ericdabbs

Anyone from Salt Lake City can report their data speeds or any NV progress?

I would love to see how this super antenna work in action in a smartphone. If this super antenna works as advertised then they will become very popular quickly.

I wonder if Cricket goes under if Sprint can nab the PCS spectrum from them as payment so that Sprint can bolster their PCS holdings. I feel like Cricket at some point will be bought out eventually and Sprint would be the perfect player since Cricket is already deploying CDMA 1x Advanced on its towers.

Are the NV running list percentages going to be updated to reflect the 200 sites that were accepted last week? I guess since its so close to new week that the number of sites can be lumped into this upcoming week and be updated. Hoping to see more progress made in LA Metro and NYC since Sprint needs to get those markets closer to being launch ready as well as major progress in Chicago so that they can hurry up and move its crews to other Samsung markets which are in need of getting started.

Crest Financial, a minor investor of Clearwire, owns around 8.3 percent of Clearwire shares, is planning to file a formal complaint to the FCC before the Jan 28th deadline to urge the FCC to look at the Sprint/Clearwire transaction more carefully. Crest Financial believes that the 2.2 billion offer for the rest of Clearwire is a slap to the face and is undermining the true value of the vast 2.5 GHz spectrum assets which in their opinion is worth a lot more. What do you guys think will happen with now Crest Financial and Dish Network attempting to block this Sprint/Clearwire deal? IMO Crest Financial and Dish Network just have sour grapes that Sprint was able to nab Clearwire for the price they did and they could do nothing about it. I hope the FCC overlook the complaints from Crest and Dish and can see how this deal can help Sprint compete with the big 2 and approve both the Sprint/Softbank and Sprint/Clearwire deals. http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-investor-crest-urge-fcc-block-sprintclearwire-deal/2013-01-04

Oh I know that 6-8 Mbps is definitely within the Verizon advertised speed range for LTE. However I am talking about the consumer perceived LTE speeds which the criteria is way higher. The perception I read on forums and tech blogs is that Verizon LTE speedtests can do 40-50 Mbps on a consistent basis which I know only occurs on a non-loaded sector and yet when Sprint LTE speedtests show 20-25 Mbps, it is rated as "slow" compared to Verizon LTE. That stigma that many bitter and unknowledgeable consumers have of Sprint 4G no matter if it is WiMax or LTE is that Sprint can never win since it is still slower than Verizon or AT&T LTE. The point of my post is that Verizon's crazy 20+ Mbps have really come down to Earth within the past year as more and more people rush to Verizon to get LTE. I am sure if I went to an AT&T store and did LTE speedtests, I would find that speeds have come down to Earth since the crazy 20+ Mbps speedtests back then.

I am very glad that Sprint has stood up and started harping down on all the OEMs for being behind schedule. In all of 2012, only 9 markets have been announced and the top 2 population markets in NYC and LA have yet to show anywhere near launch ready (LA = 28% complete and NYC = 19% complete). This is not good at all. Its going to take another 3 months before I anticipate NYC and LA will be officially announced as launch ready unless Sprint announces only certain NYC and LA counties as Network Vision ready. I just hope bird nests are still not holding up progress for Network Vision. Sprint has major catching up to do and Sprint needs to launch between 500-600 sites per week to stay on track to be mostly complete by end of 2013 even though they have stated that they are one quarter behind but still remained firm of the "mostly complete by end of 2013" schedule. Who knows how Sprint is going to factor in adding 800 MHz LTE to their deployment plans post June 2013. I hope that cities like Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, etc that have already launched with LTE have the 800 MHz LTE equipment installed on the tower already and are just a flip switch away from turning on or else there will have to be a lot of rework to do.

I went to my local Verizon store today to check out the LTE phones particularly the Droid DNA phone because I am intrigued with the 5 in screen. I did several LTE speedtests on several phones (Droid DNA, RAZR MAXX, SGS3, SG Note 2) and the average LTE speeds were in the 6-8 Mbps range. This is a far cry from when I first went to that exact same store when the HTC Thunderbolt, Rezound, RAZR MAXX first came out when LTE speeds averaged 20-25 Mbps. This makes me wonder how soon Verizon really needs to deploy LTE on its AWS spectrum to help alleviate capacity to keep up their lightning fast speeds. Verizon would have its work cut out for them since they need to upgrade its base station equipment to implement LTE-Advanced ready hardware. I just hope when Sprint LTE is live on every single Sprint tower that I can get a consistent 10-12 Mbps and I will be happy.

And the article and video please?

Wow the HTC Mogul!!!! I wouldn't have thought the HTC moguls could last this long. That is very impressive indeed.

