Sprint Announces LTE Plans The Worst-Kept Secret in Telecom is Official We've known since March that Sprint was moving to LTE, an insider giving us an exclusive scoop that the company's base station retrofit was the cornerstone of an LTE shift that involved reconfigured spectrum sharing and network partnerships with LightSquared and Clearwire. Today Sprint made that not-so-secret migration official, the company announcing they're planning an "aggressive" deployment of LTE, covering 123 million "pops" (potential users) with LTE by the end of 2012, and 250 million by the end of 2013. As we noted back in March, the cornerstone of this shift involves retrofitting every Sprint cell site, eliminating the refrigerator-sized cabinets for each technology (800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz) in favor of small, more energy efficient multi-mode base stations that can tackle numerous wireless technologies. The entire project is estimated to cost between four and five billion dollars. Sprint estimates the changes will result in a 50% decrease in delivery costs per gigabyte, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced roaming costs, and improved speeds significantly for Sprint customers. The company says they'll use their own 800 MHz spectrum, 1900MHz PCS band and LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum (pending FCC approval) for LTE FDD. The first markets will launch in mid-2012, and the company expects to be "largely complete" by the end of 2013. Sprint says they're already in the process of upgrading 22,000 cell sites. Sprint today also again reiterated that this process involves slowly discontinuing their iDen network, with that functionality being replaced by Sprint's new push-to-talk Direct Connect service launched earlier this month over CDMA. iDen customers should be transitioned by the end of 2013, with Sprint using that reclaimed spectrum for LTE. Sprint also announced plans to belatedly join other carriers in offering Wi-Fi offloading starting later this year. Sprint's Dan Hesse today spoke briefly about Sprint's new deal with Apple, attributing most of Sprint's churn to not having the iPhone -- while insisting they've worked hard to ensure the network can handle the device. Amusingly, despite the fact the announcement was about Sprint's LTE plans, the most-talked about device during the presentation was the CDMA iPhone 4S. Sprint says they should be launching about 12 to 15 LTE compatible devices next year -- among them potentially a belated LTE-capable iPhone. What about existing WiMax customers and Clearwire? "We're still committed to supporting those customers on WiMax," Sprint's Steve Elfman insisted today -- adding that the company plans to launch new Mobile WiMax hardware next year. However, Clearwire and WiMax are very clearly the odd men out here, with Sprint announcing they'll stop selling Clearwire and WiMax products at the end of next year as they transition users to Sprint's 4G network. It's an announcement that hit Clearwire's already-fragile stock like a ton of bricks this morning. Sprint's full presentation will be available at the Sprint investor website later today. Update: Sprint sent us this statement on their dedication to WiMax and Clearwire: Thanks for following us today. Wanted to touch base real quickly as I am sitting in the room. Steve and Dan both said that we would continue to sell WiMAX devices through 2012. That’s not a statement saying we won’t continue beyond that but our current agreement with Clearwire only goes through that time and of course we would continue to service our customers using these devices as well. With LTE devices becoming available mid-year next year, from there it's a customer choice on devices.
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 | | They need to expand pops too Is good to see the entire LTE footprint will be same as 3G. 800Mhz (when needed) will allow for better penetration but they also need to significantly expand the footprint to be in same league as ATT/VZW. 250M pops is OK for native coverage but they need to get it closer to 300M.
Looks like they'll be selling WiMAX devices through 2012, which would likely mean WiMAX support for at least another 2 years after that. | |
|  | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| Re: They need to expand pops too Yeah, they need to expand footprint bigtime. 250M POPs is probably less than half the land area that Verizon or AT&T covers, so they are kind of cheating by using POPs just like AT&T did with 3G and Faux G and Verizon is doing with LTE.
What I'm trying to figure out is what's going on what spectrum. So are CDMA and LTE both going on 800mhz? And both on 1900mhz? So then when are the 800mhz CDMA phones coming out? I would think they would want to free as much PCS up for EVDO, since that's what the iPhone uses.
And then at the end of the WiMAX network, what happens to the 2600mhz spectrum? It would be nice to have all of it be LTE, but then again how many different bands can the phones support before they are huge and suck a ton of battery? | |
| | | | | Re: They need to expand pops too BiggA.
Verizon and ATT cover little over 300Million POPS.
If Sprint covers 276Million POPs, which was stated today if you listen to the webcase.
Is 276 million less than half of 300million POPS??
Right now, LTE will be on Sprint's G Block.
Sprint has several phones out that support 800mhz Band Class 10 right now.
Last question is for Clearwire not Sprint, two different questions. Clearwire owns the WiMAX network.
Soon phones can support tons of bands and it will not kill the battery take a look at Qualcomm's new chipsets. | |
| | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: They need to expand pops too If you look at the maps, Sprint's network is less than half the size of AT&T or Verizon's. The reason it is 250M POPs (as stated in the article) vs. 300M POPs is that the last 50M pops live in more than half of the country's land area. Just like the first 50M live in something like 1-2% of the land area (Manhattan, Boston, LA, etc).
