[Legos]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/20271..._4g_users.html

[w7excursion]

I was never alarmed.(?)

[Legos]

I was told WiMax sucks at penetrating buildings because its on a higher frequency than LTE. LTE will penetrate buildings because it runs on a lower frequency. In my house I get only the 4G indicator with no bars. But I have to be in my bedroom next to a window...LOL. Otherwise, I can't get it in my living room. I did pick up 4G at iHop the other day though.

[mysticaldreams]

Wirelessly posted (paviliona1250n: Opera/9.7 (WindowsMobile; PPC; Opera Mobi/35267; U; en; Presto/2.1.1))

I can hardly get 3G in my house, so no surprise there.

[Duffman]

Can't LTE be run on Sprint's band of the spectrum? And would it not be susceptible to the same penetration problems? I thought LTE was just a protocol implementation.

[Dan]

It is the frequencies the carriers are using. Sprint / Clearwire has a license for the 2.5Ghz band, while Verizon and AT&T are getting frequency in the 700 Mhz band. Its the same as how an 800 Mhz Verizon signal will get into a building better than a 1.9 Ghz Sprint signal will.

[SLME]

Originally Posted by Dan

It is the frequencies the carriers are using. Sprint / Clearwire has a license for the 2.5Ghz band, while Verizon and AT&T are getting frequency in the 700 Mhz band. Its the same as how an 800 Mhz Verizon signal will get into a building better than a 1.9 Ghz Sprint signal will.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/Fee...ternet-on-ear/

And as a side note... Key point in bold between the LTE 700 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency pros and cons...

Verizon Wireless plans to deploy LTE technology in the 700 MHz spectrum while Clearwire has been deploying WiMax and plans to deploy LTE in the 2500 MHz spectrum. The difference between the two?

You guessed it - Verizon’s signal will theoretically be able to travel farther from the tower to the user, while Clearwire’s signal will be able to have more bandwidth to the user and the more bandwidth, the faster then internet. In addition to utilizing a band of spectrum better suited for high bandwidth activity, Clearwire also has MORE spectrum than any other wireless carrier in the US. In fact, Clearwire plans to use this to their advantage in the deployment phase of their role out. They will deploy and maintain 40MHz of spectrum per site as opposed to Verizon’s 20MHz of spectrum per site. Let me quickly explain this one: when we throw around terms like 2500 MHz band or 700 MHz band that number is really a generalization. In reality, Clearwire operates between 2496MHz and 2606MHz. So, in any given site, Clearwire may use (for example) bands from 2500MHz to 2540MHz to bring internet to users. At the very same tower Verizon would have an LTE base station that broadcast using frequencies 700MHz - 720Mhz.

[boomhower]

I hope Sprint eventually changes to LTE. It will make it easier for manufacturers to develop phones for Sprint. As long as Sprint remains the last hold out they will be on the bottom when it comes to handsets. If they can use the same tech that the bi boys of AT&T and VZW use they will be much better off. I don't get why they have tried pushing WiMax so hard when the rest of the world is doing LTE.

[Legos]

Originally Posted by boomhower

I hope Sprint eventually changes to LTE. It will make it easier for manufacturers to develop phones for Sprint. As long as Sprint remains the last hold out they will be on the bottom when it comes to handsets. If they can use the same tech that the bi boys of AT&T and VZW use they will be much better off. I don't get why they have tried pushing WiMax so hard when the rest of the world is doing LTE.

Well, they did go CDMA when everyone else went GSM. From my readings, CDMA uses more cell phone battery power but the call quality can't be beat. Would you rather have great battery life and crappy call quality or the other way around?...LOL

[mynamewastaken]

Originally Posted by boomhower

I hope Sprint eventually changes to LTE. It will make it easier for manufacturers to develop phones for Sprint. As long as Sprint remains the last hold out they will be on the bottom when it comes to handsets. If they can use the same tech that the bi boys of AT&T and VZW use they will be much better off. I don't get why they have tried pushing WiMax so hard when the rest of the world is doing LTE.

Rest of the world? Check your facts.

WiMax is big in Europe and Asia. I'm in Tokyo right now, and I was looking at WiMax portable hot spots in the store yesterday. Rated at 40Mb/s, too.

