metayoshi

Is there a consensus on what Qualcomm chipset the Nexus 6 will use?  The latest evidence/rumor is that it will be the Snapdragon 805, which is the APQ8084.  Since it is an APQ not an MSM, it has no cellular baseband on chip.  That means back to two chipsets -- it has to be paired with an MDM, likely the Category 6 MDM9635/MDM9235.

 

And therein lies the rub.  The MDM9635 is 3GPP/3GPP2, while the MDM9235 is 3GPP only.  The Gobi modems come in a 3GPP only option, while the Snapdragon MSM chipsets typically are 3GPP/3GPP2 -- even for AT&T and T-Mobile handsets, for example.  With the MSM8974, the Nexus 5 had CDMA2000 capability on board, regardless.  But with a possible APQ8084 + MDM9235 pairing, Sprint could get shut out of the Nexus 6.

 

AJ

Good point. I completely forgot about the Nexus 6 being rumored to have an APQ chipset, which does make it much harder to have both CDMA and GSM on board. The Nexus 4 was also using a Snapdragon S4 pro (APQ8064), and that only had AT&T and T-Mobile support.

Looks like my point was proven even more so: if the Nexus 6 doesn't make it to Sprint, it's going to be due to CDMA + GSM compatibility, not LTE band capability.

I personally think that Sprint would not want to lose out on another opportunity like the Nexus 5, so they'll push for the Nexus 6 as much as they can. Whether they'll get it, I don't know, but I don't think it'll be due to LTE bands. It'll be due to not wanting to support both GSM and CDMA. The Nexus 5 already has a bunch of LTE band support: 1, 2, 4, 5, 17, 19, 25, 26, and 41. The Sprint version of the iPhone 5s and 5c support LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, and 26, which, aside from the difficulty of supporting TDD LTE B41, is more than the Nexus 5's list.

I have no idea how hard it is to make a single device that can handle both CDMA and GSM and all of those LTE bands, but it at least seems like a feasible product.

Service hasn't really changed much for me, so that's probably why this thread is so quiet. I'm glad to hear that more NV 2.5 upgrades are going up. Otherwise, this day is like any other day. There's a map in the sponsor's section I follow called "NV Sites Complete Maps", and I pretty much wait for that to be updated, mainly watching the Irvine and Tustin area. The good news is that you can see them slowly upgrading sites that were not even NV 1.0 into NV 3G sites, so even though there isn't much noise in this thread, there are quite a bit of upgrades happening in the background. For example, 3 out of the 4 towers I'm mainly watching in Irvine finally got NV 3G after being on legacy hardware since forever. Now I'm just waiting on them to finally get LTE, and for the 4th tower to be upgraded. I haven't really seen if data speeds or coverage has improved yet since I barely got back from my vacation, but I hope so.

2.5 panels up.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B85iVYIl8Sz4N3UzMmpDRjNHMmc/edit?usp=sharing

 

Cross streets are Bardeen and Dupont in Irvine.

Oh wow, I work really close to there (Michelson and Jamboree). I assume that place isn't close enough to get the band 41 coming from John Wayne Airport. I remember when I finally got the official Spark update for my Nexus 5, I parked in the parking lot for IHOP near the airport, and tested it. It was a beautiful day. I'm glad to see them finally moving more south to encompass more of Irvine.

The .15 radio is definitely more sticky to LTE in my opinion. The. 16 radio seems to have the same reception but camps on 3g

I'm on the .16 radio and my Nexus seems to get on B41 whenever it sees it, even in places where I couldn't get B41 on the .15 radio.

Well nothing beats the 92705 zip code. Everybody in the hills has a different name and refuses to use Santa Ana as their address Welcome to Cowan Hights, North Tustin and Lemon Hights or Santa Ana if you prefer!

The 92705 zip code is exactly where I used to live. I didn't mind calling it Santa Ana, but I remember the apartment I used to live in called the place Tustin before I found out it was actually in Santa Ana when I looked up the address. The rent was cheap, I got WiMAX service with my Evo 4G, it was nice. Then the non-24 hour laundry room bit me when I had to do laundry late at night (I got locked out of the laundry room due to "hours"), and I said, that's what I get for going to a really cheap location. Never again.

Yes its LTE accepted. It was upgraded a year ago and LTE turned on a month ago but now they have new panel siting on the ground to go up. Guys said its 2.5 add on. I'll go take some pics.

That's great news! I just hope that the non-NV upgraded sites are also going to get upgraded at around the same time. LTE accepted sites in Irvine are too widespread and leave a big gap in the middle of the city.

