ericdabbs

On 12/28/2017 at 8:41 PM, lilotimz said:

Get rid of the old non updated firmware and load up the standard Asus or Asus Merlin.

I have been trying to read up on finally updating my Sprint wifi connect router at the link below.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/how-to-sprint-ac-rt66u-to-stock-asus-firmware.25261/

I am a bit confused as to which CFE file version to update.  I see in the zip file that there is a "Zentel_1.30_EU_To_US.bin" which I guess the file you are  suppose to update your MAC address to rename as "newcfe.bin".  Is there a dumb down tutorial that shows how to properly update the router to stock firmware?

I also read that you should flash the 376.3626 firmware first to expand the rootfs partition from 32M to 64M after updating the CFE file before flashing any future firmware versions.

What do you guys think of Sprint offering free Hulu service for its customers to compete with Tmobile and Netflix.  Sounds like it would include the $7.99/mo plan.  My guess is that this would only be a benefit for the Sprint Unlimited Freedom customers and not grandfathered to all legacy plans.  Like Tmobile they only limit the Netflix offer for those with the Tmobile One TI plan.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-to-launch-free-hulu-service-for-unlimited-users-wave7

26 minutes ago, S4GRU said:

Unfortunately the current release of Tapatalk is not working with the current release of IP Board that we are on.  It will supposedly be fixed on the next update of Tapatalk.  But we are still on the 8/17 release when I just checked a few mins ago.  It is out of our hands.

Hi Robert.  Thanks for the update.  I was not aware that the issue was on Tapatalk's side.  Hopefully it does get fixed in the next release with Tapatalk since I love reading S4GRU on Tapatalk.

Is the site still being upgraded and not detectable via Tapatalk? It has been inconvenient to not be able to use the Tapatalk app to read forums.

12 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

How do you know 4 in 2025 isnt going to be the same as 7 in 2017? These companies are looking at this everyday and the market, which is alot smarter than both of us, has been trying to get the national carriers down to three for a while now. 

 

The fact is for The two years after this one sprint is likily to cut capex drastically.  It is hard to see how they compete going forward.  Would it be better to take a 3 player market because of a merger or risk a 3 player market do to a bankruptcy? 

Why would u think that sprint will dramatically reduce capex?  Just continue to execute and people will move over to sprint.  I am pretty sure this latest move by verizon with the GoUnlimited plan to limit video to 480p and 600 kbps for hotspot for base unlimited plan is driving people away from verizon.  If sprint is truly expanding B41 to 3xCA with 4xCA and deploying massive small cells soon then eventually the root metrics will catch up.  To assume that 3 carriers is the only answer is crazy.  

Tmobile themselves have demonstrated it can single handingly draw customers away from the big 2 with their net adds.  Sprint just needs to copy those types of moves and offer deals to current customers.  I think a 2 lines for $60 deal for 55+ years old would be a fantastic program to draw customers even though people will ise workarounds to sign up for it.

14 hours ago, utiz4321 said:

No. You are not based in reality if you think the wireless market is going to stagnate if Sprint and T-Mobile merge. 5g is coming and will be pushed by everyone in the market place. 

 

The question is weather you want it to follow the same pattern LTE did or not. Would you like the big two to deploy a really solid 5g network and the other two to deploy an uneven networks or 3 solid th networks? 

 

You anti-merger people dont understand the role capital intensive industries play in shaping such markets.  If a market is capital intensive it is more efficient with fewer players. Imgaine if the market still looked like it did in 2003, we would have plenty of players and regional plans with not even 3g deployed.

 

Sprint has 30 billion. They are able to increase CAPEX this year because they don't have much maturing this year.  This is not the case the next two years which means they are likely to starve their network again over that time. Mean while the big two aren't going to stand still. Sprint isn't growing top line income fast enough to make themselves viable on their own.  

 

 

I am 100% against this merger.  Sprint and Tmobile should remain separate to keep the competition at 4 players.  If currently there were 7 semi major players in the wireless industry, I would agree with you that consolidation of a few more players would be beneficial for the industry due to LTE and 5G going forward requiring high amounts of spectrum bandwidths.  However we are now down to 4 players which to me is already a good number to maintain nationally.  Comparing how it looked in 2003 doesn't matter back then because we didn't have LTE that required at least 5x5 , 10x10, 20x20 MHz bandwidth.

It would have sucked if we still have 7 major players in the 600 MHz auction with only 70 MHz available for purchase and each buying a nationwide 5x5 block of spectrum instead of fewer players buy a bigger chunk of spectrum to deploy larger bandwidths.

