4ringsnbr

Yeah ur completely right...too late in the evening here and i was thinking of extreme future at best. LOL.

 

Dunno why i was thinking/treating the antennae part as being as simple as a metal strip in a sense and it being controlled completely by the software flashed...doah

 

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

I'm always hopeful of the multipurpose adaptable handset that is polymemetic ala T1000 and the TX... but by then we'll all be in hiding from the machines that have taken over the planet...

Really need to get this to where its all software controlled in the future....least for apples sake...walk in and say you want sprint so they pull out a blank iPhone and run an RUU to flash the carrier specific firmware and ur gtg...lol

 

Hell then they could patent it. Haha

 

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The problem as we've discussed before is that the software has nothing to do with it. The problem is the analog RF IC preamp/LNA & Diplexer / Filter. We still don't know how to make these totally adjustable parts. The SDR (software-defined radios) that Sprint will use still have analog IC electronics that make the transmitter work-- the software part simply lets them load (flash) an LTE or CDMA 1xA or CDMA EVDO Rev. B/A/0 carrier on whichever transmitter that is built into the device. The software and baseband processor are easy-- we're already there. Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone who has designed an analog diplexer/LNA/filter that is totally programmable, software-adjustable, and can meet the tight emission standards of the various FCC standards (90S/24E/22H) necessary to be approved for use.

I saw something on Friday that makes me believe they will run a 3x3 LTE carrier on SMR 800 in markets where they conflict with SouthernLINC. Like in Atlanta. But, I want to be clear, this is not confirmed yet. Stay tuned.

 

Robert

That would be a bad idea-- in that space, they can run a 2x EVDO carrier setup for better performance. Also, EVDO is approved for use in ESMR and has about a dozen handsets in the field that support it. LTE is not yet approved in ESMR and there are no devices presently planned to support LTE in ESMR. I would think that IF they ever do any LTE in ESMR it will be after 2013 and it will be a 5x5 alongside a 1xA long after iDEN is gone. Between now and then, the 1xA is there and if they have enough holes from iDEN decommissioning, EV carriers can make good use of that space. Based upon VZW's experience, Sprint shouldn't expect more than 5-8% LTE penetration per year initially. This means the majority of the handsets in use as late as the end of 2016 will still be 3G EVDO only, but will support it in PCS and ESMR. Time will tell.

I'd be really surprised if the iPhone 5 will do LTE in PCS anyway. They already have to make two different versions in LTE: one for AT&T and one for Verizon since they can't make both bands work in a single device due the filtering issues. The third version would be similar to the "world phone" iPhone 4s they have today except it'll probably also support AWS to let T-Mobile join the party. I would also think the two LTE versions (AT&T and Verizon) will also do LTE in AWS, since AT&T will have to use AWS from the get-go and Verizon will likely be cranking up their AWS LTE with the phase 3 LTE rollouts early next year as they finish their whole footprint.

Thanks for the explanation there. Is 1xA still efficient in small MHz sections if Sprint wanted to take 10 or 20 MHz from their other PCS block holdings and convert those to LTE later?

I think that's the plan-- start with a 5x5 in PCS G-block and slowly add more LTE carriers in PCS as you can transfer folks from EVDO there. That's also one of the reasons they're likely to run EVDO in ESMR-- it is more efficient than LTE in smaller spectrum slots. Sprint could pretty easily run a 10x10 LTE PCS carrier in addition to their G-block PCS carrier if they need more bandwidth, especially if 80+% of the Sprint handsets can use 3G/EVDO in ESMR (like they can today).

This guy's analysis was strictly based upon a 4G LTE spectrum point-of-view with the assumption that the iPhone 5 will be at a disadvantage on Sprint. It remains to be seen what the new iPhone will support. Based upon the new iPad, we could assume they'll make 3 versions of the iPhone5: one version for AT&T/regional lower 700 LTE + AWS LTE, a second version for Verizon upper 700 LTE + AWS LTE, and a third version that is GSM/GPRS/HSPA/CDMA/EVDO 850/AWS/PCS for everyone. I don't know how many versions Apple will want to keep track of, and they've given no indication of supporting ESMR 800 MHz band in any way whatsoever. I would think the iPhone is a non-issue.

If I were sounding stock alarms for Sprint, it would be due to their high debt level (over $22 billion now) plus the $15+ billion Apple obligations and $5-6 billion unfunded NV future costs over the next few years. Sprint does have a rough road ahead, and any significant churn, loss of subscribers / revenue, or future loan / bond sale disruptions will really hurt them.

Isn't the whole goal of NV to offload as many people as possible to the LTE 4G network? I sure thought so with VoLTE being developed and trialed around the US and the World. Isn't VoLTE a more efficient use for spectrum?

Not exactly...

with the 12.2 AMR vocoder used, VoLTE is about 1.7x as efficient as 1xRTT.

