nova46

Often times when I'm driving around doing deliveries for work, I stream music whether it be from Pandora, iheartradio, etc. Sprints 3G network has a hard enough time keeping the stream and not buffering, but a lot of the time my connection drops to 1X and it will stay like that for a while. Sometimes I can toggle mobile data off/on and it will reconnect to 3G, and other times it goes right back to 1X and stay like that for however long it wants. This drives me nuts. I am paying $10 for "premium data" when I don't even use 4G due to the coverage being so spotty, 3G is super slow, and half the time I get dropped to 1X. So wtf. Any explanation for this?

Yea, the Nexus should be a great phone but I've heard lots of people having problems with it. There is the Evo 3D, which I got through an insurance upgrade from my Evo 4G, but it will be outdated soon. It's definitely a beast don't get me wrong, especially rooted with custom roms and kernels, but it's last years tech. Like I said, have patience and wait for the HTC One X (Evo LTE?) or the Galaxy S III, or switch to Verizon. Those are your two options unless you want to get stuck with last years tech and a dying 4G (wimax) network. With Sprint, it's all about the future. If network vision fails, they will fail.

That's a tough question. I live in a market that has been announced to get network vision/LTE in the second round of upgrades and I'm still debating on whether or not to stay with Sprint when my contract expires in October. I would just tell you to have patience at this point. The Photon is a great phone but it's old. Best advice when it comes to smartphones these days, buy the top of the line flagship phone as soon as or soon after it comes out. If not, you're going to be left behind with outdated hardware or something else better will be right around the corner and you will have buyers remorse. Non-removable batteries suck, but it's not the end of the world and they always give you a way to do a hard reset. Many markets do not have Wimax because it's mostly clearwire's network and towers (correct me if I'm wrong). Sprint's network vision and LTE will eventually spread out over their entire network because that's the next evolution of what they want, it's just a matter of time before everyone gets it. If I were you I'd wait a bit to see what other announcements are made and as far as phones go, my next one will be the Galaxy S III but the HTC One X is pretty nice which will be coming to Sprint. Screens are getting larger but the bezels are shrinking. My Evo 3D only has a 4.3" screen but if you took away the capacitive buttons in favor for on screen ones you can easily fit a 4.8" display in the same form factor no problem.

Hoping RDU isn't too far down the list...we desperately need a network overhaul.

Man if you can hold off for a bit, I would really wait for the Galaxy S III. Not entirely sure when the release will be but should be sometime mid-year. It's going to be one beast of a phone that will be future proof for a while. Quad core exynos processor, 720p or 1080p Super AMOLED Plus screen, LTE enabled, ceramic backing, and other goodies. If not, I'm fairly certain Sprint is about to release a version of the HTC One X very soon, possibly tomorrow since Dan Hesse has a press release type thing tomorrow at MWC. If you really don't want to wait I would at least try to hold out a month or so whenever Sprint gets the Galaxy Nexus. While the Epic Touch 4G is a great phone, it's not future proof at all considering it does not have LTE.

I work by the corner of Maynard rd and e chatam St and even though there is a tower right down the road and I get full service, a lot of my speed tests put me at or below dial up speeds. Trying to stream I heart radio is next to impossible.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/27/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-full-specs-1-5ghz-quad-core-1080p-display-ceramic-case/ There's some more detailed info from BGR. Of course these are rumors, but I have faith in Samsung that they would put out some shit like this that completely stomps the competition like they did with the GSII. This is definitely going to be my next phone. I've been envious of the GSII ever since it came out. I had the Evo 4G and got the 3D through insurnace but when my contract expires I'm for sure switching to Samsung. While I do have some concerns about the screen size (current 4.3's are pushing it), I measured my phone and a 4.8" screen could easily fit in the same dimensions especially if they got rid of the capacitive buttons.

I only read the first article but microwave definitely seems the way to go. Extremely cheap compared to laying down new fiber lines especially where they didn't exist before. They are able to install them much quicker since they don't have to deal with permits and actual construction of it and since they can just put it on their own tower, no fees need to be paid to someone else. It seems this is the way Sprint/Clearwire are going based on the NV site pictures that were posted here a few days ago, with that microwave dish on the top of the tower right below the other radios and antennas. Glad to see Sprint is being cost effective and future proof here and not wasting their cash. Just saw that you are in raleigh sgt slaughter, I'm right next door lol and seen you on xda and infected rom but my name on those are ncfastls1 I think. Hope to see some NV sites around here soon.

