gusherb

I'll get used to it, but I don't care for the new logo. TBH I don't care for alot of new logos... that style font (whatever it's called) that everyone goes with now I personally can't stand, and I think looks childish and stupid.

That's not the norm for AT&T in the Chicago area. For me voice quality on AT&T is roughly on par with voice quality for sprint. Though, ever since I switched to them I don't really get anyone asking me to repeat myself as often as I did with sprint, or vice versa. Most of the time their network is full rate but sometimes it switches to AMR 5.9. Sprint most of the time had robotic sounds during calls. When I tried Verizon for a couple weeks the voice quality seemed ok at first, until I tried to have a conversation in the car at highway speeds, then even with the volume all the way up I couldn't understand. Using SNR as an analogy comes to mind here... The poor quality was understandable In a quiet room but once there was a lot of interfering noise it became very hard to hear.

Interesting concept, but I don't buy it. I think that is just another excuse for being incompetent. Having slow LTE is still better then having garbage 1x or EVDO IME. I chose a slower network with solid LTE coverage and can't complain too much. The one that was fast but with Swiss cheese holes everywhere got very obnoxious. Also, in a market like Chicago where we have 3 5x5 carriers and 1 B41 carrier everywhere plus a second one in more crowded areas, we have tons of capacity! So that idea is completely debunked in a market like this...

Hell, on AT&T I don't lose LTE in big, tall windowless brick buildings! The only time I ever have is in this warehouse type place with metal siding and metal roof, and is 2.5 miles in any direction from the nearest AT&T site. And when T-Mobile is doing a better job at getting LTE inside, you know something's up...

The problem is I want to like them! I wonder if anyone here knows who manages at&t's network, do they manage their own? I've heard Ericsson is their equipment vendor in Chicago.

That doesn't really address or even acknowledge what I'm getting at... I just wanna know what the hold up is for optimizing B26, and even B25. The last thing I heard was Nextel repeaters still being live interfering with B26, ok fine, but even that is apparently taking forever to take care of so include that with my wanting to know what the hold up is. Unless of course making what they already HAVE work to its best ability is just not a priority at all... I tend to be like Marcelo in the matter of wanting to GET THINGS DONE and why signal optimization isn't one of them drives me crazy. And apparently leaving the network hasn't helped as it's still driving me nuts watching from AT&T. In fact I think becoming more intimate with the other networks has only made it worse.

Even less dense networks in my area such as Verizon and AT&T manage to have their B2 and B4 out do B25 by 2-3 miles. That small difference sure seems to make a big difference in reality, unless of course the real issue is the power is turned down lower then it should be or downtilt is incorrect...

I believe that's how it's supposed to be. But in reality, here in the Chicago area for instance a lot of the network remains unoptimized and tends to do whatever it wants sometimes, like camp on B26 right next to a site... They haven't actually done anything to B26 or B25 to increase their range since turning them on. I've heard the hold up was due to old Nextel repeaters causing interference with B26 needing to be shut down. Why that appears to be taking so long to get done who knows. I think they need to hurry that process along though, and have it done a year ago. Also since using T-Mobile, AT&T, and VZW, Sprints B25 LTE doesn't seem to reach nearly as far as the former three's band 4 and band 2 LTE can reach. So I think they have that turned down too.

Great you went on about BBQ then dropped Strouds in! That 8 hour drive sounds shorter and shorter the more I think about it...

We picked up a boatload of BBQ at Joes KC BBQ when we passed through in July. The brisket was the best I've ever had, it was very smoky but still moist like roast beef. It was weird because I've become accustomed to smoked meats being dry... Also on a completely unrelated note... I popped my sprint sim in the Nexus 5 this evening and they STILL haven't done anything about the drops to 3G around here...

I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon, they'll have to shut off the remaining PCS WCDMA carriers to get 15x15 B2. Though they could at least for now shut off one of the two PCS carriers remaining, and make B2 LTE 10x10. But yeah with all the small cells and DAS for AT&T it'll take a lot of effort on Sprints part to beat them out, even T-Mobile doesn't seem do as well as AT&T.

Funny, they're running the exact same thing in Chicago and yet we don't have any problems anywhere in the city on AT&T. Must be a lot denser here.

I just looked up what they own a little bit ago, was just wondering what they're actually using. They have enough AWS for 10x10, and enough 700 for 10x10 as well. It looks like they have a boatload of PCS there too. They could deploy 15x15 B2 at least if not 20x20. It sounds like the band prioritizion functions as it does in NWI with B17 being run as the main layer.

What is AT&T running spectrum wise for LTE there?

When I was road tripping from Colorado down through Texas and back up to Chicago it was amazing watching the bands change from county to county. Some places had B4 and B2 only, some were B5 and B4, B2 and so on and so forth. They really did cobble a bunch of spectrum bits together for their network. Sure makes it hard to keep track of what they use where since it varies so wildly.

I guess it's not technically off topic then, but it would be nice if we could stop the argument about whose dick is bigger...errrr whose city is better and change the subject to something actually interesting.

Was it unlocked before you got it replaced? They replace like for like so the replacement should be unlocked... The only way to know for sure it to stick another carriers SIM card in.

Certainly not the second anything is announced, but once that happens it will definitely be on people's minds and the very second changes start happening you can bet they'll go running. IMO that's a best case scenario. After all, people went running from them when the AT&T buyout attempt was announced.

AT&T added that $15 activation fee that applies to Next and BYOD. Also I think the new plans are a way to force people into paying more for a bigger bucket they don't need, but that's highly subjective. (I personally find the 15 gig $100 plan a great deal for our needs, and am on it) Verizon had some pretty good plans, but the larger 12 GB plan for 2 lines for example is $10 more then the old 15 gig plan and is missing 3 gigs. The smaller plans may be ok though.

If T-Mobile goes to Comcast then I think we're doomed. This is probably why AT&T and Verizon have not given into the competition and have instead RAISED prices because they know what's coming down the line... At that point Sprint/Softbank will be our only hope.

On the contrary, for me a phone conversation can be started and ended much quicker then a text conversation that can take multiple hours for just a few sentences back and forth, which can be aggravating if I'm trying to get something done. Also if I'm multi tasking talking is much easier then fumbling with a phone typing. This month I've used just over 1,400 minutes with a few more days to go in the cycle. That's a bit over 23 hours. Oh and I'm 21.

Just call it "Sprint". Very simple and no way it could confuse.

My attempt to upgrade to an iPhone 6 at a corporate store on release day last year was one of the final nails in the coffin for my relationship with Sprint. I have noted this many times before, my area is one of those areas where there are no good Sprint stores. My local contact in Sprint National Retail indicated the same thing about that in her subtle ways. She says around here your best places to go for sprint are Best Buy, Target and other similar kiosks.

Deep dish may be next!

I saw this coming years ago. The only way axing subsidies and going with payment plans or buying outright is a good deal is if the actual service costs less then before. Obviously being the cynical person that I am I was able to see how this would work out and that they would just simply separate the phone cost from the service cost then carefully jack up the cost of service. They've geniusly figured out how to take a consumer friendly system, continue to make it look consumer friendly and turn it around to make it even more consumer unfriendly then anyone could've ever imagined. T-Mobile was the first one to really figure this out and cash in on it, now Verizon is, and only a matter of time before AT&T changes their plans to reflect the newest scam VZW has come up with. If only the companies used this creative genius to actually better themselves...