GoWireless

I wanted to mention that one benefit of the activate-from-the-tablet-plans is that I believe on those Sprint doesn't tack on all of their insane fees. The price you see is the price you get.

I haven't heard of that personally. Here's a suggestion though... If you want an inexpensive and flexible tablet plan you might want to take a look at Red Pocket. They sell a 30 day/1Gig of LTE data for $10 on T-Mobile (up until recently their data plans with T-Mobile were HSPA+ only but now it looks like they've added access to the LTE network as well). They also allow tethering with their plans. All ipad Airs and mini 2+3 originally sold in the US regardless of carrier are compatible (since all carriers in the US use the same iPad variant beginning with the Air and mini 2).

I bought my Sprint Air last year on launch day at the Apple Store. That's the only place that carried them at the time. It took the local Sprint stores a couple weeks before they had them in stock. The thinness of the Air 2 is magical - very nice to hold indeed. The other improvement above the original cellular Air is band 41 support. The lack of band 12 support though is a bit disappointing. The cost of tablet plans are usually the same regardless of the tablet. Sometimes Sprint will run a "special" for all tablets. Last year around this time they had a very good deal going: 2GB for $15/month+tax. If you got in on it when it was running you were in luck. I think for that amount of data it's the cheapest price point I've seen for standalone no-contract tablet plans before or since.

Do you know what outgoing number shows up on caller ID when you do this? Can you recive incoming calls or texts to your Sprint number via this method?

To me, "CCA support" means essentially moving OEMs towards single-SKU devices per geographical region. Given Samsung's particular fondness for releasing umpteen different sub-variants of every device, probably more than any other manufacturer, it doesn't surprise me that the Note 4 doesn't include CCA support. Hopefully the S6 will. Watch Samsung release it though on like February 10, a day before which Sprint committed to eventually unlocking its phones to other carriers, which, now that CCA support will be included, would actually be fully compatible with almost everyone else's networks. If released after February 11, CCA capable phones would become more valuable on the resale market. Nowadays Sprint phones are generally sold at a discount compared to other carriers' variants.

Thanks for the update. Your experience shows just how critical it is that Sprint deploys LTE B26 as quickly as possible. In my opinion, speeding this up is the most important thing Sprint can do right now to improve their chances of success in the wireless market.

I believe the iPhone 5 has CDMA BC10, so, if the user can make and receive voice calls today without a problem but has problems with data reception then that is a very good sign that yes, upgrading to the iPhone 5c/5s or 6/6p should, as you said, significantly increase their data reception and battery life. However, if the user has problems making voice calls in their location then upgrading to a newer iPhone probably won't make that much of a difference as far as data and battery life is concerned.

Yes, of course. In fact, the iPhone 5S already does.

AJ, you a re misinterpreting my point. If Sprint wants to lock its devices to reduce churn or whatever, then fine but come out and say so, instead of pretending that they want to unlock them but supposedly can't because of the OEMs - when the OEMs already go out of their way to accommodate Sprint's unusual requests in this arena. My point is that if Sprint really intended to allow some type of domestic unlock, I am sure they OEMs could have figured out a way by now. At the end of the day these shenanigans (e.g. domestic locks) are a double-edged sword. Yes, these kind of restrictions might marginally reduce churn but on the other hand it makes Sprint a less attractive carrier for someone to sign up with in the first place (since all the other carriers will fully domestic unlock their devices under the appropriate circumstances except for Sprint which won't under any circumstances). As far as I see it, the proof for Sprint's actions are in the pudding - they are still losing subscribers by the droves and are about to lose the 3rd place spot. It's time for the company to reconsider all aspects of how it does business. Don't get me wrong, I want this company to succeed and do well but so far their actions haven't been able to gain them the escape velocity they need to take off from the position they're in.

Sorry, no pass from me to Sprint on this one. First of all, with respect to the doupoly argument... that one doesn't hold water since no one but Sprint does a domestic lock. Verizon hasn't locked their iPhones for years and AT&T and TMO do lock but they do the normal lock, without any domestic restrictions. Second, Sprint already asks the OEM to do weird, unusual things for them with respect to device locking. Like for example the domestic lock business which no one else does. Another example is the remote unlocking process for say Samsung Galaxy devices. I mean, who does that but Sprint? No one. All the other carriers in the world can live with providing a code to be entered by the user when a foreign sim is inserted but Sprint has to be "special" and come up with an unlocking mechanism unique only to them. My point is that the OEMs are already going out of their way to accommodate Sprint's silly & unusual locking policies so if Sprint asked, I am sure they could also accommodate removing the domestic lock as well (which they will be doing but only come February). Putting the blame on the OEMs on this one is not cool in my opinion.

