pyroscott

According to this http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/ Providence is 4% complete with NV upgrades. Not sure what you are asking though...

Well, to take a stab at "why". Maybe it is because Providence is the 39th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the US and already has a form of 4G in WiMax. If I was the one making the decisions, I would have them as a 3rd or 4th round market.

It was two tech companies, Huawei and ZTE. Sprint had initially considered the two companies when collecting bids for the Network Vision equipment and install. The Secretary of Commerce asked Sprint to exclude them on concerns that the Chinese Government may use the companies for spying on the US. Softbank is a customer of those two companies. The concern is that Softbank may tell Sprint to use equipment from Huawei and ZTE since they are cheaper than the competition. Softbank has less inclination to respond to US security concerns than a US owned company.

Starting to sound like the Nexus S...

An addition to this, once the has been completed, they will have a good spectrum position with 800 MHz for LTE and Voice and 1900 "Hot Spots" closer to the towers in rural areas. They could expand into rural areas much more efficiently than using PCS spacing, but they need to have phones in the hands of customers that can use 800 LTE. If they deploy a bunch of 1xA, it might give the illusion of increased coverage, but customers will not be happy and a LOT of prepaid/non-smartphone customers will be left in the cold in those areas. Sprint still cares for their non-smartphone customers and keeps them in mind with their moves.

Yep, they don't seem to be regarding this with a lot of urgency. More of a "meh, it will be corrected in the next MR..."

I agree that it would be nice for Sprint to join the pissing match, and earn customers, but the cost of 10,000 unused/underused Verizon or AT&T cell sites spread across 100 million customers is much less than the cost of 10,000 unused/underused Sprint cell sites spread across 50 million customers. Then you ponder the idea that you are talking about rural sites, with little infrastructure, resulting in massive costs to run fiber to the cell sites... There is a generational step in cellular technology every 10-12 years resulting in more efficient and cost effective delivery of data/voice traffic. Sprint is laying out billions to upgrade their entire network, I'm not sure that this is the time for them to start adding thousands of sites just to play the network footprint game. They need to FINISH THE PROJECT, reduce their operating costs, assess their debt and then consider expansion. Otherwise they will end up like Clearwire and the WiMax deployment. You can't bite off more than you can chew in this business. I guess Sprint has Softbank as their sugar daddy, just like Clearwire had Sprint to bail them out, but I don't think Sprint wants to tarnish their image any further with another "running out of money during 4G deployment" debacle. (even if the first was technically Clearwire, Sprint still had egg on their faces) In the end, people in rural areas will probably pick Verizon or AT&T because they offer a larger coverage area (or have the perception of greater coverage area), and people who live in urban areas will probably not care if they have native coverage at their campsite in rural wyoming or if they have free roaming coverage when they take their yearly trip to yellowstone... Sprint has unlimited data and lower cost plans than VZW/ATT, how many feathers do they need in their cap?

It doesn't make sense financially for a company that has posted a net loss since they started writing down the value of Nextel to lay out more money on some cell sites that won't see much use. Right now Sprint is the "Value carrier." They have a nationwide network (even if it is smaller than Verizon), they offer free roaming, and they have a monthly bill that is lower than VZW or AT&T. Why would Sprint lay down the cash to expand their network so your phone says Sprint instead of roaming? If a new site isn't going to make them money or save them from huge roaming costs, they are not going to add it. Pure and simple. Edit: I looked up their yearly income/loss from continuing operations since 2001. (in billions) 2001 -1.6, 2002 +.5, 2003 -.3, 2004 -1, 2005 +1.8, 2006 +1, 2007 -29.4, 2008 -2.8, 2009 -2.4, 2010 -3.5, 2011 -2.9, and so far in 3 quarters of 2012 -2.9 3 years of actual income since 2001... source: http://investors.sprint.com/

There is a reason that the carriers are not actively expanding, and only expand through merging/buying other cell companies. It is a risk they do not want to take. If they lease a bunch of cell sites, lease space for their stores and spend a bunch of cash on equipment, they need money coming in from new customers to justify the expansion expense. Sprint's roaming agreement with Verizon gives them the same footprint of coverage, and they can identify areas with a lot of roaming usage to put up a cell site. This is basically one of the same reasons that you only see MVNO companies coming up and not new cell carriers, they are not willing to lay down that kind of money and then have to work their tail off to try to steal customers from other carriers (who are likely entered into a contract with the other carrier). A decade ago, you could do some good marketing in rural areas and get a pile of new customers getting their first cell phone, now everyone has a cell phone, and the debt matures faster than the cell companies can turn a profit because it takes so long to steal customers away. Maybe once NV is complete, they will look at expansion, but sooner or later shareholders are going to want to see returns on their investment. Expansion will just push that out farther.

