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Hot off the Goldman Sachs Investor call with Marcelo Claure... Highlights at 35 mins into the call (11:05 Eastern) -Sprint will add 2000 Macro sites (no time frame given) - Will have EVERY cell site with 800, 1.9 and 2.5 (No time frame given) - Will deploy many thousands of mini macro and such in addition to the Macro sites. -Capex will be $5-7 billion this year and "At least that much next year or more".... Marcelo's thoughts were that now that Sprint is growth positive and cash positive (his words) Sprint can now invest heavily and expand it's footprint.

Also...I did not buy any insurance. And my device was nearly two years old. I purchased my device September 29, 2015 and they agreed to replace it September 5, 2017. Count me as one happy customer.

Sorry guys, but I had too... Lol!

It all will depend on the tower spacing and optimization. B26 performs pretty decently in most of rural Oregon. However, does not in West Michigan. It really depends on how many customers are outside B25/B41 coverage. It needs to be as few as possible. And B26 should not be used for capacity. Or CA, IMHO. Where the network is set up this way, it seems to work pretty well. Although, I have to admit Tmo has problems on B12 in places too. Tmo has a B12 site in my county on top of South Mountain. It covers the whole county. One sector covers 50,000 people. If you ever end up on B12 in that sector in between sites, you will get no throughput or measure your speed in mere bytes with a ping out of this world. Network/sector design and optimization is critical on low bands over wide areas. Think of a Triband site with 3xCA B41 and 2 B25 carriers. In this example working out from the tower, not counting HPUE, B41 will cover 2 miles out, B25 4 miles out and B26 6 miles out. B41 is 12.5 sq mi, B25 is 37.5 sq miles beyond B41, B26 is another ~80 sq miles beyond that. So the first 12.5 sq miles around the tower is covered in 60MHz of B41. The second ring is 50 square miles, but the amount outside of B41 coverage is 37.5 sq miles. Three times more area, but at least still has 10MHz of DL spectrum. Maybe 15 if a 10 & 5 PCS market. But bad things happen when you get to that outer B26 ring. That outer B26 ring is 112 square miles around the tower (at 6 mi radius). When you subtract out the inner rings your left with just under 80 sq miles you are covering with just 5MHz of B26. Way more area than the other two. And that if it is optimized. Even in a well optimized network, there still will be B26 usage inside the B41 and B25 rings too, deep inside buildings, etc. Also, B26 will likely go beyond the 6 miles in this scenario, picking up even more customers. A lot for one 5MHz carrier to do. And then consider doing it with 3 MHz. Sprint must keep B26 purely for "out of ring" customers and "deep penetration" customers. Also, if too many customers end up in the outer ring and performance suffers below a certain threshold, a new macro site is warranted. Or if a major part of the congestion is one part of the outer band, maybe even a well placed small cell. In a place like urban/suburban Detroit or Seattle, a 3MHz B26 channel might do OK. Because the network B25 coverage is already OK, nearly ubiquitous. B26 can just fill in the shadows and deep penetration. They will just need to manage it very firmly. Continued B41 rollout will help. It's the rural areas, especially places like Michigan, that have the toughest time. Out in the West, in rural areas, most people live concentrically around a town. You get 4 miles out of town and density drops dramatically. However, in Michigan (and many other places), the rural town may have 2,500 people but the surrounding townships and county have 25,000 people all scattered about. And the tower is in the town. And the concentric circles start from there. Leaving thousands to share their small piece of the spectrum pie. Only in B26. Posted using Pixel XL with S4GRU Mobile

Best Sprint news in quite some time!

Far as capex, cell site, blah. We have heard it all before. Real visiable action will be the sign. IMO Sprint is show us with Magic Box and MM deployments, so hopefully we can see expansion with Massive-MIMO, additional Macros, and and all three bands on all towers. If Sprint IS going to add 2000 sites, and they drop these around all of their Extend 3G/LTE roaming partners, those sites could go even further in terms of new coverage.

Hopefully this will shut some people up for a bit. I know we're waiting to see execution of this but Sprint is definitely more competent and on a better footing now than ever before. It seems like we get more exciting info from these side engagements than we do during the quarterly reports.

I agree. It is a minor disappointment that LG was able to get things like 4xCA for B41 or B71 support for T-Mobile on the V30, but not this device.

No, not a huge loss. But the more CA, the better. Plus, when we invest so much money on a cutting edge flagship device, we kinda want it all. But probably not a deal breaker for anyone.

2X and 3X CA DL B41 2X CA DL B25 No UL CA HPUE 4x4 MIMO (10 streams) 256/64 QAM DL-UL

That is because the CDMA2000 networks are not tied in any way to VZW. Most LTEiRA partners already had deployed their own CDMA2000 networks. And that is why VZW contracted with them just for LTE overlay. AJ

If you're on B13 for an LTEiRa provider, it shows as a Verizon signal, however if you have a 1x or 3G signal, it will show the local provider information for that. At least that's how my work phone (with signal check) has shown the information in the past when I've traveled out of network.

