iansltx

Or just slip the FCC a note that mentions how much spectrum T-Mobile will have in PCS once the transaction is complete in certain markets...and suggest that TMo be forced to spin off some of this PCS spectrum if they want to merge. Then turn around and buy up that spectrum to help markets that don't have much as-is. Sprint can probably mention how efficiently T-Mobile is using its spectrum, particularly post-merger (MHz/population), as a reason to require the swap. And then allow all MetroPCS ESN/MEIDs to activate on Sprint (though those phones would be 3G-only at this point). Target markets where Sprint has gotten NV underway (DFW, Atlanta, NYC, Chicago, LA) and go after customers with a combination of Virgin Mobile and other MVNOs (allow bring-your-own-MetroPCS-device for folks like Ting). Emphasize the fact that T-Mobile will push for a phone replacement sooner rather than later for every MetroPCS user, and skim off as many customers as they can while the merger FUD goes down. I'll bet Sprint could get a million or two customers this way.

Thanks!

Right; this was a post made by someone else, either here or potentially in another forum. Lots of specifics, I know ::rollseyes::

Could have sworn that I saw a site count /somewhere/...if I recall correctly the count was in the twenties or thirties but I could be wrong.

Do we have a count of how many total Shentel sites there are somewhere? Not just LTE-upgraded ones?

Agreed. Also, the Samsung cabinets are nice and small. Maybe that's a contributing factor to the now breakneck pace they're achieving in CHI? It's good to see a double-handful of sites with completed 3G, 1x on SMR and 4G in the area, too...should help folks a bit with coverage.

I think I'll order one once they're actually out (vs. just preordering). WiFi-only version though; getting the 3G edition would be a step back for me connectivity-wise. If the system chokes on anything I throw at it performance-wise, I can always pop open LogMeIn and use that, right? This would actually be my second Chromebok. Unfortunately the mSATA cable on my Cr-48 died. Otherwise I'd still have a Chromebook, albeit one running Windows 8.

Sprint buys Leap and spins off its AWS to T-Mobile.

You can keep your GSM, thank you very much. Don't get me wrong. SIM cards are awesome. I've used them in Nextel, T-Mobile and Cingular/AT&T phones...and my VZW iPad. However you can do something pretty similar on CDMA phones with an online tool to re-associate MEIDs...and CDMA carriers don't have to support a 2G-only network for the foreseeable future (GSM/GPRS/EDGE) as they transition most of their customers to LTE. Supporting GSM/H+ would put Sprint at a spectrum disadvantage vs. everyone else, so I'm glad they didn't go down that route. ...geez, it feels like I'm channeling AJ here...

Seems like Sprint has historically gotten a lot of cool phones at the same time as, if not before than, competing carriers. These days though, the big difference between Sprint and its competitors is how much bloatware gets put on a given phone. AT&T is worst, Verizon comes up second, and Sprint and T-Mobile keep their phones pretty free of such madness. The gap between carriers' high-end phones has closed in recent years, though you may not be able to get the same device on every carrier (e.g. Sprint's Optimus G doesn't have a memory card slot, AT&T's One X doesn't either, and Verizon has the Razr HD instead of the One X).

I've noticed that Samsung Push Service seems to be wake-locking like a boss and telling me in no uncertain terms that all my milli-amp-hours are belong to it. Solution: force stop the service...and, like magic, my battery doesn't die quickly anymore. Hopefully Samsung will fix this issue before their full-scale JB release.

This, compounded with LS's spectrum portfolio, which if I recall correctly was around 35 MHz FD in ~1500 MHz. So you can do LTE with PCS voice/EvDO spacing and everything just works. Well, except for the whole GPS deal. As for why Sprint didn't do NV with Clearwire in mind, they were trying to work with LS, and Clearwire was yet another moving piece in the puzzle. Now that LS is off the table, they can concentrate on CLWR. The flip side of this is that, for a mobility-focused network, you don't want, nor do you need, Clearwire TD-LTE on every site. In a metropolitan area you want to go after clusters of close-together sites where heavy capacity is needed. Suburban/rural sites? Heck, they may or may not get SMR LTE, let alone 2500, due to the added expense of putting panels/line cards up. The situation changes when you have a sugar daddy (SB) that wants economies of scale on TD-LTE 2500 equipment. Your marginal cost per site goes down, and your political incentives to roll out the network go up. So you put TD-LTE 2500 on more sites than you otherwise would have, partially by making sure that Clearwire will adopt whatever deployment strategy you want them to have. As an added benefit, you don't have capacity problems...pretty much ever...on the sites where you've got PCS+2500+SMR LTE, since you can stack TD carriers to your heart's content and go to 60-degree sectors without too much of an issue (2.4GHz panels are quite reasonably sized, and, I imagine, so are 2.5).

