lordsutch

Might have been an upgraded Clearwire protection site, or a DAS at Jordan-Hare. Either way an interesting development.

I'll keep an eye out. This far south all we really have is Band 25 (1 carrier) and Band 26 for now.

Thanks very much.  Works on screen with LG V20 showing earfcn on unrooted phone.  I had heard that neighbors could also show earfcn, which would help a lot in Samsung markets.  Any other cool features mentioned like number of TX? At least a date stamp would also help in the logs.  Thanks!! 

Excellent! It does log EARFCNs if it gets them from the radio for neighbors, but I haven't seen them show up in the logs on my phones - the cellinfolte.csv log includes neighbors while the ltecells.csv only includes the primary cell (technically the first cell that shows up as isRegistered).

I've pushed out a new release that adds a timestamp to each log entry; hopefully that'll help.

S7 edge here

 

If EARFCN = 0 can you hide it and do band lookup by GCI? It takes a line by itself and reporting B1.

I've added some code to ignore EARFCN 0 too - try it now.

Poking around in the Android O preview APIs, it looks like some additional signal information will be available, including Cqi, Rsnr, Rsrq, Rssnr for LTE and the timing advance for GSM.

A long-overdue update with some code cleanups. Now needs Android 4.2 or later to simplify a few things (hopefully nobody is left behind).

The big update is that it will use the EARFCN data available with Android 7.0 or above on some handsets, rather than using the (possibly broken, certainly untested by me) root method for Qualcomm devices. I've also updated the band detection code to use the EARFCN instead of guessing using the MCC/MNC/GCI if possible.

It should also be able to use the full screen real estate on the LG G6 and Samsung S8. 

It definitely works on the Nexus 5X (Project Fi) and Pixel XL (Sprint). On other devices... who knows?

Get it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hucdx5lu36zp45c/Signal-Strength-Detector-debug.apk?dl=0

Source: https://github.com/lordsutch/Signal-Strength-Detector

A post at Reddit suggests some improvements may be coming soon.

Both Sprint and T-Mobile have historically been very MVNO friendly compared to AT&T and particularly Verizon; I expect in the event of a merger, maintaining that friendliness would be an important condition of the merger.

Why does West Tennessee have Extended LTE and Roaming LTE?

 

I thought Si Wireless was the only provider in West Tennessee.

Might be some CSpire coverage around Memphis that's showing up.

This sounds like the same problem I had with the Nexus 6 when i went to Project Fi.  Project Fi and Sprint do not play well together because they share services as you know.  When I activated Project Fi on my Nexus 6 AFTER I had my Nexus on Sprint it worked while on Project Fi, but when I tried to switch back to Sprint (was just test driving Fi) it would not re-activate.  Two weeks later after multiple store visits they found out that my phone's MEID was associated to Fi and that it wouldn't be removed from Fi's system thru Sprint.  So, I called Google and they were no help because it was VERY early on in the process.  I then went back to Sprint and they had to manually add my MEID (a two day process) which did eventually work.  I hope this is not your problem, as it was a real pain to troubleshoot / get a resolution.  Thankfully, persistence paid off.

Well, the latest development in the saga is I went to a Sprint store and we tried all sorts of things, including settings resets and swapping out SIMs, to no avail. I got in touch with someone on the Sprint community site who was helping people activate Pixels, so maybe that avenue will get it straightened out.

If that doesn't work I guess I'll complain to Google and see if they'll swap out the device for a fresh one that presumably will activate correctly on Sprint (unless they've messed up some deep magic in my account at their end).

Where did you get the SIM for your phone?  I used the SIM that I had in my 6P and that SIM I purchased at Best Buy (since at the time, no Sprint Store had it in stock).  

 

I think you should save yourself time and just get a new SIM.  

Yeah, I'm going to the Sprint Store tomorrow to see if I can get another SIM. Tried doing a SIM swap online tonight but the system won't accept my old SIM since it's already associated with a device I guess.

Somehow - very long story short - my Pixel XL seems to be provisioned for Sprint in such a way that it will only connect to 3G (the phone definitely connects to LTE with a Project Fi SIM installed on both Sprint and T-Mobile, so it's not a hardware problem). This has baffled everyone I've talked to at Sprint; we've tried everything (72787, PRL updates, device config updates...). In the hidden radio info screen I've tried wedging it into LTE-only mode and LTE cell information shows up under the "Cell Measurement Info," but for whatever reason it won't register on the network.

