jaybiz81

... Google Wallet's tap and pay NFC feature hasn't been working for me lately...

Me neither, and it seems there are others out there, but it's hard to find information the web about it.  

I really stopped caring after I got the Wallet card, but then today I was on my way to work in a cab, went to pay, and realized I left my wallet at home.  Tried to pay with the phone and  it says Tap and Pay "Not available" on my settings screen and the transaction declined (it was still worth trying, especially in the panic that is trying to pay for a cab without a wallet, hah).  

The chip still was recognized by the credit card reader, and Wallet detected I was trying to use the chip (it made the chime sound), but still no luck with Tap and Pay.  Wallet even sent me an email to let me know it was declined because tap and pay isn't set up on the phone, yet I can't set it up with the "not available" thing.

I've done a factory reset too with no luck.  Is yours working again?  Anyone else having tap and pay issues with their Evo?  Edit: ... still having issues even with the last Wallet update last week?

Once you leave Manhattan, and start going into Queens or Brooklyn, cell spacing becomes noticeable and you see signal strength diminish.

 

I think that's where 800mhz will come into play.

I'm hoping SMR will also help with vertical movement in Manhattan.  I work in a school so I'm at ground level, but I've had to attend trainings and meetings on the 40th+ floor of some buildings and service up there can be horrible.  There's usually great uptilt but not everywhere.

I feel like even with all sites completed, you'll be lucky to see above 6Mbps in Times Square. Although that's pretty much how it is with every carrier.

Agreed.  It's too popular of a place with lots of data usage.  

That being said, last night I was in the West Village celebrating.  Shortly after midnight my friends on AT&T were having some connectivity issues and the network seemed jammed.  I was on LTE with Sprint and had zero issues.  It was nice for a change!  In the past, I always got hit with the same network issues after midnight.

Uh, why is your handset automatically connecting to your network at work?  If you do not want it to connect to a certain SSID or any open network, you have control over that.

 

AJ

I guess I don't understand the point of your comment, AJ.  I fully understand how to control my WiFi settings, and I run the WiFi network at my work.  I'm not going to jam up this post with why sometimes I want to be on my work WiFi and why sometimes I want to use Sprint.  I have my reasons, and they are quite valid.  The point of my original post was that sometimes when I'm using the Sprint network instead of WiFi, I don't notice it as much lately as the 3G has become all that more reliable.

You need not turn off Wi-Fi.  Just leave it on all the time so that it connects automatically to your trusted networks.

 

AJ

I'm well aware.  I turn it off because at work we have a proxy filter that blocks services I use on my phone, so I turn it off at times when I need those services, and I forget to turn it back on because I don't really notice.  Otherwise, I leave it on at both work and home.

While not directly related to a WiFi issue, I've found that there are times that I forget that I'm on 3G when I'm using my phone.  Month after month it has been getting so much more reliable and just fine for web browsing and email that I don't even notice that I've forgotten to turn WiFi on when I get home, etc.

Just not two weeks ago I got an envelope in the mail touting their home service plans and it was filled with their latest promo for home service.  But since I own a Clear device maybe that's why... it looks like if you have the device you can still get service... for now anyways.

I did briefly pick up 800 in the basement of the school I work at today.  It switched back to 1900 quickly (which is surprising considering 1900 barely comes in down there).  I work near Tremont/3rd in the Bronx, so somewhere mid to west Bronx there is a tower broadcasting it.  We've got a giant hill on the other side of the street so it's safe to say the signal is not coming from that direction.

Legacy towers are starting to speed up. There is a tower near my home that used to get sub-10kbps speeds and pings over 4,000ms. Because the towers around it got updated to LTE, the ping is below 100ms and the speeds are from 200 to 600kbps. Suprisingly usable for internet.

I know what you mean.  I live across the street from a legacy tower that doesn't appear to be upgraded, and suddenly I'm getting pings under 100ms and download speeds between 600k and 1.2Mb.  Quite a happy change.

Try a 114 year old Brownstone! The only reason I don't compain about my connection is because the windows are huge. By my window I get full bars. In the middle of my house I get 1 bar.

True, good points all around.  I guess I luck out more living within a block of a tower.  I'm in a 109 year old building but get a good signal throughout it.  Where I work, that's a different story.  On the first floor and basement, no service, and I can't wait for 800, nor can my coworkers.

Ever since that 800 Bronx post, nobody else confirmed that.

If they were testing it might have been very brief.  I think one of the issues in NYC is that we have very tight cell spacing so getting a weak 1900 signal is pretty rare unless you're in a basement or deep in a building.  I was at Randall's Island on Saturday at a softball game and had line of sight to the tower originally posted as 800, but couldn't connect, but also had -60ish of a signal strength on 1900.

That being said, my friend and I decided to ride the Staten Island Ferry last night to enjoy the weather.  She didn't know it, but it was also to see if I could get an 800 signal, since in the middle of the harbor signals are all over the place.  My signal bounced between Bayonne, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and lower Manhattan.  Sadly, no matter how much I cycled, no 800.

When I see devices stuck in "Entering CDMA State", it's usually something broken with the modem in the device itself. It probably needs a complete reflash, and if that doesn't fix it, possibly a replacement. So, one, do you have any other Sprint devices you can check "side by side" to see if it possibly is just your device not working with BC10? And, either way, is there a nearby Sprint Repair Center you can take it to?

