Thomas L.

I think a lot of what I'm seeing is also band 41 starting to get saturated. In the spots where I used to get 40+ down 8 months ago, I now get 8-15 down. Sprint desperately needs to out that big swath spectrum to use to keep speeds competitive. I know it's an epeen contest but honestly it hurt that in rootmetrics last report Sprint was the only carrier not to average 20+mpbs in any metro in the country.

Is that why? It's so annoying to get band 41 and to get just 6-7mpbs down. I mean I expect that on band 25 but on band 41...

My Sensorly still won't map nor will it upload any of the speed tests I run. It's incredibly frustrating. It looks like everything is working as it should, but it never shows up. I wonder if the developer has given up on the product?

If she is going to be in Canada for several weeks, she might want to just pick up a local SIM, depending on where she will be.

I would have been sad a few years ago when they actually carried a lot of electronics, capacitors, relays, connectors, etc. - but over the past couple of years they have steadily gotten rid of those sorts of things and replaced them with overpriced accessories and things that aren't really hard to find elsewhere. It would be nice if they made it, but at this point I don't know who they cater to. Tommy

I just have to say I'm thrilled because just after the new year the tower that covers most of UCLA's north campus was activated with Band 25 LTE - 3 or 4 days later, the tower that sits on top of my residence hall was upgraded to LTE. HUZZAH I IS SO HAPPY MY SPRINT SERVICE IS USABLE AGAIN IN THE VAST MAJORITY OF WHERE I SPEND MY TIME. Yay. So Happy.

CDMA carriers in the US have not come into the world of unlocked phones and inter-compatibility of their own free will. Verizon only started unlocking their phones because they were required to as part of the conditions of their purchase of 700mhz spectrum, and even then they don't ACCEPT non-Verizon phones onto their network, even if they're compatible. Sprint is only going to do it because they got some fresh perspective from an international carrier, AKA SoftBank, and they probably won't allow people ON their network using unlocked devices, for some unknown reason. I guess it's hard to give up control.

I know that this is currently suspended, but what reason would there be for them not to allow unlocked iPhones from other providers?

Are we ever going to get wifi calling on the G2? Has anyone heard anything about that?

How much spectrum do 3G and voice really take up now? I'd think fewer carriers of voice and 3G would be needed as voice traffic has taken such a nose dive and 3G only devices are a rarity. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more people using uniband 4G devices now than are using 3G only (other than feature phones). Additional PCS carriers could be a good to help things until 2.5 is decently deployed, Tommy

Hi everyone, I feel like this has been discussed before and my previous understanding was that Sprint plans to refarm PCS spectrum that is currently 1x/EVDO to LTE as more and more people switch to LTE capable devices. However, now I am not clear on whether or not that is still the plan. Is the plan now to just use B41 for capacity and only use the G block of PCS spectrum for PCS LTE? Or will additional PCS LTE carriers eventually be added? Thanks! Tommy

Sorry to post so late here, but what are the little spots of green in the California central valley, what provider would they be from?

How far outside of the city does this extend? How are the Peninsula, South Bay, and East Bay?

I don't know any dates, but, I assume that, once the network itself is in place, it should be fairly easy to implement. It's just an update to whatever the LTE version of a PRL is, correct? Maybe digiblur can give some insight.

More than anything else I'm curious as to when and where we will start seeing T-Mobile deploy on their 700mhz spectrum. I love S4GRU because I know when/where Sprint is deploying certain bands/technologies. Right now T-Mobile apparently has 1900mhz LTE and 700mhz LTE in some places but no one knows where because there is no site like this one for T-Mobile!

It all depends on where you are. I'm on the west side so Santa Monica, Westwood, Culver City, etc., and 4G is still hard to find and keep, especially on the bus or in restaurants/stores.

