tommym65

I envision Masa Son laughing hysterically. The Big 2 are setting the stage for a huge rate and marketing war, and Softbank's Japanese success has proven that Masa-san is up to the challenge. Add to that Hesse's already-demonstrated success in turning the old Sprint into a new and much better Sprint, even before negotiating the Softbank deal, and you have a dynamic and aggressive team poised for success. When the Softbank acquisition is completed (knock on wood!), look for the beginning of a major push to prove that there IS opportunity for subscriber growth in US mobile telephony. Added: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/business/global/confidence-from-chief-of-softbank-in-sprint-bid.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 This is an interesting, newly published NY Times profile of Son.

Nope, not a jab at you at all. Your intelligent posts and responses are well written, literate, and almost always add significant understanding to this forum. I only wish that others would take as much care in forming their posts. My sarcasm was that all the dribble that you have dealt with finally sent you totally off your rocker! [multi-letter internet acronym avoided here.]

Dwat! We have finally lost a Moderator because of the continuing stress of reading massive diatribes from the illiterate, the ignorant, and the terminally stupid! O', Digi, we will miss you! We will miss you terribly! We can only hope they let you have a padded smart phone in your new padded cell, although you may have problems using the touch screen from inside your straitjacket. Farewell, Mr. Blur! May your recovery forever free you from the demons of the dumb!

Actually, the Android PRL's don't prioritize 800 over 1900, rather they treat them at the same level. Thus, once you are locked on 1900, you tend to stay there, even if an equal or stronger 800 signal is present. Secondly, if you can believe the map, much of Chicago doesn't have 800 SMR yet. This is problematic, however, as Robert's sources apparently aren't sending him a lot of the 800 acceptances in Chicagoland. Out where I live, many towers marked 3G and 3G/4G actually do have 800 also. I can't speak for further in, and the map shows a lot of 800 gaps along the Kennedy and Northwest Tollway (or whatever they call it now), south of US 20, and south of the Eisenhower. A couple of questions (and I don't mean to be condescending, but I can't find the answers in your post): First, do you know if you are on 800 or 1900 at any given time? If you don't, I suggest using Mikejeep's Signal Check or Signal Check Pro from the Play Store. It will tell you what your 800/1900 and EV-DO/LTE statuses are at any time. Second, have you tried forcing your GS3 into 800 mode? As I mentioned above, if your phone is locked onto 1900, it will tend to stay there. To force it, try going to Settings, System Update, Update PRL. If your PRL is not current, it will update it. If your PRL IS current, this apparently resets your connection and starts down the PRL list, 800 is first (even though it's at the same priority as 1900, which is second). Toggling airplane mode, by the way, doesn't reset the 800/1900 status, so don't try that. My experience is that 800 calls are clearer and tend not to drop, but I haven't driven in to the near suburbs and the city lately, except for a trip Monday to O'Hare, where I didn't make or receive any calls, and I neglected to check my connection with Signal Pro. I can verify that in Southern California, where I am right now, and where there is no Sprint 800, call quality generally sucks and availability ain't that great in many places. As for the battery thing, try a juice pack (Mophie [$$$] gets good reviews, but I happily use a Gorilla Gadgets version [only $] and easily get 15-18 hours.

Gonna guess that the judge will issue a temporary injunction halting any changes in ownership positions, any changes in the board of directors, and any changes in the corporate by-laws, until such time as he can fully evaluate and rule on the facts. This would put Dish's shenanigans on hold, and would be to Sprint's benefit.

And the people in the streets below Were dancing 'round and 'round And guns and swords and Dish antennas Lay scattered on the ground . . .

Places like Harvard and Woodstock now have LTE. Parts of Chicago don't. One of the common themes of this whole forum has been, "it ain't where there are the most people, it's where the infrastructure and permits are ready." Dekalb, because of NIU, has a very dense population. If you look at the sites completed map, the random distribution of red "3G only" pins doesn't seem to follow population density.

Time out. 1. This is not news. The quoted email is from June 2012. 2012. That was last year. 2. It affects only hot spots, not normal use on phones. Sprint has had a hot spot cap for years, although it was reduced in June, 2012. 3. If the Softbank buy-in is consummated, do not expect significant rate increases or data caps. Softbank has grown rapidly in Japan based on low cost and excellent customer service. This "announcement" appears to be a scam from a shady personal injury law firm seeking shills for a class action law suit.

Oh, they could stay up for a long, long time. The problem is that in a couple of weeks, they would be over places like Christmas Island and Botswana, where they wouldn't have much commercial value. Google may be able to dictate my search results, but they cannot yet control the wind. Yet.

Nope. Lake County and the closer-in suburbs like Schaumburg, Wheaton, Naperville, Oak Brook, Oak Lawn, etc., etc, have gotten 4G and in many cases 800 and 3G also. And now, of course, Chicago is filling in majestically. Some of the far Northwest and West exurbs (Antioch, McHenry, Crystal Lake, Dekalb) have kind of taken it in the shorts as far as LTE goes. Lots of "3G" upgrades (which don't do a lot performance-wise, but are needed to be compatible with the new infrastructure) and a large number of 800 SMR upgrades, but (apparently because of MAJOR backhaul delays) 4G LTE is lagging. Even some sites showing 4G acceptance (there's a big one at IL 31 & Bull Valley south of McHenry) haven't broadcast a single detectable 4G blip so far. But we are patient, sturdy fellows, and we shall wait patiently for our turn to come! Well, actually, patience doesn't really matter, 'cause it ain't comin' till it's ready!

