halcyoncmdr

The only Sprint store here is an affiliate store and not corporate. I would have to drive an hour away from the Sprint store here to find one. Plus, I didn't know the difference at first, either. Generally speaking, when the average person sees the logo all over the walls and windows it looks like it belongs to that company. It's not like you have Walmart or McDonald's affiliates, so people assume it's the same thing. To tell you the truth, I never knew this program existed until now. I wish I did, I could be using an LTE phone by now.

Actually, most fast food restaurants are franchises and can choose not to participate in most promotions. Most do to increase customers coming in from the national advertising, but they are not required to in most cases.

My wife's iphone 4s just updated and the new PRL is 60797 from 4397. The tower near by has just been upgraded to 3g NV.

I would suggest doing a ##update because the iPhone 4S does not conform to standard Sprint PRL structures and requires its own PRL series. Who knows what weird idiosyncracies you may experience on a "standard" PRL. The update will ensure your phone is provisioned properly and update the PRL as well.

So I have something anecdotal I've been noticing, and i'd like to know if it's just my imagination or if there could be something to it:

 

I've noticed that many times, once a tower has been upgraded for 4G (and 3G is not accepted, meaning I assume that 3G is still using legacy equipment), I often notice that the 3G signal is slightly weaker, or that speed is lower than it previously was and phones roam more often. Is it possibly because when they're putting up the new equipment they are messing up the alignment of the legacy equipment? Is there any reason that this would happen?

Some sites require removing one of the legacy panels to make room for the NV equipment. It likely could be related to that if the site has a space limitation like that.

Probably Milestone 1 testing.

First stage of the upgrades on that tower. Second stage would be Milestone 2, M3, etc. for that site.

I wonder how 2500 is going to work on a flagpole site. I know that 800 and 1900 use the same panels, but I thought 2500 uses different ones.

If a site can't be co-located they either will find space elsewhere nearby, or possibly just not upgrade that area. It all depends on what's physically possible there. Stealth sites, flagpoles, etc. that can't carry a lot of weight are the most likely to either be upgraded last or not at all because they will require a lot more planning and development.

400GB/S is amazing lol. Could you imagine? Jesus lol. 400 people with 1GB/S in one package. Hospitals don't even get that. and comcast has gotten better in my area. I went from 15mb down to 50MB down and at peak hours I get 80MB

SprintLink is not a FTTH (fiber to the home) provider, or even a consumer producer at all. It is a tier 1 Internet backbone provider. They sell bandwidth on their global backbone network to other providers, not consumer connections.

Updating PRL is a default tier 1 troubleshooting step, it does fix issues with corrupted PRL files, etc. And can quickly and easily fix some issues. Most customers don't know anything about their phone so everything is setup for the lowest common denominator. It is assumed the end user has no idea what they are talking about, 99% of the time they don't when it comes to anything IT.

Also, that email reads to me like the ticket was opened by the tech referencing a tower so far away that when the network team reviewed it, nothing matches. They are requesting you to reply to help them clarify where the issue really is.

Does anyone know if Boost, Virgin, and all of those other Sprint mvno's update PRLs when Sprint proper updates their's?  I'd imagine of course Sprint subscribers would get priority on a loaded tower, but I'm curious if these mvno's will pick up the SMR band when it's available.

MVNO PRLs are managed by Sprint, they are listed in the Sprint PRL sheet along with the others.

Wasn't there big news update about the Upgrade Now program being cancelled back in December 2012?

It was, then brought back about a week later in a modified program with multiple tiers. Essentially, the trial period was a complete success, so it was expanded to a much longer and more complex trial. I assume it's still considered a trial program since it isn't publicly advertised, but any sales rep who can read should know about the program. It appears in just about every account with a device older than 6 months as an account offer.

This is not the same kind of program. This is not something sprint is advertising, a customer either has to know about it or have a pretty aware sales rep. Who goes over it with them. Next, jump and edge are new pricing schemes that involve "financing" (edge and next aren't really financing) the phone and sprint doesn't offer this. Argue about the merits of these programs all you want they are popular and people are doing it. Sprint will need to catch up and for a company looking to grow playing catch up is not where you want to be.

