Sprint Roaming+ - Coverage Map Update

[Tengen31]

It would help a lot in a lot of places, but as far as we know the owners of US Cellular are not willing to sell the company. Such a merger is discussed frequently here because USCC is a good fit for Sprint from an asset and footprint standpoint, but it looks like USCC is content to be an independent roaming partner for the foreseeable future.

For a carrier that isnt nationwide USCC is a rip off. 60 dollars for1GB of data. Would sprint be able to increase band 26 to 10x10 in USCC areas if they bought them out?

[jroepcke51]

For a carrier that isnt nationwide USCC is a rip off. 60 dollars for1GB of data. Would sprint be able to increase band 26 to 10x10 in USCC areas if they bought them out?

No as that would require new equipment as that is release 11 LTE.

[RAvirani]

No as that would require new equipment as that is release 11 LTE.

Can't they just run the current equipment through the FCC again and get it recertified?

[red_dog007]

What is release 11? 

[anthony.spina97]

No as that would require new equipment as that is release 11 LTE.

 

 

What is release 11? 

Yeah I'm not sure what about 10x10 on Band 26 requires the equipment to be upgraded to release 11. Wasn't Verizon running release 9 for the longest time and they use 10x10?

 

-Anthony

[Trip]

Notwithstanding the equipment, they could only expand the existing B26 to 10x10 if US Cellular owned the A-block in the area.  Otherwise, it would have to be done as separate carriers.  (Long-term, they could get up to 15x15, even, in those areas.)

 

- Trip

[jroepcke51]

Yeah I'm not sure what about 10x10 on Band 26 requires the equipment to be upgraded to release 11. Wasn't Verizon running release 9 for the longest time and they use 10x10?

 

-Anthony

Remember folks the issue is that band 5 is seperate from band 26 spectrum. Band 13 verizon is using is contiguous spectrum. If sprint bough USCC, it would require new equipment to aggregate the separate spectrum together and it would be usable only in USCC areas. Not worth it to me.

[Trip]

Band 5 is a subset of Band 26. 

 

- Trip

[red_dog007]

Personally, I think it would be best for Sprint to get into a position to acquire USCC.  I think USCC can float a long for a while.  Would need a decent subscriber loss to impact them though.  Even then, they might just continue to shed assets and maybe even market regions.  Would be good for Sprint to at least be ready to acquire CLR, PCS, and tower licenses. 

 

Shoot, as regional carriers bit the dust, I think that Sprint needs to be in a better position to buy them out, or acquire assets.  I think this is the most realistic goal for Sprint while they try to fix their debt and losses situation while still being on the lookout for assets. CCA is a great short term fix for increased "native" 3G/LTE coverage and roaming coverage, but I see these as more shortish term fixes while Sprint tries to get healthy.

[Dkoellerwx]

For a carrier that isnt nationwide USCC is a rip off. 60 dollars for1GB of data. Would sprint be able to increase band 26 to 10x10 in USCC areas if they bought them out?

 

 

No as that would require new equipment as that is release 11 LTE.

 

Edit: It would require new equipment due to the limitations listed by Tim below ... not due to the LTE release version.

[lilotimz]

The Samsung, KMW / Powerave [Alcatel-Lucent], Ericsson B26 equipment are designed and certified for 817-824 range so no CL850 capability. 

 

Also you can't aggregate Sub 1 GHz spectrum easily so that's out. 

[Dkoellerwx]

The Samsung, KMW / Powerave [Alcatel-Lucent], Ericsson B26 equipment are designed and certified for 817-824 range so no CL850 capability. 

 

Also you can't aggregate Sub 1 GHz spectrum easily so that's out. 

 

Cannot be re-certified?

 

Well, still it's not an LTE release issue then. Anyway... probably not going to happen. 

[lilotimz]

Cannot be re-certified?

 

Well, still it's not an LTE release issue then. Anyway... probably not going to happen.

