red_dog007

https://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/docs/T-Band_FactSheet_July2016.pdf

Possibly 42MHz added for cellular from 470-512MHz here? Would this be TDD?

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-19-330A1.pdf

After 2024, does this mean that any licenses remaining can be purchased and utilized for cellular?  At this time, would Sprint be able to purchases licenses from any PS or CI license holders? This covers 809-815MHz.  Not sure if using the expansion band or guard band would be possible (815-817MHz), though that is largely where SoLinc sits now?  Do we know if Southern Linc has any intentions to participate in these auctions and widen their license holidings?

On 5/10/2019 at 5:18 AM, S4GRU said:

Focus on urban markets first, then suburban and secondary markets. 

And if you play your cards right and growth starts to occur after a few years of doing that, then they can make an exurban/rural move with major highway expansions.  But Sprint cannot put the cart before the horse again this time.  This is a much smarter plan.

And why you don't spend billions of low-band.  If Sprint participated, it would have increased the prices.  When/If Sprint focuses on rural, or wants extra urban low-band capcity, there is still extra low-band to be had.

On 5/10/2019 at 5:18 AM, S4GRU said:

We all want Sprint to be the hard charging Number Four carrier that quickly surpasses the others to become #1 or #2.  But also, there are ways to be a successful company and stay #4 forever.  If Sprint cannot merge, it is still completely viable to run on its own.  But it will be a long process to gain more customers or move up the rung.  And I think most of us believe the network experience will be the best way to do that.  And Sprint needs to start with the highest concentrations of customers first, to get the most bang for its buck.

I personally don't mind if they stay #4.  This idea that they can't be, or survive on their own as #4 I believe is a fallacy. 

The only thing I'd be concerned with, in regards to revenue, is them deploying more and more equipment (like the tens of thousands of small cells).  If they have to support more infrastructure with the same revenues, that will only become more costly.  They have to think of ways and make successful deals that help keep costs low.  I think 2.5GHz will go a long ways in helping keep costs low.  Their position puts them in such a way they can only get so much revenue out of 55million customers.

2 hours ago, Brad The Beast said:

Comcast has 600MHz spectrum? 

http://maps.spectrumgateway.com/comcast-600-mhz.html

Mostly likely won't use it.  Either try and sell it later when deadlines are near, and/or make deals for roaming.  

1 hour ago, Paynefanbro said:

Sprint's advantage is that 2.5GHz not only has better propagation characteristics, but that the whole 120MHz+ is available to them virtually nationwide. The main advantage of CBRS is that it will likely be the first "global" 5G band and will be useful for roaming purposes. For that reason, I could see Sprint along with every other carrier and cable co trying to get some of it.

That advantage of having so much BRS/EBS, they can turn large amounts of 5G without refarming spectrum. 

AT&T isn't in a horrible state because they can refarm spectrum a bit easier.  Even though TMobile is saving a chunk for 5G on 600MHz, it isn't really anything to talk about other than for coverage map coverage.  TMobile and VZW I think will have the roughest time refarming their spectrum.  I wouldn't be surprised to see them wait until the iPhone has 5G.  Do something like 10x10 lowband and 10x10 in PCS/AWS at that time, minimum for 5G. Makes it rough on VZW/TMobile because 40MHz is 30~50% of their spectrum in any given market.  We know mmWave isn't an answer for a macro solution, and there isn't any other midband coming up.  Gotta make due with what you got. 

1 hour ago, SuzieTuesday said:

Nope. C-Band: 3.7 to 4.2 GHz

Oh, that.  C Band is 4-8GHz.  That 3.7-4GHz portion is in the S Band.  I know that 3.7-4.2 is being called C Band atm (maybe cause they are looking at making the 200MHz free from 4-4.2GHz?), but with the recent FCC wanting to make open 1.2GHz in C Band (5925-7125MHz), that is what I was thinking.

That would make things interesting.  Finding a quick article, sat companies said it would take 18-36months to move though. This will happen after the FCC makes a decision, holds an auction and then tells the sat companies to move.  So if this spectrum does go through, it'll be a long time before it can be used. 

9 hours ago, SuzieTuesday said:

Certainly Sprints 2.5 GHz spectrum is enviable at the moment. C-Band and/or CBRS if and when available will certainly tend to reduce or even eliminate Sprints advantage.

The more sub 6GHz spectrum the other carriers pick up, the less advantage Sprint has. That advantage holds a bit tighter though for anything above 2.5GHz for realistic urban full on coverage.  

However, it's a long ways to get there.  CBRS is 150MHz right now, that will get split up once it goes up for auction. And it's a full 1GHz spread from 2.5GHz.

