ericdabbs

Ouch, hopefully this won't affect any of the grandfathered SERO plans ($55 with tax for unlimited data/text + 500 min on 4G smart phone).

Yup I just hope this doesn't affect SERO plans.  I plan to reupp in October when the Galaxy Note 3 comes out.

As far as we know, they are deploying 800MHz CDMA on lower power in an effort to transition users over to that network while they convert the PCS CDMA network over to NV to try and mitigate the dropped call issue that occurred in Chicago due to the NV Samsung - Legacy Motorola handoff issue.

So does this mean that Sprint will keep the 800 CDMA network alive in that area once the NV transition is done?  I mean the 800 RRUs in the sites deployed is already a sunk cost.  Is a 800 CDMA lower power site equivalent to the distance of a 1900 CDMA site?  I understand the need to do this because of the Motorola handoff issue.  I am just surprised that they were allowed to do it.

http://www.800ta.org/_img/figures/img_canadamap.jpg

 

http://www.800ta.org/_img/figures/img_mbrmap.jpg

How the heck are the areas around northern Ohio allowed to deploy 800 CDMA sites if its within the Canadian IBEZ zone?  On the NV complete sites it shows them as 3G/800 complete.

Where's our FCC write up?

 

What band is LTE 800 that Sprint is eventually deploying?  I'm sure we'll be excited when the first phone with that hits.

You want to be looking for Band 26 support in FCC documents to verify that the LTE phone will support LTE 800.

Josh, I think the HTC 8XT phone is going to be released on July 19th.  There are several places confirming this.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421508,00.asp

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/09/htc-8xt-sprint/

I don't think Sprint should change their logo.  Just drop the Nextel part of the name and you're good.  Honestly majority of people are avoiding/leaving Sprint because of the poor 3G speeds and the poor coverage of 4G Wimax indoors.  In some cases its due to the lack of voice coverage.   Why change the brand of Sprint when its already recognized in the United States to a Japanese brand in Softbank.

I am also in the Boston area, and have been using a custom PRL and staying on 800 for a couple of weeks now. I have not had any problems. If you start having issues, check your PRL.. your device might auto-update back to the stock one once in awhile.

 

-Mike

How is the 800 CDMA voice experience so far indoors?  Does it reach deep indoors like verizon and ATT?

Celebrate good times cmon!!!!!

Any news on the Clearwire vote?

Backhaul has apparently been the main slowing issue with NV 1.0, no? More money isnt likely to force any of the telcos who are a competitor to move any quicker

 

Sent from my Note II. Its so big.

Based on what I have read, backhaul is a huge bottleneck with NV 1.0.  Just look at all those red dots vs. yellow/green dots on the NV complete map which that in itself tells me the story.  At this rate there is no way Sprint will catch up to ATT.

Hmm is Sprint's high speed LTE network Son is pushing the PCS FD-LTE or the Clearwire TD-LTE?

Does Softbank use any PCS in Japan?

Son is going to push for LTE expansion no matter what frequency its on.  The fact is that PCS spectrum since its paired only accommodates for FD-LTE.  Son couldn't change it to TD-LTE even if he wanted to.  Son just wants to beat the crap out of Verizon and ATT.

Cmon Daque...do you really have to ask if Son is also pushing for Clearwire TD-LTE?  Why would Sprint/Softbank push so hard to get Clearwire if it didn't have the vision to deploy a more widespread 2.5 GHz 4G network (in this case LTE) that Clearwire failed to do so horribly back in 2010.  Right now we all have to be patient.  Once Sprint/softbank/clearwire merger becomes official with the Clearwire vote tomorrow we have to give the Softbank group at least 2 quarters to come up with a great 2.5 GHz TD-LTE plan to enhance the Sprint network.

Also Japan doesn't use the PCS spectrum like we use here in the US.

It's likely the existing NV panels/antennas can be used for H block. However, the existing 1900 RRU's cannot, though. It's possible that the existing 1900 RRU's may be able to handle H block with a firmware update. If not, then an additional H block RRU may be needed.

 

Sprint is not in the position to invest in hardware for other bands beyond PCS, SMR and EBS/BRS at this time.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Lets just hope that Sprint can salvage something from the existing NV panels/antennas or RRUs for the H block.  It sucks that Sprint would have do all this for a 10 MHz block of spectrum but Sprint has shown great interest in the H block so they must have known going in that they would have to deal with this issue eventually.  I hope a firmware update is able to resolve this issue for the H block in the existing 1900 RRUs.  Hopefully Sprint can talk to the OEMs about how to deal with the H block situation with the existing 1900 RRUs.

