nick

I sometimes encounter slow speeds in the city. The speed difference to me is fine. This relates to previously mentioned speed tests and root scores. My question is could this be some sort of cost cutting measure sprint has implemented by reducing potential speed/cap on certain towers?

It doesn't make sense to max out @ 100 here where maybe there's 1000 sprint customers when say 60 is fine and saves $150 a month.

 

We all know about the massive amount of spectrum. But 2xca should be keeping us at speeds better than 20. For a second sprint speeds were faster than the others. But now seems to be falling back. Only 1mil adds nationwide cause that much havoc?

It's just increasing data load, every carrier experiences it.  As soon as people realize the data works well they will begin to use it, as more people use it the slower it gets.... The slower it gets the more carriers or cell sites sprint and any other carrier will need to add just to keep up, mobile data usage is currently on a ramp with no end in sight.   

Thanks guys. It shows band 41

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

no problem, band 41 is your best bet at the highest speed, what kind of speeds are you seeing compared to before?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's really in most places. My home is in Green Bay and my office is in Appleton. Just getting terrible speeds compared to what I used to get. I'm on the iPhone 6s on 9.2.1.

 

How can I tell what band I'm on? Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Copy and paste this into your phone dial are hit dial it will take you to field test mode

*3001#12345#*

 

Select service cell info

Band is second line down

Band 25,26,41. Is what you are looking for

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wish I would have read this post first...installed 9.3 public beta last night and broke my LTE connection. Data timing out even though strong connection, more than half the time. Sometimes data works, sometimes it doesn't. As well, email attachments cannot download even when on WiFi. Deleting the data profile, how do I downgrade back to 9.2? Is it as easy as restoring the backup I made in iTunes?

 

EDIT: Restored, all is well. No more betas for me.

Yeah betas, even public ones should not be used in a "daily driver" phone as they can be unstable and unpredictable at times.

Has anyone been noticing a significant drop in speeds lately in the Green Bay Area? I used to be able to pull well over 20 down but this is about the best I get now.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

need more information, is this everywhere in town, what phone do you have?(profile says Samsung S4 but screen shot looks to be from an iphone)   What band are you on?

*Not quite. On T-Mobile by default you have to go into your account settings and make changes if you want to watch 1080p video. It doesn't matter what the speedtests show.

 

I'm just pointing out BingeOn.

good point I should have clarified, all carriers had the capability to stream 1080P provided proper set up. The point was all carriers provided enough bandwidth to carry out all reasonable tasks one could perform on a smart phone. [emoji12]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

http://www.tmonews.com/2016/02/t-mobile-reports-super-bowl-50-network-stats/

 

2.1 TB according to this article

 

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

so it stands to reason that t mobile had the highest speeds, as they handled the least amount of data (excluding sprint as they have not said).  from the reports it looks like all 4 carries provided usable service that was able to provide 1080P streaming video... but really your at the super bowl, you shouldn't need to stream anything on your phone, nice to see people had the option to though. 

What makes you say that this doesn't include hotspot service? T-Mobile added that to all of the active plans last year. Did something change and I missed it?

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/confirmed-t-mobile-adds-2-gb-mobile-hotspot-data-customers-unlimited-smartp/2015-06-18

 

"Yes, we've enabled mobile hotspot benefits on all active data plans," a T-Mobile spokesman told FierceWireless. "

 

I apologize, i stand corrected. "Unlimited 4G LTE plan includes 14 GB Smartphone Mobile HotSpot)" no reference is made about the hotspot other than the fine print for unlimited promotion plan.

http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/family-plans-with-data-per-line.html?icid=WMM_TM_Q116UNLMTD_62XY1YSYVZN3986

I find it odd that they don't advertise that prominently as it is an added value.

 

good call 

Although they've improved they certainly aren't good enough yet for premium pricing. They should stay the value carrier for a little longer until the public perception of Sprint is a positive one.

