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

[Tengen31]

My gut says higher prices.  But it all will come down to DISH.  If DISH sweeps in and buys a lot of Sprint network assets and well funds this and executes well, we could end up with a more solid 4th competitor than Sprint in 5-6 years.  But that's a TALL order.
Robert

Yeah but wouldn't Sprint have had to raise prices if the were on their own?

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[nexgencpu]

4 hours ago, S4GRU said:

My gut says higher prices.  But it all will come down to DISH.  If DISH sweeps in and buys a lot of Sprint network assets and well funds this and executes well, we could end up with a more solid 4th competitor than Sprint in 5-6 years.  But that's a TALL order.

Robert

I have little faith in Dish, especially after reading that their stock took a hit when they agreed to finally put their spectrum (plus sprint's newly aquired assets) to use. 

Bottom line, Wall street has always seen those assets as a way for Dish(and them) to turn a quick profit without having to ever build  out any sort of real wireless network.

[tyroned3222]

My gut says higher prices.  But it all will come down to DISH.  If DISH sweeps in and buys a lot of Sprint network assets and well funds this and executes well, we could end up with a more solid 4th competitor than Sprint in 5-6 years.  But that's a TALL order. Robert

 

I personally think sprint is in a better position to do so! Their capex had already been tied into many upgrades ( billons spent over the years). Dish is starting from scratch, they themselves have 10 billion at best from what they have said. The only way this turns out with a happy ending, if they get a bigger player with a heavy cash infusion, unlike what SoftBank did.

 

I believe sprint spent 24/25 billion into network vision and Believe it or not it put them ahead in terms of newer equipment at the sites ( both at the top and base stations. Verizon still runs many legacy sites using LTE.

 

In many areas, sprint is starting to outperform TMO on capacity after finally upgrading sites to b41. That alone would bring more competition as sprint could start pulling customers away from TMO.

 

I think the main issue would be the ROI. Presenting a 5 year plan with heavy investing to investors and the board and than say it’s up in the air if we make a return on investment. That’s the only issue I see

 

 

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[Tengen31]

Sweet

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[dkyeager]

16 hours ago, RAvirani said:

M-MIMO equipment has a 120 MHz bandwidth limit.  That has to be split between LTE and NR.  

I have always wondered about the wisdom of a 120Mhz unit when so many place have 194Mhz.  They should have left the 8T8R up in those places IMO. 

The trouble with 5G NR is it is basically extended carrier aggregation.  I want to see full B41 5G with lots of bandwidth (ideally 100Mhz) so the upload issue goes away before you even get to the notion of being able to tweak the timing to get more upload.  That would also leave more room for carrier aggregation with other bands.

[RAvirani]

8 hours ago, dkyeager said:

I have always wondered about the wisdom of a 120Mhz unit when so many place have 194Mhz.  They should have left the 8T8R up in those places IMO. 

The trouble with 5G NR is it is basically extended carrier aggregation.  I want to see full B41 5G with lots of bandwidth (ideally 100Mhz) so the upload issue goes away before you even get to the notion of being able to tweak the timing to get more upload.  That would also leave more room for carrier aggregation with other bands.

I'm with your first point.  In Seattle, many macros already have 120 MHz of LTE on air.  M-MIMO antennas are going to be a sidegrade at best as far as capacity is concerned.  

I think the eventual goal is to run 60 MHz NR, 40 MHz NR/LTE DSS and 20 MHz LTE simultaneously.  

[Brad The Beast]

On 8/5/2019 at 12:12 AM, S4GRU said:

Agreed.  Verizon is over rated and doesn't serve the hype.  Sprint is under rated and doesn't deserve all the trash talk.  People pick winners and losers and over claim the positives and negatives of each.  They have to have someone to cheer and someone to jeer.  If you aren't first, you're nobody. 