Does the iPhone have 800mhz CDMA? The website lists it as 800/1900, but it would have to have 850mhz as well for Verizon. If it does, that would be a huge help for Sprint's network. What other phones have the 800mhz CDMA band? Can they also support 850 for Verizon roaming?
Sprint is actually doing a good job with phones, they went from having basically nothing, and being in last place phone wise, to having a pretty solid line-up. | |
| | | | | | | Re: They need to expand pops too We will have to agree to disagree on the map.
We will have to wait for the fixit tear down to see what the iphone chipset is.
Yes, my Evo 3D has 800mhz SMR, 850mhz, and 1900 mhz CDMA. Roaming is not an issue.
Evo 3D
GS2
Duruamax
and several other phones all support 800mhz SMR.
Keep in mind Sprint is using 1xAdvanced for its CDMA netwith with Network Vision.
With NV 1900mhz will be about 80% increase in coverage
Its 800mhz SMR band will have 4 times the capacity. | |
| | | | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: They need to expand pops too There's nothing to disagree about. Sprint network is less than half the size of the others. The fact is that 80%+ of the pops live in half the land area of the US, so you can cover less than half, and still cover 80%+ of pops. I can't find numbers, but I actually suspect that AT&T has a bigger network footprint than Verizon's, even if a lot of the more rural areas that have "coverage" are a little more spotty than Verizon. I really wouldn't be surprised either way. Verizon wins the prize, hands down, however for 3G coverage.
Admittedly, this is not quite fair, as exurban/rural areas are often covered by a few massive towers, whereas urban areas will have localized towers, but still, Sprint's network is a lot smaller.
Iiiiiiinteresting. This 800mhz spectrum could be a big deal for Sprint, as it's beachfront spectrum that, for all practical purposes, is sitting stagnant at the time being. I wonder if they are also going to put the new CDMA/LTE network at all of the old Nextel iDen sites? There are still a few areas where iDen has coverage and CDMA doesn't. The SMR spectrum would also make it economically feasible to build out into more rural areas that they currently have. I'm getting the feeling that the iPhone 4S has 800mhz CDMA in it too, based on the specs online. The weird part would be that if it does, the iPhone 4 definitely doesn't, since it was made for Verizon in the first place.
Also, I wonder how they are going to deal with their iDen roaming agreement with Southern Linc? | |
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|  mix
join:2002-03-19
Utica, MI | Will Sprints LTE implementation be compatible with Verizon's so the two could potentially roam on each other networks? Aren't there two flavors of LTE floating around right now? | |
| | | | | Re: They need to expand pops too LTE currently has NO roaming, Verizon LTE devices can not use any other band class even in the 700mhz range.
So no Roaming for ATT or Verizon or Sprint or any other company.
Right now | |
| | | | mix
join:2002-03-19
Utica, MI | Re: They need to expand pops too Thanks. | |
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 n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY
·Optimum Online
| LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum So Sprint is looking to transmit on the MSS frequencies as well assuming LS gets approval? What I am not clear on is that in partnership with LS, providing them POP's at various cell sites, or in addition to LS's own equipment. Either way, GPS is screwed.
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. | |
| | | | Re: LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum Yeah, this dependency on LS makes this whole announcement premature - at least the LTE portion of it.
They will at least be able to add more capacity for 3G in the meantime with this rollout and get 800Mhz penetration. That alone will be big improvements to the network. | |
| | | | | Re: LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum Looks like Sprint has the right to terminate agreement with LS by end of 2011 if the Feds don't approve by then.
»images.scribblelive.com/2011/10/···f462.jpg
Would guess they then go back to Clear or perhaps look for someone else (CableCo spectrum?) to 'host' on the new sites, which are designed for 3rd party hosting. | |
| | | | | | Re: LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum So it looks like LTE devices planned next year will be 1900Mhz LTE only, not the LS 1600 band.
»www-bgr-com.vimg.net/wp-content/···2732.jpg
Sprint could probably initially get by with 1900 to start with but will need to expand do other bands for additional capacity eventually. The good news is that if you can get a Sprint 3G signal today, you will be able to get LTE when rolled out (and improved 3G performance as there will be more backhaul). But they need to get on lower bands eventually. | |
| | | | | | | Re: LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum More here...
quote:
Sprint's initial LTE deployment w ill be in the G-Block of the 1900 MHz band, where Sprint has a nationwide 5X5 MHz block of spectrum, Azzi said. He said Sprint's G-Block spectrum will be combined with other 1900 MHz spectrum for its LTE service, and that the carrier currently has an average of 20-25 MHz per market nationwide in 1900. At some point in the future, Sprint also plans to use its 800 MHz for LTE; the carrier currently uses 800 MHz for iDEN but will begin moving those customers off that spectrum by 2013.
