ericdabbs

2 days ago at the Barclays Capital conference, the CFO of Sprint discussed about the speculation of a Sprint and Dish network hosting agreement or possibly buying spectrum from Dish. Now this is not a new rumor since it has been speculated for some time now that Sprint could possibly look at Dish Network for a network hosting agreement should Lightsquared fail. Now that Sprint and Lightsquared have parted ways, I think now is the time to start thinking about a Sprint and Dish network hosting agreement. The key thing from this article is that the Sprint CFO is publicly fueling the fire of this speculation to its investors. I think this is a good sign that the rumor has some legs in it. Who knows what preliminary discussions Sprint has had with Dish already but all signs point nothing but up. Sprint currently is not in a position to strike a network hosting deal in 2012 because the Network Vision architecture is not fully deployed yet as well as the S-band 2Ghz spectrum not fully approved yet by the FCC for LTE deployment. I can see a possible deal occurring sometime mid 2013 where at least half of Sprint's footprint is covered with Network Vision architecture. What do you guys think? http://www.fiercebro...aven/2012-03-28

I am glad that there is still a ton of info to decipher through. At least it will keep The Wall fresh with new articles now that the announcements of the 2nd round are ending.

I am curious what Sprint will do with the PTT customers after CDMA is shut down. Even if they convert the Nextel customers using iDEN to Sprint Direct Connect using CDMA/EVDO and we are speculating that sometime in 2015/2016 is when CDMA will shut down, what will the folks that depend on the PTT feature use? Will voLTE replace PTT and provide that instant connectivity that current Nextel and Sprint Direct Connect are used to? I am hoping that this is already discussed because 2015 doesn't seem too far away from now. Sprint needs to rely on 1x Advanced for as long as it can for voice given its tight spectrum holdings since it is about 2x more efficient than voLTE.

Has you ever considered trying out the Sprint Direct Connect service through CDMA as an option? Might be a good time to start looking into it.

Just curious...if Omaha were to be announced tonight, it would still be in the 2nd round which would put it around an early to mid 2013 time frame release date. Does that change your mind? To put it into perspective, you would still be waiting about a year for LTE service at the very earliest. Most of us are stuck in that boat of having to wait for Network Vision upgrades and LTE service. Even ATT's LTE isn't that widespread so Verizon would be the only alternative at this point. I know it sucks but I believe that Sprint is doing the right thing here in improving its tower infrastructure and deploying LTE to compete with the big 2. I have high hopes for Sprint. Rest assure that Sprint will be upgrading all of its markets with Network Vision and LTE including Omaha. Sprint has a schedule of when to launch certain markets between now and mid 2014.

Are there a lot of round 4 markets or just a small amount...I guess in this instance 9 markets?

Not sure when Omaha will get LTE but it won't be in 2012. My guess is that they will be in the 3rd round so sometime mid to late 2013.

I would hope very much so that this would be the case. It would be nice to get a similar voice and data footprint like Verizon and AT&T.

Nice to hear progress on this topic. I think that the iDEN thinning of towers has been often overlooked as a key piece of Network Vision of reducing operational costs to help Sprint's balance sheet. Hopefully some time in early 2013, we can hear the good news that the entire iDEN network has been decommissioned which will pave the path for LTE at 800 Mhz.

OP let me put it to you this way....LTE at 2500 Mhz will reach farther than Wimax at 2500 Mhz alone. Wimax at 2500 Mhz has a threshold of around -85 dBm before it drops off hard while LTE at 2500 Mhz has a threshold of around -105 dBm which means LTE will have better in building penetration than Wimax. That alone tells you that LTE and Wimax at the same frequency is already better with LTE. There is no doubt that even LTE at 1900 Mhz will have better in building penetration not only because it is lower frequency but Sprint is doing some little things such as putting the Radio Remote Units (RRUs) up high on the tower which will yield ~20% farther distance since you don't get the losses from the coax cables if the RRUs were set at the ground. It is most likely that the first LTE phones will not have 800 Mhz LTE support since Sprint is still going through refarming of the 800 Mhz spectrum. If you wait until mid to late 2013 for phones, you might even get support for Clearwire's 2500 Mhz LTE bands. Luckily I can't upgrade until June 2013 which is just in time for the next phones which should support all 3 LTE bands at 800, 1900 and 2500 Mhz.

