Trip

Mike, I've been having an issue where sometimes, when connected to Clear B41, I just get "LTE" without the band indicator. I've tried to send diagnostics, but I keep getting the Temporary Redirect message. And the Send Saved Reports button doesn't seem to work at all. Not sure how else to get it to you. - Trip

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/sprint-5G-is-coming-soon/ Anyone else see this? I wouldn't have assumed National Geographic to be a sensible place for wireless advertising, personally. - Trip

Excellent! Cox is the local cable company where I am. I don't actually have Cox service (waaay more expensive than FiOS) but hopefully it means they'll do something locally. - Trip

Much of the new Shentel coverage is shown. - Trip

That is why roaming was invented. Compete where it makes sense, and cooperate where it doesn't. - Trip

I took care of it. - Trip

Any info on which phones are coming that support Band 71? I want to find a low-end one to replace one of my current T-Mobile phones. - Trip

If 700 isn't low-band, then other than 600 (which they also hold), what is? FM? Shortwave? Except for 600, there's nothing lower than 700 even licensed to cell companies. The problem with the E-block isn't that it's not low-band, but that it has no matching uplink spectrum. - Trip

That all sounds like too much work. I'll just order a pizza. - Trip

Ah yes, the "I got mine, screw you" argument. When your house in the country is worth $50,000, how do you afford to move into the city, exactly? And if everyone were to move to the city, the value would plummet to approximately $0. Besides, everyone should move into the cities! Who needs food, lumber, or minerals anyway? - Trip

What? They have every incentive. If they can make video streaming from providers other than themselves so expensive that nobody uses it, that benefits them. Innovation on the Internet threatens their profits. And since in most places, there is no competition in the home Internet access space from anyone except another provider with its own video service (think Verizon FiOS TV versus Comcast), the market won't be able to correct this behavior. Even if you count wireless, AT&T and Verizon now own their own streaming services and would benefit from pushing you to those as well. - Trip (This comment is my own and does not necessarily reflect the view of my employer, the FCC.)

When on US Cellular roaming, my G5 was always on SRLTE. I think that's how it determined whether to roam on LTE or not; if it had 1X on US Cellular, then LTE roaming was permitted. The moment it picked up Sprint CDMA though, it dropped US Cellular LTE. Actually, as far as I can tell, US Cellular is SRLTE across the board. My US Cellular phone, and my father-in-law's, both always have SRLTE running. - Trip

LG G6 - Constant SRLTE - Appears to use Nano SIM, based on what I saw when I put my Micro SD card in. - Trip

I'm really liking this phone so far. Normally I'd be unhappy about the non-removable battery, but considering the $120 price at Best Buy, I can just replace the whole phone instead when the time comes. (And I never replaced the battery in my G5 despite spending much more on it.) One question though. Ever since I got SCP installed, it's been in SRLTE. My G5 would only do SRLTE in very weak signal areas, but it seems like the G6 has been in constant SRLTE. Does this match the experience of others? (I'm not complaining, just curious.) I'm also seeing B41 more frequently at home than I used to. I'll have to see how it is out and about at some point. I'm assuming that's HPUE allowing it to maintain a B41 connection lower before the lack of uplink forces it to Band 25 or 26. - Trip

Just to follow up, I had no problem getting it at the store yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised with how easily the process went, though it did take a while. - Trip

Thanks. That's too bad. On a related note, despite having paid full price for my phone back in 2016 and Sprint's website telling me I'm upgrade eligible, Sprint "declined [my] upgrade" when I tried to check my eligibility for the LG G6 deal on the Best Buy website. Tried to ask Sprint's chat, who blamed Best Buy. I guess I'll have to go to Best Buy in person and see what they say. - Trip

Any idea what Sprint's Black Friday deals will be this year? I've seen T-Mobile's ad, but unless I've missed it, nothing from Sprint... - Trip

So I see that on Black Friday, Best Buy will have the G6 for $4.99/month "with qualified activation." The fine print doesn't seem to be included in the scan I saw; any idea what that means, exactly? - Trip

You beat me to it. I saw that article and came here to say the same thing. For the non-initiated, my analogy was going to be: "Newest Ferraris have been shown to do up to 200MPH on a racetrack. But average speeds of the latest Honda cars in the real world are only 40MPH! Honda is doomed!" - Trip

I'm trying to puzzle something out about the Extended LTE thing Sprint is doing with US Cellular these days. Maybe someone here has a better idea. My mom wants a smart phone for Christmas. My parents, many of you may recall, live in US Cellular territory, which is the primary reason I am a Sprint customer, since service in that area is important. Both are retired. Now that Sprint has this Extended LTE thing going, I'm trying to figure out if I could put my mom on my Sprint unlimited family plan or if that would be a problem. It's similar to the problem that I have going there; everything is theoretically fine if she's out and about in Farmville/Appomattox/Lynchburg/South Boston where Shentel or Sprint would have native service, and at home, the wifi works more often than not these days (it's improved in the past year). The real issue will be those times when the home Internet is out, or if she is in the county (library, post office, traveling to and from aforementioned cities, etc.) where service would be coming from US Cellular. Does anyone have a sense of whether or not that would cause a problem? I can't find a policy for Sprint indicating what limits, if any, there are on the Extended LTE. Thanks. - Trip

In the part of the country that I'm in, I have compiled my own tower map which has all the carriers, to the extent I could determine from afar. It's in the Premiere Sponsor area. Won't help you guys in the Midwest, though... - Trip

Interesting note, when I left to visit my parents in US Cellular roaming territory on Thursday, my US Cellular phone was roaming on Sprint and Shentel LTE. On the way home yesterday, it instead roamed on T-Mobile LTE, and still is, but is also doing SRLTE with Sprint 1X. I tried to disable the T-Mobile bands and force it onto Band 25 and it would not connect. Very odd, especially considering that I still haven't seen my T-Mobile phone roam onto US Cellular. - Trip

I went by a 3G-only site over the weekend that has a permit filed. Still 3G. (Checked this morning and the permit isn't granted yet for some reason.) Got my fingers crossed; it's one of the very last ones in the area. I'm incredibly pleased about US Cellular no longer counting as roaming, assuming that's true. That makes me significantly less likely to want to jump to T-Mobile if they ever get US Cellular roaming working. - Trip

Got a system update this morning after a very long time without one. Software is now LS992ZVC, bringing it to the 9/1/17 patch level. Still Android 7.0. Anything else I should check? - Trip

Not sure about "newest" but I definitely got a quick charger with my G5. I use it regularly and my phone charges quite quickly. - Trip