anthony.spina97

Has wifi calling improved since these issues were reported?

iOS 10 will bring updates to WiFi calling on Sprint that allows SMS over WiFi and lets you retain the ability to have HD Voice while WiFi calling is activated on your line. It currently works on the iOS 10 Beta and is much better than before, IMO.

-Anthony

 but what I don't like is how with cable, the speeds are affected by neighbors' usage. 

Echoing what gusherb said, this really is a non-issue if your network is set up correctly with the correct technologies in place. I have Time Warner Cable's 300/20 plan and regularly get 350+ down and 25+ up, at all times of the day, with my neighbors also being on TWC.

-Anthony

My new phone arrived from Apple!

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

-Anthony

Were there any new leaks for the 7 that would change my mind about purchasing this model besides 3CA?

Change your mind to what? Not get it or get it? I just saw a leak of the display panel that shows that the 7 is getting a 1080p screen and the 7 Plus is getting a 2K/QHD screen.

-Anthony

Hey, kind of resurrecting an old thread but I have an announcement for all iPhone users. In the latest iOS 10 beta, wifi calling on sprint works for both voice and SMS and it also appears that the HD voice problem has been solved. Now you can place HD voice calls on the macro network with wifi calling enabled on the device and SMS goes over wifi when available.

Wow, really? I actually didn't know that. Here I thought I knew everything about the update lol. It's nice that I can actually turn on WiFi calling now and not lose HD voice!

-Anthony

Yeah, like a factor of 8, right?

 

(1 Byte = 8 bits)

Yes sir, you are correct in your statement.

-Anthony

I never understand when people make this argument - in a weak signal area, the goal should always be to get everyone on the most efficient network. Higher power levels would increase the signal strength, increasing your SNR and thus your speeds. Also, B26 should never die with EVDO at -85dbm...are you sure both signals are coming from the same site?

Yes, I am absolutely positive. It's the way the network is set up here. The power levels aren't turned up, and I could only imagine what would happen if that tower service even more people. And it's not the topography, because I live in a relatively flat area with not a lot of tree cover. They just don't have the power turned up here. My best guess is because of lack of site spacing so they don't turn it up so that it becomes completely unusable.

Basically the gist of what I'm saying is, what works for one carrier in one (or more) area(s) may not work for another in the same area(s). Yes, I do realize that that kind of contradicts what I was saying earlier when I was trying to compare my anecdotal experience to yours, and I'm sorry about that lol. 

-Anthony

I finally found a scenario that 5x5 B17 didn't work on AT&T due to overcrowding. I was at one of the wineries in Michigan which was having a fairly decent sized event and LTE was just crawling. I was able to pull between .4 and 1 Mbps, with a lot of flakiness. Mind you this is a good ways out in the country. When heading back west towards I-94 I tracked down the cell sector I was connecting to all the way back to a boomer type tower in Bridgman right next to the interstate. That turned out to be 7.5 miles from where I was. I was kind of surprised I had any LTE at all from a tower 7.5 miles away on a 5 MHz 700 carrier in the middle of a hilly forest.

Anyway the point I'm getting at is that Sprint definitely could turn up its 800 LTE in suburban areas where cells are only 1-3 miles apart and work fine, they would just need to watch out in rural areas like I was at. I haven't had a problem with AT&T 5 MHz B17 in the more suburban areas.

AT&T seems to be doing that with their 5x5 B17 and they have about twice as many subs as Sprint so no, not really. If AT&T can get away with it, Sprint definitely can.

And I just stated two posts above yours that such is not actually the case. its clearly proven by other carriers that this isn't true, that it CAN be turned up and pushed out quite far before the 5 MHz channel starts to buckle. There are no more valid excuses for why they don't turn up LTE 800, yes it will slow down but in most situations it'll still be working better than the alternative - EVDO.

