mozamcrew

Also, Sprint invested in CDMA 1x Advanced technology as part of their Network Vision project, so in many ways not only is their LTE network relatively less comprehensive compared to Verizon, but because Sprint chose to update their CDMA network, they have less incentive to push calling and SMS data off of CDMA. Given their position in terms of coverage and the time and money it is going to take for them to have a dense network, they probably made the right decision FOR SPRINT. Verizon basically build their LTE network independent of their CDMA network. I mean they may have used existing tower leases acquired for their CDMA network for some of it, but LTE got it's own backhaul, equipment, & greenfield 700Mhz/AWS spectrum. Basically, Verizon built their LTE network to replace their CDMA network. As far as Verizon is concerned, the CDMA network gets minimal CapEx. They are going to do just enough to keep it running until they completely kill it off. The PCS spectrum and Cellular spectrum will eventually get repurposed for LTE down the road. But for now, they are just going to let the CDMA network kick along until it's time to completely kill it in the next decade.

I'm seeing a lot of griping on here about how Sprint has slashed it's expected CapEx number all the way down to 3 Billion is a sign of collapse. Didn't anyone read the earnings report?? This was addressed in one of the questions. They said some of the taper from 2015 to 2016 is from the completion of network vision, and that this was expected since one of the selling points of NV was to reduce future capital and operating costs. But the biggest cause of the "reduction" was mostly that the bills from network densification are basically going to be a quarter or two later than planned, pushing some of them into the first part of 2017. So it's not that they are going to be reducing the amount of CapEx they were planning, it's just that money that was expected to be paid in late 2016 will be shifted partially into early 2017.

James Valley Telecommunication is an RRRP partner there....

I would love to by an M9 on clearance at half price...

Counter Measure

I guess I think the idea of clearing channels below 37 is just stupid anyhow..

Inside out

Man, it continues to be a hard year on musicians...

The more I look, the more I would be willing to overlook the removal of the bottom speaker from the front, but I still can't stand having the headphone jack on top.

Sorry, I was trying to say it is on the bottom of the M8 and M9, which is where I prefer it to be.

Sprint is opting to densify their network, rather than purchasing more spectrum. Given their situation, I think it's the right business move.

Ok, but if you have to keep that bezel there, why not leave the speaker on the front instead of on the bottom. Makes no sense...

So they got rid of having the front facing speaker on the bottom. Dumb, I mean if they had decided to increase the screen real estate you could make the argument... but they put a big physical button there so you don't gain any space. But you still need virtual buttons for back and menu.... Makes no sense. Plus it looks basically indistinguishable from a Samsung phone in front. And the headphone jack gets moved to the bottom... Maybe I'll just buy an M9 on clearance.

Strong Suit

Nth Degree.

My brother is moving to Helena, so hopefully I'll get a chance to map it this year.

Government monopolies and regulated monopolies generally are good at providing a uniform level of service at a reasonable initial cost, since you only build the network once and capture all users. Their trouble is that once they establish that monopoly position, they tend to become less and less competitive over time because they don't have to compete in a marketplace. This means higher costs and fewer choices for customers. Governments, and the things they control, operate in a political/judicial world, where perceived correctness is valued much higher than choice and cost. This is great when you are trying a man for murder, when the consequences of failure are very high, but sometimes you'd rather have more choices and lower cost and just suffer the occasional error. Hence the old ATT limiting customers the single model of phone they supplied. Monopolies just don't have to care much about customer choice and cost, thus what you get is a slow creep of prices, beyond what you would see even in limited competition, and slowness to adopt to changes in what customers might want from the service.. I mean where else will the customer go, especially if the monopoly is geographically expansive. Now, given the choice between a single large teleco monopoly, like the old Qwest, and much smaller local government or coop monopoly, I'd take the smaller one ten times out of ten, simply because you will get better service and it will be easier to leave their service territory.

open market

Down town

new management

Crash Cart

Well the one in Moorhead had two carriers the other week. I'm assuming they all will get two carriers at this point when they roll band 41 to a site.

10th St N in Fargo?

The Montana stuff is native Sprint. The stuff in Western/Central ND and all SD is partnership.

I can totally see Sprint doing LTE-M with the "leftover" 800Mhz spectrum once it finally shuts down CDMA completely, but there are a few reasons why Sprint will clear CDMA from PCS before 800Mhz. LTE-M will require new equipment I'm sure, and Sprint will want to maximize the value of its existing equipment first, so that means PCS clears first, because the gains from clearing from PCS can be had without new radios and equipment. Also, when Sprint clears PCS, it will be able to do 4x4 MIMO in PCS on existing radios/antennas, which will provide additional capacity with the same amount of spectrum. Also, LTE gets RELATIVELY less efficient vs CDMA as you shrink down the size of the contiguous spectrum. Freeing up the last CDMA carriers in PCS will give you a whole 5x5 of PCS spectrum, and in many places they will be able to use it to widen an existing PCS LTE block. Whereas freeing up that last little CDMA career in 800Mhz doesn't buy you anything but a 1.4Mhz carrier or two. Given those factors, I maintain that Sprint will likely clear CDMA from PCS before 800Mhz.