Marcelo Claure, Town Hall Meetings, New Family Share Pack Plan, Unlimited Individual Plan, Discussion Thread

[Paynefanbro]

This all goes back to the Robatti interview I posted a few pages back. Time on B41 is a critical metric. Right now, that is where Sprint has 80% of their spectrum. It goes without saying that B41 time has to be up beyond where it is now. All Nielsen is proving is that B41 performance is good. That in and of itself shouldn't be shocking. Now how does Sprint increase that metric? By my own calculations, Sprint has to get people on B41 80% of the time.

 

Also it is to be Nielsen stats released are for B41. Rootmetrics and Ookla measure across all technologies.

 

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I was under the impression that the Nielsen ratings are for LTE Plus cities as opposed to just the one band itself. If Nielsen's rating is that comprehensive to the point where they can get statistics on the usage of one band, that'd be insane.

 

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[RedSpark]

This all goes back to the Robatti interview I posted a few pages back. Time on B41 is a critical metric. Right now, that is where Sprint has 80% of their spectrum. It goes without saying that B41 time has to be up beyond where it is now. All Nielsen is proving is that B41 performance is good. That in and of itself shouldn't be shocking. Now how does Sprint increase that metric? By my own calculations, Sprint has to get people on B41 80% of the time.

 

Also it is to be Nielsen stats released are for B41. Rootmetrics and Ookla measure across all technologies.

 

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Hopefully the densification increases the time devices spend on Band 41 and 2xCA (and 3xCA eventually).

 

However, Sprint also has to push out more Triband Devices and CA-Capable Devices to users.

 

The numbers for these were on Page 5 of the recent Quarterly Investor Update for Q4 2015:

 

Tri-band LTE phones represented 69 percent of the 25.3 million ending postpaid phone connection base compared to 37 percent at the end of the year-ago quarter and 64 percent at the end of the prior quarter. During the quarter, 90 percent of postpaid phones sold were tri-band.

 

Carrier aggregation capable phones, which allow for higher data speeds, were 74 percent of postpaid phones sold during the quarter, increasing the number of these phones within the phone base to 28 percent.

 

It's not just the network. It's the devices too. (Some of which Sprint can't control... looking at you Apple for the "non-CA capable" iPhone SE)

[RedSpark]

I was under the impression that the Nielsen ratings are for LTE Plus cities as opposed to just the one band itself. If Nielsen's rating is that comprehensive to the point where they can get statistics on the usage of one band, that'd be insane.

 

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Sprint has this info I'm sure. Super proprietary no doubt.

[Fraydog]

Sprint has this info I'm sure. Super proprietary no doubt.

Robatti put out there that half the traffic is on B41, so yes. They do have that info.

 

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[lubberlick]

Bull Manure! I call bull Manure.

 

Yes, Sprint can deliver those 100+ Mbps speeds but only if you are relatively close to a Sprint or Clear tower. B26 is slower than 3G at the moment and the network is not properly balancing users between bands. I can't even stream a 32 kbps stream on B26 in some areas. Sprint is not tied for #1. No way in hell. Call and texts? Maybe. But not data speeds.

 

I streamed some 720p TV shows on B26 today while sitting next to a hospital waiting for someone to come out. So B26 does work very well in many areas, just not yours aparently.

 

To clarify. It was 5 hours of TV shows.... *dodges incoming hate for overusing data*

[Terrell352]

Bull Manure! I call bull Manure.

 

Yes, Sprint can deliver those 100+ Mbps speeds but only if you are relatively close to a Sprint or Clear tower. B26 is slower than 3G at the moment and the network is not properly balancing users between bands. I can't even stream a 32 kbps stream on B26 in some areas. Sprint is not tied for #1. No way in hell. Call and texts? Maybe. But not data speeds.

I too call BS.

[SkyGuy98]

The graph associated with that news article shows how much progress sprint has made in two years:

 

 

Sprint was definitely in a rough patch in 2014.

