Marcelo Claure, Town Hall Meetings, New Family Share Pack Plan, Unlimited Individual Plan, Discussion Thread

[Ascertion]

Here is the Rootmetrics blurb in Austin:

AT&T’s median download speed decreased from 21.3 Mbps to 12.3 Mbps since our testing in December.

Sprint’s median download speed increased from 8.5 Mbps to 10.8 Mbps.

Sprint will easily surpass AT&T on the next testing phase here. I am seeing 20+ Mbps everywhere I have tested over the last 2 weeks or so.

I hope...but not likely. All around me is like this. Jacksonville, FL. They're great downtown but suburbs really hurt.

I do hope CA puts Sprint ahead in many markets with speed, though.

 

Sent from my M8

[RedSpark]

I hope...but not likely. All around me is like this. Jacksonville, FL. They're great downtown but suburbs really hurt.

I do hope CA puts Sprint ahead in many markets with speed, though.

 

Sent from my M8

 

Get this man some B41 with 2x20 MHz CA Stat....

 

Upon further review... CA would be only marginally helpful for your M8 because your device doesn't support it (It would however benefit from the network effect of other devices using CA) .... Is an M9 (which supports it) in your future?

[cletus]

No. And so people in Austin should man up, vote with their feet, and leave. So for not doing so, remaining AT&T users deserve that. One market (although bigger ones can hurt a lot) doesn't change the entire impression for a carrier, it simply doesn't help compliment their overall image. 

 

It sucks your employer uses them if they are not good where you are and work. I hope that changes.

 

However, I almost never hear people admitting Verizon sucks where they do, and there's a lot of apologists not admitting the ugly side of T-Mobile either. That's my problem. Yeah, AT&T does suck in some areas, but that's not my point. And so do the other 3 if you find the right area of the right market. That's still not my point, lol. 

Hum, not sure what evoked that response but it seems clear from the data http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/blog/special-reports/2015-1h-national-us that my experience is, in fact ,not unique. 

 

If you scroll down to AT&T you will see they are the ONLY carrier to have the following characteristics:

1) To have MORE markets in the 0-5 and 5-10 Mbps speed tiers in 2015 than 2014 (Verizon only went up 1 market in the 5-10 category)

AND

2) To have LESS 20 Mbps+ markets

 

To me that suggests that AT&T's network performance as a whole is not only not getting BETTER but actually SLOWING nationwide. My experience is actually representative of this decline which is why I posted it.

[S4GRU]

I hope...but not likely. All around me is like this. Jacksonville, FL. They're great downtown but suburbs really hurt.

I do hope CA puts Sprint ahead in many markets with speed, though.

 

Sent from my M8

This is B26. Sprint really needs to boot everyone off B26, except those who cannot connect to any other band.

 

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

[JonnygATL]

This is B26. Sprint really needs to boot everyone off B26, except those who cannot connect to any other band.

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

Exactly. It should be a last resort,a testament to its superior propagation characteristics. Only in that situation (as few users as possible) would b26's small slice of spectrum produce decent speeds.

[Ascertion]

This is B26. Sprint really needs to boot everyone off B26, except those who cannot connect to any other band.

 

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

I agree.  I'm mostly on B26 all over the place.  Even at home, where B25 is at -100dBm, and SNR ratios are favorable.

[kg4icg]

Heck DirecTV thing and T-Mobile joining the CCA, what else is going to happen? Oh and I got this in band 25 in Ashburn.

[jroepcke51]

That is pretty aggressive

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-is-celebrating-the-merger-of-directv-and-att-directv-customers-get-free-service-by-switching-to-sprint.htm?view_id=11306

 

Sent from my Tab 4

That's what I was coming to post. I have directv. I am disappointed I miss out on this STEAL.

[tybo31316]

I agree. I'm mostly on B26 all over the place. Even at home, where B25 is at -100dBm, and SNR ratios are favorable.

