T-Mobile to Sunset MetroPCS's CDMA Network by 2015
Uh oh...
John B.
The CDMA network is only relevant in the decision of if they will be converting the GSM over to CDMA in the short run, convert the CDMA to GSM, or run parallel incompatible networks. Clearly the worst option is to run two networks instead of one.
In picking between CDMA and GSM the choice of GSM is an easy one. When you look at the combined customer base of T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers the customers currently on GSM will outnumber those on CDMA by more than 3 to 1 due to T-Mobile's much larger customer base. Also weighing in GSM's favor over CDMA is the favorable...
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As customers upgrade in the short run, the idea is to immediately and exclusively sell them GSM/HSPA+ model phones offered via TMO. Again, not specified, but I imagine that they continue to sell the VoLTE MetroPCS models as well, though with no immediate coverage map growth, who's gonna buy those?? As it is I believe Metro is only supporting the technology in 6 markets? With nationwide coverage offered for a GSM phone, why would you go VoLTE and limit yourself? Either way, until 2015 the idea is to run parallel networks, with a COO salary allotted for each of them. Not to mention ...
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Or is that something that requires specific tech on the LTE towers to facilitate? Seeing as TMo hasn't built any towers yet, one could see them simply then building VoLTE towers as part of their plan rather than the stock LTE towers they may otherwise have used.
MetroPCS isn't going directly to VoLTE because it wants to be a pioneer in that technology, rather it didn't have sufficent spectrum prior to this purchase to run both the CDMA voice network and the LTE data network. So their road map was to launch VoLTE migrate voice from the CDMA network to VoLTE, sunset the CDMA network, and use that spectrum to increase their LTE capacity.
Now they have plenty of spectrum. They can now keep voice on GSM/HSPA+ and leave LTE (for now) purely for data.
Long-term they can then migrate to VoLTE (which every carrier will inevitably do) and then expand LTE capacity by using the current GSM/HSPA+ spectrum.
This is a long-term process because of the huge a...
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Srich27 Essentially its just a matter of a few tweaks on existing equipment, no major changes required. However, MetroPCS has since day 1, as vikes pointed out for the sake of the spectrum crunch, allotted their LTE coverage almost exclusively for VoLTE coverage, and so on Metro's LTE network you barely pull ...
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Only people interested in the intricate technical aspects care about it being VoLTE, and frankly those people are about as far from MetroPCS's target customer as you can get.
Like you said, VoLTE is bringing Metro's LTE network to its knees because of the lack of spectrum. For 99.999% of Metro's customers; getting a new phone, having a larger native network with full speed data access, having their data speeds in...
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Please this is the icing on the cake. Why would T-Mobile (run by Metro) give up the chance to have a robust National footprint? VoLTE is not dead. Metro can still transition all of T-Mobile's customers to LTE eventually. That IS the whole point of VoLTE after all. At the end of the line neither CDMA nor GSM will survive.
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