RAvirani

I'm not sure but the equipment is definitely nice. These panels have incredible lowband range compared to all of the other equipment deployed in my market. Yes. I've seen 8x8 deployed by malls, in downtown, etc. Yup, these setups are LTE-only. Nearly every site in my market has been upgraded to one of these setups or has a permit to be upgraded soon. On occasion, Verizon will leave a legacy antenna through which they broadcast CDMA, although this is definitely the exception, not the rule.

Here are photos of the 2x 6-port 45° antenna setups that are mostly being deployed: Here are photos of the 2x 6-port 65° antenna setups that are more rarely being deployed:

Yes, that would be awesome. I'd like to ask him a few questions about future equipment, too.

Possibly. All of this is just speculation, of course.

Look at the number of upgrades and new sites coming through permitting now. Sprint is not as broke as they would like everyone to think. And Dish isn't broke either. They are ready to spend to the tune of billions on wireless assets if the merger happens today.

Sprint would enter into some sort of spectrum hosting agreement with Dish (like Sprint did with LightSquared before all the satellite issues). Sprint gets spectrum, Dish gets a network.

I'm confused by your question.

That's NR UL. I'm honestly surprised Sprint hasn't moved towards a more flexible config, especially with all of the negative press they've got over their poor upload speeds. NR TDD Config 2 is exclusively flex time slots. This would allow you to use all of the time slots for downloading one second and all of the time slots for uploading the next. Maybe equipment isn't ready for TDD flex configs yet?

Many sites are 4x compatible but there aren't any devices with four lowband antennas. Nevertheless 4x at the site improves signal stability (at the cell edge) as well as propagation/penetration because there are simply more transmit paths.

Yes. That is not low/midband spectrum as I said.

Dish has very clearly expressed that they want to do something with their spectrum. Buildout deadlines have passed and been extended. They likely will not be extended again. If the merger falls through and Dish's options are to partner with an existing carrier or to build a network from scratch and try to compete on a national scale, I think they would choose the former. This market is one of economies of scale and enormous barriers to entry. If Dish were to try to build a network from scratch, they wouldn't see profit for years and years. And even after this time, ROI isn't guaranteed. T-Mobile isn't as interested in smaller chunks of low/midband spectrum as they already have enough. What they need is large swaths of highband for NR. This is probably their biggest motivation for the merger. Dish can’t help them there. AT&T has more spectrum than they can put on air, and isn't looking for more. They have B14 and B66 that hasn't been deployed across half, if not more of the nation. Verizon has repeatedly stated that they are perfectly happy with their current low/midband spectrum holdings. If they wanted to bid on 600 MHz spectrum, they could and would have. This leaves Sprint, who I think could benefit a lot from Dish's spectrum holdings.

3GPP release 10.3. 2180-2200 DL/2000-2020 UL. It's not terribly publicized because it was never used/deployed. Band 70 is a hodgepodge of Dish's spectrum holdings that was created due to Sprint's (and possibly a few other companies' although I can’t remember) complaints that the PCS H block would interfere with other PCS operations.

Or they could get in bed with Dish. Dish's 600 holdings are 5x5 nationwide with larger holdings in major metros. http://maps.spectrumgateway.com/dish-600-mhz.html Working with Dish would also get them: 6 MHz 700 E Block (722-728) (This can likely be traded/sold to AT&T) 15 MHz AWS-3 (1695-1710) 10 MHz PCS-H (1915-1920, 1995-2000) (I wonder if some DSS magic could be done here to allow for a PCS C+G+H NR carrier) 40 MHz AWS-4 (2000-2020, 2180-2200) (Sprint can petition for LTE band 23 to be standardized for NR in order to use this spectrum)

AT&T: 20x20 L1900 (PCS A+D, EARFCN 700) Verizon: 10x10 L1900 (PCS E+F, EARFCN 1000) T-Mobile: 10x10 L1900 (PCS B, EARFCN 850), 5x5 UMTS/HSPA Sprint: 15x15 L1900 (PCS C+G, EARFCN 8615), 5x5 1x/EVDO

Nope. Just the 15x15 C4+C5+G carrier right now. Sprint doesn't own any PCS A block spectrum in San Diego. The A block is wholly owned by AT&T.

San Diego has 15x15 L1900.

Kenmore permits can be found here: https://permitsearch.mybuildingpermit.com/ That's probably a good place to start.

I'm reviving an old thread, but I wanted to report on work Verizon has been recently doing in the greater Seattle area. Verizon is moving most of the sites in my area towards new setups that utilize two identical antennas per sector. These antennas each have two low band ports and four mid band ports. 4x4 L750 and 4x4 L850 are broadcasted through the four lowband ports using a diplexer. A PCS RRH is connected to the four mid band ports on one antenna and an AWS RRH is likewise connected to the other antenna. These setups are compact and future proof, as PCS and AWS can both be upgraded to 8x8 without touching the antennas (they would only need to add RRHs/diplexers). On sites with space/weight limitations (primarily new sites), Verizon has been deploying a single antenna with four low band ports and four mid band ports. 4x4 750 and 4x4 850 are broadcasted through the four lowband ports while 4x4 1900 and 4x4 2100 are broadcasted through the four high band ports. 750/850 and PCS/AWS diplexers are used to do this. All of the new antennas being deployed are manufactured by Amphenol. Something interesting I've noticed is that most of these new setups use antennas with a 45 degree beamwidth, even on 3 sector sites. The antennas' gain figures are impressive, though, so that may effectively cancel any drawbacks that come from using a 45 degree antenna as opposed to a traditional 65 degree antenna. Here are the antennas Verizon is primarily using, for those interested: https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/hex456cw0000x/ https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/hex458cw0000x/ https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/hex656cw0000x/ https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/hex658cw0000x/ https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/twin656cu000x/ https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/twin657cu000x/

The problem with T-Mobile in that area is capacity. T-Mobile has a site on the Peoples Storage building (6908 NE 181st St, Kenmore, WA 98028), although that site is always very congested. This is because it is the only site that serves WA-522 as well as the commercial and residential surrounding areas. To make matters worse, the site is 1900/2100 only, and she lives on the beta-gamma sector split. Sprint has three sites serving that area (one on the Peoples Storage building, one at 47.7582566, -122.2599984 and one at 47.7562238, -122.2395026). These sites do a significantly better job with both coverage and capacity in the area.

I'm definitely an expert in that region. What can I do for you?

Yup. Nice find!

16 port antennas in Ericsson markets should feature two RRUS11 which are virtually chained together to act as a single 4x RRU. I don't recall if Sprint is deploying a single 4-port radio in Ericsson regions. Maybe @lilotimz can chime in and clarify this.

The current RRUS11 are limited to 2x2 as the radio only has two ports. 4x would require an RRH swap/addition.

A SNR of 0 indicates a 1:1 ratio between signal power and noise power. Anytime there is more background noise than signal, the SNR is negative. Negative SNRs are very common in areas of high congestion/usage. LTE can be and often is usable with a SNR below 0, although it isn't going to be a stellar experience. By comparison, CDMA does a lot better than LTE below the noise floor (relatively, of course).

I strongly agree with Robert. Good equipment (high gain antennas/high quality diplexers), good band management, good density and good network config can make a 3x3 carrier perform better than a 5x5 or even 10x10 carrier. I would take Sprint's 3x3 L800 in Seattle over Verizon's 10x10 L750 or T-Mobile's 5x5 L700 any day of the week.