Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[prodeq12]

oh yeah, you can finance, but it's going to negate any savings you'd have in selecting T-Mobile over Sprint, at least for the 2 years or so you'll be paying off those phones.

At least you have the FREEDOM of paying off your phone and taking it to the carrier that offers the best network in your area without being tied to a 2 year contract

[latoso]

At least you have the FREEDOM of paying off your phone and taking it to the carrier that offers the best network in your area without being tied to a 2 year contract

not really unless is a nexus5. you will have a cripple phone, i connected my g2 to t-mobile but lte does not work, the only way we gonna see changes in the cellphone industry is if cell makers start building phones with every band possible and now you will have companies fighting for your money

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[Morningside78]

At least you have the FREEDOM of paying off your phone and taking it to the carrier that offers the best network in your area without being tied to a 2 year contract

 

without getting into a network quality argument, you could pay the ETF whenever you want for basically the same amount (if not less) than you would if you had to buy a phone outright anyway

Edited August 19, 2014 by Morningside78

[prodeq12]

not really unless is a nexus5. you will have a cripple phone, i connected my g2 to t-mobile but lte does not work, the only way we gonna see changes in the cellphone industry is if cell makers start building phones with every band possible and now you will have companies fighting for your money

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

This is true and that's why the nexus 5 exist. All phones should be like the nexus 5. In my case I own my nexus 5 outright and only pay $50 a month on the framily plan with everything unlimited and have the freedom to try T-Mo or AT&T should I need to. This is the reason why these no contract plans exist.

[nexgencpu]

Hanging at down the hatch bar downtown underground getting awesome B26 15mb down..

[Deval]

Hanging at down the hatch bar downtown underground getting awesome B26 15mb down..

 

Are you doing anything special to get B26? Or just letting the phone do its normal work?

[nexgencpu]

Are you doing anything special to get B26? Or just letting the phone do its normal work?

Absolutely zero, when i went downstairs it just switched, hovered between -99 and 105dBm. Also before walking in it was on B41 so its nice to see west 4 with the tri-fecta in place. For comparisons, my buddy on ATT was also getting decent speeds with similar signal, between 3-5mb sec.

[Paynefanbro]

That whole area is well covered in all three technologies. My middle/high school is not too far from there.

[Palan]

How does the htc one m8 perform? I heard some things about not receiving calls when on data? Overall how does it perform. Incase the iphone 6 does not have band 41 I would switch to an htc one. I tried an lg g2 just to see spark and it had trouble switching between bands. It would get stuck on no service until I toggled airplane mode.

[Paynefanbro]

How does the htc one m8 perform? I heard some things about not receiving calls when on data? Overall how does it perform. Incase the iphone 6 does not have band 41 I would switch to an htc one. I tried an lg g2 just to see spark and it had trouble switching between bands. It would get stuck on no service until I toggled airplane mode.

 

The HTC One M8 is the best Android phone to date, which is a shame because HTC is generating the ales figures that they would like. It's smooth, responsive, and has one of the best screens on a phone, just as good as the LG G3. I'd instantly recommend this phone over any other Android phone on the market.

[nexgencpu]

The HTC One M8 is the best Android phone to date, which is a shame because HTC is generating the ales figures that they would like. It's smooth, responsive, and has one of the best screens on a phone, just as good as the LG G3. I'd instantly recommend this phone over any other Android phone on the market.

I think the HTC One is definitely one of the best phones out there, but the G3 has a better camera, and a better screen (especially for 1440p videos on youtube.) and slightly better RF.

 

The HTC wins in the "from factory" smoothness, and build quality (even tho the G3 is the best plastic phone I've ever held) the LG front end is getting better but still miles slower than Sense UI, also the HTC speakers are second to none (surprisingly the G3 is very good, but only Mono)

 

So either way you go, you really cant go wrong...

[Paynefanbro]

I think the HTC One is definitely one of the best phones out there, but the G3 has a better camera, and a better screen (especially for 1440p videos on youtube.) and slightly better RF.

 

The HTC wins in the "from factory" smoothness, and build quality (even tho the G3 is the best plastic phone I've ever held) the LG front end is getting better but still miles slower than Sense UI, also the HTC speakers are second to none (surprisingly the G3 is very good, but only Mono)

 

So either way you go, you really cant go wrong...

 

The only thing I don't like about the screen is the brightness limit when the phone overheated and that there isn't a huge ecosystem for that resolution screen and it isn't being adapted as fast as 720p or 1080p ever was. There also aren't enough people who record videos in 2.5k or 4k for it to be worth it to me.

[nexgencpu]

The only thing I don't like about the screen is the brightness limit when the phone overheated and that there isn't a huge ecosystem for that resolution screen and it isn't being adapted as fast as 720p or 1080p ever was. There also aren't enough people who record videos in 2.5k or 4k for it to be worth it to me.

I seriously doubt any halo phones coming out from this point forward will be less than 1440p, so the content will catch up as time goes on. But I can tell you, even though youtube tends to be on the lower bitrate side, 1440p videos on there look astonishingly good. Also since the camera itself records at up to 4K you can take advantage of your own personal vids. 

 

One thing that does suffer on the G3 screen is black levels are not as pronounced and as balanced as they are on the One. But the one screen has one thing that I totally hated, the grid alignment was very apparent in direct light. But besides that, it is a GREAT screen.