Then C-Band that is being looked into like 6GHz, you are looking at similar limitations that are on existing 5GHz.  Unlicensed, low power output of 1w or 250mW. With current considerations there will be at least 850MHz for 1w output, but that is still just 1w.  

If you read the internet, for the last 7 years I have been a Sprint customer, every quarter I have been told that Sprint was going to go under and file for bankruptcy. 

Their position isn't pretty, but it isn't like Sprint is in some unique position.  People like to be like, debt, debt, debt, but having more debt than revenue is pretty common.  Look at Charter.  $40billion in revenue but they have $70billion in long term debts.  A company like AMD couldn't make any money for like a decade before their recent turn around.  They sold, leveraged and won some key lawsuits that helped them stay afloat.  Now they are kicking ass and taking names.

This idea that Sprint needs to be at the same coverage level as AT&T or VZW to survive I think is a fallacy as well.  They have great roaming agreements.  This is how the dozens of regional carriers survive.

6 hours ago, stlman314 said:

All phones don't have VoLTE still. My G7 doesn't have it. So that why I ask. I also know the S9 doesn't have it yet.

That's nuts. Didn't know this.  

1 minute ago, stlman314 said:

I wonder if VoLTE will be active since it will have Pie on it

Is there a reason why it wouldn't?  I've been using VoLTE on my V30+ for a while now.

22 hours ago, Brynn0823 said:

That’s my point, they have bands all over the place due to poor investments. It’s basically a half assed rollout based off the funding that’s available. Yes they provide coverage in some rural areas now but much of the coverage is subpar at best.


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This has been my experience.  In East KY, where T-Mobile has owned 700A for a while, they have thrown up a lot of sites but they are AWS or PCS only.  If you look on their coverage map however, it would suggest otherwise.  The ones I have reached only have 5MHz for LTE. It really is a joke.  And it is sad because I now have an experience than is 1000x worse than what the regional wireless carrier has beings now that TMobile roaming is preferred.  

What is even worse is these new sites that only have PCS or AWS on them are spaced so far apart there will still be issues once they get around to putting 600 or 700 on them.  

And still, their 700A deployment in areas they already own have been subpar in my area.

TMobile has only been spending in the $4billion range.  Was only like a couple years they broke into the $5billion range.  The cheap and fast 2G-LTE and ability to get wideband has really helped them out quiet a lot with the limited capex.  

If they do merge, they will be at ~$10billion capex, more inline with VZW/AT&T.  I don't think we will see the gains of this large capex bucket for a few years unless New TMobile has a separate spending bucket just for merging.  So if a rack needs to be relocated higher or to a new tower that won't come out of capex.

The G8 has a nice preorder deal, I am hoping the V50 will as well.  I want to get that because of 5G.  Hoping that it will be the same or cheaper than my V30+ lease. 

I'm hoping for something like at least 40% off and includes the second LCD screen. Only way I am going to get it is if it is given to me. 

Doesn't seem like something you'd want to deploy all over cities.  Hell, imagine all those stations everywhere from multiple carriers.  Hopefully they can package those up nicer and cities don't allow that nasty all over their cities.

Seems like a good thing though to have in your arsenal.  Just putting one up where major events happen. Times were you normally bring in a COW, just drop a couple of these suckers. Im hoping that Sprint will at least get a little mmWave.  

Beyond mmWave, it will be interesting to see what ATT/VZW 5G strategy ends up being.  

What Sprint needs to just do is spend the capex.  Look what TMobile has been able to do with 4~5 billion in capex since 2013.  Now that Sprint is back up to 5 billion, we are seeing movement.  They can do what what they think is best, but just keep spending that money.  This will be their best ROI.  

They have excellent LTE roaming agreements and 3 more years with TMobile, no need to focus on that level of network expansion.  Honestly, I'd rather them continue with these native roaming agreements vs expanding into their territory.  

On 3/16/2019 at 4:34 AM, danlodish345 said:

The first one is a band 4 speed test the other one is band 66 speed test as noted by the engineering menus

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B66 using the new AWS3 will need to be in CA. There are only 4 AWS3 blocks. Where they do own AWS3, it is mostly just 5x5 worth.

32 minutes ago, jonathanm1978 said:

Apparently, according to an email that I just received, the magic box no longer can be used in this area. But, I can travel to Sylacauga, in town within 3 miles of the tower (on a different sector of the same antenna that is my donor) and it works fine. But on the sector that serves as my donor, I can't have the MB...

That doesn't even sound correct...but that's what I just got told via email.

Why would this happen? It works fine for a year and a half, suddenly it can't work anymore?

Maybe it is spectrum limitations in Birmingham. I know when I travel there I connect to 2.5GHz when I think 2.6GHz is more common.  Think that is due to limited holdings? 

