koiulpoi

Will you be able to talk and surf on the tri-band S4 like you can now with the single band S4? Or is it going to be like the S4 mini, one or the other?

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-356-teaser-samsung-galaxy-s4-2-3/

 

To head off the obvious questions in the meantime, no SVDO, no SVLTE, as expected.

Daily? That seems a bit excessive.

Well, not on the weekends... but we're not a small store. We're on a first-name basis with the FedEx and UPS drivers.

We get devices in daily; I'll check tomorrow.

Woah, awesome! Our store doesn't have any yet; the GS4s that came in most recently lack the T.

cheaper (at 5 lines which I will have once I add my brother) it ends up around $52 per person after my discount on the main line.  Even run out to ten lines for maximum savings, the "Unlimited" plan still works out to $64 a line.

Yes, the price tends to be higher on Unlimited My Way. What percentage of discount do you have?

 

Fuzzy on this one, but the unlimited data, I believe, extends to roaming data, where the new "Unlimited" plan limits roaming data to 100mb per line per month.

Everything Data has 300 MB of roaming data. Unlimited My Way has 100 MB. A non-issue to most people.

 

Fuzzy, again, but I've read about data throttling on the new "Unlimited" plan.  I haven't seen this with the "Everything" plans, so I'm wondering if this is another draw back.

Streaming video "may" be limited to 1 Mbps; no other throttling is involved. I have yet to see any evidence of even this being implemented.

 

Would they end up forcing people out of these old plans?  Can they?

As long as you stay on your Everything Data 1500 plan, you can keep it. You can keep adding lines up to the 5 line limit. To go past 5, you'll need to switch.

 

A couple other things...

 

The Unlimited My Way plans have the "Unlimited for Life Guarantee", while the older Everything plans do not. Not sure if that matters to you, or will matter.

 

If you go with Sprint's One Up phone financing/annual upgrade program, while you are paying a monthly fee for the phone financing, you do get $15 off that line, while on My Way. If you go for One Up on an Everything plan, you don't get a discount, and just add the price of the phone directly on.

 

If you start up a new account or switch plans, you go to the My Way plan.

 

To bump this older thread, while trying out the new Direct Connect Now app (which is now compatible with phones like the Note 3 and the G2), I came across this page in the setup screen. Very interesting, as I still haven't heard anything about it internally.

 

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

Can't think of much cheaper than Ting... 1 device at 100 texts a month will run you $9 + surcharges/tax. Ting offers voice/SMS roaming, just not data.

It was the same in corporate retail as well. CTMS tickets were only made by Care/TS or a retail store manager could create an escalation ticket if more than 3 customers were having the same issue. The new system requires every rep to utilize the system to see the massive benefits of it however. And as with any retail setting based almost solely on sales... that simply won't be the case unfortunately.

 

Despite the retail rep's job descriptions also being about customer service, Ready Now questions, plan issues, etc,,, none of those make them money. Helping a person who isn't buying anything is seen quite often as a waste of time, especially if the majority of the people in there are purchasing something. Maybe 7 years in telecom retail has jaded me a bit, maybe it's just my District/Area, but that's the way it seems because there is no focus on anything but sales at the retail level.

Yes, while that is a cynical, jaded viewpoint, it is often the truth. If a salesperson is commissioned, they will do everything they can do improve that amount of commission. Reporting site outages for customers doesn't directly. Even though making customers happier greatly helps them in the long run, by improving overall customer satisfaction, most don't think like that.

 

In the indirect channel, it's a bit different, as stores can make a profit off of Service and Repair. As such, knowing that they can get paid a small amount for pinpointing people, you'd better believe they'll do it.

Will older none tri-band phones like my Note 2 be able to get the battery life improvement by turning off the CDMA radio when you are connected to LTE?

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

Sure, you can turn off your CDMA radio by switching the device to LTE only mode. You will then be unable to send or receive calls and texts

Lately, I've been wanting to make the transition. But, too many choices. The battery on the Nexus 5 is extremely tempting, but I don't want the ugly LG skin, and nor do I want to root the device. Nexus may be in my future!

 

Indeed, from what I've been reading across many sites/comments, there is a lot of hype. Technically speaking, I have an upgrade due for August, but I was feeling an upgrade right now, heh.

The Nexus 5 is $350 without a contract, you know. Sell your GS3 on eBay:

http://www.movaluate.com/samsung/galaxy-s-iii-sprint-blue

And it'll be more like $200.

You know, for all the hype the carriers, the manufacturers, and even some tech sites give for certain manufacturers over others for software/skin reasons ("Touchwiz is the best!"), I sure do hear a spectacular amount of good things about the Nexus 5.

 

Back on topic, even if you cannot take advantage of tri-band/spark at the moment, you almost certainly will within the next 20 months, before your next upgrade.

The only thing that customer care can do is with their pinpoint tool to mark the location having the issue.  That information gets reported to Ericson.  CTMS tickets that tech can open have been done away with for consumer accounts except for extreme cases. They still open them for corporate accounts.  When the new process went into effect, they were saying how much faster the newer process is to resolve network issues.  Before they said it would take two weeks to resolve a network issue where now it can take just three to five days.  The information gets to Ericson more quickly.  I think it takes multiple markings for the issue to become a priority.   Another purpose was that ctms tickets were too costly.  The newer system also has an effect of having fewer network tickets which means less credits being made.

That, an in retail, the vast majority of reps (including techs) would completely avoid making CTMS tickets. In the Preferred channel, there was no dedicated tool, so reps had to call in and spend anywhere from 10-120 minutes on the phone. With Pinpoint, you have to "click" and you're done. It's honestly really nice.

I feel bad for people who make poor decisions because they were lied to. I really do. But it is never wise to trust commissioned sales people. In any industry. Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

As someone who works with commissioned sales people, I completely agree.

