ericdabbs

Anyone know how Sprint is deploying 1x Advanced and what schemes they are using to maximize the benefits of 1x Advanced.  I remember reading the brochure from Qualcomm that said that 1x Advanced can provide up to 70% more coverage OR up to 4x more capacity for users. 

 

I think at this point, Sprint should be maximizing 1x Advanced by deploying the 4x more capacity users scheme on their 800 MHz and 1900 MHz spectrum so that they can eventually shut down some extra 1x carriers to free up more 1900 MHz spectrum for additional LTE carriers.

 

https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/technologies/ev-do/1x-advanced

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

On a separate note, I'm just not sure I can understand why folks think these small cells are so unsightly? They're about as low profile as you can get.

Because city planners or NIMBYs cant understand that wireless is a huge part of peoples daily lives. In order to support the growing demand for voice and data coverage new macro towers and small cells need to be installed in locations all over the city including neighborhoods.

 

Sometimes i wish the cell providers can just strip off all cell coverage in NIMBY neighborhoods just so they can feel what happens when they cant build.

 

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Any new updates to the 600 MHz auction?

I would love to see the Mobilite small cells get erected in the OC county.

"Mobilitie says it has about 1,000 permits approved and will start large-scale installations once more are in hand." -Wsj

 

"The company since has received approval to attach equipment to 14 poles across the city. It will pay Baltimore $70,000 for pole attachment rights in the first year of the deal. Mr. Jabara says that amount is unusually high, and many places charge less than $50 a year per pole." - Wsj

 

1000 permits nationwide??? Out of 70,000 potentially??

Reading this is giving me that sick feeling of "here we go again" more delays, more issues to get up small cells.

If sprint falls behind or has a slow roll out and the others don't they will surely lose their advantage of having so much spectrum. Sprint will once again be playing catch-up. Right when they are starting to get favorable reviews, better marketing ideas.

 

Marcelo please get on this

 

Agreed.  Sprint really needs to get these permits up and going quickly since their network coverage still lags behind some of its peers.  1000 permits is just peanuts and I just don't want to see Sprint fail again when somehow the competition manages to get things going in high gear even though it seems like they should go through the same growing pains.

3x carrier aggregation reported on Reddit 

 

This makes me wonder if Sprint should at some point do CA between its B26 and B25 carriers.  Especially in places where Sprint can deploy a 2nd 5x5 LTE carrier, I think it would be wise if Sprint gave a thought to do a B26 (5x5) + B25 (5x5) LTE carrier for better indoor coverage. 

 

Tmobile sure is going all in on its LTE CA on its AWS, PCS and 700A spectrum assets.

Sprint could just get bought out completely by SoftBank, right? Doesn't that invoke automatically if Sprint buys more than 85%, right? 

 

U mean if Softbank buys more than 85%?  Yes if Softbank's investment into Sprint equates to 85% or higher stake in Sprint, it will trigger a tender offer to buy the remaining 15% stake in Sprint of which Softbank will have to come up with the funds to buy the remaining 15% immediately which is not in their best interest given their already huge amount of debt.

I really hope the 10 billion dollars is for NGN densification than the 600 MHz auction.

Agree.. use the funds to serve both purposes.

 

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For anyone who wants to follow it, here's the auction status page for the Incentive Auction, which starts today.

 

https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/public/projects/1000

 

- Trip

 

Huge bummer that Los Angeles is so hampered by 600 MHz that it can only offer 5 (5x5 MHz blocks).

I am not sure how any billing for Eq and things go. That said my thought of putting money into the densification program would allow for potential ovt, getting Eq on order and hopefully deliverd to locations so there are no delays on sprints side. ..... (Maybe payoff a few towns to get these damn permits passed very quickly !)

 

Any small wireless companies to buy usable spectrum from? Or buy the company period??? If sprint/Tmo are worth 20-30bil each someone might be out for a bil or so.

 

Just thinking

 

Yeah i think that sounds nice in theory but not in true practice.  No money is going to speed up slow red tape.  This was the thought for NV 1.0 and it didn't pan out since it still took longer than expected to complete NV 1.0.  I would much rather see the money spent on getting 600 MHz spectrum or pay off some immediate debt so that it gets that monkey off of Sprint's back for analysts who worry about Sprint's ability to pay their upcoming bond payments.  Sprint owes $2.3 billion in debt payments this year and the ability to pay that off as part of the $7.9 billion that Softbank collects would be great.

 

The densification project is going to take as long as it is currently schedule.  The problem right now in wireless industry is not enough staffing to perform all the system upgrades amongst the big carriers.  Throwing money at the problem is going to make it faster.

So do you put 8billion towards sprints debt?

