red_dog007

Thats pretty cool.  I emailed Apalachian Wireless about some lack of coverage in Oneida.  Small town of ~400 where there is a school.  Zero coverage in that town for anyone.  I told them to install at least a microcell for the small community.  I went there for a high school graduation and there were and are a ton of people in that little town.  

They actually replied back to me, even though I told them I have Sprint and know that they are Sprint's roaming partner! Pretty cool customer support. 

Yeah, when we got into Manchester, we just started roaming on Appalachian Wireless and my wife went through 100MB roaming already (checked via sprint.com).  That shouldn't of happened.  So not sure what happened there.

As far as Bluegrass LTE, I was driving and my wife commented on LTE outside of Sprint coverage, so that is all I got to go on.  I don't have SCP running on her phone as I just use engineering screen but was unable to look at it.   On Appalachian Wireless the LTE was 10MHz B12, ran one speed test and got 10Mbps with decent signal.  

So a full weekend of roaming in KY, LTE speeds were unthrottled until hit hard cap of 300MB.

The 3G was good on Bluegrass pulling it over 2Mbps. Appalachian Wireless isn't native roaming, and has a 150Kbps throttle, unless it just sucks as a 3G provider.

At least Bluegrass seemed like 1x was PCS and CDMA was 850MHz. CDMA was always +10dBm stronger.

I'm not 100%, but it seemed like Bluegrass Cellular counted against LTE and 3G rushing buckets. Not 100% though on that but have that sneaking suspicion.

So, if the carriers have plenty of spectrum, they don't need Dish's spectrum, this unable to get a decent price.

Seems like they are just going to start bleeding spectrum soon.

Feds should compensate with another 5x5 block license of some of that 600MHz. I don't think the G block was enough. :-D

Wasn't their last report they were at 4Mbps?  So a 25% increase at least, lol.

Anyways, 95% of sites have at least 10x10MHz, and 35% have at least 15x15MHz with the second PCS carrier.

I think most of Shentel/nTelos footprint has 50MHz of PCS.  It would seem that B41 deployment could be pretty minimal.

Also, what is going to happen to nTelos AWS?

And financing!

And BYOD! Seems like it should expand to all Android M unlocked devices but currently limited to approved devices (the ones they will sell)

I used to have RW, but back when 5GB was $30/mo and they handed credits out like candy.  Not much of a fan of these plans because I am a heavy data user, but they are nice plans and cheaper than Fi.
 

Tweet them to turn it off for customer use, lol.

Pick up a TMobile sim when they go on sale for 99cents.  Pop it in your 6P, see what coverage/speeds are like. You still may not get coverage in your school buildings, and TMo might have disabled in-network roaming.  So it could actually possibly be worse. :-O

I'm waiting for the map on their site to reflect what was said on the earnings call. When that'll happen I don't know.

It has been updated.  "Total LTE Coverage..." = Extended + Roaming LTE.  

Plus any new native coverage expansion.

The big advantage of 2.5 LTE femtocells over wifi is range; in licensed spectrum Sprint can put out a lot more power than WiFi and interference should be be much lower. Get a few Sprint customers in each big apartment building to install a femtocell+wifi router and they'll have their small cell deployment in urban areas. Or, more ambitiously, work with Big Cable to build 2.5 LTE into each gateway they rent.

I'd rather not others eat my potentially limited bandwidth speeds, eat my data caps, and me getting RIAA/MPAA notices in my email.

If Im the only one with a cell, it could be easy for a dozen or two devices to be connected to the 2.5GHz.

I saw some posts on HowardsForum suggesting it's part of a Sprint roaming deal under CCA. lilotimz was stating that. Also, always possible they have other spectrum holdings.

They only have 800MHz below Sprints 800MHz.  Southerlinc owns ~7.5MHz.  They are a roaming partner yes, but not using Sprint's spectrum, just like many other roaming partners of Sprint.

SouthernLinc won't be able to do larger than a 3x3 for LTE, but it will be below 818MHz, but still within B26 which goes down to 814MHz.

If Sprint still owns owns spectrum below 818MHz, could be good news?

That's because SouthernLinc is using it exclusively in iDEN like Nextel previously was. Due to the extremely small carriers iDEN uses (sub-1MHz), they can continue to maintain the network without public safety interference.

But they are deploying LTE.

Hmm... Says LTE coverage is at almost 300million with 70% covered by 2.5GHz.  Must include roaming LTE.

Looking at some history, Nextel used to own a lot of spectrum between 806-817MHz.  Then they got moved to 817-824MHz due to public safety.  Had to vacate 806-817MHz. 

Yet SouthernLinc got exempt from this somehow and operate largely in 813.5-817MHz. Is SouthernLinc deploying just a 3x3MHz block so they can fit in B26 and be usable as a Sprint roaming partner?

Does Sprint still own the spectrum below 817MHz?  Could Sprint eventually use that?  If they don't own that spectrum anymore, who has it and is that something Sprint would be interested in acquiring?

