greenbastard

Pretty much agree with all this. Wireless carriers would be better off getting rid of unlimited and focus on competitive ways of selling data allowances. For example, I like how Google only charges you for what you buy, thus making any gimmick 'rollover' promotion from at&t or T-Mobile pretty useless and stupid. We should all pay for what we use, that includes not paying for any excess data we don't use.

I enjoyed using the service as well in northern Mexico. Just 2 big ceavets; Movistar's coverage is not as big as Telcel's and we can't access their LTE. It may not seem as much, but T-Mobile users have access to Telcel, which has better coverage in rural areas. When I visited some smaller towns in Mexico, my phone was useless while T-Mobile users could still roam on Telcel. Also, T-Mobile users have access to LTE from Telcel while Sprint can only access Movistar's HSPA network. Having said that, at least we don't get screwed like At&t users. Back in the day, my at&t phone would roam on Telcel when I purchased data buckets, but now at&t users are stuck using the extremely small and terribly spaced iusacell/Nextel 4G network.

Well said. I only have loyalty to my wallet. Sprint is definitely not the best carrier in East Texas/Southeast Louisiana, but it gets the job done for the best value. I know 1-2 Mbps is slow compared to other carriers but it gets the job done.

Sprint actually needs the low band. I know many on here claim B41 is enough, but in real world usage its not. In San Antonio, Dallas and Houston, I only see B41 when I'm outdoors. Indoors, I usually camp on B25 40% of the time and B26 55% of the time. The other 5% is either LTE dead spot or a B41 tower that's really close by. That joke about B41 not penetrating a wet paper towel isn't that far fetched. Low band or even mid band spectrum acquisition is probably the best thing Sprint can do. If not nationwide, at least for markets like Houston or Atlanta where there is no way to deploy a 2nd B25 carrier.

Even for Clear LTE sites?

Outside of hspa+ and Wimax, are there any other 4G standards that are being deployed in another part of the world? If I recall correctly, Wimax was still in use in a few countries outside the U.S.

Maybe making the bottom case longer, but that would just throw off users as it would move the screen up and make the phone a lot longer. To me, this phone is a big meh. The snap off bottom case is just a gimmick and the phone looks very thick. I'm so done with Samsung and LG was the next phone I was waiting for. I guess I'm waiting for Motorola and the next Nexus to be announced this fall.

That's a bummer. Clear LTE equipment is terrible. I've been to Las Vegas were 8t8r was deployed and it worked pretty well. Only time I lost 2.5 was inside Casino floors and inside the rooms. Outside of that, Band 41 LTE was everywhere I drove around Las Vegas. In areas such as Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, Band 41 from Clearwire sites have some terrible Signal to Noise ratio. RSRP can go from -90 dBm outdoors and then drop to Band 25 as soon as you go indoors.

I know you said you've invested too much into Sprint phones, but why not bite the bullet and get something that works for you? Holding out for Sprint and inconveniencing yourself doesn't matter to Sprint or any other wireless carrier for that matter. They're out to make money and don't care about fanboys or loyalty. So why not put your phones for sale on Craigslist and test the waters? I know I did after spending time in West Texas. Sprint was useless out there so I rocked a cricket phone that worked where I needed it to. Once I left West Texas, I switched back to Sprint due living in an area in which at&t didn't work very well while Sprint had virtually no subscribers (tower covers highway instead of a city/town).

Sorry, but you're not looking at this objectively. I think both data speeds and data used are very important to both current and potential customers in determining how robust a network is. I understand this is a Sprint site, but there is no need to dismiss the importance of the amount of data used. The fact is that while Sprint did win on speedtests, its network was not challenged like At&t or Verizon networks were. Not acknowledging this would be like saying that you won an Olympic-style Hammer Throwing competition, but leaving out that you threw a 10 pound hammer while your opponents threw a 70 pound hammer. It's not all relative like the T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint commercials would want us to believe.

