Volaris

Now that 4x4 MIMO phones are coming to the market, will these phones also double peak speeds on Sprint's 8T8R band 41 locations? It'd be cool if Sprint can get 4x4 MIMO on band 25/26, too. It could potentially boost capacity from the current ~37 Mbps for 5MHz to ~74 Mbps, or even up to ~99 Mbps with 256 QAM's 33% efficiency gain. T-Mobile is sticking two 4x4 MIMO LTE bands (2 and 4) in one panel, so I'm hoping there's a possibility that Sprint can stick 4x4 MIMO band 25/26 in one panel to allow quick swap upgrades on congested towers where new towers or small cells may not be the best fit. Might even be cheaper since this would just be a one time equipment upgrade cost vs never-ending lease for a new small cell or tower.

Various reasons. Main reason is for the network. You get unlimited video as long as you keep BingeOn on. That throttles your video quality to 480p (DVD) quality. That's around 1000-1500kbps I believe. Compare that with HD. 720p needs around 3Mbps and 1080p around 5Mbps. They've mentioned they've seen a reduction in bandwidth (10%? if my memory is right) after turning on BingeOn. To put it simply, people only have limited time to watch videos. If they have unlimited video, their data usage isn't going to increase much overtime. That's because most data usage growth is due to video, so by throttling video, you can somewhat control data usage growth. I think the benefit of BingeOn will be even greater once they have 4x4 MIMO (because data growth won't be as high, which should leave more network capacity open for other stuff). Side note: Sprint used to throttle/compress video to 600kbps in the past. I personally had no problem with it since it saved me a ton of data. Was 360p quality. They got rid of it after people complained a year or two ago, so Marcelo gave in. Second side note: with newer/better video encoding, you'll actually be able to stream 720p HD video soon using the same 1000-1500kbps that 480p streaming currently uses. I've seen some people mention they've been able to stream 720p YouTube on BingeOn... I'm guessing on high end smartphones that support h265 video (takes more phone resources to stream h265). Second reason is marketing. Unlimited video streaming = happier customers = more loyal customers. Brand differentiator. You're less likely to leave if you enjoy unlimited video streaming and their competitors don't offer it. But really the main reason was to control data growth / their network. Nice to see them continue expanding their network footprint in areas with 700MHz. Regionals will have a new competitor in a few years once T-Mobile has 600MHz in their markets. As they've mentioned, with low band it makes economic sense to expand into rural areas.

Yeah that amount is insane. Most analysts were expecting something in the $30 something billion range, not almost $90 billion. That said, some on reddit are saying that it may be due to a small amount of broadcasters in big markets wanting a huge amount of money for their spectrum, in which case there may still be a lot of fairly priced spectrum available once they're removed. Guess we'll know when the auction restarts at 90MHz and so on. If the spectrum is too expensive, I can see Verizon walking away and using that money to negotiate with Dish instead. Getting 10x10 nationwide wouldn't help Verizon much with capacity, anyways. AT&T will probably still get 10x10 nationwide since they like spending money. And T-Mobile is thrifty when it comes to spectrum, so I never expected them to go for 10x10 nationwide. I expect them to go for 10x10 in markets that lack 700 and/or are spectrum starved. Most of these areas are rural (generally forgotten markets they've never focused on before) so spectrum should be dirt cheap - this will allow them to continue expanding their network footprint and kill off regionals like US Cellular and C-spire. What they do in populated areas will depend on price - if it's too expensive they're better off doing what Sprint/Verizon are doing and densify/add capacity to their existing spectrum.

Darn - it would have been real nice to have. Assuming I searched the FCC's site correctly, it seems like they own the 15x15 PCS A block in this part of the country. That's a huge chunk of spectrum... any predictions as to how soon it'll get refarmed? Maybe once they're allowed to run 800MHz LTE all over this market they can shut down EvDO and roll out 10x10 LTE on it and leave 5x5 for CDMA voice? I just hate seeing such a large chunk of spectrum being wasted on inefficient, outdated technology that nobody uses anymore...

Heh. Remember there was a time (before LTE) when data in Fresno was basically useless. Back then we were happy with any upgrade! Right now I just wish all Sprint towers had band 41. Question. Does anyone know Sprint's local 1900MHz spectrum licenses? Any possibility for 10x10 band 25?

Apparently Sprint is telling RingPlus (Sprint MVNO) to contact certain customers to tell them their phones may not work on Sprint after July 1, 2016. The e-mail itself is a bit confusing to me: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1884609-Appears-Changes-are-coming-soon-to-the-Sprint-Network What's causing this? Is 1900MHz being refarmed and only 800MHz CDMA remaining? Are they making changing within the 1900MHz band to make wider LTE channels? From the post containing startledmarmot's reply (RingPlus CTO) it sounds like Sprint is shutting down 1900MHz CDMA/EVDO and refarming to LTE. Does Sprint have enough capacity on 800MHz CDMA to handle all their customers' HD calls?

I just found the following thread in another forum - is that you? http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35439 Why did Sprint handsets support ShortMail but not SMS? Did other CDMA carriers like Verizon have a similar thing?

I rarely travel to Fresno nowadays. How widespread is band 41 throughout Fresno?

Band 26 isn't fast especially if the tower lacks band 41. It's just 5x5 so it's not uncommon for B26/B25 to both get congested during busy times without B41. Once B41 is added, B25/26 speeds significantly improve since it unloads a lot of users to faster B41.

That's great to see! I recall a few times when I've passed on 43 I'd even have trouble sending short video clips on Messenger or switching music streaming stations, so it's great to see that they finally have LTE. It's also great to see they decided to launch 800MHz LTE from the start considering it's so far out from other cell sites. Hopefully they're planning on lighting up 2.5GHz to handle the influx of new Sprint/Boost customers once the word gets out that usable data is back.

