koiulpoi

I'm glad this infographic actually mentioned the fact that 4G vs 3G is a move from a switched network to an all-IP one, which is one of the biggest, real broad changes between generations (along with increases in spectral efficiency, etc.). Sadly, it falls in to the "numbers" trap, quoting the (often touted and completely, utterly arbitrary) "100 Mbps" number.

Eheh, whoops. I should have specified. Yeah, my 1X is sitting around -2.0 dB. The -0.1 (which is now -0.5) is EV-DO/eHRPD.

Bumping this so I don't make a new thread. How exactly is Ec/Io measured? My (very tiny) understanding was that it was very similar to signal to noise ratio, just, um, reversed. Logarithmically. I just spotted an Ec/Io of -0.1. Does that basically mean "You're on a sector by yourself and the neighboring sites aren't interfering at all".

Like Rocket87 said, the easiest way is to go to storelocator.sprint.com, type in your area, and look. Any store that says "...by Galactic Communications" isn't. Just "Sprint Store"? Yep. That's gotta lead to confusion and anger. For the record, it seems Account Services (aka the "Save Desk") has a separate, very similar offer that can be applied to the bill, and does not require a trade-in of the phone. Appears to be limited to them, and without a direct number (which you can find with some searching) or good old flipping out, good luck talking to them.

I don't know about other markets, but it's actually a rather large problem here in West Michigan, along with other things only corporate stores can do. There are 21 stores in the "Greater Grand Rapids" area. 4 are corporate stores. 81% of stores around here shrug and say "Yeah we can't do that." Most people have no idea the difference, and assume, since there's the Sprint logo on the wall, it's all the same. People will complain about just about anything, especially a 10 minute drive inconvenience.

Nice! Now, if only the Indirect channel could take advantage of it...

Here's an article summary for those who don't want or don't have time to read it: "Sprint's going to face a lot of challenges in the future! Do they have what it takes to survive and beat their way back to the top? I think we all know the answer: MAAAAAAAYBEEEE!"

Well, if it is true, you'd better believe I'll be pushing people to it for sales. "Yeah, this one? It's waterproof. And the 4G is better. And it's the same price as the regular S4. Now give me your money." Actually, I'll be informing my coworkers to sell whatever TriBand devices are available because of the overall better customer experience.

Well, let's think about this for a moment. The Galaxy S4 Active is currently an AT&T Exclusive, but that exclusivity deal will be running out soon. It has been (strongly) hinted that, once that happens, all four major carriers will be getting it, Sprint included. Well, if it's a High-End GS4-like device that's not the Note 3... I think we've narrowed down what it might be

All the hemming and hawing over the data addon is offtopic though, for this simple reason. Let's assume that in your market it was called a 4G Tax. On January 30th, 2011, it changed to all smartphones, 4G or not. Thus, it no longer became a 4G Tax, but a Smartphone Tax (bear with me), and it has been that way for (almost) 32 months. Over 2 years. That's 32 months of paying for exactly the service you're getting. Whether it was originally a 4G Tax or not is actually irrelevant, because nobody has been "paying for 4G we never got", because that's not what the charge is, or has been. Since it's not a 4G Tax, nobody has been "left out" of service for it (remember, it covers 3G-only devices too), it's not relevant to this discussion. Not to mention that, similar to what AJ said, "service is not available everywhere". You still have to pay Sprint your monthly service charge if you travel (or move!) to an area with even no service at all.

I go to sleep, and this is what happens. People are still upset over the "premium data addon"? It's been around for three years, guys, and on every single smartphone for almost all of it. It's really a "get over it" kind of deal, because it's over and done with. It's rolled in to the current plans and pricing already. A single unlimited data line on Everything, My Way is $80. Everyone who started with Sprint in the last 2.5 years has been paying it and many have actually been confused as to why it's not just part of the plan in general. It may have at one time been called a "4G Charge" or something similar. But it wasn't for very long - not longer than 1-2 months, if that. And Sprint was upfront with informing people of the pricing difference. And soon after it became the "generic smartphone charge" (January 30th, 2011 according to news stories from the time). So, you've been paying it on every phone for more than an entire contract cycle for a family plan. This conversation should have been over and done with long ago, as everyone else is on to new things. If it was a problem, action should have been taken in those two years. 2013 is a little late to still care.

