Softbank Mulling Sprint / DISH Combo

[comfortably_numb]

Thanks for the links. As I thought, T-Mobile does not have a device like the Magic Box. It has a femtocell and a traditional repeater which is a poor solution for desperate cases at best. It is in two pieces with cabling connecting them, instead of one, and does not use a new LTE carrier on a different frequency, but rather boosts the original carrier off the cell tower.

- Trip

You still have to have at least one "bar" of signal to make a repeater work. No repeater, "magical" or otherwise, can create a signal where there isn't one to begin with

 

[comfortably_numb]

I travel between podunk towns between where I live and all along that stretch between me and Slidell/McComb ...

So not only do I have large swaths of interstate that are void of anything, including exits...I see MULTIPLE areas of service along that route that used to be nothing. When I had TMO and traveled that same route, there was a big "X" on the screen for signal...none at all. Not even a 911 call would get out..
In the "network improvements" example that I listed, this is part of what I'm including. I've seen Sprint personally bring service -- although it may not be 100mbps LTE, it's still USABLE service, to those desolate areas. The only other carrier that MIGHT have a bar or two in those areas is VZW..but I have no way of knowing that...

I do know that in McComb, MS, Sprint does NOT have native coverage. However, Sprint does have C-spire roaming LTE agreements in place, due to the Competitive Carrier association...

Good for you. In Georgia and Mississippi. Multiple posters have tried to educate you on issues with Sprint beyond your one little area of experience, but you keep repeating the same thing over and over.

 

[StanDarsh]

You still have to have at least one "bar" of signal to make a repeater work. No repeater, "magical" or otherwise, can create a signal where there isn't one to begin with

The difference being, it may take that one bar (or whatever..bars don't dictate LTE ...bars are indicative of VOICE service. NO carrier shows bars that relate to data connection)...and it creates a new carrier with 5 bars. It doesn't garble the signal with noise trying to boost it..
Big difference between Airspan - A Leading Vendor of LTE Small Cells and Small Cell Backhaul technologies. and a repeater

The link is to the magic box. That is the model Sprint is using. (Airspan AU545)

 

[StanDarsh]

Multiple posters have tried to educate you

And the same goes for you.

 

[comfortably_numb]

NO carrier shows bars that relate to data connection)

Actually that is incorrect. LTE is a data-only network. The legacy CDMA network and the LTE network are completely different animals. Legacy GSM and CDMA will be phased out for all networks within the next 10 years.

Verizon recently released the first LTE-only phone. This phone would *always* be showing signal strength as it relates to data connection, as it doesn't even have the ability to connect to the CDMA network:

www.theverge.com/platform/amp/circuitbreaker/2017/6/16/15811502/verizon-lte-flip-phone-lg-exalt

 

[navychop]

LTE provides voice service as data packets. See Voice over LTE in Wikipedia.

 

[comfortably_numb]

LTE provides voice service as data packets. See Voice over LTE in Wikipedia.

Correct. And that's why if your phone is displaying LTE, any "signal strength" bars would be measuring the quality of data, as LTE is data-only.

Now, if your phone says "3G" or "1xRTT," then obviously it's connected to legacy CDMA and not LTE.

 

[dare2be]

So not only do I have large swaths of interstate that are void of anything, including exits...I see MULTIPLE areas of service along that route that used to be nothing.

Still, most if not all interstates should be covered. Even in the void areas. I'm talking about state/county roads and small towns away from the interstate thoroughfares. That is where the differences really stand out.

 

[StanDarsh]

Still, most if not all interstates should be covered. Even in the void areas. I'm talking about state/county roads and small towns away from the interstate thoroughfares. That is where the differences really stand out.

I'm avoiding the VOLTE replies since no carrier has complete VOLTE, signal strength still means voice.

When I speak of usage along the route, I mean areas that I stop for a period of time. The only family I have near an interstate is in Slidell...
The stop I make in bumfukt, Mississippi is about 40 miles from the interstate, and 15 miles from US98... So it's pretty far out.
I have gone so far as to take my Note 5 on C-Spire roaming LTE, use it as a hotspot to play PS4 just to see if roaming LTE would work that way. and it did...I played online games with it in that manner.
Way off in Jayess, MS...or that's a city quite a few miles from where I was.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I'm avoiding the VOLTE replies since no carrier has complete VOLTE, signal strength still means voice.

When I speak of usage along the route, I mean areas that I stop for a period of time. The only family I have near an interstate is in Slidell...
The stop I make in bumfukt, Mississippi is about 40 miles from the interstate, and 15 miles from US98... So it's pretty far out.
I have gone so far as to take my Note 5 on C-Spire roaming LTE, use it as a hotspot to play PS4 just to see if roaming LTE would work that way. and it did...I played online games with it in that manner.
Way off in Jayess, MS...or that's a city quite a few miles from where I was.

If your phone is displaying LTE, then your signal bars are measuring quality of data. Period. No one is saying that a carrier has to be all VoLTE for this to be correct. Calls placed over CDMA are on a different network than LTE.

Assuming you have VoLTE turned off on your particular phone, it is placing calls on CDMA, which is a completely different network entirely. Your radio literally switches over to CDMA when you hit "Dial." Once you look down and see 1xRTT on your screen, then and only then are those bars measuring voice signal strength. When the call is ended, the radio reconnects to LTE. That's the way it works with Sprint and Verizon when you have VoLTE shut off.

At some point in the distant future, you won't even be able to shut off VoLTE.

 

[navychop]

There won't be anything to fall back to.

 

[comfortably_numb]

There won't be anything to fall back to.

That's true. I guess the carriers with planned shutdowns of legacy networks feel their LTE coverage is good enough. VZW, TMO and ATT have all set shutdown dates..

 

[EarDemon]

I have no updates on the IBEZ region. Much as I hate to say it, it will be done when it's done and not a moment sooner.

As to the difference, when it was set up, the 800 MHz SMR band was set up with narrow-band interleaved channels, so, as a made-up example, the US may have had 851.1 MHz, then Canada 851.2, US 851.3, etc. The domestic problem with that was that in the US, the commercial use (Nextel) was interleaved with public safety, which caused interference between the two, leading to the need to reband regardless. The problem that impacts both domestic and international is that LTE uses contiguous spectrum--that is, LTE uses a solid 5x5 MHz (for example), so to the extent that any of the previously-interleaved carriers remain in place, the spectrum is entirely unusable due to interference one way or the other. Even CDMA uses 1.25 MHz carriers, which are broader than the interleaved channels were.

- Trip

Thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense.