supert0nes

I've been running Sensorly for every trip I've taken in Madison in the past 2 weeks and will continue to do so, so if it blips to LTE, it'll get mapped.....but there's nothing going on here with our towers that I've heard of. I also ran it all the way up to GB last weekend (through Appleton area) and nothing but 2G/3G mapped the whole way.

 

I was supposed to be going through Milwaukee on Sunday but our tickets to the Brewers/Cardinals fell through. Was going to be my first time in a suite, alas, I'll have to listen on the radio.

 

Great to see some sites accepted in Milwaukee!

Just a note, you can drive right by a lone 4g tower and not even connect. It could take a couple minutes after entering a 4g signal area (or not) when your phone will switch to 4g. Once on 4g, your phone will hand off between LTE towers just as nicely as 3g today, which is to say, quite seamless.

I see another topic started for this before my post by a couple minutes, so my post can be for reference in the everything 800 thread at least

The end is nigh! 60 day notice for iDen shutdown!

http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2579&view_id=3515

News Releases

01 May 2013

 

Sprint on Schedule to Shut Down iDEN Network Within 60 Days

 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 01, 2013 - Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced that its plans to shut down the iDEN Nextel National Network remain on schedule for the end of June, as originally announced in May of last year.

The last full day of iDEN service will be June 29; shutdown begins first thing Sunday, June 30, and will continue throughout the day. iDEN devices will then no longer receive voice service – including 911 calls – or data service. Sprint will shut down switch locations in rapid succession on June 30, followed by powering down equipment and eliminating backhaul at each cell site.

Sprint announced plans on May 29, 2012 to cease service on the iDEN Nextel National Network as early as June 30, 2013, as part of its Network Vision plan – a series of network updates designed to offer next-generation network capabilities to customers.

Since then, Sprint has been aggressively notifying customers to migrate from the iDEN Nextel National Network to avoid service disruptions. The notifications have included customer letters, legal notifications, and email reminders. Sprint added iDEN shutdown reminder text messages and will use other communications tactics during the network’s final days of operation.

“Our shutdown communications are meant to give customers more than enough lead time to plan their migration,” said Bob Azzi, senior vice president-Network. “This has been especially important for public safety, first responders, health care users and others who rely on the service to protect and preserve people’s lives. We strongly urge customers to migrate now, rather than wait until the last minute.”

Customers who migrate to Sprint Direct Connect experience three times the push-to-talk coverage compared to iDEN, international direct connect reach to Latin American countries, and 3G broadband data capabilities.

“SprintDirect Connect is a gold standard in push-to-talk,” Azzi said. “It comes with the broadband capabilities that businesses and public safety pros need for business applications, social media, and future push-to-X capabilities on Sprint’s broadband CDMA network.”

The transition of Sprint’s push-to-talk service from iDEN to CDMA is part of the company’s Network Vision plans. Network Vision is expected to add net economic value for Sprint from reduced roaming costs, cell site reduction, backhaul efficiencies, more efficient use of capital, and energy cost savings.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 55 million customers at the end of the first quarter of 2013 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in both its 2011 and 2012 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

 

I'll hope it's soon. I'm also hoping it's the one closest to my house which has seen quite a bit of work in the past few weeks.

Minnesota has had almost immediate turnaround most of the time

Sent from phone

 

How quickly' date=' after acceptance, do sites go live?[/quote']

 

There's really no standard it could already be live at acceptance or I should say when the acceptance report comes out or a day later or a week later some have waited many months especially for 3g which is brought up in clusters

 

Sent from phone

Looks like Dish wants to play dirty in this fight.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/dish-raises-specter-softbanks-connection-utstarcom-bribery-allegations/2013-04-30

 

The battle between Japan's SoftBank and Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) for control of Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) is getting nastier, with Dish warning the FCC that it should take into account SoftBank's ties to UTStarcom, which settled bribery allegations in 2009 with the Department of Justice.

 

The filing by Dish comes shortly after SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said his company will not raise its $20.1 billion offer for 70 percent of Sprint to compete with Dish's unsolicited $25.5 billion counterbid because he said SoftBank's offer is already superior. Son called Dish's offer "incomplete and illusory" and said Dish's offer "includes statements that are misleading."

In a filing with the FCC, Dish pointed to recent media reports form TR Daily and Politico about the DOJ investigation into UTStarcom, known as UTSI. The reports noted that in 2009 UTSI agreed to pay $1.5 million and admit to the DOJ that it had engaged in illegal bribery.

Specifically, the DOJ alleged that, starting in 2002 or earlier, UTSI gave bribes totaling around $7 million to Chinese government officials in exchange for telecommunications sales contracts, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to the DOJ settlement, UTSI gave all-expenses-paid vacations to the employees and then improperly accounted for such trips as having a "training" purpose.

Son was chairman of UTSI from October 1995 until March 2003, and a board member until September 2004. UTSI is based in China and works primarily in the IPTV and wireline broadband markets.

"Dish believes that this information is relevant to the public interest analysis of the proposed transaction, and that it is incumbent up on the proposed transferee SoftBank to provide a full explanation of these matters," Dish said in the filing.

A Sprint spokesman declined to comment. A SoftBank spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FCC is currently reviewing the SoftBank/Sprint deal, though Dish has asked the FCC to pause its review of the deal while Sprint's board considers Dish's own counterbid for Sprint. Sprint and SoftBank have said they think the deal can close by July 1 and Sprint has tentatively set June 12 for a shareholder vote on the transaction.

