DanielB

Thanks!

Really off-topic....I've got a pair of wired Beats headphones - they're about 3 or so years old. I'd love to find a bluetooth adapter so I can use them wirelessly, but not sure if it's possible (i.e., how would they receive power to operate?). To the people who are much smarter than I: 1) Is it possible? 2) If so, what adapter do you recommend? Everything I've come across looks bulky and ridiculous.

Interestingly, my experience with all four models of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s has been outstanding on Sprint in and around the Richmond, VA market. In fact, in my tests the device on Sprint has outperformed its peers on Verizon in this market, particularly in regards to LTE data (I have not completed AT&T testing yet).

Just sent a bit in. Great idea - somehow I've missed it in the past!

It doesn't "screw" customers. It is about how profits are arranged in a two sided market.

 

Look, my basic argument is this. The wireless industry, under what amounts to a pretty much net neutral conditions, seems big enough at the national level for 3 players or maybe even just two. Just look at how many years profits have been dominated by the big two. Why is that? Capex and opex cost are high, this favors scale. What is the driver of these cost, not telephony but ISP driven by the exponential growth in content demand. Given that this is a two sided market (ISP and content together and only together deliver a product which is consumable) there is a open question as to how much of those costs should be distributed where and how consumers would prefer this distribution (i.e. Would consumer prefer more ISP choices or more Netflix imitators). This is better worked out by the market.

 

If consumer prefer more wireless ISP providers the shift in profits means more national wireless carriers will be viable. If you favor net neutrality you are saying you are in favor of using the government to make sure the market supports fewer ISPs choices than consumers want. That to me doesn't makes any kind of sense.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So you make a great point with one idea you've been repeating...natural market forces don't tend to create monopolies. This is true. Whole or partial government intervention inadvertently leads to market dominance...and has done so time and time again. This is seen with the old AT&T (hell, the new AT&T, too), as well as other examples such as Google. Yes, Google....all levels of government can adversely impact markets, including municipalities that offer tax breaks to one company (but not others) in order to locate a facility within their spheres of governance. So fair point, and I agree with you fully on this one....natural market forces do not by themselves breed monopolies.

Could we take this further and say government has enabled the dominance of 2 large players in the wireless industry by allowing mega-mergers to take place over the past 10-12 years? I remember SunCom, Cingular, Alltel, Sprint, Verizon Wireless (not wholly owned by Verizon), T-Mobile, Ntelos, etc....just a few years ago. Many of these players were allowed to combine for no reason other than gaining economies of scale. It cannot be said that, on the whole, the industry was suffering from having so many players. Most wireless operators were traditionally profitable.

It is also important to consider situations where government (in this case, at the federal level) has bestowed certain assets (spectrum) to certain players with no licensing costs attached - while not doing so for others....at least not with assets of equivalent market value. This, too, plays a role in who wins and who loses. Granted, there are implementation costs for spectrum but I can tell you I'm a hell of a lot further along than you if you pay $10 billion for spectrum licenses equivalent to what I have acquired for free. In such a situation, I can spend $10 billion more than you on implementation and achieve a dominant competitive position that, for you, will be insurmountable.

Perhaps you see where I am going. Capex and opex are high because carriers have become lazy and sloppy. Real competition breeds efficiency. Whining about expenses being high is like me whining about a $900 car payment on my Mercedes. BFD....it would be my own damn fault. Earlier in this thread, there was a discussion surrounding the reasons why Verizon can implement network modifications so much more quickly than can Sprint or T-Mobile; it was soundly illustrated that the reasons for this are primarily due to capex levels. Verizon does not have to be concerned about smart deployment of resources in a targeted fashion designed to improve their network where needs dictate...so they don't. Conversely, Sprint and (to a lesser extent) T-Mobile have far more limited capital at their disposal and so must deploy it in a way that its impact is far larger than the impact Verizon receives from its capex one a strict dollar for dollar basis.

What am I saying? This: increased competition in wireless would serve to drive down operating expenses and capital expenses as carriers are forced to find more efficient means of accomplishing their goals. Your assumption that less competition would magically reduce expenses is flawed and, frankly, stupid. Please pardon me for saying so. We're talking about wireless here - not wireline. There is absolutely no economic proof throughout history that what you are saying is true. In fact, we would be better off in terms of the wireless competitive environment if we still had many players (granted, some regional), like Alltel, SunCom, Cingular, etc...each spending money ever more efficiently to deploy better networks and win more customers from their competitors. If this were so, I can guarantee you net neutrality violations would not be an issue because no company would try to pull stupid sh!t like this in a real competitive environment.

