S4GRU

chicken wings I could go for some right now...

This is exactly what I was talking about. He didn't get that? Robert

I don't have access to an Epic, or I would include it in my study/article. Robert

No. I have no clue about store availability. Sorry. Robert

by Robert Herron Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Tuesday, June 26, 2012 - 4:00 PM MDT It appears that the logjam has been cleared and the 32GB Samsung Galaxy S-III pre-orders by Sprint customers are finally starting to roll. And yours truly has been one of those affected, sitting in backorder purgatory. We informed you all last week about the delay affecting 32GB models reportedly caused by overwhelming global demand that Samsung couldn't keep up with. The sources say that devices started shipping out today, and that customers should see an update at Sprint's website. However, in checking my status just before going to print still showed my device as backordered. Also note that I finished up my pre-order only minutes after the pre-order sent went live. So hopefully this info is legit and the devices are on their way. It appears my wait is nearly over, as well as for thousands of other Sprint customers who boldly stepped out and pre-ordered the 32GB version of the Galaxy S-III. Soon I will be able to write that radio performance article comparing the GS-III, EVO LTE, Galaxy Nexus, Epic 4G Touch and EVO 3D. Stay tuned for that! EDIT: I received a tracking number late tonight and see my GS3 is at the Louisville Airport on its way to me. The end is nigh!!! Source: Phandroid, Sprint

We do have interactive schedule maps for our Premier Sponsor members. Robert

We are publishing articles on every Round Two market. But they are being posted in order of anticipated launch date. So, the Tampa and Orlando articles will post according to their place in the schedule. But do not fret, it should be before the end of this week. Robert

by Robert Herron Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Tuesday, June 26, 2012 - 2:40 PM MDT The next market in our Network Vision/LTE deployment schedule update series is the Bold New City of the South...Jacksonville. Jacksonville and Florida's First Coast has yet to be announced by Sprint, but is expected to be announced in the near future. Perhaps around the time of the first market launches. The Sprint Jacksonville market encompasses all of the Sprint native coverage in Northeastern Florida and extends down to even parts of the west coast of Central Florida. This includes the Jacksonville Metro area and the Beaches, Orange Park, St. Augustine, Palatka, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood and down over toward Crystal River and Homosassa Springs. Sprint's Network Vision OEM Ericsson is scheduled to begin mobilizing with its subcontractors next month. Completed Network Vision sites should start coming online in August. Jacksonville Market Launch It was Sprint's original plan to launch markets when they reached 50% of sites converted to Network Vision. However, it has now been determined that Sprint will move up launches sooner than 50% completion in several markets. This is likely to maintain a Mid 2012 launch in markets that have already been announced. However, in an unannounced market like Jacksonville, we don't know if they will resume pushing back market launches to 50%, or if they will now settle on a 40% completion to be the new normal for market launches. If Sprint waits for 50% completion to launch the Jacksonville market, it would make the launch month to be November (should the OEM stay on schedule). If they plan on a 40% market completion for launch, that would be October. You may think that 40% - 50% site completion is not enough to launch LTE service, but it would provide pretty good coverage. Even Verizon doesn't launch on all sites in a market initially. Usually less than 50%, then filling in with more and more sites every few months. Anticipated Sites Complete at Market Launch. According to the Network Vision schedules that S4GRU has reviewed, if Sprint launched the market in October, these are the anticipated sites that would likely have LTE complete at that time. This would provide fairly good LTE coverage over many parts of the market. Schedule details and the bottom line We currently do not have a date that Sprint will formally "launch" LTE service in Northeast Florida. It is difficult to try to pick a date now this far out, but we will take a stab at it. In looking at the schedule as of today, it would indicate an November or December market launch (going on a 40% - 50% completion for launch). But there is no way to know if Ericsson and their subcontractors will actually hit their schedule dates this early in the deployment for this market. We will be able to gauge better after a few months of production. Ericsson will only need to hit a production rate of 40 sites per month to stay on schedule. This appears to us to be an achievable rate. If properly prepared and equipped and if backhaul is ready timely, this market shouldn't have problems staying on time. But this is easy to say before they get started. S4GRU has examined the schedule in great detail in this market and sees that most of the sites will be complete by March 2013. However, there may be a few sporadic sites that will linger past the completion. Photo of Jacksonville skyline provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NOTE: S4GRU Sponsor Members can track regular updates of Network Vision sites completed nationwide. Completed sites are shown in an interactive Google Maps interface. Information about sponsorship can be found here: S4GRU Sponsorship

single phase

Yes. I cannot help for people to over read what I say. It happens every day. Robert

Welcome to S4GRU. I am looking forward to the day when I get my 32GB Pebble Blue SGS3. But it's still on back order. *sigh* As Odell mention above, Sprint is still blocking access to LTE sites. We wrote on article about it here: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-167-sprint-intentionally-blocking-new-lte-devices-from-accessing-live-lte-sites/ We have had dozens, if not 100's of reports of S4GRU members getting LTE in many cities, only to have them eventually be blocked by Sprint. We are all waiting for Sprint to stop the blocking. Most likely it will occur after an OTA hits the streets for the EVO LTE in the next few weeks. Robert

