Trip

I'm sorry to hear you've had a bad experience; as you know, places like UPS and Fed Ex are not immune from individual bad apples either. All of my USPS experiences have been wonderful. In addition, I do much more mailing through USPS (sending and receiving) than via UPS or Fed Ex and yet I have had far worse delays, damages, and issues with either of them than USPS. I've never attempted a pick up same day like that from any of the three. I wouldn't have even thought you could do that, since the box is presumably sitting on the truck being driven around until the close of business. No, only the US Postal Service is required to pre-fund pensions for the next 75 years. Every other agency does not have to do that. - Trip

The post office works fine, and would be making a profit were it not required to prefund retirement pensions for employees for 75 years over 10 years. That's right, the post office, by mandate of Congress, has to prefund retirement pensions for employees who aren't even born yet, to the tune of $5.7 billion per year. If not for that, it would be making profits. Interesting fact: The post offices losses last year were $5.5 billion dollars. That's almost exactly the amount of the unnecessary payment Congress stuck them with. - Trip

From your computer, go to the phone (not an SD card if you have one), in the SignalCheck directory. It should be there, and the date/time is in the name. - Trip

I don't like this logic, because I don't think it makes any sense. It's the same logic that leads people to say things like "why shouldn't we put cell phones on the ham radio bands? When the power goes out, there will be nothing on them and the ham equipment can be used then." Missing, entirely, is the fact that nobody is going to spend thousands of dollars on equipment they can't even test, let alone enjoy, except when the world is collapsing around them. I can't imagine TV broadcasters or viewers spending the money to implement OTA solely as a fall-back for when everything else fails if it can't be used for anything else. - Trip

Yes, my point was that you said the indicator can only be either on or off, but I thought it could also flash. - Trip

Can't you also flash the roaming indicator? I thought I remembered seeing that somewhere along the way. - Trip

We used to have things like this for TV licenses. Stations were awarded licenses essentially based on promises they made about things like how much local programming they would provide and other feel-good things like that. Losing applicants would sue claiming the process was unfair, often dragging out the licensing process for years. Then, once built, there was really no good way to enforce the promises. Pull licenses and you deprive viewers of one of very few options. Fine stations and they might go out of business, depriving viewers of one of very few options. In the wireless world, I don't think it would be any different. In your example, every carrier would have "active plans to expand" and thus insist it get a bunch of spectrum. If it didn't get built, they would say "plans change." If you pull licenses, existing customers lose out. If they didn't get what they want, lawsuits would follow about how the process was unfair. Basing spectrum distribution on current customer levels would guarantee that an upstart could never get off the ground, and with every network having to be national, almost nobody would be able to fund a new competitor since they would need billions of dollars out of the gate instead of growing as the business grows. Then, on the alternative, what happens if more companies show up than spectrum is available for? Remember that AWS-3, as an example, had 15 MHz of uplink-only spectrum plus 25x25. So if Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Dish, US Cellular, and nTelos, for example, had all shown up for nationwide blocks, what would you do? How do you choose which ones are worthy and which ones aren't? Who gets that uplink-only spectrum? Auctions came about primarily as a means of making the licensing process more clear cut and less likely to lead to lawsuits. I won't sit here and claim that I like them or think they are a good idea, just that they're probably the best of many not so good ideas. - Trip

Absolutely. If anyone's looked at RabbitEars, what it is and how much work went into it, it's probably clear what my opinion on OTA broadcasting is. And I would point out that it's not just the elderly, poor, and rural viewers, but also people tired of spending money on a boatload of cable channels they don't watch. My parents and my wife's parents have never had cable or satellite, as an example, for reasons of cost more than anything else. I'm in total agreement that we need rural fiber in the same way that we got rural power and telephone. Not that I have any policy-making influence. - Trip

So then if a phone has to disable B12 if it doesn't support VoLTE, does it also need to disable B5 for the same reason then? That's the logical leap I'm making here, since a T-Mobile customer roaming on US Cellular could wind up in the same boat while on B5 instead of B12. - Trip

Do T-Mobile phones not support Band 5? US Cellular has plenty of places where they have LTE on Band 5 but not Band 12, and the same issue would apply there. - Trip