While living in Japan, I would sometimes ping sub-50ms to USA servers for various games. I was rarely the highest ping, and that was living on the other side of the world. Now, of course, we're talking about Japan versus "Hawaiian Telecom"...

Here, check this: http://www.clear.com/coverage That's Clear's coverage map, for 4G WiMAX. I'm estimating here, but I'd say add 10-20% of all the dark green areas when considering LTE instead of WiMAX. Clear is, it looks like, using the same towers as before for their new 4G LTE on 2600. You can actually see where they placed their towers if you zoom in enough. Anyway, looks like the Parker area is outside (just barely) from where you'd expect to pick that up. Looks like Aurora, Englewood, and Colorado Blvd (pretty much the entire Denver area) are completely covered already by 2600. The Park Meadows/Fort Collins area looks like it might be covered, as sites are much more sparse there. Again, this is just for the superfast 2600 MHz frequency. As it looks like (just judging from the coverage map) that Sprint proper has some very decent spacing across Denver, once the 1900 MHz rollout kicks into gear, you should have great coverage that way as well. Basically, Denver already has great coverage (for upcoming devices), and it's only going to get better from here. It honestly looks like a great network to be in for Sprint, for the near future.

In what relative area do you live? Where do you work? Where do you commute through? You said the "suburbs" of Denver, but that's a lot of area. Basically, I'm curious if you might already be covered by 2600 MHz TD-LTE. If it was close for the old 4G WiMAX coverage, you'll definitely be in it; WiMAX peters out a lot quicker than LTE does, all things considered, and Clear's WiMAX coverage in Denver looks pretty solid. In the end, if you're in a suburban area, you should have WiFi at home, so LTE coverage there should be a non-issue. Work, Commute, and "out and about" time of course will definitely matter.

Good catch! It totally is, according to Rob's journeys. Your Samsung Galaxy S3 only supports LTE on one frequency band - PCS 1900 MHz G-Block (or, just "1900 MHz"). It's what the initial 4G rollout is using, and as it's the same "type" of frequency as what Sprint already has for Voice and 3G EV-DO, it covers a similar amount of area. Sprint also will be using ESMR 800 MHz for LTE (which I covered in my previous post), for even further signal propagation and penetration. Finally, Sprint has a swath of spectrum in the BRS/EBS 2600 MHz (also referred to as just 2600 MHz or 2.6 GHz) bands. This spectrum was previously owned by Clearwire, the company that built out the 4G WiMAX network (which was the 4G that older phones used, like the HTC EVO 4G or the Samsung Epic). While it has slightly worse signal penetration than 1900 MHz (or definitely 800 MHz), Sprint has a lot of it, so they can serve up consistently fast high speeds to many people. As Clearwire (before they were bought out by Sprint) has already completed construction of 2600 MHz sites in many places around the country, Denver included, they are already available for use. However, there are currently no phones that can use signals other than 1900 MHz. Right now, to use any 800 MHz LTE or 2600 MHz LTE signals, you would need to buy a hotspot device such as the Netgear Zing or the MiFi 500, as they are the only ones that support it. Many manufacturers are on board to support these new bands, and the LG G2 (successor to the LG Optimus G) is already confirmed that it will be "tri-band", and will be available this fall, with many more appearing soon after. Thanks. That's refactored pieces of my usual spiel that I give to customers who come in and talk to me about Sprint network upgrades. Some days, I feel like the only rep in the state who knows what I'm talking about, as I usually get a stream of retorts of "well this other store told me" or "that's not what they said on the phone". Aw, c'mon. Some people just like to round up on time. A guy I used to work with would look at the clock and see 4:15, and go "It's 5 o'clock! Almost time to go!"

Downtilt can be adjusted for each separate antenna element. So, you can have more downtilt on 800 than 1900. Even with downtilt, you still have 800's advantages of matter penetration, and propgation will be better. And severe downtilt is only used in very urban areas, where site density should be enough for it not to matter as much. Should.