 

 

 

The triband LTE devices are not vaporware. The 3 triband LTE devices like hotspots and usb dongles were officiallt announced at CTIA in late may. Go google "sprint triband lte devices ctia"

 

 

 

 

I know all about the announcement. Show me where I can buy one. Thanks.

Macinjosh saw some of those devices hit the FCC already.

Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

are these devices still vapor-ware? the only tri-anything I see on sprints page is the tri-fi (3g/wimax/lte)

 

The triband LTE devices are not vaporware. The 3 triband LTE devices like hotspots and usb dongles were officiallt announced at CTIA in late may. Go google "sprint triband lte devices ctia"

Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

Thx! So if Robert said is true, even if the Note 3 and GS5 support 800Mhz LTE, Orange County people might not be able to take advantage of it? If so, I might leave Sprint after my contract expires. I'm on my first year with Sprint and I'm not feeling too hopeful about their network despite the completion of the Softbank, Clearwire, and Sprint deal.

Well Sprint is working with the FCC and Mexican officials to work out a US/Mexico reband plan so that they can use part of the 800 MHz for CDMA and LTE.  The proposed reband plan is in the pic below.  You can see from the new band plan that Sprint will have access to 5.5 x 5.5 MHz which Sprint can deploy a 3x3 LTE and a CDMA carrier in San Diego.  

If the reason for Sprint not to deploy LTE in Orange County is because of this US/Mexico IBEZ restriction even though its beyond the 55 mile minimum distance, hopefully once this reband is done at least Orange County they can deploy the full 7x7 MHz ESMR band with a 5x5 LTE carrier and starting from San Clemente and south only a 3x3 LTE carrier will be deployed.

Noobie question coming up! Even if we end up with 800MHz voice and data, is my GS4 able to take advantage of that?

The current GS4 for CDMA..YES but LTE...NO!!!  All LTE devices thus far does not support 800 MHz LTE.  If Sprint does decide to release an updated version of the GS4 (rumored) with triband LTE support then this new model can support 800 MHz.

It looks like it's not all of Southern Cali that gets screwed, but it does look like all of Orange County after all. And the SE corner of LA County. It might not all be because of the IBEZ. There may be another SMR license holder in the area too. Seems like I remember AJ mentioning this before.

 

In the graphic below, you can see a map of the LA Metro market. The red sites will not receive any 800 MHZ service (CDMA or LTE). There are some areas here and there that will not get 800 for other reasons. But you can see all of SE LA County doesn't receive 800. That has to be either from the IBEZ or because of possibly another license holder in Orange County.

 

 

Robert

Where was this map retrieved from?  Also is there a way to confirm that there is another SMR license holder in the region? Hopefully this is because of the IBEZ and hopefully be resolved with the reband plan.  This map confirms why the 2 NV upgraded sites out in Hacienda/Rowland Heights only have 1900 MHz RRUs installed but it does have the 800 and 1900 MHz NV panels installed.  This is good in that if the 800 MHz were allowed to be deployed at some point in the future they wouldn't need to have a NV panel swap and simply add a 800 MHz RRU for support.

Huh, Sprint only has the upper end of ESMR, according to this. So yeah, it'd be 3x3 LTE + CDMA.

Correct.  The ESMR band is from 817-824 MHz and 862-869 MHz.  So the 6.25 x 6.25 MHz of Mexican Primary spectrum does encroach into the US ESMR band by 1.5 MHz ending at 818.5 MHz.  I wish the US and Mexico could swap the 6.25 x 6.25 MHz blocks so that the US Primary spectrum is adjacent to the Co-Primary spectrum so that Sprint would have the full 7x7 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum.  But I do know that the US public safety uses spectrum from 806-809 MHz which is why the US chose the first half of 6.25 MHz

Would that mean San Diego can get LTE using 800Mhz?

That is my question.  But that all hinges on what does "Co-primary" mean for the 5.5 x 5.5 MHz part for the ESMR band.  If that means that Sprint only has 5.5 x 5.5 MHz to play with, then I don't see why Sprint wouldn't deploy a 3x3 LTE and a CDMA carrier.  Sprint should try to make use of all available spectrum that they have on hand for better voice and data speeds.  

I believe the NV panels on the NV cell sites in San Diego contain the typical 800/1900 MHz support?  If so, then Sprint can add 800 MHz to it once this rebanding is finished.  I surely hope that Sprint did not erect 1900 MHz only NV panels in the Mexican border affected markets (Tucson, San Diego, El Paso, southwest San Antonio).

Looks like at least one 5x5 LTE and 1 CDMA carrier, for a grand total of 12.5MHz (6.25 each direction).

