scubajwd

What you are up against in Irvine and other high-end areas in the country is that the owners of the 2-5 Mil houses there do not want cell towers cluttering their residential areas; we have that here in Anthem as well and our homes are not close to what they are in Irvine in $Value..it is what it is; old money foe the most part that don't want declining property values...but DO WANT great cell service at someone else's expense...sorry for the sermon here; just my $.02

Who will launch first? Denver or Las Vegas.. Vegas, I believe, is way ahead in B25 but way behind in B41...any takers?

So finally, B41 in the wild in Las Vegas...baby..we're on the map..now for some B26 Love!!

Ditto...B25 only..but after several years of wait and up & down wimax I finally have a pretty good usable B25 LTE at my house; I have a certain hotspot that points to a tower about 2 miles away and I'm getting an RSRP of about -92 dbm.....pretty sweet..downloads are around 6-10 mbps (peak times) and 10-18 mbps (off-peak times); pings are consistently sub 60 ms and ave closer to 50 ms so latencies right now on my tower are nonexistent..I'm sure as word starts to get out about Sprint speeds & feeds my private tower will probably disappear but for right now things are pretty sweet..

Yes.. I was at Aarons yesterday; the tower is just to the south of Aarons; I'm surprised I never saw that tower before; and yes, it's only broadcasting B25; I'm not sure how to force my Zing onto B41 if I'm getting a B25 signal...anyone know if I can set priorities for band on my Zing hotspot?

I'll be going to Aaron Bros either today or tomorrow; I'll check out if the tower on Silverado/Eastern is broadcasting B41; drive by there quite a bit..is the tower visible when one is driving North on Eastern headed for 215? I can't remember ever seeing it..

Re-branded Kyocera Hydro Vibe according to the article you posted...it's a sweet little smartphone..like it more each day that I use it..not at all a cereal box smartphone like you might expect at this price-point..

Pound for pound it's not a bad device for the $ I put out; no, it's not a flagship smartphone but it has it's quality points: wireless charging sans a new case, reasonable recent version of OS (4.3), auto eco mode, slim & lightweight, very crisp and extremely clear audio/voice reproduction..these are just some things right now I've discovered about this little beauty in the rough

So far so good here with battery life altho I'm NOT a power user as I once was with a smartphone; it's a really nice smartphone for the money and there are some things about it that I like better than my Galaxy S3 (which my wife now controls); I get about 12 hrs on a charge doing wi-fi calling and text, feedly updates, fb updates and some web browsing (no netflix,Skype or other heavy duty streaming and/or downloading..so far it's a keeper for me..

Bummer! What sort of apps, talk,data downloads, movies et al were you using to drain the batt this fast? Dead by noon is seriously crappy! Nice to here that it's water proof but the battery drain has me worried..

I'm having a Hydro Vibe delivered tomorrow; will take it to San Diego area for a try out; anyone have anything new to offer on this so called "budget smartphone"; my main application will be data and wi-fi calling/text serviced by my zing hotspot; expect to do very little with voice..

Who are you activating with? Sprint, Boost, or VirginMobile? What ($$) service plan are you getting with this phone? Thanx in advance..

I have not seen Band 41 anywhere in the Metro Vegas/Henderson area but just coincidentally ran by one of my home towers in Southeast Metro (Anthem area) and they had a rig up on the tower and was supposedly adding Band 41 equipment; if this is so, then Band 41 is on its way in Vegas land..don't know about the strip..last I looked there (Jan 2014) there was no LTE at all but very GOOD 3G..a lot has changed here since last Jan

Tried using the Zing dock/cradle here at the house where I have a fringe LTE (band 25) signal; the MIMO of the cradle definitely improved my upload speeds (went from 3ish to 4+ mbps); did nothing for dl speeds and did NOT (sorry to say) improve on my signal levels; my fringe levels vary from -99 to -109; I've connected to -112 believe it or not; signal quality is ok but my pings are sub 50 ms which is way better than the pings I used to get on Wimax here at the house.. The cradle/dock is going back..

I sure hope you're right on this and I hope they start converting the Wimax towers as well...

Yeah... I'd trade places with you guys on the front-range in a heart beat; even tho we have more Band 25 towers broadcasting here in the LV metro area we're probably a year behind you guys in having Bands 41 & 26 for a total coverage model that you will soon enjoy...seems like all eyes are on Denver as "Spark" soon becomes a reality...enjoy...we'll be watching!!!

The Zing has a kick-asp radio; probably better than the G2 but I'm not sure; depends on your usage pattern if it is a dumb idea or not...my GS3 does not hold a candle to the Zing in fringe Band 25 areas; sadly, here in the desert we have no band 41 yet..

Thanx..Josh...if you find the Zing ID let us know..otherwise back-burner it..

How do these numbers compare to my Zing?

So, if I'm interpreting your numbers correctly, 8 db gain for Band 25 (the most prevalent band currently) in a fringe or edge area like my house might succeed in connecting to a faint LTE signal....no?

$199 for router; $79/mo (30 gb) +$50 activation; on the surface it seems like a better deal data wise than getting the Zing with a Peplink 4G router (which I have); but then you can put the Zing in your pocket when a Starbucks need arises..does this new router have a much better RF radio than the Zing?

This is a healthy and intellectually invigorating discussion about our market and I'm enjoying the back & forth a lot in here; I'll stick to by basic premise that Softbank-Sprint will tear down Wimax here sooner than later for the simple reason that its existence will impede rollout of B41 here & subsequent subscriber growth based on perceived quality of LTE service by thousands of disenchanted tmo & Verizon subs..Sprint subs are paying the bills right now, Mr Hog, not Clearwire customers to a large extent...Sprint doesn't want anymore of us to leave..

Thanx for that Mr Hog; the fact remains that Wimax is on its way out; I'll grant you that in certain markets such as Las Vegas and maybe Salt Lake City its phaseout will take longer than the consensus think right now but I wouldn't bet my firstborn on it; if Softbank-Sprint that Wimax is inhibiting the rollout of Spark and subscriber growth it will be history sooner than later..

Source for this assertion? The two wimax towers near me have been scarcely used for the last two years if my speed tests mean anything..

Just posted to the in-progress thread: - - - - - - - -is being updated as I write this; ground mounted radio heads; fiber in place (explains why I get such good 3G speeds at my house) technician I talked to thought they would be finished in three days and then Century Link has to make the fiber connections; can't believe it yet!!!