bigsnake49

6 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Hopefully Calling Plus stress tested the network sufficiently to ensure adequate VoLTE performance. Also, the relative maturity of VoLTE at this point may help Sprint’s deployment as well.

I am thinking that VOLTE will probably prefer band 25 and 26 since they can provide much better upload speeds than band 41. Or they can  use band 25 as upload while using band 41 for download. I have a question though, what happens to 1x800 after the merger. Do they keep it for a while to service Machine to Machine existing contracts?

4 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

My understanding is that they have 13MHz of it nationwide which allows them to deploy a 5x5 + 1x800 + guard band. It's only 3x3 in areas where they aren't the primary carrier using the spectrum like in certain border areas. They were supposed to be 3x3 in SoLinc territory too but ultimately they worked out a deal that allowed them to deploy 5x5. 

They 14Mhz nationwide even in Solinc territory except for Puerto Rico. Now they have not fully rebanded in the IBEZ areas (that's where they have 3x3 LTE) and San Bernardino County. 

13 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

If Sprint kept its capex at its current level for the next two or three quarters (highly unlikely at this point) they would be perfectly fine and in a good position to launch 5G in a big way.

Where will they find the money to continue spending $6B/year?

1 hour ago, nexgencpu said:

I think your way too hung up on the whole 600mhz thing. Just ask any Tmobile or Sprint user how "amazing" band 12 or 26 was after being deployed. In most applications its more of a "Hey we can finally hang onto LTE so your VoLTE can work and see less 3G" and while I do believe having that low band spectrum has its place (especially in more rural situations) Its cost does not outway its benefits unfortunately especially coming from Sprint.

For Tmobile, it was a no brainier, simply  because they truly lacked spectrum, not because they saw it as this huge technical advancement over their other holdings.

Now if somehow they could have secured 60Mhz+ of 600mhz, I would have been singing a different tune.

Sprint has been Capex limited ever since they acquired Nextel, a merger I have opposed from the beginning. Softbank acquired Sprint with the express purpose f merging them with T-Mobile. Why else they would not invest in Sprint?

Now if the merger does not go through, Sprint would be rowing upstream without a paddle.

2 hours ago, lilotimz said:

VoLTE will be a market specific opt in option.

It's already live on the network for closed testing and in some areas production network testing. 

Is there a minimum RSSI QOS threshold for VOLTE?

2 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

So your connecting to sites with B25 only? or 3G? At this point it must be rare for macro sites to not broadcast B26 (not counting GMO or small cell)

I connect mainly to B41 which is on the site closest to me but it is a single channel. But my condo is a concrete fortress and B41 is not accessible in all areas of the condo. I have great signal for 1x800 CDMA voice from sites 4-6 miles away. Imagine if they put 1x800 and B26 on the site .5 miles away. What's really strange is that I almost never drop from B41->B25->B26. It goes directly from B41->B26.

2 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

Almost all sites have B26, they can just disable VoLTE on sites that are still waiting on IBEZ.

Maybe in your neck of the woods they do. I get 1x800 and LTE 26 from sites way away from me when there is a site half a mile away. 

32 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

VoLTE!

Think it will go live before or after the new iPhone launches?

They can't do it before deploying band 26 on nearly all their sites. That has not happened yet. 1x800 works really well. 

4 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

You do realize that Tmobile has massive debt right? and now they're about to tack on Sprint's debt. This venture will not be easy no matter how you slice it. 

Your not taking into account the amount of time it takes to deploy newly built sites(adding 600Mhz to existing sites would not be enough, since 800Mhz has mostly proved that). If Sprint had 600Mhz years ago, your strategy would make a bit more sense. Small cell would not be such a big part of the equation and a couple of macro sites would make more of a difference. But with 2.5, site density is key, so small cells make all the sense in the world, so I understood the Mobilitie strategy.

Unfortunately, lack of small cell legislation, NIMBY in combination with sloppy Mobilitie work, made that plan drag out more than it should of.

 

Actually compared to Verizon and AT&T the new company will be relatively light on debt. I think about $68B in debt compared to Verizon's $117B and AT&T's 150B.

5 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

I'm sure employee moral at Sprint corporate is fragile and questionable. So why not do these to boost moral, educate employees and even works as an internal thank you, considering there future at the "new tmobile" might be in question, no better time than now for these things.

Absolutely! Also remember that the approval of the merger is not a foregone conclusion. You do not want people leaving prematurely if you can help it.

16 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Only the LG K30, Samsung S8, S8+, S9, S9+ are supported at launch and more expensive than buy-in them from Samsung for example the S9 64 GB is $619 at B&H, $719 at Samsung and $749 at Spectrum Mobile. No iPhones and no BYOD. Plans include $45 unlimited or $14/GB. Free calls and texting. You do have to be a customer of their Internet offering.

