lordsutch

As long as you were on Sprint there was no roaming.  That was something actually pretty unique to Sprint at the time.

 

Sprint did, early on, have some lower-priced plans that were local/regional only, at least in some areas. I think they were dropped around the time Power Vision (EVDO) plans started to roll out.

Motorola is hitting the $400 price point with the X Pure next month, using Snapdragon 808 and parts largely comparable to other 2015 flagships, so LG should be able to do the same especially with a smaller display.

Given the positive experiences with band 41 CA and the plan to build it out over the entire network purporting footprint, I don't think wider channels on band 25 are all that critical. In a lot of ways even a third B25 5x5 would be better than 15x15 since it will deter excessive data use by people in places band 41 doesn't hit. Particularly since the "net neutrality" rules mean the physical bandwidth cap for a carrier can be used to deter abusive use while technical limitations can't, especially if Sprint doesn't deploy CA on band 25.

 

I wonder if other carriers will cotton on to using narrower channels even when they have adjacent spectrum and can get away with wider ones for this very reason, even if it undermines their speed test epeen figures.

Looking at the new 3G map on Sprint, it looks like it will also give 3G on Appalachian Wireless. I was in their market a few months ago and all I got was 1x.

 

It also looks like 3G roaming coverage in GA and SC disappeared. Maybe even some in Florida but I am not sure. Might be Alltel markets where EVDO was shut down.

Ding. AT&T only had to maintain the Alltel CDMA network through June, so Sprint's probably now roaming on Verizon 1x in most of those areas. I haven't been down that way to verify though.

What app for android app do I need to screen shot what LTE band I am on now?

 

Engineering screens are the only way to be certain, since that data is not exported to public Android APIs, although most of the apps out there (SCP, LTE Discovery, my crapola app) have heuristics that can make pretty good guesses for existing networks based on patterns observed in the field.

 

(I say this because nTelos' LTE rollout for Sprint customers may not fit the established patterns for cell IDs, particularly if it includes access to towers that nTelos has upgraded using the different equipment from that Sprint and Shentel use. So the apps may work, but they may not.)

It doesn't seem like it would be *too* terribly difficult going forward at least with newer iPhones, Nexus phones and CCA capable phones like you mentioned. Most of the current LTE deployments in Canada and Mexico appear to be on Bands 2, 4 & 17 with a smattering of Band 7 & 38 deployments. While offering LTE roaming would be great even upgrading from "2G speeds" to HSPA/HSPA+ should be quite usable. Most mid range and all high end handsets include GSM/W-CDMA radios nowadays. International value roaming on Movistar in Mexico already uses GSM or W-CDMA for voice roaming since, as you noted, there's not much in the way of CDMA left (in either country); the same would almost certainly be true in Canada whenever international voice roaming gets added there. Maybe a little extra legwork, but it seems doable if the bean counters could make it palatable.

 

I think the issue is that Sprint (and VZW) wouldn't be able to bring much reciprocal roaming to the table, which helps balance out the numbers so T-Mobile (and if they want AT&T) can offset the high charges in those countries against what they're getting from letting Rogers/Bell/Telus/Movistar/Telcel etc roam in the U.S. And Softbank doesn't have much to offer those companies to reciprocate except cheap Japan roaming in return - and that's not exactly a big draw for them.

 

Technically it would be possible for North American iPhones of recent vintage and Nexus 5 and 6 and probably a few other devices (some of the 2015 flagship models have CDMA support under the hood but only act like it when a Sprint SIM is installed) to roam on Sprint 1x and EVDO with a Canadian or Mexican SIM card installed, but it would take a firmware change to activate all the CDMA bits and allow the user to manually switch on CDMA roaming since you wouldn't want it active all the time (I suppose you could cheat and program the firmware to switch on CDMA whenever it sees a 31x-xxx MCC-MNC signal around), and then you'd have to get it rolled out...

 

Now maybe a Canadian or Mexican carrier with some juice that wants to get that baked into 2016 or 2017 phones could get it done, but that's well beyond what Sprint can request since it'd only affect phones being sold by those carriers. So I'm guessing it isn't going to happen.

 

Maybe they would have some luck with iPad and hotspot roaming deals on LTE at least. Given how much the Canadian carriers screw over their customers on metered data pricing, they should be able to charge domestic Canadian data prices and pay Sprint wholesale rates to use its American LTE network and still come out way ahead.

Oh man. Thanks for the heads up. I totally thought they were included. This sucks.

There was a rumor a while back that Canada being added was imminent, with a specific start date even, but apparently it fell through at the proverbial last minute. That may be why you thought it was already included.

what i am trying to say is ...doesnt the ESMR band they own have build out requirements to cover a certain POPS

 

As noted before, the Nextel coverage sufficed to meet the build-out requirements for ESMR at the time. That said, I believe the FCC could theoretically take action against Sprint for failing to maintain substantial service if there are licensed ESMR markets where it previously met the build-out requirement (when Nextel service was live) but is no longer doing so, although they're unlikely to do so until well after rebanding is done. Certainly the lawyers for the other three major carriers won't let the FCC forget this requirement, even if the commission itself wants to.

