dkyeager

Whether Sprint would spring for their usual features/bloatware and distribution/support costs for a two year plus phone remains to be seen. T-Mobile might be more likely. Still many of these phones out there. Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

Link would be nice. Sounds like a plant the flag effort, but I would expect it to soon expand. One of my relatives had issues with canceling this type of plan due to poor service and took it to the state attorney generals office to get it resolved. Verizon and the cable company were saying the other one was responsible.

That has been discussed as one option of several but not approved to my knowledge. I believe that will come up in the fall. Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

Sprint can use what ever it has licensed or leased. With FCC permission it can use the two small gaps. BRS is often by counties. The rest is currently by radius. When the radius overlap, the difference is split. Not all the spectrum is currently licensed, especially in rural areas. The FCC is in process to making revisions and planning to offer more licenses. Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

Note for others: This link works for me in Chrome but not Firefox.

403 ERROR The request could not be satisfied. Request blocked. Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront) Request ID: wYxrleriwRlmP1lDOPidiN7fPDGPZrhCRs45IwxJlrPTZu2FgzIEbg== Error still happening when I have issues that allow my phone with tapatalk (latest version) to be the same Natted IP as PC. (Firefox browser (latest).

In my experience some small cells are to fill outdoor coverage gaps while others are designed for indoor coverage issues. The complicating factor is that it sometimes takes several months for them to go live after power supply lines and meters are installed. The clue is the power meter does start increasing between visits (these sites use a very small amount of power). Then if you are getting good macro band 41 signal at the site look around at the buildings for hospitals, big box stores, restaurants, or other public venues and go inside. Some times it will be visible on the outside from several blocks away (try the cardinal directions or look for low spots). If there is another small cell nearby see if you can carry the signal over from it and then the new small cell should take over. On rare occasions tricky small cells have been found to be using band 26. Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

Bitten again by bug last night. First time in a while. Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

Approximately 150/8. Normally when I get 80 around Columbus, the guys with S9+s can get 200.

Was this the result of trying to obtain information for S4Gru?

The left antenna facing towards you has the band 25 LTE with two 10x10 carriers, likely with Band 25 Carrier Aggregation (I did not test for that). The smaller antenna facing towards you on the right with the single RRH and more wires has the Band 41 with 5 carriers for a total of 100Mhz of spectrum. It needs a Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ to tell its maximum level of Band 41 Carrier Aggregation.

Correct. I meant to specify that. Edited. Thanks.

The big difference in T-Mobiles LTE approach was doing urban areas first, then working outward. Sprint started with rural areas then worked inwards. T-Mobile benefited more customers sooner, thus attracting more customers (assisted by better marketing) and thereby reaped the rewards of better cash flow.

iirc RRHs add about 20% to the performance of a site, which was a primary reason for Network Vision. Don't forget the 3G reaches further than LTE. I often see sites in rural areas from other carriers that have no RRHs in the countryside. Sprint would have needed more sites in many places without Network Vision due to the limits of Ground Mounted Radio LTE.

Softbank is a conglomerate. Sprint is not their most important investment overall. They can still complete their strategy by owning a smaller slice of a bigger wireless company, especially one that generates its own cash flow. The money Softbank initially planned on putting into Sprint was consumed by a bidding war with Dish over Clearwire. It is hard to raise dedicated money post buyout. Sprint going alone has a lot higher risks than a merger (both are significant risks), especially when increasing cost of capital in markets is likely. Besides the technical aspects, Sprint needs far better marketing and T-Mobile can likely deliver in that area. As a customer, everything will depend whether I get quality service where I need it post merger + a year or two. Otherwise I will go with the carrier that serves me best. Eliminate my favorite towers or redirect them would accelerate this. If they get updated to Next-Gen before the merger, the odds will increase that I will stay and buy new phones.

