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

[bigsnake49]

OK I have a question. Under Network Settings/Advanced/Preferred Network on my Moto G5S Plus the following options appear: LTE (Recommended), 3G, 1x and Global. Global is selected. Does that setting allow me to roam on T-Mobile or does it allow me to roam globally?

[RAvirani]

21 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

OK I have a question. Under Network Settings/Advanced/Preferred Network on my Moto G5S Plus the following options appear: LTE (Recommended), 3G, 1x and Global. Global is selected. Does that setting allow me to roam on T-Mobile or does it allow me to roam globally?

Global will allow you to roam on any of Sprint’s roaming partners that your device supports. 

[though]

3 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Global will allow you to roam on any of Sprint’s roaming partners that your device supports. 

I may be wrong but think the LTE/Global toggle doesn't change the way Sprint phones perform/roam.

[ingenium]

I may be wrong but think the LTE/Global toggle doesn't change the way Sprint phones perform/roam.

It probably won't make a difference domestically, but it will internationally. Global allows hspa, wcdma, and gsm roaming in other countries.

I don't see any downsides to using global, other than if you have no service, the phone will take time to scan hspa, wcdma, and gsm bands, which is pointless domestically. So it may delay reacquiring a signal briefly (half a second? A second? A couple seconds?).

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[nexgencpu]

This seems like a huge deal for Sprint! 

No more fumbling for sim cards! 

Pixel 3 will be first to support it.

https://www.blog.google/products/project-fi/bringing-esim-more-networks-around-world/

[RedSpark]

https://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-5g-overview.htm

Here's some new info on Sprint's 5G deployment plans:

Availability

Sprint plans to begin its mobile 5G rollout in the first half of 2019. Its first nine 5G markets include some of the largest cities in the country:

• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Houston
• Kansas City
• Los Angeles
• New York City
• Phoenix
• Washington, D.C.

The company’s 5G technology rollout is underway with equipment deployed and currently being tested in multiple cities across the country. Sprint 5G will begin with contiguous footprints in the downtown areas of these first nine cities, allowing for its on-the-go customers to stay connected to 5G through the city center. For example, in LA, Sprint will offer mobile 5G service all the way from Dodgers Stadium to Santa Monica.

[JThorson]

Well this is cool.

 

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-s-michel-combes-voted-most-powerful-person-u-s-wireless-for-2018

[dkyeager]

On 11/29/2018 at 10:57 PM, ingenium said:

It probably won't make a difference domestically, but it will internationally. Global allows hspa, wcdma, and gsm roaming in other countries.

I don't see any downsides to using global, other than if you have no service, the phone will take time to scan hspa, wcdma, and gsm bands, which is pointless domestically. So it may delay reacquiring a signal briefly (half a second? A second? A couple seconds?).

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

It would be interesting to study whether this would have an effect on battery life.  If it is a continuous scanning the answer would be no, but if it is done on a timed interval (perhaps ever increasing then random) then the answer may be yes for global consuming more battery than LTE mode. We know it is not purely defined by the border of the United States as I have gotten Sprint signal in Canada and Canadian signal in the U.S.

[dkyeager]

5 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint 5G will begin with contiguous footprints in the downtown areas of these first nine cities...

Finally getting down to the details - the densest areas will be be covered by 5G (or maybe more importantly, the busiest sites).  There are likely other factors - amount of spectrum in the market, fixing RF shadows in areas where small cells are difficult for whatever reason, etc.

[RedSpark]

7 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Finally getting down to the details - the densest areas will be be covered by 5G (or maybe more importantly, the busiest sites).  There are likely other factors - amount of spectrum in the market, fixing RF shadows in areas where small cells are difficult for whatever reason, etc.

Good points. I'm glad we're getting more details on this as well.

Hopefully 5G will make a substantial difference in those downtown areas. Certain parts of Washington DC and some of the surrounding areas like Bethesda have gotten much more densely populated in the past few years and the network hasn't always kept up with that growth.

[BlueAngel]

I would rather have a more reliable LTE network than a 5G one, they keep advertising 2x the speed and coverage but I have yet to see it. Not that things are bad but when I lose service I roam on T-Mobile which isn't cool, granted I win a lot with Sprint service while in a basement and get full bars whereas T-Mobile has no service. Kinda a mixed bag I guess but in my experience I get better service on Sprint, co-workers not so much.

[dkyeager]

54 minutes ago, BlueAngel said:

I would rather have a more reliable LTE network than a 5G one, they keep advertising 2x the speed and coverage but I have yet to see it. Not that things are bad but when I lose service I roam on T-Mobile which isn't cool, granted I win a lot with Sprint service while in a basement and get full bars whereas T-Mobile has no service. Kinda a mixed bag I guess but in my experience I get better service on Sprint, co-workers not so much.

5G for b41 should be a big win given far larger carriers ( 60 MHz wide for Sprint, 100Mhz wide for new T-Mobile) which will greatly speed uploads.  Better ability to reach into RF shadows and ability to handle more custumers also a big plus.

[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, dkyeager said:

5G for b41 should be a big win given far larger carriers ( 60 MHz wide for Sprint, 100Mhz wide for new T-Mobile) which will greatly speed uploads.  Better ability to reach into RF shadows and ability to handle more custumers also a big plus.

Not to mention mMIMO will bring NR2500 coverage to effectively the same or better than L1900 coverage. 

[RedSpark]

18 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

Not to mention mMIMO will bring NR2500 coverage to effectively the same or better than L1900 coverage. 

