jpkjeff

As of January 1st, I am eligible (finally) for my upgrade. I have read and researched exhaustively, and still am on the fence about which device to buy. I have had Samsung Android phones as my last two phones (the Moment, and then the Epic 4G Wimax, otherwise known as the Galaxy S1 on other carriers). On the plus side, I do love many aspects of Android, including the customization options and I've played with Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean phones and the improvements over Gingerbread (which my current phone will obviously be stuck with until hell freezes over) are impressive. Yet I've also played with the iPhone 4S quite a lot (my best friend has had one for some time now) and I love that it doesn't freeze up, hesitate, or have any error messages...and it feels good in the hand, hardware wise), and have owned an iPad for nearly 2 years...so I do like the idea of adding a device to the same ecosystem. Has anyone else upgraded to either of these devices recently, and if so, what are your impressions?

So far, I haven't seen any improvements in 3G services in the OKC metro, save one or two sites and I think those were band-aid improvements to backhaul. But I'm hopeful that we'll see some improvements now that 2013 is almost upon us. My upgrade eligibility is January 1st so I can't wait to have a new LTE capable device (I still have a Wimax phone now, which is great only when I'm near one of the 3 OKC protection sites).

Oh, and I meant to also add a big thank you for this post-even though I'm not in Chicago it is updates like these that keep me (and I suspect many others) coming back-where else will you get information like this on the behind the scenes goings on at Sprint regarding their network? Keep up the good work!

Since this is a hand off issue, would users who are stationary (i.e. at their home or workplace) be as impacted in the Chicagoland area? I only ask because I seldom make/take calls while in the car (unless someone else is driving) so I was just curious if stationary users would experience these issues as frequently as users moving from point A to point B. One thing I've always championed about Sprint is that I NEVER get dropped calls - even now, when data speeds are often abysmal, I still get excellent voice service.

Interesting review and comments. CNET had a review for this same phone they published last week but I felt they were unfairly harsh on it (they lambasted Sprint for releasing a phone that still ran Gingerbread and naturally complained about no 4G LTE access yet-about what you'd expect). Their reviewer was also unduly harsh (I felt) on the build/thickness of the phone, but for an entry level LTE device it sounds perfectly acceptable to me. I noticed a site not too far from me had had workers at it and last Friday ran some speed tests, and got consistent 1.0-1.4Mbps download speeds. I'm sure it's another bandaid fix but it will sure be wonderful when those speeds are NORMAL for 3G downloads-if I had that all the time I could wait awhile for 4G LTE, for sure.

Great article. Calls over Wifi are indeed something that carriers should look into. I recently purchased a used iPad 1 and use an app that allows me to make calls over Wifi for free (you have to watch ads to "earn" minutes, or you can buy them). It works great and is crystal clear: most people can't tell any difference, although I seldom use it since I have to hook up a separate headset unless I want to make calls via speakerphone. But with MVNO's like Republic Wireless using mostly Wifi for their business model, I do think we'll see more of this in the future.

Very glad to hear this! I check the site daily for updates and am thrilled to finally see some news for OKC/Oklahoma. I have noticed what looked like contractors working on two Sprint cell sites near me in OKC; I'll try to get some pictures in the next few days and post them (assuming they have actually started any work). Data speeds are once again crashing here in OKC, so this can't happen fast enough!

As far as the reasoning behind markets, I know from working there it was in some cases due to how they originally set things up when Sprint initially launched cell phone service back in the 90s: some markets were (and still are) affiliates, and some were not. That was a question we always asked as employees and that's what we were told, although it still didn't really explain the reasoning. Probably things started out that way and they just stuck with it ever since, I'm guessing. Looks like OKC/Oklahoma still has one shot at being announced tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath! Maybe they'll throw some more band aids at us as whatever good the last round of band aid fixes did is already largely gone.

I know you've probably already posted about this, but how do I become a sponsor?

Still keeping my fingers crossed that OKC/Oklahoma is one of the remaining markets to be announced!

And look at what AT&T has to say about that today (as usual, failing to place the blame where it belongs-on AT&T): (This is from AT&T's public policy blog section of their website, where they comment on issues that impact the industry): http://attpublicpolicy.com/wireless/att-statement-on-t-mobile-closing-seven-call-centers/

Clearwire says that usage on their network increased 705% year over year in 2011! (Via Fiercewireless): http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-usage-our-network-increased-705-year-over-year/2012-03-22

Interesting piece from Light Reading on how Apple might handle LTE Voice: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=218995&f_src=lrmobiledailynewsletter

I did notice there were some vans parked over by "my" tower earlier today...I'm going to be out and about later and since the tower is located where I can easily stop and get out, I'll try and take a picture and/or talk to the people there to see if they can tell me what they are doing. I'm sure it's not Network Vision, but maybe another bandaid fix as our speeds have (once again) been really tanking in this part of the city during the past 2-3 weeks.

I used to work in that very department when I worked at Sprint.