iansltx

Not Europe, but Telstra beat T-Mobile to the DC-H+ punch by a year or two. DC-H+ isn't 100% deployed in the EU, but there are plenty of companies that do it.

Re: LTE having a fragile airlink, it's probably not in the current LTE spec but one could envision a "high reliability" mode for VoLTE, where the voice conversation was confined to one or two subcarriers, possibly with frequency hopping for the subcarriers to keep from sitting on problem frequencies. This mode only happens in areas of low signal, but when it does the handset concentrates its Tx power on those subcarriers, and the tower does the same. That should bump RSRP and SNR up a few notches, allowing VoLTE to perform a bit better in marginal areas.

Count me in as pro-merger. Partially because there's almost no chance of SMR getting its own HSPA band. So 1x sticks around. Partially because T-Mobile's in-city LTE network is very strong at AWS frequencies, and my bet is that the equipment they have online could do LTE in PCS A-F with little issue. In more rural areas, T-Mobile and Sprint get to consolidate around the Sprint-operated sites. The combined entity would have to add equipment on those sites, but we're talking about a migration similar to what Sprint is already doing with Clearwire. Not the end of the world. I do think though that the combined entity would need to agree to host Dish's spectrum (for a new operator #4) in order to get merger approval. Which is fine. More money for #3 to roll things out. Also, they should probably hold off on merging until they each get some 600MHz spectrum. Maybe they have to divest some of it post-merger, but why fight fair when the Big Two don't?

I'll probably get this, and then have it sit on the $5 plan. My cost would be closer to $200 than $300 since I bought the Defy XT when it came out (and proceeded not to use it...whoops). Plus, it gives me an excuse to get the Moto X The big question is whether, several months down the road, I'd be willing to carry around a FreedomPop hotspot and this phone, on the $10 plan, and thus destroy my cell phone bill. Probably not, but the sheer idea of it is highly intriguing.

So, just to be clear, the old Alaska DigiTel network will continue to be treated as native for data, but not for voice? I can live with that.

Both SERO-P and EPRP can have any phone on them. My S III (and the Epic before it) are on SERO-P.

Ericsson has already demoed TD-LTE in 2600 that can do this; it's not a Huawei-specific thing. But my guess is that Huawei was more willing to show off their next-gen tech to SoftBank than Ericsson was. In other news, Huawei is responsible for at least on Canadian Band 7 (20x20 FD) operator's (I think Bell) deployments. Also, when you amp up the power, it's surprising what you can do with higher frequencies. 3.5GHz would be excellent for airport or stadium DASes. And fixed wireless everywhere else.

I probably won't go for this. On the one hand, I like new tech. On the other, the only reason I'm upgrading off of my S III prior to two years is that the "destination phone" will be tri-band. Point being, I only feel the need to upgrade "out of cycle" when the tech merits it. Which has happened once already (10/x/10 to the release date of the S III). And is happening again due to tri-band. But unless Sprint turns on PCS-H or DC-band-41 a year after I get the Nexus 5, One Up doesn't make sense. Particularly if I have to buy a locked Nexus 5 (or a G2) rather than an unlocked one. Then again, probably the major reason I'm not interested is that $65 is a higher MRC than my SERO-P plan. So there's that. But that's definitely a special case. I'm definitely glad that Sprint is acknowledging that One Up takes their subsidy out of the MRC, so they reprice plans accordingly. Too bad it doesn't include insurance...

Has anyone gotten any updates? I just called and apparently the device is back-ordered for another three weeks. I really, really want to check out Sprint's TD-LTE network here and in Florida, but that's not going to happen unless I sign a contract with Sprint proper, it seems. Unless someone would be willing to let me borrow their MiFi or Zing...