Great, now I can't find my hammer. Anyone have one I can borrow for hitting youtube guy on the head?

That forum really started out well, and went downhill fast. Everyone flocked back to XDA or other places quickly. Yes, you could really screw things up flashing a ROM meant for another carrier, but the Nexus tends to be safer. I have heard off a lot less hard bricked Nexuses than other phone models. What really causes problems is when you have vast differences in hardware configurations (the International/US Versions of the GS3 for instance) that will brick a phone if you flash the wrong ROM and it cannot even get the hardware to start into recovery mode.

Clearwire used Expedience 3G equipment by Motorola in their initial rollout of wireless internet and continues to operate that junk in the markets that they neglected to upgrade to WiMax. Just ask someone in one of these markets: Aberdeen/Hoquiam WA Anchorage AK Anderson CA Bend OR Carson City NV Central Point OR Chico CA Chippewa Falls WI Clarkston WA Cohasset Beach/Wesport WA Corning CA Dayton OH Duluth MN Eagle River AK Eau Claire WI Fernley NV Grants Pass OR Hermantown MN Klamath Falls OR Incline Village NV Jacksonville OR Lewiston ID Longview TX Madras OR Medford OR Middletown OH Minden/Gardnerville NV Moscow ID Myrtle Creek OR Orland CA Paradise CA Prineville OR Proctor MN Pullman WA Red Bluff CA Redding CA Redmond OR Reno/Sparks NV Roseburg OR St. Cloud MN Shasta Lake CA Sisters OR South Lake Tahoe CA Springfield OH Stateline/Kingsbury NV Superior WI Wenatchee WA Yes, notice the St. Cloud, MN. Unless the use of OFDM makes it not 3G...

I'm still wearing the short sleeves. The wife, however, has started busting out the hoodies.

Um... you and cousin Eddie have something in common... Seriously though, that sucks.

Two words "foil hat" although, I am probably classified as a "government agent" so you will probably ignore my sarcasm. I overheard in a meeting that they are hoping that tungsten foil doesn't catch on, because that will totally stop their brain scanners from penetrating your brain.

Having gone from the E4GT to the GNex, I would say that the picture quality was slightly better on the E4GT, but the Nexus DESTROYED the E4GT overall with the zero shutter lag. Low light situations were all E4GT though, it was not even close. Personally, I would rather see the manufacturers do more with a lower megapixel than keep slaming higher and higher megapixel cameras in phones. I really don't need to blow up the stupid pictures I usually take with my phone and print them as a poster.

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Thats right... I hope it doesn't open up some kind of temporal disturbance...

You know, I'm getting mildly annoyed at everyone acting like they are superior to Verizon customers because they "pay less" for their plan. Upon switching from Sprint to Verizon, my monthly plan went up $30 for 3 lines. I have 4GB per line and if I switched to the shared plan, I would save a few bucks per month based on my usage (but I would have a smaller available data pool). Maybe I'm stupid for dumping my unlimited 40kbps Sprint plan for a tiered 35Mbps Verizon plan that I can visibly notice a difference in coverage (where I roamed, or had zero Sprint/roaming coverage, I now have LTE). Or maybe different plans/carriers work for different people. The same as S4GRU moderators don't allow rants regarding Sprint, there should not be unhelpful rants against other carriers, or their customers. What's next? Is someone going to come in here and say that cable TV customers are suckers because Dish is cheaper? What if you live in an area that rains often, rendering the dish unusable? Or you are a Walking Dead fan and Dish doesn't carry AMC? But you're saving money, and you can watch all the HGTV you want.

They make a commission on new lines of service. Sprint pays them a portion of the contract when they "recruit" a new customer instead of just upgrading the handset of an existing customer. As was stated earlier, you can get around that by opening a new line and porting your number to GVoice and then to your "new" line of service. Or if you are like me, you just get a new number and save the $20.

I completely swore off Logitech after the Logitech Revue software fiasco. (yes I dumped my money down the toilet on that pile)

I use Forum Runner exclusively. I used to use Talatalk exclusively, until they refused to fix the bug with the Sponsor sections unless the forum was exclusive to Tapatalk, or the website paid them for a custom app. I think that is BS and I won't support them after that.