No, they don't need an aware sales rep. They need a rep that does the bare minimum of reading weekly updates from Sprint corporate. I realize this is still seemingly hard for many to do, but that's more about local management hiring practices than anything else.

1) Faster phone upgrades: Verizon Edge, AT&T Next, T-Mobile Jump, Sprint? Nothing

 

Actually, Sprint has their Upgrade Now program. It was launched and available before AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile. It is not a formal program advertised, but it is offered and available to just about everyone starting at 6 months into their contract and not eligible for upgrade.

It is by far, much simpler than Jump, Next, or Edge from everything I've read.

Their are two different tier structures, one for smartphones and one for feature phones. Essentially it works as an up front ETF payment for become eligible immediately for the upgrade pricing (not exactly, but fundamentally). The further you are into your contract, the less it costs for the program. It requires utilizing Sprint's Buyback program, and that credit goes directly towards your device purchase at the point of sale. You can only take advantage of it in stores, unless you use the new Reserve In Store system to pay online and pick it up in store instead.

No initial deposit, no monthly cost, no increase in monthly plan pricing (permanent or temporary) required to take advantage of the "early upgrade" program. Some might argue it's better to split it up across bills, but I can tell you from experience working with many customers already unable to understand phone bills as it is (even when they aren't having a billing issue, on all carriers) adding another line-item every month just adds to the confusion. The fact is the average person can't understand a bill, from any carrier or company. I work for Sprint in retail, I was retail sales/support and now a tech, and I have friends that work in call centers for various companies, it's the same regardless of company. People can't understand a bill, that isn't going to magically change with a complex program. Not to mention the fact Sprint got rid of things like Bill to Account for device purchases was due to fraud, etc. related to things exactly like Jump/Edge/Next (people using their bill as a credit card for the purchase, making payments instead of a lump sum payment on their next bill as required). Sprint is not in the credit business, it has too much overhead to try and collect and Sprint has been trying to reduce the amount of "sub-prime" customers that don't pay their bills on time and in full, something the old management (Forsee et al.) allowed to happen way too much over the years.

I am still curious how the LTE performance is on this phone vs. other Sprint LTE phones and other HTC LTE phones in particular.

I can't give an answer to that, I'm in Tucson... no LTE yet.

That being said, I'm not optimistic. I've had my 8XT go into roaming in areas that my S3 had no issues with. Random areas that regularly have decent signal as well, not sure if it is the phone or something with the towers at that particular time and I happened to notice it.

1xRTT signal does not directly correlate to LTE capability, but since they are the same antenna, they are related partially at least.

the call center in Margate Florida is contracted out to a company call TAG (The Answer Group) they do Advance Technical Support, Smart Phone & Billing, & Blackberry Support.  Have a friend who works there & it's a TERRIBLE place to work.

Technical Support in a call center is always horrible. Usually the types of people that call in to technical support are those that can't operate a toaster.

SOURCE: I have a dozen friends that have worked Tech Support for multiple companies over the years.

Indirect channel is not doing this.  We are told to offer the new plans first, but ultimately do whatever the customer wants.

Corporate directive is not doing this either. Just those areas. Probably some area director wanting to show he can make a change on a large scale if he tries. I hate bureaucracy.

Check for any debug/engineering screens.  Windows Phone 7 had a solid set of engineering screens on all handsets, but Windows Phone 8 on AT&T and T-Mobile devices reportedly no longer includes access to those screens.  Still, Sprint seems to be the operator most proactive about including engineering screens, so I would not be shocked if the Sprint variant HTC 8XT has them.

 

AJ

Well...

##3424# (DIAG) gives you a self-diagnostic app. Testing screen, touch, LED, buttons, etc.

##72786# (SCRTN) gets you to a Service Tools app. It includes sections for PST, DATA, MSL, RTN, and SCRTN. They each do as you expect, no live actionable info there.

