S4GRU

to S4GRU. Hope to see you around. Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

skid marks Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

Clearwire has big plans. They plan on keeping all their native coverage and adding TDD-LTE over it. However, it will take them a long time to do it. And they most likely will have to get profitable to do it too. Big plans, limited funds. In the mean time, Clearwire will continue to add LTE to their pre-identified markets, in a hotspot format. They also will in the future add hotspots to Non Clearwire markets on Sprint Network Vision sites when Sprint requests them. Right now, a complete market of Clearwire LTE is just a long term goal. No immediate plans, or I should say, no funded plans at the moment. Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

by Robert Herron Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Monday, June 18, 2012 - 7:53 AM MDT Last Friday, we provided a few tease postings on social media about Sprint 4G LTE sites going on-air in Boston. First 4, then a 5th and later a 6th. Now this morning, two more. A total of 8 sites in the Sprint Boston market now are live with 4G LTE. As most S4GRU followers know, Sprint's Network Vision OEM Alcatel/Lucent has been very active in the Boston area for several months. However, until late last week, all the Network Vision completed sites in this market have only had 3G upgrades gone live. These are the first sites to actually have 4G LTE be complete thus far. This is really exciting when you consider that Boston is not even an officially announced market for Sprint. Live Boston Market 4G LTE sites. This is an overview map showing the location of all 8 Sprint sites with on-air 4G LTE in the Boston Market as of this morning. The first live sites are scattered around the market. A cluster in Lynn/Saugus area sports four LTE sites. Then a 5th one appeared in Dartmouth, just west of New Bedford. Over the weekend, another site in Rockport was discovered and updated in our Completed Network Vision site maps for Sponsors. This morning, we are happy to report to you a site near Burlington and another on Cape Cod near Yarmouth. This is fast progress in two business days. Expect more in the coming days and weeks. Viva la LTE!!! On-Air 4G LTE in North Boston Suburbs. In this map you can see all the Sprint 4G LTE sites on air in the Northern Boston suburbs, including: Lynn, Saugus, Burlington and Rockport. We did have a S4GRU member go out to the sites around Lynn this weekend. He was not able to connect to the sites in that area using his EVO LTE. Sprint must still be blocking LTE connections. If you are able to connect to any of the sites in the Boston market, please let us know about it. Or post it in our confirmed LTE sites forum thread. On-Air 4G LTE in South Massachusetts. These are the two on-air 4G LTE sites in the New Bedford/Cape Cod area of the Boston market.

Limo driver Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

Absolutely correct. Some markets are a higher priority for Sprint. Most likely because of demographics. But I'm sure you wont mind that Wake Forest gets coverage before Providence, right? You can always get in line behind New Mexico. Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I would stick with 5x5 LTE myself. I think consumers are going to start rejecting ridiculous mobile download speeds. Your smartphone won't notice the difference. It will just become a gimmick. Give me a consistent 8Mbps over the entire network, and I'm happy. And we aren't going to be able to do much more than occassional tethering in the future. So it is not going to matter much once we have ubiquitous LTE. Once wireless carriers see that consumers aren't willing to pay more for super fast LTE over fast LTE, they are going to stop throwing money at making LTE faster and faster. There will be no greater return on making it faster. If wireless carriers made speeds a la carte, and priced it based on speed, the majority of users would probably pick some where between 8Mbps and 10Mbps. Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

Advertised speeds...who cares? We know what the network is capable of. Besides, I have mentioned Sprint's planned advertised speeds since March in several threads and in a few articles. This shouldn't be a surprise. The most important factor in determining LTE speed is signal strength...no matter whether it's Sprint, Verizon, or anyone. If you have a site that has speeds capable of 30Mbps, but the majority of the users in a sector of that site have a signal of -95dBm, their speeds are going to be around 8 to 12Mbps. So Sprint is setting average speeds mostly based on the lowest average experience based on geography, not so much because of the limited capability. It is a lowest common denominator situation. You set the average based on the worst average consumer experience, and the advertise peaks speeds in ideal situations. When looking at heat maps of speeds from FIT testing, it became obvious that Sprint cannot advertise their fastest speeds. On average, if you look at signal dependent download speed heat map, the cell would produce 25% coverage of 20Mbps+, 25% 12Mbps - 20Mbps, 25% 6Mbps - 12Mbps and 25% less than 6Mbps (edge of cell areas). How do you advertise that? Do you say 12Mbps in advertisements, even though only 50% of a cell will likely achieve that on average? It makes sense to advertise 6-8Mbps, because that's includes approx 3/4 of the users in a cell. And the ones in lesser performing areas are in the fringe of service with barely a signal. So if you have zero or one bar of LTE service, but still squeaking out 3 to 5 Mbps...I think most reasonable people would be happy with that. And remember, AT&T only has 5x5 LTE in almost half of their markets. I'm looking forward to Sprint LTE, myself. What Sprint advertises as average doesn't mean anything to me. Plus, I live next to a site. I know I'm going to be in the 25% to the good! Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I have two complaints about Sprint's coverage maps. One...they load really slow. Two...they need to have a variable map size. The default is way too small. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

My Galaxy Nexus is more solid feeling and heavy than my EVO LTE. The EVO LTE is a feather, in a good way. But the case on the GNex is top quality. Not cheap feeling at all. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

I got a new smoker. Smoked bacon wrapped chicken. One of my faves. Yum. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Petty Officer Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Hundred Grand Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

I have heard so many similar findings from other people and S4GRU members. It is not unusable by any sense, but very noticeably different. I live in the mountains and a device with 10% lesser performing radios has a significant impact on me. If I lived in a urban/suburban area, I probably wouldn't notice. I will only have this device a few more days as my daily user. I have pre ordered the GS3. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Canyon Arrow Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Velvet Cake Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

The Providence market is not a 2012 market. It will not begin NV/LTE deployment until 2013. Most secondary markets with WiMax coverage seem to be a lower priority since they already have some sort of 4G coverage. Robert

We have a DC market schedule update article coming soon. Stay tuned to S4GRU.com. Robert

No coverages yet shown. But this is a good first step. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Thanks for the heads up. I just went and checked it out. Unfortunately its not showing any coverage yet in the LTE section. Maybe this means they are going to unblock soon. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

I have an area where I can only get 850MHz roaming that I intend to test the devices. Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Yes, indeed. And that's a what I'm a going to do! Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

software package Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner