milan03

Can you name a single US operator that already has this type of LTE-A SmallCell solution commercially deployed.

"Coincidentally", Ericsson today also announced indoor RBS 6402 Picocell solution, capable of aggregating cellular transmission with up to 20MHz of unlicensed WiFi (LAA) for improved peak rates and indoor coverage. http://www.ericsson.com/us/ourportfolio/products/rbs-6402 It seems to be a very cost effective SmallCell solution, $2,000 a pop, fully capable of leveraging SON capabilities and requiring only Ethernet for both power and bandwidth.

Didn't Verizon up until last year have LTE700 setup without RRUs? Even now a lot of their LTE700 sites don't have RRUs.

Considering T-Mobile's decades old and neglected Nortel 1900MHz GSM infrastructure vs a 700MHz spectrum band that propagates at least 2.5x further, which will also require brand new antennas and RRUs at the tower top, I don't think that extra 4 million pops estimation is unreasonable. Early user reports are already showing improved GSM coverage and 1900MHz LTE that fully matches old Nortel 2G footprint after the simple act of replacing the rusty and outdated cabinets and equipment with new NSN/Ericsson base stations on the ground.

According to official T-Mobile info, right now the entire footprint is at 286 million pops. With the addition of 700MHz LTE overlay, it's reasonable to guess that reach could be extended by close to 4 million pops. Now obviously, I have no way of verifying how many pops they cover and if they're honest or not, but since they have been publicly stating that 286M number for a while now I'm guessing they're fully ready to stand behind their claim. Also, as I said in another thread, they've already met and exceeded quite a few goals that at first may have looked like a complete BS. If their execs and engineers didn't believe that they can meet 300 million pops goal by the end of '15, I'm sure they would've set the expectations lower so they can meet and exceed. I'm an optimist, but I guess we'll see.

I think you certainly have a valid concern as it's not gonna be easy for them to fully match Verizon/AT&T rural cell count maybe ever, but at the same token overlaying the existing 2G footprint with PCS and 700MHz LTE should bring them pretty close to 290 million pop mark. Population of Cadillac, MI is just over 10,000, and it's important to understand that T-Mobile never claimed that they'll actually match Verizon's rural areas cell for cell. Their goal is 300 million by the end of '15, Verizon is already at 303 million pops, and while some rural areas may be left out others will emerge, and we should probably have our expectations reset.

Good to hear that they finally have LTE live in your area, and even better 10MHz FDD!

They never claimed that they will cover 300 million pops with 700Mhz LTE alone.

Samsung Electronics Launches the World’s First LTE Advanced Tri-Band Carrier Aggregation Smartphone http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/samsung-electronics-launches-the-worlds-first-lte-advanced-tri-band-carrier-aggregation-smartphone/ They really wanted to be the first

Yup, that's what had me completely puzzled while reading Euteneuer's transcript, but since he's a Sprint executive I'm going to assume that he knows what he's talking about.

Yeah that's what it appears to be, but Carrier Updates can be pushed OTA at any time. In order for next gen VoWiFi on iPhone 6 to be supported, the operator is required to upgrade their core network with ePDG (evolved Packet Data Gateway) which itself is a fairly new technology. The most notable benefit is seamless handoff to and from VoLTE. Euteneuer's statement that Sprint WiFi Calling support is coming to iPhone 6 indicates that Sprint is working on these upgrades.

Don't forget the amount of Google Wallet capable devices vs the amount of iPhone 6/6+ in the US. Google Wallet's been around for a 3+ years.

If you've already verified by SIM swapping that your existing Unlock Policy allows you to attach to domestic operators other than Sprint, it confirms that desired Full Unlock Sprint policy actually exists on iTunes servers, and since it's now associated with your iPhone it will carry over to future replacement devices when replaced at the Genius Bar.

Once factory unlocked via iTunes, replacement phone that you will get at the Genius Bar will always carry that same Unlock Policy. It's iTunes servers that store that information, not Sprint, so once flagged as unlocked, the future activation chain remains unlocked.

If anything, that original 300Mbps 3x CA capable integrated baseband from April had lower clocked DSP, while the current one has increased DSP clock capable of more processing bandwidth. It's the same exact 20nm manufacturing process, which means that upgrading the existing baseband silicon wasn't necessarily a difficult thing to do. And finally, there must be a good reason why they've never commercially launched that Cat 6 with 3x CA with Snapdragon. This is obviously much better for the consumer and operator, having integrated MDM9x45 Cat 9 capable IP Stack built into the flagship SoC for 2015.

