iansltx

Depending on the firmware revision, GPS was hit-or-miss on my Epic, though in later revisions it was perfectly solid (9 foot accuracy at time), to the point that charting routes via MapMyRun is very doable on that phone. The SIII seems to take slightly longer to get a fix, but holds it well.

The VZW iPad allows tethering with it as the host. Wired or wireless...and it works really wlel. So you can go both ways. As Sprint LTE coverage expands, I may stop paying for mobile broadband on anyone other than Sprint (T-Mobile aircard, Verizon iPad) and just tether my S3, but on the other hand I like having the ability to pick the best 3G/4G network in my area (sans AT&T), even if it does cost me an arm and a leg per month to do so

I for one welcome an LTE-A equipped Galaxy S4, though that means I'll have to sell my SIII mid-cycle to pay for it

Let me know if your MC ca be associated with the system. I would be surprised if it's able to be. As for the Google Prepaid Card, you don't have anything to lose...Google gives you $10 to start out on it! I loaded up another $20 on the card today; I can figure out how to spend that in the next few months, and using NFC to make payments is fun

As an extra kick in the teeth, the prepaid tablet plans on VZW are still there, but they've been tweaked at the high end to be significantly less generous; $50 buys 3GB (down from 5GB) and $80 now buys 8GB (instead of 10GB). Verizon also isn't showing their LTE iPads under their prepaid broadband selector. Sounds fishy if you ask me...

Just looked up VZW's plans and realized that...egads...their individual plans are gone as well! So the minimum monthly cost for a smartphone single line on Verizon is $90 postpaid, or $80 prepaid, with 1GB of data. Sprint, IMO, beats this by $10 per month even though they don't include unlimited calling, because between Any Mobile and unlimited nights and weekends,, you just don't use up many anytime minutes, ever. If you are okay with staying with a basic phone, you can get 700 minutes on one line for $40 per month...but it looks like those 700 minutes are all you get (no texting, no nights and weekends, no mobile to mobile), so it's an absolutely horrid deal Sure, it's less than six cents per minute, but for $30 per month you can get more minutes, 1000 texts, 30MB of web and the exact same network...with no contract...from Straight Talk. Since basic phones are $30 per line, you stay ahead of the curve by doing individual liens on Straight Talk! Unlimited voice/text + 300MB of web on Verizon isn't any better of a deal either unless you have a ton of lines to share the minutes around to. $40 per month + $30 per line compares disfavorably to Straight Talk's unlimited plan ($45 per line flat) on anything less than five lines...I say five lines because Straight Talk tends to have way less taxes and fees than your garden-variety contract service. Oh, and Straight Talk gives you unlimited data per line (okay, realistically it's around 2GB after which you're cut off, but that's better than VZW). Or, if you're willing to find your own Verizon phone, Page Plus Cellular gives you more data, messages and minutes than Straight Talk (100MB/3000/1200 vs. 30MB/1000/1000) for the same money (actually, Page Plus refills tend to be discounted, so you get better deals). Their unlimited talk/text + 100MB of data option is $40 per month, so you'd need to have five, maybe six lines on VZW to get a similar deal (except you'd have less data on Share Everything). The hotspot/tablet-only pricing for Share Everything is intriguing but actually ends up more expensive than VZW's older pricing in some cases. Where 5GB was $50 on a mobile hotspot or modem, now that same $50 will buy you only 4GB, though you can get 6GB for $60 and 10GB for $80, the same as before. The economics work out better on a tablet (which you're buying outright anyway); GB is $40, 6GB is $50 and 10GB is $70 per month. The catch is that those prices are for a single line; your price per GB overall ends up staying relatively flat per line...or even increasing due to the access fees per device...as you add more lines. The plans also start at a MUCH higher dollar amount per month than the older tablet-focused plans, so I'll be sticking with my $20/1GB iPad plan for as long as Verizon will let me (shoot; I need to change from 5GB to 1GB soon, or risk losing out). In VZW's defense, Share Everything is simpler than the matrix of plans before, if only by a small amount. However the overage charges that Verizon tack on ($15 per GB, instead of $10 per GB prior to the new plans) make it super-obvious that these new plans are nothing but a cash grab, in an era where LTE phones will gobble ever-more data since the network is good enough that you'll watch videos etc. without even thinking how much bandwidth you're consuming!