With some patience I found and documented a Band 41 - 5 Carrier site at 1903 S Perdieu Rd, Muncie, IN. I know some other 5 carrier sites have been found, but this is the first one to my knowledge that has been well documented with the SignalCheck Pro Google Play app: _id first_time last_time gci pci tac dl_chan rsrp latitude longitude Signal Type V20 4/30/18 13:01 4/30/18 13:22 0934D300 66 18695 40978 -80 40.180995 -85.438152 B41 Sprint G2-4 4/30/18 13:09 4/30/18 13:19 0934D300 66 18695 0 -95 40.180433 -85.434040 B41 Sprint G2-2 4/30/18 12:59 4/30/18 13:25 0934D300 66 18695 40978 -93 40.180490 -85.433966 B41 Sprint G2-2 4/30/18 12:54 4/30/18 12:58 0934D301 112 18695 40978 -83 40.174408 -85.433624 B41 Sprint V20 4/30/18 13:22 4/30/18 13:23 0934D302 287 18695 40978 -96 40.181127 -85.451040 B41 Sprint G2-2 4/30/18 13:21 4/30/18 13:22 0934D302 287 18695 40978 -98 40.181117 -85.451814 B41 Sprint V20 4/30/18 13:19 4/30/18 13:20 0934D303 66 18695 41176 -87 40.180478 -85.433987 B41#2 Spr G2-2 4/30/18 13:01 4/30/18 13:20 0934D303 66 18695 41176 -98 40.180435 -85.434059 B41#2 Spr V20 4/30/18 12:55 4/30/18 12:58 0934D304 112 18695 41176 -79 40.174245 -85.433698 B41#2 Spr V20 4/30/18 12:56 4/30/18 12:57 0934D305 287 18695 41176 -77 40.171664 -85.433627 B41#2 Spr V20 4/30/18 12:59 4/30/18 13:16 0934D306 66 18695 41374 -87 40.178872 -85.433790 B41#3 Spr G2-2 4/30/18 13:14 4/30/18 13:23 0934D306 66 18695 41374 -97 40.180435 -85.434059 B41#3 Spr V20 4/30/18 12:58 4/30/18 12:59 0934D307 112 18695 41374 -83 40.176637 -85.433700 B41#3 Spr G2-2 4/30/18 12:58 4/30/18 12:59 0934D307 112 18695 41374 -89 40.177987 -85.433769 B41#3 Spr V20 4/30/18 12:59 4/30/18 12:59 0934D308 287 18695 41374 -94 40.178209 -85.433766 B41#3 Spr V20 4/30/18 13:16 4/30/18 13:18 0934D309 66 18695 40521 -90 40.180478 -85.433987 B41#4 Spr G2-4 4/30/18 13:09 4/30/18 13:09 0934D309 66 18695 0 -96 40.179976 -85.431370 B41#4 Spr G2-2 4/30/18 12:59 4/30/18 13:21 0934D309 66 18695 40521 -87 40.180958 -85.436124 B41#4 Spr V20 4/30/18 12:58 4/30/18 12:58 0934D30A 112 18695 40521 -86 40.176637 -85.433700 B41#4 Spr V20 4/30/18 13:03 4/30/18 13:21 0934D30C 66 18695 40719 -89 40.180478 -85.433987 B41#5 Spr G2-2 4/30/18 13:00 4/30/18 13:21 0934D30C 66 18695 40719 -88 40.180847 -85.433804 B41#5 Spr G2-2 4/30/18 12:58 4/30/18 12:58 0934D30D 112 18695 40719 -83 40.176695 -85.433667 B41#5 Spr The sixth carrier is used by Magic Boxes: _id first_time last_time gci pci tac dl_chan rsrp latitude longitude Signal Type G2-2 4/30/18 13:52 4/30/18 13:54 0FA1333A 491 53540 39874 -104 40.215065 -85.422384 MagicBox This would leave the mid B41 available for 5G. Delaware County Indiana has a wealth of Spectrum. Sprint controls the entire B41 band: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BDo7S2IGuvrU-0tjd9ZPdys3TV3qzGgGISvFX7em2do/edit?usp=sharing/edit?usp=sharing This county also has two B25 LTE 1900 10x10 carriers: (Just showing same site for clarity, but seen at every site) _id first_time last_time gci pci tac dl_chan rsrp latitude longitude Signal Type G2-3 12/31/69 19:00 4/30/18 13:22 09208300 144 18695 8140 -71 40.179302 -85.433792 B25-10x10 V20 4/30/18 12:54 09208301 4 18695 8140 -100 40.167485 -85.403290 B25-10x10 G2-3 12/31/69 19:00 4/30/18 12:58 09208301 4 18695 8140 -74 40.172063 -85.433631 B25-10x10 V20 4/30/18 13:23 09208302 86 18695 8140 -106 40.181219 -85.459734 B25-10x10 G2-3 12/31/69 19:00 4/30/18 13:23 09208302 86 18695 8140 -95 40.181169 -85.448522 B25-10x10 G2-3 4/30/18 12:59 4/30/18 13:04 09208306 144 18695 8640 -82 40.180507 -85.434013 B25#2-10 V20 4/30/18 12:53 4/30/18 12:55 09208307 4 18695 8640 -92 40.167494 -85.403424 B25#2-10 G2-3 4/30/18 12:53 4/30/18 12:59 09208307 4 18695 8640 -68 40.177389 -85.433728 B25#2-10 G2-3 4/30/18 13:22 4/30/18 13:23 09208308 86 18695 8640 -102 40.181238 -85.455842 B25#2-10 The second tab on the above sheet shows the B25 Spectrum. Here are some photos of the B41 Five Carrier Site: A standard B25/B26 NV site with B41 8T8R and typical antenna on the top rack (it could be yours if your market has the spectrum). Record speeds for my older LG V20, a S9/S9+ user should check it out.

