maximus1987/lou99

Yes I truly do believe that Tmobile will wait for 600 MHz to expand their native coverage even if it is several years from now. What rush is there? They have a roaming agreement for voice (not sure about data) with AT&T as part of the terms for the breakup fee of the ATT/Tmobile merger. Tmobile knows who their target consumers are and is working on a strategy to try to capture that market. Tmobile is focused on deploying LTE on AWS and refarming HSPA+ to PCS as quickly as possible to expand their footprint as well as upgrading the equipment. They have their hands full for the next 2-3 years anyways.

 

Tomorrow is the Tmobile Q2 earnings report and we will see if this Uncarrier strategy that Tmobile has decided to go with has helped with postpaid adds in Q2. Tmobile is in a marathon and not in a race. They are not going to suddenly grab 20-30 million customers from other carriers over night.

 

I mean who knows maybe Tmobile will begin upgrading some rural towers to LTE and HSPA+ if Deutsch Telekom wants to be like Softbank and plow in a bunch of capital to Tmobile USA but that won't help with expanding coverage though. If you are talking about truly expanding coverage Tmobile is not going to go all out and lease new towers just to deploy AWS or PCS spectrum until it has 600 MHz spectrum.

 

Oh and for your source, I am going to quote the famous Maximus1987 for reference.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/3420-t-mobile-lte-network-discussion/?p=140718

 

Also this Fiercewireless article pretty much sums it up

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-expand-metropcs-footprint-100m-pops/2013-05-15

 

"Ray said that the company is not currently looking to expand its network footprint and is eagerly awaiting next year's scheduled incentive auctions of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum. He said using such spectrum is "a far more effective way to go and build those opportunities out" and that getting access to such low-band spectrum would mean "we would finally have a level playing field in the U.S. marketplace" between smaller carriers and AT&T and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), which dominated the 700 MHz auction in 2008."

When I posted that, I thought they meant:

"We're not going to going to expand to more than 52k LTE towers"

But it turns out what they meant was:

"We're not going to expand our LTE footprint past 37k towers without 600 MHz"

http://edge.media-server.com/version/1375971396/m/a/6obxvmjt/iv/f9b984f7964c7c6e2369000091bb800e41913954/?token=da8811ac0a6777c6b1694268b7f1bf352167144

Slide 10

2014 - 225 million LTE.

They don't say "end of" or "mid" 2014.

Just 2014.

Booooo.

How do they plan on surviving the onslaught from sprint and ATT prepaid brands?

What if dish were to lease out its 20x20 band 23 spectrum? Would you and other wisps be interested?

At a time.

Neither. This is the beginning phase of a LONG term deployment model for fixed/mobile applications. Fixed & mobile wireless is first, Next generation wireless access at home and on the go.

 

If you are running a server, or engaging in any internet pirating activities wireless is NOT going to be wireline replacement.

 

We plan to be a big player in (residential) fiber rollouts as well.

All depends on how much funding can be provided, 4 billion dollars will go a long way; 20 would really make things happen.

 

You are likely in the first city that will see a full build 6x6 MIMO deployment The question is how many more cities can we bring on?

Found an in-depth interview with Ergen and his options from the Denver Biz Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/boosters_bits/2013/08/dishs-thwarted-sprint-bid-made-money.html?page=all

 

"But forging partnerships with wireless companies is another a way for Dish to build the mobile network it wants. On that front, the SoftBank-controlled Sprint appeals to Dish for its network — largely due to the Clearwire frequencies it owns — and because of SoftBank’s “tremendous expertise and creativity. They seem very innovative and very creative, and they seems they’re more aggressive than others in the wireless industry,” Ergen said, adding SoftBank seems like a kindred spirit to Dish in how it does business.

If anything, the tussle with SoftBank for control of Sprint left Ergen and Dish more convinced Sprint would be a good fit as a wireless partner. “We actually probably understand Sprint and Clearwire better than we understand any of the other operators,” Ergen said. Ergen admitted to being a little jealous of SoftBank and impressed by it, and he suggested that makes Sprint all the more attractive as a potential partner. “I like people who are better than us,” he said. “I want to hire people who are better than us, and I want to work with people who are better than us."