This is a clear improvement, but I am beginning to get a little confused because all the new charts sprint is creating, like the one above, don't have labels and/or markings on the axes. They really need to label.

[BlueAngel]

B26 speeds aren't the greatest but more than adequate for streaming music or videos, problem is B26 isn't optimized for crap at least in my area so it's hit or miss if I get 3G or LTE even though I should get LTE everywhere considering the tower density here.

 

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[ingenium]

B26 speeds aren't the greatest but more than adequate for streaming music or videos, problem is B26 isn't optimized for crap at least in my area so it's hit or miss if I get 3G or LTE even though I should get LTE everywhere considering the tower density here.

 

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That depends heavily on the area. In a lot of the SF Bay area B26 is often under 1 mbps. It's completely unusable during peak hours. My home site would be 0.2 mbps every day until late night, but it also (along with the adjacent sites) didn't have B41. That being said, anywhere in Oakland or SF, if you drop off B41, you can absolutely forget about a Hangouts / Google Voice VoIP call, you won't be able to hear a thing.

 

In other places where site spacing allows a majority of people to be on B41, then B26 is probably adequate for browsing or music streaming. But I've never had a "good" B26 experience.

 

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[BlueAngel]

That depends heavily on the area. In a lot of the SF Bay area B26 is often under 1 mbps. It's completely unusable during peak hours. My home site would be 0.2 mbps every day until late night, but it also (along with the adjacent sites) didn't have B41. That being said, anywhere in Oakland or SF, if you drop off B41, you can absolutely forget about a Hangout Google Voice VoIP call, you won't be able to hear a thing.

 

In other places where site spacing allows a majority of people to be on B41, then B26 is probably adequate for browsing or music streaming. But I've never had a "good" B26 experience.

 

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My B26 right now, not great but more than usable.

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Edited June 3, 2016 by BlueAngel

[RedSpark]

Robatti put out there that half the traffic is on B41, so yes. They do have that info.

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Do you have a link to where he said that? Interested to read more about that.

[Fraydog]

If you off load to B41 80% of the time and B25 15 % of the time, the 5% of the time you are on B26 can be decent.

 

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[Fraydog]

Do you have a link to where he said that? Interested to read more about that.

It's back in the thread. Robatti's comments to JPMorgan.

 

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[ingenium]

If you off load to B41 80% of the time and B25 15 % of the time, the 5% of the time you are on B26 can be decent.

 

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Unfortunately a lot of places still only have a single 5x5 B25 carrier. If they can get a 10x10 in addition to a 5x5 in most areas, then that load balancing would work (3:1 B25:B26)

 

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[greenbastard]

I streamed some 720p TV shows on B26 today while sitting next to a hospital waiting for someone to come out. So B26 does work very well in many areas, just not yours aparently.

 

To clarify. It was 5 hours of TV shows.... *dodges incoming hate for overusing data*

Which hospital? Is it in the Medic Center?

[greenbastard]

Unfortunately a lot of places still only have a single 5x5 B25 carrier. If they can get a 10x10 in addition to a 5x5 in most areas, then that load balancing would work (3:1 B25:B26)

 

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Unfortunately, I don't think Sprint can do a B25 10x10 in SF or Houston unless they trade spectrum to pair their 5x5 blocks and thin out EVDO & 1x. There's information about this on the sponsors page, so it's definitely an option for Sprint. I just doubt they do it in SF and Houston.

[lubberlick]

Which hospital? Is it in the Medic Center?

 

Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, IN...

[banananuts87]

Serious question:

 

How many of the Sprint/Clear sites have new panels and updated backhaul (fiber/microwave)? They have somewhere around 40,000 macro sites, doubtful that half are up to par.

[Paynefanbro]

Serious question:

 

How many of the Sprint/Clear sites have new panels and updated backhaul (fiber/microwave)? They have somewhere around 40,000 macro sites, doubtful that half are up to par.

