WiWavelength

Oh, was that what he meant? AJ

Before or after Network Vision, no one (except for trained professionals) should be on the tower. Tower climbing is very dangerous. AJ

"Starburst" and "Saturn"? The Sprint-uh-Bank deal took on a bit of cloak and dagger. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/sprint-softbank-dealmaking-idUSL3E8LH6M420121017 AJ

Just FYI, Cricket's LTE is running in AWS 2100+1700 MHz spectrum. Leap holds no PCS 1900 MHz spectrum in Las Vegas. AJ

Sprint is acquiring Craig McCaw's 4.5 percent stake in Clearwire. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/sprint-said-to-buy-eagle-river-s-clearwire-stake-to-gain-control.html AJ

Go to a window and do this: AJ

Call it Spank or Spankwire. Just do not call it SpankBank. That means something totally different. AJ

This FCC administration seems to be willing to look at spectrum aggregation not as an absolute but as a sum of parts of unequal value. In other words, VZW and AT&T may not be allowed to gobble up nearly all below 1 GHz spectrum, then claim inequity because Sprint-uh-Bank-Crearwire has ~150 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. If I were the Spectrum Czar that the FCC should have, I would value spectrum according to this formula: [1000 × bandwidth (GHz)] ÷ [center frequency (GHz)]² The higher the value, the greater the spectrum applies to the cap... AJ

You want to see our sponsors spread out? Eww. AJ

AT&T has qualms about Sprint-uh-Bank taking control of Clearwire, may object to the FCC about spectrum aggregation. http://www.phonescoo...cle.php?a=11341 Shocking... AJ

Discussion continues in this thread: "Sprint to take control of Clearwire" http://s4gru.com/ind...__fromsearch__1

Hooray for Sprint-uh-Bank-Crearwire! AJ

I should be charging $150/hr for this level of research, but I issue this gratis for the greater good. Here goes... The MetroPCS ship has sailed. Bon Voyage. In return, we can stop pining for MetroPCS. That said, MetroPCS' PCS 1900 MHz holdings do provide some synergies for Sprint, but those synergies can be achieved through divestiture, not full scale acquisition -- just as I stated in my article. As for Leap, its spectrum holdings in the top 100 markets are largely skewed toward AWS 2100+1700 MHz, its PCS holdings mostly outside of the top 20 markets. See my graph: To match up the 31 market numbers with their names and Leap PCS spectrum holdings, see this roster: Houston: 10 MHz Pittsburgh: 10 MHz San Diego: 10 MHz Denver: 10 MHz Cincinnati: 10 MHz Kansas City: 10 MHz Buffalo: 10 MHz Phoenix: 10 MHz Portland: 10 MHz San Antonio: 20 MHz Rochester: 10 MHz Memphis: 15 MHz Louisville: 10 MHz Salt Lake City: 15 MHz Dayton: 10 MHz Nashville: 15 MHz Greensboro: 10 MHz Syracuse: 15 MHz Tulsa: 15 MHz Charlotte: 10 MHz Omaha: 10 MHz Raleigh-Durham: 10 MHz Fresno: 20 MHz Austin: 10 MHz Knoxville: 10 MHz El Paso: 10 MHz Albuquerque: 15 MHz Chattanooga: 10 MHz Wichita: 15 MHz Charleston: 10 MHz Little Rock: 15 MHz Saginaw: 10 MHz For comparison, Sprint already holds 30 MHz of PCS A-F block spectrum in 16 of those 31 markets. In the other 15 markets, Sprint holds at least 20 MHz of PCS A-F block spectrum in all but two. Now, see the Sprint roster: Houston: 20 MHz Denver: 20 MHz Cincinnati: 20 MHz Memphis: 20 MHz Salt Lake City: 20 MHz Dayton: 20 MHz Nashville: 25 MHz Tulsa: 20 MHz Omaha: 20 MHz Raleigh-Durham: 20 MHz Fresno: 20 MHz Knoxville: 17.5 MHz El Paso: 20 MHz Albuquerque: 20 MHz Chattanooga: 17.5 MHz Only one of those Sprint markets is top 10, only three of them top 25. Beyond those, the markets get smaller fairly quickly -- Cricket's focus is more on mid size markets -- and the population densities drop off. One could easily argue that Sprint does not require greater than 20 MHz of PCS A-F block spectrum in those markets. In conclusion, would acquiring Leap just so that Robert could have an extra 15 MHz of PCS A-F block spectrum when he spends the day in Albuquerque really be worth the price? AJ

I am not certain that MetroPCS', Leap's, and Sprint's PCS A-F block holdings present as much synergy as you think they do. AJ