I too do not understand your distaste for SERO users as if they are some how scoundrels who have cheated the Sprint system. From my personal experience, Sprint SERO was the single reason why I gave Sprint a chance for cell phone service in the first place due to the very nice value that it presented. I know I am not the only one and I am sure if you took a poll back in 2007 if people would even try Sprint, most would say no due to the horrible service it provided back then. The slickdeals thread about SERO blew up and had many people interested in Sprint service due to being able to get a smartphone and voice/data service for $30. Even if Sprint didn't market the cell phone plan as a traditional plan, nevertheless it was a successful program. Sprint even realized how popular it was and finally put and end to it in Aug 2008. Again Sprint could have forced people to switch over to regular plan at any time but realized how loyal SERO customers. Some people to this day still using the HTC Touch Pro 2 to hang on to the $30 SERO plan to avoid upgrading to SERO Premium. It wasn't until Sept 2010 that Sprint offered the SERO Premium program that allowed SERO customers to purchase and use high end smartphones on the Sprint network. SERO Premium actually increased the ARPU of those SERO customers by 66% (from $30 to $50) which is HUGE increase so it helped them financially. Back in 2007, Sprint was struggling badly and was losing customers hand over fist. If it wasn't for SERO, Sprint would have been in a much worser shape than it currently was. I know many of us have stuck with Sprint through these tough times because of what the SERO plan provided. As irev210 has stated above, SERO customers probably provide less churn than other customers do and in the long run provide more profit for Sprint than normal Everything Data postpaid customers who are even more tempted to leave because paying $85/month for 100 Kbps 3G speeds is unacceptable. Also please spare me if you think that SERO customers are the single reason why the Sprint network is in its current horrible shape or why they got into financial trouble. I highly doubt SERO customers today present a dent to the overall number of Sprint customers and certainly is not harming Sprint financially. Also FYI, the SERO Premium plan does not allow employee discounts on it so you are not double dipping...sorry to disappoint you. I have no idea where you came up with the conclusion that the issues with Sprint were related to SERO customers. I am a happy 5.5 year Sprint SERO Premium customer and have no plans to give up SERO and leave the Sprint network.

Dude calm down man....sprint has bought clearwire and now has the rights to the 2.5 ghz spectrum. Once the deal is finalizes...i expect to see huge ramp up of 2.5 ghz TDD LTE in 2014. I expect sprint to focus on the 1900 mhz and 800 mhz LTE build out in 2013 Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

It sounds like HD voice has great promise for Sprint and would be a leap over Verizon's CDMA voice. The big question is when is Sprint going to make a huge splash and enable HD voice on all of its handsets so that the HD voice handset availability can begin to populate. My guess is that Sprint wants to wait until they can add more Network Vision markets with 1x Advanced enabled first before they decide to go all in on HD voice. Any leg up they can have on the competition is something that Sprint needs to strive for.

I don't understand Sprint's strategy once VoLTE is more reliable with the bugs worked out if Sprint will start using VoLTE more or still keep HD Voice. I know Sprint's answer is going to be that we use a mix of both but at some point VoLTE will be the dominant preference for voice since it keeps voice and data under the LTE standard vs. CDMA HD which is only voice. I would have expected that Sprint would start pushing for HD voice in the next year or 2 or its phones while waiting for VoLTE.

So the 2013 LTE phones might have removable SIM cards in them?

Sprint needs to adopt the practice of micro-SIM cards for its LTE phones instead of the crappy embedded SIM cards like it does now. I don't like the fact that Sprint is the only carrier that does that.

Speaking of HD voice, Sprint really needs to start getting on the ball and release all new LTE 2013 devices with HD voice. It doesn't make any sense that only the HTC EVO One X phone in 2012 was capable of HD voice. If Sprint really wants to get customers to transition over to HD voice then they need to start releasing new devices that contain HD voice.

Where did you read that the leadership at Tmobile thinks they will be consolidated into Sprint? I think Tmobile thinks very highly of themselves right now with the Tmobile/MetroPCS merger. They will get significant amount of AWS spectrum which will be very useful to their Challenger plan. Obviously I know that the Tmobile leadership team won't straight up say it but I don't get that sense at all that they feel they will be acquired in the next few years.

All I want for Christmas is for LA metro NV production to ramp up dramatically for a release in Feb/March 2013 release. Also some news on how 800 mhz LTE testing is going would be nice. Also for the world to not end after today. Very important since I want to experience LTE on sprint Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

This sounds like such a mess AGAIN. Well I hope Sprint can sort out all these EBS/BRS spectrum licenses nationwide so there there is at least 50-55 MHz of nationwide of Sprint's footprint of 2.5 GHz spectrum when all is said and done with the deal closed.

Yeah a MetroPCS and Clearwire would be a huge red flag that regulators would have to look at very carefully. Besides MetroPCS, I think Cricket has some nice PCS spectrum in the C block that would help several 20 MHz markets like Salt Lake City, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Fresno, Albuquerque, Memphis, Nashville, Tulsa, Raleigh and Cincinnati if it were bought. I really want to see Sprint get some PCS divestitures from a Tmobile/MetroPCS merger. There are far too many markets that still only have 20 MHz that need some major help in the PCS band since it currently supports CDMA, EVDO and LTE.

What is the purpose of the BRS1, BRS2, J and K blocks? It sucks that the FCC had to split the BRS E4 and F4 blocks between the upper and middle band. I am sure Sprint would have loved to have the BRS E4 and F4 blocks on the upper band so that they can just have about 68 MHz (55.5+12) of contiguous 2.5 GHz spectrum. With 68 MHz, Sprint could have done three 20 MHz TD-LTE carriers nationwide. Also for TD-LTE could a wireless carrier deploy a 6 or 7 MHz carrier or any other odd number besides the 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz deployments like in FDD-LTE?

Well even if Sprint relinquished all EBS licenses and still has the core 55.5 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum nationwide, I think it was good deal. Clearwire was going to be dead in the water in 2013 so Sprint had to do something instead of trying to bail them out with more capital infusion. Then their total spectrum assets would be on par with verizon and AT&T and can easily bid on the full H block nationwide and maybe work a deal out with Dish for its 2 GHz.

These power limitations and the fee that needs to be paid to Sprint seems to make the H block less attractive to other buyers like an AT&T or Tmobile. Maybe Dish wouldn't be interested as well.

I wonder if this means that sprint will now put the 2.5ghz spectrum as first priority for LTE. I hope Sprint deploys with the following for LTE priorty 2.5 ghz -> 1900 mhz -> 800 mhz. 800 mhz bandwidth needs to be preserves for deep indoor use only. Otherwise 1900 mhz and 2.5 ghz should handle the majority of LTE traffic. Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2