AdamLeonard

i wouldn't say 7000+ live TD-LTE sites in practically all but a few clearwire wimax markets "limited" considering Clearwire had ~60 markets covering ~100 million people. That's not even counting the NV 2.0+ nationwide TDD-LTE deployment that is going to get underway in a few months. 

Well Sprint has only announced 11 or 18 markets. That's what I was referring to as a limited rollout.

No Nexus device has ever had Sprint-specific applications on it. It is the nature of the Nexus devices, the software is developed and distributed by Google, not the manufacturer and carrier.

Yes I know but Sprint Zone is the carrier's account management system and it can actually be kind of useful. So I didn't expect it to be installed from Google but I thought I could download and install it from Sprint. When they said that it was only available as part of the firmware and would not be available for the Google Edition, I was concerned that it might not be possible to get Spark compatibility if Sprint was not going to provide the updates on the Google versions. I'm being assured in various posts here that Google will issue an update that enables Spark. I hope that's true but this is the first I've heard about Google working on such an update.  Given how limited the Spark rollout is, I doubt that they are feeling much pressure to get it done quickly.

There is no difference between the Nexus 5 sold through Sprint or Google, most of us here purchased off the Play Store.

Well there are clearly some difference since you can't get Sprint-specific provisioning like Sprint Zone. When I called to have them give me a link to install it, they told me that it was in the firmware and couldn't be loaded otherwise.  Hopefully I'm wrong since I want to see what Spark really does. I have little to no signal at work and that's just not acceptable for a work device.

Obviously something in the firmware that is much more than just enabling the bands. 

Then I'm screwed because I bought 32GB unlocked phone from Google. It does not have Sprint-specific provisioning on it (like the Sprint Zone App) and conversations with Sprint Tech Support have suggested that they are not really supporting the phones.

On the Spark question, the settings I changed are those that people in Chicago did and they saw an immediate improvement.

Nexus 5 has not received the Spark update yet.  Also, there is not much live yet in Austin.  But there are some Band 41 sites live now.  Band 26 will start going live soon.

 

Robert

It's easy to manually enable the bands 26 and 41 and reset the band preferences on the Nexus 5 if you have the MSL (which I got from Sprint).  What else is the Spark Update supposed to do besides that?

Some of these issues may be solved by the Nexus 5 Spark update that's coming soon too. Getting on some Band 41 around DFW could help a lot. Also, DFW is going to be an earlier Band 26 market.

 

Texans are more likely to be inside all three Sprint LTE bands than many other areas of the country.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I'm in Austin which supposedly just launched Spark (read it yesterday). I work downtown 2 blocks from the main interstate and 2 blocks from the Capitol.  I enabled Bands 26 and 41 on my Nexus 5 and it has made no difference at all. My signal strength and speeds on LTE are still garbage (.75Mbps/down .27Mbps/up on LTE).