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

[NYC126]

Sprint only won one city, Denver, but I don't want to minimize its achievements. If we handed out a "most improved" award—we don't—Sprint would win it by a landslide. The carrier flipped over from an old WiMAX network to a spotty LTE network in 2013, filling in coverage gaps in 2014 but offering very low speeds. This year, the carrier's Network Vision and Spark initiatives finally took hold, and Sprint's speeds doubled or even tripled in most of our test cities

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2485837,00.asp

 

Sprint is rising fast, and the haters can hate whatever they want, but the results says otherwise.

[eljayyy91]

Sprint only won one city, Denver, but I don't want to minimize its achievements. If we handed out a "most improved"

Good for Sprint in Denver. But how much can we trust this when they say sprints max download on 3g was 6.9 and max upload was 4.2 which I don't think is possible on ev-do

[Paynefanbro]

Good for Sprint in Denver. But how much can we trust this when they say sprints max download on 3g was 6.9 and max upload was 4.2 which I don't think is possible on ev-do

 

Likely a mistake. They were using Sensorly for testing, which isn't the best speed testing app in the world. Additionally, if you look at the speeds in many of the cities, they are realistic numbers and not flukes at all.

[eljayyy91]

Likely a mistake. They were using Sensorly for testing, which isn't the best speed testing app in the world. Additionally, if you look at the speeds in many of the cities, they are realistic numbers and not flukes at all.

The comment was mostly ment as a joke. I was just pointing out the mistakes. I've noticed there are mistakes in 2 cites which throws it all off. New Orleans and Portland. Are the two cities with mistakes I took the time to search through them.

[bkco14]

I haven't seen that quote. But NGN plans are nationwide, and every market. So I'm not sure what you're going on about. I think you may be confusing Marcelo's one quote from a year ago about refocusing B41 on some key cities.

 

NGN is Marcelo's new plan being finalized now. It involves adding thousands of sites all around the country. While more emphasis is likely on urban areas, there will be impacts nationwide. Sprint has already added B41 to thousands of rural, suburban and exurban sites. And they are not stopping doing that where usage makes sense.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

Since you haven't seen the clarification, here you go:

"Speaking yesterday at Re/code's Code Conference, Claure said that "you can expect in the next 18 to 24 months--hopefully you'll invite me two years from now--that our network will be ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in every single market." He later clarified that he meant No. 1 or 2 in the United States' major markets, according to CNET."

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-claure-18-24-months-well-be-no1-or-2-network-performance/2015-05-28

Here is the cnet article it was referencing:

http://www.cnet.com/news/sprint-ceo-give-us-two-years-and-our-network-will-blow-past-rivals/

 

My question is how can they add B41 to an area where they don't own much 2.5 spectrum and some other company does? That has been my question. I never said they aren't improved in a lot of area and the area that I visited l said I loved. I am just questioning if there really is much they can do in my area. That is what everyone needs to be asking. Will it work where I live. It is great to hear that they are winning Denver and are one of the best in Chicago and other markets as well. But in my area, I don't know how much they can do with the little spectrum they own here.

Edited June 23, 2015 by bkco14

[lilotimz]

My question is how can they add B41 to an area where they don't own much 2.5 spectrum and some other company does? That has been my question. I never said they aren't improved in a lot of area and the area that I visited l said I loved. I am just questioning if there really is much they can do in my area. That is what everyone needs to be asking. Will it work where I live. It is great to hear that they are winning Denver and are one of the best in Chicago and other markets as well. But in my area, I don't know how much they can do with the little spectrum they own here.

Simply put your area (East iowa / quad cities) is low population, low subscriber number, high competition, and low priority. Sprint will not deploy extremely expensive 2.5 equipment just for a single 6 mhz BRS spectrum they lease there.

 

Unless SpeedConnect leases parts of their entire EBS / BRS holdings Sprint has no recourse there but to add additional site density and refarm PCS spectrum which they are capable of due to their 30 mhz total of PCS A-F holdings. First is time consuming and extremely expensive while the second is a bandaid for a few months.

[JonnygATL]

That percentage seems almost impossibly high -- 40 million people are not paying subsidized plan prices and full freight $700 for their iPhones.  Are you sure that statistic did not come from Collette Reardon?

 

 

 

AJ

My favorite SNL character of the past two decades, just ahead of Kristen Wiig's "Penelope" or, perhaps, the surprise lady.

