greenbastard

Maybe old Cricket CDMA?

This doesn't kill the merger talk. This is just 4G. Sprint is going to need a lot of money if they want their 2.5 Ghz spectrum to really work. There are still too many outdoor spots were 2.5 Ghz doesn't reach in major markets today. I don't think I have seen a new Sprint macro tower go up in my area in ages now. Hopefully after the merger, the EBS/BRS band is put to good use.

I just don't know if VoLTE roaming will work with At&t anytime soon. At&t doesn't allow VoLTE on non-At&t branded Android phones. At&t users with phones such as the Pixel, OnePlus, and Essential don't get VoLTE.

Good. Sprint needs to spend as little as possible on things like roaming. I wonder what happened that LTE roaming was liberally allowed?

There probably will be in a few markets.

I wonder how many subs Sprint has in San Antonio? Both AT&T and T-Mobile seem, at least from my perspective, the most popular carriers in the Alamo City.

There will likely be a few areas where the new T-Mobile will have to dump some midband spectrum. When that happens, swaps and realignment will likely have to happen in order to pair both the seller and the buyer.

There will be more, especially now that the merger looks like it's going to happen.

Somewhere else in another part of the country, Verizon may need Sprint's help. Helping another carrier isn't uncommon if the favor is returned in another market.

It happened on my old Nexus 5x before I switched. I'll see if I can find an old screenshot. Don't know how useful it is to us due to the throttle Sprint has on AT&T LTE. I'm pretty sure CA works on USCC roaming if it's working on AT&T roaming.

You're underestimating the pace at which T-Mobile moves in order to deploy LTE. I've seen some sites with SISO and then some other sites with satellite backhaul on 600 Mhz.

Carrier Aggregation, while useless due to the throttle, can be used by Sprint handsets that support CA on AT&T's bands.

It would be no different than people who are in US Cellular markets today. I'm sure you would still receive a warning for excessive roaming. Also, I doubt 99% of cellphone users even know how to force their phone to roam.

This is a similar experience with VoLTE on the early days with Verizon and T-Mobile. Choppy calls on those networks are due to poor rf performing handsets. QoS won't be able to fix that.

From the towers? Probably a fat NO.

Binge On hasn't been a thing for a while now. It's all T-Mobile One, T-Mobile One 55+ or T-Mobile One Military.

I've seen some cheap Samsung phones display WCDMA as GSM on SCP as well. I think it depends on the phone.

Because if you're not offering public WiFi, why would you go out of your way to set up a Magic Box??

You know what else works great? WiFi. It can do everything the MagicBox does today. Nobody is questioning if the device works. I'm simply questioning its purpose. The box should have never been deployed for residential purposes. Retail? Sure. But giving these away to residential customers was just a waste of money and a fast way of getting your customers to abuse your network. Hopefully T-Mobile makes these devices obsolete and uses the entire swath of EBS/BRS spectrum for 5G purposes.

I really don't see what the problem is with that? If you can't cover your entire home footprint, then that's on you. There are many fast, cheap, and easy ways of extending your WiFi signal. If a business has a private WiFi with no intention of making it public, then the chances of them adding a MagicBox are slim to none. If they have a public WiFi that requires you to sign in or accept their terms, then they also won't be adding a MagicBox. Only a few businesses will jump on adding MB to their stores. I've been to a few Sprint stores that have even taken down their boxes because they couldn't hide them. They did look tacky just sitting on the floor by a window. Its a quick way to get people to abuse the network. Not according to the back order of these devices. They seem to be very popular. In fact, they're so popular that some people are using them as a way to ditch their ISP.

It really has been unorthodox. Magic Boxes have not been the best use of spectrum and resources. I know a lot of people here are fans of the boxes, but Sprint should have pushed Wi-Fi calling instead. I've personally seen the MB used as an ISP replacement.

It's not about pushing coverage through B26. It's about densifying and making sure you have enough access points that UEs can reach. The main problem with VoLTE will be existing devices not reaching cell towers. Sprint is notorious for having places where you can get a decent signal and usable DL speeds, but uploads fail (and this is not due to congestion). If you don't have a consistent uplink, VoLTE will fail even with QoS. I sure do hope VoLTE is an opt-in trial while we wait for the merger to close as the network today cannot sustain reliable VoLTE.

Soon™

You ever opened a T-Mobile bill that has a free line, hookup code, kickback and bill credits??? The first time I tried viewing my T-Mobile bill, I got three different "Total Due" numbers while navigating their website. One page said $160, the other said $140, and the other one said $112 (thankfully it was the latter). My T-Mobile bill is so confusing that I almost switched back to Sprint the first week. But since I'm saving ~$120 per month and getting the same exact features, I'm staying put.

It's being phased out in Australia as well. The "Virgin" name brand never made sense. Nobody outside of Europe is familiar with it.