WiWavelength

Now, for Elizabeth City, NC's Big 4 + USCC spectrum rundown... VZW: Cellular 850 MHz: 25 MHz PCS 1900 MHz: 20 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 40 MHz Upper 700 MHz: 22 MHz AT&T: PCS 1900 MHz: 40 MHz Lower 700 MHz: 18 MHz WCS 2300 MHz: 30 MHz Sprint: PCS 1900 MHz: 30 MHz SMR 800 MHz: 14 MHz BRS 2600 MHz: 55.5 MHz T-Mobile: PCS 1900 MHz: 20 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 20 MHz USCC: Cellular 850 MHz: 25 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 20 MHz Lower 700 MHz: 12 MHz And, again, many of the usual limitations (currently unusable spectrum, pending transactions) apply. AJ

In increasing order of area, wireless licenses generally follow this pattern: CMA (which is based on MSA), BTA, BEA, MTA, REA. All full (non partitioned) Sprint licenses are MTA (PCS 1900 MHz A-B block, SMR 900 MHz), BTA (PCS 1900 MHz C-F block, BRS 2600 MHz), or BEA (SMR 800 MHz, PCS 1900 MHz G block). AJ

Okay, as promised, here is Sacramento's Big 4 spectrum rundown... VZW: Cellular 850 MHz: 25 MHz PCS 1900 MHz: 10 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 30 MHz Upper 700 MHz: 22 MHz Lower 700 MHz: 12 MHz AT&T: Cellular 850 MHz: 25 MHz PCS 1900 MHz: 45 MHz Lower 700 MHz: 30 MHz WCS 2300 MHz: 30 MHz Sprint: PCS 1900 MHz: 30 MHz SMR 800 MHz: 14 MHz BRS 2600 MHz: 55.5 MHz T-Mobile: PCS 1900 MHz: 25 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 40 MHz Now, most/all of the same caveats that I listed at the end of the Los Angeles rundown apply. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/3218-fcc-rejects-requests-to-delay-softbanksprint-deal-review/page__view__findpost__p__104946 AJ

Keep reminding me. I still have more spectrum analysis data to gather, then an article to write. I am eager to do it. I just need to find the time. AJ

The bulk of the data that I have in my records is for the top 100 markets. Both Sacramento and Norfolk are top 100. That said, with a little bit of additional research, I can do any market. So, we can switch Norfolk with Elizabeth City (Pasquotank County), no problem. AJ

How about this? I will do Sacramento and Norfolk tomorrow morning. I have some data already but will need to double check a few licenses. No matter, each metro should take no more than half an hour, so that is very doable. AJ

Article or doctoral dissertation? I kid, I kid. And I appreciate the interest. I have produced several dozen documents/spreadsheets that rundown particular carriers' spectrum holdings on market by market bases. But I have never done so for all domestic carriers in all markets. Such would be a Herculean task that would require massive data mining and human review. I wish that I could focus my energies on geographic and/or engineering based wireless issues full time. (Anyone reading, I am available.) But the fact is that I can do so only in my spare time. Teaching/tutoring pays the bills and buys things like spectrum analyzers. Then, I do what I can to satisfy my own curiosities and, hopefully, a few of yours, too. Now, if you have a specific request -- one that I can answer or research in a few minutes to a few hours -- I am all ears. Fire away, and I will do what I can do. AJ

Not that it will matter, but the EVO LTE is one of the early LTE handsets, and it supports 10 MHz FDD carriers, too. The 5 MHz FDD limitation seems to be a Sprint-Samsung phenomenon. See our series of FCC OET device authorization breakdown articles: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-333-sur-la-tablet-apple-ipad-4-ipad-mini-add-sprint-lte-support/ AJ

"The towers are weird like that." AJ

Though I could be dead wrong, the T-Mobile proposal is a pipe dream. TV/DT broadcasters are not going to give up that many channels -- at least, not in urban areas where bandwidth actually matters. Any 600 MHz spectrum is going to be, at best, more limited than the T-Mobile band plan and geographically varied. AJ

Yes, we have at least a little bit of nearly everything. Here you go: AJ

My pleasure. If you ask who holds what spectrum where, I almost cannot resist the urge to answer from memory, check my charts, or research the info. I like to think of myself as the go to guy for licensed spectrum holdings. But that is inflating my ego a bit much. AJ