[Mr.Nuke]

Why is that?

 

-Anthony

Clearwire/Sprint didn't bid or win spectrum everywhere. Most of these places they don't have a lot of spectrum happen to be more rural areas where Sprint either doesn't serve or wouldn't deploy Band 41 even if they do. The Quad Cities is one of the rare cases of a native Sprint market where they don't have any significant BRS/EBS holdings. Sprint only has 6 MHz of BRS/EBS in the Quad Cities. SpeedConnect has the rest, recently launching an LTE ISP network there.

[Deval]

Deval, I'm curious, where is the facility located at? 

 

TS

 

Not sure if it's their bottling plant or just their warehouse, but you can see the site if you drive down 58th street from Queens Blvd. make a left onto Bordon Ave, towards the Long Island Expressway, and you'll see the Coca-Cola sign with three antenna panels on it, one for 1900, one for 800, and one for 2500.

 

Google Street View link (2009, no NV yet)

[WiWavelength]

My favorite SNL character of the past two decades, just ahead of Kristen Wiig's "Penelope" or, perhaps, the surprise lady.

 

I got a "Like" for my Collette Reardon post.  It was prescribed to me by my witch doctor, JonnygATL.  Yeah, he practices medicine online from his home in Atlanta.  Good kid, good kid!

 

Now, if you will excuse me, I gotta take my Percocet -- on account of my carpal tunnel syndrome from S4GRU.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

They don't test our market at all. Even our local wireless provider doesn't even give us good coverage. I would really like to see data on all carriers for the area, but even sensorly doesn't give us much information. It appears that the only data that is there is for sprint in which I am constantly running speed tests.

 

This is just a polite reminder to our membership.  Please do not run speed tests on a constant basis.

 

You are not helping inform Sprint of fast or slow speeds -- Sprint already knows.  You are also not helping yourself.  If anything, you and others who do likewise are hurting network speeds for yourself and those around you.  Each speed test can consume upwards of 50 MB of data for no real purpose.  Run several speed tests per day every week, and those can consume several gigabytes per month.  That can be akin to putting additional users on the network.

 

If you really feel the need to run numerous speed tests because Sprint is not serving you at the level you desire, then S4GRU has long suggested that you find a different provider.

 

AJ

[joshuam]

This is just a polite reminder to our membership. Please do not run speed tests on a constant basis.

 

You are not helping inform Sprint of fast or slow speeds -- Sprint already knows. You are also not helping yourself. If anything, you and others who do likewise are hurting network speeds for yourself and those around you. Each speed test can consume upwards of 50 MB of data for no real purpose. Run several speed tests per day every week, and those can consume several gigabytes per month. That can be akin to putting additional users on the network.

 

If you really feel the need to run numerous speed tests because Sprint is not serving you at the level you desire, then S4GRU has long suggested that you find a different provider.

 

AJ

THIS^^^^^^

 

When I had the T-Mobile test drive recently, I gobbled up 86GB of data in 7 days! Most of it from speed tests and the root metrics app ????

 

I will occasionally run one on Sprint, but not often. If my phone is doing what I need it to do, and quickly...who cares?

[Arysyn]

Again, Band 41 is TDD, not FDD. 20 MHz carriers, not 15x15.

 

-Anthony

Sorry Anthony, I had a moment of forgetfulness on my earlier post. I do have a question about this issue though, something I ought to have added earlier in my post explaining Sprint's expansion of band 41.

 

I've read many times that Sprint has 120mhz of band 41, and that currently Sprint is using 10x10, which from your replies to me, cannot be expanded to 15x15. Therefore, how will an expansion to get an equivalent to 15x15 work out, or perhaps I ought to say 30mhz, and how would this be partioned between uplink and downlink.

 

Also, is the widest of these 2.5 carriers 10x10 for all the 2.5 spectrum, and is there any way for a wider band of it for use in the downlink. I think Sprint has great potential with the 2.5, just my knowledge of 10x10 is that it gets congested pretty badly, as T-Mobile was here in Chicago, prior to the recent upgrade to 15x15. I hope there wouldn't be that same/similar effect of Sprint's 2.5.