 

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

I would agree they need to be very aggressive on pricing, however I am not sure if Marcelo agrees with my opinion.   sprint seems to act like a big bloated company and t-mobile seems to act like a small agile start up, I know that is just perception but you know what they say, perception is reality.  I think back to the tweets Marcelo sent out about the late night brain storming sessions with beer in a conference room... only to announce what was almost identical to last years half off promotion,   i remember thinking they must have spent all night writing all that fine print, witch by the way people generally don't like fine print. don't get me wrong it's a good deal, but he hyped the heck out of that, and really it was an updated version of last years plan...        

Sprint may not hold enough BRS/EBS spectrum in Madison to run 2x CA.  TDS, the parent company of USCC, holds some legacy BRS spectrum that Sprint cannot use within a 35 mile radius of Madison.  So, that limits Sprint to two separate swaths of contiguous BRS spectrum, one 12 MHz, the other 28 MHz.  Only the 28 MHz chunk can support a single 20 MHz TDD carrier.  Any other 20 MHz TDD carriers would have to be deployed in EBS spectrum, which presently may be occupied by WiMAX.  Sprint also may have limited EBS spectrum -- I am uncertain about those holdings in Madison.

 

http://fisci.tech/blog/the-sprint-spectrum/

 

AJ

happy my town of janesville is outside that circle, and has 2x CA.  as always thanks for the info AJ

But once people are on this pricing, they get to keep it... until T-Mobile raises it....

 

Does Sprint have the ability to match this pricing? I'm sure it's under discussion at HQ.

sprint has the ability to do anything, the question is do they want to give the service away in the name of matching price.  does the quality of the network still warrant them being a value play, or does the network quality warrant premium pricing?  

Att offer is in a league of it's own. It requires you get direct tv. It is there to steam cord cutting.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it's an extension of the bundle no doubt, but a lot of people have direct tv, or u verse for people in that situation it's compelling.  don't get me wrong i hate the direction the death star (att) has taken by basically doubling down on bundling.  but at the same time price competition is good for me as a consumer, it will be interesting to see how Verizon with respond since they don't have the tv offerings like ATT does.  I know they have fios but it doesn't have the geographic reach that the u verse direct tv combination, not to mention t-mobile and sprint own nothing similar.  I wonder what the response will be?

Looks like a response to atts unlimited package 4 lines $180

Let's see what sprint does... Should be interesting

what really got my attention is tablets for unlimited data for $40/ month add on. I wonder how bad this is "Data Restrictions: After 22GB of data usage on a line in a bill cycle, AT&T may slow the data on that line during periods of network congestion for the remainder of that cycle. "  I wonder if i had an ipad pro on burned 100 gigs in a month if they would reach out to me, or throttle me?  Not that i would, just a hypothetical could this be Att's first step towards home internet delivered over cellular?  

Hopefully Sprint has a response to this pricing move by T-Mobile.... I guess there's always the Save 50% off of your Bill Offer to cut the Tiered Offerings in half....

 

But see this:

 

4 Unlimited Data Lines with Sprint is $250/month ($70/month for 1st line and $60/month for each additional Unlimited Line)

vs.

4 Unlimited Data Lines with T-Mobile is $150/month.... (Each additional Unlimited Line is $30/month up to 12 lines)

 

Marcelo: I think it's time for another Town Hall

except the 50% off does not include this promotion, or any unlimited.  i don't exactly get that t-mobile current regular price for unlimited is $95 they could have done 50% off at $47.50, that would not have been much different that the unlimited iPhone plan they offered awhile ago.  I would love to see a pricing structure simplification like what Metro does with including taxes and fees, what you see is what you pay. something like

 

unlimited 1st line  $60    2nd line $50     line 3-12 $30  include shared hot spot 5 gigs per line, throttled after that

share plans 20 gigs $100        40 gigs $140      80 gigs $160  no access fees 

 

these prices would include taxes fees, everything The current structure is very confusing for everyone, including sprint employees...  I think they need to start from scratch.  The network is much improved, now the price structure needs to follow.

T-Mobile offering unlimited 4 lines for $150/month and 10GB each/4 lines for $120/month.

