bretton88

I suspicion that in order to avoid direct competition with their host networks, they don't offer service where there is only Sprint or only T mobile.

I'm on a Note 5 and still can't get LTE roaming on uscc, so Sprint hasn't gotten everything launched yet.

as far as i know yes, everything i could find made it sound like they only had enough spectrum for a 10x10 in AWS in the des moines areas (maybe up to a 15x15 down the road). in other areas it was the same story except it was PCS instead of AWS.

I was in error. There was no spectrum transaction. Looks like they're deploying on band 4.

thanks for the iWireless info/opinions my 3 main concerns with iWireless were 1) they only have AWS for LTE, which means poor in building coverage - UNLESS they densify their network properly and 2) i've not experienced it myself but i've heard GSM voice quality is not very good - coming from sprint who really does have awesome voice quality this could be a negative too. 3) back to only having AWS for LTE, it sounds like they are stuck with a 10x10 (maybe a 15x15 down the road) so it could become strained and lead to poor speeds - counters to this would be since they are a local carrier their user base should be lower so not as many users and if they have enough tower density they could overcome this.

Are you counting the spectrum that iwireless got when they took over T-Mobiles network in Des Moines?

It's usable, except for the south end of Cedar Rapids by the airport... where they still haven't added LTE on the Swisher exit site. My friend who works for Sprint confirmed for me that site is ethernet fed so no one really knows why they haven't done any sort of GMO LTE upgrade at the least for that site.

They don't need to do much. Add LTE to the downtown site and the airport site. Maybe add a couple small cells (not many would be needed, so not capital intensive). Then there would be no drops and usable LTE everywhere. Having a new regional VP might help things as he'll have a better sense of things on the local level.

No. The spectrum situation in Cedar Rapids is different. In Des Moines and the Quad Cities AT&T has either PCS Block D (Quad Cities) or E (Des Moines). Sprint's PCS B block spectrum sits in the middle of D and E. So a B/C swap gives Sprint 40 MHz of contiguous spectrum in C+G and AT&T the same in B+D/E.

 

In Cedar Rapids, for starters Sprint doesn't have the entire PCS B block to trade, they split it with AT&T. Furthermore, US Cellular holds the PCS C block and no additional PCS spectrum. There isn't a trade to be made there. The trades involved in this AT&T/Sprint transaction were rather obvious.

So it's basically the worst spectrum city in Sprint's network. Despite that, they still do a decent job here. Just a couple small cells would do the trick nicely.

And in a few months yall won't be seeing 2nd b25 carriers but one centered 26440 / 8040

Does that mean sprint is refarming to move to one 10x10 carrier?

Score! This is the engineering screen.

Sigh. My turn to fail to get the engineering screens of the second carrier in North Liberty. Stupid Samsung way of getting screen shots.

So if there's no CDMA, that means no ecsfb so are these sites useless to most Sprint users?

Nor do I. If Sprint's current coverage and or speeds aren't good enough for someone in Cedar Rapids there is really no reason to stick it out.

Actually I find Sprint's service to be very solid here in cedar rapids. Considering their lack of resources for this city it probably means their market share is really low. I don't speed test anymore, but I've never had reason to complain.

Realistically with the lack of B41 and inability to even deploy the second B25 carrier in this area, only site densification will help data speeds. I just don't see Sprint putting the resources into that. Meanwhile Verizon is deploying small cells here in cedar rapids like crazy.

Fast charging doesn't always work when i plug it in. Is my charger going out or what? I move to other outlets an works sometimes.

I have the same issue. Seems to be a charger or cable issue, not outlet or phone problem. My third party car charger fast charges every time.

What about Iowa City? I know Speedconnect owns the B41 there too, but does Sprint have enough spectrum to add a second B25 carrier? Or even just filling out the current coverage there- it is abysmal.

I'm pretty sure we've seen the second carrier in Iowa city.

How generous. What have they said? Like having 2x or was it 10x as many cell towers and density as everyone else?

 

It must be celebration, because they now cover "

" Verizon does...

 

 

LOL!

What a triumph of marketing. Verizon didn't add that much LTE because they already cover most people, lol. Slight detail there.

I'm hearing a lot about dark fiber being a big deal. What is the difference between normal fiber and dark fiber?

No. The PCS B spectrum is split in Linn County with AT&T.

So cedar rapids is possibly the worst spectrum market for Sprint in the country.

Is cedar rapids even able to have a second band 25 carrier? I find it odd it's been deployed everywhere else in Iowa but here.

If existing cell towers remain the same, and it is about small cell deployment, then where is the 1 billion in cost saving coming from? I agree with you that whoever wrote that article is really confused. It is almost impossible for Sprint to relocate current towers onto government properties without adversely affect service even more so than NV1.

Cost saving is a little nebulous, it could mean savings from existing expenses or it could mean future savings compared to using the tower companies for their ngn effort. It's very open ended.

Im hoping, but in my research that i have seen sprint can't aggregate unless band 26 is present correct me if im wrong. El paso is a top 100 market according to number so i don't see why we wouldn't be a priority

 

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Carrier aggregation on band 41 has nothing to do with Band 26, but I see I was beaten to it.

Well, we could have seen that coming from a mile away. There are data abusers on the service? Shocking.....

The 900 mhz range is super congested. I'd be curious how it would perform.

You can't make that assumption by using the Galaxy S5. That phone can only access bands 25/26/41. So the GS5 will probably only see LTE Roaming in very few places, if at all.

Note 5, not GS 5. Samsung's numbering and naming conventions are often confusing.

I put open world on my account for a trip to Canada. Fantastic speeds and coverage on Rogers hspa+. Connected easily too. I've only spent 60 MB of my allotment in the 4 days I've been here so 1 GB of high speed data is plenty.

Falls City Nebraska -

iPhone 6 : LTE Extended

GS5 : 3G roaming US Cellular

 

Burchard Nebraska (of all places) -

iPhone 6 : LTE Extended

GS5 : 3G roaming US Cellular

My note 5 won't connect to LTE roaming either, it seems Samsung phones have not gotten access yet.