 

Already (from my experiences here in the Chicago suburbs with Sprint), the two 5x5 PCS carriers, and the one 5x5 800mhz carrier produced very slow speeds for me when I was on Sprint, but the 2.5 was great. I'm thinking the reason for great speeds on the 2.5, is because of the extra spectrum and more capacity than T-Mobile's AWS, but even then, 10x10 of 2.5 could become congested, just not as quickly as it could on 10x10 AWS. That is why I'm hoping for Sprint to have a wider 2.5 for its future.

[Flompholph]

...

Drop the "x" it's just 20mhz. 2 carriers 20 mhz is 40mhz. 120 mhz is 6 20 mhz carriers.

[Arysyn]

Drop the "x" it's just 20mhz. 2 carriers 20 mhz is 40mhz. 120 mhz is 6 20 mhz carriers.

How much of that though would be downlink vs uplink?

[Trip]

It depends on the network configuration, which gives Sprint a flexibility that FDD does not have.  (Need more downlink than uplink than currently configured?  Just change the configuration to dedicate more time to downlink.) 

 

But it's a single 20 MHz wide carrier which spends some fraction of the time as downlink and some fraction of the time as uplink.  Calling it 10x10 is not accurate.

 

- Trip

[nexgencpu]

PCmag carrier testing results are in...

 

Sprint finally showing some muscle, good to see them getting some positive feedback from the media.

 

Summing up Sprint's results....

 

Sprint only won one city, Denver, but I don't want to minimize its achievements. If we handed out a "most improved" award—we don't—Sprint would win it by a landslide. The carrier flipped over from an old WiMAX network to a spotty LTE network in 2013, filling in coverage gaps in 2014 but offering very low speeds. This year, the carrier's Network Vision and Spark initiatives finally took hold, and Sprint's speeds doubled or even tripled in most of our test cities.

 

 

Link to article..

 

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2485837,00.asp

[bmoses]

How much of that though would be downlink vs uplink?

 

to answer your question you need to learn the difference between FDD and TDD. B25 is FDD LTE, which stands for frequency division duplex. so in a standard B25 carrier that sprint is deploying its 5x5 FDD. this means that 5 Mhz is dedicated to download and a different 5 Mhz is dedicated to upload.

 

TDD LTE, which is what B41 is, is different in how it uses spectrum. TDD stands for time division duplex. so for the typical B41 carrier that sprint is deploying initially its 20 Mhz. since its TDD this means that the ENTIRE 20 Mhz is used for download and the same 20 Mhz chunk is also used for upload. They are able to use the same spectrum for both download and upload because its divided by time. So there are so many time slots used for download and then it switches and uses the time slots for upload and back and forth like that. Its so fast though that the user doesn't notice a difference. 

 

thats why people are saying "drop the x" when talking about B41 and TDD LTE, they set the carrier size, in this case 20 Mhz and its all used for both download and upload. then when you bring carrier aggregation into the picture it will be 2 20 Mhz carrier aggregated together to create a 40 Mhz carrier. 3 CA would be 60 Mhz and so on and so forth.

[Arysyn]

It depends on the network configuration, which gives Sprint a flexibility that FDD does not have. (Need more downlink than uplink than currently configured? Just change the configuration to dedicate more time to downlink.)

 

But it's a single 20 MHz wide carrier which spends some fraction of the time as downlink and some fraction of the time as uplink. Calling it 10x10 is not accurate.

 

- Trip

So, in the case of these being 20mhz carriers, which Sprint has in many places, would it be fair to say out of two 20mhz carriers, one could be for the downlink, one being for the uplink, sort of like 20x20.

 

Based on Sprint having so much of band 41 spectrum, sounds like they could have 60mhz for the downlink and 60mhz for the uplink. All Sprint really needs now is a dense enough network to handle it well and to fill in coverage holes.

 

If Sprint did this based on band 41, it would be extremely expensive, hense why they are doing this mainly in crucial key areas, while letting other areas be served more economically by their 1900 and 800 bands, which is why my experience in those areas wasn't good, although the 2.5 areas were great.

 

However, and this is just my opinion. If Sprint were willing to spend the money densifying all the city, urban, suburban, and greater rural areas, such as those in major markets but off a bit from the suburbs, covering all those areas with dense 2.5, deploying at least half of that spectrum, Sprint would beat all the carriers in all areas of service. Sprint could then sell off much of its 1.9 PCS spectrum to help cover a lot of those costs for the network densification.

