Sprint - add a second PCS 2x5 LTE carrier

[supert0nes]

If it's too slow you could always quit doing speed tests

[digiblur]

If it's too slow you could always quit doing speed tests

 

Only way to troubleshoot why your streaming music on LTE stops.  I do wish you could do a small burst speed test though.

[irev210]

Well, sure; a few tri-band devices have been announced, and phones are soon to follow. The FIT for 800 MHz is done, and Clear already has thousands of sites converted to LTE. It's not like they're sitting on their hands going "hm, I wonder".

 

That being said (and this may seem obvious), but for slow speedtests like that, are you certain you're getting a solid 4G signal? Signal bars typically show 1X signal, iirc.

 

As you can see by the upload speed, the signal is very solid (-91 to -95 RSRP)

If it's too slow you could always quit doing speed tests

What fun would that be?  I am a Sprint enthusiast.  Considering, as of late, I've been using less than 200MB of data a month and I enjoy monitoring the sprint network performance in the Boston area... why would I stop?

[S4GRU]

Sprint will add additional LTE 1900 carriers as needed, and where spare spectrum is available. It's just as easy as that.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

[Fraydog]

Sprint *has* the bandwidth in PCS to fire up another carrier if need be in most places where they have 40 MHz of bandwidth between A and G.

 

They just don't have enough sites up yet for this to make a real huge difference.

[doug526]

To quote AJ, I think this thread is unproductive. In areas where they already have widespread LTE and they need a second carrier, they would have added one by now. Or are in the planning stages of it. In areas where the LTE deployment is immature, they need to focus on upgrading sites before reallocating blocks of spectrum.

[z250kid]

Only way to troubleshoot why your streaming music on LTE stops.  I do wish you could do a small burst speed test though.

I believe some providers forbid you to do constant speed tests.  It eats up a lot of bandwidth

[jefbal99]

I'm starting to wonder if something is up in the core of Sprints NV network as my data issues have gotten much worse in the last week.  When I'm at home, the closest tower to me is NV LTE live, probably half a mile away and the data speed/consistency is just all over the board.  I can be on a social network and try a refresh and time out, then 5 seconds later its fine, then 5 seconds later its out.  All the time with 4 bars (CM10.1 so real LTE data) and -80ish dBm from signal check pro.  If I try to do a speed test, sometimes it completes, but a majority will hang and never finish.  At work I'm connecting to a more distant tower, but maintain -95 dBm to -102dBm, which is 1-2 bars.  Just trying to stream an online radio show 9am-11am is constant drops or buffering.  I can't get a youtube clip to load or pictures on my twitter app. 

 

Google Apps and the Play Store appear to be the worst offenders, regardless of connection or location.  They are almost always excruciating slow, can't load up a 1meg jpg from email or update my apps.

 

I'm going to start watching the Status screen on my phone much closer.  I just noticed today that SignalCheck and my bars don't change, but the Signal Strength screen takes me to 0 dBm a couple of times per minute.

 

I'm one of the biggest proponents saying "The network is under construction, need to let it finish, etc" but something just doesn't feel right.  None of the sites in my area are microwave backhaul, they are all AAV from what I remember, so I wouldn't think the issue is there.  I'm just shocked to be looking at a pretty solid signal and not see data flowing or a 64kb radio stream buffering.

 

It's time to play the waiting game and see when more towers are accepted and see if that helps.  It very well could be that with the sparse towers that every LTE device is trying to use the little bit of LTE that is out there and as the rest are activated it will alleviate the strain.

[Fraydog]

Also remember as 1X Advanced NV towers come up, the amount of channels needed for 1X will go down. That means more data can go for both EV-DO and LTE.

[Fraydog]

If it's too slow you could always quit doing speed tests

 

If the speeds are decent I'm a lot less likely to speed test. Now if Pandora starts buffering I am much more likely to fire up Speedtest.net for diagnostic purposes.

[maximus1987/lou99]

As Sprint starts removing PCS EVDO carriers, will it still keep the same number of PCS 1xRTT carriers?
Or will it rely on 800 1xRTT?
A mod said that Sprint will not deploy LTE-800 on 15-20% of sites - urban ones where spacing is too tight - so the same logic would apply to deployment of 1xRTT on 800.

 

Therefore, with the greatly reduced voice capacity on 800MHz compared to PCS (since Sprint will only have 1-2 1xRTT carriers on 800), it'd seem that until Sprint gets VoLTE, it has no choice but to keep the same number of PCS 1xRTT carriers that it has now until VoLTE arrives.

[maximus1987/lou99]

In the longterm, if Sprint keeps just 1 1xRTT carrier on PCS, then assuming the PCS licenses are multiplies of 5MHz FDD, will it add a 3MHz FDD LTE carrier or just fill the rest of the 2x5MHz block with more 1xRTTs?

[digiblur]

As Sprint starts removing PCS EVDO carriers, will it still keep the same number of PCS 1xRTT carriers?

Or will it rely on 800 1xRTT?

