Fraydog

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1605217-T-Mobile-why-do-you-hate-Nebraska?p=16660284#post16660284 Finally T-Mobile is getting local number prefixes in Omaha.

Or Ericsson RBS. There are rural areas with Ericsson, and you probably already guessed it, they have to replace most of everything with a big base station. Even still the Ericsson/Nokia T-Mobile project was a site modernization but they were way ahead of Sprint on Evolved Packet Core, IP Multimedia System, and the other network core elements while Sprint had to rebuild network cores again at massive cost. The Nokia rural LTE performance is laudable given the lack of RRU's that typically accompany T-Mobile rural builds. Can't speak to Ericsson performance on T-Mobile but it seems like their small cells here on Verizon do well for speeds. Fastest I have personally got on a mobile network was near 100 Mbps on an empty Ericsson small cell on Verizon in Sparta, IL. Also it is a mixed development here. Ericsson small cells over Alcatel-Lucent network for Verizon, though Verizon could go to Ericsson here and I suspect they will eventually. AT&T will do the same with Alcatel-Lucent to Nokia eventually as well here though I suspect Southern Illinois would be one of the last to be changed over. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

The fun thing to monitor for the NY market is how much work Nokia does between Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. If Nokia wants to do something spectacular to prove a point, I have an idea. Boost everyone's deployment on Nokia and let everyone figure out what the Non-Nokia carrier in NYC is. ???? Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I can see that as a payoff if Sprint has a quantum leap of implementation under SoftBank management. I just don't see it..yet. Sprint is just now getting to the point where this will work 9, almost 10 years down the line, after a lot of financial pain and a complete rip and replace to make it work. That is crazy long as far as timelines go in technology. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

It doesn't help the government forced Sprint's hand as far as not quickly deploying that. I get both sides of the argument, and I get that educational broadband users wanted fair pricing for the transition to TD-LTE since they are the ones leasing EBS back to Sprint. I can understand the frustration when the network teams are trying to work and all the sudden, they have the whistle stopped.

I hope so. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

At least decisions are being made, it's better than when Sprint just sat there on marketing.

I'm amazed at how much of Sprint's strategy was locked in by Gary Forsee and how little it has really changed in essence. Sure, Hesse tried, but he didn't change the fundamental parts of it. He couldn't. Is anyone holding Gary Forsee out as a shining light of corporate management? Forsee was only about long term bets. How many of those worked out?

I doubt that. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

It may be a slower improvement given there's only the capital to focus on large cities. If it is deemed that 3 billion is going to be the capital expenditures for 2016, better to focus on the top 20 or so markets. That means Sprint is still going to be behind everyone else on rural for the conceivable future. I get that Sprint has to be more efficient given their past deployments. That said, I wonder if 3 billion is enough even if Sprint is being run more efficiently. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

If I got a 5x for $199 and activated it on Fi, could I lock Fi to Sprint only when I wanted to populate Sprint's SCP log? Could I do the same for T-Mobile? Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

What price range would I have to go for if I wanted a used one for Sprint frequency finding? Daily driver is out of the question as I'm not in a good Sprint area, obviously. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

LTE-U has CSAT which is very similar in implementation to LBT. I don't think interference will be a problem. In essence LTE-U is designed to yield to WiFi, not overpower it. I think a lot of the FUD comes from Public Knowledge which in essence has misled a lot of people about the technology as if it was being implemented without CSAT. More and more I think Public Knowledge is just taking the position they are to poke Verizon, the largest backer of LTE-U, in the eye. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

VZ's likely going to go very hard with Nokia Flexi cells in that area though. With an estimated $12 billion in capex to blow, they can do a whole lot. I wouldn't be shocked to see Verizon replace AlLu there starting this year. Especially since the new Nokia equipment is miles better. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

He thinks it's so great that he doesn't need DAS or small cells in his hotels for mobile service. True story, that's how the Legere-Trump beef started. To steer this back on topic, I suspect Verizon and Dish need each other in the end. I don't believe Verizon likes Charlie's price.

iPhone, but that doesn't have a good way of checking what band one is on with Field Test more or less borked at this stage of iOS and Apple's policy on signal apps which is ancient and needs overhaul. Given Apple is good with unlocked phones, I don't see why they can't be better here. I've considered writing Phil Schiller and seeing if something could be done but I don't anticipate a response on his end. Carriers should all be more transparent here as well. The HTC 10 is a small phone in a weird way, but not under 5". It is certainly thin and light, though.

