Should the fact that T-Mobile is GSM while Sprint is CDMA (as far as I recall) matter? Is 5G going to make that distinction go away (ignoring frequency issues, which I thought I read was still a concern)?
T-Mobile has successfully managed a CDMA merger (MetroPCS) and subsequent re-farming of spectrum to their GSM-based LTE stack with minimal disruption. (they basically put the CDMA 1X bands into the HSPA guard bands, announced a sunset date, and closed it)
Where Sprint's merger would suck (amongst other things) is that they were wholly too incompetent to launch a modern IMS (voice-over-LTE) network where MetroPCS was able to do so.
LTE has made the distinction go away. LTE is the next generation for both the 3GPP camp (GSM, UMTS/HSPA) and the 3GPP2 camp (CDMA, EVDO). From LTE onward, it's 3GPP only.
Yes, I know. I was only replying to the second question of the parent really, pointing that there is no need to wait for 5G to see a 3GPP/3GPP2 merge.
The fact that Sprint has decided to keep their voice on CDMA for a while will not stop a merger like that IMHO. It will just mean more work for the merge (if it goes on).
Moving away from CDMA and supporting VoLTE is bound to happen even if Sprint stays solo. Other operators have plans to sunset CDMA (e.g. end 2019 for Verizon), and at some point it doesn't make sense to stay with a now legacy standard with no traction.
>Moving away from CDMA and supporting VoLTE is bound to happen even if Sprint stays solo. Other operators have plans to sunset CDMA (e.g. end 2019 for Verizon), and at some point it doesn't make sense to stay with a now legacy standard with no traction.
They backed themselves into a corner because they use unusual spectrum and don't have the funds to upgrade all their towers to modern technologies. It makes sense when you can't afford to upgrade.
T-Mobile has no plans to sunset GSM yet because it costs them very little to maintain, uses little spectrum, and allows legacy equipment to stay on the network. Some even predict they'll sunset WCDMA before GSM.
Sprint spent 5 years on the network vision project, it rolled LTE out to their entire footprint, and was an all but forklift upgrade to their field infrastructure. The only components left from the original site usually was the power cabinet, and the tower structure itself, everything else was new.
CDMA costs no more for sprint to keep on the air then GSM does for T-Mobile.
Don't fool yourself about LTE being compatible between carriers. They each implement custom authentication/authorization/signaling developed in the 90s still running on mainframes :/ Each carrier implements a portion of the LTE specification and adds/removes parts of it as they see fit
Got any sources to back this up? Because all of the gear carriers use is off the shell Ericsson/Siemens/Huawei stuff, and LTE mandates LDAP for subscriber information (most of them use OpenLDAP) - the only thing that really differs in their infrastructure is their billing software that manages subscriber data in the directory.
The only physical difference really is RF spectrum, and most phones released these days just cover every last LTE band their chipset possibly can (putting out tons of different versions is expensive, yo) - maybe limited to the specific bands used in the target region at worst.
In late 2014 bought an LG Optimus G E970 Unlocked 4G LTE phone, and it never connected with LTE on TMobile's network. So I had basically shit coverage except in major cities, but even in major cities it never used LTE.
Soon thereafter I got a Motola Moto G (XT1540) and even in podunk mountain towns I get LTE connections with the same Tmobile service.
>Soon thereafter I got a Motola Moto G (XT1540) and even in podunk mountain towns I get LTE connections with the same Tmobile service.
Band 12 (700mhz) made a HUGE difference in rural coverage in areas it covers.
Speaking of proprietary standards and stuf... Band 12 was held up in device support by AT&T (and some hw vendors) that claimed channel 51 television stations would interfere with their network without a new signaling standard and filtering. So they conveniently created a proprietary band 17 that cut off the lower-A block of spectrum that T-Mobile and other rural carriers owned. This had a filter in hardware so no devices supported Band 12 until early 2016.
AT&T of course, helpfully said they'd move to band 12 now that things are resolved. Didn't want to look anti-competitive or anything....
I also tried that. I got a phone off contract for really cheap (I think it was Verizon) and then tried to port it to T-Mobile. My connection was really flaky. I finally filed a claim on my insurance for my phone and switched to a nexus 5x. That solved the majority of my problems. Also each network is divided between bands, and phones sometimes only focus on specific bands. It doesn't really make a difference if your phone was made for a specific carrier, but if you are trying to transfer networks your radio might not be able to fully take advantage of the new network.
