ericdabbs

Nice to hear the overwhelming support in favor of the Softbank/Sprint deal.  Next stop is July 8th on Clearwire.  Lets make this 2 for 2.

Before we get ahead of ourselves and start talking about quad band LTE phones, we need to slow down because we don't know anything about the 600 MHz auction.  We don't know how much 600 MHz will be freed up since this is a reverse auction where the FCC is paying TV broadcasters to give up their 6 MHz blocks to be used for broadband use.  Depending on how many TV broadcasters take the money from the FCC we can only determine how much spectrum is out there. 

The 600 MHz band plan is still a work in progress and I do like the Tmobile plan for the different scenarios that are carved up depending on how much spectrum is available.  I do think the 600 MHz band should be using FDD technology rather than TD technology.  We won't be seeing 600 MHz for another several years until all this coordination and rebanding effort is complete.

Do you think Samsung and HTC will release Triband editions or maybe they'll just sell through their current supply and then the newer batches will be Triband lol

I don't think HTC will release a triband edition of the HTC One.  We do know that there is a new model of the Galaxy S4 that Samsung has just announced that supports the Qualcomm S800 chip and can support LTE Advanced.  Perhaps this new Galaxy S4 may hit Sprint later on this year with tri-band capabilities.  We will only know for sure if this new Galaxy S4 model will come to Sprint when it hits the FCC with the LTE support for all 3 bands and if it has this new model number.  The current Sprint Galaxy S4 and this new Galaxy S4 Advanced will have different model numbers so it should be easily identified.

Isn't the TMUS/MPCS deal going to make the combined company publicly listed, and DT will just be a large shareholder? Then DT can just slowly sell off their TMUS/MPCS shares. So DT already has an exit strategy. They don't have to sell it all off at once now.

First off, Tmobile and MetroPCS is publicly traded under the ticker symbol TMUS.  Yes that is true that DT can slowly sell its majority stake in shares and get out of TMUS but without a catalyst to spike up the stock price, DT is not going to sell at this point.  A Dish buyout of Tmobile would spike the stock price up if both sides agreed on the buyout price.

Why would Dish bid for the spectrum, besides driving the price for Sprint? How about Sprint driving the price up for Dish?

 

PCS H is power limited, which means that coverage will be limited as well. Why would Sprint want it? If they need coverage limited spectrum, they have Clearwire's.

I don't think Dish is truly interested in the H block spectrum other than to drive the price up for Sprint mainly because Dish already has a tough time finding a way to deploy the S-band spectrum.  Spending more money to win most of the H block licenses without a plan on how to deploy both its H block and S-band spectrum is dumb and it wastes more money.

It is no secret that Sprint has made it known that it wants to bid on the H block despite the auction rules of power limitations of the spectrum established late 2012.  For whatever reason, this power limitation issue hasn't deterred Sprint's efforts for wanting the spectrum to add another LTE carrier so I think Sprint truly want the spectrum and I don't seem them purposely driving up the price for Dish because why pay more than you need to.

I don't think the H block spectrum will cost that much and given the power limitations and the Sprint fees that would need to be given if another carrier purchases the licenses, I don't think Verizon, ATT and Tmobile will believe its worth the efforts if it also has to pay extra fees and have to worry about interference from Dish S-band and PCS G block.

The one important thing is Sprint will be better positioned to manage coverage/capacity as it is needed once on 800/1900/2500.  They have various tools to select from now (er, soon).  It's more important for them to get 800 first everywhere for coverage and  then 2500 only as needed.  Of course the backhaul needs to be there too, which is probably a bigger challenge.

 

I'd rather see Sprint manage performance to 6-10Mbps average and keep unlimited than try to pursue being the fastest 4G.  Latency matters more to smartphone apps and light tethering after a few Mbps.

The 800 and 2500 LTE build outs are completely independent.  The 800 LTE build out is being tracked by Sprint and the 2500 LTE build out is being tracked by Clearwire.  Both 800 and 2500 LTE buildouts are very important and I wouldn't worry about whether one frequency is preferred over the other.

As far as "partnerships" with CharChar... Its fine to sell assets to him or make trades, but an alliance or partnership is the last thing that any board or committee with an earnest interest in being a part of a their successful future should be interested in. As he's proven time and again, when CharChar changes his mind, Dish does whatever the hell it wants.  If he can't get his way, he buys you out or you go to court. 

