irev210

Sort of a dead market but I picked up CA for the first time in Dedham, MA.

Not a good signal but I was getting speeds of over 40mbit.  Very slick!

Hopefully more CA to come!

I just replaced the battery on my N5 with an OEM battery.  While it's definitely an improvement, it's not as marked as others are stating on this thread.  It still doesn't last the whole day, but then again, it rarely did when it was new.  It was definitely worth the $15.

 

My GPS is somewhat flaky as well.  Sometimes it just stops working and I have to power cycle the handset.  Sometimes, it stops working for a few seconds.

 

While I love the N5, I'm ready to ditch it as soon as Bullhead is available this fall.  I'd love a better battery, GPS, and camera.

I've seen some nice gains with marshmallow - are you running the latest (last) Android M Preview?

I've never had an issue using GPS on my Nexus 5, maybe I was lucky though. I have been thinking of replacing the battery, where have all of you been buying oem batteries from?

That's the million dollar question.  There are so many counterfeits out there, it's really hard to find a legit source.  I got mine off eBay from a reputable US seller and he included a tool kit, which was nice.  No idea if it is authentic or not but it seems to work well... so that's good.

Your GPS never worked before? That is strange.

My compass is still broken but I think the GPS receiver antenna is now making proper contact.

A few months ago, I put forth to S4GRU staff an article idea for The Wall -- the most notable handsets of the Sprint LTE era.  List the top five or so.  The article may never happen, but the Nexus 5 definitely would make the cut, arguably at the top of the list.

 

AJ

Agreed - it's really a fantastic handset.  It's the right combination of many things; somehow holding and using the nexus 5 just feels better than most other flagships.  Honestly, my GS6 is just sitting on my desk idle since I replaced the battery in my Nexus 5.  With marshmallow, it feels faster, smoother, and the handset design is more refined.  Plus, the radios just work better on a Nexus 5

I was very tempted to modify my Nexus 5 and install the larger 3,000 mah LG G2 battery instead of the standard 2,600 mah replacement... but with newer software that really improves battery life along with fresh cells, I easily go all day with the nexus now.

So I put in a new battery and it made me fall in love with my nexus 5 all over again. Such a great phone!

Marshmallow is awesome and for the first time since buying this phone new, my GPS works... So that's a plus.

Meh.  I like my high powered USB 2.0 charger from my old HP TouchPad.  It charges all of my devices well -- that is, until USB Type-C makes an inconvenient appearance.  Some of you guys excited about the reversible plug seem to be lazy or klutzes.

 

 

AJ

Out with the old, in with the new.

You are still maxed out with how many amps that your phone can/will take.

Better off going with a newer quick charge 2.0 charger that can send amps over 9V or 12V instead of 5V.

More efficient, less waste, faster charging.  USB Type C has faster charging (cable can handle more power) and faster data transmission speeds.  Beyond the new plug, Type C is a far superior cable that will replace the antiquated microUSB (finally).

Per Marcelo on Twitter: "@marceloclaure: @HRozewski long Term Customers can choose any way they want to buy a phone, lease,subsidy or installment billing. We believe in choice"

 

Looks like us contract folks are grandfathered!

 

All hail Marcelo!

Thanks for sharing - good to read

And where will you go? 

Me personally, I'd probably switch to T-Mobile's $30 prepaid plan with 5GB data.

I dont think this is worth getting up and arms about - just changes the economics for some wireless subscribers.

Well, I'll definitely be ordering this the second I can.  Looks great.

Fingerprint scanner? check

Stock android? check

Good size? check

Having two international offerings is confusing and should be consolidated into one.

Offer 1GB free high speed data (enough for 95+% of people traveling) then have it kick down to unlimited 2G.  If you want more high-speed, pay a reasonable 30/gb.

Eliminates the surprise of bill overages and still offers consumer choice.

So i have a G2 thats on it's last leg.  I haven't used an upgrade in probably 3-4 years because im on a SERO plan and because i just don't want to be tied to a contract.  Now i've been looking for a used G3 for under $200 to buy but considering actually just using my upgrade to get a G4.  How future proof will the G4 be? my G2 has a hard time with signal sometimes and i know the G4 won't be perfect but it should be better.  The G4 also will be able to roam on band 12 LTE onces that finished, correct? That and CA would be pretty much the only reason i would upgrade over a G3 right now.  Just want to make sure i'm not kicking myself in 8-12 months.  Love my G2 just not sure how much longer it's going to last.  I'd like to hold out and see what the new Nexus offers but the G4 is tempting. Suggestions?

No phone is really "future proof".

Also, every year you don't upgrade you waste your subsidy which is worth about $20/month - so you've given up ~$1000 in subsidies.  Figure you could have purchased two iPhones and flipped them for double what you paid for them and cashed in that implicit subsidy - that's what I do.  I always upgrade the second I am able to for the most profit so i can put it towards handsets I actually want.

Any time you want to cancel, take your subsidized device and sell it, trade it in, etc.  Promos for switching carriers are so good nowadays that you are really just losing out on incentives.

You should evaluate the cost of your cellular plan/device based on total cost of ownership - similar to a car.