[mynamewastaken]

Originally Posted by Legos

Well, they did go CDMA when everyone else went GSM. From my readings, CDMA uses more cell phone battery power but the call quality can't be beat. Would you rather have great battery life and crappy call quality or the other way around?...LOL

Again, "everyone else" doesn't include most of Asia.

[boomhower]

OK, let me be more specific. The rest of the US carriers. Asia gets all kinds of cool phones, pretty much daily. How many of those do we see here? Same for Europe. Original Hero, HD, etc. What is developed outside the states generally has little affect here. It is either heavily modified or doesn't get here at all. I am not an expert on why. Is it different regulatory specs or something else, I don't know. But history has shown time and again that hot phones outside the US don't make it here.

Seriously, though. Do you think Sprint would get more, good, phones if a company can make one phone for AT&T, VZW, and Sprint or if they have to develop another phone with a different chipset, test it, and get it approved by the FCC just for Sprint? Not to mention roaming agreements with VZW has been a boon for Sprint. Now that won't necessarily happen with 4G but it's certainly a possibility. I'm just not seeing any upside to wimax at all. Even several of the big hardware developers of WiMax networking equipment have gotten out of it.

Well, they did go CDMA when everyone else went GSM. From my readings, CDMA uses more cell phone battery power but the call quality can't be beat. Would you rather have great battery life and crappy call quality or the other way around?...LOL

Yes, but the VZW is also using CDMA. Now they will be alone.

My glass ball says Sprint will either switch to LTE or merge with T-Mobile. My money is one the first option. Of course if clearwire switches Sprint's hand will be forced.

[exitrooster]

Originally Posted by boomhower

OK, let me be more specific. The rest of the US carriers. Asia gets all kinds of cool phones, pretty much daily. How many of those do we see here? Same for Europe. Original Hero, HD, etc. What is developed outside the states generally has little affect here. It is either heavily modified or doesn't get here at all. I am not an expert on why. Is it different regulatory specs or something else, I don't know. But history has shown time and again that hot phones outside the US don't make it here.

I don't want to get this topic 'off-topic', but I wanted to add that it is far more than just phones that Asia and Eurpoe(lesser so than the 1st) get "all the cool things". Look at electronics in general - Game systems ALWAYS have add-on modules (you know, those almost always useless, unused expansion bays on console in the US, yeah, 9 times out of 10 there are at least a few expansion devices released in Asia. Handheld systems like the PSP are far more advanced (just as an example). And at first, I used to think it was, well, because that's where many of those systems were developed, even though that made little sense when it comes down to the almighty dollar (if the research was done, why not release to ALL markets, right?) But then Xbox, made by the USA turns and does the same thing, sort of, by creating and releasing 'games' such as N.U.D.E., an AI simulator with all sorts of cool innovations - But not in the US, it's home turf.

I can't tell you why, either. But I can say that since the original NES this tradition of screw the US has existed and it's bugged me to no end. And it's not always the 'greatest and latest tech'. Remember the phone used in the movie 'The Matrix'? (dubbed the Matrix phone by many who didn't know what it was, or don't remember like me, heh). It was the one, that Europe, Asia, and pretty much every continent COULD have except the US, again, who knows why.. It was spring loaded so when you press a button, it springs up into operational mode. Somewhere out there, either on some government panel or at manny research and development firms there sits a group of idiots who thinks, "American doesn't care about this, or oh dear, this might be soo scary for America to handle".. Morons.

[Legos]

If we always followed Asia or Europe, then we would have probably slipped into a depression. The US way of thinking isn't perfect but we do not have the #1 economy because we allow a ton of different phones to flood our market.

[myfartsmell]

My understanding is that WIMAX had to be chosen. I could be wrong but I think Sprint/CLWR was mandated to use their frequencies or loose them, and WIMAX was the only technology ready to be deployed at that time.

I *think* they are under contract to use Wimax exclusively through a certain time period (could always be negotiated out), but that the sites are being developed to allow an easy switch to LTE, should they want to go that route in the future.

Both technologies have their pluses and minuses, and we have yet to see how they play out and develop.

I like to speculate that one reason they may have the $10.00 evo fee may be to limit the amount of people using the network while they continue to work out the kinks.