milan03

Yeah it looks like we have a confirmation that CDMA (at least Verizon) variant is equipped with Qualcomm MDM9635M: http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s6/general/verizon-samsung-galaxy-s6-32gb-hand-t3077381/post60014418#post60014418

Both AT&T and T-Mobile (and Canadian) variants are utilizing in-house Samsung's Shannon 333 modem all with full 3GPP support. AT&T also has it listed under tech specs: http://i.imgur.com/Cp40iCY.png

Because of the lack of 3GPP2 support in Shannon 333, my educated guess that Sprint/Verizon baseband processor would be Qualcomm's MDM9635. 

AJ, Verizon iPhone 5s/5c/6/6+ variants are fully unlocked out of the box for domestic and international use, and fully support Sprint and Verizon CDMA band classes along with all AT&T/T-Mobile bands. I currently own a Verizon 5s variant, and have been swapping VZW/T/TMUS SIMs since launch with zero issues.

Strangely enough, this is a second year in a row that Sprint gets it's own separate SKU that's firmware SIM locked for domestic operators, while Verizon gets the same exact unit as T-Mo/AT&T with activated CDMA capabilities. 

This makes lots of consumers wonder if there are political reasons behind this, rather than technical.

Hallelujah on the B41 strategy! Sprint finally has a leader that understands the real value of that high band spectrum! 

Provide "one of a kind" wireless data experience in top markets, and you will have much higher ROI and customer growth. That's how it's done, it's the T-Mobile approach.

Exciting times ahead of us!

Again, the wider the channel, whether natively or through carrier aggregation, the more the power consumption. Of course, the larger the bandwidth the faster you will download that huge file, so ... there is that!

Contiguous wide 20MHz channel has absolutely no impact on battery life vs the smaller 5MHz for instance.

Aggregating two component carriers via Carrier Aggregation will definitely impact the battery life.

To date, most of the FCC OET entries I've seen for Android devices entail the Carrier Aggregation bandwidth/bands supported.  It's too bad Apple did not do that as wel in their filingl.  But I suppose it's to be expected that they would not include data that is not required.

 

Robert

I'm sure it has a lot to do with the amount of bands the phone supports. 20 bands total, and 9 US specific LTE bands. Combining any two bands (out of 9) and then inverting PCC for SCC would take forever, and would involve pages and pages of testing. It's a ridiculous amount.

I've gone through and could not find any CA testing on the Sprint variant at all.  So either Apple never bothered to even enable CA support in Model A1586/A1524 at all (even though the MDM9625 is capable) or they just never bothered to have it tested since none of the Providers using this model planned to offer CA in less than 20MHz total bonded carrier widths.

 

Since the MDM9625 is capable of supporting unequal size carrier bonding, I have edited the article accordingly.  Thanks.

Robert

Apple's announced CA during the Keynote, it's also mentioned on their website. It is also in the FCC filings, but since there is no aggregation on the uplink, they haven't listed the results. The emission is exactly the same as the PCC on any two band combination.

What's really going to be useful for Sprint's users is access to iOS FieldTest.app, where we can see the amount of Tx antennas at the cell site. This way we can hunt for 8T8R sites that sites are transmitting in a 4x2 MIMO configuration.

Small correction. iPhone 6 with MDM9625 is capable of aggregating two component carriers of unequal size, for example 10MHz + 5MHz. There are quite a few commercial AT&T units with the same chipset already aggregating 10+5 in selected markets.

As you've already mentioned, what's not possible is aggregating more than 20MHz in total, and considering that Sprint's B41 in it's current deployment is a single 20MHz channel, adding a secondary TDD 20MHz channel wouldn't increase peak throughput for iPhone 6 users, as the phone isn't capable of aggregating two 20MHz carriers.

If Sprint deploys a secondary 20MHz B41 carrier this year, subscribers will still benefit as the load would be balanced between two different capacity channels. Only the peak throughput wouldn't be doubled for iPhone 6 users.

Then you see this kind of statement from a Sprint executive, and have absolutely no idea what to believe anymore: 

As of July 17th...

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20140717/carriers/sprint-content-1x-advanced-hd-voice-sitting-initial-volte-rush/

“VoLTE is not as near term of an issue for us,” explained Ron Marquardt, VP of technology at Sprint. “As part of Network Vision, we are also upgrading our 3G network and 1x-Advanced provides us more efficient use of our spectrum. Combined with HD Voice, we are seeing great call quality and spectrum efficiency.”

"While VoLTE is not on Sprint’s current plate, Marquardt said that the carrier is working on voice over IP products, but those are more focused at this point on a voice over Wi-Fi solution, similar to what the carrier talked about earlier this year at the Competitive Carriers Association event."

I don't think we'll see CA on current Cat 4 Qualcomm based Sprint variants until Cat 6 baseband chipsets (Snapdragon 805) arrive later this year.

Cat 4 UE currently only supports up to 20Mhz channels, either contiguous or aggregated (10+10, 5+15). Since Sprint is already running contiguous 20Mhz TDD LTE channel, CA enabled on Sprint's Cat 4 UE like GS5, M8, etc wouldn't offer any tangible advantage as far as Sprint's network is concerned.

As always incredibly informative post, well written. Thanks AJ!

This is the key!  I'd love to purchase this phone off contract for a reasonable rate.  I've always been jealous of the Nexus devices for that reason.

What worries me is that even iPhone 5 which is a unadulterated device and uses SIM for authentication, for some reason still needs MEID added to the account on Sprint. I truly hope this will go away with N5 so we can start to freely use multiple devices with one SIM card!

I like the proposal, but lets not forget about PCS constrained T-Mobile markets with the huge amount of POPs like NYC. I'm pretty sure T-Mobile would much rather agree to swap than sell, unless its forced to.

One additional note about comments on Clearwire and Lightsquared not using all their spectrum. That's a little misleading by the comments of those officials. Not all spectrum is the same. 2600 sucks. Clearwire can't build out a nationwide network on that frequency as pointed out by earlier articles. and Lightsquared is screwed unless miraculously they get a spectrum swap deal.

Don't forget that Swedish provider Telia has 2.6Ghz FDD LTE network up and running successfully since 2009. They've been running 2x20Mhz for a while there.