halcyoncmdr

I've seen the EVRC_NW codec show up on my phone, and I've been GV integrated since it became available (GV user before that as well). I rarely make calls though, so I haven't noticed an improvement personally.

Weird... Let me try the full link instead then. http://www.google.com/googlevoice/whatsnew.html#utm_source=inbox_link&utm_medium=WhatsNew&utm_campaign=cleanup

That is almost definitely the Google Voice Integration, I have it as well and it's simply a side effect of adding in the Google Voice server to the mix. Granted, if you use any of the features that GV offers, it can be a godsend when you need it. http://www.google.com/googlevoice/whatsnew.html#utm_source=inbox_link&utm_medium=WhatsNew&utm_campaign=cleanup EDIT: fixed link

There are several LTE devices (most) that support international GSM. The Galaxy S4, S5, Note 2, Note 3, LG G2, G Flex, Moto X, Moto Photon 4G, Nexus 5, HTC One , One Max, and One M8. Pretty much every mid-range to high-end LTE device released in the last year, and a few older than that.

This has something to do with it as well I think. The network will not hand-up with an active data connection, but it will hand-down. So you won't go from 3G-4G if you are using data, but you will go from 4G-3G. It's most likely the LTE scan timer though. Usually 10-15 minutes will result in your phone rescanning and switching over automatically. Some phones also use a built-in "seen site" file that allows them to automatically rescan when you are within a certain distance (GPS or network triangulation) of a "known" LTE site. This is one of the things the Sprint Connection Optimizer does as well (both WiFi and 4G).

The Connections Optimizer serves it's purpose, as long as you understand what it does. That being said, if you know what you're doing and are managing WiFi on/off on your own when you know it is available, it is useless for you. The average person however, doesn't do that and in turn causes either more strain on the mobile network than there needs to be (by staying on 3G/4G when WiFi is available) or using more battery by having WiFi turned on and scanning for available networks when there isn't one.

Hotlined accounts are different than suspended ones. Hotlined accounts happen with non-payment, suspension and such are different, but look the same on the phone end. It used to just be outgoing calls were blocked and redirected for billing; texting, incoming calls, and data all worked. Now that many people don't call anymore, they had to change that since many people didn't see any inconvenience, which is the entire purpose of it.

Welcome to 1900MHz building penetration in an area of the country that utilizes Low-E windows and insulation (dramatically affect RF reception). Not to mention the fact that many buildings built now have metal frameworks and thus create a sort of hole-filled faraday cage inside them. 3G has similar signal loss, but LTE is a more fragile airlink and thus needs a cleaner and stronger signal to operate at the same performance level so you don't "see" the loss. The 800MHz spectrum should fix that issue, however we won't see it for a while in Tucson due to the international border. The IBEZ ends somewhere near downtown Tucson, but because of that, the Tucson/Yuma Market in general isn't currently slated for 800 until the international issues can be negotiated properly.

That doesn't always work for me though. Some apps I use and occasionally take screenshots of don't display the notification bar and touch buttons, they instead use the full screen mode. Just makes it more difficult for my use scenario, but I realize I'm in the minority.

I really wish they'd done something else other than Power and Volume Down, they're so hard to hit reliably.

I believe Band 26 is a superset of band 18. So all of Band 18 fits within Band 26 essentially... At least that's what it looks like from a 30 second Google search. http://niviuk.free.fr/lte_band.php I notice that your listing does not show 800/850 EVDO/1xRTT band differences properly. Listing 800MHz as a frequency was used commonly for the 850 service Verizon uses because it didn't make a difference previously since 800 was being used for iDEN only. Now that 800 is also being used for CDMA, there is a difference, but some listings still don't separate them out, even though they are separate bands. So it is quite possible that there are missing frequencies in that list, as at least 800/850 are messed up already. My question then is why does Model A1533 even exist then if A1453 supports everything it does, plus more? There must be some other difference that's not shown in there, otherwise there's no reason for it to exist at all as it just costs Apple more to produce multiple different models.

The Verizon iPhone 5S and Sprint iPhone 5S are different models. Not saying it wouldn't work, but you won't have access to all of the proper frequencies supported by Sprint, just like using an old AT&T iPhone 3G didn't get you 3G data if you were using a T-Mobile SIM card.

The decision for Tri-Band devices was not predicated around SVLTE. It was decided on other, in my opinion, more important factors. 1. The main reason was for single radios. SVLTE devices have to maintain two separate connections, and thus two separate powered radios. The Tri-band devices have a single radio for all mobile network pathways and thus can operate with less power, meaning lower power use and leading to longer battery life. 2. Voice usage is dramatically lower now than it was even a few years ago, this means the need for most consumers to have both voice and data simultaneously is less. In addition, with the increasing use of Video Calling (which go over data only) that also reduces standard voice call usage. 3. Many companies are going this route, thus meaning similar devices for multiple carriers, and thus reduced costs for phones due to the scale of production. Having a separately built device to be unique in this regard, means the phones cost more for Sprint to purchase, and thus cost more to the end-user as well. Just look at the new CCA stuff where the fact the same identical device can be used across all of these small carriers in turn mean lower costs to all of them. The Youtube is more informative and has Masayoshi Son, but he is a bit difficult to understand at some points (not used to Japanese accent personally). Production scale has a lot to do with it though. 4. CDMA customers aren't used to SVLTE in general, and the average person probably doesn't know their phone is even capable of it in some circumstances on various carriers. 5. SVLTE (Like SVDO on a couple devices) was never a designed feature of these phones, it was a side effect of the way the radios and transmit/receive pathways needed to be designed for the Sprint models of the phones. It was never an advertised ability.

