Fraydog

I am thinking of taking the plunge on AirPods myself.


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How is it Sprint has cut their pings down so drastically there? Conversion of the network core to Nokia?


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Delta Shuttle




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At the 28 minute mark he says "if your a voice user you don't give a shit about data quality" [emoji23]

I think it would be great if Sprint could pick some spectrum in the CBRS band—I could definitely see their NR network being primarily 2.5/3.5 GHz. Additionally, if CBRS spectrum were used for NR with massive MIMO, it would be a good overlay for the L1900 grid as it would have comparable coverage/range. 
Your point about roaming is definitely true too. It would be nice for us to roam in other countries on the same band as back home; additionally, with spectrum that lines up with international providers, Sprint may be able to break into the US international roaming market (which AT&T and T-Mobile primarily dominate today). 

Something else that is interesting to note is Qualcomm recently demonstrated (in Europe) how massive MIMO could bring the coverage of 3500 MHz spectrum to that of 1800 MHz spectrum. I wonder what massive MIMO will be able to do for Sprint’s 2500/2600 MHz spectrum. Maybe it will make rural n41 deployment possible…

Neville Ray basically admitted that their 5G network won't be their main network for the foreseeable future. 5G NR is going to be deployed on 600MHz and the mmWave holdings. mmWave will be deployed much like a hotspot and 600MHz will be for breadth of coverage like in rural areas. According to Neville, 5G NR has something like 20-30% spectral efficiency over LTE at 600MHz so it'll give greater speeds than LTE but it won't be a game changer like Sprint's 160MHz of 2.5/2.6GHz will be. Additionally LAA, like mmWave, will likely only be deployed on small cells in high traffic areas as a way to boost the network.

5G and gigabit LTE will live side by side for a very long time. Watching carriers announce their plans for deployment is way more interesting than during the early days of LTE.

5G has caused so much total stupidity in this industry. Look back at the 4G LTE rollouts. Verizon and AT&T pushed hard early on rural 4G in 700 MHz spectrum. This approach in the early days of LTE was ludicrously successful. Verizon and AT&T pulled away from their smaller competitors. Only when T-Mobile got 700 MHz and started expanding out of cities did their customer numbers really start to change. Sprint largely stuck in their existing footprint.

Now we have AT&T and Verizon focusing on mmWave. Focused on urban and the exception like AT&T’s Waco adventure. Meanwhile T-Mobile talks up using 5G NR on 600 MHz spectrum.

Where I live, mmWave isn’t going to be worth a you know what. Even 2600 isn’t great in the rural areas where it is, which I don’t live in since Sprint decided to not cover my town. Now Verizon and AT&T want to use mmWave as their key 5G strategy. At least Sprint has plenty of 2600 to burn. That’s nice for small cells in downtowns of small cells for 5G but I don’t see how that will be great outside that for rural areas.

Suddenly, where I sit, T-Mobile looks like they have the best rural 5G strategy. Five years ago, this would have been unthinkable. This is seriously making me wonder what parallel universe I’m in.

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It will be interesting to see how LAA works with LinkNYC. I hope there isn’t any interference and everything is properly vetted in that regard, especially since LinkNYC is obscenely fast.


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Doesn't T-Mobile have less Spectrum in Chicago than they do elsewhere?

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Same here.

Just got the iPhone X last Friday. Blown away. Just so fast and smooth. It’s unreal.


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Considering the excellent Sprint reports here in Chicago, I'd really like to switch to Sprint, but the phone selection still is looking quite limited this year until VoLTE comes around with DMA going away, allowing customers to purchase any unlocked phone and switching to whichever carrier they choose. I'm set on getting the flagship Sony phone this year, so its looking like I'll either have to stay with T-Mobile, or else go back to AT&T. Anyways, S4GRU is helpful with the Sprint updates regarding the network, and if anything changes allowing me to use an unlocked phone on Sprint, I'll switch.

Anyone with an iPhone on here actually get a call on VoLTE on Sprint?


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13 minutes ago, WiWavelength said:

Why?  Just because you say so, that argument does not fly with me.  You need to support your position with reasoning or evidence.  What is then is the crucial connection between Masayoshi Son and an geographically expansive Sprint network?  His only experience with SoftBank is on the small island nation of Japan, for Pete's sake.

AJ

Masa Son is the chairman of both SoftBank and Sprint. He sets the capital budget of both companies, he has said as much to investors meetings numerous times. 

Under his ownership Sprint hasn't set forward a large geographic expansion and he has controlled Sprint for four years. The evidence on the table, as of now, shows he is not much to care about it. 

