red_dog007

USCC using B5 for LTE?  Im near USCC territory and go into their territory a few times a year.  At least I'll have 3G now which is veryable usable which will be good, but still just wondering.

East TN between Cleveland and Knoxville and then West North Carolina west of Ashville.  Anyone know if these areas are using B5 and/or B12 LTE?

If it is B12, just another reason to upgrade phones sooner. :-D

Yes and I notice now northern WI isn't part of Roaming+

 

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

The updated coverage map still shows Roaming+ under "3G and More"

?

Oh what!?  It looks like Appalachian Wireless is no longer on 3G roaming!?

 

AFAIK, the client doesn't need to support it. I could be mistaken.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

MU-MIMO requires client support.

I ordered this today.

 

With $100, I figured I'd give it a try. I was going to purchase the ASUS one, but they don't seem to have it widely available yet. I'm mainly interested in expanded range/MU MIMO. I'll look up the ASUS reviews later and see how gimmicky the gamer's "VPN" is.

I've been really excited about this router but dang the smallnet comparison is so mediocre. I wanted this thing to be the top on every chart but it isn't.

Hopefully the range makes up for it, but all my old routers get repurposed as APs as it is.

Myself I'll worry about MUMIMO once half or more of my devices support it. The dual band 5GHz is a lot more interesting to me.

What do you consider way above that?

My phone generally cuts out near -130dBm before switching to 3G.  It can hang on to the low and mid 120s all day long.  However, I have seen it go as high as -138dBm before it cut out.

-118 isn't nothing.  Even for B25.

yeah i didn't figure it would work, was just throwing that out there.

 

my coworker will be at his parents house this weekend in NW iowa where there is zero sprint service but plenty of USCC LTE, he has a nexus 5, i'll have him check and see if he gets any LTE while he is up there.

Im not sure if you can on your phone, but on my N5 I have a tool that lets me disable CDMA/EVDO completely, so I can run only LTE.  Would be a solid way to test USCC LTE access if there is no Sprint LTE at all. 

What will become of Band 4!??!

With USCC spectrum already deployed, might as well just keep that spectrum, the AWS and 700A that is. 

I'd use the AWS to spectrum swap for PCS.  I'd keep all the 700A. 

Hmm..  How interested would Sprint be? 

They deploy dual band equipment?

Will ntelos even need a PRL once Shenntal takes over and takes over towers?

End devices have to support MU-MIMO, which are very few.  That is a future proof technology. 

What a lot of routers do now is broadcast two 5GHz bands and the router will automatically assign devices to a given 5GHz band based on the devices MIMO.   This really speeds up throughput as 1x1 devices can really slow down 2x2 and 3x3 MIMO devices. 1x1 devices share one band and 2x2/3x3 devices share another.  This technology works now so I'd lean towards getting that.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/32451-mu-mimo-vs-xstream-the-coming-battle-for-wi-fi-airtime

I'd look at smallnetbuilder.  Find what you want in a router and at the price point you want.  Persoanlly, I'd get at least something with three exteneral antennas at a minimum unless you live in a small studio apartment.

Looks like some of the off-network roaming evdo coverage in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas has been upgraded to Roaming+

Seems kind of ironic that T-Mobile claims to have much, much more LTE coverage than Sprint. Here's the Sensorly map of both carriers, condensed into a GIF.

EDIT: Won't let me link a GIF, so you'll have to look at the direct link.

Newer coverage takes time to get mapped. There is newish (6months) TMo 2G -> LTE coverage that still hasn't been mapped yet. A lot of area too. Ive been thinking of getting an elcheapo phone just to get it mapped.

Anyone ever actually  use public wifi?  I live in the land of 10Gbps and all the places I go use public wifi (for testing purposes only), I am luck to get 1Mbps and ping is always over 100ms.  Yeah, not going to use that.  That is on par with what I get on Sprint EVDO/eHPRD around here.

Its rare to go to a business that actually has usable speeds, and just as rare have no ToS wall.

Yes. And AT&T will deploy WCDMA only at new sites and Tmo will deploy some sites with 700MHz LTE only. So it's not unprecedented at new sites.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

Exactly.  Don't forget that TMo is skipping HSPA on 2G to LTE conversion sites too.  

But even 700MHz is a little different than 2G to LTE.  700MHz, you have to have a 700Mhz phone, few do.  2G to LTE sites, everyone still has service.  Those with 3G only phones will still maintain the same level of service after LTE.  This would be closer to Sprint skipping out on EVDO.  If you have a 3G/WiMax only device before, your level of service is the same (if not better due to now native coverage).  

There are a lot of stragglers, but doesn't mean that they need to support their technology to the fullest.  They will still have 1x for talk, text and data which is what they had already.  (Unless EVDO roaming, of which data buckets are really small anyways.)  