I know this thread is a bit older, so I am sure I am duplicating prior responses. But going to go ahead and throw my votes in anyway. The Blacklist is absolutely effing fantastic. So is Breaking Bad. Can't recommend either one of those enough. Lost is another great one to watch.

EDIT: I'm also going to recommend adding a Hulu subscription to your roster. Brooklyn Nine-Nine and How to Get Away with Murder are my two top picks there.

 

I have a UPS Ground package Shipped on the 18th, Supposed to arrive by the 20th (today)

 

CA -> HI

 

My package was on the truck for delivery it was getting kind of late already and BAM!

 

"We've misrouted the package. This may cause a delay. / Your delivery has been rescheduled for the next business day."

 

I've contacted UPS and since today is Friday, it won't be delivered Saturday because Ground packages aren't delivered unless it's got the optional Saturday delivery option like 2nd day air.

 

Now they've F*ked up with sorting my package and now they're now going to have me wait until Monday to have it to me.

What kind of bullsh*t is this, I've had better luck with USPS!

 

For those who want to know what's in the package, It's a Karma Go.

 

Sorry to hear of this. I worked for UPS for five years many years ago, and would never ship with them by choice if that tells you anything!

Anyone bought and used this one on Sprint yet?

Half off t-mobile is actually pretty damned good. Sprint knows many of the value seekers are on T-Mobile and so this may be a really good way to bring people back to Sprint. I'll be talking to my sister (who uses T-mobile) about this for sure.

It is indeed a good deal. But it is not, however, big news. Consumers still believe they are sacrificing quite a bit by moving to Sprint from another Big 4 carrier. Sprint must address this perception. Secondly, Sprint has made a big deal of protecting (nay, growing) margins....and yet they come out with something like this?

A wiser strategy would have been to bundle things that have merely an incremental effect on the bottom line (more hot-spot data, a beefier global roaming deal that is automatically bundled with each plan) rather than something so costly. Marketing emphasis could have also been placed on the $25.00 difference in price that already exists between T-Mobile's unlimited plan and Sprint's. SMH

I love Sprint. I love what they're doing with their network. I just think they underestimate consumers.

RIP Sprint. No one will ever pay attention to your "big announcements" ever again. I am disappointed that they seemingly have no knowledge of what resonates as a big deal with consumers.

I would have to say that both Sprint and Tmobile suffered with poor in-building coverage so what happened in the past doesn't really matter at this point. Also I did not say all markets, I said urban markets because I know rural areas still blow on Tmobile.  Both companies had poor leadership management prior to Legere and Marcelo. That is why both carriers needed low band spectrum to help compete with the big 2 because their in-building coverage just sucks.

 

Now that both carriers have low band spectrum although Sprint has nationwide 800 MHz spectrum while Tmobile is still acquiring more 700A block licenses and will acquire all the remaining 700A licenses eventually and not to mention the impending 600 MHz auction. It will be interesting to see how both companies do in terms of improving in-building penetration using their low band spectrum.

Not trying to pick a fight, but at least in the markets I've been with Sprint and T-Mobile phones, Sprint is a much better in-building performer. Now that their 800 MHz spectrum is rather widely deployed, they simply wipe the floor with T-Mobile when it comes to in-building coverage....and I say this with complete conviction based on my own personal experience with side-by-side tests.

This is my first Samsung phone, but it certainty won't be my last! The build quality is phenomenal and the performance is great with that 4GB of ram.

 

But you would think the phone sucks going by the amount of forum interest.

 

Sent from my SM-G928P using Tapatalk

It's Samsung's first good phone (imho), so I think that's why interest isn't greater. I've known plenty of folks who grew weary of Samsung's quality issues and over-zealous TouchWiz interface with the GS 3, 4, and 5. They're corrected all of these with the GS6/Note 5 family, but  it's going to take awhile to convince people of this. I'm very happy with my Edge+....even bought the keyboard cover this weekend as I plan to hang onto this one for awhile.

I did, my reply doesn't change.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

It's explained in the thread...

Why wouldn't you just buy the device on easy pay, pay off the balance and then buy a new device on easy pay after it updates? Porting your number back and forth seems like a huge waste of time, you are making it way harder than it needs to be. Better yet, just buy the devices at full price with a credit card. Since you aren't keeping them for more than a month you won't have any interest if you keep selling the devices.

Read the thread.

