Why are there no Sprint phones that support future LTE bands?

[lilotimz]

Got to get rid of their stock one way or another as it's incompatible with any other network so they just can't sell it to another telecom.

Budget device like that iphone 4/4s i suppose.

[jamesinclair]

Got to get rid of their stock one way or another as it's incompatible with any other network so they just can't sell it to another telecom.

Budget device like that iphone 4/4s i suppose.

 

They can pass it along to virgin mobile and friends. ....and perhaps they shouldnt have ordered so much stock!

[JimBob]

They can pass it along to virgin mobile and friends. ....and perhaps they shouldnt have ordered so much stock!

Agree. Sprint should have consulted a crystal ball.

[JeffDTD]

A few weeks ago amazon was advertising the galaxy 2 as "4G LTE" now it just says "4G" no mention of wimax. And we all know, affiliate stores will do anything to sell a phone, including misleading the customers on what 4G is.

 

And yes, most customers do NOT know there are two different and incompatible 4G networks. I think its foolish to continue to extend the confusion by adding new wimax customers.

 

Further, the G2 is a defective phone. Go to the sprint forums under the samsung page. 95% of the problems are GS2 related, even though that forum is for ALL samsung phones. The problems havent been fixed, so signing customers up to a knowingly defective phone is a very bad policy idea. Once you lose a customer, good job getting them back.

 

Surely you don't believe Sprint is responsible for incompetent Amazon advertising?

 

Confusion is a sales issue, not an inherent flaw. Considering Sprint has to pay Clear a small monthly fee for every active wimax device, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to modify the stock software to remove access to the wimax radio completely. Removing all mention of Wimax functionality would coddle idiotic customers a bit more. But you know what? The 4G confusion goes much deeper and is more prevalent than Sprint or the GS2. What do you make of the iphone4? Iphone4 customers on ATT are greeted by a 4G logo in HSPA+ areas, yet they will never have LTE access. So when an Iphone4 customer on ATT nestles up next to an iphone4 customer on sprint, does the sprint customer say to themselves "I wonder when my iphone4 will get 4G?" Is that Sprint's fault , regardless of advertising?

 

My defense of the GS2 was only based on the radios and functionality. It is not a 'defective' phone. Android issues are more common after multiple OS upgrades for a number of reasons. I carried a GS2 for 11 months on Gingerbread with zero issues. I'm not everyone, but neither are the people ranting in the sprint community.

[koiulpoi]

Further, the G2 is a defective phone. Go to the sprint forums under the samsung page. 95% of the problems are GS2 related, even though that forum is for ALL samsung phones. The problems havent been fixed, so signing customers up to a knowingly defective phone is a very bad policy idea. Once you lose a customer, good job getting them back.

Err, defective? What problems? The biggest issue we see is people dropping them and smashing the screens. The second biggest is the "voltage too high; charging paused" issue - which is, 95%+ liquid damage/corrosion in and around the charging port. That's not Samsung's fault. Actually, a whole host of weird issues are due to some kind of liquid intrusion. And yes, I have had people blame Sprint and Samsung when their phone that has corrosion on the board stops working...

 

Oh, there's also the phantom menu keypress issue, which 75% of the time is solved with a screen replacement (defective capacitive keys), the other 25% requires a motherboard or full device exchange. There's also the power button/resetting issue which requires either the button to be replaced (solder job) or a motherboard/device exchange.

 

That being said, I could list off just as many or more issues for just about every single other smartphone on the market. We see more GS2 issues because more people have GS2's (it was a very popular phone; still is), and have had them for long enough that problems begin to crop up. Usually you don't see the real problems until a device has been out for around a year. If Sprint refused to sell phones that had issues, there would be no phones for sale.

[jamesinclair]

Err, defective? What problems? The biggest issue we see is people dropping them and smashing the screens. The second biggest is the "voltage too high; charging paused" issue - which is, 95%+ liquid damage/corrosion in and around the charging port. That's not Samsung's fault. Actually, a whole host of weird issues are due to some kind of liquid intrusion. And yes, I have had people blame Sprint and Samsung when their phone that has corrosion on the board stops working...

 

Oh, there's also the phantom menu keypress issue, which 75% of the time is solved with a screen replacement (defective capacitive keys), the other 25% requires a motherboard or full device exchange. There's also the power button/resetting issue which requires either the button to be replaced (solder job) or a motherboard/device exchange.

