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http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/24/verizon-releases-q4-results-sees-jump-in-revenue-broadband-sub/ If you see the 4Q11 press release linked above, they had 92.2 million RETAIL connections and 108.7 million TOTAL wireless connections at the end of 2011. The 93 million number is RETAIL customers.

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but you won't have Sprint 4G LTE in some areas for a while-- Kansas City maybe by September, other areas maybe a year or more. Regardless, the LTE EVO does do SVDO, so you can talk and surf on 3G with it.

I wish the authors of the article had been more precise. They have 93 million RETAIL customers. Their total wireless customer count was 108 million at the end of the year. They should have between 109 - 110 million TOTAL customers now (including wholesale).

You're assuming the next leap in communication requires electromagnetic fields to communicate. I think we'll move beyond that. Consider quantum entanglement (Einstein's "spooky action at a distance") for the next phase of communications. You would have limitless range communication at faster than the speed of light (that one is still being debated), bandwidth only limited by the number of fermion particles used, and a device that cannot be cloned or eavesdropped upon unless you had a particle accelerator handy. We're still in our infancy understanding these concepts and the science behind this, but no more so than we were a century ago when Tesla invented radio (credit often falsely given to Marconi) using EM waves. There are many possibilities out there-- we never know what may be next! Besides, I think you misunderstood the gist of my message-- I'm all in favor of competition-- it does make things (generally) better for the consumer, and the struggle of companies against one another gives us more value and typically better service. I was pointing out that some consipracy theorists on this thread have suggested that Verizon is somehow colluding with AT&T to shutout everyone else. I'm simply pointing out that those two compete, not cooperate. AT&T is the one company Verizon considers a threat and vice-versa. If both companies were smart, they'd stay wary of Sprint and T-Mobile since the underdogs can sweep the rug out from underneath their competetors if they're underestimated.

Perhaps so-- Government needs to stay out of it and let the market decide. Once a monopoly gets too comfortable, an innovator with a better product and /or price will come forth-- necessity is the mother of invention... and when it does, the customers quickly vote with their wallets. Always have faith in the consumer-- as long as he is well-informed!

I have contacts in Verizon and know they want to go to VoLTE and shutdown CDMA... they're already planning VoLTE feature phones. The problem is that feature phones (smaller than 4" in one dimension) are too small to use 750 LTE due to the antenna spacing requirements. They've been talking up AWS for VoLTE and future use. They already have 20 MHz east of the Mississippi- the whole cable co deal is to secure 20 MHz west of the Mississippi as well where their AWS holdings are sparse. I think all along they've planned to sell the excess-- the way they bid on the AWS trying to only get that big block shows you that. Long term, they will end up converting their PCS and probably even cellular 850 spectrum to LTE as well-- and the PCS spectrum LTE would allow small handsets just like the AWS would. I expect their fallback if the AWS plan falls through is to use PCS for this plan rather than AWS. Only time will tell what the future holds-- but I doubt they'll initiate any AWS LTE plans until they secure a nationwide spectrum holding there. As far as the "duopoly"... Verizon's only plans for AT&T are probably to try to put them out of the wireless business if they can as any company should aim to do with its competitors-- they don't cooperate-- they compete! If they don't try to put each other out of business, they're not doing their jobs well, and will probably regret it in the long run.

Hey man-- you know Visalia gets LTE from Verizon turned on tomorrow! They have committed to upgrade their entire 3G nationwide footprint and have it completed by the end of 2013-- they plan on VoLTE starting up this year and they are moving to phase out CDMA starting in late 2014.

Of course not!

Buying out versus building up is just another decision that has its pros and cons. One might think buying up is quicker and easier, but it does have pitfalls when you have to assume that company's debt and issues (ala Sprint-Nextel merger). Our market is a prime example of buying out done right AND wrong... Verizon in this market wasn't a major player until they bought Alltel and successfully integrated their network into VZW's-- now they dominate this market-- the buyout was a great success for them. On the flipside, Sprint bought out Gulf Coast Wireless here in 2005 and left the network untouched. As a result, myself and just about everyone I know that used to have and love Sprint here are now on VZW (and some have even subjected themselves to AT&T). This buyout did NOT go well.

Yeah-- I think San Antonio is like that too-- a few markets that are PCS-only. But who knows what will end up happening in this game?!?

As I wrote somewhere on here before, I don't believe carrier aggregation between Sprint and Clear will ever work because they use two different subnets & IP gateways. LTE Advanced could easily aggregate Sprint's various LTE carriers on PCS (and evenually ESMR) since they all come from the same gateway and IP network / subnet; however, since Clear has an independent network with separate backhaul gateways, etc., you couldn't aggregate that carrier with your other-- your phone could use EITHER Clearwire's LTE OR Sprint's. They have separate IP networks entirely.

