RedSpark

So will this affect sprint in any way?

Phone pricing, network gear, push it to do VoLTE faster?

Sprint's new equipment as part of its Network Vision overhaul should readily accept a VoLTE upgrade AFAIK. I'm glad the other carriers are good competition, and they are pushing Sprint to be smart and nimble.

Sprint is supposed to be done with its 800MHz LTE buildout by the end of 2015 in areas where rebanding is complete. I wouldn't expect VoLTE to appear until at least that's completed. Probably at least a year off so that the buildout can be further densified.

That network extender is just like the airave Sprint gives to qualified customers. Their LTE footprint is good, but 1X is better and more reliable for calls. I wonder if they will have a LTE femtocell made for LTE only phones, or try to rely on WiFi calling when its rolled out for poor indoor coverage situations.

 

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I'd be very surprised if Verizon developed an LTE Femtocell. Verizon's going to launch WiFi calling and say how great it is even though T-Mobile and Sprint have offered it for quite some time.... except in the case of iPhones which is recent for T-Mobile, and even more recent for Sprint.

It'll also be interesting to see if Verizon decides to offer its own version of Sprint's WiFi Connect Router for free to qualified customers.

I take everything that Shammo says with a grain of salt... based on his comments in this article:

However, he said Wi-Fi calling was "never a top priority" for Verizon. "We built our voice platform so extensively [that] there was never a need for us to tell our customers, 'Oh, our network is not good enough so you need to go on Wi-Fi to complete your call.'"

Says the man whose company sells a Samsung Network Extender for $249.99. WiFi calling is free... so why would Verizon be in a rush for you to have that instead? (Of course, Verizon says WiFi calling is coming in Mid-2015.... I'll believe it when I see it.)

Despite the vote of confidence in CDMA, Shammo did add that Verizon Wireless remains on track to rollout LTE-only smartphones beginning early next year that can take advantage of the carrier’s growing voice-over-LTE service. The VoLTE service, which carries voice traffic as data over LTE, was launched last fall and according to Shammo was serving “several million” customers.

http://www.rcrwireless.com/20150519/carriers/cdma-remains-on-verizon-wireless-radar-600-mhz-auction-strategy-in-flux-tag2

1) I thought vzw volte coverage sucks?
2) will all vzw phones, starting with the above mentioned, lack CDMA? Will this affect spribt's phone costs?


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Verizon claims its VoLTE coverage is good. According to other articles I've read, Verizon's LTE footprint is essentially its 3G footprint at this point.

Hopefully, Kevin Crull as Sprint's new Chief Marketing Officer (taking over on May 31, 2015) can better communicate these successes.

See: http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-names-kevin-crull-chief-marketing-officer.htm

Sprint offers cutting edge technology at a great price. People should know about that... but they don't.

The shame of it is that this page: http://www.sprint.com/netdotcom/index.html?ECID=vanity:network#!/ , which lists Sprint's technology, is essentially hidden as it's only accessible via http://newsroom.sprint.com/presskits/sprint-network-vision-information-center.htm, an out-of-date Press Kit from February 2015.... and...

This Press Kit is only accessible if you go to http://newsroom.sprint.com/presskits.cfm and scroll down the list into the bowels of the archive.

How useless. I swear, Sprint is its own worst enemy sometimes.

Excuse my continuous eye rolling at WMATA.... I get the initial delay because of the PowerWave Bankruptcy, but come on!

 

http://wamu.org/news/15/04/15/metro_to_start_on_improvements_for_first_responder_radios_passenger_cell_service_in_january

Stuff like this makes me sad. Considering how many government employees regularly use the Metro, isn't there a national security interest in having complete coverage? Of course, this is in addition to the general public interest. It's a bit alarming to be out of coverage and sitting in a dark tunnel.

New iOS update has wifi calling enabled

 

http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/08/ios-8-3-expands-iphone-wifi-calls-to-sprint-in-the-u-s-ee-in-the-u-k/

 

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Fantastic!

It does not appear so on my iPhone 6+. I have been toying with it and no luck on enabling WiFi calling.

Did you go to "About" and update your carrier settings?

See: Wi-Fi Calling FAQ's

iOS Devices: Wi-Fi Calling is only available on iPhone 5c, 5s, 6, and 6 Plus models.  It requires iOS version 8.3 and the Carrier Version 19.1 or higher. To update to iOS 8.3, go to Settings>General>Software Update. To update the Carrier Version go to Settings>General>About which will trigger the update. Complete this step after the 8.3 Upgrade.

Not sure if this counts as Network Vision, but it is market-specific.... And great news!

http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/play-ball.htm

"On-air just in time for Opening Day on April 6, Sprint’s new Distributed Antenna System (DAS) will enable fans to better capture and share some of this year’s biggest moments in baseball. With a seating capacity of 37,903, Sprint – a longtime sponsor of the hometown Royals – is the only wireless carrier serving The K with a DAS. Sprint’s extensive system provides voice and data service throughout the entire stadium utilizing all three of Sprint’s spectrum bands (1.9GHz, 2.5GHz and 800MHz)."

Any KC baseball fans here?

A well-known internet troll / magenta fan-boy

Oh? Where?

This is just fuel for the fire. Fabian will love this.

 

Edit: Hi Fabian.

Who's Fabian?

Jeez. Is WiFi calling support for iOS still coming? What could be causing the delay? Sprint already supports WiFi calling on Android and it uses the same vendor (Taqua) as T-Mobile does for its WiFi calling feature.

