WiWavelength

Sarcastic, yes, but realistic, too. I am not offering my impression of Boost Mobile. I am merely presenting what many people think of Boost. And Boost did court that rough, urban image with its marketing for many years. AJ

To provide some technical insight, the conflict is more vaguely reminiscent than closely connected. The LightSquared vs GPS issue dealt with basically adjacent channel interference. Adjacent spectrum uses need to be of roughly similar power levels. The problem is that LightSquared downlink would be on terra firma, while GPS downlink would be coming from thousands of miles in outer space. Being adjacent to one another, that meant LightSquared downlink right next door to GPS downlink could overwhelm it in GPS receivers. In this case, T-Mobile has no adjacent spectrum to that of SiriusXM. Presently, T-Mobile's highest frequency licensed and usable spectrum is in the AWS-1 1900+1200 MHz band at 2155 MHz, while SiriusXM operates in SDARS dedicated spectrum in the S band at 2320-2345 MHz. Only AT&T band 30 WCS 2300 MHz is closely adjacent to SiriusXM and could cause adjacent channel interference. No, this is intermodulation interference. Various T-Mobile frequencies in the PCS 1900 MHz, AWS-1 1900+2100 MHz band, maybe even the Lower 700 MHz band are unintentionally combining together at the transmitter, creating sum and difference frequencies called intermodulation. I would have done the math myself, but a commenter at the WSJ article already beat me to it. So, I will quote Mr. Wilkus: Everyone, though, should read the article and most recent comments. Well done. AJ

I am sure that you are joking. But others may not get it. To be clear, OTA VHF and/or UHF antennas are receive only. They cannot cause interference. AJ

No, Sprint has not indicated any plans. And this news is a month old, already discussed in another thread. AJ

No, the problem is brand image. If you are on Boost Mobile, you are a gangbanger or a drug dealer. Dawg, where you at? AJ

Someone will have to check inside a recent PRL. But the present understanding is that all Roaming+ coverage will trigger the roaming indicator. AJ

I was going to save this for the really bad joke thread. But I cannot resist the relevance here. This tornado is not the "finger of God," it is the "penis of God." AJ

That is a good term. Another that has been used to describe this situation is "positive discrimination," which is still discrimination. No debate. AJ

My perception is that our current expectations of what smartphones should do are too high. Can we agree, did the smartphone era not really start until summer 2007 with the debut of the iPhone? If so, we are only eight years into the era. This is the infancy. From a historical perspective, it is an interesting time to be alive. When we are old and moldy, we can tell people, "Back in my day, smartphones had only 2 GB of RAM. And we liked it!" Look at the infancy of other tech/computing products. Laptops were underpowered compared to their desktop counterparts for many years. Laptops were used mostly for word processing on the go, not more intensive tasks, such as playing games, photo editing, etc. People did not expect laptops to handle those tasks. But as laptops grew out of their infancy, the performance differential with desktops diminished and diminished. My point is that smartphones eventually will be almost everything that we want them to be. In the meantime, we have to understand whence we stand in the overall evolution of smartphones -- still very near the beginning with a lot of growing up yet to come. AJ

And you can stop moving the goalposts. Did I say it "violates" Net Neutrality? Read my quote: It is not a violation per the FCC. While the FCC bared some teeth in reclassifying broadband under Title II, it went weak on prohibiting whitelisted, sponsored, or zero rated data under Net Neutrality. You can read an entire industry chorus -- including Chris Ziegler -- on how Music Freedom contravenes the spirit of Net Neutrality and takes a step down the slippery slope. http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/18/5822996/t-mobile-music-freedom-net-neutrality https://www.techdirt.com/blog/netneutrality/articles/20141124/07505529235/t-mobile-still-doesnt-understand-simply-doesnt-care-that-their-music-freedom-plan-tramples-net-neutrality.shtml http://time.com/2901142/t-mobile-unlimited-music-net-neutrality/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/30/why-t-mobiles-music-freedom-is-hurting-net-neutrality/ http://www.eweek.com/networking/t-mobile-music-freedom-violates-net-neutrality-but-theres-a-fix.html http://www.dailydot.com/politics/t-mobile-net-neutrality-music-freedom/ https://gigaom.com/2014/04/26/forget-fast-lanes-the-real-threat-for-net-neutrality-is-zero-rated-mobile-traffic/ http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/02/25/388948293/what-net-neutrality-rules-could-mean-for-your-wireless-carrier You have some reading to do... AJ