If another 6 or 10MHz opened up in SMR for utilization, there wouldn't really be a need to participate in 600MHz. 

No, iWireless is owned by Iowa Network Services and has a partnership with T-Mobile. From the iWireless website: Iowa Network Services is privately owned by a group of 127 Independent Telephone Companies that serve 500,000 rural Iowans.

TMobile does own a little more than 50% of the company.  The rest is owned by the teleco companies.

<p>If they did any expansion, I'd rather then do surgical expansion.  I don't care that they are the fourth largest coverage wise.  They  have been for a long time.  Even when TMobile's network was largely 2G, it was still a bigger native network.</p>

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<p>Get B41 on more macros faster.  It seems like they finished up in my city, and they seem to have only hit maybe 1/3 of the macro sites. Been a long time since I have seen a new B41 site, yet they seem to have prepped just about all the towers for the additional antennas. </p>

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<p>As far as a USCC merger, It would be pretty good for Sprint in terms of the integration investment. Would Sprint actually go through and update all the hardware at all the sites?  Seems like it could be a decent integration as most the coverage is completely new, and then in markets they both have coverage seems like there would be a lot of different integration options at hand.  But then I have no clue what kind of equipment USCC uses, how things are configured.  All I know is they have B12 running most places with some B5 here and there?</p>

Wind Mobile isn't very big still though.  It has been around for 8 years and their coverage is ahh yeah. lol. Not even LTE.  The plans are pretty decent, especially that $60 plan, but that is the promo price and to use your in-network data, you gotta pretty much live and work at home, lol. 

Wiki says they cover 44% of the population and their coverage map shows they only have a handful of cities with actual native coverage.  I'd imagine that any expansion would hit pops hard, but would still result in extremely poor coverage and not have the "nationwide" coverage the big three offer.  Even the other little four carriers cover most all the pops in the province which they operate in.

They are really doing a minimalist approach and they are being successful, but with that coverage Im sure that the big three aren't going to worry at all. 

If you want an Asian phone, go get one.  Can use it on TMobile or AT&T.  Though support will suck and you'll never get an update.  Half those phones won't even support a bunch of apps very well or just won't work at all.  Many of those devices are NOT more advanced.  If anything, they are just cheaper.  But people don't want to upgrade because there is less need too.  We are past the days where a single feature will get someone to upgrade.  When smartphones were coming out, a SOC speed increase, more RAM, screen size, screen resolution, HSPA, LTE, battery life, etc, just a single one of these would get people to upgrade.  But we are past the point of dimensioning returns.  It seriously isn't as worth it to the average consumer to upgrade so frequently anymore.

As far as spectrum stuff, that is such a pipe dream that it really isn't worth discussing at all.  Now going to three big carriers is a possibility, but that won't bring reduced prices. Look at AT&T and DirecTV merger.  What was the first thing they did, hmmm...  oh yea, they increased TV rates 2~8% for every single customer!  What happened to that bargaining power???  Carriers merging might be a lot more expensive because that actually involves network and asset consolidation which won't be cheap.  Probably even a lot of terminated contracts.

Personally, I think it would be best for Sprint to get into a position to acquire USCC.  I think USCC can float a long for a while.  Would need a decent subscriber loss to impact them though.  Even then, they might just continue to shed assets and maybe even market regions.  Would be good for Sprint to at least be ready to acquire CLR, PCS, and tower licenses. 

Shoot, as regional carriers bit the dust, I think that Sprint needs to be in a better position to buy them out, or acquire assets.  I think this is the most realistic goal for Sprint while they try to fix their debt and losses situation while still being on the lookout for assets. CCA is a great short term fix for increased "native" 3G/LTE coverage and roaming coverage, but I see these as more shortish term fixes while Sprint tries to get healthy.

What is release 11? 

My wife went to Chattanooga this weekend and had band 41. She didn't know what to do with proof and such or even checking for two carriers, but she took a screenshot of signal pro showing band 41. Not sure if this is already known

 

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Yeah, it has been in Chattanooga for a long time now.  Even shows up on the coverage map.  Coverage map is still bit generous and it is far from being deployed on every macro site.  It also seems that deployments have stopped (unless they have moved to strictly micro deployments Im not seeing)  But it was enough to have the last rootmetrics test at almost 30Mbps average across the city.

Wow BHam. Not even a 2nd B25 carrier. Haven't run into B41. Speeds Saturday were around 6~8Mbps all day.

Currently at the Indy race pulling in 15Mbps for now.

At least the experience is still smooth.

One thing I'll give Sprint ID the market seems dense. Rarely saw B25 lower than -100dBm.

I think TMo will continue to grow well as long as they continue their ad campaign and continue their perks, all while providing usable internet. All their markets still have PCS -> LTE, so that will give them a little more breathing room.

