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Sprint Offers LTE Progress Report

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High Frequency first?

johnhr2

Oct 30, 2013, 11:54 AM
I understand why Sprint had to use the 1900 MHz first, Nextel was still using the 800 MHz and they were waiting for approval of full ownership of Clear before they start using the 2.5 GHz for LTE.

But my question to Sprint, or anyone who knows, why are they focusing on the 2.5 GHz spectrum next? It has lower building penetration and it requires roughly 10-20x (depending on the landscape) more cell towers than the 800 MHz spectrum.

They should be focusing on the 800 and 1900 MHz band first, 800 so they can get a lot of wide areas cover with good building penetration. Then use the 1900 MHz spectrum so they unload the 800 MHz band in high density areas, then use the 2.5 MHz in stadiums, hotels, airports, etc. where there is a potential...
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rwalford79

Oct 30, 2013, 12:03 PM
Sprint does things backward, that is why. Sprint is so focused on providing the highest speed possible, and in the 2.5Ghz frequency, it not only has a higher data speed but more capacity - they also have 120Mhz of spectrum in that band to use versus 10Mhz in the 1900 PCS D-Block and 10Mhz to use in the 800 ESMR band. While 1900 PCS bands from A through D will open up in the future on Sprint, right now their focus is on providing more capacity, something they have not much of left on the D-Block PCS which is where their LTE is running, but also on speed. When you look at only 60mbps using the 2.5Ghz spectrum, compared to other carriers pushing that over 700Mhz and even T-Mobile on their AWS, it really looks bad. It looks even worse if you loo...
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rawvega

Oct 30, 2013, 1:32 PM
Their LTE is currently on the PCS G-block, not D-block actually.
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aeternavi

Oct 30, 2013, 12:08 PM
My guess is that they are easiest to convert since they were already running data only via WiMax and the age allows them to be converted over with less hardware/software changes. I agree though that would be smart to begin with Nextel's old towers though. They cover more of the country than the WiMax did and as you said building penetration would be key since 2.5GHz is waaaaaaay higher than the norm.

Just more proof as to why they will always be behind Big Red and The Globe.
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rwalford79

Oct 30, 2013, 12:20 PM
Nextel coverage and tower placement covered more area than WiMAX did yes, but the Clearwire spectrum licences are nationwide, every single state, every single market, it was a blanket block that was for the whole nation. If Sprint wanted to, they could deploy in Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, even Montana on that new Clearwire spectrum, but it is not cost efficient, so Nextel's old lower frequency will have to do.

But technically, Sprint, like Verizon, has a spectrum block that is nationwide every corner, they wont use it like that though.
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johnhr2

Oct 30, 2013, 1:37 PM
The reason why Sprint won't use their nationwide spectrum like Verizon is because it would cost Sprint 10-20x more to build out in nationwide coverage using the Clearwire spectrum licences.

Lower frequencies are great to cover large areas easily and higher frequencies are great to cover small areas to fill in gaps or to raise network capacity in a denser population areas.
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KOL4420

Oct 30, 2013, 2:11 PM
Exactly that is the purpose of the 2.5ghz spectrum and to provide greater spectrum for LTE faster speeds more users faster connections. Compared to the competition if all goes according to plan Sprint will be able to launch HD voice - which it is already testing- and other VOLTE features simultaneously . They are doing great compared to where they were at prior to their merger with Softbank.

Things are looking up. Of course all the jaded Sprint customers and well understandably Sprint haters will be sharing their negative opinion on "how far" they are behind. However they fail to understand the strides they are making and the benefits of vision network. All the other carriers have the advantage because of the heard start and Sprints deci...
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alee

Oct 30, 2013, 12:27 PM
If you read the article it says they are doing 1900, 800, then 2.5
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johnhr2

Oct 30, 2013, 4:00 PM
Article states
Sprint has already begun to deploy LTE in the former Nextel's 800MHz band, which it is repurposing for 4G. Sprint did not say where it is lighting up 800MHz LTE, nor when it expects to complete its 800MHz LTE network upgrades. The bigger picture concerns Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum. Sprint plans to have 5,000 2.5GHz TD-LTE cell sites up and running by the end of 2013, and it will accelerate its 2.5GHz build-out during 2014.

From that part of the article I took it as the have plans on using the 2.5GHz band first.
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KOL4420

Oct 30, 2013, 4:05 PM
The reason is Sprint Spark. Check the newest article posted on Phonescoop. HD Voice and other VOLTE features that will be simultaneously rolled out as they expand the 2.5ghz LTE footprint more capacity and higher data speeds in the 50-60Mbps range.
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alee

Oct 30, 2013, 4:36 PM
Hesse said that Sprint plans to have 100 million POPs covered with 2.5 GHz LTE service by the end of 2014. Hesse said the LTE deployment would roll out in stages, first on 1.9 GHz, then 800 MHz and then 2.5 GHz airwaves. He said it would take time for the 2.5 GHz coverage to catch up to its 1.9 GHz coverage.



Read more: Sprint to cover 100M POPs with 2.5 GHz LTE by end of 2014 - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-co ver-100m-pops-25-ghz-lte-end-2014/2013-10-30# ixzz2jFAFhTOq
Subscribe at FierceWireless
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alee

Oct 30, 2013, 4:37 PM
That previous post is from the link thats in the phonescoop article.
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crossedsignals

Oct 30, 2013, 10:19 PM
S4GRU posters are reporting active 2.5GHz LTE in several markets so the LTE roll out progression is indeed 1.9GHz -> 2.5GHz -> 800MHz SMR.

The reason that 2.5GHz precedes 800SMR is a result of work that Clearwire was doing last year to migrate their WiMax network to TD-LTE.

See the following as a reminder:

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-td-lte ... »

and

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-slashe ... »

Perhaps it's coincidental but the 5000 sites Sprint is quoting as going live soon matches the number that Clearwire was readying as part of their initial migration.

800SMR, as is well known, was occupied by iDen unt...
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