koiulpoi

I confirmed today that I will need to do a full and complete factory reset since roaming did not work at all when I was out and about. I'm currently looking into ways of getting the MSL before I get too involved with the reset. I've seen hit and miss reports about Sprint coughing up your MSL number. And I've seen numerous pages out on the net about needing to root the EVO LTE to draw the MSL out of the phone itself

 

I figure with the Sprint store blowing me off about reflashing my phone and saying "good luck, you're on your own" that I took that as a green light to root my phone.

Sprint doesn't care if you root your device, only if rooting it negatively affects the network in some way. So, go ahead, root away.

Additionally retail stores that are not Corporate Sprint Owned (anything that says like "Sprint Store by Galactic Communications") has no more access than you do to images to flash devices. They have to use Google and shady websites, all the same as you.

I think they will.. It will be the 5S and the 5C.. Maybe a 4S for the third category though...

Yeah, if the 5C comes out, they'll either have 4 devices, or drop the 4 and 4S and just have 3 like they have in the past.

They might even keep the 4 and 4S around for a few months until inventory dries up, and then tell everyone to buy the 5C.

Who knows! It's all speculation until that very day.

I've actually had the opposite problem; Signalcheck Pro will show "No Service", the signal bars will show "No Service"... and EV-DO will continue to work normally and load websites no problem. I'm pretty sure I've even received text messages while in this state. Although, because of this, I've started wondering if something isn't wrong with my device. Oh well.

Here's how it works, at least on the Sprint end of things. Sprint will not activate any ESN/MEID that is not in their database of phones. However, every single iPhone MEID is listed as available for activation, as there is, like you found out, only one CDMA model of each iPhone. You can put any CDMA iPhone on your Sprint account. If the device is programmed for another carrier, however, it won't activate properly.

I found this out recently, as Asurion received a batch of iPhone 5's that were programmed for Cricket, but shipped out to Sprint customers. They will attach to the account, but will not activate. Similarly, I had a situation where a woman brought in an iPhone 4S to be activated, and we only found out after it was already on her account that it was programmed for VZW, and it couldn't be used.

Oh man. This means this one will launch at $200, the iPhone 4 will go EOL, the 5 will become $100, and the 4S will become free at POS with an upgrade or new line activation. Siri for everyone!

(Personally, due to things like LTE and BC10 CDMA, I'm hoping they announce a "low-cost" iPhone for the "free" category and just drop the 4 and 4S entirely. But, that's a Sprint-centric viewpoint)

Yeppp. As I described lengthily above. I'll call 'em avocados and oranges. Oranges (1x CDMA) roll farther, but if you're in a place where you're getting avocados (LTE) from two different trees, that'll sustain you a lot better than oranges from two trees. (Invent some analogy here for why you can only eat oranges from one tree at a time while avocados can be devoured as received.) Then there's apples (Ev CDMA). Fuckin' everyone picks those trees bare. In between trees is mathematically within rolling distance but those things are nabbed almost before they hit the ground, so you better camp under the tree if you are hungry. This is also why Sprint takes LTE sites live as they are installed, but CDMA NV must get realigned in clusters. Generally, another LTE cell either does nothing for you, or helps you. CDMA cells require much more careful optimization with downtilt and height and blah blah blah, and therefore must be calibrated in clusters (and then tweaked for a while too, and again and again as pop. density and UE density and etc. fluctuates...).

 

Avocados are still fruit.

As an aside, one big reason that CDMA NV sites are brought up in clusters is that (possibly for reasons related to what you said), in many markets, NV 3G sites do not hand off properly to legacy sites. Chicago was one, and West Michigan is another. 

That is... very strange. I would expect the opposite, what with fewer devices actively using a site, cell breathing going down should improve the coverage. I've definitely noticed that it's easier to get and hold on to 4G the later in to the night I get, pretty consistently.

But if it only lasts for 30 minutes or so, yeah, that would tell me there's some equipment that's on a timer to reset.

Come to think of it, isn't this old news? I thought we all knew that Network Vision was 3-6 months behind schedule. Hasn't it been that way for a while? And, of course it's because of vendor delays; what "in-house" could have been done faster? All the required ground work is by contractors and subcontractors, and that all requires equipment to be produced and in place.

I wonder if executing a vendor would help?

Make a vendor an example for the rest. Show them what happens when you deploy too slow. Sprint just needs to hire more Commissars.