Or towards the network and try to get this densifying done faster?

Or invest in 600 spectrum?

Or try to buy one of these little guys?

 

Will be very interesting to see what son has in mind

Sprint is on track to save 1-3 billion in cost cutting and possibly get 8 bil from Dad, that's gotta make sprint stock go up with a 11bil swing... Or is that money to start making payments due soon?

Man that is a tough question. I dont think its a problem with the network densification project so throwing more money into it which is already financed seems silly.

 

It may be silly but i would love to see softbank use that money to buy 600 mhz spectrum since sprints low band profile absolutely blows. If not i would rather see softbank use the funds to pay off sprints immediate bond debt that is due within the next 2 years.

 

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They got the extra spectrum via the MetroPCS acquisition otherwise they would be in the worst shape. They should send a bottle of whiskey to the Sprint previous board for blocking Hesse from buying MetroPCS otherwise Tmobile would be in the death ropes by now.

 

I couldn't imagine if Sprint owned MetroPCS right now.  They would have definitely made use of their PCS spectrum.  I think if Sprint bought MetroPCS, Tmobile would have been scrambling to buy up Leap to try to save face and try to strike a deal with Sprint for MetroPCS's AWS spectrum.

You are probably right. But not when I'm sitting next to my co-worker in Palazzo casino and they get LTE on their AT&T phone. Or in Sands where they get LTE and I'm barely getting 3G.

Low band spectrum at its finest. Dont u just love san bernardino county right now

 

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Only 2-3 major cities covered by the end of 2017? That doesn't seem like that much, considering the relative ease and low cost of small cells.

 

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You read it wrong. 2/3 of major markets does not mean 2 or 3 markets.

 

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Wow, LA Metro is really starting to move along!

 

Interesting, because one of those sites is in a spot that isn't that terrible for coverage.  If that's the density they're going for, coverage is going to be great.

 

LA Metro needs these small cells badly.  Their macro network still needs a lot of work so hopefully these things can hold up in the mean time while they install more macro sites.

I don't think you read my post on its entirety. I did acknowledge that 2.5 Ghz can definitely work in a dense network.

No I did read your post in its entirety.  My point is that Sprint is taking that approach to solve the indoor and outdoor capacity/coverage issue.  However its going to take time.  Buying 600 MHz in 2016 is not going to solve their indoor and outdoor issues in the next 4 years so what is the point?

 

 I think we are all getting carried away by this 'high band 5g' discussion. We don't even know if it will actually work in real world scenarios. There is a reason why there are so many tests going on by all 4 national carriers and vendors. As far as we know, they may just all give up in the coming months due to the complexity of using these ultra high bands.

I don't think that anyone is getting carried away at all with the high band 5G discussions.  Certainly if its not any of the current 5 or 6 high band frequencies that are being discussed currently it will certainly be somoe sort of spectrum block that will be allocated for 5G deployment.  The point is that the available spectrum going forward will likely be in a higher band that 2.5 GHz spectrum.  20 MHz carriers might seem large now but who knows what 5G and 6G bandwidths will demand.  Even all the low band spectrum from Verizon/ATT 700 and 850 MHz (10x10 blocks) individually are gonna be chump change for 5G and 6G.

 

Yes, network densification is happening. Nobody is denying that.

What I am arguing is that Sprint has aggressively gone after customers with ridiculous promotions and have very little to show for it. With the growing debt they have added recently to their already massive debt, can Sprint really afford to add more operati

ng expenses without adding customers? Sprint doesn't seem to think so because they've lowered CAPEX. At least on paper, Sprint is showing that they aren't confident in the future. Whether that's all being done to make an argument for a merger is another discussion.

 

The problem with Sprint right now is that they have to fight a 2 front war.  It may seem like the 50% promo is not working based on net adds (which include sub losses) but at the same time you have lots of people switching to other carriers which puts the overall numbers lower than expected.  Sprint still has a huge battle to fight to first and foremost retain its customers.  Lowering churn is just as important as it is to acquiring new customers.  That is what Tmobile did.  They had to first stop customers from bolting to other carriers first.

 

So what Sprint really has to do is focus on what they can control right now and make an impact based on their current resources.  They have a ton of 2.5 GHz spectrum to deploy to add CA and begin deploying small cells to start densifying the network.  It will be great if Softbank participates on Sprint's behalf to pick up 600 MHz spectrum but I think its more of a cherry on top.  Lowering CAPEX has nothing to do with not being confident in the future.  It is more of announcing their expectations based on their current schedule of when they anticipate events will occur.  Certainly I believe that if the permitting process for small cells goes very smoothly without much red tape and be ahead of schedule, then I expect that Sprint can surpass their projected CAPEX to meet the demand.

