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2x2 MIMO (the current handset limitation) can do around 80mbps, 4x4 MIMO (probably in tablets soon) can do roughly double, and then 8x8 (really reasonable only in fixed modems) should be able to double it again.

I hope they're planning to utilize 8x8 MIMO for this. That could offer up to 300 Mbps for each 20 MHz carrier per sector.

I highly doubt that this will fly by the DoJ and FCC. It seems pretty clear that four national carriers is the goal, and the benefits of a merger of Sprint and T-Mobile would certainly not outweigh the costs of losing that competition. There isn't much synergy between the two at all. There is literally no band+technology overlap, and their combined spectrum resources would be absurd and extremely tilted towards high frequencies. The only possible case here would be that having a carrier with 80 million customers instead of two with around half each would give more pressure on the big two. I suspect, however, that this would occur more through S+TM price increases rather than ATT/VZ price decreases.

This isn't directed at anyone in particular, but can someone explain why this is? The better propagation characteristics should theoretically only give a 6-9 dBm boost to signal strength. The difference is just over 7 dBm in free space: 20*log(800) - 20*log(1900). Is it because the effect of building/obstruction penetration is that significant?

Sprint has reciprocal roaming agreements with almost every other American CDMA carrier, so wherever a CDMA signal can be 'sniffed' out, Sprint phones get service. Metro is fairly inexpensive for Sprint to use for roaming, so the PRL probably lists Metro's network at a higher priority than Verizon's in your area.

Using my basic knowledge of 1X-RTT, EV-DO, GSM, WCDMA, and LTE, my guess would be for WCDMA to have the best building penetration. Because it is wideband, an unloaded carrier should be usable at lower power levels and signal to noise ratios than technologies with more narrow bandwidths.

I guess at least we'll have roaming now.

I don't care much about the carrier aggregation or OFDMA uplink features, but are NV 1.0 at minimum 4x4 MIMO capable? The spectral efficiency benefits there should be large.

Later this year, likely Q4.

HSPA also suffers a latency hit when dual carrier mode is enabled. The phone stays "parked" on one carrier for power efficiency, but whenever data needs to be transmitted, it acquires an adjacent carrier before starting the transfer. This process takes time, causing initial data transfers to have a high ping.

It's interesting that band 13 is included. Verizon is the only carrier using that band anywhere, right? Is Canada planning on auctioning that spectrum soon?

I thought Sprint was deploying NV to be 4x4 MIMO ready as well?

I modified the current corporate PRL with 3G roaming to add the Utah SID Sprint hides 800 carriers on during testing and loaded it onto my Galaxy S III. It turns out that there's already quite a bit deployed in the city. I've been getting it quite a lot. Having a network practically to myself is pretty nice.

For the 51,000 sites number, is it possible that they're counting HSPA+ and GSM separately and then adding them? Or PCS and AWS?

I don't think it's really that unlikely that the iPhone will be tri-band. Like people have already noted, the iPhone 5 (international/CDMA) already supports the 850 band and the PCS band. Clearwire's 2.6 GHz band aligns well with the 3G-X band many carriers are already using in Canada and Europe. It's not a reach to think they'd support the ESMR-CEL superset band and both TDD and FDD in the 2.6 GHz band.

AT&T is in an even worse place. To start with, they don't even have room for a 10x10 MHz carrier in many places on their primary LTE band, band 17. Then, they have a smattering of AWS that they will be able to use in a few areas for an extra 5x5 or 10x10 capacity carrier. Their only other "virgin" spectrum is WCS, which will give them room for another extra 5x5 or 10x10 capacity carrier. Their best case spectrum availability is 30x30, and I believe their worst is 5x5. To expand, they will need to cannibalize their current 3G network, which is not renown for its quality. Verizon has a minimum of 20x20 that they can deploy, nationwide, with a lower average frequency than AT&T's spectrum.

There's no service commitment with T-Mobile's new strategy. That's the big deal. The phone and the service are paid for in different "buckets". T-Mobile offers optional financing (interest free) to help consumers spread the unsubsidized cost of their devices over a maximum 2 year term. Yes, they still owe the balance on their phone if they decide to terminate service. It's just like how you still have to pay the balance on a car loan or mortgage if you decide to stop driving or start renting again... The functional difference with the new strategy is that consumers who want to bring their own devices can, and they won't owe T-Mobile anything if they stop service. Consumers who don't upgrade very frequently also save money. With the other three carriers, the plans all cost the same no matter what device you have or how you got it. The monthly fees are paying both for service and device subsidies, regardless of each plan holder's use of them.

Try using a callback app. Google will connect internationally from their end, and then they will call your phone from a domestic number to connect.

Thanks. I left work early and am now safe at home. It's been a crazy day.

I work in an office building on Copley Square and heard the explosions. Cell service was never shut down. I missed several calls, but I received text messages over 3G and LTE via Google Voice.

In Boston (02115 zip code), there's been significant "perfect signal" pollution around the Back Bay. A good example is the dark purple spot on the north side of Copley Square. 4G has one bar there. Along Commonwealth Avenue, you can see that some pollution has been overwritten a bit, but you can tell because of the random dark purple spots amongst the weak signal reported by other devices.

Perhaps some statistical filtering could be used to screen bad data? Devices that consistently report perfect signal strength should not have their "measurements" added to the database.

The new iPhone adds support for AWS for HSPA+. The original iPhone 5 on AT&T will work on T-Mobile's LTE network, since, as you said, it already supports AWS for LTE. The drawback with using the original iPhone is that HSPA will only be available in places where T-Mobile has deployed it on PCS, and only in single carrier (21 mbps) mode.

I really wish Sprint used a more realistic service threshold on its service maps. Online, the Back Bay is completely covered, but in actuality, there's really only marginally usable service along the boundaries of the neighborhood.

I just want T-Mobile to get some cheap stand-alone mobile broadband plans. If I could pay $20 and get 2 GB that I could use over a 30 day period, I wouldn't think twice to use that with my Nexus 7 occasionally.