Mr.Nuke

Like S4GRU said it varies significantly by market. That said Sprint has roughly 120 MHz of BRS/EBS spectrum on average in 90 of the top 100 markets. Sprint in most cases doesn't need the Schwartz spectrum, which in turn significantly diminishes Mobile Citizen's negotiating position.

Which US West Wireless? In the late 90's US West/AirTouch merged forming the basis for what is now Verizon. In the late 90's US West (later Qwest) launched again. By 2004 they sold off of their wireless spectrum and other assets (mostly to Verizon), becoming a Sprint MVNO. No. They haven't had a network of their own in either incarnation for more than a decade. If it was company owned, it went most likely went to Verizon. No.

Poor logic.

And you really need to prove your point before linking to a 200+ page document, and saying "read it". Where in there does it say what you are claiming it to say? Yeah and access protection for EBS licenses for EBS license holders makes sense. John Schwartz doesn't strike me as a "legitimate" EBS entity though. From what I gather he is more akin to a spectrum squatter than a "for the children" do-gooder. And like you say if they are required to offer X amount of service for educational use, Sprint can skip the middle man and offer it directly. Sprint has the leverage here as Mobile Citizen and other related entities sure as hell aren't going to build out and provide service/coverage on their own.

And this is where it gets interesting because Clearwire and Wimax are 1) no longer a company and 2) soon to be a non-operating technology in the US. The fact that John Schwartz is being quoted in articles pertaining to this as being outraged should be a huge red flag. From all appearances the guy is a spectrum squatter for all practical purposes, leasing EBS from institutions and then subleasing it to Sprint nee Clearwire. The fact that he is being quoted in articles such as one from the Verge as saying "If the WiMAX network goes dark now, the organizations behind Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen will be 'destroyed'" leads one to believe that the guarantees in said contracts were likely Wimax and not spectrum specific. From the start this reeks of trying to get something for nothing. I'm really not sure what Schwartz' end game is here either. It certainly isn't for the children. Seemingly at best the court agrees with him at which point Sprint finds a loophole and terminates a bunch of their affected Schwartz subleases that they arguably don't need. At that point he'd be on the hook for what they are seeking from Sprint. They're also a little conflicted on their press releases. They state an average of 30-40 gigs/month, but also self admittedly say the top 25% of schools are using up to 50 and 300+ gigs a month. Be it 35 for 400 this isn't like an average wireless user where data consumption will be spread over multiple sites. It is a fixed building typically meaning a single site is going to be hammered every day during school hours. This is what the lawsuit is over. They're claiming this is the case. Sprint is claiming they are paying the EBS liscense holders lease payments (which they are) and they're giving them the required access to the network (which they are, pending unknown contractual terms). The fact that Mobile Beacon/Citizen ore other EBS holders resells the data Sprint is giving them is between them and their customers (according to Sprint). To me, It really reeks of Voqal aka Schwartz not having the money to switch out his customers from Wimax to LTE and or realizing that even if he does, his initial contracts with Clearwire didn't account for Sprint buying them out. He doesn't have a ton of leverage here either, because Sprint doesn't need most of these subleases right now. Additionally, he is screwed with build-out requirements and or providing service to his customers if Sprint isn't involved.

QOS for their actual paying customers. Data use is data use. That statement assumes all wimax sties are going to be converted. Many wimax sites likely won't be converted. That is part of the cost savings benefit from shutting down the wimax network.

No it isn't just my opinion. People including executives leave their jobs every day be it voluntary or not. More often than not regardless of the reason for separation, a replacement isn't simultaneously lined up. In a lot of the recent Sprint cases they were critical functions i.e. if you let a CFO go you need a new CFO. Those sort of changes make sense to announce simultaneously. In this case, SVP of corporate strategy and development sounds borderline like a made-up job title and it wouldn't surprise me if Sprint doesn't replace him as part of their cost saving measures. So no, there is nothing inherently "odd" about this and any speculation right now as to what actually precipitated his departure is baseless until if and when we hear more information.

