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samrocks
Premium
join:2003-07-30 | LTE? What's LTE? | |
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mindfrost82
join:2003-04-19
Cortland, IL
| Re: LTE? I hope you're being sarcastic 
Since every other major carrier seems to be going with LTE, it only makes sense for Sprint to keep it as an option, otherwise they're going to stick it to themselves by being the only carrier to offer WiMax with no real roaming options (beseides the Clearwire deal).
Of course since they've already put huge amounts of money into WiMax, I don't know if they would have the cash flow or credit to offer LTE too. | |
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n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY
 ·Optimum Online
| Re: LTE? If Sprint decides to go it alone and not adopt LTE then that will be the final nail in their coffin. Every other carrier is on the path to LTE and will at least be able to use comparable equipment. Sprint equipment will undoubtedly cost more because they will be a niche market and manufacturers will not have the benefit of efficiencies of scale (one reason why GSM phones tend to cost less because they are the de fact worldwide standard). | |
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| | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: LTE? said by n2jtx  : Every other carrier is on the path to LTE and will at least be able to use comparable equipment. Sprint equipment will undoubtedly cost more because they will be a niche market and manufacturers will not have the benefit of efficiencies of scale (one reason why GSM phones tend to cost less because they are the de fact worldwide standard). Verizon has said their LTE phones will not have SIM card slots, and not support them. Have fun in carrier branded handset hell. ATT said their LTE will.
How much of a firmware vs physical electronics vs chipset difference this is, I dont know. | |
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| | PastTense5
join:2007-05-15
| said by mindfrost82 :I hope you're being sarcastic Well I for one don't understand what LTE is going to be under the carriers:
Is it going to be a third pipe? An alternative to the cable/telcom duopoly providing broadband now? Or it is going to be a faster EVDO--with little more than the current 5GB monthly limits? | |
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tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
clubs:
 ·T-Mobile US
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: LTE? said by PastTense5 :said by mindfrost82 :I hope you're being sarcastic Well I for one don't understand what LTE is going to be under the carriers: Is it going to be a third pipe? An alternative to the cable/telcom duopoly providing broadband now? Or it is going to be a faster EVDO--with little more than the current 5GB monthly limits? kinda. Except that EVDO is CDMA, while LTE is GSM.
As for the caps, that depends on your provider, and tethering. Chances are, if Sprint and TMO want to compete with hardwire broadband incumbents, they'll be competitive with DSL and Cable internet alternatives, and they'll undercut wifi alternatives. And ATT and VZ could expand their current hardwire DSL/fiber offerings with LTE for rural and suburban areas.
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"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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tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
clubs: | Long-Term Evolution.
LTE is "4g" for cellular networks. It will be an all-ip data network. Fast as hell.
GSM -> GPRS -> EDGE -> UMTS -> HSPA -> LTE | |
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| | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: LTE? said by tiger72 :Long-Term Evolution. LTE is "4g" for cellular networks. It will be an all-ip data network. Fast as hell. Only after sandvine throttling, prioritization of carrier VOIP, and caps. | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·DSL EXTREME
| Re: WiMAX is doomed and so is Sprint While Sprint's demise may be premature, I do think that Sprint may have issues in deploying LTE.
1. Money - they don't have a lot of money to invest..period. What little they have/had is in WiMAX. AT&T has AT&T, VZW has VZ+Vodafone, T-Mobile has DT.
2. Spectrum - Sprint didn't get on the AWS spectrum like T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon Wireless did. What would they run LTE on ? It may be possible to scavenge some spectrum out of their iDEN spectrum swap deal.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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| ydoucare
join:2003-03-12
Rensselaer, IN
·Embarq
·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
2 edits | said by adisor19 :Sprint has 0% chance of survival if they base their future 4G network on WiMAX. They're already bleeding customers like there's no tomorrow and by going with wimax, this will only make things worse. WiMAX should have just been the dumb third pipe that it was meant to be, not some cell network. If phones will ever be made for WiMAX, expect them to be bulky, ugly and generally 1 or 2 generation behind just like CDMA phones are now. There is simply no future for WiMAX as a phone network. Sprint should see the light and plan an LTE roll out asap if they have any intention of still being around as a cell phone provider in the next 4 years. Adi What are you talking about? WiMax is not a cell network, and is not intended to be. It is basically a mobile WiFi standard operating under licensed frequencies. It's only use at this point is mobile internet. The purpose of a WiMax capable phone would be for fast mobile data, not making calls, which is what the pre-existing CDMA network is for. | |
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SHABAZZ
join:2008-07-13
Seattle, WA
| Re: WiMAX is doomed and so is Sprint What do you think AT&T and Verizon will have to do? Run to networks. LTE will need its own separate antennas, radios and base stations. That’s the difference between an all IP network and a switched voice network. And who says that Wimax will be produced in smaller numbers. From my vantage point Wimax is already in the lead and it will stay that way for the foreseeable future. Networks are going live in Asia, Europe, Africa and the US while the LTE protocol is in the process of being finalized and has nothing live outside of field trials. | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: WiMAX is doomed and so is Sprint 1. CDMA EVDO is already an IP only network. 1x supports voice and data
2. UMTS (HSDPA at least) supports voice and data simultaneously, and can be set to data only.
3. WiMax is IP only
4. LTE is IP only
Not a big deal
Having data networks going live and having large scale deployment are two different things.
Total number of wireless (voice/data) subscribers today = +3.5 billion, with +3 billion of those on GSM/UMTS and +500 million on CDMA.
