red_dog007

Stock Sprint/ASUS firmware is garbage. 90Mbps seems to be about the best I could get out of mine. Flashed stock firmware on it and got the expected speeds off it.

Trip's experience matches up with what I've seen travelling in the Southeast. It's as if all towers outside of high traffic areas are still in 2014 pre-optimization low power mode. Sometimes I think it's got something to do with ALU gear being sub-par.

I wonder if this has become part of Sprint's coverage map update initiative.  Looking at their map, a lot of areas have really small coverage areas, while others are larger.  In the same region too.  Look in the Southeast coverage map it is pretty easy to see.  Easy to spot where each tower is, one tower barely has any coverage while the next one down has 4x the coverage.  At lot fo the sites that are still 3G only along the highway don't even show having overlapping coverage.

As Sprint upgrades their proper LTE coverage on their map, makes me wonder if they have noticed and realized this and remoteing back into these units and pushing config changes.

Doesn't do anything for capacity, just real world coverage. And to an extent it will.  Just depends how much longer users are on 2.5GHz in the real world before they get kicked to other bands.  It will also take time for sufficient amount of users to have adopted this technology through the purchase of phones that support HPUE.

Not sure if this article is of interest:  http://www.parksassociates.com/blog/article/pr-02232017

 

The short version is that they predict 10% of people may give up home broadband in favor of moving to wireless-only.

 

- Trip

Isn't there already a trend towards doing this? All this unlimited is going to help push this trend.

Yes but initially Dish's plan was to use 2180-2200 spectrum as the downlink and 2000-2020 spectrum as the uplink when they first obtained the AWS-4 licenses. However when Dish bought the PCS H block licenses in 2014, they decided to convert 2000-2020 spectrum to downlink i so that the 1995-2000 spectrum can be a contiguous 25 MHz downlink stream for more bandwidth and combine the 1695-1710 spectrum as the uplink. Otherwise there would be massive interference with 1995-2000 as downlink and 2000-2020 as the uplink which would reduce the efficiency of the 1995-2000 spectrum.

 

So the real question is what is Dish going to do with the 2180-2200 spectrum and 1915-1920 spectrum. Can they possible combine them to make aggregated uplink in the future?

Band 70 = 1695-1710 / 1995-2020. This is deployable in 5, 10, 15MHz chunks.

Band 29 = 700E

Then they just CA all that. 15x15 B70 would be the main carrier, then just CA 10MHz B70 + 20MHz B66 + 5MHz B29 on the DL side.

Not accounting the sporadic AWS3 they have. They could do all kinds of CA mixes based on a markets need.

So, if I am correct, Dish has:

- 6 MHz 700 E Block (722-728)

- 10 MHz PCS H Block (1915-1920, 1995-2000)

- 15 MHz of AWS-3 (1695-1710)

- 20 MHz of AWS-4 (2000-2200)

 

And Band 70 is:

- Downlink: PCS H Block downlink + AWS-4

- Uplink: AWS-3

 

Will the PCS H Block uplink be abandoned? Or maybe paired with their 700 MHz somehow?

They have 40MHz of AWS4. 2000-2020 and 2180-2200.

This unlimited pricing is a promotion, is it even still a good plan for current customers after the promo ends?

On VZW and USCC I sometimes the x on the roaming signal bar.  Nothing comes in or out.  Sometimes an airplane toggle fixes it and if that doesn't a restart always does.

I'd imagine Sprint will do minimal to keep licenses.  3G is dead soon, and to expand a network with 3G is a big waste of money. Even if they could provide the absolute best coverage in those areas, ROI would take way too long.

Still nothing is as good as my 2 for $100.  Got on them before the throttle restriction past ~22GB.

 

Nope, still a pipe dream.  Only non cellular operations are permitted below 815 MHz x 860 MHz.  Moreover, some Sprint devices are not FCC tested/authorized in band class 10 below channel 476.

 

 

AJ

One thing I've wondered, SoutherLinc owns a few MHz below Sprints and below 815MHz.  Being a power company, I can see the public safety need, but still they operate a cellular network, has LTE, and apparently will be a Sprint roaming partner.

Did they get some type of special wavier? 

I think it was what was truly excited from this auction.

Broadcasters trying to take advantage of the AWS3 fiasco. To make any money 84MHz was the clearing spot.

Win win win win I think. Everyone gets their money and we get airwaves repurposed for a more worthy cause.

Compared to 700MHz though, it's not AS successful I'm sure. Though close I think.

Just got it activated

So the unlock code finally got through.  They said as soon as it comes off the owners account I can activate it.  Sounds sketchy, but hope it works! Don't understand how that works.

How do you get an unlock code?  The guy pay the device off in full?

The guy apparently talked to Sprint and got an unlock code.

Anyone know what that means?  Told me to tell Customer Service and that it might take 3 days for me to activate the phone. 

Im on the phone right now trying to say I have an unlock code, but Im talking to a wall. 

edit:

I called Sprint yesterday and today.  Damn, I will say wherever this call center is, the women sound very attractive.  Almost like they are Korean or something.

