greenbastard

Just got back from a quick trip to Vegas. Network has definitely degraded a bit. I experienced a lot of delayed MMS and SMS. Data works, but was slow in so many places. One main issue is that some Casinos are still using 5 MHz LTE (original G block) while most of the macro network has switched to wider 10x10 carriers. Seems to have made my phone bounce around a lot and drained my battery quicker than usual.

This shouldn't be happening. Sprint phones should prefer 1x native data over roaming all the time. I'm assuming this is an issue that arises from the technological differences in 3GPP vs 3GPP2??

On average, I receive 2 of these spam calls a day. They are very effing annoying. If the call is a "press 1 now to speak to a representative" and I find myself not preoccupied with something else, I will troll them. Want to waste my time?? Well, let me waste yours by putting you on hold while I eternally look for my credit card. If it is a machine asking questions, I hang up immediately! They try to record you saying "Yes" in order to charge you collect or sign you up for services. Lucky for me, the Google dialer is very good at picking these spam calls out and warning me. Very impressive that this feature even works without simultaneous Voice and Data.

For starters, telemarketers have called 3 of the lines on my account specifically mentioning my name. I don't use 2 of those lines (other family members use them) and the only connection I have to them is my name on the bill. The only people that know my association to those lines is family/friends and Sprint.

I wonder if Sprint is selling our info? Verizon does, but they have an opt out option online.

That just goes to reinforce the theory that these little boxes are meant for VoLTE.

Robert laid it out nicely; VoLTE.

All Band 41 from Sprint/Clearwire and a slightly weaker B17 when I slip on my At&t SIM.

If this is an ongoing network issue, then it's been going on since September of 2016 (which speaks poorly of whoever manages the network locally). It happens on both Sprint sites and Clearwire sites. I'm still leaning on this being network throttling/management. If this is a network issue, then I'm surprised Sprint has allowed this to linger for so long in a crucial top 10 market.

Spectrum not being paired is due to years and years of licenses being sold and changing hands on the PCS band. Back then, having paired spectrum wasn't as important as it is today. The FCC cannot enforce speed. It can only enforce license owners to wither broadcast or surrender their licenses. Enforcing speeds is impossible.

Throttling (or could be intermittent network issues) are gone now.

That's the point, I have no deprioritization (at least I shouldn't) as I am on a grandfathered unlimited plan. I am currently sitting at 14.7 GB in the last stretch of my billing cycle. I will admit 14.7 GB is an anomaly as I average 5 GB a month (thanks a lot Comcast for going out during the NBA playoffs). I will keep an eye on this as a small part of me still believes this can be an intermittent widespread network issue (backhaul). But it's happened too many times since the early fall of last year, so we shall see.

There is no such thing as paranormal activity. Everything has a logical scientific explanation. Except for Leprechauns. Those mother effers are real.

Throttling seems to be real folks, even for grandfathered plans. I have seen this random throttling at random times of the day, no matter the tower or cell I am on. I doubt it is a backhauk issue as it has happened often in the past year. I'm on ED 1500 and I have not purchased a phone through Sprint since 2014 in case anyone is wondering. Anyone holding on to an old plan because of true "unlimited" needs to take notice.

Wow. You'd figure that places such as the Las Vegas strip would have small cells by now. So many buildings, signs, and decorations to lease space off of. Sprint used to be very decent in the strip. Unless their leases weren't expired, the slow down is very odd. Has Las Vegas deployed a 2nd B25 carrier?

Doubt a deal happens. But if it does, there will be a lot of headaches as both networks are combined into one. Then there's the issue of which network they'll shut down. CDMA or GSM? Shut down GSM and you'll lose reliable fallback for VoLTE. Shut down CDMA, and you'll lose 1x800 which is more reliable than lowband VoLTE.

Movil in Mexico isn't terrible. They have the best network and also decent customer service. Straight Talk seems to be an anomaly in their portfolio. Everywhere else in the world Movil acts like Verizon. They are the gold standard in Mexico. For whatever reason, they decide to act like Comcast customer service here in the US. But it's profitable so Slim doesn't care.

I would just like to point out the slight irony in your post. You made your point on the first sentence, but felt the need to add a second sentence just for filler.

Son seems to be the only one that wants a T-Mobile merger. Unfortunately for him, DT doesn't seem so hot on that idea. If you ask me, Son may just end up selling his interests to America Movil, Telefonica, or another large international telecom company. Son seems dead set on making a move...any move...and quick, even if he doesn't get a merger.

Well, they aren't taking the name "Sprint" very well at this point either. The sad truth is that Sprint has become synonymous with "slow" and "bad". The Sprint Spark era didn't help matters either. So many Android phones incorrectly showed 1 bar of signal anytime the phone fell below -99 RSRP. That left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth. A total rebranding may be in order. At the very least, Sprint needs to change their logo, font, color, slogan and anything that remotely ties them to the 2011-2015 era.

I don't roam on At&t. I just have both services and switch out sim cards when I'm driving out to the farm. No native Sprint service on the highway and data roaming on Verizon doesn't work, which is why I switch SIM cards as needed. But it is my understanding that Nexus/Pixel phones on Sprint can now roam on LTE.

Ignore previous post. EVDO was back later that night. Who knows what this PRL change brought us.

Well, that just sucks. But on an interesting note, my EVDO roaming with Verizon is gone (not that data roaming ever worked to begin with). Seems like my phone will no longer scan Verizon EVDO carriers in my neck of the woods after the PRL update. Just 1x and that's it. Data never worked while roaming, so I'm not complaining. Anyone else seeing the same thing?

We keep thinking about it as last resort band, but the other national carriers don't. At&t and T-Mobile have no issue whatsoever using Band 13 and Band 12, even if they are congested. It definitely helps.