ericdabbs

I didn't mean to imply that LTE 800 should only be a 5x5 Mhz configuration. I am aware of the southeast US being limited to 3x3 MHz which is fine. The point is that there is LTE available being used at 800 MHz. I also learned that its not just the southeast US markets that are scheduled to only have 3x3 MHz LTE but there are a few other markets scheduled so no surprise here. Other problems include the assumption that I eluded to in my previous post is that in your scenario that every market in the US has access to 800 MHz spectrum which the Canadian and Mexican IBEZ markets do not have which will be several years from now from being resolved. Also keep in mind that only certain high end phones beginning in 2012 added CDMA 800 support. Even my poor Moto Photon 4G doesn't support CDMA 800. There are still a lot of basic phones and smartphones prior to 2012 that are still relying on the CDMA 1900 network. For now Sprint doesn't need to add another LTE 1900 carrier yet but I think by late 2014 or early 2015, Sprint will need to start adding another 5x5 LTE carrier at 1900 which a lot of markets in the US have enough spectrum to add another 5x5 LTE carrier alongside the current CDMA/EVDO network. Hopefully by 2015 Sprint will have a more extensive TD-LTE network at 2500 to help relieve LTE capacity concerns at 1900 and 800. Don't forget the PCS H/AWS-2 block spectrum will be available for auction hopefully in Jan 2014 which Sprint can continue to add more capacity to the PCS spectrum portfolio.

Any of you guys that bought the new Nexus 7 have any thoughts so far on this product? I still would have liked to see Google make a Nexus 8 with a slim profile like this because I think its perfect size for me. I am kinda getting tired with my heavy 10 inch HP Touchpad tablet and want to get a smaller size tablet. I was hoping for an 8 inch tablet but with the Nexus branding to ensure for up to the latest Google updates but may consider purchasing the new Nexus 7 given that it doesn't seem that Google will be making a Nexus 7, Nexus 8 and Nexus 10.

I still don't like the idea of dedicating the entire SMR to 1xA. At this point one 1xA carrier should be plenty of capacity since the improvements to 1xA allow for up to 4x capacity over 1xCDMA 2000. People use their smartphones nowadays more for the data than voice so you don't need to have 14 MHz worth of spectrum. Sprint needs to most use of spectrum for data purposes. Also like you mentioned that the IBEZ issues with Canada and Mexico are still a few years away from being resolved. By then 1xA will become less and less relevant to the point where you need to dedicate that much spectrum to it. We can't assume 600 MHz will yield the full 120 MHz or even 84 MHz available for auction which I hope Sprint can try to obtain 20 MHz (two 5x5 Mhz blocks) hopefully contiguous. Even then I still want Sprint to dedicate as much low band spectrum to LTE as possible because I think with a combination of 600 MHz and 800 MHz LTE should put Sprint in a pretty position to compete with Verizon and ATT.

I think if WCDMA+ was available now then Tmobile should upgrade to it because its still a few years away from VoLTE. However given that it wont' be available until 2016, I don't think its worth the cost for Tmobile to upgrade to it since they will just be prolonging the process of shifting customers off of GSM/WCDMA. Because at that point its going to take Tmobile another 1-2 years to upgrade its network to WCDMA+ and I know that Tmobile in the future wants to refarm the PCS spectrum to add LTE capacity. I am hoping by 2016-2017 that significant progress in VoLTE is to the point where carriers can begin shifting some voice traffic onto LTE. The bottom line is that the majority of major carriers worldwide are shifting to LTE as the technology of choice and only using the current WCDMA/HSPA+ as a stop gap. Maybe the 3rd world countries will use WCDMA+.

Well the working groups that are working on fixing the VoLTE issues need to step it up if they want everyone to transition voice completely to LTE. If VoLTE is in a state where it can be deployed I am sure carriers would love to begin switch over to it at least partially for the time being to offload some voice capacity to see how it behaves and add that capability onto the LTE phones. If VoLTE is more than ready before 2020, the only reason to even keep CDMA until 2020 is to provide support for those that still have CDMA phones that never upgrade their phones.

AJ, are you going to do an article of your FCC analysis of this LG Optimus G2 phone? Also I was looking at the Test Report in the FCC documents and I noticed that the nominal output power for Band 41 LTE was around 21 dBm. Band 25 LTE was around 23 dBm. and Band 26 LTE was around 24 dBm. Is a nominal output power of 21 dBm good?

i wonder why Sprint did testing on LTE Band 26 (800 MHz) with 1.4 and 10 MHz bandwidths on this phone? According to the specs for the Samsung 800 RRU, it can only support 3 and 5 MHz bandwidths. I assume the ALU and Ericcson 800 RRUs are built the same way with only 3 and 5 MHz bandwidths support. I mean I guess it doesn't hurt but I don't see LTE roaming coming anytime soon nor do I see Verizon or ATT refarming the Cellular 850 MHz spectrum for LTE in the near future.

Yes it will be triband. The last LTE phone that will be single band LTE is the Moto X since it passed the FCC back in late May. I just hope that the Galaxy Note 3 this time will support 5 and 10 MHz bandwidths at 1900 MHz this time. Samsung LTE phones on Sprint are notorious for only supporting 5 MHz bandwidths at 1900 MHz. I know its not a big deal but its just that LG, Motorola and HTC have always passed their LTE phones with 5 and 10 MHz bandwidths so it will be nice if Samsung did the same.

