iansltx

I wonder whether Sprint might push VoLTE in areas where partner LTE overlays either nothing or non-CDMA. Might take a little longer to deploy, but might as well set up a standard tech when it's available, rather than just trying gardern variety VoIP over cellular with associated QoS implications.

21db parabolic would be a highly directional antenna, not an omni. The cool thing about directional antennas is that in addition to amplifying the signal coming from a particular direction, they won't pick up the noise from other directions nearly as strongly. So it's a bit of a double-whammy connection quality wise that you wouldn't be able to get by having to assume that a cell site was equally probably in any direction.

...and upping the amount that I pay to Sprint. What got me to do this? Their business plans. So I'll be getting unlimited voice + data + 3GB tethering on my phone for $45/mo with no contract (no subsidy, obviously). Plus another 3.1GB shared between a Zing and a Galaxy Tab 4 (which I'll probably mail to my littlest brother for use at college after I play with it for a few days) for another $45/mo, on-contract with subsidies slightly above the ETFs for those lines. Consider this my vote of confidence in Sprint's ability to get Spark running everywhere I want it. I'm already nearly fully covered with B25+B26, and it's no mistake that all three devices I'll have (Nexus 5, Zing, GTab) are tri-band. We'll see what happens. But I for one will enjoy having all of that legit tethering data at my disposal, in case for example Time Warner Cable decides to have another backbone failure, or whatnot.

Now, I wonder how they'll make cases for this one, without obscuring the screen. I don't personally use cases on any of my gear, but most of my immediate family does, and they'll be the ones who'll be getting this phone more 'n likely.

Duly noted. At this point there's no good reason for me to switch off of my Nexus 5, but that may change

Sprint's website when I go to upgrade my phone. I get a nice message saying "You will need to change your plan in order to use your phone, but you can do that once your phone arrives." or something to that effect. Maybe I have to go through telesales (I'd say in-store but they tend not to know what they're doing) to get this straightened out, but online doesn't give me much hope.

...and I think that Sprint's done it again with tri-band devices; I'm off contract now (have been for a few months) but the list of devices that I can do a subsidized upgrade to on my SERO-P plan is basically zero. I'd have to switch plans. I actually switched to SERO-P a day or two after it was announced. Hence the Epic that I had when I got here.

If I'm reading things right, the fine print is clarifying the bill credit, not the to-unlimited upgrade. Hence the "limit one monthly $10 OR unlimited LTE offer" bit. So it's really an upgrade to unlimited, and it really would work on the lower-end postpaid Simple Choice plans.

I'm talking specifically about the refer-a-friend promo they launched today. Not "1GB except when we feel like breaking Net Neutrality or throttling you" side of things.

To quote a recently released dystopian movie, "precision of language!" It's not equal if it doesn't have 5GB of tethering. There's also the whole UnRadio thing but having some Spotify thrown in means that that's more of a fringe issue.

Their newest refer-a-friend "lifeline" promo. See here: http://www.tmonews.com/2014/08/t-mobile-offering-free-unlimited-data-refer-a-friend-deal-from-next-week/ TMo's limited plans, on Simple Choice anyway, don't care what you do with your data. So the $50 1GB plan becomes $50 1GB tethering + unlimited on-phone data, unless I'm understanding things horribly wrong. Granted, this offer expires after a year, but at the rate things are changing, they'll have some new promo to take advantage of then.

One good thing that Sprint is doing here is working to get phones that are actually reasonably priced when their price isn't bundled into the plan's subsidy. The Aquos phone is a prime example of this: $240 per year = $10 per month = not a huge premium for the device fee on top of what you're paying for the plan. Now, so is T-Mobile, with stuff like the Galaxy Avant, the Lumia 635 and the Galaxy Light. But Sprint is getting on the bandwagon here, and will probably promote the less expensive devices more, and work more to get interesting ones, because that's how they're positioning themselves.

Quick! Everyone start posting Spark speedtests! Which, by even the most liberal estimates for TMo, would be going at 800 mph vs. T-Mo's 2000. But since wideband LTE isn't everywhere, Spark is actually faster. So maybe 2500 mph?

Actually, if you're okay with less tethering, you could just get the $50 T-Mobile plan and have unlimited with 1GB of tethering. Then when the promo wears off, see what else they have. A comparable plan on Sprint would be $70/mo, because to use your phone for tethering at all you have to have at least the $10 add-on.

The issue here is that Sprint's tethering plans haven't changed in awhile, and as a result aren't competitive when you add them on. Heck, making the 5GB package cost $30 (so unl + 5GB would be $90 vs. $80) would work. But tiers are less than generous at this point. At least make the $19.99 pack 3GB so Legere can't tweet back with "well we offer more than double the tethering data for the same price". *shrugs*

http://www.sprint.com/landings/datashare/index.html?ECID=vanity:newday http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/its-a-new-day-for-unlimited-data.htm?previousArticle=0&nextArticle=11515&gotoArt=%2Fnews-releases%2Fits-a-new-day-for-unlimited-data.htm Now, my first question is whether this plan includes a tethering allotment. Because if it doesn't then Sprint isn't doing an apples-to-apples comparison with T-Mobile's $80/mo plan, which includes 5GB. Granted, My All-In was $110 per month for what I'm talking about, but that included a phone subsidy. This plan is $50 cheaper per month and doesn't include that subsidy. But again, if Sprint isn't including a generous tethering allotment on the $60 plan, the comparison between their plan and T-Mobile's isn't actually valid. Because in my case 3GB of tether-able data is more useful to me than unlimited with no tethering a lot of the time. EDIT: Looks like the "town hall" thread talks about this plan. And looks like no tethering is included in the plan's data allotment...if you want tethering, $20 will buy you 2GB. So when you're comparing apples to apples without coverage entering into the picture, and if you actually tether a fair amount, T-Mobile wins here, sadly. Mods, you can roll this post into the town hall thread if you want.

Unlicensed or light-licensed spectrum (2.4, 3.65, 5 GHz), using wither WiMAX (3.65) or 802.11 based systems. There's also some Moto..er...Cambium Canopy gear in there, but not as much anymore.

Looks like the Aquos is a provisional YES on Ting: https://ting.com/blog/device-update-didja-miss-us-2/#comment-1549616413

Hopefully Sprint, due to sales volume requirements, lets Ting pick this one up quickly. Nice to see that they've priced it to sell...and phones like this are what make EasyPay work (vs. stuff like the S5 and the iPhone that require a huge subsidy). If it does hit Ting I think I'll be retiring two of the three Galaxy Victories the family has.

Hopefully the mid-range Aquos phone ends up in the $250-$300 price range, priced for market penetration rather than luxury. If carriers are going all-in with the whole phone installment deal, they need to get phones on the market that don't increase customers' bills by $30 per month to pay the device off. Looking at you, Apple.