I agree with you. Here in Jacksonville I'm on band 26 probably 90% of the time. The other 10% is split between band 25/41.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

[BlueAngel]

I hardly see B26, considering it's the same strength as B25. Inside I'm mostly on 3G.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[ingenium]

This is B26. Sprint really needs to boot everyone off B26, except those who cannot connect to any other band.

 

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

Agreed. I'm always on B26 or B41. B26 is completely saturated most of the time, but B25 is wide open when I'm able to connect to it. B25 in some of the areas I frequent is under -100 dBm but it puts me on B26 anyway.

 

For my home site, I reported it enough on Sprint Zone that I think they manually tweaked the load balancing and I'll be on B25 much more often now, but that doesn't happen on any other site.

 

My guess is that they're now idling devices on B26 to help battery life, and it's supposed to hand up to B25 when you pass a threshold of data usage in a given period of time. Or at least that's what I've observed sometimes. But in many cases it doesn't actually work that way.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

[Ascertion]

Agreed. I'm always on B26 or B41. B26 is completely saturated most of the time, but B25 is wide open when I'm able to connect to it. B25 in some of the areas I frequent is under -100 dBm but it puts me on B26 anyway.

 

For my home site, I reported it enough on Sprint Zone that I think they manually tweaked the load balancing and I'll be on B25 much more often now, but that doesn't happen on any other site.

 

My guess is that they're now idling devices on B26 to help battery life, and it's supposed to hand up to B25 when you pass a threshold of data usage in a given period of time. Or at least that's what I've observed sometimes. But in many cases it doesn't actually work that way.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Honestly I think a lot of the load balancing is also done in the baseband oh the phone. I've heard users stay on different bands than normal after an OTA. I really like Samsung's new Signal update. Both cosmetically and functionality. It takes your signal strength and compares it with SNR ratio and produces signal bars based on that.

 

Sent from my M8

[newboyx]

I am in a pretty mature market. I camp on 41, dropped to 25 when no 41 is available, and usually only fall to 26 when nothing else is available. That is almost always my experience. The Indianapolis market is freaking awesome.

 

Sent from my Sprint LG G4

[PythonFanPA]

My experience has always been it is Moms who push for kids to have phones earlier than Dads do (at least in the group of friends I have)

 

My wife and I have been having this very debate the last few weeks regarding her youngest daughter, and that's where we both fall....she's turning 12 and she already has a Nexus 10 tablet + barely uses her semi-dumb phone.  Wife keeps bringing up getting her a smartphone, I think we should wait at least another year.

[PythonFanPA]

Oh, and not to get the BBQ debate going again, but the best pulled pork I've ever had (at least thus far) in my life comes from a small mid-TN chain also called (and not to be confused with the one AJ mentioned in Kansas), Strouds:

 

http://www.stroudsbarbeque.com/

 

If any of you are ever traveling through the Nashville area, or between Nashville and Knoxville along I-40 and can spare some time to stop in Cookeville, I highly recommend you give them a try.  If you're a pulled pork buff and especially are of the 'if it needs sauce its not good BBQ' mindset, this stuff is amazingly good.  Moving and getting married has made my life immeasurably better and more complete, but it hurts my heart every time I think about the fact that I used to live literally a 5 minute drive from the Cookeville location.  Stroud's pulled pork was often a staple particularly of my fall Saturday college football watching marathons.

[Houston_Texas]

My wife and I have been having this very debate the last few weeks regarding her youngest daughter, and that's where we both fall....she's turning 12 and she already has a Nexus 10 tablet + barely uses her semi-dumb phone. Wife keeps bringing up getting her a smartphone, I think we should wait at least another year.

Get her a prepaid phone.

