cyclone

The benefit is in reference to users NOT using a device with HPUE or for those in fringe areas that lose B41. They will have to wait until the adoption rate of HPUE devices raises in their area resulting in some freed B25 and possibly B26 due to more users connected to B41 in more places

It's there for now, but I'm telling you that the upcoming work I've seen for Verizon is removing all of the legacy cellular antennas on the site and replacing them with new antennas that are connected to newly installed RRH's operating using LTE not CDMA. The new sites are running 700, 850, 1900, and AWS (on a fully loaded site) on LTE. When we first started doing Verizon work a couple years ago, the jobs were installing 1900 on LTE and then later going back and incorporating AWS. Now as those finish up, we are replacing the legacy CDMA on 850 as they transition to purely LTE sites.

I'm considering taking the new plan offered for current customers at 65 (60 with autopay) which would place those couple of restrictions but allow the 10GB of tethering. I currently have the iPhone unlimited for 60 with no tethering ability. TBH how much of a restriction is it really having 1.5Mbps for audio and 8Mbps for gaming?

I'm not talking about slow data speeds, but no data at all. A connection fails to authenticate through both Verizon EVDO or 1x and I'm usually staring at an x on the signal bar. Verizon is likely not running low on capacity as they have dedicated their entire cellular spectrum to CDMA and EVDO.

 

 

I work for a tower construction company and I see our upcoming Verizon sites are starting to refarm their cellular band for LOC (LTE over Cellular)

Its great that Sprint finally decided to match Tmobile's and Verizon's offer of the 10 GB of high speed hotspot tether and HD video streaming by default.

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-launches-best-unlimited-hd-plan-ever.htm

 

However there are still 2 issues which still do not solve Sprint's problem.

1) Are the folks who signed up for the 5 lines/$90 promo before Fri, 2/17 going to get an automatic upgrades to the HD video streaming and increased high speed hotspot tether from 5 GB --> 10 GB?  

Its not clear from the press release if this is true.  Hopefully Sprint is smart enough to automatically upgrade all Freedom Unlimited customers since the introduction of this plan to the HD video streaming and 10 GB hotspot tether beginning Fri, 2/17.

 

2) The 5 lines/$90 promo is NOT available to current customers.  I still see a ton of Sprint customers porting out to other carriers simply because of no offers being given to loyal customers.  Need to make this offer available to all customers so they can simplify their billing system and give them a reason to want to sign up for the Freedom Unlimited plan.  Hell Sprint can even make it a limited offer starting Friday, 2/17 where for a limited time current customers can take advantage of this same offer as new customers to just stop the initial port out bleeding.

Fine print difference on the tethering!! Sprint drops you down to 2G after the 10GB allotment whereas Verizon and T-Mobile drop you to 3G leaving the hotspot service somewhat usable.

 

I like how there is an Eligibility row on that chart (attempting to show how the other guys "stack up") where they slap existing customers in the face with "Pricing shown is available to new accounts." AT&T's DirecTV/U-Verse requirement excludes both existing and new customers equally making Sprint the only carrier explicitly excluding current customers

 

Edited to add link to chart accessed via quoted link: http://sprint.com/unlimited

Arysyn, you love to give out your ideas on pricing but there's one thing you and the other companies still love to do...that's charge premiums for extras. If Sprint truly wants to combat T-Mobile, then play them at their own game. Sprint has flirted around with several different pricing schemes for the last few years, all while merely doing their best to stay afloat. If there is one thing Sprint does well, it's be the cheaper entity to help drive people in while locking them into a contract (previously by plan, now by phone lease) enabling them to obtain funds to later use to better their network. Here's my idea on pricing. Simply advertise the autopay prices as the rates, since that seems to be the new fad, and voila you've got new plan rates that are not just promotional and offer the top service competitively. Enabling this for new and existing customers helps retain customers as well as drive them in.

 

Another offer Sprint could do is introduce a Loyalty Credit of 10% for 5 years and 15% for 10+. This not only gives new customers an incentive to stick around for a while, but rewards those that have already stuck around through the dark ages of Sprint. Even do a commercial themed around looking back at the past years and the road they've traveled to the present promoting where they currently are at and all of the achievements they've made (showing off all the Nelson testing results which favor Sprint) and own up to their mistakes in an effort to move forward. Just as T-Mobile was smart to appeal to the incoming millennial generation, Sprint too needs to focus on the incoming generation. Make Sprint look human and appeal to their empathetic side while keeping the prices down to appease the more penny-pinching older generations.