Now if there is a reversal of policy, I will be the first to credit Masa for making changes to Sprint's policy. That said, other competitors serve a larger geographic region and all have more connections. Now I'm not saying Masa Son has to have Sprint cover every square mile of America with B41. I am saying Sprint could make modest improvements with B26 and not lose money on rural areas. And even in small towns, triband deployment will make sense in a lot of cases given the cost of that deployment will decrease over time. 

Given that competition is as fierce as it is, Sprint simply can't afford a weak front. If I wanted to distill my argument to one sentence that would be it. If you think Sprint can slack on rural and grow to 65-75 million customers, that's fine. That's your opinion. I have my opinion and have stated the facts I have to back it up. Henceforth my respectful disagreement. 

18 hours ago, WiWavelength said:

No. Why?  Build out places where most people will not go anytime soon, if ever?  And if most people think that they might, for example, go to Wyoming, they are gullible and/or stupid.  I would rather that Sprint not go "chasing stupid"-- even if that might move the needle in perception.  Instead, focus on being the best that Sprint can be in places where most people already are most of the time -- and that largely is within the established footprint  

AJ

No offense but if that's the case, and that is truly what Masa is thinking, he should divest himself of Sprint somehow. 

Fortunately I'm confident Masa will take a longer term approach.

So Sprint is pushing both small cells and macro towers? I hope this is the new focus along with disruptive plans. 

9 hours ago, jamesinclair said:

Where do you see 2018?

 

 

Oops, it will be out by month's end.

https://news.samsung.com/us/sprint-t-mobile-galaxy-s8-active/

This makes it official on the Active coming to Sprint in 2017.

On 11/5/2017 at 1:48 AM, mikejeep said:

I was using version 7.1.6 (build 969) on my Pixel; I logged out of my S4GRU account in Tapatalk so hopefully all of my IP blocks will eventually release. Tonight is the first time I've been able to access S4GRU from my home ISP IP in a couple of days.

-Mike

I'm just using my browser until I'm sure Tapatalk has fixed their issues. 

Also, I'm cool with the Altice deal, but as of right now, their cable assets cover a very small geographic area of the US. Xfinity and Spectrum, on the other hand, serve most of the US population. I can't see the Altice deal moving the needle much.

Sprint also has a danger in ramping up capital investment. In a market that is more increasingly competitive, will they be able to make return on investment? Let's not forget 5G is on the horizon. If Sprint doesn't get good results on this, I see Masa going back to the table with the Magentans waiving the white flag. That said, I am eager to see one last shot at making Sprint work. I personally wish Masa would take Sprint private as in buy up 100% under SoftBank. Maybe a SoftBank Mobile rebrand would do some good?

3 hours ago, SprintNYC said:

Talk about  Salty Magentas. LOL Jesus

 

 

Sprint can prove everyone wrong and go for maxing out investment since no one believes it this time around. 

So the Altice deal is for both old Cablevision and Suddenlink areas?

I'm getting this message on my home internet and yet mobile posting here is working fine. What's going on here?

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who knows i undoubtly suspect it will never be a unending thing.

If Masa isn't going to get control of Charter, these never ending talks between SoftBank and DT might get back on. Charter's current market cap is $83 billion. For SoftBank, that may be too much money to burn considering any merger on that end would probably run closer to $100 billion.

Either way, I don't see a good path for SoftBank here. Cable companies won't want to relinquish control either. That may just leave Sprint at a stalemate because SoftBank can't find a deal they like, which could end up being very bad for Sprint.

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There's a lot of synergies between a cable company and a wireless company. Strand mounted small cells and WiFi is one. Backhaul and fronthaul for another. Integration of fixed and mobile telephony. With cord cutters, a chance to capture some of the cord cutting crowd by offering them OTT choices. A way to pressure content providers to offer ala carte channels.

Let's not forget that linear cable channels over QAM have never offered less content or less value. Some cable companies still are pumping out analog QAM channels. Comcast over-compresses HD. Pay TV isn't even a good margin business any more because content providers are trying to milk customers out of everything they are worth through the cable companies.

Look at the Dodgers channel that Charter can't sell to anyone else. You really want that obligation on Sprint's books? I wouldn't.

AT&T and Dish have had cord cutting options but Comcast and Charter? Comcast won't even sell their OTT product that is in beta outside their footprint. Charter is AWOL in that field.

If Comcast or someone like that could get to all IP and off QAM for full fiber to the home, I'd reconsider my stance. Right now, not a fan.

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