Yeah this what happened to me. 4G and eHRDP 3G stopped working. I had to go into CDMA only mode to force CDMA Rev. A. Tried a bunch of things to fix it after two weeks went by. Finally called and got a free replacement and 4G is back on my phone. Ended up being a phone issue.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

Been showing since July 22.

 

That's how I came up with my list: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4302-sprint-to-launch-lte-in-new-york-philadelphia-portland-and-other-cities-on-july-30/

Ah my bad... sometimes there's so much to filter through on here.

Well it's not July 30th yet, but Sprint has coverage maps finally updated to show that NYC has LTE.

_{This morning on my way to work, I saw an LTE signal on whitehall street in lower manhattan. Didn't get any data off of it but I guess it won't be long till all of lower manhattan gets LTE coverage!}

If it was the Whitehall area with barely any strength, you sadly might have been picking up an LTE signal from Brooklyn.

I think they are concentrating on NYC just as much but it is not as noticeable because they are activating 4G on a lot of the sites and activating 3G towers at the sane time. NYC is covered decently so when we get a 4G upgrade it is not as noticable.

I agree with that, as I'm finding that in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx I find that I'm mostly in 4G territory.  And since we don't have a signal strength indicator I'm never really noticing a recently upgraded site because what I use my phone for when not on Wifi is rarely that bandwidth intensive.  That being said, I'm finding that if I'm stuck on 3G, it's actually noticeably better and very usable. No longer a death sentence, lol.

Great LTE speeds in Ozone Park:

 

But this is tethered. On the phone I get 13-14/3-6. Is there something hardware or software that's limiting getting these types of speeds on the phone. I'm fine with the phone speeds but I'm just curious cause it's pretty consistent in the difference.

I've discovered the same thing and realized what the issue was.  The SpeedTest app itself is the issue.

There's actually a setting that will give you a truer picture of your speeds.  By default, SpeedTest isn't giving you the truest speed results.  If you click on the "Tools" button at the bottom of the SpeedTest app, you will see a slider for Better Graphics or Better Performance.  Move it over to "Better Performance".  Now when you run the app, you'll notice considerably higher speeds, but the needle won't change instantly, but rather in stages.

I have an Evo 4G LTE, so results may vary if you have a different device.

SignalCheck will display 1X800 instead of 1XRTT if you are connected to an 800 MHz signal.  So, if you see 1XRTT assume you're connected to 1900. 

I believe also the band number is an indicator you can see on the engineering screens but I don't know which bands correspond to 800 off the top of my head.  I could be wrong though.

Stick with SignalCheck Pro, and I believe it has a feature that it will notify you if you connect to 800.

Well I'm glad to hear it's not only me and that it appears to be a larger issue.  I'm wondering if there's some deeper issue they're working on that has prevented their official launch of LTE here... because let's face it, we have a lot of coverage for a non-launched place.

Has LTE gone dead for anyone in NYC?  I'm guessing my situation is unique, but I can't get an LTE signal at all anymore.  I live in Spanish Harlem and work in the Bronx and rarely do NOT have an LTE signal.

However, last Thursday, if my phone is in LTE/CDMA mode the data drops.  And nothing happens.  SignalCheck shows that I have an EVDO connection, but the 3G icon won't appear, and there's nothing for LTE.  PRL update does nothing.

So, I have to keep my phone in CDMA only mode.  Which is fine because the 3G is usable off of the NV towers, but it's frustrating. And a call to Sprint is pointless because they haven't officially launched LTE yet in NYC, I get some BS answer.

I'm guessing I may need to do a factory reset as something screwed up recently, maybe an app, but I wanted to check here first to see if I'm alone.

As for total disclosure of truth in advertising, Sprint devices would have to display separate CDMA1X, EV-DO, and LTE icons, not to mention, separate signal strength indicators.

Though I do have to say, I miss the 4G icon they used for WiMax with the signal strength indicator slightly reminiscent of the WiFi signal indicator.  It was helpful to know how strong of a 4G signal I really did have on my OG Evo.

Next upgrade you will loose it. Ever 2 years now sprint wants people to reverify and upgrading triggers it.

 

Sent from my LG-LS970 using Tapatalk 2

I've actually been wondering about this. I receive a 25% discount for being a NYC Department of Education employee, and I always see in My Sprint that I may be asked to verify my credentials. But I've had the discount for 7 years now, and have renewed my contract probably 5 or so times, and they've never asked. Are people's experiences here mixed? It sounds like from JonnygATL is in the same boat as me (though I still work for the DOE so I'm still eligible) but the OP got booted.

I would not want to be on the same sector with too many users like that. Heavy data use while truly mobile is one thing because it spreads the use across numerous sectors, thereby tends to average the loading. But heavy data use while always in a static location is another animal altogether. It causes an effectively permanent reduction in capacity for other users in that sector.

 

AJ

How does Clear handle this with their home WiMax? Or is it a different beast being WiMax vs. LTE?

People like you that do this is what screws the honest people like the rest of us. Just saying.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Since Sprint was the one that suggested it to me when I called them, I don't see it as a problem. Just saying. And honestly I decided to keep it, so in the end I don't know if it's a net benefit or not.

Honestly many don't think it's worth it, but I had a phone that was broken in the past and happened to call Sprint during one of these windows. Signed up, replaced my OG Evo, and canceled. It was way cheaper than buying a new or used device. So while it may not be worth it to many, those with phones limping along just got a breath of fresh air.