 

Sent from my SM-N910T

[Fraydog]

So John is going to send letters to the other three carriers about abolishing overages

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobiles-legere-were-going-send-verizon-att-and-sprint-message-abolish-ove/2015-08-27

 

I say don't try to fix too much cause that will hurt your business. Your nitch is not charging people for going over their data. Now if AT&T,Verizon and Sprint does this then what will set T-mobile apart? People will probably just go back to their old carrier if that's the case.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

See my Twitter @fraydog and the replies I sent to @4GHoward, which go like this:

 

1. Most Sprint customers are unlimited and unthrottled plans.

2. All AT&T and Verizon overage plans alert at 75%, 90%, and 100%. I've never had an overage on VZW. 

3. I have run over on T-Mobile and got the upsell messages to prove it. 

4. All carriers are trying to monetize over use even T-Mobile. Industry still needs massive reform. 

 

Now if Sprint abolishes overages on their current plans, people are just going to complain about throttling next. That's a given. I would prefer customers are allowed to choose if they want to set a throttle or an auto-charge for an overage when they get their plan. That would make everyone happy. 

[cortney]

Now if Sprint abolishes overages on their current plans, people are just going to complain about throttling next. That's a given. I would prefer customers are allowed to choose if they want to set a throttle or an auto-charge for an overage when they get their plan. That would make everyone happy. 

 

This! Asking for throttling over overages is just another extreme. Some people will pay the overages and not care. They may be a minority, but give people the choice. Others would indeed prefer the throttling route to save money and never have to worry about getting overages while still receiving service. There is no use swinging to either extreme for postpaid. 

 

T-Mobile still sells buckets for you to buy after you go over (or to add to your current plan), so your 3rd and 4th points are extraordinary important.

Edited August 28, 2015 by cortney

[BenChase7]

That's what I was coming to post. I have directv. I am disappointed I miss out on this STEAL.

Well then, don't miss out.  Perfect opportunity to add a line to your account.

[JThorson]

Isn't part of Sprints network optimization to have users on b41 and b25 99% of them time and then if necessary put them on b26? I thought the network is supposed to be smart to put users on the best band possible?

[gusherb]

Isn't part of Sprints network optimization to have users on b41 and b25 99% of them time and then if necessary put them on b26? I thought the network is supposed to be smart to put users on the best band possible?

I believe that's how it's supposed to be. But in reality, here in the Chicago area for instance a lot of the network remains unoptimized and tends to do whatever it wants sometimes, like camp on B26 right next to a site... They haven't actually done anything to B26 or B25 to increase their range since turning them on. I've heard the hold up was due to old Nextel repeaters causing interference with B26 needing to be shut down. Why that appears to be taking so long to get done who knows. I think they need to hurry that process along though, and have it done a year ago. Also since using T-Mobile, AT&T, and VZW, Sprints B25 LTE doesn't seem to reach nearly as far as the former three's band 4 and band 2 LTE can reach. So I think they have that turned down too.

[lilotimz]

Also since using T-Mobile, AT&T, and VZW, Sprints B25 LTE doesn't seem to reach nearly as far as the former three's band 4 and band 2 LTE can reach. So I think they have that turned down too.

 

It's how it is. The other three run single mode operations which allow them to broadcast higher power settings compared to Sprint who runs dual mode on their RRUs and has the split the power between LTE and CDMA. 

[RedSpark]

It's how it is. The other three run single mode operations which allow them to broadcast higher power settings compared to Sprint who runs dual mode on their RRUs and has the split the power between LTE and CDMA.

 

How will things work when Sprint enables VoLTE? They'll still have to broadcast CDMA for some time right? When it's finally shut down, they can broadcast at higher settings?

[payturr]

It's how it is. The other three run single mode operations which allow them to broadcast higher power settings compared to Sprint who runs dual mode on their RRUs and has the split the power between LTE and CDMA.

When CDMA refarming happens, will we see a slight shift in LTE power or is it still gonna be an even split regardless of which has the most spectrum?

[Ascertion]

It's how it is. The other three run single mode operations which allow them to broadcast higher power settings compared to Sprint who runs dual mode on their RRUs and has the split the power between LTE and CDMA. 

Otherwise, Sprint would need to have a separate antenna for CDMA and LTE?