ericdabbs

Any article relating to NYC? Would like to know more details on it. Also where can I find the details about the live chat on Sunday?

Sprint should deploy DO-Advanced as part of NV upgrades since they should be taking advantage of any software upgrades that can help with network load balancing.

Sounds like a good plan. Only time will tell what they will do. If Sprint doesn't need that much voice then I am all for Option 1.

Well lets not forget that Sprint is cell phone carrier so first and foremost, voice has to be number 1 priority. Since VoLTE is not out yet, I want to make sure that Sprint has enough voice capacity to handle the calls. Initially I was like you and wanted Option 1 but the more I thought about it, maybe Option 3 for the time being wouldn't be so bad. Remember that 1xA can be configured for either 4x the amount of users than 1xCDMA2000 or extend coverage by up to 70%. With the three 1xA carriers at 800 Mhz opting for 4x capacity users, you can pretty much eliminate most of the 1xCDMA2000 carriers at the PCS band with each carrier taking up 1.25 Mhz. Sprint can then refarm and launch larger 10x10 LTE configurations in the PCS band at 1900 Mhz. Maybe instead of three 1xA carriers for voice, they could have two 1xA voice and one EVDO carrier to help with 3G data speeds with better in building penetration.

The best thing for Sprint to do is to take advantage of the 4x capacity with 1x Advanced at 800 Mhz. 800 Mhz already has good propagation characteristics. The more voice capacity Sprint can cram in fewer 1x Advanced carriers the better since they can reduce the number of 1xCDMA 2000 carriers at the PCS band and refarm that spectrum for additional LTE capacity. The bigger question is how does Sprint plan to chop up the 14 Mhz at 800 Mhz. I propose 3 options but I like option 3 since it gives Sprint plenty of 1x voice capacity with some support of LTE at least for the time being until CDMA phases out in favor of VoLTE. Does Sprint do 1) One 5x5 LTE carrier and one 1xAdvanced carrier Sample configuration 816-817: 1 Mhz required guard band based on FCC requirement. Can be used as the CDMA/SMR guard band which is 625 KHz. 817-818.25: a single 1xA CDMA carrier 818.25-818.425:minimum 175 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band 818.425-823.425: LTE 5 MHz uplink 823.425-824: minimum 175 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band but has remaining 575 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band to be used between LTE and CDMA Celluar A band 2) One 3x3 LTE carrier and two 1xAdvanced carriers Sample configuration 816-817: 1 Mhz required guard band based on FCC requirement. Can be used as the CDMA/SMR guard band which is 625 Khz. 817-818.25: a single 1xA CDMA carrier 818.25-819.5: a single 1xA CDMA carrier 818.5-818.625: minimum 175 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band 818.625-821.625: LTE 3 MHz uplink 821.625-824: minimum 175 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band but has 2.375 Mhz LTE/CDMA guard band to be used between LTE and CDMA Celluar A band 3) One 3x3 LTE carrier and three 1xAdvanced carriers Sample configuration 816-817: 1 Mhz required guard band based on FCC requirement. Can be used as the CDMA/SMR guard band which is 625 Khz. 817-818.25: a single 1xA CDMA carrier 818.25-819.5: a single 1xA CDMA carrier 819.5-820.75: a single 1xA CDMA carrier or EVDO 820.75-820.925: minimum 175 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band 820.925-823.925: LTE 3 MHz uplink 823.925-824.1: minimum 175 KHz LTE/CDMA guard band but is short by about 10 KHz which overflows into the Cellular A band. I wish Sprint is somehow able to get a this 10 Khz portion of this spectrum. Reference to guard band information can be found at the link below on slide 12 http://www.atis.org/...20Migration.pdf

I am sure DISH is not too thrilled with AT&T trying to force DISH to a spectrum sale since it wouldn't be ready to build out its LTE network yet. I hope that Sprint and DISH do partner up for spectrum hosting because its gives Sprint a new source of revenue. Sprint has given its blessing to DISH to build a LTE network as good will. In addition the timeline fits in that by the time Sprint is finished putting up NV towers nationwide, it will have the tower infrastructure to easily add DISH's equipment to support their network. I see a Sprint and DISH spectrum hosting deal as a no brainer but I am just not sure if Sprint is even thinking about that right now unless they are awaiting the FCC approval of Dish's spectrum first before proposing any deals.

I would like to know more about the new SDC and the service compared to the NDC devices and service.

I am glad that Tmobile is finally converting to LTE. I think they realize that HSPA+ is not their 4G future and they need to convert to the true 4G standard in LTE. I just like to see the entire wireless industry convert to the same 4G standard and not have a 3G GSM/CDMA battle. Since Tmobile plans to launch LTE in AWS spectrum, I guess this pokes the hole in a potential Sprint/Tmobile LTE network sharing agreement. Also the press release doesn't really tell how much spectrum they plan to use to launch their LTE network. I assume they will start off with a 5x5 configuration and slowly refarm spectrum from there.

I would love to see Sprint snatch up the majority of the PCS "H" block spectrum licenses so they can expand their PCS spectrum holdings.

Haha another example of a rep that doesn't know what he's talking about. If the initial LTE markets are to be launched before end of June then the phones have to be launched by or before then. I honestly don't think the sprint reps at the store know when the LTE phones will be released. I am not sure how many sprint reps know much about Network Vision and LTE until they are trained up on it.

What do you mean by using the minimum spectrum? You mean max out on capacity but keep the same coverage at 800 Mhz?

I wonder how much of a difference is made in voice coverage between 1xCDMA2000 on 1900 Mhz (what is used currently) AND 1xA on 800 Mhz with Sprint opting to use the full 70% increased coverage configuration with the same amount of users. I wish I could see what that map could look like.

