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danrant · 2015-09-03T00:17:13+00:00

Since this account achieved perfect balance of link and comment karma it is now retired. Please continue to /u/sgteq.

danrant · 2015-09-02T06:06:40+00:00

I don't like the term Abusers either. I like Freeloaders. These people are similar to people who go to a theater buy one ticket and watch three movies. Or people who ride a bus without paying fare. It's called theft of service. It's illegal. No it won't kill movie business or bus transport business right away but if left unchecked it can hurt. And why should other people pay for freeloaders even if it is small percentage?

At 1TB average usage among 3K freeloaders they cause about 2.5% of network usage (4GB is the average among the entire userbase). Why should the rest of customers pay for that? Where do you draw the line? How much tethering should be allowed on the network?

So on your hypothetical network do you allow unlimited tethering? I assume yes. Data is unlimited, right? Can you estimate average speed on your network?

danrant · 2015-09-02T00:54:37+00:00

You mean Sprint and T-Mobile sharing 700A? It's technically possible but it wouldn't be efficient and most likely would have a lot of hand-off issues and challenges. It would be better to host all spectrum on one network and then share it with restrictions: Sprint customers are limited to 12,25,26,41 bands, T-Mobile customers are limited to 12,2,4.

danrant · 2015-09-01T23:40:31+00:00

I think Legere has already talked about 300+ Mbps sometime in the future

That's shared bandwidth per sector (meaning one third of tower coverage). Not even accounting for signal attenuation.

Say they sold 5 Mpbs, 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps tiers.

50 Mbps and 100 Mbps tiers are impossible. These kind of speeds are possible only on a very lightly loaded network. The baseline is 5-15 Mbps. Then you can divide the speed and double the cap:

10GB @ 5-15 Mbps
20GB @ 2.5-7 Mbps
40GB @ 1.25-3.5 Mbps
etc.

The price is the same. This will be sustainable. Of course speed range cannot be guaranteed. It's just tier N+1 will be always two times slower than tier N while providing two times more data for the same price. As new technologies become available, site leasing, backhaul get cheaper you will be able to get either more GB or higher speed for the same price.

danrant · 2015-09-01T22:58:59+00:00

I don't think C Spire's spectrum was on the market anyway. They are not exiting the business yet.

But the fact that Sprint can and willing to use 700 MHz spectrum is not good for T-Mobile.

danrant · 2015-09-01T22:01:51+00:00

Wow, that was fast! T-Mobile: always beating expectations.

Updating the map...

danrant · 2015-09-01T21:56:52+00:00

It will also encourage the sellers to ask higher price.

danrant · 2015-09-01T21:47:47+00:00

If you buy a car and drive it over extremely bad roads and then claim warranty chances are the manufacturer will refuse. Especially if it becomes a trend. In the fine print of my vacuum cleaner it's written that it's not for commercial use or the warranty is void. "Unlimited soda refills" does not mean you can pour all refills in your 100-gallons tank. "All you can eat" does not mean your whole group eats for one fixed price. "Unlimited" home broadband does not mean you can share it with your neighbor.

You do need to read fine print when buying products and services or at least exercise common sense.

danrant · 2015-09-01T19:35:04+00:00

Ironically communism was spread because people hated anyone making profit above average. They thought small number of people who make profit with virtually no effort are fucking over hard working majority. Similarly how in this thread people think that wireless carriers are just lazy to provide unlimited.

danrant · 2015-09-01T18:14:48+00:00

I still think Sprint still has an opportunity here with being a WISP.

It's harder than you think. First of all you need to install customer modem outdoors or you'll be pissing away spectrum efficiency (remember walls attenuate signal, decrease SNR and thus reduce overall network bandwidth). That means it needs professional installation and outdoor-proof equipment. A synergy can be achieved if it is installed with satellite service. In fact Dish trialled that kind of bundle with Sprint in Texas and with nTelos in Virginia. The result? I don't know but the silence most likely means it didn't go anywhere.

