Again, situations like these should be greatly decreased come the ESMR rollout, filling in many coverage gaps in the native footprint. It should also be pointed out that it currently does not function over LTE, though whether that is a limitation of SDC itself, or the Kyocera Torque alone (the only LTE-capable SDC handset) remains to be seen.

[ericdabbs]

 

San Diego won't benefit until 800mhz is deployed which would be later next year. San Diego has a huge Nextel base as service was popular for cross border usage with Tijuana. How soon may we see 800mhz deployed in San Diego?

 

Technically a few weeks after the june 30th deadline, sprint can begin to deploy 800 mhz cdma everywhere they can in a massive scale. There r already areas in the US which have 800 mhz cdma deployed so it has already started.

 

I believe the US and mexico already signed an agreement last year about 800 mhz interoperability along the mexican border. It was posted on fiercewireless.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[digiblur]

 

YES!!!!! Sprint direct connect will work over cdma 800 and 1900 mhz. So this means that you will be getting the same coverage as nextel iden coverage since they both use 800 mhz. That is the point that sprint has been pitching to nextel customers for the last 1.5 years to convert to being a sprint customer.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

No they won't get the same coverage. There are many areas where iden had coverage where sprint CDMA did not have any and will not be converted to NV.

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

 

[bucdenny]

No they won't get the same coverage. There are many areas where iden had coverage where sprint CDMA did not have any and will not be converted to NV.

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

Now that Sprint has the cash from Softbank, wouldn't it make sense to convert areas where Nextel has coverage and Sprint did not?

[standardmissile]

Now that Sprint has the cash from Softbank, wouldn't it make sense to convert areas where Nextel has coverage and Sprint did not?

 

Not entirely. iDEN towers operated different backhaul types and interfaces. While the frequencies might be very similar, the cost to convert every Nextel tower over to IS-95/IS-2000/TIA-856 compliant standards would be astronomical. Think of it this way, Nextel's towers used a backhaul that was very similar to a GSM circuit switched network, albeit with all Motorola equipment, and proprietary VSELP/iDEN protocols. To convert half those towers where it is not planned ATM to NV it would cost millions of dollars, and not pay off for the foreseeable future due to infrequent use (compared to downtown LA or NYC). It's just cheaper and much more economical to establish roaming agreements with other carriers, than to spend the dough on some podunk tower in the middle of nowhere, that few people will ever use. Also Nextel built their network out over years, not 6-12 months like Sprint is trying to do.

[Luuminator]

 

This is correct. Initially, QChat aka Sprint Direct Connect (SDC) did not function over 1X at all, nor while roaming, as it required an active 3G/EV-DO data connection. An update was pushed out so many months back to enable 1X/Roaming support for SDC, greatly improving the coverage area. Thus, it should function normally over 1X-Advanced on ESMR 800 MHz. Sadly, it still suffers from some performance issues when a device is in a low-signal environment and quickly enters and leaves roaming, resulting in upwards of a 5 minute delay in re-registering, during which time SDC will not work. Again, situations like these should be greatly decreased come the ESMR rollout, filling in many coverage gaps in the native footprint. It should also be pointed out that it currently does not function over LTE, though whether that is a limitation of SDC itself, or the Kyocera Torque alone (the only LTE-capable SDC handset) remains to be seen.

Is the update still being pushed cause the phones I use ay work mot admiral won't work on 1x/roaming or if it doesn't have an evdo connection

[koiulpoi]

Is the update still being pushed cause the phones I use ay work mot admiral won't work on 1x/roaming or if it doesn't have an evdo connection

What version of the software is your phone on? If it's on the initial launch software, it won't work.

[Luuminator]

What version of the software is your phone on? If it's on the initial launch software, it won't work.

Ill find out when I go back to work on thrusday but I know that the software upgrade was done on them months ago and we have nothing but problems

[MReiser4670]

 

This is correct. Initially, QChat aka Sprint Direct Connect (SDC) did not function over 1X at all, nor while roaming, as it required an active 3G/EV-DO data connection. An update was pushed out so many months back to enable 1X/Roaming support for SDC, greatly improving the coverage area. Thus, it should function normally over 1X-Advanced on ESMR 800 MHz. Sadly, it still suffers from some performance issues when a device is in a low-signal environment and quickly enters and leaves roaming, resulting in upwards of a 5 minute delay in re-registering, during which time SDC will not work. Again, situations like these should be greatly decreased come the ESMR rollout, filling in many coverage gaps in the native footprint. It should also be pointed out that it currently does not function over LTE, though whether that is a limitation of SDC itself, or the Kyocera Torque alone (the only LTE-capable SDC handset) remains to be seen.