##33284# (DEBUG) gets you to EmbeddedTools. It has Diag and FieldTrial. Diag sets diagnostics mode on. FieldTrial does what we all want. :-)

Some screenshots posted on my SkyDrive for those interested (Lat/Long edited for safety): http://sdrv.ms/1bBKSO9

I just got an 8XT today, liking it so far. I'm still looking at the LG G2 when it releases though. Probably going to give the 8XT to my mother, she seems to really like the Windows interface and doesn't care about LTE at all so tri-band wouldn't mean much to her.

Wow!  Plus, that Verizon logo off to the side of the ear piece looks totally out of place. Almost as if someone rigged it up after the fact.  Silly... but, kinda funny, really! 

Just like the Verizon logo emblazoned across the HOME button on the Note II. It's centered at least, but it's ugly as sin.

Fun fact, the Verizon and Sprint NOTE II's use the same exact screen assembly, they are interchangeable.

Ok, I was just been told by Sprint that the tower next to my house between Broadway and 22 nd east of Houghton is an LTE tower but I cannot test it because I don't have an LTE phone yet, can anyone confirm?

It's not "an LTE tower" but it may have been upgraded to Network Vision equipment. No LTE will go live until upgraded backhaul is in place, no towers have upgraded backhaul yet in Tucson thanks to the vendors supplying it taking their time.

I don't think 800 is on a higher priority, It's just listed first on the PRL. So it's not going to jump from 1900 to 800 unless the 1900 signal gets too weak or it is forced in some other way to start from the top of the PRL and work down. Once you park on one frequency natively you will tend to stay on it until you are forced to jump back. If you are roaming it will periodically keep looking for a native signal, or at least a nonnative signal with a higher priority than your current one. My guess is eventually most Sprint phones will park on 800 to preserve battery, but will utilize PCS and BRS/EBS when they actually need a channel if the signal is strong enough.

From what I understand about how PRL/spectrum transitions work...

It is likely Sprint will have the PRLs "park" phones on 800, the network can tell the phone to transition to a different frequency it is within range of. So even though you are parked on 800, the tower can still send you a call on 1900MHz instead if you are within range, etc.

Not true regarding "every other carrier on one band"

ATT - 700, aws, pcs, WCS

VZW - 700, AWS, pcs

TMO - AWS, pcs

Have they announced LTE utilizing all of those bands however? As far as I remember, I've just seen LTE on only a single frequency for every carrier except Sprint.

I thought they repaired the phones, then refurbished them and shipped them back to stores for replacements?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Refurbishment is always done from a remote location. A store can do field repairs on some hardware, but that is limited. The stores do not have all of the equipment, applications, and training to fully refurbish a damaged device back to factory-new condition. This isn't specific for iPhones, that goes for just about any phone. Most of the parts are simply too small or fragile to work on in the field.

...their plans for carrier integration (using excess cellular and PCS spectrum), heavy participation in new spectrum auctions, cell site density, DAS/small cells, newer remote radio heads, strategically placed antennae etc... 

 

That is the strategy of just about every carrier in the US currently. Nothing about that information is specific to any carrier. The main difference with Sprint's plan however is which spectrum is being used for what.

LTE is going to be deployed on all three of Sprint's spectrum bands. As far as I know every other carrier is sticking to only a single spectrum band. This allows for more flexibility in the network and, combined with carrier aggregation, should provide more stable connections at higher speeds. The intention is for every tower to be upgraded to send out all three LTE signals. The closer you are to a tower, the higher spectrum frequency you will use. Using Clearwire's 2600MHz spectrum allows for high speeds at short range (upwards of 90Mbps), 1900MHz goes further out from the tower and will allow speeds up to 37Mbps, and 800MHz will go further still to allow the same 37Mbps speeds. Again, with LTE speed is very signal dependent, so the edge of coverage will always have lower speeds on all carriers (this is why they all advertise average speeds around 4-8Mbps, that is the sweet spot in the middle to outer ranges).

3G is staying on 1900MHz only like it has been (with LTE being deployed on three separate frequencies and being added to all towers, 3G failover rates will be extremely low). 1xRTT voice will be on both 1900MHz like currently, and will also be deployed on 800MHz to extend coverage and fill in gaps. As far as I know, Sprint is the only carrier taking a systematic and comprehensive approach to maximize their entire spectrum portfolio nationwide.

