jamesinclair

Good news sprint has submitted a permit to fresno on Friday and will be submitting a few more this week

Where do you see this? I read the weekly planning commission agendas and didnt notice any sprint application.

The factory reset has appeared to stop the freezing, but I did pull the phone out of my pocket to find it off. Turned it on and battery was at 65%, so there was no reason for that.

I had the buzzing with the camera, multiple reboots after a fresh power up, random multiple reboots WITHOUT powering up, freezes and general wonky behavior. I did a factory reset and it cleared all that up. Hopefully, it'll do the same for you.

I also had resets to go along with the constant freezing.

So the update completely screwed up my phone. Hard freezes every two days (requiring a battery pull).

Finally backed everything up and did a factory reset. Lets see if it works this time.

People are not forced to change phones. They can keep their USCC phones until the USCC network is turned off. I believe that is for the remainder of the time anyone would have on contract. At the end of their contract, they can either get a Sprint device or go with another carrier.

 

This is much better than what AT&T did when they took over Alltel customers in our area. They had 45 days to get an AT&T device, or they would no longer have 3G service. And true to form, on the 46th day, Alltel customers dropped to 1x only. All they wanted was to keep their service to the end of their contract.

 

You are better off staying on the the USCC network anyway until Network Vision is largely complete in your area. Then you can upgrade to a Sprint device.

 

Robert

On the other hand, Verizon gave Alltel customers, what, 2+ years to switch? That including keeping ancient plans and rates in play.

Would the USCC phones work on Verizon? I was always confused when a verizon customer called in with a sprint phone. Our system wouldnt allow us to active it, but someone they managed, and once they were in the system they were in. Is it the same with Sprint? Can some knowledgeable tier 2 tech guy get these phones in unofficially?

The latest Jelly Bean update pretty much fixes ALL of the issues that Ice Cream Sandwich brought to the GS2. Gingerbread was awesome. ICS was horrible. JB brings it back where it should be. And the fact it's not OTA just means the likelihood of a corrupted flash is nearly non-existent so all the random bullshit issues associated with bad flashes or updated system files won't be distributed as issues with the update itself.

 

Fun fact working as a retail store tech, 80% of issues we see are either user issues, or issues arising from a bad update or application and a hard reset fixes them. Yes, all hardware issues fall within that remaining 20% of devices we see. I work at a top 100 store, so we aren't slow either.

Sadly for me, JB screwed up my phone worse than ICS did. I need to do a factory reset, which is not something Im looking forward to

Get this. So I had an airave in the past that didn't cover half of my house.

You can ask sprint to increase the coverage (there are three power levels)

Worked for me.

I still think the old wimax system, where you had a voice bar AND an additional 4G bar was the best thing ever,

So the GS4 is or isnt compatible?

Working at a major retailer where we sell all national carriers and most prepaid ones too we make sure to let those purchasing Sprint or Boost Mobile GS2's know that they are WiMax. We also explain the difference between LTE and Wimax.

 

We also see where most purchases are driven by the cost of the units. Most those getting the S2 just want a phone and can care less if is WiMax or LTE; they just want a cheap/free phone. Trend over the past 2 months has been parents getting S2's for their children.

 

Did you let Amazon know they were giving incorrect info? Do you file complaints with the state commerce board etc regarding affiliates selling just for selling? As stated before; Sprint can not be blamed for what 3rd parties do.

 

Foolish to continue selling WiMax devices as it extends the confusion? So does that mean retailers should also stop selling non HE washers? or Energy Star devices? or incandescent light bulbs? These are all driven by the market; often price.

 

As cell phones are mass produced devices and millions of each model are sold all over the world you are bound to have a few bad apples. To quote one of my favorite movie lines “American components, Russian components... All Made In Taiwan"

 

PS... Can we ever get a happy story? Just asking

 

@l3x

The difference between the GS2 and an old model washer is that Sprint has many phones it can sell for "free" that are comparable to the GS2 but without the problems.

Incidentally, incandescent bulbs are being phased out over the next 7 years.