http://sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/Sprint/lte_310sprint#q=Denver Hmm, looks like Network Vision and 4G LTE work has started in the greater Denver area, but not Denver itself. Here's the thing. We really have no idea how long it will take. Sites could light up like gangbusters, or there could be things holding deployment back. As work is already underway in your market, I really can't expect it would be that long. But again, nobody knows for sure. I will say that, for Michigan, I have been rather impressed at the total speed at which work has been completed. The state is almost completely covered, it's just the "fill in" that needs to be done to remove the dead spots, and fully cover the cities. Remember that Sprint is doing work everywhere. Network Vision 3G and 4G LTE are going on every single cell site (with a small handful of exceptions). This isn't a bolt-on upgrade, it's a complete replacement of base station equipment, panels/antennas, radio units, everything. They're ripping out the old (dilapidated) network and installing a new one. Work like this takes time. I recommend following this thread: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/3913-network-vision-site-acceptance-report-updates/ If you look, over Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (last two posts), ten new 4G LTE sites went on-air and accepted in the Colorado market. As well, if you become a sponsor, you can see site acceptances on a very nice map. As for the "how's the service" question: 4G LTE isn't everywhere in my market, yet. Where we have it, it's awesome. For voice coverage, Sprint has been installing 800 MHz equipment for that, and will eventually use that for LTE as well. 800 MHz is low-frequency, and so penetrates walls and hills and trees and humans much better than 1900 MHz (what Sprint uses for everything else right now). Once 800 MHz was accepted on my local site, I went from barely being able to text in my house, to being able to call in my basement. A massive improvement, and I'm pretty happy with it. 3G has also improved, but not in quite a dramatic sense. Claims that Network Vision 3G travels up to 20% further than Legacy, and it seems to make sense. Again, living on a "cell edge" area, I went from unusable 3G EV-DO to 1 Mbps, fairly consistently. Both signal strength and speeds have improved (the second part of which, I am sure the new backhaul played a part).

Nope, sorry. Less hillbillies, more fire-breathing lizards and evil warlocks.

We're all wireless nerds here. As nerdiness tends to overlap itself, I figure there must be at least a few pen-and-paper nerds around as well (I'm one). So! If you've got a free few minutes, take this quiz: http://www.easydamus.com/character.html Yes, it is 129 questions long, but it goes quickly once you get into it. It's very involved as to what it will spit out for results. If you don't know what D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) is, it's a fantasy pen-and paper role playing game, where grown men and women sit around a table for hours on end, pretend to be strong warriors and devious rogues and powerful wizards, roll dice, and argue about rules. It's a lot of fun, and almost free entertainment (the price of entry is your imagination and maybe a set of dice). NOTE WELL: The HTML code doesn't seem to really work, even when checking "Enable HTML" in the Post Options. So, you know, preview before you post. I'll start, just retook it (and got similar-ish results to when I last took this years ago): I Am A: Neutral Good Human Druid/Sorcerer (2nd/2nd Level) Ability Scores: Strength-11 Dexterity-11 Constitution-11 Intelligence-16 Wisdom-14 Charisma-16 Alignment: Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable. Race: Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like. Primary Class: Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast. Secondary Class: Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast. ------------ And, if you don't want to take the quiz, well, this could just be "PNP-RPG Central". Or trying to pair other posters up in to a workable party!

Wait, I don't- are you- this is a rape joke, isn't it?

I don't recommend eating Wheaties with piss in them. For your health.

You know, these sorts of "speed requirements" never seemed very pertinent to me for this conversation. It's likely a huge waste of spectrum (hey! we could have done this years ago, let's just throw 200 MHz at something!), and doesn't offer anything more to the end user in terms of real usability, and doesn't offer anything to the carrier other than saying they met some seemingly-arbitrary standard for "TRUU FOUR GEEEEE". My understanding (when reading back in 2008, iirc), was that the real differentiator for "4G" was the move to an all IP-based network instead of a switched one.

Frankly, I've always found voodoo to be the most inexact of the methods of the science of fortune telling. A direct binary stream of the universe works much better. Ah, if only Fate was as easily parsed as XML...

Erm, you might. I wouldn't. No amount of money is going to get me to drive twice the speed limit, and especially ignore red lights. That's a nonstop ticket to dead, and you can't spend your cash if you're in a grave, and it's really not worth anything if it all gets sucked up by having to pay hospital bills if you do survive - never mind the traffic tickets and probable loss of your license. It's like saying "I will pay you to kill yourself". That's just bad math. It's like this old analogy: you're working as a deliveryman. Your boss gives you a priceless painting, and says you'll get paid $100,000 on delivery, but you get nothing if the painting is damaged in any way, shape, or form. The analogy tends to ramble a bit from here, and eventually concludes by pointing out that your own life, or the life of your friends and family, is going to be worth a hell of a lot more to you than that. Or it should.

I replied to the previous posts assuming they were talking about coverage.sprint.com or network.sprint.com.