But but they unbundled the prices to make it seem like you were getting a much better deal for a few years! /sarcasm. Of course the carrier planned on making more money this way, they aren't benevolent!

Be nice if Sprint had a backup generator on most of their towers. All the new Verizon towers going up around me have backup generators. Even saw one site that had natural gas generator.

Something else to think about with Apple.

Looks like more 800mhz action by my house.. this time on a second tower located in Pinckney 1x800 and LTE800 was on for a few hours today then turned off around 5:00. The other tower off us23 I reported a few weeks ago has the 1x800 fully active now. Took some pics while the 800mhz was active earlier.

Nothing else expected from Apple. They make a decent phone... but I will not fall victim to their financial eco system. I refuse to have to turn everything I own into an apple product.

I poured through all the settings and went through IPBoard support forums and could not find anything. I've opened a ticket asking for help. I'll let you know what I find out. Thanks! Robert

While I love being able to replace RAM in laptops to increase their lifespan, unfortunately this is going away. Most manufacturers are heading this way in the race to make everything as thin as paper. Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Samsung, etc all have models like this now. If I had to guess, I would say onboard non-replaceable memory will be the only option in laptops in the next few years. Personally, as much as I love thin devices, I find it a waste to have to replace the whole board when something happens to the RAM. That being said, yes the prices Apple charges for RAM are astronomical.

No, you are playing fast and loose (sidenote: Steve Dean, see the correct use of the word "loose") with the timeline. Sprint and 3GPP did not hatch HPUE out of thin air in December 2016. It was in the pipeline prior to then, a known commodity. Apple could have planned accordingly. LG and Samsung certainly did on handsets released months before the 2017 iPhone cohort. The most accurate thing you said is your final statement: "just Apple being Apple." The iPhone historically has been a generation behind in the latest RF technology. And until Apple settles its kerfuffle with Qualcomm or Intel gets its modem technology up to speed -- neither of which appears imminent -- iPhone will continue to be behind, even intentionally so. AJ

So I saw this in Tukwila.... very weak but still there

This is the biggest problem most carriers. The game has changed and they, for the most part, have not adapted. It kills me when some of these towns turn down towers being built within the city limits. Verizon has started re-spacing their towers in my county. They have built 6 new towers in the last year. That is an impressive investment for a rural county.

This is correct. In the medical world, I prefer Apple hardware. For example, the software I use to read scans is far better optimized for iOS/OS X than PC/Androids. I've used Windows desktops + laptops with high-res displays and there hasn't been a single one without image scaling problems across the OS. This is important because size + shape is used as a method of diagnosis. Another example is as simple as looking through MRIs on my phone. If I'm quickly flipping through the scans, Android phones typically can't keep up. There is lag and choppiness. I experience none of this with an iPhone or iPad. These arguments are a waste of time. Why do PC/Android guys feel so strongly against Apple's ecosystem? If people want to call me "tech illiterate" and a "sheep" for using the best tools to diagnose my patients, so be it.

yes. I loved it though... 2 seconds into the call after introduction, the Goldman people litearly asked "you promised us a response regarding merger news during our last call"... "so when will the merger be announced".... Marcelo's answer as "per our Lawyers, this is what I'm allowed to say: "No comment"" LOL. They hit him hard and didn't hold back... that is a good thing. the Quarterly Earnings calls are events to polish their apples in front of the investment community and investors... These technology calls and things like the Goldman Sachs calls are where the nitty-gritty comes out. Massive Mimo came up and was addressed... we already know about that... but it's real and it's really happening "now". I don't believe anyone should "Shut up" about Sprint though. There has been so many promises made by Sprint that just never came to reality or was started and transitioned into something else.... that I think many of us are just a little skeptical until we actually see results and as it should be! In the last month, I have never seen so much actual improvement in my area in the last 6 or 7 years as I have in the last 30- 60 days! Lets see, 800 mHz up and running now, multiple carriers added on the sprint sites... Magic Box's being deployed and delivered... small cells going up and being worked on.... hallelujah!

Yes this is right. If you have a Verizon phone that has VoLTE enabled it shows Verizon and it is impossible to tell that your roaming on LTEIRA even when looking at third party apps. If the Verizon phone is not using VoLTE it will show Extended LTE in these areas as it is using CDMA for voice.

Mine was out of warranty too and got a yes in less then a few minutes. I would call again.

Oh and wiseguy, my lg gflex2 2 came with a Quickcharge adapter to

Both my HTC's came with a Quickcharge adapter. You might want to do some research.

My GS6 came with a fast charge adapter. I'm pretty sure the GS7 and GS8 did also.