If Sprint's plans were to keep PTT service and capitalize on the market, then they have really blown it. If their plan was just to let it fade into oblivion and allow their customers to get pilfered by the competition, then they are doing a fantastic job. Robert

I'm not certain of this. I keep both my EVO LTE and Galaxy Nexus in LTE mode, and get the same battery life as in CDMA mode only. We also have had anecdotal reports of people getting fringe LTE signals so far and not notice any difference in battery life. If you think about it, your device does not always have to keep an active LTE connection to the tower like it does with 1x. You have to keep 1x connected at all times because of an incoming phone call or text may need to be delivered to your device. But LTE can go into hibernation, only needing to become active when your device needs to use data. Your phone still stays connected to 1x during this hibernation, just in case a call or text comes in. But your LTE connection can shut down until needed. What probably would make a difference in battery life is during an active LTE session with a weak signal. But I don't believe you will see any drain in standby mode in LTE device, regardless of LTE signal strength. Robert

I don't know if I would say eHRPD has higher signal strength. But what can happen: if you are comparing an EVDO legacy signal to an eHRPD signal from a Network Vision site, there may be some improvement. However, I personally would never say that eHRPD has a stronger signal than EVDO, because that would not be true technically. Robert

by Robert Herron Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Tuesday, June 26, 2012 - 12:06 PM MDT The next market in our Network Vision/LTE deployment schedule update series is...Charlotte. The Charlotte market has yet to be announced by Sprint, but is expected to be announced in the near future. Perhaps around the time of the first market launches. The Sprint Charlotte market encompasses all of the Sprint native coverage in western North Carolina. This includes the Charlotte Metro area, Kannapolis, Concord, Salisbury, Gastonia, Hickory, Boone and all the way over to Asheville. Sprint's Network Vision OEM Alcatel/Lucent is scheduled to begin mobilizing in this area with its subcontractors any time now. Completed Network Vision sites should start coming online before the end of July. Charlotte Market Launch It was Sprint's original plan to launch markets when they reached 50% of sites converted to Network Vision. However, it has now been determined that Sprint will move up launches sooner than 50% completion in several markets. This is likely to maintain a Mid 2012 launch in markets that have already been announced. However, in an unannounced market like Charlotte, we don't know if they will resume pushing back market launches to 50%, or if they will now settle on a 40% completion to be the new normal for market launches. If Sprint waits for 50% completion to launch the Charlotte market, it would make the launch month to be November (should the OEM stay on schedule). If they plan on a 40% market completion for launch, that would be October. You may think that 40% - 50% site completion is not enough to launch LTE service, but it would provide pretty good coverage. Even Verizon doesn't launch on all sites in a market initially. Usually less than 50%, then filling in with more and more sites every few months. Anticipated Sites Complete at Market Launch. According to the Network Vision schedules that S4GRU has reviewed, if Sprint launched the market in October, these are the anticipated sites that would likely have LTE complete at that time. This would provide fairly good LTE coverage over many parts of the market. Schedule details and the bottom line We currently do not have a date that Sprint will formally "launch" the Charlotte market. It is difficult to try to pick a date now this far out. And we know Sprint won't want to do that. But we will take a stab at it. In looking at the schedule as of today, it would indicate an October or November market launch (going on a 40% - 50% completion for launch). But there is no way to know if Alcatel/Lucent and their subcontractors will actually hit their schedule dates this early in the deployment for this market. We will be able to gauge better after a few months of production. AlcaLu will only need to hit a production rate of 50 sites per month to stay on schedule. This appears to us to be an achievable rate. If properly prepared and equipped and if backhaul is ready timely, this market shouldn't have problems staying on time. But this is easy to say before they get started. S4GRU has examined the schedule in great detail in this market and sees that most of the sites will be complete by March 2013. However, there may be a few sporadic sites that will linger past the completion. Photo of Charlotte Airport provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NOTE: S4GRU Sponsor Members can track regular updates of Network Vision sites completed nationwide. Completed sites are shown in an interactive Google Maps interface. Information about sponsorship can be found here: S4GRU Sponsorship

Yes. Backhaul should be caught up pretty well by September. And it is necessary for LTE, as you mention. Robert

Do you work in a lead lined building? That's a weak signal for being relatively close. Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I think Sprint's attitude is: We are broke and borrowing money. Our cash flow is very tight and and if we don't meet projections, then we have to slow down Network Vision. ---------------------------------------------------------- How do you do network expansion in this environment? You can't. Sprint has written off most of its remaining iDEN customers, only counting on a percentage of them to convert to CDMA. There is only so much Sprint can do with the resources it has. It is counting on the operational savings of decommissioning the entire Nextel network. Originally, they weren't planning to keep ANY iDEN only sites to be converted to NV CDMA/LTE. Now that they are open to keeping 100, that's a good move in the right direction. However, Sprint is keeping a sharp eye on its finances. I wouldn't expect that 100 number to grow a lot. If they kept 1,000 well placed iDEN only sites, they could keep the entire iDEN coverage area now offered. But 1,000 sites is a lot for Sprint to keep at this point. Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner