greenbastard

8 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

HAHA AWESOME! Good way to kill merger talk! Quite frankly thats become stale and boring. Now this is what I'm talking about!!!

FINALLY 4x4MIMO on B41 and its on an ALU site! thats pretty amazing in itself!

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.

9 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Personally liked Ingenium's idea that liberal LTE roaming should only be used while on VoLTE to keep a call from dropping.

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.

1 hour ago, mnjeepmale said:

Back at the cabin this weekend and not roaming on AT&T this time. Just Sprint 3G.
Something changed.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Good. Sprint needs to spend as little as possible on things like roaming. 

I wonder what happened that LTE roaming was liberally allowed?

13 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

There won't be any divestments. 

There probably will be in a few markets.

3 minutes ago, shannonbrian said:

Thats mostly with out 4x4 mimo and 256 Qam. I think if did 4x4 mimo on band 25 and band 41 and 256 qam possibly blow by t-mobile and Verizon in speeds.

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.

6 hours ago, Trip said:

If Verizon is contiguous now, having conducted several previous spectrum swaps to its satisfaction, I'm not sure how the merger would make them less contiguous and thus more likely to help their now-stronger competitor.

- Trip

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.

1 hour ago, Trip said:

I was under the impression that most of the spectrum swaps necessary had already happened--many of which happened without Sprint in the mix.

- Trip

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

50 minutes ago, Trip said:

What incentive does Verizon have to assist their competitor?

- Trip

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.

1 minute ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Are you saying devices support it or you've seen it connected? I'm aware some devices may support it, but I hadn't seen roaming CA occur before.

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.

11 hours ago, RAvirani said:

I think they might try to get 20x20 of contiguous PCS (possibly at the cost of some AWS spectrum) everywhere because that can be immediately deployed on all modern (600/700/1900/2100) and legacy (1900 only) T-Mobile sites as well as all Sprint sites. 

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.

On 8/5/2018 at 7:42 PM, Dkoellerwx said:

I don't think any bands would be blocked, but CA while roaming using Sprint handsets would be very unlikely. 

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

2 minutes ago, derrph said:

 

I think it will be I haven’t heard that it wasn’t going to be. Now my question is, will Sprint be able to tell is someone is abusing the roaming especially if T-Mobile is offering a better data experience and that use forces their phone to stay on roaming?
 

 

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. 

12 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

I do not like TMobile "features" (binge on, the way they sell devices and prices)

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.

4 hours ago, ingenium said:

I don't think that's the case. For me, SCP will correctly show WCDMA, HSPA, and EDGE (didn't have a WCDMA screenshot easily accessible).


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

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

5 minutes ago, Thomas L. said:

I really don't see why it is that you think that if you don't have public wifi then you wouldn't use an MB. The MagicBox is a repeater for Sprint's network requiring essential zero exposure or expenditure for the retail provider beyond electricity. It is also zero maintenance or setup. It's a highly superior solution in my view.

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

1 hour ago, Paynefanbro said:

Alternatively, mine has been working great.

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. 

1 hour ago, red_dog007 said:

That's different though.  Requires user provided backhaul.

I really don't see what the problem is with that? 

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Also, WiFi doesn't have the coverage the MB has.

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.

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A lot of places offer WiFi but you have to have access to it, or go through a captive portal.

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. 

Quote

I think it's a great tool to have and offer.

Its a quick way to get people to abuse the network.

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It is a fairly hidden tool they have.  So that should help limit the waste of these MBs.

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.

1 hour ago, dro1984 said:

Good Article online about the Sprint / T-Mobile merger:

It's complementary to Sprint and how far they've come in the last couple years....

Why the Sprint and T-Mobile merger could be good for you

The best part is:  “Sprint holds a massive 150 MHz of nationwide 2.5 GHz spectrum, which uniquely positions them to provide an outstanding consumer experience,” he wrote. “To date, most of that spectrum has been underutilized due to lack of funding, changes in leadership and unorthodox deployment strategies.”   Unorthodox   ... ?

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.

8 hours ago, tyroned3222 said:

I think for sprint to have a decent entry into volte .. they need to start pushing out CA band 25 + band 26.. to add capacity to each band and push coverage where density lacks

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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.

9 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

When will Qualcomm stop putting it in their chipsets? Intel? When will Apple or Samsung stop supporting in their handsets?

Soon™

6 hours ago, derrph said:

On Reddit this guy who has Sprint said that T-Mobile is confusing when it comes to pricing.  I had to laugh at his comment cause I’m trying to figure out what Sprint company he had. I think Sprint is the most confusing. Theses new plans make great examples of that. 

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.

On 7/10/2018 at 11:18 AM, RedSpark said:

Guess Virgin Mobile isn’t coming along for the ride: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/07/10/virgin-mobile-staff-cuts-closing-imminent.html (Paywalled, but the first paragraph summarizes it.)

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

3 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

It would be pretty dumb for the "new tmobile" to not adopt the MB. Since they could potentially even add other spectrum to broadcast, like MMWAVE..

It will probably be smart of them. They are planning on using the entire band for 5G, which wouldn't leave any room for the MagicBox to operate in.

If people really need in-building coverage, there will be Nationwide B71, T-Mobile Signal Boosters, T-Mobile Cellspot, and Wifi calling. 

On 7/3/2018 at 2:19 AM, Bob Newhart said:

Anything is possible.

Very likely we will never see the WiFi feature used if the merger goes through. And even on the slim chance the merger fails, Sprint has said they're not interested in offering WISP services.

It looks like WiFi may just be on the apparatus for diagnostic purposes.

14 hours ago, RedSpark said:

“Hanging onto LTE” and “less 3G” is what Sprint needs for VoLTE to be launched. From what I’ve heard, Sprint’s “Time on LTE” needs to be in the high 90’s percentage-wise to have a reliable VoLTE experience... and this ties directly into Capex aside from spectrum holdings.

Hanging on to LTE and having usable VoLTE are two entirely different things. For VoLTE to be successful, handsets will need to have a very good uplink or users will experience choppy phone calls.

I've personally seen this on T-Mobile where I still have usable download speeds on weak Rx (~-117 RSRP). Unfortunately, people on the other end can't hear me because the phone cannot properly reach the macro site. With Sprint's current network, I have a feeling VoLTE won't play nice and there will be a lot of headaches.