Conan Kudo

I think you and I are the only ones who think it is possible. What a lot of people don't get is that most "rural" and "suburban" areas typically have a lot of dark or underutilized fiber that is ready to be used, usually along highways, state roads, public buildings, and schools. And if the fiber isn't readily available, alternatives in the form of bonding multiple T3 lines, using coax backhaul, or microwave to a fiber node are all options available for T-Mobile to utilize while it waits for the fiber to reach the cell site. WCDMA is included, A.J. You know very well that T-Mobile is deploying SingleRAN gear that supports GSM, UMTS (HSPA+), and LTE. They're only talking up LTE because that's what everyone is interested in. And while I agree that it is a long time coming, you're being intentionally oblivious about how T-Mobile has been modernizing. T-Mobile's upgrade comes down to these points: Full "rip-and-replace" SingleRAN (multi-mode, multi-band) modernization (just like Sprint!) Elimination of overlay networks for unified SingleRAN networks Backhaul upgrades to fiber by any means necessary If fiber isn't available immediately, other backhaul solutions are used in the mid-term Of course I do. I know how it would be done, and I've talked to a few people about it, and they've confirmed it is definitely doable. A.J, you know that I live in Mississippi, a state that is widely known as the poorest in the union. Despite that, Mississippi is known to have the best state roads/freeways, and highways in the country, and has no less than six fiber backbone systems running through the entire state, and several places are getting a seventh one. Do you know how easy it is to build infrastructure here? It's incredibly easy. There's little to no red tape, there's a lot of support from local governments (even if they can't contribute monetarily), and there's certainly plenty of cell sites to co-locate on. And if a new site needs to be built? Only an informal request to survey for siting is generally required, especially if it's on top of an existing structure. I won't say it is cheap, but it is rather painless compared to California, New York, Ohio, and other places. Mississippi is not unique. This is generally true in >86% of T-Mobile's 2G only footprint. That does make the lack of UMTS more galling, but it also means that it should be possible to get it done relatively efficiently with the sheer amount of resources T-Mobile is pushing into it ($4.6 billion, large numbers of teams, etc.). This is also why Sprint has been rolling out to the small towns first. It's quick, easy, and generally the clusters are smaller. Sprint's problem, though, is that it isn't willing to pressure its backhaul and infrastructure providers to meet and surpass goals. The company allows delay after delay from provides like CenturyLink and Windstream instead of replacing them after the first couple of problems from them, and accepts poor quality work from Ericsson without complaint. T-Mobile has never allowed such tomfoolery with its suppliers. Sprint needs to change this, ASAP.

Sadly, no. It would have been awesome if Sprint released the first TDD CA device, but it hasn't yet...

Only one of them does, the Unite Pro. The regular Unite does not.

I might be being nitpicky here, but this confusion about the 900MHz band is something that annoys me. Why do you think that the Eurasian 900MHz band is unlicensed in the Americas? Or that LTE devices can operate on that band? The US "900MHz band" is 26MHz wide at 902-928MHz. It's unpaired, and jam packed with stuff from cordless telephones to specialty modems for D2D communications. More accurately, its official designation is the "915MHz band." And outside of the US and Canada, you can't use it anymore. Mexico allows it in some places, but most of Latin America has reallocated to the 900MHz cellular band, which is a paired band. The 900MHz cellular band is 2x35MHz wide at 880-915 / 925-960 MHz. The only reason this band exists is because Europe couldn't release the 850MHz band when it developed and launched GSM (ISM services in Europe operate in a variable length 868MHz band spanning from either 863-870 MHz or 865-870 MHz, depending on the country).

According to the Public Interest Statement that Sprint and US Cellular submitted to the FCC: The footnote referenced says the following: That is exactly what happened. So Sprint absolutely "owned" those subscribers. And it churned them out. It's listed as such in its financials as well.

That makes sense. Given Sprint's troubles, though, I would have figured it would have tried harder to retain these customers...

Uhh, no. It was Sprint's choice to release them from their contracts. USCC did transfer the customers to Sprint. It was even in the press release.

Dark Mark

Happy pill

Coffee bean