pyroscott

I think October is a good release time for the iPhone, it is still fresh in December which makes for a lot of Christmas presents.

There will be a lot of unhappy tech savvy perspective customers if it isn't upgraded. If they are getting the same model as Verizon, they should have stamped that leaked ad out right away. That said, I doubt that they will upgrade the specs as the Nexus devices have the hardware picked right off the bat and the OS developed around the hardware. On the other hand, if they are already changing the internals to accommodate Sprint's spectrum frequencies, why not upgrade the items that people are unhappy with? I guess Sprint likes to keep us on the edge of our seats. Edit: I wonder what it would do to Samsung's relationship with Verizon if they upgrade the handset for Sprint? I don't know that they have a very good relationship as is, then you add this kind of strain...

Excellent insight Jeff. A lot depends on the deal Sprint signs with the partner carriers. I believe you're right that the deals will probably have Sprint's customers seeing native coverage in the "roaming" areas, but Sprint will not sell service in those areas.

Fashion police Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Doesn't sound fun. Over the years, I have come to really respect customer service reps. It's not their fault I am having problems, and it is not completely their fault they work for whatever company I am calling about. Sometimes I have to escalate, in order to get them to transfer me or cooperate, but I normally remain as calm and respectful as possible because I know that their job is stressful. I also give them the opportunity to chit chat, since as you said, you get 4.5 minutes of idle time. I figure if I can crack a few jokes while I am on the line and they are receptive, they could use a little decompress time.

Not quite peace, but the cold war is getting warmer. LOL

Update on the Wife's phone. It must have been a lemon, because she has had the replacement for a couple weeks now, and I have not heard a single complaint. She gets 3+ days on the battery when she doesn't use it much. The wierd thing though, is that sometimes her LTE signal will be showing -85 dbm, my GNex will show -115 dbm and I will pull the same or higher speeds on a speed test. At -115 dbm I wouldn't think I would even still be connected to the tower. I went to the verizon store and checked all the LTE phones, saw the same thing. The best LTE signal strength was on the Bionic, Rezound and Charge. Both my GNex and the display were showing 20 dbm worse than average (there was another one in the same ballpark, Spectrum maybe...) but when I ran speed tests, they were all very similar. The Bionic was pulling the best speeds. I don't know what the deal is. If the GNex was really getting worse signal, it would show on the speed test. Maybe I will get some answers when the MAXX gets ICS.

Just saw the RAZR MAXX will be getting ICS OTAs starting on April 4th. Much sooner than was expected. I had seen some estimates putting it 3Q. http://www.technobuffalo.com/companies/google/android/verizon-droid-razr-razr-maxx-ics-update-april-4-htc-rezound-april-6/

by Scott Johnson Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Sunday, April 1, 2012 - 2:00 AM MDT Sprint Nextel joined the Rural Cellular Association (RCA) in April 2011, the reasons for joining at that time could have been motivated by the proposed AT&T purchase of T-Mobile and increasing their lobbying power with the RCA. Recently though, Sprint has been working towards partnerships with other RCA members on network sharing and spectrum hosting arrangements to increase their LTE coverage footprint. Roaming agreements are crucial to regional carriers and smaller nationwide carriers alike. Without nationwide roaming agreements, regional carriers cannot offer a competitive product. Smaller nationwide carriers like Sprint cannot compete with the likes of AT&T and Verizon without roaming agreements that extend their network over a similar footprint. When roaming agreements extend to advanced technology, it vastly benefits both the carriers and the customers. When Lightsquared’s nationwide LTE network dissipated in the wake of GPS interference issues, so did the LTE plans of several regional carriers. These carriers had seen an opportunity to gain LTE connectivity for their customers without the need to use their own spectrum. They also would have avoided trying to work with device manufacturers to procure equipment that will work on their spectrum, which is often fragmented among different bands or resides on different band classes from on which LTE is currently being deployed. AT&T and Verizon have recently come under fire for using band classes that are not interoperable with the other 700mhz frequencies for which these regional carriers hold licenses, prompting the FCC to look into addressing interoperability concerns. This lack of interoperability would significantly increase the price of a 700mhz LTE device for other smaller carriers. The carriers lack the spectral resources to deploy LTE on other bands without refarming spectrum and affecting their legacy services. The spectrum is unable to be refarmed at this point because the carriers still need to maintain 3G and voice services on those bands to provide acceptable service to their customers. Sprint's Projected LTE Coverage at completion of Network Vision in early 2014. Enter Sprint, with their nationwide spectrum holdings and flexible Network Vision equipment. With RCA President and CEO Steve Berry pushing members to cooperate on LTE deployments, Sprint is possibly the most attractive partner for regional carriers. Sprint’s Network Vision technology can allow regional carriers to continue providing access to their legacy services while adding LTE to their lineup. Sprint could also enter into an agreement with carriers similar to how Lightsquared was going to partner with Sprint. Sprint could provide the spectrum and equipment to broadcast 1900mhz LTE from the regional carrier’s towers as they upgrade their existing equipment in exchange for usage credits. With spectrum hosting and roaming agreements, Sprint's footprint could look more like the RCA's collective footprint. A unified RCA, partnering on LTE through network sharing and spectrum hosting arrangements could provide service covering 95% of the United States and give AT&T and Verizon wireless a major competitor. It could also provide access to advanced technology to rural customers who otherwise lack many of the internet connectivity options that those living in urban areas have enjoyed for years. Sources: Wirelessweek (2) Photos courtesy of RCA

