Thomas L.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Of course neither AT&T nor Verizon are contesting this because they know it will decrease competition in the market which has put so much pressure on their margins and networks both.

The idea that this merger will somehow allow the US to take leadership in 5G is fallacious. I plan on writing a post about the state of the Chinese mobile market, as I just moved back to the US from China, and used all three Chinese carriers while I was in China, but this contains some essentials: It won't happen because China as a whole is now much more invested in their mobile infrastructure than the United States. It is a national economic and security priority for them, and accessibility to the consumer, both in terms of price and coverage, is mandated by the government, as all three carriers are essentially government owned and controlled, and directly or indirectly receive money from the government. Both fixed and mobile broadband are essentially considered essential utilities for the public, and money making ventures second. Providers have been ordered to lower prices by 40% over the last two years, while increasing speeds. They've just announced a mandate on the increasing of upload speeds as well. They have to be considered utilities at this point, because a massive portion of China's financial transactions are completed through WeChat and Alipay, WeChat is so ubiquitous it can now be used as an electronic version of the Chinese national ID card, used for trains, planes, and nearly everything else. Your cell phone is essentially your life in China, you do everything with it. China Mobile has built out a band 39/40/41(38) LTE network that currently covers 99%+ of China's Population, with around 1.5 million base stations (even accounting for differences in population, the number is huge compared to the US). They essentially have complete coverage with band 38/41, with 39 (and 34 coming) as backups, and 40 used exclusively indoors. China Unicom and China Telecom, the other two smaller providers, have more than 150,000 base stations each. Spectrum in China is not bought, it is assigned, and in some cases there are usage fees attached - for 5G China has just lowered those usage fees significantly, eliminating them for the first few years. All three providers are extremely aggressive in deploying the latest technologies, and as 5G superiority is a national policy, they will continue to lead. Unless the US decides to have the US 5G network be nationalized on national security grounds, Sprint and T-Mobile are not going to succeed in making us world leaders, because the industry in the US in general just doesn't have the backing. It is just an easy, nationalistic excuse to try and convince people who are not necessarily aware of the realities of what the US faces in terms of global competition in the field. The fact that T-Mobile and Sprint are trying to use that as an incentive for approving the merger makes me weary of the whole thing.

What kind of speeds were you able to attain on your V20?

Whichever is cheapest. Being in California both AT&T and Verizon have pretty excellent service. T-Mobile and Sprint are the ones that need to catch up. By the way, does everyone think ProjectFi will stick around? Will T-Mobile and Sprint continue their current agreement with Google?

Nah I don't think they'll actually do that. T-Mobile's coverage is generally already better than Sprint's for LTE, and their goal is to compete with AT&T and Verizon. They will at least maintain coverage.

Because they don't want a wifi hotspot that any device can connect to. Just to extend coverage for paying customers on their Sprint devices.

I'd like to know this as well. Every Sprint device for two or three years has supported bands 2, 4, and 12, ostensibly as part of an effort of Son's part to support smaller rural wireless providers in the US, but what really was more likely device seeding in anticipation of a merger. Device support is there across the board, but I also would like to know what will be required to enable Sprint to roam on T-Mobile. I am also still waiting to hear if T-mobile can roam on Sprint.

I would think that if their goal is to combine the networks then they would allow the allow roaming wherever. They're trying to become a single company, so it shouldn't even be treated like roaming, rather just an extension of the same network.

Good question. The antennas are technology agnostic aren't they?

So I disabled CDMA and bands 25,26 and 41 on my phone and it's not roaming on T-Mobile yet. I would imagine it will take at least a week to propagate the update to towers and the system etc?

When is day one, and is it reciprocal, meaning with T-Mobile customers have access to Sprint's network?

I have an Android phone that supports both networks so I will be trying to select Sprint over the next few days.

So is this an accelerated death knell for CDMA in the US? Verizon will be shutting down CDMA by the end of next year. I can't see any reason a new T-Mobile would continue to use it. I imagine they'll start shuttering the network and refarming that spectrum for LTE and maybe HSPA+ (as backup) almost immediately in the same way they did when they bought MetroPCS. How easy will it be to allow devices that have hardware for both networks to use both networks? All Sprint devices support the primary T-Mobile bands, how quickly would they allow those devices to access T-Mobile's network?

Well T-Mobile's customer care is so far ahead of Sprint's, that's a real positive. I wonder if they'll finally let unlocked devices onto the Sprint network as well? The thing I find interesting is that Son has shown all his cards, which is basically that he is completely unwilling to invest the money needed to make Sprint a competitor on its own. It seems like he was willing to give up control of Sprint (something he said he would regret doing if he were ever to do it) to avoid having to spend the money. It's too bad. I know a lot of people seem excited by this, but for someone who has really enjoyed the changes that T-Mobile has brought to the market, and I'm sad that we might be seeing the end of that.

Does this mean that Sprint will be adding band 13 compatibility as a requirement for its equipment in the future?

This phone is such a good deal on eBay, and I can't deal with the locked/bloated devices that are generally offered by Sprint. How are you all feeling about the phone now that it's been updated?

I'm kind of confused as to why the new SIMs aren't backwards compatible in that case. In China, with China Telecom, it was great. They're a CDMA/LTE carrier very much like Sprint, but it was one SIM for all devices, just like a GSM carrier. Their SIM cards (UICC I assume with CSIM app and... ISIM app? USIM app? I'm not sure) were even able to be used in a Sprint LG G5 I had with me - 3G/voice was EV-DO/1xRTT and LTE on Band 3/26. What makes it so hard for Sprint to do something similar, at least with all devices that don't use NV programming?

So this isn't a map-wide change? Are they just doing this is downtown areas? It makes it hard to figure out exactly what they're trying to show with all the changes and when they don't tell you!