dkyeager

1) advertise their 5G service coverage areas 2) find another merger partner 3) abandon service in unprofitable parts of the country by striking a longer term roaming deal with T-Mobile 4) change their name to match their related Japanese carrier and/or merger with them

It turns out that not all of the QAM issues were tried. Much better luck so far today with: VoLTE disabled CA disabled 256QAM download disabled 64QAM upload disabled If this is successful, then we will enable VoLTE then on another day enable CA credit QAM issues to UPdownLoAD *** this ultimately failed exchange appears to be the best method at this time

Their have been several more failures for the same person who is also testing QAMs turned off now and already had VoLTE and WiFi calling off. No other reports back one way or the other by others. T Personally, Samsung may have just been too desperate to get this phone out early. Parts may not have been tested well enough. Software issues also likely. The question is whether the issue continues. Know to affect at least some early orders.

This possible solution just had a failure around the time a phone call was attempted. We previously had tried disabling VoLTE with no success. Still testing to see if it resolves data issues.

Defective s10 phone? Looking for more testers. Simply disable CA through the dialer code. Very preliminary results are good. The theory is that the unlocked phones have not had the same degree of issues as the Sprint branded S10s. Besides bloatware, a difference is the Sprint branded have far more CA options than the unlocked. Please report back with your results. Note that there may be more than one issue.

They could sell or buy shares over time, although it is likely restrictions are in place for a period of time.

Being a conglomerate, perhaps Softbank is looking for and exit strategy or looking for ways to be able to invest more money. They are hamstrung the way it is currently structured.

Part of the attraction of the deal for T-Mobile is all the Sprint tax losses. I am not sure Sprint could afford its share of a much larger network. Sprint was dancing with so many potential partners before. Perhaps they have one with less favorable terms. Hopefully it is someone who will spend the money needed to make them successful. Don't rule out Dish playing the spoiler again -- that is what chewed up most of Softbank's improvement money for Sprint.

S4Gru has always been about education. Hopefully any non paying member posts their finds here. Who knows, they may even find themselves getting promoted. Sponsors and Premier members should post details in the highest ranking thread linked above. The Premier thread will also contain a map of confirmed sites once we get a few more.

Of course, that is S4Gru Premier member info: https://s4gru.com/forums/topic/4825-columbus-market-mapspreadsheet-premier-edition/page/126/?tab=comments#comment-540873 S4Gru Sponsors get more clues: https://s4gru.com/forums/topic/4742-columbus-market-mapspreadsheet/page/198/?tab=comments#comment-540872

Massive MIMO antennas found today in the Columbus market. Can broadcast many beams of B41 LTE 2500 and 5NR (5G).

In areas like Columbus, where Sprint controls all of the B41 spectrum except for the gaps, with FCC permission, Sprint could have 9 198MHz carriers plus a 15MHz carrier with 0.8Mhz for buffer space. They should leave the 8T8Rs up plus the Massive MIMOs. The real issue is likely the cost of backhaul. Don't forget it will be 4G LTE plus 5NR.

My bad. It should have read: I have heard from sources of mixed reliability that T-Mobile will be adding a lot 600Mhz sites in Cleveland over the coming weeks They currently have one site near the lake on the east side.

Well, since you All have Sprint sims, I would expect they should all be the same, but obviously not. It looks like firmware is the issue. Perhaps the unlocked needs to be manually updated? Else Sprint is only making a subset of their features available to the unlocked? A good question for Samsung.

What firmware version are each of you on?

I have heard from sources of mixed reliability that T-Mobile will be adding a lot 600Mhz sites in the coming weeks They currently have one site near the lake on the east side.

For clarity, does the Unlocked S9+ have ##data# menu options to support B26 + B25 CA and B26 + B25 + B25 CA? Thanks

I believe the issue is the signal from the phone reaching the tower. Towers are obviously more powerful so downlink should not be as much of a problem. Simply put, b26 travels further. Yet it also a very precious commodity. FDD is historically limited by download, since more customers download about ten times more than they upload. Therefore this allows the B26 upload (which has extra capacity) to be used to reach the tower, followed by the download being split between B25 and B26. Thus it offloads b26 downloads (which is likely congested) by sharing them with B25 where possible. The biggest issue is not many phones support B26 + B25 CA, let alone B26 + B25 + B25.

It should be about half or less than it was before, depending on the B25 download bandwidth and performance at that location, ie B26 5x5 plus 5Mhz or 10MHz b25 or more rarely 15MHz (unless it is B26 + B25 + B25). Might really help where B26 is 3x3.

Ah so able to use B26 for upload/download, but the b26 download being shared with b25 thus effectively offloading b26 as mentioned by RAvirani above or for the HPUE like aspects I mentioned (so long as there is 3G present, a band can not have HPUE, which boosts the handset transmit power).

There is no doubt that Sprint is short of low band, especially for VoLTE. The former clear markets will benefit from Tribanding the existing sites. As for the other markets Sprint needs more of the Band 26 small cells, which are quite rare (else the merger). Considering that band 26 should be the band of last resort, I have never quite understood how it being CAed will help, unless it basically acts as HPUE by strengthening the upload signal which tends to have plenty of capacity since it is FD, and then is able to use the Band 25 or Band 41 for download. Is this correct?

Basically the same as the S9. Only this time it's 4x4 MIMO on up to 20 streams vs 16 [credit: lilotimz]

While T-Mobile could have awesome mmWave 5G in Ohio, the more important 5G story is the 600MHz nationwide. It is believed they have been saving half of it for 5G, which should basically double speeds at the edge. Even more if they CA it with 4G. So rather than a few people in the heart of major city downtowns benefiting, those inside buildings and at the edge of service should benefit the most.

If Sprint had money they could dominate 5G at least until the duo had significant density. But they don't. Sprint is still paying catch-up. Despite the huge number of sites that have been tribanded, it did not show up in the Rootmetrics stats for the last half of 2018. They other guys were also adding more bands, 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM to all of their sites. The construction crews still keep telling me that most of the RRUs they have been putting up for the duo are 5G compatible. Outside of the Massive MIMOs and I have not heard that for Sprint's latest equipment. Personally laying low until some of dust settles.

The Magic Boxes require reasonable macro band 41 signal in a market with enough spectrum to give a carrier to them. Airaves require ISP service with minimal jitter and GPS and must be in a county with Sprint Macro sites. Each fills a different need.