S4GRU

I don't trust anything AT&T does. Always an ulterior motive it seems. Posted via Forum Runner

For me, my larger E4GT is easier to hold and feels smaller than my Evo. Even though the screen is larger. Too many phone size bigots out there. You should go meet a phone and not judge a phone by its cover. In all seriousness, I do believe that when it comes to device size, too much thought is given to an exact screen dimension limitation. Folks should go out to a store and take these things for a spin with each new potential device that comes out. These newer large devices are much more ergonomic and feel smaller than they are. And the GSIII is really going to stretch that. Posted via Forum Runner

road worthy Posted via Forum Runner

thin ice

This is the division of Ericsson that maintains the Sprint network. Remember Sprint outsourcing all this to Ericsson a few years ago? This is not the Division that is handling NV Deployment in 1/3 of the country. I recall Sprint execs touting several times how much money they were going to save in network management and maintenance post Network Vision with an all new network and new equipment. So less Ericsson employees would be needed to manage it all. These savings are mostly payroll...the largest expense of any company. Although, it seems a little early to pull that trigger. It must be just inconvenient timing. Like the contract ended and a new one was negotiated with reduced cost. Posted via Forum Runner

Ice Princess Posted via Forum Runner

I'm not 100% sure, but I thought you could use them at all Visa PayPass locations. I don't remember where I heard that. But if that's true, it opens up a lot more locations. Robert via S4GRU Mobile

Ghostly figure

I live 250' away from a Verizon/Sprint/Tmo/Cricket co-located tower in El Valle de Arroyo Seco, NM (Dry Creek Valley for you gringos). I have no idea what percentage nationally Verizon's sites have fiber backhaul. But I can tell you here in Verizon's Santa Fe, NM market, they had microwave radomes pop up on almost all their towers 2 to 4 weeks before the LTE panels started going up. When I saw them out there with the cherry picker to install the radome at the site near my home, I ran over asked them who it was for (hoping against all odds it was for Sprint). They told me they were subcontractors for Verizon installing microwave backhaul on most of their towers. After watching the Verizon LTE deployment over our area, I noticed there are only a few urban Verizon LTE sites in Santa Fe that do not have radomes, and there is one at the Santa Fe Opera that does not, either. But that would make it approximately 90% of Verizon sites around here have Microwave backhaul. Modern microwave is a very good thing. It's just a wireless bridge to a fiber connection some place else. It's just a wireless way to extend fiber networks to sites that cannot connect to fiber directly. Don't get me wrong, there are disadvantages to microwave. But it's not really performance. Latency is only slightly affected. Let's take two LTE sites that are three miles apart along a highway. One is closer to the city and has a direct fiber connection for backhaul. The other is fed by a microwave connection back to the first tower and then connected to the fiber backhaul. The first tower with direct fiber backhaul will deliver to devices X milliseconds ping and X MB download speeds with ideal cell conditions and full signal. The second one, the one on the microwave backhaul, will deliver X+20 milliseconds ping and virtually no difference in download speed with same cell conditions and signal. Microwave does not really take a performance hit, until you start daisy chaining towers together or severe weather/smoke conditions. And some daisy chaining will occur, especially in rural highway locations. However, if you run all your microwave direct point to point to a central fiber backed switching station, it will perform beautifully. And new microwave standards and equipment can run speeds so far higher than any thing a modern LTE network will ever need, that it's not an issue. In the most simplest sense, microwave backhaul is just a wireless fiber bridge. Even if Sprint wanted to install an all fiber, or even majority fiber, backhaul solution for its network, it would take years to develop, order and run fiber to a majority of sites. Network Vision would be a 5 to 6 year program. Microwave is the best solution for backhaul for Sprint's needs now. Sprint is using a little fiber backhaul in NV, at sites where it is already available and they could secure it for a reasonable cost. Maybe around 10% to 15%? This all being said, I fully acknowledge that fiber is better than microwave in its simplest sense. You are all right there. But microwave is not a poor solution or insufficient solution in any regard. And the biggest determining factor of how fast and how well the microwave backhaul is going to perform at any given site is the fiber connection at the central switching location that is feeding all these sites. Not the microwave links themselves. - Robert

Space Odyssey

Sprint believes its not wasting money with these pre-NV band-aid fixes. They believe that they need to do something to keep their customer base from crossing the boiling point. And for 2013 NV markets, this work is definitely not a waste. And in later 2012 markets, it still probably a fair idea. However, in Atlanta (and other markets), while NV is going on? That does seem wasteful. But many of these capex improvements were ordered a long time ago. Like we mentioned in one of our Chicago articles, some of the T1's coming on line there were ordered almost a year ago! No. Network Vision was a new program. Sprint did not have the manpower on staff internally to deploy a program like this in the field. Sprint also handed over all its field site/network management to Ericsson. Sprint does have some oversight personnel, but they do not have their own crews. As much as I respect those guys at Sprint, this is definitely a good move by them. You pass on the burden and responsbility to your OEM's and their subcontractors with critical milestones and contract penalties. This will go much faster this way. Even A/L will perform better than Sprint would have if they tried to internally deploy NV. Undoubtedly, some N/V OEM's will do better than others. Having a competitve atmosphere where they are directly side by side will create the best result possible. Can you imagine if one of them got the whole national contract? This was a brilliant move by Sprint!

I love how Chuck Berry sings BAR-STOW (rhymes with cow)