Actually, I already implied what Sprint-uh-Bank should do: nothing. Stop worrying about acquiring additional spectrum. Work on building out and refarming existing spectrum. Sprint holds 20-30 MHz of PCS A-F block spectrum in 95 of the top 100 markets. As long as Clearwire is in the fold, Sprint-uh-Bank has ample spectrum for capacity. Furthermore, buying additional spectrum runs some risk. As more and more data traffic is offloaded to Wi-Fi and small cells in the coming years, mark my words, some carriers will have overbought, will have spent billions of dollars on spectrum that they do not actually need. AJ

I would prefer not. No additional boutique bands for at least five years, please. Sprint-uh-Bank will be just fine with a three tier low/medium/high frequency strategy using its SMR 800 MHz, PCS 1900 MHz, and BRS/EBS 2600 MHz holdings. AJ

I have not heard of a move to greater than 256-QAM, even over wired connections. For example, 512-QAM increases modulation complexity 100 percent but increases potential throughput only 12.5 percent. I call that the point of diminishing returns. AJ

Spank...the appropriate punishment for a bad dog. AJ

I doubt it. The desire for greater bandwidth LTE carriers is driven by the lack of disadvantages (pardon the double negative) of greater bandwidth LTE carriers. In other words, if a provider has the contiguous and available spectrum to do 20 MHz FDD, then it probably will do 20 MHz FDD. The one downside that comes to mind is sometimes a handset ERP/EIRP reduction on the uplink due to the greater bandwidth, but even that is somewhat dependent on the number of Resource Blocks assigned to the mobile. AJ

A picnic in the parking lot of the Albuquerque call center? AJ

I can certainly appreciate your interest in this question if it is academic. I think much the same way. That said, your question is of little practical significance. In PCS 1900 MHz spectrum, LTE 20 MHz FDD (i.e. 20 MHz x 20 MHz) will be exceedingly rare, possibly even nonexistent. First, you have to understand the PCS band plan. For various licensing reasons, it does not follow alphabetical order. See below: PCS A block (30 MHz) PCS D block (10 MHz) PCS B block (30 MHz) PCS E block (10 MHz) PCS F block (10 MHz) PCS C block (30 MHz) PCS G block (10 MHz) To deploy LTE 20 MHz FDD would require 40 MHz contiguous spectrum -- for example, a PCS A+D, D+B, B+E, F+C, or C+G block combo. A 20 MHz disaggregation from a 30 MHz license plus two adjacent 10 MHz licenses would be another possibility, but that is so uncommon as to be almost irrelevant. Even the 30 MHz plus 10 MHz adjacent license combo is relatively rare. Sure, VZW, AT&T, and T-Mobile have some markets in which they hold 40 MHz total PCS spectrum, but only coincidentally is that 40 MHz contiguous. The PCS band was not designed nor auctioned in the 1990s for huge swaths of contiguous spectrum. So, in this decade at least, LTE 20 MHz FDD is not likely to be found outside the AWS 2100+1700 MHz band. Both VZW and T-Mobile have opportunities to deploy 20 MHz x 20 MHz in AWS. A year or two earlier, though, Clearwire will be deploying LTE 20 MHz TDD in its BRS/EBS 2600 MHz spectrum. That is likely to be the first taste of LTE 20 MHz carriers. AJ

Yes, this is firmly established. See any of our FCC OET authorization analysis articles. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the most recent: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-327-samsung-galaxy-note-2-big-enough-for-everything-except-svdo/ All Sprint LTE handsets support band 25, which is a PCS A-G block superset. AJ

The panels are just passive antennas. Unless they have specifically tuned passive filters built in, "800 MHz" antennas transmit/receive all frequencies around 800 MHz, though their frequency response can vary, especially as frequency increases/decreases greatly. So, not the panels but the RRUs are likely the limiting factor. Now, CDMA2000 has separate band classes for Cellular 850 MHz (band class 0) and SMR 800 MHz (band class 10). The RRUs may support both but are certainly configured for only band class 10, as there is no superset band class for CDMA2000. LTE, on the other hand, does have a superset (band 26) for both Cellular 850 MHz and SMR 800 MHz. Thus, the likelihood of the RRUs supporting LTE 850 is greater. AJ

Guys, I sense some misinformation and/or misunderstanding in this thread. Back in June, I posted some comments on the very same VZW graphic. However, I think few saw that thread or post. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/11-ill-say-it-wimax-was-a-good-decision/page__view__findpost__p__20858 AJ

Enough with that damn dog. Your obsession with SoftBank borders on derangement. Are you some sort of Japanese fetishist? AJ