 

I was told by my dedicated care rep that the SDC issue with LTE is supposedly software-related and will be fixed in the future. However, this is the same rep who last year told me that the EVO 4G LTE would be able to use SDC when the app was made available since it had a compatible chipset. Sounds plausible but I'm not sold on whether a solution will ever roll out

[MReiser4670]

 

Is the update still being pushed cause the phones I use ay work mot admiral won't work on 1x/roaming or if it doesn't have an evdo connection

 

The software update that allowed SDC to work over 1X was released in September I believe. Even with the capability, I used to see extreme lags in excess of 2 minutes to get a connection. But with the Admiral, the DC performance is the least of its troubles.

[Fraydog]

Not entirely. iDEN towers operated different backhaul types and interfaces. While the frequencies might be very similar, the cost to convert every Nextel tower over to IS-95/IS-2000/TIA-856 compliant standards would be astronomical. Think of it this way, Nextel's towers used a backhaul that was very similar to a GSM circuit switched network, albeit with all Motorola equipment, and proprietary VSELP/iDEN protocols. To convert half those towers where it is not planned ATM to NV it would cost millions of dollars, and not pay off for the foreseeable future due to infrequent use (compared to downtown LA or NYC). It's just cheaper and much more economical to establish roaming agreements with other carriers, than to spend the dough on some podunk tower in the middle of nowhere, that few people will ever use. Also Nextel built their network out over years, not 6-12 months like Sprint is trying to do.

 

I'll play devil's advocate here.

 

So why can't Sprint just put up new Network Vision towers in those locations within the next 24 months, given the fact Sprint is not only retiring Nextel but also their legacy network? Wouldn't 800 CDMA/LTE give similar coverage to the old Nextel towers?

 

Isn't the move for the future to a much flatter network architecture anyway? If you could, in the future, deploy LTE only... wouldn't that be cheaper in the long run? I have a lot to study up on this, but the Single RAN idea is strong here.

 

Verizon and AT&T are deploying similar concepts in their networks... why can't Sprint (and T-Mobile) for that matter?

 

Nokia Siemens Networks Single RAN invest in the future with ...

 

That's for Nokia Siemens GSM products but don't the Samsung and Ericsson Network Vision products work under a similar concept?

[ericdabbs]

I'll play devil's advocate here.

 

So why can't Sprint just put up new Network Vision towers in those locations within the next 24 months, given the fact Sprint is not only retiring Nextel but also their legacy network? Wouldn't 800 CDMA/LTE give similar coverage to the old Nextel towers?

 

Isn't the move for the future to a much flatter network architecture anyway? If you could, in the future, deploy LTE only... wouldn't that be cheaper in the long run? I have a lot to study up on this, but the Single RAN idea is strong here.

 

 

 

Sprint is trying to save money on operating costs that have plagued them for years for running 2 different networks. In Sprint's opinion, many of the Nextel sites are redundant where Sprint sites provide overlapping coverage, so it makes sense to shut down Nextel sites that do the same thing. Now I agree that in certain areas in the US where Nextel sites cover areas where Sprint coverage does not, it should keep those Nextel sites and convert those to Sprint Network Vision towers. But I would say for the majority of the 30,000 Nextel sites, Sprint should decommission them and save money on operating costs. Sprint needs to cut down its 68,000 sites (Nextel and Sprint combined) to 38,000 sites (Sprint only) and improve its balance sheet.

 

The money saved from decommissioning about 30,000 sites would be much better used somewhere else like expanding the TD-LTE coverage beyond Clearwire's scope of its existing WiMAX footprint.

[standardmissile]

Sprint is trying to save money on operating costs that have plagued them for years for running 2 different networks. In Sprint's opinion, many of the Nextel sites are redundant where Sprint sites provide overlapping coverage, so it makes sense to shut down Nextel sites that do the same thing. Now I agree that in certain areas in the US where Nextel sites cover areas where Sprint coverage does not, it should keep those Nextel sites and convert those to Sprint Network Vision towers. But I would say for the majority of the 30,000 Nextel sites, Sprint should decommission them and save money on operating costs. Sprint needs to cut down its 68,000 sites (Nextel and Sprint combined) to 38,000 sites (Sprint only) and improve its balance sheet.

