WiWavelength

Why stop at three? Do four, five, even six separate signal bars. Meanwhile, the math and science challenged general public expresses a collective "Huh?" AJ

No. Generally, nothing cutting edge RF wise happens at the Sprint campus in Overland Park. The Lenexa lab is a far more likely target. AJ

Just use the Ronald Reagan defense. "I don't recall." "I cannot remember." AJ

Can "good news" and "Pahrump" be used together in the same sentence? AJ

Band 9 was created because it is just a slightly rejiggered version (FDD offset increased by 5 MHz) of what we in the CDMA2000 world have long referred to as band class 4 aka Korean PCS. Though relatively small in population, South Korea is one of the most important mobile markets on the planet. So, it got its own LTE subset band. AJ

Why is there an electric razor on the far right? AJ

No, it is not a perfect parallel, but it is highly appropriate. Say that I choose to add a premium service to my account. It does not work at home, but it does when I travel 50 miles up the road to Capital City. Should I not have to pay for it? AJ

I am sure that Robert will eventually chime in, but for now, I will speak for the staff. Many of us have not had time the past few months to the write the articles that we have roaming around our heads. For that reason and many others, we warmly welcome contributions to The Wall that are relevant and interesting to our readership. If you have an idea, run it by Robert first to get the go ahead. Then, write the article. If it is your first contribution, do expect a staff member -- probably me -- to copy edit your submission to ensure that it meets our standards. Once it is published, you are conferred the Contributing Author title and privileges for the next six months. AJ

Well, as I said, the Lower 700 MHz C block licenses were auctioned five years earlier -- while they were still encumbered by UHF TV and before anybody really knew what to do with them. So, no, AT&T could not have bought all of them. AT&T acquired its Lower 700 MHz C block spectrum on the secondary market. And it did acquire a lot, mainly via its transaction with Aloha. But other Lower 700 MHz C block licensees were not interested in selling, still are not interested in selling. AJ

Are you referring to the Lower 700 MHz C block licenses or the Upper 700 MHz C block licenses that VZW won? The Lower 700 MHz C block licenses were not included in Auction 73 in 2008. They were auctioned five years earlier. AJ

The "1700 MHz" listing is just a distorted shorthand used out of convenience. The proper nomenclature is my nomenclature, which I created back in 2006. AWS 2100+1700 MHz. But the reason why others emphasize only the "1700 MHz" part is to distinguish from IMT 2100+1900 MHz -- the primary W-CDMA band across most of the world. Still, "1700 MHz" alone is a poor choice of terminology, since both Japan and South Korea have 1700 MHz centric bands that have nothing to do with AWS. AJ

With a 10 MHz FDD band 13 LTE 750 carrier and a 10-20 MHz FDD band 4 LTE 2100+1700 carrier, who wants the 5 MHz FDD band 2 LTE 1900 carrier? That is like the runt of the litter. And that is my point. AJ

Pretty much. If the 2100 MHz downlink signal is lost, then the 1700 MHz uplink signal is rendered irrelevant. About the only thing that can be done to compensate for worse path loss characteristics on 2100 MHz than 1700 MHz is to turn up the power on the downlink. But T-Mobile seems not to have done that. If anything, users have complained about lower power on band 4 AWS than on band 2 PCS. AJ

Your network is still in testing phase. Or it has been configured incorrectly. Plenty of us use CDMA1X 800 for miles and miles through other cells that have not yet had CDMA1X 800 lit up. AJ

San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose proper is only a 20 MHz PCS A block market for Sprint, as it partitioned and disaggregated 10 MHz away a decade ago. So, no, a second LTE 1900 carrier is not an option anytime soon. That would take out of service four CDMA2000 carrier channel assignments, leaving only three possible carrier channels. The only relief will come from the 5 MHz FDD LTE 800 carrier and the 20 MHz TDD TD-LTE 2600 carrier. Of course, only tri band devices will be able to utilize those additional carriers. To be perfectly honest, some areas -- such as stadiums and arenas, possibly financial districts, too -- may be lost causes. Too many people, and people use too much mobile data. AJ

Whether it was ever deemed a "4G data" fee instead of a "premium data" fee is irrelevant. The fee was still justifiable. These are mobile devices -- anyone who did not live in a WiMAX market could still travel to a WiMAX market. The key was potential usage, not actual usage. For a parallel, if on my account I have a premium service, such as mobile hotspot, but I never use it, I still pay for it. The same is/was true of WiMAX and the whatever you want to call it fee. AJ

Of course, Sprint "really dropped the ball" because you never have anything positive to say. You are here just to rail against Sprint. Give it a rest or take it elsewhere. AJ

I just so happen to have secret surveillance footage of Robert in his recliner... AJ

I believe I stand vindicated in accurately describing the range of CDMA1X 800. Thank you very much... AJ

If HawaiiD is correct, it is actually "Coconut Telecom." Put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em both up. AJ

"sed to work with" might be the key phrase. Where is he now? I bet that guy never met a day of work that he liked. I bet he celebrated both 4:20 and beer thirty. AJ

Because CDMA1X is used for voice and SMS, only sparingly for data, interference is far less of a concern. Voice and SMS work fine even with relatively poor Ec/Io. AJ

Uh, no. Your "little bro" has had his Samsung Galaxy S3 for only a little more than a year -- at best. The handset was not released until last summer. AJ

Yes and no. Some of the $20,000 pro spectrum analyzers have the capability to capture and demodulate (but not decrypt) live traffic. That can certainly be used to assess loading. As for my basic $1500 analyzer, I can use it to discern when an LTE carrier is live but not active -- only the reference signal bearing subcarriers are present. But I cannot glean much about loading beyond zero loading. I am looking only at raw RF, not demodulated LTE, CDMA1X, EV-DO, W-CDMA, or even GSM. AJ

Yes, to an extent. But a carrier aggregation pairing of a PCS 1900 MHz uplink and a Lower 700 MHz downlink would not be a great combination, as it would not really take advantage of 700 MHz reception characteristics. AJ