pyroscott

Planet earth Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

The context of it is saying that customers are not motivated by the network for their smartphone purchases. So if sprint doesn't eol all their WiMax phones, we could still see them selling when LTE phones are released Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

tape worm Post 2097 in your face MacinJosh... LOL

I had seen an article saying that MS and Kindle are the hottest platforms that developers are flocking to, but maybe that was talking about something else. I like how people quote that iOS and Android have "half a million" apps but how many of those are actually meaningful, worthwhile apps? There is a lot of pure garbage out there. If iOS and Android weren't so concerned with quantity and focused on quality, it would be easier to search for a good app. Delete apps out of the database if they don't hit a certain amount of downloads per month. It's good to see that MS and Nokia are so committed to making the WP platform work that they continue throwing money at it. It will be interesting to see how the next year plays out and see if they gain market share. They could increase competition and give iOS and Android a run for their money, or they could be abandoning it. With the effort they are putting into it, I would be very suprised if WP doesn't sell at least 10% of smartphones this year. I only say 10% because Sprint and Verizon won't probably see a model until fall. iOS and Android have a big head start.

Not to mention the $200 in apps you would have to rebuy when moving to a different OS. Might just be me that buys that many apps though. I dunno.

I think it is the "dakotas" market, twice...

I don't think it is something they are very fond of, but I have seen quite a few craigslist ads for people looking for it or selling theirs. Pretty much every Sprint CS rep in the stores I have dealt with have been easy going and pretty much let you do what you want. It would be something like this. Both people go in the store, 1 person says "go buy the iPhone 4S," the person with the upgrade buys it with their upgrade and lets say the total is $250. After the phone is purchased, the person has the rep put their initial phone back on the contract, freeing up the ESN from the iPhone. The person "buying the upgrade" pays the $250 cost of the upgrade and whatever price was agreed upon initially, lets say $250, and gets a new iPhone for $500 instead of $650 retail.

I'll admit, I have tethered my phone on and off since around 2003. I started paying the $29.99 per month, but I barely ever used it. I ended up figuring out how to change some settings in the phone that would allow me to tether without it setting off something at sprint saying what I was doing. They probably could have figured it out, but I was willing to chance it. I even paid somewhere in the $50 range for the cord and software. Then custom ROMs started unlocking the Wi-Fi hotspot and it made it that much easier. If there was even a $4.99 per day option, I think a lot more people would pay for it. Personally I think the $29.99 tethering charge is aimed at businesses and wealthy subscribers who would rather pay than deal with unauthorized work arounds and Sprint doesn't care that much if people use these work-arounds for casual/intermittent use. They might look for abuse of the system, but connecting to check e-mail or do a little web browsing when an internet connection is unavailable isn't going to be an issue. It would cost Sprint more to seek that casual use out and fine/boot those customers. The ones who are using 10GB plus per month though... they are taking advantage of the network and the rest of the customers in their area and should be booted.

Here is another idea, you could use your upgrade on a phone and talk the customer service rep into leaving the new phone in the box. Sell the upgrade "new in box" on e-bay or somewhere getting close to full price and then save that money to pay full price when the phone you want comes out. Time starts ticking off your upgrade date, and you can choose whatever phone you want. I have also seen people who will "sell their upgrade." Person 1 has a line with eligible upgrade, person 2 needs a new phone but doesn't want to pay full retail. Person 2 pays person 1 $200-250, pays all activation fees/up front costs.

There already is Wi-Fi calling using one of the various apps out there on the market. Wi-Fi calling is not very good quality in comparison to what Sprint offers with CDMA. Unfortunately, people on the borders of calling area have to choose their provider wisely because there is not that much incentive for a carrier to install all the equipment for a few additional subscribers. Military bases are notorious for poor coverage because the training areas are vast expanses of uninhabited space. Carriers don't want to put up a tower in a place with no permanent residents and I'm pretty sure military bases don't want the carriers putting up towers in their training areas either.

It almost looks like there is a LTE tower in the boundary waters canoe area... too bad there are no plug ins anywhere near there. LOL

These gray circles are towers and they will be getting 4G LTE, 3G backhaul upgrade (3G should be around 1mbps) and 1xAdvanced for enhanced range and capacity for voice calls. Once the tower is upgraded, there should be no issue with speed on LTE or 3G. There should also be a little better range than what it had before. The gray circles are just a set radius from the tower, not necessarily signifying holes in the coverage.

I fully agree Josh. The problem with having a bunch of different plans is that as the T-Mobile employee here http://www.phonearen...carrier_id28368 says, customers get angry and don’t understand the whole subsidy plan/non-subsidy plan. There is a lot to understand about the plans, the network, the handsets and how they all work together. Look at the $10 monthly premium data fee and how people are still angry that they have to pay it. Sprint’s network has been overloaded by smartphones, those who use a smartphone should be picking up the tab for network upgrades. To get back to the point, if a carrier like Sprint was going to take something like this on, I think they would have to eliminate all the subsidies to reduce confusion and have a simplified plan offering. As far as the price of the phone, they could easily still advertise a comparable price to the other carriers, and then in small print have a monthly charge along with it. I like the $50 financing fee idea. Then customers that want to pay full price can see instant gratification with a $50 savings. Maybe down the road if all the towers for the major carriers are upgraded to LTE and phones use VoLTE, we will finally see phone freedom where there are no carrier exclusive phones, and you can take your AT&T phone and switch to Sprint. That is years away though.

Being able to have full control of the phone is a big reason that many people choose Android over iOS or WP. Look at the success of the Nexus line, it's not that the phones are the best phone out there, or have the most features, but they have a bootloader that is easily unlocked, Vanilla Android Open Source Project (AOSP) operating system, and a huge developer following. I can see both points. There are many people who like Android for its openness, like the OEM skins, and just want to reduce bloat if they root (ICS allows you to freeze any program you want, the unwanted program disappears as though it was uninstalled but if anything else needs its files to run, it does not lose functionality) Conversely, you have the crowd that likes to root, load custom ROMS, load themes, change the boot animation and the list goes on and on with what you can do with your phone. There is a good balance within Android to please both crowds and ICS is just the next improvement in an operating system that continues to improve with every upgrade and IMO keeps the customer desires in mind when they are making changes instead of just the almighty dollar.

Awesome! Minnesota will definately benefit from a speed upgrade. My speed tests were brutal.

At the Mobile World Conference last year Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Spendy, but WAY cheaper than a new phone...

That sucks. Is there anything someone can use at home to recover from hard brick? Or do you need specialized tools?

Storm chaser

Not a problem

I fail to see the purpose in him throwing a jab like that at this website. Is he jealous or just stupid?

Not to be a wiseguy, but T-Mobile has not even started upgrading their network to LTE. Your coworker might have HSPA+ which they have marketed as 4G but it is an entirely different technology.

Oh, I got excited thinking there was something I could install to integrate a stylus like the s-pan into any tablet...

electrical contractor

Never had a problem with mine. The most vocal people are the ones who feel dissatisfied or like they were taken advantage of. I'm sure there are lemons in every phone model. My wife had a lemon RAZR MAXX.