MagnusOchncap

Saw an interesting photo essay on Gizmodo this morning about the NYC subway building out full station cellular coverage through an intermediary called Transit Wireless. It looks like it is a massive distributed antenna system supported from a couple of central 'base station hotels.'

Sprint joined Transit Wireless as a provider in July 2013, but I haven't seen much news about the rollout or how it works in the last year.

Are there other instances of Sprint working with a partner for these kinds of DAS network setups? And is this distributed architecture more akin to traditional cell tower deployments (with larger distances between base stations and the radios), or more like the small cells some Sprint executives have been talking up in recent months?

Does anyone have any idea what Sprint bands are being deployed with this project? 800MHz 1x Advanced for voice and 1900MHz PCS EVDO/LTE for data? I cannot imagine this is a Spark-capable project yet/ever/at all?

I take the questions of cynicism as ones of irrelevance. 

 

A few articles are out there, but one pegged 5s sales around 3 1/2 times more then the 5c .. another said 5s sales were closer to 500% of the 5c..  Either way the 5s sold around close to 7 million units and broke last years record by itself by close to 2 million.  

 

This in 3 days time... To put this into perspective it took Samsung 4 weeks  to sell 10 million G S4's .. 

All of those articles sourced the 3.5x purchases of iPhone 5s from an app analytics company. So, likely not representative of realty, but simply of people opening applications on their new iPhones that use Localytics' backend.

Much as we can assume from third-party application analytic data that consumers who purchase less expensive handsets are likely not pro users that use lots of applications on their phones. In example, if people that normally wouldn't chose a $199 iPhone 5s are instead buying a $99 iPhone 5c rather than a competing $99 Android handset, they are likely to use less applications or even browse the web on their devices. [source: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/22/apples-ios-maintains-dominance-over-android-with-63-mobile-browsing-share]

All we know if Apple sold nine million iPhones, a combination of 5s and 5c. Is that a 50%/50% split? We'll never know, and anecdotal evidence from third party backend service providers are suspect for being representative of reality.

Just putting it out there, but I see the total number of iPhones sold a bit skewed. While people are saying that the iPhone 5s still broke records, they should leave it at that. People that couldn't, or wont, pay $200 for a new phone, paid $99 for the iPhone 5c. I think that really made it more possible for them to sell so many iPhones.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is. Do any of you agree that without the 5c apple could have still sold 9 million units of the 5s?

 

 

-Luis

It is probably a little bit of that, but perhaps mostly of launching in more markets this year for the simultaneous retail start. Last year was nine markets; this year was 11 markets, including China.

I'd be willing to bet that the 5c outsells the 5s.

Yea, I bet you are right. $99 is a great entry price for the 5c. Muggles will walk into the stores and see these new 5c devices and wonder why they should spend $200 for the iPhone 5s and most Android phones when they can get that for $99.

One imagines the 5c becoming their most popular phone, like the MacBook Air is their most popular laptop, and the 5s and MacBook Pros is where they do the new technologies at a slight premium.

What I said isn't rumor.  Apple is in fact testing bigger screens - I saw it on ABC news..... but RUMOR has it Apple considered bigger screens and thought about skipping the usual 's" option this time around, but RUMOR has it that screen yields would've been much too low. RUMOR also had it said 3 or 4 months ago Apple would have a fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s.  RUMOR also had it that the iPhone would be available in a cheaper plastic option called the iPhone 5c about 3 or 4 months ago.  RUMOR said Verizon would get the iPhone a year before they did.

What you said is a rumor. ABC News repeated a rumor. ABC News repeating a rumor does not make it a fact.

I also saw rumors stating they would be showing off ARM powered laptops, new iPads, new Apple TV, and Apple TV Screen, NFC in the iPhone 6, 802.11ac in the new iPhones, Mac OS X Mavericks launch, Apple iWallet, etc.

Two years ago, October 2011, talking heads on CNBC went on and on about Apple releasing the iPhone 5 as a WiMAX-capable device exclusively on Sprint. Because they read some junk at BGR.

Apple rumors are rumors until Tim gets up on stage and says they are facts.

