Deval

Most small cells are single band, in a lot of the ones we've seen in the field, 2500 B41 LTE. Small cells are basically smaller, lower powered versions of macro cell sites, so they broadcast the same spectrum that the macro sites do. The strategy behind small cell deployment is to fill gaps in coverage and increase capacity since they provide another "cell site" for phones to connect to, thus freeing up capacity on other sites.

Of course, and I'm not downplaying refarming at all, just stating that nothing is for free. The 10% users who will be impacted aren't considered when the 90% are benefiting. One of the reasons why Sprint took a different approach with NV and now NGN is to reduce that customer impact for every customer, not just the 90%.

Tired of the drama man, seriously. Every damn day it's people demanding change like it happens overnight from first ask. The WiMAX shutdown -> 2nd B41 carrier is a perfect example of how short of a time period it takes to work a project when all the ducks are in a row.

Quite a lot has changed, it's just not publicly posted for consumption.

I appreciate that buddy. We live in an instant gratification world, and that expectation has now spread into industries where it never existed. Customers now expect things without a thought or care in the world of how it actually happens. We've all experienced the changes that Sprint has gone through, myself more than most perhaps. I became a Sprint customer in 2000, when flip phones were the norm. I remember PCS Vision being announced, the first color screen phones, the first camera phones soon afterwards. When EVDO (Power Vision) was announced, I drove in circles around Newark Airport just to experience the speeds. When WiMAX was first announced I drove 3 hours to Philadelphia and had lunch near Independence Hall just to experience high speed internet for the first time. A lot of what Sprint has done could be looked as mistakes or missteps, but so much has been innovative to a fault. Customers today don't want innovation, they crave imitation, and Sprint isn't in that business, was never their strong suit. Some of the most intelligent engineers work at Sprint, on average submitting 100 patents a year for innovations in wireless and wireline. At the end of the day Sprint's not going anywhere. They are continuing to invest in the network, work out new deals, and upgrade the network. Sure it will never be 100%, no one is. But it will be 100% for the 80% who need it and use it the most, and that's the benchmark they need to hit.

Are they seeing roaming coverage or native coverage on their devices? (R for roaming, Extended on iPhones)?

I think we all have to eat spoonfuls of reality in terms of B41 availability, especially in buildings and households. Sprint's not in the business of consumer ISP services, so customers will have to acknowledge that WiFi should be their primary when in their homes or places of work, where available. Small cells will help with gaps, but the reality is that customers have to understand their limitations.

I was referring to the concept of optimization in general, in this day and age of universal devices.

It's beyond ridiculously expensive to just throw up macro sites, unless they are warranted. You could get the same ROI by putting 3 small cells to cover a gap at 1/10 the cost. Macros are good if you're going to expand the network beyond the base. If your goal is to blanket existing footprints and fix gaps within said footprint, small cells are the way to go.

Refarming, or as I call it, robbing Peter to pay Paul, can only go so far. Unless a carrier is ready to invest millions in new macro sites, small cells and other related network builds will pave the way for the future. At a certain point T-Mobile will have to go back and fill their B12 and B2 gaps by adding new sites or small cells. The question will be when/if they choose to do so. AT&T and Verizon will have to refarm faster in order to meet the data demands of their customers, or continue to lose them. As for a breakthrough on Sprint's part, I really believe we will hear less and less in terms of upgrades, and more and more about customer reports of better service. In theory Sprint could light up 200 small cells within an area, and every customer would benefit, and those results would be reflected in the next RootMetrics drive or Nielsen testing.

The road to network upgrades is paved with mistakes and oversights and financial limitations. When Sprint was still trying to come above the water with the Nextel merger, T-Mobile was quietly upgrading all their core urban sites to fiber, in preparation for their HSPA+ launch. Their rural and suburban sites were left on T1s and broadcasting EDGE only. Verizon and AT&T used their national advantage as the LEC to get fiber to their LTE sites relatively quickly, leveraging their existing last mile services. Verizon also used microwave in urban markets to quickly deploy sites. Sprint, along with various cable companies, Google, and Intel came together to fund Clearwire to launch WiMAX, which was supposed to be the competitor to both LTE and HSPA+ in terms of speeds, availability, coverage, range. The idea was envisioned to be an open access (bring your own device), hence why Intel embedded WiMAX in every single WiFi card in every single laptop sold over almost a 3 year period. The plan was to utilize WiMAX as the data-load layer, so there was no need to upgrade the 3G part of the network. Similar to how Verizon launched LTE, where they basically put up new equipment with new backhaul and left their legacy 3G equipment to rot. When the world turned to LTE as the standard for 4G/NextGen network, Sprint was forced to kick off their Network Vision project. I was personally in the room when Dan Hesse and the team announced the project, the ROI, the rip and replace, and know exactly how the market felt. Thankfully Sprint had 5mhz of greenfield spectrum they could dedicate for LTE, as well as 5mhz of 800 SMR, with the Clearwire LTE migration providing the data intensive layer (80-100mhz of spectrum available). As we stand now, over 90% of the original NV project is complete, with almost all the sites upgraded with Ethernet backhaul (fiber, microwave, etc.) which can now be scaled up as newer technology is added. I know everyone compares Sprint's LTE deployment to T-Mobile's, but what they fail to realize is that it was a completely different deployment strategy. Backhaul was already in place, switch sites were already upgraded, core network switching was already in place, etc. A lot of the work was physical site work, rather than core work for T-Mobile. Something else to consider is that site location and access availability. In urban markets like New York City, for example, it is quite common to see a rooftop with co-located equipment (T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon). Even getting building access provides a challenge, something I have seen first hand. At the end of the day, Sprint's going full stream with small cell deployment, under the radar, while still lighting up B41 second carriers in the markets where equipment supports it. I know for example in the NYC market that a significant number of sites have both carriers on air, and I have personally experienced better service due to the extra capacity.

The point of the rip/replace upgrade of the network was to make every cell site expandable from a base station level. In theory any spectrum holder could come to Sprint and use the physical site to broadcast their spectrum. They would just need a card for the specific frequency, an antenna panel and a radio head to connect to said panel.

I wonder to what extent is it optimized?

Beamforming will do that for you

I did read somewhere that you could. Not sure since I skipped on getting Fi.

You realize it's not Sprint who's holding up, right?

Actually now that I think of it, what about the Nexus 5? Supports almost all the necessary bands, abet no CA.

Go with the HTC A9 if you can find one. Pretty good phone and it feels smaller than the larger devices. My wife calls it the fake iPhone (She has an iPhone 6S).

That's great to see, and of course on Staten Island first. Hopefully we'll see macro sites here lighting up.

Also, bars or dots isn't always a good representative of network experience, especially with B41. Often times you can have a weak signal but still be able to use it just fine.

Because Sprint doesn't offer VoLTE, never has. Those workarounds are personal choice. Sprint offering VoLTE would require significant CoS and QoS work within the core and switch side, something that is in the pipeline, but not available today.

Anything south of Exit 8 is tough in my experience. Not that much site density, but the ones that are upgraded are often with CA as well.

As long as they are allowed to keep their licences even after the buildout deadlines, there won't be any movement.

Other parts of Jersey would beg to differ though. Was in Jersey City and Hoboken yesterday, rock solid service. Hackensack, perfect. Where in Jersey are you referring to?

My point is that the B41 small cell would be in a location that would bridge that gap or allow for a better/smoother B25/26 fallback.