In addition, you have to not take into account Sprint's ownership by SoftBank. Most of Sprint's failures since the Nextel merger in 2005 have been due to a network CAPEX spending stop, operating two entirely separate and incompatible networks, and a complete lack of profitability primarily caused by massive debt from that merger. Network Vision fixes the network issues, standardizes the network nationwide as far as equipment and setup is concerned (as opposed to the hodge-podge created through mergers), and future-proofs it to allow for easy upgrades going forward. SoftBank already has experience with both FDD and TDD LTE in Japan, as well as a Tri-Band network infrastructure plan (900/1700/2600 in Japan). In addition, SoftBank has the capital to pump into Sprint's network to get it up to the standard they want. There is a reason SoftBank Mobile is the number three carrier and is continually providing larger profits and improvements in Japan while stealing customers from their competitors, and they plan to do the same here.

I seem to have more than a few apps that ask for location permissions.  Even the movie apps Flixter and Fandango want it.

 

Thanks for all the answers today.

The ask for permission because they have location services embedded in the apps themselves, that does not mean GPS is active all the time simply because they are installed or open.

If you don't have the GPS icon visible in your notification tray it isn't on. The setting just allows you to enable/disable the ability for an app to turn it on automatically, that's all

On a side note since you seem to be getting updated with current Android tech... DO NOT INSTALL A TASK KILLER UNLESS YOU KNOW 100% HOW TO PROPERLY USE ONE!

Android now manages apps and memory usage on its own. Apps are automatically shutdown by the system after 10 minutes of inactivity. If you know you have an app open that is having an issue and needs to be shutdown you can manually close it with built-in tools. Long pressing the HOME button (or pressing a dedicated RECENT APP button on some models) will bring up your recent app listing. This is the last 10 or so apps you have used, allowing you to easily switch between them to multi-task. If you swipe them to the left off of the screen (up on some HTC models), they will force close if they are open. Just because an app is listed in Recent Apps, does not necessarily mean it is actively running.

Samsung models even have a built-in task manager that extends this ability. From the Recent App screen, there will be a button at the bottom that looks like a pie chart, clicking that will pull up a Samsung-made App monitor, RAM cleaner, and Storage manager. The Active Applications tab will show you currently running apps and info about them. This is color-coded. White/Grey is standard coloring for dormant apps. Yellow are apps that are actively working but will go to sleep if your phone enters a sleep state. Red apps are actively working and will keep the phone awake even once the screen sleeps until they finish whatever they are working on (syncing, downloading, etc.).

In addition, anti-virus apps are useless. The few pieces of Android malware that have been released are removed by Google from both the Play Store and from all infected devices upon discovery. ALWAYS READ THE PERMISSIONS YOU GIVE APPS, THERE IS A REASON EVERY APP INSTALLED TELLS YOU THEM WHEN YOU CLICK THE BUTTON IN THE PLAY STORE. If a permission looks suspect, check the app reviews for info from other users, or send a message to the developer from the link on the app page right there asking why it needs that permission, if they refuse to disclose the information, that's extremely shady. The apps that claim to monitor or scan for malware just run in the background all of the time and give a false sense of security. I know Sprint recommends Lookout, but honestly, it sucks. Every feature of it can be accomplished through other apps that aren't as intrusive or through built-in systems.

Sprint's Total Equipment Protection app is decent for device location/locking/remote wiping and secondary contact backup, and it is free if you have TEP. Keep in mind the Google account you're required to make for Google Play access can also backup all of your contacts. For device location/locking/remote wipe/etc. I personally recommend Cerberus however. It is a paid app (~$5, converted to dollars), but it has a free trial. Definitely worth the cost as it covers unlimited devices.

Actually, they do some repairs in the store. More complicated repairs are shipped to regional facilities and are repaired and wiped there, then distributed to stores.

Repairing and refurbishing are not the same.

Sprint doesn't care if you root your device, only if rooting it negatively affects the network in some way. So, go ahead, root away.

 

Additionally retail stores that are not Corporate Sprint Owned (anything that says like "Sprint Store by Galactic Communications") has no more access than you do to images to flash devices. They have to use Google and shady websites, all the same as you.

