Joeynach

The space shuttle is working better than DRose right now, and its been retired!!

Where u at? Suburbs?

Best post in the history of this forum!

Why is Dish, a satellite tv provider, interested in offering LTE service at special events like the Super Bowl and Daytona 500?

Maybe Jabari has Sprint over in the englewood community?

As if that matters. Do you really think Jabari Parker aced his ACT to get into Duke? We all know they all take fluff classes with no accountability. Haven't you seen the scandal unfolding at UNC?

Yeah can we get Melo now that Lebron is going back home to Cleveland. Is that Chicago relevant?

I dont think reducing the number of major players from four to three is really ever good for the consumer. Does anyone think from a consumer point of view the airline industry is better off now thats its down to UAL, AA, DAL, & SW. There were about ten major players just 7 or 8 years ago.

I didn't know coverage in Crystal Lake is so bad for LTE, I also didn't know Best Buy still has stores open. Go figure.

Shouldn't the article make some sort of assertion about subscriber volume along with the spectrum holdings. Its the balance between the two that creates an attractive LTE network. Throwing just the LTE spectrum maps up doesn't tell the whole story. A ten year old can read the maps and see VZW has the biggest assets nationwide but without the inclusion of how many subscribers they have on their 10x10 or 20x20 pipes its almost meaningless.

Fierce Wireless recently posted an article on exactly what you were summarizing, nat'l spectrum holdings by carrier. Article Link.

Oh yeah, I know what you speak of, but the whole root thing is too advanced for me to do on my own and some of my friends who did it permanently F'd up their devices. Scared the crap out of me.

Well to clarify the transition or "waiting period" I was talking about I only would have done if I felt I would be waiting a few months to get to a tri-band device, not a full year. That wasn't an effort to save money persay, it would have been an effort to not upgrade and get left in the dust in just a few short months. I can't remember the landscape of devices at that time and how far we actually were from Tri-Band, but I was on WiMax before my GS3, it wasn't that bad actually. My phone had turned into a terd after 2 years of being beat up, but the WiMax service was pretty stable I recall.

How did you hit the B41 in December, I thought the B41 was disabled until they pushed the OTA to enable it which didn't come until like April.

Thanks for the rundown Fray, most of this I have pieced together already, the landscape is definitely crowded with all sorts of crazy one off things you have to know for each provider. It's insane, I don't know how the average dude of the street can really make an informed decision, but I think its safe to say when I get my next device I will be a much more informed consumer and will definitely be going for the highest technology stacked phone to take advantage of the latest LTE technology roll outs.

I guess I never really viewed signing a 2 year contract and using the device purchased with for the full 2 years before upgrading again to be "cheaping out". If the landscape of the market has changed I would expect the industry's whole 2 year contracts thing to go the way of the VCR.

I disagree with your "ad naseum complaints" statement. I am trying to make observations, often time ask questions, and sometimes like above just express my opinion (or desire). Whether it's this market or others I travel to. Some of those observations have a pattern to them given my device limitations, but not once do I rant off about poor service like a Sprint.com forum. I have been here too long now for that. I know 100% my device sucks and my experience is limited by it, but I also don't believe there is anything wrong with expressing being "disappointed" when appropriate. I am trying to be unbias, I want Sprint to succeed too, I'm a freaking shareholder. If you feel differently PM me and let me know your stance, its your site Robert, not mine.

Because I just discovered the 20% discounts through my employers and needed some time to compare everything. Now I am sitting here 2 months away from a contract upgrade, right when GS5 Prime vs. iPhone 6 comes out, wouldn't you just wait for that now too?

Actually I didn't, I was a S4GRU rookie, didn't know half about NV and Sprint's architecture then compared to what I know now after two more years on this site. If I did my decision would have probably been different. I probably would have decided to find some cheap transition phone until I could get my hands on a tri-band.

I might, Vince actually has offered to sell me his N5 for less. I was looking at getting it late last year when I was getting fed up being on B25 only, but then I heard about the chronic B41 delay there and figured might as well keep waiting.

What I don't know about that DAS is what it is providing for Sprint. Last time I was there in Nov 2013 for a game, the DAS seemed to do nothing for Sprint users, there was no extra coverage or capacity on B25, nor did I notice any service to be had on any 3G technologies. Looked like users of Red and Blue were working just fine, me and my Sprint friends had our phones turn into bricks. Makes me wonder if the technology stack on the DAS actually has support for Sprint's LTE bands, or maybe it's just providing 1X for non ATT customers. The articles don't really say. I wonder what actually technology the DAS system contains that is compatible with Sprint phones. However, if the DAS is just providing WiFi access from Boingo (which you have to pay for) and which has been available at solider field for years now, it really isn't doing anything for Sprint customers. I made the mistake of buying that Boingo WiFi for a game in 2012, big mistake, worse than free airport WiFi, sub dialup and timeouts galore. It does say the DAS has been upgraded to provide capacity on ATTs LTE Network so we know that's there is LTE transmission on B17. I know my GS3 is out of date Fray, but like I said before Sprint signed me to a contract with this device, then changed their network architecture during our terms. They made my phone obsolete halfway through my contract without offering me something to keep up with their changes and take advantage of what they built. There was no way in hell I was shelling out the $600 out of pocket price for a tri band phone. I consider it similar to when Comcast switched their technology stack from analog to all digital delivery and required people to install those little digital-analog converters if they wanted to maintain basic cable and not upgrade to the full digital product (with digital box). Comcast gave each subscriber something like three free converters to maintain service, if you wanted/needed more I think you had to buy or lease em. To me it would have been nice to see Sprint do something to help people transition off being stuck on B25, helps both user and the network by large, which in turn helps other users, etc etc. If Sprint would have said to me 6 months ago hey Joey want to sign a new 2 year deal now and get a tri-band device for $200 instead of either waiting for Fall of 2014 or just paying the $600 out of pocket price for the same device now I would have said where do I sign. Instead we still have plenty of me's out there, people waiting for the attrition of their contract to upgrade, stuck on the little old B25 which can hardly handle a shopping mall let a lone a stadium or event, complaining, and then smack talking Sprint all over the web (not me personally, but general Sprint users). And what's worse, the extra time I have spent stuck on (and dissapointed in) B25 has prompted me to at least look around at other providers. In doing so I saw my new employer offers 20% on a couple of the other carriers. So now when my contract is up I really have to take a long hard look at Sprint tri-band vs. others because at this point the 20% neutralizes the cost difference.

Yeah it would be nice to see Sprint's networks handle large events without fear no matter where we go. We'll get there one day. Looking forward to some people checking in on Soldier Field this coming Bears season with their tri-band, thats been a long time service dead zone during games/concerts for Sprint, before and after NV 1.0.

Isn't that the whole conflict of interest thing again, why would ATT do any sort of expedited job on helping Sprint build out its LTE network which competes with its own core business. The backhaul delays are literally predictable. If I was ATT I would just make up reasons why I can't get things up and running on time and just slap Sprint with delay after delay.

Yeah me too. Also makes me wonder what other markets are like in these areas. Not every market has a Vince, AKA truck driver network vision nerd, constantly filling us in on the situation across the metro area.

All that may be, I just wish we had a cool map where we can see confirmed sites broadcasting and like the other maps color coded pins to denote which sites are like in progress, next 30 days, next 90 days, 1H2015, etc.