travismheim

Someone had mentioned to me here a while ago, that the PCS spectrum could be aggregated with band 41, which I think would be the best usage for it. While I was told here about the two 5x5 carriers, someone mentioned there is a third 5x5 PCS carrier available, which if the three could be combined using CA, if it made it like 15x15, then that would be a good option too.

 

With how it is being implemented now, carrier aggregation of three 5mhz pcs carriers would not be like a 15x15 carrier, it would be 5x5 + 5x0 + 5x0. Uplink would stay on the primary component carrier until uplink ca is developed. Band 25 and band 41 CA should be able to work pretty well, because they could change the TDD ratio to utilize more download on the secondary component carrier which would be less "wasted" spectrum.

 

 

I'm shocked that hangouts hasn't been baked into Android similar to iMessage. I was also shocked to learn that Android M will introduce native visual voicemail. Two things Android should have been all over.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6

Hangouts is preloaded on most Android phones, its part of the standard Google apps package (play store, maps, gmail etc). However, AOSP does not include Google apps. Hangouts can handle all communication when they integrated SMS into it, but its not the default messaging app out of the box on anything but the Nexus line.

 

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Oof, this isn't good news for G4 early adopters: http://www.droid-life.com/2015/07/24/lg-to-introduce-super-premium-phone-later-this-year-as-g4-sales-disappoint/

 

Not sure why companies do multiple flagships in a single year. That will be 3 for LG in 2015 alone. Seems really ridiculous. I mean, I'm not an Apple fan at all, but I can respect their update cycles and single* devices.

 

*-single of each variant annually

I don't see how that is bad news for early adopters. The G4 is still a great phone at a decent price, anything they launch later this year doesn't change that.

 

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I have a bit of money I got from my father in back child support payments he owed for several years. I had to pressure my mother for a very long time to try collecting on it, which she finally did last year. I have enough of it to purchase 10,000 shares of Sprint stock at $2.00 each.

 

However, I know very little of the stock market and how things work, so please no one think this to be a dumb question for me to ask, as I'm just trying to learn some things about it, as I know I need to try to make money for myself any way I can without physical assertion, and I'm unable to get a job because of my extreme physical limitations.

 

So, the question is, say I purchase stock which devalues a week later. I know then that the stock I own is worth less at that point than at the time I purchased it. However, say that another week passes and the stock price rises above the price I purchased it at. In that case, does the stock I own goes up in value to the new higher stock price, or is the stock I own still stuck at the lower devalued rate?

 

I'm figuring that the value of the stock I'd have in the scenario would match the current stock price, though I wanted to ask anyways to make sure. If I'm correct about that, and I owned 10,000 shares at the original rate of $2.00 each, and say it eventually increased to around $40.00 per share, in average, how wealthy would that make me?

Multiply the stock price by how many shares you own and that's how much money you would potentially have if you sold it all at that current price. Your portfolio worth will go up and down with the stock market. I'm sure you know, but don't throw all of your eggs in one basket (don't use all of your money to only purchase stock in one company).

Its a good article. However I don't see AT&T pushing wireless ott video when they are in the middle of buying DirecTV.

 

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Does hangouts intercept incoming calls if I do the integration?

You can have it do that. It's been a while since I used Hangouts for incoming calls, but the Hangouts dialer would always ring before the regular dialer would. If I left it go long enough both would start ringing. One really nice thing about integration with Hangouts is no more eCSFB failing and not letting calls through. It's been happening to me a lot the last week or so, I'm probably going back to using Hangouts for incoming calls so I don't miss anymore.

A little bit of tethering on an unlimited plan we are speaking about. For free or a small fee. If they are giving ul for $60 it won't hurt to offer 2gb of tethering included. Even if its throttled. Or $4 a gb. Or let you buy up for roaming like in the old days.. $20 a month includes 5gb tethering and 1gb roaming ...

It's a good thought, but 1GB in roaming would cost far more than that.

