sdiamond85

I do not see google going all android on the new service. I do think though this may be a marketing move toward customers that want more integration of google services. I see a native App for Iphone, and on the android side a total integration of voice, email, music, wallet, just everything. Google is going to stay agnostic concerning Iphone. Google wants all the traffic, and is less concerned what OS you are using. I am not sure how they turn a profit if they are paying $2.00 a gig. I think with higher data of voice and data, the average customer will be using at least 10 gig a month

I think we have to look at how this came about. Earlier in the thread someone said this is Google doing the Tmo - Sprint merger on their own terms. I agree. I thought something like this would happen. I think the key to this deal is Masayohshi Son, and by extension, Marcelo Calure. Mr. Son went to school at UCLA and UC Berkeley. He studied computers after getting a meeting with the head of McDonald's Japan. What does everyone get in this deal? SOFTBANK: Mr. Son will get a stock rise on Softbank and Sprint, it also puts Sprint as a potential buy out target for Google. I don't think Son will sell until Sprint takes alot more market share. I think he wants to be as big a player in the US as he is in Japan. The stock of Sprint and Softbank are going up. Marcelo Claure with his brightstar experience brings a deep knowledge of handsets, and dealing with all the vendors. I would bet money he eventually jumps to google. Sprint gets capital, and a real reason to make its network the best in the world. GOOGLE The one question I have here is since Google needs people to use their phones, and Iphone makes up a large chunk of their Ad revenue, to what degree will they make this new service Android only? I think what they do is try and have it both ways. Build a native app for Iphone but push the advantages of moving over to the full android experience. I don't think this is going to be an Android only service. “Like everything else, you have to watch your friends more closely than your enemies, so we will be watching Google closely,” Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said of Google’s reported plans. The saying generally is "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" I think this is google putting everyone on notice (ATT, Verizon, Comcast,) on notice they do not necessarily need them anymore, that Google has options. Google has the option to push for the Fcc to regulate the internet as a utility. This would give google the right to access the same infrastructure (phone poles, conduit, equipment rights of way) Phone company's and cable companies have. This lets google deploy fibre much easier and cheaper. The discussion of whether it's a good idea to have Google this powerful is for another time. My view is this is google looking to connect alot of dots, and they think Softbank with it's position in Asia, and the fact they can deal with Mr. Son directly helps them. They get a strong data network, and can say they are just an MVNO. They have their cake and eat it too. I think that Google will come to the conclusion that it is easier to push for a stable 8 to 10 MB data experience. That you don't need a 100 mb wireless experience on cell networks. (this is not discounting the use of WIFI) Make all their services (search, Youtube,) work with 8 -10, share that technology with everyone (netflix especially). We may see service costs drop dramatically.

you have to get an american agent, and ask them specifically about the towers. The magic words seem to be "when will the tower that I connect with most be upgraded?"

The LTE upgrade didnt really hit Wildwood until after about the 10th of October, before that you could get very bad LTE in the center of Wildwood, The towers are located at Garfield and New Jersey Avenues. BlueAngle, Im just about 100% certain you will be happy this Summer. Willm: Cape May is still being upgraded, though the area around the Lobster House restaurant is good, you have to use Sprint zone and document bad coverage when you find it to let them know the network issues

Well, Things do change. After nine years of Sprint telling me that my service would get better, things have changed. I live in North Wildwood, NJ. Over the last couple of months Sprint has rolled out LTE in Cape May county. I am not Sprint bashing, but I always got the same answer from Sprint when I complained that Wildwood was important for them as a market, because people from Philly played here. You guys know a phone has to work where you work live and play. After Sprint brought in outside firms to manage the network, I would complain that they had no idea how bad service was here. In my view they didn't know because calls would not even show up on the towers as being attempted. I knew this because of the number of my neighbors who would walk to the front of my house to use my airave. Things have changed, LTE is covering 85% of the island of Wildwood. When I called the executive offices for Sprint and told them that I felt that the network did not have any real use on it because we are a summer resort, and I was concerned that even though I was getting 26MB down at this time of the year, that come May when the summer visitors come my service would be unusable again. and that atleast 15% of the island does not have LTE coverage they told me not to be concerned because the towers in the area would be upgraded to spark in March. I believe them this time. Marcelo Claure seems to be taking charge of the network, and getting accountability from the netwok vendors.

If anyone needs a phone to trade in on the samsung promotion here is what I did. I bought the Kyocera kona from walmart. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Virgin-Mobile-Sanyo-Paylo-Kyocera-Kona-Prepaid-Cell-Phone/36774653 If you go on the sprint buyback site you see it is listed. I paid 20.00 to walmart. I went to a corporate Sprint store got a 20.00 credit to my account, and I will get a 180.00 check from Samsung.