Except here's a problem with this idea of yours. I live in a town called Harrisburg in North Carolina. It's basically a suburb of Charlotte, but has a population of ~15,000 people. There is a Sprint tower about two miles away from me (which is outside of the city limits) that I connect to regularly with a -113 dBm Band 26 connection, and regularly get less than 2 Mbps down and less than .5 Mbps up, and that's late at night, or "off-peak" hours. This is an example of the power not being turned up on Band 26, with it not covering a huge expanse of land, and not being far away from it. And yet, my speeds still suck. Compared to EVDO, I can regularly get over 1 Mbps down and up at most times of the day, with a -85 dBm or greater signal. Turning the signal up is not the solution. Densifying with more towers/small cells is the solution. I can only imagine how bad the speeds would be if they had the power turned up on Band 26 here.

-Anthony

Marcelo talked about new plans coming in sept at the townhall this week. Also mentioned us having 2000 different activae rate plans from promos and people on outdated plans and that he planned on converting everyone to less than 10 active rate plans.

 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

They're going to have to pry Framily out of my cold, dead hands. 

-Anthony

That sounds like battery damage to me. You should probably take your phone to the Apple Store.

-Anthony

A bit more on topic ...

 

I've owned my iPhone 6S 64GB for 8 months now. In the last month I've started to experience appalling battery levels.

 

Before then I was getting a full day and I was happy. Now, I often find my battery empty at the most inconvenient times.

 

I'm posting screenshots to show no low signal flags and, secondly, battery drain.

 

 

 

Are there any known recall programs in the U.S. for this type of problem?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Notice how your "Usage" time and your "Standby" time are almost the same? That means that there is something that is constantly running in the background, even when you have the device locked. My suggestion is to turn off "Background Refresh" and to change "Fetch New Data" in your Mail settings to "Off". Those two things should save you a TON of battery.

-Anthony

The lease comes up in August with a buyout option. So when I buy that out I should be able to get it unlocked at the same time, right?

Correct.

-Anthony

The Sprint version of the iPhone 6 lacks band 12 support, but other than that, it should operate perfectly fine on T-Mobile's network. As long as you fully own the device (no contract or easy pay/lease on the device) then you should have no problems getting it unlocked by Sprint, either.

-Anthony

 

Side note: Sprint used to throttle/compress video to 600kbps in the past. I personally had no problem with it since it saved me a ton of data. Was 360p quality. They got rid of it after people complained a year or two ago, so Marcelo gave in. 

 

Actually, Sprint announced a new plan (called "All In") that had a 600 kbps throttle included in it for video, but Marcelo got rid of the throttle before people were ever able to sign up for it because of the complaining done by the community. So, technically, Sprint never throttled video on their network. Here's and article on it.

-Anthony

Yes, people do upload large photos and videos.  Some "content creators" use more uplink data than they do downlink data.  But the vast majority of data traffic overall is on the downlink.  The proportion is not even close.

 

AJ

Yeah the majority of people I can think of who heavily use upload are people who livestream on websites like Twitch and those who regularly upload videos to Youtube. But I highly doubt any of them are using cellular data to do so, so like you said, download should be weighted way more than upload.

-Anthony

Wow! I'm very impressed with Sprint's showing in Charlotte! Granted, I tend to travel in their less covered areas of the market, so I tend to see the worst of the network here. But man! That's nice to see!

-Anthony

Let me ask you this. What happens when that good cell signal becomes overloaded? Assuming you have Sprint, it's not out of the realm of possibility considering Sprint has so many unlimited data users

 

I can't see Sprint only putting one small cell in to service a large neighborhood, considering it 1) probably wouldn't provide a substantial enough coverage increase to be effective and 2) would only provide a hot spot of coverage in an otherwise fringe area. Therefore, if there were multiple small cells covering this theoretical neighborhood, like Verizon is currently doing in a neighborhood here (thanks for that info caspar347), the likelihood of any/all of them getting overloaded isn't very high considering each one would probably only be covering maybe a dozen or so houses at a time.