 

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/unlimited-lte-promotion.htm

wow that's a great deal for a family/business of 4 or larger, looks like the price of unlimited is coming back down in price. considering that one line is $95 for unlimited and 4 lines is now $37.50/line that is one heck of a discount of course this promotion does not include hot spot, but that can be added if you need it.

It appears to me that ZAGG is ready to go head to head with Otterbox and their premium line LifeProof. Maybe they can make a fully enclosed Mophie case that's waterproof.

 

 

Sent from my Gold iPhone 6s Plus 128GB using Tapatalk

not sure what they could be that would significantly better or different than this.

http://www.lifeproof.com/en-us/iphone-6/fre-power-for-iphone-6-case/lppw-apl-iph6.html?color=Black+%2F+Black

or

http://www.lifeproof.com/en-us/iphone-6/nuud-for-iphone-6-case/lpnu-apl-iph6.html?color=Black+%2F+Black+%2F+Smoke

 

life proof has an impressive and well reviewed line up, not to mention other competitors like these... 

http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/19/iphone-6plus-case-roundup-best-cases-at-the-best-price/

 

 

 I struggle to see how they can make meaningful change in this already crowded industry. but time will tell.

Exactly!! I wouldn't trust Sprint's estimate of what the spectrum is worth - not because I think they're lying, but because I think there may not be a buyer unless it's a lot cheaper.

I am not sure about "a lot cheaper" I think many carries would love to have this spectrum at what price is hard to say but i think it hold significant value.  this seems like ancient history but ill post it any way, the merger of sprint and clearwire scared the pants of att and Verizon when it was announced.

http://muniwireless.com/2008/07/25/att-challenges-clearwire-sprint-merger/  

 

Verizon:

 "The combined company will have access to an average of 150 MHz of spectrum in the top 100 markets and an average of

100 MHz in areas outside of the top 100 markets – making it the largest spectrum holder in the Unites States. The merger of ALLTEL and Verizon Wireless will enable Verizon Wireless to compete more effectively with this significant new player."

 

AT&T:

"Our attached FCC filing shows that the combined company will become the largest holder of licensed and leased mobile spectrum of any other carrier, have a service that will be commercially available later this year, have financial backing from Google, Intel, and three of the nation’s largest cable television companies and be fully capable of substantially impacting competition in the mobile communications market."

 

now obviously that article was from 2008 final acquisition made on  July 09, 2013

Verizon and att still exist as the larges players in the space, they win more network awards than sprint.  However the statements from all those years ago still hold true, the spectrum holdings are of great strategic value and hopefully sooner rather than later the fears of ATT and Verizon will be realized.  It has been a long road for sprint, it has required more time and money than anyone could have imagined back then but the ground work has been laid, the bulk of network vision is complete.  Now with NGN they will expand on what already exists, deployment of additional spectrum will become quicker and less expensive than at any other point in sprints history.  If they get full backing from soft bank, municipalities and equipment vendors this network could change very very quickly for the better.  As always the job is sprint's to either hit it out of the park or fumble the execution, only time will tell but the path is clearer than ever and the foundation is..... for once, solid.          

Acquisitions can be bad for technology, like Microsoft buying SwiftKey only for their AI research, found here: http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/02/microsoft-purchases-swiftkey/. Hopefully they won't discontinue SwiftKey's famous keyboard in favor of their own.

 

Or they can be good, like ZAGG buying Mophie to complement it's already extensive lineup of smartphone accessories, like the famous ZAGG InvisibleShield. See here: http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/02/zagg-to-acquire-mophie-takeover-battery-screen-protection-keyboard-accessories-market/

 

Thoughts, dislikes, or likes about these two different mergers? Please discuss below.

Im afraid Microsoft will discontinue swiftkey as we know it and incorporate swiftkey like features into this.  http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/25/screenshot-microsofts-iphone-keyboard/

 

I am already happy with the available choices in case, screen protectors, and battery cases.  not sure what they can do in this space that hasn't already been done.  They are both what i would consider leaders in the spaces they serve so i guess combining products and combine marketing is the goal?  