 

The money saved from decommissioning about 30,000 sites would be much better used somewhere else like expanding the TD-LTE coverage beyond Clearwire's scope of its existing WiMAX footprint.

 

I agree with all of this, and would personally prefer to see as a part of NV 1.0 that every Nextel site that is not a duplicate converted to at least a CDMA EVDO Rev A/1X RTT Adv standard. I would have also really liked to see Nextel's iDEN network not waste the WiDEN hardware that they paid out the but for, and then shelved after installing/silently activating in most towers, due to the Sprint merger. That said, I am pretty certain that some of the sites in the middle of nowhere like the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Idaho are going to be neglected to a certain extent, due to their infrequent usage compared to areas like the LA Metro or Chicago. From a business sense the renovation would never pay off, and it would be cheaper to just establish a roaming agreement with Verizon or regional carrier for the few customers that would pass through. The customer in me does want NV even in the far reaches like that, simply because I like to go visit family and have my smartphone work like it does at home, but again it does not add up fiscally for their corporate goals.

[Fraydog]

Sprint is trying to save money on operating costs that have plagued them for years for running 2 different networks. In Sprint's opinion, many of the Nextel sites are redundant where Sprint sites provide overlapping coverage, so it makes sense to shut down Nextel sites that do the same thing. Now I agree that in certain areas in the US where Nextel sites cover areas where Sprint coverage does not, it should keep those Nextel sites and convert those to Sprint Network Vision towers. But I would say for the majority of the 30,000 Nextel sites, Sprint should decommission them and save money on operating costs. Sprint needs to cut down its 68,000 sites (Nextel and Sprint combined) to 38,000 sites (Sprint only) and improve its balance sheet.

 

The money saved from decommissioning about 30,000 sites would be much better used somewhere else like expanding the TD-LTE coverage beyond Clearwire's scope of its existing WiMAX footprint.

 

Only thing is, I'm not calling on the redundant sites to be kept. I'm calling on 1000 or so sites to be kept. With SoftBank in the picture, I don't see why you couldn't make the long term investment to keep the Sprint Nextel combined footprint at its current size over shrinking it further.

 

I'm hoping this gets reevaluated at the completion of the SoftBank buyout.

 

The Nextel aging GSM clone architecture is going away everywhere. So why not replace the rural sites with Network Vision?

 

I know 100 sites they were going to decommission they changed their minds on, so I don't rule anything out in the future.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[koiulpoi]

I was told by my dedicated care rep that the SDC issue with LTE is supposedly software-related and will be fixed in the future. However, this is the same rep who last year told me that the EVO 4G LTE would be able to use SDC when the app was made available since it had a compatible chipset. Sounds plausible but I'm not sold on whether a solution will ever roll out

So far, the Motorola Admiral, the Kyocera Rise, and the LG Optimus Elite all use the Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset, pointing to some kind of hardware requirement for SDC to work. Interestingly, the Torque uses the MSM8960, the chip in both the EVO 4G LTE and the Samsung Galaxy S3, meaning it could (theoretically) work in the near future. If so, Sprint could (if they wanted to) bring back PTT in a big way.

The software update that allowed SDC to work over 1X was released in September I believe. Even with the capability, I used to see extreme lags in excess of 2 minutes to get a connection. But with the Admiral, the DC performance is the least of its troubles.

Least of its troubles? I work as a S&R tech in a high SDC-usage area, and the issues with the Dura- line seemed to far outweigh those of the Admiral. What issues have you noticed?

[MReiser4670]

So far, the Motorola Admiral, the Kyocera Rise, and the LG Optimus Elite all use the Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset, pointing to some kind of hardware requirement for SDC to work. Interestingly, the Torque uses the MSM8960, the chip in both the EVO 4G LTE and the Samsung Galaxy S3, meaning it could (theoretically) work in the near future. If so, Sprint could (if they wanted to) bring back PTT in a big way.

 

Least of its troubles? I work as a S&R tech in a high SDC-usage area, and the issues with the Dura- line seemed to far outweigh those of the Admiral. What issues have you noticed?

 

Well, the three Admirals we had in our fleet have all had the same problems. We've had phones replaced & software updated several times, but nothing resolved our issues.

 

- The dialer is prone to lagging for several minutes or crashing altogether.

- The function that shuts off the screen when the user would put the phone to their ear would malfunction, not allowing you to touch the screen without shutting off. Very very frustrating

- The physical keyboard is prone to double-typing letters...when I would type 't' the output would be 'tt', etc. It was bad enough that the only way I would use the phone was through the touch keyboard which pretty much negates the need for the phone style in the first place.

