Saw Signals Tower Opportunities at 2.5 GHz

September 10, 2014

By J. Sharpe Smith —

September 10, 2014 — John Saw, Sprint chief network officer, discussed the challenges the carrier has faced with its NetWork Vision build out and the opportunities that it represents for expanding its tri-band LTE network, during a keynote conversation with Berge Ayvazian, analyst with UBM, at the 4G World/Tower and Small Cell Summit on Tuesday.

“We have a lot of spectrum at 2.5 GHz. In our build out at 2.5 GHz, we will target the areas with the most usage, so you will see a lot of 2.5 GHz in the metro and suburban areas. We eventually will add 2.5 GHz to all of our existing cell sites, except in the rural areas where we don’t need capacity,” Saw said.

Sprint has set a target to cover 100 million pops with 2.5 GHz by the end of 2014, which will complement its current LTE footprint of 255 million pops.

“We are adding 2.5 GHz TDD to every cell site, which means we will hiring tower crews and paying more rent on the structures. That is a major build for us. It involves running a CPRI cable up the tower to the radio which is installed behind the antenna,” Saw told AGL Live after the presentation.

Sprint’s approach was unique in that it did not overlay existing networks with LTE, choosing instead to completely rebuild the network, which should help differentiate it from the other carriers, according to Ayvazian.

“We bit the bullet. It was painful. It had to be done because for years Sprint has under-invested in its network. So the decision was made to rip and replace it with a multimodal platform,” Saw said. “We ran into a lot of challenges. NetWork Vision is a multi-year program. I am happy to say that we are coming to the conclusion of it. What we have in front of us is a brand new platform on which we can add new capabilities such as Sprint Spark.”

Sprint is saving money on the increase efficiency of the new equipment alone, Ayvazian noted. The new equipment takes up less space and has a lower carbon foot print.

“It is a scalable, flexible network that will allow us to easily add frequencies and radios, as well as to engage in network sharing,” Saw said.

Sprint is building a tri-band LTE network. The baseline LTE layer for the Sprint network is at 1.9 GHz and now with the shutdown of the iDEN network, it is being expanded to 800/900 MHz. With the use of Clearwire, it is being expanded to the 2.5 GHz band.

“I call it the wedding cake. We have 800/900 MHz (10 megahertz) for coverage. 1.9 GHz (10 megahertz) is a workhorse layer that is great for roaming. Both are FDD, and 2.5 GHz (120 to 160 megahertz in the top markets), which is TDD, for capacity and performance,” Saw said.