Has anyone noticed any new B41 launches in the OC? Without B26 in the near future, my excitement comes through this band to help clear the capacity issues.

Judging by the premier sponsor maps, I don't think B41 is going south of Santa Ana/Costa Mesa anytime soon, at least in a stage where it's widely available. I was at Buena Park yesterday eating at a restaurant near Knott Ave and Lincoln Ave, and I was getting B41 there so I do know that north OC and LA are getting some B41 love. Since Clear pretty much stopped WiMAX expansion at the 55, we pretty much have to wait for Alca-Lu to put up some 8T8R NV 2.0 equipment before we get B41 love down here in the Tustin/Irvine area and south of that.

Back at my parent's house in Los Angeles, looks like the new 4.4.4 radio let's me stay on B41 much longer than the 4.4.3 radio. I was only getting B41 here with the .15 radio before, but it looks like I was getting it downstairs in the dining room too with the new radio and I usually switch to 3g down there. I'm liking 4.4.4 even more now.

I don't seem to have most of the problems that other people are having with 4.4.4. Everything is running as smoothly as before. The one thing I do notice is that my phone now loves to start scanning for LTE more often it seems. Ever since 4.4.4, I have noticed my phone with no data for a few seconds every now and then, but then it correctly goes back to 3G or LTE. I see this especially inside my apartment where I have a fringe LTE signal. Other than that behavior, my phone has been doing well.

Has anyone ever had an issue where people just cannot hear you for the first 5 seconds of a call? Any ideas what could cause that? It's been happening since I got the phone in January, and on various towers in the Chicagoland area. It's getting annoying. I'm wondering if it's a setting, or if my phone has an issue.

Only on Bluetooth

What afazel said. If I get a call in my car, I usually wait until the timer on my dash hits ~1.5 seconds before I say "hello". Anytime before that and they can't hear me. Otherwise, I can speak immediately if I'm not using Bluetooth.

It has only been a couple of days, but I am seeing much better results with the new 2.x.16 baseband. My biggest peeve with the newer radio versions was the tendency to hold onto 3G far longer than necessary. Now it seems to flip back to LTE much quicker once I return to a covered area. Only have B25 in my area at the moment.

 

-Mike

That's definitely been my experience with this new radio as well. I get barely any signal in our building at work, but I know that I have a usable -100 dBm RSRP LTE signal in the parking structure from past experience. The previous couple of radios have kept me on 3G, whereas the new radio switches me to LTE pretty much every time I get to my car.

I hope this doesn't mean that battery life is affected, though I personally haven't seen a difference yet.

If you are turning data off, it should make zero difference what mode you are in. That doesn't make any sense. I haven't had any issue like that.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

Actually, yes it does make a difference what mode you're in, unless you're going into airplane mode. With mobile data off, the radio actually connects to the best tower that it can, and that means it will connect to LTE if it can if LTE is enabled. It just won't transfer any data, but calls will still work, and eCSFB on Triband phones will still work to transfer you from LTE to CDMA if you call or get a call. That means that if you are in an LTE fringe zone or if eCSFB is not enabled on your best tower, the radio will still do the LTE scanning as normal and drop back down to 3G. This still affects battery life as normal, but not as badly as when you're continually transferring data.

I know because I have personal experience with this. Just go into a really strong LTE zone and turn off mobile data. You'll still see yourself connected to an LTE tower. You really have to change it to 3G only to only connect to 3G.

There is a large NIMBY movement in OC, especially in southern OC. Everybody wants their phone to work but please don't put a tower into my neighborhood. Areas like Santa Ana have all the services because poor people don't have the time to complain about another tower.

People should be happy because MetroPCS's CDMA network is going away and there is one less evil company with phone ray's poluting the air (-:

Yep. I lived in Santa Ana once. I got Sprint's/Clear's WiMAX service, of all things to get, inside my apartment. The rent was cheap... and so were the services, so I moved to Tustin, closer to work, but still not Irvine, but still a much better place than Santa Ana, so I at least have good Sprint signal at home still. I didn't have LTE until recently, but at least it's there now. The houses and apartments in Irvine are way overpriced anyway, so I wouldn't mind if they went down in value for the sake of better Sprint coverage, but that's only my personal opinion.

