Rawvega

Yes, the article should be updated to indicate that not everyone will have to pay the $5 add-on charge.

See both GoWireless' and my comments above. The Note 2 is very likely quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and at least dual band W-CDMA 1900/2100+1900, but the FCC OET docs are not required to reflect those other transmit modes because they are not licensed in the US. This is not unique -- it is very typical of many other FCC OET authorization filings.AJ

Ah, I see your point. I suppose that only makes sense that the FCC would only test for frequencies licensed for use in the US. Thanks!

BTW do the FCC docs offer any clue as to whether the SIM is removable or not?

Depends on what your definition of "overseas" is. By only having dual band (850/1900) GSM/GPRS/EDGE and single band (1900) W-CDMA/HSPA, this phone is still basically limited to North, Central and South America. In most of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania the GSM/W-CDMA capabilities of this phone will be useless.

If the goal was to make this a world phone, I'm curious as to why they didn't go with quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and at least tri-band W-CDMA. Very odd specs on this phone.

What does that mean? The Sprint iPhone 5 LTE was announced yesterday.

I would guess that this PR is somewhat of a response to VZW's recent LTE comparison ads as well as preemptive move to assuage consumers ahead of a presumed LTE iPhone announcement in a couple of days.

Since LTE hasn't even been announced for my area, SVLTE does me little good at the moment. So no SVDO=no buy for me. Too bad because I was very interested in this handset at one point. So close LG, but yet so far...

I have to say.. I love PR and can't wait to go back.. but why the hell is PR getting NV before many many markets in the US?? Sorry PR, I love you.. but need NV in Cleveland first.

Please explain why the Sprint customers in Puerto Rico paying their bills in U.S. dollars automatically deserve to be backburner-ed in favor of Cleveland.

Will this have HD Voice capability like the Evo 4G LTE?

Al Fin!!!!!!!!! Patricia Eves Please Confirm That

The director for Sprint International Caribe? Lol She's a member here?

It makes perfect sense. Even Verizon with their deep pockets realizes the impracticality of rolling out a brand new network to every corner of the country, hence their LTE in Rural America program. It would behoove Sprint to act on this sooner rather than later, lest they let Verizon (or even AT&T) ink all of the viable partners like they did with Pioneer. Since at&t and VZW don't really want to provide 700MHz interoperability with these smaller carriers, this could be a win-win scenario as the smaller carriers could help Sprint build out in rural areas as well as provide 700MHz roaming and the smaller carriers subscribers could roam on Sprint PCS network when they venture into urban and suburban areas. They can't afford to dilly-dally though.

I certainly wouldn't be mad about a Motorola manufactured Evo series handset.

If you have not already, be sure to to check out AnandTech's MSM8960 benchmarks (linked in the article). The 1.5 GHz dual core "Krait" CPU leaves in the dust most other dual core hardware on the market.Better yet, the MSM8960's performance is competitive with or superior to that of even the quad core Tegra 3, which is used in the non LTE international version of the HTC One X.http://www.anandtech...nvidias-tegra-3So, it may be debatable, but Sprint seems to be getting the better CPU with the dual core MSM8960 in the HTC Jet (and another device to be named later).AJ

The only thing that could make it better is if we got a device with the MSM8960 Pro containing the upgraded Adreno 320 GPU...

EDIT: Whoops I see leozno1 beat me to it!

According to AJ, our in house Sprint spectrum resource, he said this about 800 licensing in Puerto Rico... "Regarding SMR 800 MHz in PR/VI, this is what I have dug up. It is still in the process of rebanding. Sprint does hold licenses, so Sprint may be able to deploy CDMA1X 800 and/or LTE 800 sometime in the future, but obviously not during initial Network Vision roll out. (Additionally) there is an iDEN 800 carrier in PR/VI: North Sight Communications. And it holds 3 MHz x 3 MHz of contiguous SMR 800 MHz spectrum." http://wireless2.fcc...se.jsp?licKey=6

To that end, I found this article which seems to be related to what's going on with the 800MHz situation down there: http://urgentcomm.com/briefs/puerto-rico-800mhz-plan-20110308/

Wow, the Territories before CONUS. I bet Guam is next up for NV.