Totally underwhelming launch!

spectrummobile.com

Only the LG K30, Samsung S8, S8+, S9, S9+ are supported at launch and more expensive than buy-in them from Samsung for example the S9 64 GB is $619 at B&H, $719 at Samsung and $749 at Spectrum Mobile. No iPhones and no BYOD. Plans include $45 unlimited or $14/GB. Free calls and texting. You do have to be a customer of their Internet offering.

Totally underwhelming launch!

1 hour ago, red_dog007 said:

B14, B66, B71, B5, B2, B30

The fact that 3G/HSPA still exists, some bands have not been deployed on yet, or that some of these have not been deployed as heavily yet. Then there is unlicensed spectrum too that carriers are getting their feet wet with.

How many Sprint direct customers will really see a benefit though?  Not everyone will.  I know if this merger goes through, I won't see a single benefit. Sprint continues to get faster. My speeds are as fast as everyone elses.  Many already get talk/data over LTE.  My lines are at > 90% over LTE. VoLTE will be live by then.  Sprint is continuing to dump billons into the network this year.  They have a lot of extended LTE roaming that makes up for a lot of TMobile's coverage.  The only difference I will see the change from Extended LTE to being on TMobile's network.  In the areas I go, it will be a reduction in coverage so I hope the extended LTE agreements stay in place.

Then there are the MVNO users. This place has the chance to get slammed extremely hard.  I think only government merger mandated rules will protect MVNOs but will contain a sunset.

 

AT&T does not have band 71 anymore. They sold it.

13 hours ago, red_dog007 said:

Instead of being glad with the merger, go to one of the three other carriers that will satisfy your needs.  

Especially with these large acquisitions, the consumers never win unless there are restrictions placed on the merger that directly benefit  or protect the consumers.

In this case, the only people who might benefit are Sprint customers.  But these guys could just switch providers if they really needed to change providers.

I am a Sprint customer. I have a line through my employer and another one because of the $15/month special. Now I also have 4 lines on Cricket that will probably be transferred to Charter Mobile as soon as they announce it. 

10 hours ago, derrph said:

I agree. Sprint users will gain the most from this merger in the ways of better coverage and more consistent speeds. 

Brand loyalty especially with these carriers is just not worth it most of the time cause they owe us nothing. If you’re not liking the quality of service or whatever, switch and go to a carrier that’s going to work for your needs. There’s no use in just settling just because you’re rooting for the underdog and stuff. 

Are you not a Sprint customer? Sprint customers will benefit the most from this merger. Be happy or take your own advice and leave.

14 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

8 major carriers? There are only 5 major spectrum holders, and one of them isn't even a carrier.  How would the New-TMobile truly benefit customers having twice the spectrum as the next holder (if they don't have to shed assets for the merger) when both TMobile and Sprint already have loads of unused or under utilized spectrum. Even VZW/ATT still have increasing speeds, with spectrum not on LTE yet or have unused / under utilized spectrum. 

Are you not counting the mmwave holdings of AT&T and Verizon? Or the fact that there will be a lot of spectrum that is being opened up in the CBRS, 3.7-4.2GHz, 6GHz band? 

8 minutes ago, jefbal99 said:

Wasn't that the point in NV1.0, the CDMA upgrade was in place long term to allow the data network to be built out, then in 10ish years (we are 6yrs into that), so we have in theory, another 4 years for full VoLTE deployment.

I think that the timetable was accelerated by Verizon's sunsetting of CDMA which Sprint depends on for roaming.

7 minutes ago, Terrell352 said:

Once again 4x4 MIMO, 256qam was supposed to happened last year...so. Massive MIMO from what we seen on the charts that Marcelo presented in court will be extremely limited. They can say we will deploy thousands but how many? 3-5 thousand? Sprint made a statement earlier in the year that they would have nationwide 5G by the beginning of the second half of 2019. That map says that was a flat out lie. Just because Sprint says it doesn’t mean that they will follow through every time. They will say anything to keep shareholders happy as would any company. B41 is not the end all solution because it is not viable indoors even with HPUE. The magic box as great as it is can’t be the solution because latency is too high. Small cells still have many battleground states where people don’t want it to happen. Two low band layers with 10-25mhz of capacity would have been the rural and indoor solution.

I agree with you and I had hoped that they would have participated in the 600MHz auction.  I am glad they are merging with T-Mobile.

13 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

It’s hard to know what’s the truth here.

I do think that once Sprint passed on the 600 MHz auction, it was commited to a merger. We were told otherwise of course that Sprint had a non-traditional plan for its 2.5 Spectrum and there was plenty of skepticism from the Wireless establishment that we were told to dismiss because they didn’t appreciate Sprint’s secret sauce and the new way of doing things.

The long play was for Sprint to pitch the FCC alongside T-Mobile for a spectrum reserve (shooting for 40 MHz), which it was able to partially achieve (turned out to be 30 MHz). This ensured its potential future merger partner would get it. Of course, I also think it determined Sprint’s fate as a standalone company.

Masayoshi Son wanted to merge with T-Mobile from the get go. He had no desire to invest further in Sprint.

