gangrene

This announcement probably gives Sprint a decent impetus to speed up its LTE deployment, having several major markets online by the time Verizon makes this move at the end of June would be a smart strategic decision.

Not everyone wants to use an Android phone, this device is a decent stop-gap until an LTE iPhone comes out.

On a long term basis, they can easily shutdown EVDO Data network and keep their CDMA voice carriers alive indefinitely, those two services aren't mutually exclusive. They might even determine that CDMA Voice + LTE is the way forward if they determine that VoLTE deployment is problematic.

Sure, markets are a somewhat arbitrary internal way of dividing up coverage areas but nobody would argue that Verizon isn't far-ahead of other carriers in terms of LTE deployment. My main issue is their exorbitant pricing, it is entirely worth it to wait for Sprint. The odd thing that I have noticed about Verizon press releases/deployment is that while 200 million people seem to live within 230 internally defined markets. They plan to expand to 400 markets by the end of the year, while only bringing an additional 50 million people into their coverage area. I guess this is the year where they're focused on expanding coverage into rural areas and other tertiary markets. They plan on having LTE across 100% of their coverage footprint by the end of next year, which makes me wonder about when they plan on winding down EVDO.

Going back and forth with Verizon right now is completely pointless, Verizon is in 230+ markets and Sprint LTE hasn't even officially launched its first 6 markets. Wait until your network is actually rolled out and available to customers before engaging in fights IMO.

Sprint should have offered this as part of a bundle when it launched the Iphone 4S. It would have sold way more Iphones.

MetroPCS really has no future as an independent carrier. It can't possibly compete with the new Boost/Virgin mobile 4G pre-paid offerings. Its LTE and 3G footprint are extremely limited, is 1x over the majority of its territory and the devices it offers are terrible. I don't see how this acquisition benefits T-Mobile at all.

I just know that Clearwire has severe issues with their "network optimization" platform and that is part of the reason their reputation is so poor in general. I know that many, many users who signed service contracts with Clearwire were expecting a home broadband replacement and were finding themselves throttled to below EVDO speeds after downloading things like multi-gigabyte operating system updates, playing XBOX live, doing the sorts of things you would expect people to do with a conventional home broadband connection. It was advertised in that manner, especially with those cradle point routers etc.

Funny you should say that, I know several people in Queens who are using Rooted WiMAX devices as their primary home internet connection. One is even is a heavy usenet downloader, averaging 80 gigabytes a month. Clearwire branded devices seem to throttle with heavy usage, but Sprint branded devices don't.

I guess mandatory bothers me to a certain extent, but I was floating the idea because I was under the impression that the upcoming WiMAX devices on Boost were going to operate under some sort of mandatory on "4G if available" restriction. Is it known if that is the case or not? I was also thinking in terms that I would readily support whatever measures allowed Sprint to retain "truly unlimited" data the longest and that this sort of thing would probably be another weapon that Sprint could use to alleviate network strain in metro areas and improve the user experience for everyone overall.

I agree that I wouldn't want the QOS to be negatively impacted and would expect the WIFI networks to be of a certain quality. I think the key is that the software sceme that manages this sort of HOME/MUNI/MSO/Wholesale Wi-Fi off-loading would have to be relatively seamless. But I also see this as a possible post-paid/pre-paid differentiator, something that could be completely user configurable on the post-paid side and an automated measure that keeps costs down on the pre-paid side. I find this whole concept to be very interesting because most existing smartphones, including all of the non-WiMax Android phones on Boost and Virgin could be updated to take advantage of it.

ATT and Verizon don't actually like competing in a market segment, they want to turn the US wireless market into a "comfortable duopoly" where they can jack up prices on consumers and slash infrastructure spending.

I would love to hear Robert's opinion on the expansion of WIFI off-loading, it seems like it could even be mandatory in some markets, especially on the pre-paid side. Time Warner is apparently in the midst of a similar deployment throughout the greater Los Angeles area.

It was created as a "value added" service, its an asset that helps them retain customers in light of extremely fierce competition from FIOS. IIRC. During a recent shareholder meeting they announced that they were spending an additional $240 million on infrastructure with at least half of that going to expand the Optimum Wifi footprint. I'd suspect that their infrastructure is going to play a major role in easing Sprint network congestion within the NYC Metro Area. They have an existing relationship with Sprint (Cablevision bundles Sprint services at a discount as part of their Optimum Business packages). I mean, assuming that automatic WIFI off-loading will be a key component of Sprint's upcoming connection optimizer software.

Not impressed with this device. The Evo LTE looks way better.

Their municipal wifi network has had a widespread deployment for at least two years without any known interference issues. From my experience, 2.4ghz crowding only seems to be a serious issue for apartment dwellers, its sort of a hyper-local thing caused by tenants in a building running 50 different wifi networks. The more interesting wrinkle is that the next iteration of bel-air hotspots will be technically capable of broadcasting an LTE signal.

Cablevision has been aggressively building out this network across its entire footprint over the past two years using bel-air hot spots. You can spot them on almost every street corner hanging off of utility poles. Would make sense for them to make a sort of Republic Wireless MVNO deal with Sprint wouldn't it? Its available for free to all customers and once you register your mac address with the network you connect to it automatically and can treat it almost like a cellular network.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised given the massive infrastructure upgrades companies like Comcast and Cablevision have rolled out in recent years. They also have the infrastructure in place to support something like Optimum Wi-Fi....

AAV is industry code for cable operator provided backhaul, correct?

USCC expanding into the Northeast would be great.

I could be completely misreading this situation, but to me It honestly looks like Verizon is trying to exchange rural 700mhz licenses for more urban spectrum and back out of its obligation to service rural areas as comprehensively as they've done in the past.