Regardless, we're all off topic about the iPhone 5C and 5S. =)

Nope, in fact Apple is testing a 4.7 inch and 6 inch screens for next iPhone so they can have multiple sizes to offer those who like a bigger screen.

No rumors about potential new Apple products are facts until Tim gets up on a stage and introduces them to the world.

Until that point they are only rumors.

 

NOPE NOT TRIBAND.

 

• Model A1533 (CDMA)*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25)
• Model A1453*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26)

 

Correct, no band 41. Sad panda. =(

2300mah batter seems pretty small especially for the screen size and the fact that its not removable

SEC just gave it's blessing to the SoftBank-Sprint union.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/2/4293352/sprint-clear-to-vote-on-softbank-buyout-after-sec-approval

Yea, I personally think that Sprint would be much better served with the backing of SoftBank and its CEO, who have the experience to grow Sprint into a much stronger company.

Charlie Ergen's idea of using spectrum for video transmission is just insane. I don't understand that at all. Wouldn't you rather have even more LTE-powered spectrum that can serve any kind of data requested (including video)?

And I have yet to understand the idea that Dish and Sprint will gain synergies from combining customers. They cannot suddenly sell their 14 million satellite TV subscribers on phone service; normal people have two year contracts from the big four. And they will not be able to move their 50 million Sprint customers over to DISH; many of those subs will be on cable and not want to move to satellite (or on a one or two year contract with DirecTV or the local cable company).

That... is just nuts. Is Dave Moody a reliable source? =P

Until Googlerola can come up with a flagship phone that everyone in the world can identify with like all the other major manufacturers have now like the Galaxy S, Optimus G, or One series, Motorola will be behind. Motorola has done a good job with the Droid series with the RAZR and RAZR MAXX thus far however those phones are only exclusive to Verizon customers. Motorola has not made any significant phones for the other carriers in ATT, Sprint or Tmobile. The trend from phone manufacturers is to move away from exclusive carrier phones to releasing worldwide flagship phones to simplify manufacturing and economies of scale to reduce the number of models produced per year.

But, Google owns it now, so who knows. =P

I would not give VZW much credit in this regard. VZW has held AWS spectrum for six years and has offered LTE handsets for two years, yet VZW is just now getting around to including band 4 LTE capability. That would be akin to Sprint not adding band 26 LTE and/or band 41 TD-LTE capability until this time next year.

Geez, that was a lot of spectrum to just sit on until the SpectrumCo swap and T-mobile sale last year.

My history with motorola has not been great. Since the announcement of the cancellation of the ICS upgrade on my Photon 4G, I have lost all faith in motorola doing the right thing. Even the photon q 4g LTE phone still has not received the JB update and the moto website just says JB update coming for the photon q 4g lte and its already april.

 

Until motorola can prove to me that they can build a quality device and release android updates as fast as samsung can, i would advise anyone to avoid motorola with a 1000 ft pole. Btw i used to feel this way about samsung which was why i didnt get the gs2. But since then samsung has gone gangbusters and IMO went from worst manufacturer to best for android updates and motorola went from second best to worst manufacturer.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

But I believe that Googlerola will be better going forward. A lot of after-sale support by the manufacturer is built into their supplier/vendor contract with the carrier (we will pay you $x per sub that has your phone for two updates over the next nine months; bug fixes are your responsibility). And Motorola's acquisition only closed 10 months ago. Google CFO Patrick Pichette admitted they have 12-18 months of shitty products to roll through [source: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/03/08/motorola-is-still-a-work-in-progress-for-google/] before 'good' stuff starts being released, as that 12-18 months of product didn't 'wow' Google [source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/google-throws-motorola-under-the-bus-says-phones-lack-wow].

So, we're coming up on that 12-18 months in the second half of this year. Hopefully some good product announcements and after-sale support then. =)

The Snapdragon 600 aka APQ8064T is just a processor. It does not contain a baseband modem on chip. So, actually, it has no effect on LTE band capability.

