WiWavelength

A mobile invokes the hashing algorithm -- as I described in my recent article -- for idle carrier channel selection. Then, the mobile sends/receives all access/paging traffic on that CDMA1X carrier channel. But for actual CDMA1X voice/data traffic, the base station controller (BSC) can decide to set up that voice/data traffic on a different CDMA1X carrier channel and redirect the mobile to that channel. The BSC can make the determination to redirect the mobile to a different CDMA1X carrier channel because of differences in carrier channel loading. For example, the BSC might redirect a mobile with high path loss to a more lightly loaded CDMA1X carrier channel because that could allow the mobile to reduce its transmit power. After its voice/data traffic ceases, the mobile then rehashes back to its original CDMA1X carrier channel. Does that make sense so far? AJ

That could be. However, Sprint could allow mobiles to idle on the SMR 476 CDMA1X carrier channel but set up traffic channels on PCS CDMA1X carrier channels for those mobiles that are well within range of PCS 1900 MHz propagation. AJ

If any other carriers have collocated on the same site, it was probably a new panel for another carrier. AJ

The Photon Q is using a device specific PRL, which includes EV-DO roaming entries??? Am I missing something? AJ

Wait, there is a factory that makes 3G roaming? That blows my mind. AJ

No disagreement here. S4GRU has reported all along that Sprint's Missouri market (St. Louis) is not in the first round, maybe not even in the second round. It is likely a later round market. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-158-is-sprint-going-to-show-up-sooner-in-the-show-me-state/ AJ

What? No pickled sturgeon (or something similarly nasty yet spicy)? AJ

Could be worse. You could live where I grew up. Only 30 minutes south to Pittsburg for fried chicken or an hour north to KC for barbecue, which I somehow neglected in my previous post. AJ

Ben, you have obviously not visited the Albuquerque-Santa Fe market or do not share my taste in New Mexican food. While I would not want to give up the famous Crawford County fried chicken restaurants in southeastern Kansas, I would otherwise rather have Robert's access to the many great restaurants -- from roadside fare to fine dining -- in the Santa Fe area. Santa Fe really is one of the great culinary cities in this country. Fortunately, I get to live in Kansas yet spend a week or so a year at my parent's second home in Santa Fe, so I get the best of both worlds. AJ

About 10 years ago -- I think this was even on the old alt.cellular USENET newsgroup -- I helped a Sprint sub diagnose a bad channel card on a sector. I had him circle the site in question, and two of the PN offsets were fine, but the third produced RF diarrhea. With that info, he contacted the Sprint affiliate, and the problem got fixed. So, this could be a similar situation -- a bad EV-DO channel card. AJ

KFC will miss you... AJ

An intriguing albeit unlikely possibility is that Sprint could use a separate MNC for LTE 800, too. AJ

As long as Clearwire remains separate from Sprint, I would not expect Sprint LTE mobiles to be able to select Clearwire TD-LTE of their own volition. In fact, Clearwire LTE will probably utilize a different MNC (the 3GPP equivalent of SID). As such, a Sprint LTE mobile will always utilize the Sprint network unless a Sprint eNodeB redirects it to to the Clearwire TD-LTE offload network. In other words, the mobile will not decide when to offload to Clearwire; Sprint will call the shots. AJ

Sprint has two PCS A-F block licenses in Chicago: PCS D block 10 MHz and PCS E block 10 MHz. That allows Sprint six potential CDMA2000 carrier channel assignments: PCS 0325, 0350, 0375, 0725, 0750, and 0775. Whenever I visit a different market, I try to track typical CDMA1X and EV-DO deployed carriers, and I was in Chicago about eight months ago. The carrier channel assignments that I noted around the city were as follows: CDMA1X: 0350, 0375, 0775 EV-DO: 0325, 0725 The only available carrier channel assignment that I did not encounter while I was in Chicago was PCS 0750, so I cannot say whether it is typically deployed as CDMA1X or EV-DO. Regardless, Sprint is somewhat limited in the number of carrier channels -- especially EV-DO carrier channels -- that it can deploy in Chicago. A good rule of thumb seems to be that a site in Chicago will have no greater than three EV-DO carrier channels, and many will have only one or two. Now, in the case of the Woodfield Mall area in Schaumburg, Sprint has no fewer than four sites surrounding the mall. Chances are, jman, that your EV-DO serving site -- likely, your closest site -- has only one EV-DO carrier channel deployed. AJ