[Palan]

You guys haven't answered my question though. How does it perform with spark. I get it's a great phone and all. I'm more interested about what I mentioned in my original post.

[latoso]

You guys haven't answered my question though. How does it perform with spark. I get it's a great phone and all. I'm more interested about what I mentioned in my original post.

i have the g2 and g3 and the g3 performs a lot better switching bands, with the g2 i had the same issue not connecting to lte and having to toggle airplane mode to recover my signal

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[Palan]

i have the g2 and g3 and the g3 performs a lot better switching bands, with the g2 i had the same issue not connecting to lte and having to toggle airplane mode to recover my signal

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

so looks like the g2 had issues. Edited August 20, 2014 by Palan

[latoso]

so looks like the g2 had issues.

yeah sometimes i get out of the train station and not get signal until i toggle airplane mode

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[Paynefanbro]

You guys haven't answered my question though. How does it perform with spark. I get it's a great phone and all. I'm more interested about what I mentioned in my original post.

 

Network performance amongst any of the Spark phones released this year will be similar. Hence, why no one has complained of reception issues like they did with the previous generation of LTE devices.

 

They're all good. The Nexus 5 is the only one with exceptional performance.

[transitwatch889]

yeah sometimes i get out of the train station and not get signal until i toggle airplane mode

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

This happens on my max and nexus 5 I think that has more to do with the tower its trying to connect to than the phone itself.

[jaybiz81]

Sadly it's still way out of my way. Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Long Island are more accessible for me than the Bronx.

 

In the middle of the South Bronx there's still mostly 3G non-NV coverage.  It's frustrating.  I work near 3rd Ave and Tremont, and the 3G is abysmal.  There might be B41 but I have a single-band phone (which I love... not the biggest fan of Samsung but with my Note 3 I do voice and data simultaneously for work).  

 

I did discover what part of the problem is, though, and it was an interesting find.  The tower near my work is 3G/800 NV complete.  But, the problem is backhaul, not at the site itself, but elsewhere.  I Googled the tower number, and I found a site with the FCC for microwave licenses.  it appears that the 3G/800 site uses microwave for Internet to a non-NV tower that is not being upgraded at this time.  It's sort of frustrating; I wish they had done the other one first, and left the 3G/800 tower near me as non-NV; at least we'd see better speeds.  Google the site IDs of other 3G/800 sites, and you'll find in many cases they use microwave to a non-NV upgraded site.

 

But, thanks to you, Bryce, I've been doing permit research for a while after I caught you did it a while back.  (Yes, I lurk more than post.)  Sadly, this non-NV site still doesn't have a permit for work, so I guess my 3G/800 site will be at 3G/800 for the foreseeable future.

[nexgencpu]

There is B26 and B41 in that area. Triband is the only way...

[Deval]

In the middle of the South Bronx there's still mostly 3G non-NV coverage.  It's frustrating.  I work near 3rd Ave and Tremont, and the 3G is abysmal.  There might be B41 but I have a single-band phone (which I love... not the biggest fan of Samsung but with my Note 3 I do voice and data simultaneously for work).  

 

I did discover what part of the problem is, though, and it was an interesting find.  The tower near my work is 3G/800 NV complete.  But, the problem is backhaul, not at the site itself, but elsewhere.  I Googled the tower number, and I found a site with the FCC for microwave licenses.  it appears that the 3G/800 site uses microwave for Internet to a non-NV tower that is not being upgraded at this time.  It's sort of frustrating; I wish they had done the other one first, and left the 3G/800 tower near me as non-NV; at least we'd see better speeds.  Google the site IDs of other 3G/800 sites, and you'll find in many cases they use microwave to a non-NV upgraded site.

 

But, thanks to you, Bryce, I've been doing permit research for a while after I caught you did it a while back.  (Yes, I lurk more than post.)  Sadly, this non-NV site still doesn't have a permit for work, so I guess my 3G/800 site will be at 3G/800 for the foreseeable future.

 

What's the address of the site? I'm curious.

 

And microwave has a ton of bandwidth, it's used for B41 all over our market.

[Paynefanbro]

My experience on LTE in Canarsie was very good this past weekend. In general, the whole south/southeast/east portion of Brooklyn is very well covered in Band 25, and I can tell that a lot of site optimization has occurred. Some neighborhoods are lacking LTE like Bergen Beach though. In Canarsie, I had a 3-4 bar signal outside which dropped to between 2 and 1 bar indoors. The speeds were around 8-10Mbps indoors and outdoors too. Some areas were 5-6Mbps which basically fall in line with Sprint's advertised speeds on Band 41.

 

It gives me hope for when Sprint puts LTE on all of the towers in the city, as they have basically done in this area of Brooklyn.

[twospirits]

There is one spot in Queens that seems to have stayed in 3G limbo hell. near the corner of Lefferts Blvd and Jamaica Ave. Specifically in the parking lot of Keyfood about half a block away. No matter the circumstances or time of day, LTE is fine all around (according to Sensorly) the area but the minute I go to that section/parking lot it drops back to 3G. 

[Palan]

Yesterday some friends and I drove to New Jersey from Brooklyn to a movie theater. On my iphone 5 I had lte throughout the whole ride with speeds around 10mb/s. It's was pretty solid. We drove over the Verrazano bridge and outer bridge.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Palan