WiWavelength

I thought it was posted somewhere what flagship level Android handset that RootMetrics was using for its 1H 2015 testing. RootMetrics really should divulge that info in its methodology statement. But RootMetrics probably does not want to be seen as promoting or favoring any device manufacturer. Regardless, the methodology statement generically implies that the handset in question does not support band 12. If so, it probably does not support band 41 2x CA either. Much ado about nothing, though. T-Mobile simply lacks band 12 spectrum or has yet to deploy in many markets, so any band 12 induced improvement gets largely averaged out. And Sprint did not push the network software update for 2x CA until near the end of the 1H 2015 testing. Thus, neither band 12 on T-Mobile nor 2x CA on Sprint likely would have affected the national results more than fractions of a point. AJ

Yeah, that VoLTE thing is some pretty "nifty shit." AJ

Do you mean 10 MHz FDD and 20 MHz TDD? I cannot conceive of a realistic scenario in which Sprint would have the spectrum to run 20 MHz FDD. AJ

Real S4GRUers do not lease and turn back in their handsets -- whether iPhone or Android. No, they treat them with care, then preserve all of them for display in their homes or bequest to the Robert M. Herron Museum of Modern Cellphones. They are historical artifacts. AJ

Claure que no. AJ

Claro que no. AJ

No, that would not enter the equation. Too many of you are too sensitive about how you perceive Sprint and/or Clearwire failed you with WiMAX. Yet, you are an incredibly small minority. Public perception of Clear is and was nearly zero. The negative goodwill that you think persists exists mostly in your own minds. That said, this is not an endorsement for a rebrand to Clear. AJ

I see. So the 2015 LG Nexus 5 is the 2012 HTC One X -- with a fingerprint scanner. AJ

That is a bit like saying, "All people are lawbreakers." And that is true sometimes. But should we just lump in the murderers and armed robbers with the speeders and jaywalkers? No. Degree and frequency matter. AT&T and VZ/VZW take the cake. Among the big four wireless operators, they are #1 and #2 in douchebaggery toward FCC regulation and public good. T-Mobile, which is supposedly the consumer advocate "uncarrier," has opposed Title II Net Neutrality. Of the four, Sprint has been the most friendly to the public good. Back to AT&T and VZ/VZW, along with Comcast, they have held back progress in wired broadband to such an extent that the US may take decades to recover, if ever. They cry "free market, free market" -- which they want to enter, exit, "redline," and control. Hardly "free market." Because of that, for the most powerful nation in the world, we are a laughingstock in wired broadband. A quintessential example, look at this comment from a recent article at The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/20/8818515/new-york-city-slams-verizon-fios-rollout My point stands. I understand necessity of service. But the more money consumers give to these recalcitrant companies, the more those consumers implicitly subsidize the douchebaggery. AJ

That was my fault, "freely" a poor word choice. I blame it on writing at 3am. What I should have said is that Sprint roams widely on VZW. I would have to take a closer look at recent Sprint PRLs, but the history has been for Sprint to have roaming access to all VZW SIDs. As an aside, the reverse used to be true a decade ago, but then VZW started yanking Sprint SIDs from its PRLs. In a stroke of irony, VZW promotes itself as the "most reliable network," yet it would rather leave its subs with no service than roam on Sprint. In a nutshell, VZW roaming is not free to Sprint. And it is not "unlimited" to you. But it is there as a decent fallback. AJ

Yes, it is "odd." However, to make the I-80 discussion fair, the shoe is also on the other foot. Sprint has hundreds of miles of I-80 coverage in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Nebraska that T-Mobile does not. I know, iWireless in Iowa mitigates that gap to some extent, but the point still holds. For an even more egregious example, as I-10 has become arguably a more important cross country artery than I-80 now, how can T-Mobile get away with not covering hundreds of miles in Texas? Sprint has the whole length of the state covered. Both Sprint and T-Mobile have their "odd" highway footprint gaps. Those are simply results of varied deployment history and priority. So, let us not think that Sprint is doing it wrong, T-Mobile doing it right. AJ

To add one disadvantage to VZW, its parent company long has been a douchebag to the FCC and American public over issues such as deregulation, wired broadband expansion, and Net Neutrality. Consumers who pay VZW for service help enable that douchebaggery. AJ

First, welcome to S4GRU. And we appreciate your request for insight. As you more or less acknowledge, your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a single band LTE handset. Band 25 only, no band 26, no band 41. Carrier aggregation is band 41 only. And if you have weak LTE coverage at home, band 41 probably will not help you. It is possible -- that just depends upon your location and proximity to any Clearwire only sites. Band 26, though, is the propagation band and should help with LTE service at home. Band 26 is not available in Southern California presently, however, because of feet dragging from San Bernardino County and Mexico. Those issues should be resolved in the next year or two. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 supports band 41 and would have you ready for band 26 -- whenever it happens. That said, the Note 5 does not look to be a great RF performer. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-393-even-more-guardians-of-the-samsung-galaxy/ Back to your location, not all Sprint sites have been upgraded to LTE. Network Vision is still in progress. So, one or more serving sites near your location(s) may yet to be upgraded. Become an S4GRU sponsor, and you can view maps of the site locations and upgrades in your area. If your servings sites all have been upgraded, service may not improve much in the future. On the other hand, if one or more of your serving sites still need to be upgraded, service may improve significantly in the future. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/ Finally, LTE at home should not be a major concern right now, as "3G" service still will work just fine for voice and SMS. Data at home should be over your home broadband Wi-Fi. If you will not or cannot use Wi-Fi for data at home, please do switch away from Sprint to another wireless provider. AJ

