ericdabbs

I don't know how I feel about this deal if it goes through. On one hand I am happy that Sprint and Clearwire will end this love/hate relationship and will help Sprint bolster their spectrum holdings. However I am not happy that they are deciding right now to do it.

I am really afraid the FCC will not allow Sprint to bid on the H block in 2013 and prohibit any potential spectrum sharing deal with Dish to use their 2 GHz freqs just due to being above the spectrum screen. I guess the only thing going for Sprint concerning the H block is that they did pay a pretty good chunk of money to move the BAS to 2025 MHz. I would assume if any other carrier were to obtain the H block that they would have to pay Sprint a lump sum of money to use it.

Also with this Clearwire deal Sprint is shooting themselves in the foot for any potential MetroPCS/Tmobile PCS divestitures since that would mean obtaining more spectrum which with the Clearwire deal would put them over the top. I just do not like the timing of this deal. I don't want Sprint to draw attention from the FCC from trying to become big too fast.

Maybe Sprint is not happy with Clearwire trying to deploy only 2000 sites by June 2013?

Good. Now Sprint go make a deal with Dish network for the 2 GHz spectrum.

This is not good news. Sprint needs to acquire the PCS H block spectrum and maybe hammer out a Dish network deal first before even thinking about buying Clearwire. Sprint has too many deals on the table right now (US Cellular Chicago area, Sprint/Softbank, potential Sprint/Dish spectrum deal in talks) and doesn't need to add another potential deal with this right now. Let the Sprint/Softbank deal close first before trying to buy out Clearwire because if you are Sprint you DON"T want to complicate the deal any further than you need to. This is just absolutely ridiculous what I am hearing.

Sprint has an invisible hand over Clearwire anyways with the 51% ownership stake. Let Clearwire continue to hammer out all the details for TDD-LTE with the TD-LTE alliance.

Yup sprint will have 4G LTE on Virgin mobile and Boostmobile by the 1Q

You're right. Wow..I didn't expect Sprint to offer LTE service on its prepaid brands so soon. I was hoping/expecting that prepaid brands Virgin and Boost Mobile would start getting LTE phones in 2014. This way it gives more preference and encouraging those that are prepaid to switch to postpaid to get LTE.

Also if Sprint were to keep prepaid on 4G Wimax until 2014, it gives Clearwire a source of revenue throughout 2013 which they desperately need. It looks like Boost will offer the ZTE Aurora and the HTC Kingdom and Virgin will offer the Samsung Galaxy Victory. All the LTE phones are meh....and Sprint seems to be keeping all the high end smartphones on the Sprint brand so I am ok with that,

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/12/07/prepaid-4g-lte-smartphones-for-sprint-brands-coming-in-q1-2013/

Any update on Completed sites this week? It has been two weeks already and is not looking good for any December 2012 LTE market launches.

I also wondered the same thing and the fact that sprint is extending LTE to the prepaid subs also. Makes me wonder why I'm postpaid if I could go prepaid and get the same service minus the brand new phones and roaming.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

LTE extended to prepaid subs?? Like Virgin and Boost Mobile?? I don't think so. Virgin and Boost Mobile now have 4G phones for purchase but they are 4G WiMax phones NOT 4G LTE phones. Sprint may have some wholesale agreements for LTE but I don't know the details of any such agreements.

One thing that might happen if you get a new contract wimax phone today....

 

Theres a good chance sprint will let you upgrade to lte early. Not guaranteed of course, but thats what carriers do when they want to shift people off one network to another.

 

Verizon, for example, is at this point pretty much paying people to dump their altel plans.

I highly doubt that will happen since Wimax is not planning to be shut down until 2015. Sprint plans to stop selling Wimax phones beginning Jan 2013. Dec 2012 is the last time you can sign up for a Wimax phone on Sprint with a 2 year contract and that customer is eligible for an upgrade in Oct 2014. The Wimax phones will then be only be sold on Virgin and Boost Mobile.

Honestly I think deep down Sprint is hoping no one buys anymore Wimax phones and instead opt for LTE phones so it can try to stop paying Clearwire for its service just like how Sprint is trying to discourage Nextel customers for staying on iDEN by adding a $10 charge starting Jan 2013.

The epic 4g touch is still a good phone & can probably be found off contract on the cheap, buy it for now and save the upgrade for the next round of phones that support LTE 800Mhz.