Never too late to expand more native Sprint coverage .

I guess we will have to see tomorrow. I have been rather off lately so I could be wrong on both. I was just basing my opinion on hints that were given in last night's chat and from previous chats.

I doubt that the Tucson/Yuma market will be part of the 2nd round. Phoenix is highly likely based on hints from Robert in the live chats as one of the last 2 markets in the 2nd round. I think the other last market in the 2nd round will be in California (either Upper Central Valley or Lower Central Valley, although Upper Central Valley seems more likely).

I love this phone. It has treated me well with very few dropped calls. The only thing that I am very disappointed about this phone is the Motorola/Sprint's decision to not do FCC testing for 800 Mhz CDMA capability. It was no secret that the Evo 3D and Epic Touch 4G were getting 800 Mhz support and it would have really solidified this phone as an enterprise phone for use today and the future. Motorola certainly has the capability of creating a nice Nexus phone. Their radios have been very reliable and their phones have done really well especially in the Verizon Droid series. I am tired of seeing Samsung consistently getting the right to produce the next nexus phone. Even a LG Nexus phone would be a fresh change other than HTC or Samsung. Not too sure about a quad core phone because the only quad core processor out right now is the Tegra 3 which is already outclassed by the S4 and not to mention that its only beginning to add LTE support. I would much rather have the next Photon phone in a reasonable time to have a Qualcomm S4 or TI OMAP chip. It would be interesting to see a Tegra 4 quad core chip with ARM Cortex A15 processor and 28 nm die size though.

DOH!! You're right, I guess I didn't read it carefully. For some reason, I assumed you meant to say to get the Galaxy Nexus but didn't want that phone. I don't think that Motorola is moving away from removable batteries. I think the reason for the non-removable battery in the RAZR and RAZR MAXX is to keep the thinness of the phone maybe and that is specific to that model. Personally I would rather have a removable battery for those times where the phone freezes and I can pull out the battery to reset it. Also if the trade off for removable and non-removable batteries is thinness, then I would rather have a thicker phone with a removable battery. I am really looking forward to the Motorola Photon follow up phone. I hope that Motorola doesn't use the Tegra 3 for the next Photon since it looks like the S4 is a stronger chip.

Why not option 4? 4. Wait until the HTC Evo One Jet phone comes out in June. Just because you have an upgrade eligible in April doesn't mean you have to use it ASAP. There will be more LTE devices released later on this year that may capture your interest. Ive learned to be patient in waiting for the right device to use my precious upgrade so I wouldn't regret it. I waited a long time to for the Motorola Photon and let me tell you that it was worth the wait. Remember you only get this once every 2 years so there is no need to rush. But if you insist on option 2, I have a few comments on that. I have the Motorola Photon and let me tell that it is a great phone. I love the kickstand, great cell radios with no drop calls, 4G Wimax, etc. However, I would not suggest anyone to get the Photon at this point let alone ANY Wimax device. The Photon is being put on the End of Life (EOL) list in April and despite Sprint reps trying to encourage 4G Wimax devices, I know deep down at Sprint HQ that they are trying to promote aggressively on LTE devices in June. I don't even see any commercials for any Wimax devices anymore.

Wow great news. I just hope that more markets jump into the first round. Seems like Ericcson and Alcatel Lucent are rocking with Network Vision progress with the majority of the first round markets but Samsung is lagging behind. Hopefully Samsung can make up ground and have more first round markets.