If texting apps would allow you to send simple texts as MMS, it would solve all the split messaging problems. I think early HTC Sense phones had a feature to send messages as MMS, but as of today, I have yet to find an app that will do that unless I attach a photo or a VCard. I know Handcent automatically converts (or used to) messages longer than 3 texts into MMS. I wish Textra would add that option, or better yet, an option to send a single texts as MMS.

Throttled at dial up speeds is the only type of throttling that works. General throttling (1 Mbps for example) would just clog the network even further. The faster people are in and out, the less congested the network will be. Throttling them would just keep them on the network a lot longer than needed.

You'd be surprised at how efficient Bluetooth has become. It's not as big of a battery drain as leaving your WiFi on. It's become quite efficient, especially after 4.0

I haven't cut the cord, but I'm about to now that football season is over, I don't think I've watched Commercial TV in a while. All my viewing is done online instead of my cable box. Come to think of it, I don't think I've used the FM/AM radio on my vehicle in years. It's all Bluetooth and iPod! Am I the only one or do people still listen to terrestrial/satellite radio?

Whose gonna pay for the licenses? Covering every city and community from coast to coast would require millions of dollars of licenses.

CSPAN doesn't use OTA.

2 Year phone agreements put ED1500 slightly over the top, but not by much.

Also don't forget about their CDMA M2M users. Shutting down won't be easy or painless. 1x may be around for longer than some expect.

Isn't this an extremely rare case? I know as far as FM, full service stations have to respect other full service stations' 1st, 2nd, and 3rd adjencent channels (all according to class/distance). Only cases I know of in which stations can overstep on co-channels are grandfathered cases (KGSR-FM and KLBJ-FM in Austin and KLVJ-FM and KGB-FM in San Diego come to mind) I always assumed that the FCC had TV spacing, power, and interference agreements with Canada's CRTC and Mexico's IFETEL (formely COFETEL, but just as corrupt) just like they do with Radio. Is that not the case?

Driving East of El Paso, I-10 parallels the U.S.-Mexico border for a good 50 miles. There is (or was as of 2012) a good stretch of that highway in which At&t phones would roam on Mexican operator Telcel for about 5 miles. My friend accidentally sent 3 messages on that stretch of highway without him noticing the Telcel indicator on his iPhone. But the same holds true for At&t. Back in 2007, I was driving south of Nuevo Laredo, MX towards Monterrey and as soon as I left the city, At&t was covering MX Highway 85 all the way to the Tamaulipas-Nuevo Leon state line. That's a pretty good long stretch of highway.

I'd actually pay Sprint if they were to offer a way to block annoying ads. Advertising is so annoying. I DGAF if it's refund season! I do my own taxes! Leave be alone!

Also ridiculous claims. Most of Southwest Texas is Pole country. Inner Houston is filled with utility poles EVERYWHERE! Heck, some neighborhoods even have major overhead power lines running through the heart of neighborhoods. T-Mobile, at&t, and even Sprint use some of them right next to Downtown Houston and where available. The author may live in suburban Katy or Sugarland since anything inside the city limits of Houston runs above ground. The only concern would be maintenance of such poles since a lot of the poles aren't supported by concrete foundations. The swampy soil causes a lot of the poles to lean in some places and whichever agency is in charge of them will wait until repair is really necessary.

I can tell you this much, with the iPhone 6s, it's been a hit and miss with the carrier updates. Overall a good phone rf wise. I can only compare it to the Galaxy S5 and I can tell you that LTE B26 seems about the same, slightly better, B25 maybe a little weaker (but for whatever reason, better speed test results). B41 is where the iPhone really shines. It makes the S5 look like the Evo LTE. Its been a while since I've pushed both phones to the edge of cell. B26 has made it harder to see a weak LTE signal and I haven't compared CDMA rf since triband phones came out. Only way to really tell which phone works out for you best would be to borrow both phones for the day and do your daily routine.

You can't make that assumption by using the Galaxy S5. That phone can only access bands 25/26/41. So the GS5 will probably only see LTE Roaming in very few places, if at all.

West part of Austin is terrible too for T-Mobile. Those hills and growing sprawl make T-Mobile absolute trash in the edges. At the UT campus, both Sprint and Verizon could use some help.