WiWavelength

BRS/EBS 2600 MHz does not need to have the signal propagation of the PCS 1900 MHz or SMR 800 MHz bands. It will be for offload, not complete overlay. Think of a set of three concentric circles all centered on the same cell site. Mobiles in the innermost circle are most likely to use TD-LTE 2600, mobiles in the intermediate circle most likely to use LTE 1900, and mobiles in the outermost circle most likely to use LTE 800. And since TD-LTE 2600 will not cover cell edges, it will encounter less interference from adjacent cells. That combined with 20 MHz TDD carriers should make TD-LTE 2600 insanely fast. AJ

Correct, the iPhone 5 does support CDMA1X 800, but your "Phones/Devices" listing below your avatar indicates that you have an iPhone 4S. And Apple still presents its specs improperly, as it does not distinguish between SMR 800 MHz and Cellular 850 MHz. AJ

The iPhone 4S does not support CDMA1X 800 nor LTE at all. AJ

I am not sure which frightens me more: that we will never get widespread FTTH in my lifetime, or that a disruptor/consortium (e.g. Apple, Google, Microsoft) might actually do it -- but then we will be beholden and pay egregious rent in perpetuity. Politicians need to wake up and see that FTTH is public works, plain and simple. Broadband Internet access is not a fad, is not just the province of the young. It is currently the single most important economic conduit of the future. Maybe as old guard politicians retire or die off, Internet generation politicians will take over and see the light. But that is the optimist in me speaking... AJ

I do not have the stats to debate uplink utilization, but I certainly have heard claims that it has grown dramatically because of the explosion of social networking. So, saying that the FDD uplink would be "mostly wasted" might be going too far. And the offset in between the band 7 uplink and downlink segments is allocated TDD band 38. So, proponents of FDD claim that TD-LTE could also be deployed. Now, why any carrier would want to complicate matters with that combo of FDD and TDD in effectively the same band is beyond me. But the real problem would be the mix of BRS and EBS licenses. The band 7 uplink is entirely dependent upon EBS spectrum, while the downlink is mostly located within BRS spectrum. Clearwire controls a lot of BRS/EBS spectrum but not the entire band in every market. And EBS spectrum is only leased. So, any missing or expired lease in the uplink, for example, would wipe out use of its paired spectrum in the downlink, even if Clearwire controlled that spectrum in the downlink. In other words, FDD would be a risky mess. Not to mention, WiMAX operations, which are TDD, also must continue in BRS/EBS for at least the next two years. AJ

Availability of TD-LTE chipsets will not be a problem. In fact, the Qualcomm MDM9615 baseband in the iPhone 5, Optimus G, etc., already supports TD-LTE. As for FDD rather than TDD deployment in the BRS/EBS 2600 MHz band, several of my compatriots on Twitter had the same idea yesterday. I put together a little graphical overlay on the existing BRS/EBS band plan to show the inherent issues with FDD usage. Do you see the problems? AJ

You could have an LTE world phone right now, but it comes with this attachment... AJ

If Charlie Ergen were to gain control of Clearwire, I think that he could go it alone. Clearwire and its WiMAX roll out get a lot of grief around S4GRU because neither lived up to expectations -- and deployment was aborted in many markets. But in our disappointment, we oft undervalue the thousands of sites that Clearwire did deploy with leases, base stations, and backhaul fully in place. So, if Dish got Clearwire, day one, it could offer a completely native double or triple play option to a sizable percentage of its subs. Give them WiMAX/LTE modems so that they are future proofed for the next few years. Even in WiMAX protection site markets, a fixed antenna -- maybe even clipped to the satellite dish -- would likely prove far more usable than WiMAX ever was for size and power constrained Sprint handsets. That, I think, is what could happen, but certainly not what I want to happen... AJ

But what of the Niña and the Pinta? AJ

One word: DISH. AJ

I concur -- to an extent. But for a pertinent counterexample, look at AT&T. Jim Cicconi and his minions surely, hubristically thought that they could get the the T-Mobile acquisition past the FCC and DoJ. And they were dead wrong. AJ

No, not necessarily good. This gives VZW, AT&T, and T-Mobile ammo against Sprint-uh-Bank. A majority Japanese owned company controls so much spectrum, they will claim. Unless another suitor was ready to grab Clearwire, this deal does not make sense now, especially as Sprint-uh-Bank would like to put pressure on the T-Mobile-MetroPCS deal, forcing NewCo to divest excess PCS 1900 MHz spectrum. AJ

Funny that you mention this. A week ago, I drove 700 miles roundtrip to Oklahoma City to investigate the XDA report that AT&T had finally deployed some of its AWS 2100+1700 MHz holdings. The AWS report coming out of OKC made perfect sense because OKC is otherwise a single license 5 MHz x 5 MHz LTE market in Lower 700 MHz spectrum (whereas most AT&T major markets are dual license 10 MHz x 10 MHz LTE in Lower 700 MHz spectrum). However, I ran sweeps with my spectrum analyzer at half a dozen places around the metro and found no evidence to corroborate the XDA report of AT&T LTE on a Nexus 4 (which tacitly supports LTE in AWS only). You can see one of my RF sweeps below: As it was revealed later, the XDA poster is located in a small town just outside of OKC. So, the report of AWS LTE may still be accurate. But it does not make much sense, since the high traffic areas of OKC are not utilizing AWS -- at least, they were not as of last Monday. AJ

Just to be clear, PadFone is Asus' standard phone branding. I think it is a stupid name, but since the debut of the iPad, "pad" has taken on a different connotation. AJ

You are just baiting me for jokes, right? AJ

Lynyrd... I just thought you meant that you and someone called #39 were going to get one, that you and #39 were in school, and that you and #39 would use it for textbooks. AJ

Get used to it. Your device worked when you bought it and still works today. Regardless, this is not the appropriate forum. Take it to XDA. AJ

Pardon my crude analogy, but plenty here and elsewhere treat Sprint like a battered woman. "She" may stay with you out of economic necessity and tell you that your behavior is okay, but that DOES NOT make it okay. AJ

Are people really clamoring for HD Voice? Call me old fashioned, but AM radio should sound like AM radio, FM radio should sound like FM radio, and a phone call should sound like a phone call. I have no problem with that. In fact, the differences in fidelity are somewhat comforting. Sure, AT&T notoriously butchers even the sound of a basic phone call, but Sprint does not. The sound quality of an EVRC call on Sprint is typically quite fine. Correct. As long as the PTSN uses µ-law PCM, then any call that is connected to a PTSN landline will subject to those limitations. Calls connected between different wireless carriers or VoIP providers might be subject to different interconnection standards, but I doubt it. As far as I know, µ-law PCM is still the lowest common denominator. AJ

Zero. Even if they did, the benefits of HD Voice (EVRC-NW) are eliminated once the call has to be transcoded to hit the PTSN between the carriers' networks. The PTSN is still based on µ-law PCM, which has a reduced frequency range compared to that of EVRC-NW. AJ

Asus PadFone??? Okay, you asked for it... AJ

Yes, that is a very good way of putting it. The sum is larger than its constituent parts. AJ

Yes, there is no such thing as a free lunch. But BAS receivers tend to be located hundreds of feet high on guyed towers, so that provides them with quite a bit of distance separation from potential Dish mobile transmitters. AJ

If the shoe fits... AJ

You have a "reliable data rate." 200 kbps. Is that not enough for you? If not, that rate is largely constrained by all the vacuous minds streaming needless media. AJ