Jump to content

Sprint to join Rural Operators Roaming Hub (CCA and RRPP thread)


marioc21

Recommended Posts

I believe they're up to 27 rural carriers (here & here), many of whom nobody's heard of. USCC is the elephant in the room.

I knew that, I mean what carriers have started LTE roaming. But I guess they are talking about the EVDO roaming portion having started in November.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Us cellular could be sleeping with Tmo....

After all the Tmo promises for this year it wouldn't surprise me if thats the carrier....

However, I think the Tmo boss would have hinted at it by now

If tmobile was going to get a major roaming partner like USCC they would've been parading the fact that USCC is announcing a major lte roaming partner soon and that they will be too.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are we sure it's sprint?

I'd put big money on sprint but they can also do one with tmobile. These rural partners don't have to be exclusive. They sprint RRPP and CCA netamerica Alliance is meant to be inclusive and welcomes everyone to roam with each other.
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any updates on when we can roam with RRPP and CCA given the right phone? (nexus 5, 6 and LG Flex 2 I believe)  I am hoping it is when the start shipping the LG Flex 2.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any updates on when we can roam with RRPP and CCA given the right phone? (nexus 5, 6 and LG Flex 2 I believe)  I am hoping it is when the start shipping the LG Flex 2.

 

I'm curious of the same...I will be switching phones when this happens...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any updates on when we can roam with RRPP and CCA given the right phone? (nexus 5, 6 and LG Flex 2 I believe) I am hoping it is when the start shipping the LG Flex 2.

No updates.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any updates on when we can roam with RRPP and CCA given the right phone? (nexus 5, 6 and LG Flex 2 I believe)

 

The Nexus 5 supports band 17, not band 12.

 

AJ

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do any RRPP carriers use 17? I can't remember.

 

No.  Band 17 is effectively AT&T's creation.

 

AJ

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahh. That seems like something that could backfire once LTE roaming is a thing among more carriers.

Nope. AT&T is currently applying MFBI across their network in order to provide compatibility for both B12 & B17 devices.

 

The current deadline for the completion of MFBI deployment is September 30, subject to an extension of up to 6 months if warranted. After this date, the roll-out of branded B12 devices will begin (deprecating B17 entirely within 2 years), existing non-branded B12 devices will immediately be permitted to access the network, and LTE roaming agreements may be announced and/or begin to go into effect.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The CCA website has a coverage map that shows nearly the entire state of Iowa covered. If USCC isn't in the CCA whose coverage are they representing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The CCA website has a coverage map that shows nearly the entire state of Iowa covered. If USCC isn't in the CCA whose coverage are they representing?

T-Mobile affiliate iWireless is a member of the CCA. Its coverage is represented in the CCA coverage map.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

T-Mobile affiliate iWireless is a member of the CCA. Its coverage is represented in the CCA coverage map.

Oh, so maybe I don't understand this deal then. So does the Sprint CCA partnership not include all of the CCA members?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, so maybe I don't understand this deal then. So does the Sprint CCA partnership not include all of the CCA members?

It does not at this point. The carriers in the RRPP are a subset of CCA carriers.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is there any way to hand off calls from lte to cdma?

Not without some really messy breakages. Essentially, because the two systems use totally different core network platforms (as opposed to GSM/UMTS+LTE systems), making the two systems establish seamless voice handover is so technically challenging that it is not practical to make it work.

 

That said, some work was done two years ago to establish a prototype mechanism for it. It works by treating the CDMA network as an visitor network and using the roaming handover mechanism to transfer the call. By doing so, however, the call drops to the lowest common codec: PCM. So HD Voice and all the other stuff is gone. What's worse is that the prototype didn't work very well in testing, with extraordinarily high failure rates (>20-30% of all calls failed to transfer). In the end, the CDMA operators who were driving the development of the idea killed it because of the unacceptable quality. Verizon and KDDI went on to just roll out VoLTE without any form of interconnection with the CDMA network layer.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not without some really messy breakages. Essentially, because the two systems use totally different core network platforms (as opposed to GSM/UMTS+LTE systems), making the two systems establish seamless voice handover is so technically challenging that it is not practical to make it work.

 

That said, some work was done two years ago to establish a prototype mechanism for it. It works by treating the CDMA network as an visitor network and using the roaming handover mechanism to transfer the call. By doing so, however, the call drops to the lowest common codec: PCM. So HD Voice and all the other stuff is gone. What's worse is that the prototype didn't work very well in testing, with extraordinarily high failure rates (>20-30% of all calls failed to transfer). In the end, the CDMA operators who were driving the development of the idea killed it because of the unacceptable quality. Verizon and KDDI went on to just roll out VoLTE without any form of interconnection with the CDMA network layer.

