mozamcrew

I was just about to ask that. The iPhone's (with BC 10 support) have been using PRL's that Android phones have been using for a while now. I believe AJ said they avoided 800 most likely because they operate in a Slotted Sleep State mode, so they would usually stick to 1900 (don't quote me on that though).

 

-Anthony

That may be true today, I just remember when the first BC10 iPhone came it out it was still using a PRL that had BC10 at a lower priority. This caused the phone to be scanning constantly for BC1 so it would switch back. There were lots of complaints at the time. This may have been fixed long ago, I just recall that this WAS in issue some time ago. My post was more about how the old PRL handed 1x800. I was more an interesting historical note than an attempt to solve the current issue. Sorry about the confusion.

The iPhones used to have a PRL that put 1x800 as a lower priority than 1900. Now the phones that support 1x800 apparently are using the same PRL as android phones. On this PRL 1x800 is higher on the scan list, but at the same priority (meaning the phone won't go scanning for 1900 if it has a decent 800 connection, or the other way around).

My question would be "how hard is it to actually retune the gear?"  I'm assuming the 850 MHz gear will need to be replaced when 2G/3G is sunset in that band anyway, but is most of the 700 MHz gear the type that could theoretically get a software update and then be easily shifted by a few MHz?

 

And I'm wondering if with some creative shifting in 700 MHz, you couldn't squeeze a 5x5 out of it.  Recall that Verizon is sitting on 11 MHz wide channels as well, and there's D and E block each on 6 MHz.  That means you've got a total of 10 MHz sitting there with nothing going on, just scattered throughout 700 MHz.

 

- Trip

Antennas are antennas, you can broadcast or recieve any technology through them. They would still be supporting the same range of spectrum, it would just be divided up differently. It would be the basestations that would have to be updated. 

based on talk that was happening in the B26 thread in the premier section it sounds like its a network issue. There were posts from people in there that were saying they would be on perfectly good working B26 connections and then all of the sudden they were kicked down to 3G. i don't have any advice, just wanted to pass along that others have posted recently about the same issues.

 

it could be market/vendor related, in my area, which is a samsung market, i do not have this issue and neither does anyone else i know on sprint.

I'm suddenly having the same issue. My phone would hit about -115 RSRP on band 25 as I would enter my office at work. For the last month it would simply jump over to band 26 with an RSRP of -105 or so. Now this week, I can't seem to connect to band 26 anymore. Now I'm being bumped to EHRPD instead. Perhaps band 26 was disabled on the site?

Why? Trip is referring to the Lower 700 MHz band, and it would be a relatively easy reconfiguration.

The current 6 MHz FDD/TDD blocks simply followed the UHF TV channelization. But that is pointless in an LTE world that has 5 MHz FDD/TDD as its closest match, leaving 1 MHz fallow per block. If each Lower 700 MHz A/B/C block were sensibly reduced to 5 MHz FDD/TDD and shifted, then a new AA, BB, or CC block could be added. It would be 3 MHz FDD, which would match a current LTE configuration, and it would remain in band 12. I would advocate the BB block in between the A and B blocks.
AJ

I'm not against redoing 700Mhz, but between the two, there is much more to gain from reworking the 850Mhz licenses (5x5) than from 700Mhz (3x3). Also, you can use the relicensing of 850Mhz to address markets where one provider holds both sides of the license. Incumbent providers of the A or B license would each recieve neighboring 5x5 blocks (10x10) in the new arrangement, leaving a new 5x5 block to be auctioned off. In markets where the incumbent holds both sides of the license, they would be given a third block, so they would have 15x15, thus freeing up two 5x5 blocks for other carriers. Also, no company would be allowed to acquire more than 30Mhz of cell 850 spectrum from this point forward.

We just got 700Mhz deployed. Let's wait until VoLTE is mature and then we can go back and create this 3x3 channel in 700Mhz.

Even if the timeline doesn't slip any more, I wouldn't expect 600 MHz to become available until 2020.  Suppose auction applications are accepted in January 2016.  If the auction itself is completed by June 2016, there's still a 39-month build-out period for the TV side of things, which means the spectrum isn't actually available for construction until September 2019.  And that assumes, of course, that enough broadcasters jump in to make the auction work at all, and leaves aside the possibility of any other delays.

