WiWavelength

Move this to the relevant market thread. It is not a widespread issue. AJ

The phoneArena report is rife with problems. If it had to be defended in higher academia, it would get trashed. As maxsilver points out, the OpenSignal data set is likely biased. Bar none, Sprint LTE upload speeds do not exceed download speeds -- except on heavily congested sites. And heavily congested Sprint sites are not the norm across the country. Moreover, the constantly shifting scales on the graphs are a big no no. phoneArena is out to exaggerate differences as clickbait. For example, look at the LTE latency graph. It is ostensibly intended to make Sprint look poor, AT&T look good. But the average difference between the two is only 20 ms, which corresponds to just a 21 percent change from Sprint to AT&T. Put the latency graph on a legitimate 0-100 ms scale, and the actual differences become apparent. That is real science. AJ

A few thoughts... Uplink carrier aggregation has the potential to be a real power hog, since the mobile would be actively transmitting two or even three separate uplinks. That is a key reason why W-CDMA and LTE oft have implemented downlink carrier aggregation but not uplink carrier aggregation. Now, 4 Mbps uplink throughput is actually pretty decent. You will not greatly eclipse that on the ubiquitous 5 MHz FDD band 25/26 carriers. You are also using a low signal illustration to make your point. Try that low signal example with any LTE carrier from any operator, and the uplink is going to be slowed because of path loss. If the 20 MHz TDD band 41 uplink speeds really do become a problem, Sprint can pursue several possible solutions that do not involve uplink carrier aggregation. As 3x carrier aggregation becomes common next year, Sprint can adjust the TDD ratio to trade some of the excessive 300 Mbps downlink capacity for greater uplink capacity. Further down the road, as Sprint refarms PCS spectrum for additional 5/10 MHz FDD band 25 carriers, it can use FDD+TDD carrier aggregation, keeping the uplink on the band 25 carriers. In the near term, this worry over uplink carrier aggregation seems like much ado about nothing. Most people -- general public, network testers, even e-penis stretchers -- tend to focus their attention on downlink speeds far more than they do uplink speeds. And their network usage patterns bear this out. Look at speed tests from congested LTE sites. Quite often, the downlink has dropped to disappointingly low speeds, yet the uplink is still humming along a few Mbps higher. The demand is simply much greater on the downlink. AJ

You have also posted four speed test results in the past week alone. It seems like most of your posts recently have been about speed tests. AJ

What are you trying to show/prove? Why do you post so many speed tests? There is no need to do so. For those 45 seconds every time you run a speed test, you create the equivalent of yet another big rig tractor trailer on a highway. Multiply that by others in your area running speed tests shortly before, after, or at the same time as you. All have needlessly occupied network capacity -- sometimes to the point of network congestion. AJ

You do not need a phone line. Here is your home security system... AJ

Not this again. Basically, you are insinuating that a mobile technology does not really matter until Apple embraces it and makes the hoi polloi feel they need it. And you do not see this as a problem? AJ

A cell site could pump out a gigawatt transmission on the downlink, but that would not matter if it could not receive a milliwatt transmission on the uplink because of path loss. The error in thinking is that the amount of transmitted power is the key. Instead, the amount of received power is the issue. AJ

A majority is not the point. For example, a majority of Sprint subs have been fine with the company, the network, the service, etc., during implementation of the Network Vision initiative. But it is largely the unhappy, vocal minority that give Sprint its currently poor reputation. In the poll for the TmoNews article, over 20 percent of the respondents have been unhappy with the forced plan changes. That is a significant percentage. Also, some of the commenters have reason to believe that T-Mobile employees/astroturfers have been intentionally skewing the poll results and comments in T-Mobile's favor. If true, that could indicate the minority percentage is actually even greater. In the end, why does this matter? It shows that T-Mobile (and its "un-carrier" shtick) is not the greatest thing since sliced bread -- despite any marketing campaign or tech press celebration to the contrary. And, about these plan changes, many T-Mobile users feel that John Legere lied to them -- the same charge that gets lobbed at Sprint regarding many things. Now, personally, I have little sympathy for these affected users -- because most of them seem to be or have been on grossly inexpensive and/or perk laden "unlimited" data plans that are out of whack for the LTE smartphone era. Regardless, this goes to show that the current Magenta cause célèbre still has a whole lot of users who feel wronged or dissatisfied. AJ

If you want a good chuckle, read the few hundred comments following this article: http://www.tmonews.com/2014/12/are-you-happy-with-t-mobile-moving-you-from-legacy-to-simple-choice-or-new-plans/ Not everything is beautiful at T-Mobile and TmoNews. Some Magentans are in the pink, others in the stink. AJ

The most recent AT&T compatible handsets seems to be aggregating band 2/4 + band 17 -- in that order. So, band 2/4 is the PCC, while band 17 is only the SCC. It is a fakakta carrier aggregation combination, but it may address your concern about protecting band 17 for path loss compromised users. AJ

Yup. TDD is no different from FDD in that regard. A 20 MHz TDD carrier still has 100 RBs. AJ

I doubt that you have to worry about that. I do not recall that 3GPP has even standardized band 25 + band 26 carrier aggregation. No standard, no dice. AJ

Eh, Category 9 may make a difference to Sprint Spark carrier aggregation. With respect to LTE UE categories, maximum throughput capabilities usually arise from simultaneous Resource Block limitations. For example, just because a mobile is compatible with a 20 MHz FDD carrier does not mean that it is capable of simultaneously accessing all 100 RBs. That depends on the LTE UE category. But simultaneously accessing all RBs is necessary for maximum throughput. And to continue to use the 20 MHz FDD carrier example, maximum throughput in a 2x2 MIMO configuration is 150 Mbps. Category 6 apparently cannot scale that full RB usage across all three aggregated carriers, but Category 9 can. AJ

Thread cleanup, please. S4GRU does not need general "What's This?" threads. Post in the relevant market threads. AJ

No, the PCC probably should be band 17, but it would not have to be band 17 -- that depends upon the device. The Nexus 6, for example, supports carrier aggregation with only band 2 or band 4 as the PCC. AJ

Ask mikejeep. But I doubt it. SignalCheck is likely limited to reading the PCC -- the SCC, if any, is unknown. AJ

We shall see. "Unlimited" data may never go away, but it should carry a premium price, even an ever increasing premium price -- because "unlimited" data is going to see ever increasing usage. And grandfathered "unlimited" data plans, which are becoming way too cheap by now, should be phased out at the time of device upgrades or contract expirations. Those who need "unlimited" data will have to afford it. Others will learn to live within their means -- so that they do not detrimentally affect everyone else on a shared resource. AJ

Sprint is already in Cuba. AJ

Get him a lentil or a raisin. AJ

Eh, you have a history of trolling this thread, and you were suspended for that about a year ago. So, your reputation is established. S4GRU is not Sprint. S4GRU does not host Sprint complaints. And S4GRU members do not want to hear about your Sprint problems -- that no one here can fix. Direct those concerns to Sprint customer service. AJ

That is the difference in over four years of chipset and device development. AJ

I think that is called the Google Play beta "Tuck Rule." AJ

Your post has no relevance to anything that Neal or I wrote. You repeatedly post nowhere but this thread just to tell us how well T-Mobile is working for you. Good for you. But consider this your final warning: stop loitering at S4GRU. AJ

Before I posted previously, I checked both our Sprint maps and our Clearwire maps. Altadena has a significantly greater number of Clearwire sites than Sprint sites. It is an interesting dichotomy -- especially as Clearwire got such a generally bad rap for WiMAX coverage. AJ