T-Mobile USA Starts HSPA+ Deployment
Backwards?
T-mobile has been sitting on a bad seat. They are late to the 3G game, and now they want to upgrade to HSPA+. I think it would better serve to skip this transition and go right to LTE. It appears the GSM counterparts will be behind in the struggle for 4G. I couldn't help notice that the CDMA variants are being more aggressive in this advancement. Why spend time and money on old hat? "Time To Market" has always been a strategic practice in progressing the business attributes and failing to move ahead in this goes against the law of advancement(Especially in the quick changing environment of the wireless industy). This is classic leapfrogging. EV-DO trounces EDGE, so HSPDA is deployed to overtake it. But the results of HSDPA have only been som...
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One never knows. When Verizon made plans to launch Ev-Do years ago, Sprint sniffed at it instead planing to launch Ev-Dv which was to be more advanced, faster etc... What happened? Verizon launched Ev-Do and Sprint fell behind in the marketplace. Eventually Sprint scrapped its plans to launch Ev-Dv and did a remarkable job of playing catch up in the Ev-Do world.
Now let's fast forward... Sprint is betting on Wi-Max seemingly because they will be able to launch it commercially quicker than the competition will be able to launch LTE. Have they learned their lesson well or what? Detractors decry Wi-Max at every opportunity, but if it were not for Wi-Max, would Verizon be so aggressive in its LTE deployment? Then there is AT&T and n...
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Now let's fast forward... Sprint is betting on Wi-Max seemingly because they will be able to launch it commercially quicker than the competition will be able to launch LTE. Have they learned their lesson well or what? Detractors decry Wi-Max at every opportunity, but if it were not for Wi-Max, would Verizon be so aggressive in its LTE deployment? Then there is AT&T and n...
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Ahhh yes. The EV-DV fiasco. Most definitely better than EV-DO. But there was a little more to it than Sprint making a bad decision for that. Sprint was poised to move forward with the advancement in EV-DV. They knew it was better. They knew the advantages of faster speeds and more importantly the simultaneous voice/data. They pushed it heavily. However, the selling of it was not enough. Support for it was so minimal that Qualcomm(the developers of the CDMA technology) killed off the idea of making a chipset just as Qualcomm had to do with UMB(Ultra Mobile Broadband). It was substantially faster than LTE, but nobody chose it. So Sprint had no choice but to play catch up with EV-DO. And yes they did very well. Astonishing to say the least act...
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Comparing Sprints position then to Tmobile now doesnt work that well. Although LTE is a done deal its not ready now. To stay viable Tmo needs to get their speeds up now. Them bumping up speeds in some areas before a full 3g rollout complete. They need to not get too far behind now playing catch up after lte comes out is gonna be a lot harder. In case someone missed it data for the big 4 has become a name game. ATT started it with their 3g advertisements. sprint topped them with 4g. Tmobile has to get their names out their associated with fast 3g now not wait. Thry can always move to lte once its ready. sprintas was said has a much better position they have 3g coverage already and the only 4g footprint. by the time others get a decent...
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I agree. If T-Mobile AND AT&T can continue to upgrade their 3G to faster speeds while waiting for LTE to roll out, I say go for it.
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Software upgrade? Your saying that WiMax & LTE are such similar technologies that all WiMax would reguire is a software upgrade to "become LTE"???
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Very close. They use the same technology for downloads, but different for uploads. And yes, software is the common denominator. Distributing all new handsets would be the deficiency in the slow turnover from WiMAX to LTE.
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Sprints is not placing its eggs in one basket this time. I wonder if the spectrum they have from Sprint/Nextel and now Clear will make for a larger footprint than their current 3G?
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On a technical aspect, the union between Sprint/clearwire and their spectrum is bittersweet. The bitter part is that the 2.5Ghz they have allocated for 4G, will require more tower infrastructure per area for linking handsset to tower as opposed the competition. Obviously, cost is factor. Here's the sweet:
Sprint/clearwire wire hold a very good chunk of the spectrum. Enough to blanket 92 percent of the country. So by comparison, They actually own slighly more than the other carriers. So coverage will no longer be an issue for Sprint. While transmission for 2.5Ghz is shorter range, Data transfer will transfer better at this frequency.
Sprint/clearwire wire hold a very good chunk of the spectrum. Enough to blanket 92 percent of the country. So by comparison, They actually own slighly more than the other carriers. So coverage will no longer be an issue for Sprint. While transmission for 2.5Ghz is shorter range, Data transfer will transfer better at this frequency.
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I know you guys are talkiing about the business side of deploying HSPA+ Vs LTE/WiMax, but from the consumer side, give me 3-4mbps of consistent speed and I'm happy, I don't need even 15-20+mbps, so from a consumers point of view, I think HSPA+ is a very, very sufficent technology so long as the speeds are consistent, and reliable. When the day comes that EDGE & UMTS are a thing of the past, then yippy, But I want fast & consistent speeds, and HSDPA in it's current form doesn't offer that fast of speeds. So personally, I'd be very, very happy to see Tmo deploy HSPA+, happpy enough for me to fork over the money and buy next years version of the Nokia N900 and leave ATT to head over to Tmo. I'm sure Las Vegas will be one of the cities that ge...
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