Thomas L.

 

 

I was a Sprint customer earlier this year but in March I was forced to switch to AT&T because of Sprint's network being unusable and me roaming like a crazy data freak. My parents keep saying I should switch back to Sprint but I've been spoiled with the sheer speed of AT&T's BLAZING FAST LTE. I just want to know if Sprint in the East Bay has improved to near AT&T coverage and speed because their network is crazy fast and has coverage everywhere I have been this whole year. I have recently started to look at Sprint's LTE coverage and was amazed that Alameda and the entire East Bay was fully orange. I know that their coverage maps aren't 100% but it's still an improvement over the Sprint I left. I just have some questions like:

1. Do you get relatively decent in building penetration with LTE?
2. Are the speeds comparable to AT&T's LTE and even HSPA+?
3. Has 3G improved from 0.21 mps?
4. Do voice calls drop as often?
5. Has Sprint started to deploy anything on the 800 band in this area?

I'm not trying to bash Sprint in anyway I just want to know if the overall experience has improved greatly or should I just wait until they finish NV in the Bay and the greater LA area? 

 

EDIT: Changed AT&T screenshot and added around the time I left Sprint screenshot for comparison.

 

As most other people have said - wait until at least Christmas. It will make absolutely nuts to go between having LTE and good speeds, and then dropping back to the legacy network and having it almost unusable. There are plenty of areas that will still give you the same speeds you showed in your old Sprint speed test. You will also want to make sure you get a tri-band phone, and that will be much easier even in just a few months. 

I chalk it up to comparing it with when the EVDO/RTT data hardly works and just turns your phone into a pocket warmer.

If we had working 3G, we'd go through data too of course, so its really comparing a working tower vs a non-working.

This! When you have 3G that works well, you use a bunch more data too! 

I'm new to the site. Love it! Everything I wanted to know about Sprint and more! I have a question about LTE. Is the LTE signal in general just weaker or is it the obvious that Sprint is currently in the process of deploying it. Just wondering. I got an HTC One and recently signed up for Sprint. I'm very impressed at the improvements! No more dropped calls in my building and great signal strength now. (on 1x and EVDO that is) LTE different story. I'm in Brooklyn which was officially announced by Sprint but LTE is still very spotty. I was by Flatbush and Nostrand which is a major intersection and no LTE. I been to East New York, East Flatbush and other parts of Brooklyn with no LTE still either. SMH!

It's the fact that they're deploying it. Especially in NYC when they finally have the network deployed you should have good LTE where you have good 3G. Sprint has a bad habit of 'launching' markets officially when they're only 40% complete or less.

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I thought it was understood all along that NV would continue on into 2014...?

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Satellite.

Latency is through the roof, it's not suitable for VOIP. 

This is a bit off-topic, but what is going to happen to the dozens, if not hundreds, of Wimax networks around the world? Everyone is announcing that Wimax is dead, but it seems to me in some applications it will continue (maybe not as much in the 'developed world') as CDMA has, as it is cheaper and currently seems much more scalable. 

We found a quite suitable replacement.

Are you using LTE-TD? Or that hybrid tech you referred to? I would be fascinated to know. Or maybe it's one of your own creations?

my cousin asked me and i was sure.

 

so wifi uses 2.5 ghz, and sprint is using 2.5 ghz for lte. What keeps it from causing interference from another. or causing congestion 

To give a short answer, Wifi actually uses unlicensed 2.4ghz spectrum, which anything from Bluetooth to microwaves also use. Sprints spectrum is 2.5ghz and is licensed (to Sprint), meaning only Sprint can broadcast on it.

This isn't you is it?  Just joshin' ya.

Holy smokes, I have to commend that individual on having the guts to ask that question and claim they're an engineer... or maybe they are an engineer, a really really bad engineer. Or maybe it was a joke? "I would gain distance (like 22 miles)" lmao. 

Ah, i could. The only name assigned to the links was "WISPWILL" but that was just for testing. The information for the company will be public by year end with full build markets starting 2014.

 

The service will be called Eon

Ah ha, Eon Corporation? Keep us updated, I think it will be fascinating to hear about.

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I will not, the secret is best kept quiet.

Are you... a major back haul provider for them? What's the name of your wisp btw, you run one right?

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All Clear Professional B2B (business to business) and M2M (machine to machine) services will be terminated on 8/31/13. Termination notifications have been sent to all Clear Professional B2B (business to business) and M2M (machine to machine) customers informing the customer that service will be terminated on 8/31/13. B2B and M2M has stopped being sold as of August 1st.

Wow, just a month's notice for shutdown. That's pretty short notice!

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AT&T and Verizon, in 10x10 markets, can reach into 70/25 Mbps, though those speeds are VERY rare these days. However 45-55 Mbps down and 10-20 Mbps up can still happen in the field. T-Mobile seems to be a bit better; I've seen 50/25 Mbps, though that was only once.