About to resort to the final straw of going to the local Sprint store and seeing if they'll try swapping out the BYOD SIM I picked up last week for another BYOD SIM and reactivating.

The update seems to bump the Android security patch level to 2016-09-01. It also appears to include a newer baseband.

U-verse deployment?  Not available in all areas.  Do not even get started on the FttP that AT&T does not want to deploy.

Indeed, I think AT&T has basically decided not to bother expanding U-verse any more now they have DirecTV. Even in markets where it's "deployed" like Memphis it's not available in all areas, and it's completely missing in action even in mid-size cities like Macon so they've essentially ceded the broadband market to cable (Cox here), even in new developments with fiber.

Honestly in hindsight AT&T and Verizon should have been required to divest their ILEC landline operations when they were formed, but I don't think anyone foresaw the degree to which they could use wireless to avoid investing in landline operations and upgrades.

I'm mildly bemused that the big story today seems to be AT&T's "AirGig" proposal for millimeter-wave broadband, which is still in the lab, despite Sprint already demonstrating basically the same technology in public this summer. The more the merrier, I guess.

Another highlight from the call - they're looking to get rid of 3G only sites (at least in NYC) by ramping up GMO LTE deployment.

Hopefully they finally get around to upgrading the remaining 3G sites nationwide.

I had similar issues with my G5 in western North Carolina a couple of weeks ago in USCC country; futzing around with the roaming guard settings finally made it work. Probably a bug somewhere in Sprint's LTE roaming implementation (I assume they use the same basic code in every triband device).

Alas it'll be a while before I can see if a similar workaround works in CSpire territory, where I've had similar issues (I've never successfully connected to their LTE network in Fulton, Mississippi, despite it being advertised on Sprint's maps).

Usually Google rolls out its next Android release such that the new Nexus (or Nexuses) gets it first; since at least one third-party device is advertising a September release with Nougat, that suggests the next Nexuses should be out in September too, if not late August.

That makes a bit more sense, thanks. So is the reference to expanding LTE post-swap, presumably by adding more LTE carriers on 1900, inaccurate? (Georgia market so far is only running LTE on G block and 5x5 on SMR - even the Clearwire protection sites have never been switched to band 41 LTE).

My understanding from the announcement is that this is more than just a spectrum swap, but also decommissioning EVDO and 1X on 1900 in favor of more LTE channels. Otherwise PCS/CLR-only devices would not be left behind.

Interesting that the Georgia market is in the first wave, given the large number of remaining rural GMOs that don't seem to have gotten 800 or LTE installed yet. Hopefully that means Sprint is finally going to upgrade the sites.

Georgia is one of the first markets that will be rebanded to put voice and 2G/3G data on 800 SMR only, so speed improvements should be coming soon in areas that already have LTE. How rebanding will affect the remaining 3G-only GMO sites (mostly along I-16 with a smattering elsewhere) is unclear.

Generally Fi roams on whoever T-Mobile roams on; I expect it would be EE, which was formed from T-Mobile UK and another carrier.

Don't forget Fi data is metered overseas at $10/GB just like domestic data: their 256k roaming is not an unlimited bucket like either Sprint or T-Mobile's 2G roaming plans.

I think the NASCAR sponsorship made more sense a decade ago when it was at the peak of its popularity. The lack of rural coverage in NASCAR's core region is also incongruous with the fan market; I'm sure there are lots of famously sponsor-loyal NASCAR fans who'd have signed up for Sprint except it doesn't have coverage where they live or work.

But now I don't see it as a good marketing outlet; the NBA is a smarter play. And I think the soccer sponsorships should give good bang for the buck; NBC has been doing great ratings with the English premier league, even in markets like Norfolk, Atlanta, and Dallas that you wouldn't think of as "soccer country."

Interesting; I'm planning to go to the kickoff game in Santa Clara on June 3 and Great America next door either that day or the day after. I doubt that there will be any noticeable effects but I'll keep an eye out.

For what it's worth, European regulators have increasingly soured on the "three wireless carriers" model, even though they at least have more customer portability due to their lack of boutique LTE bands. http://www.economist.com/news/business/21699143-country-mergers-blocked-mobile-phone-firms-europe-must-now-find-other-ways

Ericsson traditionally used a 169 gap between PCIs. Odd that they'd change.