vB Easy Archive - When TDMA and AMPS gets turned off...

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When TDMA and AMPS gets turned off...
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Posted by: IronCross

Does anyone think AT&T will use this freed up 850 spectrum to widely deploy UMTS/WCDMA?

Posted by: JoeyDee

Yes. Albany, NY for example has HSUPA on 850MHz... one of the first markets to have it on 850mhz, so I can't imagine them NOT doing the same in other markets. No one else has 3G on 850MHz...because of that, AT&T has potential to top Sprint for largest 3G coverage map... but that's going to take some time.

Posted by: RogerPodacter

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronCross

Does anyone think AT&T will use this freed up 850 spectrum to widely deploy UMTS/WCDMA?

yeah i think thats the general idea. feb 2008 hopefully will open things up to make 3G widespread. though i dont think it will be like flipping a switch. but hopefully it will be quick roll out.

Posted by: zephxiii

Hopefully, would be nice to know the amount of spectrum AMPS and TDMA is taking up currently though.

Posted by: marshal

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeyDee

Yes. Albany, NY for example has HSUPA on 850MHz... one of the first markets to have it on 850mhz, so I can't imagine them NOT doing the same in other markets. No one else has 3G on 850MHz...because of that, AT&T has potential to top Sprint for largest 3G coverage map... but that's going to take some time.

New Orleans has 3G on 850 since that launch there a little over a year ago.

Posted by: JoeyDee

Nice, I was told albany was the first, but it doesnt matter. Maybe first for hsupa on 850 i bet? I don't care, i'm just waiting for the 2 AT&Tingular towers i'd otherwise connect to get 3g soon, my sprint card only connects up to 1, so if it goes down for maintanance, i'm screwed.

Posted by: ~X~

I certainly hope so. AT&T is pretty behind and they need to catch up... quick....

Posted by: Unklegeek

850Mhz equipment is alreading rolling into markets. A LARGE frequency retune just cleared 5Mhz of contigous frequency on 850 for testing.

Posted by: JRM

was that a national re-tune? I noticed a few more sites had there TDMA raidos deleted and all the DCC's in my area moved around a bit..

Posted by: MrDerby

Stop Edge too... Anyone agree?

Posted by: Tacamo

Way too early to end edge in my opinion. Look at how long some held on to TDMA and GAIT phones.

Posted by: MrDerby

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tacamo

Way too early to end edge in my opinion. Look at how long some held on to TDMA and GAIT phones.

I know.. I know

I am just having a pipe dream moment.. WCDMA2000

Posted by: Unklegeek

Goodbye GSM 2012

Posted by: MrDerby

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unklegeek

Goodbye GSM 2012

Good Goal! You just guessing on the date??

Posted by: JoeyDee

Not to be too off topic... but can LTE fallback to wcdma without a droped call? or we dont know yet?

Posted by: zephxiii

I'm sure it will, the real question is they are still going to force the use of SIM cards right?

Posted by: JoeyDee

Then if LTE will fallback onto wcdma without a droped call, that gives AT&T a HUGE advantage over verizon. Those 100mbit/s+ speeds reports on phonescoop made me drool. But then again that was one user under a mile away connecting to a site alone, so speeds going to be insane anyways.

Posted by: MrDerby

Quote:

Originally Posted by zephxiii

I'm sure it will, the real question is they are still going to force the use of SIM cards right?

I don't mean to come accross as a smart #$#@ but.. I thought with our technology any GSM based company always needed and always will need sim cards LTE or not..

Am I right?

Posted by: George Knighton

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrDerby

I don't mean to come accross as a smart #$#@ but.. I thought with our technology any GSM based company always needed and always will need sim cards LTE or not..

But at what point are you no longer "GSM-based" ?

You could build a WCDMA phone for AT&T that doesn't need a SIM.

But at this point you're alienating a big chunk of the customer base who simply got used to being able to rely on a SIM to transfer information and switch phones without having to call anybody.

I think that AT&T is going to have SIM's for the forseeable future, whether or not they need them.