Sprint needs to be worrying about getting itself into gear and try to deploy its B41 LTE in small cells and densify its network instead of looking for a bailout in Tmobile to save them.  

On 9/9/2017 at 4:30 PM, JossMan said:

I'm sure Sprint will implement this at some point in time but for new customers only...

Well I think if existing customers want to take advantage of that why should they restrict that to new customers?  I think those that are on the ED1500/SERO/Framily/Unlimited Freedom/etc should be allowed to take advantage of that.  Trying to simplify the number of plans should be the goal.

Boost Mobile now includes taxes and fees in their service plans just like Tmobile.  I hope this comes to Sprint postpaid to compete with Tmobile.  Just another way to align themselves together with Tmobile.  I think with Taxes and Fees included and being the only carrier now that contains 1080p video streaming in their base service plan, hopefully that should draw more customers to Sprint.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/8/16273586/boost-mobile-now-bundles-taxes-fees-in-service-plans

Sprint still needs to update their coverage map website.

I wish they just offer 720p standard on their T1 plan and not that 480p mess. Cause looking from the outside in, it looks like their network can't handle unlimited data and the reason for the speed increase is the limiting of video and enticing users to use less than 2gb per month if they want $10 off their bills.

 

 

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Good luck with that wish.  Especially with Verizon capitulating to the 480p mess and AT&T following very soon I don't see that going away.  To be honest, Tmobile can really use some folks on the 480p plan because until their 600 MHz LTE network is up and running as well as wide deployment of LTE-U/LAA, Tmobile doesn't have enough capacity to keep up the crazy 1080p streaming.

Another not uncarrier event.  With 2 lines, Netflix costs $20/mo.  Can't opt out of this "Netflix" fee.  

What Netflix fee? Tmobile is not forcing anyone to switch plans to take advantage of this deal.

I am hoping that Tmobile will be more consistent with their B71 LTE deployment so that it can be tracked more easily on SignalCheck.

If there wasn't any issue with money that has been reported with Sprint, then if Sprint could spend alot of money on deployment and densification, they would do very well without needing a merger. Especially if Softbank were to do a major network investment and have the build done properly. I think a $10 billion investment into it would be plenty and have Sprint thriving on its own.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Well you got your cookie, now eat it. Of course now Google needs to pay license fees to Nabisco for using the trademarked name

 

Sent from my 2PQ93 using Tapatalk

This is not the first time Google has done this and in fact Nestle took full advantage of the KitKat marketing  to offer Android Play promotion codes.  Who knows if sales of KitKat went up because of these promotions.  Google will have not problem paying Nabisco to use the Oreo name.

https://www.engadget.com/amp/2017/08/16/t-mobile-600mhz-lte-live/

Tmo has a 600 tower live apparently but no phones yet.

Its a good start i guess but the 600 MHz LTE deployment available now is nothing to really rave about. The major metros wont be seeing 600 MHz LTE until 2019.

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Any updates on small cell deployments?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-07-31/son-s-expensive-revenge

 

"So now Son looks ready to take this unrequited love and turn it into a revenge purchase."

 

"People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News's Scott Moritz and Gerry Smith early Monday Tokyo time that Son, via SoftBank, is planning to make a direct offer for Charter sometime this week."

 

Wouldn't that be something else?.....

 

Makes me think of this:

(at the 19 second mark)

It seems like Charter is not interesting in doing a deal with Softbank so I guess the search continues.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/charter-says-it-has-no-interest-acquiring-sprint

Drum roll.. a SignalCheck Pro update is finally rolling out today! Lots of bug fixes, new features, behind the scenes improvements.. good stuff. My apologies for taking over a year to get this out. There will (hopefully) be more timely updates moving forward.

-Mike

Fantastic update to the SignalCheck Pro app.  I know there has been a lot of changes between the different Android revisions which probably led to setbacks and just in the wireless industry in general with the addition of small cells, DAS, and mini macros and I appreciate all the time you have put in on your busy schedule to still carve out time to help us wireless enthusiasts discover LTE.

Looking forward to seeing future updates especially with the upcoming addition of B71 (600 MHz) and curious to see if there is a way to track LTE-U updates on Tmobile with the engineering screens.   

“We did not participate in the 600 MHz (auction) not because we didn’t have money at the time, or we were under-resourced for it,” he said. “It is simply spectrum that is spectrum of the past. The world is moving toward high-capacity wireless data networks, and in that world the best and most efficient spectrum that is needed for that… is mid-band spectrum, the spectrum that we have, the 2.5 GHz spectrum.”

