irev210

I've been able to swap sims around but haven't tried making a call. Not sure why I didn't think of trying that. Under Mobile networks -> Network mode did you have it set to automatic or GSM/UMTS?

Hrm, ok, thanks for the info - i'll try making a call! Thanks for sharing your experience

So after a few calls, Sprint finally sent the OTA unlock code to my phone. I didn't have to do anything, my phone rebooted on its own, did an update, and I was presented with that message. T-Mobile works fine however Sprint is nice enough to make sure you cannot have GSM/UMTS/LTE. It's either CDMA/LTE or GSM/UMTS. Doesn't seem like you can put in an international sim and get LTE... So, it seems like people need to buy the device, have sprint unlock it, then root the device to add hidden dialer menus so you can allow LTE to work with a non-sprint SIM. If this is the case, it's pretty crummy Sprint goes out of its way to disable LTE on any non-Sprint SIM. Anyone else played around with this?

I don't think the "lies" are in direct reference to the customer care representative. More likely directed towards sprint in general. I've been trying to get my Galaxy S6 unlocked for weeks with no luck. All of the reps are very nice but Sprint's system doesn't seem to support domestic sim unlocking. Magically, getting it unlocked for international use was effortless. I think the "lies" part stems from sprint not following its own unlocking policy which was framed around the CTIA's Voluntary Unlock Policy resulting from pressure from the FCC to come up with some reasonable rules. Whatever you want to call it, Sprint states they will do one thing but you call and they are unable to unlock many phones or its unusually complex/complicated to find the "right" care rep to help a customer unlock a phone. It's unfortunate that Sprint's customer care team isn't properly trained or given the proper tools to comply with its unlocking policy.

Again, we are going back to opinion - you definitely seem to think that Sprint stock won't increase over the next year but that's only your opinion. According to Kevin Smithen at Macquarie, Sprint is a big buying opportunity. He has a $7.25 12 month price target for Sprint vs. Craig Moffett who has a $2.00 12 month price target. Anyway, it just gets back to my original point that at the end of the day, it's just an opinion. There is no such thing as an objective analyst. On s4gru - people have a very different opinion on Sprint and its competitors than perhaps many other people around. Craigs opinion doesn't align with AJ or many others here. That's fine - but let's take it for what it is - a meaningless metric. We need to keep things in context here.

Over the top was what I was going for Analysts definitely don't do objective analysis. They look at objective data, subjective data, and everything else inbetween and develop opinions (subjective analysis) on what that data means and communicate it to those that care to listen. I dunno why Craig is so anti-sprint but oddly enough people pay him a lot of money for that opinion. Look at Meredith Whitney. She rose to fame for her opinion and quickly fell after being very wrong (she closed up shop and everything). At some point, you have a track record. If Craig is wrong over and over, he only destroys himself. Analysts know this, they have no vendetta against any company. It's just his very loud and well received opinion. He has a $2 price target on Sprint stock. If Sprint stock goes to $20, he is going to look very stupid and people will pay less attention to him as it becomes more obvious he doesn't know what he is talking about. Bizarre? Absolutely. If you are curious, you can read Jennifer's reports from Wells Fargo - she loves Sprint. Just another view, another opinion.

That's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. Analysts offer OPINIONS for a living. That's their whole FRIGGING job. Your opinion that analysts should be objective is silly! Analysts are not news reporters! I agree with your opinion that Craig despises Sprint, but that's his job as an analyst. Jennifer Fritzsche, Neal Anderson, Kevin Smithen, and Andrew Zamfotis are a "buy" on sprint. The majority of analysts on the sell side are all either Holds or Buys. Why s4gru forum puts so much weight on MoffettNathanson is beyond me.

I agree - they should have a monthly chart showing percentile of customers and data usage so customers could have an idea of what to expect but logistically they probably don't want to open that can of worms since I am guessing it is such a moving target (especially by region). At the end of the day, if you can devise a clever way to offer customers unlimited while avoiding (managing?) network abusers, I'd say that's a job well done. Having used both T-Mobile and Sprint networks on the same phone (nexus 6) in Boston - I can say the customer experience at nearly the same price point is so similar. T-Mobile has faster speeds but Sprint now has ubiquitous LTE coverage at at least 2mbit/sec which is fine for 99% of customers. Most customers aren't going to test drive two networks for months on end to reach that conclusion so they are going to pick based off perceived expectations. Right now, T-Mobile is appealing to a certain demographic to set those expectations and it seems to be working. If T-Mobile let customers perceive that they would get screwed (throttled), that does them no marketing favors, even though 97%+ of customers will never be throttled or even use all that much data.

It is interesting to see how the CEO is responding directly to this - this is not learning from Sprint. I've never seen Hesse or Claure be so direct in responding to throttling claims or respond so directly to a particular reddit thread. Legere is a master at marketing and it shows. With 1.3% churn, it doesn't seem like anyone is leaving T-Mobile. I am guessing this will be the response "..based on customer feedback, we've adjusted our network management practices to allow each customer to have a better experience. In addition, I've had Ray focus on areas that have been hit with higher demand to increase deployment of wideband LTE in those locations." So in the end, it will probably be a mix of less aggressive throttling, a bit more capacity, and good marketing to make the issue go away. Sprint should learn from T-Mobile on how to improve how customers perceive their network. In areas where Sprint has pretty much fully deployed LTE, the average customer will have a great experience but their marketing doesn't communicate that (at least from my view). Verizon clearly communicates "Never settle, #1" T-Mobile clearly communicates "Fastest LTE" Sprint communicates "value" but that's such a vague term. Value means something different to everyone... they need to work on communicating that "hey our speeds are maybe not the fastest but who really cares? It works where you want it to work and you'll spend less and get more"

I want Sprint phones that have no sprint bloatware, no sprintzone, no sprint preinstalled junk.

