T-Mobile this week completed its nationwide launch of 700 MHz spectrum with the rollout of Extended Range LTE in Chicago’s downtown, suburban, and outlying regions. That includes areas as far north as Janesville, Wisconsin, and extending west and south past Rockford, DeKalb, Joliet, and Kankakee. The Un-carrier said its 700 MHz LTE now covers 10 of the largest U.S. markets.
“With Extended Range LTE, T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers in Chicago can get more reliable coverage indoors and out,” Jennifer Silveira, VP of Engineering for T-Mobile’s Central Region, commented. “Our engineers worked around the clock to bring Extended Range LTE to our Chicagoland customers in record time, just a few months after we acquired the airwaves, and we have even more game-changing network enhancements on the way to boost data speeds even higher, like 256-QAM, three carrier aggregation, and 4×4 MIMO.”
The Un-carrier also moved ahead with efforts to expand its retail footprint, announcing plans to add 43 new retail stores and 350 jobs in the Chicago area by the end of this year. Those will be located in Cook, DuPage, and the collar counties, T-Mobile said.
C Spire, the sixth largest U.S. wireless carrier, is getting into the content game. The company announced plans to launch C Spire TV, a new streaming TV service, later this spring.
The C Spire TV app will run on video streaming devices from Amazon, Apple, and Roku, as well as tablets and smartphones from Android and Apple. It will also be integrated with Amazon’s Echo voice assistant and a custom C Spire TV Alexa skill to help customers search, discover, and change channels using voice commands. The service will also include a cloud DVR and machine-learning to help understand customer habits and preferences.
C Spire TV is in the final stages of beta testing and will launch later this spring with availability for customers of C Spire Fiber’s gigabit internet product, the company said.
Prepaid wireless service seller Mint SIM is offering 2 GB of 4G LTE talk, text, and data for $11.67 per month when customers buy a three-month package. That’s a discount from the usual three-month price of $69, or $23 per month for the package.
CEL has announced the availability of its new CEL CG2409 family of high power RF switches. The CG2409 is available in two packages, X3 and M2.
The CG2409X3 is a wideband, high-power single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) GaAs MMIC RF switch, specified for the frequency range of 0.05 to 6 GHz, and can operate at a control voltage from 1.8V to 5V. The P0.1dB compression point of the switch is 37.5dBm at 3V. The second and third harmonic specs are -80dBc and -85dBc respectively at input power of 26dBm. The insertion loss ranges from 0.3dB to 0.6dB while the isolation ranges from 32dB to 28dB over the frequency range. The device is in a compact 6-pin XSON package (1.5mmx1.5mmx0.37mm).
The CG2409M2 is also a high-power single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) GaAs MMIC RF switch but is specified for the frequency range of 0.05 to 3.8 GHz and operates at a control voltage from 1.8V to 5V. The P0.1dB compression point of the switch is 36.5dBm. The second and third harmonic specs are -80dBc and -85dBc respectively at input power of 26dBm. The insertion loss ranges from 0.35dB to 0.6dB while the isolation ranges from 35dB to 21dB over the frequency range. This device is in a small 6-pin surface mount package (2.0mmx1.25mmx0.9mm).