Also, I understand moisture can make its way into phones through daily activities. I dont know if this is true at Sprint, but at Verizon the extended warranty was not available in Florida due to the humidity.

I think its poor form of companies to design phones that cant last two years because of atmospheric humidity. Id hope that the next big revolution in cell phones is being water resistant.

I am not sure this is a big deal until Sprint actually starts selling SIM Only plans of some sort.

Its an enormous deal for those of us who spend time in europe, asia and south america.

Hm. I honestly have not noticed a higher rate of failure with the GS2's battery than other devices. The Samsung Replenish seems to be the one that suffers from battery issues. Other than that, swollen batteries are a common-ish problem with Lithium Ion type. I believe it's caused by overcharging, but again, haven't found any real trends other than age.

 

I have seen that twice. Both times, the phone was so overloaded with "free" games and apps that the phone was running around half speed. Hard resets fixed the device in both cases. Android includes very little in protections against things that run in the background, or things that request

 

I'm sorry you're having odd issues with your phone. Are you certain there's no water damage? It's rare for me to open someone's phone, find corrosion, and have them say "Oh, right, there was that one time..." Usually, it's "But it's never been in water! Sure, I took it in the shower with me that one time..."

 

I'd rather not check that. Yes, it is a problem phone, but so is the EVO, the EVO Shift, the EVO 3D, the EVO LTE - and even the GS3 is starting to show some weird issues. I could list off more. I currently work at one of (if not the number one) busiest Sprint Repair Center in West Michigan, and the issues I see that people bring in are what I base things off of.

At least in my case, I use a minimal amount of apps, and delete them when theyre not in use. I dont think theres water damage. I never take it in the bathroom during showers, and have never dropped it anywhere wet. I generally take good care of phones - Ive never broken one. My problems simply seem to match the problems that get posted over and over again in that forum - and even here.

The JB update seems to have fixed the sprint id issue, which was a daily event.

Err, defective? What problems? The biggest issue we see is people dropping them and smashing the screens. The second biggest is the "voltage too high; charging paused" issue - which is, 95%+ liquid damage/corrosion in and around the charging port. That's not Samsung's fault. Actually, a whole host of weird issues are due to some kind of liquid intrusion. And yes, I have had people blame Sprint and Samsung when their phone that has corrosion on the board stops working...

 

Oh, there's also the phantom menu keypress issue, which 75% of the time is solved with a screen replacement (defective capacitive keys), the other 25% requires a motherboard or full device exchange. There's also the power button/resetting issue which requires either the button to be replaced (solder job) or a motherboard/device exchange.

 

That being said, I could list off just as many or more issues for just about every single other smartphone on the market. We see more GS2 issues because more people have GS2's (it was a very popular phone; still is), and have had them for long enough that problems begin to crop up. Usually you don't see the real problems until a device has been out for around a year. If Sprint refused to sell phones that had issues, there would be no phones for sale.

The main issues with the GS2 are battery eating (making the batteries bulge), and general freezing (especially the Sprint ID stopped working bug). There was also an issue where the phone had trouble connecting to networks after an update (that was then fixed). Sadly, I experienced all three issues. And no, my phone has no water damage and no exterior damage (yes, Im normal, its fallen on the carpet a couple of times).

As I said, look at the sprint forum complaint board. Most of the posts are the same thing over and over and over again. Theyre the same widespread issues, issues that fortunately dont seem to affect any other samsung phone sprint sells.

After waiting a few weeks to make sure widespread fail wasnt reported, I took the plunge and updated today. Ill report if I have any issues. The upgrade went smoothly, all my apps, text messages and pictures remain. Only issue was simply having to set up my home screens again, and the phone is bugging me with useless tips. Aside from that, so far so good.

Well, in Sprint's defense, it has occasionally in the past sold dual mode GSM/CDMA devices but naturally, there wasn't a large selection for Sprint as a carrier to choose from due to technical challenges in the past regarding dual mode equipment. So even if they wanted to be forward looking in this respect, they were still somewhat limited in what they could offer.

