WiWavelength

Did I accidentally click the German language version of S4GRU??? AJ

Individually, no. But multiply by the tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and data consumption becomes a problem. Those who use the greatest amount of data are most likely to be using data at any given time -- peak or not. Even with a fair and proportional scheduler assigning time slots or resource blocks, those who are almost incessantly using data (e.g. streaming) do affect access opportunity for everyone else. AJ

To play devil's advocate, which one of these two Sprint subs is more of a problem: the sub who never tethers but streams 15 GB of audio/video over the network per month or the sub who tethers occasionally but uses only 500 MB of total data over the network per month? AJ

You need to learn the difference between "an attack" and a legitimate criticism. AJ

Try an analogy, Juan. If I drive 3 MPH over the speed limit, am I engaging in "hate and hypocrisy" when I get angry at the driver who swerves around me at 25 MPH over the speed limit? Speeding is against the law, bar none, but you cannot conflate driving 3 MPH over the speed limit with speeding with reckless abandon. The same goes for tethering. For example, I tether only as needed, possibly 10 times per year. Furthermore, over the past 12 months, I averaged 350 MB of 1X/EV-DO/WiMAX data usage (including any tethering) per month. I am not the problem. If you cannot understand that, then you have no reasoned argument. AJ

Also, it may actually have been a blessing in disguise that Chester did not get Sprint PCS service during the affiliate era. Had that happened, Sprint corporate would have deployed a site in town and Roberts or Alamosa would have deployed a site on the Missouri side of the river, probably near the western edge of the flood plain. The problem would have arisen for the parts of town on or atop the bluff overlooking the river and the flood plain to the southwest. That area of town would have been effectively on a NID boundary between the corporate site in town and the affiliate site across the river. The corporate site would have been backhauled to a Sprint MSC, while the affiliate site would have been to a Roberts or Alamosa MSC. So, phones in the affected area would have idled back and forth between the two sites every few minutes to every few seconds, as the Ec/Io of the corporate and affiliate sites' pilot signals fluctuated. Each bounce back and forth between the two sites would have been accompanied by a registration, and repeated registrations on two different NIDs tend to cause missed calls/notifications, not to mention reduced battery life. Long story short, the corporate/affiliate coverage combo could have prematurely ruined Sprint's name in Chester. AJ

I think I saw a pic of digiblur's Wi-Fi antenna in another thread. Yeah, here it is... http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/176-expansion-is-there-any/page__view__findpost__p__22100 AJ

Yes, on all CDMA1X devices, PN selection, re-selection, and handoff are all internally based on Ec/Io. "Signal bars" (both a term and concept that I hate) may instead be based on RSSI. AJ

I would say that it is a conspiracy wrought by that T-Mobile store down the block. Or it could just be a transition between two sectors on the water tower site. AJ

Let it be known that I am filing a patent on the gesture of typing "Sprint" into a post in The Forums at S4GRU. I ask that all others cease and desist. AJ

Deployed PN offsets have no relation to their compass orientations. AJ

How does that explain the millions of Nextel users who practically screamed "I gotta have Direct Connect, I gotta have Direct Connect," then churned to a non Sprint carrier that has no decent PTT option? In actuality, they left out of spite because they fallaciously think that Sprint wrecked Nextel and iDEN. AJ

Ryan, come on now, the above has nothing to do with the current issue. I think that you are letting emotion get the best of you. Alamosa PCS merged with Roberts Wireless (and several other Sprint PCS affiliates) because that was a good business decision. Sprint bought out Alamosa because Alamosa was suing Sprint for violation of its non compete affiliate agreement, as the Sprint Nextel merger brought iDEN into competition with the affiliates' CDMA operations. Maybe so. But wireless carriers have reasonably smart, knowledgeable engineers working for them. And those engineers have access to traffic data that may carry more weight than do your anecdotal observations. Regardless, I did some additional research and likely found the reason for Chester's omission. Randolph County, IL is actually still in the St. Louis BTA, so it probably has been Sprint corporate area all along. However, Perry County, MO directly across the river is in the Cape Girardeau BTA, and Jackson County, IL only a few miles to your south is in the Carbondale, IL BTA. So, those were affiliate markets. Unfortunately for Chester, it was at the convergence of corporate and affiliate markets, at the far flung edges of both, such that corporate and affiliate could not build out contiguous coverage without the cooperation of the other. For potentially that reason, Chester attracted the attention of neither. AJ

Respect goes only so far. Remember, iDEN is the dead weight that brought Sprint nearly to its knees. And many iDEN users are some of the biggest complainers around; they wish that they could keep a wireless carrier and national network stuck in the year 2003 forever. AJ

