maximus1987/lou99

Does Sprint need to make another hardware change at all towers to remove CDMA carriers and add LTE carrier?

Any phone released in the last year has SMR 1xA along with others, check out the FAQ Which FAQ?

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So, other than the EVOLTE what phones have 1xA? Read back up a few posts: I was wrong about which phones have 1xA and which don't.

"AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) unveiled a multibillion-dollar initiative, called Project Velocity IP (or VIP), that calls for the company to expand its LTE network to 300 million covered POPs by the end of 2014 and deploy more than 10,000 new macrocells, 40,000 small cells and 1,000 distributed antenna systems (DAS) throughout its network." Read more: AT&T to expand LTE network to 300M POPs, deploy at least 40,000 small cells - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-expand-lte-network-300m-pops-deploy-least-40000-small-cells/2012-11-07#ixzz2UWFTuplm "that the company's expansion of LTE to 300 million POPs will include a "densification" of the network, meaning that the additional macro cells," (same article as above)

Given current equipment, what's the handoff like for Sprint's VoLTE to 1xA?

I don't see why credit is due. That's simply the speed of an unloaded network on equipment that hasn't broken down.

What I totally don't understand is why Verizon didn't include AWS from the beginning? http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=99&p=1495 They knew they'd be using it eventually.

Isn't this one bubble that the government should be creating? That way spectrum will be "cheap" and carriers will spend their money on building out their network instead on the spectrum; at least one country gets it: "The Czech telecommunications regulator, or CTO, announced new conditions for a spectrum auction following the regulator's unusual move last month to cancel the auction over concerns that bids were too high." Read more: Czech regulator revamps spectrum auction, reserves 800 MHz block for newcomer - FierceWireless:Europe http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/czech-regulator-revamps-spectrum-auction-reserves-800-mhz-block-newcomer/2013-04-10#ixzz2UK1RGyHR Subscribe at FierceWirelessEurope Just how much additional money would the Feds get if the bubble doesn't burst? Doesn't matter! 1) during last four years, there was $5,000 billion additional debt. How much could the auctions possibly bring in using pre-bubble bursting? $31 billion http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/600-mhz-broadcast-tv-spectrum-spectrum-auction-guide Even if its $310 billion, that makes but a dent in the debt. 2) "so what if the bids are 'too high'?" Private sector could use the billions far more efficiently than the Feds (no one disputes that), benefitting the economy at many multiples on the billions they've saved on the auctions if the bubble bursts. "The 3G auctions in 2000 were cunningly constructed to raise a staggering £22.5 billion from five national licensees. The government found plenty of worthy causes for this money, but not penny of it was spent on building mobile networks. The train commuting 3G coverage problems described above result from skimping on 3G network upgrades in the aftermath of those 3G auction excesses that left little in the kitty for network investment by operators." Read more: Mallinson: What is holding the UK back on LTE? - FierceWireless:Europe http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/what-holding-uk-back-lte/2011-10-26#ixzz2UK5oOY3V Subscribe at FierceWirelessEurope

Update: here's a glimmer of what Dish wants to do. "Dish poised to monetize MVDDS spectrum with nTelos deal" http://www.fiercecable.com/story/dish-poised-monetize-mvdds-spectrum-ntelos-deal/2013-05-24 Do you guys have any insight - beyond what can be Googled - on MVDDS and its potency to disrupt current ISPs? "Cablevision is leasing three MVDDS licenses from Dish to operate its OMGFAST wireless broadband service in Florida, which markets a 50 Mbps service for $30 monthly."

Sprint has no other top-notch choice BUT Qualcomm for CDMA+LTE. Broadcom and nVidia currently don't have CDMA in their new modems and since Intel still doesn't have a modem to wow us with, I'm gonna say Intel's never gonna have CDMA. However, if we are to believe nVidia's SDR modem-pitch, they have an infinitely flexible solution so . . . maybe they could add CDMA? Depends how real Verizon's intent is to deploy VoLTE next year.