Dish's filing comes shortly after the company said its offer for Sprint "is better for the American consumer, better for Sprint's shareholders, and better for U.S. national security than the SoftBank proposal." Dish's comments were likely a reference to worries that Sprint could use equipment from Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei in its network. U.S. regulators have warned that U.S. companies should not purchase equipment from ZTE and Huawei due to security concerns, a situation that the Chinese vendors have argued against.

Sprint can fix it's own interconnect issues though within itself. As far as HD Voice interconnectivity' date=' I can see Sprint being on an island where the other US carriers, though their use of AMR-WB, eventually agree on HD Voice interconnectivity while Sprint is SOL because of their use of EVRC-NW.[/quote']

 

Doesn't that depend on if Verizon does hd voice over cdma vs volte?

 

Sent from phone

So essentially, they are different communication protocols that are used at a particular bands, much like http vs ftp vs tftp etc.

They don't specify the protocol at all.They are just names given to bands(grouped segments) of spectrum.

Just toggle airplane mode when you expect you are in a 4g area, like if sensorly shows 4g in your area. Other than that, the metro area is starting to get nice coverage.

It's not like Sprint shut down the wimax network yet.

I love the New York comments there. I don't think I've been in the New York threads here, but I can imagine it's the same.

Yes I definitely overlooked that detail. Good catch, although I think you were looking for it.

Was the mention of TD-LTE 2600 in the conference call? I do not see it in any of the documents here. And was the reference actually to "phones" or just "devices"? I am of the belief that we will probably see at least one TD-LTE 2600 capable hotspot or tablet before we do any handsets.

 

AJ

I'm a secondary source on this one. I'm assuming Phil Goldstein was on the call.

"Interestingly, Hesse said that, assuming the Clearwire deal closes by mid-year, Sprint can begin launching devices in the late third quarter that take advantage of TD-LTE technology on Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum."

Overall I would say Sprint did pretty well for the quarter. The numbers look good and 2.5ghz phones in the 3rd quarter!

Hi all. Just signed up after "lurking" for a couple months. Have been running sensorly on and off for about a month...trying to help map as much of the metro as I can.

 

Friday night I was at AMC Rosedale and as I was silencing my Galaxy S-III, I noticed that the "4G" was lit up. I live less than a mile from the mall, and had never noticed LTE in the area...and haven't seen it since Friday night -- it was back to 3G after the movie ended. I'm hoping it was a test that went well and we go online full time real soon.

Welcome to the site! Thanks for reporting in.

It could mean that they were testing the tower. It could also mean that you were on the edge of 4g coverage. There's some work going on in that area, but Sensorly tells me you'll get a stronger signal closer to 35e. I bet 35e and 36 area could have a lot of potential for more mapping!

I posted that article in October, to which Robert replied

"In docs we have seen, LTE 800 and LTE 2600 have always been referred to as LTE 2.0, with the timelines of starting in Mid 2013. I don't see anything in this article that makes me think there is any slip on Mid 2013 of LTE 800 or LTE 2600."

At that point I figured he was either Tarazi or Hesse.

I'm glad you mentioned that, Iyad Tarazi pointed out that HetNets, which would provide a large density increase, would be a big part of Network Vision 2.0.

 

http://www.fiercebro...n-20/2012-10-03

 

 

 

So 800 FD-LTE and 2.6 TD-LTE play a part, but to truly effectively deploy 2.6, you need to deploy some sort of HetNet strategy.

By the way great find on the article so fast.

Yeah, the value of such small sites would be extremely high in city centers. I should clarify, that my expectation is not to see a great increase in full build out sites till a 3.0 type tiimeline. Stretch it out and try to make some capital for a few years. Although in situations like New Orleans, or closer to my home, Madison, Wisconsin fixes need to happen.

yesir' date=' I know. That means a stronger signal in-building. My building's completely brick lol. SO yeah xD[/quote']

 

Hopefully they get 800 service through to you quickly!

 

Sent from phone

That's what I'm hoping for. First phase nearly done and they begin or already have started the 2nd phase.

Phase 2 is 800/2500 lte not the great expansion or density increase.

Sent from phone

I think time will cure all in this situation. You can't fake a 400 device when 90 percent of the functionality comes on a 25 dollar chip.

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Might be a moot point if phones get cheaper , which they pretty much have to by a lot.

Sent from phone

Fridley isn't on yet but no worries. Keeps me searching.

Sent from phone

Downlink on AWS is on 2.1GHz. Uplink is 1.7GHz. In fact, AWS should have slightly better propagation characteristics than PCS since it allows for higher power levels on downlink and the uplink is lower frequency than PCS. That being said, T-Mobile often gets some crappy cell site locations, which can negate these benefits.

Thanks, I should have looked that up.

I think Sprint is very proud of their network right now, as shown by their willingness to strike LTE sharing deals to other networks, but no new roaming agreements. I think they want to stop paying the competition as much as possible.

What's with the hate for AWS anyway? It has similar characteristics to PCS, and works quite well.

AWS is great. Essentially almost as good as PCS except the uplink is in 2100. The problem we have with AWS is that you need to have enough of it to make it worth while to add an extra base band to phones/sites. Sprint can't do that unless they merge with T-Mobile or buy most of it in the next auction.

LEAP is not enough AWS and neither is USCellular, etc. for Sprint to use.

I wouldn't get so caught up in it, guys. It's just business.

Isn't that what this site is for?