Fraydog

Angry Birds makes my iPhone heat up. Maybe my iPhone gets...angry?

They (HTC and Sprint) better get a software update out quick. For one, it's been speculated on here that the EVO LTE is a big part of why Sprint is still blocking LTE sites. Also, the EVO is the flagship Sprint smartphone brand. The GS3 is a nice device, but like the iPhone, it's a device that is getting out on multiple carriers from Day 1.

That Alpena tower might get similar CDMA coverage to the existing iDEN tower, probably better given 800 CDMA flies further. Sprint is also using RRH's so that will also cause signal to fly further.

Those 28nm process chips are pretty much essential for me to consider buying an LTE device at this point. From the testing I've seen done on Anandtech, it's either those chips, or a big honker of a battery like in the RAZR MAXX, to achieve good battery life on LTE. The new iPad, like the MAXX, also went with a much larger battery to nullify the impact of the MDM9600 which uses the older and less efficient 45nm process. I don't know what nm process the Wrigley used but I presume it was a similar size to the first generation Qualcomm chipset.

 

That would be awesome. I understand they are wanting to cut down on operating expenses and it makes perfect sense in areas where CDMA and iDEN overlap but it just seems like they could utilize some of the Nextel towers they ALREADY HAVE to give Big Red, also known as the Devil, some real competition in the coverage dept. PLUS, if they take them down now it will be significantly harder to add them back later.

Bainbridge is a perfect example of that.

I would hope the few Nextel sites in that scenario would get NV before the 2013 cutoff. I'm going to make a guess it's probably between 50 and 100 sites in that need to be NV'ed for Sprint service to remain in this area.

zzz...Manufacturers continue to rush out half-baked Android phones, what else is new.

 

*Note, I like Android in theory. I'm the first to admit it's prettier and easier to use than iOS. But in practice it's a pile.

All in all, I think manufacturers need to worry less about specs and more about a cohesive experience. They'd do better with root Android and common set of Android hardware. In other words, forget about the marketing hogwash of "differentiation". Make the product great and that will differentiate your product.

This is Sprint's market share for the top 40, courtesy of newyork4me on HoFo.

It explains a LOT of the First and Second Round schedule.

Sprint should just flip the switch for the Viper and Nexus owners, and get the OTA fix finished. The AT&T One X had a similar issue, and AT&T issued a software update to fix it.

I know a friend turned down a buyout to get on an iPhone 4S up there. I told him to hold off until LTE.

From the way I saw it, WiMax was a dead end, he didn't even use it on his Nexus S, and 3G is freaking overloaded in Chicago. Funny his phone worked fine in Carbondale while Verizon 3G failed on SIU graduation weekend.

I just hope the 1 LTE carrier is enough up there, as AT&T is going to probably land 700 Lower B and Verizon will gain another 10x10 in SpectrumCo. Sprint has a lot riding on Chicago.

In looking at the detail map of Chicago Im wondering why no one else has pointed out all the active sites are located well outside of the city in the suburbs. None of the other detailed city views show this to be the case as they have received equal LTE site coverage both in the city and the surrounding suburbs. I live in Chicago (proper) so of course I would like to see the LTE On-Air from Sprint sites show up to cover all part of the city, not just a few isolated burbs. Im really curious as to why the first sites to receive On-Air status from Sprint seem to be Joliet, Aurora, Elgin, Oak Brook, and the far NW Burbs. All of these sites are 30-40 miles away from downtown, the NW burbs area has very low population density, and some like Joliet/Elgin aren't really even considered suburbs of Chicago (they are too far). The whole thing seems to strange to me.

Read the Chicago articles on the main page. It's not a "slight the city" thing, it has to do with the engineering of the project that Samsung and Ericsson is doing. They have to get the suburban and rural sites online first. The transition in the city will be smoother, however.

Also, apparently, Mobilenation was originally SI Wireless and is owned by local telephone co-op's here that are all based in Southern Illinois. Yet, they punted on serving their own territory.

I'm going to have to do a LOT more homework investigating all of this.

I know a few around me. Carbondale, IL has a protection site. I know some Sprint customers there that have connected with the site in question (which is a real small pocket of downtown Carbondale).

 

Maybe there needs to be a firebox here to contain the users I see as inflammatory

 

Sent from my CM9 Toro using Forum Runner

Isn't there an ignore function on here? That's what I use on boards where I just don't want to read someone's posts.

 

I would assert the reverse: Nextel had deep seated issues prior to the Sprint merger. Unfortunately, the symptoms had not yet even reached the surface, so iDEN subs were blissfully unaware of the coming sickness from overselling the network (largely due to Boost Mobile), 800 MHz rebanding, and a dead end airlink tech. All of that crap hit the fan after the merger, and that is why so many current and former Nextel users think -- in classic post hoc fallacy fashion -- that Sprint caused all of those problems.

 

AJ

I seem to remember them both having issues. Nextel was definitely headed off a cliff even before the Sprint merger, so I agree with the basic premise.

It's still hard to me not to lay the ultimate blame at Forsee's feet. He should have seen all that coming down the pike.

 

How does that explain the millions of Nextel users who practically screamed "I gotta have Direct Connect, I gotta have Direct Connect," then churned to a non Sprint carrier that has no decent PTT option? In actuality, they left out of spite because they fallaciously think that Sprint wrecked Nextel and iDEN.

