MarkyD311

They're just getting started. I don't think they have any of the microwave-fed sites in OK online yet, but they should start turning them up in the next few weeks. I don't have exact numbers on how many sites will be fed by each donor site.

I can only speak specifically to Oklahoma, but they started hitting the microwave rural installs heavy last week. If they don't have AAV/AT&T available to the site in the immediate future, they're using microwave. In Oklahoma and NW Arkansas alone they're doing about 300 sites on microwave backhaul, fed by 1gbps donor sites. I can only assume they have the same strategy elsewhere, as there's no way they'll meet their goal without it (especially in CenturyLink/Frontier areas). By the end of March, I expect to see all highways in Oklahoma covered in LTE, with lots of the areas in between trickling in as well.

Sprint WiFi calling does not currently hand off to the cellular network. I've been testing it for work so we can approve Sprint as a BYOD option for our users (since Sprint won't pay for DAS on our campus). T-Mo hands off from WiFi to VoLTE, as you'd expect, but Sprint does not hand off a call from WiFi. It just drops. I only have two Sprint devices that I've tested with (HTC One Max and GS5). We'll see if this is the case when they finally implement WiFi calling on iOS.

In Oklahoma and NW Arkansas alone, T-Mobile is using microwave to reach 300+ sites. They're not turning up sites without backhaul in place.

I can only speak to my personal experience in OK - and from the perspective of the engineers who are building the network here. Whether or not what is being said matches up with reality is something we'll have to wait and see. I'm far from a TMO evangelist, but I'm pretty impressed with what they've done in my state in a short amount of time. For work, I always have a current flagship from each carrier in my desk drawer, and I rotate them out frequently. VZW continues to be the most consistent carrier in my state, with AT&T lagging behind slightly in the more rural areas. T-Mobile has always been the worst outside of the city, but that is changing very quickly. Sprint, on the other hand, is an absolute disaster in the OKC metro. It's no more usable than it was a few years ago, but again, that's just one guy's perspective. I'm all about rooting for the underdog when they deserve it. In my region, Sprint has done tons of modernization but the cell grid is still so sparse. They don't stand a chance in this state unless they start putting up more macros, which doesn't seem like it's in the game plan any time soon (unless I missed something).

I wouldn't say the range is bad. Let's use the network in OK as an example. These sites they're upgrading from EDGE/GPRS are being upgraded from 10+ year old Nortel base station equipment to modern NSN equipment. Even with GMO, the engineers here are seeing an INCREASE in range with the new 1900 LTE sites over what they were getting on the old Nortel stuff. So, at least here in OK where they're upgrading from really old stuff, the 1900 LTE coverage is actually better than the 1900 EDGE was, in many cases.

A little better in some areas of OKC, but not much.

It's 8:45 pm in Yukon, OK. I'm a quarter mile from Sprint's cell site at SW 15th and Mustang Rd. I can see it from my window. I can connect to B25 and B26 from my house. Both deliver less than 1mbps down, and 2-3mbps up. It's just congestion, plain and simple. It's bad. T-Mobile, on the other hand, is making some pretty big moves nationwide, including here in OK. Lack of low band spectrum in the state will continue to hinder T-Mo indoors, but their cell grid is pretty dense. I'm really impressed with the rate at which T-Mobile is improving the network here.