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pyroscott

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Posts posted by pyroscott

    Best way to offload people to WiFi to relieve some pressure from overloaded networks?

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    I have proposed that wireless carriers create an incentive system to encourage subs to offload heavy data usage to Wi-Fi. Carriers could maintain current unlimited or tiered data options and prices but offer data usage rebates to those subs who would keep their WWAN (e.g. LTE, WiMAX, W-CDMA, EV-DO) data usage below a predetermined threshold. In short, subs would pay their $30/month for data but subs who kept their WWAN usage under, for example, 1 GB would get $5 or $10 knocked off their bills the next month.

     

    I feel very strongly that, because WWAN data is a shared resource, people need to take responsibility for their WWAN usage. Continuous audio/video streaming, heavy downloading/uploading, etc., over WWAN is not okay. And throwing more and more spectrum at the "crunch" is not the answer, as that just leads to even greater band class fragmentation, carrier compartmentalization, and interoperability/competition issues. So, we need to use current spectrum more efficiently, need to utilize heterogenous cellular networks -- a mix of customer and carrier deployed microcells (Wi-Fi and/or LTE, etc.) for indoor high traffic, low mobility environments to take a load off of the current macrocell network.

     

    AJ

     

    That is a great idea. Even though I have never seen a carrier refund money or even be appreciative for not using all of your allocation (I have used about 20% of my monthly minutes for the last several years) with the spectrum crunch looming, they might actually be willing to do something like this. Especially when Verizon and AT&T have so many people on grandfathered unlimited plans.

    Where do you buy your phones?

    in Misc.

    Posted

    The last 3 Sprint phones I bought were in the Sprint corporate store, Craigslist and Best Buy. It was a lot easier to go through the Sprint store. Best buy was cheaper, but when I called customer service about something relating to the phone, they played the blame game and blamed everything on Best Buy.

    Where do you buy your phones?

    in Misc.

    Posted

    There are many different ways to buy a phone. You can go directly from Sprint and sometimes pay a little more, go to an authorized retailer, or buy used. Some make you sign an additional contract with them, in exchange for a deeper discount.

     

    What is your favorite and why?

    Best way to offload people to WiFi to relieve some pressure from overloaded networks?

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    In St. Cloud MN, Sprint's data cells are overloaded making the data speeds horrid. In the residential areas where houses are spread out a little more, the speeds are not as bad, but still not great. If I go near the college, the speeds pretty much stop. I set up my phone to access my home wireless, but a lot of people don't bother setting up their phone or don't know how. Sprint has also installed femtocells certain places to help increase data speeds, but that only helps out a few users. What do you think is the best way to offload data use from the network so it can increase for the users who don't have the option at the moment? Verizon and AT&T have tiered plans that give users an incentive to offloading data whenever possible (they don't get stuck with overages). Is Sprint stuck with dealing with usage that could be offloaded until they dump unlimited? Or is there another way?

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