ericdabbs

Just turn off mobile data if you really want to save battery. However the Sprint LTE phones beginning with the GS3 have had great battery life between 3G and 4G. The difference in battery usage between 3G and 4G is pretty much negligible assuming you are in a LTE area.

I hope so. It would be nice to have a different color to overlay the Wimax green on the www.clear.com site.

Unfortunately I think that is what Sprint will end up doing and not break up the LTE coverage into 2 colors for 800/1900 LTE and 2500 LTE. This is why I wish Sensorly could make a new group called Sprint LTE 2500 or Clearwire LTE so that we can clearly see which areas have 2500 LTE mapped.

But keep in mind that the RRUs that are installed on the Wimax towers were made back in 2007-2008 or so and LTE equipment wasn't available back then. I am sure the Wimax RRUs are single mode and only support Wimax. I am sure there must be some reasons for needing to upgrade the hardware that LTE needs specifically. Maybe these new dual mode RRUs have more capacity of deploying up to 80 MHz of spectrum (according to Lilotimz) while the old RRUs might not have as much capacity. Either way I hope Sprint does upgrade all the Clearwire Wimax RRUs to the latest hardware to ensure it is future proof to be able to handle a lot of capacity.

I wonder if Sensorly would create a new group for Clearwire LTE so that we can map which areas have 2500 TD-LTE. If Clearwire LTE gets mixed in under "Sprint 4G" then we can't find out which areas have 2500 TD-LTE.

I know what you mean. All the Wimax phones that were ever built have horrible battery life to be honest and not just the GS2. I turn off my data when I am not using it at work but that is because I sit in a office area that is like a cave and has horrible signal so it drains the battery. Even when I am out and about, I try to use 3G first for the battery savings and only use 4G when I have to. I don't know if you have tried reflashing the stock ROM via Odin and see if it helps fix the random boot/turn off issue. Maybe try flashing a custom ROM and see if you have any issues. It seems like your GS2 is in a really funky state so depending on how much you can bare with the inconveniences you might be better off upgrading on Aug 1st to not deal with this crap anymore OR if you really want to hold off, try buying a $10 alarm clock from walmart and use it as your alarm. If my phone was that unreliable I wouldn't risk continuing to use my phone as my alarm in fear of being late to work. Also I looked at the NV Running list and I only see Central Jersey have 9% covered in LTE. That is not really a lot of LTE anyways. I have sworn off Motorola for now. Even the Moto X isn't impressive given its going to be a mid tier phone based on the specs and not to mention its going to be single band 1900 LTE. Also I need Google to show me that they can keep up with software updates for 2 years because as of now, I only see Verizon customers have Motorola phones because of the Droid series.

Do we know the current capacity of the microwave backhaul at Clearwire sites? I wonder if Clearwire setup their backhaul to be scaleable.

Unless you are the type that buys phones out of contract (not me, I only upgrade every 2 years) I would suck it up and wait until oct/nov phones to come out to upgrade. While you might have those 2 months of pleasure of 1900 MHz LTE, you are going to regret not waiting 2 more months for deep building penetration 800 LTE and blazing fast 2500 LTE (although in Fresno that is going to be awhile. I am fairly shocked that given the GS2 got the Jelly Bean upgrade I would be able to hang on for another 2 months. Besides doesn't Fresno not have that much LTE coverage so how much LTE are you going to really experience? Hopefully by the Fall there should be more LTE in the Lower Central Valley area. I have the Photon and I am stuck on Gingerbread. That is such a struggle to wait to upgrade my phone especially when my tablet is running Jelly Bean. I have been able to upgrade since June and trust me I know its hard to wait until the Fall to upgrade. The current GS4 being only single band LTE didn't help or else I might have considered upgrading already. However because of this additional wait I have had a change of heart and am now gunning for the Note 3 as my phone of choice.

Every NV tower is going to need multiple trips until 800 LTE+CDMA, 1900 LTE+CDMA is all installed on the NV towers. The hope is that each extra trip you go you can check off more of these items so that you don't need to come for additional trips. Also 800 wasn't provisioned at the same time as 1900 because 1) most of the NV sites right now don't have the 800 carrier card installed at the RBS and 2) Since the Nextel network was up and running and taking up the 800 MHz spectrum Sprint couldn't just fire up 800 mhz for testing or else it would cause interference.

If it were the Nexus 8 with a 8 in screen I would be ecstatic but since its a Nexus 7, I'll pass. 7 in tablet is too small. The screen size of the ipad mini is just perfect.

A remote software switch makes it sound so easy like there is no work to be done. I am pretty sure the 800 LTE carrier card is not installed at these base stations so a trip out to the site needs to be done anyways. But even if it were true, I doubt the first time you are going to launch it live you are not going to test it at all to make sure the signal is transmitting and the downtilt is correct. I doubt there was any testing done with the 800 RRUs when they were installing them and hooking them up to the panels especially before June 30th. If I were Sprint I woudln't just trust a flip of a switch especially if I plan to launch it once and be done with it. The process to launch 800 LTE and CDMA is not any different than 1900 LTE and CDMA in that it still needs to be approved by the inspection team so why not take the time to get it right.

