Boosted20V

I know Verizon is planning on deploying LTE in the AWS band in the near future although no phones support this band yet. ATT has stated they will be using the WCS band around 2.3ghz

Looks like Sprint is using a decent amount of Microwave backhaul in that area? From snippets I've seen people post this is true for much of the suburbs of Chicago?

Well, excellent pictures. Most detailed views of an NV site I believe I've ever seen.

Wow detailed pic's... What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking??

Agreed, I should have specified but from what I've read, Sprint doesn't own 800mhz licenses in PR and in border areas it may not be able to be used due to interference crossing the border. Does that also affect other bands such as PCS?

I always just assumed they would ground mount the RRU's, not that the radios were entirely different. Pretty much any assumption I make ends up being wrong!

Thanks for correcting me. So Sprint will have 800mhz nationwide outside of PR and some border areas?

Haha learn something new every day on here. It is true however that Sprint doesn't own 800mhz spectrum in SoLINC markets, correct Robert? Or they only own a sliver?

Never realized sites without RRU's wouldn't get 800 LTE. What would be the reason for this? If a site can't get RRU's woulnd't it already be at a natural disadvantage for 1900mhz LTE? I always viewed a large reason for using RRU's was due to the gaps in coverage which would arise from LTE vs. EVDO signal strength required.

I believe that is accounting for the portion of hte country where Sprint doesn't own 800mhz licenses in SoutherLINC territory.

I didn't say it was entirely wrong, let me elaborate... Regarding the 800mhz band, it penetrates buildings better and travels farther, that much is true. It is also less affected by weather than the higher bands. Conversely it is more prone to interfere with itself due to the distance it travels. Now to the higher bands, Sprint is using 1900mhz and eventualy 2500 mhz. We all know 2500 mhz doens't travel as far but this is good for intereference reasons. 2500 mhz will be used as an overlay so that if you are in range, you will be bumped to this (ideally, this is assuming Sprint owns Clearwire, if Sprint is paying clearwire based on usage, I would not bet on this) to remove load from the lower two bands. Before even approaching this however, it seems increasingly likely Sprint will be able to purchase the H-Block within the PCS spectrum from the FCC giving them another 10mhz. Sprint's site density was originally intended for PCS and it appears they would like to stick with PCS for the bulk of their network traffic, which makes sense since no lower frequency spectrum is available and 2500mhz has its own issues. Essentially though, they will have a 3 tiered network which has users on 2500/1900/800 depending on location. You are correct however that 2500 mhz will never be a network unto its own. Also, Clear has stated they have a "light" core which will allow seamless handoffs between frequencies. EDIT - Also regarding 800 mhz and site density. Sprint is not removing towers from their network to lose density. 800mhz will be used with the current desnity and I assume more downtilt to give much greater in-building coverage in the areas it covers. The main savings from NV will be incurred due to much cheaper backhaul, i.e. many T1's vs fiber/microwave/AAV as well as shutting down most of the Nextel towers. Right now Sprint is paying to operate two wholly different networks. The use of 800mhz will also reduce roaming costs incurred. DOUBLEEDIT - You mention that WiMAX speeds dropped due to available spectrum, CLWR owns an average of 160mhz across markets. I believe they deployed 20mhz carriers and in some areas 2 20mhz carriers per sector but they have more than enough spectrum. I would imagine they didn't deploy additional carriers due to cost and backhaul, not lack of the resource.

I don't really have time to rebut this but much of it is wrong. Lower frequency does not mean greater speeds, it means greater signal strength. That would technically be shared by more people but Sprint is not removing towers, they are keeping their 1900mhz density. Also lower frequencies are less prone to weather interference. Lastly, 2500mhz will be used as an overlay of hotspots to offload users to.

Couldn't agree more. When I'm in an area with terrible 3G speeds it is definitely frustrating but I think it's ironic when people claim that Sprint is a worthless company when the only reason their speeds are so slow is because of how saturated their network is. Clearly they have an abundance of users they're trying to keep up with.

Wilkes Barre is a Sprint corporate market, not Shentel.

Agreed, got my wife the Nexus 7 and I love it. I actually bought an iPad on black friday and returned it due to its heft(I know, heresy!). I think I'm going to order a Nexus 10 at some point but I really see the advantage to a 7" tablet over the 10". Alot of times I think I'd rather have my laptop than a 10", but the 7' is just a large phone really and easy to handle.

Hopefully there are more than adequate resources for markets such as yours now that Nextel is out of the picture. I do understand that living in the Northeast where I do, I probably see the better parts of the Sprint network.

I'm not a big fan of the socioeconomic arguments. Obviously places with a lower population density have less load on the towers.

Couldn't agree more. Also, the comments concerning people "believing it when they see it" regarding every tower being upgraded don't make a whole lot of sense to me since unless Sprint does this, they can't monetize their spectrum holdings. And we all know that is the whole purpose of Sprint. I am still amazed at the number of people these organizations can put to work in an endeavor all at once.

Realistically looking at how low the pings are and the speed you can be pretty damn certain fiber/microwave backhaul has been installed to that site. I've said this a million times but with 3G speeds like that I have no need for LTE!

It should radiate in all directions equally?

I don't think you'll last long here. LTE launched for some customers? There are towers broadcasting LTE in DC, but not nearly enough for the market to be "launched". So if I say, for the next 6 months Sprint will be "launching" DC I would be spot on... cause... you know... towers will be coming online that whole time. Just because you see blips of LTE signals in no way implies enough of the market is ready to "launch" so that you can then sit here and complain that coverage is spotty.

I don't think you're understanding that Shentel is NOT Sprint. They are an affiliate who is deploying independently of Sprint. So yes, markets in MD did launch, but not from Sprint.

Good point, forgot to mention that. I did confirm this via the field test menus. On that note, the code to get to field test in iOS is ridiculously long.

Had the chance to compare signal strength between an iPhone 5, EVO LTE and SIII yesterday between family members. In my mom's house in a rural location but only ~1.5 miles from the nearest tower. Old building construction from the 1800's which has a considerable impact on reception. All of these were for 1x btw: iPhone -92dbm EVO LTE - ~-98-99dbm SIII - ~98-99dbm EVDO: iPhone -86 dbm EVO LTE -94dbm SIII -93dbm So obviously, I saw very similar performance between the EVO and SIII, both were pretty low. iPhone maintained a much better connection no matter where I moved inside staying right around -92dbm. Has anyone else noticed much superior performance of the iPhone's external antenna? Thanks!

Also if you download the latest version of CDMA fieldtest from the Play store you can view signal strength.