Here is my back of the napkin math. A 10 MHz FDD carrier with 2x2 MIMO is capable of 73 Mbps on the downlink. A 10 MHz TDD carrier should expect roughly 10 percent loss simply due to guard periods in between downlink and uplink slots. Then, additionally, subtract the percentage of time allotted to the uplink. Even if the uplink allocation is pared down to the absolute bare minimum, 60 Mbps on the downlink seems like a stretch in 10 MHz TDD. But maybe the actual peak speeds are in the 55 Mbps range, and Prusch is rounding up. Regardless, I need to do more research on the TD-LTE standard to better understand the variability between downlink and uplink time allocations. AJ

No, Pittsburgh is a separate market. The Western Pennsylvania market does include Erie and State College, but it really extends more into the central part of the state, even into far western Maryland. See our Sprint market map: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/page/index.html/_/articles/nationwide-sprint-market-map-is-here-r31 AJ

Yep, hold music is the quintessential example -- though, it may be a stretch to call it music any longer. Compare to MP3 or AAC. A low bit rate file still runs 32-64 kbps per channel. EVRC averages something on the order of 5 kbps per channel. It just goes to show what a remarkable job these vocoders do precisely because they are not audio codecs. They are optimized to take advantage of the characteristics and redundancies inherent to voice. AJ

Honestly, I would prefer that Prusch's stated peak downlink speeds be referenced to 2x2 MIMO, as 4x4 MIMO is going to be basically an edge case for still a while to come. Oh well, we will get some greater clarity on TD-LTE in the coming months. If Clearwire does not say whether it is using 10 MHz TDD or 20 MHz TDD carriers, my spectrum analyzer will. AJ

As as request to everyone, if you see LTE signal stats displayed on Mike's excellent app but cannot connect to LTE, please crosscheck your internal LTE engineering screen. My experience is that the LTE engineering screen will not display LTE signal stats if the site is still barred. But the API may still report those LTE metrics, and Mike's app may still display them. With a few crosschecks, we can likely make a solid deduction. AJ

Sure. I warmly welcome ideas. What kind of spectrum article interests you? AJ

Possible, but I am skeptical that you could get 60 Mbps downlink out of a 10 MHz TDD LTE carrier with 2x2 MIMO. I found Prusch's statements ambiguous, but my guess is a 20 MHz TDD LTE carrier with a significant percentage of time allocated to the uplink. Though I could be wrong, I suspect he is using "spectrum resources" as synonymous with time for a TDD airlink. AJ

Have you ever heard music over a QCELP or EVRC vocoder? Let us just say that the inherent voice optimization and noise reduction do not do any favors to music reproduction. AJ

Doing a quick glance over my records, these are the Big 4 spectrum holdings that I have for the Los Angeles market: VZW: Cellular 850 MHz: 25 MHz PCS 1900 MHz: 20 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 20 MHz Upper 700 MHz: 22 MHz Lower 700 MHz: 24 MHz AT&T: Cellular 850 MHz: 25 MHz PCS 1900 MHz: 40 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 20 MHz Lower 700 MHz: 24 MHz WCS 2300 MHz: 30 MHz Sprint: PCS 1900 MHz: 40 MHz SMR 800 MHz: 14 MHz BRS 2600 MHz: 55.5 MHz T-Mobile: PCS 1900 MHz: 20 MHz AWS 2100+1700 MHz: 40 MHz Some of these holdings are apt to change a bit in the coming months, though, due to pending transactions involving T-Mobile, MetroPCS, VZW, and AT&T. Also, not all of this spectrum is currently usable (e.g. WCS 2300 MHz, some Lower 700 MHz). And this accounting does not include Sprint's unattributable BRS 2600 MHz spectrum nor its EBS 2600 MHz spectrum, as the latter is only leased on a site basis. AJ

Hmm... AJ

Yeah, worry not. Much of that traffic will get shunted to PCS 1900 MHz in some way, shape, or form. AJ

Right. Few, if any new towers would be required. But Dish would still have to set up new leases, backhaul, base stations, and panels. By pairing with an existing carrier, Dish would be trying to pare down the "to do" list to just a subset of the aforementioned. AJ

The latter. AJ