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You are holding an independent analyst's estimates as if these are concrete Sprint decisions? He keeps saying, "I estimate this and I estimate that." Calm down. Robert

I am right this very second trying to convince my wife to go back to Denver this weekend. Robert

For those of you concerned about the hotspot's limitation on speed because of WiFi bottlenecks or the increased ping, I have just successfully been able to get my Netgear Zing Triband Hotspot USB tethered to my laptop. Just had to manually install the drivers. With this type of setup, we should not see ping performance reductions, and should be able to see the maximum speeds possible. Robert EDIT: On my legacy Sprint 3G site, using the hotspot in WiFi mode I had a 145ms ping and 2.12Mbps down/0.81Mbps up. Using the the hotspot in tethered mode, I had a 98ms ping and a 2.45Mbps down/1.33Mbps up test.

I've never seen this setup. In all the Clearwire MW diagrams I have seen over the years there is either one of three setups: 1. No Redundancy, Single Link. Site is directly connected to one site via MW link that gives access to fiber. 2. No Redundancy, Daisy Chain Link. Site is connected in a series of MW links. One end is a terminal end with no connection, the other end is connected to fiber. 3. Redundant Loop. Site is connected in a series of MW links that start at a fiber connection and eventually loop back to the same original site. This way if any one link goes down, traffic can go the other way back to the donor fiber site. I like the idea of a daisy chain with two separate fiber connections. I'm just not familiar with it. Is this something you currently do? Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

I get approximately 35-36 down on my Note 2 in WiFi. And I occasionally will get anomalies around 40-45Mbps. But those may be speed test errors. Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

Redundancy is important, and I won't suggest it's not. Clearwire has been upgrading its backhaul the last year. Some places it is great, some places it is lacking still. Case in point, in my Denver TD-LTE testing, I had lots of full signals tests with speeds around 5-10Mbps. And and a few over 30Mbps. Obviously use on a 20MHz TDD channel with only a few hotpots out there is nil. On most of these sites, I was likely the only person on that channel. If Clearwire backhaul had been upgraded and up to snuff, I would have had all 35Mbps speeds (the maximum my Note 2 would have handled on WiFi). But it was about 3 sites out of approximately 30 that I tested. As you suggested, it's not likely the microwave links that are impacting performance (although it might in a daisy chain deployment), but its probably the final termination point to fiber or AAV backhaul on the microwave chain that needs to be upgraded. Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

You must have slept through the big news where Sprint said they are adding TD-LTE to all 38,000+ Sprint sites. On top of the entire Clearwire network. They said they would also expand with additional TD-LTE sites in urban areas in between Sprint NV sites where needed. Huge news. Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

I think 800 RRU's handle four carriers, any mix of LTE and CDMA. I think this is for all 3 OEM's. Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

I would probably get the LGOG2. But I'm open to any other tribands that will be coming out around the same time. I would really like a 5" display, though. Robert

I have no idea what Sprint plans to do about LTE and feature phones, if anything. As for Single LTE Band device holders, it's not going to be a big deal. The LTE 1900 network should improve as the build out continues and spreads out the LTE load, and as triband device holders start getting off the LTE 1900 network. Should be a decent experience that may even get better. Sprint has the capacity to add additional LTE 1900 carriers in many markets if necessary too. SoftBank is not going to allow the network to deteriorate. I intentionally skipped the S4 and the HTC One because they were released so close to the tribands debut. Robert

Obviously flip phones are excluded from the subject at hand. That's not what we were talking about. We were discussing mid priced and economy priced smartphones. Of which Sprint will be putting tribands in all of them starting in 2014. The models in the remainder of 2013 will likely be only on flagship devices There is no need to refarm PCS 1x and EVDO to LTE for a long time with a triband network with LTE 2600 deployed nationwide. LTE 2600 will be carrying all the tonnage, with PCS/SMR LTE just providing LTE connectivity for those in places out of range from LTE 2600. So Sprint will not be in a hurry for that. Robert

The biggest thing to distinguish them is that they are connected to Clearwire WiMax panels at the present. Robert