 

The indoor coverage issue should be fixed via small cells rather than trying to rely on low band spectrum to penetrate through walls from a macro site.   If a carrier can deploy mini cell site (aka: small cells) that are placed directly inside a building, then a lot of the attenuation loss that is encountered with high band spectrum will be negated since it won't have to pierce through walls from the outside from a distant macro site.

Personally, I'm of the opinion (an unpopular one on this board) that Sprint should go after a 10x10 block of 600 MHz spectrum. While support won't be ready for this band anytime soon, Sprint can at least have a chance to future-proof indoor performance speeds and reliability. I know many on this board don't like the idea, but 2.5 Ghz is just not getting the job done in its current setup.

 

I honestly don't think you are the minority in the 600 MHz opinion.  I too would have liked to see Sprint bid on some 600 MHz spectrum just to secure some more low band spectrum.  

 

However at the same time I understand that the future of wireless involves small cells which are suppose to help bridge coverage gaps to provide more capacity in small areas.  The idea of small cells are what makes high band spectrum valuable. I think you also have to be honest in that we have no idea what a macro and small cell network experience is like and how it works with 2.5 GHz spectrum.  You are purely basing the coverage and speed woes on the current macro site deployment which of course is not fair.  Until we see a 2.5 GHz macro and small cell widespread deployment we can't say that it will be a failure.

 

Face it, the majority of spectrum available in the future is going to be in very high band spectrum (ex:  24 GHz, 28-29 GHz, 31 GHz and 39 GHz, etc) so 20 MHz of 600 MHz is not going to be that big of a deal in the future anyways.  Sprint just doesn't have all the funds in the world to commit to a huge densification project as well as a spectrum auction bid which it cannot use for 4 years.

 

Remember that small cell planning and deployment (to some extent) at Sprint is happening now and if you are telling me giving Sprint a head start of 4 years (assuming 600 MHz deployment is at the earliest late 2020) is not going to equate to much is ridiculous.  Its like Sprint being late to the LTE game in 2011/2012.  Had Sprint deployed LTE in 2009/2010 with even a LTE 5x5 G block just like when Verizon/AT&T started deploying LTE the growing pains experienced in 2011-2015 the poor reputation and the loss of customers would not have been as dramatic.

 

Lastly I don't know if I am in the minority on this issue but I feel that Sprint should not even sell off any 2.5 GHz spectrum.  If Sprint has 120-160 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum so be it.  Sprint needs all the advantage it can get.  If 2.5 GHz spectrum will truly be the "beach front" spectrum for a 5G network then they need every bit of it. 

Are there any updates to Sprint Global Roaming for new countries?  Its been awhile since they have had an update and there are still many countries that Sprint has yet to cover.

US Cellular won't sell. But if they were, why would Sprint sell the cellular license? I may be wrong, but current B26 equipment should be able to cover the 850 Cellular Band as well.

 

 

Nope. Band 26 being a superset down mean the equipment can do the 850 CLR frequencies. 

 

 

Tim, isn't that what greenbastard said? 

Yes but it's not working out as Verizon has figured out years back.

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

 

Are there lessons learned that Sprint can take from Verizon on their VoLTE deployment woes so far that Sprint can avoid to properly deploy VoLTE at some time in the future?

Here you go.

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=97dlNMvb1V3zJcKcL%2BsnUw%3D%3D&fcc_id=NM82PS6400

 

Which doc do you look at to confirm if it has 2xCA or 3xCA?

Are there FCC docs on the Sprint variant of the HTC 10?

Wow so they were able to clear the full 126 mhz target. That sounds like a huge amount of low band spectrum up for grabs. I hope softbank scoops up some of this 600 mhz spectrum for later use.

 

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What? T-Mobile has moved a number of stations off channel 51. There are plenty of other channels to move WPXX to, and T-Mobile is more than willing to spend the money to get it done.

 

- Trip

I think u are reading the post wrong. It says that sprint wouldnt spend the resources to work on a concurrent operations agreement, not Tmobile.

 

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I think sprint could have traded it to tmo acquire more mid band (pcs)

I reapectfully disagree. Tmobile knows that 700a in memphis is useless at this point due to Ch 51 issues. Tmobile knows sprint is not going to spend the capital to buy 700a equipment just for 1 market nor sprint will waste the resources to work with the tv station for a concurrent operations agreeement. Tmobile could just wait it out just like they are for the chicago market from Leap.

 

Also even if they were to trade the spectrum away to tmobile, i couldnt see more than 1 market getting more PCS spectrum since they know there was a timeline and its not deployment yet.

 

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