Does anyone know the latest on WiFi Calling Support for iOS, and why it hasn't launched yet? Sprint's CFO made an announcement back on December 2, 2014 that it would launch in 60-90 days, but it's been radio silence since. What's going on?

I was at a Shark's hockey game on Saturday at Levi's stadium in Santa Clara.  Here are my observations:

* No one knew the Wi-Fi password or Wi-Fi was off.  I saw some tweets of people complaining about WiFi speeds, so I'm assuming they attended a game at the stadium before and Wi-Fi password was the same.

* Fastest speed test I got was .5 Mbit down on B41

* On many occasions, my phone would toggle between no-service and LTE every few seconds without ever getting a usable connection.  If DAS was on, it was clearly overloaded.  If DAS was off, then towers were overloaded.  

 

Either way, Sprint has a lot of work to do for next year.

 

You ought to let Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) know about this....

Looks like 3 carriers will be needed

I think this is worth tweeting Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) about to let him know...

I was at a Shark's hockey game on Saturday at Levi's stadium in Santa Clara. Here are my observations:

* No one knew the Wi-Fi password or Wi-Fi was off. I saw some tweets of people complaining about WiFi speeds, so I'm assuming they attended a game at the stadium before and Wi-Fi password was the same.

* Fastest speed test I got was .5 Mbit down on B41

* On many occasions, my phone would toggle between no-service and LTE every few seconds without ever getting a usable connection. If DAS was on, it was clearly overloaded. If DAS was off, then towers were overloaded.

 

Either way, Sprint has a lot of work to do for next year.

 

Sprint's coverage maps now show that Washington DC has Spark coverage! Yay!

(This DC market Spark launch was part of the Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Nashville, Portland, San Francisco and San Jose markets Spark launch that Sprint's CNO John Saw mentioned would happen late-February.)

Can confirm speeds < 1 mbps on band 25 in downtown Silver Spring, MD (zip code 20910). This evening I did a PRL update and for the first time saw a glimmer of band 26 though it was ephemeral and doesn't hold onto it for long. 

 

I have seen band 41 at dca reagan airport, so it looks like it is patchy. 

 

The sprint PR news report says Washington. Not DC, though who knows what they are referring to.

Did you report the Speed Issue in the Sprint Zone App?

It's Washington, DC.

See: http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2015/02/18/sprint-lte-sprint-spark-network-expansion.html?page=all

Big news for Washington DC!

See: http://www.droid-life.com/2015/02/16/sprint-is-launching-20-new-4g-lte-markets-on-february-19/

"On February 19, at least according to a Sprint’s recently updated list of 4G LTE markets, Sprint customers should see 4G LTE connections in 20+ new markets, including Washington DC, Vail, Colorado, and Maui, Hawaii."

Also see: http://newsroom.sprint.com/blogs/sprint-perspectives/sprints-network-gets-back-in-the-game.htm

"Later this month our coverage maps will show our faster 2.5GHz speeds in portions of places like Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Nashville, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Washington D.C. "

See: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article9624833.html

From The Article:

The shakeup at Sprint Corp. continues with apparent plans to update or change its familiar yellow logo.

Word of a pending action came early Sunday in a wee-hours tweet (source: https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/564315007970594817) by chief executive Marcelo Claure. He responded to a question about whether Sprint is “ever going to” update to a new logo or color.

Claure’s reply: “good question....soon..Stay tuned.”

Well, in a rare occurrence, the University of Phoenix Stadium roof was open for the Super Bowl. So, maybe the aliens beamed band 41 down through the hole in the roof.

 

AJ

Would alien coverage be considered roaming?

I use this to contact the mothership. Band 41 RF is fantastic!

Yes.  New stadium construction is made out of "wet paper bags."

 

 

AJ

Nice. :-) Wasn't sure if the University of Phoenix Super Bowl stadium would be a giant Faraday cage for Band 41 penetration.... Levi's Stadium is outdoors...

So far, the only confirmed B41 COW reports I've seen were from NASCAR events this past year. So I'm of the same thought. Although I know they are supposed to be expanding B41 to more COWs. So it's possible these may be some new ones from ALU.

And the Band 41 from the COWS reached inside the Stadium?

AJ

Good one :-)

But the COWs probably did have 2 carrier band 41. The "other" superbowl thread has this link http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-att-sprint-and-t-mobile-reveal-network-traffic-stats-super-bowl/2015-02-04. 754 GB is a lot of data. I wish there was length of time with these numbers so you could figure out Mbps

For its part, Sprint said it added mobile cell sites and that, INSIDE the stadium, it offered a 2X20 (40MHz) cellular system running on its 2.5 GHz spectrum.

I didn't think Sprint's COWS did 2.5GHz... And the DAS didn't support 2.5GHz according to released specs... So where did this Band 41 network come from?

The point I am trying to make is, their speed is artificially inflated, due to the fact that many of their users are most likely being throttled.  By throttling many, the unthrottled users or speedtesters, get a false sense of overall available bandwith.  As much as I hate to say it, it makes a case for throttling under loaded conditions.  I completely am against their prioritization of certain traffic though, in the name of a neutral net.

See: http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/11/t-mobile-forced-to-stop-hiding-slow-speeds-from-throttled-customers/

The FCC ordered T-Mobile to stop "whitelisting" speed test data traffic back in November 2014.