Yeah, no those links aren't showing 3x20MHz in SD810. There hasn't been a single test conducted with 3x 20MHz using snapdragon 810 prior to upgrade to Cat 9. All those old tests are clearly 20+10+10=40MHz, and for a reason. Cat 6 can only do 40MHz of aggregate spectrum. duh... Ulm, Germany - Nokia Networks and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), have completed interoperability testing of LTE-Advanced three-band Carrier Aggregation (3x CA), allowing more operators to achieve subscriber data rates of up to 300 Mbps in their network environments. The tests utilized the Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 810 processor and allows operators, such as SK Telecom, to offer data rates of up to 300 Mbps to their subscribers using a network of three frequencies (20 MHz + 10 MHz + 10 MHz). 3x CA provides an alternative option to operators to reach 40Mhz carrier aggregation, as this option was previously available only to the operators with at least two bands of 20 MHz bandwidth each." No doubt in my mind that original 810 was Cat 6 capable of 40MHz aggregate downlink capacity. Also, going forward, only if you REALLY have no idea how Qualcomm launches their next gen modems, you'd guess that SD810 is MDM9x35. And I've been telling you why that's not the case , but I guess that wasn't enough, so you continue to summarize your posts assuming 9x35 in there, magically with Cat 9 capabilities. I'll just drop it right here. Enough is enough.

I've posted a few charts that clearly explain the strategy behind 3x CA with 40MHz aggregate capacity. There is absolutely nothing unclear to me, it's all common sense. Qualcomm's only Cat 9/10 solution is MDM9x45, so that's in Snapdragon 810. Standalone MDM9x45 is the only Cat 10 Solution by Qualcomm at this point according to their loud and clear presser.

Yeah, well this is common sense. There is a valid reason why a standalone/integrated modem is marketed as Cat 6 and not Cat 9. It isn't Cat 9 because it can't aggregate 60Mhz of downlink spectrum. Cat 6 is limited to 40Mhz. No disrespect, but why would you ever assume that anyone in their right mind would go ahead and build a SoC with the integrated modem capable of 450Mbps, but limiting the capabilities to 300Mbps? Aside from that, the benefit of a standalone MDM9x45 solutuon (vs integrated) is CA on the uplink (100Mbps) which makes it a Cat 10 solution. The downlink is the same 450Mbps. SD810 is only Cat 9, without CA on the uplink.

MDM9x35 = Qualcomm's 4th Gen modem, Category 6 capable of 300Mbps using either 2x or 3x CA.MDM9x45 = Qualcomm's 5th Gen modem, Cat 9 or 10, capable of 450Mbps on the downlink with 3x CA. Browse through their press releases https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases

Because that's not what it was. It was a MDM9x35 IP stack integrated into SoC. Now they're integrating MDM9x45 that was suppose to be released only as a standalone. Not the same solution.

Let me put it differently. Any LTE Cat 6 modem is capable of up to 300Mbps, and capable of addressing up to 40Mhz of aggregate downlink capacity, period. Thats what Cat 6 is by its definition. So if you are a wireless operator that for some reason have three 20MHz disparate LTE channels and want to aggregate them, that Cat 6 MDM9x35 UE will able to address up to 200 RBs, 40Mhz of downlink capacity, 300Mbps peak downlink rates. Plain and simple.

The thing is that Anandtech article also states that SD810 is Cat 6/7 capable of 20+10+10. It was never capable of aggregating three 20Mhz component carriers, per Qualcomm's pressers. It was the very first 3x CA capable solution, but that's about it. 300Mbps max capable of addressing up to 40MHz aggregate downlink capacity. "Both SoCs have a MDM9x35 derived LTE Category 6/7 modem. The SoCs feature essentially the same modem core as a 9x35 discrete modem, but with one exception: Qualcomm enabled support for 3 carrier aggregation LTE (up from 2). The discrete 9x35 modem implementation can aggregate up to two 20MHz LTE carriers in order to reach Cat 6 LTE's 300Mbps peak download rate. The 808/810, on the other hand, can combine up to three 20MHz LTE carriers (although you'll likely see 3x CA used with narrower channels, e.g. 20MHz + 5MHz + 5MHz or 20MHz + 10MHz + 10MHz)."

Another trial this time in the UK (EE) with Snapdragon 810, in a 20+20+15MHz combination. 410Mbps peak rates. http://www.telecoms.com/312571/huawei-ee-qualcomm-claim-410mbps-via-lte-cat-9/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=huawei-ee-qualcomm-claim-410mbps-via-lte-cat-9

That would defeat the purpose and reduce spectral efficiency of the LTE network. In order to keep spectral efficiency high, scheduler dynamically allocates resource blocks based on device feedback, activity, etc. For instance, if a device with low signal quality and low SNR requests light HTML content in an indoor environment unable to ever properly utilize MIMO, but gets equal artificial provisioning (speed cap) as the device that's outdoor with high signal quality and SNR which can easily multiplex and peak higher, that network is effectively wasting their resource blocks, and becoming highly inefficient. The ultimate goal for wireless operators is to move more and more data, increase (bit/s)/Hz or spectral efficiency, and ultimately collect more revenue. That "data hogs" argument makes me laugh every single time, as a properly deployed and managed network is suppose to be able to manage their deployed spectrum resources and/or increase density of their infrastructure accordingly. That's why ToS exists. This is also why at this point in time forward thinking wireless operators all over the world look to densify their networks from the inside out, by deploying micros, femtos, or VoWiFi to complement their existing macro grid, and increase the efficiency.

Coverage is fantastic mainly because of their dense deployment in NYC. Indoor penetration could be better, but VoWIFi comes in handy.