jonathanm1978

AT&T says there is a 250GB cap on my Uverse, but no where have I been able to actually find a usage meter or anything like that. As far as I can tell, they're not tracking it, haven't been for the last year. Not sure if that will change in the future.

The way it works: until you use a certain amount in a month, they don't show you the usage meter, but once you go past a certain point, it's 100gb on dsl for the 150gb data cap, they send an email saying you are at 65% of your alloted data.

Until you use that amount, likely for you on uverse, it's 175gb or 200gb, you won't know or even be able to view your usage. Once you hit the trigger amount, you can view the use on the tracking site. They only show you weekly totals until you hit 75% then they report daily. It's quite confusing but they do enforce. It's just that most people don't come close to hitting the limit, or even the trigger.

I've been arguing with at&t for nearly two years because they say I've been going over my 250gb monthly cap. I know for sure i do not hit the cap, especially when i got two DSL lines to split my traffic. They finally told me last week that they found a problem with their end and the data activity monitor. But they do enforce their cap (for every 50gb over initial 250gb is $10 more until bill cycle.)

With the 40mhz SDL, TMO would permanently exert pressure on sprint to keep unlimited; not something son wants.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What indications do you have that Son doesn't want to keep unlimited? There's nothing leading up to believe that unlimited is going away anytime in the next 5 years that I can see...am I missing something?

Or is this just a conclusion that people still believe mobile broadband is so gosh-darn expensive it can't be unlimited (thanks VZW CEO for saying unlimited was dead)

So, my bill cycle started over today (05/06) and I got online to check the usage because since I changed my plan to add a tablet on 4/14 and 4/18, it's been nothing but confusing trying to see what has been used...couldn't find a chart that told me the total from all lines...and had to go through each line and add them together to keep up with the total.

I'm glad to see that was only a couple weeks that I had to add it up myself, and now it's all under one link "See all shared usage"...

But, confusing to me is the number shown on the 3G/4G Data with Mobile Hotspot - 05/06 to 06/05 (shared)..My plan started over this month and moved from 20gb to 32gb....

Can anyone tell me why 54gb instead of 32gb?

I know of an Alcatel phone with triband (26, 25, 41), and also has LTE roaming (but it's turned off right now).  This is in the prepaid sector though. Not sure if it can be BYOD, but it does work on Sprint network (Including the Airave)

Because where I live, once Sprint optimizes band 26 on that tower I live 6 miles from, I want LTE to be priority over CDMA. I can take the LG tablet with LTE only mode and hit band 26 in my yard from a tower that's ten miles away right now, but it's fringe. The galaxy tab in the same spot parks on roaming Verizon 3g. So that's why I want LTE only mode

Sent from my LGLS990

I know the S5 has a module to do LTE-only mode, but what about this tablet (Galaxy Tab 4?)...

I've recently picked up the GT4...after using the LG Gpad 7" for a week...and got really used to the Gpad having LTE-only radio..

So I'd like to be able to use LTE-only on the GT4 as well.

I will say that the Gpad hardware....{sucks} for lack of better in-depth details..but the radio / rf performance is pretty spot-on. I mean, the LG picks up in my yard, nearly 10 miles from a B26 site..and gets a usable B26 signal with around 5-8mbps down, 3-4mbps up and under 100ms ping (around 60ms-70ms).

I can't try with the GT4, as the only network options are CDMA only, and CDMA/LTE/EVDO.

And I just turned roaming completely off on the tablet as I don't even want to attempt using data while not on the Sprint network.

I'll add this to my previous "review"...

I'm not seeing this tablet as very pleasing either, due to it's poor hardware. It's 2015..they should've put a little more under the hood..SoC, Ram, storage,...but, I guess since it has LTE-only mode, it'll make a good hotspot.

I've turned the LG over to my wife, and taken ownership of the Galaxy Tab 4.

I like it much better than the Gpad, but ...if anyone can tell me how to get LTE-only with it...please let me know!!

Well, that's the rain...I'm sure Lou knows that though.

We all know ...let's use Apple as an example...that a company can't stay on that forever prosperous road.