I'm seeing this perception a lot lately so I want to make a broad, generic clarifying statement about the LTE airlink. You didn't really say anything incorrect but I am assuming it comes from the same, slightly incomplete picture. All other things being equal, LTE is more fragile than CDMA, true enough. But it has been intended from day 1 to limit its exposure to those situations and exploit the ways it is superior.

 

Same amount of devices, same freq, same physical locations of the users and tower, same devices: EVDO outperforms LTE. But LTE's strength is exploiting multiple towers/cells as references, like a rake receiver wired to other rakes. If you're on truly only one tower, EVDO wins. If you're seeing more than 1, even if each one individually is pretty weak, a nigh-unusable condition on EVDO becomes 1+ Mb down and .1 up, or better, the more cells you see.

 

So, true cell-edge performance is worse: this is the misinterpreted statement I see spreading in the forum these days. But typically, for LTE, a cell edge is actually a cell seam, and that us a beneficial situation, vice CDMA where it must simply pick one. You get greatly increased performance on LTE cell "edges" compared with CDMA, provided that edge has more than just one reference tower.

What an interesting post. That is certainly information I did not know.

While it certainly shows a benefit of LTE over EV-DO, this is sadly not true in all cases. Sprint has many cell seams are are really cell edges. Several former affiliate markets *cough West Michigan cough* have some pretty bad tower spacing, and unless you're in a place there T-Mobile would also have coverage (heh), you'll be lucky for your device to see more than one site. Which brings me to the next point - this is also only true in a fully deployed market. If you're in a "scattershot" 30% deployed market, well, it's rare to have a situation at all where multiple LTE sites overlap. Naturally, this will improve with time, but does not help now, today.

Additionally, this comparison doesn't say much about 1X vs LTE, which is a primary concern for moving to VoLTE, and 1X is quite usable very far down into fringe signals, when talking about voice usability. I've noticed I can use voice often a bit past -105 dBm RSSI, while LTE rarely works at all past -110 dBm RSRP. Sure, apples and oranges there, but still both fruit.

The point is I no longer have to pay for wifi at home since sprint is now usable.

I still don't understand. Do you just use internet on your phone? Or are you paying for tethering? Either way, offloading on to WiFi tends to be better (both for you and the network) than using it, especially if it's available.

How many times did you consult the online thesaurus to make your post?

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4

Ermm... what part of that post involved "big words", of even past High School level? "exude"? "competitive advantage"? maybe? Unless your post was directed at some else, it honestly seems kinda silly, doesn't it? Talking trash instead of breaking down his argument, in an argument about the efficacy (there's one for you ) of not talking trash.

I don't have specefic numbers from old speed tests, but the data speeds have increased tremendously from unusable to around 2mbps which fast enough for me to not need wifi at home anymore.

If you've got WiFi at home, what do you need 3G for?

unfortunately .

Many were colocated with Sprint, so upgrading those would have been nothing but wasted resources. Many others are "redundant coverage", which is kind of a tossup, and usually leaned towards no. Others lie completely outside the Sprint coverage area, and again, it's a "cost:benefit" tossup. Frankly, I'm thankful that any Nextel sites are being upgraded at all. They could have just said "meh".

The one feature I'd like to have is that Active Display. Seems really nice. I'm used to turning my phone on & off periodically tho... Lol. That and I can barely see the LED on my silver One. Were you playing with the Sprint version?

That's the thing, once the notification pops up, when "onscreen", you can grab it and flick up to unlock the phone and launch that app as if you had clicked the notification as normal. It's really quite ingenious. And yes, I was playing with the Sprint version. Unsure if it was any different from other versions.

AJ, what is the deal with you and folks who use their phones a lot? Why do you keep on making these ridiculous backhanded comments? Aren't we all here as friends who share common interests?

 

Did some guy beat you up as a kid with his smartphone?

Oh, don't mind AJ. He can be a bit of a curmudgeon, but that's only because he feels that, for example, the "spectrum crunch" is caused by things like streaming media solely for vapid entertainment purposes... and not for any legitimate-seeming reason. He'd rather only those that need smartphones have them, and... some days, I'm kinda with him on that.

Of course not. But it doesn't help when you have customer service reps that say "Boost phones run off a different frequency". Sprint is mismanaged and has a history of making bad business decisions. They come up with good ideas but fail to property execute them. T-Mobile's LTE deployment is ahead of schedule and they're worse off than Sprint financially. They were bleeding customers. You don't see them blaming it on birds nests SMH

if you were talking about pre-softbank sprint or, heaven forbid, pre-Hesse, I'd agree.