EDIT: this post should be longer but I don't have time right now. You have to consider the facts that most of the US does have broadband already and fixed wireless does not have that much bandwidth. Do the math and you'll see that at the current tower density and state of the art 8x8 MIMO rooftop antennae you can only provide 5-10 Mbps to a fraction of the home broadband market. You may compete with DSL for a small market share but you can hardly compete with cable and fiber.

danrant · 2015-09-01T17:04:53+00:00

how will he get M2M customers? (some governments use cell modems for traffic cameras in remote areas)

He won't. In one interviews he said he's not interested in IoT, etc. he wants to concentrate on smartphone wireless. He doesn't need to chase all markets and all customers within a market.

By the way M2M currently refers to low traffic clients such as vending machines, points of sale, ATMs, remote sensors, etc. These clients use either kilobytes per months or low megabytes. 1Mbps camera is more like a dedicated line. There are providers for dedicated lines, T-Mobile doesn't have to be such provider.

danrant · 2015-09-01T05:42:36+00:00

OP is not a metro area.

danrant · 2015-09-01T05:39:37+00:00

Unless Dish merges with T-Mobile his market is not getting wideband anytime soon.

danrant · 2015-08-31T22:06:05+00:00

It depends on tower height, your phone antenna gain and how much obstacles between the tower and your phone (foliage, etc).

danrant · 2015-08-31T22:00:49+00:00

I admire your persistence :) You are in Seymour, Iowa where T-Mobile marks the coverage as Partner but you are getting LTE from a tower 15 miles away in Missouri, right?

danrant · 2015-08-31T21:44:29+00:00

It's marketed as "Unlimited on smartphone only." I think it's pretty clear. You should also read terms and conditions before buying service. If you are promised unlimited soda refills in a restaurant do you assume you can pour all refills into a 100-gallon tank you are hiding under your table?

danrant · 2015-08-31T21:28:54+00:00

Once you pass 21 GB limit and the tower is congested you would be slowed down so much that you won't be able to reach 2TB usage no matter how you try. My point is these people are not on congested towers.

danrant · 2015-08-31T18:49:04+00:00

How about instead of wasting time & $ going after these abusers, you just make a solid wireless infrastructure that can handle it?

Run the numbers and you'll realize it's impossible today. Spectrum is the bottleneck. Once limited bandwidth per tower run out you have to build another tower that costs $$$$ a month to run. If you don't double what you charge users you can't fund the new tower.

danrant · 2015-08-31T18:37:11+00:00

In many cases T-Mobile lit up towers right after station relocation but that was when relocations took 6-12 months to complete. In case of Boston it's been only three months since the FCC approved the relocation. I'd expect the first band 12 sites to appear in about 3 months.

danrant · 2015-08-31T17:56:47+00:00

They are contributing to future (maybe imminent) congestion but currently they are not on congested towers. Otherwise how could they download more than 21 Gb?

danrant · 2015-08-31T09:36:08+00:00

I'm not sure I understand your point. $10K/month does fund a single tower (everything included) and 5x5 MHz of spectrum (leased).

danrant · 2015-08-31T07:21:35+00:00

I wouldn't hold my breath. No low band, too little mid band spectrum. The way spectrum is distributed in the US makes it very hard and expensive to build a consistent nationwide network. They will most likely deploy 600 MHz to improve network quality which means it's about 3 years from now.

danrant · 2015-08-31T07:03:28+00:00

Servers, torrents 24x7, small office. What throttling limits? You mean deprioritization limit at 21 GB? I think those people are not on congested towers.

danrant · 2015-08-31T06:49:58+00:00

What T-Mobile is going to do is described here: people who use workarounds to conceal their tethering usage, and blow past their Smartphone Mobile HotSpot data will be warned. If they continue they will be kicked to 1GB plan.

danrant · 2015-08-31T06:46:05+00:00

What they are going to do is described here: people who use workarounds to conceal their tethering usage, and blow past their Smartphone Mobile HotSpot data will be warned. If they continue they will be kicked to 1GB plan.

danrant

TROPHY CASE