lordsutch

If 1X 800 is in testing mode on the SID 22429, your calls may be rejected since you're not supposed to be able to access 800 on that SID with a normal PRL. I had a similar problem here that went away when I went back to using a normal PRL that ignores that SID.

Even the Georgia Dome free WiFi network was creaking a couple of weeks ago when I was there for the Ole Miss-Boise State game. SMS seemed to be working OK on Sprint but data was hit-or-miss, no matter the LTE band (and I saw band 25, band 26, and Clear-legacy band 41 at various points).

Is there a map of the area showing these markets? I'm curious on the Montgomery market...exactly how far north that may go.

Here is the FCC's CMA map: http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/data/maps/CMA.pdf

It's a Futurama reference...

All glory to the Hypnotoad.

Since Public Service Wireless didn't build out for voice coverage, I wonder what their coverage is like.  There doesn't seem to be a coverage map on their site.

In this document is a map (Exhibit I) that appears to be what they claim to be building out, at least in Georgia, but there's no indication of what's actually currently active: http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7021901359. I could try pulling the SIM (or putting a T-Mobile SIM in) with my Nexus 5 and driving around a bit to see what shows up on the engineering screen; I might do that over the weekend if I get bored.

See also: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/press-releases/public-service-wireless-deploy-commercial-mobile-broadband-network-throughout-centr-0

Public Service Wireless (http://www.psdatawireless.com/) should at least help with some of the rural Georgia ex-Alltel areas, although interestingly enough they seem to be a data-only provider; they have no voice network at all, although they do offer VoIP over LTE.

They appear to currently be operating their service on 10x10 AWS (1710-1720/2110-2120), but they also have 6x6 700 (mostly 710-716/740-746, a couple on 704-710/734-740), in the following CMAs.

Both AWS and 700: 153 (Columbus, GA/Phenix City, AL), 261 (Albany, GA), 376 (Georgia 6/Spalding County - 12x12 700), 379 (Georgia 9/Marion County)

700-only markets: 139 (Montgomery, AL)

AWS-only markets: 138 (Macon/Warner Robins, GA), 314 (Alabama 8/Lee County), 375 (Georgia 5/Haralson County)

They also have EBS(!) in 17 west central Georgia counties, pretty much all rural (biggest city is probably Americus).

Who/whom/whose can refer to groups, including companies, in standard English. I don't see a problem. For example, we say "who is the best soccer team in MLS?" not "which is the best soccer team in MLS?"

A completely inanimate object might not take who or whom, but Sprint (like Soylent Green) is made of people.

I dunno about all this, but call me when we can actually change to this plan (or $60 unlimited) online. Which, knowing Sprint, will be a few weeks before they roll out their next postpaid brainwave... 

I think the second rack from the top is an example of Clear protection site equipment (it's the only one with one antenna per sector); it looks like the other Huawei pictures in this thread, but I can't tell definitively. No evidence of TD-LTE live here. (This is the Clear protection site on Russell Parkway in Warner Robins, Georgia.)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lordsutch/14913366340/in/photostream/

After further study I don't think it's the WiMax protection site they're working on because that entire bottom rack is new since the Streetview image from two years ago (when presumably the protection site was already installed). Top rack is surely T-Mobile since the tower was built by Powertel. I think that the Clear gear is on the second tier from the top but I don't know enough to tell. I'll take my DSLR with me and try to get some better pictures this week.

Edit: Better photo here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lordsutch/14913366340/

Hopefully that was just an oversight that a software update can fix.

That's just the nature of Sprint phones in roaming coverage: they aggressively hunt for a native signal to avoid roaming. It's designed that way.

You should be able to put the phone in Sprint Only mode and avoid all the roaming toggles. Only drawback is outside airplane mode the phone will eat battery trying to get back on Sprint...

Guys on the tower at the Clear protection site in Warner Robins. Only had my phone with me so these aren't the best pictures; looks like they're adding antennas on the lowest tier of the site.