I have a Verizon work phone.  It rarely wins in total speed throughput compared to my Sprint and T-Mobile phones (and USCC on Google Fi).  Verizon doesn't win in coverage in my area.  But it's a pretty consistent experience.  And that's good for a lot of people.  Let them have Verizon.  But Sprint has pulled off nearly a miracle the past few years with little capital infusion, in a highly competitive environment and spending billions still in capex.  They just have had to be very deliberate and measured where and how they spent it.

Every year since 2011 Sprint was nearly going bankrupt in the eyes of the naysayers.  Every year, they would claim this was the year they were going to lose it all.  Yet they still have over 54 million customers.  They are nowhere near bankrupt, and doing better by most measures.  And soon it won't even matter.  Because Mr. Legere will be in charge of it all.  And Sprint will be a forgotten name.  But they were not bought out of bankruptcy sale and were not even close to bankruptcy.

So in my travels I've been gathering data. I have my iPhone on Verizon and my iPad on Sprint. I haven't collected enough data to post a full report yet but this is what I've got so far out of 26 tests:

Sprint Average Download: 32.22Mbps

Verizon Average Download: 49.59Mbps

Sprint Average Upload: 4.21Mbps

Verizon Average Upload: 15.55Mbps

 

There have been areas where Verizon kicked butt. There were other areas where Sprint took the win. There were actually a couple of places in central Wisconsin where I had no service with Verizon and had US Cellular roaming with Sprint. Once I get more locations in this report then I'll probably post it. I really want to compare them in San Diego. 

Edit: Should add locations tested so far.

Grand Forks, ND

Minneapolis Airport

Central Wisconsin

Appleton, WI

Detroit Airport

Atlanta Airport

Savannah Airport

Beaufort, SC

[Tengen31]

So in my travels I've been gathering data. I have my iPhone on Verizon and my iPad on Sprint. I haven't collected enough data to post a full report yet but this is what I've got so far out of 26 tests:
Sprint Average Download: 32.22Mbps
Verizon Average Download: 49.59Mbps
Sprint Average Upload: 4.21Mbps
Verizon Average Upload: 15.55Mbps
 
There have been areas where Verizon kicked butt. There were other areas where Sprint took the win. There were actually a couple of places in central Wisconsin where I had no service with Verizon and had US Cellular roaming with Sprint. Once I get more locations in this report then I'll probably post it. I really want to compare them in San Diego. 
Edit: Should add locations tested so far.
Grand Forks, ND
Minneapolis Airport
Central Wisconsin
Appleton, WI
Detroit Airport
Atlanta Airport
Savannah Airport
Beaufort, SC

You actually found spots with No VZW coverage?

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[S4GRU]

2 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

You actually found spots with No VZW coverage?

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Seriously?  I'm sure coverage is better in general on the East Coast and Midwest, but there is a lot of places with no signal at all in the West.  I can drive from my house right now and be out of Verizon coverage in 7 minutes.

Robert

[RAvirani]

2 hours ago, S4GRU said:

Seriously?  I'm sure coverage is better in general on the East Coast and Midwest, but there is a lot of places with no signal at all in the West.  I can drive from my house right now and be out of Verizon coverage in 7 minutes.

Robert

 

4 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

You actually found spots with No VZW coverage?

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I'm out of Verizon coverage at my house in the suburbs of Seattle .

[Trip]

I, too, am aware of outdoor areas with no Verizon service.  I might well be a Verizon customer if those areas weren't places I needed to be.  (Sprint roams on US Cellular in those places, so I'm a Sprint customer.)

- Trip

[dkyeager]

10 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

You actually found spots with No VZW coverage?

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Parts of Northern MN, Northern MI, Ohio are among the many places with no Verizon coverage.  Some of those areas are served by AT&T (likely an informal "understanding" between the duo IMO).  Starting to see T-Mobile in a few of those places. All bow down before the Verizon God.  In other forums I might be burned at the stake.  No carrier is perfect, even if you pay top $$$.  Verizon is the slowest at my house inside the Columbus beltway.