So has anyone else experienced a massive drop in LTE speeds since 9.2.1? I'm in Wisconsin and at home I used to pull at least 20 down in most areas but now I'm lucky to get 6 down

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

nothing here, janesville WI.  band 41 is smoking fast on all local sites, band 25 and 26 are hit and miss unchanged from before my upgrade.  last time i was up in green bay they didn't have alot of band 41 deployed, is that still the case?  Band 25/26 slow down very quickly/easily since they are only 5x5, at least i think green bay is 5x5 still...

These are often present at motorsports events where Sprint has a large presence, such as all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events. These were at Daytona this past weekend to cover the Rolex 24 crowd:

 

How did it preform during the race? 

It's just one of their backhaul solutions. It will be used in areas where the 2.5 Macro Cell just can't reach far enough or well enough into a fringe area just outside its coverage. Then it will use the relay setup to extend its reach. They will also use microwave in many other places.

 

If the area being served by the small cell will have too many customers in it, then the relay is not a good option in that instance. The site will then need its own backhaul solution from a donor fiber connection via microwave. However, there are thousands of micro cell locations that are just outside an existing macro cell, where coverage is spotty or non existent. Places that are coverage holes, but not places with really high demand. The relay solution is great for those locations.

 

Sprint, using micro cells as both coverage extenders (using relay) and capacity extenders (via microwave), will be able to create ubiquitous B41 networks over urban/suburban areas. And even some key exurban and highway locations. If the small cell program goes well, I could see Sprint adding ROW utility pole small cells even on rural highways in locations between towers where there is a dip in the road or small hill where signals have historically been poor and prone to dropping.

 

This all in all a good thing. Hopefully the cost and speed of deployment can meet or beat projections. It could allow this to be an amazing supplement to the macro network.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

I like your vision of the future, i hope sprint can pull it off, in my area if your on band 41 your fine, but I fall back to 25/26 it's overloaded.  all but one of my local towers have band 41, we just need some coverage extension... 6-7 small cells would cover my town perfectly!   

I don't buy in the volumes Sprint does, but they're not going to get a ton of discounts if there are build costs rolled in. On the contrary, it is easier to absorb the build of a random circuit here and there vs. tens of thousands of them. Your random GigE of backhaul will likely go for $1500 - $4k/month, depending on build requirements. A second GigE on the same route is going to be significantly less. A 10GigE is going to be $3k - $8k. I've had 10GigEs com in under that. If they were smart, they'd go from GigE to 10GigE and use some microwave backhaul to aggregate sites.

 

Verizon has been moving to raw dark fiber, allowing them to light it themselves, be it 10GigE, 40GigE, Nx10GigE, etc. Obviously those are all that the very high end of what is needed for cell backhaul outside of a venue, but Verizon will have more control over their network and their pricing by going dark.

 

Dark in a 20 year IRU format will range from $800/strand mile to $10k+/strand mile, all depending on routes. Difficulty and competition play the big parts here. I thought I saw it was a $145M deal, but I can't find that now.

Thanks for the info, I didn't realize backhaul was that expensive, I wonder how many alternative methods they have? Since competition drives prices down.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But what about those of us who actually like to drive?

 

-Anthony

eventually that interest will pass again we are talking about several generations in the future, personally I would love to own a fully autonomous car without a steering wheel, I would even pay a premium to not have to drive. 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So instead of the "mile high club", it will be the "high mileage club"? 

 

I also predict quite a bit of substance usage.... Can you technically be charged with a DUI in an autonomous vehicle?

someday I think it will be ok, perhaps even illegal to drive your own car on a public road.  theoretically computers would be significantly better at diving than people are, again this is kind of distant future.  When you really think about it people are by nature terrible drivers, I think it will be a safer world when we are no longer behind the wheel.  

Tweet from @marceloclaure: https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/692918460934938624

 

We are flying in Houston. Faster than your cable broadband. Time to cut the cord and consume content in your phone twitter.com/nm_sprint/stat…

 

 

...well that's disconcerting

yeah im not sure what he is implying I hope its nothing we are still many many years away from having enough capacity to offer home internet..in my opinion, someday but for him to post this now is strange.