 

That being said, I could list off just as many or more issues for just about every single other smartphone on the market. We see more GS2 issues because more people have GS2's (it was a very popular phone; still is), and have had them for long enough that problems begin to crop up. Usually you don't see the real problems until a device has been out for around a year. If Sprint refused to sell phones that had issues, there would be no phones for sale.

 

The main issues with the GS2 are battery eating (making the batteries bulge), and general freezing (especially the Sprint ID stopped working bug). There was also an issue where the phone had trouble connecting to networks after an update (that was then fixed). Sadly, I experienced all three issues. And no, my phone has no water damage and no exterior damage (yes, Im normal, its fallen on the carpet a couple of times).

 

As I said, look at the sprint forum complaint board. Most of the posts are the same thing over and over and over again. Theyre the same widespread issues, issues that fortunately dont seem to affect any other samsung phone sprint sells.

[koiulpoi]

The main issues with the GS2 are battery eating (making the batteries bulge),

Hm. I honestly have not noticed a higher rate of failure with the GS2's battery than other devices. The Samsung Replenish seems to be the one that suffers from battery issues. Other than that, swollen batteries are a common-ish problem with Lithium Ion type. I believe it's caused by overcharging, but again, haven't found any real trends other than age.

 

and general freezing (especially the Sprint ID stopped working bug).

I have seen that twice. Both times, the phone was so overloaded with "free" games and apps that the phone was running around half speed. Hard resets fixed the device in both cases. Android includes very little in protections against things that run in the background, or things that request

 

Sadly, I experienced all three issues. And no, my phone has no water damage and no exterior damage (yes, Im normal, its fallen on the carpet a couple of times).

I'm sorry you're having odd issues with your phone. Are you certain there's no water damage? It's rare for me to open someone's phone, find corrosion, and have them say "Oh, right, there was that one time..." Usually, it's "But it's never been in water! Sure, I took it in the shower with me that one time..."

 

As I said, look at the sprint forum complaint board. Most of the posts are the same thing over and over and over again. Theyre the same widespread issues, issues that fortunately dont seem to affect any other samsung phone sprint sells.

I'd rather not check that. Yes, it is a problem phone, but so is the EVO, the EVO Shift, the EVO 3D, the EVO LTE - and even the GS3 is starting to show some weird issues. I could list off more. I currently work at one of (if not the number one) busiest Sprint Repair Center in West Michigan, and the issues I see that people bring in are what I base things off of.

[cletus]

Last question to anyone in the know: I will be upgrading to an S4 or HTC One. I saw WiWavelength's article on the One and how it was tuned/tweaked for Sprint's network. Does this mean it will be a better performing phone in terms of RF capabilities than the S4? I understand that all phones are different but the EVO LTE problems people have had has made me leery of buying a new phone without a little more research.

 

 

So far I am leaning towards the S4

[Deval]

I'm sure devices will be coming that support future bands, but unless you live in an area which requires those bands, what good are they?

[lynyrd65]

I'm sure devices will be coming that support future bands, but unless you live in an area which requires those bands, what good are they?

 

Good for better speeds and in building coverage.

 

It seems to me the standard response to users complaining about a lack of bands is that they needn't worry because these bands aren't deployed and won't help them. This is untrue.

 

These bands are useful and could help users get significantly better performance. Clear wire has over a thousand TDD-LTE sites live and ready for use. Sprint will be deploying LTE 800 next year. To say these bands are completely useless for a current smart phone shopper is a sweeping generalization.

 

The appropriate response is, yes these bands would be useful for our devices if they supported them but the fact of the matter is they don't. Complaining about not having them is a waste of time. Either buy a new phone now or just wait it out and stop complaining.

 

EDIT: My original wording was really harsh, sorry about that. I just don't like that this response has taken precedent

Edited April 22, 2013 by lynyrd65

[jamesinclair]

Hm. I honestly have not noticed a higher rate of failure with the GS2's battery than other devices. The Samsung Replenish seems to be the one that suffers from battery issues. Other than that, swollen batteries are a common-ish problem with Lithium Ion type. I believe it's caused by overcharging, but again, haven't found any real trends other than age.

 

I have seen that twice. Both times, the phone was so overloaded with "free" games and apps that the phone was running around half speed. Hard resets fixed the device in both cases. Android includes very little in protections against things that run in the background, or things that request

 

I'm sorry you're having odd issues with your phone. Are you certain there's no water damage? It's rare for me to open someone's phone, find corrosion, and have them say "Oh, right, there was that one time..." Usually, it's "But it's never been in water! Sure, I took it in the shower with me that one time..."

