iansltx

Nice to see the tons of info here.

Re: VZW's $75 hotspot plan, mind linking info for that? Have one area in mind that is on satellite right now but has a VZW tower quite close, but otherwise poor mobile reception. This would save them a decent chunk of change vs. ViaSat and get a better quality connection.

I've had VoLTE on my straight-from-Google OG Pixel, as well as WiFi calling. Carriers can make it work if they feel like doing so.

Fingers crossed that my Essential Phone will get VoLTE support. It doesn't have Calling Plus but it does have WiFi calling, and is relatively aggressive about using WiFi calling to boot.

Austin LTE is at the point where, as long as QoS is involved properly, VoLTE should work well here.

Got called up today to be told that my Pixel didn't support B41. I argued otherwise, something to the effect of "I've had three generations of B41-capable phones, and my current one supports B41 + CA thankyouverymuch". After a few minutes on hold, the rep told me that they'd send a second-gen unit out in several (6-8 I think?) weeks.

Yes, I'm posting this late, but I was in FL until ~14 hours ago...specifically, an area not in Miami-Dade but close enough that the B26 exclusion zone applies. Let me just say that Sprint downright needs B26...or tighter cell spacing (whoops, can't do that, NIMBY) to get the QoS that they should have in the area. And probably closer cell spacing wouldn't cut it; 20+ Mbps outdoors turns to a shaky signal within condo walls in Fort Pierce, for example. Nothing B26 wouldn't fix up, but quite annoying as of right now.

Hopefully part of this change in B41 strategy involves getting existing dual-mode sites online, and 8T8R sites accessible, soon. I've been seeing some B41 around my area, but WiMAX coverage is much broader. Maybe that's because there's a bunch of wireless backhaul that wouldn't support speeds better than what B25+B26 is providing on a tower nearby. But if Sprint upgraded every WiMAX site around here (or added B41 to sites very nearby), they'd have a network that would meet or beat anyone else's around here, even without CA.

Looks like there's an error in the B26 frequency listing there; B26 should have different freqs than B5.

Anyway, the X v2 looks like a really solid device. Will have to see whether Google comes out with another Nexus handset this year. If not, I suppose I'll get the X as long as I can get an unlocked version like I've got with the N5.

Hopefully the mid-range Aquos phone ends up in the $250-$300 price range, priced for market penetration rather than luxury. If carriers are going all-in with the whole phone installment deal, they need to get phones on the market that don't increase customers' bills by $30 per month to pay the device off. Looking at you, Apple.

If they sell this off-contract, this will be my next phone (my S III will go to another family member).

If they sell this on-contract, this will probably be my next phone. Sprint will probably take my S III in the name of early upgrades.

I really, really hope that this is sold unlocked. Because then I can just swap out my AT&T (AirVoice), T-Mobile (data-only) and Sprint SIMs as needed with one device. And I'd have LTE on whatever service I was using. That's powerful.

I'll take a stab at this one: it's an update of the Samsung Galaxy Victory. Significantly larger screen, but that's my best guess.

"The other notable absence is SVDO support for simultaneous CDMA1X voice + EV-DO data, though its omission is growing less and less notable as time goes on. SVDO requires separate RF paths for CDMA1X and EV-DO. The first few Sprint LTE handsets did support SVDO, utilizing separate paths for CDMA1X and EV-DO/LTE. But the last nine Sprint LTE handsets have foregone SVDO, combining CDMA1X/EV-DO on a single path, so SVDO was likely just a temporary measure or a fringe benefit of the Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset and will not be a common Sprint handset feature going forward."AJ, I'm I reading this correctly, no voice and data at the same time? Why would sprint or Qualcomm pull away from this?

No voice and 3G at the same time. Voice and LTE will work just fine. SVDO was mainly a stopgap while Sprint built out their LTE network; since they're pretty far along in many places, the inconvenience of not being able to do voice and data on EvDO at the same time is a bit smaller now.

Great Post AJ. I have a few question regarding the spectrum. You said Sprint will get 30 MHz contiguous swath of PCS spectrum with the purchase from USCC in Chicago. How about the other Midwest markets? Will it be contiguous too? How will this effect LTE deployments in these specific Midwest markets compared to around East Coast and West Coast markets? Will any future handsets need to have extra / different chipsets to accomodate the new spectrum to take advantage of this spectrum assuming that these spectrum will be available to sprint customers and will be limited to these Mid west markets?

