Sprint & HAPSMobile Will Perform 4G Aeriel HAPS Testing

FierceWireless Reported:

Sprint plans to test a High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) communications system for six months starting in November. 

Documents filed (PDF) with the FCC show the carrier has asked for a “special temporary authority” to conduct demonstrations of experimental transmitters using spectrum frequencies ranging from the 1.9 GHz personal communications service (PCS) band and the 2.5 GHz broadband radio service (BRS) and educational broadband service (EBS) bands. 

The tests will be conducted with HAPSmobile, a joint venture between Sprint’s parent Softbank and AeroVironment that was formed in 2017. 

Sprint said it will be testing a HAPS system’s ability to maintain a stable LTE link with ground equipment over the island of Lanai, Hawaii. It will also test handover capabilities with end user equipment and signal coverage over the island. 

Mobile World Live added:

Though initial tests would focus on LTE, Sprint’s proposed use of 2.5GHz spectrum raises the possibility it has an eye toward using the technology for 5G.

Related Posts:

• Connectivity Technology Blog: HAPSMobile - Bringing Connectivity from the Sky for Unserved Areas & Emergencies
• Small Cells Blog: KT 5G Skyship Search and Rescue Platform
• Small Cells Blog: Altaeros’ Autonomous Tethered Aerial Cell Tower, SuperTower ST200

Sprint Keynote from #B5GS 2019 - Power of Massive MIMO and Band 41 5G NR

Sprint CTO, John Saw, talked about their 5G plans and how this new ecosystem promises to disrupt a number of market verticals such as agriculture, health care, and manufacturing at the Brooklyn 5G Summit 2019. He specifically focussed on Massive MIMO and shared a use case of its integration of 4G with 5G.

In case you are not aware, Sprint has a big chunk of Band 41 (above picture) available that they have been using for variety of stuff (see 3G4G blog post on HPUE & Small Cells blog post on MagicBox)

Some great TDD Massive MIMO slides by John Saw, CTO, Sprint (@SprintCTO) from #B5GS #5G #ENDC pic.twitter.com/WceAxel1uF

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) April 24, 2019

Sprint will be launching 5G on 31st May in 4 cities with LG V50 and HTC 5G Hub. You can learn all about 5G devices from my MWC post on The 3G4G blog here.

Here is the video, courtesy of IEEE TV




Related posts:

• Sprint: Small Cells and 5G
• Sprint's Small Cells in the stadium
• Sprint's Magic Box
• Sprint's Trebl: Magic Box + Alexa + HiFi Speakers
• Sprint's Outdoor Small Cells - In Pictures
• High Power / Performance User Equipment (#HPUE)

Sprint: Small Cells and 5G

Sprint has been in news for their small cells and 5G, in addition to possible merger with T-Mobile. In a recent blog post, Jon Saw, CTO of Sprint mentioned that they have over 15,000 outdoor small cells and over 65,000 magic boxes. Here are some links regarding small cells:

• 3G4G Small Cells Blog: Sprint's Outdoor Small Cells - In Pictures
• 3G4G Small Cells Blog: Sprint's Small Cells in the stadium
• 3G4G Small Cells Blog: Sprint's Magic Box

Sprint are also building on their legacy TD-LTE experience to deploy massive MIMO for LTE and 5G. The fact that Sprint has a lot of 2.5 GHz spectrum will help them massively in 5G rollouts.

To make their subscribers aware of their 5G vision, they have also created a new Sprint 5G YouTube channel. The playlist below expands further on their vision.


Related posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: High Power / Performance User Equipment (#HPUE)
• The 3G4G Blog: Using 8T8R Antennas for TD-LTE

AT&T and Verizon are now tied for the rank of largest U.S. mobile carrier

Who leads the U.S. in mobile subscribers? According to mobile analyst Chetan Sharma, it’s now a neck-and-neck race between AT&T and Verizon who collectively controls 68 percent of the market.

At the end of March, AT&T had 116 million total connections, but that number includes all of its wholesale subscribers (those that connect with one of AT&T’s mobile virtual network operator partners) and machine-to-machine links attached to cars, gadgets and other devices in the internet of things. Verizon doesn’t report any of those numbers. It only reveals business and consumer retail subscribers buying their service directly from Verizon. That number totaled 103 million.

If you only factored in AT&T’s retail prepaid and postpaid customers you would get 85.1 million, but AT&T has a substantially larger wholesale business Verizon. So by Sharma’s calculations just as many people are connecting their phones and tablets and hotspots to AT&T’s network as Verizon.

Any way you look at it, these two carriers are huge. They collected control 68 percent of the U.S. wireless market. It’s also interesting to note that if Sprint were to merge with T-Mobile – as Sprint’s new chairman Masayoshi Son is so keen on doing– the two would hold a combined 30 percent of the U.S. mobile market.

That’s still smaller than either Big Red or Ma Bell, but definitely qualifies as a mega-carrier. And it doesn’t leave much room for the other guys. The 125 or so regional and rural carriers in the U.S. accounted for a meager 2 percent of all mobile subscriptions.

Source

US Wireless Market Trends Q1 2014