For this tower, the section that facings Birmingham might have different spectrum allocation/deployment than the other side of the tower not facing Birmingham.

16 hours ago, Brad The Beast said:

They are! As a pilot though, I do respectfully request that you don't do that anywhere near an airport. 

Near an airport is defined as within 5 miles of one.  You can still probably fly, but you have to call and notify the Airport Operator or Air Traffic Control.

Also, don't forget to add while you are at it:

Be 13 years old. Need to register your drones with the FAA.  Need to mark the drone with its FAA number. Best to have an Armature Radio license just encase. Never fly above 400ft. Never fly over people. Never fly near emergency response efforts. And don't fly under the influence. 

I wonder what Sprints timeline is to shut down CDMA completely.  VZW CDMA is dead EOY 2019. ATT looks like they will kill HSPA EOY 2021.  Think Sprint would be in a great spot if they could do it in a few years. Once the market is full of 5G phones.  B26 could go down to 1.4MHz for LTE and add 5MHz for 5G. 

Any of the newer dual-band/tri-band equipment easily upgradable for 5G? At least not requiring a tower climb?

The help will just come down to software, and besides setting up any required GPIO, software configuration will be the same. It'll be like having a PC with Intel vs AMD but in this case Broadcom vs Amlogic. With the ODroid I'd have less GPIO setup.  I think I only immediately need the GPIO for the LCD.

I'd go with the Pi3 Model A+ due to size.  The RAM is the biggest reason against the Pi3.  It only has 512MB.  The C0 still has the full 1GB like its bigger brother the C1+. I could go with the B+ and remove connectors to fit in a smaller package. But it's a little more and I'd need/want to buy a few more components for it.  Plus ODroids support eMMC which is great for increased reliability over microSD.  

Im not 100%, but I think the Amlogic CPU has a bit more horsepower behind it over the Broadcom as well. 

Incorrectly reported I guess.  earfcn of 40978 is TDD. Though FDD could be possible if you are nearer to Canada as they use Band 7 (FDD) and Band 38 (TDD) for 2.5/2.6GHz. 

16 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

TMobile doesn't have B12 in some of the areas where they want it. Mississippi one of them

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If T-Mobile wanted it bad enough, their name would be on the application.  With them owned 40MHz of 600, and there still being extra 600 to be had in the areas, getting 700 may not be as urgent for them as it once was.

14 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

That article says due 700 mhz it could give them enough for 15x15 which isn't fair to other carriers 

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It is interesting that it is looking specifically at 700.  AT&T is acquiring twice as much PCS+AWS.

Wonder who it isn't fair for.  AT&T will have 73MHz average in the effected counties of low band, up from 68MHz. Looks like VZW has 49MHz and TMobile 40MHz.  So give it to Sprint!? lol

12 hours ago, Brad The Beast said:

No, they gave it all to ATT like morons. 

It isn't much PCS really and where it is it is just in AL, AK, and FL.  I didn't look up those specific counties in those states, but I'd assume C Spire is pulling out of FL and AL.  Don't think they offered anything in AK. 

The 700MHz they are dumping is in the Memphis area within MS which is a bit interesting. 

AWS is interesting cause it includes MS, but most of it is just 10MHz.  

When Sprint acquired PCS/700 in Memphis area a few years ago, it included C-Spire gaining access to Sprint's spectrum portfolio in a handful of counties.  Not sure which counties these are but it would be interesting to go back and look that up.  

Think Im going to get an odroid-c0 and the rtl-sdr. Get it working and programmed, then build it into a nice handheld radio.  

Thing is pretty nice.  It's a clean board with few components so can do slim profile.  2 USB, UART, power switch, rtc and battery connector.  Lot more powerful and flexible than the Pi Zero W. 

https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-c0/

So I recently got into drones.  Got my first one built.  So I got my FAA license which is 100% needed now. Looking around, there is an argument for needing an amateur radio license.  Seems like general consensus on regulation interpretation is you are better off having it. 

People getting their amateur license has been on the increase for about a decade now hitting record numbers year after year.  Would be interesting to know how many of these numbers are for drones.

Two questions:

1.) What are the feature differences between Yaesu, DMR, and D-Star? I can't really find a good source that talks about the features/capabilities fo these digital technologies and how they compare. They all seem the same in terms of capabilities and features. The only thing I have been able to find that different between them is that with D-Star you can call from one repeater to another repeater. 

2.) Im wanting to get a "police" scanner whether I get a handheld radio or build a SDR.  On radio reference I am a bit confused on Motorla Type II SmartZone and Project 25 Phase II.  Any APCO-25 will pick both up right?