Looking up terms of sale, the ESN is supposed to be clean and it was "verified" clean by Swappa.  That means from Swappa's site

"Ready for Activation

Devices listed for sale must be ready for activation on the advertised carrier by a new buyer. Devices cannot be blacklisted, nor reported lost and or stolen. Device cannot be activated on another account at the time of listing."

Swappa either didn't actually truely verify this device as ready to go, or the seller gave a different ESN.

Yeah, in the private seller chat I ticked the box to notify a swappa agent.  So swappa agent said seller must reply.  I don't want to wait too long to perform a paypal refund so I am going to do it probably late tonight after Sprint stores close.   I highly doubt this dude is going to pay the $700+ buyout price on the lease.

It's a slick phone though and the B25/26 performance is really blowing the socks off my old 5X.  Hopefully get that back from LG soon.  Otherwise I think I am just going to settle for a Moto G4 Plus. 

I have sold on swappa a few times before, first time buying.  Don't think I'll ever do that again.  To know for sure that a device isn't leased anymore, you have to buy something that is like 3 years old.  This might be part of the reason why carriers pushed contracts.  Im sure third party sales have taken a beating with everyone being leased now.

Ok, so I bought a V20 off Swappa. 

I get the device, go online and the HEX is bad.  I call, wait a little and get told the device is still activated.  The phone still has a sim in it, so I see if it works. Well, it works.  I head to the Sprint Zone app to see if I can get account details.  This guy leases the phone, owes $700 on it still and current payment is past due.  The owner IS the seller so I know it isn't stolen. 

So...  I reached out to see what is up.  Going to try to send the phone back because he'll owe several hundred more on it compared to what I paid him.  BUT, I kinda think this guy is dumping and running while taking me money.

If this guy ignores me and his bill lapses, goes to claims or whatever, Im out what I bought it for? It is through PayPal so I should be able to get my money back if this guy doesn't respond.

I drove past a tower today. The Sprint sectors before only had the dual band 26/25 antenna. Well today a guy was up in it and there was a new antenna beside the dual band. However it is half the height. Any clue what antenna it would be? Sry no pix but in East TN market.

Different hardware variants of phones are bound to have different costs associated with them.

 

Sent from my 2PYB2 using Tapatalk

I don't even think that is the case.  I think the carriers just have more room to charge whatever they want on Android branded devices.

Some are willing to take more or less profit then others.

If you look at AT&T for those same 3 devices, AT&T charges even more than Sprint.  You look at USCC they charge less than Sprint. ATT doesn't need CDMA, only difference is Band 30.  You'd think economies of scale they would be cheaper then at least Sprint.  Then USCC is CDMA as well, and just due to economies of scale, you'd think they would be more expensive then Sprint.

 

It would be nice if Sprint offered the same promo.

 

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/tax-holiday.htm

It would be nice if Sprint also didn't charge a little premium on their phones.  Sprint vs TMobile, Sprint S7 costs $25 more. The V20 is $23 more.  The G5 is $65 more.

I had a very favorable experience with LG repair fixing my 5X bootloop. It took around 2 weeks in total. I chronicled my experience on reddit:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/nexus5x/comments/5l66de/_/dbx1oim

 

It seems to me that the issues and delays people experienced were due to lack of parts at LG in combination with the holiday season. Now it seems that LG has the parts on hand and is able to repair the phones in a timely manner.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

So they are getting parts back in?

The December articles are saying LG started to do full refunds due to lack of hardware. 

I don't mind either way, whether I get a refund, a new refurb phone (even of different model, read someone got a G4) or my exact phone back. 

I however filled out the RMA on LGs site this morning and got the phone sent off at lunch.  If I get the phone back, will most likely just end up being a solid backup device.  I have a Nexus 5 backup but isn't ideal.  I shattered the screen a while back and the screen replacement I ordered turned out to be rubbish.  And boy does the N5 camera suck.

Yeah, I hear that.  I had a 1.5~2.5hr round trip commute every day pending traffic for a job that was not worth it for 7 years.  The last year was rough cause I had a new job that was not worth it. 

Now I have 15 minute round trip commute.

I need to be able to have contact with the outside world lol, I think they purposely built the building to be like that because why else would a perfectly strong B41 signal at ~90dBm just die as soon as I walk into the door? and then B26 drops off a few feet later, I can't even hardly get a signal in the break room which has huge windows... right by the entrance. And this is not the only reason I want to leave lol, it's just icing on the cake haha.

I have some friends that work in warehouses and they all say similar things.  Single tanks off.  One friend, actually has a tower right near him.  Full bars outside, inside its no service unless they have the loading doors open.  But, they all have WiFi as well they use.

Work won't install wifi?

I would also say it depends where you live.  AC routers can help out with congestion.  They have more channels available in 5GHz.  If you get older N routers, they also have the older power output ratings on 5GHz.  I have an old N router as an AP and it only has 4 5GHz channels and the coverage isn't nearly as good as my AC APs because it broadcasts at the older allowed power output which.

You don't even need dd-wrt or any other open firmware either.  If you have wire already going where you need it, just turn DHCP off on the router and it turns into a switch.