From $700 stock to...where ...$129.40 right now. So, it's going to happen..

They can't ride that high horse but so long..and the growth will outnumber the availability of spectrum they have, then what.

When it wains....meaning when the number of customers starts doing the same thing that verizon's sheer number of customers is doing to it's network...causing to to be total crap in many areas. And it's inevitable.

Nobody was talking about rain, as in water falling from the sky..

He spelled it wrong, as he meant "wanes"...but it's an intransitive verb...

Full Definition of WANE
intransitive verb
1
:  to decrease in size, extent, or degree :  dwindle: as
a :  to diminish in phase or intensity —used chiefly of the moon, other satellites, and inferior planets
b :  to become less brilliant or powerful :  dim
c :  to flow out :  ebb
2
:  to fall gradually from power, prosperity, or influence

I know it sounds weird, but I like having the LTE only LG tablet. I have used both the LG pad, and the Tab 4 for the past 2 days, and I don't like knowing that the Tab 4 can hit it's roaming limit in little or no time at all...

I wish they put the option for LTE only...or at the least, Sprint only...but I haven't found a way to do that yet.

Also, with the shared plan including the Hotspot...that is just awesome. Years ago, I would custom ROM my device so I could occasionally use hotspot...but never streamed movies or used it as my primary ISP option. The times I did use hotspot, I was sitting in my vehicle -- parked -- with my laptop and looking up something online. These were brief, once or twice a year occurrences that never used over 1 gb anyway...and finally the past couple years I just quit doing it at all...I kinda feel like it should've been part of the unlimited plans all along, but I wasn't paying for it, so I quit rooting just to have it. And now it's included, i doubt I'll need it, but it's nice to have.

Nothing means more than value for money, and that really adds value to a tablet / phone to be able to share it's data connection.

I don't foresee anything that I will need to have hotspot for, but I'll be looking for reasons to use it for sure.

As for the Tab 4...I'm not sure I'd want to enable the hotspot on it...if I was in a fringe LTE area, and dropped to 3G roaming...with hotspot enabled...that may not work out too well. I hope that hotspot shuts itself off if it's not in native coverage..never used it enough to know how that works.

Well, Sprint goofed and made me give back my LG G2, which was put on my sis-in-laws line when her HTC one m8 started giving probs.

The HTC was financed back before this easy-pay stuff started..when Sprint first started doing the financing stuff...so it was an older finance plan... But all i did was change the phones via internet, did it myself by doing sprint.com and activating on her line (the G2).

The billing and all remained, but the phone being financed was not in use, and the G2 was paid for (actually it was my old phone from when I upgraded to G3 last year).

When I took my S-I-L to get her Galaxy Note Edge this past saturday, they said the giveback device was the LG G2, NOT the HTC...

I tried explaining that they were wrong, and the giveback should be the HTC...but I finally just said "I don't care..take whatever phone you want...I just wanted it as a spare anyway in the event something happens to one of my other lines."

Wonder if they'll catch the mistake? I bet the store will be at fault for it (could've looked at the financing detail documents in my account and saw that the HTC one was financed, not the G2).

Well, the Corp store manager in Bham and myself had a chat yesterday -- it's rare that I get up to the store because it's an hour away and I despise hwy 280 traffic into Bham like the plague....

But, he remembers me and we discussed some tower issues around 35150, and he placed a trouble ticket for the tower that's 6.9 miles from me. I told him I really think that the tower just hasn't been optimized yet, because I can pick up B25, B26 in about a 3-mile radius from the tower. Once I go any further than that, I bounce to the tower that's about 9 miles away.

I told him that I am assuming the further tower (only 2 in this area with LTE turned on) is optimized, because I know their site IDs and I can stand in my yard and pick LTE on band 26 from the furthest tower. But that tower that is closer to me, I only get that signal in the small radius near it...both band 25 and band 26.

Since I got this LG tablet, i've been watching the LTE closely, and I am noticing that the G3 hangs on to 26 for quite a while even when 25 is better..