»www.fiercewireless.com/story/spr···11-10-07 | |
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| BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Let's hope that the 1600mhz spectrum is not allowed to be used, since it will destroy GPS. If the government makes the right decision, and doesn't allow it to be used, then will they use 2600mhz to add capacity when WiMAX is transitioned off of it? | |
| | | heyeng
join:2011-08-13
San Antonio, TX | Re: LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum That's not going to happen. There are so many fishy things going on with the LS BS it's not even funny. There is NO way they are going to get the 1600mhz band. Outside the fact that GPS is used by the military, civil aviation and 3/4 of the public not only to mention the entire revamping of the air traffic control system (Google ADS-B and Nexgen for further info) with GOS technology. The FAA is going to win out on this fight. I am curious how this is going to unfoil with the involvement of the White House. | |
| | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: LightSquared's 1600MHz spectrum I hope you're right. The good part with this is that there are a lot of really powerful forces in the US fighting against it. One would be the farming lobby, since they use it a lot to plant crops effectively. The big guns, however, are the military, as if the DoD says no, the rest of the government will listen.
Is Sprint planning to keep CDMA around in the long term? It seems like EVDO/CDMA is a pretty solid technology for regular phones and lower end smart devices, even as the faster ones move to LTE. | |
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 thegeekPremium
join:2008-02-21
united state
kudos:1
·Suddenlink
·NPG Cable
| Costs Down, Rates Up quote:
Sprint estimates the changes will result in a 50% decrease in delivery costs per gigabyte
I'm sure that decrease in costs to deliver bandwidth will be met with an increase in rate charged to the consumer. Cause, ya know, it's the wireless law of inverses. Consumer costs increase proportionally to the decrease in carrier overhead resulting in record profits. | |
| | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Re: Costs Down, Rates Up Sprint and record profits? The company needs to pay back the $5B cost somehow. The 50% decrease in delivery costs may help to control price increases for consumers. | |
| |  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | said by thegeek:I'm sure that decrease in costs to deliver bandwidth will be met with an increase in rate charged to the consumer. Cause, ya know, it's the wireless law of inverses. Consumer costs increase proportionally to the decrease in carrier overhead resulting in record profits.
Did you miss the part of the story where it will cost Sprint $4 to $5 billion dollars(plus whatever interest they are paying for the loans) to rollout the new tech to achieve those variable cost savings?
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»www.rickperry.org/ | |
| | | Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: Costs Down, Rates Up Did YOU miss this part? "Sprint estimates the total net financial benefit for a seven-year period to be between $10 billion and $11 billion" That is in savings over running their previous technologies. They said that in December of last year and it still stands. | |
| | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Re: Costs Down, Rates Up With close to $20B in debt, that will be welcomed by investors I'm sure. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Costs Down, Rates Up I did a CBA check.. if maintenance is currently $5B/year to maintain the current network and you invest $10B over 2 years so that it costs $2B/year to maintain after that, you get a 4 year payback with an IRR of 15% and a positive net present value. You start saving $3B a year after 4 years. Is why this is called a 'strategic' investment.
If it's similar/proportional to those parameters, it's a no brainer to do this. | |
| | | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Re: Costs Down, Rates Up I'm not suggesting that it's not a strategic investment. In fact, Sprint needed to do this...should have done this instead of WiMax IMO. This thread started with some "costs are decreasing, therefore prices will rise" rhetoric. I'm merely making an observation that it's not as simple to maintain or cut prices as some people hope/claim. | |
| | | | | | | | | Re: Costs Down, Rates Up They had to do WiMAX at the time. The Feds required them to use the spectrum or lose it. LTE wasn't available then. | |
| | | | | | | | | | Re: Costs Down, Rates Up I wonder why the feds aren't requiring other major networks to actually use their spectrum. | |
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| | Hope They Can Pull It Off I've been with Sprint for thirteen years and, other than vague dissatisfaction with customer service when they had that nearly-fully-automated system (which was easy to get around), I've been very happy with the company.
Back when I first signed-up with Sprint, they were the "wireless rogue." Aggressive deployment, no-contract service, etc. Somewhere they lost their way. It looks like Dan Hesse and the rest of the current management team is bringing the company back to its roots, which makes me happy.
I recently looked into finally replacing my venerable Palm Centro with a 'droid, and found I basically could not afford the data plan. I became annoyed with Sprint and looked at the competition. Here were my choices, as I saw them:
- Verizon: More expensive by far
- "AT&T": More expensive, hate the company, and their customer service is about the worst in the industry
- T-Mobile: Great customer service, and more affordable than Sprint, but less coverage and could easily end-up a customer of "AT&T"
So I'm staying with Sprint and hoping their new push is a big success.
