Thomas L.

2 minutes ago, IamMrFamous07 said:

Didn’t sprint admit they won’t be able to compete without the merger? 

They didn't necessarily admit it - they just claimed it as a way of garnishing support for the merger.

13 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

They are turning up the bandwidth here. L850 on every site, they added band 2 6 months ago at 5MHz. Just for kicks Saturday I checked the site in town. It is at 10MHz and HSPA was no show until I approached the next macro. 

 

Where is this?

So it seems to be that T-Mobile roaming has been primarily rolled out in areas where VoLTE is launching. Has anyone seen it in none VoLTE areas? I had an interesting experience in the LA Metro market - my phone locked onto T-Mobile roaming ("Clearwire Band 4") and would not let go even when I cycled airplane mode in an area with Sprint. I thought that was interesting - the roaming agreement must be extremely favorable to Sprint/have basically no cost to them.

48 minutes ago, danlodish345 said:

The only question I figure is what is going to happen to Sprint customers when Verizon shuts down CDMA altogether. I think they may try to Kabul some type of Lte roaming agreement but I don't know.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
 

This is the reason that I think Sprint has been forced to move forward with VoLTE even though I don't know that the network coverage is really there - without it they won't be able to ensure voice outside of their paltry LTE coverage area because CDMA roaming will be unavailable. They have to build out the IMS backend and get it set up so they're ready. VoLTE roaming should work on T-Mobile.

4 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Verizon has a lot of 1x M2M customers. Until those are gone there will be some 1x. Probably not enough for Sprint to roam on.

According to Verizon Enterprise, they will no longer support non-LTE devices after 12/31/19, period. AT&T shut down GSM over a year ago, there's no reason Verizon won't do the same with CDMA. 

1 hour ago, danlodish345 said:

So then I agree with you. They would have to do a lot of upgrading.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
 

With the incentives offered to upgrade from 2g/3g to lte modules by Verizon, I can't imagine anyone would upgrade to hardware that supports BC10 and not LTE - it such modules exist. 

3 hours ago, lilotimz said:

4 CA DL, 256/64 QAM, limited MIMO streams (~750 mbps max), No UL CA. 

Supports 
GSM 850 , 1900
WCDMA Bands 2/4/5
CDMA BC: 0 / 1 / 10
LTE Bands: 2 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 12 / 13 / 17 / 25 / 26 / 29 / 30 / 38 / 41 / 46 / 66 / 71

25+25
25+26
25+41
26+41
41+41 non contig 
41 contig
 

Where in the report is the UL CA usually listed?

2 hours ago, lilotimz said:

Essential phone does not support UL CA or 4x4 MIMO according to its FCC filing.

Having a modem that supports something doesn't matter if the RF front end doesn't.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
 

Well since Essential themselves said their tech team says they'll support it, I'm hoping they'll refile - no one used upload CA in the US at the time of filing so it's my understanding they didn't have to file regarding it, just like they don't have to file test reports for all the non-US LTE bands the phone supports. In addition, Essential Phone includes TD-SCDMA specifically for China Mobile - China Mobile also has a requirement for 2XCA upload on band 38/41 I believe, so that's another reason to believe the hardware supports it. I'll try and find the Chinese FCC's filing for the phone. 

Hey all,

I e-mailed about upload carrier aggregation and also Sprint VoLTE - I was very surprised by their response. They will be supporting upload carrier aggregation in a coming update, but are not planning on supporting VoLTE for Sprint at this time. The e-mail is below:
 

"Hi Thomas,

Thank you for reaching out.

I have reached out to our technical team and have been advised that we will support the new carrier aggregation in an upcoming release in the next few months.

I have also been advised we will not be adding Sprint's VoLTE, as of this time.

Thank you for your understanding and if you need anything more, do not hesitate to reach out. Have a great day!

On 8/22/2018 at 9:05 PM, danlodish345 said:

 The Tijuana border with the USA. I’m going to be taking a trip into the desert there near the Tijuana border crossing.

I'm in San Diego and from the looks of that Monthly Report on entities still needing to move off the SMR spectrum, Region 5 including the Tijuana border area has a long time to wait. FOURTEEN entities still have yet to move their operations. Incredible.

On 8/22/2018 at 8:37 AM, ingenium said:

Not contiguous. SF is one example. There's a spectrum squatter (owned by AT&T) right in the middle of their allocations in the city. They can do at most 2 contiguous carriers. Once you get further out you start to see 3 carriers.

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

 

 

So band 41 can only be aggregated on contiguous carriers? I always thought a large advantage of CA was that you could aggregate non-contiguous slices of spectrum.

I'm curious, does anyone know if the PH-1 has upload carrier aggregation on Band 41? Since Sprint is finally rolling it out, it'd be nice.

19 hours ago, Cardsfan96 said:

I’m using an iPhone 6s. It isn’t really an issue connecting to LTE, it’s more that the data is unusable no matter what your on. Although I don’t connect to LTE as often as I previously would which could just be because of tree leaves. That’s why I thought it was a capacity issue. 

It's possible that it's an APN or routing issue, but those aren't really easy to fix on the user end. Sprint has been making a lot of configuration changes related to T-Mobile roaming integration, so it's possible that's the cause. 

On 8/12/2018 at 10:44 AM, greenbastard said:

I just don't know if VoLTE roaming will work with At&t anytime soon. At&t doesn't allow VoLTE on non-At&t branded Android phones. At&t users with phones such as the Pixel, OnePlus, and Essential don't get VoLTE.