Im not surprised. They have to launch NV completed sites in clusters because of the samsung to motorola legacy handoff issues with 1900 cdma. This doesnt apply for just the columbus market but for all of the ohio markets and chicago. There was a reason why the chicago market had such a strong push to complete their NV sites as soon as possible and this is why. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

I would think so at least full build sites if u dont count like iowa. Even SLC got at least 1 LTE site and i know they started after phx and tucson Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

A triband version of the gs4 hasnt been confirmed yet. But if there was one, i expect it to launch in oct around the same time as the note 3. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

I still think we are still several weeks away from seeing the first 800 cdma sites launched. There could be reasons for the delay. It could be that sprint wants the contractors to wait for more sites to have backhaul so that they can install and launch 800 cdma and LTE at the same time. I would hate to have the crews go to the site now to launch 800 cdma now and then have to go back and launch 800 LTE at a later point. There are just too many sites that need upgrading that unnecessary trips dont need to be made. 1900 cdma is still fine for now since ppl still expect it. I really do hope at least alcatel markets wait to launch 800 cdma and LTE if possible. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

Look I tell like it is. It doesn't matter that I am a Premier Sponsor or not. You can't just base LTE coverage off of Sensorly as a representation for each carrier since it is not a required app to be run at all times. Sensorly is completely voluntarily and relies on the community of those customers to add to those maps. Therefore it can't be used as the Holy Grail. The thing is Tmobile, Verizon and AT&T customers don't need to chart in Sensorly since the HSPA+ and Verizon EVDO speeds aren't crap while Sprint customers on the other hand rely on Sensorly to find new Network Vision upgraded towers in hopes of better speeds 3G speeds and have to hunt for LTE since it is so spotty. While Sprint does have a lot of the same markets covered in LTE as Tmobile it does fall short in a several major markets I can think of off the bat that have zero to very little LTE (Markets that have a few LTE sites that can not come close to covering the metro area of the city): Phoenix, Tucson, Honolulu, Salt Lake City, Denver, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Columbus, Reno, Bakersfield, Fresno, Albuquerque, Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, Newark, Syracuse, Richmond, etc. I disagree that Tmobile falls short in 50% of the major markets that Sprint has. I know Sprint is working hard on Network Vision but in terms of LTE coverage it is still lacking in a lot of the major metros as mentioned in some of the markets above. As of now I have to give Tmobile the leg up in being in number 3 in terms number of major metros covered. They really are stepping up the LTE game and while you can say Tmobile "cheated" because they have fiber backhaul in place but there was still a ton of work that needed to be done (permitting, installing antennas, any base station installation, coordination of crews to install this stuff) is still challenging and should not be dismissed. Tmobile has executed well in their Network Vision "Challenger" plan in just a short time.

I did try Tmobile LTE at a store yesterday and its pretty darn fast. I think Tmobile has covered a lot of the LA area since I do see a lot of the AIR antennas built on a lot of towers. I hope they keep up the good work and make a run at Sprint for its money. Tmobile has jumped to the number 3 spot for LTE network coverage especially since they have already launched LTE in 3/4 of the top 100 markets and Sprint is not even close to that.

Verizon is way too expensive now. I would rather go with att if i had to choose the one of the 2 evils. Sent from my Motorola Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

If TMUS gets a nationwide 5x5 block they will have to upgrade their 2G sites to be compliant. I hope that is what forces Tmobile to upgrade all their 2G sites to not only 600 MHz LTE but AWS LTE as well.

The key for successful 2.5 TD-LTE deployment and really make use of the spectrum and an impact on the overall Sprint network is to expand the TD-LTE footprint to at least the top 100 markets in the metro areas which means beyond the current Wimax markets. This is my hope for Son and Sprint to spend the necessary capex to accomplish this.

Well even then the Moto X doesn't seem to be a high end smartphone with high end specs so that is another failure on Motorola's part. Again I don't care if Google is taking over, the fact is that Motorola has a tainted reputation and Google is going to have to prove to the public that they can get software updates in a timely matter. So all I can say is time will tell. There is a reason why the majority of the smartphones sold out there are either Samsung or HTC. I rarely see Motorola smartphones floating around nowadays and I see why because the software support is just not there. The least Motorola could have done with the Photon was release the ICS source code that they were working on so that devs can take over and build on it.

Speeds for 800 LTE will be the same as the current 1900 LTE. The main difference will obviously be the increased coverage and building penetration. Sent from my HP Touchpad using Tapatalk 2

I am just assuming that the reverse auction is successful. I think the FCC shouldn't ask TV operators to give up their 600 MHz spectrum unless they received commitments for a decent amount of channels from all TV operators in each market to give up their 6 MHz spectrum. If they can only free up 12 MHz on average for example in the entire 600 MHz band they shouldn't even have a 600 MHz auction. To be honest I think the best way to decide between FDD and TDD is to wait until the results of the reverse auction are completed first so we know the total amount of 600 MHz spectrum available for auction in each market and then decide. But if we have say 84 MHz total to auction, I like tmobiles plan for FDD to split into seven 5x5 blocks. Sent from my HP Touchpad using Tapatalk 2

Good point. I forgot about those engineering screens that show which band class you are connected to.

Hopefully Clearwire can update their coverage map to show which towers are upgraded to TD-LTE. What I am saying is right now unless you are doing speedtests all around town, you are not going to know if you are connected to 2.5 GHz LTE at a particular point. What I am also curious about is the range a 2.5 GHz TD-LTE carrier can extend to. I really want to see if it does extend farther than 2.5 GHz Wimax.