That wouldn't make any sense for any Sprint employee to tell you to do that. Hence they would get charged back everytime you ported out. I'm pretty sure you have to be active for a total of 180 days for Sprint employees not to get charged back from their commissions. So they recieved no personal gain from getting you to do this.... It just sounds like they advised you to do the wrong thing. You can always dial *3 and pay off the IB. Then just purchase another one.

*3, eh? Is that billing? The few times I tried to pay off an EIP early (without porting), billing did not know how to handle my request.

Let me clarify - I applaud the moves Sprint has taken. All have made their plans more consumer-friendly or helped to increase yield for Sprint with no downside for the customer. However, this does not diminish the negative impact that such a large number of plan changes in such a short amount of time has on consumers.

Dang...I don't see why Sprint just automatically push that to all plans that were on a set GB per month or at least the cut your bill folks. I love Sprint dearly but with every change it makes you hold on to what you have currently for dear life.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wouldn't disagree with you. Look at the large number of plan changes since Framily.....$50 iPhone Unlimited $60 Unlimited, $70 Unlimited, Family Share, New Family Share....that's quite a bit of change for consumers to absorb over little more than a year. Sprint is running the risk of marketplace confusion at this point....they really need to settle on plans and pricing and stick with them.

Will work, but how well? Sure, almost any unlocked handset will do quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and W-CDMA band 1/2. So, that has you covered for GSM 850/1900 and W-CDMA 1900 on AT&T or T-Mobile. But not necessarily W-CDMA band 4 on T-Mobile. And LTE? That is a crapshoot. Maybe no LTE. Or maybe missing band 12 on T-Mobile and upcoming band 30 on AT&T.

 

You sound like you want an "anything goes" type of situation with handsets. Because you switch so often -- too often, in my opinion, and you may have an addiction problem -- that "anything goes" idea might fit your use case. If an unlocked handset were compromised in its band support and that affected your network experience, you would just sell the handset a week later and move on to your next prize.

 

However, that will not fly with the general public, especially on Sprint, which has a rather unique set of CDMA2000 band classes and LTE bands. People would want to activate all sorts of partially compatible to completely incompatible handsets. Then, when their service was not up to par, they would blame Sprint.

 

For a similar discussion on unlocked handsets, see this recent Reddit thread:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sprint/comments/3qjyyr/submitted_a_complaint_through_the_fcc/

 

AJ

It is undeniable that the carrier distribution model for handsets is going to fade. The onus is on manufacturers to meet the needs or wants of consumers....and things are moving this way ever so slowly. Look at Apple, HTC, Nexus. Not enough yet, but a start. Within the next two years, most phones will be purchased unlocked from non-carrier sellers (either directly from manufacturers or from other retailers). So I think things on this front are going to continue to change very quickly. It's an exciting prospect.

I noticed that on the new $70 unlimited plan, there is no longer an option to add more tethering data....is this the way it is now, no option at all to pay for more high speed tethering data?

Interesting on the commissions....and that would explain why Sprint's corporate management has also advised me of the same. Will use Sprint.com exclusively for my orders now. Thanks, all!

Here you go...

 

Nexus 5

Nexus 6

Moto X (2015)

Nexus 5X

Nexus 6P

 

Am I forgetting any?

 

AJ

That's not a great selection, especially considering almost ANY unlocked GSM phone will work on AT&T or T-Mobile. Not Sprint's fault, of course, but still unfortunate.

In fact, I wish one could just buy unlocked devices that were compatible with Sprint's network. This would solve a lot of issues, both for me and - I am sure - others.

A big corporation is a bureaucracy -- it does not handle unusual scenarios easily.  So, do not be surprised if you run into the same issue again in the future.  And I will leave it at that.

 

AJ

You are right again - she warned of such and said to call her directly if it happens again!

And you take Sprint retail employees guidance as gospel?  What has S4GRU been advising you for years?  They are retail employees.  They do not have the knowledge on network deployment, SIM card compatibility, and now fraud prevention that you seek.

 

Personally, what you are doing is nucking futs.  Simplify the process.  Stop porting in and out every other week -- that is suspicious.  Buy your devices at full price.  Sell them when you get tired of them.  Rinse and repeat.

 

AJ

You are right....except I was told not to. Even just now on the phone, Nora advised to make no change to what I am doing as it is the best way to do it. 

Well, I hope you can get it worked out.  Best of luck.

All straightened out now! Ms. Armstrong even told me to keep her direct number handy in case it happens in the future. Very satisfied with Sprint.