 

I do agree with Conan Kudo that the 850 MHz band should be worked on.  Currently, there are two cellular licenses in that band, each having 12.5 MHz, but those licenses are not contiguous, which means some of the spectrum will probably be wasted.  If the band was to be tweaked into 5 MHz block pairs once the 2G/3G sunset arrives, giving each incumbent two of the five, you could auction the fifth block pair.  Similarly, the 700 MHz band uses 6 MHz block pairs when 5 MHz would be more appropriate.  There is enough wasted space there that if you shifted everyone slightly, you could extract at least one more 5 MHz block pair out of the band.

 

- Trip

Not a fan of redoing the 700Mhz band, but the 850Mhz band change looks like a great idea to me.

I've been hesitant in doing that since I've heard tons of negative feedback from others that the reps either don't know or are hesitant in giving out or won't and very few others like yourself whom had luck getting it. 

 

What will I need to let them know in order to get it.

Whenever I activate a phone, I've always gotten an email with the MSL in it. I always save the email for this very reason.

 

When the WiFi Calling is live, the CDMA turns off completely.

No surprise there, my HTC M8 does the same thing. Once it establishes a solid connection to Sprint for wifi calling, it disables the CDMA radio. I suppose you might as well save some battery.

They own a lot more sub 1ghz spectrum nationwide but they do not have more spectrum than tmobile in areas where tmobile has acquired 700a(6x6 vs 7x7).

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Isn't that backwards? The 700a is 6x6, which is all the sub 1Ghz spectrum that TMUS has, and in about half of the US they don't even have that. Sprint is actually in a better position outside of the IBEZ and the southeast if we are going by Robert's map. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5413-sprint-800mhz-spectrum-map-work-in-progress/

True, but if the choice is between pulling funds out of a good investment to pay for a car -- and I wouldn't leave them sitting in a savings account with piddling interest rates -- or pulling out only a down payment and taking a sub-3% loan, the latter makes sense to me. In fact, that is what I just did a couple weeks ago when we replaced our 12 year old car.

 

Paying cash is my preference generally, and I use my credit card sparsely and mainly for convenience, but I do consider the options in front of me each time.

Think of it this way; paying cash on the car is a GUARANTEED return because you will be guaranteed to "make" whatever the interest rate was for financing the car. You can't compare a risky and risk free rates of return as if they are apples to apples, but at some point yeah, if the financing cost is low enough compared to what you'd make investing it (adjusting for the risk), then it totally makes sense to finance.

Pretty sure I read somewhere that VZ is in the early testing phases of LTE on CLR 850, but it probably won't happen for awhile. It takes a long time to refarm such valuable spectrum.

While most carriers built out their inital LTE builds on newly purchased/acquired spectrum (700Mhz, AWS, PCS G) eventually they will all end up transitioning most of the spectrum currently providing 2G/3G services to providing additional LTE capacity.

I expect it to hover around $25. It will also depend on how much they will end up spending on the auction. T-Mobile had pretty low debt but they will end up with quite a bit of it after this auction. Nowhere near Sprint's of course...

Plus they have been spending a lot of money to get 700Mhz spectrum as well.

And just as a refresher....SMS/MMS over LTE is possible by a thing called, "Message Transfer over IMS" (IP Multimedia Subsystem). The functionality of this is to provide legacy "Switched" services over an IP Network (ie. LTE). The IMS can be used for Voice, SMS, MMS, etc. by sending them over an IP Link from the UE (User Equipment/Handest) to a gateway. Then the gateway converts it back to a "Circuit Switched" service back at the MSC (or wherever the IMS Gateway is for Sprint). Right now Sprint is only using this for SMS/MMS, but it can and will be utilized for the transition from "Circuit Switched Voice" to VoLTE to connect back to the PSTN Network. This is why were still using eSCFB (FOR CALLS ONLY) think of the name... Circuit Switched FALL BACK (Falls back to the Circuit Switched network) for the call. eCSFB does not provide the SMS/MMS Link. It only switches you back to 3G For a Circuit Switched service that cannot be provided over IP.