Short answer: No. Long answer: Sprint only has enough spectrum for a single 1x carrier plus, depending on other iDEN providers in the area, up to 5x5 of LTE in SMR. Any EvDO in SMR would take away from LTE capacity, so Sprint won't be deploying EvDO in SMR.

I use Forum Runner.

The implementation is different (4x6 MHz channels or 8x6 MHz channels vs. on a 5x5, 10x10, 15x15 or 20x20 channel) but the reasoning is the same: carriers want a larger pipe for their users if it can be done relatively inexpensively using available resources. D3 channel bonding these days is seamless enough that it might as well be one big 24MHz (or however many DOCSIS channels get bonded, multiplied by 6) downstream channel. Says the person who has had D3 in some form or fashion for maybe three years now.

...and that, to be honest, is a weak WiMAX hotspot. Though it's mobile. I swapped mine for a Clear desktop modem and both reception and data speeds are much better on the much (MUCH) larger device

I dunno about consistency. There's a reason that DOCSIS 3 has channel bonding...more capacity, more consistency. Then again cable companies have speed tiers. The pro to 20x20 LTE is you have tons of capacity in one place, without the need for Carrier Aggregation. The con is that most phones don't support that bandwidth. Heck, most Sprint phones only support 5x5.

Not all 32-bit numbers are IP addresses...or ESNs, for that matter...

Maybe Sprint shareholders etc. bought some MetroPCS shares on the sly, and want to push the company in Sprint's direction...one can always theorize

My wish list: 1. An equivalent to VZW's LTE in Rural America program, using primarily SMR. Any rural provider that wants to participate can opt to deploy on PCS if Sprint isn't in the area, but the big push will be to cover huge swaths of territory per tower and reduce roaming fees...and offer high speed data in the middle of nowhere . Offering "only" 5x5 of LTE (plus a dedicated 1xA voice channel) may seem like a capacity issue at first blush, but we're talking about rural areas here, where PCS tower spacing has historically not worked. As an additional carrot to rural providers, Sprint can offer to lease PCS spectrum (more capacity + roaming revenue for CDMA) and even BRS/EBS (so the rural providers can do something like HomeFusion, except better). Doing the above on Sprint's own dime would run them into issues. But allowing more companies to come online that work like Shentel would probably attract a few companies who aren't particularly thrilled with Verizon's device policies (basically, you can't get any decent VZW LTE phones even though you have an LTE network to run them on). 2. Buy up MetroPCS's cheap LTE phone overstocks + inventory pipeline, recertify them for PCS + G LTE, then push them to Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile (and MVNOs). If there's one thing MetroPCS was good at, it was getting cheap LTE phones. Sprint could get a few more people migrating to LTE by doing this I think. 3. Upgrade iDEN-only sites to NV where it makes sense to do so. 4. Dovetailing with (2), offer non-embedded LTE SIMs. Configure their CDMA network to "follow"a user by their SIM rather than their ESN/MEID. If I want to switch from my SIII to a cheapo phone when I go to some risky place (e.g. going on a float trip), I should be able to do so if I can get eHRPD. 5. Offer a low-capacity (250MB, LTE-only) PAM option for unlimited smartphone plans. Charge overages at a penny per MB, billed a megabyte at a time, and eliminate the current PAM plans. This would generate Sprint more money from folks who use between 5.25 and ~6.1 GB, and would probably end up getting them more revenue anyway as more people would use PAM. 6. Give Ting better wholesale data rates

You're not the only one who is expecting this. I predict that we'll see quad-band LTE phones from Sprint + T-Mobile within four years (PCS + AWS + SMR + BRS/EBS TD), and at that point we'll be looking at a company that's roughly the size of AT&T or Verizon. That company will probably have rolled in CricKet and MetroPCS by that point to gain a little extra spectrum, too. Of course, that means that you'll have three legacy networks running on PCS + AWS (GSM, H+, CDMA) but putting aside 30x30 FD for legacy networks (10x10 in PCS and AWS for DC-H+, 5x5 in PCS for GSM, 5x5 in PCS for CDMA) isn't such a big deal when you've got 20x20 in AWS and 30x30 in PCS.

$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.

4am ET is 5pm in Japan, probably after the market on which SoftBank is traded has closed. I tuned in a couple minutes ago and didn't catch anything particularly earthshattering. I'll probably rewatch the presentation in the AM; it's on UStream. EDIT: Wow...Dan Hesse is a LOT taller than the SoftBank head.