S4GRU

I'm off work until next Wednesday. I just finished dinner at Mu Du Noodles in Santa Fe. Now it's time to go tower scouting around the city before the light disappears. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

I was surprised there was no MO sites after 6 days. Very surprised. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

Excellent find! That's right down the street from my Albuquerque office. I will be down there next week to check on the progress. Thanks for the report! Robert

Good news for those of you in the Richmond market. First two LTE sites accepted in the Richmond market today. They are in a rural area north of the I-295 Bypass, north of the Richmond Metro Area. They will appear in the next map refresh in the NV Sites Complete Map in the Sponsor section in a few hours. Robert

I would think that USCC could deactivate carriers down to just one 1x and one EVDO carrier all over the affected markets in 30 days or so, freeing up a majority of the spectrum for use by Sprint right away. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

It is believed that Sprint will upgrade all full build sites to include LTE 800 except in places where they do not have the spectrum available. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

Why upgrade your 3G network to an expensive technology that virtually no one in the world is doing when you can upgrade your whole network to LTE? It would be a huge waste of money to upgrade to a new 3G technology as it's being phased out. If Sprint has additional capex to burn, they need to spend it on a better LTE experience. Every dollar spent on upgrading 3G now is wasted. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

What happens in October that would make it that Sprint doesn't need 75%? Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Frequency doesn't equal better sound. It's all 1's and 0's in the end. It all depends on the vocoder used. It sure does at the edge of service. If you cannot maintain 9.6kbps because of poor signal, you'll think different. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

It does not illustrate capacity at all. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

In my opinion, iDEN did not have superior voice quality, when all things are equal. However, iDEN was deployed on a superior frequency for propagation and coverage. And in many cases may have a stronger signal. And that may lead to a perception that the technology is better for voice. If that's the reason why you feel iDEN has better voice quality, then you'll be happier with CDMA on 800MHz. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

Sprint will add additional LTE 1900 carriers as needed, and where spare spectrum is available. It's just as easy as that. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

I found a full build site in Farmington, NM today. It's near the corner of East Main and Browning Pkwy, directly behind the Sprint store. It looks complete to me. Three RRU's per sector. The site only has Sprint and a Clearwire WiMax protection site present (bottom rack). I ran into a gal who worked at the Sprint store and she said she saw workers there the last two weeks, so she assumes they're done. Clearwire definitely has AAV backhaul present since their site went live here in early 2011. So this may end up being the first LTE site to go live in the ABQ market. No LTE signal present at the moment. Either way, it's nice to finally confirm full build activity for myself in Northern half of the state. Woohoo!!! If they're working in Clovis, Farmington and El Paso, then they're pretty much working the whole market. Keep your eye peeled in Albuquerque! Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

As long as Sprint needs unlimited to compete, they'll keep it. However, expect some traffic shaping and possibly throttle limits if it starts to become a problem. Currently, Sprint has no other differentiator against the competition. They'll soon have a low frequency and rural LTE coverage differentiator against Tmo. But unlimited (and coat to a small extent) is all they have to differentiate against the duopoly. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

It makes more sense to keep building smaller cells for capacity than to keep adding spectrum and bands. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

I wholeheartedly agree. Considering the investment of money and spectrum, and the sheer mass of ownership stake that Sprint had in Clearwire, to give Clearwire mangement so much autonomy and the minority shareholders so much power...well, it's just amazingly boneheaded as you describe. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

In order for Charlie to win, the people he is dealing with must lose. He seems incapable of striking a win-win deal with anyone. Sprint was happy to host Dish's new LTE network on AWS-4 initially. However, Dish's terms were not reasonable. I think that's proven by the fact he couldn't make a deal with anyone. And now the relationship between Dish and other carriers is getting so sour, he may never be able to get a deal with anyone. He may have no choice but to either buy someone out or build a network organically. But it is his darn fault. He should lie in his bed he made. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Bloomington is in the Indianapolis market. That's why it is being worked on. The entire Indy market is being worked on. The fact that it is a college town is irrelevant. In fact, it was the last city of size in the Indy market to get Sprint LTE. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/3767-adding-images-to-posts-imgur-links/ Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

It's not that bad of an article. It just will be wildly misunderstood. The article explains what they encountered in their testing. I have no reason to doubt they did experience what they experienced on the Sprint network. And they did provide Sprint an opportunity to explain why this is occurring. And Sprint did a decent job doing that. The only thing further that I would have like to have known from the article is how the testing was done. Some background info would be nice. The fact they mentioned their testing was in inner city urban areas does explain why Sprint was at a disadvantage in this survey. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Dish - they never asked Sprint to host their network. Lightsquared - they're trying to share some spectrum with (NOAA) http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57582692-94/finally-some-good-news-for-lightsquared-and-its-4g-hopes/ Early on, Dish said they were negotiating with Sprint to host their LTE network on the Network Vision platform. Ergen even tried to get Tmo, AT&T and Sprint to get in a battling war over who could host his network. None for fell for his shenanigans. I believe Ergen always wanted Sprint to host their network, knowing it was the best plan/fit. However, Ergen couldn't get it for below value pricing , and that is why he has started this whole 'let's just buy a network' idea. He thinks he can buy Sprint and/or Clearwire for less money than his hosting deals long term. Ergen is not only shrewd, but he's a bully. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

How much spectrum did Verizon bid for? That will give you an idea of what Clearwire's spectrum is worth. My issues with Joan had nothing to do with spectrum valuation, but Sprint's first right of refusal of CLWR spectrum sales and that Sprint actually has filed liens against the spectrum to protect their position. That being said, Verizon's bid really doesn't do much to value the spectrum. They can afford to make a red herring offer to cause disruption. We all know they have an ulterior motive to try to value that spectrum. To disrupt the purchase deals for Clearwire and to also to help get the spectrum counted in any screens. It was a chess move. Verizon's bid for EBS leases really just gives a value to what Verizon is willing to pay to upset the apple cart, not really a value of how much the spectrum is truly worth. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

I had my battles with Joan Lap pin back in October 2011. I have given up dealing with her. She is unreasonably over the top on Clearwire. She's an odd duck with a funky quack. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

That's the first step. Now if they will just hit with the first smartphones in late September, we'll be in business. Robert

We try to do it 2-3x per month. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD