jonathanm1978

So, after having my Gs3 for a couple months, and the wife has had her Gs3 since September as well, we're both seeing a few "quirks" with the GS3 working properly with the Airvana femtocell.

I finally broke down and called Sprint today, and after a 41 minute conversation with tech, they are going to send out the Airave 2.5 (the newest one that came out in ??June?? or so).

I just got this one last year around Feb 2011, when they introduced the 3G version...so maybe this will fix the problems I've been seeing lately (like the same text message being received like 10 times, or someone receiving the same text msg like 10 times...but you only hit send once).

The last straw was when I tried to make a call today, got the 3 beeps, and the person answered the phone but it sounded like a cell phone from 1998 in a bad roaming area. I could barely hear "he___ wh__ --- hu ---- th---- he---- bl---- "

and I just hung up.

Got mad and unplugged the thing, made same phone call again and (while roaming) I heard him fine. It wouldn't bother me much if the calls were just "hey how are ya" type things, but I run an at-home computer repair business, and this happened to be a business owner that I do thousands per year in computer work for....I need to hear what he's saying.

Anyone seen, or had any experience with the new Airave?

halcyoncmdr have you heard anything about them?? Hope they don't have the issues this one has seen. (the tech even pushed an update to it, but still decided to send one out anyway)...

Try this: in your dialer, type

##72786#

This will re-do the PRL, update the network, and reboot the phone.

You don't need the MSL for this...but try and see if it helps.

Here's what a connection to my Airave(3G version) looks like.

Just for comparison sake.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

It's not going to work on any other device except the ones that Sprint has authorized it for. The biggest thing is that if you use it, they have to provision your account for DC service and if you don't have one of the three devices listed you don't get provisioned. Then you face not having the chipset that the app is designed to work on, because for now it's locked to certain chips. Pulling the .apk won't do any good.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I'm going to shoot you a PM about the Sprint Direct Connect Now app, halcyoncmdr,

I don't want to clog up this thread and derail it with what I'm trying to find out about it.

I see a fellow Sprint community forum person has joined here. I've seen you around halcyon, I go by Jonmcr78 on Sprint community.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I know the phone had fairly new tech implemented, but was wondering what bands the S3 can actually use? I see talk of 800SMR and 1900 and other bands, what can my phone actually pick up?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

It's being rolled out slowly because it's likely a strain on the network if they suddenly open it up to hundreds of thousands of android phones all at once. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone downloaded it and hit PTT trying to talk with Nextel+ android phones? Would misty likely crash it and crash it hard+ fast.

They are catching plenty of flak about it though, just like the "**Me" app, it's free to download but cost a monthly fee.

I've seen no schedule for which phones, only an assumption that only above a certain Qualcomm chip will be able to handle it.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

And they may have disabled it since it served no purpose, but increasing/decreasing the coverage area of the Airave on sprint.com does NOTHING to the actual airave. It does not work as it says on the sprint.com site, but if you put in a call to Airave tech support (not Sprint tech support), they can start a ticket on your Airave to provision it for larger area coverage. They intentionally lock it down where it is to keep it from bleeding over on neighbors.

And from what I've known talking to tech support, the area you live in has to be provisioned for Airave use..They don't always just work in every dead-spot with broadband connections..it has to be in Sprint's provisioned access area.

Check newegg, they have some boosters but run into a couple hundred bucks. Looked at them before I was given an airave.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Why is Birmingham mentioned here? Surely they aren't off the 4g map?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I would think they would try to have my county converted before the spring Nascar race, but who knows. Since i live on the south end of the county where the track is they could light up north end where the track is and it wouldn't affect me anyway.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Keep seeing markets announced, I'd be overjoyed if they would just START a city somewhere in Alabama. So far I've seen nothing that had the words 4G and Alabama together in the same sentence. Trying to be patient though, maybe it won't be long.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I agree with Roy. I've been a Sprint customer for 5 years. The first entire year i had Sprint, i never used over 50 minutes a month on the 450/month plan. I actually went on the site and checked this usage, and i remember calling them on December 27, 2007 and telling the female customer service rep that i was tired of paying each month and never getting to use my phone. It was then that i told her i thought i was ready to just cut my phone off, and she introduced me to the airave. Then gave me a new phone to boot. So i said i would stay. Got the airave and hooked it up, then slowly over the following months my service got better in this area. Wasn't great service, but it was bearable.

