Sprint has had some good news in that the FCC has amended the rules of the ESMR 800MHz spectrum which allows for 3G and 4G networks to be used on the band. For those not technology minded this means that subscribers will see vast improvements in their coverage very soon.
Sprint 4G phones may soon have better indoor coverage
It is not just Sprint that the amendment will affect. The ruling takes away restrictions which force those having an ESMR 800 license to use narrowband technologies. Services such as these typically used less than 25kHz of the spectral bandwidth.
The amendment and new ruling does favor Sprint in that it will mean coverage changes will be much better due to the Network Vision Upgrade which sees some of the older iDEN networks being shut down as the new Vision cells are activated.
As ExtremeTech explains, “by deploying CDMA2000 and LTE on ESMR 800 spectrum, Sprint will gain an advantage that has principally been held by AT&T and Verizon Wireless: low-band broadband wireless service. Low-band wireless services can cover larger ranges with fewer towers and provide far better indoor coverage than high-band wireless services (like the current PCS CDMA2000 service Sprint offers now).”
Sprint iPhone 4S not so lucky, iPhone 5 maybe
Unfortunately, the iPhone lacks support for ESMR 800 so here’s hoping the Sprint iPhone 5 supports this band.
[via]