[Arysyn]

to answer your question you need to learn the difference between FDD and TDD. B25 is FDD LTE, which stands for frequency division duplex. so in a standard B25 carrier that sprint is deploying its 5x5 FDD. this means that 5 Mhz is dedicated to download and a different 5 Mhz is dedicated to upload.

 

TDD LTE, which is what B41 is, is different in how it uses spectrum. TDD stands for time division duplex. so for the typical B41 carrier that sprint is deploying initially its 20 Mhz. since its TDD this means that the ENTIRE 20 Mhz is used for download and the same 20 Mhz chunk is also used for upload. They are able to use the same spectrum for both download and upload because its divided by time. So there are so many time slots used for download and then it switches and uses the time slots for upload and back and forth like that. Its so fast though that the user doesn't notice a difference.

 

thats why people are saying "drop the x" when talking about B41 and TDD LTE, they set the carrier size, in this case 20 Mhz and its all used for both download and upload. then when you bring carrier aggregation into the picture it will be 2 20 Mhz carrier aggregated together to create a 40 Mhz carrier. 3 CA would be 60 Mhz and so on and so forth.

That answered much of what I was wondering from my post I made before getting to see yours.

 

This definitely sounds like a huge potential for Sprint. Just now depends on how much are they going to densify for in contrasts to making a strong 2.5 network, or doing 2.5 in areas not satisfactorily covered by 1900 PCS. Again, I'd hope Sprint would go all out for 2.5, then sell as much of the 1900 PCS as possible, to help pay for the network densification.

[kg4icg]

Arysyn, it is basically the same way your wifi at home is used. You are on the same channel for up and download.

[lilotimz]

So, in the case of these being 20mhz carriers, which Sprint has in many places, would it be fair to say out of two 20mhz carriers, one could be for the downlink, one being for the uplink, sort of like 20x20.

 

Based on Sprint having so much of band 41 spectrum, sounds like they could have 60mhz for the downlink and 60mhz for the uplink. All Sprint really needs now is a dense enough network to handle it well and to fill in coverage holes.

 

If Sprint did this based on band 41, it would be extremely expensive, hense why they are doing this mainly in crucial key areas, while letting other areas be served more economically by their 1900 and 800 bands, which is why my experience in those areas wasn't good, although the 2.5 areas were great.

 

However, and this is just my opinion. If Sprint were willing to spend the money densifying all the city, urban, suburban, and greater rural areas, such as those in major markets but off a bit from the suburbs, covering all those areas with dense 2.5, deploying at least half of that spectrum, Sprint would beat all the carriers in all areas of service. Sprint could then sell off much of its 1.9 PCS spectrum to help cover a lot of those costs for the network densification.

No no and no.

 

TDD speeds is determined by carrier time ratio configuration. How much time you allocate to downlink and uplink operations determines the speed.

 

Do not ever use nXn for It. Carrier aggregation is n+n where n is the size of the TDD carrier block. (5/10/15/20mhz).

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[Ascertion]

Sprint only won one city, Denver, but I don't want to minimize its achievements. If we handed out a "most improved" award—we don't—Sprint would win it by a landslide. The carrier flipped over from an old WiMAX network to a spotty LTE network in 2013, filling in coverage gaps in 2014 but offering very low speeds. This year, the carrier's Network Vision and Spark initiatives finally took hold, and Sprint's speeds doubled or even tripled in most of our test cities

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2485837,00.asp

 

Sprint is rising fast, and the haters can hate whatever they want, but the results says otherwise.

Looks like there may have been some butchered results within the testing.

http://www8.pcmag.com/media/images/468732-national-3g.jpg?thumb=y

 

Verizon's EvDo has a maximum upload of 17mbps!

[bigsnake49]

No no and no.

 

TDD speeds is determined by carrier time ratio configuration. How much time you allocate to downlink and uplink operations determines the speed.

 

Do not ever use nXn for It. Carrier aggregation is n+n where n is the size of the TDD carrier block. (5/10/15/20mhz).

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

For the 6:3 configuration that sprint uses, a 40MHz slice has the same download bandwidth as a 24MHz FDD slice.

[Arysyn]

Arysyn, it is basically the same way your wifi at home is used. You are on the same channel for up and download.

So, for the 120mhz of 2.5 band 41, Sprint has, it is 120mhz for the up and the down. Sounds alot better than FDD.