LTE Plus / Enhanced LTE (was "Sprint Spark" - Official Name for the Tri-Band Network)

[JWMaloney]

What does?

 

In addition to RSRP (dBm), there are RSRQ and RS-SINR. Just looking at RSRP won't tell you anything about interference or signal quality, but RS-SINR will.

 

For all of those measurements, higher is better. Keep in mind that the wider the carrier deployed, the better edge-of-cell performance you will get. This is one of the reasons why Band 25 LTE is useless at -120 dBm but Band 41 works great well past that. T-Mobile uses wider carriers than Sprint, so they'll probably have better quality of signal at the same RSRP.

[bucdenny]

In addition to RSRP (dBm), there are RSRQ and RS-SINR. Just looking at RSRP won't tell you anything about interference or signal quality, but RS-SINR will.

 

For all of those measurements, higher is better. Keep in mind that the wider the carrier deployed, the better edge-of-cell performance you will get. This is one of the reasons why Band 25 LTE is useless at -120 dBm but Band 41 works great well past that. T-Mobile uses wider carriers than Sprint, so they'll probably have better quality of signal at the same RSRP.

 

Just learned something new.  

[JWMaloney]

Just learned something new.  

 

This video covers RSRQ by first covering RSRP and RSSI:

 

http://lteuniversity.com/get_trained/video_tutorials/m/videotutorials/11555.aspx

 

RSRQ = N * RSRP / RSSI, where:

RSRP = Reference Signal Received Power (dBm)

RSSI = Received Signal Strength Indicator (dBm)

N = measured bandwidth

 

This video also covers RSRP:

 

http://lteuniversity.com/get_trained/video_tutorials/m/videotutorials/11523.aspx

[tampaflusa]

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-were-banking-25-ghz-8t8r-radios-network-differentiation/2014-05-19 '> http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-were-banking-25-ghz-8t8r-radios-network-differentiation/2014-05-19

This article states that no current Sprint Spark phone will be able to take full advantage of the new antennas yet. It's says customers will have to upgrade their phones later this year or next.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

[JWMaloney]

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-were-banking-25-ghz-8t8r-radios-network-differentiation/2014-05-19

This article states that no current Sprint Spark phone will be able to take full advantage of the new antennas yet. It's says customers will have to upgrade their phones later this year or next.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

The only part current Spark phones will not be able to take full advantage of is carrier aggregation. All devices will benefit from the new antennas and the overall increased capacity afforded by the additional carriers.

[ImmerStark]

I'm sure MU-MIMO is enabled which allows the network to treat each tx/rx path as a separate channel and serve 4 times more users at good speed than band 26 and 25 which only have a pair of antennas. So you may not have one user per sector able to get 240mbps but you may be able to serve 4 users at 60mbps. Total system capacity is more important than peak speed anyway.

[chico1983]

Interesting article. 

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-were-banking-25-ghz-8t8r-radios-network-differentiation/2014-05-19

 

 

[IamMrFamous07]

I know the 600mhz auction is next year but can sprint start incorporating the band support to their devices next year?

 

Im skipping the iPhone 6 for the "6s" since it will likely support support carrier aggregation for band 41, unlocked out the box, 700mhz support (rural roaming hub), and maybe volte

[lilotimz]

I know the 600mhz auction is next year but can sprint start incorporating the band support to their devices next year?

 

Im skipping the iPhone 6 for the "6s" since it will likely support support carrier aggregation for band 41, unlocked out the box, 700mhz support (rural roaming hub), and maybe volte

No. There is no such thing as a 3gpp band for 600 mhz or any equipment to support 600.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[mhammett]

There's no MOBILE equipment to support it. Companies in my industry have been deploying TVBDs for a few years now. ;-)

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

[TheForce627]

Ok so I've done a few days worth of testing and here's what I've found. Having band 41 enabled on my s5 murders my battery. With it on I average about 4 hours with regular usage. With it off I've been getting between 6-7 hours of screen on time before my battery dies.