Saying nice things about SoftBank may not smooth over all the ill will Dish Network created trying to break apart SoftBank and Sprint’s merger. Dish Network’s counterbid cost SoftBank and Sprint billions in added costs and delayed infrastructure investment. Dish also made what Sprint considered xenphobic arguments against the SoftBank deal in filings to the FCC and in letters to members of Congress. Dish suggested SoftBank’s business interests in China, and a subsidiary’s past involvement in a U.S. bribery investigation, made SoftBank and its chairman, Masayoshi Son, potential risks to U.S. national security if they controlled Sprint. Dish was the all-American alternative, it argued.

 

So what merger options remain for Dish in the wireless industry?

"That’s really probably only T-Mobile at this time.” Ergen said."

More on T-mobile combo at the WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/08/06/charlie-ergens-dish-has-long-list-of-potential-ma-moves/

"Ergen acknowledged that if he can’t get a partnership with Sprint, the only possible acquisition after all the consolidation in the industry would be T-Mobile. He said the “network upgrade” for T-Mobile would be “much simpler” than what needs to be done at Sprint and that T-Mobile has a “lot of momentum” amid all the industry turbulence.

“I think there’s still a lot of opportunity for us,” he said. “And I think that opportunity – certainly, T-Mobile, you could put that together with Dish in a number of ways, including acquisition and merger, and that’s probably not possible with the other wireless providers.”

The problem with dish-TMO combo is that TMO doesn't have fiber to tower exactly where Charlie needs it: semi rural areas where people don't have concast, uverse, et al. Putting his 20x20 band 23 on TMO's urban towers and marketing the TV Internet bundle will crash and fail cause even 150mbps per sector OF CAPACITY is not enough for urbania, though it might be for TMO's current 2g 15k rural tower customers who are stuck on 1.5 Mbps dsl if they're lucky.

So how many billions would it take to bring FTTT to all 15k towers? More importantly, how much time? Even if they started today and used microwave as much as they could -in place of FTTT - is the tv Internet bundle compelling enough for dish to at least recoup its investment in 10 years?

The average speeds aren't gonna be that high but for a rural person, it might be fantastic compared to dsl.

Why don't ATT and Tmobile do a network sharing deal like the European carriers? Obviousl ATT would limit it to where TMO currently has WCDMA coverage but for a low cost carrier like TMO, it'd still be worth it.

Ah, but you are wrong about that. This was posted yesterday at phonenews.com

 

http://www.phonenews.com/straighttalk-att-sim-cards-return-to-online-store-in-select-markets-23215/

U-Verse competes on price. Comcast's 25M for $30 promo is just that, a promotional price. Modem rental is an extra $7 (or pay $100 to get your own plus a router). After-promo you're looking at $60 or so, again plus modem rental.

 

I'm not on U-Verse here because they only offer 6M. If they had 45M at my location I'd seriously think about it, since their off-promo price is $76 for that tier, $9 less than I'm paying TWC now for 50/5, $20 less once my promo rate dials back next month, and $37 or so less than if I didn't have a promo price at all. And AT&T has promo pricing to lower 45M U-Verse's price further, probably down to the $50-$60 level for the first six months.

 

Is the tech inferior? Unless you're on an overloaded cable node and are close to the VRAD, absolutely. But some people buy their 'net based on price, and $60 per month is a lot to pay for something that they don't spend every waking moment on.

It's only a promo rate for people who don't know how to negotiate with Comcast.

I've had my parents on the $40 phone + 25mbps for two years and now they dropped landline and only have Internet still 25 Mbps for $30.

Yes, true, but that was a decade ago. As I recall, Nokia did not want to deal with Qualcomm, so it used its own CDMA2000 chipset. It was not a success, and that was the end of it.

 

AJ

GPS is in 1600 mhz not 600 mhz, where the heck did that come from. 600 mhz is UHF tv channels.

http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022130223

If you have limited, cramped bandwidth, my suggestion is to go TDD. The FDD gap between uplink and downlink -- plus potentially multiple guard bands against other services in the vicinity -- is a pain in the ass.

 

I like Qualcomm more than many do. But I think that Qualcomm's objections against TDD may be related to fears that WiMAX would take some of the TDD business, not so much legitimate technical concerns.

