Sgt. Slaughter

I really wish Sprint would release information on expansion here in Chicago because of poor data speed and no relief in sight I'm about to jump ship to Verizon with its double data promotion. I would pay 5 bucks more but at least I could use my data. Sprint has until the end of the Verizon promo to get some info out there or I will gladly pay the 50 ETF and jump ship.

Who needs sprint when the info is right here bud? lol

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-43-samsung-network-visionlte-deployment-schedule-details-for-sprints-chicago-market/

And apple is trying to get a patent on face unlock, which is only available on Android 4.0 right now. I guess if they get that patent, we know that apple has someone in their pocket.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

yeah they the stuff i added to my post shows they actually applied for the slide unlock a year before the iphone even came out. BUT also mentioned in that article a particular Dutch court ruled it invalid b/c this other phone had the feature out before that patent was even filed...

fact that they were awarded that freaking slide unlock patent not even a year ago is a crime in itself...

Also knowing that a Dutch court has already ruled that particular patent invalid has to be promising at the least bit for that portion..

http://9to5mac.com/2...nlock-patented/

also in this article i found it funny someone took the time to list a TON of other very similar patents dealing with gestures on screens. lol

http://www.zdnet.com...-to-unlock/5199

*As for the one against HTC I remember HTC commenting on that one saying that it was a simple fix for them to go around it and it was not a big issue. That patent they have till April 19th to fix anyway I'm pretty sure.

If I could get 24 to 48 hours of heavy usage on a 4G smartphone, I'd be stoked. I wouldn't need more than that.

 

S4GRU is now mobile...posted via Forum Runner

Well when manufacturers start thinking a little more like how Moto did with the Razor Max you'll get closer to it. Can't tell you how much it boggles my mind that they continue to try to make phones so freaking thin but in the process still leave a "bump out" on the back for where the camera is and such. Make the back flush and battery bigger and that solves a good chunk of battery life...

Rumor has it that that Google has begun to test a “next-gen personal communication device.” No hard details are known besides that their application asked the FCC for permission to use bluetooth and wifi signals.

 

Anyone have any wild ideas as to what this could be about?

 

http://www.slashgear...sting-10213044/

Reading that just made me remember all the android@home stuff.....wish that would just come on out already. OR least the current stuff on the market for home automation would come down in price for us normal folks. haha

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.

If I had to take a guess Charlotte,NC and Richmond, VA would be in the first round. Would love for it to be Raleigh but just dont see that happening...

I have no criticisms of Samsung. One of their first markets, Chicago, has over a thousand sites. That is a big chunk to chew on right out the gate. I think that Samsung is getting off to a slightly slower start in completing markets. But I have no complaints. They are going to do just fine. Of all the NV Contractors, I'm most concerned about A/L. They are running into some financial problems and some tight cash flows. I think they will still meet their contract, but I'm watching carefully. A few more really bad quarter like the last one could be an issue.

Yeaaaaaaaaa for the one doing my state. lol

.... Other than Clearwire, no American wireless co has enough spectrum to try to aggregate really large carriers. So LTE Advanced is going to be a big disappointment for consumers who are expecting their wireless carrier all of a sudden to be faster than their cable modem. That will not happen for a long time, and only if more spectrum gets allocated for wireless broadband. Other than maybe Clearwire.

.......

 

So LTE Advanced will allow better performance, but not in the way many people are thinking. In the short term, LTE Advanced is more about maximizing small chunks of spectrum holdings into something more useful. However, LTE Advanced could really mean something big for Clearwire. As they have the big chunks of spectrum available to start aggregating big carriers into a monster of a LTE network. ....

This is why Clear is still very important to Sprint imho. without them Sprint Spectrum holdings is hurting in the long run big time no? Dont they own something like 90-150MHZ of the spectrum in most markets? think thats what I read last, though that was long ago too...That spectrum there trumps the big dogs, and when tech advances and we can have the phones use the same power the external clear modems do signal issues will go away for most part. Just need tech to advance to be able to do that.