Shentel deserves the credit for a job well done for their portion of their upgrade. They deserve the praise. And it's natural to want to make a direct comparison between Shentel and Sprint NV deployment, but it's not really fair or accurate to do so. Shentel is upgrading one market. Sprint is upgrading 97. So the scope is almost 100 times larger. Also, Shentel is largely rural and some suburban. Sprint has done very well in these similar type markets. Criticism of Sprint has mostly been about their failure at major metros. They have dozens and dozens of cities the size of Hagerstown and Winchester launched. It would not be fair to compare a Shentel deployment progress with Sprint in a place like NYC. However, if you compare Shentel with Sprint progress in say a similar market like Ft. Wayne/South Bend, now you see Sprint isn't doing so bad. Backhaul and crew availability is where Sprint has struggled most. And those have been lesser issues for Shentel. However, I for one, will give Shentel the applause they deserve. Sprint probably could learn a few things from how they deployed. Number one being...local control and management. People running the deployment who know the sites, the logistics, the backhaul vendors and can be right there managing them. That is what Shentel management really was able to do better than Sprint. If Sprint could have set NV up as 97 different projects with local management, they could have had some better successes. But no matter what, we are now entering the SoftBank phase. And something I'm going to be saying a lot is, Masayoshi Son is not going to take no for an answer. Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

Once I start receiving official LTE 800 or LTE 2500 site acceptances, I will definitely add them to our maps. As far as triband panels, I don't think so. The downtilt difference between 800 and 2600 can be so much more disparate to make a single panel to not be practical. Robert via Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 using Tapatalk

Idle state, it seems reasonable to park on 1900 over 2600 because of the common nationwide frequency. Although, do you think they may park on 800 where possible, so they get the benefit of increased bars showing? Robert

A hard handoff is typically a fraction of a second to a full second. Most videos buffer seconds, if not even minutes ahead. It depends on the length of what your watching and the speed of the connection. This is not a concern of mine, really. It really would only be an issue if you handed off while it just started and there is not much cached ahead of your current reference point. Robert

I was just about to respond with that point. EDIT: I guess video chat could be an issue. But if you are using video chat while being a mobile passenger, there are probably issues on all networks. Robert

I think we will see the LTE overlay over the existing Clearwire network get expedited and may even complete in six months. As for adding TD-LTE to the entire Sprint Network Vision network, I expect that to be more of a 12-14 month program. They may get to a point in a few months that all new NV LTE conversions go live with LTE 800/1900/2600 all at once. Robert

I don't think Softbank will run things anywhere like Sprint. I don't think Masayoshi Son takes no for an answer as easily as Dan Hesse. Just my thoughts. But the future should be nothing like the past. Robert

Since data doesn't have to be a smooth handoff, I don't think this will be a problem. Robert

They said today that all devices in 2014 will be triband and that a few smartphones in Fall 2013 will have it. Robert

Definitely. And this is the ideal network design. Without purchasing Clearwire, it wasn't possible. They were going to do a 1900>2600>800 design when they were going to have to pay per usage fees to Clearwire. Robert

It will provide ample capacity. It will also provide superior speeds over the rest of the Sprint LTE network. It will also provide equal or superior speeds to all competitors. And if a TD-LTE carrier becomes overburdened, adding additional LTE capacity will be a snap with just an additional carrier card needing to be added. It's not wasted money, but it is investing more money and capacity into the network than Sprint has ever done before. And now it allows all those international travelers who may only have one U.S. LTE band on their phone to have a somewhat cohesive nationwide network. If you can use TD-LTE 2600 everywhere, and only use LTE 1900 and 800 to fall back on, then that is a very good thing. This is a 180 degree turn about from what the previous Sprint would ever have done. This decision is courtesy directly from our new Japanese Overlords. It's about time the worst decisions the company makes are pro-network experience!!! The Japanese are not the type to think in the present, or near future. They look much farther out than we tend to do. It's a refreshing change, even if slightly uncomfortable to what we are used to. Robert

Once NV is done nationwide, adding overlays like TD-LTE nationwide is much, much faster. It will happen as fast as Tmo LTE has been deployed. So adding TD-LTE to existing NV sites should go relatively quickly. Not as fast as LTE 800, but pretty darn quick. Robert

Welcome to S4GRU! El Paso is in the Albuquerque Market. A moderator apparently moved your post here in the appropriate thread. Sprint did announce that El Paso was being deployed. However, work continues and it is not ready for launching yet. In our Sponsor section, we show maps that show all the sites upgraded to date including El Paso. It gets updated every day or two with new sites as they are accepted complete from Contractors. For more information about how to become a S4GRU Sponsor, follow this link: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/ Robert