Re: T-Mobile Sprint Merger: Say goodbye to scam calls

On 8/5/2020 7:02 PM, JF Mezei wrote:
> On 2020-08-05 02:25, nospam wrote:
> 
>> nope. everything is lte now, which t-mobile and sprint fully support
>> and have for years, although different bands.
> 
> Supporting LTE is one thing. Supporting VoLTE is anther. Many LTE phones
> don't have VolTE or support for VoLTE on T-Mo/Sprint.
> (think older phones, alnd also embeded devices).
> 
> Remember that Sprint has a lot of MVNOs that target the low end.
> 
> A handset that doesn't have LTE bands for T-Mo, Sprint and Verizon is
> not likely t also have supported VoLTE.

While there are old phones like that on some MVNOs, the reality is that 
even mid-range Android phones, and all iPhones, have supported 
sufficeint LTE bands of all four carriers for several years. Sometimes a 
carrier may add new LTE bands in order to increase capacity, and an 
older phone won't have the new bands, but carriers are very good about 
not abandoning legacy bands when they put in new cell sites. One of the 
main reasons for keeping service even on legacy LTE bands is for people 
roaming from other countries. A phone from the EU may not have 
T-Mobile's band 66 and 71, but they'll almost certainly have 2, 4, and/or 5.

A super cheap, locked phone, that is sold by an MVNO, may not have the 
LTE bands needed to roam, but those providers rarely provide roaming anyway.

> Ar you kidding me?  AT&T or Verizon allowing T-Mo to roam on their
> network brings in lots of cash. But it is a marketing issue because
> their advantage of having better coverage is less marked.

True. It's a trade-off that has to be weighed carefully. How many 
customers do you lose by not having coverage versus how much it costs to 
provide that roaming.

A good article about this whole thing here: 
<https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/verizon-sprint-get-into-war-words-over-data-roaming-rules>. 
The bottom line: Sprint relies on roaming and wants to pay Verizon less 
for it while Verizon wants to charge Sprint more to offset the cost of 
providing widespread coverage.