Posted by: SHoTTa35

People really need to stop thinking WCDMA is CDMA replacing GSM. WCDMA is just the AIR interface, the system is still GSM based which is TDMA based (i think). WCDMA just the middle man, it just passes on the info to/from cell phones.

Also, to the earlier question, WCDMA falls back to GSM mode no problem currently. I don't see any reason why LTE wouldn't fall back to WCDMA or for that matter GSM.

Japan using whatever they are using now, they still use some form of SIM card right or am i wrong?

Posted by: zephxiii

Well i believe UMTS still uses the GSM MAP core network and speech codecs which is a part of GSM. I am no totally sure, but with UMTS, USIM I think is still required as part of the system design, but not totally sure.

Posted by: i0wnj00

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHoTTa35

Japan using whatever they are using now, they still use some form of SIM card right or am i wrong?

Only for their 3G networks, NTT DoMoCo on FOMA and Softbank on WCDMA.
The latter will rent a USIM card to visitors with a supported phone, this is what I ended up doing when I was in Japan.

Posted by: ALCingularUser

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeyDee

Then if LTE will fallback onto wcdma without a droped call, that gives AT&T a HUGE advantage over verizon. Those 100mbit/s+ speeds reports on phonescoop made me drool. But then again that was one user under a mile away connecting to a site alone, so speeds going to be insane anyways.

Well, VZW is going LTE as well, but, for them, it will likely require either a hybrid LTE/CDMA handset similar to the old GAIT phones, or they'll have to do a complete LTE buildout all at once.

Posted by: psycho-

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHoTTa35

People really need to stop thinking WCDMA is CDMA replacing GSM. WCDMA is just the AIR interface, the system is still GSM based which is TDMA based (i think). WCDMA just the middle man, it just passes on the info to/from cell phones.

Also, to the earlier question, WCDMA falls back to GSM mode no problem currently. I don't see any reason why LTE wouldn't fall back to WCDMA or for that matter GSM.

Japan using whatever they are using now, they still use some form of SIM card right or am i wrong?

Just to clarify this statement. WCDMA is a CDMA-based air interface. The way it's implemented is overlayed on top of a GSM core. GSM is based on a TDMA system.

WCDMA/UMTS is based on a CDMA system (like Sprint/VZW) and adapted to a GSM infrastructure as per GSM Association's reqiurements.

The royalties paid to Qualcomm on UMTS/WCDMA and LTE are significant

Posted by: IronCross

Quote:

Originally Posted by psycho-

To add to this, WCDMA/3GSM is classified as UMTS. UMTS is the evolution of GSM Association-approved technologies.

WCDMA, which IS obviously a CDMA based technology, is replacing the outdated TDMA-based technologies in use today. WCDMA/CDMA is leaps and bounds better than TDMA-based technology in an overall sense. GSM/GPRS/EDGE are basically based off of what could be considered as narrowband TDMA, since TDMA frames are used on differing frequency channels in comparison to IS-136 TDMA.

(Disclaimer: If I've made any errors in the above statement, please correct me, thank you.)

My hope though, is that with TDMA and AMPS off, the unused 850MHz spectrum will be used to deploy UMTS. Especially since 850 is FAR superior to 1900 coverage-wise and for building penetration.

Posted by: SHoTTa35

yeah i'm hoping it gets done soon too. I know they said Feb but 3G just got turned on by my house. Sux tho cuz i live in a bit of a valley and gotta use a booster to get signal. Got a sweet deal on a zBoost CEL (850) repeater so i'm using that and it works great. So with that being there i lock to EDGE since it's full signal (as a result of the booster) and 3G is basically none inside (2bars on my roof). If they switched it to 850 i'd get all 3G at home

Posted by: FullStrength

I dont think GSM is ever going away, because when LTE rolling on in. It will take 3-5 years for people to convert. I think the new config is going to GSM/UMTS/LTE/ including edge. It will take 5-10 years for other gsm systems to catch up. I wouldnt be surprised to see. EVDO/UMTS/LTE created as well since. CDMA and TDMA are just about done.

Posted by: IronCross

Bump for relevancy within the next couple of days.