Deval

Anyone download the beta for iOS 10 yet? If so, thoughts? Likes, dislikes, bugs?

 

 

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I have the iOS 10 profile installed, have not downloaded the update yet.

Would B26 even make a significant increase in Lte speeds or just more for coverage?

 

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B26 will extend the coverage of LTE and also offer extra capacity for devices to switch onto.

This is what I will never understand about Sprint. These sites have B41 that are in the middle of nowhere (Terrell pointed out there was a few cow fields with B41 but areas like town center, The Avenues Mall, and other popular spots tend to be on congested B25/B26.

It could also be access issues to the site, or limitations on upgrading the site, etc.

*looks at neighborhoods with all underground utilities...*

Spend some time in NYC and you'll see how everything is underground and internet services go out daily because people cut the wrong cables.

The biggest problem sprint is not being aggresive with adding band 41 to towers,that need it. Still to many towers need upgraded . Gmos no lte and how long before clearsites get converted ? Im just glad my market is all 8tr8 lte plus .

What are you basing this on? They are actually being quite aggressive nationwide.

I think everyone here has a bit of neighborhood bias. Nextgencpu has great experience in NYC's network, I have a pretty good but sometimes crappy experience in NYC. Kg4icg has a great time in DC, Terrell doesn't. Terrell thinks Southeast states network is bad, I think Sprint in Southwest Florida is pretty solid. Ultimately, it comes down to the person in question and what their opinion of good service is. If a person wants to go with Sprint, don't steer them against it or to it, just say give it a try. If it's for them, they stay, if its not, they won't. Telling them what to do isn't the best advice.

You're right but trolling incessantly doesn't help either.

I'm waiting for the contract to run its course. If there has ever been a time to switch, it is now. All of the phones in our lines now support LTE bands for all carriers. And since Sprint has to unlock them, it should be a breeze.

 

I'll definitely be taking my old Tri-band phone to ringplus to track any Sprint activity. Unfortunately, I highly doubt Sprint does a rip and replace of Clearwire equipment now that Rootmetrics has pinned them the king of Data download speeds. Theres no incentive for them to do so. Unfortunately, not many people are aware that those were outdoor tests and Sprint is pretty slow in real life usage through most of SE Texas. The last known permits for Sprint in this area were for gas powered generators in 2014. Not many network improvements are happening at the moment and with capex down, I'm not expecting them to start in the immediate future.

Sprint is going to rip out the Clearwire at some point since it doesn't support 3xCA, but 2xCA works just fine on the Samsung equipment.

so basically the whole southeast is cherry picked and weak? Im all for Sprint getting to where they need to be but its hard to defend against so many markets with lack of deployed spectrum when tmobile can do it. I mentioned those places because these are all places where I have experienced the same old tune of 95% of the time being on 25/26 and only 5% of the time being on b41. I could literally go over a hundred miles and never get b41. At&t b17/b4 CA is everywhere and tmobile has 40mhz of b4 in most of these markets, Verizon has 60mhz of spectrum minimum in most of these markets while Sprint sits with 20mhz total with tiny slivers of b41.

How about the rest of the country?

In New York.

 

But in SE Texas, some B41 towers (Clearwater) won't go past 2 city blocks outdoors. I live 1500 ft from a Clear B41 site and I can't get it indoors. Meanwhile, B25 seems to give me 5 Mbps which is more than I need. But unfortunately the network puts me on B26 even though my average RSRP is -105 indoors for B25.

 

Those small cells better not be B41-only for the sake of VoLTE.

 

 

 

 

Sprint won't be able to keep this 50% off deal much longer. Let's face it, considering that this deal seemed pretty good, the numbers it attracted were a bit disappointing. Sure they got customers, but not as many you would hope for.

 

 

I've never seen an uncongested B26 cell in Houston. Seeing as how the network keeps me on B26 most of the time all over town (even if B25 is available), I think I did him a solid. He currently has at&t, so a switch to Sprint would have been a downgrade. If he had T-Mobile, I would have told him to test it out since T-Mobile also has some issues in this area.

 

Now had he asked me about San Antonio, I would have told him to try it. The Sprint network in SA is a lot better than the Sprint network in Louisiana, Dallas, Austin and Houston. Even before NV rolled out, 3G wasn't as congested as it was in other markets. At&t is king in SA, but Sprint also holds its own there.

 

But recommending Sprint in Houston? My conscious won't allow me to.

My local site is a Clearwire site as well, have actually been there first hand.

I understand what you're saying but there is a lot more to the story with Sprint. 50% will continue to get extended, it's not like Sprint is hurting because of it.

 

That number is extremely misleading. Take Houston or Dallas for example. The city limits may be 85% covered by B41 from my personal experience. But inside that 85%, the number goes way down when you consider indoor coverage of B41. 

I get decent enough inbuilding B41 in my brick apartment in Queens, good enough for 10-12mbps on the downlink. More than sufficient for any mobile use. 

I would believe that as long as a customer got that, it should be fine. Small cells will help fill in-building gaps, but you'll never get 80dB B41 signal in a building.

 

Actually, they do have to march to the beat of someone else's drum. The market is fierce and they don't have much room for mistakes. Subscribers will continue to leave if network improvement isn't seen. I do like that Sprint is thinking long term, but they may not be around for long if their network isn't improved in the immediate future.

Churn numbers are on a steady decline, which means more satisfied customers are signing up and staying on board.

 

I recently had a friend ask how Sprint was since he was recently intrigued by the 50% half off promotion for his family plan. I had to be honest talked him out of it. There's just no reason to jump on Sprint at the moment in most of Texas . In the future? Maybe. 

 

I don't agree with that, one person's experience shouldn't be reflective of another unless they share the same household and visit the same areas.