The cut your bill in half promotion really isn't costing Sprint money though, nor is it giving something away, as it is simply a custom rate plan designed to get people to switch to Sprint, something which in many cases has been shown to cost more than some of Sprint's other plans.

 

For instance, the 15gb plan with Verizon at $100, with Sprint would be $50, plus if Sprint counts in the $15 line fee for one line, then half that would be $57.50 monthly, or if Sprint just counts the discount on the plan but not the line, then the 15gb plan on Sprint with one line, is $65 monthly. That is $5 more than Sprint's unlimited plan.

The part that is costing them money is paying all of the customers fee's to switch, contract early termination fee and any eip balance.

 

does Budweiser give people free beer? does Subway give away free subs? "Oh, oh, please, take my $10. I don't want it. It's yours."

 

T-Mobile is the only carrier throwing in tethering, it's not an industry trend, and it's because Legere is the candy man. tethering isn't going to change anyone's mind about which carrier they're going to use. I would be all for CHEAPER tethering and/or bigger pools of data, or throwing it in on Boost or Virgin plans, but throwing it in for free on Sprint is just throwing money away.

 

A base amount of tethering, say for example 1GB would still be nice. They can add it to newer unsubsidized plans to help coax subscribers off legacy plans. If/when Sprint offers a single line plan that is not unlimited, I hope that tethering is included in the data bucket like it is for family share.

 

On Framily, even with the 1GB or 3GB data buckets tethering is still an add on which is actually a different data bucket from the regular data in the plan. For my tablet plan, tethering is also an additional add on with a different data bucket instead of letting me use my data bucket how I see fit. Adding tethering can also reduce the allure to use root to gain access to tethering and using unlimited plans against the terms of service.

It's all a numbers game with Apple and their supply chain. If they went bleeding edge chipsets and Qualcomm hit production snags, that's introducing too much risk and uncertainty.

Definitely. Other manufacturers seem to do fine with it, but if Apple doesn't want to take the risk then they shouldn't. The problem with holding out for the next phone, is the next best thing will always be coming out next year. I just wouldn't bank on any brand new radio features when the new iPhone launches every year.

It makes me consider waiting for 2017.  I have heard that the "S" will have 2CA, which is great.   3CA could be in the 2017 models.  I know CA will depend on Sprint.  At the rate Sprint is progressing with upgrades, 3CA would possibly start rolling out in the fall of 2017, correct?

If 3x CA is going to roll out in fall 2017, I would be willing to bet it won't be supported in the iPhone until the next model (2018). Apple seems to have the radio features from the previous year added instead of offering bleeding edge stuff. 

Is apples website compressing images on mobile??? ImageUploadedByTapatalk1436977874.913895.jpg

 

 

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Sprint used to compress images, that may be what's going on. Sometimes it would be night and day difference, if you connect through a VPN there was no compression.

 

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I don't. Why should sprint pay to have you as a customer.

The ability to force roaming was pretty nice to have sometimes. I've been in areas that were incredibly weak for Sprint and my handset kept connecting and then dropping and roaming and repeating itself. It basically makes the phone unusable in any sense. Part of what makes Sprint so great is their roaming agreements, roaming just has to be used responsibly.

Not on Project Fi .

He didn't say for a set price on Fi. They do offer unlimited data, for unlimited money, which is how it should be.

it's not though, it's a FEE assessed for terminating your contract. lets say I buy an iphone 6 on Verizon. it's $200 up front, + $100 a month for service. Verizon charges $40 a month for the phone on a 2yr contract vs. $27 a month for EDGE, thats $13 a month in device installments. $13*24 = $312 in installments. $312 + $200 upfront = $512, the cost of the phone that they slightly subsidize. the $350 ETF is a completely separate fee.

