ericdabbs

Yes but there are 2 problems with LTE 2600 right now to poke a hole in your scenario. 1) Only about a little over 2,000+ sites have been converted to LTE 2600 and we don't have a map to find out which Clearwire sites have been converted to LTE 2600 within each market. 2) LTE 2600 is only live in about 8 markets in only certain areas. We don't know even know how widespread LTE 2600 is in NYC. While your scenario can occur, I wouldn't put much emphasis on that. Who really cares if the Note 3 can beat the iPhone in speedtests. Besides the iPhone 5S is not using the latest Qualcomm baseband and is not Cat 4 certified anyways. Someone from Charlotte, Philly, Detroit, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, etc would easily do the same test and easily argue that this is not the case that the Note 3 would be much much faster than the iPhone. Yes I agree that the iPhone 5S should have been triband but its Apple you are dealing with. If Sprint had full control of the specs, I am sure they would have loved to include B41 in the specs. But alas it is Apple that has the final word.

Yup and LTE 800 is not technically behind schedule. Sprint always said that LTE 800 deployment would begin late Q3 to early Q4. We are about approaching late Q3 so I expect that some work has already started on LTE 800.

It definitely should since the 800 RRU is already installed at the tower and when crews go back to fire up LTE 800 on already completed NV sites its all ground work at the base stations which should be much quicker. For LTE 2600, all towers will need to have a new 2600 RRU installed to support LTE which involves tower work and configuration at the base station. Not to mention that permitting would need to be involved.

Its both actually since B41 has a spectrum range from 2500-2700. But on this forum we use 2500 and 2600 interchangeably. Either one is correct and both 2500 and 2600 refer to the same thing.

Yes but in very few markets. For the majority of the US, this doesn't apply.

Believe me, LTE 2600 will not be built in a day. By next Sept, the iPhone 6 will probably be triband. Its going to take years to deploy LTE 2600 on a nationwide scale despite it being an overlay since they still need to install new equipment at the towers and of course manpower to do all this work. We see how much all the major vendors are struggling to find enough manpower in integration teams and inspectors to go to all the Network Vision sites to approve each one.

Now you don't have to keep hitting F5 on your keyboard at the FCC database and have more free time now.

Yes it clears it up very well. Thanks for the link. Gosh why can't Samsung and the other Android OEMs have a page like this to show what LTE bands are supported by carrier. This will definitely clear up things without needing to resort to FCC docs to verify this information.

Not sure why. It seems like the only difference between the two is that the A1453 model has additional B18 and B26 LTE support.

True I mean having 2600 band support definitely would have helped with offloading new iPhone 5S users to the LTE 2600 band but really what LTE 2600 network is out there to offload to. Maybe only in a few select markets. I still think we have another 2-3 years before we see nationwide LTE 2600 coverage. Before you know it the iPhone 6 will be here next year. I really think the iPhone 6 will have B41 support because maybe Apple looked at Sprint and thought that since LTE 2600 is not so widespread yet then why add the costs to add B41 when the network is not really there to support it. While Apple could have made the same argument for LTE 800, I think Sprint really wanted B26 in there because they want iPhone customers to be able to have better range and building coverage with LTE and was willing to compromise with Apple on that front.

we have to wait until we see the FCC docs but its a very good chance that it will support LTE 800 since I don't know any other carrier in the world that uses B26.

To be honest, I think most people would rather have the LTE 800 support over LTE 2600 support since its going to have better range and building penetration. The only problem is that 800 MHz deployment is not everywhere in the US since those cities near the IBEZ areas will not get to experience LTE 800 or CDMA 800.

Interesting. First dual band LTE phone? Well at least LTE 800 could be supported. I wonder why not B41? Doesn't Softbank use B41 for TD-LTE?

Yeah this makes me wonder if product launches for Android devices from Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola are controlled by the carriers or by the OEM. I feel that Apple has that power where they can just tell the carriers that they must launch at a specifc date or else they can risk getting later shipments. Who knows if Samsung for example really wants to have the GS4 or Note 3 launch one month later than the announcement vs. 2 weeks later.

Which would also mean that LTE 800 will supported and triband since Sprint is not making dual band LTE phones.

You did a great job in giving us the highlights of the event. Thanks for doing this for us. I was just watching the Engadget liveblog just to see it myself.

Ok good to know. Hopefully the iPhone 5S is triband LTE.

Does Apple usually release the FCC docs on the same day as the iPhone event?

Yes its the same. It hasn't been 5 years yet since the last screen size bump by 0.5" from 3.5" to 4.0". I expect in 2017 we will see an iPhone with a 4.5" screen.

The iPhone 5S....the "S" stands for same

The Moto X went pass through the FCC back in May so its possible that it might have been one of the last phones to get single band LTE. I think you are analyzing it too much. Who cares if the GS4 mini hasn't been announced yet. Sprint is just timing the releases so that not one phone topples the sales over the other types of phones. The GS4 mini will be announced eventually and we have the FCC docs to prove that it is triband. Just because it hasn't been announced yet doesn't mean that they are still testing the unit. At that point its all about trying to ensure the product is ready for launch which most likely means inventory. Sprint could be getting word from its suppliers about estimates in terms of inventory that there are delays for that phone due to X number of reasons (supply chain making less GS4 minis in order to ramp up Note 3 production, customs delay, etc) and they don't feel comfortable about giving out a release date atm since they can't gauge the amount of inventory it will have by a certain date. In terms of the Note 3, none of the other carriers have had FCC docs released yet and ATT is set to launch the Note 3 on Oct 1st. There is still plenty of time for Sprint to announce it. I think we will get an announcement of the Sprint Note 3 availability by the end of this week since today Sprint is going to make an announcement of the iPhone 5S availability. In terms of FCC docs for the Note 3, it can be any day now and even next week is not too late and it should be triband given the track record of the GS4 mini. Take a deep breath and just relax.

SHHHHHH stop interrupting Ivanders liveblog updates

I would love to be able to swap SIMs between LTE phones without having to phone into Sprint. I figure Verizon is able to do it, why can't Sprint.

The Note 3 will be triband LTE. You can bank on that. We don't know why Sprint decided to release the LG G2 so much later than the rest of the other carriers but that doesn't mean that all other LTE phones will not be triband just because the LG G2 has not been released yet. The LG G2 does not need to be released first in order to prove that other LTE phones can be triband. Like Ben said above that the GS4 mini recently passed the FCC with triband capability which proves that even midrange LTE phones will be triband. Keep in mind that the GS4 mini was announced back in June worldwide which is almost 3 months before the Note 3 was announced.

Exactly why Sprint should not be emphasizing triband LTE for all the rest of the 2013 LTE phones. They should save that marketing for 2014 flagship phones when they actually have a LTE 800 and LTE 2600 network. Right now it would be pointless for Sprint to market LTE 800 when its nonexistant. Even the average Sprint customer doesn't even know about LTE 2600 since its only been soft launched.