1xAdvanced WITHOUT receive diversity in the handset is 3x as efficient as 1xRTT (according to Qualcomm)

1xAdvanced WITH receive diversity in the handset is 4x as efficient as 1xRTT (according to Qualcomm)

Doing the math, this means that 1xA is 76% - 135% MORE efficient than VoLTE with current vocoders.

However, this analysis assumes a 1.4 or 3 MHz LTE carrier, which aren't as efficient as 1x or EVDO. Only at a 5x5 or larger configuration can LTE meet or beat 1x / EVDO spectral efficiency at a UE category 3 design.

How come wireless companies like AT&T and T-Mobile does not charge the Administrative Charge, but they do charge the Regulatory Charge when Sprint and Verizon charges for both?

The administrative charge is a corporate processing fee not a tax... $1.50 per line for Sprint. Verizon charges $0.99 per line, but VZW's regulatory charge is only $0.16 per line. The regulatory charge is a fee related to handling FCC paperwork and governmental tax filings.

What?

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I think he meant that Metro was maxing out their spectrum in most of their markets.

Evdo A

6asu -101dBm

Ping 1161ms

Download 113kbps

Upload 295kbps

 

No 4g- Sad panda

That's actually a decent speed for that horrible signal-- you're at the edge of reception there.

Had to check out the famous Coursey and Sherwood tower. Nice speeds for 11pm...yes..PM

That's where my office is-- and that speed is 11x faster than what you get during the workday (for the past 2 years). That's why I'm on big red now-- my speeds are around 40 mbps... 600x faster!

You must've been on channel 100. Channel 75 & 175 are faster, but not by much. If they'd learn how to make the pilot redirect your channel assignment on EVDO like Verizon does, it would probably help tremendously.

Just think of how poorly it would perform if I hadn't opened more than a dozen trouble tickets on that tower in the past two years... and they have done 2 EV carrier and 2 "data speed upgrades" on the tower since March 2011.

I am not sure I see the point of posting anecdotal outages. You could draw no reliable conclusions from such observations.

Exactly, the daily outage reports from Tampa-area Sprint users would lead most to believe that its network is the worst one. Truth is, all networks have their issues from time-to-time and place-to-place.

One thing nice about absolutely no one having sprint in this area of town since coverage is so poor here...the tower is empty. If I go 2 miles up the road I go to roaming.

Just think how well Sprint's network will perform here as more and more users leave! If they don't do something fast, the areas where they have poor data performance are going to resolve themselves-- and not to Sprint's advantage.

My Verizon friend told me that they're averaging almost 5000 ports PER DAY from Sprint (for the whole country). I don't know how accurate that is since he is a network performance engineer and not in the sales/transfers group, but it does make you think.

I'm still a lil behind on the exact specific's of LTE-Advanced but what i gather is it allows operators to use parts of spectrum that are not next to each other to deliver service, while also allowing to cram more bits into each hertz of spectrum, so it helps with capacity in a sense. I think I read something about how it also improves on handoffs b/w networks...

 

why would we care much about aggregating with clears 2.5GHz LTE? If handoffs are seamless and improved then would Clear being its own IP network still be much of an issue?

You have to understand how the internet and IP networks work. When your phone is on the internet through WiFi, for example, it is assigned an IP address through your router-- that tells the network packets from the internet how to find you basically. When you switch over to 3G or 4G, your phone's IP address changes because the internet has to use a different route to find you (a different gateway and subnet). All LTE-A carrier aggregation does is combine numerous frequencies between your phone and the tower, but the internet's link to the tower controller must be the same route / path (subnet). If you try to aggregate a carrier channel from a different subnet or gateway, your phone would have to have two separate IP addresses to function since the address is a member of a subnet. If you aggregate Sprint's two frequencies, they all connect to the same internet gateway so there is no issue-- your phone has a single IP address and multiple air links to the tower for faster speeds. You CANNOT link to another gateway without changing IP addresses because your gateway (path to the actual internet) has changed... at that point, you can use one gateway OR the other, never BOTH. Since Clear's network is totally separate, the subnet, gateway, etc. are all different-- the link from the tower to the internet is different-- even if Clear shared the tower with Sprint, its base station is on a different subnet.

 

Sprint will roll out LTE-Advanced using 800MHz SMR, PCS 1900MHz and Clearwire's 2.5GHz spectrum.

