bigsnake49

I think the Maps spat is because Google tried to keep the turn by turn directions for Android only. That probably pissed off Apple and prompted them to develop their own Maps. They acquired 3 different companies that were in the mapping business. I'm pretty sure Google will have turn by turn navigation in their Google Maps in iOS real soon. What I will be really interested in is whether the new iOS Maps will have an offline mode. I was going through an area about a year or so ago that had no AT&T service for about 30 miles. Google Maps was useless because it did not cache enough tiles beforehand. I think both mapping programs will get better because of competition.

I guess they're serious about this!

Well, Google got into the mobile handset business, so Apple is getting into the local search business in a roundabout way. It did not help that Eric Schmidt was a member of the board at Apple while they were working on their first iPhone, so he was intimately familiar with their plans. A spy in their midst, so to speak. From 10,000 feet up, Android looks a hell of a lot like iOS except with uglier icons. WebOS and Windows Phone look entirely different. It also did not help that Samsung blatantly copied some of Apple designs. So, Apple will put a big dent in Google's ad revenue from their iDevices.

What does Clearwire currently do? If beamforming does increase coverage then they need to do it since they must take advantage of any techniques that can increase the poor 2.5 GHz propagation. I am sure the RRU's on the top of Clearwire towers must have helped with coverage. I can't imagine what the 2.5 GHz Wimax coverage would be like if it didn't adopt RRU's up high on the towers.

 

I wonder if Sprint is planning to implement beamforming for its microwave backhaul and for its antennas.

No need to do beamforming for microwave backhaul since those are point to point links. The beamwidth is very narrow. However beamforming should be used to increase coverage and capacity. People much smarter than me have been advocating the use of beamforming and smart antennas for the last 10 years. I defer to their knowledge and experience. I don't know why it has not taken off. Carriers are more interested in buying more spectrum to keep it away from their competitors than fully utilizing what spectrum they have.

Trust me, I know. There's no way I'm running windows off of a flash drive, and I don't want to replace my optical drive. When I get the money, I'll get a Crucial m4 256GB, but it's a lower priority behind the SIIi

I just bought a pair of those for $189 each for my server.

sometimes there good reason for whining, i've been with sprint for over 10 years and have had my issues with them more then once, they have gotten there act together alittle better but I can't remeber how many times I was on the verge of canceling

 

 

 

Sent from my Evo 3D using Tapatalk

I just don't want to hang around all that negativity. I prefer technical discussions, creative solutions to problems and reasoned discourse. "Sprint sucks" does not qualify. If and when S4GRU starts being a whiner's forum, then I will move on as well.

Yes, that would be multi band carrier aggregation supplemental downlink, which is supported under LTE Advanced. I proposed the same idea about nine months to a year ago. I have quoted my proposal on several sites, including here at S4GRU in the post linked below.

 

http://s4gru.com/ind...dpost__p__12777

 

AJ

That was you wasn't it? I knew I had seen it before, I just did not remember where.

If Clearwire would adopt beamforming, it would help downlink transmission tremendously. There are increased energy costs associated with beamforming and more panels.

 

However, with beamforming, Clearwire may even be able to achieve PCS spacing. And then could just jump on Sprint NV sites.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

That would solve the problem for a TDD configuration. What I'm prposing is an FDD configuration with Clearwire's spectrum being the down link and a lower frequency being the uplink. LTE TDD configurations have inherent disadvatages vis a vis FDD configuration as far as decreased coverage. Unless those problems have been solved lately!.

That may also cause interference with Wi-Fi Signals.

If they have managed to not interfere with WiFi so far, I think thay might be able to avoid it in the future.

Just thinking out loud. Turn up the power on the downlink so that the coverage is identical to PCS and use PCS spectrum for the uplink. Now of course the FCC would have to agree to that, but I think the idea has merit. Any technical problems besides the increased power bill? Even that can be ameliorated by the use of smart antennas.

Actually this idea would work really well with the uplink portion of Lightsquared's spectrum.

Just a bunch of cheap MFers whining about Sprint service. No thanks!

I'm in a similar boat as bigsnake49; my dual monitor desktop is where I get hard work done, unless I'm away from it, in which case my MacBook works just fine (especially now with 8GB of RAM!). But for lighter tasks, my iPad gets used heavily. The proptortion of time spent between my workstation, my notebook and my tablet varies depending on the day, but unless I'm on the road the notebook goes pretty much unused, primarily due to the iPad.

 

I was very close to getting the Transformer Prime, but the third-gen iPad is actually superior to the Prime tech-wise, and I could get the iPad with built-in VZW LTE. The LTE, paired with a built in GPS, proved to be incredibly useful over the past few weeks when travelling and apartment-searching. I could have done similar things with my Epic, plus a tethering app and a Prime or other WiFi-only tablet, but for my purposes the additional $130 I spent to get the cellular-enabled model has been money well spent.

 

One thing I wouldn't consider at this point is using the iPad as my only computer. Nor does it negate the need to bring a laptop on trips longer than a day or two. There's just too much it still can't do at this point...and an Android tablet would be in a similar boat, at least for now. Same reason I have at multiple points carried two laptops around when going on trips. Laptop #1 was my MacBook most of the time. Laptop #2 was either a Windows machine (for light-ish gaming; my MacBook's HDD isn't big enough to dual boot) or a Chromebook (for excellent battery life while doing web stuff).

Either get a bigger HDD or get your windows operating system on a stick. Or you can stick an extra hdd or ssd for your DVD bay. I already have an ssd in my MacBook Pro and it flies. I'm looking for a good deal on a second ssd.

