ingenium

The phone was fine, I just had to power off the old one and then the new one started working as soon as I rebooted it. It's because Sprint doesn't just use the SIM for authentication on the network. Essentially, the old phone was still hanging onto the authorization on the CDMA side, and it had to release it for the new one to get it.

 

They shouldn't hassle you about a new SIM in a case like this. They just might not have the correct one for your phone in stock. So they may have to either order it, or they can maybe pull one from a used/returned phone in the back and put it on your account.

 

Also, double check that the IMEI or ESN that Sprint has on file for your line actually matches your phone.

 

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That's such a ridiculous policy. On T-Mobile if the phone supports VoLTE it works - my phones I bought when living in China work on VoLTE on T-Mobile no problem. I don't get why they do that. AT&T's network is pretty subpar for such a large carrier anyway honestly, so I'm not surprised they have such backward policies.

Sprint might do the same. BYOD devices don't get wifi calling or Calling+. It remains to be seen if they'll push their VoLTE config to AOSP (public Android source code), or publish an app that configures VoLTE (part of the Android API since 6.0 I believe). Google makes it really easy for carriers to enable VoLTE on Android, and push it out to all capable phones instead of having to wait for an OS update.

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Changing JUST the band priorities shouldn't have the effect that you're seeing. If you changed other things while in there, then that's another story...

Can you get to the dialer with the SIM inserted? You can dial *#*#72786#*#* which will wipe the Sprint config and cause it to fetch it again from the network. You have to so this with a Sprint SIM inserted, and chances are it'll be locked out as soon as invalid SIM comes up, so have it typed out and ready to type the last * right as you enter the SIM.

You can also maybe try booting it into safe mode. That might help.

I saw a similar issue once when I swapped phones, and reused the SIM, but the original phone wasn't powered off or on airplane mode (just had its SIM removed). It behaved close to what you're seeing, working for a fraction of a second before saying invalid SIM over and over before locking.

If there are any other phones that previously were on that line, make sure they're all powered off.

If none of these work, ask at the Sprint store if they can replace your SIM. Make sure they give you the correct one for your phone model (they all look the same. There is a spreadsheet on here somewhere with the model number for each phone's SIM). They likely will, but it's not unheard of for the store reps to not know that different phones need different SIMs since most phones already come with a SIM.

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I have never seen any preferences be restored from my google account, these are on Samsung S7/S8, LG V30, Nexus 5X, etc.

I do prefer that all apps are installed with their defaults as having no noises, no notifications, no anything. It makes a happy first impression. Just my preference.

That's odd. For any apps? Do you have backups disabled in your preferences?

If you open Google Drive on your phone, open the left side menu, go to Backups, select a device, and it should show you all of the applications that are backed up, the last date/time of backup, and the size of the backup (doesn't count towards storage quota).


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Or use the Google save/restore app settings feature they make available.

This works for me, and has for a while. It even restores your database of logged sites. The data is only backed up at night (or while idle at least), while charging (and maybe at 100%?), and on wifi, so if those conditions weren't met since you installed the app and configured your settings, then they likely haven't had a chance to backup yet.

That being said, I have heard others say it didn't restore onto a new device. But this sounds like a Google issue rather than a Signal Check issue.

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My post was meant as satire. The serious question is, does the Pixel 1, 2 (or both) support 2x CA UL?

No, neither support UL CA.

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Signal from SCC is pretty low and noisey. Need to add more site density to enhance that. Magic box would greatly help in this situation, assuming this is indoors.

Yeah the SNR is pretty bad on the second carrier. I've found that rsrp and SNR are always lower for the non PCC. Usually 5-10 dbm lower. I think because the radio is tuned to the PCC rather than somewhere in the middle, so the SCCs are a bit out of tune (vs having everything slightly out of tune, albeit less so). That might be something that can be improved with modem firmware updates, but is to be expected since you'd want the PCC to have the best signal and allow the SCCs to drop.

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The UL 2CA would suggest that B41 UL CA may be supported. However it doesn't specify if the UL CA is FDD or TDD or both. 

Yup. I don't think that FDD upload CA is available on any Qualcomm modems yet. But B41 TDD upload CA is. So presumably that's what this is.

