avb

Zte Axon 7 needs to be on that byod list.  It has all the Sprint bands.

The full effects of 1xAdvance is only realized if every single connected device utilizes 1xAdvance.

 

It 1x only devices connect the advantages that a 1x advanced cell is not truly realized.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

Has Sprint stopped selling devices that don't have 1xAdvance capability?  If so how long has it been?

This is precisely what i noticed on the G5. It seems to be able to deal with band switching extremely efficiently. Where as most other devices just get "stuck" on a band.

 

Not only that, whereas my Nexus 6P with latest radio would switch to B26 at around -110dBm even tho a better B25 is available and i know B41 is usable till about -115dBm.

I thought the network, not the device, was responsible for switching between LTE bands?  

I understand 2000 is a lot but I don't agree with the idea that people are really complaining about the appearance of these poles. Verizon, T-Mobile/Metro, and AT&T/Cricket were able to build out dense small cell networks in a few cities including NYC, no one ever says anything and the performance of their networks have been proven to be rather stellar as a result. There has to be more going on here than just appearances that is holding Sprint back.

The problem seems to be Mobilitie seems to want to put up new (and tall) poles and not use existing ones.  

It's not just speed, but signal propagation that the 8T8R antennas are also better at.

Anyone know if the new small cells will perform more similar to the outgoing Clear equipment or closer to the 8T8R stuff?  I'm pretty sure it won't have the benefits of 8T8R.

Since it has full CDMA band classes and, LTE bands, there shouldnt be any reason why Sprint would not support the phone. They support other devices that have full CDMA. nexus moto x pure.

I agree.  Sprint also needs to allow unlocked phones like this, the Nexus series, and Moto X Pure to be used on Boost Mobile while they're at it.

 

However, I don't see how there couldn't be a system where each carrier in the current four carrier market couldn't have 30x30 low-band, 30x30 mid-band, and 30x30 high-band. 

4 carriers each having 30x30 low-band, 30x30 mid-band, and 30x30 high-band?  That's 120x120 total spectrum of each band type (and eliminates regional carriers from operating).  There isn't that much spectrum currently available for use today.

With Band 41, anything lower than 3/4th of signal bars usually means a weak upload.

 

But outside of that, signal bars are pretty useless.

I find that always true with Clear towers, but not always true with Sprint b41.  If I get a signal that's -110dbm with Clear, uploads are usually 300-800Kbps.  Usually with Sprint b41 I'll get anywhere from 1.5-4Mbs uploads with the same signal strength.

I'm not sure which parts they updated, but a number of GMOs in East Texas have been converted to full build since January, and none of them are showing.

 

EDIT: NOLA area has a much less exaggerated LTE+ layer now. A few months ago they had made the whole thing solid.

 

Example before/after of a given tile:

 

 

Sprint really needs to change the yellow gradients on their data coverage map.  It's impossible to decipher things.

You mean besides the fact that guy works for Sprint, and that its Sprint equipment? I dont know, just a hunch! 

And his tweet says Sprint/Mobilitie.

But still, how do you really know???

/s

The concept of a small cell is to fill gaps in coverage, so cell edge doesn't really apply anymore.

But in the real world there's always going to be a cell edge, especially as you go indoors.  There's going to be places with weak b41 signal and 8t8r sites were supposed to make that weak signal more usable.  If there's no cell edge for b41 and b41 signal is strong everywhere then there would be no need to fall back on b25 and b26.  

I'm hoping to see the densification project pick up steam and we see more small cells.  But one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that I doubt the small cells will have the 8t8r capability that the macro sites have, and supposedly that makes b41 more usable at the cell edge.

How? If the spectrum has been cleared and they're deploying it. Isn't it possible that they've turned some clusters on.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

I thought there was still a hold up with San Bernardino county?

Pretty interesting article about Mobilitie (which is Sprint's smallcell deployment partner) Vs Crown's own interpretation of deployment in similar areas and the challenges they face. The article even mention's UE relay on Mobilitie's proposal on this one particular site. 

 

http://www.steelintheair.com/Blog/2016/04/tale-of-two-small-cell-proposals-crown-castle-vs-mobilitie.html

 

Appearance review report for the sites is also on here...

 

Submitted in December, so Sprint has been going at it for a while.

 

http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2015/12/ARB2015-00082report.pdf

That's a great article.  As I was reading it I was thinking Crown has been in the tower game for a while and seems like they know how to get permits approved quicker.  Hopefully Mobilitie doesn't hit snags trying to get their permits approved and their small cells deployed.

Hey for the small fee they charge no complains. I have so many old phones active for testing. But the 5/5/5 plan is just great. Voice quality is sometimes not 100% and you can't dial +1 style numbers unless you activate roaming etc.

It looks like you also have to sign up and pay for whatever Member+ is.  I guess that's their version of having you pay for service.

LTE band 2 has been spotted in Houston.  This is good because I'm seeing a lot of areas with congestion nowadays so hopefully this will relieve the problem areas. (I have one T-Mobile line and one Sprint line).

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/4h0jc8/band_2_lte_spotted_in_houston/

T-Mobile lets people upgrade to a new device up to 3 times per year: http://explore.t-mobile.com/jump-on-demand-phone-upgrade

 

Seems that enough people want it/do it to warrant the program.