 

AJ

I thought you agreed TDD in 600 MHz was bad cause of the harmonics that would've interfered with GPS?

Wasn't 450Mhz very popular up in Scandinavia for mobile devices? I seem to remember reading about the services and migrations from analog to digital

Don't forget GMRS. If I remember correctly both FRS and GMRS are analog-only (except for Garmin radios that can transmit a location ping every so often), but GMRS could be used for a more complex radio topo than just walkie-talkies.

 

IIRC digital systems like MOTOTRBO (which is a pretty impressive system...watched it in action a week and a half ago) operate in UHF/VHF rather than GMRS. So no 450MHz there. But as others have said, FRS/GMRS is far from the only consumer of that spectrum.

Well, if I did you'd come right back and say that Poland's doing it so why not the US?

 

To which my response would be that Orange.pl is using CDMA, not LTE, in 450MHz, and it has had the spectrum for ages.

 

To which your response might be, what about Brazil?

 

To which my response would be, "Wait and see."

As for brazil: when 2600 and 450 were auctioned, NO ONE bid for 450! The gov forced the 2600 winners to also build out 450.

Do it, Charlie, do it...

 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/boosters_bits/2013/08/dishs-thwarted-sprint-bid-made-money.html

 

AJ

5x5 is enough for a single carrier to serve up decent speeds...or three carriers to serve up rather lackluster speeds. In either case you have a less-than-ideal situation. On the one hand, a monopoly that you have to clear spectrum for. On the other, three providers with low speeds that you have to clear spectrum for.

 

With ViaSat exede hitting a fair portion of the US with 12/3 speeds, and with fixed antennas (that people in the US can afford) in 700MHz and eventually 600MHz (plus 900MHz fixed wireless in some areas), 450MHz doesn't really make sense in the US. You'd have to move heaven and earth to carve out 10MHz total, less than half of what is available in the ISM band...or LTE band 13 for that matter.

I guess with excede, you can say mission accomplished. After all, only streaming video will exceed the cap and VoIP, just use s phone or move to civilization.

I have to say, I am not impressed with uverse. I used to have ATT dsl 6mbps for $30 month. Then uverse came along and 24mbps was available but only if you're super close to their distribution point. Sad. We could only get 18mbps for much more $$

Then Comcast says "25 Mbps for $30"

Hmmmm

I honestly can't see how uverse is thriving. I think it says more about comcast's incompetence than ATT's marketing skill.

"Oh but uverse is being upgraded to 45mbps and then 100 Mbps.... if you're close enough to their box"

But Comcast already has those speeds so...

?

When the electorate sends so many "aw, shucks" country doctors and lawyers to Congress, many of those politicians are ill equipped to deal with specialized legislation. So, the lobby practically writes the laws for them.

 

AJ

Only in PA, and it applied to Verizon, Embarq (now CenturyLink), and Windstream.

You have to get either 50 people OR 25% of the customers in a certain exchange area to sign up for 1 year for them to start the buildout. There were 19 addresses in my area. I only had to find 4 total. Was not difficult! I can only imagine what it must cost Verizon to build out DSL (have to build remote terminals, rub fiber, etc) to only have a guarantee of 4 customers!

I think 450 MHz is only gonna catch on in countries that have absolutely no infrastructure outside of the cities.

And where 0 < 25 Mbps down.

Not every country has mandated phone service to every residence.

Latency is through the roof, it's not suitable for VOIP.

Use landline or cell phone for talking.

Sprint is looking into buying 600MHZ.. Which would be the best for indoor coverage vs other carriers.

Band 31 is only 5x5 in total.

I know the band is probably used up with other users but would it be worth it to clear them to have a 5x5 at 450 MHz?

The key is that it is DSL, not DOCSIS. Had it been the latter, Comcast, headquartered in your state, would have gotten its lobbyists to squash it. Many lobbyists, like many lawyers -- and, not surprisingly, many lobbyists are lawyers -- are mercenary scum of the earth. They frequently advocate and defend lies and garbage that deserve nothing.

 

AJ

How does THAT turn into the power to write laws?

Campaign contributions are obviously bribes do I could see lobbyists being hired to "hint" how a certain corp wants the vote to go.

It's not as if ATT, sprint, etc will donate to your campaign if you're not doing what they want.