You can't recertify something if it was never designed or compatible for it

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

[Dkoellerwx]

You can't recertify something if it was never designed or compatible for it

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

 

Got it.

[Trip]

Second, I think it was already mentioned, but Sprint cannot expand it's current B26 holding to 10x10 because there is no contiguous spectrum available. Sprint holds all of the SMR spectrum that is available for commercial cell use. USCC spectrum is in the 850 range, so Sprint would have to deploy a second carrier rather than expand the first in this hypothetical situation. 

 

Leaving aside the equipment issue for the moment, isn't SMR contiguous with CLR A block?

 

- Trip

[RAvirani]

Leaving aside the equipment issue for the moment, isn't SMR contiguous with CLR A block?

 

- Trip

Yes

[Dkoellerwx]

Leaving aside the equipment issue for the moment, isn't SMR contiguous with CLR A block?

 

- Trip

 

Yeah... for some reason I was thinking there was a public safety band in between. So that was wrong.

[Tengen31]

If Sprint could ever Buy USCC. They would be better off changeing their name to USCC since, theres alot of people who

have a bad taste in their mouth told Sprint. Sprint's network has done a complete 180. However some people will not care

when they hear the name sprint.

[jroepcke51]

Yeah... for some reason I was thinking there was a public safety band in between. So that was wrong.

I was mistaken as week as that was what I was thinking. No it is contiguous.

[banananuts87]

Doesnt sprint coverage Nashville?

They do. I roamed in lte on a few rate ocassions

[banananuts87]

If Sprint could ever Buy USCC. They would be better off changeing their name to USCC since, theres alot of people who

have a bad taste in their mouth told Sprint. Sprint's network has done a complete 180. However some people will not care

when they hear the name sprint.

Not the case in ct. Improved in areas not a 180.

[MacinJosh]

If Sprint could ever Buy USCC. They would be better off changeing their name to USCC since, theres alot of people who

have a bad taste in their mouth told Sprint. Sprint's network has done a complete 180. However some people will not care

when they hear the name sprint.

 

Hence the reason for Sprint's newest ads that focus on showing that Sprint is faster and more reliable than Verizon or at&t or T-Mobile. I feel that the Sprint name should stick and when the time is right, people will wake up to the fact that the "New" Sprint is far better than the "Old" Sprint was in 2012- mid 2015.

[Tengen31]

Hence the reason for Sprint's newest ads that focus on showing that Sprint is faster and more reliable than Verizon or at&t or T-Mobile. I feel that the Sprint name should stick and when the time is right, people will wake up to the fact that the "New" Sprint is far better than the "Old" Sprint was in 2012- mid 2015.

Sprint still has work to do. Faster than vzw. So so on that one. Test 2xca yesterday. 55 Mbps vzw in the same location almost 100. Sprint needs to build out to atleast att's Coverage.

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[RAvirani]

Sprint very well could throw up a few hundred B26/B10 (maybe even with B25 LTE and B1 1x) and match tmobiles coverage...i think they probably will in the next few years once their existing network is strong.

[red_dog007]

<p>If they did any expansion, I'd rather then do surgical expansion.  I don't care that they are the fourth largest coverage wise.  They  have been for a long time.  Even when TMobile's network was largely 2G, it was still a bigger native network.</p>

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<p>Get B41 on more macros faster.  It seems like they finished up in my city, and they seem to have only hit maybe 1/3 of the macro sites. Been a long time since I have seen a new B41 site, yet they seem to have prepped just about all the towers for the additional antennas. </p>

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<p>As far as a USCC merger, It would be pretty good for Sprint in terms of the integration investment. Would Sprint actually go through and update all the hardware at all the sites?  Seems like it could be a decent integration as most the coverage is completely new, and then in markets they both have coverage seems like there would be a lot of different integration options at hand.  But then I have no clue what kind of equipment USCC uses, how things are configured.  All I know is they have B12 running most places with some B5 here and there?</p>