milan03

I'd like to know how differently would pCell address capacity issues in stadiums vs regular DAS that wireless operators already have installed. Obviously we can't expect pCell delivering maximum throughput of any given LTE channel to 20,000 people unless you have 20,000 pCells, but how will it improve median downlink rates? I understand that the coverage will be substantially improved, but I'm interested in throughput within cell center and high amount of UE. Thanks!

I'm sure duopoly would absolutely LOVE to monopolize this, I just hope that never happens. Staying independent benefits all of us, including Artemis Networks as they can make this solution available to every single operator globally and push for innovation. But with everything that Artemis seems to be bringing to the table, all other mobile tech companies should really think twice before they ever use the term "innovation" again...

Thanks for the link, it provides slightly more information than the initial demo video posted yesterday, even though we'd love to know more about the underlying technologies. Because of the scalability, backwards compatibility with 3GPP/3GPP2 and potentially lower cost, this could be a dream come true for smaller nationwide operators like Sprint and T-Mobile since their footprint and business model is heavily depended on densely populated metro areas. If pCell technology is as good as it seems, operators jumping on it early will have a clear competitive edge in terms of performance which they could use in their marketing campaign. I'd also like to know more about the logistics of the actual deployment (does it require Artemis contractors or only wireless provider), and does the business model call for recurrent licensing fees or one time upfront cost of deployment? Thanks again!

USB dongles in his videos seem to be commercial T-Mobile UE, which indicates that he is utilizing 10Mhz of AWS spectrum. http://www.artemis.com/pcell I'm just unclear whether he means 5Mhz FDD LTE or 10Mhz FDD LTE. He does talk about having only 10Mhz experimental license, and wireless operators using much "larger" 20 or 40Mhz swaths, so I'm leaning towards 5Mhz FDD LTE being used in his demo lab. Since he is running two "UHD" Netflix streams typically sent @15.6Mbps each, along with four 1080p streams at 5.8Mbps each, it's safe to say assume that his pCell solution exceeds capacity of our typical 5Mhz FDD LTE network which maxes out at 37Mbps. To my eye this looks legit and pretty innovative although we don't exactly know how this works. I'm also guessing tweaked case of beamforming, requiring massive data center and backhaul infrastructure. Knowing that Sprint isn't afraid of jumping onto new innovative technologies, my guess is that we'll see this on Sprint's 2.6Ghz network sooner rather than later.

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

Coverage outside of urban metro areas is most definitely the remaining pain point for T-Mobile. They need to figure that one out fast. That said, for millions of urban dwellers that live and work in urban environment, and fly to other urban areas or internationally, T-Mobile is an excellent choice as T-Mobile's LTE/HSPA+ network performance is really, really good. A large number of urban subs just don't drive outside of metro areas that often, or do so a few times a year. And then there is that very aggressive T-Mobile pricing.

Have you updated the firmware? You should be able to hit at least over 20Mbps on the upload in ATL market.

Did you get UML295? Verizon is using 20Mhz wide channels in Atlanta on AWS, so I'd say if you see upload over 26Mbps, you're on AWS.

Obviously you can't ever test the network if you don't use your data, so i dont look at it as "wasting" data since there is a purpose. Unlimited plans on both networks. As for the different UE, sure one is cat 3 the other is cat 4, but AT&T doesn't have enough spectrum to come even close to saturating Cat 3 with either of their LTE physical layers. As Robert said one is 10Mhz FDD and the other one is 5Mhz FDD.

This is the thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1792144-official-T-Mobile-USA-LTE-thread?p=15312863#post15312863 Speeds seem to be solid. He even hit 50+ somewhere in NJ.

About 6 months ago I took that trip to DC and there was a lot more EDGE. No LTE at all. WCDMA would kick in only when getting close to metropolitan areas.

I think they're actually deploying LTE and WCDMA along the highways in the northeast. I was surprised myself but there is a post on HoFo of someone driving from NYC to Baltimore connected mostly to LTE with a few pockets of EDGE. I'll try finding it.