 

The DC had some issues, such as users complaining about clarity and extended connection lags, but overall it was functional. It was the rest of the phone issues that caused me to retire mine early. I really really wanted to like it too...it was the first legitimate Android phone with Direct Connect functionality.

[Fraydog]

Is there any effort to transfer QChat from working over CDMA standards to LTE ongoing?

[Mercurial1]

So far, the Motorola Admiral, the Kyocera Rise, and the LG Optimus Elite all use the Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset, pointing to some kind of hardware requirement for SDC to work. Interestingly, the Torque uses the MSM8960, the chip in both the EVO 4G LTE and the Samsung Galaxy S3, meaning it could (theoretically) work in the near future. If so, Sprint could (if they wanted to) bring back PTT in a big way.

 

Least of its troubles? I work as a S&R tech in a high SDC-usage area, and the issues with the Dura- line seemed to far outweigh those of the Admiral. What issues have you noticed?

The torque should have an update early summer that will enable dc over lte.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[koiulpoi]

The torque should have an update early summer that will enable dc over lte.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Yes, of course. Was away from my documentation and fellow reps when I wrote my post.

 

Is there any effort to transfer QChat from working over CDMA standards to LTE ongoing?

I can only assume so. When LTE devices connect to LTE (afaik), they disconnect from EV-DO, and (afaik) no longer can use 1X for a data session, so the update for the Torque is probably exactly that: figuring out how to get SDC on LTE.

 

Well, the three Admirals we had in our fleet have all had the same problems. We've had phones replaced & software updated several times, but nothing resolved our issues.

 

- The dialer is prone to lagging for several minutes or crashing altogether.

- The function that shuts off the screen when the user would put the phone to their ear would malfunction, not allowing you to touch the screen without shutting off. Very very frustrating

- The physical keyboard is prone to double-typing letters...when I would type 't' the output would be 'tt', etc. It was bad enough that the only way I would use the phone was through the touch keyboard which pretty much negates the need for the phone style in the first place.

 

The DC had some issues, such as users complaining about clarity and extended connection lags, but overall it was functional. It was the rest of the phone issues that caused me to retire mine early. I really really wanted to like it too...it was the first legitimate Android phone with Direct Connect functionality.

That's honestly rater interesting that you all had those problems. Like I said, minimal problems with them around here. Mostly the usual "charging port" issues that plague every smartphone due to things like "kids" and "pets".

[standardmissile]

So far, the Motorola Admiral, the Kyocera Rise, and the LG Optimus Elite all use the Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset, pointing to some kind of hardware requirement for SDC to work. Interestingly, the Torque uses the MSM8960, the chip in both the EVO 4G LTE and the Samsung Galaxy S3, meaning it could (theoretically) work in the near future. If so, Sprint could (if they wanted to) bring back PTT in a big way.

 

Least of its troubles? I work as a S&R tech in a high SDC-usage area, and the issues with the Dura- line seemed to far outweigh those of the Admiral. What issues have you noticed?

 

I was contracted to work at a company that used the Kyocera DuraPlus handsets back in 2012. We had so many issues with the PTT network, that we had to fall back to using radio protocols to confirm that transmissions were being received, NATO phonetics, confirming messages, standardized phrases, and training on how/when to key up. It felt like I was using an old Combat net from the early days of OIF/OEF, before Uncle Sam got our sh*t together and set up a decent trunking system. Can't tell you how much the employees wanted to go get some iDEN handsets to use instead of the POS that we had at the time. It only got marginally better with EVDO roaming, and limited 1xRTT support with the OTA firmware updates.

[JohnHovah]

I was contracted to work at a company that used the Kyocera DuraPlus handsets back in 2012. We had so many issues with the PTT network, that we had to fall back to using radio protocols to confirm that transmissions were being received, NATO phonetics, confirming messages, standardized phrases, and training on how/when to key up. It felt like I was using an old Combat net from the early days of OIF/OEF, before Uncle Sam got our sh*t together and set up a decent trunking system. Can't tell you how much the employees wanted to go get some iDEN handsets to use instead of the POS that we had at the time. It only got marginally better with EVDO roaming, and limited 1xRTT support with the OTA firmware updates.

 

Amen to the s*** combat net of OIF/OEF, which branch were you in at the time?

[standardmissile]

Amen to the s*** combat net of OIF/OEF, which branch were you in at the time?

 

Chairfarce....