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

[lou99/maximus1987]

VZW cannot reliably deploy VoLTE nationwide without having an LTE network as dense as their CDMA network, which they do not have, especially in non-urban areas. They don't have a nationwide LTE network, they have a majority-of-their-nationwide-CDMA-network overlayed LTE network. 

 

No carrier without fallback and or release 10 upgrades can deploy VoLTE, regardless.  

 

They also cannot remove CDMA from their phones yet, as that would disadvantage many VZW users in areas where there is limited/no LTE yet, or where the CDMA is already barely dense enough.

 

I don't think their phones will be literally lte-only.

Adding gsm+UMTS is probably cheap and - reaching - they could get UMTS roaming on ATT, TMO.

Verizon would be able to use Intel or Mediatek SOCs for their non-iphones. 

It is an understatement to say that Intel is desperate to be viable in mobile I mean they've been paying OEMs to use Atom in their tablets!

 

But you're assuming they're not aware of this problem and doing nothing to fix it (by adding more lte towers).

We're almost a year out from them launching these phones.

 

But if THIS keeps on happening, they may have to push it back

 

I suspect your right on Verizon getting their way most of the time. But for what it's worth, the opposite does occasionally happen.

 

For instance, we have a local rural town that is (probably illegally) blocking Verizon, even though AT&T was allowed. - http://boycottverizonwexford.com

 

[milan03]

No carrier without fallback and or release 10 upgrades can deploy VoLTE, regardless.

VoLTE is not defined in Release 10 specification, so there isn't a direct correlation between the two, especially for 3GPP2 operators that don't even have access to Release 10 fallback mechanism like eSRVCC.

 

Operators absolutely can rollout VoLTE without Release 10, Verizon being a prime example.

[joshuam]

So coverage in my area is lacking, data wise that is. My voice and text is amazing now thanks to 1x800. Problem is LTE or lack thereof, if I am out and about I am connected about 75% of the time, otherwise I am on unbearable 3G. I can be on LTE on B25/B41 at ~105dBm and walk into a store and be stuck on 3G. The problem is B26 has the same signal strength as B25/B41 so I am suffering from basically no low end spectrum. They had their network techs do a local drive by and they said everything is working as it should, which is obviously bs. [emoji13]

Do you live in central Maryland? Lol...we have a lot of 8t8r b41, and LTE800 here...and I'm still rocking 3G. The 3G is usually over 1Mbps so it's useable for sure, just wish it would stay on LTE in areas with all towers upgraded.

[BlueAngel]

Do you live in central Maryland? Lol...we have a lot of 8t8r b41, and LTE800 here...and I'm still rocking 3G. The 3G is usually over 1Mbps so it's useable for sure, just wish it would stay on LTE in areas with all towers upgraded.

My 3G is basically dialup.

[dedub]

I can't wait for LTE only phones.

 

I'd rather have the simplicity of no signal than the annoyances of 3g/lte handoffs/scanning/etc.

[caspar347]

I can be on LTE on B25/B41 at ~105dBm and walk into a store and be stuck on 3G. The problem is B26 has the same signal strength as B25/B41 so I am suffering from basically no low end spectrum.

I've got the same issue here, but I just assumed it would be fixed through optimization eventually.

[JeffDTD]

If Verizon sells LTE only devices, I would expect those devices to priced lower, at least at first, to spur sales....as well as a strongly worried T&C that forces you to accept that your chosen device may not have the same voice coverage.

[lou99/maximus1987]

If Verizon sells LTE only devices, I would expect those devices to priced lower, at least at first, to spur sales....as well as a strongly worried T&C that forces you to accept that your chosen device may not have the same voice coverage.

I'd like milan or neal to chime in on how much more it'd be to have gsm/umts/lte from lte.

 

 

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[cortney]

Operators absolutely can rollout VoLTE without Release 10, Verizon being a prime example.

I really screwed that point up being I didn't proofread it, including putting just "no carrier".

 

Anyways, I failed to mention "reliably" in the last part, which is the point I was making there, as there is no fallback now making it incredibly unreliable in a wide array of areas and situations, and limiting it for people within the area of usable LTE coverage.

 

This might not be as big of a problem in cities where the density is far greater, but for other people not so much. There are still many buildings where VZW's LTE either drops or comes in and out, and many areas whilst traveling where the LTE is not dense enough to handoff. 

[WiWavelength]

If Verizon sells LTE only devices, I would expect those devices to priced lower, at least at first, to spur sales....as well as a strongly worried T&C that forces you to accept that your chosen device may not have the same voice coverage.

 

Strongly "worried" or "worded"?  Is the former a Freudian slip betraying your own thoughts on VoLTE?

 

 

AJ

[JeffDTD]

Strongly "worried" or "worded"? Is the former a Freudian slip betraying your own thoughts on VoLTE?

 

 

AJ

Worried, for sure. [emoji27]

[lou99/maximus1987]

How are small cells different from cloud RAN?

 

 

 

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[afazel]

I think you can have small cells without the C-RAN logic. C-RAN is just an enhancement using logic performed by the datacenter.

 

Right?

 

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[kct1975]

For giving me if this is the wrong section to ask this, but...

 

I'm on one of the legacy Everything Data Family Share plans, and I would prefer to stay on it. So, I was wondering, if I buy a phone using the Sprint Easy Pay program, will I be able to keep my legacy phone-data plan, or will I be forced into a new plan?

[Arysyn]

For giving me if this is the wrong section to ask this, but...