 

See here for Upgrade Program Comparison Chart: http://explore.t-mobile.com/phone-upgrades

That's a great marketing tool, but people are holding onto their phones longer nowadays.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/customers-hold-smartphones-longer-apple-samsung-could-challenge-carriers-up/2016-03-21

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3015494/smartphones/the-smartphone-upgrade-path-may-be-fizzling.html

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2985483/smartphones/consumers-are-keeping-smartphones-tablets-and-pcs-longer.html

But T-Mobile did very well purchasing MetroPCS. I wanted Sprint to buy/merge both Metro and Cricket.

Hesse wanted MetroPCS too.  I wanted Cricket because they have PCS spectrum in the Houston market and Sprint needs more in Houston (and because I'm selfish and always want more improvements in Houston).

Is there no aggregation b12 in detroit? Florida is loaded with it. Basically my point is like you said 5x5 is going to perform horrible either way you slice it at edge of cell so you might as well try and make it a little better by adding come CA capacity to the band. If your on edge of cell then a small cell or macro is likely needed away.

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But that's the thing - if you're in range for B4 aggregation then you probably don't need to be on B12. Let the people that are out of range of B4 use B12 and B12 becomes less congested.

Very impressive, yet extremely stupid on T-Mobile's part. Band 12 should be left as a last resort band for users on the edge of service and indoors. If they are going to aggregate bands, it should be Band 2-4.

I said the same thing a while back on a reddit post in response to someone complaining about slow B12 speeds.  Of course I got downvoted

And it still gets bad during rush hour. Not as bad as back when it was six lanes only, but it's still bad. People in Katy may as well be living in East San Antonio.

Houston would be better off getting rid of their HOV lanes and placing a fast Metro rail line in its place for commuters in The Woodlands, Clear Lake, Sugar Land and the Katy area. Or maybe stricter and harder driving tests for everyone since it seems like any idiot is allowed to drive now and clog up traffic.

Tell me about it. I drive on 290. Houston needs a real mass transit system.

From what I've experienced in the greater Harris County area, T-Mobile is faster than Sprint about 70% of the time. You may think he is a fanboy (and maybe he is), but he isn't wrong to say that the T-Mobile network in Houston is actually very good when compared to At&t and Sprint. Sprint's failure to successfully balance their loads has been their downfall in most of Southeast Texas. I can see Band 25 have speeds of up to 8-9 Mbps while B26 can't even establish a connection with a server to test. That's the life around some parts of Houston unfortunately for Sprint.

 

Of course, when B41 is available, then it usually either matches or beats T-Mobile (even without CA). I actually can't think of a scenario where I've seen B41 get beat by T-Mobile's 20x20 AWS network.

 

The problem for Sprint is that, contrary to what everyone here claims, B41 is an outdoors only network. I've seen some Sprint 8t8r panels around town, but they only perform slightly better than the current Clear equipment. Sprint can densify as much as it wants, but B41 suffers from enormous signal degregation inside buildings. Outside of putting actual repeaters in every city block, B41 won't go inside businesses/houses and can't be used by people indoors. I've seen a case of Sprint 8T8R equipment being next to a grocery store (HEB), but B41 can't even make it past the frozen food section before I'm bumped down to B25/B26.

 

So while Sprint's B41 network is faster than T-Mobile, T-Mobile's wide band AWS network reaches way more places. This is why Sprint should attempt to at least gain low band spectrum in the upcoming auction or trade/buy midband spectrum. B41 just doesn't get the job done in my experience.

For me, T-Mobile will beat Sprint in speedtests more often, but Sprint is always usable.  I'm seeing more and more places where T-Mobile becomes congested and unusable.  And I still lose service indoors more with T-Mobile even with a band 12 device.  Just went to Jinya Ramen last night, which is in midtown so that's as central as you can get, and service was bordering on unusable to about 1.5Mb/s.  On Monday I was at Gatlin's bbq which is just north of 610 Loop and service was unusable.  Speedtests would time out (and when they time out it doesn't count for Ookla's speedtest results and doesn't hurt T-Mobile's average.)  Sprint was usable in both places (only 2-3Mb/s at Gatlin's and about 6Mb/s at Jinya Ramen).  Both of those speedtests for Sprint will actually hurt Sprint's data speed average but I had usable data.  T-Mobile does have amazing ping times here - quite often I'll see sub 20ms pings when running speedtests.  Sprint is usually 30+ms on b25/b26, around 40ms on Sprint b41, and 60-70ms when on Clear b41.

As for b41 coverage - 60% of the time I see Clear and 40% Sprint.  Sprint b41 works better indoors and gives me better uploads.

Is it becoming an issue or is it just in some places

 

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The network is still very usable overall and there's great speeds in many places.  But it's congested in enough places that makes it noticeable.  

Service hasn't deteriorated for me. Ran a speed test after work yesterday.

 

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

I'm also in Houston and have a line with both Sprint and T-Mobile.  I've run into many places where I'm getting sub 1Mb/s download speeds on T-Mobile.

Now, while I've suggesed the possibility of network variable speed caps that would monitor and adjust all customers' speeds based on network space availability at the time, location, amount of customers, usage levels, etc. 

 

You don't need a variable speed cap to adjust customers' speeds when it comes to wireless.  The amount of capacity in a given area already does that.  Putting a speed cap will only slow down things even further.  If you're experiencing sub 1Mb/s speeds in a given area, everyone around you on the same network is experiencing the same and the network is being maxed out.