I'm going to respond right in order without breaking up your post: Yes, that's correct. The amount of spectrum available for sale to the wireless companies depends strictly on the amount of spectrum offered up by broadcasters. Broadcasters are a licensed service, and although many licensed before the 1980s received their spectrum "for free", they did so in exchange for tough regulations, as you imply, and at a time when spectrum didn't have the value it has today. The UHF band, in particular, was considered to be a wasteland for more than 20 years; the FCC quite literally could not give the spectrum away. So the value of it would have been zero at the time. If someone buys a stock and it appreciates in value, do you then not allow a person to sell it at a profit because they didn't pay the going price today? The principle is that once a broadcaster has a license, and unless they violate their license terms and are no longer considered eligible to hold the license, they have the right to have that license renewed at the end of their license term. Wireless companies, I believe, are treated the same way; I don't think they have their licenses pulled at the end of the term and they go back up for auction. So in this case, the broadcasters are being offered money to turn in their licenses and forgo renewal. And TV licenses sold after the 80s were auctioned, so the handful licensed after that date were paid for. I will also point out, on top of all of that, that TV is a free service, whereas you have to pay for your cell phone. So of course the cell phone carriers will have more money to pay for spectrum, all other things being equal. In effect, they were given "free" spectrum to provide a free service to the public. If Verizon, AT&T, Dish, and Sprint were all to sit out, T-Mobile and a handful of other parties like CCA members and non-Dish speculators likely wouldn't bid enough to support the payments to broadcasters (unless they were willing to bid against themselves for some reason?). Some spectrum may be sold, yes, but probably not 84 MHz at that point, probably a smaller number. - Trip

You're missing my point. You specifically said the FCC made a mess of it. I'm curious what parts you feel the FCC made a mess of as opposed to what the FCC was required to do by the law Congress passed. The FCC is implementing a law Congress passed to voluntarily allow TV stations to sell spectrum to wireless companies with the FCC acting more or less as a broker. - Trip

How? Recall that Congress passed the law requiring the FCC to conduct this two sided auction using market forces to determine the amount of spectrum to be recovered and whatnot. I will also point out that there is no more "virgin spectrum" sitting out there unlicensed, unused, and waiting for wireless companies to buy it up and deploy it. From here on out, any spectrum reallocated to anyone is going to have to come from somewhere else and presumably someone is going to have to be paid to relocate out of it. - Trip

They don't. Once TV stations submit their applications will there be an idea of how much spectrum. Then the reverse auction happens, determining how much money needs to be raised, then the forward auction, where the carriers bid and money is raised. If money raised is less than money needed, the amount of spectrum goes down, and the reverse and forward auctions repeat. - Trip

But the auction is voluntary for broadcasters. If wireless guys don't show up, and thus the reserve and the price the TV stations want for the spectrum isn't met, then the whole thing doesn't happen regardless of which you think "ought" to have it. - Trip

The band plan has been adopted, and will be nationwide, however, certain licenses may not be sold as TV stations may occupy that spectrum. Which licenses those are, we don't know yet, and can't until the auction starts. - Trip

I don't think it changes how many stations show up, just how many of them may get bought out. I think they'll largely keep their buy-out prices the same and so if there is less competition and thus less revenue with which to pay broadcasters, less spectrum will be available and fewer stations will be bought. It does make the chance of the auction going through more than one stage more likely, I suspect. - Trip

Why would a regional carrier want nationwide spectrum? More importantly, how would they afford to pay for or build out nationwide spectrum? - Trip

One step closer: https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/premerger-notification-program/early-termination-notices/20151591 FTC won't block it. (Not that it would have been expected.) - Trip

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-nears-new-deal-for-cell-service-throughout-tunnel-system/2015/09/21/9653d3da-5d41-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html Metro. - Trip

Question, if the phone shows as "Roaming" when connected to "Roaming+" partners, does that mean the phone will still drain its battery continually scanning for non-roaming service? - Trip

Only if there's any thought that EV-DO has changed. - Trip

Since I'm comparing the 55 series to the 56 series this time, a lot of stuff doesn't line up, probably due to extra EV-DO lines. I'm going to have to go through line-by-line, I think. EDIT: Without being able to know what 3G is new versus what's a change from 55 to 56, I've just analyzed the 1X parts. Geography 7: Added 4305, 93. (Roaming) Geography 12: Removed 362, 5652, 5274 Geography 13: Added 4307. (Roaming) Quick check says 93 is Verizon, 4305 and 4307 are SI Wireless, 362/5652/5274 are Cellcom. EDIT2: Quick check of Cellcom's coverage map indicates they are using the Verizon network for nationwide LTE. Wonder if they terminated their deal with Sprint as a result. - Trip

Not yet. I've been sick all weekend and haven't really felt like scouring it. - Trip

I had two Monday, both with my wife on the same tower as I was (I was in the store, she was in the car). Before that... last one may have been in June. - Trip