According to the information we have about Sprint's VoLTE plan there will be VoLTE to CDMA handoff.

 

"The Sprint VoLTE network will be designed to hand off calls to the existing Sprint CDMA network, including HD Voice calls, via the EVRC-NW codec"

 

"VoLTE calls will not be given QoS Priority on LTE initially. Should LTE capacity constraints be experienced during a VoLTE call, the call will be handed over to the 1x network"

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-368-sprint-is-proceeding-with-a-volte-network-that-focuses-on-interoperability-with-domestic-and-international-volte-carriers/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the information we have about Sprint's VoLTE plan there will be VoLTE to CDMA handoff.

 

"The Sprint VoLTE network will be designed to hand off calls to the existing Sprint CDMA network, including HD Voice calls, via the EVRC-NW codec"

 

"VoLTE calls will not be given QoS Priority on LTE initially. Should LTE capacity constraints be experienced during a VoLTE call, the call will be handed over to the 1x network"

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-368-sprint-is-proceeding-with-a-volte-network-that-focuses-on-interoperability-with-domestic-and-international-volte-carriers/

At this time, that's not possible. I also find it extremely hard to believe that Sprint will be able to do it, especially when no one else has been able to get it to work (or wants to anymore). SRVCC does not support continuous transcoding, which is required for compatibility with EVRC codec family. The roaming mechanism could support it, but it would be EVRC encoding PCM, which doesn't afford any benefits except compressed bandwidth.

 

If it could be done without unacceptably high failure rates, I think Verizon, KDDI, and others would do it. Since it isn't, they don't want to touch it. It would degrade the quality of the network experience for customers, which they definitely don't want. It's already hard enough to keep customers from leaving to GSM/UMTS operators, they don't want to make it worse by impairing the quality of their voice systems even more.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • large.unreadcontent.png.6ef00db54e758d06

  • gallery_1_23_9202.png

  • Posts

    • Since this is kind of the general chat thread, I have to share this humorous story (at least it is to me): Since around February/March of this year, my S22U has been an absolute pain to charge. USB-C cables would immediately fall out and it progressively got worse and worse until it often took me a number of minutes to get the angle of the cable juuuussst right to get charging to occur at all (not exaggerating). The connection was so weak that even walking heavily could cause the cable to disconnect. I tried cleaning out the port with a stable, a paperclip, etc. Some dust/lint/dirt came out but the connection didn't improve one bit. Needless to say, this was a MONSTER headache and had me hating this phone. I just didn't have the finances right now for a replacement.  Which brings us to the night before last. I am angry as hell because I had spent five minutes trying to get this phone to charge and failed. I am looking in the port and I notice it doesn't look right. The walls look rough and, using a staple, the back and walls feel REALLY rough and very hard. I get some lint/dust out with the staple and it improves charging in the sense I can get it to charge but it doesn't remove any of the hard stuff. It's late and it's charging, so that's enough for now. I decide it's time to see if that hard stuff is part of the connector or not. More aggressive methods are needed! I work in a biochem lab and we have a lot of different sizes of disposable needles available. So, yesterday morning, while in the lab I grab a few different sizes of needles between 26AWG and 31 AWG. When I got home, I got to work and start probing the connector with the 26 AWG and 31 AWG needle. The stuff feels extremely hard, almost like it was part of the connector, but a bit does break off. Under examination of the bit, it's almost sandy with dust/lint embedded in it. It's not part of the connector but instead some sort of rock-hard crap! That's when I remember that I had done some rock hounding at the end of last year and in January. This involved lots of digging in very sandy/dusty soils; soils which bare more than a passing resemblance to the crap in the connector. We have our answer, this debris is basically compacted/cemented rock dust. Over time, moisture in the area combined with the compression from inserting the USB-C connector had turned it into cement. I start going nuts chiseling away at it with the 26 AWG needle. After about 5-10 minutes of constant chiseling and scraping with the 26AWG and 31AWG needles, I see the first signs of metal at the back of the connector. So it is metal around the outsides! Another 5 minutes of work and I have scraped away pretty much all of the crap in the connector. A few finishing passes with the 31AWG needle, a blast of compressed air, and it is time to see if this helped any. I plug my regular USB-C cable and holy crap it clicks into place; it hasn't done that since February! I pick up the phone and the cable has actually latched! The connector works pretty much like it did over a year ago, it's almost like having a brand new phone!
    • That's odd, they are usually almost lock step with TMO. I forgot to mention this also includes the September Security Update.
    • 417.55 MB September security update just downloaded here for S24+ unlocked   Edit:  after Sept security update install, checked and found a 13MB GP System update as well.  Still showing August 1st there however. 
    • T-Mobile is selling the rest of the 3.45GHz spectrum to Columbia Capital.  
    • Still nothing for my AT&T and Visible phones.
  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...