I strongly considered getting an iPhone 4 when my contract with ATT ended and I was shopping around for phones. I basically narrowed it down that the two best phones on the market were the iPhone 4 and the brand spanking new Evo 4G. I had put all of my previous apple hate behind me and accepted that the iPhone 4 was actually a really good phone. I played around with it at the store and it was nice. Then I went to the Sprint store and used the Evo 4G for like 20 minutes. Shit blew my mind. It was awesome. The gigantic screen (I'm a sucker for huge displays, on anything), all the pretty widgets, and everything about Android. It made iOS look so boring. And this is before I even knew about rooting! Once I rooted about two months after I got the phone I just fell more in love with it. Every time I flashed a different ROM it felt like I had a new phone again. And that's one thing the 4G never had a shortage of, custom roms. The dev community for that phone is stupidly large lol, way too many choices if there is such a thing. Anyway I kind of went off topic, but ever since Apple went on this crazy lawsuit spree I absolutely hate them. I turn everyone I possibly can convince away from their products and will never support them. They just have shady business tactics. They are worried and mad that Android is rapidly eating away at their market share so instead of innovating and making better products, which they claim they are so good at doing, they just sue everyone. It's ridiculous at this point.

I feel the exact same. Was a nice phone when it came out, but already the interals were only on-par if not a bit dated. Sprint is letting some customers buy out of their contract to grab another phone and contract, but as nice as the galaxy nexus is, it doesn't wow me in the specs department especially with rumored quad cores coming soon. My contract expires in August and this time I'm really waiting for something that makes me drop my mouth like the OG Evo did. I would prefer a pure Nexus phone, but I'll see what's available at that time.

Sense used to make "sense" in the early days of android. Now with ICS though, I really see no use for it. I used to be a big Sense fan for various reasons including the widgets, but after using CM7 for a while and finding apps/widgets to replace the ones I had with Sense, I really saw no point in going back. It just sucks up resources. I like the Sense lockscreen with the ring, but now stock ICS has most of the same functionality. Although I won't be using just stock, I'll be using CM9. Already ran the alpha version that JoelZ has been working on for the 3D and I absolutely love it. There's just some bugs that prevent it from being daily driver ready. Sense went from adding polish and functionality to just eye candy and bloat. I don't need a fancy weather animation every time I unlock my screen (yes you can get rid of it but really?). The carosel (sp) effect in 3.0 and up is just useless. That prevents from using scrollable wallpapers which is one of the things I love about android.

Yep, I get the same shit haha. Sunday mornings are about the only time where sprints network isn't completely useless. 3G speed test put me at 800 kbps and 4G at 5000 kbps. Those speeds will drop sharply in the next few hours lol.

Thanks I'll be visiting frequently. I found this site through XDA and seems you have lots of great and detailed information specific to Sprint's network which I'm very interested in. Back on topic though, Sprint does have the potential to offer incredible service with all the combined spectrum from them, the soon to be decommissioned iDEN network, and Clearwire's spectrum when it's converted to LTE. They just need to actually stick with all the plans they have and not take forever to complete them.

I had to do that yesterday. I ran a speed test on 3G with FULL signal (around 5 pm mind you) and I got 45 kbps down. I'm sorry but dial up speeds are not acceptable to me. I had to force roam onto verizons network in order to do anything internet related. At the same time, I did a speed test on my co-workers Thunderbolt with LTE and he got 9 mbps down! I thought that was very impressive, considering he only had 2 bars and it was peak hours. A wimax test around that time would have only given me 1500 kbps at most. And I can't rely on wimax while I'm driving (my job is delivery so I'm constantly driving) to stream music because it constantly drops the signal. Seems to be doing it more than it used to. Sprint needs more backhaul and extra carriers than anything else. I did a speed test a few nights ago around 11 pm at my house where I only get 1-2 bars and I pulled down like 800 kbps. So it's definitely more capacity related than signal coverage. I just really hope they turn things around with network vision. I have lost all faith in them at this point, considering all the "upgrades" they claim to have made in my area (according to the cell tower upgrade map thing they have) and not seeing any improvement. I really don't want to pay for Verizon but I might just have to once my contract expires in August if things don't start to turn around.