 

I'd rather not check that. Yes, it is a problem phone, but so is the EVO, the EVO Shift, the EVO 3D, the EVO LTE - and even the GS3 is starting to show some weird issues. I could list off more. I currently work at one of (if not the number one) busiest Sprint Repair Center in West Michigan, and the issues I see that people bring in are what I base things off of.

 

At least in my case, I use a minimal amount of apps, and delete them when theyre not in use. I dont think theres water damage. I never take it in the bathroom during showers, and have never dropped it anywhere wet. I generally take good care of phones - Ive never broken one. My problems simply seem to match the problems that get posted over and over again in that forum - and even here.

 

The JB update seems to have fixed the sprint id issue, which was a daily event.

[Paynefanbro]

Last question to anyone in the know: I will be upgrading to an S4 or HTC One. I saw WiWavelength's article on the One and how it was tuned/tweaked for Sprint's network. Does this mean it will be a better performing phone in terms of RF capabilities than the S4? I understand that all phones are different but the EVO LTE problems people have had has made me leery of buying a new phone without a little more research.

 

 

So far I am leaning towards the S4

 

I heard that the HTC One is a great rf performer. Some claim that it never wants to let go of LTE. I even saw a post claiming it was better than the Note 2.

[AMejia1976]

And no, my phone has no water damage and no exterior damage (yes, Im normal, its fallen on the carpet a couple of times).

 

 

Please consider it does not need to be "direct" contact with water. Think of every time you put the phone in your trousser pocket or when you go in and out of your car or home or job where you go to or from an air conditioned environment and then step out to the heat outside. All these can lead to a minute amount of condensation in the units; same as your glasses fogging up. Where air moisture goes from gas to liquid form. Yes; minute, but is the cummulative effect that can cause problems.

 

@l3x

[AMejia1976]

A few weeks ago amazon was advertising the galaxy 2 as "4G LTE" now it just says "4G" no mention of wimax. And we all know, affiliate stores will do anything to sell a phone, including misleading the customers on what 4G is.

 

And yes, most customers do NOT know there are two different and incompatible 4G networks. I think its foolish to continue to extend the confusion by adding new wimax customers.

 

Further, the G2 is a defective phone. Go to the sprint forums under the Samsung page. 95% of the problems are GS2 related, even though that forum is for ALL Samsung phones. The problems haven’t been fixed, so signing customers up to a knowingly defective phone is a very bad policy idea. Once you lose a customer, good job getting them back.

 

Working at a major retailer where we sell all national carriers and most prepaid ones too we make sure to let those purchasing Sprint or Boost Mobile GS2's know that they are WiMax. We also explain the difference between LTE and Wimax.

 

We also see where most purchases are driven by the cost of the units. Most those getting the S2 just want a phone and can care less if is WiMax or LTE; they just want a cheap/free phone. Trend over the past 2 months has been parents getting S2's for their children.

 

Did you let Amazon know they were giving incorrect info? Do you file complaints with the state commerce board etc regarding affiliates selling just for selling? As stated before; Sprint can not be blamed for what 3rd parties do.

 

Foolish to continue selling WiMax devices as it extends the confusion? So does that mean retailers should also stop selling non HE washers? or Energy Star devices? or incandescent light bulbs? These are all driven by the market; often price.

 

As cell phones are mass produced devices and millions of each model are sold all over the world you are bound to have a few bad apples. To quote one of my favorite movie lines “American components, Russian components... All Made In Taiwan"

 

PS... Can we ever get a happy story? Just asking

 

@l3x

[jamesinclair]

Working at a major retailer where we sell all national carriers and most prepaid ones too we make sure to let those purchasing Sprint or Boost Mobile GS2's know that they are WiMax. We also explain the difference between LTE and Wimax.

 

We also see where most purchases are driven by the cost of the units. Most those getting the S2 just want a phone and can care less if is WiMax or LTE; they just want a cheap/free phone. Trend over the past 2 months has been parents getting S2's for their children.

 

Did you let Amazon know they were giving incorrect info? Do you file complaints with the state commerce board etc regarding affiliates selling just for selling? As stated before; Sprint can not be blamed for what 3rd parties do.

