ericdabbs

If Google can optimize their os to the level of ios, Apple would be hurting even more. Apple's iPhone 5, with a 1440 mAh battery is on par in the battery department as Android devices running 2000+. I'm thinking it's a lot harder to achieve on android because of all of the third party skins android comes with. (sense, touch wiz, blur, etc.)

 

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I am not asking for Android to be optimize to the level of iOS especially since the hardware is not being designed by Google.  I think it would be very hard to emulate what Apple is doing but that doesn't mean that Android can't improve on power optimization with the latest Linux kernel.  It has been one of the ongoing issues with Android from the beginning and making strides every year will help it more. I want better battery life for me and not for more market share.  Android has enough market share in the mobile space.  

I also disagree that a better battery life will hurt Apple sales even more.  People like Apple and iOS because of its simplicity, ecosystem and integration with other apps.  I don't see Apple's market share going down especially with the improvements to iOS 7 that brings a lot of Android features.

What I meant by my comment was aimed more at potentially having the tri-band phones and being able to use all three bands at some point. Right now Clearwire's board is playing hardball to the extreme by voting to reject Sprint's offer in favor of Dish Network. Does this mean Sprint loses the spectrum? Absolutely not as they are still the majority owner, but most likely this could play out for a very long time with Dish winding up getting something out of the deal. So even if tri-band LTE phones comes out this year, it could be awhile before we see Clearwire's LTE network. http://www.kansascity.com/2013/06/12/4288733/sprint-officials-hold-uneventful.html

I think Sprint is going to wait until the Dish vote for Clearwire to see how much minority shareholder support they need to win over.  The Dish vote is going nowhere anyways since Sprint will just vote down any deal that Dish proposes.  Sprint can convert their financing they lent to Clearwire as additional ownership stake which equates to a total of 68%.  Either way Sprint and Clearwire still have an existing TD-LTE wholesale agreement to provide TD-LTE to Sprint customers.  I think we will see TD-LTE in use by end of 2013.

Worst case is that Sprint and Clearwire drag this saga until end of November where Sprint can change the bylaws to only require a majority vote needed for business related transactions. 

Looks like PCWorld has caught on to the updated Sprint Wimax terms with this article.  I do wonder about this "Transition Option" for current Wimax customers.  I should swing by my local Sprint store to find out what that means.

"Transition Option: If you select the Transition Option, you will receive a free standard Sprint LTE capable device and can maintain your existing Service plan, if available."

I wonder what is the criteria in order to get a free LTE device.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2041996/new-terms-in-sprint-contracts-look-toward-wimax-shutdown.html

After seeing the apple keynote for iOS 7, i would like to see some improvements to Google Now in terms of being able to "turn off/on bluetooth" or "read my last voicemail." I think more improvements to project butter and RAM usage will hopefully help with battery life. I would like to see an anti-theft mechanism similar to what apple has in iOS 7.

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Hopefully we get those tri-band phones and they are needed. This Clearwire mess is getting uglier by the day. I'd be fine with a dual-band lte phone that supports 800,1900 lte.

Sprint has officially announced that tri-band smartphones from samsung and lg will be released later on this year...so dont worry they are coming. Also sprint announced the first tri-band hotspots and usb modems to be released this summer. This was all announced at the CTIA conference in late May.

There will not be any dual band LTE smartphones at this point.

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Except for the fact that they erroneously describe Sprint as the nation's fourth largest carrier, pretty good article by PCWorld.

 

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I was going to make a post about that inaccuracy but I let it slide.  Otherwise it was a good article by PCWorld.

This was established immediately upon release last September. I am surprised that you are surprised.

 

 

In the mobile space, Apple is the 800 pound gorilla.  It does whatever it wants.

 

AJ

I guess I didn't remember it in detail since its the iPhone which I didn't care too much about.  I thought it was SVDO that was the stickler on the iPhone 5.  Hopefully the iPhone 5S will have triband LTE and SVLTE.

I just quickly reread the wall article back in Sept 2012 and yes you are correct it was noted that the iPhone 5 doesn't support SVDO or SVLTE.

Maybe, but that is hardly unique.  All Sprint LTE handsets support SVLTE -- the lone exception is iPhone 5.  Are you thinking of SVDO?

 

AJ

The iPhone 5 doesn't support SVLTE?  So customers can't talk on CDMA and browse on LTE at the same time on the iPhone 5?  If that is true then I don't get why Sprint would allow that in the first place.

A lot of Wimax customers that signed up in 2011 like myself are due for an upgrade this year and I know most can't wait to get off the Wimax network.  I really want to help Sprint out here by moving over from WiMax to LTE but Sprint needs to offer that tri-band LTE phone at this point for me to pick up now and re-up with them.  I know I am not alone on this.  The earliest I see a mass move from Wimax to LTE will be later on this year as the NV project progresses and more areas are lit up with LTE and tri-band LTE smartphones are released.

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.

I have a feeling that since 1x 800 is still not prevalent on most NV sites, Sprint is provisioning their PRLs and cell sites for now to give 1900 priority over 800.  I am not sure if there are any issues handing off between 800 and 1900 for CDMA during a call and I think Sprint doesn't want to take any risks until 800 CDMA is more widespread.

I think by the early to mid 2014, we will see updates to PRLs and provisioning at the cell sites to give 800 higher priority.  I don't know how fast the rollout of 800 CDMA is expected to be considering that all NV sites already have the majority of the equipment installed and do field testing.  I am hoping when workers have to go back to cell sites to install 800 CDMA that they install 800 LTE as well and do dual testing of 800 CDMA and LTE to have it accepted at the same time.