The problem with Dish is that they have 2 problems:  1) They need more spectrum and 2) They need a wireless carrier to deploy this spectrum.  Sprint wouldn't mind selling Dish some of the 2.5 GHz spectrum but the thing is they will still be begging someone to help build their network for them. His only options left really are Tmobile, Leap and US Cellular and I am not sure how interested Tmobile USA is.  I know Deutsch Telekom wants out of the US market but will it be that desperate to accept Dish's terms.  We will have to see but in terms of Dish's view getting additional spectrum does not solve all their problems.  Dish is on the clock to build out the S-band spectrum footprint or risk losing it and they need to start creating a plan because that time will be here before you know it.

Does anyone else think that dish's next move will be to bid on pcs h block? This might be the cheapest way for them to force sprint back to the table and deal with them on a network deal. Sprint wants/needs pcs h and I think it is contiguous with dish spectrum (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) so it has value to them beyond just leverage. Given dish's track record I can see the pcs h auction being another opportunity to cause headaches for sprint. Also, I thought the FCC was going to auction off pcs h this year but haven't heard anything about it recently, is that still the plan or has that changed?

I am pretty sure Dish is going to try to bid for the PCS H block spectrum when the auction occurs.  The PCS H block spectrum is 10 MHz (1915-1920 MHz and 1995-2000 MHz) and Dish's spectrum is (2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz) so the PCS H block would be contiguous from Dish's point of view.  I am sure Dish is going to try to press Sprint to give them favorable terms to help them deploy their S-band 2 GHz spectrum. 

With this Softbank and Clearwire fiasco, would Sprint still even entertain a working relationship with Dish?  In terms of the PCS H block auction, I doubt it will be this year.  I would have thought that the FCC would have given all interested parties the auction date and some notice well ahead of time for preparation.  I am not sure what the hold up is whether it is the FCC still trying to define and address the rules for interference issues or power limits on the uplink.  My guess is that we will probably see the PCS H auction sometime in 1H 2014.

If they launch LTE 2500 on every PCS tower in NYC, that would almost be overkill. LOL! 

 

I thought that LTE was more usable further out than WiMax meaning that you'd get slightly better coverage over LTE 2500 than on WiMax if they were on all of the same towers.

Yes LTE 2500 would have better coverage than Wimax 2500 but the Sprint cell towers are positioned for 1900 MHz CDMA.  So I don't think it would be overkill if they did put LTE 2500 on every tower in NYC since we know that the LTE airlink is weaker than CDMA and it won't even interfere with neighboring Sprint cell towers.  I think if Sprint put LTE 2500 at every tower especially in midtown Manhattan that would provide a lot of capacity which would is sorely needed.

My biggest concern is whether Sprint will launch LTE 2500 in all major markets including those that were missed in the Wimax deployment.  All this talk about Sprint providing capacity relief and the majority of LTE traffic on LTE 2500 would be all fluff it it doesn't cover markets like Phoenix, New Orleans, Detroit, San Diego, etc that were missed out in Wimax deployment.  I really hope that this is the case and with Softbank funding hopefully it can be a reality.

Supposedly so. I know Sprint wants them to. However, we are talking about two separate federal governments here.

 

On the US side, the FCC is very motivated because Americans need and can put to use this spectrum for wideband use. However, the Canadian and Mexican governments don't have the same urgency because their SMR license holders along the borders do not have eminent wideband plans, thus are not pushing their governments.

 

The current agreement is for interleaved 25khz channels shared between the American and Foreign carriers. If they are not prepared to move to wideband in Mexico or Canada, how do you share border spectrum of wideband and narrowband? You pretty much can't.

 

And if they are ready and willing to go to wideband, then they have to organize how they are going to split it up. The carriers on the other side may have a larger or smaller chunk of SMR spectrum. It could get very messy trying to line up and divvy it up fairly. No matter how you slice it, it's a messy proposition and Sprint is only going to be able to use at best half of its border SMR spectrum.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

I understand what you mean.  Like you said if Mexican and Canadian SMR license holders do not have plans for deploying wideband services its going to be hard to push them to speed us this process to benefit both parties.

I did find this picture of the proposed new 800 MHz US-Mexico reband plan.  I am curious in the picture what does "Co-Primary" mean?  With the post-reband plan of 5.5 MHz x 5.5 MHz available in the 818.5 to 824 MHz range, I wonder if Sprint could deploy a 3x3 LTE carrier and a CDMA carrier. 

Article on US-Mexico new 800 MHz reband plan

http://psc.apcointl.org/2013/04/02/new-800-mhz-band-plan-for-u-s-mexico-sharing-zone/

Post-reband 800 MHz band pic

http://psc.apcointl.org/wp-content/uploads/BandPlan.jpg

 

 

I read on the 800MHz thread that we are not getting 800MHz because we are too close to the Mexican border.