feather tickler

@JeffDTD Thanks for the insight! I wish Sprint and other companies would have 2 different customer service numbers. 1 for people that want to talk to a person, rather than go through a "press 1 for technical support, press 2 for device support" another for people who would gladly press a few numbers and wait longer to talk to someone in exchange for being connected to someone who is at least in the right department and hopefully has experience with the same problem. I often wonder how I would fare in the civilian sector. I have memorized (or at least familiar with) so many Army regulations that I am pretty much the tier 2 customer service for any Army questions. It is good and bad, because if I am trying to do something that requires my full attention, I often get interrupted with questions. On the other hand, I get to act like the smart guy. Just the other day I had to set the record straight on a medal that was changed on a policy letter but nobody bothered to update the regulation. (Things get stuck in my head like this... I clean up on trivia games)

Dodge ball Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I'd like to see phones that can run on any network with the swap of a sim, but it won't be until VoLTE is fully implemented for anything like that.

Also the LG Lucid on Verizon (it has several other variances, but is very similar) I agree that the phone manufacturers will do whatever is needed to make the most money, BUT you have to figure there was some heavy lobbying to get those regulations pushed though.

There is a guy making these cables for the Kindle Fire for $16 on xda. The KF was supported by the Motorola cable, but I don't know if it goes the other way. He is out of stock until April though. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23049902&postcount=254

spittin game

I don't think so. They definitely need to keep the design around until they get another world phone. I'm almost positive the GNex and Viper will not have world roaming capability, and with the Photon already seeing EOL looming, I think they saw the writing on the wall. That is probably why the Evo Design was released in December and at a midrange price point. Sooner or later (probably when the LTE phones are released), it will start going on sale for even less than the $100 regular price. Or they could put a couple other different phones in the free category and keep the world phone as a midrange.

Well, I think the Viper has some good stats for an expected $100 price tag. Anyone wanting something under $100 can get by using WiMax or 3G once network vision makes it usable again. Many of the cheap or free phones were not WiMax enabled, so even though Sprint is trying to get people on LTE, I think they will still keep a 3G/WiMax lineup of already released phones for the lowest end of the market. Maybe keep the Evo 3D around a while at free or $50 for its 3D capability, which will still interest people.

end game

It was built into my cable internet modem with service provided by the cable company. Then fed into the house's telephone line.

Definately, if it is your own computer. LOL

Ah, the $0-99 range is kinda looking like old mother hubbard's cupboard in the LTE category. I don't know if that is because of development costs, or because we don't have the older models to fill in that category. Doesn't Sprint still sell the archaic Optimus S?

King's speech

Definitely, there are a lot of dumbasses out there that can be helped by dumbass CSRs. Not everyone has advanced knowledge and those bufoons can certainly help them out. The worst tech support I ever had was with Roku and some guy with a Pakistani accent. I told him that I had already done troubleshooting and he walked me through it step by painful step, for hours... Overall, I spent at least 6 hours between setting up the puck, figuring out the Wi-Fi was bad, calling customer service, performing every step in their troubleshooting guide. Then after all that, he told me that the Wi-Fi was bad and he was sending me a replacement. I was like, "don't bother, send me a return shipping label." Oh and also, he wanted me to run Cat 5 from the router to the puck. Um, no. I bought a Wi-Fi model and I will be damned if I am going to run cat 5 through my house to use a Wi-Fi Roku.

veggie burger