What are you talking about?  The new 800 MHz band plan would only give Sprint 5.5 x 5.5 MHz to play with.  That means at most a 3x3 LTE carrier and a 1.25x1.25 CDMA carrier can be deployed at 800 MHz.

Is Sprint going to deploy a 3x3 MHz LTE carrier in markets of southeast US? I am curious when Sprint starts rolling out triband LTE devices if they will test 3 and 5 MHz bandwidths for 800 MHz.

Also I don't understand the new proposed 800 MHz Mexican/US band plan below. What does "Co-Primary" mean? Does this mean that if this new band plan passes those cities near the Mexican border will be able to deploy a 3x3 LTE carrier and 1 CDMA carrier?

 

 

No, millions of current Sprint LTE devices that do not support the H block would prevent that for many years to come.

 

AJ

 

 

Are you saying that it's because of power issues or because there won't be enough devices able to support that for Sprint to bother?

Its not because of power issues with the current devices. Its because none of the LTE devices currently dont support the H block spectrum.

Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

SoftBank does not want to sink large $$$ into 600 MHz. They'll get primarily 5x5 for urban penetration and secondarily for rural propagation and, like a mod said, shift ALL data to 600 MHz and use SMR 800 for voice forever. They don't have the full 7x7 MHz nationwide.

 

It's Verizon and ATT who have the large number but low population density of rural customers who "need" large amounts of 600 MHz.

 

Sprint's differentiator will be 2.5 GHz. That's mostly where Softbank wants to send the $5bil it gave Sprint.

I don't believe that decision has been made yet about 600 MHz since we don't know much about how much 600 MHz spectrum will be available.  Its still far too early to assume Sprint will not participate in a 600 MHz auction.  Both Sprint and Tmobile probably regret not participating in the 700 MHz auction and don't want to make the same mistake this time which is why they have been active in trying to persuade the FCC about rules for spectrum limits on big 2 purchase and band placements for the 600 MHz auction.

The entire 5 billion will be used for the Network Vision project in some way but I don't believe you can assume its only for 2.5 GHz development.  Sprint and Softbank need to work together to determine what is appropriate to stay competitive in this market and for both Sprint and Tmobile they lack the low band spectrum.  We have cities near the Canadian and Mexican border and southeast part of US that can't take advantage of part or the entire 800 MHz spectrum so low band spectrum is still needed there for coverage indoors in those areas.  2.5 GHz won't solve that problem entirely especially if its going to be deployed in islands or a larger scale.  There is also the question about whether 2.5 GHz will be expanded and deployed on all major markets not in the Wimax footprint.

 

 

Has nothing to do with iDEN. iDEN channels are interleaved with mexican channels, 25KHz for US, 25KHz for them, back and forth, so even after the iDEN shutdown mexican licensees may still be operating in every other 25KHz channel, effectively blocking the range, in which case there's no way to get a 1.25x1.25MHz CDMA carrier in there much less LTE until things are sorted out with Mexico and mexican licensees... and even once that's settled the plan calls for 5.5x5.5MHz co-primary for wideband operations, so they can't run CDMA plus a 5x5 LTE... so I'm not sure what the current plan is.

 

 

And, following SMR 800 MHz rebanding, the US primary (i.e. US exclusive) spectrum will shift down to the lowest 6.25 MHz FDD (806-812.25 MHz x 851-857.25 MHz). That is obviously designed to protect Public Safety, which is moving to that low end of the band. But it does nothing to help Sprint, which is moving to the high end of the band (817-824 MHz x 862-869 MHz).

 

AJ

Would it be possible to deploy a 3x3 LTE carrier and 1 cdma carrier? I guess the only issue is that the current handsets cant run 3x3 LTE bandwidths.

Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

TMO really needs to at lest get nation wide 5x5 if not 10x10. Sprint I don't think should bid on it unless they can do 10x10 or make quad band LTE phones with out much issue.  

 

AT&T may need some of it due to only having 5x5 700 in a lot of places. (That was of there own doing of course, but the past is the past.) 

 

Verizon really needs to put down any thing it can to up there speeds in some market's, it getting really bad in some places. They may bid on it too.

 

In short every one could use it, but I think most agree T-mobile needs it the most.

I think all 4 of the major carriers will bid on the 600 MHz spectrum.  Sprint should bid on 600 MHz and depending on the availability Sprint should try to capture 20 MHz of the spectrum to form a 10x10 LTE carrier.  I am not too afraid of making quad band phones since eventually every carrier will have multiple LTE band support.  The bigger concern is getting new tower equipment (antennas and RRUs) to support these bands and deployment.  Eventually Sprint will need to add more panels for each sector which is why most NV cell sites currently only have 1 panel per sector to leave room for expansion.