lynyrd65

I'm a former sprint customer, and recently moved to T-mobile. The main reason I moved to T-mobile had to do with the speed of the network from the speed testing websites, and they seemed to be more reliable. The second resons was that it was on GSM network which would allow for International roaming when abroad. However, I've found that when T-mobile is available it is fast, but lacks indoor penetration, something I notieced of Sprint as well, it also is not available everywhere such as sprint overall coverage. So I am now thinking of switching back to sprint because I live in Indiana and travel a lot on the road, which requires coverage that is not readily provided by T-mobile.

My question, if and when Sprint moves LTE to 800mhz and 2.5Ghz, are new phones required to take advantage of that frequency or will the Moto X and Iphone 5s work on those bands? Secondly, I read that Verizon will be shutting down its CDMA network sometime next year and move to Voicelte, I'm thinking this will effect Sprint coverage since I'm sure they use their network at times. Any thoughts on that or has Sprint also announced moving to Voice over LTE?

My main concern was with speed of the network, which when I have coverage with T-mobile, is much slower than Sprint (my wife still has sprint). I'm not sure I understand why the network is slower on Sprint and whether that will improve over time specfiically in Indianapolis. I appreciate any feedback so that I might move back to Sprint for the best long-term viability.

The Moto X does not support 800 or 2500 LTE

The iPhone 5s supports 800mhz LTE

Verizon will not be shutting down its CDMA network for at least 7 years (2021 I believe) however Sprints new plans only allow 100mb of data roaming where it used to be 300mb.

Sprint will add Volte to its network in the next few years but that doesnt mean it will roam with VZW's network although it may roam on some regional carriers networks like US Cellular in the future.

Edit: nvm I dont think its him

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 15 January 2011

 

I figured I would see LTE before WiMax too. She may have just seen the 4G icon as it was trying to connect and thought it was connected...

Im hopeful SMR will change things. Because the SMR lte network wont play with cdma it doesnt have to be turned on in clusters ericcson will upgrade the existing g-block lte sites without as much hesitation.

That is one of the sites I seldom see. Sad to see it has remained 3G only since it was one of the first full builds in the state.

My sister hates sprint because of these sites remaining 3G only (with legacy backhaul). Their service has become unusable in the area. I hope things improve.

Allegedly they have removed 1/2 of the original NV equip, which is the first case of this happening that I know of in the OK market. 

-Will 

The Glenpool site has legacy equipment removed and has for a while. Its still 3G only though.

If anyone in Tulsa is near the Woodland hills mall, grab a pic of the site next to the 71st street fire station west of Memorial. My 14 year old brother reported to me that it has received NV upgrades but a picture & adult validity would help get it put on the map.

-Will

If macpcs doesnt get it before me I'll get it in a few days.

Perhaps they're gearing up for VoLTE and skipping cdma hd voice much like they skipped dual band handsets for triband (except the new iPhones of course).

Questions for those in the know, regarding the Lg G2 and the Tulsa/Oklahoma market. Will/is there multiple lte bands available to be able to utilize the G2 for its tri- band capabilities within the next 2 year contract period. From what I've been reading here, tri-band support is what really differentiates the G2 from the Note 3.

 

I currently own the HTC One, and if it was at least 5", I wouldn't even be eyeing a new handset, because to me screen size is the only thing newer flagships would have over the One. SD card and removable battery is not a factor for me. I've read that the Note 3 is a beast. But, I'm not sure that I would utilize its stylus capabilities or need a screen that large. Also being priced at $350 is a negative.

 

I've never owned Lg, and I just wanted some opinion on the G2, given my concerns. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Edit: also I'm not sure how much longer the G2 can be had on pre-order for $99. $99 or $350? Hmmm

 

Thank you.

I would love to tell you that it absolutely will make an impact in Tulsa but Ericcson's reluctance to touch the SMR 800mhz band even for cdma voice and the fact that tulsa never was an official wimax market. I couldnt tell you.

I would think that a year from now they will at least start adding 2500 to our Sprint only sites but I could be wrong.

I for one would like to see an engineering screen from the area you were in. It looks like your phone/ROM would support it.

That Signalcheck app screenshot looks interesting.

Do you have a shot of what it looks like normally (native Sprint LTE)?

Well this is the thing... I'm basically looking for a carrier that will reach certain parts (including a sub-level basement / garage) in the DC area cuz my dad needs it for work. Sprint was hit or miss for him. T-Mobile seems to be even more flaky. I know both of them operate on higher frequencies, but I wasn't sure how VZW or AT&T were. I know the only thing I can really do is have him try them, cuz there's a good possibility that none of them will be reliable where it's needed. And all this also depends on tower placement, etc. for his unique location. But I always thought that at least VZW's voice was on a lower frequency than the others. So are the big 4 all on higher frequencies for voice?

