WiWavelength

Yes, this is a new Motorola "feature." It also affects the 2014 Moto X. AJ

I coin a new portmanteau: "Magenda." The tech press' "Magenda" is showing. AJ

I am not so sure about that. I encounter a fair number of Millenials and/or their parents who still use their AOL e-mail accounts. AOL is what introduced them to e-mail, and it is the only address they have ever had. AJ

You are beating a dead horse. S4GRU has been over the simultaneous voice/data thing ad nauseam. And we are tired of it -- because we already have said everything there is to say. But I will say it one last time... If you require operator provided simultaneous voice/data at this time, Sprint is not right for you. Go find another provider. On the other hand, if you are more flexible, you do have options: use third party VoIP, carry a separate hotspot for your data, or wait for VoLTE. AJ

Nope. I am telling you how it is -- and how it is going to be. Take it or leave it. AJ

Here is the end all, be all, guys. You and your needs are not as important as you think they are. Simultaneous voice and data may be nice, but that has not been a compelling factor in consumer choice. Otherwise, AT&T and its simultaneous voice and data TV ads years ago would have severely undercut VZW, Sprint, and maybe even T-Mobile. That did not happen. So, quit your wishing and complaining. Or go elsewhere. Okay? AJ

Yeah, and it is really reliable. That is why users get instructed to turn it off. AJ

Now that VZW does not have SVLTE on its new handsets, I guess it is losing its millions of corporate accounts. What a bombshell. AJ

You do not like this thread's 216 glorious pages and 4300 on topic posts? It will serve as great research fodder when I get my book deal for "The S4GRU Story: How Robert and AJ Cracked Open Sprint, Educated the Nation about Network Vision, and Pissed Off Many Magentans in the Process." AJ

A few thoughts... One, unless something has changed recently, Sprint has no roaming agreement with Rogers. Sprint roaming agreements in Canada have long been with Bell and Telus. That would help to explain your inability to make a call on the Rogers network. Two, the Sprint variant HTC One M9 almost certainly has hardware to support domestic GSM/W-CDMA bands, but those were not tested and authorized in the FCC OET filing. So, enabling them in the US is a violation of federal law. Industry Canada filings generally go hand in hand with FCC OET filings. However, that may not be the case here. There may be a separate Industry Canada filing for the Sprint variant that authorizes domestic GSM/W-CDMA bands in Canada. That would help to explain your ability to camp on the Rogers network. Three, enabling "international" roaming for Canada has not applied to most/all postpaid accounts. Bell and Telus were already included in Sprint PRLs -- no intervention necessary. Maybe with the switch to GSM/W-CDMA roaming, though, that has now changed. And "international" roaming may not have been successfully added to your account. It is not something that always happens at just the click of a button. Four, if my first and second points are true, I wonder if this is just a network selection issue. Unlike CDMA2000, GSM/W-CDMA does not use PRLs. A user must sometimes manually select the appropriate network. When in GSM/W-CDMA mode, a network selection option potentially should be available under Settings. AJ

Vis a vis wireless, traveling to Canada has now become almost no different from traveling to the UK. You need a GSM/W-CDMA capable handset -- because Bell and Telus were basically asshats in preemptively ditching CDMA2000 for GSM/W-CDMA, circa 2008. My understanding is that the CDMA2000 network now is almost entirely shut down, and Sprint has removed CDMA1X/EV-DO roaming from its latest PRLs. Regardless, if you care about RF capabilities in your flagship handset, do not take anything for granted. You should always read our FCC OET article before making a purchase. And we typically publish within a day or two of the FCC OET authorization going online, thus usually weeks before the handset hits stores. I have to assume that you did not read our article on the HTC One M9. We devoted an entire paragraph to its lack of domestic GSM/W-CDMA bands (i.e. GSM 850/1900 and bands 2/4/5 W-CDMA). http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-383-summer-of-69-samsung-and-htc-rock-out-with-their-flagships-for-the-season/ AJ

If you could not even make a phone call, that is indicative of insufficient signal strength, a device problem, or a network outage. But what you describe does not sound like network congestion. AJ

No SIM interface would be needed. A SIM card is not required just to monitor an LTE downlink signal. Other than that, this cellular signal monitor for the general public is a preposterous, pie in the sky idea. It would require the baseband guts of a cellphone or spectrum analyzer -- neither of which would be cost effective. It would require antennas equally covering all bands -- something no device does. And it would have to monitor all deployed bands for all operators all at once. In my neck of the woods, just for LTE, that would be at least two for VZW, at least two for AT&T, at least one for T-Mobile, and three for Sprint. Bare minimum, eight simultaneous bands. Arysyn, I mean no offense, but you should slow down on hatching these grandiose ideas. Your solutions generally are not practical nor feasible -- or they simply are not going to be implemented. You are like Kramer on "Seinfeld," thinking that your rubber bladder system for oil tankers is "about to solve the world's energy problems." AJ

