always_learner

What's funny is on the ED1500, even without upgrading, it is still cheaper per line, per month than people that BYOD to Sprint w/ a new line.  I've been sitting on two upgrades for awhile now and we're still spending ~$45/month per line.

I'm curious how and when those plans are going to be phased out.

Currently, 3/5 lines on our ED1500 went with the Sprint Loyalty credit of ~$15/month on a lease.  That credit continues per line even when the 3 lines renew their lease (new phone in a couple years).

I'm tempted to move the other two lines to the credit as well because I'm wondering if the subsidies will disappear.

So, let me see if I have this straight...

 

2015 Moto X:  Moto X Play ≠ Moto X Style

 

I was under the initial impression that they were just different names, but they are all the same phone, same size, same specs, etc.  The Moto X Play would be the international variant, not sold in the US.  The Moto X Style would be the domestic variant, sold unlocked.

 

Now, I understand that the Moto X Play is a 5.5 in display with a Snapdragon 610, while the Moto X Style is a 5.7 in display with a Snapdragon 808.  So, they are on different mid range and flagship tiers.

 

Are we sure now that the "UC1" and "UC2" variants at the FCC OET that we have been discussing as the 2015 Moto X are the Moto X Style and not the Moto X Play?  I remember doing the math on the diagonal and projecting a 5.5 in display. 

 

AJ

UC1=Pure Moto X Style (U.S. Version)?

UC2='UnPure' Moto X Style (International Version)?

You're math projection might have not accounted for the Moto X high screen to body percentage (76%).

Not so fast.  Motorola or Phandroid may end up with egg on its face over this one.  Bar none, the "UC2" variant is not authorized for band 13 nor CDMA2000.  Unless it gets a Class II Permissive Change filing or the "UC1" variant also ends up as a Pure Edition, both parties are at least partly wrong.  The only accurate part is that there is a Moto X Style that is compatible with VZW -- it just may not be the Pure Edition.

 

And, just to be clear, Moto X Style is what the 2015 version is being called, right?

 

AJ

B13 officially added to Moto Tech page. UC1=Pure?

http://www.motorola.com/us/smartphones/moto-x-pure.html#specs-moto-x-pure-us

Tim basically covered all of this in our article on The Wall three weeks ago and our discussions prior to that in the staff FCC OET thread.  What we can add to that now is the "UC2" variant will be sold as the Pure Edition.  But there is absolutely no chance it is usable on Sprint.

 

The Pure Edition does indeed lack band 26.  It is a curious omission, since it includes band 5 and covers all other Sprint LTE bands.  Additionally, it supports 2x CA -- just not on band 41.  Most damningly, the Pure Edition specs from Motorola claim CDMA2000 support, but that was never authorized in the FCC OET testing.  The CDMA2000 is just a latent capability of the Snapdragon X10 modem on board the Snapdragon 808 chipset.

 

So, in a nutshell, the "UC1" variant is the only one for Sprint.  And it also covers VZW -- should VZW not have its own Droid version this time around.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-389-teaser-hello-moto-x/

 

AJ

UC1 per FCC docs

LTE bands 2 4 5 7 12 13 17 25 26 41

UC2 per FCC docs

LTE bands 2 4 5 7 12 17 25 29 41

Specs per Motorola for Pure edition

LTE bands 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 12 17 20 25 28 40 41

Misprints aside and given the UC2 is the Pure edition, why the discrepancies between the Motorola spec page and the FCC docs for the UC2 as far as LTE bands? Like the inclusion of B29 for UC2 (not listed on Pure edition) or the omission of B1, 3, 8, 20, 28, and 40 for the UC2.

Also, why are they marketing pure edition as universal if it won't work on sprint?

Thanks

Dead cat bounce.

What do you think next week's earnings report will do to Sprint's stock price?

Even where B26 is not fully optimized for coverage, it still offloads a ton of capacity. Doubling what's available over B25 alone.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

Out of curiosity, does B26 really double B25 capacity since Chicago has two B25 carriers?

Two tenths of an inch is a deal breaker for you? That's about the width of this O. If you can live with 5.5, you can live with 5.7.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

Also the screen could be bigger, and the phone could remain relatively the same size (e.g. This phone looks to have a bigger screen (5.7) than the LG G4 (5.5), yet the style is almost exactly the same width as the G4).

Bands

UMTS GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

UMTS/HSPA+ (800, 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz)

4G LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 20, 25, 28, 40, 41)

http://www.motorola.com/us/smartphones/moto-x-pure.html#specs-moto-x-pure-us

No band 26?