That might be Dish's end game. That said, I think that Charlie might be disappointed he spent that money on spectrum when all he got was a lousy return off it. For all the spectrum haul he probably could have acquired CenturyLink or some landline provider like that for bundling services like AT&T has done now with DirecTV. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

T-Mobile took coverage penalties to invest in their own network rather than getting screwed by AT&T on UMTS roaming capped at 64 Kbps. Seems to be paying off as they are growing their own native POP's. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I'm not for it going online yet. Densify the network more first. I'm speaking more of long-term goals. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

SoftBank isn't a bad run business, just look at the other businesses they hold. That said, I would like to see more active involvement from Mr. Son. He should be spending at least half his time in Overland Park at this time. One of the biggest mysteries of this entire process since 2013 is "why didn't SoftBank demand even deeper changes given that Sprint was broken when they bought it?" I wish I had a good answer for that, if I did I would be selling my services to Masa to fix it. I wanted to see VoLTE movement in 2016 but if CapEx is cut to 3 billion that makes me doubt that is part of the plan. If anything I'm of the philosophy that Sprint should power to an All-LTE network as fast as possible. Even if you count the 2.6 GHz trove, beyond that, Sprint has to be extremely efficient with their spectrum deployment. At the most they have 10 MHz of LTE in low band and 40 MHz in mid band. Yes, capital has to be deployed more efficiently, but I don't see 3 Bln cutting it even if deployment is efficient. I would be OK with 5 Bln but apparently SoftBank is tired of Sprint deploying capital inefficiently. I can't say I blame them. In the end, I wonder if Son shouldn't embark on being more hands on and demanding a more drastic transformation of every aspect of this business. All options need to be on the board at this stage.

And GSM BYOD, on a carrier that brands itself as "the fastest 4G LTE network" - obviously T-Mobile.

I remember when Dish was cheaper than DirecTV. Now it is just as expensive. People are starting to figure that out. Then add that AT&T has enough rural capacity at this stage to cut into DishNET and can bundle DirecTV and wireless together... That isn't a pretty picture. In cities, people are transitioning to OTT products and Sling has a competition with many alternatives there. They should have took Magenta's offer when they had the chance. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

The two options that you have: 1. Use a VoIP app like FaceTime, Hangouts, or Whatsapp. That is an over the top voice application that uses data over the Internet to transmit voice. 2. Consider other carriers that have VoLTE enabled. The other three major carriers have VoLTE enabled. According to those in the know, Sprint has to densify more before enabling VoLTE. After the hiccups of Network Vision, I don't think Sprint will take any chances on this. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Do you think T-Mobile is doing the PCS refarm in St. Louis yet? I'm going to look for PCS LTE next time I'm up. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

The biggest shock is falling back to 1X on Verizon, I'll tell a story. Here in Chester there's a Mexican restaurant called Tequila's. It's a fairly infamous hell hole for cell service in the past because the place is more or less carved into a bluff. It was a typical Saturday night, we were sitting at the table eating Mexican food and drinking beer. I received a call from Mom sitting at the table and took the call, earlier noticing my phone fell back to EV-DO because data wasn't working well at all. Then I took the call falling back to 1X on VZW. I don't remember ever having a call sound that horrible. It might have been because I'm used to the better sound quality on Advanced Calling, but it sounded absolutely underwater. My friend who is one of the few people in town on AT&T was able to stay on LTE and things loaded very well for him in the same spot. I was shocked. Then people at the table started to notice he was on LTE since he was the only one on the table with LTE, and that was on an iPhone which isn't the strongest RF device in the world. That was when I started to think AT&T was really a viable alternative where I live after many years of talking down about them.