 

 

In the RGV, there will not be 800MHz initially. That's true. Sprint and the FCC are still working through that with the Mexican Feds and their SMR band license holder. It will not likely be resolved in 2013. However, parts of the South Texas market away from the border, like Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Alice, Victoria, etc. will start to receive 800MHz deployments this year.

 

Robert

Is sprint and the FCC also working with the canadian feds to work out the 800 MHz issue and the SMR band license holders?

Sent from my HP Touchpad using Tapatalk 2

I don't know if Seattle will be getting 800 MHz LTE for now since its near the Canadian border. Hopefully the US can work out agreements with Canada and mexico on this to use 800 MHz for LTE and CDMA

Sent from my HP Touchpad using Tapatalk 2

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/sprint-announces-three-tri-band-lte-mobile-broadband-devices-to/

 

This fall. LG (Optimus G pro) and Samsung (note 3) will probably be the first Triband LTE phones.

I don't know if the current LG Optimus G Pro is coming to Sprint this year.  Maybe the LG Optimus G Pro 2 but I doubt that will be released this year.  LG might just have a Spring time release and have a reverse device release schedule than Samsung with a phablet in Spring and flagship phone in Fall vs Samsung who has a flagship phone in Spring and phablet in Fall.

If you read the majority of complaints that people have with Sprint, it is not about the voice reception issue but the data issues.  With the explosion in smartphones and mobile data usage, the Sprint haters all complain about the slow 3G speeds that have plagued the network for a couple years.  Its no secret that Sprint has neglected upgrading their backhaul on its Sprint towers from T1 to fiber until now while the other major carriers have spent the time to do so.

I think also since smartphones have become a big part of our daily lives that we use to get information, take pictures, watch video, etc people want to be able to do these activities quicker and slow data speeds won't cut it.  If Sprint had decent 3G speeds and did not have LTE rolled out in their area, the outcries would not be as bad since all we want to do is be able to browse the internet and watch video without buffering.  Luckily I have Wimax to hold me over until I can get a LTE phone but I feel for those customers who got a Wimax phone and never got Wimax rolled out in their area and have to deal with slow Sprint 3G.  I know things are slowly looking better as Network Vision gets rolled out all over the country but it just takes time and for some the waiting has gone over their threshold where they can't stand it anymore.

I read somewhere that who ever buys the H block has to pay sprint is that true .

 Yes it is.  Sprint paid about 750 million to relocate the BAS service which occupied 1990-2025 MHz  that started in 2005 and completed in 2010.  So anyone who ends up using service in this spectrum range needs to reimburse Sprint for the fees it paid for this relocation service.

I wonder if Dish needs to reimburse Sprint when it uses the 2000-2020 MHz spectrum for the S-band uplink unless it was already paid by the DBSD and Terrestar.

http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1583

I don't think Sprint needs to mess with the H block now , when they have TD-lte deployed and with trip band phones coming out shortly there is no need to get in a bidding war with Dish for only 5x5mhz.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

I think they still do. The only reason being is that I am still not convinced about how expansive the 2.5 GHz TD-LTE rollout is going to be. I have read about creating small islands of TD-LTE but to me that is not enough.  We only know of only 5,000 TD-LTE sites that will get upgrades but I expect that number will increase once Sprint pumps funding into Clearwire when the deal closes but it certainly will not be anywhere near 38,000 nor are we sure it will cover some of the major markets that were left out of the Wimax deployment.  It makes sense to me to create TD-LTE islands in every single major market and not just those in the Wimax rollout.  The H block however will bring the same coverage like the G block at a lower cost. 

The H block will complement Sprint's G block nicely since they reside right next to each other.  The PCS band is Sprint's main band and they need to do whatever it takes to gobble up as much of that.  I think giving the 5x5 H block to Dish would be wasteful since they have yet to announce their plans to deploy their own S-band spectrum.  I hate to see spectrum wasted since its a limited resource and I would rather have Sprint sell some of their 2.5 GHz spectrum to bolster their spectrum holdings than for Sprint to give up on the H block.

There is basically no way that happens.  Even if the PCS/AWS-2 H block were to be auctioned alone, an auction taking place by the end of this year would have been announced already.  Look to 2014 -- at the earliest.

 

AJ

That is fine.  Sprint already is wrapped up with this Softbank/Sprint/Clearwire mess.  I wonder what the hold up is for this auction which I assume the rules and details have been ironed out already.