Lets hope the LTE phones in 2013 support the 800 MHz band. There is no excuse now that the 800 MHz band has been approved by the FCC. Im looking to upgrade to a LTE phone in 2013.

If Dish moves its uplink spectrum assets from 2000-2020 MHz to 2005-2025 MHz, wouldn't Dish have to worry about interfering in the BAS band (2025 MHz to 2110 MHz)?

This is also the reason for the odd, inverted duplex of the Upper 700 MHz band. In nearly all mobile spectrum bands, the uplink is lower in frequency than the downlink. The inverse is true of the Upper 700 MHz band (e.g. VZW's Upper 700 MHz C block licenses). The reason for the inversion is that it places the Lower 700 MHz band downlink and the Upper 700 MHz band downlink directly adjacent to one another, and that mitigates interference concerns.

 

AJ

AJ, what do you think is the most appropriate way to settle this debacle to avoid 'H' block interference? Is it best for Dish to adhere to the FCC's limits or is AWS 4 rebanding the way to go (reverse the uplink and downlink freqs just like the 700 MHz C block)?

What sucks is that Android 4.2.1 is out now. Do you guys think Samsung will release another update for Android 4.2.1?

The last of the big 4 has finally jumped into bed with Apple to begin offering the iPhone in 2013. Now each of the big 4 carriers carry the iPhone and I would be interested to see how Tmobile's postpaid numbers improve with the addition of the iPhone as well as how AT&T's postpaid numbers gets affected by this. I am sure there a group of folks out there that loved Tmobile but switched to AT&T because of the iPhone and may consider switching back to Tmobile.

Do you guys think this will have any impact on Sprint?

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-usa-carry-apple-products-2013/2012-12-06

Looks like SouthernLinc isn't giving up so easily on iDEN despite Sprint's announcement impending iDEN shutdown in mid 2013. In fact they even plan to invest and expand the iDEN network for possible nationwide coverage. I was really hoping SouthernLinc and Sprint could make a deal where Sprint can reclaim some of the 800 MHz spectrum lost in the southeast region of the US so that they can deploy a 5x5 LTE carrier there instead of a 3x3 LTE carrier there.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/southernlinc-continue-iden-business-plans-solution-nationwide-coverage/2012-12-04

Does Sprint really need that large of a guard band?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Probably not but I hate when spectrum bands are not divided up into nice 5 or 10 MHz blocks. Who cares if Sprint doesn't need the whole 5 MHz of the guard band. I would much rather have Dish have 20 MHz down and 15 MHz up than 20 MHz and 18 MHz up. Doesn't make any sense since the 3 extra MHz would be wasted anyways.

At this point, since most of the LTE devices only support 5x5 LTE configuration, I would expect that Sprint would just use the H block (assuming they win most of it) to add a 2nd 5x5 LTE carrier. Since LTE-A is not out yet, Sprint couldn't do carrier aggregation yet anyways to make it a 10x10. The only way Sprint can do a 10x10 with the G+H block is through LTE-A.

I wonder if Dish will get an additional 5 Mhz of uplink spectrum since its giving up the 2000-2005 MHz spectrum to be used as a guard band. Would be nice if Dish's uplink spectrum was reallocated to 2005-2025 MHz so that they don't lose the total of 40 MHz of S-band spectrum.

Sprint has hinted many times that it can host another network's spectrum but I wonder how strong is Sprint trying to pursue a Lightsquared like deal with Dish.

Sprint already has a 4G LTE logo. I just don't know why they don't use it. I would much rather see the logo below for "4GLTE" than just "4G" at the top which IMO is pretty lame.

VZW is PCS 1900 MHz spectrum strapped? No, not really. In its Cellular 850 MHz markets, VZW's need for PCS is diminishing by the day.

 

AJ

Well I guess the fact that Verizon is using AWS spectrum to bolster their LTE network means that PCS could be less meaningful. However since VoLTE is no where near deployable due to the ongoing issues, Verizon is still relying on PCS 1900 MHz until they can move people to VoLTE. Until Verizon can move their entire CDMA/EVDO network onto 850 MHz, they will need to keep their 1900 MHz.

As far as I know AT&T and Tmobile both need to keep their 1900 MHz spectrum so if Verizon is the only company that can part with their PCS 1900 MHz at least 10 MHz and in some cases and 20 MHz in most cases for each of the markets they would swap with Sprint then Sprint should do a spectrum swap with them.

Wow I hope that happens as well. Would give is plenty of spectrum in the Tampa and Orlando markets. Could possibly giving us a 10x10 LTE channel.