I kind of dispute this idea that my location is too far away or too isolated to receive decent Sprint service. I measured the distances from my office location, where I am getting both 3G roam and no service indoors and out, to the two nearest Sprint towers. One is LTE active the other 3G only, but both are NV complete, not legacy. I really dont get it. I am 0.8 and 0.9 miles from two towers and constantly stuck on Metro PCS crappy roam, no service indoors, and occasionally a sub 100K eHRPD signal outdoors. I don't believe that being less than a mile from Sprint towers in an urban environment is supposed to produce the horrible experience I have receiving. Their towers have to have greater coverage than that otherwise they would need double the towers in urban areas. Maybe I am missing something about the towers out here specifically?

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So I ended up getting the Galaxy S5 with a 2 year contract extension with Sprint. I read the press release proclaiming that Los Angeles has been launched with Sprint Spark. According to the Spark coverage map, it seems to be all over central and northern Orange County. Now is the coverage map relatively accurate with regards to Spark in Orange County, or is it over exaggerated? Either way I'll be interested in testing to see if Spark is in Orange County when I go to the Angel game on Sunday.

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Well I was saying before in the NV Sites Complete forum I have a decision to make anyway, my contract is a few months away from being up.  I was under the assumption ATT/VZW have 10x10 carriers deployed here in the 700-800Mhz range.  That should be quite blanketing in LTE coverage, my concern on re-upping with Sprint was exactly this, if I am re-upping for tri-band I was concerned I am just going to run into pockets of poor service and delayed deployment for years to come.  A bigger concern given now I am a traveling consultant away from my advanced market of Chicago.

If you're travelling a lot, I definitely would recommend switching to a wireless provider that will fit your needs. Just from my experience travelling between LA, northern Orange County, and Irvine, it's such a huge night a day difference. I personally don't have a huge motivation to switch service since where I live in Tustin is pretty well covered, and I get very good B41 when I go to LA, and if not, I get good B25 as well, or at least good 3G. Unfortunately, I work in Irvine, so I have to deal with the bad service in and around work, but I can personally live with it since I get good service in ~95% places I go. For you, if you're going to be in Irvine 95% of the time, I would definitely switch to another carrier, especially with the B26/1x800 situation (or lack thereof) that we have down here.

Hey OC friends.  I am always in the Chicago forum, but now as I have been assigned to a project in Irvine this summer and going to be spending a considerable amount of time out here.  I am having an awful difficult time finding and maintaining useable service here in Irvine.  I am not getting anywhere with "do a PRL update" Sprint Care folks, can anyone here help me.  I am working at the corner of Irvine Center Dr & Sand Canyon Ave.  Both indoors in a low level office building (near windows) and outdoors I am either on 1xRTT roam from Metro PCS, EVDO from Sprint, or no service.  Depending of where I move in this building or where I am outside is what changes my service, but in any event all three as essentially un-useable for data and bare bones for calls (except for when it goes no service).  What is going on out here with Sprint service, is there something I need to know or take into consideration for my device?

Yeah... Irvine pretty much sucks for Sprint service. I don't know why, but knowing how anal the City can be, I'm pretty sure the City of Irvine is the main cause for the delays in backhaul and putting up the new equipment. Also, the site density here could use a little help from B26 and 1x800, but that's not going to happen anytime soon either, so right now, you either have Sprint Service, or you don't. Just look at the NV Sites Complete map in the Sponsor's section. The corner where you work is smack dab in the middle of four towers that are way too far apart to give good service in the middle unless B26 and 1x800 is there to give you that extra coverage. The main places that have good usable Sprint Service are the area in and around UC Irvine, the plaza on Culver and Irvine Center Dr., The plaza on Culver and Irvine Blvd., some of Irvine Spectrum Center, the Train Station near Irvine Spectrum Center, and John Wayne Airport. The fact that that count fits within my 10 fingers is a bad sign already. Unfortunately, until we get B26 and 1x800, there's no two ways around it.

My suggestion since you're down here only temporarily, find out from any co-workers in your building what cell provider works within the building. I don't know how common this is, but where I work, Verizon agreed to put a repeater in our concourse level, so Verizon is the only cell provider that has good service within all 4 floors of our office. Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile pretty much have no service on the Concourse and 1st floors, and only on the 2nd or 3rd are where I can get pretty good usable 3G signal. Because of that, our work actually provides discounts with Verizon phones, so some people who normally have another provider also have a work phone from Verizon, though the options are pretty much limited to the iPhone, most current Galaxy S, or some Legacy Blackberry device. Maybe you can check with your work to see what they have.

I don't know if LA Metro and Orange County, CA just recently got HD voice turned on or if it was there for a while, but I believe I just had my first HD voice experience with my girlfriend. I just know that when she spoke, it was very clear, much more clear than any phone call I have ever had, and I asked her if my voice was also clear, and she said yes. If this really was HD voice, then wow, it really is a huge difference.