What if Sprint renegotiates its tower leases and decides to move their equipment down the road where you are now in a fringe area? Or what if Sprint merges with T-Mobile and the new company decides to drop some of their leases in order to cut costs?

 

Would you go through the process of selling, moving, and buying new property? Wouldn't it be easier to just switch providers or get on wifi at that point?

It would be very odd to me if Sprint were to move their equipment to somewhere that would cause a detriment to their coverage that that equipment was specifically put in place to remedy, so IMO that wouldn't be very likely to happen. And if Sprint and T-Mobile were to merge and they decided to drop those leases then so be it. If that caused a problem for me then yes, I would consider switching carriers to someone who better served my home. Good cell signal will be a high priority for me when buying a house, but no, I will not sell the house if that becomes an issue down the road. 

And wifi is irrelevant because either way, I will be using wifi. I want good cell service at my home because I would like to be able to make phone calls and send texts while home, and if my power/internet were to go out, I would like to be confident that I will have a back up in case that happens.

-Anthony

While previous generations were probably more concerned with asthetics over function.

 

I know a few folks that have a list of wants before purchasing a new home, and having a good solid cell signal sits squarely in the must haves.

 

So in essense driving the property value up.

I was just about to post something like this. Whenever I move out of my parents place post-college, one of the most important things that I will look for at my house will be good cell signal. I would have absolutely no problems with purchasing a house with a utility pole on it's property if it means that I get good cell signal vs. sub-par cell signal.

-Anthony

I'm on the beta currently. Relatively stable so far; been on it since 4 pm EST yesterday. Definitely laggy with the animations on my 6 Plus, but it is very usable. Battery life seems normal, and performance seems the same aside from the laggy animations. Basically everything works, though.

-Anthony

Sweet! I'm currently watching the Xbox E3 briefing until the Keynote starts, can't wait!

-Anthony

Intel Gets Chip Order From Apple, Its First Major Mobile Win

 

 

I'm guessing Sprint's version of the iPhone will have the Qualcomm modem?

More than likely yes. The AT&t/T-Mobile one will use the Intel chip and the Sprint/Verizon one will use the Qualcomm chip.

-Anthony

Arysyn, as a suggestion, why not start your own S4GRU fantasy wireless league? You can hold operator, spectrum license/band, and even CEO drafts.

 

AJ

-Anthony

No as that would require new equipment as that is release 11 LTE.

What is release 11? 

Yeah I'm not sure what about 10x10 on Band 26 requires the equipment to be upgraded to release 11. Wasn't Verizon running release 9 for the longest time and they use 10x10?

-Anthony

Their cost of service includes the operation of the Clearwire network as well... I bet that inflates numbers a bit. It should come down at least by some as Clearwire is decommissioned.

Yeah I was going to say, wasn't there an article or a post that said that the Clearwire network was costing Sprint something to the tune of half a billion dollars or so (give or take a hundred million) a quarter to run?

-Anthony

EDIT:

Found the post. I overestimated a little bit.  200-250 million a year.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/7240-its-the-wimax-countdown/?p=450176

The only real feedback I can offer is that the System ID or SID is not what I would expect to see for 1x800, but then again, Alcatel might have their SIDs assigned differently than Samsung markets like mine. I think all the Ohio markets, Pittsburgh and West PA all use a 5 digit SID that starts with 22 for 1x800. The PCS SIDs here are 4 digits and begin with 4 like what is displayed in your screenshot. My market primarily uses SID 4396 for 1x1900.

The thing is, on the iPhone, 1x800, or Band Class 10, comes up as "Secondary 800 MHz band[10]" whereas his screenshots say 800 MHz cellular band, which on the iPhone comes up as band class 0, and is used by Verizon and many other carriers, but AFAIK, not Sprint. The Field Test screen seems like it may be bugged and is displaying older info/mixed info, which wouldn't surprise me considering how buggy it is.

-Anthony