Are you referring to the optional preamp? I do not have it and, for my purposes, do not feel that I need it. I typically sweep individual sites/sectors, so I set up within a quarter of a mile of each site. At that distance, signal levels are well above the stated -135 dBm/Hz floor of my Spectran unit. Plus, I am not particularly concerned with amplitude accuracy. I primarily want to examine spectrum utilization. Thus, if I can see occupied bandwidth, that fulfills my purposes. Let me know if you have any other questions... AJ

If you have insomnia, the overwhelming level of documentation contained within most internal and external FCC filings is almost guaranteed to put you to sleep -- unless you have a law degree, as then your brain might think that you are at work. AJ

While everyone knows that VZW and AT&T dominate the consumer side of the domestic wireless industry, it is a lesser known fact that their parent companies also control so many of the special access lines that wireless carriers use for backhaul, and a complaint is that those parent companies abuse this position to sock it to wireless competitors. Sprint, for its part, has sought out AAV (Alternative Access Vendors) to provide backhaul for Network Vision, but this FCC move to take closer looks at special access competition and potentially regulate pricing could help reduce backhaul costs industry wide. Here is your bedtime reading for tonight... http://apps.fcc.gov/...w?id=6017108489 AJ

Joking aside, I have done some very minimal spectrum analysis of SMR 800/900 MHz in my home market of Kansas City. The challenge is that the true TDMA airlinks -- GSM, iDEN, and IS-136 TDMA -- are difficult to resolve fully. Only the frequencies that transmit control channels are powered up full time. For example, I could have my spectrum analyzer on an iDEN site and see only one 25 kHz iDEN 800 channel -- a control channel -- because no traffic is active at the time on the site. Thus, it might appear that the site is using only one 25 kHz x 25 kHz of SMR 800 MHz spectrum. However, if the site is loaded, perhaps 10 other 25 kHz x 25 kHz channels carrying traffic could spring to life. So, you could say that TDMA airlink spectrum usage is highly temporal, and that makes my observations with only $3000 worth of semi pro equipment typically incomplete. AJ

If anyone is willing to pay me to take a sabbatical from my teaching position and cover my expenses for the year, I will be more than happy to travel the country with my spectrum analyzer, documenting the extent of SMR 800 MHz spectrum freed up as the iDEN shut down progresses. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of other sources and/or just have to wait for next July. AJ

Jeff, your post is well thought out (and nicely organized, I might add). But your concerns are almost all for naught. Yes, Sprint does have PCS A-F block spectrum in many markets that is fallow or that it can refarm for additional LTE 1900 5 MHz x 5 MHz carriers. In fact, we addressed this issue in an article on the The Wall way back in February: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-27-spectrum-analysisdoes-sprint-have-more-options-for-additional-lte-carriers/ We have also referenced additional LTE 1900 carriers often in other articles and here in The Forums. More importantly, though, Sprint is on the same page. Internal roadmap documents indicate that Sprint plans to deploy supplemental LTE 1900 carriers on high traffic sites in many markets within the next year. So, worry not... AJ

Nope. As long as those three sites are all on the same SID/NID, *18 will not help at all. It updates your location to your current SID/NID, not your current cell site. No CDMA1X carrier uses single cell site location granularity. AJ

AJ

Well, he certainly told you what you wanted to hear. AJ

AT&T's Cellular 850 MHz A block network in Oakland has been causing interference with public safety's newly rebanded (courtesy of Sprint) 800 MHz radio system. As a result, AT&T has temporarily shut down at least part of its Cellular 850 MHz operations in the city. http://www.sfgate.co...ers-3802585.php Additionally, this is what I posted at Ars Technica: AJ

http://www.pcmag.com...,2408748,00.asp AJ