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Masa at Code Conference: I admire T-Mobile


Fraydog

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I personally feel that the exclusionary zone is way too wide and everybody needs to adjust downtilt to minimize interference.

 

It's not an exclusionary zone per se, just a very strict limit on interference. If Sprint can plop a ESMR site in Buffalo with enough directionality and downtilt that it meets the dBm threshold in Fort Erie, and the handsets won't send a signal that exceeds the threshold, they're welcome to do it today. I don't think it can be done that close to the border, except maybe with an indoor DAS system... but they could probably do it in Rochester away from the lakefront, for example, if they really wanted to.

 

I can't remember exactly what I calculated before, but the limit's something like -137 dBm RSRP on LTE. It's far stricter than what applies to PCS (you can happily sit in the Wendy's in Fort Erie and suck down Sprint EVDO data to your heart's content, and probably G block LTE too these days). But it should be doable in a lot of the "distant" IBEZ like the LA Basin, most of metro Seattle, etc., where you're 30+ miles (50+ km) from the border by flight but still technically in the 100km area. That leaves San Diego, El Paso, Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville, Bellingham, Buffalo, Detroit, and a few other places that are right on the border where ESMR may be a long time coming and bands 25 & 41 may need to be more aggressively used.

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I can't remember exactly what I calculated before, but the limit's something like -137 dBm RSRP on LTE. It's far stricter than what applies to PCS (you can happily sit in the Wendy's in Fort Erie and suck down Sprint EVDO data to your heart's content, and probably G block LTE too these days). But it should be doable in a lot of the "distant" IBEZ like the LA Basin, most of metro Seattle, etc., where you're 30+ miles (50+ km) from the border by flight but still technically in the 100km area. That leaves San Diego, El Paso, Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville, Bellingham, Buffalo, Detroit, and a few other places that are right on the border where ESMR may be a long time coming and bands 25 & 41 may need to be more aggressively used.

 

-137dbm RSRP is awfully tight limit. Darn!

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I dont think Nextel was a mistake. However, there were better acquisition options.

 

I know it has its pros. But had it been proceeded by acquisition of Alltel, USCC and some other rural carriers it could have been so much better.

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