Which is why it is good that Sprint reached this deal on Band 13 (700Mhz). The timing of the hurricanes occurred before Sprint decided to put band 41 on every tower. Being now run by the joint venture, the Sprint sites in Puerto Rico may no longer fall under this edict and instead operate more like Shentel. A quick search of ED and BR licenses indicates that Sprint has enough for 20+20+15 over the entire island and then some. Virgin Islands appears to be not so lucky.

We need more help to get a better picture of improvements. From what we can tell there are lots and lots of improvements occurring in the Cleveland market. Various contractor contacts indicate it may be a site every other day. Help can be a simple as installing Signalcheck Pro (about $3) and sending in the logs which records the best signal location per site sector per band carrier. Other markets get half their site information this way just by people sharing their logs as they go about their normal routine. Taking pictures of sites that are new or changes at existing sites helps even more. Take pictures of the site and a couple of pictures around it so we can best locate it. Street information is essential, but a screenshot of Signalcheck Pro showing the latitude longitude for the site or close to it is even better combine with those pictures. Of course the Cleveland Sponsor has more site info (same donation required - same as a cost of your typical lunch is recommended) and the Cleveland Premier covers band 41 LTE 2500/2600 and band 26 LTE 800 in detail for another donation. Donations are used to keep this site running (volunteer staff help also essential). Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

The real issue that remains for Sprint network improvements is cash flow. The reality is Sprint is really just part of a conglomerate, rather than being integrated into Softbank. Thus Softbank will help them on the edges, but it is really up to Sprint to improve themselves. Masa likely told Marcelo to reduce the B41 rollout, after all he admitted he lost heart in Sprint. The current round of upgrades was approved by Masa, but the money was raised by Sprint. Unless this money is in the debt covenants, Softbank could decide to use it elsewhere once again. With data usage doubling every 18 months, refarming could only go so far, thus B41 expansion was the only real choice at this time. It helps when one of your competitors recommends that strategy for Sprint. 5 years ago they did not have the cash.

I would assume so for Dallas. Chicago is Samsung and Los Angeles is Nokia, both of which are likely going through the same approval process at this time.