 

AJ

The reasons for sticking around were gone. If they never cared for Sprint and chose Nextel over Sprint, doubly so. Ultimately this is on Gary Forsee for bungling the Nextel merger. The plans are different now, and thankfully much better. I just get tired of hearing them get blamed when they aren't the real reason Sprint had issues. Sprint's issues were deep even before Nextel came in the picture.

I think VoLTE and Rich Communications Services are a really solid, compelling route to keep current iDEN people on board. Sprint should seek to keep those people on board. They can still bring big ARPU, especially considering that if they stuck with Nextel this long, they will be loyal to Sprint as well. Most of the malcontents you mention already left for other carriers.

On SalukiTalk, where I used to post frequently, we called the temporary bans the "Penalty Box." On the front page, the Penalty Box section showed who was in the box and the length of time they were there for.

And apple copied voice recognition, pull down notification bar, face unlock etc. But I suppose that's fine because they "made it better" right?

 

Sent from my CM9 Toro

If Apple wasn't cutthroat, someone would cut theirs. Look at the history of Microsoft. Apple wants to avoid a repeat of that. This is, I believe, the root cause of the patent insanity.

Yet for all that they still contribute a lot of innovation to the table. I still would buy their laptops over anything else, simply because I don't see anyone coming close to them in that arena. Look at the new Retina MacBook Pro. Who else would make that laptop? No one.

 

I don't agree with that at all.

 

You already pay for the data, you should be able to use it how you want.

 

Tethering fees are a completely unethical double-dip and a symptom of just how weak the competition between the different carriers in US wireless market really is.

 

it's akin to paying for water and being charged an extra fee for having a garden hose.

 

Tethering fees are virtually unknown in Europe and Asia where competition among the different wireless carriers is much, much healthier.

The entitlement of this.

There's a carrier that will let you tether all you want with shared data now, it's called Verizon. If you want tethering that bad, go there.

Also, most European carriers never had unlimited. That's simply a terrible comparison you just made.

They seem ridiculous on face value. I calculated it for my family plan, however, and came up with a different result. The Share Everything with 6GB data for two iPhones calculated to the same price as the legacy plan for two iPhones with unlimited data we are on.

Current plan:

700 shared minutes and unlimited messages = $80.

Access fee for each line = $20

Two unlimited data plans = $60

Total = $160

Share Everything:

Two smartphone access fees with unlimited voice and data = $80

6 GB of unlimited data = $80

Total = $160

Cutting to the 4GB plan saves me $10.

It isn't as bad as I thought. It's certainly not the type of plan that would make me run from Verizon. Then again, Verizon plans were ridiculous to begin with.

It sounds like Samsung didn't bother to add EVRC-NW support in TouchWiz. Still, I wonder if some intrepid hackers could enable Service Option 73.

Excellent point, one I did not consider until now. I have come to the line of thinking that any pre-NV site expansion here would have not worked well. If Sprint decides to come at some future point once 800 LTE is in play and use the tower T-Mobile built, they'd have enough coverage to blanket Chester. The T-Mobile tower, which is at the highest point of the county, is now owned by SBA. I'm sure SBA will want other companies to lease from them other than T-Mobile.

Sprint's pre NV network is held together by a few strands of copper as it is, I think tethering hurts that even more.

 

Ryan, come on now, the above has nothing to do with the current issue. I think that you are letting emotion get the best of you. Alamosa PCS merged with Roberts Wireless (and several other Sprint PCS affiliates) because that was a good business decision. Sprint bought out Alamosa because Alamosa was suing Sprint for violation of its non compete affiliate agreement, as the Sprint Nextel merger brought iDEN into competition with the affiliates' CDMA operations.

 

 

 

Maybe so. But wireless carriers have reasonably smart, knowledgeable engineers working for them. And those engineers have access to traffic data that may carry more weight than do your anecdotal observations.

 

Regardless, I did some additional research and likely found the reason for Chester's omission. Randolph County, IL is actually still in the St. Louis BTA, so it probably has been Sprint corporate area all along. However, Perry County, MO directly across the river is in the Cape Girardeau BTA, and Jackson County, IL only a few miles to your south is in the Carbondale, IL BTA. So, those were affiliate markets. Unfortunately for Chester, it was at the convergence of corporate and affiliate markets, at the far flung edges of both, such that corporate and affiliate could not build out contiguous coverage without the cooperation of the other. For potentially that reason, Chester attracted the attention of neither.

 

AJ

Well, thanks for the research, it can still help in the future. I think local government has been a thorn here. That might play a big part. However it has changed. Chester let T-Mobile build a tower in 2010. The rest of what has been built was over 10 years ago. There are lots of NIMBY types in the background here.

I can understand now wary things played out this way. Hopefully they play out differently in the future. The biggest thorn here is Frontier. Hopefully the IBOP project makes backhaul more affordable here. It's pretty bad if Verizon has elected to run their own fiber lines in rather than use Frontier, it has pushed us near the back of Verizon's LTE deployment.

 

In areas where Verizon already had coverage, I thought the FCC made them sell off towers. Maybe they got bought up by a mom & pop rural carrier

In six rural markets where VZW was forced to divest Alltel, it was bought by ATNI Commnet and is operated under the Alltel brand through a license from Verizon which still owns the Alltel brand. Of course, ATN churned customers like crazy in my market overall, most of them porting to Verizon.

I need to move so I can get Sprint.

Come think of it, I have many better reasons to move.