Fixed products? One can only hope Realistically though, my guess is that Sprint will roll out "X GB at full speed, then throttled thereafter" on hotspots first, then phones later...with the catch being the definition of "throttled"...I wouldn't be surprised if it was 5-10 Mbps. Alternately, premium pricing may be another network upgrade down the road. 10x10 FD-LTE can hold its own against 20MHz TD-LTE in real-world situations, using 2x2 MIMO on both. But if Sprint gets higher-order MIMO going...or puts two 20MHz carriers together...they'll be able to outpace everyone else. Which would allow them to offer an "everyone else" tier and an "us" tier without raising hackles. Folks like me would pay extra to hit peak speeds of 100 Mbps, and everyone else would sit at lower speeds for more reasonable prices.

Maybe they will, for a roaming...er...rotating position

On the one hand, including Band 26 is good, so iPhones won't suffer from reduced coverage relative to tri-band phones. On the other, another iPhone 5S/5C model has a number of TD-LTE bands. But the Sprint iPhone version has none.

As I mentioned on the news post...but it bears reiterating...having a SIM-unlocked Nexus 5 is an enormous win for me. "One phone to rule them all", with the ability to switch from my main Sprint SIM to T-Mobile or AT&T (AirVoice) means that I can leave my Nexus 4 at home (and my S III for that matter) and still use whoever's best in a given area. Convergence and all that. That's one reason I bought both the Nexus 4 (compatibility with T-Mobile LTE and AT&T/WCW non-LTE) and the iPad 3rd gen VZW (not only VZW LTE but every tech below LTE as long as we aren't talking about AWS). Both are unlocked, so I can use the best network in a given area, rather than the one that the device happens to support. For a guy who travels to areas where the best network varies (where I'm sitting, T-Mobile is awesome...80 miles away, Sprint wins...closer in, Verizon takes the prize), and is willing to keep multiple accounts active to take advantage of the best attributes of each carrier, that's absolutely huge.

Wow. That amount of power is downright impressive for a pocket-sized device. Where does the MiFi fall on that scale?

Add me to the list of folks who used TeleNav when Google's own Maps would come up short. There are still times when this happens. That said, there's now a free "lite" TeleNav that I've seen around, so I can understand Sprint not bundling it anymore.

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.

Here's a bit of a caveat to the discussion: fixed wireless users on a mobile network will, all else equal, take less time slots/bandwidth to deliver a set amount of data, due to better signal strength. If spectrum is the limiting factor and you've got 4x4 MIMO on the tower, a 4x4 MIMO fixed client (there's plenty of room for antennas in a fixed terminal) with plenty of gain will be able to hit top modulations, consistently, on multiple MIMO chains, such that 50GB of usage on their side would put about as much spectrum strain as 10GB on a hotspot, or 5GB on a less-powerful mobile phone. Plus, you can selectively offer fixed wireless where you have capacity, or where you can easily grow that capacity. Doesn't need to be nationwide. Remember that Sprint did this several years ago (albeit at 1.5M down, 256K up, for $45/mo) in a similar use case. Granted, they weren't taking spectrum away from their PCS CDMA network to make this happen. But in areas where they have enough spectrum to support multiple TD carriers per sector, mobile usage is likely to only need one of them. Maybe two. So fixed wireless would actually be a good use of resources that are already set up.

MVNOs aren't all they're cracked up to be. I'm talking about building your own infrastructure. You can't solve coverage issues with an MVNO. Unless one of the strong points of your MVNO is that you, for every customer, set 'em up with a few dozen feet of LMR cable hooked to a couple grid antennas pointed at the nearest Sprint tower. Which actually works like a charm when you're five miles away.

The bright side is that you could start a WISP on your own if you wanted. Find a cheap-ish fiber bandwidth source (or even a business class cable connection) and distribute it to 50 of your closest friends via a local water tower with 5.8GHz equipment. I've seriously thought about calling up Sprint to see if I could lease some CLWR spectrum from them...the 2.4GHz equipment available for WISPs can be tuned pretty easily to 2.5GHz...but have never gotten around to it for fear that the answer would be no.