Arguably, upload FDD CA isn't that important since it usually has plenty of capacity. TDD is where upload is hindered, so it would be most useful there. Hybrid FDD TDD CA will also really help uploads, assuming that FDD is the PCC.

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Looks like the new I phones will support 2xca upload and 64QAM.. wonder if it makes a different if it's TDD or FDD.
It does say TDD hyprid.. so it looks that it will support it on Sprint
 
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Hybrid means B25/41 CA.

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It looks like 192.0.0.1 - 192.0.0.7 is a set of IPs reserved for DS-LITE: https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=arin%3a192.0.0.4&run=toolpage 

We need an IPv4 sample from a device using the i.ispsn APN to see if it's assigned an IPv4 address in this range or a different range. It's possible that i.ispsn uses their legacy carrier grade NAT (perhaps with no IPv6 assigned to the device?), and x.ispsn uses DS-LITE.

DS-LITE is a way to tunnel IPv4 within IPv6 https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/junos/topics/concept/ipv6-dual-stack-lite-overview.html and https://www.networkworld.com/article/2232181/cisco-subnet/understanding-dual-stack-lite.html So something like 4in6 + carrier grade NAT.

I'm guessing that this may have to do with Sprint's extensive use of IPSec tunnels. I read previously that you can't do dual stack over an IPSec tunnel, it's either IPv4 or IPv6. You can get around this by encapsulating the traffic in a different protocol like GRE, but it adds more overhead. So transitioning their backend network to IPv6 only makes sense (only have to worry about IPv4 at the entry/exit points for the network).

For devices like my Airave, which are connected via IPv4 (Verizon Fios is still IPv4 only...), that means that the phone is assigned an address in the 192.0.0.1-192.0.0.7 range, which is then encapsulated in IPv6, which is then encapsulated back to IPv4, encrypted and encapsulated into UDP, and sent over the VPN. No wonder the MTU on Airaves and Magic Boxes are so low, so many encapsulations...

So I wonder if this also means that devices that are assigned routable IPv4 addresses (r.ispsn) also have this v4 -> v6 encapsulation for transit over Sprint's network? 

Its not just the GS9.  I have had a bear of a time with my iPhoneX as well.  Sometimes it latches on just fine to the MB, othertimes it completely ignores it (actually dropping to 3G) all the while, my wives iPhoneX happily chugs along on the MB.  Its infuriating. One thing I did notice was that when I do a ##UPDATE# on the iPhone (which updates the PRL and 'data profile'), it sometimes takes up to a few weeks before my phone consistently grabs the MB again.  For folks who are home often, I assume the phone adapts to the environment more quickly, but I am usually out of state for work during the week and then we camp on the weekends - so my phone will only be at home near the MB for short periods of time.  Point being... everyone always focuses on the fact that the MB/small cells need time to optimize, but I believe the same is true for some phones as well.

 

Yes that's true. And the modem only has a memory for a certain number of sites. If you're always traveling to new areas and not home that often, it will eventually learn your home network, but then when you leave for a week to a new area and travel around, it gets overwritten with new data and has to learn it again when you get back. 

The local network won't learn that the magic box is there necessarily (meaning it won't actively move you to it, or suggest you move to it). But every time a cell event happens (changing bands, changing carriers), and sometimes just randomly, the network sends a "system information block" message. This contains a lot of things, but one of them is a list of earfcns that the phone should look on for a signal. The magic box and small cell earfcns are always in this list. The others are the active earfcns in the area.

 

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That’s because equipment isn’t yet certified for 15x15 operations. As soon a second it is, I’m sure Sprint will switch over to 15x15. 
I agree that what you’re saying would make sense in cases where Sprint has greater than 20 MHz FDD of contiguous spectrum. But I think those will be few and far between. 

Samsung equipment was recertified for 15x15 in January apparently. I'm pretty sure it's live in some Samsung markets. Pittsburgh got the second 5x5 carrier a couple months ago, so after the recertification.

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Sprint should not and will not split contiguous spectrum into multiple carriers. Performance is much worse—dozens of studies have been done regarding this. 

Oh I know they shouldn't. But they currently are (Pittsburgh is 5x5 + 10x10 contig instead of a 15x15). Or in a situation where Sprint has more than 20x20 contig (if that exists), since that's the maximum LTE carrier width.