Nah, this is more like it... AJ

To restore your data connection for the time being, switch your Mobile network > Network mode > Preferred network mode toggle from LTE/CDMA to CDMA only. That will disable eHRPD and force your handset back to EV-DO Rev A. AJ

And doing so is a violation of the Ts and Cs to which you agreed. Now, that said, many of us do so sparingly. But if you do so extensively, then I will be blunt: shame on you. You are taking unfair advantage of Sprint's unlimited data offering, and you are adding to the data network congestion for the rest of us. This is a downside to so called unlimited data -- it can invite abuse. AJ

Ryan, do you know when the coverage in question was constructed? Unless it was built within just the past few years, you cannot attribute it directly to Sprint, as both Cape Girardeau and Carbondale were affiliate markets. Roberts Wireless was the affiliate that did the initial build out 1998-2000. Then, Alamosa PCS bought out Roberts in 2000 and operated the markets through 2005. Furthermore, it is highway coverage, and you cannot underestimate the value of highway coverage extending like spokes from a market's titular city. This was especially true for affiliates that made their by way selling PCS 1900 MHz service (with no included roaming) in secondary markets like Cape Girardeau. You may not like the sound of this, but providing native highway coverage away from a secondary market is/was far more important to a carrier than was providing coverage to a small town like Chester. AJ

The "gotcha" in VZW's Share Everything plans is the forced inclusion of unlimited voice and messaging costs in the core smartphone ($40) and feature phone ($30) fees. VZW has just revealed its response to the decline in traditional voice and SMS/MMS usage and the rise of VoIP and IP based messaging. Basically, you are going to pay for unlimited voice and SMS/MMS even if you rarely use them. Plus, any VoIP and IP based messaging usage will deduct from your data allotment. VZW takes what purports to be a consumer friendly offering and still finds ways to stick it to the consumer. Well played, VZW, well played. AJ

Ryan and Kevin, I will play devil's advocate for a moment. If nearly every POP in town is a sub of only one (or two) other provider(s), why should Sprint bother to launch/improve service to your town? It could be akin to a mom & pop grocery store opening up in town and trying to make it against an existing Walmart Supercenter. Basically, is there truly room in the market for another carrier? AJ

These are only a very few isolated, individual live LTE sites, which may or may not be at their final power levels. So, in building coverage is not a relevant question right now. Wait for the market launch, then even a few months later for all sites to come online before judging coverage footprint and quality. Regardless, since CDMA1X, EV-DO, and LTE will all be deployed in PCS 1900 MHz spectrum, in building coverage should be similar among the three. AJ

The initial build out cost can be amortized over time, but the lease, backhaul, and power expenses are ongoing. By my back of the napkin calculations, those recurring costs can run in excess of $50,000 per year -- even for a rural site. So, I think that the 100 lines estimate may be well on the low side. AJ

No LTE in Sin City. Instead, Vegas is getting El Tí y, the cheap Mexican knock off. AJ

My response was not intended as much a defense of Sprint as it was a clarification of "spectrum squatting." Anyone who knows my philosophies on wireless understands that I am anti consolidation in the industry, that I am like a hawk when it comes to spectrum licensing/utilization, and that I view wireless communications as a 21st century commons that should be readily accessible to all citizens. So, even though this is a Sprint focused forum, I try not to let any of my own partisan sentiment toward Sprint escape my philosophical principles. That said, however, I do not honestly think that we can say that PCS A/B block 30 MHz MTA based license holders, such as Sprint, are "spectrum squatters" simply because they have met their FCC mandated build out requirements but have not constructed their licenses in many rural areas. We have to understand why the FCC licensed the initial PCS 1900 MHz licenses the way it did in 1994. That was a wise decision -- it paved the way for truly new entrant competition that flourished very quickly. It is an interesting topic. I will try to elaborate more later... AJ

That is a bit disingenuous to say that Sprint is "squatting" on spectrum in Randolph County. Sprint has never acquired any spectrum license specifically for Randolph County. Rather, Sprint holds MTA and BEA based licenses that happen to include Randolph County in their licensed areas. For example, Sprint acquired the MTA019 St. Louis PCS B block 30 MHz license because it includes metro St. Louis, Columbia, Jefferson City, and Springfield (MO). That Randolph County came along for the ride is/was inconsequential. And Sprint has long since more than satisfied all of the FCC build out requirements for the license. So, that is not really "spectrum squatting." Sprint's plans, like it or not, just did not include your rural area. AJ