lordsutch

You might be able to get HEX ids from the Android radio log. Use aLogCat or another logcat tool, watch the radio log (in aLogCat, it's under preferences), and look for DATA_REGISTRATION_STATE messages with 14 as the fourth value. I believe the Qualcomm RIL always provides the HEX ID on these as the third value - it does on my Evo LTE, and the same pattern shows up in pastebin output from phones from several different carriers and manufacturers.

After watching the radio log on my EVO LTE today, it appears the Qualcomm RIL used by AOSP reports the LTE Cell Identity as if it was the UMTS CID, and it reports something else (probably the TAC/tracking area code; looking at pastebins it's too big to be the PCI/physical cell ID, alas) as if it was the UMTS LAC. The bad news is that the internal telephony code in AOSP doesn't report this info via any exposed APIs. The good news is that it shouldn't be hard to hack the reporting into the existing code, although getting it accepted into CM may be a challenge.

Den Beste is partially right, but largely outdated. The transition to EVDO for CDMA exhibited a lot of the same negatives that he identifies for the GSM->W-CDMA transition (which was ongoing at the time); the only real "win" for 1X -> EVDO is that because the minimum bandwidth for 1x and EVDO channels was/is narrower, carriers were likely to have enough spectrum on hand to switch on an EVDO channel while keeping 1x up. Had 3GPP had the sense to specify 1.25 MHz channels for W-CDMA, the GSM->W-CDMA issues would have been less. (And W-CDMA was able to keep updating without a completely new network for a decade, with HSPA and friends coming later.) Furthermore 1X -> EVDO had one problem that wasn't true of GSM->W-CDMA/UMTS; since both GSM and UMTS allow voice and data traffic simultaneously, you can actually switch off GSM or never launch a GSM network in the first place if you're a new entrant like Three in the UK. CDMA carriers have to keep both active, since EVDV never materialized (Sprint and Verizon thought the future was in VoIP, which essentially is what VoLTE will be, so they didn't sign up). Canada's Public Mobile, which only launched last year on the PCS G block, has to have both 1X and EVDO carriers. And while you can reallocate carriers back and forth between the two, it's not as dynamic as W-CDMA allows. And of course the market situation in the US is much different now; Cingular and old-AT&T merged (and eventually became AT&T again) and T-Mobile emerged from the PowerTel/VoiceStream regional networks and some others, and moved to W-CDMA as the bugs were worked out. The US market ultimately didn't pick a "winner" - it picked two. And then Verizon picked LTE over WiMax and UMB (EVDO Rev C), and the rest is history.

I hate to keep going around and around in circles on this, but from Sprint's perspective (or from Verizon's perspective, for that matter) there's no reason to deploy W-CDMA/UMTS as a stopgap before going all-LTE in 5-8 years, once the power efficiency and signal propagation issues with VoLTE are worked out (or are offset by the greater costs of keeping CDMA equipment running). If Sprint wasn't planning to keep CDMA around for 5+ years, they would have just bolted LTE onto their existing towers and not bothered with NV. Yes, 1X won't be around forever, but if anything 1X will probably be around longer than EVDO. It does what it does well, and WCDMA just isn't worth the bandwidth. And I don't see what bringing on T-Metro and its downscale clientele does for making Sprint a more competitive #3 carrier; sure you'd be rolling in spectrum but it's not at all obvious Sprint really needs it outside a few markets, where buying up local carriers or executing spectrum buys/swaps/sharing arrangements would probably be cheaper.

Ha, they apparently miss my monthly bill now that I've moved out of nTelos-land. Somehow I can't see Softbank+Sprint renewing their wholesale deal unless nTelos gets the lead out and becomes far more aggressive in rolling out Sprint-compatible LTE. Shentel has really put nTelos to shame working just up the road.

The other factor is that Canada has a population of 35 million people; even as the legacy carrier in most of their markets, Bell+Telus have something like 15 million customers between them. By contrast, the US's 4th largest carrier, T-Metro has 43 million customers. I think they recognized they simply didn't have the scale to attract custom handsets from leading manufacturers anymore if they stuck to CDMA2000. And, since they had the bandwidth to burn, they were able to transition to 3GPP, unlike the US regional carriers who find themselves in the same position like C Spire, Alltel (before VZW buyout), US Cellular, nTelos, and Cincy Bell (who are stuck often getting lower-end knockoffs of Sprint and Verizon stuff, months later).

So long as Verizon is still on CDMA for voice, Sprint should have no problem obtaining CDMA handsets at reasonable prices. And Verizon's VoLTE-in-2014 BS notwithstanding, they're not going to be positioned to drop CDMA from mainstream handsets for years. Sure, in 7 years everyone will be 3GPP-only, but there's a lot of LTE bugs to be worked out between now and then. (I can see Verizon selling VoLTE-only phones in 2014 as a cheap prepaid option to compete with Virgin/T-Metro/Cricket, but they're not going to sell a VoLTE-only Galaxy S5 on postpaid. Similarly I could see Sprint selling some VoLTE-only prepaid handsets down the road.)

DashClock (lock screen widget & launcher widget) is nice (and free) for Android 4.2.x. Very minimalist and Halo-friendly.

It's disappointing that Sprint is losing some of its SRA partners; however, over the medium/long term I expect Sprint to come out ahead by adding native coverage in the region consistent with its historical native buildout in rural areas (covering the key cities and Interstate/major highway corridors).

Interestingly enough, when I logged onto my Sprint account yesterday one of the options in the sidebar was "Activate new SIM." (It just took me to the "Activate new phone" screen however.) So apparently SIM activation is coming.

SouthernLINC Wireless introduces new Motorola device, high-speed data plans A dual-SIM device running Android 2.3, at the low-low price of $199 (after $100 MIR). Capped-data nationwide plans starting at $85. All hail the great and powerful SouthernLINC.