It's highly variable. Most do not run on EBS/BRS like Clearwire. There are many colleges who have WiMax that run on EBS frequencies though.

 

2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz. Most of the utility companies that run WiMax do so in the 3GHz range, where it's easier and cheaper to get local spectrum. One of the Pueblos around here are using an Expedience system (like the Clearwire Pre-WiMax system). And they run it at 900MHz.

 

They originally were trying to use inexpensive 3GHz frequencies, but it won't penetrate adobe. So they switched to some 900 frequencies that would. But WiMax hasn't been designed for use on lower frequencies and the WiMax Forum wouldn't help them to try because they are such a small customer with only 500 POP's. So they had to switch to Motorola Expedience that would run on 900. But the max speeds Expedience can handle are much slower. Like around 3MB max.

very interesting there. I always thought it was weird that WiMax was only provisioned to work on those 3 freq while LTE is to work on a ton of wide range freq.

Didn't make much sense to me less they can figure out a way to boost the signal penetration on those freq or least alleviate that problem whether it be from the handset side(stronger power modem in phone) or the tower side somehow. Otherwise trying to "standardize" the use of WiMax makes no sense if that means current tech(phones/towers) can't supply signal to enough users...

Here is how bad its implemented right now. I'm 0.5mi from the tower and I get 0 bars for WiMax on my phones outside my home. I'm between 2 towers evidently and the one i'm closest to has its antennae pointed away from me more less so I get the short side of the signal from that tower...(made no sense to me at first b/c I always thought they provided a perfect circle of signal around the tower and wasn't directional in the slightest bit. Guess at least in my case thats not the case as I have had probably over 30 calls escalated and super high advance tech and CS to try to get this fixed including them sending out field surveyors to re-do the coverage map since it showed me able to get full in house signal at my home...That obviously never happened since they are not putting $ in WiMax anymore....Just lucky I get WiFi 90% of where I am. lol

Id be willing to bet you wont see 800MHz LTE surported devices till closer to the official shut off date for iDEN.

I did see the HTC phone with dual LTE band support the other day though....http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/08/vodafone-htc-velocity-lte-germany/

When you talk about 800MHz supported LTE devices you also have to think about the ones that will handle Clear's spectrum too for when they make the switch over....thats 3 bands there but dont think they ALL will be used till after 2015 when Sprint isn't supporting WiMax "officially" anymore.

Yeah saw this a few min ago on engadget and just had to laugh at it. I mean really they already control over 70% of the spectrum below 1GHz, wtf else do they need/want to do? lol

yeah but its not major enough to classify it as a feature to warrant the "need" for it to satisfy customers...Esp when you consider everything moving toward communicating through your home network.

Like the site, Just wish when you are looking at the MAIN & Sub Forums where it shows the time the most recent thread that was replied to in each section, BUT only shows it as the Day ie. today it showed "Feb 7." on them. I wish on this page it also showed the actual Time of day that post was made too...

its going to be outdated. everything is going to being networked in the home and in the end you'll be able to control everything in the home through your home network.

I was surprised by all the additional band-aid capex they are spending just months in advance of Network Vision. Especially in markets where NV is already under way. But I guess they figure they have to do something about the network, especially with all these new iPhone users staring at them, asking "WTH???"

 

I was definitely shocked about the though of forced WiMax offload. If I hadn't seen the Sprint documentation with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.

I am eager to see how it will actually work; and if its how I assume it will, then I can not wait for the absolute uproar from users when they complain about it killing their battery life b/c it keeps cycling the radio on/off....I would hope there is a better way than doing it like that though...odd they do this with WiMax now with it only being around for 3 more years and no more devices made with it either...eagerly awaiting to see the full blown SmithMicro MobileNetwork Manager deployed on devices to see how it really ticks. Last Evo3D update had a smith.apk but looks just like a general logger and not it.

When I say additional T1 lines, I'm using the term very loosely. I'm using the term to mean all subscriber based all-copper backhaul solutions. Sprint mostly uses bundled T1 lines for its backhaul to date at cell sites. But they use several different backhaul solutions.