Case in point, my sister-in-law uses Sprint, has for about 3 years now. Her husband uses AT&T, and recently switched over for the 50% off promo after seeing that his wife's phone works well enough in the places they go together. He had initially asked me for my opinion and I told him to pay attention to his wife's service since they lived and traveled together.

I thought so. New York is much easier for all of that due to how dense the city is. Other cities like DC, North Florida and central, Mississippi, Louisiana, Memphis, Alabama, and countless other markets are still suffering from lack of. New York almost cant be compared because its so different.

 

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Actually the density creates a whole new set of problems with neighborlists, handoffs, eCSFB configs, etc.

Some of those other markets are cherry picked weakest ones for Sprint, so it's not a fair comparison either. 

In a weird way, Sprint is doing this too by leveraging their extensive knowledge of microwave backhaul solutions to implement LTE Relay for backhaul. Basically they're using their own service as backhaul which is pretty revolutionary.

Yep should be interesting to see in production.

I'm pretty sure that most carriers just point their sites into Penn Station. Sprint on the other has a really strong signal indoors so my guess is that they have their own DAS setup in their that is probably overriding the signal coming from outdoors in some way which is good and bad.

 

Pros: People in the area whoa aren't in Penn Station don't have reduced service due to their sheer volume of people in the area.

 

Cons: There is only usable 3G but little (but still usable) LTE service.

Sprint does have their own DAS there, hopefully should get LTE soon enough. 

What market is that?

 

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New York City

All I'm saying is that there are numbers which contradict the doom and gloom that permeates throughout the Internet regarding Sprint.

It's not a big problem. Some service is better than no service. It's been live for a long time now and I'm sure if they wanted to remove it they would have a while ago.

Actually it is because Sprint would be on the hook for failed 911 calling if eCSFB isn't working properly.

Right, but they're probably essential for Sprint's longer-term VoLTE plans, which require densification.

Exactly but they won't fix dropped call issues today, which is what I had quoted.

Its true there should be way more towers using 2.5 at this point and these network vision 1.0 incomplete towers should have been dealt with by now especially since they are supposedly "funded" already.

Last I checked 2.5 is on a significant number of sites, my market has barely any left that do not have at least Clearwire 2.5.

These small cells should be a priority to be the fill ins where you drop a call and 5 sec later u have service again.

These spots should have already been identified and be a priority.

 

Yes I am saying sprint should do what it's doing just with a lot more urgency

From what we have seen the small cell deployment is to create a dense LTE network, not 1x/EVDO, so they won't help with dropped calls.

 

Does every Carrier have there own DAS? I spotted this in penn station. really macro sites? didnt think signal from outside could penetrate that far underground. 

View post on imgur.com

http://i.imgur.com/zma7gOq.jpg

 

Penn Station is weird but I'm pretty sure there is no single DAS for every carrier. In theory you could have a site right across the street and have it pointed right into Penn.

http://nypost.com/2016/06/02/finally-wifi-inside-subway-cars-could-be-happening-soon/

 

It appears that four E train cars have been fitted with WiFi.  A user on the board I follow for subways (www.subchat.com) reported he was able to keep a phone call going express from 71st Ave to Roosevelt Ave.  I know Transit Wireless had talked about directing signals down tunnels but that stretch of the Queens Boulevard line is pretty twitsy.  Maybe they're expanding their DAS to include tunnels?  Not sure how the WiFi would work otherwise.  I know on the E from 7th Ave to 14th Street I've been able to keep a data signal but aside from the turn from 7th to 50th, that part of the line is a pretty straight shot.

 

Needless to say, this is pretty cool and it'd be great if data was in the tunnels.

What carrier was that user on?

Only time will tell, that's what's so unfortunate about this. We will only know when we can actually see them up and running. I am sure there is much more going on behind the scenes but if we the users don't see it sooner than later then it was just conversation behind the scenes.

 

I do believe sprint is working on it. I do believe they have a plan/dream. What I am unsure about is how hard are they pressing to get this done? Remember the worst performing tower list? That started when Marcelo came on board. I hope they have a permit list or something in place as well. In my area there still are the "dead spots" that these small cells would be perfect for. Sprint should start filling In the holes first before worrying so much about getting poles blanketed in a city

Something to also keep in mind is that small cells may go in and the only people who will know are those who experience better service. Not all of them will be visible installs like the ones we've seen in LA, but they will be there.

Who knows to be honest how it will all play out?

I understand 2000 is a lot but I don't agree with the idea that people are really complaining about the appearance of these poles. Verizon, T-Mobile/Metro, and AT&T/Cricket were able to build out dense small cell networks in a few cities including NYC, no one ever says anything and the performance of their networks have been proven to be rather stellar as a result. There has to be more going on here than just appearances that is holding Sprint back.

Verizon deployed theirs years ago in NYC, long before small cells was a thing.

However, when you have bits and pieces of leaks in stories like this, it's easy to develop confirmation bias. There's a lot more going on than we know about and Sprint wants it that way for now.

More than most people know it.

All this negative speculation does is give more fire to the naysayers. 

Does anyone know who provides service in Penn Stations? Is it though a Sprint DAS or is it transit wireless. I believe Sprint is the only carrier who is still only 3G in Penn. I wonder what the hold up is in such a heavy traffic area. 

I believe there is a legacy DAS in place that needs to be upgraded. The other carriers are also relying on macro coverage to offset.

Here is an example of that occurrence - my house. -102 to -118 B41 from a Clearwire conversion but no 3G or 1x at all. Texts send over LTE and data works great but incoming calls go straight to voicemail and outgoing calls fail.

That's actually a huge problem and needs to be addressed. I have a feeling your B41 will go away.