You aren't negatively effecting anyone by building out native coverage and skipping out on EVDO.  Just like TMo isn't negatively effecting anyone by building out 2G to LTE only. 

It is completely different then 700MHz only build out, shutting down HSPA on AWS, or shutting down WiMax. You are negatively effecting customers in these situations. With Sprint, you only are if you build out in a EVDO roaming area and you don't have an LTE phone.  But then LTE phones again you can pick up for dollars and they will be better than whatever 3G/WiMax device you have. 

Guess we can agree to disagree.  Not much else to really say. But I like my idea better.

The problem is that this would hang customers with non-LTE devices out to dry and sprint probably won't do that.

You wouldn't leave anyone to hang and dry.  The only people who would be effected are those who have a 3G/Wimax only device, and roam on 3G.  They will now get put onto native 1x.  Otherwise, the only difference if you have a 3G/Wimax only device is you'd be going from roaming 1x to native 1x. This will actually help even cause you'll use less of your roaming bucket allotment.  

Plus if you are on a 3G or WiMax device, you really need an upgrade anyways.  There are always stragglers when it comes to phones, and those stragglers shouldn't hold back advancements for the rest of the masses.  They can get a brand new LTE phone that is way better for bucks these days. 

Im not saying current coverage needs to nix EVDO, just new coverage.  Though that day will come when EVDO gets nixed nationwide, and you bet that there will still be people without LTE smartphones.

With future buildout, I know Sprint will deploy 3G EVDO, but there really is no need is there.  In the more new areas, they could just survive on 1x and LTE.  Do we know if Sprint is considering not doing EVDO with new coverage area expansions?

Keep in mind the already existing WiMAX license protection sites that could be converted to Network Vision full build sites:

 

AJ

Are those sites using gear where Sprint can activate an LTE carrier?

There's no specific way to know. You just have to hear if it is.

If you can even tell the difference.  I used HD Voice (Currently intergrated with GV), Hangouts, and Skype.  I can't really tell the difference.  Even when I was on Republic Wireless, WiFi vs HD/Non-HD voice.  The difference was VoIP would be slighly louder.

What I notice and bugs the tar out of me is when a smartphone doesn't have ambient noise cancellation on phone calls.

I am going to Walla Walla in Dec.  I am wondering if B41 is live there.  I see that their is a single Clear site there. I'd imagine B41 would be live if this is an LTE compatible site, but I don't know.

Last time I was there, LTE was on only two of the towers and not very high power.  But looks like all four are active and full power now.

It is something like nine towers, but their coverage map has LTE roaming listed on USCC coverage map  They are in Kansas.

http://www.uscellular.com/coverage-map/coverage-indicator.html

Take to Sprint's twitter and facebook!?  I want to lease this device dangit!

You should check out the Backhaul Vendors by Market thread in the Premier section 

Does Sprint provide any of their own backhaul?  Being Tier 1 provider, always wondered if Sprint provides backhaul to those sites that might make sense.

Or maybe if they cut some deals to ISPs they provide backhaul to that provide backhaul to their sites.

I have the nexus 5 and the note 5 and trust me the nexus 5 has inferior rf performance in comparison. On band 25 keeps up with the note 5.

 

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Oh I know it does.  I have the S6 and N5.  The big thing is the N5 won't get on it all the time.  I drive the same road every day and some days it connects and holds onto it forever, while other days I might get right up on a tower, even pass it before it switches over to 41.  Then there are some areas I go through that have B41 that the N5 just won't connet at all some days and other days it will. 

It gets the signle, and when it has it is good.  It'll hold onto it forever.  Just that it doesn't proactiavely hunt for and connect too it.

Sprint has tweaked there devices to hold on to band 41 much longer. Since Sprint does not have much control over the nexus 5 and 6 there band 41 performance is not as good. No CA just makes matters worse.

 

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My N5 will hold onto B41 just fine up to about -120dBm if it has a B41 signal.  Just that if it is on B26/25, it won't jump off a decent signal onto a weaker B41 signal.

Shows a lot more spark in my area where it doesn't exist for me.

 

Sent from my M8

I've noticed it is hard to really tell.  The coverage for my area is fairly accurate considering B41 isn't on every tower yet.  What I have noticed is because not every tower has it yet, I will connect to B26/25 because it might be -70 to -80dBm.  I might get a B41 single in the -110 ~ -115dBm range at that same spot but I won't stay on it long.   

Plus then the phone makes a big difference I guess.  My wife's S6 will hold onto a B41 signal much better and much longer.  She gets B41 where I won't on my Nexus 5.  Before I'd figure the map is wrong because my N5 doesn't get B41 there, but then I go through there with my wifes phone and B41.  So then I go "yep, coverage map was right..."