No, in the process of updating Android it wipes out a number of log files just to clean stuff up, the less there is to update, the less likely there will be an issue. One of those files in the battery log, so once it turns back on it only has the info coming from the battery's internal circuitry to go off of. This is standard for all Android updates.

I've never heard of a sideload requiring the steps the G2 required with this update. From all of my experience (and apparently most of the users on XDA from my reading) it works the first time 99% of the time. It is a fundamental feature of the Android development process and has been consistent in working since it was introduced in Android. Requiring three sideloads following each other is very bizarre for an update. Just because you haven't seen the issues, doesn't mean there aren't any happening behind the scenes on your phone. The article about the Google Engineer's post, with a link to source.

Yes, a factory reset would "correct" any issues that clearing GSF may cause, as everything it handles gets reset when the phone does anyway. A factory reset is a great idea after any software update, especially major Android versions like this update to KitKat. Most people will not do this however (myself included even though I know better, if I have issues I will, I'm stubborn like that). Since the majority of people won't do this, advocating clearing GSF without giving the possible side effects is a terrible idea, and will likely result in a frustrated customer calling into Care or going into a store because their phone "doesn't work right after the update". The issues they have might only be related to clearing GSF, not the update itself, causing further complications, especially when issues showing up get reported back to Sprint's device team, an they waste time with the manufacturer trying to find phantom issues that don't actually exist with the update.

There are documented side effects with that method discussed by Google Android developers. I never recommend messing with system files, especially if you don't know everything they do. The GSF is a core system app that manages everything related to your devices UUID, among many other things. This is why it can cause the update to appear (GOTA servers use your UUID for update availability). It also will adversely affect any other application that utilizes your UUID, some of which simply will need some time to update to the new UUID, some may need to be uninstalled/reinstalled, some may require a complete factory reset. Every downloaded application is different, and there's no way to tell what resetting GSF will do for every person. It is irresponsible to tell people to do so without properly educating them about the possible issues they may encounter by doing so. If after being educated (or ignoring it), people decide to anyway, that's on them. Not disclosing possible issues they may run into though is irresponsible.

Just to reiterate... if you are sideloading the update. YOU MUST DO IT THREE TIMES IN A ROW VIA ADB. The first two will stop and reboot to recovery automatically again, and the third will finally go all the way through. I thought I had bricked my device but after doing that I still had all my info intact, no need to flash back and upgrade through again, that's a waste of time.

I've had mine do that a few times on ZVA. Never caused an issue so I just ignored it.

Yeah, I'm currently having to try this. I hate LG's quirks like this. My old HTC and Samsung devices were definitely easier in this regard.

Provisioning is usually completed within a few seconds when a refresh is sent from the network. However, a 72786 does not change anything network-side. It only has the phone delete the programming, then restart. When it restarts it determines it is not programmed and goes through the Hands-Free Activation process again. After HFA it usually restarts again, then performs another profile update. A network-side refresh would require calling in to perform, or doing something that automatically triggers a refresh like an ESN/MEID swap.

Not necessarily, GLANCE gives that level of information to anyone with access. This includes Leads/ASM/SM in store, Technical Support, Account Services, etc. (I am unsure about general Care reps). EDIT: Did not realize how old that post was.

The thing about capacity issues on LTE right now, is that since not all towers are upgraded, there will be many more people than intended on each the towers. Increasing backhaul and adding LTE carriers now on every tower experiencing lower than intended speeds and such would be a waste of resources that could be better used to instead upgrade other towers nearby, which would have the same effect of reducing strain. So you get one or the other, either a higher capacity single tower that still only covers what it does, or another upgraded tower nearby that also takes some of the strain off while increasing overall coverage. Once all neighboring sites are upgraded, if speeds are still low then they will go through determining where the issue lies and correcting it. The new equipment is capable of self-monitoring everything from call blocks and drops to data throughput and ping, all automatically, and alerting the network teams of issues as it reaches set alert levels. Unlike the network of the past that had limited monitoring capabilities and very much relied on customers calling in, the new system does not require that in most cases. This system relies on the majority of towers being active and NV complete however, otherwise they are operating on incomplete information, and making thousands of dollars of upgrades based on incomplete info isn't what we want to see.

Most likely the limitations are primarily software. They also likely are rolling it out across devices slowly so that if major issues occur they can be taken care of on a smaller scale. It also probably requires separate network-side hardware to process the WiFi calls versus the standard network calls of years past, thus requiring more preparation and meaning that they need it in place before rolling it out to more phones.

It isn't deployed directly by Sprint. Most Android phones use the GOTA (Google Over The Air) servers. The only manufacturer that I know of that uses their own server system is HTC. So LG sends the update to Sprint where it is tested, and then once it passes, the source code is released by LG and Sprint sends the verified and signed update.zip file to Google's GOTA servers to deploy automatically. There isn't any part of getting the servers ready, other than potentially delaying the update by a couple days due to a last minute issue discovered after the update was signed off for release that could cause issues. This rarely happens, and when it does usually the public will never know about it. Really the only thing that may even give that course of events away is a manufacturer releasing source and then it not being deployed.