WiWavelength

A new line? See Rocket87's explanation below. If not a new line, just a device switch, then what you were told was incorrect. For start of service, almost all utilities charge some type of activation fee. That is just a fact of life. I do not see why Sprint should have to be different. AJ

Has Sprint ever itemized it as an "Activation Fee"? If so, not any longer. The last time I saw it on my bill, it was itemized as an "Upgrade Fee." So, let us use the correct terminology. And, honestly, I do not have a problem with an upgrade fee. On contract subsidy upgrades, Sprint has to pay commission to its associates or third parties. The $36 can go toward that. If you have a problem with it, do not use subsidized upgrades, do not rely on Sprint for your handset procurement. BYOD, simple as that. Or can you lease or use Easy Pay? Do those incur upgrade fees? AJ

In typical fashion, the article comments are a hot mess of T-Mobile apologetics. The usual suspects, unsurprisingly, have adopted the Legere EFF defense: Who the fuck are you, anyway, Stanford lady? Why are you stirring up so much trouble, and who pays you? AJ

No, not spectrum inefficient. WiMAX can be operated with unity frequency reuse. But Clearwire did not deploy it that way. AJ

I would say yes. State or even national laws will be crafted to require an unimpaired driver be prepared to take control of the vehicle if the autonomy system should disengage. Think of it like a commercial airliner -- when on autopilot, pilot and/or copilot still must be seated in the cockpit. AJ

Sex. Yes, it will happen a lot. If this autonomous car is a rockin', don't come a knockin'. AJ

Keep in mind that "3G" can be either CDMA1X or EV-DO. Did SignalCheck Pro show both CDMA1X and EV-DO connections on VZW? AJ

VZW EV-DO roaming is not nationwide. Rather, Sprint opened up more VZW EV-DO roaming markets in the PRL. They do not cover the entire VZW footprint, however. AJ

Ah, so many providers in the grand metropolis of Carbondale. No, wait, Metropolis is about 50 miles south. AJ

Yes, that swimming pool is going to be a "semen pond." And if you do not know what that means, then you do not know Jed Clampett. AJ

Yes. Google threatened to take away Android from any domestic operator that did not comply with no roaming caps. AJ

You have never sneaked into a neighbor's swimming pool? Marcelo is getting busy in that pool. AJ

Someone put together a comprehensive list of the SpeedConnect BRS/EBS holdings in the Quad Cities. For BRS, Sprint holds the BRS 2 6 MHz TDD block. Is it contiguous with SpeedConnect BRS spectrum? If so, Sprint probably could flip the license to SpeedConnect in exchange for Sprint to get more contiguous EBS spectrum that would allow Sprint to deploy 20 MHz TDD, rather than 15 MHz TDD after the WiMAX sunset. AJ

I am not apologizing for anyone -- certainly not myself. However, most of us lose perspective on money at some respective level. I will never own nor do I aspire to own a $5.5 million house. But I do not bat an eye when frequently spending $500 on handsets or $1000 on audio equipment. Meanwhile, others might consider those purchases luxury excess, much like a $5.5 million house. AJ

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the S4GRU, and I'm here to help." AJ

There is a distinction between Son's personal finances and Sprint's corporate finances. Still, paying $5.5 million for a house is ostentatious. I am surprised, though, that Son was able to purchase a house right next door to Marcelo. That would seem like a remarkable coincidence both high end residences in Mission Hills were on the market at roughly the same time. I wonder if Son just made an unsolicited offer to the homeowner -- name your price. AJ

Yes, here is what I think. We should work on a plan in which all Cellular 850 MHz gets sold to VZW, all PCS 1900 MHz gets sold to AT&T, all AWS-1 1700+2100 MHz gets sold to T-Mobile, and all BRS/EBS 2600 MHz gets sold to Sprint. Oh, and I think that all data should be priced at $1/GB. AJ

Well, you're not an Honored Premier sponsor. But if you're AJ, you make witty cultural references -- it's what you do. Maybe you missed that part. AJ

