red_dog007

There is a local hamfest in the morning. Going to be hitting that up hopefully. Im not really sure what my next radio is going to be. I went to a local club meet and they were demonstrating DMR. Unfortunately don't know how it's features are any different than D-Star and Fusion. We have repeaters in the area for all, but D-Star is the most popular still. I need to talk to some local guys to see if those on Digital are all part of talkgroups. Going digital seems like things can just get siloed off. One thing that Im not 100% sure on, my work uses DMR. At first I thought I could just get a DMR radio, tune in and listen. But I'd have to figure out their ID and talkgroup? Lot of cool features with digital, but being solo at this there is no point really. Plus I am more interested in local things, and lot of people still on analog, and a lot of towers really only get used by their owner. Ive been looking at a Yaesu analog 2m only mobile radio, and a little more expensive 2m/70cm C4FM capable radio.

Im not sure where China is in regards to 5G, but I can see them blitz past anyone and everyone. When you look at some of the things they are accomplishing, its really amazing just how much and how fast they are doing things over there. If they apply this to 5G. China Tower said they just need 3 years. With how fast infrastructure goes up over there, I'd believe it.

Everyone posting their call sign. lol. Something I'd do over PM. Search for call sign, get address. I think I'll just end up getting a Yaesu mobile radio. I think at least one of them can be modded for GMRS (have a few repeaters in the area for this) but not sure if those support C4FM as well. I'll just consider C4FM as a bonus. It seems very much like a mess on the digital side. Totally not good for new HAMs. Seems like once you get into it, then choose a digital. Seems a bit more silo'd off from good old analog. But handheld digital radios are much cheaper now, so new HAMs will be more likely to have digital capabilities and not really fully understand what they want or what they have.

http://www.bluegrassars.org/ They might know of some other local clubs you can see about when they have tests.

So what it is not Sprint relevant? It doesn't need too. 😑 I posted in General Discussion where it says: Have something on your mind? Doesn't fit with any other category? Post about it here. Off-topic threads are OK. Figured with some people serious into cellular, might be some HAMs or even non HAMs (like GMRS, CB, etc).

So, anyone into HAM as well? I got my license 3yrs ago. Never really got into it. Though starting to get back into it a little bit. I only have a handheld. A Yaesu FT-60R w/ the GMRS/MURS TX mod. Been looking at getting a mobile unit and police scanner as well.

Nope, not nationwide. The amount they hold can vary too. They just hold a lot where it really matters. There are still lots of BRS/EBS out there. There is actually a bi-yearly 2.5GHz auction. https://selectspectrum.com/sla.html

Though, B5 is on the list, and for 5MHz sizes. Makes me think some technical or formal limitation to have a 5G ESMR band. It wasn't until 2012 that 3G and LTE utilization were approved by the FCC for ESMR between 813.5-824/858.5- 869 MHz. With there being no 5G n26 band, Sprint and others might need to formally request for 5G utilization in that spectrum space. https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0524/FCC-12-55A1.pdf But the FCC report does stat "Licensees will therefore be able to transition networks deployed using EA-based 800 MHz SMR licenses from legacy narrowband technologies to 3G as well as other advanced technologies including LTE, in order to better compete in the commercial wireless marketplace." So it sounds like 5G would be covered, but maybe better to formally request before a band is made for ESMR?

Google has a lot but it can get very technical. This has a short snippet on it but has some graphs to go with it. https://medium.com/5g-nr/5g-nr-the-new-radio-interface-for-5g-2b769a59ea80 SCS is subcarrier spacing in OFDM. The TLDR: say you have 10x10 LTE carrier, but it is made up of many subscarriers that are of a certain specific sizes. The SCS, say 15kHz, is how far apart the spacing is between these subcarriers are.

Where have you read that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands This page says 5MHz is limited to only having 15kHz SCS. http://www.sharetechnote.com/html/5G/5G_FR_Bandwidth.html#38_101_1_Table_5_3_5_1

Why would CSpire be shown as native coverage? I'd imagine a map error. Does Sprint have some new roaming tier that CSpire is now part of?