While I'm sure that you're being facetious, since Sprint doesn't have native coverage there (though they do have spectrum licenses in Guam as well as American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands) I seriously doubt that Guam is next up for NV.

As far as PR & USVI, Sprint's customers there pay their $$ for service just like their customers in the CONUS so why should they automatically be relegated to the end of the list?

A few things to note - there is no 800MHz spectrum for Sprint in PR or USVI

Why do you say this?

No, I am not from PR, but you are correct, of course-those areas are sparsely populated. However, it appears that AT&T covers those sparsely populated areas better no doubt due to their 850MHz spectrum. Even the old Centennial Wireless covered those areas better even though they only had PCS spectrum. In fact, even though AT&T bought them out, I'm pretty sure that they've left the CDMA network up for Sprint (and probably other CDMA carriers) to roam off of in those interior areas of the island. However, I suppose for a cash strapped company like Sprint, that can't be a priority right now. I'm wondering when the other shoe will drop and AT&T decides to shut down their CDMA network. I wonder what roaming alternatives there are for those sparsely populated areas. Open Mobile? Does Claro still operate their old CDMA network?

As far as the USVI, it seems like the cell sites they have *should* provide adequate georaphic coverage for St. Croix and St. Thomas especially after CDMA800 is eventually added (St. John appears to need at least one more cell site for the east end no matter what). However, what about capacity? Five cell sites for @ 50K people on STX seems a bit thin capacity wise. Eight sites for @ 51K people on STT is a bit better I suppose. I wonder what AT&T and T-Mobile's cell density is like in the USVI for comparison.

themuffinman, how is the coverage and quality of service there in St. Thomas as of right now?

Kind of disappointing to read that 800MHz won't be included, at least in the initial deployment. There is a large gaping hole in their Puerto Rico coverage as well as two smaller holes. The CDMA800 would help to shrink those gaps (though obviously the larger Puerto Rico gap also needs more cell sites). The CDMA800 would probably ensure total or near total coverage of the smaller islands with low cell site densities such as Vieques (2 sites), Culebra (1 site) and the USVI islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John (1 site).

I was also mildly amused at AT&T's attempt at delaying Sprint knowing that the FCC, by virtue of being a government agency, does nothing quickly.

MSI and AT&T state that a

rulemaking proceeding is warranted to ensure adjacent services are protected from potential

interference.

Would this mean Sprint could launch LTE in a bigger 800mhz channel instead of 5x5?

Nope. Even after public safety is completely relocated, Sprint will still only have 14MHz of 800MHz SMR spectrum. Once CDMA is gone, I'm guessing that they could launch a supplemental 1.4MHzx1.4MHz LTE carrier alongside the 5x5 LTE carrier.

Austin, eh? Texas getting a lot of Network Vision love.

We actually use the SDC devices here at work. Half of our staff are on the old Nextel PTT devices, and the other half are using the Motorola SDC units.

How is it working so far?

Sprint spent 20 billions for the rights to that phone so I don't think they want to stay behind.

Oh noes, the $20B myth continues...In actuality the confirmed figure was $15.5B.

Robert, minor question: what's the third market that Alcatel-Lucent is deploying besides Boston and Washington D.C.?

The PR/VI Sprint market has only approx. 250 sites. And most of these are in Puerto Rico. Samsung will pretty much do the entire market in one mobilization, not coming back several times. So, the Virgin Islands will likely get Network Vision and full LTE deployment at the same time as Puerto Rico. In fact, they may even start in VI because there are a lot less towers there.

Puerto Rico and the USVI should get a significant benefit from Network Vision if the cell site density is truly that low. The addition of 800MHz CDMA will be huge. One good thing is since Nextel never bothered to build out at all in P.R. and the USVI, hopefully that SMR spectrum can be put to full and immediate use and not have to be shared with any iDEN users.

it does make sense. Sprint was anticipating, but not dependent upon a certain and significant contribution of funds from Lightsquared. now that it's all but assured that LS is going to fail, they are likely looking for a new funding source/partner. it appears to be a win-win for both companies. now, since t-mobile would only be contributing pcs spectrum to the venture, keeping its aws spectrum in use for their hspa+ network, would it be fair to say that t-mobile would NOT have access to the 800MHz LTE and 2.5GHz TD-LTE networks once they inevitably go live?