This makes a lot of sense - good post. If Google plans to expand the use of loons and wifi, perhaps they could really shift things around and separate loon/wifi usage vs. LTE usage.

Yeah, much more coverage sure but with VOIP calling (google voice/hangouts dialer) the 100 minutes thing isn't really compare. It's just data vs. data.

Well, it seemed like Google was trying to be disruptive - offering two different carriers under one MVNO is definitely new/innovative. There have been some articles suggesting that Google was trying to be disruptive with this service similar to Google Fiber (not that they are really comparable...) I agree on the pricing issue - I am guessing Sprint/T-Mobile wouldn't have been on board with lower pricing. But I think that unless they are disruptive on pricing it won't be all that interesting to customers. Perhaps it will really encourage customers to use less data (seems anti-Google) since they'll be refunded on what they don't use.

I dunno, if you compare it against exceptionally priced prepaid plans, it doesn't seem all that great. You can get the T-Mobile 5GB plan for $30/month. I know there are other prepaid plans that offer similar value. For $5/GB seems to be the disruptive pricepoint that I would expect google to compete at. Competitive isn't good enough for a disruptive service - which is what Google is trying to do.

This is definitely unremarkable. What a disappointment. I was hoping Google would get us down to $5/GB.

I've been having fun trying to get Sprint to unlock my device. First, they tried to give me my MSL (which was actually nice to have anyway), then they unlocked it internationally (it was neat to watch my phone randomly reboot a few hours ago when they sent the OTA unlock), now they are trying to fully unlock the device. Things are moving slowly but I will say that the customer service over the phone has been exceptional every time. They are just so much nicer than they used to be. On the other hand, the store experiences in my area (Boston) still stinks big fat poopoo. My wife received a defective S6 (simcard tray was jammed shut/defective). At the corporate store, the store manager straight lied to my face multiple times saying that I had to call Sprint since I bought the phone from sprint.com. So I called... and the phone rep told me it was clear as day that it is sprint's policy to replace defective handsets with new ones if you are within 14 days in the store for online orders. Sprint phone care was exceptional - he actually quoted the sprint policy about replacement devices within the 14 day window, attached info into my file and said to head back to the Sprint store and I'd receive a new replacement device. The manager was still a jerk but he exchanged it for a working phone. It was hilarious watching him try to "prove me wrong" by pushing like hell on the SIM ejector pinhole with no luck. Overall, I am glad call centers are upping their support level, it's extremely impressive. Next up... improving the store experiences.

I would agree 100% - this sounds spot on. The biggest advantage with the iPhone is how well the radio firmware is optimized. It just runs like butter.

I dont have issues with the RF performance, it's the S6's desire to hold on B41 beyond where the phone can reliability provide data services. The cutoff for this phone should really be around -115dBm before switching to another band. The crossover from B41 to B25/26 on my nexus phones was much lower. When I disable B41, my service works as expected. As for the dropped call issue, I do all my calls over hangouts dialer so I haven't had any issues. Data performance is solid for me while on a call.

Has this made you reconsidering insurance? With the 200 deductible, doesn't apple care make more sense? I can't believe the deductible they charge on top of the high monthly rate.

Yeah, the N5/N6 balance between bands seems to work very well.

Sorry, I meant they as Samsung. I am just hoping for a software update (similar to what we saw on the Nexus 5 or HTC One M8 for example) that adjusted the thresholds of where a phone would hang onto a band - not prioritize which band would be used. I don't have any issues with the B41 performance other than it hangs onto B41 when B41 signal is too weak to work reliability. I probably could have worded my original posting better, sorry for the confusion.

This is a nice perk - I just added it to my plan. Hopefully they don't take it away or start charging for it later.

Actually, you can get a $100 rebate by water agencies in CA to move to a 1.2 gal/flush toilet. Basically makes the toilet almost free if you know how to install. Growing up in CA during the 91-92 drought, we were paid to upgrade to 1.6 gal/flush toilets... now it is 1.2 gal/flush. I am sure in 2024 it will be 1 gal/flush toilets. I use a 1.2 gal/flush toilet by toto today and it is FAR better than the 1.6+ gallon/flush toilets of the past. No idea how they do it.

Fair enough. I always assumed that thresholds could be programmed into the device. Thanks for pointing it out. Just comparing N5/N6, B41 would fall off and B25/B26 would take over with much more frequency. It wasn't holding on to signal at -120dBm like the S6. I just assumed that was device specific.

They need to retune when B41 drops off. It hangs on too long. At -120dBm on this phone, it should really be falling down to B25 or B26. Data essentially times out and packetloss goes through the roof. We've been having issues with missed calls because of the phone sitting on B41 with such weak signal and too much packet loss. Calls don't ring the phone unless you disable B41 in ##DATA#. I get that Sprint is trying to offload capacity to B41 but with the equipment around here, it's just too much.