Along this time I've watched Sprint grow and fail, but stuck with them because I'm always one to pull for the underdog. And it is paying off, as I'll be getting 4G soon. Don't know exactly when, not really that important. Would i like to have it? Yes, of course. Is it going to change my life and make me a better person, wash my clothes, tend to my yard work and fix me supper? No.

Point being, everyone, including me, makes a big whoop out of 4G, but once it's been in for a while, it'll be like it was when we all went from dial internet to broadband at home. You love it and it tops your thoughts until novelty wears off. Then it's just as important as who won the national fart award in 1996. I felt the same way when i got a 3G airave and moved up from the Samsung version. I was like "wow faster Facebook and web site loading, now i can type Google and hit enter much faster"

After about a month, i quit laying in bed at night with my phone enjoying the 3G speed and it just became another nice perk.

I got dish network put in last week and my sling adapter will be here today, I'm sure I'll love having my sub anywhere i can get online on my phone or laptop, but after a couple weeks the novelty will wear off and I'm sure I'll say "damn, i could have used that $49.99 for something else instead of buying a sling adapter."

I know some people live for their cell phone, but in my case, my cell phone serves a purpose and if it doesn't happen to have the fastest data speed on the market, then oh well. What am i really missing out on? Not much, except loading stuff a few seconds quicker. I can deal with waiting since I've never had 4G and been with Sprint 5 years. Didn't really ever make or break me, it was not being able to use voice that made me almost drop them.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

What about the Galaxy S3 (SPH-L710)...leaked Jellybean (4.1.1) over at xda with ROMS coming from it now....I think freeza dropped the leaked ROM first, and now it's being customized, but it's an official leaked build (I'm using the DeOdexed leak as my daily driver, so far so good and NO problems at all with anything.)

I don't speak Spanish, but from what I gathered in the CC subtitles translated to ENG...looks like iDEN may be on the way out here in the US, but just coming into play in Mexico....

Anyone here know what's up in SA or what tech they are going with?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DjElGi3DT0

I see what your saying, but you bring up other plants that already have their COM in place, like solinc does now.

My point is they don't view it as wasted money (they waste more running their new meters that are read by satellite and don't require a visit every month from them). I'd love to see them shed some expenses, maybe they could give raises across the board to people. My wife really didn't need a brand new i576 just to talk to those folks when I just bought her a new SGS3 back on the 5th of this month. But she is required to wear it while at that plant.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

What I get from reading is adding up to say it's inefficient and wasteful, look at it from my point of view:

My wife is at work and gets told to go to the sub-basement below their 800 megawatt unit and pull the 600 amp breaker when they tell her the unit has scrubbed down. She proceeds to go and do her job, but because of a crappy, unreliable carrier now handling communication and not having the cell tower on the plant property anymore, when she goes to pull the breaker, she gets disintegrated because her boss gets the Nextel "dong dong dong" instead of getting "bleep bleep" when he tried to tell her the unit didn't scrub. This is JUST ONE of the many reasons why they consider it a vital part of operations. I stopped today and looked at their on-site tower, how many carriers are going to agree to build a tower on every plant site? I want them to be able to communicate, but then again, none of your have family who's life depends on being able to communicate...