 

AJ

Keep in mind that the 20 LTE band support was on the exynos 5 octa core chip and not the qualcomm 600 chip. The qualcomm 600 chip will be used on all USA variants of the S4. Now the qualcomm chip can support the 800 and 2500 mhz band classes but that doesnt mean it has to be added to the device. Sprint and samsung would have to agree on what LTE band classes it wants to support and would need to add the additional antennas needed to support those band classes in the device.

 

Personally..like you i would have expected all 2013 LTE phones to have tri-band LTE support but when i saw the htc one support 1900 mhz LTE only, i had a bad feeling that the S4 was going to have the same fate. Hopefully the iphone 5s, galaxy note 3 or lg optimus g 2 will be the first tri-band LTE phone this year.

 

What i hope for the galaxy note 3 is for sprint and samsung to request testing the LTE in 5 and 10 mhz bandwidths. Samsung is notorious for only testing 5 mhz bandwidths for LTE in the S3, Note 2 and S4 thus far.

 

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

I don't meant to harsh on Sprint, but even Verizon is supporting their non-existant AWS LTE tech on their Galaxy S4 variant [source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/29/samsung-galaxy-s-4-for-verizon-swings-through-the-fcc/]. We probably won't see Verizon's AWS LTE network until late 2013 or even into 2014... and Verizon is usually conservative on this kind of stuff.

Just wish Sprint was a little bit more forward including support for their forthcoming LTE networks. They've been selling handsets that support 800MHz CDMA voice since sometime in 2012...

And for Samsung, I don't know why they continue to put out the Galaxy S line in the USA with Qualcomm chips. I'd happily take a Exynos 4+4 core (or as the lazy tech PR mouthpieces have been calling it an octocore) here. =)

Im also curious about this tri-band that you are talking about. What is it all about? Is sprint even broadcasting on more then 1 band for LTE? What are the benefits of having it?

Sprint's current LTE service is in LTE band 25 (which is 1900MHz, also known as the PCS band of radio spectrum). It is what Sprint has traditionally run all of their services on (CDMA, EV-DO). The PCS band is okay, but best served in metro regions (high density towers, lower transmission range).

Nextel has traditionally run its iDEN service in the 800MHz range, known as the EMSR band of radio spectrum (and classified as LTE band 27). Sprint is turning off this Nextel network by the end of June 2013, and discontinuing the Nextel brand. They will then start upgrading their towers as a second phase of the Network Vision rollout to support CDMA voice and LTE in this frequency. 800MHz is great for coverage. Can cover great distances with lower tower density (which means their rural support will get very, very strong), and lower frequency bands pass through solid objects better (meaning better indoor coverage).

Sprint's partnership with Clearwire will also net access to the under-construction Clear TDD-LTE network at 2500MHz (known as LTE band 41). The network will target 'hotspots' around major metro areas and public spaces. Imagine stadiums, highways, and super densely-populated urban centers. Higher frequency doesn't pass through solid objects as well, requires greater tower density, and travels less distance.

All together Sprint will be running or have access to three disparate LTE networks. And Sprint's LTE networks are being rolled out with the latest LTE specification, called release 10, which enables a software upgrade to LTE Advanced (or is already technically capable? I'm not sure). LTE Advanced allows for carrier aggregation (better explained here: http://www.3gpp.org/Carrier-Aggregation-explained), which allows one device to connect to the three disparate LTE networks at the same time to increase bandwidth and transfer speeds.

Overall new Sprint tri-band phones will have the best possible reception offered by Sprint. They will be able to connect to 800MHz, 1900MHz, or 2500MHz LTE towers either disparately or together for best reception and speed. Sprint will likely have the best 'performing' data network in the USA until AT&T's network of the year 2020 is up and running (as AT&T at that point will likely have LTE running on 700MHz, cellular [850MHz], AWS [1700/2100MHz], PCS [1900MHz], and WCS [2300MHz] bands). But... its AT&T. So it will probably suck.

AT&T reference: http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/138150-fcc-approves-new-rules-to-make-wcs-spectrum-usable-att-begins-making-wcs-lte-a-reality

Has VZW released an AWS capable handset yet?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

The Samsung Note '10 is the first Verizon device on sale to support AWS, but the Galaxy S4 will be the first Verizon phone on sale to support their AWS LTE network.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/29/samsung-galaxy-s-4-for-verizon-swings-through-the-fcc/

If you haven't checked it out yet, take a look at our market thread in the Sponsor Section:

http://s4gru.com/ind...thwest-markets/

 

What part of Portland are you in?