The LG G4 is a fantastic phone, I like it a lot more than the GS6 but I'll say that if I were in your shoes, I'd just get the next Nexus.

I gotta say, this is a very nice phone.  Overall, it actually seems faster and has better battery life than the GS6.

The camera is very different but is also excellent.

Great phone.

Ooh, no, I didn't try automatic. I'll give that a shot.

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Yup. I had to make a call, then it would pick up lte moments later... let us know how it goes.

Today the Dev reached out & he performed the DSU remotely via my PC.

 

He used adb & custom apk to send a Profile update to my S6E to DSU it.

 

It worked as promised but I wasn't able to connect to AT&T LTE band 2 nor band 4 despite my S6E having support for it. My N5 gets both band 4 & band 17 at the same location at home.

 

There is a catch though. I can't perform a Profile update as my phone will become locked again.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Did you set Network mode to Automatic?  I cant get LTE with Network Mode set to GSM/UMTS - only Automatic.

Ive been advocating this for a while, it works surprisingly well...

 

Its a very good Wifi calling/VoLTE transitional option.

Yeah, I was definitely shocked that I could hold VOIP calls with 1 bar of 3G.

I assume that google VOIP will essentially be as good as VoLTE (or better) considering that VOIP will still work with 3G whereas VoLTE obviously won't.

In Boston? I'm having trouble believing that!

Once you go VOIP, you never go back.  You don't even know what you are missing out on!

I seriously doubt that you will have the reliability and quality of the Sprint CDMA voice network.  It may be fine for you, but it will not be fine for everybody.   I do agree that we are moving to a new system for handling voice calls, but it still will take some time to make it work as good as the present CDMA 1x system.  i am all for trying new things, but many people are not ready to rely on something that is still in a Beta environment.

In my area, Sprint CDMA network has proved disastrous for me to use.  I am sure there are other areas where Sprint CDMA network is the way to go but here, Google dialer has worked out amazingly well for me.

At one point, I was missing well over 50% of my calls and handoffs were a disaster.  Things are better but I still experience better reliability/performance with hangouts over native Sprint CDMA where I work/play.

The only time I could see a "hand off" issue is if you have a fringe wifi signal, and LTE takes a second or two to light up. Otherwise it should be seamless for the user...like making a Skype voice call or something similar.

I've switched off to using google voice dialer in hangouts and just use Sprint's data network.  Handoffs for the most part are excellent.  Even when I just have 3G, I can still make/receive calls just fine.

As far as I am concerned, Sprint's CDMA voice network is completely dead/obsolete.  I have no plans to ever use it again.

What I'd really like to see is Sprint kill that stupid $10 per line "Premium Data" charge that I'm hit with on all lines on my ED1500 plan.

 

It made sense back when 95% of people still had flip phones, but seriously what's the percentage of people w/o a smartphone now? Crikey my parents have iPhones and they are late sixties/early seventies!

It amazes me that ~10 years later, people still complain about this.

It was a rate increase.  The $10 fee is incorporated in the new rate plans.  Don't want to pay the $10 fee? Switch plans... you'll pay more but you won't have a $10 fee to complain about.

Could you talk about capacity constraints?

Obviously there has been a lot of news about ISPs limiting interconnections against potential competitors (most recently a small streaming company in San Diego and TWC popped into the news).

As a WISP - how do you provide ample capacity for your customers?  Say you were buying capacity from cogent who was overloaded with netflix traffic - are you protected by SLAs to prevent that from being an issue?

Million questions... but it's a start... 

You can't afford AT&T International Roaming. Whoa, is it expensive. You're better off getting local SIM. Which you can do with Sprint devices that support international bands. But currently Sprint is not offering international LTE Roaming. But very few Sprint devices support international LTE bands.

 

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

Not unless you have the legacy AT&T Unlimited International Data add-on on a corporate liable account.

Very rare but they are out there.  I know someone with it - still unlimited to this day.

 

So, back to an earlier point, those above a certain level probably would have to curtail their usage -- or pay for it.  And I am not sure how anyone could rationally conclude that would not have an effect on network performance.  If those in the uppermost five bins, for example, had to manage their usage down to 15 GB, the net effect would be a 30 percent reduction in total data usage across all users.

 

AJ

Could you not say that the burden  of the top 5% of users is offset by the gain of 95% of users who are on unlimited but use less data?  Could you also say that because of the 95% that are on unlimited, they would churn out and reduce revenues to support Sprint's network resulting in less money available to be spent on capacity?

By kicking out the  high users on unlimited, you would also kick out the low users on unlimited.  Your blended average would decrease drastically but your blended average of say 2.5GB/month at an ARPU of say $65 with 100 customers might shift to 1.5GB/month at an ARPU of say $55 with 80 customers.

In this extremely simplistic sample, you have $6,500 in revenue supporting 250GB of data consumption vs. $4,400 in revenue supporting 150GB of data consumption.

I mean, your break even is extremely high at $21/GB.

Which model is better?  It's pretty obvious in this simplistic scenario but you get the idea.