[ImmerStark]

As near as I can tell someone was lazy and neglected to change the calibration for the signal bars to account for the difference between rssi in cdma and rsrp in lte. in other words -105db rssi for cdma equals 1 bar and -105db rsrp for lte equals 1 bar despite the fact that at those levels cdma is approaching the point of failure and lte is still quite usable. the Verizon and T-mobile phones I have observed are calibrated correctly, so the onus is on Sprint to correct it. The consequence of not correcting the oversight will be displeased lay customers that are walking around thinking the network sucks because most of the time they only have 1 or 2 bars out of a possible 6.

[ImmerStark]

-101db is obviously useless

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[JWMaloney]

As near as I can tell someone was lazy and neglected to change the calibration for the signal bars to account for the difference between rssi in cdma and rsrp in lte. in other words -105db rssi for cdma equals 1 bar and -105db rsrp for lte equals 1 bar despite the fact that at those levels cdma is approaching the point of failure and lte is still quite usable. the Verizon and T-mobile phones I have observed are calibrated correctly, so the onus is on Sprint to correct it. The consequence of not correcting the oversight will be displeased lay customers that are walking around thinking the network sucks because most of the time they only have 1 or 2 bars out of a possible 6.

The bars take more into account than signal strength. You can't compare them to Verizon and T-Mobile because they are using different carrier widths than Sprint which will offer better performance at the same RSRP. This is, for example, why Sprint 5x5 LTE is useless at -120 dBm while 20 MHz Spark is useable well beyond that.

[ImmerStark]

I have been observing the bars changing in relation to the rsrp where as they do not change in relation to the rsrq. This isn't my first rodeo. I remember the good old days when Sanyo phones displayed bars based on ec/io which was much more relevant in determining the success and quality of a call, then they switched to rssi based bars which was practically worthless since you could have perfect calls at 1 bar and garbled ones at 4 bars. Maybe LTE bars should be based on the negotiated link rate with the tower or some other more meaningful metric. But as of right now I'm fairly certain they are based on the rsrp but with a scale appropriate for CDMA rssi.

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[VW Maverick]

http://www.lightreading.com/mobile/4g-lte/sprint-promises-180-mbit-s-peaks-in-2015/d/d-id/709518?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT

 

Mav.

 

Sent from my Sprint Tri-Band LG G2.

[jreuschl]

I wonder if a device like the Note 4 will have support for the carrier aggression, or if we'll have to wait longer.

 

EDIT: aggregation

 

[KD8JBF]

I wonder if a device like the Note 4 will have support for the carrier aggression, or if we'll have to wait longer.

now let's not get hasty...no need for carrier, "aggression" [emoji6]

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

[gnoj]

I wonder if a device like the Note 4 will have support for the carrier aggression, or if we'll have to wait longer.

 

EDIT: aggregation

 

 

With respect to the aggregation of 20 MHz TDD LTE carriers:

 

SD 805 = 2 carriers

SD 808/810 = 3 carriers (Q1 2015)

 

The Note 4 will almost certainly use the SD 805. If they also manage to include B4 and B12 LTE in the Sprint version, it will be a very attractive device.

[pokefan02]

The Sprint site is saying Spark will be available to about 100 top cities and is available in 20 markets now. I hope that is not all they plan on deploying.

 

Sent from my HTC M8

[nexgencpu]

The Sprint site is saying Spark will be available to about 100 top cities and is available in 20 markets now. I hope that is not all they plan on deploying.

 

Sent from my HTC M8

No, its going on every single sprint site, it will  be on the top 100 markets by the end of this year.

[pokefan02]

The Sprint website only commits to about 100 cities over the next 3 years

 

Sent from my HTC M8

[MacinJosh]

The Sprint website only commits to about 100 cities over the next 3 years

 

Sent from my HTC M8

Like I said in the Happy Connecting thread, a typo that someone rushed.

 

The press release states 100 cities by year end.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[nexgencpu]

Like I said in the Happy Connecting thread, a typo that someone rushed.

 

The press release states 100 cities by year end.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

Are we confusing 100 markets and 100Million POP??? this is a quote by John Saw from a few months ago,

 

"Sprint plans to expand Spark to 100 million POPs by the end of this year and roughly 100 markets by 2016"

 

[MacinJosh]

Are we confusing 100 markets and 100Million POP??? this is a quote by John Saw from a few months ago,

 

"Sprint plans to expand Spark to 100 million POPs by the end of this year and roughly 100 markets by 2016"

 

That might be. How many people live in the top 100 markets in the nation?

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2