As someone who knows the business side. The project manager should not have over promised on delivery which is most likely costing the firm big bucks for the delayed schedule. On a side know, do we really need band 26 in the OC? I very very rarely go places without service.

Yes we do. While John Wayne Airport and north of that is covered with Band 41 and Band 25, Irvine Spectrum has pretty good Band 25, and Tustin (except the District) is pretty covered in Band 25, the District and much of the central residential part of Irvine have horrible 3G reception for Sprint. Sometimes, I end up in a location where I go roaming, even outdoors, especially at the District in the back section where Target and Aloha BBQ is. Once we get 1x800 CDMA and Band 26 LTE down here, my life will be much better.

Since I travel to LA every now and then, I have enjoyed what I would consider excellent service for Sprint. Band 41 almost everywhere, Band 25 where I don't have that, more than good enough 3G when I don't have LTE, and 1x800 for voice coverage. It's truly amazing. I wished I lived and worked up there, but my work and home are down here in Irvine and Tustin. It's depressing to see the night and day difference between there and down here, and there's almost a solid line once you get south of Santa Ana or Costa Mesa. And if you compare the site density between LA and north OC vs. Irvine, it's even more of a sure thing that Irvine, specifically, needs 800 MHz. I will rejoice once I can sit in Aloha BBQ, or the Kaiser near Barranca and Jeffrey, and actually use my smartphone as a smartphone instead of it becoming a hot brick in my pocket looking for service. I wish the problem with 800 MHz was in LA, not here; they have amazing service up there already, but here in Tustin/Irvine is where Sprint really needs the help.

Question to all, particularly those on the new 4.4.3 modem:

 

1. Have you modified your band priority? If so what settings are you using?

 

2. If not, what are yours defaulted to currently?

 

I've got B41 and B26 set to enabled, and band priority as follows B41-1, B26-0, B25-0. It seems to allow me to pick up B41 (which is rather pervasive ion my area) much easier when it's available, but I'm not 100% convinced the settings even do anything. Thoughts? Network guys?

I just kept mine at the default where everything is 1. When I am in LA where B41 seems to be prevalent, I seem to pick up B41 pretty easily.

Bad news for the 800mhz rebranding in OC 

 

OC filed for an extension for submitting the rebranding cost estimates to Sprint. Apparently Motorola is overwhelmed with the project and will take longer than expected. The document is a little confusing because they throw out so many dates, but it sounds like Sprint won't even get to review the estimates until July 14th at the latest.

 

http://www.fcc.gov/document/orange-county-extension

I waited 2 extra months for the 4.4.3 update on my Nexus 5. I think I'm patient enough for a 2 month delay in the OC giving Sprint its cost estimates. I just hope that, by July 14, they actually give it and don't ask for another extension. As an engineer myself, I hate it when the business side of my company decides to go with an unrealistic release date, so I understand if Motorola's engineers can't hit the date that Sprint was asking of them, but still... this sucks for us who are actively waiting for 800 MHz to finally be available for our triband phones.

70 down in LA Convention Center at E3. This is inside the middle of west hall next to Nintendo and Oculus Rift's booths. Amazing stuff. I really wish Sprint would move down to Irvine faster. It will be a big win for Sprint if they can get this everywhere.

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So I'm back from my weekend in LA. I had a great experience with my Nexus 5 now that we finally have 4.4.3 and the .13 radio. I went through Downtown LA, Alhambra, Eagle Rock, Pasadena, and Burbank, and aside from my cousin's wedding reception in the mountains in Burbank where no one has reception, I was pretty much seamlessly jumping from B41 to B25 to 3G as appropriate. While on the 605 N going to Alhambra, I noticed my phone was loading websites very fast. I found out I was on B41, and I decided to do a speed test while my friend's car was moving, and I was getting 17 Mbps down, but I lost the B41 connection in between download and upload, so my phone switched to B25 and my upload was ~1 Mbps. When we exited on Garfield from the 10 freeway, I noticed I was on B41 again. I didn't have to do any fancy PRL/Profile update/airplane mode tricks. It just did it on its own.

I am definitely happy to see my Nexus working as it should. Now if only Sprint could put up more LTE in Orange County and somehow speed up B26 deployment here in SoCal, that will be the day.

Got to test out the band 41 here in Eagle Rock on the corner of Eagle Rock and Colorado. Only giving me 25 down and 12 up, but I'm just glad that it transitions to band 41 smoothly with this latest update

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