ChadBroChillz

Super Glad to hear you guys are going more mainstream. I was really bummed out about mark shutting down shop, but hope him the best in the future. I also visited SF several times a day. I usually visit that site and this site back to back when im surfing for tech news.

I was initially planning on switching to sprint( am on ATT now), but the horror stories of sub 200kbps data speeds turned me off. Also the fact that they force you to sign a two year agreement when you want to bring your own phone. Once the LTE iphone comes out, I will gladly sell my iphone and pay my ETF to leave. And I am not the only one who would be happy to switch for some unlimited data goodness as long as speeds are decent.

It does not seem like anything special. Not the same way Sprint's loyalty program gave you yearly upgrades. I think upgrade fees are complete BS, so waiving them, to me, is righting a wrong.

That kinda sucks. I was hoping they would use some Nextel sites that might be in better locations than Sprint towers or use them to expand native coverage.

I actually bought the new iPad, and it is my first tablet. The name "retina" display is marketing, but the screen is still very impressive. Even my friend, who has an ipad two, was impressed. You can tell the difference, and it is not like ATT changing their 3g logo to 4g on the 4s. I have to disagree with you on your first three points of what you dislike about it. I have a 4s, and siri is very gimmicky. I wish it was able to open apps and be better integrated into nonapple apps, plus it seems to be down a lot. If they improved it, then I would like to see it on the iPad, but I doubt that will happen until we see it lose the beta tag. Great concept, but poor delivery so far. I believe a LED flash would be useless on the iPad. I feel like if you need flash it would be smarter to use your phone. It would be easier to take pictures, and I believe the quality would be a heck of a lot better. Plus you look silly taking pictures on an iPad. I think the camera boost was more for video chat than actually taking pictures. I can understand wanting a different looking ipad, but the ipad is still very nice, plus it is not like they have many ways they can change the style. I think the iPad will be similar to their laptop/desktop line in that it will stay similar for a few refreshes with just the internals and screen improved.

I hope this happens, because having an extra player in the game always helps the consumer. If the FCC could do this, then why didn't/don't they just reassign sprint's ESMR to cellular 850?

This is awesome news. Congrats S4GRU crew.

They just got 65 million back from 290 million they paid sprint upfront at the beginning of their deal. Also I do not believe sprint would want them messing with Clearwire. I think Sprint is trying to keep Clear on a leash until it is ready to swallow them back in.

I am not sure how much spectrum they are using for Nextel or in what configuration, but I believe a smart plan would be to make room and turn on 1xA on their 800mhz now for Direct Connect, so current iDEN users will not see a drop in building penetration, while seeing an increase in coverage area. I believe that will get a ton of people to move over to CDMA PPT devices.

Thanks for clearing it up. I must have had a brain fart and just assumed with them being larger markets that they were 1st round markets.

I noticed that NY/LA are now round two networks, it that on accident? I thought I remember them being considered round 1 markets. I know sprint said 10 markets by mid year, but I assumed that they were keeping expectations low, so they could wow when they released more markets than expected.

I believe the iPhone is very possible on Clear's network. Apple is really trying to get their iphone on China Mobile's network with their 600+ million subscribers. Clear is working with China mobile to have their networks work together, plus the New Qualcomm Gobi Chip supports TD-LTE, LTE, TD-CDMA, CDMA, and GSM. Qualcomm makes the MDM6600 and MDM6610 which are in the 4 and 4s respectively. Nokia Siemens created some technology for TD-LTE networks that increases their Capacity by 80% and coverage by 40%. Also reduce site costs to 1/3. link to presentation by nokia http://lteworld.org/presentation/cost-efficient-td-lte-6-pipes-remote-radio-head

Tmobile would still require HSPA+ on their AWS band. Also with new chips being able to handle every technology under the the sun, I do not see it as a major problem. They might not have the same ability to get international devices like tmobile or att, but manufactures will still create devices for them. The main problem could be the iphone, but with their 15 billion dollar deal, I am sure they included that provision, plus Europe is suppose to be using the 800mhz( not sure if its similar to 800mhz cellular or ESMR) for LTE and China mobile, who apple supposedly promised the iphone to, is using TD-LTE at 2500mhz.

I wish I had that option. its either Uverse with a 250gb soft cap and 10 dollar overages OR Comcast's hard cap, where I go over 250 twice and they cut my service.

I think this was in Sprint's plan. Before they made the deal with Clear, even before clear planned on going to LTE, Clear's 2500mhz was apart of Sprint's NV plan, but their actions made it seem like they wanted nothing to do with clear. I would not be surprised if sprint's plan was to have clear build out their TD-LTE network as much as possible, then before it got turned on and clear value was still rock bottom, buy out all the other investors and swallow clear back into itself.

I agree, seems like a lot designed to voice. 1xA has the ability to handle 4x the capacity, so having three 1xA channels is like having 12 1x channels. according to the article on the wall a while back, sprint uses 3 1x channels to handle its voice needs right now, and I have not heard anything negative about their voice network. From what I understand , the 1900mhz is the main band for sprint, with 2500 being used for overcapacity of LTE and 800 used for better coverage and building penetration. If that is true, I believe we will see the use of configuration 1; and they will use the 1xA configuration that increases coverage by 70% with the same capacity. I believe on 1900mhz we will see two 1xA channels instead of three, and both will be using the 4x capacity configuration. That should be enough to handle their voice needs until VoLTE comes out.

I believe 1xAdvanced is strictly voice.

I think they will keep it for at least a few more years. I am sure they believe that with competitive prices, fast network, and unlimited data, people will come running to their network.( I know they have me as soon as the LTE iPhone comes out). Also with ATT capping unlimited data users to only 2GB per month, a lot of them will be looking to switch once their contract is over. Verizon will probably also do something similar, so some of their customers will probably want to leave. I believe most will leave for sprint vs tmobile, especially if Sprint's LTE network is well received.

Thank you for the information and I also cannot wait for part deux. I did not know sprint was using so many channels. I expect with them switching to 1xA that they will cut down on the amount of Voice channels they use in each market. Also with Sprint already using multiple channels of EVDO in each market, I believe that Sprint should switch to EVDO rev. Multicarrier. They would get speeds of 9.3/5.4 max, and sprint would only need to do a software update at the towers. I know current phones will not see a huge improvement, but I believe the increase capacity alone would be worth it.