While it's great to see you fight for what's fair/rational (it's an easy and simplistic approach) it's not a carrier's job to be fair/rational.  It's to maximize returns on the assets you have.  So by taking on the burden of another 100GB of data, you get an extra $2,100 in revenue to invest in network performance.  Does the investment in the network performance offer returns greater than the drag of data hogs?  In your scenario, you don't account for the loss of additional revenues and the associated decline in network performance.

It would be interesting to work at sprint and actually have the numbers to play with.  I can guarantee you there is a pricepoint where the blended usage of unlimited actually increases network performance.

Given Sprint's spectrum position, it makes sense that at this time, they'll continue to offer unlimited.  In the future, it's likely that they will avoid the churn of changing around legacy plans too much and leave people alone.  It's all about incremental cost.

As comfortable as I am messing with software like ROMs and using command lines (I am a firmware engineer by profession), and as comfortable as I am installing new RAM or a new HDD/SSD in a laptop or building a new desktop from scratch, I am just not comfortable popping open a phone that's not meant to be popped open by a normal consumer. That's just me. If you're fine and happy going that route, all the power to you, and I'm glad you're able to squeeze more life into the device.

 

As I've said before, it's a great device. And even though I now have a G4, I am definitely keeping the Nexus 5 for messing around with (I already installed the Android M preview as soon as my G4 was loaded with every app I frequently use). I'm hoping the next Nexus 5 is going to be just as good for anyone going that route.

On a lot of phones where you are dealing with tons of adhesive (say HTC M8/M9) I get it... but on a nexus 5 - it's basically user accessible.  I wouldn't clump all sealed phones in the same boat.  If you can build a desktop from scratch, opening a Nexus 5 is about 1000x easier.

Don't be scared, the Nexus 5 doesn't bite

When I had my s6 unlocked I got that message. I popped in a T-Mobile sim and it showed only the spinning 3G logo but I had to make a call and then hang up for the lte Logo to appear. It was missing features like the volte and hd calls that T-Mobile has but overall it worked. The only problem I had was when I took out the T-Mobile sim and put back in the sprint sim. When I did that the phone locked back up and wouldn't take any other sim but sprints.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm on T- Mobile LTE now, works great!

Edit: cleaning up my response-

So there was definitely some issues leaving the network mode on automatic with a T-Mobile SIM card in.  It took a few minutes but eventually T-Mobile LTE started working.  I think making a phone call helps the phone identify/check the SIM.

Summary:

• T-Mobile works great with Network Mode on Automatic
• Had no problems picking up HPSA+ on Band 2 and LTE on Band 4.
• Making a phonecall seems to force the phone to read the SIM, helping to nudge things along and to help the phone pick up LTE.
• You can force CDMA and it will go back on sprint but you can't do anything.  If you try to make a call, it will attempt to verify the Sprint SIM and not dial once it reads that there is no sprint SIM inserted.

I'll update more when I switch back to Sprint and back and forth.

Why are we talking about Sprint not bidding on 600? Because their CFO said they might not. AT&T and VZW said they might not also. Each one of them is throwing a tantrum regarding FCC rules and trying to exert some pressure. Masa will donwhat he wants to do with his money. He has the money to bid in 600 if he so chooses.

 

My guess is Sprint will hunt down a 5x5 600 piece in markets that one 5x5 B26 carrier will not be enough for VoLTE and fallback data. And that's the minimum of what they need.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

Exactly!  They are only going to bid what it takes to achieve their business objectives.

I don't know why everyone is looking at this so awkwardly.  It's not priceless spectrum.  For Sprint, the price point to buy is the cost it would be to deliver the same wireless service with existing spectrum assets.  There is a price which sprint can deliver the exact same service it would plan to deliver with 600MHz spectrum without actually buying it and just adding more cells, adding more carriers, etc.

T-Mobile does the exact same thing.  The reality is, the cost for T-Mobile to deliver the same wireless service with existing spectrum assets is likely much higher since they are primarily AWS-based, thus the 600MHz auction price would be higher for T-Mobile.

Same thing with AT&T/Verizon.  They can split cells, add DAS, pcell, etc.

At the end of the day, carriers will add spectrum resources at a financially responsible price.  What that price is varies by carrier.

Has anyone that tried getting unlocked try getting their DSU through the international department? If there's any one department that actually knows what they're doing, it's them.

 

If you read the unlock terms closely it states that unlocking is supposed to be automatic when the terms are fulfilled, and in my case by some apparent act of God my phone was automatically unlocked as soon as I ported my number out.

I didn't have any luck with the international dept.  

I called the standard customer service line few times, got escalated, nothing happened, waited 2-3 weeks, called again, the CSR reviewed my file and contacted her supervisor.

While I was on hold the last time, they reset my phone while I was on the line with them.  Phone rebooted (which also dropped my call with them) and my phone was instantly unlocked.

At first I switched it to GSM/UMTS but some odd reason the phone wouldn't work at all so I put it back at automatic. You're lucky to be able to swap sims. After my device locked back up I didn't even bother to call back sprint it felt energy draining lol.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haha, energy draining indeed.

I'm going to swap in an AT&T sim later today.  We'll see how that goes...