Sprint is spending lots of money. TMobile has been doing just fine with $4~5 billion on CapEx for several years. Sprint is back up at this level. If they maintain it, it just depends where they'd want to put that money. They have excellent extended roaming agreements, and have one with TMobile for three more years. Out of site upgrades, site density, market growth expansion and new native coverage, I can see new native coverage being at the bottom of the list due to these agreements. Especially if Sprint wants to be a city leader in 5G NR.

I'd also look into WISP vendors. Lots of WISPS use 2.5GHz LTE for their network, the equipment does exist. I'd imagine that there would be several available vendors. However Bai Cells comes to mind. Though if this will be roughly the prices to expect just for a base station ($7000) https://www.ispsupplies.com/Baicells-NOVAR9-402-B41, needing multiples per tower for all your towers. A cheaper 250mW unit is still almost $2000! I'd look into the cost of deploying on several different unlicensed frequencies for WiFi. Stuff like Ubuiqiti gear is significantly cheaper and heavy used in the WISP area. The cost of a high end antenna and basestation is the same price for an Antenna for this Baicells. $400~500. With WiFi you have loads of options, cheap and flexible deployment options and capabilities, and if you want a mobile like experience in heavy trafficked areas you can still do that so long as you can get power to it. Plus as fixed wireless, even 5GHz has some pretty solid ranges.

If the merger goes through, how long you think it will be before we can use non-Sprint compatible phones? Have the OnePlus 6T on my upgrade list.

Even Qualcomm is lumping LTE-AP into the "5G ecosystem". https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/5g/lte-advanced-pro https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/accelerating-mobile-ecosystem-expansion-5g-era-lte-advanced-pro <- I like slide 6 From what I get, Qualcomm is putting LTE (specifically 'LTE Advance Pro' defined as 3GPP Release 13+) and 5G NR under the 5G umbrella. The webpage even says "LTE Advanced Pro (3GPP Release 13+) will be submitted along with 5G NR to fully meet the IMT-2020 5G requirements." If ATT is going by this definition, I think 5G Evolution is a great name for the LTE side and what ATT is doing might just become standard and not because ATT changed it with 'loose' marketing terminology.

Bad demos? VZW is pulling 1Gbps on their 5G. ATT pulling 200Mbps isn't too shabby either. I imagine that something else is going on as we know that 100MHz is capable of more. But this is just the starting point. Supposedly ATTs is 5G NR and VZW stuff is NR capable. The badness is coming from ATT going 5G E on their LTE. But really, with LTE Advanced Pro (Release 13 and up), these releases are pushing to compliment 5G. If you wanna call it 5GE that is honestly fine with me. It isn't the 4G LTE we had at Release 8 anymore. From Qualcomms documents on LTE Advanced Pro, Release 14 meets 7 out 10 5G broadcast requirements. These releases are on the pathway to 5G NR and bridges LTE even closer to 5G. Evolution is a pretty good word choice. Beats Pre-5G NR, lol. Sure people want to say "oh it causes confusion" but when someone connects to 5G NR on 5MHz of TMobile's spectrum, they are going to be pretty damn confused and want to be OFF 5G.

Yeah, and when TMobile turns on 5G NR on 600MHz everyone is going to think it's a joke. Reddit / articles are poking ATT because their 5G+ was 200Mbps. Well wait till you ride TMobiles 5MHz of 5G!

A great deal was a couple years ago. You pay 40% more than I do for two lines. Could also get a single line for $60. $140 for two lines is crazy. If I had to pay that I'd just get on an MVNO and save $100/mo. That whole statement from TMobile is loaded full of dumb. They are basically saying "yeah, we won't have anything 5G for a while now. Since we aren't first, lets poo on others accomplishments". Like seriously, they are getting to where they are trying to make fun on VZW for using a clever marketing term. TMobile should do better with their PR time.

Government doesn't care who is bidding so long as they pay. If you don't meet build out deadlines then they get it back. Dish isn't the only one to do this. It is part of the agreement so it is expected to happen. Shoot, Dish even paid a premium to the FCC for PCS H-Block to extended AWS4 buildout deadlines. Most of the spectrum they have really that is due soon for deployments is AWS4. We can actually thank dish for making this cellular spectrum. They got it on the cheap, originally as satellite spectrum. They asked FCC if it can be used for cellular and the FCC put buildout deadlines on it. Dish clearly didn't want to build a network. They wanted to buy one or partner with one. Didn't work, so now they build.

So, TMobile has stated that if the merger goes through, you'll be able to go into a Sprint store but be put on TMobile's network. What if you already have a plan on Sprint. Would I be able to get say a OnePlus 6T, activate it on my account and it be on TMobile's network?

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I'd imagine that B41 on LTE will be used for a while while 5G equipment gets deployed. Especially by the time the merger wraps up Sprint will have B41 on a vast majority of their macros. Already near 70% aren't they? Until a large chunk of phones support 5G, adding ~50million customers while removing 60MHz of LTE seems crazy. I imagine this will be a slow multiple year process. It took Tmobile 2 years with Metro, ~10million customers and shutting down 10,000 sites. Yeah, Tmobile has experience here, but this is 5x the project, nationwide, and they are talking about taking it at a per market basis while getting it done in the same amount fo time? Plus we don't even know any restrictions the FCC may place on Tmobile that could mess with timelines. Seems very optimistic. If they can pull it off, more power to them, but it's a huge project!

Ah, B30 went 5x5 there as well. Seems like this is widespread. 10x10 on B30 is interfering with SiriusXM services. SiriusXM and AT&T have always had and are still hashing out interference issues which have negatively impacted SiriusXM services. Get too close to a B30 sites and you lose your service. Apparently 5x5 is as well but not as bad. Apparently the fix might be to co-locate SiriusXM terrestrial repeaters at B30 sites. SiriusXM already has high powered repeaters in major markets, but those aren't enough to overcome interference issues once you get too close to a B30 site. Makes me once if this will stop or slow down B30 deployments. I remember AT&T saying something like deploying on just 5MHz isn't worth itl

Also, don't forget that Sprint users consume more data than VZW users on cellular. This will add some offset into the number of additional customers VZW has. https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/04/study-consumer-data-consumption-q1-2017-released.html https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/10/28/heres-how-much-smartphone-data-americans-are-using.aspx From these two separate reports, 1 Sprint customer equals roughly 1.25~1.3 VZW customers.

You guys forget VZW is talking about laying off 3x higher number than GM? That business is way more inline than the car industry. VZW wants to be at almost 100k employees, almost 50% of the number of employees they had back in 2007. But I'd imagine that there are a lot of hidden people behind contract companies. If Sprint/TMobile promise job creation, and the merger gets approved, whoever is in office can say "we were promised" if New-TMobile does massive layoffs and deflect blame from the government to the company. "We approved this merger cause we were promised thousands of new jobs. This company lied and should be punished!!!" Now New-TMobile is the villain and really have no defense other than staying silent. Though, unless these things are in writing... which is always overlooked. On the job growth, During the consolidation there will be job losses. But over this time period there will also be loads of new work consolidating the company. This will be a boom for contract companies. These numbers are always hidden from corporate numbers. The amount of CAPEX is going to stay the same (combined) if not increase even more. But a combined company I think in the long term could have better job growth. Both companies have business lines the others do not have. I think long term a combined company has greater ability and potential to be much larger than what they can do on their own. Become a larger force like VZW or AT&T as a whole. Have greater buying power or interest in acquisitions to fledge out other lines of business. Ultimately lead into stronger job growth then these companies can achieve on their own directly (corp jobs) and indirectly (contract jobs/work). From 2013-2017 both companies combined have gone from 78k to 81k employees. Sprint has already done the major axing of employees, being 25% less than where they were in 2011. And TMobile has been at basically zero employee growth the last 3 years. Not that I agree or disagree with the merger. Just straight out the gate, lot of new work will be needed. CAPEX will still be up so covers all new deployments, upgrades across all bands, 5G deployments, etc. There will be loads of tower consolidations, etc. A laid off job in a corp store might be replaced with a new job somewhere else. Long term, things could get interesting with continued growth in wireless, new lines of business, old lines of business. But then a lot of retail jobs could get nixed that won't be accounted for in official numbers cause everyone is a dealer. Or things could just go utterly sideways.