Robert, yeah you're right, it's not that difficult to deploy a cell site or two to a small rural town and call it covered. But it's much harder and less cost effective connecting those small rural hotspots and creating extended and meaningful coverage in rural America using mid band like PCS or AWS. It would cost much more and take much longer to get it to the same level of coverage as Verizon + LTEiRA for example. T-Mobile had a limited budget and they've made a conscious decision to invest into markets where they can be competitive with the spectrum and infrastructure they've got. And it looks like they've delivered. I don't think their budget would allow them to deploy everywhere at once, so they've had to gamble.

Yeah… no, I was talking specifically about Sprint's G Block 5Mhz FDD LTE layer having very similar propagation characteristics to T-Mobile's AWS. That's what's taking really long with the NV strategy of deploying to every cell site. Also a decision to go Outide-In instead of Inside-Out really lowers the amount of pops that can actually experience LTE service. Considering the pace of Sprint's footprint expansion in G block, we could also understand why T-Mobile isn't interested to spend all their money on rural deployment without low band spectrum. You're attempting to talk about SMR which is nowhere to be found where I am, but hopefully will and should be the very core of Sprint's LTE experience whenever that's fully deployed.

700Mhz which is 10Mhz FDD. Band 2 is only 5Mhz

Here is some update from NYC… State of the LTE on the duopoly networks

Definitely some great points here and as I consumer I agree. The issue with T-Mobile is they simply can't see deploying ANY "G" into rural areas being cost effective without low band spectrum. Now 700A which will have 3x the reach of their AWS LTE, meaning 3x less cell sites needed for the same coverage, is something that allows them to start thinking and talking about rural footprint. This is crucial. Just look at Sprint. They've committed to deploying PCS G to all of their sites. It's taking extremely long to put it nicely, and they still aren't at 200 million pops or north of 90 out of top 100 markets covered. It's been 2+ years since the announcement of NV. That strategy is hurting Sprint, and T-Mobile isn't willing to to that path. They're making a surgical push into the highly populated areas with the best they've got, and in return they're getting insane amount of net adds. Legere is absolutely a perfect CEO for T-Mobile's brand that was completely deteriorating over the past few years. He gets people excited again, and gets everyone to talk about the brand. Neville Ray and his team in less than 9 months delivered from zero to 209 Million PoPs of LTE, most Top 50 markets being 10Mhz FDD LTE, and Dallas being 20Mhz FDD LTE!!! All by end of 2013. No matter how obnoxious he could be, I'd take his bluntness and people skills over Dan who doesn't really project any energy. This'll be a very, very exciting 2014! Happy New Year all!!!

I'd go by scanning for Verizon in LTE Only mode on Nexus 5, and monitoring SINR, RSRQ, RSRP when in close proximity to those new panels. They could be AWS panels or AWS/PCS judging by size.

They aren't deploying RRUs to all their sites. Here in NYC which is ALU market, live AWS sites mostly don't have RRUs: A very few of them are RRU equipped: It's really random: http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20130827/carriers/verizon-wireless-providing-template-for-lte-spectrum-enhancements/

Ah marvelous find, AJ! Thank you! I'm definitely not nearly as skillful with FCC ULS, and was going with a bit of template matching skills, and a lot of Voodoo magic Happy New Year!

Yeah sure it could be lower F only which would make that market the first Verizon 5Mhz AWS market. But I find that highly unlikely and assuming 15Mhz in E+F. If Robert is connected to AWS and seeing over 13Mbps on the uplink that would completely rule out 5Mhz FDD as a possibility. Sprint's Samsung Note 3 and S4 variants also display bandwidth when dialing *#0011# but I agree, overall Samsung user experience and build quality isn't on par with other OEMs. I still buy them for that ServiceMode that's simply the best in class and give me so many answers to RF related questions.

Could it be that the narrow beam antenna on your site is actually AWS?

What's weird is E+F blocks. Verizon had B block license, but I assume they swapped it with T-Mobile. Weird. If you scanned and saw Band 4 with PLMN 311-480, you definitely have AWS. Which hotspot do you own?

Wow that's a 15Mhz channel in E+F! Do you have a Verizon certified AWS capable device to test it out?

I think Verizon is betting on eMBMS in 2014 which should alleviate capacity at the large events by allocating percentage of LTE spectrum for multicast operations. They could also pre cache the most popular YouTube videos, Software Updates, etc so that they send that one batch of data to everyone instead of same thing multiple times. I'm hoping this takes off successfully during the SuperBowl.