iansltx

Oh, hi guys... I actually bought an Optimus Regard (MetroPCS calls it the LG Motion 4G) on CricKet around Thanksgiving, and had a chance to test out service in both San Antonio and Austin shortly after both LTE networks went live for CricKet. Thanks to the fact that practically no one was on the network yet (the Galaxy SIII hadn't come out for CricKet yet), I was able to pull 6-7 Mbps in both directions with the phone. I believe latency was in the high thirties to mid forties to Dallas. The lowish speeds are due to CricKet not having much spectrum in Austin (or much of anywhere, really); they were either using 1.4 MHz or 3 MHz LTE carriers at the time, as far as I can guess. I put the phone into LTE only mode (*#*4636#*# works) and noticed that CricKet's LTE fades out about where it says on its map: not far west of MoPac in NW Austin. Go east of MoPac and everything runs at LTE speeds (CricKet does seem to have coverage of Austin down pretty well) but you're dropping down to 1-2 Mbps EvDO if you get too far west. I wasn't the one testing service in San Antonio so I can't speak to coverage there, though speeds were comparable. Honestly, at this point their network in both San Antonio and Austin (and maybe Houston?) is more consistent than Sprint's...if you're in a "covered" area you consistently get LTE, though if you step out of that area you're dropping back to EvDO quickly. Fortunately, on CricKet towers they appear to have upgraded backhaul a bit recently, such that in Fredericksburg I was able to pull a couple Mbps with latency below 100ms...though that latency part has been that way for years (CricKet dumps onto the Internet a lot more quickly than Sprint does backbone-wise).

Fiber is more expensive than LTE per home passed, and LTE makes more revenue per person signed up. Guess which is the path of least (investor) resistance...

According to the latest (sponsor-only for more info) update, Chicago is now ~86% NV complete. Or ~61% LTE-enabled, if you don't want to include all of the sites that have 3G (or 3G + SMR 1x). 1x SMR has been accepted on ~29% of sites.

I'm sure there will be. By the way, I didn't get a chance to "run the numbers" until last night, so putting the Running List up from those numbers would be an exercise in outdated-ness, but Of NV-complete sites, over half in Boston now have 4G. Some even have 1x SMR Chicago is 77.5% NV complete. About 63% of that amount have 4G online. There are more updates (Shentel got a big boost) but those were arguably the biggest ones last week.

Only on the Evo LTE. Now, granted, Sprint voice quality has always been good for me, but it's not "HD Voice" (which sounds like a jitter-free version of Skype I think).

At this point, thanks to picking up USCC spectrum in Chicago and the surrounding areas, Sprint has less to gain from MetroPCS spectrum. The number of markets where they're under 30MHz of PCS...and could be pushed to 30+ by a MetroPCS divestiture...are pretty low. Though if T_Mobile decided that it wanted to sell some PCS I'm sure Sprint would love to buy it. Buying Leap/CricKet on the other hand...

Where did you hear this? The feel I've gotten over the years is that anywhere without cheap backhaul and plenty of folks to use it may still retain T-Mobile service, but at GPRS/EDGE levels as a roaming charge abatement plan. This is the case in a number of areas where it would be better for T-Mobile customers if TMo turned the towers off and let them roam on AT&T, which tends to have 3G more often than not in those same areas. Now there are some instances where T-Mobile can provide better voice service than AT&T even when their network is a generation behind. However if you think that Sprint's congested pre-NV 3G is bad, wait 'til you get a taste of T-Mobile GPRS or EDGE. It's not that they're congested. It's just that there's very little bandwidth available to start with on the airlink (and, okay, they're probably backhauled with a single T1 per site).

As I expected, I'll be upgrading my phone mid-year (one year after getting my current handset). I can live with that...my SIII will probably command a fair amount of resale value...but this just underscores the fact that 24-month contracts are broken these days, with everyone refreshing hardware in cool ways every year. *shrugs*

My guess is that HD voice is now supported on every tower that is LTE-ready/has PCS HSPA+. I'll see my T-Mo store manager friend tomorrow evening and will see if he can give me a demo (Austin has the PCS H+ overlay).

14MHz contiguous, plus some interlaced channels elsewhere, for areas where they don't have to deal with another iDEN carrier, either in the US or across the border. So, enough for a 1x carrier and a 5x5 LTE carrier.

I guess I'm the only one who sees this as a "good thing"™ At some level, Sprint is competing with T-Mobile. T-Mobile has an unlimited talk + text + data on unsubsidized phones for $70 per month, or unlimited talk + text + enough data for a non-smartphone for $50-$55. They sell those plans under the T-Mobile banner, and they have access to T-Mobile's HSPA+ network (and, I'll bet, their LTE network when that comes out). So Sprint is, in some limited way, mirroring T-Mobile. Is it a me-too strategy? Absolutely. However if Sprint allows LTE on the Victory, they have a somewhat reasonable offering here, right below Sprint postpaid on the features/price spectrum that starts with Boost/Virgin and ends with Sprint (as far as owned MVNOs go). If the pilot program is successful, my guess is that Sprint will open their phone lineup over time, just as it has done with its MVNOs. Who knows...maybe by the time I see a phone upgrade I want (ahem, SMR + BRS LTE capabilities) Sprint will be offering that on Sprint As You Go, giving AJ one less reason to chide me (that reason being the SERO plan, now SERO-P, that's kept me on Sprint postpaid for the past 5.5 years).

As an aside, both CricKet and MetroPCS use PCS A-F for LTE in some cases. Neither are completely AWS...so there's even less effort required to add PCS G to their phones' LTE capabilities.

(being lazy) Would this amp correctly amplify both spatial chains of LTE MIMO? Such that you could successfully rebroadcast Sprint LTE?