Hi everyone, I wanted to start this thread just because, as China is the largest TD-LTE market in the world, it might be interesting to see what happens with LTE there. I’d be very interested to here people’s insights into Chinese mobile market, what experiences they’ve had, what they’ve heard, etc. So, here’s an overview of the Chinese mobile market: the mobile telephony market is state controlled, with three providers, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. China Mobile and China Unicom both have GSM/EDGE based 2G networks, while China Telecom uses CDMA/1x technology. Facing a boom in mobile phone use and a telecommunications system that was not designed for the 21st century, in 2008 the Chinese government revamped the telecommunications industry combing the six Chinese landline carriers into three carriers. Before being revamped, two of those carriers offered mobile services: China Mobile offered GSM service and China Unicom had a GSM/CDMA network. After the reorganization, the Chinese government took the CDMA network and gave it to China Telecom. Three networks for three state-owned telecommunications companies. The Chinese government then made an interesting decision: have each of the three major carriers use a different 3G technology. China Mobile, by far the largest provider in China and also the largest mobile provider in the world, was the first to be given a 3G license (in hopes of giving TD-SCDMA and advantage), and was ordered to build a network using TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), a mobile data standard that is proprietary to China, and that, despite China's best hopes, was never adopted by any other mobile provider in the world other than China Mobile. As I understand it, TD-SCDMA is a varient of the UMTS standard using TDMA (with some components of CDMA) instead WCDMA as the air interface. The standard was invented in hopes of skirting royalty payments to any foreign companies), and in my experience is generally mediocre in performance. It was designed to compete with the original UMTS/WCDMA releases and CDMA EV-DO and as such, although rated at 2.8Mbps down, its performance is on par with saturated EV-DO Rev. A. China Unicom was granted a 3G license to operate a WCDMA network in the world standard 2100mhz band, giving it a huge leg up as it was using a global standard. It’s been upgraded continuously and is now an HSPA+ network, the most popular 3G network in China. Its popularity was greatly aided by the fact that imported iPhone’s would work on China Unicom 3G. China Telecom was granted a license for EV-DO Rev. A. It’s not terribly popular in China. The network is CSIM based – which means their CDMA devices use a UICC card which is identical to the SIM card we know and love from GSM devices. This allows multiple numbers/providers per phone, a feature used by many Chinese (you’ll notice most Chinese variants of flagship phones are dual-sim or have a dual-sim version) Fast forward to today, China has once again tried to form its own standard, but this time with more success in having it adopted around the world. That is our much beloved TD-LTE. This time, however, China is going all in with the technology. To date, Chinese regulators have issues 4G licenses to use TD-LTE to all three Chinese carriers, and all three have launched TD-LTE networks to one degree or another. The Chinese government has agreed to also issue FDD-LTE (“regular” LTE) licenses to China Unicom (continuing their path as the Chinese operator using international standards). Once those are issues, China Unicom will add on FD-LTE to their TD-LTE network, using Band 7 (2600mhz FDD scheme), and will operate a dual-technology network. China is one of the only other countries out there in the world that actually uses one of the same LTE frequencies as Sprint, and China Mobile specifically has plans to build upwards of 200,000 TD-LTE base stations in 100 cities by the end of this year. Band 41, the same as Sprint uses for its TD-LTE which was acquired during the Clear acquisition, is the primary band being used in China and, as far as I know, is the only band on which TD-LTE has been deployed in China so far. A large swath of band 40 (2300mhz TDD spectrum) has also been allocated for “indoor-only use” – but as far as I know it hasn’t been deployed and I am not totally sure what it is even for. China with likely open up other bands to LTE over time, but for now it’s all band 41. I spent the summer in China with my Sprint LG G2 which was unlocked for international use. I also had a hack which allowed me to use the Phone Info app (which allows you to select LTE/EvDo/CDMA, WCDMA/GSM, LTE/WCDMA/GSM, etc). That being said, even though I was able to get HSPA+ using my China Unicom SIM card, I was never able to connect to LTE, I also tried an LTE enabled China Mobile 4G SIM card, and wasn’t able to connect then either. Since the technology is compatible, my assumption is Sprint has disabled it on the radio level, only unlocking 2G and 3G for international roaming. In addition, I got my hands on a China Telecom CSIM, and it worked in the phone for making a receiving calls with no changes in settings, although I wasn’t able to get data to connect. Below I’ll post some images from Sina.cn that show speed tests for TD-SCDMA from China Mobile, China Unicom’s HSPA+, China Telecom’s EV-DO Rev. A, and China Mobile’s TD-LTE! According to the article, these were all done in Guangzhou. This is from February, so LTE might be more saturated at this point, but the other results should hold true. (Source: http://tech.sina.com.cn/mobile/n/2014-02-11/08039151668.shtml) Hope people found this interesting!! Tommy TD-LTE, China Mobile TD-SCDMA - China Mobile China Telecom EV-DO Rev. A China Unicom HSPA+ (I should say, I generally got better speeds than this in Beijing)

That map is wildly inaccurate.

Admittedly I never trust coverage maps much, but this has to be the most insanely over-optimistic coverage map I've ever seen, at least for coverage in west LA. It borders on false advertising (if it weren't for that wonderful disclaimer) - If people get Sprint expecting the coverage shown on the map they will be disappointed. I mean it shows best Turbo Spark coverage in tons of areas that have zero LTE right now. This map looks to me like it's what service will look like when all towers are broadcasting LTE 800, LTE 1900, and LTE 2600 - which is obviously not the current situation. The same in the Bay Area. I'm not trying to anti-Sprint rant, but what do you all think? Compared to what you see in your communities does this match up with what you're seeing?

Any happenings in the LA market? Any news in terms of LTE 800? I'm surprised this forum is so dead.

Sprint roams on Cricket a lot in the central valley (California).

Also, do we know what the hold up with Wi-Fi calling is with this device? The flex even has it now which means it definitely shouldn't be a hardware issue. I am even more anxious to get it with the announcement that it will be free internationally as well.

My GPS has never worked right, not sense I got it. I tried the paper fix and everything possible but nothing worked. I added TEP during open enrollment in June but was in China for the summer so didn't get to use it until now when part of the touch screen went dead. The whole phone works better, and I have almost instant GPS locks even inside. I am soooo happy I'm not stuck with unusable GPS for another year or so. If you can exchange it, do it. It is a definite defect Tommy

My GPS has never worked right, not sense I got it. I tried the paper fix and everything possible but nothing worked. I added TEP during open enrollment in June but was in China for the summer so didn't get to use it until now when part of the touch screen went dead. The whole phone works better, and I have almost instant GPS locks even inside. I am soooo happy I'm not stuck with unusable GPS for another year or so. If you can exchange it, do it. It is a definite defect Tommy

No not stupid at all, it's a pain in the ass. The only reason I am able to do it with the G2 is because of a glitch in the software that was discovered - there is a change you can make in one of the configuration files that unlocks the phone to domestic SIM cards. I actually went with it specifically for that reason. If it's possible, I think the only way to unlock Sprint iPhones for domestic use is by jailbreaking them and using some sort of hack, but I don't really know.