At S4GRU, we do not recruit people to Sprint. We just happen to have a lot of wireless expertise and Sprint insider info. So, you can consider this an objective assessment -- advantages and disadvantages. Sprint has the broadest, deepest domestic roaming agreements of the four national operators. Sprint roams freely on VZW. VZW rarely allows roaming on Sprint. Where the Sprint map shows roaming coverage in the West, much of that comes from VZW. If the Sprint map shows no coverage, then VZW almost certainly has no coverage there either. Basically, with Sprint, you get its network and VZW fallback coverage, too. Most Sprint plans have voice and data roaming caps. The data caps range 100-300 MB/mo. Additionally, on most plans, any VZW roaming will be slow CDMA1X data. Roaming on USCC and some other regional/rural operators may be faster EV-DO data. Presently, Sprint offers no LTE domestic roaming. That may be coming, but it almost assuredly will not include VZW, AT&T, or T-Mobile coverage. The combination of Sprint native footprint expansion and CCA/RRPP footprint -- whenever that happens -- will never equal the combination of VZW native footprint and LTE in Rural America footprint. Setting aside any cost differences, for total voice and at least slow data coverage, advantage Sprint. For total LTE coverage, advantage VZW. Take your pick based on your priorities. AJ

Come on. Apples to oranges. Kansas City is an important metro area. But it is not the New York City metro area. And the New Jersey suburbs of New York City house many Fortune 500 companies. Kansas City has almost no Fortune 500 companies -- except for Sprint. Sprint leaving would devastate the metro area. Basically, an entire square mile in Overland Park would become a ghost town. That would be a perfect example of corporate social irresponsibility. No, if SoftBank tries to pull that stunt, Masayoshi Son can go to hell. AJ

And appropriate to this thread, we all know the target of that "wild geese" ad. Plenty of people followed the popular groundswell, switched to T-Mobile, and are satisfied. But many others got baited, switched, then realized that T-Mobile is still a second rate network. VZW is encouraging the latter to "come home." AJ

"Hey! What about this? If you had a choice between being the top scientist in your field or getting Mad Cow disease, what would it be?" AJ

You should stop in and ask to speak to Allison Cryor DiNardo. See if she really exists. AJ

To bring this back to serious discussion, any rebrand does not necessarily have to include the word "cellular," "wireless," "mobile," or "mobility." Think of Sprint's history -- even when the wireless arm was known as "Sprint PCS," its nomenclature did not use any of those four aforementioned terms. For another example, prior to the Cingular-AT&TWS merger over a decade ago, AT&TWS had been spun off from the parent company and had a limited amount of time to continue to use the AT&T name/logo. As some of you old fogies like me may remember, AT&TWS launched the "mlife" media campaign. Part of that was related to its investment from NTT DoCoMo -- that swayed AT&TWS away from TDMA, did not go to the prevailing thought of CDMA2000, and instead went to GSM/W-CDMA. Absent revelations from insiders, we may never know for sure. But conjecture is that AT&TWS was prepping itself as an independent company to be rebranded "mlife" -- or maybe just "m." Along the same lines, Hutchison Whampoa has operated its non 2G network in the UK as branded simply "3" for over a decade, too. AJ

Welcome, Robert. Our illustrious site admin makes a Cameo appearance in this thread. AJ

Spank? It might work. For many of those abusing "unlimited" data, that is what they are doing to their monkey -- downloading or streaming porn. AJ

Houston Cellular -- like LA Cellular -- has an interesting and tortuous (that means twisted, not "torturous," by the way) history. It was a Cellular "A side" operator, such that it held the Cellular 850 MHz A block, which typically went to non wireline companies, often in partnerships. The Cellular B block or "B side" in Houston went to GTE, which became VZW. I actually have spent many a night in Houston, but I do not know enough about the utilities there to say that GTE was the wireline provider at the time. However, that was the trend -- the wireline provider got the Cellular B block. It is interesting because Houston is squarely within the former SBC's RBOC overall territory, yet SBC did not get that Cellular B Block. So, SBC users in Houston roamed on GTE. In this case, Houston Cellular was a partnership between BellSouth and AT&TWS. Tech specs were AMPS and TDMA -- the same as most other "A-side" markets of this type. Later, AT&TWS exited the partnership, leaving it to BellSouth, as AT&TWS decided to reenter the market on its own via PCS 1900 MHz that PrimeCo had to divest -- because of overlap in the multipart VZW merger. Ultimately, though, Houston Cellular, which became Cingular, and AT&TWS' reemergence both ended up as AT&T in the fallout from the Cingular-AT&TWS, SBC-BellSouth, SBC-AT&T mergers and SBC rebrand to AT&T. And thus concludes your S4GRU Biography special. Goodnight. AJ

To drop another bomb, Robert is actually an early 1980s black man. Boom! AJ

What? Did you not get Arysyn's Wireless Operator Fantasy League invite? Check your spam folder. You need to get with it, man. Our draft is this weekend. AJ

AJ