Conan Kudo

Rocks Cluster

If the cell is congested, the speed test will reflect that. T-Mobile's treatment of speed tests was pretty much done at the request of its customers, in which they didn't want speed tests to count towards the data cap and they wanted to use speed tests to see what the network is capable of, barring the current status of their account, which is why I find it hilarious that people are complaining about it now... The only condition in where speed test will not match what you experience is when you've used up your full speed data bucket. Every other condition will match (congestion, etc). Contrary to popular belief, this is not really handled by DPI. T-Mobile isn't examining the data portion of packets to figure out whether it's a speed test packet or something else. The packet header (which is read for routing purposes) has information on the source and destinations. T-Mobile uses a whitelist of destinations that it acquired from companies that offer speed tests to exempt it. It's the same as how Music Freedom works. DPI is computationally expensive (thus slow) and prone to errors (as not every speed test application tests it the same way). Destination whitelisting is computationally simple (thus very fast) and hard to screw up if you have the right lists. The lists may even be sourced by the companies T-Mobile is working with to whitelist in a dynamic form (such as a server list script that T-Mobile pings every 24 hours and dumps into its whitelist).

Mickey Mouse

Prodigal prodigy

One Time

Hmm, I stand corrected on the law. However, I'm still concerned with Sprint's wording of its policy... That said, you're correct about GSM/UMTS/LTE locks. The 3GPP part of the baseband for locking is generally an all-or-nothing scenario, and even if it wasn't, Verizon wouldn't be allowed to cripple the devices in such a manner because of the rules in the Upper 700MHz C block spectrum that prevent crippling. The problem is bringing GSM/UMTS/LTE devices that lack CDMA to Verizon. The only way to have voice, SMS, and MMS services without CDMA is VoLTE, and it's currently not designed to allow unbranded devices to automatically configure and support the service. For example, Sony's unbranded Xperia Z2 supports GSM, UMTS, and LTE. It supports all major bands for GSM, UMTS, and LTE except band 12. It even has band 13. However, when connected to the Verizon network, it cannot support voice and texting services because VoLTE cannot be fully configured from the ISIM application in the Verizon SIM card.

It does not. Exactly one application gets installed if you set up the Nexus 6 with a T-Mobile SIM in: My Account. The application is removable. Google insisted on it to show off how it can do carrier customizations on the fly for phones through Google Play Services.

Actually, the voluntary commitment was codified into law. That said, Sprint's policy specifically indicates that the devices must be "developed and released" after February 11. The "developed" bit can be interpreted to allow Sprint even more time to keep things the way they are, since device development processes are around a year long. Whether or not they'll do that, I don't know. Also, there's also no real "unlocking" capability for US CDMA devices like there is for GSM devices. Since devices must be directly reprogrammed to make them work on different carriers (which is against the DMCA), the law about phone unlocking does not apply. The law about phone unlocking is strictly about removing the mechanisms that prevent the usage of a different SIM card than the one the phone was sold for. The law is designed not to contravene/contradict the DMCA, which reprogramming/reflashing CDMA phones falls under, unfortunately. Verizon is also protected, to an extent. VoLTE isn't designed to be fully authenticated and configured from the ISIM application on the UICC, so you wouldn't be able to use voice service over LTE on unbranded 3GPP-only device. I hope this changes soon, but there's no indication that anyone wants to fix it.

That's illegal, since it requires modifying the baseband without the permission of the FCC.

Only carriers. And it doesn't prevent the manufacturing of intentionally incompatible phones, either. For example: AT&T can continue to request devices that have 3GPP band 4 disabled for WCDMA, and Sprint and Verizon can request devices that lack US GSM/WCDMA bands (as they've done in the past). The unlocking law also doesn't help anyone who uses CDMA carriers, since nothing actually forces CDMA carriers to allow non-branded/unknown devices on their networks.

There are a few challenges to TD-SCDMA (UMTS TDD LCR) on international devices: The technology isn't used outside of China (and a few trials in Denmark) The frequency bands used for it overlap with FDD bands in the US, and generally devices don't have support for both (of course it's possible, but the radio hardware doesn't exist right now, so it would take some time if it was ever requested) China Mobile itself is moving to abandon the technology as it rapidly refarms it for auxiliary LTE TDD and merges some of its network operations with China Unicom (who operates the WCDMA network in China along with a GSM network like China Mobile). You will find it extremely unlikely to see TD-SCDMA on a non-China Mobile device. Even in two years, you may even find it rare to see CDMA on China Telecom devices and TD-SCDMA on China Mobile devices, as the network platform is consolidated to match international configurations.

Union Wireless

No, they are not. Handsets must merely be capable of connecting to any compatible cell site for calling emergency services. A GSM/WCDMA phone must be capable of connecting to any tower that offers GSM/WCDMA for that purpose, and any CDMA phone must be capable of connecting to any tower that offers CDMA for that purpose, too.

AT&T charged me $25 for a SIM card the last time I had to get one (excluding activation fees), so $15 is still cheaper.

It is quite possible that he may have to. Sprint is also tightening credit standards significantly, too.

AT&T and Verizon both have looser credit requirements than T-Mobile at this point, because they will let you do Next/EDGE with a deposit more often than not. Sprint is also tightening up, but I'm not quite sure to what level yet.

The Rani

Strictly speaking, C Spire Wireless covers Memphis, TN; Mississippi; Mobile, AL; and the Floridian panhandle natively. The remainder is roaming with Sprint.