S4GRU

I'm having TD-LTE withdrawals from my visit to Denver yesterday. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Using digiROM yesterday and seeing the "LTE" icon for the first time was exciting. Much more preferred over the standard 4G icon. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Too much? No. And after using Clearwire TD-LTE all over Denver yesterday, I would say it was just about right. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Buffalo market will likely have its first LTE site active in the next 30 days or so. It will be six months or more from launch. But as each site goes active, it will be usable to customers. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

As DaQue mentions, Sensorly sees a smartphone connected to a hotspot as a WiFi connection. Just like if you were at home. No mapping done. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Yeah, that was a major bummer not to be able to Sensorly map. And since Clearwire LTE has a different network ID, it would probably not appear even if it was on a smartphone until Sensorly adds it as a Sprint LTE network in their database. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

They wouldn't let me do it. Said it required a two year agreement. And since I was in Denver for only 10 hours, I didn't have a lot of options. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Here is some points today of my Denver Band 41 TD-LTE testing. Netgear TriBand LTE Hotspot is awesome. Love the color touch screen display. Easy to use. And in Network Settings, it will tell you which LTE Band you are using. Around Denver I used Band 41 (2600) in most places, and occasionally Band 25 (1900). Denver TD-LTE 2600 seemed to me to be on every WiMax site I encountered. It just very well may be a full market deployment. I rarely lost LTE 2600 signal, unless I went into a tunnel, under a long overpass, went into a significant depression or behind a hill. On the wide open Denver freeways and boulevards, I kept a steady Band 41 LTE signal with smooth handoffs. Way smoother than WiMax. I bounced around between -130dBm RSRP and -55dBm RSRP all over the Denver Metro area. Zero to six bars. This MiFi will hold on to some very weak signals. I don't know if triband smartphones will be able to do the same. However -120dBm signals were usable most of the time with 2-6Mbps speeds. Even at -130 RSRP I was able to get 1-2Mbps download. I kept the device in LTE Only mode, and it may not do so well in mixed LTE/CDMA mode. I tried to get Band 41 LTE to hand off to Band 25 LTE. Over in East Aurora near DIA, it looked like my best shot. However, there was about a 1/2 mile between where Band 41 ended and Band 25 started. So no luck there. Maximum speed test hit was 40Mbps in all my testing. Maximum upload hit was almost 25Mbps. Lowest ping time was 100ms. But remember that this was from a hotspot, so some ping is lost there. When I could test on Band 25, my hotspot was adding between 75-150ms to pings over what my Note 2 was doing from the same site/sector. It seems in the current Denver deployment, LTE 2600 download speeds seemed limited on Clearwire's existing backhaul that is being shared with WiMax. For instance, I had a WiMax Galaxy S2 that I was using side by side with my TD-LTE hotspot. When I hit 40Mbps DL on TD-LTE, I was hitting 14-16Mbps DL on WiMax (although I cannot guarantee I was on the same site). However, when I would hit 8Mbps DL on TD-LTE with a full signal, I would also only hit about 6-8Mbps DL on WiMax. So with this, I concluded that Clearwire is sharing their LTE and WiMax on the same backhaul. So if the LTE/WiMax 2600 site has more backhaul speed available than the WiMax airlink could support, then the LTE would be much faster than WiMax, up to whatever speed the backhaul was currently running. If the backhaul was burdened to a speed lower than the WiMax airlink, then the LTE and WiMax 2600 were the same speed roughly. Upload speeds. Upload speeds were good to great. I averaged 8-10Mbps upload speeds. Sometimes hitting into the 20's. At sites where speeds were below 7-8Mbps, the upload was averaging higher. WiMax upload was limited to 1.5Mbps, but Clearwire TDD LTE is much higher. This leads me to conclude that these are indeed 20MHz channels. I don't think we would see 20Mbps+ upload speeds on Time Division with only 10MHz channels. My conclusion after 8 hours of testing is that I believe these to be 20MHz TDD channels. With the very high upload speeds, I'm left with no other conclusions. With a full signal, I encountered between 6Mbps - 40Mbps download speeds, and 6Mbps - 25Mbps upload speeds. Even though a 10MHz TDD channel could hit 40Mbps DL speeds in ideal situations, I don't think it could then also deliver 20Mbps+ speeds too on it. A 10MHz TDD channel would likely have around a 10Mbps upload speed, or even possibly less. I think that the 40/20 could be even higher with better backhaul delivered to these sites. Indoor usability on Band 41 stinks. No suprise, though. I would lose between 15-25dBm going indoors. If I had worse than -100dBm outside, I likely wasn't going to get inside reception at all. Since LTE 2600/Band 41 is supposed to be overlaid always with 1900 and 800, this will not be a problem at build out. And I had better reception and speeds than WiMax. But you will not be fond of LTE 2600 indoor usage. Another point about the hotspot, but not Band 41 (TDD-LTE) related, is that it is a RF beast. The Netgear MiFI tends to best my Note 2 on Band 25 LTE signals by 6-10dBm. That's a lot. In Castle Rock, Colorado with a 10dBm difference, my Note 2 would do 11Mbps on its own, but connected to the hotspot it would do 20Mbps. Huge difference in speed with 10dBm. Also, my CDMA RSSI is roughly 4-8dBm better too. Robert