I still laugh that PhoneDog could do no better than to hire a film school grad who has worked wireless retail and lives in the UK as TmoNews' replacement editor. Cam is and was an inexplicable choice. I have no problem with the film degree. Heck, I studied geography and film in college, but I also have substantial engineering expertise. Cam clearly does not. Mostly, though, he lives in the freaking UK. He has no direct experience using the T-Mobile network to which his site is devoted. That makes him unqualified for the position. AJ

Here is the problem. People do not make phone calls so often any longer. That is one reason why wireless providers have no qualms now about practically giving away "unlimited" voice. I can go for weeks, even months without making any calls. And when I do, I prefer VoIP from my laptop. While mobile, so much communication is now asynchronous messaging: e-mail, SMS, MMS, chat. Those methods do not require a consistent phone number. If the "test drive" is via an iPhone, as T-Mobile's is now, iMessage takes over. To offer another personal illustration, I bought an iPad mini last year only to serve as the remote control in my high end audio system. My parents have an iPad, and my dad uses an iPhone, but I did not tell them that I had an iPad mini. Then, one random day, I discovered an iMessage from my dad on the iPad mini -- simply because he has my Apple registered e-mail address in his iPad address book. I did not want that, as I had no intention of using the iPad mini for communication. However, to Apple and my dad, it was automatic. And I manually had to disable iMessage to prevent any future communication that should instead be directed to my Google Voice integrated Sprint line. I fail to see how doing many "test drives" would affect a person's credit history. I have temporary holds put on my credit cards all the time, for example, whenever I purchase gas or check in to a hotel. Those temporary holds either get canceled or get converted to full transactions. So, I think that you are mistaken in this assertion. AJ

Just to clarify on the twice daily meetings, the 12pm meeting is for phone addiction, the 7pm meeting for fried chicken addiction. AJ

Admit that you cannot control your phone addiction. We hold meetings twice daily in The Lounge. I can be your sponsor if you need one. AJ

Gee whiz, Nobody Beats the Wiz -- except perhaps the Bee Gees and Cheez Whiz. E. Gordon Gee need not apply. Thus concludes today's old guy lesson to young people on spelling, idiom, and culture... AJ

No, I am speaking about positive T-Mobile bias and negative Sprint bias in general, not just a "test drive" sense. And maybe Sprint had valid reasons for pulling back on its "test drive" offer so quickly. AJ

Yes, the "something is still better than nothing" seems to equate to a glass half full attitude toward T-Mobile -- and a glass half empty attitude toward Sprint. Therein lies why I do not like the Magenta cult of personality. AJ

And if I were a criminal under surveillance, I also would love the T-Mobile "test drive." I could have two weeks with a phone that the Feds would have a hard time tapping -- because it would be registered to T-Mobile corporate. AJ

Okay, I am just seeking clarification. The billing address restriction could be a sticking point, but the credit card and hold would not necessarily be a problem. Many people who have multiple credit cards and tens of thousands of dollars in available credit are still cheapskates who would be happy to save some money on free "test drive" service. Moreover, John Legere likes to trumpet how T-Mobile's network is getting better all the time. He claims that even RootMetrics cannot keep up. So, how am I supposed to believe that without signing up if I cannot "test drive" T-Mobile for myself at least twice a year? AJ

Would these 14 day "test drives" be free of charge? If so, I bet I could swing free cellular service for about six months out of the year just by cycling through the "test drives" periodically among the four or five operators in a given market. The other six months or so, I would be on prepaid. Not a bad deal. I also could arrange for a free "test drive" while I was going on vacation to somewhere that only a certain operator covers well. See the problem? AJ

I do not hate Hangouts -- though the name is professionally inappropriate. And I use Hangouts for SMS, MMS, and chat on my Google Voice integrated Sprint line. However, I use Google Voice for SMS on my T-Mobile line, Republic Wireless line, tablet, and desktop. That system works so well that I am worried about breaking any of the functionality. I already lost GrowlVoice, which was tremendous. I could be notified and send/receive Google Voice SMS right on my desktop without opening a web browser. But that loss was Google's fault, not my fault. Honestly, I cannot keep track any longer how Google Voice, Hangouts, and Project Fi are compatible or incompatible. I just know that my Google Voice system works, and I am not going to mess with a good thing. So, unless I set up an alternate Google account or can use my work Google account, I will not be trying out Project Fi. That unnecessarily oversized Nexus 6 thing sure is not helping matters either. AJ

Most new VZW devices these days seem to be single RF path with e/CSFB. They explicitly no longer have hardware support for SVLTE nor for SVDO. The VZW variant Samsung Galaxy S6, for example, falls into this category. VZW now relies upon VoLTE for simultaneous voice and data. But many users turn off VoLTE, are even instructed to turn of VoLTE -- because the LTE coverage is just not sufficiently reliable. That puts VZW in the same boat as Sprint, yet I do not hear of VZW users complaining about the lack/loss of simultaneous voice and data. And that is probably because those who require or even know about simultaneous voice and data are such edge cases, though they whine to high heaven and make simultaneous voice and data out to be something that everyone needs. AJ