I want those speeds. I really do

It would be cool to have a Moto slider slab, but from Sprint's perspective an LTE Admiral might be a better idea, since at that point they can point to a flagship phone with both LTE and PTT. In markets where LTE is live, that combination is sure to be a hit with business types. Sent from my Galaxy SIII-32GB using Forum Runner

Yep. I mentioned this in the S3 uldate thread. Have tested GWallet a couple times now and been successful Sent from my Galaxy SIII-32GB using Forum Runner

I prefer 24dbi 2.4GHz grids. They even work well on PCS spectrum (not much loss of gain due to imappropriate antenna design). Though that'll kill any MIMO that Clearwire has going on.

Joan also doesn't know how to write...or at least copy-edit...an article. 20,00 sites? You gotta be kidding me. Side note: I think that Cablevision has a 30,000 hotspot WiFi network covering much of their service area (NYC/NJ). The end goal is different (provide smartphone users a reason to get cable home Internet, because WiFi everywhere doesn't count against caps and is faster than LTE at times, at 15 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up). However you could apply the same idea to TD-LTE: build a huge microcell network to inundate an area with capacity (actually, TD-LTE would work better because it's built for a cellular environment and there's actually more spectrum available there than on 2.4GHz ISM/WiFi). My bet is that the China deployment is all in one city, or a portion thereof, with micro/picocells. Lots of capacity (which is good, since last I checked wireline infrastructure is hit-or-miss over there), not a ton of coverage overall, but decent coverage in the area due to site density. You'll never see that sort of thing in the U.S. though, since backhaul providers aren't just going to give away the hundreds of backhaul PoPs necessary to make something like that work. Cablevision's OptimumWiFi works because CV already had high-bandwidth infrastructure reaching their entire footprint; they could just strap a DOCSIS-backhauled WiFi access point to the coax and, without any additional backhaul fees, build a WiFi network across their footprint.

As long as the SNR is fine, pings would be okay too. Light travels pretty fast you know... 186,000 miles per second. It isn't just a recommendation. It's the law.

Yep.

Vision, Power Vision, Network Vision. So Much Vision. 400 Vision!

I have the HTC Touch Pro and the Mogul, but I figure those are ancient technology these days...they don't even have WiMAX Never had signal issues on either phone though. It was kind of fun buying the Mogul with EvDO r0 and getting update after update that unlocked additional functionality on the phone (GPS, EvDO rev A, WinMo 6.1 if I remember correctly). Oh, and running Android 2.1 on the Touch Pro, despite horrid battery life and no camera support, was fun.

I for one am looking forward to the JB update. Having more control in the Notifications area would be nice.Plus smoothness...one less thing for iPhone users to gloat about to me (though, don't get me wrong, my phone is plenty fast). As for the GB->ICS update, my thought there was that some devices might not get it due to not having enough RAM or similar. However the HTC One V has 512MB of RAM yet is running ICS from day one, so I guess that most Android devices could upgrade just fine (seeing as how the lowly Optimus One series of phones, currently stuck on Froyo, have 512MB of RAM).

Yes, and no. I do know that, after the firmware update and a Google Wallet update, Wallet started working for me...which it didn't when I got the phone. Sent from my Galaxy SIII-32GB using Forum Runner

So I went to the tasting room (to put it fancily) at Coors today, an area notorious for being a cell signal black hole, at least for T-Mobile and Sprint. My Epic had a hard time staying connected to the cell network there, and would flip to roaming/no signal. The GSIII did some of the same thing, but I was able to place a clear call from within the room, send/receive text messages and even update my GMail without too much of an issue, depending on where I was standing. So, subjectively, I won't say that the phone is a significant improvement RF-wise over the Epic (I didn't have the Epic with me as well to test). But I think it was at least a marginal improvement. What's funny is that there is a cell site just a couple blocks away from the brewery (810 East Street). My phone is bouncing between that site and one closer to me right now. I guess brewing equipment...and Coors' building...make for excellent 1900MHz blockers.

Going back to the "my signal is stronger than yours" argument...the signal is usually in the -40s. Crazy talk...but that's what happens when the cell site is a block and a half away. I would get pictures, but I would need to climb up on a mountain or somethig to be able to see the roof of the four-story building where the site sits. Maybe tomorrow, since mountains aren't exactly in short supply around here Sent from my Galaxy SIII-32GB using Forum Runner