 

Robbiati also noted that the TV broadcasters’ airwaves currently up for grabs may not be available for several years. The FCC has issued a 39-month repacking plan for that spectrum, enabling the broadcasters to move to other airwaves while their former spectrum is reshuffled for wireless use.

 

“Why invest in 600 MHz spectrum if that spectrum doesn’t really cater for the future, and also it’s spectrum you cannot deploy for four years?” Robbiati asked rhetorically. “And it doesn’t have an ecosystem in support as widespread as 2.5 spectrum, which is the largest ecosystem in the world.”

Now that I think about it, I am glad that Sprint did not participate in the 600 MHz auction.  It would have been a disaster and the rollout schedule for 600 MHz for Sprint would have been a huge crawl.  I am glad that Tmobile was able to get the bulk of the 600 MHz spectrum since they had the least amount of spectrum of the major carriers and was able to help reach parity in low band spectrum with the big 2 carriers.  Not to mention that Tmobile has been just fantastic when it comes to deploying new spectrum for LTE use.

But in terms of whether what Tmobile is according to schedule the answer is Yes.  There has always been areas that are not affected by 600 MHz and if Tmobile follows through with the strategy that you deploy 600 MHz whereever and whenever is ready regardless of market they will be in great shape in terms of expanding native coverage and providing overall better LTE coverage and speeds.  Tmobile has come out and said that they want to cover more area in LTE with this low band spectrum.

The amount of Sprint spectrum that remains unemployed is really amazing, especially since sprint keeps saying that it is cheap to do and there are growing number of areas that are over burned. I think this is my peraonal pain point with Sprint. Put the spectrum on air, for the love of god.

 

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Totally agreed.  Why Sprint didn't just jump straight to 3xCA B41 LTE and begin deploying it is last year is beyond me.  Why do incremental upgrades like that when they know they need to come out with a bang and provide as much capacity as possible. These interference issues with 800 MHz are just ridiculous and I am going to be mad if Tmobile is able to deploy 600 MHz LTE in Los Angeles before B26 LTE and that 600 MHz is scheduled to be cleared by mid 2019.  If B26 LTE is not deployed by mid 2019 in Los Angeles it will literally be hopeless that it will ever happen.

Is there an available radio in phones that can use this feature yet? I have not heard about LTE U as a feature in any device releases yet. I am excited to see some form of deployment plan as well.

The only Tmobile phone that is released that can support LTE-U is the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The LG G6 does not have the proper hardware to support LTE-U.

I hope Tmobile provides an update on LTE-U progress rollout in their Q2 Earnings CC.  I wonder if there is a way to track it via SCP or any of those signal monitoring tools to see if it is live.

Didn't see this coming...

 

Softbank is buying robotics firms Boston Dynamics and Schaft from Alphabet

 

https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/08/softbank-is-buying-robotics-firm-boston-dynamics-and-schaft-from-alphabet/

I am not surprised.  The Japanese are top tier in terms of robotics development and innovation.

We are ready to help in various ways.

 

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Thanks Jordan Schlansky.

RAvirani, on 25 May 2017 - 3:31 PM, said:

 

Why?

This is just a guess but I think it is because coverage is based on the uplink frequency which in this case will still be midband spectrum. Think HPUE where transmitting at a higher power is like simulating the transmit at a lower frequency which is how Sprint is touting that 2.5 GHz can propagate like 1.9 GHz. Having additional downlink spectrum helps with providing additional capacity but doesn't help with additional coverage. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Clearly, Sprint has a ways to go with LTE coverage matching that of their 3G coverage.  No one would argue that. 

 

However, you misunderstand the 1% difference, and part of that could be Sprint's advertising.  But they are speaking SOLELY to RELIABILITY (as in, percent of instances in which one does connect to any network technology at all when attempting to do so) and not LTE coverage nor percent of POPs covered.  It could even be 1x800.  It isn't speaking just to LTE/data. 

 

Does that make sense?  At least that is how I understood it when I read the initial press release at the beginning of the campaign.  

Well I can tell you that no matter how they spin it, to me it means the same thing.  I understand Sprint could be implying 1% as in LTE when connected to Sprint service and maybe work on their marketing of that.  

However I still disagree that when connected to Sprint service, 99% of the time I am on LTE for data service.  It is simply just not true and I still see plenty of 3G areas for miles and miles.  I don't live in the boonies so my previous post has always been talking about just urban areas.  If it was interpreted the way that you expect it to say it just gives Sprint an out to say...well the reason why you are not connected to LTE is because we are not fully deployed yet so disregard this lack in coverage. 

If it is literally a 1% difference in the Atlanta market then all the power to Sprint but there are still plenty of markets that are still lacking even LTE coverage.