Matthias

I just hope Sprint doesn't skew the upgrades mostly towards LTE for marketing reasons at the expense of achieving really good 3G over their entire footprint. I can't think of anything I care to do on my phone that doesn't work perfectly well with consistent 1 Mbps download speed. Given the paucity of LTE devices in the near term and their battery life issues, I'll take solid 3G over spotty 4G for the time being.

Regarding poor battery life of LTE devices, Qualcomm's new S4 chip has LTE built-in and will begin to usher in the era of power efficient LTE devices

It they put this chip in a Nokia phone running WP7/WP8 with Sprint LTE at a decent price ($200 on contract), I will be in nirvana

Don't let the HTC Zero sour you on Android. Not sure what your thoughts are on it, but I wanted to throw mine against a wall. The E4GT has redacted my previous experience and I am a fan of android once more.

Ohh I know, my Hero was a pretty trusty phone till it took a dip (overclocked 50%, running Android 2.3, 3-4 days of battery life: then the dip happened and all that disappeared). I was very active and involved in the development and hacking community over at XDA, so I know the ins and outs of Android pretty well. I am just tired of having to hack my phone to make it stable and not only working on code, but testing out roms for developers eventually just wore me out (I have tested over 100 roms probably on my HTC Hero). I just want a phone that works and is capable now, which suprisely has lead me to look at Microsoft (still sounds weird in my mouth when I talk about Microsoft being good). Don't get me wrong Android is still a great operating system, I am just burnt out on it and have lost my satisfaction in it. Pretty much when Google stopped releasing source code (Android 3.0 in this instance) and manufacturers heavily delayed updates is when I lost my faith in Google's Vision for Android.

My only worry still about WP7 is the tethering capabilities since the carriers seem to control it (I use tethering once every 2 months or so, so the $30 charge a month is ridiculous for my situation, if I could pay $3 a day I use it, I would be all over that).

Even though I would love to see a larger WP7 lineup at Sprint, I would not like to see that come at the expense of the Android lineup. The one thing I don't want to see is Sprint's lineup of Android to become like Verizon's. Verizon's Android lineup is the epitome of fragmented, when a new flagship phone is released almost every month or two, one to two a year would be great (especially when they make great strides from each iteration). Every 6 month - 1 year, I hope Sprint releases an Android phone that changes the landscape as much as the original HTC Evo did when it came out. Sprint would do better by simplifying their Android lineup (too many subpar android devices) and making sure they brought in high quality great phones (at different price points, the free android phones should be the best free ones on the market). I think Sprint would do better with 2-3 awesome Android phones at each price point (free, $50, $100, $150, $200) and have the phones be different, some with sliders who want them, some with big screens (4.3 in.), some with huge screens (4.7 in. and up), some that are very efficient (bigger battery for longer battery life). etc.

I would like to see 3 to 4 WP7/8 phones at Sprint by the end of the year, covering different price points and being different enough from each other to cover a wide demographic (much more than that is overkill I think at this time with WP7/8). Some guys over in Europe have gotten 4-5 days off of their Nokia Lumia 800 with decent daily usage (email, phone calls, navigation, internet surfing, and a few hours of pandora everyday). The very high battery life and the high efficiency combined with a very stable ecosystem is what is attracting me to WP7 (The Nokia Lumia 900 ain't too bad looking either).

Nokia Lumia 900 or better WP7/WP8 phones (I would like Sprint to have at least 3 in their lineup)

You will know all the details that I can release soon enough.

 

How are you using S4GRU? The like feature works on the mobile site and Forum Runner. But it doesn't work on Tapatalk.

I am directly using the site with a desktop and an HP Touchpad which both utilize full browsers. I can like anyone but your posts S4GRU

I have a source now. I just needs to sift through the data and figure it all out. But I think I'm going to be able to announce the next few Samsung and A/L cities later in the week.

Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to like your post, otherwise I would :-)

I hope Peoria, IL is one of them, or at least get it by the end of the year

The under promise, over deliver policy might allow some LTE sites/cities to go live in April/May from Ericsson and Samsung getting some of their sites deployed in the middle of the year since they are a little behind (al is pure conjecture, I have no actual source to back up this optimistic comment)

S4GRU, you have spoken with me about central Illinois which according to your map is Samsung, also with kankakee Illinois being the first official test site being in northern Illinois, it seems like Samsung must being doing fairly well.

This is one of the few instances, that government control would be good for consumers. The wireless companies would have the same network and would then have to compete with each other directly to bring the customer the most value.

I thought cable tv prices were bad till I started examining cell phone plan prices. Cable companies can't hold a candle to cell phone service companies in charges and monthly costs.

I am not a fan of big government myself, but I would like to see the government build the wireless infrastructure and allow companies to use the network for cell phone services. That way we can have current players exist among with new players that offer similar to European and the rest of the world plans that are non-contract with unsubsidized phones.

Thanks for the reply, besides more WP7 phone options (like the Nokia Lumia 900), this is my other big concern with LTE.

Thank You for this site S4GRU, it is a great resource and is more helpful than Sprint and most media outlets when it comes to Sprint and what they are doing.

Does anyone know if the first LTE devices will support both the 1900mhz spectrum of Sprint and the 800/900mhz spectrum of Sprint? I know Sprint is initially using the 1900mhz spectrum for LTE, just wanting to know if the devices will support the other frequencies also that Sprint will use in the future when deploying the LTE network.