2 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

It’s supposed to happen this fall.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-expects-to-deploy-volte-fall

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-still-track-volte-despite-roaming-agreement-t-mobile

Truth is, you wouldn’t want to have VoLTE before the Network is ready for it. Better to have more reliable CDMA.

As for why the network wasn’t ready for VoLTE for so long, limited Capex and other related factors probably explain it. Perhaps the 800 MHz rebanding issue as well.

Hell they do not have band 26 deployed on every site. For example the site half a mile from my house. I have great 1x800 coverage (80-90dbm RSSI) from distant sites (4-6) miles. 

9 hours ago, Terrell352 said:

Verizon and At&t didnt participate in the 600 auction because they have plenty of low band to go around. Verizon has 1-2 layers of lowband b13 and b5. Att has 2-3 layers b5, b12/17 and b14. Sprint needed that lowband and would have drastically improved coverage and capacity for lowband. 3-5mhz of b26 that it's not even aggregated is not going to cut it. Sprint has lied before. Where is Gigabit LTE that they announced 16 months ago that was supposed to launch in 2017??? Why is Sprint all of a sudden really quiet about 4xCA that was supposed to launch??

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 

Because they are reserving some spectrum for 5G. 3xCA is plenty if deployed everywhere. Let them deploy 4x4 MIMO, 256QAM and then Massive MIMO first augmented by small cells.

1 hour ago, anthony.spina97 said:

Basically. The CDMA model uses a Qualcomm modem whereas the GSM model uses an Intel modem, therefore no CDMA support.

 

-Anthony

This year I think Intel's modem gets CDMA. There's also a rumor that Apple will have their own modem sometime soon.

1 minute ago, RedSpark said:

My point is that once Sprint didn’t bid in the 600 MHz auction, it was actually an abdication that it wouldn’t compete for true nationwide coverage of LTE/5G. Sprint’s 800MHz holdings are actually quite limited, and not even fully deployed due to rebanding issues/delays. In fact, T-Mobile has been able to deploy their 600 MHz Spectrum pretty quickly, and there’s even a chance that it could finish before Sprint completes its 800 MHz rebanding. Remember, we were told by the former Sprint CFO that “600 MHz would take years to deploy.... so why should we bid on any?”

This merger wouldn’t be necessary for “low band” for nationwide 5G reasons if Sprint had acquired some 600 MHz in the auction... but Sprint didn’t participate.

When you say that no other carrier offers blanket LTE coverage over midband, you’re right. Sprint expected us to believe otherwise when it said that it didn’t need 600 MHz.... and now we are where we are.

600Mhz has not being cleared for the major metro areas and won't for a little while. T-Mobile has done a remarkable job deploying 600Mhz where it has been cleared.

2 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Here’s a good article about the Hearing: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/editor-s-corner-4-takeaways-from-sprint-t-mobile-senate-merger-hearing

I found these parts interesting:

Both Legere and Claure have made 5G a key element in their merger proposal. Sprint and T-Mobile will build a massive 5G network if they are allowed to merge, and that action, according to Legere, could push AT&T and Verizon to invest an additional $20 billion of combined spending into their own 5G buildouts in response.

However, Sen. Klobuchar pointed out that both Sprint and T-Mobile already announced fairly aggressive 5G buildout plans prior to their April merger announcement. So why do they need to merge?

Claure countered that Sprint will need to spend up to $25 billion to build out a standalone 5G network, and even then, the network won’t cover large geographic areas of the United States.

“At most this merger is a shortcut,” argued Consumers Union’s Slover, explaining that a Sprint/T-Mobile merger would simply allow the companies to build out a 5G network faster than they could on their own.

Good points! This does seem like a shortcut, much like what came out in the filing that undermined the AT&T/T-Mobile merger: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Leaked-ATT-Letter-Demolishes-Case-For-TMobile-Merger-115652

“For the first time the letter pegs the cost of bringing AT&T's LTE coverage from 80% to 97% at $3.8 billion -- quite a cost difference from the $39 billion price tag on the T-Mobile deal.”

Sprint wouldn’t need T-Mobile’s 600 MHz Spectrum for nationwide 5G if it had bid and gotten some in the auction... but we were told by the former CFO that it wasn’t for lack of money, but because it was the spectrum of the past while 2.5 GHz was where things were headed.

So, it’s either true that Sprint not bidding on 600 MHz was due to the lack of money... in which case this assertion by the CFO was a complete lie.

Or, it wasn’t due to a lack of money and Sprint really believed that it didn’t need 600 MHz for a truly nationwide 5G network as it was “spectrum of the past”... only to have that blow up in its face down the road.

Has to be one of those.

It was for lack of money. Sprint has not had money for 13 years now.

9 hours ago, IamMrFamous07 said:

Do we know when the FCC & DOJ will review the merger? Someone online said the merger can be approved as early as October this year 

They can get the FCC decision in 180 days. I am pretty sure that the DOJ also has 180 days for its review. The only question is do the two agencies do their review sequentially or in parallel.