 

Thankfully, our store (and our local company) takes a dim view of lying or shady business practices. In the past, people have been let go for it. And I in particular talk to them all the time about things that they say that aren't true at all...

You guys cannot keep up with my equipment acquisitions any longer, can you?  Especially as I do not divulge my handsets in my "Phones/Devices" info.  Yep, per my extensive handset collection, I am quickly becoming Robert Jr. (not the Downey variety).

 

AJ

What do you mean, "you guys"? I think I'm the only one who's been paying attention...

Can i borrow some minutes? I used 2200 last month!

Nope You can always use something like Google Voice when in WiFi via, for example, GrooveIP.

 

 

Speaking of worry, as I have said many a time, we cool guys do not worry about dialer codes.  We have our hidden APK shortcuts laid out on the home screen.

 

AJ

Wait, when did you buy a Nexus 5? Was the HTC One not tri-band enough for you?

I like to think of it this way...what is displayed on your phone tells you what kind of connection you would have to the switch, not necessarily the type of connection you will have all the way through to the user on the other end.  If the entire connection through to the other end supports HD voice, then your call may actually connect through that way.  If only your connection on the call does, then it will not.

 

Robert

So, any idea if Google Voice co-opts that and forces things to fall back to a different codec?

 

Of course, you might also get docked double airtime for a three way call.  And, no, I am not kidding.

 

 

AJ

Yes, such a worry, with Sprint's Unlimited minutes or unlimited mobile-to-mobile. Or in my case, using an average of 62 a month out of my 3000.

That's what I meant,  the note is a tablet for skinny jeans.  I'd be both impressed and worried if you could get a surface pro in your skinny jeans!

True, I can't quite fit my Nexus 7 in my pocket, and I honestly found a 10-inch tablet to be unwieldy. 

 

I can fit the Nexus 7 in my work slacks, but that's just silly to take around with me anyways. And frankly, with the Gear, I rarely pull out my phone anymore anyways...

 

If your phone is like mine, you can't use dialer codes during a call. I have to have the engineering screen open before I initiate the call.

 

I just tried this on our demo phone and it worked, same as my Note III:

• Make call
• Hit "add call"
• Dial "##33284#"
• Lock code screen comes up. Enter 777468.
• Enginerring screen when in a phone call, hoooooooo!

Hence, OP, why you should grab an SVDO/SVLTE-capable handset ASAP before they go bye-bye. It seems silly to have to rely on a hotspot to talk and surf at the same time, which our 3GPP brethren have been able to do on W-CDMA for quite some time now. Yes, battery life with two active radios is lower but that's a small tradeoff in my mind.

 

It looks like I'll be clinging to my S4 for awhile until VoLTE arrives, and selling any upgrades that come up in the meantime.

W-wuh, really? Surfing while talking is that important? SvWiFi still works, and about the only time I'm out of WiFi is when I'm driving...

 

VoLTE is several years out on Sprint. Maybe a decade.

 

If you ask me, if I have the choice of no 4G and "talk while surfing" vs 4G (such as ESMR 800 MHz), or overburdened 3G/LTE and "talk while surfing" vs fast, usable LTE (EBS/BRS)... I'll take the improved service, every time.

As an aside, SVDO and SVLTE are soon to be things of the past. The single radio design of the current Spark devices is going to be the way most all devices will be produced, for quite some time, if Rob and AJ's premonitions are correct. It has been predicted that SVDO and SVLTE may never exist in future devices at all, until VoLTE appears.

Tablets for the skinny jeans generation

Pshaw, my Note III fits in my skinny jeans just fine.

Spark (aka 2500 and 800) LTE is being rolled out now across the country. What market are you in? You might be bathed in usable spectrum right now and not know it.

I have a question. Since updating to 4.3, is there anyway of stopping widgets from showing up on lock screen? Same goes for text messages being received. It's very annoying. An example is in dropbox link. Help is much appreciated.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k9vmhq9fbmypkj5/iOJL7IiqgT

There is a "preview" setting in messaging, but that also turns off the preview in the notification bar.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Can't you just replace the default "clock or personal message" lock screen widget with anything else? You could download, for example,

Dashclock: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roman.dashclock&hl=en

or Chronus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dvtonder.chronus&hl=en

Seriously? This is about the furthest thing from a Gary Forsee move.

 

NV is a project which is moving along with staff, money, and scheduled assigned to it. 

Indeed! I have noticed around here, and in many technical forums, people seem to think that co-oping with other companies and hiring new people for new projects means that in-progress projects are being abandoned or slowed down - that if those resources were instead allocated to other projects, they'd be done faster! After all, if it takes one man a day to dig a hole, it'll take 24 men an hour to dig that hole, and 86,400 men only a second! 

 

(or, said even better, it'll take 9 women 1 month to have a baby)

So are you saying that the LG Optimus G can do HD-Voice? That is the very first time i have heard someone confirm HD-Voice on this handset for sprint!  How do I pull up the engineering screen on the Optimus G?

Well, my co-worker's Optimus G either absolutely can do it, or the Enginerring Screen was lying to me.

 

I don't have an OG in front of me right now, but most engineering screens are gotten to by opening the Phone Dialer, and inputting "##33284#" (that's ##DEBUG#). If it asks for a lock code, it's 777468 (SPRINT), but I think only Samsung devices require that.

 

Calls to landlines will not benefit, as those will almost certainly be transcoded to PCM with an 8 kHz sample rate at some point.  In other words, those calls will not have an extended frequency range.

 

AJ

As an aside, I just remembered that my "landline" call wasn't to a physical landline at all; it was to a VoIP phone. I'm no expert, but depending on the way the call is switched, couldn't it still take some advantage of the enhanced quality?