I even talked with store manager and threw around the S4GRU name. They looked for all rate codes and anything they could do to sell it off contract. They couldn't do it. If I wanted to walk out the door with the new Netgear Triband LTE MiFi today in Lone Tree, Colorado, I had to sign a two year agreement. So I did, even though I had planned to pay full retail and do a month to month. Robert

They wouldn't sell it off contract. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Probably not in a hurry. Only available to a few early adopter hotspot holders. This is definitely a quiet soft launch. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Don't know. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

None of the screens on the Netgear MiFi show channel selection or channel width. There are more options when I sign into through the browser. But it won't take the Admin password that came with it. Still trying. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I'm getting TD-LTE all over Denver. So far, everywhere I've gone between Centennial and Aurora. It seems better than WiMax because it can hold on to weaker signals and a very weak signal is quite usable. And way better than Sprint 3G. Here is my best speed test so far: I'm averaging 10Mbps. And considering that my average connection is -110dBm RSRP, that's pretty darn good. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

About 50-70ms on my Verizon hotspot. I would guess about the same. So that could be most of the factor. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

LOL! Didn't realize it showed my WiFi password. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Could be. It could also be that Clearwire hasn't upgraded backhaul at this site and it's using the same microwave connection like WiMax often did. I will monitor some more as I'm around Denver tonight. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Hit 21Mbps on the RootMetrics app, before it settled on 14Mbps at the end of the test. With a -109dBm RSRP. Can't wait to find a full signal somewhere. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I have Sprint TD-LTE 2600 at the Lone Tree Mall. Viva la Tri-Band! http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4083-sprint-td-lte-25002600mhz-discussion-was-clearwire-lte/?p=173062 Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Robert presents TD-LTE 2600 from Denver, Colorado. I'm at the Lone Tree Mall. Activated the new Netgear MiFi and had LTE 2600 instantly. See below: So even with a weak indoor -109dBm RSRP (one bar), I had very usable results. I'm inside a shopping mall where I even only have one bar Verizon LTE. Best speed test over 11Mbps. Weakest in the Mid 7's. Not shabby with such a weak signal. Heading over toward Stapleton in the next hour. We will see how widespread this TD-LTE is around Denver. But I was shocked to have it in the very first place I turned it on. Could it be market wide already? Hmmm... Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Clearwire never actually started WiMax deployment in Pensacola. They just came in and set up Protection Sites. Robert from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Site acceptance reports from Thursday (7/18), Friday (7/19) and Saturday (7/20): Alabama – 1 update (LTE) Albuquerque – 1 update (LTE) Arkansas – 8 updates (4 LTE) Atlanta/Athens – 7 updates (3G) Austin – 9 updates (6 LTE) Baltimore – 1 update (3G) Boston – 5 updates (2 LTE) Central Jersey – 3 updates (2 LTE) Cincinnati – 1 update (3G) Cleveland – 4 updates (3G) Colorado – 9 updates (1 LTE) Delaware – 1 update (3G) DFW – 3 updates (3G) East Kentucky – 1 update (LTE) East Michigan – 11 updates (LTE) East Texas – 1 update (LTE) Ft. Wayne/South Bend – 2 updates (LTE) GA/SC Coast – 3 updates (3G) Georgia – 5 updates (LTE) Gulf Coast – 1 update (LTE) Houston – 5 updates (3G) Indianapolis -1 update (LTE) Jacksonville – 5 updates (3 LTE) Kansas – 7 updates (3 LTE) LA Metro – 8 updates (4 LTE) Las Vegas – 3 updates (3G) Louisiana – 2 updates (LTE) Memphis – 5 updates (3 LTE) Miami/West Palm – 5 updates (1 LTE) Milwaukee – 1 update (LTE) Minnesota – 12 updates (7 LTE) Mississippi – 5 updates (3 LTE) Missouri – 11 updates (5 LTE) Myrtle Beach – 1 update (3G) Nashville – 16 updates (8 LTE) New Orleans – 6 updates (2 LTE) Norfolk – 1 update (LTE) Northern Connecticut – 1 update (3G) Northern Jersey – 4 updates (3 LTE) Oklahoma – 6 updates (5 LTE) Orange County – 3 updates (3G) Oregon/SW Washington – 4 updates (LTE) Phoenix – 4 updates (3G) Providence – 3 updates (3G) Riverside/San Bernardino – 4 updates (2 LTE) Rochester – 3 updates (3G) San Antonio – 4 updates (1 LTE) San Diego – 9 updates (4 LTE) South Bay – 1 update (LTE) Southern Connecticut – 4 updates (3G) Southern Jersey – 4 updates (3G) South Texas – 5 updates (4 LTE) South West Florida – 4 updates (3 LTE) Tucson/Yuma – 1 update (3G) Upper Central Valley – 1 update (LTE) Upstate NY Central – 1 update (3G) Upstate NY East – 3 updates (2 LTE) Utah – 5 updates (1 LTE) VT/NH/ME – 1 update (3G) Washington DC – 7 updates (3G) West Iowa/Nebraska – 2 updates (LTE) West Kentucky – 1 update (LTE) West Texas – 7 updates (LTE) West Washington – 5 updates (LTE) Winston/Salem – 2 updates (LTE) Maps are updated. This was a lot of work with a 100kbps connection in the remote wilds of South Central Colorado. Robert Links: Comments regarding this thread, NV Sites Complete Map

Heading to Denver today in the hunt for Triband hotspot and TD-LTE 2600. Also, it'll be nice to see LTE appear in my notification bar again. Its been a few months since my Note has seen it. Dinner at Texas de Brazil tonight with my brothers family. Bring on the chicken! And beef, too. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

This was from an internal Sprint memo. It should mean nationwide. However, I was very surprised to see that nugget too. I assume it means that all LTE 1900 sites done to date will be targeted to have LTE 800 brought up on them by the end of the year, and any thereafter will get LTE 800/1900 at the same time from then on. This is probably a SoftBank imposed deadline. Papa Son is already bringing us the goodies. LTE 800 doesn't require any additional equipment on the tower. Just a carrier card at the RBS if the site already supports NV LTE. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

On triband, purportedly the priority order is 2600, 1900, 800. Sprint will have the ability to have your device select an LTE band based on performance too, not just signal strength. Custom PRL's will not be able to be made to control LTE networks. LTE network selection is not handled by PRL's. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta