mindfrost82
join:2003-04-19
Cortland, IL
| Build Out 3G First
I can't believe all the talk about 4G, between Sprint and WiMAX and VZW and AT&T using LTE. None of them offer nationwide 3G yet. They all offer 1X (or EDGE) on their nationwide network. Sprint by far has more EVDO/3G coverage than any other carrier, but its still far from being nationwide.
Is this what its going to be like in the future? Unless you live in a major market, you're screwed for getting these kinds of speeds. I'm lucky that Sprint offers good EVDO coverage in my area, considering I'm not really near a major city (about 1.5-2 hours west of Chicago). AT&T and VZW don't offer 3G here yet, and I'm not looking for them to.
I'm sure they're not going to offer 4G in areas that don't even have 3G yet, so there is no point to this debate for a lot of people.
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F R O S T Y
www.mindfrost82.com |
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xenophon
join:2007-09-17
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | said by mindfrost82  : Sprint by far has more EVDO/3G coverage than any other carrier, but its still far from being nationwide. Sprint plans to hit 230m population coverage by end of this year - the voice network is about 255-260m. They may have near 100% network converted next year as even the affiliates like iPCS are adding EVDO.
Sprint also roams on Alltel EVDO while Verizon does not, which does put Sprint way ahead of everyone else in 3G coverage. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | That's paritally because Sprint's own network is much smaller than anyone elses, and has less to upgrade.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | said by en102 :That's paritally because Sprint's own network is much smaller than anyone elses, and has less to upgrade. Completely wrong. Sprint has over 30,000 CDMA cellsites and >45K total sites (including iDen). Verizon has under 30K sites. Both cover about 255-260m population with voice. Sprint's CDMA/iDen total footprint is about 268m, much larger than Verizon's.
You may have missed the memo but Sprint has been adding CDMA to thousands of Nextel iDen sites the last couple of years. |
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CaptainRR
Premium
join:2006-04-21
Blue Rock, OH | Don't forget it takes 4 PCS cell sites to cover the same ground that 1 cellular cell covers! |
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xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
3 edits | True for voice, but for data, 800mhz needs more cellsites too in many situations. In reality, 800mhz is not covering as much ground as it is spec'd to as it depends on tower output actually used, but it does penetrate buildings better.
Problem with data over 800mhz covering an area 4x larger is that it has the potential to have 4X number of users than multiple 1900mhz sites covering same area. There still needs to be many 800mhz sites for capacity reasons.
This may explain why Sprint EVDO performance and latency is a little better than Verizon's. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·DSL EXTREME
| reply to xenophon
Having many sites in local areas gives great local coverage.
Having not much available outside of metros and interstates doesn't work well for everyone. I don't consider 'roaming' as part of the network, as there are typically stipulations on roaming allowance, and I couldn't purchase service there if I wanted to.
In my area, they added iDEN to PCS towers, and built new iDEN only sites.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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huntml
join:2002-01-23
Mullica Hill, NJ
·Comcast
3 edits | said by en102 :I don't consider 'roaming' as part of the network, as there are typically stipulations on roaming allowance Certainly roaming isn't part of the network, but as a user all I care about is that I have coverage where I need it, and Sprint's roaming policies allow for this. Basically, you can roam up to 50% of the time with no penalty. Granted, if you live in an area where you have no/marginal native Sprint coverage, they're probably not the best carrier for you; but realistically, none of the other big carriers are covering those areas very well either, and they are most likely served by smaller/regional carriers. There just aren't enough people in those areas for the big national carriers to go after them.
Plus, it being the case that one *does* live in an area covered by a regional carrier, I'd much rather be on a CDMA network (Alltel or USCC or iPCS) and be able to roam on Sprint and/or VZW for voice and data (high speed data, in Sprint's case) than be a sub on some smaller GSM carrier, most of whom, I think don't have native networks or devices that support UMTS, even if you could find it on a GSM roaming partner (the only one being ATTM and their coverage being well behind Sprint's or VZ's EVDO buildouts).
Overall, as a Sprint sub, I would put the quality of my effective coverage -- in voice and in data -- on a par with or ahead of anyone's in the US. That's what matters to me. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| As an AT&T and Nextel sub, I'd put my coverage on AT&T as being on par or better than most. I typically don't use data, so having EVDO or UMTS doesn't really matter to me (I use my phone as a phone). My Nextel call quality has improved a bit, and they even have a site ~250' closer than AT&T does, but calls break up (people tell me my calls break up) more often on Sprint/Nextel iDEN than they do on AT&T GSM and UMTS.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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partysource
join:2000-11-25
Phoenix, AZ | reply to xenophon
Did you mention Sprint has shitty voice reception! Can you say dropped calls nationwide!!!
Sprint the carrier for people with shitty credit LOL |
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xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to en102
said by en102 : I typically don't use data, so having EVDO or UMTS doesn't really matter to me (I use my phone as a phone). Dude, the topic is data. Fess up, Sprint is leading when it comes to data. |
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huntml
join:2002-01-23
Mullica Hill, NJ
·Comcast
3 edits | reply to en102
Well, everyone's different. I get good voice coverage everywhere I go: even in rare places Sprint doesn't have good voice network coverage, there's VZ, or Alltel, both of whom I have roamed on; but I push a lot more data bits through my phone than I do voice bits, so data is important to me.
And in that arena, at least in the US, where I live, the GSM carriers are *way* behind the CDMA carriers.
T-mo just announced some rather tentative 3g deployment plans after sitting still for over a year trying to figure it out, ATTM is starting to roll out HSUPA/DPA while their UMTS coverage is still spotty and most of the country is still on EDGE.
The ironic thing is, the way things are going, with this VZW announcement and Sprint's building of the WiMax network, we will probably see the two big CDMA voice carriers with a 4G data networks built or building, one of them built on the GSM evolutionary path, before there is a native GSM carrier with a fully built-out 3g network. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| reply to xenophon
Topic is LTE
UMTS handles both data and voice (switched)
CDMA EVDO handles data and can handle VoIP
I do use a lot of iDEN data on my Nextel Blackberry 7100i 
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| reply to huntml
That may be true, however, similar to most 'global' scale items (GSM/UMTS), it in general has been behind on the timelines.
UMTS deployments globally have been a couple of years slower than EVDO. Having VZW join the ranks of GSM backed LTE, they will be the tail wagging the dog.
I think the rationale behind the LTE outlook is more of a global interoperability on wireless everything.
I personally wonder which way Alltel will go. Alltel runs both CDMA 1x/EVDO and GSM networks (roaming only). They could buildout quicker than anyone.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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