Wait wat? AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile to share network

[oh you mad]

[h1]AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Signed An Unprecedented Deal To Make Smartphones Work Better[/h1]
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/att-verizon-t-mobile-share-spectrum-2013-2#ixzz2JogkLdRn

Ever been in a crowded place and you can't get service on your phone to make a call?

Sometimes there are too many phones on your service provider's network. Smartphones have made the situation worse, because watching videos and chatting on FaceTime hogs the network.

Three carriers just signed an unprecedented deal to try and solve that problem. For the first time AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have agreed to experiment with sharing network space with each other and the federal government.

In the past, the government has auctioned off network space, known in geek speak as wireless spectrum. Each carrier got its own spectrum. But they desperately need more. The Feds have it and its sitting mostly unused, reserved for the military.

Carriers have been after Washington for eons to auction it off. But there are reasons not to like what if, heaven forbid, there's a war and the military needs it?

Sharing it between all the carriers and the feds seems a natural solution, but it's not something that the carriers ever wanted to try. They'd rather let their competitors run out of room.

But this chunk of spectrum is so big and juicy the three have agreed to experiment with sharing it. (More geek speak: 95 MHz of spectrum in the 1755 - 1850 MHz band.)

The biggest selling point: this spectrum is already being used by carriers in Europe, "so there are plenty of smartphones available without having to manufacture products with new frequencies," wireless industry pioneer George Schmitt told Business Insider. Schmitt is CEO of MB Technology Holdings, a company that makes the tech that lets carriers share spectrum and one of the guys that invented the wireless industry. As former CEO for one of the first mobile phone carriers, PCS PrimeCo (now Verizon Wireless), he bought $2.5 billion worth of spectrum from the feds 16 years ago.

Schmitt says this deal would let carriers handle double to quadruple the number of phone calls and video downloads they could handle now.

"Demand could go up a couple 100 percent and there will still be plenty of capacity," he says.

Better still, if carriers could figure out how to share, this could lead to better coverage in rural areas and faster adoption of a new wireless technologies, like something called White Spaces Super Wi-Fi.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/att-verizon-t-mobile-share-spectrum-2013-2#ixzz2JogaYNNb

 

[Bert.]

this will make Tmobile better than it already was

 

[trilluminated]

another L for sprint..

 

[sir charles]

another L for sprint..

Sprint is connected to another network called cricket. I use Verizon, but it's actually pretty interesting. Once you run out of crickets service area, you instantly go into sprints.

 

[yanky]

I'm always roaming when I'm at school or work. I hate sprint's coverage it's so minimal and so is the 4G. Sprint needs to step their game up

 

[ricky409]

T-Mobile >>>>

 

[mplsdunk]

sprint is ***. i kept my hopes up for 3/4 of my contract. once it's up back to tmobile.

 

[ohmygosher]

Sprint is for poor people and children.

Glad they're making this move tho.

 

[Mr Dink]

Nice.

 

[mplsdunk]

I pay 94 a month on sprint. Was paying 50 something on T-Mobile. I guess I rep team poor.

 

[mr marcus]

Leaving sprint once my contract is up this fall...get 25%?off at Verizon anyway

 

[GTA 809]

Sprint is for poor people and children.

Glad they're making this move tho.

Everyone used to say the same thing about T-mo, but they really stepped their game up/

 

[oidreez]

I just switched to sprint

 

[todobien]

Sprint is horrible my cousin doesn't even get 4G in effing NYC, this will be good for everybody really but I'm sure they will find a way to charge more

 

[milestailsprowe]

So many Ls on sprint
Barely any 4G space
CDMA so no unlocked phones really
No shared space
Crap reception in rural areas
Phones selection
No Windows Mobile Phones
Might not get blackberry
More expensive then T-mobile

 

[dathbgboy]

Interesting. And with Tmo gradually rolling out LTE, it could only get better for us magenta folks. Excellent *Mr. Burns voice*

 

[JVII]

Switching to T-Mo once my Nexus comes in.

Sprint.

 

[a blinkin]

I never understand the flack Sprint catches.

 

[Bert.]

As if sprint didnt suck before

i done told you guys awhile back, Tmobile moving up. Sprint will be dead last, they suck

 

[sir charles]

I never understand the flack Sprint catches.

This.

Some family members use sprint. I went over to visit and they didn't use wifi, they had a sprint 3G/4g modem. Internet was fast. When I drove out to get some food (they love in the sticks. It took an hour and a 1/2 just to get to charolettesville for food) I grabbed the modem and bounced. Internet never went slow.


Might switch,

 

[25thhour]

I don't get the sprint hate either I was a tmobile customer for years and they were the absolute worst. Couldn't use my phone anywhere, customer service was terrible, no unlimited data. The pits.

 

[Bert.]

in my area, everyone complains because you get dropped calls like crazy and the internet is slow as hell. and no matter where you go in my state, all my friends have it and every single one of them has been fed up and just waiting for their contract to end.

i almost switched to them, glad i didnt now.

 

[quincy powell]

As long as Sprint has unlimited data 4G especially I will not leave. For someone that doesn't have access to a consistent Wifi feed when working Sprint is what I need for unlimited 4G data.

 

[fly23s]

T-Mobile got that b for 20$ ^

 

[bruce negro]

Sprint was recently bought by Softbank, which will enable them to not only increase their spectrum via acquisitions, but will also enable the integration of new cell technologies already used in Japan. I wouldn't count Sprint out at all.