Phone looks good for the price-point, main concern would be the battery size to handle that QHD display.

Why? Because slow data speeds are the biggest reason Sprint "appears" in last place on Root Metrics. While they have won A LOT of awards for reliability and call/texting, their data speeds often are holding them down. They are in last place on NetIndex for speeds in many areas. CA is going to help Sprint market their brand better. Yes, 120Mbps on a cell phone is kind of dumb, especially when most people have home wired broadband that is much slower...it is just something Sprint can use to sell their services. Plus it helps with capacity.

I could definitely see how it would help with the marketing (especially on rootmetrics like you said).

How about the capacity you mentioned?  How is that improved?  The capacity of the network changes when you add CA?  Thanks.

~

I guess you aren't aware or realize that Carrier Aggregation is optimizing the network.

You are right.  I was not aware that CA fell strictly under optimization.

Nevertheless, my point was about optimizing software on the network and on phones especially (e.g. b26).  I thought that the biggest hurdle of CA was more related to hardware expansion (back-haul? is that the right term?) and making sure phone manufacturers put the extra hardware to be able to use CA

In an effort to promote discussion:

 

Why is carrier aggregation important for Sprint? Doesn't Sprint have tons of spectrum to work with? Don't get me wrong, I am for sure excited for higher speeds as most of my usage tends to be burst downloads when i tether my laptop to my phone when I am in the field (12 GB this month!   ) so anything that saves me a few moments is just extra icing on the cake.

 

Will it help edge case issues such as dropping to 3g in a low LTE signal area/or help speeds in low LTE signal areas? When I am on the outskirts of a cell here in Austin (which has GREAT LTE coverage) I can see some very slow speeds still.

 

Or is this mainly to help the above case I described by throwing more available bandwidth at people? How does this help when for Sprint I feel that it would still be limited by backhaul in many cases?

 

Thanks ahead of time for any clarification.

This has also been one of my misunderstandings.  I'm not sure why CA on band 41 would help Sprint.  80+ Mb/s speeds look nice for marketing purposes, but hardly make any difference compared to a reliable 5 Mb/s connection.  I guess aggregating fringe b41 signal may have some use, but isn't band 41 pretty hard to congest (especially here in Chicago with 3 other carriers already active).

Why would Sprint not put more efforts on optimization of its three bands rather than carrier aggregation on band 41?

 

No fee for the router. It shows on my bill as 

 

Wi-Fi Connect from Sprint $0.00

 

Correct.  The CSR confirmed when I ordered the router that it would show as you said.  The CSR added though that my taxes would go up seeing as the router counts as a device.

I know from personal experience when I had the Airave that I paid an additional $5-6 in taxes each month while it remained on the account.  I will see how much my taxes go up, if at all, after my first billing cycle with the router and, if I remember, will report back.

As per my earlier posts, I found it did not behave well in a network with another router. It is now sitting in the box unused. Maybe if Sprint or Asus has a firmware update I will try again.

I've read that Sprint may charge you the $85 if the router remains inactive for a period of time.  I'm not sure how this is monitored though.

Also, there's a fee of a few dollars (taxes if I'm not mistaken) added to your bill each month when you have an Airave on the account.  I think this fee might also be added if you have the router.

Either way, it might not be worth keeping the router unless of course you plan on having it for more than a year.  In that case, the router becomes your property and you may than flash custom/stock firmware onto the router.

Anyone have any experience with the

I was curious how it differs from the $15 credit Sprint stores offer.  I know that, contrary to what some reps say, the $15 continues even after the 1st lease if you go with the Sprint store option.

I'm not sure how the $19 credit option is at Beset Buy.

I'm considering the lease option for my wife's line. She is almost due for a 2 year upgrade anyway but the 24 month lease will be cheaper than buying the phone ($120 - lease vs $200 - on contract) over the 24 month period. According to Sprint, I'm eligible for a $15 monthly credit for leasing the phone so it's effectively $5 per month.

 

I know I can just walk into the Sprint store on Friday to get one but it appears Best Buy's promo with the free wireless charger is in effect through Saturday. Does anyone know if the free wireless charger will be given if I lease the phone instead of purchase it? Best Buy is a much farther drive for me but it would be worth it to get the free charger. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

I'm not sure the lease would be cheaper.  With the contract, you pay $200, but couldn't you then sell the phone for at least $150 making it a $70 profit over the lease.  That's assuming that the lease doesn't let you keep the phone, right?

And then as far as the Best Buy part, if you lease it from them, do you still receive the $15 credit, or does the lease have to be directly through Sprint?