 

I'm on one of the legacy Everything Data Family Share plans, and I would prefer to stay on it. So, I was wondering, if I buy a phone using the Sprint Easy Pay program, will I be able to keep my legacy phone-data plan, or will I be forced into a new plan?

You ought to be able to keep the plan.

 

Someone kindly offered me a line on their Everything Data plan, which I'm going to be leasing the LG G4 on, though I was given a choice to have Easy Pay, if I wanted.

[kct1975]

You ought to be able to keep the plan.

 

Someone kindly offered me a line on their Everything Data plan, which I'm going to be leasing the LG G4 on, though I was given a choice to have Easy Pay, if I wanted.

I hope so.

 

My Everything Data Family plan is actually prior to the Framily Plans that were offered a couple of years ago.

[travismheim]

For giving me if this is the wrong section to ask this, but...

 

I'm on one of the legacy Everything Data Family Share plans, and I would prefer to stay on it. So, I was wondering, if I buy a phone using the Sprint Easy Pay program, will I be able to keep my legacy phone-data plan, or will I be forced into a new plan?

You can keep the plan, but why wouldn't you move to one of the new plans if you aren't using your subsidy?

 

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[Arysyn]

You can keep the plan, but why wouldn't you move to one of the new plans if you aren't using your subsidy?

 

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While the newer plans have unlimited minutes, Everything Data doesn't have any network depriorization on data during congestion, at least from what I've heard, including deprioritization for heavier data usage.

[joshuam]

While the newer plans have unlimited minutes, Everything Data doesn't have any network depriorization on data during congestion, at least from what I've heard, including deprioritization for heavier data usage.

Nobody has ever reported problems with network prioritization. I've used over 30GB of data on one line on Framily...and had no issues. I don't think that is a good reason to have higher costs...my opinion anyways.

[lou99/maximus1987]

No news to us but . . .

 

 

While Enteneuer made it appear that Sprint is quite comfortable working with the spectrum they already have, Claure was quick to point out that he believes there are major opportunities available in the low-band spectrum auction.

“As it relates to the 600 MHz spectrum option, we all know it’s an opportunity – once-in-life opportunity to acquire low-banded spectrum and a critical input for cost-effective deployment of wide area coverage.”Claure said in a recent earnings call. “So to us, it’s important to understand what are the auction rules going to be to make sure that smaller carriers like us have a fair opportunity to acquire this competitive input.”

http://www.rcrwireless.com/20150522/carriers/sprint-ceo-weighs-in-on-spectrum-need-tag20

[lou99/maximus1987]

France: before Free Mobile, they had the highest prices in Europe

 

Barclays analysts warned that the French market remains "extremely vulnerable" as mobile prices have gone from among the highest in Europe to among the lowest.

highest mobile prices in europe.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-iliad-mobile-analysis-idUSBRE9900LB20131001

 

In Austria, prices increased when 4 to 3 happened

 

Three Austria's acquisition of local rival Orange in August 2013 has helped drive up consumer prices significantly for mobile services in the country, as indicated by latest figures from the Arbeiterkammer Wien (AK)--the Vienna Chamber of Labour.

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/austrias-consumer-prices-rise-following-mobile-market-consolidation/2015-01-12

 

Japan: (3-carrier)softb promised to give US robust competition if only we'd let him buy Tmobile.

 

 

"You could say the mobile market is an oligopoly of the three big companies," Communications Minister Yoshitaka Shindo said at a regular news conference this month.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/23/softbank-son-oligopoly-idUSL3N0N83E020140423

[coorsleftfield]

Do you live in central Maryland? Lol...we have a lot of 8t8r b41, and LTE800 here...and I'm still rocking 3G. The 3G is usually over 1Mbps so it's useable for sure, just wish it would stay on LTE in areas with all towers upgraded.

This is where T-mobile and att have an advantage. When they drop off LTE you usually have hspa + which is still fast. Makes blanket LTE coverage less important than on those carriers. When my sprint phone drops to 3G it's often unusable for anything but really low data usage apps.

[nexgencpu]

This is where T-mobile and att have an advantage. When they drop off LTE you usually have hspa + which is still fast. Makes blanket LTE coverage less important than on those carriers. When my sprint phone drops to 3G it's often unusable for anything but really low data usage apps.

Problem is spectrum is not easy to come by, and they will have to refarm some of that fallback.

 

As Sprint's LTE coverage improves, so has their 3G performance.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Problem is spectrum is not easy to come by, and they will have to refarm some of that fallback.

 

As Sprint's LTE coverage improves, so has there 3G performance.

If you look at recent TMO earnings present and compare with 4q2014, they've greatly increased number of target Wideband markets which means AWS Hspa is shutting down.

 

Att 2g shutdown is dec 2016 and hopefully TMO's is not far behind.

 

Indy only has

10fdd AWS lte

5fdd pcs Hspa

5fdd pcs gsm

 

 

So not much fallback there.

 

 

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[Paynefanbro]

This is where T-mobile and att have an advantage. When they drop off LTE you usually have hspa + which is still fast. Makes blanket LTE coverage less important than on those carriers. When my sprint phone drops to 3G it's often unusable for anything but really low data usage apps.

 

That's true to a certain extent. I've been in a number of areas where AT&T's HSPA+ is running at EVDO speeds but with a higher ping than Sprint's EVDO so it feels much slower. Like nexgencpu said, as Sprint's LTE coverage improves, so does their 3G performance. For example, in my experience in both NYC and Boston, 3G performance is great for nearly everything including 480p YouTube streaming. That said, I'm hardly ever on 3G anymore.