It isn't odd at all.

The topic is already being discussed here. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/7240-its-the-wimax-countdown/?p=450001

The 6 (newest iPhone available at the start of testing for this round) doesn't support Band 41 carrier aggregation on Sprint or T-Mobile Band 12. Not to mention they likely need an android device to get the data they need running their program.

I want to look at it a bit more too, but this was my suspicion of what was going on as well. Sprint's speed score here dropped 7.4 points despite the fact they were the only one of the 4 to have an increase in download speed (upload fell slightly in full-disclosure).

They could be installing the equipment in advance of the Wimax shutoff date. It is on you guys that live there to figure out if it is happening. That said, again there is no guarantee that Sprint will deploy widespread Band 41 equipment in the Quad Cities now or in the future.

Just ball-parking it without running any calculations the usable speed is probably around 40 down* so roughly the same as the theoretical max for 25/26. And yes that would help quite a bit if they choose to build the QC out. Just like the 20 Mhz channels everywhere else from a network management perspective you'd put everyone you could on the 15 Mhz channel which 1) provides them with a better experience than the current B25/B26 only setup and 2) improves the quality of service for people that cannot connect to Band 41 as the other bands are less burdened. Again though, we have no indication this will happen. *Edit: Thanks to Tim, theoretical max is 60.3 Mbps in configuration 1 and 82.3 Mbps in configuration 2.

Nothing has changed in the Quad Cities. Sprint could deploy a single 15 Mhz band 41 channel only after the Wimax shutdown.

Add my note 5 to the list.

Especially for a company that is still overall losing post-paid subscribers. Any significant retail cuts would be asinine, essentially waiving the white flag. Getting the Sprint Shack's on the cheap out of bankruptcy was probably one of Marcelo's most impressive moves thus far.

It isn't showing... You've done nothing to refute my point.

No lol, and I'm not confusing anything. Yes Sprint is still a publicly traded company. And no Softbank isn't just the majority shareholder they own approximately 83% of the company. What the other 17% of the shareholders care about is of little consequence to Sprint management or Softbank's ownership interests. This isn't a case of many publicly traded companies with such diluted ownership where an activist investor can come in buy 5% and demand several seats on the board of directors. I think you'd be wise not to conflate those two points.

The contract goes for another year, and the odds of Sprint taking it back in house are slim to none. I won't be surprised to see them go with a different company (Nokia) though.

Which for all intents and purposes doesn't apply to Sprint.

It is entirely dependent on the market.

I'm not sure that is ever what it was supposed to be though. To me at least, fairly early on the Nexus line became a phone oriented towards developers so they'd always be on the current version of stock android or a version ahead (preview) to develop and test their apps. Occasionally google would introduce new features or would show new things they hoped handset manufacturers using android would incorporate. On the other hand they decided to let consumers by the device as well. You have niche groups like many of us here who are attracted to the Nexus for various reasons be it the pure android experience/no bloat, instant OS updates instead of waiting for months for OEM/carrier updates, or an android phone with a ton of LTE bands, etc.

On the Note 5 (and any CA capable Samsung or LG device) the engineering screen... The squared symbol is an indication that the device is connected to a second Band 41 carrier. That is in all likelihood an indication that carrier aggregation is present, but it isn't SignalCheck indicating CA. In many situations the "first" carrier may be the "primary" aggregation carrier (see the screenshot above). SignalCheck isn't capable of discerning if CA is present or not. And Samsung markets are programmed in SCP to show a second carrier based on GCI's ending in 03, 04, or 05.

Given that HTC and Motorola don't even show said information on internal engineering screens, probably not. It is a fair assumption carrier aggregation is present if SignalCheck indicates the 2nd carrier. Otherwise to confirm right now you need a Samsung or LG device or commit the atrocity of an unnecessary speed test.

And in a lot of rural areas that was solely the result of government involvement through Public Power entities in the early 20th century via the Tennessee Valley Authority and Rural Electrification Act, both New Deal programs designed to put people to work.