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That stinks.

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They can use the second carrier that is on the macros. Eventually Sprint will refarm more PCS for LTE. In a lot of markets they're down to only 5x5 of CDMA, so no advantage to shut down more until they're ready to cram CDMA into the LTE internal guard bands (or add a 3x3 B25 carrier).

They should be able to fit a single CDMA carrier between each 2 contiguous B25 carriers. They're already doing this with the Airave 1x carrier (T-Mobile does it as well with GSM). I suspect we'll see that at the evdo shutdown, and it will probably remain on existing sites until the equipment is replaced.

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Since small cells are LTE only can they do higher bandwidth on B25?

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Not if the macro is still using that spectrum for CDMA. It would interfere.

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I wish Sprint could convert these to band 41

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I mean they CAN... Add B41 radios at the ODAS head end and swap the antennas for B41 capable ones. Plus some other things. Not sure if the existing wiring can be used as is, but I'm going to guess it probably can be.

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They can definitely exchange their 10x10 with Verizon's 10x10 thereby creating a 15x15 block. Are you sure it has not been done? How old is this bandplan?

Oh yeah they can. Hmm, not sure how I missed that. And yes, that is the current band layout. That's Alameda county in California (SF area). As of 2 weeks ago, the second b25 carrier is still at earfcn 8115, so a center downlink frequency of 1937.5 MHz.

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These have been live since 2015 I believe ... And yes the cabinet is associated with small cell .. and these were more cost effective at the time for Sprint to add coverage and fill holes

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Ahh. So they're just b25? The antenna at the top looks like the usual B41 small cell antenna, just slightly shorter (though it was distortion in the pics), so I had assumed that's what it was.

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7 hours ago, tyroned3222 said:

These are some of the small cells.. i just wish they were band 41/b25
 
UPDATE: 2 NEW BAND 41 UPGRADES SPOTTED TODAY
 
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Hmm, I don't see the usual relay antenna, nor do I see an enclosure that they hide them in in some cities. Do you know if that cabinet next to it associated with the small cell?

I ask because if there's no relay, then these might be one of the more rare non-relay small cells. Do you see one or two carriers coming from it? Or is it not live yet?

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why isnt tmobiles 600 mhz listed here?

It is, it just further up the page. It doesn't all fit on one screen, I was just showing relevant information

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Have they not yet swapped spectrum in those markets with other carriers?

Nope. All the other carriers are already aligned.

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Hell, Sprint can get 20x20 alone once EVDO clears.

Some markets, such as most of Northern California (SF, Sacramento, etc) only have 30 (15 fdd) MHz total, and it's not contiguous.

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Is it possible to configure devices to roam on T-Mobile or other extended LTE - but not at&t - for volte calls while still on Sprint 1x or is it such that if Sprint allows b12 roaming on 1x there isn't a way to discriminate the lte carrier?
I'm worried that VoLTE may have a very rocky start without roaming...
 

I was wondering the same thing. I'm not sure how LTE roaming is actually done, if it's part of the PRL or not (I suspect not). I suspect that it's possible though, perhaps as a config pushed to the modem.

What was seen in DC is that T-Mobile may be broadcasting the Clearwire PLMN for Sprint roaming. This still shows as roaming on the device, wheras the Clearwire PLMN from Sprint equipment does not. Several markets (DC and NYC for example) still have Clear equipment, and thus the Clear PLMN, in use.

I suspect that the device will happily connect to the Clear PLMN when the signal gets low (likely via a manual scan only due to low signal, since it won't be broadcast as neighbors. ie, the network will not preemptively move a device there and the device won't know about it with a normal signal level). And only after connecting will it discover it's roaming and be configured as such.

However I'm not sure if it actually works that way, so hopefully someone with more knowledge of the technical aspects can chime in.

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Pie is officially released, still hidden menus hang...

Report it on the bug tracker? I've read there might be magisk hide issues so I'm holding off on the upgrade for now

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This tmobile roaming on all bands or just 1 or 2.  What about Ca on 2 different bands same time on sprint phone ?

I imagine if the phone supports it, and it's not throttled, they would allow CA (though T-Mobile could disable it). When roaming internationally, my Pixel engaged CA in multiple countries.

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