I think rootmetrics tested Chicago around late March for 1st half 2014.  I wonder if the outage will have any effect on Sprint's score for 2015.

Whats everyone's tax? I have 17 for sprint surcharges and 26 for government taxes and fees.  Fees went up a few months ago, not sure why.

ED 1500 5 lines, 2 Insurance, 1 Lease, 15% discount, 290

I just did a LG Volt from Virgin Mobile BYOD on Freedompop ($20 activation).  Signal strength on Band 41 is better on it than Nexus 5 on Sprint.  Hopefully this means there are going to be some changes on how Sprint white-lists its phones for MVNO and maybe even postpaid.

I believe this list below is not complete because I've tried models not listed that have worked.

https://forums.freedompop.com/discussion/4646/supported-phones-what-phones-can-i-activate-with-freedompop-on-byod-update-02-04-2015/p1

BYOD Supported Phones:
Samsung Galaxy SII (Samsung Epic 4G Touch is the Sprint name)
Samsung Galaxy SIII
Samsung Galaxy S4** (NO MINI)
Samsung Victory
Samsung Epic 4G
Samsung Nexus S
LG Viper
Motorola Photon 4G
iPHONES (from an iPhone 4 to iPhone 5S.)
HTC Evo Design
HTC Evo 3D
HTC Evo 4G
HTC Evo Shift*
*Please be advised: We are currently experiencing issues with BYOD activation of the HTC Evo Shift, activation may not be successful at this time.*


Tablet BYOD list:

IPADS (all the way up through iPad Air 2)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.0

NEW BYOD List Dated (2/4/2015)

LG Tribute
LG Optimus S
Kyocera Hydro
Motorola Moto G
LG Realm
Samsung Nexus S 4G
LG Volt
Samsung Galaxy Discover
Kyocera Event
Samsung Galaxy Prevail
LG Optimus V
HTC One M7
Samsung Galaxy Mega
LG Nexus 5
Samsung Galaxy Rush
LG G2
HTC Desire 510
Samsung Moment
HTC One V
Kyocera Rise

 

Does this thread have anything to do with Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Sprint Prepaid phones becoming eligible to be activated on Sprint Postpaid?

Thanks

You're paying about $20 a month for your subsidy.  So you'll pay $480 plus a phone to get $398.  That actually sounds like a pretty bad deal unless you consider the time value of money (you make the money now and pay it back over the next 2 years) and trade in a worthless qualifying phone.  You'll also be locked into your contract for 2 more years. 

Discussing a subsidy model versus a contract free cellphone model would take too long, so I will not speak generally.

Personally though, I pay $55 a month for unlimited everything on Family Everything Data 1500.  The breakdown would be $50 a month for unlimited data plan and $5 for the subsidy or $398-120=278.

I did forget to add the activation fee though.

Updated the post with a picture of the ad showing the trade in special.

I have an upgrade on my account but am content with my Nexus 5, can I use the upgrade and sell the phone after they activate it?

Would my math be right for the iPhone 6: $190 - 20% discount from Cartwheel - $100 for trade in - $50 Target gift card - $400 resale value of iPhone 6 = $398 profit?

Sounds too good to be true.

I don't understand. I don't remember anyone being able to connect to B41 that widely back when we were actively discussing and testing the different radios. Probably February-March timeline. Most of the reports at the time were that the .15 would only connect when no B25 was present. Only in select markets would it work. Maybe Tampa was one of them. I'm not sure. However, I do know that even now I cannot connect to B41 on the .15 radio in KC, and wasn't able to this summer in St. Louis. I tested it most recently in KC on Thanksgiving. Clear nor 8T8R would connect.

 

Also, I have to reiterate, there was a reason the .15 radio was never publicly released. It does not function normally.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

Pages 211-217 of this thread: .15 connected well to Band 41 according to many.  You were one of the exceptions though.

1.x.x.x.15? Really? Screenshot please? Even now, with some 8T8R in KC, I never connect to B41 with that radio.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9b7byj93kPgYzhnYlJMckJSTnc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9b7byj93kPgQXZaQmZqajY5aDg/view?usp=sharing

I believe this is the radio.

I never once connected to B41 (Clear or 8T8R) on the .15 radio in Kansas City. I think it was decided that you could only connect when there was no B26 or B25 available. Which is pretty much never going to happen now when in range of B41.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

That radio does connect to Band 41: it is currently connecting me to Band 41 with plenty of Band 25 and Band 26 around.  It rarely disconnects me from Band 41 to jump over to Band 25 or Band 26.

The 0.15 baseband version can still be flashed to Android L Preview (and the the finalized version), correct?

Thank you.