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by djchen 2570 days ago
Comcast's Xfinity Mobile allows non-CDMA iPhones on its network (through Verizon). They will only connect to Verizon's LTE network and is unable to access its CDMA network.

I suspect Boost could do the same.

1 comments

Which is also not a great thing when you travel outside of major cities.
Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint each have more LTE coverage than 3G/CDMA. (AT&T is the exception with more 3G coverage)

Source: https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/sprint-coverage...

I agree that they have more coverage in aggregate but when you go out into the boondocks. You don’t get LTE. That “1%” makes a difference in rural areas.
> I agree that they have more coverage in aggregate but when you go out into the boondocks. You don’t get LTE. That “1%” makes a difference in rural areas.

For Sprint this is the case that they are relying on 1X to cover the sticks with 800mhz)

T-Mobile had to build a fairly dense network with towers broadcasting 1900mhz GSM back in the day. They had less spectrum and it was mostly mid-band (1900 and AWS).

T-Mobile can now broadcast 600mhz and 700mhz in most markets LTE-only. So uh yeah, rural markets you would only receive LTE or nothing. AWS and 1900 doesn't propagate as far nor does it penetrate obstacles like the low band does.

I actually cited a source above that Sprint alone has more LTE coverage than 3G coverage. The same is also true for T-Mobile.
I’m not disagreeing that they have more. I’m saying that when you are stuck without LTE in the boondocks. You’d much rather fallback to GSM/HSDPA than CDMA.
Why would you need to fall back if there is more LTE coverage than 3G/CDMA coverage?