I think they'd also have to tell the bandwidth of each aggregated band. If in some rural county AT&T is doing CA with just 5MHz of 700MHz and 5MHz of 1900MHz, would that be worth calling 4G+? --- I've always been amazed how the new competitor in France (Iliad's Free Mobile) is shaking up their wireless market. For 20 euros a month they give unlimited everything (50Gb LTE), calling to 100+ countries, and roaming in the EU/US. To the OP, remember to have the coverage seen on Sensorly, you have to make sure your phone supports all of that carrier's bands.

The problem is 2.5GHz (so the vast majority of LTE speed capacity) is not available everywhere, so many times you end up on band 25/26, which are generally on the slow side. As Sprint densifies, this will fix itself. I really want to see those mini-macros deployed on power poles - should really help their 2.5GHz coverage and LTE speeds. Consequently, markets with good 2.5GHz tower density (ex Clear markets) are generally the ones performing well.

Just wondering. Since the iPhone 6 and 6S models have supported VoLTE on other carriers, is it safe to assume that they'll do Sprint VoLTE after they receive carrier settings update, considering the same iPhone model that Sprint sells is also sold on other carriers?

Exciting to see! Is this an omnidirectional one sector site, or does the 2x20 watt imply it's a two sector design? The design doesn't look bad. I can see it fitting on many pre-existing wooden power/telephone polls.

That's great to see! Best way to test is if you know any area covered by that tower that only had 3G before, then it might connect to band 26 again.

This is great to see. I had always wondered why more and more carriers weren't trading their PCS spectrum to make it more contiguous across their footprint. Being such an old band, it is very random since it's been thru a lot of acquisitions for most carriers. Hopefully they continue trading so all carriers can benefit from more contiguous spectrum, considering all big 4 use it for LTE (band 2/25).

No experience but being Open World probably means you'll be on Movistar, which is one of the smaller carriers there, as opposed to the huge, state run Kölbi (do let us know if you can roam on them). That said, Movistar does seem to have nationwide coverage - here's their coverage map by dBm levels. I would not expect coverage in the red areas. http://movistar.cr/descubre/movil/cobertura-movil According to Wikipedia they use: GSM-1800 (GPRS, EDGE) 850/2100 MHz UMTS, HSDPA 1800 MHz LTE So you should expect 3G/HSPA+ in cities at least, if they're anything like Movistar Mexico.

In Southern California they have LTE Plus / Spark but not 800MHz LTE. There's definitely plenty of areas that will benefit from band 26 LTE down there. The dense Clearwire cell sites helped some, though. So things will improve for them after they get 800MHz LTE.

I'm in Hanford, but often travel to/via Visalia, Lemoore, Kerman, Selma, Fowler, Fresno/Clovis, Madera, Merced, Tulare, Delano. Kings County was kinda late to the 800MHz LTE game so it was really sad for me to see LTE everywhere in Fresno County then come back home with horrible 1900MHz LTE. I felt like I was on 3G half the time around town (especially indoors!) - that was with all towers running LTE. Once band 26 became available it made a huge difference. I immediately started seeing LTE in locations I always had 3G. My phone would stick to LTE when shopping indoors. I'd say LTE finally started matching 3G coverage. For me, that's great! It's rare now to see 3G. From my travels to Visalia, Tulare, and Delano it's definitely visible that Tulare and Kern Counties could benefit from 800MHz LTE. All I can say is that once Sprint is allowed to deploy it in those counties, LTE coverage will get much better.

In general, compared to a year ago, I'd say my LTE signal is much more stable and widespread. Seems like Sprint has been busy properly optimizing the network and deploying band 26. Much improved compared to the weak 1900MHz LTE coverage I was used to back then!

Does anyone know how this will be done? As in, will just one company win to build the nationwide network, or is it going to be built in geographic sections and multiple companies could win?

Sprint owns a lot of 2.5GHz / band 41 spectrum (FCC shows 136MHz for Kern County, other areas in the Valley around 100MHz, etc) and each 2.5GHz carrier is a max size of 20MHz (total, not 20x20 since we're talking about TD-LTE). This is why Son bought Clearwire; to have this huge amount of spectrum that would benefit Sprint in the future. Sprint is currently deploying a second additional 2.5GHz carrier to boost data capacity, and on the new flagship phones that support carrier aggregation, can double their peak speeds. This also helps older Spark phones because they're able to access either of the new carriers (just not both at the same time) so they'll join the carrier with the most bandwidth available. For new flagships with CA, this is roughly the equivalent of when T-Mobile/Verizon went from 10x10/75Mbps to 20x20/150Mbps peak speeds.

I bet there's going to be a lot of T-Mobile towers under a lot of strain the next few months. First unlimited video streaming for many customers, and now they're gifting unlimited LTE data to existing customers from Dec 1 to Mar 1. That's not counting the usual 10% data usage hike in December (from their press release). Perhaps they're trying to purposely stress test the network to find out what areas will need the most investment for future data capacity?

Maybe it's an antenna that gets all the readings from nearby smart meters? http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meter-infrastructure/

We're the only two left. I'm not sure when this happened, but I noticed slightly better LTE signal while in downtown Hanford. Checked, and sure enough 800MHz LTE / band 26 is here. I then went to Smart & Final in the eastern part of Hanford (a known place with horrible data on Sprint). Surprisingly, 3G seemed more solid (didn't drop to 1X) but LTE didn't reach in inside. Then again, I'm not sure what towers have 800MHz LTE. Still though, Costco (and others) are coming to that area (highway 43 and 198) so I wonder if Sprint will bring back that old Nextel tower back to life at that intersection... might be along the path of the bullet train, though.