HPUE will help, but sprint optimized the hell out of band 25.. it will be hard for HPUE to reach that far

 

 

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Tweaks to power levels made to antennas do not equal with the increase in handset broadcast power levels. This does not change anything to B25. HPUE is ENTIRELY dependent upon new technology in the handset allowing a higher output on the return signal from phone to antenna regarding the 2.5GHz spectrum. Does this change any of the physical limitations of the higher band vs the mid band? Lets look at this like walkie talkies. The tower is let's say a 50 mile range walkie talkie and you're using a 25 mile range walkie talkie. While the tower is capable of broadcasting a signal further due to higher power outputs, your phone is limited in its ability to talk back to the tower. That's when your connection drops down to B25, and then later to B26. So yes, B25 will still outperform B41 in range. It is however a huge advancement in Sprint being able to utilize the B41 spectrum in more places. Likely places to see improvement are to those who lose B41 as soon as they enter a building (ie office workers) allowing a little more oomph from their device to maintain the connection.

Please see quoted. I was replying to the comment regarding B41 not having the reach of midband spectrum.

Please read the quoted text again yourself. It was discussing the performance of B41 at the Superbowl and it's lack of reach compared to the midband spectrum...all of which is currently true. Throwing in HPUE is irrelevant due to the fact that it is a technology dependent upon handsets that currently are not commercially available, thus not applicable to the setting in discussion.

 

In the future, yes HPUE will (in theory) help the reach of B41.

Heard of HPUE?

The handset based technology where the phone is capable of broadcasting its 2.5GHz signal at a higher output allowing a larger range from the antenna? It's entirely irrelevant to the performance of the network during the Superbowl as no current handset is capable of utilizing that technology.

The problem with setting such speed caps is that those higher values are much harder to sustain in the mobile industry. Unlike the fixed internet industry with physical connections, there aren't dedicated lanes allowing set speeds. To put it in a more simple analogy for you, lets put things on a smaller scale and think of the cell tower as a fixed cable connection in a house. The more people and more devices you have, usually requires higher speeds to operate as each device running will get its own share of the speed. These are easy to maintain due to a usually low and fixed number of devices in the house. On a tower, you have hundreds and sometimes thousands of connections to one tower with its own fixed backhaul lane. Speeds change constantly due to the operations of each connected device. Advertising a set speed at a costly price sets the company up for several complaints any time those speeds aren't met, turning speed tests into ammo for the consumers. This is the main reason why the mobile industry deals with buckets of data and the fixed isp's can charge by the speed.

It hasn't finished yet and I'm pretty sure that article is just wrong.  The auction doesn't need almost $40 billion to finish and of course the TV station rep isn't happy that the stations will be getting less than the $86.4 billion finish would have brought.

It was referring to the previous round's requirement. This article does however list Sprint as a spectrum player in the auction which goes against all of the public statements of them not participating

Unless I'm not reading the same article that was linked as everyone else is or the article has been entirely edited since its first publish, I'm clearly seeing words like "Carrier Aggregation" used. The first map for each carrier is explicitly named to show off the 3 carrier aggregation spectrum availability. I don't like how the legend to some of the maps are cut off and I wish they would not show the highways. It's unnecessary information that clutters the several small counties/parishes (not sure if anywhere outside of Louisiana has parishes instead of counties) not much larger than the line size for the highways.

Here is the note from Sprint regarding shipping dates: "...Our various shipment times based on order date are: (i) Ships by 9/30 if ordered by 11AM CT on 9/13. (ii) Delivers 10/12-10/19 if ordered between 11AM CT on 9/13 and 12PM CT on 9/17. (iii) Delivers 10/16-10/30 if ordered after 12PM CT on 9/17. You may track the progress of your order at www.sprint.com/myorder. Additionally, keep an eye out for a shipping email with your tracking information. Thank you for your patience."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-iphone-idUSKCN11L0AD

 

TL;DR: Initial supply for the iPhone 7 Plus worldwide sold out, while the Jet Black iPhone 7 has sold out worldwide also. Customers trying to purchase the sold out models on launch day in-store will be unable to do so. They can only be pre-ordered online for the time being.