I honestly dont think this will deter people in NYC from resigning with Sprint in June especially if the PR is really good about how the first LTE markets in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, etc are working with LTE and improved 3G speeds. Honestly does it really matter if LTE is not available by the time you are ready to resign your contract? Your new LTE phone will be future proof. You know that NYC, LA and Chicago will be one of the earlier markets to get LTE so I don't know why you are even worried in the first place. NYC has a HUGE area to cover so its going to take some time (hopefully by end of 2012). Im pretty sure you can get a LTE signal around town months Sprint officially announces the deployment of LTE in NYC since they have to do testing. This was the case with Clearwire and Wimax in Los Angeles where Wimax was already accessible in July 2010 for testing but wasn't officially announced until end of Nov 2010.

I just hope Phoenix and San Diego gets some network vision loving soon because all I hear from reading Sprint forums from Phoenix users is "OMG how can we not have 4G here since we are the 6th largest city" and the same for San Diego "OMG how can we not have 4G here since we are the 8th largest city"

Can't wait for to hear the A/L market that is currently being worked on. So far it seems like they have been the only network vision contractor that has been non-existant

If that is the case then yeah it makes sense to reduce the number of Wimax carriers so that they have enough contigous spectrum to launch 20 Mhz LTE carrier chunks since LTE is now the top priority. I was fearful that reducing 2 Wimax carriers would provide subpar performance since Wimax isn't that great to begin with already. Definitely I expect to see a steep drop in Wimax usage for people who are coming off of the EVO contracts in June to get LTE phones from this point forward. I am curious to see how much this impacts Clearwire in the interim with such a steep drop in Sprint customers using Wimax and less revenue to be made from them. It won't be for another year from June 2012 until Clearwire lights up their LTE service which is an awfully long time to lose all that revenue from Sprint. Clearwire will need to find another major customers like a MetroPCS or Leap Wireless to help fill the gap.

What I don't get is why does Clearwire need to remove any Wimax carriers at all at this point. They should have enough spectrum to leave the 3 Wimax carriers and also launch two 20 Mhz TD-LTE carriers. Right now Wimax is still used a lot and to reduce the number of Wimax carriers by 66% is such a bad move IMO especially with recent deals for 4G Wimax support that it doesn't make any sense. 1 Wimax carrier would not be able to handle the Sprint Wimax and wholesale customers. Now if we are talking about in 2014, then I get it and agree that since Wimax would be pretty dead by then, reducing the number of Wimax carriers to 1 and refarming that spectrum for another TD-LTE carrier makes sense.

AJ Thanks for the link. Fortunately I have read a lot of Robert's posts on Sprintusers and have learned a lot from him about the BRS/EBS spectrum band and Network Vision in general. Wow I didn't know that the EBS spectrum makes up so much of the BRS/EBS band. I was kinda wondering about that too, if spectrum is leased from educational institutions, how could Clearwire sell that off since it isn't licensed to them. I agree with you in that there must be some sort of well structured lease contract that doesn't allow new players to swoop in and buy up the spectrum. Aside from this, I was very happy to hear that Clearwire is going to begin construction on their first 5000 towers starting in Q2. I am very curious as to which towers Sprint and Clearwire have agreed upon to deploy a LTE hotspot and to which markets they plan to deploy for the first 5000 towers by June 2013. Hopefully the Q2 CC will provide more details on that. I enjoy reading your articles about Network Vision progress and especially the Sprint/Tmobile spectrum analysis series. I am a dork but I keep checking every couple hours to see if part 3 is available. In addition Robert teased us this week about new information about Network Vision progress for A/L and Samsung markets and I am looking very forward to those articles hopefully soon. Keep up the good work.

Great information about the Clearwire results. I also tuned in for the call. I thought the analysts asked some nice questions especially towards the end one person asked if Clearwire would ever consider going LTE nationwide wholesale with Sprint cooperation and they seemed open to the idea which is good news. Another interesting thing I heard on the call was how Clearwire thinks they only need 80-100 Mhz in spectrum to accomplish what they want in their wholesale business and that ~60 Mhz of spectrum could be sold to raise capital. In my opinion, Clearwire should hold onto every piece of spectrum it has even if it is in excess since we know that the wireless community is in a spectrum crunch.

Been with Sprint since June 2007. I hopped onto Sprint from Tmobile because of the SERO plan and couldn't imagine at the time of using a smartphone which was bulky to carry around and using internet on my phone.

Great article. It doesn't surprise me at all that none of the top 3 cities were part of the deployment in mid June. Hopefully you guys can get a hold of any of A/L's plans at some point so we can hear more information about how they are doing. I would be particularly interested in the way Los Angeles and New York City is being planned out for Network Vision completion. I am pretty certain that it will be very similar to the way Chicago is being built out by suburb clusters with milestones every month.

Well hopefully Sprint can find a partner to do a network hosting deal and take advantage of that empty spot where the 1600 Mhz antenna was suppose to be and bring in more revenue.

I was looking at the drawing and I wonder what Sprint is going to do with the 1600 Mhz antennas that they have bought and have put up so far since they won't ever be deployed? Also what is Sprint going to do in the empty space where 1600 Mhz antennas used to sit? Are they going to leave it open and wait until some network sharing opportunity comes around to fill in the Lightsquared antenna space or should Sprint place another antenna for 800/1900 Mhz?

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Looks like this idea is already being hinted by analysts on a network sharing deal with Tmobile for LTE and also mentioned about Tmobile sharing spectrum with Sprint to give Sprint more spectrum and capacity to deploy more LTE carriers. Lets hope that Dan Hesse's ears are wide open to this report. http://www.tmonews.c...-with-t-mobile/ Forbes article http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2012/02/08/sprint-ceo-failure-of-attt-mobile-deal-means-many-more-options-for-sprint/