If CDMA were worth keeping around, Broadcom and Nvidia/Icera would've put it in their modems now. If they start work now, by the time they'll be ready, Verizon will be on the way to VoLTE and Sprint will be the only one without VoLTE. Broadcom and Icera/Nvidia are, I think, aiming for high end (Europe+NA+China) where CDMA is on the way out. Yes, they're including China's TD-SCDMA but that's because China's 3G penetration is extremely low and their TD-SCDMA is "fast" compared to the 2G that many, many people are on (and unsaturated). http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/05/06/as-china-mobiles-earnings-flatten-more-3g-growth-needed/

It does NOT support CDMA, it's not a matter of frequencies. If you know how to program the baseband (ICERA) processor to add CDMA support, go ahead. http://www.nvidia.com/docs/IO/116757/NVIDIA_i500_whitepaper_FINALv3.pdf Neither Broadcomm's new modem nor Intel's (probably) will support CDMA.

So they have absolutely no capability to do per user network monitoring?

Looks like I was wrong about the iPhone 5. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-322-jack-of-all-bands-iphone-5-fcc-oet-review/ It does have 1xA support.

I think I should've asked: what's Sprint's strategy to get a full 2x7 nationwide? Do they even care about getting full 2x7 nationwide? 1) Do they plan to wait out the remaining iDen carriers and have them starve from lack of iDen handsets? 2) Buy them out ? 3) (1) + buy them out? 3) Go after their customers with CDMA Direct Connect + (2)?

Does Sprint have the ability to view your location in relation to the tower you're connected? What about your data speeds, signal strength, etc, either real-time or averaged? This information would be very useful to Sprint to improve network. If a given tower always records a weak signal on all users' phone, then Sprint could use their location to decide where to build a new tower, for example.

I don't understand why number of sites should matter regarding how many 2x5 carriers there are. If anything, it's how many people are connecting to that site that should determine how many carriers are added.

It's the exact numbers that are going to be important. Even if inside speeds are half of what you stated, it's gonna be perfect and indistinguishable unless you do a speed test. If PCS can reach inside, that'll be good enough because Sprint is gonna eventually add more 2x5 LTE carriers, leaving one 2x5 block for 2x1.25 voice carriers, and speeds will be plenty fast.

Do you think TMUS would like to purchase the remaining AWS? It seems that TMUS' deficiency is not in capacity/spectrum but in cash to build out LTE quicker and to more people. Once they remove the HSPA+ in AWS, how much will they have for LTE? 2x10 MHz at minimum? And that's at AWS, not 700MHz so they're gonna have capacity up their wazoo! . . . in the cities. I have a hard time believing it decides to not use it all! This is AWS so the capacity improvements are . . . alot? Do you know the real-world ratio of how many AWS towers can be squeezed in one 700MHz cell? Yes, scale is an issue but . . . AWS is the only cleared spectrum available for use in LTE that ATT's phones support now. What other options does it have? Well the iPhone 5 does secretly support LTE on Band 5 (850 MHz) and Band 2 (PCS). But ATT is using 850 MHz for voice, right? So Band 2 then. Even Verizon's phone has Band 2 support cause it's a subset of Band 25. Will ATT+VZW deploy in Band 2/25? There's definitely gonna be scale there as all 4 carriers have PCS (though I have no idea if all 4 have the free or nearly-free spectrum to deploy). TMUS certainly does, its "we're gonna waste 2x5 for GSM-roaming and M2M" nonsense notwithstanding. (did I use that word correctly?) http://www.fiercewireless.com/pages/slides-t-mobile-usa-and-metropcs-merge

Documentation/article?

I said uneven, not better.

No, that's incorrect. The first phone to have 1xA was in 2012. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402598,00.asp Not even the iPhone 5 has 1xA http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/sprint-confirms-hd-voice-incompatible-with-iphone-5/ So, like digiblur stated, Sprint will have to keep the same number of 1x voice carriers for a long time. Even after Sprint updates ALL of its 1x voice carriers, PCS+SMR, it's gonna be a while before the phones are upgraded to support it and the increased capacity that 1xA offers.

That was my point regarding uneven experience: it's a huge drop in speeds from 2.5GHz to 800MHz.

Yes. Basically every phone with CDMA 800 support has been on the market since mid 2011 minus the iphone 4/4s. You're confusing frequency with technology. 1xA is capability to have 4x capacity 800 MHz is the frequency-ish they're deploying it.