I guess the latest PRL changed the scan priority (or proirity)...but the tab will be on 25 with a -96 signal....but the G3 will be on 26 with a -112.

Also, I mentioned the radio shack thing to him and was told he had been doing the training at 2 locations in/around Gadsden..and discussed a job op if the local radio shack becomes partial Sprint store...he said they are looking for more to come very soon.

The Samsung tab 4, unlike this tab, has 3g/cdma/LTE radio. And roaming...I got one for my wife and been playing with it. You can't set LTE only either.

I guess I'll try to make this my formal "review"....as I've never done one before...but I do have a few things that really make me say "I'm glad I decided to get this after all"...so here goes:

System and Signal:

First off, the OS being 5.0.1 and not having to do any type of update was nice. Since I ordered my tab via telesales, all I had to do was turn it on and wait. I started out with the original plan being 100mb tablet / monthly, keeping my 5 cell phones on the 8-person framily plan with the other 3 strangers that joined me last year.  I picked up the tablet from UPS's hub, which is 2 minutes from Walmart...so I decided to activate it while I was grabbing a couple things from Walmart. I turned it on while I was walking around shopping...signed in, and immediately noticed the screen was very pretty with it's color depth. Blacks are rich and vibrant, and the range/gamut is great compared to my G3.

Set-up was fairly quick, and activation only took a few seconds. I decided to sign in to my Fbook and grab a recipe that my wife wanted me to get ingredients for, and she had tagged me on the recipe via fbook...so I downloaded that app, signed in, and set-up the fbook thing.

Did a few more things while I was shopping and then I headed home. Normally, I get about 4-5 miles from Walmart and my G3 loses LTE and drops back to 3G. I kept glancing at the tablet during my drive home, and noticed that it held on to the LTE 800 signal another 3 miles longer than my G3 does...so that was impressive.

Battery life:

Overall, I'm impressed with the battery life as well. I don't use airplane mode while I'm at home, and even though I live in a fringe LTE area, and you would think it would burn the battery searching for LTE while at home, it really doesn't. I pulled it from charging yesterday morning at 100% around 7:30am. At 9am, it was still sitting on 100% with light SoT and use on LTE.

At bedtime last night, it was at 67%. The stats showed 12hrs of use and still plenty of life left.

Lasting impressions:

Since I had to do something about my tablet data plan, I was forced to swap into a data "bucket" plan and went with the 20gb shared plan, which also gives my tablet shared data..

I find myself using it more than I ever thought I would, even though I've owned an Android tablet for a few years now -- I just havent owned an Android tablet that was anything except Wifi.

This tablet made a good impression on me with the signal quality and antenna's gain...at -125db signal I still can get a very usable LTE signal, with speedtests ranging from 4 to 5mbps down and 2-3mbps up on that signal.

First, I'll list the only cons I can come up with (there aren't but a couple):

Cons:

1. Wifi is only N or below. No 5ghz wifi, but it'll work just fine. I really don't "need" a device to be 5ghz capable, the only reason I ever use it is when I'm in a beta test for network equipment that requires me to use the 5ghz and 2.4ghz to see how they work.

2. Speaker placement is on the bottom RH side (looking at the back of the tablet). The sound is good coming from it, but it's very "directional"...doesn't have that full sound you get with some of the phones.

Really can't come up with much more, maybe not having auto brightness could be listed, but that's not really a problem for me either.

Pros:

1. I listed mostly everything I find as a pro in the first part of this...but, first and foremost: SIGNAL acquisition is amazing!!

2. Battery life is also very good, even with heavy SoT.

3. Having such good LTE reception, coupled with the 20gb bucket and hotspot included..you can imagine the possibilites.

4. Appearance - while I'm used to having a 10.1" tab the past 2 years, reverting to a 7" was not "comfortable" until it arrived. That quickly dissipated the more I used it, and now I am very pleased. Aesthetics are visually appealing, colors/brightness/contrast are great, and even in bright sunlight, you can easily see the screen.

(for those tempted to buy one, please be sure you read this twice: NO CDMA. You will not get 3G with this..even though ...for some reason...Sprint gives you "roaming" up to ***kbs..)