Hopefully, some people are also plunking down for the Pro version. At a buck 99, it is a steal. The Reset feature alone is worth a fortune!

As long as 3.15 sounds the new 800 notification tone when it blows up my phone, it will die happy! [Actually, and don't let this get out, or I will be chased out of Chicago, I am kind of a secret Bruins fan. Many years ago, when I lived in SE Michigan, we could get "Hockey Night in Canada" from CBC-TV in Windsor. This was back in the Bobby Orr days, and one of my neighbors was a rabid Bruins fan from Fitchburg, MA, and he got me watching hockey. When I moved back to Chicago, Bill Wirtz was in the process of destroying the Black Hawks, and would allow NO local TV coverage at all, so I never really got into BH fandom. Either way, it's gonna be a hell of a Stanley Cup!]

No need for sorry. You've done an amazing job with this thing, and like all software, there are occasional hiccups. No doubt you'll solve the problem!

Yup, verified that by re-installing and not turning on 1x status notification in menu bar: App then works just fine, including 800 tone. Thanks to kc4icg.

The good news: The 1x800 notification works. The bad news: After a few seconds on my GS3, a "Waiting for Data" notification pops up, then the app stops. But I really like the 1x800 tone . . . Oh, and the other bad news: Sorry that the Bruins are doomed.

No, because Nextel is on a totally different frequency (800 Mhz) than Sprint 3g (1900 Mhz). What you will see is Sprint 800 SMR turning on in the Milwaukee market after the Nextel decommissioning (from July 1 on), and dramatic improvements in voice & text. This has certainly happened in the Chicago market, which has been able to convert excess Nextel 800 Mhz capacity to 1x800 service even in advance of the Nextel shutdown. For example, driving back to Crystal Lake from Milwaukee just a few minutes ago, I picked up 1x800 in Richmond IL (literally at the Cheddar Curtain sorry, Wisconsin state line), and carried a conference call entirely on 1x800 all the way from there to south of McHenry IL (about 15 miles with widely spaced towers) without any static, no drops, no hiccups in voice quality, in short, with perfect reception for the whole distance. This would have been unlikely or impossible 3 or 4 months ago when only 1900 Mhz 1xRTT was available. (Thanks to SignalCheck Pro for watching the connection for me!)

If you haven't, you should read digiblur's Wall articles on PRL's. He has also posted (don't remember exact link) a listing of 25015, which shows that 800 & 1900 share the same priority on Androids in all but 4 markets. Toggling airplane mode doesn't seem to affect 800 vs. 1900, but a "forced PRL update" may force 800 where it is available.

Nope, it doesn't. The frequencies are at the same priority, so once the phone locks on 1900, it will tend to stay there until the signal degrades for some reason AND there is a stronger 800 signal available.

Nope, doesn't work, nor does Signal Check Pro reset. Tried 'em both.

Here in Northwest Exurbia, I am surronded by 1x800 service. However, I have an Airave, plus my closest Sprint tower has only 1900 Mhz service, no 800 yet. Consequently, my GS3 (PRL 25015) locks on to 1900 voice when I am in my subterranean office near the Airave, and because the 1900 SID is at the same priority as the 800 SID, tends to stay locked on to 1900 as I then wander around Northwest Chicagoland. This is somewhat annoying, as 800 Mhz voice offers better connectivity and call quality than 1900, now that a lot of Sprint sites here have it.. However, I think I have found a way to force the phone to 800: If I go to "settings" and try to force a PRL update, the phone says that it has updated the PRL (even though it hasn't really done so), then seems to reset the 1X connection and start at the top of the PRL list to find a carrier. Since the 800 listing precedes the 1900 listing in PRL 25015, this seems to cause the phone to lock onto 1X800 and stay there, at least until I trudge back down to my basement office and the Airave takes over again. My question [There's a question here? Really?]: Do the PRL/800 Mhz gurus think that "fake" updating the PRL could actually cause this behavior? Thanks for patiently listening.

Can be, and has been, in many places. 800 SMR spectrum is in use at many Chicagoland sites that don't even show up on Robert's acceptance reports.

The vote has not been postponed. A group of dissident Sprint shareholders went to court last Friday to TRY to get it postponed. The judge was not friendly to them, but agreed to consider their case and issue a ruling Wednesday morning, the 12th. Until and unless he grants their petition, the vote is still on, unless of course Sprint would choose to postpone it for some other reason.

And maybe Son will hire him to run TMO.

Thus, Sprint will have a Director with the knowledge and courage to BOMB DISH NETWORK INTO OBLIVION! Oh, wait, I forgot, the NSA is intercepting all my posts . . . Just kidding, folks! I'm not a terrorist! Really, I'm not a terrori

Or, for short, "The Son".