 

Foolish to continue selling WiMax devices as it extends the confusion? So does that mean retailers should also stop selling non HE washers? or Energy Star devices? or incandescent light bulbs? These are all driven by the market; often price.

 

As cell phones are mass produced devices and millions of each model are sold all over the world you are bound to have a few bad apples. To quote one of my favorite movie lines “American components, Russian components... All Made In Taiwan"

 

PS... Can we ever get a happy story? Just asking

 

@l3x

 

The difference between the GS2 and an old model washer is that Sprint has many phones it can sell for "free" that are comparable to the GS2 but without the problems.

 

Incidentally, incandescent bulbs are being phased out over the next 7 years.

 

Also, I understand moisture can make its way into phones through daily activities. I dont know if this is true at Sprint, but at Verizon the extended warranty was not available in Florida due to the humidity.

 

I think its poor form of companies to design phones that cant last two years because of atmospheric humidity. Id hope that the next big revolution in cell phones is being water resistant.

[gr8nuguy]

fwiw, we JUST STOPPED selling the Iphone 3GS this past week for ATT as they would NOT RECALL IT until now... LOL

[AMejia1976]

fwiw, we JUST STOPPED selling the Iphone 3GS this past week for ATT as they would NOT RECALL IT until now... LOL

 

We still sell it at my job... but is a good example.

[briankwest]

From Wikipedia:

 

"LTE supports scalable carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz and supports both frequency division duplexing (FDD) and time-division duplexing (TDD)."

 

I was under the impression that it wasn't limited, and that 5x5 was just what Sprint deployed. Is this not true or is this just the antenna system due to G-Block being the first band supported?

 

The one thing you WILL miss is a phone that supports LTE other than a 5 X 5 configuration, which Sprint will eventually do (ie 10x10, 20x20, etc). So with current phones, you will miss out on faster speeds later. Even though I think the current LTE speeds are good enough for a smartphone.

[halcyoncmdr]

The difference between the GS2 and an old model washer is that Sprint has many phones it can sell for "free" that are comparable to the GS2 but without the problems.

 

The latest Jelly Bean update pretty much fixes ALL of the issues that Ice Cream Sandwich brought to the GS2. Gingerbread was awesome. ICS was horrible. JB brings it back where it should be. And the fact it's not OTA just means the likelihood of a corrupted flash is nearly non-existent so all the random bullshit issues associated with bad flashes or updated system files won't be distributed as issues with the update itself.

 

Fun fact working as a retail store tech, 80% of issues we see are either user issues, or issues arising from a bad update or application and a hard reset fixes them. Yes, all hardware issues fall within that remaining 20% of devices we see. I work at a top 100 store, so we aren't slow either.

[jamesinclair]

The latest Jelly Bean update pretty much fixes ALL of the issues that Ice Cream Sandwich brought to the GS2. Gingerbread was awesome. ICS was horrible. JB brings it back where it should be. And the fact it's not OTA just means the likelihood of a corrupted flash is nearly non-existent so all the random bullshit issues associated with bad flashes or updated system files won't be distributed as issues with the update itself.

 

Fun fact working as a retail store tech, 80% of issues we see are either user issues, or issues arising from a bad update or application and a hard reset fixes them. Yes, all hardware issues fall within that remaining 20% of devices we see. I work at a top 100 store, so we aren't slow either.

 

Sadly for me, JB screwed up my phone worse than ICS did. I need to do a factory reset, which is not something Im looking forward to

[oversight]

Who cares if Sprint, Virgin or Boost are still selling the GS2? it is still a perfectly viable device that works (and will work) well for many people, despite the loud chatter by some. The few areas that have access to the WiMax network will continue to do so for another year or two, by which time people buying those devices today will be ready for the next upgrade cycle. For most users, even that is a non-issue since WiMax isn't widely available and all they will ever see is 3G. So again, why not sell the devices?

 

As far devices that support the future Sprint LTE bands, they'll be released when they're ready for market. I honestly don't see J6P running to the nearest Sprint store, jumping up and down, flapping his wings, demanding a device that supports all three bands. I think he's going to be perfectly happy seeing LTE roll out across the Sprint footprint over the next year or so.