Hard to beat Sprint on roaming.  I those places where I did not get T-Mobile, US Cellular, AT&T, Verizon CDMA, or some regional carrier I would sometimes pick up Canadian roaming.  Rarely without some form of service.  I was at a funeral yesterday in eastern Ohio without service or Wi-Fi.  People adjusted.  Some women have told me they avoid routes without cell service when we were comparing coverage notes for other remote Ohio places at a state wide conference.  Verizon is the safe choice for many.

[Brad The Beast]

20 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

You actually found spots with No VZW coverage?

Yup. I was surprised. Wausau, WI and it's surrounding areas is Extended LTE.

[Brad The Beast]

Question for you all. It would appear that a new B41 small cell has appeared in downtown DTW right in front of the RenCen. It is on Cellmapper with the EARFCN of 40270, PCI of 466 and band 41 RSRP of -58dBm. You can see something that looks like it might be a small cell but it's not up on a pole, it's just on the side of a box but there is conduit laying on the ground next to it. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3300147,-83.0409325,3a,18.7y,328.84h,87.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjf7wH1t39cFa2MR41W2Tiw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Thoughts?

[Tengen31]

Question for you all. It would appear that a new B41 small cell has appeared in downtown DTW right in front of the RenCen. It is on Cellmapper with the EARFCN of 40270, PCI of 466 and band 41 RSRP of -58dBm. You can see something that looks like it might be a small cell but it's not up on a pole, it's just on the side of a box but there is conduit laying on the ground next to it. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3300147,-83.0409325,3a,18.7y,328.84h,87.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjf7wH1t39cFa2MR41W2Tiw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Thoughts?

I don't see the small cell?

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[tyroned3222]

I don't see the small cell?

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[Tengen31]

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Oh that low to the ground?

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[Brad The Beast]

1 minute ago, tyroned3222 said:

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There it is. 

[Brad The Beast]

16 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Oh that low to the ground?

Yep. You can see extra conduit behind the green box. 

[lilotimz]

Question for you all. It would appear that a new B41 small cell has appeared in downtown DTW right in front of the RenCen. It is on Cellmapper with the EARFCN of 40270, PCI of 466 and band 41 RSRP of -58dBm. You can see something that looks like it might be a small cell but it's not up on a pole, it's just on the side of a box but there is conduit laying on the ground next to it. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3300147,-83.0409325,3a,18.7y,328.84h,87.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjf7wH1t39cFa2MR41W2Tiw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Thoughts?

Yeah that's a typical omni antenna mounted to the little cabinet which likely houses the small cell unit.

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[dkyeager]

On 8/18/2019 at 7:06 PM, Brad The Beast said:

Question for you all. It would appear that a new B41 small cell has appeared in downtown DTW right in front of the RenCen. It is on Cellmapper with the EARFCN of 40270, PCI of 466 and band 41 RSRP of -58dBm. You can see something that looks like it might be a small cell but it's not up on a pole, it's just on the side of a box but there is conduit laying on the ground next to it. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3300147,-83.0409325,3a,18.7y,328.84h,87.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjf7wH1t39cFa2MR41W2Tiw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Thoughts?

Thanks for this post.  I would never have looked for a small cell that close to the gtound.

[Dkoellerwx]

On 8/18/2019 at 6:38 PM, Brad The Beast said:

Yep. You can see extra conduit behind the green box. 

That's bizarre! I wonder if there was some sort of zoning or permit issue that prevented them from attaching it to the light pole like normal, or if there is some sort of RF advantage having it that low. 

[cyclone]

Could it help with the lower levels of the nearby buildings that may not get much signal from surrounding rooftop mounts? Wonder if anyone is going to complain about radiation having it so close to the street

[S4GRU]

It would be dangerous to get that close to a normal macro antenna.  These things must have much reduced transmitting power levels.  And if that's the case, having it so low would be pretty limiting.

Robert

[stlman314]

Does anybody have issues with VoLTE quality calls? I have the V50 and finding myself having to turn it off sometimes to make calls.