Well I really hope so since Sprint really needs to take advantage of any available spectrum to supplement its 5x5 LTE 1900 carrier. Even a 3x3 LTE carrier will help with in building penetration even if it is slower speeds and they have the capability to do so. I just really hope that Sprint does FCC testing for both CDMA/LTE on the entire 817-824 Mhz to account for both a 5x5 LTE or 3x3 LTE carrier.

It appears like a lot of the southeast states will only get a 3x3 LTE carrier at 800 Mhz. It would be nice to see in the future if sprint could somehow buy out the 809-817 Mhz, 854-862 Mhz spectrum to expand their 800 Mhz holdings once iDEN goes away and any other users of that spectrum. Maybe Sprint could buy out SouthernLinc in the future.

I wonder what phone cases are available by Freedompop for this Wimax thing. Due to the huge amount of phones out there, I can't imagine Freedompop supporting that many phones.

Thanks for the dan interview link but I think what he said in the interview was nothing new but still great to hear that he reaffirms his estimates for network vision completion.

I am fully aware of Verizon buying the AWS spectrum from the CableCos. Nothing is final until it is approved by the FCC. Until then we can't assume that they have the AWS spectrum just yet. We know that Tmobile doens't even have the iPhone and even if they did, they won't have LTE until late 2013. Why support LTE in the iPhone 5 on a spectrum band where there is no LTE deployment when clearly that LTE is being deployed on PCS for a while now. Do you honestly think that Apple would alienate its good buddy in Sprint who threw 15.5 billion to purchase all those iPhones from them? I am not saying don't support AWS band ever but until a carrier steps up and swears on their life that they will have LTE service on AWS spectrum in 2012, why waste precious antenna space on knowing that LTE at PCS is a reality? Knowing Verizon and ATT's track record, they are probably planning to hoard the AWS spectrum anyways and have no use for it until 2013/2014. I think the majority of folks are giving both these companies too much credit in believing them. Verizon and ATT both have a ton of spectrum that they currently own which are still not deployed and you think they will deploy LTE at AWS that quickly? HA! If you ask AJ, he can tell you of evidence that ATT and Verizon do not fully deploy all their spare spectrum. I doubt even the 10x10 LTE carrier at 700 Mhz is even half full. Verizon and ATT have to say all these statements about OMG there is spectrum crisis to convince the FCC that there is a spectrum crunch to sell them the spectrum when in reality they haven't hit the brink point yet.

I never have forgotten that the radios were software defined radios and that it could be reprogrammed by flashing between CDMA and EVDO. That is not the point. My point is that Sprint right now does not have that much spectrum in the 800 Mhz that is completely free due to the continuous rebanding in each market from 821-824 Mhz. At most you have 3 Mhz from 817-820 Mhz to run a single 1xA carrier right now. Just because the radios can be remotely programmed between EVDO and LTE doesn't mean its going to be so simple as in a 5 minute job. I am sure there is more effort than just flashing and probably is not as simplistic as you think it is. A bunch of settings need to be set and additional drive tests by the engineers need to be done to verify the performance. Honestly I don't think Sprint has the overhead to do be doing this when their Network Vision crews should be focusing on building out more markets. I just can't see Sprint deploying EVDO at 800 Mhz and Robert has said that EVDO at 800 Mhz is not in the cards for Network Vision. I know that if you ran Sprint you would make decisions much differently than Hesse. I never bought into the whole "Sprint is ready for the iPhone" network traffic load bit. I never said that Sprint could easily handle the iPhone traffic. I knew that they couldn't handle it currently despite additional T1 lines but Sprint couldn't afford to get behind any further to Verizon and ATT who had the iPhone. But from the Q4 CDMA postpaid add results, you can tell that the iPhone did help a lot despite the crappy network.

Its always nice to see that Sprint is still committed to windows phone 7 lineup. Hopefully a nice Nokia WP7 phone hits this fall.

I love that suggestion. However, I hate the fact that Sprint doesn't have flexibility to spend more money to acquire more spectrum at this time. Right now they sprint needs to get Network Vision ASAP to as many markets. Any extra funds needs to be directed to Network Vision.