USCC is selling Sprint PCS spectrum. Sprint's LTE phones (all of them) already support LTE in PCS blocks A-G, and the USCC spectrum all falls in that area. So no one will have to swap out equipment etc. to take advantage of the new capacity (and that's all that this is...no coverage will be added as a result of the purchase) that will be available in the above markets.

Great job.Do the phones shipping today that are LTE have a radio that will work with the added spectrum?

PCS is PCS. No new radios will be required to use the USCC spectrum.

As an iPad third-gen owner, I've seen my device run circles around other VZW LTE devices (all of them phones) in terms of speed and reception. Gotta love a much larger battery (even compared to a Razr Maxx), which allows the LTE radio in the device to run full-tilt.

$8 billion is a lot of money. Sprint could seriously speed up Network Vision, crowding out T-Mobile even, buy Clearwire (so they can deploy TD-LTE wherever they want without paying roaming fees to Clear) and maybe pick up Leap as well if the price is right. Hit all three and you've got a formidable competitor to T-Mobile...and maybe even VZW and AT&T.

AJ does this article include the PCS G block.

It omits the G block. Sprint has PCS G and SMR in addition to PCS A-F and T-Mobile has AWS. Guess which has more spectrum?

In a similar vein, the iPhone 5 doesn't support the 700MHz lower A block (band class 12). That's another can of worms that only obliquely concerns Sprint, so my rant...er...musings on that whole situations will occur elsewhere. The short version: AT&T doesn't want to pay LTE roaming revenue to anyone, and will hamstring its customers' phones (and its competitors' ability to buy phones) in order to avoid setting the precedent, or even the possibility of setting a precedent, on 4G roaming.

I really do not understand why everyone is making a big deal out of being able to talk and surf at the same time. I have been doing it since my last two phones the Original Epic 4g and the original Evo 4g and I am still doing it on the new Evo LTE and Galaxy S3. I tested out both of my old phones when At&T was making a big deal over it when Verizon first got the I-Phone. I used to do it every day at lunch I would have my phone tethered to my tablet and my wife would call and had no problems and I could also search the internet while talking on the phone. This is nothing new on a cdma network.

The big deal is that the iPhone 5 can't do this on networks that run voice over anything other than WCDMA.

Could Apple add VoLTE support later on? It seems pretty clear the MDM9615 supports VoLTE and the baseband software by Apple does not. Could Apple add it to the baseband later on?

I'll answer that with a resounding "maybe." Previous iPhones have had baseband updates. However enabling VoLTE might require recertification by the FCC, since Apple specifically said that the functionality was not supported. If recertification is required, it probably isn't worth it for Apple to go through the process. If not, maybe it'll show up...

Well that sounds good. Is there any evidence that any of this, or any thing else included on the phone will take advantage of network vision? (aside from the obvious inclusion of lte) By that i mean perhaps better reception due to the antennas, or possibly better 3g speeds? Thanks again.

Network Vision's better 3G speeds and slightly increased coverage (due to RRUs) doesn't require a differently optimized phone.

Network Vision's LTE of course requires an LTE phone. CDMA in SMR (better coverage for voice) requires a phone that can do CDMA in SMR. The iPhone has both.

The eventual addition of LTE in 2500 and SMR bands requires phones to support that technology in those bands. No current phone does this. The iPhone is no exception.

I believe I have a decent understanding of this article, however I was curious as to how the bands of this new iPhone compares to that of the 4s, and if it is a marginal improvement, or an improvement at all. Thanks

If you're talking about transmit power or antenna strength, I'm not sure, as I haven't looked at the FCC docs for the 4S.

If you're talking about global band support, the iPhone 5 is definitely superior. The 4S can connect to all the GSM/HSPA bands that the iPhone 5 can, however the iPhone 5 (A1429) adds in CDMA on SMR and 2100MHz, in addition to better HSPA capabilities (DC-HSPA+ instead of 14.4 Mbps HSPA) and LTE.

Interesting...they list Kerrville, even though there are no Sites Complete for that city (as a sponsor, I can see this). Yet Fredericksburg has a site complete and they don't list that. I wonder what their criteria is...

Add the Epic 4G to the list of phones that will have side-by-side RF testing vs. the SGSIII; that's what I'm upgrading from

Well, with this delay, Sprint had better overnight ship to people who have made the preorders. Considering that I paid to get my "due date" moved up, I feel it's within my rights to ask that I get a phone at the same time as, if not before, it's available in the retail channel.

I love the river walk as well. Been awhile since I've gotten down there though.

Looking forward to the point when the Fredericksburg cell site shown goes live with 3G (and, of course, 4G). Should make my immediate family, two of whom use Virgin Mobile (LG Optimus V), happy.