No, you went there. You questioned our integrity and suggested hypocrisy, as I asserted previously. Read your own quote: That is your own assumption. AJ

If this is work, are you using the right tool for the job? Instead of a handset, maybe you should be using a pro tablet or laptop that you can customize with as much RAM as you require. Expecting what is at its core a phone to handle your workload and bemoaning its RAM capacity is a bit like saying, "Mr. Deringer, you need to improve your pistol. I have been elephant hunting and run into much difficulty trying to bring them down." AJ

Bye, Felicia. AJ

Turn Down for What We should turn down OTA TV for what? Even more mobile spectrum? Why? We already have at the very least Lower 700 MHz, Upper 700 MHz, SMR 800 MHz, Cellular 850 MHz, AWS-1/3 1700+2100 MHz, PCS 1900 MHz, PCS/AWS-2 1900 MHz, AWS-4 2000+2200 MHz, WCS 2300 MHz, and BRS/EBS 2600 MHz. What more do we need? This has all turned into a giant fustercluck. And it is going to get worse, potentially collapsing on itself in the future. Throwing copious amounts of mobile spectrum out there does not solve the mobile data capacity issue. Only massive densification will solve that growing problem. And once there are small cells every few blocks, if not even every block, having all of those disparate spectrum bands becomes a headache. Operators will want to use primarily mid to high band spectrum -- because of availability of larger carrier bandwidths and feasibility of higher order MIMO. Thus, many other bands deemed so important to refarm, auction, and/or devote to mobile stand to get neglected. AJ

Yes, but as you acknowledge, Samsung TouchWiz to Nexus stock Android is apples to oranges. AJ

Additionally, I appreciate the lower price 16 GB Nexus 5X option. I do not want to pay for storage that I am never ever ever ever going to use. Not everyone needs 32 GB, guys. AJ

And I do not get the hand wringing over the 2 GB of RAM. Let me use my 2013 Nexus 7 as an example. I am an inveterate Chrome tab collector. I tell myself to start closing some tabs, but then I cling to the idea that I may wish to refer back to those web pages in the future -- but I almost never do. Thus, I end up with dozens upon dozens of Chrome tabs open. I also typically have three or four other apps running. But guess what? According to the RAM usage in the Settings app, I have never seen it exceed 1 GB of RAM usage -- I always have at least 1 GB free. So, either Android is lying to me or you guys who cannot live with 2 GB of RAM on a handheld device are not living right. AJ

What you propose with an actual "R+" indicator probably would require Sprint specialized firmware. So, we could all go back to Sprint splash screens and Sprint bloatware. AJ

So, you want Sprint to start requiring operator specific firmware on all handsets again? No more unlocked, third party handsets. AJ

I am outside myself tonight. The mushrooms that guy gave me to eat and the paper dot he told me to lick have made my head feel funny. AJ

Yes, that begs the question: why do people not say "raises the question"? AJ

For the uninitiated, Latrobe, PA is the original home of the Latrobe Brewing Company and Rolling Rock Beer. And Jim Gaffigan is a longtime S4GRU reference and favorite. Well, about 15-20 years ago, a much younger Gaffigan did a series of TV spots for Rolling Rock. A few are posted on YouTube, just not the one that I fondly remember. The commercials seem to be a Gaffigan out fishing and ad libbing, as in the one I reference, he talks about the sound of "Old Latrobe," the literal Rolling Rock, an extraterrestrial rock "trobing" through space. AJ

Dammit, I have to give up a second "Like" in the span of about 10 minutes?! That has to be a record. Well, do not expect any "Likes" on the Thanksgiving table or under the Christmas tree this year. I am just about fresh out. But the above post is too on point, well reasoned, and concisely written not to "Like." AJ

You, sir, too, are correct. "Begging the question" -- oft misused and misunderstood in everyday parlance as "that begs the question" -- is another term for circular reasoning. Nice call. But I am sorry to report that EvanA beat you to the answer a few posts above. And my "Like" quota is used up for at least another few weeks, maybe months. On second thought, aw, what the hell?! I am giving out "Likes" right and left tonight as if it were October 31, not September 30. You get a "Like." AJ

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! But you may have to fight off Robert while you eat it. AJ