[Substantive]

Is your "biggest issue" conceived under the assumption that customers are too inept on smartphone technology to understand or expect there to be a difference between a free device thats advertised as the "Galaxy S II" (not Epic 4G touch) and a device that costs $100-$249 and says "4G LTE? When you view this phone on sprint's site, it includes "4G WIMAX" under its "key features" and further down, tells you "4G WIMAX is not available in your area". Perhaps retailers aren't advertising or informing customers of this as well as the website, but c'mon....

 

If we apply this logic to other carriers, ATT and Tmobile are wrongly selling HSPA+ only phones.

Actually I've had to correct people on sales side who are still advancing the "WiMax will be in your area soon, so buy this today" pitch. Not amazon or 3rd party resellers either, just people who do not pay attention. I don't think this is the same scenario with HSPA however, as people are not openly mooting when that is going to be shuttered. I'm not even sure if blue and magenta are done with their 3G overlays.

 

 

 

I do not understand why Sprint continues to sell the GS2, preowned samsung epic, evo shift Wimax phones. sprint should only be promoting its 4G LTE network and leave Wimax in the dust.

This, though, is a bit too far. Sprint has paid for WiMax access into 2014, and if that covers the area people use, there is no problem with them selling and using it, millions have gone into that infastructure. The thing that might cause trouble is their intent with Clearwire going forward. If they intend to milk the existing network, fine and dandy; but if they ARE going to scrap all the Clear sites, then selling WiMax phones past a certain date smacks of the startSTOPstart that they have done with Nextel over the years. It doesn't hurt for anyone to be using WiMax phones, but it would be less than ideal if WiMax was killed while people on an active contract were using it, and then had to be offered targeted handset deals like the Nextel lot because their service was "adversely affected".

 

 

Who cares if Sprint, Virgin or Boost are still selling the GS2? it is still a perfectly viable device that works (and will work) well for many people, despite the loud chatter by some. The few areas that have access to the WiMax network will continue to do so for another year or two, by which time people buying those devices today will be ready for the next upgrade cycle. For most users, even that is a non-issue since WiMax isn't widely available and all they will ever see is 3G. So again, why not sell the devices?

Ah, a middle of the road response! I like it!

 

 

That being said, I could list off just as many or more issues for just about every single other smartphone on the market.

Fun fact working as a retail store tech, 80% of issues we see are either user issues, or issues arising from a bad update or application and a hard reset fixes them. Yes, all hardware issues fall within that remaining 20% of devices we see. I work at a top 100 store, so we aren't slow either.

 

OT- Ok you guys, what should I look out for on the Photon Q? /OT

[ericdabbs]

This, though, is a bit too far. Sprint has paid for WiMax access into 2014, and if that covers the area people use, there is no problem with them selling and using it, millions have gone into that infastructure. The thing that might cause trouble is their intent with Clearwire going forward. If they intend to milk the existing network, fine and dandy; but if they ARE going to scrap all the Clear sites, then selling WiMax phones past a certain date smacks of the startSTOPstart that they have done with Nextel over the years. It doesn't hurt for anyone to be using WiMax phones, but it would be less than ideal if WiMax was killed while people on an active contract were using it, and then had to be offered targeted handset deals like the Nextel lot because their service was "adversely affected".

 

I have no problem with Sprint selling Wimax devices like the GS2 on prepaid with Virgin and Boost Mobile since it is still a decent phone. I just don't want to see Sprint postpaid customers who can be tied for another 2 years with a Wimax handset. While Sprint has the obligation to support Wimax until 2015, the goal isn't to continue to load the Wimax network with new customers but to support those current customers who have Wimax access until its time for them to naturally buy a new handset. Sprint can't add new Wimax customers if the option isn't there. Sprint should be encouraging postpaid customers to buy LTE phones regardless even though they don't have LTE in their area because LTE should be hitting every mid to large city in some scale by mid 2014. Ideally Sprint would want to shut down Wimax sooner if it could and refarm that Wimax spectrum for TD-LTE use so it doesn't have to support 2 different networks. Remember that if Sprint owns 100% of Clearwire, those contracts to support Wimax to 2015 would be modified if Sprint sees fit that it is ready to move to TD-LTE quicker.

[irwinshere]

If they sell a phone today on virgin mobile with wimax, i would hate to see wimax shut down next week. The spectrum should not be an issue yet. Dont know about the cost of running the network.

[Deval]

If they sell a phone today on virgin mobile with wimax, i would hate to see wimax shut down next week. The spectrum should not be an issue yet. Dont know about the cost of running the network.

 

WiMax is supposed to be onair till 2015 or later I believe.