OK, so here's what I don't get... If A1586 has all the bands that A1549 has, plus the TDD LTE bands, then why make two models and not just go with A1586 for everyone? As for this... My personal feeling is that, at least for recent devices, if Sprint really wanted to be able to unlock devices for domestic use they and the OEMs could come up with a solution to do so but they choose not to (at least not until the "magic" date of 2-11-2015). In other words, I don't really think it's an OEM restriction like Sprint claims, but rather Sprint's choice not to pursue it at this point.

Thanks for the article. I would personally say that the very first bullet in the "to capitalize on the following advantages:" section should be - Allow for simultaneous voice and data connectivity. All the other stuff you mention is very important, yes, but from a marketing perspective, the lack of simultaneous voice and data is a significant missing feature of the Sprint network compared to its competitors. Personally, I think this should be the number one reason why Sprint should be looking towards VoLTE (if anything, for this reason I would say that Sprint needs VoLTE more than any of the other carriers, but appears to be the last to obtain it).

With an app. I am using SignalCheck Pro.

The one huge benefit of the Sprint iPad Air and Mini Retina cellular versions is that they're unlocked and work on all carriers. True, there's no Spark but they do have LTE800 plus the LTE bands of the other major North American providers. I wish Samsung will someday go the same route as Apple and start making single-SKU devices like this. Their tablets are getting better with every generation.

Just an update... It looks like 800 1x started showing up across Hampton Roads in the past month or so. In some places there is significant improvement in voice coverage as a result. According to Sprint, 800Mhz LTE is also coming in the next few months.

I've wondered the same thing ever since the 5S came out. In fact for the iPad Air and Mini Retina cellular models they essentially used the "Sprint variant" for all 4 carriers (with band support identical to the iPhone 5S for Sprint).

Band 18 is a subset of band 26, meaning once you support band 26 you also get band 18 "for free". I suspect that in the next iteration of the iPhone, all 4 major carriers will use one SKU. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon already share the same 5S variant.

Does this thing support LTE channel widths other than 5Mhz on band 25?

How about cdma1x 800 in Hampton Roads? Anyone happen to notice any of it anywhere? I still haven't run into any yet (even in places where it could really help).

I don't know if they were "protection sites" or a the beginning of a bona fide effort by Clear to build a network in the region. As I mentioned before, Hampton Roads is the largest metro area on the Eastern seaboard in which Clearwire did not launch service. It could be that they meant to but then ran out of money.

remember that Sprint did built a tiny WiMax network in the Hampton Roads area. Maybe they are upgrading those few towers over to Spark sooner rather than later.

That sucks, dude! Because of crap like this is basically why I went ahead and got the tablet from Sprint (more specifically, a Sprint one from the Apple store; the Sprint stores didn't have them in stock around launch time). That said, when I did go to activate it over the phone, the MEID was indeed the only number CS asked for (though of course, despite what the idiots in the Sprint store told lynyrd65, you still had to have a SIM card - which I did since it was a Sprint tagged tablet). No problem whatsoever activating the same tablet on T-Mobile though (and with the free 200mb). As for the charge for SIMs... I distinctly remember reading folks being charged $50 for a lost SIM card (on xda I think it was). I am glad to hear that this is not the official policy on these things. Just another example of the inconsistency in customer service, like with the poster who wasn't able to activate his tablet. BTW, on my Air, the MEID can be found near the bottom of the General->About screen under Settings.

The $15 plan is without contract. However, it doesn't seem like they let you activate it using a "pass". That means that after all the BS fees they tack on when they put your info in their regular billing system it's more like $20. Do you happen to know what Sprint charges for a SIM card nowadays? If you lose your SIM they charge you some ungodly amount, like $50 or something I believe (and for something that costs them maybe 20 cents!). Does that same ridiculous price apply to SIMs for establishing tablet service also?

Like I said, I am not sure about Sprint's policy when it comes to tablets. The two CDMA carriers tend to be real PITA when it comes to activating devices in general. BTW, I was not able to activate the $15/month "special" plan through the device when I got it about six weeks ago. I had to call Sprint to have them activate it over the phone (which added about $4 in taxes and fees per month to the cost of the plan).

A couple things... I am not sure Sprint would activate a device that wasn't purchased from them. That's why I got my iPad from them. You don't need to buy the iPad from t-mobile in order to get the free 200mb. I got the SIM straight from T-Mobile (back when they had them for 99 cents a few weeks ago) then activated on my Sprint iPad and am getting the 200 free mb. BTW, Sprint has a pretty good deal on tablet plans right now - 2gb for $15/mo. with no contract (though with fees it comes out to almost $20 a month, still decent tho).