 

However, the PCS G block that Sprint received as part of its compensation for vacating some of ESMR has its own, independent build out requirement, at the vague "substantial service" standard. Hence Sprint's purchase of wireless assets in Montana and the western Dakotas.

The Java code I use in my app for band detection is at the following link; feel free to swipe it. It may or may not handle the prepaid PLMN and I don't have any logic in there for second carriers, but whatevs. Also, the T-Mobile logic is missing because I haven't bothered to add it yet.

 

https://github.com/lordsutch/Signal-Strength-Detector/blob/master/src/com/lordsutch/android/signaldetector/SignalDetectorService.java#L321

Not sure if this means anything regarding CCA/RRPP, but I noticed this week that the current PRL doesn't show C-Spire (1996, north Mississippi) or SI Wireless (4303, northwest Tennessee) SIDs as roaming connections on my Nexus 6.

I tried using the version at that link, and it doesn't work on my N5.. previous versions worked fine. The notification says "Loading..." with an exclamation point icon, and the app itself shows no information. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling with no changes:

 

uploadfromtaptalk1433206875477.jpg

 

EDIT: Nevermind.. after about 2 minutes, it suddenly started working. Now it opens on startup immediately. Android gremlins!

 

-Mike

It probably needed a GPS fix to start updating (which is probably a bug).

It seems exceedingly unlikely that the M9 can't roam in Canada, for the simple reason that we'd surely be hearing complaints about it here and on other sites as yet another example of why "Sprint sucks." Occam's razor and all that...

Sorry if repost, but international value roaming expanded:

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-expands-free-data-roaming-to-colombia-denmark-honduras-ireland-italy-paraguay-and-sweden.htm

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-extended-international-value-roaming-animated-graphic.htm

 

H3 and Tigo added as roaming partners.

 

New countries are Colombia, Denmark, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Paraguay and Sweden. Still waiting on Canada.

Guess you'd just have to use a second Google account.

On the other hand, if T-Mobile actually does cover the map as projected by the end of the year, it will be low density, low quality coverage.  Just toss up a site every 25 miles and call it a day.  That is what we call a superficial gesture.  It technically may fill in the map, but it will not fill in coverage in real world usage.  And I do not consider that a goal accomplished.

 

I expect that's what we'll see, although at least in the GSM-only areas even a terrible, backhaul-starved LTE overlay would probably be an improvement over GPRS and EDGE, just as getting even backhaul-starved LTE in rural areas would probably be an improvement over Sprint's 1x coverage – rural EVDO occasionally gets to the point of being functional, but CDMA 1x and GSM 2G just don't cut it for even basic stuff like Google Maps navigation today.

Canada is being added to the free International roaming on 5-6

 

SWEET. Now I'm definitely planning to head up north to hang out in Toronto for a few days while the exchange rate is low make a side-trip after going to a conference in Rochester in July.

Hopefully Sprint can figure out a way to (optionally) let Nexus folk in on Connections Optimizer or get Google to bake the Boingo secret sauce into the Google Connectivity Services bundle.

My sense is that this isn't Google trying to be disruptive now so much as Google beta testing the idea of carrier-agnostic, ubiquitous wireless mobility in the United States with a view to the eventual, disruptive step of removing the carrier completely from the customer experience. Sprinkle in some access to Project Loon, and you're getting to the point where you should eventually be able to access the Internet at decent speeds anywhere on the planet without large-scale land-based infrastructure.

 

The way I see it: when Project Loon becomes ubiquitous, the vision is that you'll be on the Internet everywhere directly via Google most of the time, with Loon and/or WiFi pushing text messages, voice calls, and low-priority background data, with the land-based carriers functioning more as big wireless access points for when you're not near WiFi and either your neighborhood Loon is unavailable or you need a burst of foreground data that they can deliver more efficiently.

What do Sprint calls and texts cost when in Canada?

Calls are 59¢/minute without the $2.99/mo Canada roaming add-on* and 20¢/minute with it. Texts are charged at your domestic plan rate, so if you have unlimited texts (who doesn't in 2015?) that carries to Canada.

 

* not sure if this add-on is still available or not.

You can also add International Value Roaming online via the "Change Services" page, and can also buy the 3G roaming buckets there now too.

Hopefully someone like Anker will come out with a quick charge compatible portable battery powered USB device charger. A must for the S6. Would he nice for other phones too.

 

Already exists: http://www.androidcentral.com/hands-aukey-10000mah-external-battery-quick-charger

 

That said, it's disappeared from Amazon, so who knows when you can buy one again.

I wonder if pulling the Sprint SIM and putting in a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM would work as a workaround short of a complete reflash. Not going to test it myself but I suspect it would reset the radio settings and let you swap back in the Sprint SIM without problems.

Speaking of new website designs... looks like S4GRU got a facelift too!

Happy birthday!

Has anyone figured out how to pull the MSL for these devices?

 

Mine is '000000'; I'm not sure why it would be different on any other Nexus 6 (I got mine from Amazon). Option B would be to change devices online on your account, and swap back again; the MSL is given to you as part of the swapout process for use in case Hands-Free Activation doesn't work.