 

So AT&T, VZW and T-Mobile can all beat the speeds that Robert is pulling down over TD-LTE currently with their 10x10 networks. But all three (particularly AT&T and VZW) are covering much more territory per cell vs. Sprint TD, so even with one 20MHz TD carrier Sprint's speeds are going to stay higher for longer as people load the network down.

 

Of course, VZW can overlay 10x10 or even 20x20 in FD AWS practically wherever it wants to deal with these capacity issues. And AT&T may be able to patch together PCS and AWS LTE to do about the same thing while they wait for their 10x10 (it's only 10x10 right?) of WCS to become usable. And T-Mobile, which already has a relatively dense network and few subscribers, can go to 20x20 FD in some areas as well...and add more spatial streams for tablets, aircards and hotspots.

 

But my guess is that Sprint will have multiple TD carriers per site sooner rather than later where they're needed, probably before VZW gets its AWS overlay going at full tilt. And I wouldn't be surprised if next year's Zing supports 20+20 TD, with a better CPU and 802.11ac, to pump out more bandwidth than 20x20 FD can provide (at least on the downstream side).

Yeah in the South Bay I remember seeing VZW LTE around 55/25 or higher. I believe that AT&T is already planning carrier aggregation of their 700mhz and AWS spectrum in many areas too.

I have no doubt that Sprint will want to get 20+20 TD-LTE ASAP.

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I translated it also and was like um??? what the hell

It's a nonsense text - it's made up of Latin words but nonsensical and grammatically incorrect from what I see

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Oh yeahhhhhhh I remember mLife - wasn't it their name for GPRS services?

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This may not be the right place, but I was wondering what the synergies are that Sprint's TD-LTE will offer to Softbank. I know they'll share the 2600 band of TD-LTE service, but essentially all the other bands and technologies are different. Is the synergy just in base stations or...?

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I don't understand why there is as much focus on 2500 by media and even Sprint, 800 not even mentioned. Its 800Mhz that will turn Sprint around by significantly improving coverage and building penetration. 2500 is good in long term for capacity as needed but its 800 that is very very important in the next year.

Everyone seems to have a hard on over speed, and that's what the media is focusing on. You even see a lot of people here focusing on speed because it's a bragging rights thing. I, personally, like you, am more interested in the increased coverage of LTE 800. In the long term the Clearwire spectrum will be a big deal though. Higher data usage is where the world is going, and whoever can successfully provide that will have a real advantage.

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Why should it be hard to implement FDD and TDD together? As far as I know the chipsets are designed to allow them to coexist easily and all chipsets support both.

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From the list, shows US 800 SMR on Band 27.

It is clearer if you look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-UTRA

Band 26 is a superset of 5, 6, 18, 19, and 27 (I believe).

Ok, I wasn't really sure where to post this since there isn't a specific forum for data-only devices.

 

I picked up a Netgear Zing hotspot today and am anxious to give it a try. Unfortunately LTE service in my home and out and about still isn't great (-107 or so signal) unless I go outside as the tower nearest my home hasn't been upgraded yet. But just in general I noticed there was a few external antenna ports on the device and was curious if anyone knew of a compatible antenna that I could use?

 

I see Netgear sells a few but they don't list LTE as supported, but do have CDMA 1900. As for an antenna I can't imagine there's much difference as long as the frequency is correct. Am I incorrect in saying this?

Unfortunately Sprint's LTE is on the PCS G block - unless the antennas say they specifically support the G block, they probably won't help you with LTE. 

Actually the last time I was in Dos Palos proper, that tower was operational and I still had zero Sprint coverage, I was roaming the whole time. I don't know if 'downtown' Dos Palos will have Sprint coverage at any point.

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I don't know that it's prioritized, just that they scan for it first. Once you are locked onto one of the networks, it's not going to switch to the other unless you completely lose one. (generally 1900 you'll lose). I don't know for sure.  

I hope that Sprint is smart and has the phones switch over to 800mhz LTE before 1900 LTE is so weak it is completely unusable. That is to say, I hope it doesn't hang on to 1900 LTE even when it's so weak it's totally useless. 

I happened to be driving by a tower that was having NV upgrades being done to it (at least I assume it was, I had no signal in an area where I usually have good signal, and it looks like it was). This was on highway 152, technically in Dos Palos, I will refrain from posting the site ID. I was a passenger, so I took some pictures:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/glyvw1ob9w5melo/2013-07-16%2012.40.31.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5icqrk29gb3mulh/2013-07-16%2016.57.17.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y2e3nijs97utaxw/2013-07-16%2012.40.28.jpg

Oh God, I find it highly traumatizing to know that in thirty years we'll look back at our clothes today and feel we look equally ridiculous. 

I don't get the point of this really... IIRC the majority of regular broadcast stations are upgrading or have upgraded their equipment to broadcast ATSC-H/M signals. What are the chances enough people would pay extra for more channels to watch on their phone to make it worth the cost of a new network?

Where does Dish own 700mhz licenses, and why wouldn't they use that to deploy LTE or something?

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