A mod said that Sprint will not deploy LTE-800 on 15-20% of sites - urban ones where spacing is too tight - so the same logic would apply to deployment of 1xRTT on 800.

 

Therefore, with the greatly reduced voice capacity on 800MHz compared to PCS (since Sprint will only have 1-2 1xRTT carriers on 800), it'd seem that until Sprint gets VoLTE, it has no choice but to keep the same number of PCS 1xRTT carriers that it has now until VoLTE arrives.

 

I'm not sure why you ask questions such as this as it seems you know the answer already.  It's also been said that VoLTE will be a long ways away.  1X isn't going anywhere and definitely the PCS ones are not going anywhere for quite a while. 

[lilotimz]

Sprint will have CDMA 800 1xA on all NV cell sites. LTE. 800 will initially be on 75-80% of cell sites but they can and will activate the rest when needed to.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[maximus1987/lou99]

I'm not sure why you ask questions such as this as it seems you know the answer already.  It's also been said that VoLTE will be a long ways away.  1X isn't going anywhere and definitely the PCS ones are not going anywhere for quite a while. 

 

I didn't know. Maybe Sprint is going to have VoLTE soon? Maybe you or another mod was going to respond "I saw NV schedules with VoLTE mentioned"; I don't know. Anyway, even if I did know, there's plenty of people here who don't know this was even an issue.

[ChadBroChillz]

1xAdvanced also has the ability to be configured for 3x coverage of traditional 1x or 4x the capacity.

 

800 at the edge of sprint service will likely be configured for coverage, while urban sites/PCS site will get configured for capacity.

 

Sprint will not need as many PCS 1x channels as before, but I do not believe they have had many deployed.

[maximus1987/lou99]

1xAdvanced also has the ability to be configured for 3x coverage of traditional 1x or 4x the capacity.

 

 

800 at the edge of sprint service will likely be configured for coverage, while urban sites/PCS site will get configured for capacity.

 

 

Sprint will not need as many PCS 1x channels as before, but I do not believe they have had many deployed.

Do any phones now have 1xA?

[lilotimz]

Do any phones now have 1xA?

 

Yes. Basically every phone with CDMA 800 support has been on the market since mid 2011 minus the iphone 4/4s.

[maximus1987/lou99]

 

 

Do any phones now have 1xA?

 

 

Yes. Basically every phone with CDMA 800 support has been on the market since mid 2011 minus the iphone 4/4s.

You're confusing frequency with technology.

 

1xA is capability to have 4x capacity

800 MHz is the frequency-ish they're deploying it.

 

 

[lilotimz]

You're confusing frequency with technology.

 

1xA is capability to have 4x capacity

800 MHz is the frequency-ish they're deploying it.

 

We call it CDMA 800 1xA here for a reason.

[maximus1987/lou99]

Yes. Basically every phone with CDMA 800 support has been on the market since mid 2011 minus the iphone 4/4s.

 

No, that's incorrect.

 

The first phone to have 1xA was in 2012.

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402598,00.asp

 

Not even the iPhone 5 has 1xA

 

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/sprint-confirms-hd-voice-incompatible-with-iphone-5/

 

So, like digiblur stated, Sprint will have to keep the same number of 1x voice carriers for a long time.

Even after Sprint updates ALL of its 1x voice carriers, PCS+SMR, it's gonna be a while before the phones are upgraded to support it and the increased capacity that 1xA offers.

[maximus1987/lou99]

 

Sprint *has* the bandwidth in PCS to fire up another carrier if need be in most places where they have 40 MHz of bandwidth between A and G.

They just don't have enough sites up yet for this to make a real huge difference.

 

 

I don't understand why number of sites should matter regarding how many 2x5 carriers there are.

If anything, it's how many people are connecting to that site that should determine how many carriers are added.

[ChadBroChillz]

While a phone with HD voice will have 1xA in it, you do not need HD voice to have 1xA. HD voice has more to do with voice codec support. Most phones that support 800 also support 1xA. The big indicator I have seen is Evdo rev b support.

 

 

http://www.howardforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=70393&d=1304602440

 

That's a PDF with info on 1x. It also has chips that support 1xA. IPhone 5 had the MDM9615 chip.

[maximus1987/lou99]

While a phone with HD voice will have 1xA in it, you do not need HD voice to have 1xA. HD voice has more to do with voice codec support. Most phones that support 800 also support 1xA. The big indicator I have seen is Evdo rev b support.

 

 

 

http://www.howardforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=70393&d=1304602440

 

 

That's a PDF with info on 1x. It also has chips that support 1xA. IPhone 5 had the MDM9615 chip.

Looks like I was wrong about the iPhone 5.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-322-jack-of-all-bands-iphone-5-fcc-oet-review/

 

It does have 1xA support.

[ChadBroChillz]

Looks like I was wrong about the iPhone 5.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-322-jack-of-all-bands-iphone-5-fcc-oet-review/

 

It does have 1xA support.

 

I would say all LTE phones and most smartphones from 2011 support 1xAdvanced. The 4 and 4s also support 1xA, since they are using the variants of the MDM 6600.