T-Mobile already had advanced backhaul to all of their sites of import, and thus are doing much less work. Sprint is replacing the literal entire network. This isn't a case of them being lazy hackjobs. The 800 and 2500 rollouts will go much faster once the base NV platform is in place.

For the birds, reread that article. It was a legitimate concern.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4

Ah okay makes sense cause on Avenue H and Utica I was getting 19Mbps down. I guess they'll work it out. Maybe T-Mo's Q2 numbers will scare the $hit out of them. 

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/t-mobile-us-reports-second-quarter-2013-results-2013-08-08

 

It's time for Sprint to wake up and smell the churn

Wait, are you really implying that the Sprint execs are ignorant of - or worse, willfully ignorant of - the current churn rates and customer issues?

You know it's an editorial when it's filled with bold, italic, and sometimes bold italic underlined words. Things no journalist would use.

Interesting story, though. Wonder what wasn't good enough with Samsung's "SAFE" (Samsung Approved For Enterprise) program?

Got to play with a Moto X today. Really quite a nice device. Impressive build quality.

Active Display seems extremely nice. While there are already apps out there to duplicate it more or less (leaning towards less), it is pretty brilliant. 

The always-on Google Now feature is something I actually want. It's fast, works well (just like regular Google Now), and it shaves off a few steps from those Google searches. I understand it's not possible on other devices due to the "listening" being done by one of the low-power cores. 

Beyond that, I agree with what others have said. No Tri-Band, $200 price tag, I'd rather not.

Only a 1GB on data combined? I think 500 MB of mine per month is just app updates alone.

I update my apps all the time, but that goes over WiFi. And many restaurants and bars now have WiFi as well. And I've stopped streaming Pandora and moved to listening to eBooks while driving. So, yeah. I rarely use data. This would have been a $38 bill on Ting, heh.

Shit, for all your complaints, why are you with Sprint? I haven't read all your posts, but everything is negative thus far.

 

If you worry about the "social stigma" of your wireless carrier then I think I'm done trying to educate you with facts. I look to my service providers for service, not social status.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4

Right! I've never heard of such a thing. Are there really a significant number of low self-esteem having people that have the need to use their cell phone carrier (of all things) as a social status booster? 

Because a capitalist, materialist society encourages consumers to define themselves by the brands they purchase and surround themselves with, instead of individual achievements, goals, or ideals. If all your personal energy goes in to buying things, you are those things.

This! When you have 3G that works well, you use a bunch more data too! 

Oh, I dunno. I have WiFi at home, WiFi at work, and then 4G pretty much everywhere else. I rarely use over a gig a month.

I looked back at past bills.  I don't think they will add them together. There was one month in particular where I started with the 6GB plan, went over before I had a chance to change to 12GB.  They charged overages on the 6GB plan, and then the 12 started over with a new amount of data.  It seems like it looks as each individual line as its own separate entity.

IIRC, that's what happens when you change your plan "immediately", it starts a new plan from that plan change. To avoid overages, plan changes need to be backdated by the care rep to the beginning of the current cycle. Yes, it's confusing.

On my phone, Advanced Signal Strength shows the LTE RSSI and %'s based on ranges defined by 3GPP (not calibrated by Sprint)

I'm not even sure what that means. Please elaborate.

Frankly, I don't trust any app that reports LTE RSSI instead of RSRP. See:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-308-rssi-vs-rsrp-a-brief-lte-signal-strength-primer/

 

Advanced Signal Status shows more info than signalcheck

He was looking for specific examples, I think

Edit: SignalCheck Pro appears to show considerably more info...

 

From the article: "There are now more than 20,000 Network Vision sites on the air." & "The company said it now counts 30,000 sites that are ready for construction, are in the midst of construction or are already finished."

 

So that means 10,000 sites currently are ready to start work while 500 - 1000 probably have work going on. -ish. Another 8-9000 are not ready :-/

 

Sprint only has ~38k sites total, at last count. I think your math lines up, but I'm kinda confused.

After all, what they're saying makes sense. Not only are they replacing the base station cabinets and other equipment (what digi likes to call panels), as well as antennas, install new radios for LTE, get backhaul for LTE... and then install new carrier cards for LTE on 800 MHz, and now on 2500 MHz - while also building out additional sites and small cells for 2500 MHz. It really isn't an overnight job, or a "flip the switch" kind of thing.

Additionally, when there's a discrepancy between work being done and a NV site being "on-air", it's often due to the fact that NV 3G sites are brought up in "clusters". The new equipment has problems handing off to the legacy equipment in certain markets.