From Ericsson: "This radio (AIR 6468 B41) is designed for use in LTE mobile telephone system. This radio operates in Band 41, the transmitter and the receiver from 2496 MHz to 2690 MHz. It supports channel bandwidths of 15MHz and 20 MHz. The radio supports modulation types of QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM and 256 QAM. The radio unit supports carrier aggregation. The radio has the ability to be used in a RBS system configured for 3GPP FD-MIMO and beamforming technologies as an Advanced Antenna System. This radio will in normal mode operates at a maximum power of 1.875W per port at the transceiver array boundary (TAB) connector. The radio has 64 TX/RX ports."

From earlier today, another Sprint Next-Gen 10 port 800/2.5 upgrade in progress at a Crown Castle site near Mansfield, Ohio: Several more of these sites were confirmed, along with a 16 port Triband site, making Cleveland the first market in our region with two confirmed Next-Gen scenarios. The contractors said they have done 10 sites like these. This does not include the other tower companies possible work.

In the first article, from RCRwireless, it only mentions that the first Massive MIMO deployments will begin in April. Sprint has 26 days left. One site in each of the first three cities would meet their criteria. Assuming FCC approval, which typically means going through a private testing lab to meet established criteria, they should be able to make this target. To meet our expectations is a totally different matter. 5G can not come soon enough. In reality it will occur one step at a time. At least we know Sprint has raised the money for these projects and Next-Gen work has begun in many places.

Yes. There are many Next-Gen Permits making their way through the Connecticut Siting Council or approved. Besides those mentioned in the footnotes, here are others that I found: 10 port 800/2.5 Antenna: http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/montville/cookrd/sprint/em-sprint-086-180124_filing_cookst.pdf http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/newmilford/boardmanrd/sprint/em-sprint-096-180305_filing_boardmanrd.pdf http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/westhaven/derbyave/sprint/em-sprint-156-180226_filing_derbyave.pdf 16 port Triband Antenna: http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/manchester/hilliardst/sprint/em-sprint-077-171204_filing_hilliardst.pdf http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/manchester/lakest/sprint/em-sprint-077-171214_filing_lakest.pdf This in not an exhaustive list.

Almost 20% of the dual band 2.5/800 permitted sites in the above table are locations that already have 2.5. I would assume the dual band 2.5/800 scenario will be targeted to sites that need more 800MHz capacity whether or not they already have 2.5. The 16 port Triband scenario is strongest with band 41 only sites. This may vary by market. Sprint also has one or more Next-Gen Massive MIMO configurations, but we have not seen the details other than Sprint will have 64T64R*, there was discussion of horizontal and vertical oriented units, and Sprint will deploy thousands of Massive MIMO radios. Once they become certified by the FCC, we will know more about the Massive MIMO units. Given that Sprint has not publicized the 800 MHz enhancements that frequently occur with the known Next-Gen configurations, I feel they will likely include such improvements with the Massive MIMO scenarios. Outside of band 41 only sites getting the 16 port Triband Antennas, Columbus has no Next-Gen permits for its densest areas or its many high capacity sites. Being America's 14th largest city**, and access to virtually all band 41 spectrum to make a transition to 5G quite easy, we are hopeful that we will see Massive MIMO configurations soon. With its far greater density and vertical challenges, New York City likely ranks higher on Sprint's list for Massive MIMO. * https://www.rcrwireless.com/20180305/carriers/sprint-cto-massive-mimo-secret-weapon-tag17 https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/sprint-to-turn-massive-mimo-6-cities-april https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/27/17057502/sprint-5g-lte-antenna-rollout-gigabit-atlanta-chicago-dallas-houston-la-washington-dc https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2018/2/ericsson-a-key-partner-in-sprints-5g-ready-massive-mimo-deployments http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-unveils-5g-ready-massive-mimo-markets.htm https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2018/02/sprint-readies-5g-plans-massive-mimo-deployments-6-cities https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/sprints-bid-to-have-5g-in-2019-using-massive-mimo/ https://www.rcrwireless.com/20170620/news/sprint-and-samsung-set-to-roll-out-massive-mimo-tag4 https://www.nokia.com/en_int/blog/nokia-sprint-trail-blaze-5g-massive-capacity-blistering-speeds https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-cfo-5g-will-allow-sprint-to-finally-change-perceptions-about-its-network ** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population