But like I said, bygones are bygones. You guys are more than welcome to tear apart my reasoning in what I've said earlier, but I can't help but have a personal connection with southern company, my wife of 15 years ties me to that company. I got a bigger complaint about them making their own insurance company and operating that than I do their use of a small amount of spectrum (she told me today they don't want anyone using phone while roaming so while they have roaming agreements, they don't like paying that bill). Every single plant has a tower in the property.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Either way, Robert, me or no one else knows for sure what will happen, it's all guessing sms no need to argue over. My skin is pretty thick, admin a porn, warez site for several years, mod on several dish network hacking sites back in the day before I went legit and quit hacking. I've been called things that I wondered if it was English, but in the end, in this case we are all guessing whether we are sure of our guess it not. I think my guess is accurate just like everyone else thinks theirs is accurate --bygones are bygones. Maybe we can come back in 8 months and tell what has happened (the company will announce in January or February if major changes are coming to their cellular network, that's when SoComp makes their yearly changes. )

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I seem to think? As I already said, this company doesn't care about profit...is that not understood? You guys are still looking at Solinc as a company who is driven to profit and sits down at shareholder meetings like Sprint does and answers as to why they aren't making profit margins --- THEY DO NOT.

So what they can't get phones that have cellular calling on them, they'll pay the highest bidder to make the two-way radios for them to continue using walkie-talkie as they have since SoLinc's inception...because it would cost them WAY too much to replace what they have in-place now. This may not be what they do, but they would do this before they contract someone out, especially since they've stopped using contractors and aren't renewing contracts with ANYONE, I was at the plant today and saw them moving out contractors who had been there for years. They are going to in-plant workers instead of contractors for everything.

That's company-wide too, with everything. They even want the employees to use THEIR health insurance company they've started up, but still offer Blue Cross.

Behemoth? I never said that...but you guys underestimate the large footprint that SouthernCompany is...

for example, the grid failure in New York quite a few years ago was due to a turbine hitting the wrong frequence at a SouthernCompany plant and that grid went down. And with what SoCo does in foreign countries, who's to say WHAT they will do.

No one here is calling the shots for SoCo..nor am I. I stated what I believe they'll do along with employees I've talked to who've been there for years, but I'm taking cheap shots for stating what I've stated about them.

I stated my beliefs without taking pot-shots at anyone, so I guess with this post, I'm DONE. Best thing I can add is just wait and see, as we all will do. I'm sure I'll find out relatively sooner than most what they'll do, since my wife has a SoLinc phone right now and has to be in-contact with higher ups. All I said was I don't see them suddenly putting 26,000 people out of contact if they can do something to keep what they have, and I fully believe they'll drop cellular and keep DirectConnect, along with shedding external customers if they have to. I'm not so caught up in myself that I have to be right all the time...and this has taken up too much of my time already.

I don't see near as much impossibility in it, but that is because I know how big they are, and how they work deals regarding power to a cell site.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

That sounds reasonable , Robert, and I agree that no company should love to lose money, but in the end, they've made the decision to provide their employees with cell phones and pay that bill for them...now they may have to transition some, but farming out and selling off ...I don't see that happening. They ink a deal with Sprint, I bet...and actually, I HOPE. SoLinc gets decent in-network coverage at my house (probably because i live across the river from the steam plant, where they have the on-site tower), but there's no in-network Sprint coverage near my house. So if they inked a deal, got CDMA/LTE with Sprint + SoLinc...I could be using the SoLinc (but really Sprint) and hitting 4G..so it would help not only Solinc customers get more coverage in places they don't right now but help Sprint customers in areas where SoLinc thrives.

It'll definitely be something to watch, and it'll be something that I am kept up on because my wife will get a phone if they decide to change-over. I'll keep you guys updated on what goes on with that, because if they do, they will make sure employees have their new phones LONG, LONG before a shut-down of current iDEN if they let it go.

So, the Southern Company may be losing money on SouthernLINC. I do not doubt that, as at least one analyst concurs. In that case, my question is this: could the Southern Company cost costs -- short term or long term -- but maintain QoS by outsourcing internal communications to an established wireless communications provider?

 

AJ

As I said in a few posts prior, they pay the bill for 26,000 employees, and consider it operational expenses. to analysts they might be losing money, but to them, it's considered part of operating expenses (which is passed on to clients -- ie, people who pay their power bill).

When it comes to solinc and southern company, you have to look at more than just dollar signs...they don't care about making solinc profitable, it's not there as a profit-gaining expenditure. It's in-place for the employees of the company, instead of handing out motorola 2-way walkie-talkie radios (which can range from $800 on up), or running on a frequency near EMS services, they just use a cellular network technology.