 

This was a good and very scalable solution for sites for years. But when everyone else started switching to enhanced backhaul methods a few years ago, Sprint stayed with bundled T1's just adding a few more lines each time additional backhaul capacity is needed. The enhancements shown on the network.sprint.com website where it denotes "Speed Upgrades" usually means additional subscriber line based backhaul was added to the tower to get additional backhaul capacity. This has resulted in highly variable results from tower to tower.

 

Fortunately, these are all going by the wayside as they move to fiber and microwave-bridge-to-fiber backhaul solutions.

Okay that's what i figured. Though personally I'm surprised that they would waste time this year adding any lines to towers if they are just going to do away with them when the tower gets upgraded in the NV rollout and switched to fiber...or am I missing something there as in the existing runs would still be used somehow?

I still can't get over the whole Wimax offload mentioned earlier. Seems like it will cause more problems to users than they want, less the actual offloading is done at the tower somehow and the users Wimax radio isn't involved, but that seems like a stretch at best to me. No?

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

Nice article write up there with solid information!

I did notice you said they were currently adding T1 to some towers in certain areas to help aid issues in the mean time. Is this really correct? The line item the tech I have been in talks with showed "T1 EVDO..." for my tower and I was just under the assumption that the "T1" was really an old place holder they have kept around. Adding T1 lines to towers seems a bit "old school" and I would think a regular T1 line would add little if any help to a tower by itself as a T1 line is 24 individual channels, each of which supports 64kbps if i remember correctly. I would think that at an absolute minimum they would be adding T3/DS3 lines to towers if not OC3 lines really....no???

Also the WiMax offload you mentioned in that article is very interesting information and finally makes some sense as to wtf Sprint was planning to do with the SmithMicro agreement announced earlier. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-selects-mobile-network-director-124500905.html

Now how they actually implement this is going to be very interesting to me personally. Usually IF someone can even connect to WiMax/4G then they will. It seems forcing the connection would do a great amount of harm to the battery in that the only way would be to keep cycling the wimax radio on/off to see if it can get signal and connect....

Yeah they didn't give any real #'s for improvements expected but heres a link to one of the vid's they talk some about it along with some other stuff they are working on, on the side like facial recognition...

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/12/live-from-the-engadget-ces-stage-an-interview-with-qualcomm/

and another post about it.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/13/qualcomm-snapdragon-s4-msm8960-development-tablet-hands-on-vide/

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 11 January 2012

 

 

Sprint is doing some band-aid enhancements ahead of Network Vision. This is likely what you're experiencing. Network Vision should bring 1.4MB to 2.5MB 3G download speeds.

I was under the impression that NetworkVision isn't directly going to help speeds in Sprints current "troubled" areas. the whole NetworkVision thing is mainly about Sprint being able to cover more area with less towers since they will be able to switch between all freq seamlessly.

It will help speeds in areas where if you currently get 2 bars of signal, and then after the upgrade you are getting stronger better signal, but areas that are troubled and over capacity greatly I understand it wont help them as much.

Example my tower I'm within .5mi to my home and it is extremely over capacity which in turn has absolutely destroyed my 3G speeds here. Full signal and I along with everyone else pull speeds way below Sprints posted Average's(600kbps). 6am I can pull about 500kbps, and then by 11am speeds drop already off to 300kbps average for me and never get better.

So for people like me in my situation, which is a ton of people, speeds wont improve until they add the backhaul to the tower to handle the capacity. In my case thats set to be done by 3/30 according to the last chat I had where the Advance Tech rep screenshot me the orders for that tower exactly.

You should wait and see the results of Qualcomm's new S4 based chips when they start being put in devices later this year. They have been able to embed the LTE modem directly on the die of the chip which according to them will help greatly with both battery life and also performance.

Currently no one else is offering this nor from what i've read has even planned to do this.

MWC coming up at the end of this month and then CTIA a little later after should have some devices with these chips in them and be able to give some better specs on battery life and such.

Signal is everything though too, esp with phones these days. lower signal typically results in lower speeds, which will also in turn make your device work longer to get the same amount of data/information.