 

That said, it should be noted that with the exception of the iPhone, Sprint has always left the GSM side of the phone unlocked from the get-go for use outside North America on devices which supported removable SIMs. This is unlike AT&T for example who have historically been rather difficult to work with respect to unlocking devices.

 

However, it looks like from now on things may be changing some and you may need to contact Sprint in order to obtain an unlock code even for devices other than iPhones.

Yes for the Photon one of my family members Sprint wouldnt unlock it until a certain time.

I do think it was a bad decission to not do what Verizon did with LTE and add sim cards from the get-go, especially with the GS3.

Got to get rid of their stock one way or another as it's incompatible with any other network so they just can't sell it to another telecom.

Budget device like that iphone 4/4s i suppose.

They can pass it along to virgin mobile and friends. ....and perhaps they shouldnt have ordered so much stock!

Is your "biggest issue" conceived under the assumption that customers are too inept on smartphone technology to understand or expect there to be a difference between a free device thats advertised as the "Galaxy S II" (not Epic 4G touch) and a device that costs $100-$249 and says "4G LTE? When you view this phone on sprint's site, it includes "4G WIMAX" under its "key features" and further down, tells you "4G WIMAX is not available in your area". Perhaps retailers aren't advertising or informing customers of this as well as the website, but c'mon.... its a free device and the disclosure is adequate.

A few weeks ago amazon was advertising the galaxy 2 as "4G LTE" now it just says "4G" no mention of wimax. And we all know, affiliate stores will do anything to sell a phone, including misleading the customers on what 4G is.

And yes, most customers do NOT know there are two different and incompatible 4G networks. I think its foolish to continue to extend the confusion by adding new wimax customers.

Further, the G2 is a defective phone. Go to the sprint forums under the samsung page. 95% of the problems are GS2 related, even though that forum is for ALL samsung phones. The problems havent been fixed, so signing customers up to a knowingly defective phone is a very bad policy idea. Once you lose a customer, good job getting them back.

From as best as I can tell, yes, it will have a removable SIM.

 

Two things however: 1. As per usual Sprint MO, it probably won't accept SIMs of other US carriers besides Sprint and 2. If the HTC One is any indication then it will come SIM locked (though how much hassle, if any, will Sprint give you for providing an unlock code is unknown at this time. Most likely they will withhold providing an unlock code to brand new subscribers for a certain amount of time).

That policy isnt terrible. I used AT&T for 8 years because I traveled a lot and wanted one phone I could use in europe and south america. Im glad sprint is finally waking up the idea that the world isnt just america.

Is there a removable sim for us?

Also, 249...thats a major fail. $50 more than every other carrier for no reason? What a slap in the face. It wont personally affect me because by the time I upgrade in september and get it off amazon it will be significantly cheaper....but it makes no sense. It will look especially bad at retailers like best buy and target where the phones are side by side with other carriers.

How many markets are at 0?

The biggest issue is that sprint is still selling (and advertising!) the GS2.

But I do agree OP, im upgrading to the S4 this year and am very disappointed it wont have 800 LTE.

I mean exploring their maps to see if there is new lte near me I don't kniw about. The site is getting bogged down and slow.

Yeah, its been slow recently, but it was also really slow last summer I remember...

Theres no ads right? The free money train doesnt run forever....

Also, my wimax mapping from 3 weeks ago finally (!) showed up.

But when it comes down to the best carrier with rural coverage then they will have most subscribers

Thats true, but the more rural, the less people per cell tower.

In farm land, theres, what 50 people in range of one tower? Their subscription fees wont cover it. Then again, Verizon is launching in Alaska this year...

Another thing is that the carriers insist on uniform pricing.

If you think about it, it makes no sense that someone in NYC pays the same as someone in North Dakota. On a # of suers per tower basis, thats not logical.

Yes, backhaul and power. I think lease payments are on top of this number, though. Which would double the annual amount.

 

Robert

That is significantly higher than I would have expected, wow.

Also, operationally, will cost between $20k to $50k.

Thats per year...?