It's a fee for terminating your contract early because they have not recouped their subsidy yet by providing you with a discounted device. With a $600 device on Sprint with EIP it's $60 plus $25 a month. Now look at the subsidized $80 plan, with $200 up front. That extra $20 a month in the plan is going towards paying the $400 discount that Sprint gave you up front for the device. Notice how you still pay $600 for the phone over the two years? The ETF starts at $350 and goes down every month, because every month you pay back some of that money they discounted up front.

on-contract, device payments for the phone are already built in to monthly charges. most of the people who switched were at least a few months into their contracts. downpayment of $100-$200 + $20 a month*however many months you've already been paying + $300+ ETF, it costs more to terminate a contract than it does to pay off an installment plan, they're intentionally unfair to discourage people from leaving. plus it involves cancelling service.

 

the point is: easier to pay off phone = easier to change carriers. Sprint has proven leasing puts downward pressure on churn, T-Mobile has had problems with churn specifically because people weren't/aren't obligated to stay with them. 

It really doesn't cost more. The ETF is basically the remainder of your subsidy that you have not paid by paying your bill over two years, that's why it goes down month by month. The carriers get their money regardless. EIP and contracts are the same, with a different label to make customers think they aren't in a contract.

there's no penalty for terminating EIP, you just sell the device to pay off the balance.

The same could be said for two year contracts, just sell the device to make up for the termination fee. You have to pay either way, both lock customers down the same.

it's a good thing T-Mobile started offering leasing, because there's practically no pressure on customers to remain with them so they can see those profits (being 'no contract' and all) should the other carriers decide to drop prices / heavily promote.

 EIP is essentially the same thing as a contract. The same customers that could not  afford to pay (or did not want to pay) an early termination fee likely can not afford to pay off their device balances in full if they want to leave early. In many cases, depending on the device EIP can have a larger financial burden if you want to leave early after switching or signing a commitment.

Adding Canada to IVR seems to steal some of the thunder away from T-Mobile with their latest North American roaming. While not quite as good, with the latest adds they now serve most of the destinations Sprint customers would be traveling to.

I understand, and that certainly makes sense to me. The only additional thought I have is, just keep in mind that it doesn't matter what radio tech you have if it has poor RF performance.

For sure, that was one of the main factors when I bought my nexus 5. So many were posting about it being a RF powerhouse, I bought it much sooner than I had planned. I was going to hold out until other lte bands were deployed in my area.

 

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I know if police scanner in Virginia they aren't allowed, but I haven't heard of this. But in my case, I don't travel long distance with my car. But if that was a case in a certain state and your out of state, you really shouldn't be ticketed because you aren't from that state. If I was ticket, I would fight it.

Most law enforcement would probably issue a warning if you have out of state registration. However that doesn't mean you won't be pulled over while they fish for something else.

 

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I am looking to sell my iPhone 6 Plus. Someone has asked me for the ESN and ICCID. Is it safe to share those numbers?

I wouldn't give it, they can activate the phone on their account and then claim it stolen. I would just meet at a store or use swappa or something like that.

 

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LG and Nexus constantly do very well in regards to RF performance so, unless it turns out to be a lemon, I don't think we will have to worry about suffering in the RF department.

While RF performance is important to me, my upgrades have been for actual radio changes. My first real upgrade was to get evdo rev.a, then wimax, then lte, then triband. I don't know if I'll upgrade just for 2x CA on band 41 if that's all the new nexus has.

 

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I accept that fully. I know I have no power to make these ideas happen. Just that it would be nice to see at least some of them happen in some form. I'm basically giving an analysis to the things I see and what could happen, which they may or may not happen.

 

At least for the moment, giving ideas is a pleasant distraction from the bad stuff going on in wireless, when it does.

If you really wanted to and had some start up money, you or anyone could become a wholesale partner with Sprint and create your own MVNO.

 

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Having most of my work experience in some form of retail, stocking those specialty accessories for everything is nearly impossible. The floor space, down to managing the inventory and having your money tied up in that stuff it is unrealistic to have any retailer do that. What do you do when the devices go EOL in six months and you have piles of crap for something you don't carry anymore? By having the items available to order you can support many stores with a smaller supply of those hard to find accessories.

 

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