 

-Anthony

This is only for Apple stores, correct? I can still walk into a Sprint store in the morning and have a chance for a plus model?

Percentage increase = 100[(v₂ - v₁) ÷ v₁]%

 

If v₁ = 0, then percentage increase is ∞.

 

AJ

I stand corrected. My simplification to using multiplication and addition to calculate a percentage increase wasn't the actual standard formula for percent increase. There is a more complex and literal interpretation that also implies that the original assumption of comparing to the sale of the iPhone 7 from 2015 is absurd.

 

 

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The article didn't mention that they were comparing sales to the iphone 6. It just said iphone 7 sales compared to last year.

To be completely literal then the math would never work. To say there was any percentage of increase would be impossible since zero times any number would only result in zero. Therefore common sense implies a comparison to the sale of iPhones last year (AKA 6s/6s Plus)

 

Found this floating around on Twitter

 

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Model A1779 is set for Japan though. Model numbers for Sprint are A1660 A1661 for the 7 and 7 Plus

Dude, I don't know what you have a problem understanding, I seriously dont and I have a real hard time talking to people that seem to hold onto their ignorance with the passion you are displaying. Bottom line is that sprint money problems are not relevant to customers. All they care about is that sprint delivers the services they expect for a price they are willing to pay. Sprint can't do that with out executing on their network.

 

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You may not understand why people grasp things differently than you do, but just because there is a problem doesn't mean it's always the other person. You seem very focused on the end product without taking into account the steps it takes to get there. This whole notion of Sprint's money problems not being relevant to customers is a prime example. In your last statement, you said that Sprint can't deliver the service at a price point that customers are willing to pay without executing on their network. How exactly do you expect Sprint to execute on their network without the funds to put into the network? As has been stated, Softbank hasn't been extremely loose with it's spare change to enable a heavy flow of cash into the network. That's not the end of the world though. Look at the advancements Sprint has been able to accomplish with what it does have... there is 3CA being tested and once finalized, a rapid rollout similar to 2CA is imminent. This whole end of days and extremely narrow focus on the end product (instant gratification) is why consumers have a hard time giving Sprint a chance. Why make life harder than it has to be? Sprint gives a 30 day trial period to new customers. If Sprint doesn't work for you in those 30 days, you're welcome to try another carrier.

Yeah I'm sure Sprint won't want to match the deal from last year. I will miss paying under $3 for the lease on my phone though. Oh well, if the new iPhones don't look all that great at the event tomorrow, I may just keep mine for another year. We shall see

I believe the way the auction works is in three steps:

 

1. TV Stations decide what channels and amount of spectrum they are willing to give up. Too little and auction doesn't happen.

2. TV Stations negotiate prices as compensation for giving up said channels/spectrum. Continues until prices set.

3. Carriers/Entities bid on spectrum in normal auction. Too little money earned for amount of spectrum, FCC lowers amount and auction starts over until reasonable price for amount of spectrum is met.

They are blaming local permits but what's strange is the other carriers do not seem to be having these permit delays.  I think it is just a cover up for some other reason. I read previous delays were from birds!

There are towers that are inhabited by birds on the endangered species list or protected for some reason or another and you are legally unable to do work if the birds or nests are present. I work at a telecommunications company and we had such a thing happen a couple years back where we had to delay work on the tower for a few months until the birds migrated off the tower and we were granted permission to work again.

The iPhone shows details on apps for either the Last 24 Hours or Last 7 Days in a listing as well the total time of usage and standby time since the last full charge in a summation at the bottom. Usage is the time an application was actively running with the screen on or off, while standby is essentially a run time since the phone was last charged and is based on the time with apps running in the background and no apps running in the background. Standby time shouldn't include any time while the phone was powered off. If you want to see the times in more detail, it is broken down by each individual app and is accessible by clicking on any of the listings or on the clock symbol located at the top right above the list of apps. This is all based on my observation of both the usage and standby totals changing while I stay on the screen for several minutes. BTW the "Home and Lock screen" is time spent with phone screen on, but no apps actively loaded.

Maybe that's why I haven't been having the same problems as you. My phone has CA ability

What side of town are you? I work on the NW and I don't have that problem. I'm almost always on B26, but it's normally usable with speeds around 1-3 Mbps. I also don't notice any band jumping unless I'm driving. Don't forget WiMax dies tomorrow for us here. Maybe some changes are about to be made