I don't know much about the Exynos 5 chip but I am kinda hoping that the US versions of the Galaxy Note 3 have Snapdragon S800 chip. I trust Qualcomm chips.

Just got the same BS email from wirefly saying that "I requested an order cancellation" . Man I was hoping to get the mifi.

I was talking about in the context of a Dish and Tmobile merger.

Where did you hear this word from? I don't see any sites in progress in Ogden.

You know I asked a similar question to Robert about whether Clearwire is deploying TD-LTE on its Clearwire sites or on Sprint Network Vision sites. He basically said the following. Also don't confuse "panel" with a RRU. Clearwire doesn't need to upgrade the antenna panels because the frequency ranges supported for Wimax and LTE are the same at 2500 MHz. However the current RRU on these Clearwire sites needs to be upgraded since it only supports Wimax. Clearwire needs to install new dual mode RRUs that support Wimax and LTE running at the same time. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4083-sprint-td-lte-25002600mhz-discussion/?p=171804 "These were Clearwire's priority list on their existing network. Nothing to do with Sprint or Network Vision sites, yet. TD-LTE 2600 probably won't start being installed on NV sites for 4-5 more months. Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta" He basically said that it will probably be another 4-5 months (which to me means for the rest of 2013) Clearwire is only deploying TD-LTE on Clearwire sites. Probably around the start of 2014, Sprint and Clearwire will begin collaborating to deploy TD-LTE on Sprint NV sites.

For 2500 they need to install a new rru that supports lte/wimax modes and carrier card since the current rru on the clearwire sites only support wimax. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

I think the LG Optimus G Pro only being available on ATT was just to test the market to see the demand for a Galaxy Note alternative. Prices have gone dramatically on the device but who knows why the device didn't sell well. From what I have been reading, the expectation for a phablet is to have a stylus along with a type of note application. I wouldn't say the LG Optimus G Pro is a complete failure that they should scrap the whole project. I think the LG Optimus G Pro 2 will be a better selling device especially if its coming to all carriers, comes with a stylus and is cheaper than the Galaxy Note 3. I am curious to see if the HTC One MAX will come with a stylus for their phablet. In the past HTC had the HTC flyer 7 inch tablet with a stylus so its not like entirely new territory for them. But yes LG still needs to continually provide timely software updates to even have a shot of capturing any LG fanboys.

I am not arguing about the type of backhaul provided to the Clearwire sites for TD-LTE. In fact I hope all Clearwire sites get upgraded to fiber backhaul instead of microwave backhaul to have more consistent capacity. Fiber is the overall best choice for backhaul and they mind as well spend the capital and time effort to upgrade all these sites to be future proof. I was just stating that for the time being, the Clearwire sites that are being upgraded to TD-LTE will also have Wimax also running in the network. According to Robert's limited testing of TD-LTE in Denver it appears that TD-LTE and Wimax networks are sharing the same backhaul given the max speeds able to be achieved in his speedtests was only 40 Mbps.

Maybe at a certain point, Wirefly was just cracking down on the number of pending orders it still needs to fulfill once a new shipment of inventory comes in. That is the only reason I can think of.

Why did you order two? Most people that order more than 1 unit had their orders cancelled based on the feedback from this thread. I guess greed doesn't pay off.

As long as wirefly honors those orders that came before this price change then its all good.

Its hard to tell if Orange County is included in the LA market list. I know when Clearwire rolled out Wimax in LA, it included Orange County and didn't differentiate the two. Unfortunately I don't have a hotspot yet to confirm. Maybe someone in LA can do some LTE 2500 hunting to see if they can pick up B41.

Wow you're right. Now it is $260 without contract. Lucky I got one in before they changed the price. Hopefully they restock the inventory soon to fulfill the current orders.

Hate to break it to you its going to be several more years before we see 800 mhz deployed in the canadian ibez markets. I think I read that the canadian carrier wont stop iDEN services until 2015. Maybe someone else can confirm this. Hopefully sprint, FCC and canadian govt are starting discussions now to talk about 800 mhz rebanding so that sprint can start deploying lte on 800 in those markets in 2016 or 2017. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

2500 mhz and 2600 mhz are the same spectrum. Its just that people use 2500 and 2600 interchangeably. To ur 2nd question....yes wimax network is still up and will be sharing the same backhaul as td-lte for the time being until the wimax network is decommissioned sometime in 2015. So this means the theoretical speeds of a 20 mhz tdd lte carrier wont be realized since part of the backhaul is being taken for wimax use. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

I don't know if you saw the internal memo that Robert received but it listed Denver as a soft launch market for TD-LTE. Robert just so happened to be in Denver and was eager to verify that TD-LTE was live there. Here is the link for the reference. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4083-sprint-td-lte-25002600mhz-discussion/?p=171765 These were the listed soft launched TD-LTE markets in the memo Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Miami, New York City, Tampa Chicago.

Do we even know if Sprint really pursued Google to produce a LTE version of the Nexus 7? Yeah I guess I can buy that it could be a LTE band issue since its so unique but maybe Sprint is waiting to launch a tri-band LTE version of the Nexus 7.