With many major carriers picking LTE as an evolution to CDMA and GSM/UMTS, WiMAX will exist, but in smaller numbers, and devices will most likely have LTE radios in them for roaming purposes. People were saying the same thing on EVDV a few years ago.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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| | | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA
| said by adisor19 :Keeping 2 networks in parallel like what you're implying is madness and VERY expensive. It makes 0 sense to go this way when the WHOLE WORLD is standardizing on LTE. Wimax equipment will be expensive since it will be produced in lower numbers. Adi Actually LTE is based on keeping 2 networks in parallel with one preferably being based on fiber optics. WiMax isn't doomed and the equipment won't be too expensive because it's well suited to the emerging markets of the world and even some of the rural markets of North America where enough fiber optic or wire-line infrastructure doesn't exist and probably won't be built in the near future. Whether it will succeed as a 4G cell phone technology is another matter. | |
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Horde
@tcs-inc.com
| said by adisor19 :Sprint has 0% chance of survival if they base their future 4G network on WiMAX. They're already bleeding customers like there's no tomorrow and by going with wimax, this will only make things worse. WiMAX should have just been the dumb third pipe that it was meant to be, not some cell network. If phones will ever be made for WiMAX, expect them to be bulky, ugly and generally 1 or 2 generation behind just like CDMA phones are now. There is simply no future for WiMAX as a phone network. Sprint should see the light and plan an LTE roll out asap if they have any intention of still being around as a cell phone provider in the next 4 years. Adi Typical....totally clueless individual posting about something he knows nothing about....shocker. | |
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adisor19
join:2004-10-11 | Re: WiMAX is doomed and so is Sprint Sorry if i upset your feelings but reality is Wimax is a doomed standard and a BAD choice TM for sprint.
Adi | |
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SHABAZZ
join:2008-07-13
Seattle, WA
| Re: WiMAX is doomed and so is Sprint The Europeans said the same thing about CDMA in America and look how that turned out. They’re 140 million plus subscribers using a technology that couldn’t survive. I say build both 4G networks and let the people decide not the men behind the curtains. | |
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| | | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
1 edit | Re: WiMAX is doomed and so is Sprint said by SHABAZZ :The Europeans said the same thing about CDMA in America and look how that turned out. They’re 140 million plus subscribers using a technology that couldn’t survive. I say build both 4G networks and let the people decide not the men behind the curtains. CDMA base station equipment and interest free financing was offered for free by Qualcomm to get CDMA adopted outside of North America. Basically it had to bribe the eastern european/3rd world governements and cell carriers to accept the standard. Then Qualcomm jacks up the price on handset chipsets to pay for the near free base stations.
Qualcomm abandoned its CDMA standard because it got its IP and patents into 3G/4G GSM, and doesn't have to worry about whether its parents and IP will be used or not. You can't build a 3G/4G chipset without a license from Qualcomm.
Also the reason why CDMA took off in North Am. was because GSM took WAY too long to appear in the USA, T-mobile was GSM from day 1 (1996/1997), but it was a minority carrier. ATT/SBC didn't go GSM until 2000/2001. It was TDMA before that. TDMA had no upgrade path, and no advantages over GSM, its main purpose was that TDMA falls back to AMPS/US Analog which was widespread at the time, while GSM could NEVER do that (lets ignore that aborted effort). | |
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mike12806
Premium
join:2007-08-28
Milton, MA | smart movie..... Sprint's been running two obsolete, proprietary network technologies for years now (iDen and CDMA), so who wouldn't expect them to pick the one technology no other mobile carrier is adopting? | |
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| hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Re: smart movie..... CDMA is hardly obsolete in this country. the US screwed up when VZW, Sprint, Alltel, Cricket, MetroPCS and everyone else basically went to CDMA instead of GSM. ATT, T-Mobile and a few other smaller providers that are GSM knew what they were doing in adopting an a technology that is and will be world wide for many years to come. and iDEN is still used around the world as well. Sprint also isnt the only carrier in the US that offers iDEN. | |
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| | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: smart movie..... said by hottboiinnc :CDMA is hardly obsolete in this country. the US screwed up when VZW, Sprint, Alltel, Cricket, MetroPCS and everyone else basically went to CDMA instead of GSM. Cricket was founded by Qualcomm for the sole reason of pushing CDMA technology. | |
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| | | | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | Re: smart movie..... okay. i missed that part. But how do you claim it was used to push CDMA? Sprint already was the largest company pushing CDMA before 1999 and VZ was there as well. Still doesnt hold weight that QC was using it to push their technology. | |
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jfmezei_anon
@vaxination.ca
| Sprint Not Ruling Out LTE In Canada, Bell Canada has already begun to deploy HSDPA as an overlay to its CDMA network.
Verizon has already stated it will go with LTE after CDMA. CDMA is today where TDMA was some years ago: no path forwards.
Verizon and Sprint are already feeling the effects of lesser choice of proprietary CDMA handsets versus the GSM networks. This is not only due to the much bigger worldwide GSM market, but aslo because of Qualcomm's business practices that have resulted in manufacturers being sued by Qualcomm and/or having to pay too high a royalty fee to make money on handsets.
If the rest of the world goes LTE, Sprint would be unwise to not follow because its would then be stuck with being too small to get a decent selection of handsets.
I think WiMax is more likely to be an ISP service than a mobile phone service. And it could be deployed widely enough to offer services to delivery trucks and other similar businesses in large cities. | |
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Sprint Not Ruling Out LTE
Why Ben Wolff is FORMER Clearwire CEO