Live in Oregon City, work downtown PDX. Lots of travel around town to clients. Eagerly awaiting the 800MHz CDMA and LTE rollout later this year (or next year) in the PDX market. =)

I really wish htc would stop with the exclusivity bs and just release what they have to everyone and call it a day.

I still personally believe that T-mobile/MetroPCS will become a merger or acquisition target for Sprint-uh-Bank within three years. All together they would still be under 100m subscribers, which would still be smaller than either AT&T and Verizon at such a time.

This administration's FCC is all about consumer choice and protection. Having a really strong third national player would work towards that goal. Likely part of such a deal would be a promise to maintain unlimited smartphone data, sub-$50 monthly plans, and prepaid brands?

Even logistically, Sprint would garner a legacy GSM network for international roaming partners, and more extensive PCS band holdings. Sell off or hold the AWS bands? Who knows. They'd gain LTE roaming or compatibility with AT&T and Verizon, who are both using LTE on AWS.

SoftBank's Son's expansion plans are all about economies of scale. Sprint was a target simply because of their Clearwire connection. SoftBank is also using the same LTE bands in Japan as Clearwire is here. Buying 80,000 network cabinets instead of 40,000 probably gets you a couple billion dollar break. Plus, SoftBank is all about crazy subscriber expansion.

From this Forbes article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/terokuittinen/2012/10/11/us-consumers-need-softbank-to-buy-sprint/

Today’s news about Softbank considering buying Sprint could have a profound impact on the US mobile market. There would finally be a real chance of effective price competition. In Japan, Softbank made a bold move in 2006 by acquiring the badly stumbling Vodafone unit. In just one year, Softbank managed to boost the subscriber base of the challenger carrier from 700,000 in fiscal 2006 to 2.7 million in fiscal 2007, vaulting ahead of its giant rivals NTT-DoCoMo and KDDI in sub additions.

 

By the beginning of 2008, Softbank had grabbed 44% of Japan’s new mobile subscribers, well ahead of KDDI’s 35% and NTT-DoCoMo’s 11%. The minnow had morphed into an eagle.

Been lurking on S4GRU for sometime. Finally decided to become a sponsor this week and get the inside track for new cell sites.

Cannot wait for tri-band LTE phones! Until then I'll be controlling my data use on a couple of Verizon devices. :-( More extensive network coverage in my area, and existing LTE network. But eagerly awaiting my switch back to Sprint. :-)

I still think widespread tri-band LTE is a year or more away. The iDen network @ 800 MHz is still operational until at least June 30th, 2013 so I don't think it's at all practical to release tri-band phones that support using bandwidth still operational under an old infrastructure. You may not see tri-band phones until 2014.

Seems to be the best way to increase customer satisfaction and network reliability. Sprint still has two year contracts... :-) That is a long time to be using a phone that only supports 1900MHz LTE.

http://www.phonedog.com/2013/03/30/at-t-htc-one-promo-video-reveals-64gb-model-exclusivity/

 

Thoughts?

Too bad the HTC One doesn't have a microSD slot.

I know this forum isn't for at&t but based on what you are saying, at&t must be planning on using pcs along with 700 to deploy lte?

GigaOm last year speculated that AT&T will also deploying LTE on bands 2 (PCS, 1900MHz) and 5 (cellular, 850MHz). The current iPhone 5 GSM A1248 supposedly supports the bands, according to FCC documents.

And AT&T will likely also roll out LTE on the WCS frequency (2300MHz). Just got FCC approval to do so (http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-scores-aws-23-ghz-wcs-spectrum-lte/2012-12-19).

GigaOm: http://gigaom.com/2012/09/13/whats-att-planning-hidden-specs-unearthed-in-the-gsm-iphone-5/

ExtremeTech: http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/136199-iphone-5-a-confusing-mess-of-network-support