I have a suspicion that some of the issues before Claure came in were with the outside companies doing the build out of the network. If these outside companies are held to deadlines things may improve. In speaking to tower linemen in my area they say that Tmobile is the most insistent on having network tower issues addressed right away, where Sprint doesn't seem to push or care as much. I think Mr. Claure obviously has a deeper understanding of the handset end of the business, but because handsets run on carrier networks, and Brightstar is in more than 130 countries, he has a very deep knowledge of carrier network deployment and buildout.

A few thoughts, Honestly I have to be honest and say I don't know what this means in the short term. I have a few thoughts. I had a feeling that Marcelo Claure would be the new CEO. I lived in Miami for eight years. During that time I saw Claure build Brightstar in to a 10 Billion dollar company. Softbank bought a controlling interest in Brightstar in January. Brightstar is in 50 countries. Here is a link to Brighstars wiki, look at their capabilities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightstar_Corporation In the US sometimes we fail to see the Spanish speaking economy, its in front of our eyes but we ignore it. Son and softbank paid alot of money for Brightstar. I think a large part of that transaction was getting Calure for Sprint. He is young, understands the global wireless market, has personal connections with most of the wireless carriers world wide. I liked Dan Hesse, but under Hesse, it always seemed Sprint was Charlie Brown, and Lucy was always pulling the football out of his reach. Hesse is going to be paid very well to retire. I think Calure will go after the Hispanic market here in the States aggressively. I think Son had a plan B from the start if the Tmobile merger didn't go through. Tmobile does not make a real profit, and it does not have the deep pockets that Softbank has. The German parent company of Tmobile US has been trying to sell it for years. It would have been easier if Sprint and Tmobile merged, but I think everyone is going to be surprised about how well Mr. Calure will be as CEO. Mr. Calure built Brightstar from the ground up. Its going to get very interesting very soon. Im glad Im a Sprint customer.

It is the number of devices, the other thing is before we had a tower in the North end of town at third and surf. Now we just have the "Garfield" tower. all the CDMA test software report third and surf as my tower, but in reality the third and Surf tower is not active, and the tower I connect to is the "Garfield" tower. My research here on S4GRU gives a range of 5 blocks to 5 miles, I will CC Robert on this post and get his opinion

Craig, What is the range in miles or KM of a lte tower with no building over 4 stories around?

No, but I will take photos in the morning

Thanks for the quick response. The tower your referring to is "Garfield Ave". It was broadcasting 4g, this past winter. All winter I called Sprint and told them I did not think that tower location would give me, and the rest of the North part of the island adequate coverage. According to the executive office at Sprint they accepted it, and they are now fine tuning the site. The site is only broadcasting very weak LTE in the early morning hours. I do have to say, everywhere but where I live here at the shore seems to have LTE. The LTE in Cape May is pretty good. I am just hoping that someone from Sprint reads this, and looks into it. My view is the vendor is either lying to, or greatly exaggerating what is going on with the network in North Wildwood

I am in North Wildwood, we are a summer resort, and obviously during the summer the population spikes. The Sprint coverage maps claims we should have "Best" voice and "fair" LTE. My definition of "fair" is being able to get one bar of LTE on my second floor, outside deck. I am lucky to be able to make a voice call. Since I am using a Galaxy Note 3, I have wifi calling and thats not working the best. I have an Airave for my tenants. I have called sprint over the last year to get more information, but nothing so far. any thoughts?

4G is available in Wildwood. I have sensorly mapped it. It is strong from Wildwood crest to about the middle of Wildwood. North Wildwood is not on yet. The 4g dies at about 26th street. I can pick it up from my second floor unit on 21st ave, but very faintly. I get about 5 meg down at my house on the second floor

I was driving home from Cape May to North Wildwood about 1:30 today. I always have sensorly running since I got my Note 3. The battery is awesome, and they have been updating sensorly almost daily. I picked up LTE between the parkway and Wildwood. I was a passenger. I then drove back in my car to do some mapping. I only did East to West so far, but I get signal from near Menz restaurant, to the Wildwood bridge. I also did some speed tests, they are running 18-20 mb down. I dont know if this is just testing or not. I checked with the local Radioshack store to see if they got signal, and they said they first saw it yesterday when they were activating a boost. The amazing thing to me is the mapping is up on Sensorly less than two hours after I mapped it. I willl map more in the next few days