TMobile might of had an advantage here due to history. Before TMobile purchased Metro, TMobile only had a little over 30 million customers. Metro sling shot them to around 45million and through an ad campaign (who knows TMobile anyways? No one!) has successfully added customers like mad. Both companies have come from completely different pasts. TMobile is that kid no one knows who has an awesome product. Sprint is that kid who everyone already knows and don't believe what they say because it is always Coming Soon^TM

Oh, also TMo should go big on the AWS3 auction for what Dish surrendered. Chicago and Charlotte they can get 20MHz. NYC, Pittsburg, Tampa, OKC, El Paso and Boston can be 10MHz.

Isn't WiFI itself spectrum inefficient compared to where the 5G wireless standards are going? I honestly look the state of WiFi and the honest answer is that WiFi sucks in a lot of ways, as has been exposed by the LTE-U debate. Most WiFi channels around me are 2.4 GHz that all interfere with each other. Pardon me for saying that might not be a good user experience. 5 GHz is comparatively underused, but a lot of home routers don't have the ability to beam 5 GHz through a house. Compare to an LTE small cell that can easily outgun WiFi. LTE-U can do that today. LTE might not be the most robust air interface, but based on the testing that Qualcomm has done, it is more robust than LTE is at this stage. The LTE-U debate has exposed WiFi in a lot of ways. 

 

I was cynical about LTE-U at first but the more that I saw the research and the more I seriously examined the failures of WiFi the more I became open to a different approach. 

 

As for 5G, I think that we're too early in the process to speak too definitively about it. That said, vendors like Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson (Sprint's primary vendors with Alcatel-Lucent sucked into Nokia) are making far more headway on 5G than I suspected they would be making a year ago. It's the possibility that 5G could fracture into different technological tracks that scares the hell out of me with 5G. A common standard needs to be reached. 

What do you mean, inefficient?  

5GHz is unlicensed spectrum that isn't limited to WiFi technology.  Same for 2.4GHz, 900MHz, 3.5Ghz, etc.  2.4GHz is crowded just because 60MHz isn't a lot of spectrum in today's world.

There are some issues with LTE-U.  Cellular companies will be limited to broadcasting power of 5GHz.  Currently, the max output is 1watt in 225MHz of the spectrum, the lower 100MHz and upper 125MHz.  So I'd expect cellular companies will broadcast largely in just 225MHz of the spectrum to use that 1 watt output vs the 250mW for the middle channels.

I also was recently explained, that LTE-U won't play nicely with WiFi.  If both WiFi and LTE share some channels, WiFi will get killed and have really degraded performance.  WiFi is polite.  WiFi listens for others and broadcasts when no one else is. But LTE-U broadcasts all the time, even when it doesn't need too, and only lets up just enough to meet the federal regulations.  This 225MHz is practically what all 5GHz WiFi routers currently broadcast in.  If this really is the case, I won't be much of a fan for LTE-U unless they use the middle 5GHz channels. 

TMobile is very lucky to be alive.  TMobile got a lot in AWS1 auction.  But then MetroPCS gave them a lot of spectrum which got TMobile to go after the 700A acquisitions.  Then they also go some decent spectrum from the failed AT&T merger.  If Sprint had purchased MetroPCS, we don't know what would have happened, but TMo would be a lot more lacking and wouldn't not have gone after 700A spectrum.  Shoot, AT&T might have been able to acquire TMo.  We'd have three big players instead of four.

It really isn't the FCC fault.  Spectrum is limited, and each auction someone else is giving up their spectrum.  700 and 600 MHz TV broadcasters are giving up spectrum.  AWS3, government is giving up spectrum.  Sprints 800MHz, local and state governments had to relocate.  Then Dish is sitting on a lot of spectrum, Ligado has a good bit of spectrum.  That Ligado and Dish both have a lot of repurposed satellite spectrum for LTE terrestrial use.  The government imo is doing a decent job in repurposing spectrum for a hugely growing market. 

Then TMobile only spent half what they allocated for AWS3, and they should have allocated more.  Then look at Sprint with the BRS/EBS.  BRS auction went for nothing.  Clearwire went around scooping up EBS licenses for nothing which too is reallocated spectrum.  Everyone thought it was junk spectrum, because at that time data was not a huge issue and could easily argue it was junk.  But now everyone would kill to get their hands on 20 or 40MHz of the stuff.  Sprint bought the remaining 50% stake in Clearwire for just $3.3 billion!  Would have been cheaper if it wasn't for Dish!  And now you have some major carriers testing the use of unlicensed 3.5GHz and 5GHz which the Feds have opened up a lot spectrum there.   Dish and Ligado alone are sitting on some +/-100MHz depending on the market.

This issue is time, planning, trends, risk taking, and money and you can't really blame the FCC too much for that.  Especially when some of the spectrum was acquired cheaply or been repurposed.

If anything I'd say we are lucky to have the amount of spectrum for LTE/cellular that we do, that we have four nationwide carriers and still lots of regional carriers.  And still lots of unused total spectrum across all spectrum holders in any given market.