RedSpark

Big day at the FCC!: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/ctia-cheers-fcc-decision-to-tweak-rules-favor-5g-infrastructure-siting http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-statement-on-fccs-adoption-order-that-accelerates-wireless-broadband-deployment-by-removing-barriers-to-infrastructure-investment.htm

Jay Bluhm is VP of Network Planning at Sprint (https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-taking-a-wait-and-see-approach-to-5g).... and he’s the VP of the Board of Directors at CCA, which also filed comments opposing this per the Article: https://ccamobile.org/20142015-board-of-directors CCA represents roughly 100 smaller wireless network operators including T-Mobile and Sprint. Dr. Saw references Jay here: https://twitter.com/sprintcto/status/967066008195424256

Anyone else notice the new “Customer and Location Data” option as part of the My Sprint App update for iOS released yesterday? I read the associated Privacy Agreement. Curious to see what Sprint is doing with this.

Hopefully this improves this year.

Agreed. Glad they made this transition to Google Maps for the Coverage Map. When you Report a Network Issue in the My Sprint Mobile App for iOS, Sprint actually uses Apple Maps.

Here comes Capex! http://investors.sprint.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2018/Sprint-Corporation-Announces-Private-Placement-Offering-of-Wireless-Spectrum-Backed-Notes/default.aspx ”...up to $3,937,500,000 of wireless spectrum-backed notes in two tranches”

Since you paid full retail for a device, it doesn’t make sense in my opinion to stay on an old plan which has a subsidy meant for 2 Year Contracts (that are no longer available).... unless you have a discount that outweighs switching. One line of Unlimited Freedom will cost you $60/Month with AutoPay Discount Included and before any taxes or fees. If you qualify for a Corporate Discount, that’s an additional $5/Month off, so you’re at $55/Month with AutoPay, before taxes and Fees. Unlike your current plan, Unlimited Freedom also includes 10 GB of High Speed LTE Mobile Hotspot per Month. As far as International Roaming on Sprint, Global Roaming is the new Add On, and it includes a “Premium International Experience” on Unlimited Freedom. If you currently have Open World for International Roaming, it is no longer offered. If you switch to Global Roaming, you can’t get it back. In short, I think you should switch to Unlimited Freedom.

http://fox4kc.com/2018/03/09/sprint-to-eliminate-500-jobs-from-overland-park-campus-in-upcoming-weeks/ There are currently about 6,000 employees at Sprint HQ in Overland Park, Kansas.

Where in the territory?

If you’re aware of specific locations in NYC that are wrong on the coverage map, you should post them in the Sprint Subreddit Coverage Map thread and tag /u/Craig-S who interfaces with the Map Team. He does a great job following up on this stuff.

Now with more non-ionizing radiation!

Sorry... what would it be?

Sprint’s Massive MIMO deployment (and 5G launch in the first half of 2019 based on Marcelo’s recent Tweet: https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/970816490155970560) could make a huge difference for performance in Super Bowl cities in: 2019: Atlanta, GA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_LIII 2020: Miami Gardens, FL: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_LIV) 2021: Tampa, FL: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_LV) 2022: Los Angeles, CA: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_LVI) Perhaps the 800 MHz rebanding will be done by then!

Atlanta, the host city of Super Bowl LIII on February 3, 2019 (http://mercedesbenzstadium.com/events/super-bowl-liii/), is actually one of Sprint’s first six cities mentioned for Massive MIMO: Sprint Unveils Six 5G-Ready Cities; Significant Milestone Toward Launching First 5G Mobile Network in the U.S. ”Customers in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles will begin experiencing 5G-like capabilities, including significant increases in data speed and capacity, as Sprint rolls out advanced network technology called Massive MIMO. Sprint will aggressively expand to additional markets including Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. later this year. In 2018 and 2019 Sprint expects to deploy thousands of Massive MIMO radios, significantly increasing network capacity for millions of customers across the country.”

Seems to me that T-Mobile’s fighting limits on two fronts: 600 MHz doesn’t have enough carrying capacity for real 5G. mmWave also lacks sufficient propagation or justifiable economics to support deployments beyond hotspots. T-Mobile is going to have to come up with another way forward... or Sprint will leave them in the dust.

https://support.sprint.com/support/article/FAQs_about_the_Sprint_Unlimited_Plans/e8bc59f3-1893-4482-895a-38b7ed69ab65 Unlimited Freedom includes HD Streaming for Video at 1080p. You can also upgrade to Ultra Hi Def Streaming for $10/Month per Line, which has no limitation. _______________ What is Sprint Ultra High Def streaming? It’s a new Sprint option that gives you the highest quality streaming available based upon the network, connection, device and content at the time of streaming. _______________ I used to be on Unlimited My Way and after switching to Unlimited Freedom with HD video streaming, I don’t see any decrease in video quality or performance on my iPhone. Having tethering is extremely convenient. Glad I switched.

I too am very excited to see these upgrades are coming for the DC Market. This will also help with Sprint’s initiatives to get back into the Federal and Public Sector space.

Neville took a look at wine prices and doesn’t want to lose the bet with Dr. Saw.

The economics don’t make sense for Millimeter Wave on a nationwide basis. Deep down Neville knows that.

That’s a good point!

It’s been discussed: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-achieves-120-140-mbps-laa-deployment-spidercloud-says-laa-long-term-roadmap No definitive date, but it’s on the long term roadmap. Sprint is focused on its licensed spectrum first.

As I understand it, this is still 4G. It’s 5G-ready gear, but it speeds up 4G because of the huge capacity boost Massive MIMO brings. When 5G devices are released, Sprint pushes a software update to this gear and it then will run LTE and 5G at the same time... on the same radio! Sprint crew won’t have to go back to the tower to install new cards/antennas. Combine this with Sprint’s plans to upgrade all of its towers to Triband and its plan to add thousands of new sites, and over a million Magic Boxes, the Sprint network is going to really soar in the next year.

Sprint Unveils Six 5G-Ready Cities; Significant Milestone Toward Launching First 5G Mobile Network in the U.S. It’s happening!

In the case of iPhones, VoLTE is supported on the iPhone 6 and later released models: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203078 I’m not sure what VoLTE support is for other makes, but those handsets will eventually upgrade or churn out as part of normal customer churn. The Airave 3 LTE has support for voice on CDMA, in addition to providing LTE and WiFi Coverage.

Perhaps Michel Combes, as new President and CFO, wanted this organizational change: http://newsroom.sprint.com/michel-combes.htm