 

Now for the IP Link, think of it like a SIP Link. It converts the SMS/MMS to a SIP type address and forwards it out to the gateway for processing. All done over IP. If you fall back to 3G/1x...then it goes back to the old Circuit Switched method...It was designed this way for seamless use while on LTE and for the ease of expanding into an all IP Network.

 

AJ...You may correct me if i'm wrong....

 

Kris

I think IMS is also what Sprint is using to support WI-Fi calling as well.

Remember that person in Minnesota who got service in their home from Sprint and they never had native Sprint service before. Sprint may be expanding after all.

Frankly, when Hesse took over for Forsee, Sprint was hemmoraging money due to the initial failings of both the Nextel merger (plus the need to buy out affiliates) and Clearwire venture. They now had customers on 2 incompatible networks that had to be maintained, not to mention customer defection due to poor customer service, as well are relying on Clearwire as the fix for the coming data boom. Hesse's and his team were basically there to stop the bleeding. Fixing a network is expensive and takes time (especially when you have to reband spectrum first) so they started with customer service improvements in an effort to keep existing customers in the fold, outsourcing network management to Ericsson to save money, all while planning what eventually became Network Vision. Frankly, Sprint just didn't have the money at that time to be adding cell sites in any significant way. They couldn't afford to maintain and improve the 2 networks they already had. They had to form Clearwire as a separete company with additional backers just to get the money to start the WiMax buildout. They were bleeding money and they knew they would be needing money to finance Network Vision.

Since they folded the Nextel network and started Network Vision, they have been able to add new sites or convert selected Nextel sites to improve coverage in and around their existing service areas. I think Sprint will continue this strategy for the most part.

When we talk about the buildout in the Dakotas and Montana, that is being done primarily because of the buildout requirements for the PCS G block. In a different time where Sprint was less financially sound, I think they would have done the minimum required buildout with just a site or two in each market's biggest town or towns, much like Clearwire did. Now that Softbank is on board and you have more stable financing, I think you are seeing that they are willing to at least make sure they have solid coverage along the interstates and the cities that they passes through.

It looks like my wife has changed her mind and willing to go up there after church on Sunday. Looks like we are a go! Woohoo!

 

Using Tapatalk on BlackBerry Z30

How much ground are you going to cover?

If ~6,000 WiMax sites will be decommissioned as the article says, that leaves ~11,000 sites that Sprint will retain and convert to Network Vision. That's good news.

I'm guessing those 6000 sites are sites where both Sprint and Clear had separate leases on the same site, or they are Clear protection sites where Sprint won't need the added Clear sites for density/coverage once they do 8t8r on all the current Sprint sites.

No doubt that the amount of spectrum Sprint has is an advantage, that's not what I was saying. 

 

The question was what advantage does high frequency spectrum have over low frequency spectrum. Which when looking at the propagation characteristics, the answer is none. 

That's not entirely true, when you have very dense cell sites, higher frequency spectrum is adventaegous because it's easier to reuse without running into interfence issues. The very things that make lower frequency great for improving coverage also make it a pain when it comes to interference with neighboring cell sites.

I guess I'm fine with the iPhone plan including non-leased devices because it's only a temporary promotion. If they planned on keeping such a difference permanently, then I might be more annoyed. I think it's probably designed to encourage iPhone users to migrate to the new triband iPhone 6 devices. The sooner we get iPhone users moved to band 41 capable devices, the better.

 

But being in the sweet spot where you are in the band switcheroo zone can be painful at times.  At least on Sprint Android Triband device owners can adjust their band scan priorities and cycle airplane mode with some shot at getting back to B41 or B26.  On AT&T, you have no options but to be tossed too and fro.  I believe I did read once that the HTC One M8 allows turn off of certain bands, though.

 

The M8 does indeed allow you to disable bands. It requires your MSL and a reboot to accomplish. But that's how I forced my phone to band 26 only so I could get good screenshots for band 26 reporting. Otherwise, when you get that close to the cell site it wants to switch you back to band 25.