It sounds like Dish is going to cause more trouble getting Sprint/Softbank into a bidding war with the H block.  How much time does Dish have left in their build out requirements for the AWS spectrum they currently own?  And when do we expect the auctions for the H block?

I hope the H block auction is sometime in Oct/Nov this year and I do expect Dish to try to cause havoc in bidding for the large markets like LA, NYC, Chicago, Houston, etc to drive the price up for Sprint/Softbank.  I think Sprint/Softbank needs to spend whatever it takes to get nationwide H block to bolster their overall PCS holdings and to get contiguous 10 MHz so that they can add another 5x5 LTE carrier for capacity.

I heard sprint is getting less capital on this new deal but sprint will be saving 2billion a year with the SoftBank purchase plus sprint will soon make a profit from the iPhone and Nextel being shutdown so all of that will more than likely go to the network.

That is true but losing 3 billion in new capital to spend on Network Vision is still significant because there are still a ton of things that Sprint needs to do to revamp the network.  With the delays in Network Vision LTE build out,  LTE-Advanced rollout coming up and needing to spend a lot new capital to deploy small cells within the next 2 years, the 3 billion would have come in handy. 

Its a shame that Softbank couldn't just decrease the new capital given to Sprint from 8 billion to 7 billion and then just front more money out of itself for the difference especially if they are going to get 8 percent more in equity from 70 to 78%.  But I guess Ergen was able to push Son's buttons and he knew he had to make a bold move in order to secure the deal.  At the end of the day, Softbank securing Sprint is what we all want and hopefully this vote next week will make it official.

I see that Sprint still does not have 75% of the vote. By my calculation they have 73%.

Where did you get 73% from?

Wow!!! This news about Sprint and Clearwire on my birthday today!!!  Thank you Sprint for making my birthday wish come true.  I wish Clearwire didn't postpone the vote from June 24th to July 8th but I understand they need to give shareholders time to think about it even though there is a very good chance this merger will go through.

I hope CDMA 800 is accepted quickly after the June 30th shutdown.  The voice coverage of 800 MHz is long overdue.

SignalCheck Pro version 4.03 has been released on Google Play.  It should be available within the hour here.  This version improves some 800 SMR stuff, gives some LTE love to Froyo and Gingerbread, and.. [drumroll].. finally lets users choose their own ringtone for alerts! 

 

Here are the changes in more detail:

 

Added options to allow users to select any notification tone on their device for alerts. (Pro)

Everyone has been waiting for this one, very happy to finally deliver it.  Defaults are the previous alert tones, but you can choose any notification tone on your device that you would like.  If you add a new notification tone to your device, it will automatically become available in the app.

 

Added status bar icons for Sprint 1xRTT 800MHz SMR service. (Pro)

If you are on 800 SMR, any 1X status bar icons will now show "1X 800".  If you are not on 800 SMR, they will display "1xRTT" as before.

 

Added support for LTE on Android 2.x devices.

Apologies to the folks with older devices, I had no idea it didn't work.. you should be all set now.

 

Resolved issue with invalid SID/NID/BID values displayed in the 1X notification icon status while on a telephone call. (Pro)

SID/NID/BID will now be hidden in the 1X notification icon "drawer" while on a telephone call, instead of displaying invalid values.

 

Improved handling of Sprint 1xRTT 800MHz SMR status while on a telephone call.

Due to the Android bug mentioned in earlier posts, SignalCheck cannot determine if a device is on 800MHz or 1900MHz while a telephone call is active.  Until this can be resolved, the app will assume that your band does not change while on the call.  Calls initiated while on 800 will continue to display 800 throughout the call, even if it is handed off to 1900 at some point.  Same goes for calls initiated while on 1900.  Upon termination of the call, the status will update immediately.

 

Disabled support for Android 2.1, aka Eclair.

The minimum requirement is now Android 2.2 (Froyo) due to methods used to select your own ringtone.

 

This version was tested more than 3.14, so there should not be any similar problems with this rollout.. but let me know!

 

-Mike

So on Google Play is this version labelled 3.15 dated 6/19 or is going to be a new version number dated 6/20?

Edit:  I just refreshed the page and now its dated 6/20 on Google Play page.  Downloaded the app and  I love the ability to customize the audio tone for the LTE and 800 alerts.

The new s4 willl replace the current S4

I'll believe when it passes the FCC and see it.  It hasn't been confirmed yet that Sprint will get this model of the GS4.

Don't think it will provide better speeds until LTE launches and devices for 800 LTE are available.

Yes of course.