Interesting, but who else offers in-store replacements at the Genius Bar? Google + Pixel? Nope HTC? Nope Samsung? Nope LG? Nope Even a company as large as Samsung doesn't offer flat-rate screen replacements for their products. There's a price to pay for superior customer service. Why are we acting like Apple is suddenly doing something different?

This. The Note 8 is also nearly $1k...

If you’d like, I can connect you with an upper level network engineer in your area that will work with you to resolve these issues. Send me a PM if you’re interested.

Given that there are no CDMA technologies on the Apple Watch, calling will have to be over LTE, right? (When you’re not with your iPhone).

Only a guess... Possibly too far along in the production process to add. I'm clueless as to what goes into the antenna engineering.

I think they are moving up here now that Toledo is almost complete. I live about an hour away.

I got mine replaced but it took being persistent. Maybe try another agent. As a side my 6p just got the latest ota September patch. So much prefer the 6p touch targets and such compared to the XL I just wish the Battey in the 6p was better...

I really don't want to veer this thread to a PC vs Mac thing. Being an IT admin for multiple companies I can tell you testing the most powerful equipment, PC is the name of the game. We are currently testing 16 core/32 threads CPU's for architectural devs. Apple will take years to even consider stuff like this.

I don't get it either, but as I consumer of all things tech, Apple still has hands down the best customer support. I have never had much success with dealing with other companies, but Apple has replaced multiple things out of warranty for me from batteries to iPad keyboards. Yes even they aren't perfect, but I am still satisfied when things go wrong.

Curious.. have you peeked at any third-party apps (SignalCheck, Signal Detector, LTE Discovery, etc) while "off" network to see what provider and PLMN are displayed? -Mike

UK prices have changed much more because Apple pegs its prices to the USD. After Brexit both the Euro and Pound lost value relative to the USD so Apple of course raised their prices, in some cases more than the exchange rate amount. The price raise for AppleCare was when they changed to AppleCare + where they cover two incidences of accidental damage (something that previously required out of warranty repair). And the further price increase for the X, makes me wonder how much that faceID system costs. Also, historically, Apple and other manufacturers have not increase prices with inflation, the iPhone 8 is the first iPhone price increase. But it isn't just Apple the that has increased prices lately, go look at the Surface lineup at Microsoft or Samsung even. Band 71 won't be supported by the iPhone 8 or iPhone X, but Apple has historically done an absolutely amazing job at creating world phones that work on just about every network there is. Just pickup the Sprint or Verizon model and you can pretty much take that phone to any network worldwide. I do not get Apple bashing nor any other cell phone bashing. People use what they like plain and simple.

Used to be $199 on a 2-year actually. Now it;s $999

well...sadly I came to the conclusion that the LTE Apple Watch is not for me. The Watch only has LTE data and no failover to CDMA (NO CDMA Radio) and I run into a lot of 3G areas still.....Verizon has the same issue BUT I bet their LTE coverage is much better...

During Hurricane Sandy up here in New Jersey where I live every carrier was down and Verizon had only a partial Network that was functioning. They're LTE was down but their CDMA was only half working.

For those that having issues with random resets or battery issues https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus6P/comments/6y1tm2/official_6p_battery_shutdownbootloop_rma_thread/?utm_content=title&utm_medium=hot&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=Nexus6P

+1,000,000 Any easy way to upload pictures on mobile or do you need a link?

I was told that decoupling phones from service by ending 2-year contracts would push the market to lower phone prices. And here we are with a "starting at $999" phone.

Because nothing says "bad for America" like locally-owned small businesses that can respond to local customer needs, right? I don't understand why you desperately want gigantic companies who run roughshod over consumers to grow ever larger and more able to run roughshod over consumers. While complaining that they run roughshod over consumers, no less. - Trip

Yes, FCC OET. Trust that, after 5+ years, S4GRU staff knows what it is doing. Apple device authorizations pop up in the FCC OET within hours of their announcement events. AJ

unable to follow the forums themselves or any particular topics in any of the restricted forums (sponsors, premier or honored). the option is simply not there to enable at the top right.

Picked up a Moto Z2 at bb for an awesome deal 20/month for 24months with free projector, btw this is a new line deal only ($300 off vs $200 off for upgrades) So far it's a nice device, it isn't quite a replacement for my S8+. But more importantly, so far it's B41 radio performance is definitely better than my S8. I will continue to do more testing, taking a road trip from NYC to NC which will be a nice way of putting it through it's paces. But so far.. Feels really light almost cheap compared to GS8 AMOLED is really over saturated (I kinda like it) Fingerprint in the front is considerably better than the placement of GS8. Nearly stock Android is ultra smooth, definitely miss that on my GS8. Battery life seems promising even though not very large, but too early to tell. Camera seems decent but slow compared to GS8. Will update as the days go by with more info on radio performance..