That is what I am hoping for. I still wonder what Sprint would do with the AWS spectrum? I would hope Sprint would keep it for either deploying yet another LTE band in the distant future OR Sprint could keep it until AWS spectrum becomes more valuable and then sell it. I don't see how Sprint could swap with other carriers for more PCS spectrum since every other carrier is PCS spectrum strapped.

I love Hesse and I love the $10 additional charge for Nextel customers. If clients are willing to hang on to the iDEN network until the bitter end, then why not charge them more and increase the ARPU. Its not like there are that many other choices out there.

He is bullying the Nextel customers to switch over to CDMA PTT faster or just kick them off of the iDEN network. Ideally I think Sprint would like to get rid of all Nextel customers by May so it gives them 1-2 months head start to rip apart all iDEN equipment and decommissioning all iDEN sites as well as preparing to get ready for 800 MHz CDMA/LTE launch hopefully by end of 2013 Q3 launch. I just hope most of the Nextel customers will finally convert in Q1 2013 to Sprint CDMA so that it will help Sprint's network overall.

Looks like Sprint is looking to make a counter-bid for MetroPCS within the next month or so due to the depressed price of MetroPCS since the announced acquisition. If Sprint makes a counter-bid for Metro at $13/share, this would mean that if Tmobile were to pay that price in the joint company, they would have to give up 43 to 47 percent ownership of the new company to MetroPCS shareholders instead of the proposed 26 percent ownership to MetroPCS shareholders like Tmobile is claiming.

If Sprint is able to snatch up MetroPCS, their PCS holdings especially in Florida markets where they are all 20 MHz will be vastly improved as well as a bunch other major cities that only have 20 MHz. I hope this counter-bid for MetroPCS happens.

http://www.bloomberg...or-company.html

http://www.fiercewir...mors/2012-11-30

I'm not entirely sure what your question is, but I've talked with American Towers and gotten information out of them. They have it setup so that Sprint employees can place a request on a site (for example, adding backhaul to it) and that when American Tower reviews it, they approve it and give them a permit. The permit lasts for 60 days (so Sprint must finish the upgrades in 60 days) and that the antenna installation will require another permit. This is all I know of and it's probably different per site. This is the way American Towers does it, but I know some places have towers owned by White Castle and you can find out how their system works by looking up White Castle Towers on google and such. For rooftop panels, I'd assume they contact whoever owns the building and request permission to work on the antennas on the top, also backhaul requests.

 

EDIT: They appear to be working on sites that have backhaul ready first.

 

And the backhaul is installed through a sub-subcontractor to Ericsson.

White Castle??? I would like to request a permit from White Castle for some sliders, fries and some sodas. I think you mean Crown Castle Tower company.

If you depend on WiMax, that's probably the way to go. Or you can get a really cheap WiMax hotspot and upgrade to a LTE device now.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

The Freedompop hotspot offers some free 500 MB Wimax data and you can pay a small amount for different data buckets too. If I were to upgrade to a device now and wanted Wimax coverage, I would get the LTE phone and the Freedompop hotspot and take the free 500 MB of Wimax data and use the Wimax only when I need to.

The Wimax coverage in Salt Lake City is pretty good up here. I am glad I can still use my Wimax phone. But the improvement in 3G speeds is desperately needed in Salt Lake City so I hope NV comes here soon.

Apparently the FCC agrees with Sprint and plans to impose that Dish shift up their spectrum holdings to 2005-2025 MHz on the uplink to ensure that there is no interference between Dish's spectrum and the PCS 'H' block. Also it sounds like the FCC is planning on a 'H' block spectrum offering in 2013.

"Separately, the FCC also said it will propose auctioning the H Block of PCS spectrum in 2013, which Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) has said it wants for its LTE network.

"Chairman Julius Genachowski today shared proposals with his colleagues that will unleash up to 50 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband, including LTE," said an FCC spokesperson. "Specifically, the chairman proposes final action to enable terrestrial use for AWS-4 spectrum, and moves forward with implementation of Congressional direction to auction the H Block, slated for 2013."

http://www.fiercewir...trum/2012-11-20

The LTE core for every market has to be somewhere. There are two cores serving the markets in Southern California. I'm trying to recall from memory, one is in Rialto and I think the other one is in Burbank. I am certain about the Rialto location, though.

 

Robert via Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Anaheim has a 4G core too that should serve the OC area which is also part of Southern California and should serve San Diego as well.