iansltx

I just switched my Go to Neverstop for the next month, as I'll be at my parents' for multiple weekends. If you want a review of the service/experience, skip the next two paragraphs... At my parents', a couple miles outside a town of 10,000 that can get 300M TWC, it's your choice of wireless provider for internet...and none of them are particularly good. Their choice is (and has been for awhile) residential LTE at 4M down, 1M up for $50/mo, unlimited, from a local provider. Said local provider hands out 4G wireless routers with 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11n and an LTE modem that supports band 12...with a couple 5db antennas that take RSSI down to the high -50s, so we're talking about something that's marketed as home broadband here. That company has 5x5 of Band 17 that all their residential customers use; mobile customers on the same provider are limited to HSPA+ last I heard in order to keep the LTE clear for fixed use. All that to say that my hotspot likely has more capacity that it's pulling from than my parents' residential connection...particularly since there's a B41 cell site downtown (I can't reach it out here, but that takes the load off B25/B26). == I've had Karma for on the order of two years, and the Go for on the order of four months, so I know the drill as far as getting connected etc. goes: connect to the network, log in if your MAC isn't remembered on the device, see the splash page showing how much data you have left (I have just over 20GB...I've gotten, and used, 5GB from referrals and 1GB came with the device). In this case, I logged in and then looked for an option to switch to Neverstop...and was told to do it from the app. So I opened the app on my 5X, updated my billing info (the card I used to buy my 20GB of data expired a bit ago), and told it to switch my account to Neverstop. I was asked to confirm the $50 charge, then emailed a payment confirmation. The final screen on my phone for the process said that the month of service would start the next time I logged into my hotspot. So I connected, logged in (pretty sure I was asked to log in even though that particular decide was authed to the network before)...and presented with a screen telling me I was almost ready to use Neverstop. Turns out, the device needs a firmware update (automated reboot required) to get Neverstop going. I let the update load...the ETA was 5-10 minutes and the actual time was within that range. The service helpfully told me I'd get an email when the device was ready to go, and I got an email at the end of the process as promised. At that point, I was forced to log in again (I'm guessing the reflash cleared the MAC table, partially to avoid multiple devices immediately exceeding the three simultaneous device limit)...and was good to go from there on out. The splash screen said I had Neverstop at 5 Mbps;sounds like they'll have higher speed tiers or higher simultaneous device counts as extra-charge options in the future. Speeds on speedtest.net were within a few hundred kbps of 5 Mbps in both directions (yes, 5 Mbps symmetric unlimited LTE for $50/mo!), with uploads being closer to 5M than downloads. Not bad at all considering that's about what I can get on my 5X...or the Go when I'm paying per GB...at this location. I have yet to test how simultaneous connections to the hotspot from different client devices fare; I'd expect the 5 Mbps to be shared between devices, but who knows...maybe the service would allow 15M down spread across three devices if the network can handle it. Will post back here when I test that (shortly!).

Good to know re: not showing the SCC. I've seen 80+ Mbps speeds on my N5X but according to debug mode didn't have CA turned on. Would be nice to get that...

Mine arrived today. Sprint store said they didn't have the SIM. Went to Best Buy and bought the wrong SIM...for $3 + tax. Sprint store felt sorry enough for me to actually try and find the SIM. They found it, and about two hours after the saga started I was staring at a fully activated 32GB black 5X. Didn't realize AJ had posted the SKUs for Best Buy and SPrint SIMs earlier, otherwise that would've saved me an hour-plus. Ah well. Subjectively, the 5X is zippier on B41 than the 5, all else equal. Was consistently seeing a few Mbps better down and 1 Mbps better up...35/14.5 rather than 30/13...at the same place. Granted, that's within the margin of error tower load wise, but promising nonetheless. Still can't get B41 inside my apartment, but that's to be expected. For the couple of B41 sites I bounced off of, none had CA so I wasn't able to test out those blazing speeds. Maybe when I head downtown tomorrow I'll find a CA site...

Got my Karma Go in today. Works like a charm, to the point that I went ahead and dropped my data-only postpaid lines (eating the ETF, but I can live with that, particularly since I still have 3GB of tethering on my phone). It's been a long road since I ordered the Go back in September (the 23rd). But having a hotspot that doesn't cost me per month to keep going...that will work wherever Sprint has 3G or LTE...is nice.

I've been seeing B41 a lot more recently. It's nice Was in the Denver area seven weeks ago or so and some friends that I stayed with didn't have B41 covering their apartment. When I was back there this past week, they did, with 20+ Mbps indoors. ~800 miles away in Fredericksburg, TX, I've got this: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1351993820 It looks like they turned B41 on sometime between last night and tonight...I was getting 20 Mbps on B25 at about the same location. Got 12+ Mbps up on another test. If Sprint decided to do fixed wireless off of this spectrum, that'd be just phenomenal...they'd be competing against 802.11n from one ISP (well, AirMax) and 5x5 B12 LTE from another. But if we're being more realistic, this should solve the capacity issues they've had in town here in a market that has historically had a very high Sprint market penetration.

...and my camera stopped working. Updated to the latest SW and rebooted the phone as part of that...nothing. Too late to head back to the store now but will soon enough. Looks like others have had this issue and couldn't work around it. Front camera works, back camera doesn't...confirmed by *#0*#. /me flips table

Just got back from the Sprint store with a full-price S6 (ouch!). Will try chat sometime between now and Monday to get this puppy unlocked. If I have to call, that'll wait 'til Monday. Will post back here with the results, including my experience on what happens when I put a Ting T-Mo SIM in the newly unlocked device.

My reading comprehensiveness skills need work; I skimmed the article and stoppedreading after I saw the LTE bands. Good...albeit frustrating...to know