That's such a ridiculous policy. On T-Mobile if the phone supports VoLTE it works - my phones I bought when living in China work on VoLTE on T-Mobile no problem. I don't get why they do that. AT&T's network is pretty subpar for such a large carrier anyway honestly, so I'm not surprised they have such backward policies.

15 minutes ago, BlueAngel said:

That would be great but I'm not holding my breath.

Neither am I, but since they insist that they can't compete successfully apart, if the merger isn't approved then it would seem to me that would be their only option if they want to survive.

If the merger doesn't go through, I think it would be interesting to see Sprint and T-Mobile work on a network sharing agreement, or a collaborative build-out WITHOUT having to merge completely. Bell and Telus did it in Canada when they did their 3G build-out and were abandoning CDMA, and it's not uncommon with carriers in different parts of the world. 

On 8/6/2018 at 5:43 PM, ingenium said:

I was wondering the same thing. I'm not sure how LTE roaming is actually done, if it's part of the PRL or not (I suspect not). I suspect that it's possible though, perhaps as a config pushed to the modem.

What was seen in DC is that T-Mobile may be broadcasting the Clearwire PLMN for Sprint roaming. This still shows as roaming on the device, wheras the Clearwire PLMN from Sprint equipment does not. Several markets (DC and NYC for example) still have Clear equipment, and thus the Clear PLMN, in use.

I suspect that the device will happily connect to the Clear PLMN when the signal gets low (likely via a manual scan only due to low signal, since it won't be broadcast as neighbors. ie, the network will not preemptively move a device there and the device won't know about it with a normal signal level). And only after connecting will it discover it's roaming and be configured as such.

However I'm not sure if it actually works that way, so hopefully someone with more knowledge of the technical aspects can chime in.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

LTE roaming is controlled by the SIM card, which can updated over-the-air. PRL is a CDMA legacy feature. 

On 8/4/2018 at 12:45 AM, Bob Newhart said:

That is what John Saw said. He was very specific.

IF the area has roaming enabled. It will use LTE on T-mobile and other partners.

Is there a page where they break this down or where I can see the transcript of his statements? Was it part of the fiscal report?

2 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Only a handful of Clear sites per market are getting upgrades to 8T8R or full build this year. The ones that I've seen movement on have all been co-located with Sprint already, consolidating equipment onto one tier while also getting the 3rd carrier on air (though some Clear sites have been updated to 3 carriers, depends on the equipment).

Semi-related question: what's involved in getting the third carrier online? And will Sprint move forward with four carrier aggregation that they had indicated they would eventually deploy. 

19 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Hopefully Sprint demonstrates a similar commitment to its own capex during its Earnings Call this week.

However, I think the fact that T-Mobile will be the anchor network and that Sprint’s sites are going to be cherry picked as “save sites” has already factored into Sprint’s capex plans.

I’m concerned we won’t see much until this merger closes... or is rejected outright.

Yeah I can't see Sprint making any big moves to be honest, they haven't shown a huge interest in that kind of improvement. 

On 7/21/2018 at 11:42 PM, Bob Newhart said:

I'm curious to hear if anyone has called 911 while using their Sprint phone while roaming.

I know you can call 911 even when there are no reported signal bars on the phone display, if the phone's technology supports using another carrier.

But what about using Verizon's 700 Mhz VoLTE and T-Mobile's 700 VoLTE bands, the latest iPhones support these voice/bands, but Sprint doesn't yet.

Does that mean calling 911 will never pick up a VoLTE signal on these bands?

If the device supports it, it will use it for 911 calls, is my experience. I know once for some reason I had set my LG V20 to LTE only on a custom ROM and couldn't make any calls. I needed to make a 911 call however, and it latched onto... Verizon 1X I think to make the call. 

8 hours ago, greenbastard said:

I really don't see what the problem is with that? 

If you can't cover your entire home footprint, then that's on you. There are many fast, cheap, and easy ways of extending your WiFi signal.

 

If a business has a private WiFi with no intention of making it public, then the chances of them adding a MagicBox are slim to none.

If they have a public WiFi that requires you to sign in or accept their terms, then they also won't be adding a MagicBox.

Only a few businesses will jump on adding MB to their stores. I've been to a few Sprint stores that have even taken down their boxes because they couldn't hide them. They did look tacky just sitting on the floor by a window. 

Its a quick way to get people to abuse the network.

Not according to the back order of these devices. They seem to be very popular. In fact, they're so popular that some people are using them as a way to ditch their ISP.

I really don't see why it is that you think that if you don't have public wifi then you wouldn't use an MB. The MagicBox is a repeater for Sprint's network requiring essential zero exposure or expenditure for the retail provider beyond electricity. It is also zero maintenance or setup. It's a highly superior solution in my view.

On 7/16/2018 at 7:52 PM, Tengen31 said:

I thought the US was the only ones with CDMA still left and that everyone was GSM?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

As bigsnake said, KDDI still has their network in Japan, there are a few European operators that still have 450mhz CDMA networks for critical use and rural/low-population areas, and, as I mentioned, the largest CDMA operator in the world, China Telecom.

Not as quickly as you think. China Telecom for example still has 250 million customers on their CDMA/LTE network. China won't be phasing out their 2G networks anytime soon, their 3G networks will go first (W-CDMA and especially TD-SCDMA). CDMA's 3G and 2G are compatible standards so will maintain that as well. Between them and Sprint, CDMA will survive, but it will be niche.

2 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

I'm already thinking of Verizon myself..

I do not want to be around while integration is happening to say the least.

Wait, why exactly are people not wanting to be around during integration? Why is that the trigger for leaving?