Not even sure if it's the Clear one being worked on; maybe someone with better eyes can tell.

Full photo at Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/oFBWnq

Why did the Canadians go with FDD-LTE instead of TDD-LTE scheme for those frequencies?

Band 7 FDD is what's being deployed already in Europe and TD-LTE was relatively late in development; until China Mobile wanted it, I don't think anyone really planned to deploy TD-LTE, and even then it was a lagging technology.

Canada committed to FDD before it was clear (no pun intended) that LTE was going to win out over WiMax in the U.S. on the 2600 MHz band, which is unpaired spectrum here (effectively forcing Clearwire to go with TD-LTE once WiMax proved to be a dead end). If they had it to do over again, maybe they'd go with band 41 TD instead, but it's too late now.

I think the big question going forward is whether or not CCA/RRPP roaming will count against the cap regardless of technology. Such an idea is not unprecedented in the industry, after all; in the olden days before their buyouts and buildouts, Verizon made a distinction between "extended network" (roaming but without a cap) and true roaming (maybe on some plans they still do).

I could see the argument of "let's not give money away to ex-Alltel AT&T and Verizon"; the argument "let's try to make even more money off nTelos and C Spire customers' roaming than we already do by cutting Sprint roaming onto them" is rather less compelling to me, even if the dollar figures are the same, since $1 in forgone money from C Spire and $1 out to Verizon are both $1 of opportunity cost, after all.

It's not a huge issue from where I sit, yet, but a lot of Sprint customers have essentially taken the idea that they don't have to be paranoid about roaming (just like unlimited data allows users not to be paranoid about doing an app update away from wifi) to be an advantage over the Other Guys. Maybe lower pricing will offset some of that but at least on planet my phone bill that lower pricing isn't there yet.* Particularly when Our Disruptive Friends are putting together plans that make people not have to worry (throttling rather than overages; international data roaming that will at least cover your basic needs) it's somewhat troubling Sprint seems to be moving in the direction of VZW-style nickel-and-diming without yet having a ubiquitous network that will allow people to tolerate that.

* I could go with 2 lines of $60 unlimited and come out about $10 ahead of where I am now, but I'd be losing subsidized upgrades in the future along with 2/3 of my roaming data allowance; since I work 2-3 days a month in ex-Alltel and VZW land in an office with deeply flaky WiFi, even crappy 1X roaming data beats no data at all.

Seems like they're still using the Framily characters without using the Framily plan branding; they did that before with the HTC One Harmon/Kardon edition, for example.

multipost. When does alltels agreement run out?

AT&T is obliged to keep 1X and EVDO active through June 30, 2015. Whether that's the same day Alltel's roaming agreements with Sprint and others expire is anyone's guess, but I wouldn't expect AT&T to keep the sites live either way.

Right, I think IamMrFamous07 meant that those carriers were examples of Sprint affiliates/MVNOs/divisions that were the exceptions to the general rule of "port out and you can port back in as a new customer in a month."

I was having a discussion on Twitter with some people that you may or may not recognize about propagation characteristics of LTE on Sprint and T-Mobile. I would love for some of the more "technically inclined" folks to comment on this or at least validate it a bit further as I'm not a bit more technically challenged in this subject. https://twitter.com/Det_Conan_Kudo/status/503260545009876992

Honestly I haven't seen substantially better propagation on T-Mobile LTE in band 4 and Sprint LTE in band 25 around these parts, CDMA power limits or no. Band 26 propagation around here is no better than band 25 (unlike in the Atlanta market, where I can tell a big improvement compared to band 25 only coverage in areas I mapped before), but I don't think Ericsson has calibrated around here yet since there are still numerous nearby 1900-only sites in the Georgia market to upgrade first.