Most of you guys are used to seeing a plant where people have motorola walkie-talkie radios on their side, they talk to bosses and other workers with them -- like on certain channels for operations, certain channel for logistics -- well, instead of southern company having this, they have Solinc. NOBODY has a walkie-talkie radio. They entirely depend on Solinc.

To them, profit, smofit...who cares.

But do you really think this network will remain nearly as usable to anyone once they can't roam onto Nextel's footprint?

Usable, obviously not. Remain online...it very well could and probably will. SoLinc doesn't care if it has to shed some external customers. Communication inside a power utility company is VITAL, if you're talking about entire grids and millions in revenue, communication is a life & death must-have. When I said they use solinc to communicate, I didn't mean it's their office lines and "howdy, how are you" talks, we're talking about people using them to say "yeah, throw the 28 megawatt unit back online" and "pull the 650A breaker so I can do some live work on this line"...

There is no back-up radio in case solinc goes down..because they maintain it and it does not go down. Coincidentally, my wife said she was doing compliance around the tower on her plant's location yesterday...they make SURE they have their internal communication, above all else. If they have to bleed a few external subscribers because they don't want to lose what they have, then I foresee them having no problem throwing money at it until it happens. It'll just be part of their budget (which should be voted on and passed q4 2012)...and will be considered part of operating expenses.

so while Nextel may give their employees an option to roam outside the plants premises, they aren't really caring whether the phones work OFF the premises. They keep up the network because it's probably convienient for them right now..once the iDEN is shutdown, they may just as well turn Solinc into an employee only operation once again, like it used to be before it went public.

I wouldn't say it's all that public, because even in the area you can get Solinc service, its not that easy to get it..their credit worthiness is extremely high -- like scores above 750 or 800 just to get one line. They aren't in the cell phone business to be in business, they are in the cell phone business to keep SouthernCo employees in touch which other employees...their goal is based on SouthernCo's vision, not Solinc and attracting new customers. We're looking at a different business model here than say, Sprint or Verizon, who want to attract NEW customers and earn NEW money....Solinc isn't really in it to make money (especially considering they pay their employees bills for them, spouses can opt to get one like I mentioned above, $27.99/month taken from the paycheck.)...

I could have a killer phone with Solinc and pretty decent coverage if I wanted, but I'm already with a cell phone company...

Biggest thing here is we're looking at a carrier that's run by a utility (and is considered a government entity in some instances), we're not looking at a carrier that's run by a carrier.

Solinc is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southern Co. They use Solinc as the wireless communications enabler for their own workers. The external customers are just gravy, helping to defray some of the operational costs. I have no idea what they're going to do with their spectrum. From Sprint's perspective it would be great to have a spectrum swap for their 900MHz SMR spectrum.

 

As far as USCC is concerned they could make USCC a wholly owned subsidiary and task them with being their rural service provider. USCC knows how to make money in rural areas and they have a very good reputation. They could assign them their 800MHz SMR spectrum and have them develop a great network. They could probably pick up the remnants of ATNI while they're at it.

I guess that's what I was trying to say, but everyone kept talking like they were owned by another carrier and would be forced to do something because of technology changing, in all honesty and knowing what I've seen from southern company since my wife started employment with them, the likelihood of them just spending a chunk of money to keep current tech is more along lines of what they would do. I think they would be more likely to do that, since they own their equipment and they do their maintenance. They are not going to shut-down the vital communication between employees, and solinc covers the entire southern company 26,000 people. Plus the non-employee customers, retirees that decide to keep it when they leave employment, etc. Not a small number, and for $27.99 / month unlimited minutes, direct connect, and data added on at $10.00, you can't really beat them. That's employee price on plans though. At any rate, my wife also said that she doesn't know what's going on with wireless or where I'm getting my info, but she said she seriously doubts they would swap everyone's phone all at once on June 3013 or shut down current phones, she said it would be more like the company to pay whatever to keep things the way they are now, even if only for a couple years until cheaper tech or they prepare a crossover network.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2