TI is planning their OMAP 5 line with this core, and Sammy and Moto have been fans of TI SoCs of late. I would expect successors to the current RAZR / Bionic / Photon / Droid 4 line from Moto and the next Galaxy line (3 or 4) to use one of these bad boys, probably 3-4Q12-- just before the Mayan calendar ends it for us all.

Verizon is doing a nationwide 10x10 buildout in their upper C block 700 MHz for LTE. I've heard from a couple of sources that they were (are) planning to do a 10x10 LTE in AWS, but they're still negotiating for the needed spectrum west of the Mississippi. They want to do this for VoLTE-only flip phones with VoLTE test markets starting up this October. The AWS antennas will make for a much smaller device versus 700. Their fallback is to setup LTE in PCS. In almost every market (Dallas being one notable exception), they run most of their 1x and 3G carriers in their Cellular 850 spectrum, so they should be able to pull this off if they have to. If so, Sprint and Verizon may be able to continue their national reciprocal roaming agreements (even with LTE!). Verizon is required to maintain Alltel's roaming agreement terms with Sprint until 2016 either way, but there may be various "outs" from those requirements that came with the Alltel acquisition.

It's the ratio of the carrier energy from the total received energy on the channel. The more negative it is, the more carrier pollution or noise you're getting. Typically, when it falls below -11 dB, you start having real issues with calls. You should see -7 dB or higher for good signal quality. If it gets below -14 or so, you'll probably lose the call or switch to another sector, which is no big deal on CDMA, but likely would mean a dropped call on GSM.

I know the signal quality is good... but comparing it to Verizon's cellular 850 signal-- I can get -50 to -60 easily in unloaded sectors within a mile of the tower. I would expect a stronger overall signal closer to the tower. But yeah, anything over -7 dB for Ec/Io is good.

But the work areas are not necessarily congruent for A-L & Ericsson relative to working with other carriers. For example, Ericsson is planned to do NV upgrades for Sprint in Baton Rouge; however, last summer, A-L put the LTE up for Verizon in this market.

Yeah-- or those stupid Lt. Uhura earpieces...

I appreciate the SVDO and SVLTE features we now enjoy, but I have to wonder how you can surf much with the phone against your face? I always thought this was a pretty dumb, mostly useless feature.

Yep-- the Viper has SVDO like the Rezound and Thunderbolt-- and apparently, the LTE EVO as well! All LTE phones do SVLTE just like WiMax phones did voice with WiMax (I guess-- never witnessed WiMax in operation).

Looking at this ESMR link in California and a new one in Maryland, it appears that both are using the Utah SID (22429). Maybe they haven't yet configured the channels properly or just don't know how to configure them (equally likely). The testing PRL was designed to link onto your native PRL-defined EVDO (3G) data carrier when it found the ESMR 1x carrier for your area; however, using this Utah SID, the PRL would try to lock onto Utah's Ev carrier assignments, which are unlikely to work in most of the country. To compensate for this problem, I have revised the record relative to the Utah PRL adding a wildcard EV scan so that it should let you have 3G in just about every area of the country even if Sprint has assigned the wrong SID for ESMR in your area. The new version will be ready very soon. Please keep in mind that it constantly seeks ESMR carriers even if you're in great coverage on your PCS native carriers-- you will see battery usage increase with this PRL!

Don't-- it's insidious! Part of the reason I still run 35 miles a week.

SO 33 is 1xRTT-- your phone must not support RC11/RC8 (1xAdvanced). At least it should work fine. I'm a little disappointed with the -84 dBm signal... you're either a good 2 miles from that tower or there's alot of downtilt (as I would expect in a dense urban environment). In Maryland, your SID should be 22435. Locking onto the SID you have, I would expect your 3G (EVDO) to be lost since I'm sure the ACQ records don't match! I can remod the PRL to use the 22429 SID in your area with its native EV carriers. 22429 should be Salt Lake City market.

It's a shame iPhones don't use Gorilla Glass...

The EVO 4G used gorilla glass. Check it out: http://www.corninggo...ts-with-gorilla Most HTC, Motorolas and a few Samsungs use Gorilla Glass. It's not indestructible, however. Sand crystals, emory, and a few other materials can scratch it, and if it lands just right, it will break. All phones use some form of chemically hardened glass these days, but if it uses Corning Gorilla Glass, it's listed on the website. My MAXX has Gorilla Glass and I don't use a screen protector or a case at all. I'm tempted to change that not for protection but because the phone is too thin!

They don't have to "build out" EVDO ESMR... the SDR radios with NV on ESMR can be loaded with EVDO, 1xA, or LTE remotely. In a traditional network build, it would be a waste to do EVDO for a couple of years, but with NV and software defined radios, there is far less investment in making the changes.