Interesting. Just out of curiosity, what is the typical bandwidth and chip rate for GPS?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System#Message_format

L1 and L2 signal bit rate is 50 bits/sec, encoded with a CDMA chip rate of ~10.23 million chips/sec. The bandwidth is apparently about 30 MHz centered on the L1 center frequency of 1575.42 MHz, with most of the C/A code's energy at the center while the P (legacy military) code is more spread out.

I do not like the direction this industry is headed. If oligopoly is the inevitable end result, there is less and less reason not to nationalize the entire infrastructure, then let providers sell service over the top.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will nationalize the wireless infrastructure; the only times the feds have stepped in to nationalize an industry in American history was when the industry was failing and the industry's leaders were begging for a bailout (see Amtrak, which bailed out the railroads' money-losing passenger operations, or the GM and Chrysler bailout). Even if the market gets down to 3-4 national players and few others, nationalization just isn't going to happen.

It hasn't even happened in Europe, where public and government support for owning infrastructure tends to be much higher. Instead, regulation by countries and the EU (along with more vigorous competition due to the lack of any meaningful GSM/CDMA split, and greater population density making limited rural coverage less of a handicap for new entrants) have forced carriers to implement more consumer-friendly policies like price caps on usage and roaming; that seems to be the more likely direction of the U.S. market with everyone effectively on LTE within the next 4-6 years.

Would those areas work better with 800 1x and LTE?

I don't know if 800 LTE would improve things terribly (although in a lot of Georgia the GMOs don't even have any LTE active, probably due to backhaul), but 800 1X would at least get you basic fill-in service further into the rural areas along I-16 and I-75.

To identify one local example, Cochran GA (pop around 5k, with around 3k college students) is at the verge of Sprint 1900 coverage due to GMOs on I-16 and in Hawkinsville, leading to signal bouncing between roaming on Alltel and Verizon and native within town, but would probably have solid outdoor 800 coverage even with the existing sites.

Of course what Sprint really should do in Cochran is deploy NV on the ex-Nextel site on the bypass. I'm pretty sure the old Nextel equipment is still sitting up on that tower; I hope at least they switched off the power...

I have to say I've never experienced anything good on EDGE or GPRS with T-Mobile, but I've not traveled as widely as Robert with T-Mobile (mostly in the southeast). Certainly I've found that even roaming 1X with Verizon or ex-Alltel around here delivers a better experience.

All that said there are places where Sprint is lagging T-Mobile and, as pointed out elsewhere, Sprint is going to lose significant EVDO roaming in the southeast when AT&T inevitably switches off CDMA next year in its former Alltel markets (they'd rather lose roaming revenue than help Sprint make its maps prettier) and maybe the equation will change a bit if Sprint doesn't take advantage of ex-Nextel sites and accelerate 800 deployment on GMOs to improve rural coverage. Waiting around for SouthernLINC to come through in 2017 isn't going to cut it.

Well, here is a fundraising question. Does Ole Miss sell beer inside the stadium?

No. Technically the stadium is in the unincorporated part of Lafayette County, which is dry; even if SEC rules allowed alcohol sales, the university couldn't sell alcohol without a change in state law or annexation by the city of Oxford (the latter is unlikely because the city doesn't want several thousand potential additional voters who could influence a city council election).

In practice... hard liquor is substantially easier to find in the stadium than a Mississippi State fan who is only "ringing responsibly" during the Egg Bowl. But the school only makes money off the soda mixer.

Plus if there's a population of people who will shell out $5 for internet access, it's in the Vaught. The only poor people in the stadium are the players...

Considering how long people have had some REALLY damn old plans here I would guess you are fine for quite a while.

I'm pretty sure they don't kick people off old plans. I have a friend with a feature phone who I think has been on the same $35/month plan (old enough that I think it doesn't even include roaming!) for over a decade, and he upgraded on contract last year.

Anyway, this may be the plan I finally need to move off my Everything Data Share 1500 and save money... assuming I can find a cheap plan on a feature phone for my other line of service.