Some antennas can be doubled up for multiple bands. i.e. - USCC

 

But have they solved the pre-amp problem? Real estate on a handset being what it is.

"Mr. Snake? Mr. Wentworth is on line 2 for you. Shall I ask him to call back?"

Tell the SOB never to call me again:).

is Q3 2013 soon enough? I hope so, because that's when they are scheduling to start 800 LTE deployment.

 

Robert

I want my rural data and I want it NOW!

Sprint needs to hurry up and deploy LTE on 800MHz before it expands in these areas. While 800MHz 1x Advanced will be great, 1900MHz EVDO does not cut it.

I have both a laptop and a tablet. And a dual monitor desktop. It really depends on what you use them for. Just like I would never think of doing heavy duty development/debugging on my laptop unless I docked it to my dual monitor setup, I would not think of doing heavy word processing on my iPad. It is mainly a media consumption device for me. I do have a keyboard case for it so I can type longer docs if the need arises. Now, when Microsoft releases Office for the iPad, and they will, then I would definitely consider using it for more heavy duty word processing. I would never use it for heavy duty development, ever. I miss my dual monitor setup when I'm on the road. Heck, I might add another monitor!

I use the 4G in motion in Houston constantly with a data card through a cradle point which allows me to track signal strenth. The biggest problem is that there are gaps between tower coverages that cause disruption......especially the beltway on the NW side and on I-45 North. If 4G goes offline in motion it takes about15 seconds minimum (sometimes longer) to reacquire the next tower. It's sad that Sprint won't accept any outside help for equipment testing or coverage testing. I drive 1,000 miles a week in the Houston area and I am constantly using the data network 10 to 14 hours a day. Seems they could use the information that is readily available to them to help trim out the services.

 

As far as the 3G to Wimax handoff is concerned all of the equipment that I have seen so far will not allow simultaneous connection on Wimax and 3G so one service has to shut down before the other can start. I though maybe it was a power usage issue but from talking to the cradlepoint tech support people they told me that they are using the same beacham chipset in their custom sprint modem and it will allow simultaneous service on both 3G and Wimax with one band in standby to allow seamless network switching but Sprint will not allow it on their network.

 

I am getting ready to put the new Tri-band modem through the rigors. It is due here next week and they managed to have the cradle/dock in stock which is supposed to boost signal strength so they are sending that as well. It was a tough decision to pruchase based on all the problems I have had with sierra wireless hotspots in the past.

 

Stay tuned for more updates on network and the tri-band modem.

It's not just the network that's at fault. The firmware on the device can detect a disconnect and can then switch to the backup. My router has that logic on it and works pretty well.

No interference at the frequencies we are dealing with. Powerlines main frequency is at 50 or 60 Hz. There might be a few higher order harmonics but they reach nowhere near that frequency. Arcing is the main danger here and there are protocols for dealing with that.

 

 

I tried using my slingplayer on Houston on the interstate. Absolutely horrible to watch with all the pausing due to the handing off from tower to tower on WiMAX.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

They might want to get a third party CDN to install some caching servers on their network. It helps tremendously. I don't think it would have helped you with slingplayer. I was thinking more about Internet radio.

 

 

WiMax will not hand over to EVDO. You can do a hard handoff, which works in some data situations, but not streaming or active downloading. However, in the right conditions (especially if you increase your WiMax settings to a weaker -dBm) you can get WiMax to hand off to WiMax. But even that can be tricky.

 

Robert

Actually streaming is a candidate for unnoticable hard handoff, particularly if the handset has a large buffer. However forget about VOIP.

Maybe a partnership with AT&T or even T-Mobile?

Or, listen to this, are you ready? CDMA/WiMax phones with CDMA service provided by Sprint and WiMax from Clearwire. Hmmm.... hmmm...

I found this nugget of information compared the spectrums building propagation.

 

 

Being from Verizon, I can understand questioning the validity, but It does bring up the question of how much better is AWS or 1900mhz compared to 2.5Ghz.

I don't think that chart is accurate. It shows that propagation distance is inversely linear with frequency. From what I remember from my communication courses Loss = (c/(4*pi*f*d)^2. Signal loss is inversely proportional to the square of the frequency. Am I missing something or are the Verizon people wrong?

Sprint is mostly deploying 1xAdvanced for capacity gains. Except in rural, edge of service sites where they are deploying for coverage gains in some circumstances.

 

Sprint would be very interested in SouthernLINC if they can be scooped up. Currently, Sprint is unable to put a full size 800 LTE carrier in places SL has service. If they are able to buy them out, they could put in a 5x5 800 LTE carrier throughout the South. I think SL already has a rebanding plan.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I wonder if they can interest them in some prime 900Mhz spectrum? I heard it's relatively unoccupied:).

What you are proposing would turn their netwok into an overly complicated and difficult to support mess.

 

TD-LTE is the long term solution to any capacity issues that might arise in their top 100 markets & in isolated high traffic areas within their peripheral markets.

 

Converting the existing Clearwire footprint over to TD-LTE from WIMAX is basically trivial.

 

Not to mention there's an ability to add capacity and eliminate performance bottlenecks wherever they start to appear by deploying small cells in high traffic areas like malls, universities, sports arenas, and airports.

2500Mhz is not going to be deployed in the suburbs and that's where most people live and drive from/to. It just does not have the propagation. If it was that valuable people would be breaking down Clearwire's doors to get it. I don't see any broken down doors, do you?

As far as how easy or cheap it is converting from WiMax to LTE, we will see. If Clearwire keeps asking for money, it might not be.