 

I know alot of the suits at Sprint have promised this, but without major changes, there's no way the 2.5 GHz clearwire network will ever be included in any LTE-A carrier aggregation scheme. Sprint's ESMR LTE (if it is ever approved for use) and PCS LTE will use the same eNodeB gateways, IP subnets, and routing. Clearwire's LTE will use their gateways, a different IP subnet and network routing. Unless Sprint buys Clearwire and unifies their IP network with Sprint's, you'll never be able to use aggregated links on two SEPARATE IP networks-- how would the data ever get to your phone? You'd have to have a separate IP stack (with different IP addresses and subnet masks) and do aggregation of some kind in software in the phone, which would mean that separate IP sockets would have to be established in each network-- it wouldn't work. LTE-A aggregation would work with PCS and ESMR (if it ever happens).

thats weak....lol

 

though less Sprint comes back with a Premier program of some kind in the future you possibly wont miss crap as you'd be able to transfer back over here once its all better and NV is rolled out fully...Wife gets a nice discount with VZ though I'm still holding onto my Sprint account given its tenure and "hope" that they come out with some kind of loyalty program again...

I doubt I'll ever transfer back-- the price difference is negligible and VZW's coverage blows Sprint's away here (and especially in Mississippi...) Also, when I consider it took them 7.5 months to perform the first carrier upgrade here after approval and another 5 months to add backhaul for it to actually work, their neglect of this market makes me very skeptical of any future they have here. Maybe some markets they're a smart option, but not in Louisiana. Sprint sees nothing but a huge void between Houston and Atlanta and I doubt they'll ever change that perspective.

 

can't wait for backhaul!

Neither could I... hence the move to big red after 10 years on Sprint... it's worth an extra few bucks a month to be able to use the phone away from wifi and not force roaming on verizon.

Looks like according to the network upgrade site they removed the future upgrade to fix the tower that covers the entire downtown area and all the state office buildings.

 

This tower is working great, right!? Time to fire off some emails and get some credits on my bill.

 

Love that ping!

 

Wonder how well the Qchat PTT service works with that ping? This, sadly, is typical of Sprint's 3G speed in Greater Baton Rouge for the past 22 months....

BTW, Verizon still offers anymobile anytime and unlimited texting in BR...

The CDMA baseband will have to be different on the Sprint model if it will support 1xAdvanced. The VIA chip in the VZW version won't do 1xA. That's a good thing though-- there is nothing better than a Qualcomm baseband!

Looks like it supports LTE 1900 and CDMA/EVDO 800/850/1900. Basically just like the LG Viper that was approved 2 months ago, but the GNex will also do EVDO in ESMR that the Viper had to give up for LTE. Guess the 4" screen in the Viper made the form factor too small to support 4 bands in Rx diversity.

Love LTE... that's all I can say...

This is during lunch hour where Sprint runs under 10 kbps frequently due to the density of the office buildings here- LTE has so much better scalability-- I think all networks will be much better.

I doubt they'll ever be able to make a single device that will do all the 700 MHz band and there is no way to combine it all into a single band. Band classes 12 & 17 (lower 700 band) used by regionals and AT&T has an offset of 30 MHz (downlink channels are 30 MHz higher than the uplinks). Band class 13 (upper 700 band) used by Verizon has an offset of -31 MHz (downlink channels are 31 MHz LOWER than the uplinks). The RF electronics (diplexers / filters) would be far too complex to do in a single device with present technology. Maybe in a few years someone can design a filter and duplexer circuit that would work without causing interference and cross-operability issues.

I'm growing tired of reminding people of this: the chip's support of the bands is not an issue. The present Qualcomm MDM9600 modem (in the HTC Thunderbolt & Rezound along with numerous AT&T devices and the upcoming iPad3) used for LTE does Verizon 700, AT&T 700, and will work in PCS, AWS, and all defined LTE bands. The problem is the RF electronics (preamps, diplexers, filters) and antennas. There is not physical room to support more than 1 or 2 LTE bands on a phone that will fit into your pocket. The only phones approved with more than a single LTE band class are the upcoming AT&T phones approved for 700 and AWS, and the reason they're approved is because they only have to support 2 bands of GSM/GPRS/HSPA. So 4 bands total.

So, now I am curious... I thought that Sprint still had a large portion of the US internet backbone? I could have read an article from someone who was an idiot, but I thought that the Embarq spin-off was just the home phone/long distance service. Not to mention I still think it was a good move because home phones will become even more irrelevant in the coming years, and they made a bet on the future. Sadly, they made a lot of bad decisions managing the company and are only now trying to fix their problems, but I'm excited for what the future might bring.

It did have a large part of the backbone but now runs on CenturyLink (the old Embarq company that Sprint foolishly spun off). CenturyLink now supplies most of Sprint's backhaul and is making money hand-over-fist... it was a very bad idea to spin off the entire landline business. The long distance resell / local landline business would've been fine to dump, but they shouldn't have dumped the internet mainline backbone portion of the company along with it. Embarq was the consumer landline company that Sprint rightly didn't want AND the backbone company that they desperately need today. CenturyLInk has been making more money than Sprint has been losing lately!

I just pulled 743k down and 201k up on 181ms ping with 4 out of 6 bars of service in Visalia. I never get that high of speeds here, even at night. Must be a new T1 upgrade in the area.

It's Sunday morning man-- everyone is in church!