The educational institutions do not own the EBS spectrum; rather, the FCC charitably licenses it to them. If the institutions want the spectrum back because Sprint is in violation of lease terms, they could have the spectrum. And they would be left with nothing -- no network, no capacity. Like a having a car without any gas and no ability to obtain gas. They do not have the wherewithal to construct their own networks. Moreover, it is not as if VZW or any other network operator would swoop in, take on the leases, and give them the "unlimited" terms they want. They -- or is it you? -- are spoiled brats looking for a handout. That is how Sprint had leverage and why it benefitted both parties to negotiate. AJ

If you're an S4GRU Honored Premier sponsor, you count down the final days of WiMAX -- that's what you do. AJ

I know that you and I seem to disagree on this, but I do not buy that Sprint is working on aggregating only band 25 uplink + band 41 downlink -- unless Sprint wants to do something stupid. By the time that Sprint could have standardized and implemented such an aggregation scheme, it will have densified band 41 coverage and refarmed band 25 to 10 MHz FDD or even all 15 MHz FDD. As I have stated in this thread and elsewhere several times, that basically would waste the 10-15 MHz FDD of the band 25 downlink. And before anyone suggests it Arysyn style, no, the FCC would be unlikely to allow Sprint to lease/sell just its band 25 downlink. In the end, I believe that the idea of aggregating only band 25 uplink + band 41 downlink comes about from oversimplification in statements that Sprint execs have made. They really mean that the band 25 uplink would do the heavy lifting, while the band 41 downlink would provide the fast speeds -- but just left out the part that the band 25 downlink also would be part of the equation for signaling purposes and some throughput. AJ

From the Nokia white paper, you need to read the above sentence carefully. The low band PCC and high band SCC function exactly like I said that they do. AJ

You may be misinterpreting me, I may be misinterpreting you, or Nokia may be talking just pie in the sky ideas. But, no, LTE CA standards do not support the PCC uplink in one band, the PCC downlink in a different band. The PCC uplink and downlink are in the same band. The SCC downlink, though, may be in a different band. That is inter band CA. For example, if AT&T is using band 4 + band 12 CA, the PCC uplink and downlink are both band 4 -- or they are both band 12. The downlink of the other band is the SCC. There is no "Hey, let's aggregate just the lower frequency band 12 uplink with the higher frequency band 4 downlink." Besides, that would be foolish, as it would orphan the downlink in band 12, the uplink in band 4, wasting spectrum. And before anyone asks the question, no, it is not feasible to convert any of these FDD bands to all uplink or all downlink. By design and regulation, they are paired spectrum bands, and that is that. Sprint cannot decide to use all of its band 25 spectrum as uplink for CA with its band 41 downlink -- because half of its band 25 spectrum will remain downlink forever unless/until the PCS 1900 MHz band is scrapped. So, for Sprint, the most realistic lower frequency uplink and higher frequency downlink CA combination is PCC uplink and downlink in band 25 with SCC downlink in band 41. And instead of TDD, some band 41 could be converted exclusively to supplemental downlink. AJ

The short answer to that is no. It is an oversimplification that has gotten traction through repetition. Somebody or something screwed up -- either in the PCMag testing or in the PCMag testing citation. The iPhone 5S is dual band, not tri band. It cannot hit peak speeds of 42 Mbps on 5 MHz FDD in band 25/26. Regardless, most people will not notice the difference in peak or average speeds between single carrier and 2x CA on band 41. The difference between 121 Mbps and 78 Mbps makes no difference to their usage. In both cases, Sprint "just works." The point is to get tri band handsets into the hands of Sprint users. Any 2x CA is icing on the cake. And that is my point. AJ

Who knows how much of that reported improvement comes from 2x CA and how much comes from beamforming? But neither helps on the uplink, which is most likely to fail at cell edges and indoors. In those more signal challenged locations, band 25 and band 26 are there to take over. I think you misconstrue my point. In no way do I suggest denying people 2x CA handsets. However, they do not need them. What they need is just any band 41. Most who have 2x CA handsets do not even know that they do. You can sell the general public on Sprint being #1 in data speeds, but you cannot sell them on Sprint deploying 2x CA. They do not have the knowledge to understand that. Oddly enough, I am a case in point, even though I am far removed from the average user. But because of engineering screen quirks, I have no confirmation if 2x CA is active on my 2015 Moto X and Nexus 5X. And for actual usage purposes, I could not care less. I care for network diagnostic purposes. That, though, is of no consequence to the general public. AJ