Correct rooting is ok, custom software is not. If you're able to load C00LR0M_1337_H4X_3D1T10N on your phone, you're able to find the stock image and flash it back. Rooting does not directly affect your device negatively but any custom software or hardware changes like overclocking are not supported as they can potentially damage your phone and cause unforeseen issues.

Sprint corporate sites also are limited with phone ROM images. While a full service store will have a triage system with phone software images, they don't have everything. Feature phone software will be hit or miss, mostly miss. Field support for image reloads isn't a priority with manufacturers for the "dumb" phones, understandably. Most smart phones have images loaded, but they may not be up to date. It can take anywhere from a week to a few months after release for new software images to be loaded on the triage system (for varying reasons). Sometimes it's for damage control if there is an issue, If a software version has an issue, they can quickly turn off OTA updates, removing the image from all triage systems and reloading old images again takes much longer. Field servicing of handsets is a dance between the cost to produce for the manufacturer and field repair ability. While many parts are replaceable in store, there are many that are not and every single model is different.

One phone you may be able to replace just about everything on it, buttons, camera, kickstand, camera flash, housing, screen, charging port, etc. while another one from the same manufacturer you can only change the housing and camera. Every model is different, and many times most of hte components are attached to the board and unable to be replaced. The most repairable phones the techs love.

Stores are limited in the number of exchanges they are allowed each month. In addition, the store is required to stay below a 35% exchange rate overall. This includes devices that the store is REQUIRED to exchange regardless of repairability. iPhones cannot be repaired in store, Blackberries within warranty cannot be repaired, The HTC ONE cannot be repaired, and phones with internal batteries are hit or miss due to the potential for a technician to puncture the soft-pack batteries within and cause damage to the device, themselves or their surroundings.

(Lithium ION Polymer IS NOT TO BE MESSED WITH)

For those interested here's some info about the triage system used in corporate full service locations:

1. The system used is a triage laptop, usually an HP Elitebook.

2. It has both consumer-available software loaded like Blackberry Desktop Software, JL_Cmdr, Zune, iTunes, etc., and also proprietary Sprint/OEM software like Samsung SMART, Samsung's SimpleDL tools, LGnPST, Motorola RSD, some Kyocera/Sanyo tools for specific models, etc.

3. The laptop is loaded with DeepFreeze and is in a perpetual frozen state. Policy requires the laptop to be restarted after every phone serviced. This ensures all CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) is removed from the laptop before another phone is plugged in, potentially cross-contaminating data.

4. In reality, the laptop usually isn't restarted every time due to a number of issues with the system. The laptop takes anywhere from 10-20 minutes to restart, depending on how much information changed that DeepFreeze needs to revert back since the last reboot. In addition, in many cases large software downloads like Blackberry and iOS updates are not loaded on the computer locally and must be downloaded. Samsung SMART also takes about 20 minutes to unzip all of the software files after each reboot.

5. Many stores are still running on "legacy" backhaul just like the network. A few bonded T1 lines to supply the entire store with data connectivity simultaneously, including VoIP phones. The front office terminals used by reps are not full computers, but rather WYSE machines running Windows Embedded with a home server back in Kansas they connect to via remote connection. This particularly causes a delay in all actions if not under ideal network conditions, and the more active users, the slower it is for everyone. Some stores have upgraded AAV connections (my store has a connection from Cox at ~20Mbps, but I have no idea where that is going as I haven't seen a massive increase in speed since it was installed, with the exception of software downloads on the triage system, actual store operations are identically slow, but it may be ping time more than connection speed).

6. The store's repeater, if it has one installed, does not run off of the store's backhaul connection. There is a panel on the roof (looks like a standard PCS panel to me at my store, which I think is weird, but I am not trained on network mechanics) aimed at a nearby tower and that then is brought into the building and run through a rack similar to the one installed at the base station. There is a separate carrier card and equipment for the repeater in the building and several miniature antennae spaced around the server rack to provide service inside the store. It is very low power and does not travel very far outside of the store itself to ensure it does not interfere with the macro network as a whole.