I may have misunderstood the rebanding. It's not clear who has/will have the licenses to the 812.5-813.5 and 857.5-858.5 area, which is referred to as the "expansion band" in the rebanding. As I understand it, non-public safety users in that band don't have to move, but they have a strong incentive to do so since they won't be protected from interference if they stay.

 

As far as I can understand things, when rebanding is done Sprint + SouthernLINC should hold everything between 813.5-824 MHz and 858.5-860 MHz in the southeast. That gives us 10.5x10.5 to play with, if nobody gets the expansion band. With carrier aggregation, probably the winning option would be three 3x3 LTE carriers and a 1xA carrier. With the expansion band, the plan above works.

 

The only other tricky thing I've noticed is that while officially BC10 does extend all the way to 806/851, the specs on Sprint's devices say "secondary 800" starts at 817/862 and may not actually be certified to operate on lower frequencies. If that's the case then the best that can be done is the "interim" arrangement of LTE 5x5 + LTE 3x3 + 1xA, at least until 1x is switched off, unless band 27 starts to find its way onto devices.

 

My understanding was in that areas that had both SOLinc and Sprint, ESMR band starts at 814 instead of 817. SoLinc would be given from 814-817 and Sprint from 817-824. So you would have 3x3 SoLinc LTE, 5x5 Sprint LTE, and hopefully a CDMA 1xA carrier in Sprint's spectrum as well. But assuming Solinc still has some narrow band licenses below 814Mhz, they would be able to continue to run iDen from that spectrum?

The last trick up their sleeve: once iDEN is off completely, or at least all on 900, Sprint + SouthernLINC can reband their combined 800 ESMR as 1.4x1.4 1xA + 5x5 LTE + 5x5 LTE or 1.4x1.4 1xA + 10x10 LTE (my hunch is the former, since band 26 is the capacity band rather than the bandwidth band); band class 10 for CDMA starts at 806 MHz, so the CDMA carrier can go below band 26 leaving all 10x10 available for LTE in band 26.

 

 Does SOLinc have enough spectrum below 814Mhz to put a CDMA carrier throughout their territory?

so today i turned on my old Samsung SII  that i have in the drawer. (i currently have an iPhone) and i signal check pro keeps saying I'm connecting to Vesta, MN via 1x800 and damn near a full signal. but it shows up for 2 seconds then goes away. does that mean they are working on it currently to have it up and running? what are the time lines on these kind of things with new towers. 

If Sprint can't authenticate the device then it probably kicks it off the network?

4.9" - 5.3" screen size is my preferred range in a smartphone. Maybe 5.5" with nearly zero bezel. Note 2 was slightly too big for my taste.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I'd like something between the HTC Evo 4G LTE at 4.7in. and the One M8 at 5in.

The 25 percent is a sound figure of merit.  I have long said that if I were Spectrum Czar, I would have prohibited any operator from licensing greater than 25 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses.  But, as it stands, VZW and AT&T each hold nearly 50 percent of all Cellular 850 MHz licenses, firmly cementing themselves as the duopoly.

 

AJ

What is MORE bothersome to me, is how they were allowed to acquire both sides of the license in some markets!

This has been a very interesting thread.

 

I think it really shows that Dan Hesse seemed to be a big believer that overages were the #1 cause of voluntary churn - so no hard caps - when you are charging on parity with AT&T/VZN, this makes sense.

 

Masa is obviously taking a different approach focusing more on price and stripping out some of the services, which makes sense.  I think the new lower price points are pretty interesting.

 

I don't think one way is necessarily better than another but I will say as a Sprint subscriber, roaming has really saved my arse more than once and it's one of the big reasons why I've never left sprint.  That being said, I don't think I'll have issues having 300MB of roaming - most of the time it's used for google navigation driving through rural areas.

I've simply gone ahead and disabled data roaming while leaving voice roaming on. This way if I need to call/text I still have that option (and I will know I'm roaming when I decide to do these things), but I won't get stuck with some background data putting me over the cap.