Sometimes the frequency doesnt matter if the sites are closer. In my area AT&T has 850mhz spectrum as does US Cellular. Verizon only has 1900 for voice.

I have a US Cellular device but many times I roam onto Verizon when I go into a metal building at work. This is because there is a verizon site less than half a mile from my workplace where others are much further away.

With the right site density a 1900mhz network can have better coverage than a more spaced out 850mhz network.

You could take over an old verizon unlimited plan. They have unlimited tethering available with it.

I know this is a Sprint site but I figured you all would appreciate this,

I was playing with my USCC Galaxy S4 and found a menu to manually select LTE band classes. I toggled Band 5.

Lo and behold! LTE Band 5 (Cellular 850) is live in Tulsa for US Cellular! This band class is compatible with band 26 which new triband devices and the iPhone 5s/5c support.

I no longer hate Ohio!

I think any LTE roaming agreements will be shown and billed as native. It is far more in the interest of smaller carriers to use Sprints network for nationwide coverage than for Sprint users to get better coverage. If anyone could gouge on pricing it would be Sprint but based on Hesse's comments about reducing roaming fees I suspect the goal is fair reciprocity.

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so he is not losing much by sticking with ATT.

Except his soul

Ya just a fools hope.... EVERYONES LG G2 is SVLTE except Sprints darn it

But only one G2 supports both TDD and FDD LTE

TlDR

Sprint is TDD and that carrier is FDD. Even though they sound similar (20mHz FDD and 20mHz TDD), the reality is that the FDD carrier actually is using twice the spectrum but TDD makes up for it partially by being able to allocate more of its spectrum to uploading.

20mHz FDD

20mHz Downlink spectrum
20mHz Uplink Spectrum

20mHz TDD

20mhz Downlink/Uplink

For Sprint's 3:2 DL to UL ratio

12mHz Downlink
8mHz Uplink

Isn't Sprint using a 20Mhz TD-LTE carrier? How is it that Sprint gets up to 90 Mbps and this carrier gets 150 off of a single carrier of the same size? Unless Sprint is using a 10Mhz TD-LTE carrier.

For a 2x2 MIMO LTE airlink

Downlink Peak speed = 7.5 Mbps/Hz * Downlink bandwidth

So for a 20mhz FDD link you have 20mhz downlink spectrum and 20mHz uplink or 20+20 MHz = 40mHz of total spectrum

For download speeds we only care about the downlink bandwidth (20mHz in this case)

So

peak download speed = 20mHz * 7.5mbps/MHz = 150mbps

For TDD air links a single chunk of spectrum is used for upload and download. The connection is separated by time division. There is a time allocated to upload and a time to download. This doesn't have to be symmetric either. In Sprint's case they have a 3:2 download to upload ratio which means that 3/5 = 60% of the time the airlink is in a downlink state for your device.

To calculate the peak downlink speed of a TDD air link take the ratio (3 downlink to 2 uplink) add the two factors together to get 5. Next divide the downlink by the total time ( 3 / 5 = 0.60 = 60%). This is your downlink percentage that I described earlier.

Now take your TDD bandwidth (for Sprint 20mHZ) multiply it by your percentage and you get you downlink bandwidth (0.6 * 20mHz = 12 MHz). Finally multiply your downlink bandwidth by the standard LTE peak spectral efficiency of 7.5mbps/MHz

So..

Max DL Speed = 20mHz TDD bandwidth * (0.60 DL percentage) * 7.5 Mbps/MHz = 90mbps

For carrier aggregation multiply your airlink speeds by the number of channels. So for 2 aggregated 20mHz TDD channels the max speed is

2 channels * 90mbps/channel = 180mbps

Or for 20mHz FDD

2 channels * 150mbps/channel = 300mbps

I really like the new Sony phones and the direction they've gone with making their high-end devices water resistant. Its a damn shame Sprint doesn't carry sony products. I think its at least partly (more likely mostly) because Sony won't make a CDMA handset though.

 

On signal check pro this was the BSL and I took a look at the site through google street view and it doesn't look like a sprint tower to me. What carrier could this be?

Marlboro Wireless

The former clearwire contractors are converting WiMax sites at a reasonable pace in WiMax markets. New TDD coverage on NV sites won't happen for a while. Remember all the planning and permitting that it took to start Network Vision? That has to happen again for TDD on non-wimax sites.

Quantum Entanglement?

So my 68Mhz minimum in every market is good enough for now!

Let me know when you get your Tulsa FIT on.

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I love that their reasoning is to better compete with Sprint. Cool to see they are now viewed as a threat.