Jim | |
| |  tiger72SexaT duorPPremium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1
 ·T-Mobile US
| Re: Hope They Can Pull It Off I'm really not sure where people get the impression that Sprint's coverage is better than T-Mobile's. They're nigh-on-identical. They both run their networks on the PCS band, but Sprint has the benefit of nationwide VZW roaming that TMO doesn't. There are some areas that TMO doesn't have coverage where Sprint does. There are some areas that Sprint doesn't have coverage but T-Mobile does. But total coverage is about a wash.
That said, I have a line on Sprint and a line on T-Mobile. I'm extremely happy with both services, and am very excited about this news (especially how detailed they were).
I'm going to be upgrading my phone in a few weeks here, and this Sprint news just confirmed for me what I'm going to do. Since I'm not sure where T-Mobile will be 2 years from now, I'm not going to renew my line with them, but will be purchasing an unlocked SGSII for their network. It happens to be 42mbps HSPA+ capable for both TMO as well as ATT. So a year from now, if Sprint's LTE is looking good, I'll start a new contract with them, and sell the SGSII. If not, I'll keep with my HSPA+ phone on TMO/ATT and benefit from those ever-increasing speeds. Either way, I can pretty much ensure to be getting the best data value...
--
"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? ...If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."
-United States Secretary of Defense (1961-1968) Robert S. McNamara | |
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| |  KoilPremium
join:2002-09-10
Irmo, SC | Re: Sweet.... said by swintec:So end of 2013 is the target end date....I guess maine will get this good stuff somewhere in 2015!  Good for them though, I really hope they can pull this off.
With SC coming right behind ya in 2020! Of course...you can always go stand out in your apple orchard.  | |
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RDC17
join:2011-05-15
Baltimore, MD Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Sprint saw the writing on the wall They would be stuck with WiMAX while AT&T (+TMobile) and Verizon both had nationwide LTE. Them being hamstrung to WiMAX would certainly mean no shot at ever offering the iPhone, at least past its current iteration.
Still, Sprint is very late to the game. They jumped on WiMAX way too early back in 2008. Even Verizon, who was basically stuck with EV-DO as Sprint was, waited. | |
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See 6 replies to this post | |
| | WiMax bashing aside... I see people bashing WiMax like it's a bad technology. Sprint's/Clearwire's only problem was the frequency they used with it. I think there's still a place in Sprint's network for WiMax, to use it with wireless backhaul. Fixed-point WiMax is very fast and very stable. That would help with future tower deployments as well.
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Ali
Check Point Certified Security Expert | |
| | | The new base-station upgrades.... For those wondering about how the LTE part of Sprint's upgrade will be handled someone posted a link yesterday that explained that the upgrades will allow the stations to handle CDMA, WiMax, AND LTE. So even without the LightSquared coverage Sprint will still have a pretty large foot-print with LTE. | |
| |  vpokoPremium
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA | Re: The new base-station upgrades.... Yeah, but do you see manufacturers making handsets that support WiMax and LTE? I think for subscribers, it's one or the other. | |
| | | | | Re: The new base-station upgrades.... That's fine though because it's going to take some time before the build is complete AND within that time frame the manufacturers will be able to better refine the LTE chips. The WiMax support is great for the phones that still support this standard. It will also make it easier to increase their WiMax coverage because the stations are software controlled. They just have to make an adjustment to the software running on the base stations instead of adding all new equipment. So as each station is complete they will be able to run WiMax and once Sprint is ready for LTE, they can essentially just flip a switch and activate the LTE portion. | |
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| | What? Where did this come from? I had no idea Sprint was considering LTE in any shape or form. I am simply floored by this announcement!
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1 edit | Re: Presentation slides of Sprint's new strategy Wow, lots of detail. Amazing how much technical detail they are willing to publicly disclose.
Sounds like investors didn't like it though.. they wanted more financial detail that wasn't there. | |
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| | Bash wimax all you want..... When I'm out on my boat, a mile or so off land, I get a nice 4g signal and it makes my boat heaven on earth.
I can chill and browse sites, watch video, talk with people, all while bobbing up and down having a drink while on the anchor.
Just a couple of years ago I wouldn't have been able to do anything at all out there. WiMax may not be the fastest, but 2 down 1 mile out is fast enough to make my life great! | |
| |  tobyTroy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA | Re: Bash wimax all you want..... Most people don't go out on a boat though, they're inside buildings. | |
| | | | I use my Clearwire pod for boating. Works great for most of my net needs when Im at sea. Just wish it could reach 12 miles.
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Captain Jack | |
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Rob_Premium
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL | Boost.. So, what does this mean for boost mobile customers? Will we still have limited coverage or will that be fixed?
I don't get why boost can't have the same coverage as sprint since they are the same company. | |
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Sweet....
Presentation slides of Sprint's new strategy