Isn't that also what HPUE promised for 2.5 GHz?: https://newsroom.sprint.com/breakthrough-hpue-innovation-to-benefit-tdd-lte-networks-worldwide.htm

With HPUE, our outdoor 2.5 GHz coverage strength becomes nearly identical to our 1.9 GHz coverage. And indoors, where 60 to 70 percent of all wireless traffic is generated, HPUE enables our 2.5 GHz spectrum to achieve 90 percent of the indoor penetration that is currently achieved by our 1.9 GHz spectrum. The result? An even better experience for our customers with increased coverage, more capacity, and faster speeds.

[dkyeager]

Actual performance will be hard to predict until we can actually do our own testing.  Within several years it will also likely be quite different.  I do not believe a single Massive MIMO antenna system will initially be able to cover all b41 spectrum.  Sprint currently has spectrum carve-outs for small cells and Magic Boxes as they currently stand.  Once 5g begins to expand to other areas beyond the ideal sites I would expect simplier less expensive alternatives to current Massive MIMO. 

The big question will be whether Sprint will be willing to provide 5g sites with proper backhaul, which has always been a presumption as to why 4g b41 has not scaled as expected as carriers have been added. We were getting reports of up to 80Mbps on the first single carrier b41 sites with personal observations approaching 70Mbps on some sites.  All of this was well before 5 carrier, 4x4 MIMO, and 256 QAM were discussed.

When you start discussing initial speed needs before 5g killer apps are invented the T-Mobile 5G 600MHz approach makes sense.  Who wouldn't want the low band edge performance possibly doubled?  

Who knows how actual phones will perform with 5g and whether any sacrifices will be made to 4g performance not forgetting 3g either. Will all bands have latent 5g support or will new phones be needed as each band is ultimately converted to 5g?  How will 5g plans be structured?

Of course when discussing any wireless merger the FCC must come into play.  Besides spectrum, coverage and handset transition requirements (and any MVNO protections), the key factor is the length of time.  This is often far longer than predicted. 

I feel that positive anticipation is warranted, but results will likely come in lower than hyped given the many factors touched on above. Exciting times for S4gru members to see what actually happens.

[RAvirani]

9 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Isn't that also what HPUE promised for 2.5 GHz?: https://newsroom.sprint.com/breakthrough-hpue-innovation-to-benefit-tdd-lte-networks-worldwide.htm

With HPUE, our outdoor 2.5 GHz coverage strength becomes nearly identical to our 1.9 GHz coverage. And indoors, where 60 to 70 percent of all wireless traffic is generated, HPUE enables our 2.5 GHz spectrum to achieve 90 percent of the indoor penetration that is currently achieved by our 1.9 GHz spectrum. The result? An even better experience for our customers with increased coverage, more capacity, and faster speeds.

Yes, but I think we all knew performance was up to handset manufacturers and wouldn’t ever be as good as advertised.

We’ve seen real-world tests on mMIMO that bring NR3500 to coverage levels almost identical to that of L1800, which make me very optimistic about NR2500 coverage. 

[RedSpark]

23 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

Yes, but I think we all knew performance was up to handset manufacturers and wouldn’t ever be as good as advertised.

We’ve seen real-world tests on mMIMO that bring NR3500 to coverage levels almost identical to that of L1800, which make me very optimistic about NR2500 coverage. 

The addition of HPUE has definitely improved performance on my iPhone XS over the iPhone 8 I had previously which didn't have it.

Aside from the user reports here, this is the closest we got to "real world testing" for HPUE, and here's what it showed: https://newsroom.sprint.com/new-hpue-report.htm

In December, P3 engineers drove 36 miles around the Chicago metro area gathering about 4,000 test samples along a fixed route. They tested two Samsung Note 8 devices running in parallel, one with HPUE active, and one without, to provide a side-by-side comparison.

P3 found that HPUE increased Sprint’s 2.5 GHz coverage by 24%. And as a result of spending more time on our faster 2.5 GHz spectrum band, average download speed jumped 49%.

[ingenium]

It would be interesting to study whether this would have an effect on battery life.  If it is a continuous scanning the answer would be no, but if it is done on a timed interval (perhaps ever increasing then random) then the answer may be yes for global consuming more battery than LTE mode. We know it is not purely defined by the border of the United States as I have gotten Sprint signal in Canada and Canadian signal in the U.S.

I think once a UE has connected to the network, then it only scans the bands/frequencies that the network tells it to. It regularly sends out a LTE signaling message with all the earfcns that are valid (see screenshot for a portion of this).


So the UE should only scan these until it completely loses service. Only then would it start scanning all bands and technologies (LTE, HSPA, CDMA, GSM, etc).

So yeah, in a no service scenario, or possibly in a roaming scenario, it might use more battery for scanning when set to Global, but while connected to the network there shouldn't be any difference.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[dkyeager]

more 5G details starting to come in:

 

[RedSpark]

Dr. Saw with the shade....

[IamMrFamous07]

18 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Dr. Saw with the shade....

Lol I’m here for it

[derrph]

Dr. Saw with the shade....

Shady boots but Saw just needs to make sure that Sprints 5G is that bitch. The network is already not taken serious by its peers.


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[nexgencpu]

HOLY SMOKES!

https://twitter.com/SprintCTO/status/1073232266808184834

[BlueAngel]

1 hour ago, nexgencpu said:

HOLY SMOKES!

https://twitter.com/SprintCTO/status/1073232266808184834

Quite the improvement.

[Tengen31]

Quite the improvement.

Haveing B41 and 15x15 on B25 now help with that.

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