I have a feeling that Dish will wait until the very last minute on June 18th to thwart and make a tender offer for Sprint.  This Sprint/Softbank deal needs to close now so that Sprint and Softbank can focus on how to get Clearwire as well.   Dish just needs to go away.

Space isn't a factor especially since you can throw in sd cards. For me it was about battery life and other processes running.

I totally understand that u can easily pop in a sd card for more space. Getting good battery life is pretty darn important.

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My upgrade is august 1....

 

I really hope a tri band is out by then.

 

And that its the active.

 

The active has a replaceable battery right? Is the processor same as the standard G4 or is it gimped?

 

Doubt it. The next flagship phones are due in oct and nov. I can upgrade now and it pains me that i have to wait until Oct for the note 3 since i want that tri-band lte support.

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Ericsson : http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2902-how-to-spot-sprint-panels-and-rrus-ericsson-style/

AL : http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/3915-how-to-spot-sprint-panels-and-rrus-alcatel-lucent-style/

 

I wasn't talking about what the antennas and RRUs look like.  I know what those look like and aware of those threads. I am talking about the AL and Ericcson base station cabinet internals.  I have seen some brief Sprint press release shots of AL and Ericcson cabinets but not up close and detailed like the Engadget article.

I don't have the Note 2 but I was just curious for those that know, how much of the storage space does the stock Sprint ROM take?  And then how much storage space does the Digiblur ROM take?  I know Sprint only had the 16 GB model on sale.  I am just curious how much storage space you save by getting rid of some of the bloatware apps.

Nice pictures, kind of cool to get an up-close look at the nerdy nitty gritty.  Sure, RF amplifiers isn't correct, but at least it was an overall  positive-spinning Sprint article instead of the usual.  Kudos to Sprint if they actually did reach out and invite her up to that roof to see progress.

 

Oh, and whoever gave SignalCheck the shout-out in the comments section there is my hero!

 

-Mike

I just wish some of the other tech blogs would do an upclose in personal article with tons of pictures of the cabinet internals of Sprint Network Vision sites for Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson markets.  Ive seen the Samsung ones before and unfortunately the engadget article is the same since its based out of San Francisco.

Yea, LTE 800 will be needed in a place like Charlotte for long term. LTE 1900 is just a bridge to get you to usable data in most places you go. Sprint will not be fully competitive until LTE 800 is in place. But it's starting now and will be much faster to deploy on in place NV sites.

 

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

LTE 800 is already starting in the Charlotte market or are you generalizing? Wasn't sure either way. Charlotte sure has stalled lately... I'm hoping for a Big Bang week.

I think what robert is referring to is that most NV build sites already deployed have LTE 800 equipment installed on it already and ready to be fired up once iDEN airwaves is shutdown. Some provisioning and testing at the base station will be needed and sprint can fire up LTE 800 quickly on those NV completed sites nationwide.

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Guys, no, the PRL influences only system acquisition while a handset is idle.  The PRL is out of the loop when a handset is on a traffic channel. Then, inter band handover is entirely network dependent.

 

AJ

So I take it that the OP's issue is Sprint's fault on the network side and they need to adjust and optimize their settings at the base station to have handover occur sooner so it doesn't have a "break before make" issue between 1900 and 800?  I presume that once more 800 CDMA sites are up this issue won't be as bad?

Quick question about the dual mode Alcatel RRUs (this might have been answered before), how many CDMA and LTE carriers is it capable of handling?  I am just trying to figure out how future proof these dual mode RRUs in terms of adding additional capacity.

How do the dual mode Alcatel RRUs fare against the other vendors in terms of number of CDMA and LTE carriers those dual  mode RRUs can support?

From the Google Play Store, it is T-Mobile Tower Spotter.

 

AJ

thanks for the link.  The app works great!!!

There is an Android app that lists the TMO towers.

What is the app called?

I hope the htc one max has a stylus like in the htc flyer with multiwindow support. If the phablet only has 16 gb of storage then they better add a microsd card slot for additional storage.

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Just got told that, as the Tri-Band S4 gets produced, it will start replacing the original S4 in inventory as it gets rolled out, and nobody will see a difference in packaging, etc. Somehow, this seems like a phenomenally bad idea. I also don't think it's true, as this was "water cooler" talk. Take it with a bucket of salt.

Its sounding like there is a possibility of a Sprint Galaxy S4 to support tri-band LTE?  I hope this is true but then again I don't know if Sprint has had any track record of releasing an updated version of a device.

Not to mention that Wimax has a 10 dBm weaker signal than LTE.  I am not sure if Wimax 2 would have improved on the overall signal strength than on LTE.  If you combine the fact that Wimax was deployed on 2.5 GHz and the Wimax weaker signal than LTE the coverage would still be spotty.

I know Sprint got into the LTE game later than they would have liked to but I know in the long run it is a better move than to stick with Wimax 2.

Figured since I read a post from Robert confirming this, I figured we should make a thread about it and compile all of the information we find.  Anyone think it'll have the Snapdragon 800 in it?  If there's really an S4 w/ Tri-band support, I'll definitely hold out for it.  

I highly doubt that Samsung would take the time to upgrade the processor from Snapdragon 600 to Snapdragon 800.  If there is a Galaxy S4 tri-band LTE model, it would pretty much be the same phone with upgraded internals.  Perhaps Samsung may give it a slightly different model number to distinguish the single band LTE model and tri band LTE model but I am not expecting big changes.

I am still curious though if Sprint will really put out an upgraded Galaxy S4.  I have already told my younger brother to wait until Fall to upgrade to the tri-band Galaxy S4 since he wants to upgrade his phone right now.  I don't want to disappoint him if it doesn't turn out to be true.  Hopefully this thread will provide any updates to news on a tri-band LTE Sprint Galaxy S4.