 

In NYC they haven't switched out panels yet but they began upgrading backhaul long before the launch of 2xCA here.

[ingenium]

Unfortunately, I don't think Sprint can do a B25 10x10 in SF or Houston unless they trade spectrum to pair their 5x5 blocks and thin out EVDO & 1x. There's information about this on the sponsors page, so it's definitely an option for Sprint. I just doubt they do it in SF and Houston.

Yeah SF is spectrum crunched for Sprint. They only have 20mhz because they sold some to ATT back in the day. I heard they were planning to thin the CDMA carriers to make room for another 5x5, but last I checked the CDMA carriers were still spread out all over their block assignment.

 

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[dnicekid]

Clear had 40,000 towers?

I thought sprint decommissioned alot of those and theirs a long time ago where they could? How many towers does sprint actually have?

I thought the total number was around 50 including Nextel/sprint/clear

[RedSpark]

In NYC they haven't switched out panels yet but they began upgrading backhaul long before the launch of 2xCA here.

 

Sprint has to get those panels switched out as soon as possible if it wants to see its RootMetrics performance improve in NYC (and in other cities).

 

The old Clearwire gear doesn't support 3xCA either.

[nexgencpu]

Sprint has to get those panels switched out as soon as possible if it wants to see its RootMetrics performance improve in NYC (and in other cities).

 

The old Clearwire gear doesn't support 3xCA either.

I don't think that is the issue. I still hit pretty great speeds on Clear equipment. I think its more of an issue outside of NYC (NYC could use some small cells) where there is little B41.

 

Mostly Southern parts of NJ and the outer edges of the boroughs which are lumped together with NYC in Roots testing.

 

If i had to guess, Sprint would probably be in the mid to high teens if NJ was not included in testing.

[RedSpark]

I don't think that is the issue. I still hit pretty great speeds on Clear equipment. I think its more of an issue outside of NYC (NYC could use some small cells) where there is little B41.

 

Mostly Southern parts of NJ and the outer edges of the boroughs which are lumped together with NYC in Roots testing.

 

If i had to guess, Sprint would probably be in the mid to high teens if NJ was not included in testing.

 

8T8R antennas have much better performance through Advanced Beamforming. John Saw blogged about this:

 

Carrier aggregation allows us to bond multiple spectrum channels together to build a fatter pipe with double the capacity and speed.  Beamforming is a signal processing technique that directs signals from multiple antennas towards where our customers are.  Our 2.5GHz LTE system with 8 Transmit 8 Receive (8T8R) radios is the sweet spot for enabling smart antenna beamforming.

 

 

 

To make a real difference, Sprint has to get 2.5 GHz on the rest of its footprint (remaining 30%: Source: Quarterly Investor Update (Page 6)), get 8T8R on as many towers as possible ASAP, get users upgraded to at the very least Triband devices, and even better 2xCA or 3xCA devices ASAP:

 

Tri-band LTE phones represented 69 percent of the 25.3 million ending postpaid phone connection base compared to 37 percent at the end of the year-ago quarter and 64 percent at the end of the prior quarter. During the quarter, 90 percent of postpaid phones sold were tri-band.

 

Carrier aggregation capable phones, which allow for higher data speeds, were 74 percent of postpaid phones sold during the quarter, increasing the number of these phones within the phone base to 28 percent.

 

Source: Quarterly Investor Update (Page 5)

 

Honestly, if Softbank dropped the proceeds of the Alibaba sale at Sprint's feet now (Now $10 Billion), that would really help Sprint out on all of the above.

[nexgencpu]

8T8R antennas have much better performance through Advanced Beamforming. John Saw blogged about this:

 

I do agree that replacing them eventually will need to be done, but in all honesty, they are working pretty well here in NYC. I still hit over 100mbs on Clear sites with pretty decent coverage. 

 

I think before Sprint starts decommissioning Clear equipment, they should concentrate on adding B41 equipment to places that lack them (like south jersey). NYC is in no dire need of these replacements.