LTE 25 and LTE 26 work great. I can't say for LTE 41 as I don't have anywhere in my state to test that...but I'm sure it's fine as well...

It might be that the battery does so well because it's LTE on those 3 bands only, without having to scan other frequencies. That's my thoughts.

I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. I can post pics to if someone wishes to see the tablet or any screens from it.

Must be amazingly bigger...I just went out in my yard...where I've never picked up LTE service before on ANY band, on ANY device...and just a few feet from my house in the front yard, I grabbed a LTE 800 signal that was strong enough to run a speedtest...

5.10mbps down, 1.68mbps up, 65ms ping.

In the same spot, my G3 grabs a VZW roaming signal..

Anyone know why the radio is so much better than a phone like the G3? I mean, compared to the G3, the tablet is awesome in the radio dept.

Another odd but welcomed thing, lte is a lot stronger than with my g3. I took a couple speed tests earlier with the tablet, as seen here

Check out my Ookla Speedtest result. What's your speed? http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1242177025

My phone is barely getting decent speed tests and I'm not sure why. In same spot the G3 only gets about 12mbps down and 4mbps up

Well, I've only had it a couple of hours, but it's pretty impressive on radio strength. My G3 lost LTE on the way home, but the tablet held on for about 2 miles further, then it dropped.

This has prompted me (the tablet purchase) to change over to a shared "bucket" plan with my phones. I went from an 8-person "Framily" (sorry strangers that I don't know who had those other 3 lines) to a 20gb shared data bucket, which also includes the tablet...

I was going to just do a 1GB data plan on the tablet for $15/mo, but I figured why do that when the 20gb would be sufficient for us, our highest month of use the past year only hit 6gb...

One thing I saw is that the billing system shows you with "roaming data" on the LG G Tab....but you technically can NOT roam.

If you look in the Mobile Networks setting...LTE is the ONLY option you have.

Many may not know, but there is NO CDMA on this tablet...it's LTE or nothing (well, wifi of course, but mobile-speaking)...

Sure. I'll use it a couple days then give my thoughts on it. It'll be in Tuesday.

Sent from my LGLS990

I'm on the phone with them now, and ordering it. She didn't have to try very hard to make this sale either, I was already considering it...My toddler broke my 10.1" Galaxy Tab 3 a couple of days ago, so I was interested in getting another one anyway.

I'd really like to move up from the G3 to the G4, I "think"....but, I'm not convinced that it's going to be the massive updated phone that will be overwhelmingly better than the G3 already is....

I still have my G3 in excellent shape without even a sign of wear...and working fine...

And my next phone I would like to have the CCA LTE "roaming" or whatever it will be termed so I can take advantage of the LTE on CCA partners...

I don't want to get a new phone now, then in 6-8 months they start putting new radio bands in phones that take advantage of the CCA partners networks and I'll be stuck until another upgrade is eligible waiting to take advantage of it...

I'm thinking the unannounced LG flagship that's coming later this year might be what I get, but I could just decide to get the G4 spur of the moment too depending on what it does....how well it performs.

I really wanted some more real estate on the front if I went to another phone...

Since LG decided to keep the same size, if I decide the G4 isn't enough for me to move into, the new Nexus sure looks appealing with that 5.9" screen...I believe that's the size spec I saw.

I been supporting LG for quite a while, since the LG Optimus S...

I just aint 100% sure the G4 will be the "update" that it should be...esp in terms of frequencies included.

I posted the photo from amazons website. She still arguing ...

That was actually what I provided as proof. "I'm using Str8 talk right now on 4GLTE and I put a VZW sim in it that worked just fine"....

I'm ready to say "well ok..amazon didn't know what they were talking about and you do...so yay you.

I got someone arguing with me about an Amazon fire phone...I know I'm right about it being an AT&T phone and only working with their spectrums, correct?

She swears she put a VZW sim in the phone and it worked....

Anyone shed light on what this person is talking about?

Does voice work and data just not connect if you use a VZW sim in the Fire phone?