ericdabbs

2000 maH battery = WIN!!!

I think new customers will really pick up in October for 2 reasons. 1) The iPhone 5 with LTE is released. With unlimited data and pretty decent speeds = WIN. 2) The majority of the first round markets should be deployed by then and second round markets should be starting.

Microsoft is trying to encourage users out there to try out Windows Phone to try to gain market share by holding a contest to see if your current smartphone (android, ios, blackberry, etc) is able to beat Windows Phone in a series of contests such as checking the weather, posting pics on facebook, check movie times, etc. If you beat Windows Phone you can get a laptop for free but if you lose you can get a brand new Windows Phone free (no contract required) in exchange for recycling your losing smartphone. This contest is open to all smartphones including old smartphones and is only available at Microsoft Stores only. I did the Windows Phone challenge last saturday at the Microsoft Store in Costa Mesa, CA using my HTC Touch Pro using Windows Mobile and was able to get the HTC Titan for free. The contest ends on Apr 5th so there are still 2 days left. Details of the Windows Phone Challenge http://content.microsoftstore.com/store/smokedbywindowsphone/rules2

Looks like the Sprint Galaxy Nexus training material is coming out today for Sprint employees. Also if you look at the "Update" section in the article below it looks like it confirms Robert's article about LTE turned off by default. Nice to hear the internal docs are coming to fruition. Update: We've since stumbled upon a full slide deck of the training guide, and while there's nothing too surprising here, we are seeing that early units will ship with LTE turned off by default, though the company will change that at an undetermined time in the future. Call us crazy, but it sounds like Sprint may start hawking these prior to its LTE network being fully active. http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/03/sprint-galaxy-nexus-lg-fury-lte-leak/

Personally I think Google is not doing a good job in working with the manufacturers in providing the next version of Android sooner. I know manufacturers share the blame in this but I think Google deserves some blame as well. So far their Handset Alliance group that they announced last year at Google I/O has done nothing to provide speedier updates. IMO, I think that Google should be providing the manufacturers a beta build 2-3 months before the official release of that Android version so that they can start developing driver, add their UI layer skins and the carriers can put their bloatware on top of it and start doing some preliminary testing. Then once the official Android version is out, the manufacturers would simply do a sync up of the latest Android baseline and do regression testing to see what broke and fix those items. If this were to happen, I could see manufacturers start providing the latest software updates for the phones within 3 months of the source code release. The way I think of it is if custom rom groups like CyanogenMod can take the ICS source code and produce a pretty stable ICS rom in less than 3 months and this is without knowing the source code of the chipsets, think about how much faster the manufacturers could pump out ROMS with their expertise.

Agreed. I don't think that Sprint should be making 3G only devices anymore. Keep in mind though that this phone has been previously cleared through the FCC back in Oct 2011 when Windows Phone did NOT have LTE capability and is now going through reapproval from the FCC. Why they need to go through the FCC again I have no idea especially if the plan was not to add LTE in it. I believe the Nokia Lumia 900 which is coming out is the first Windows Phone to have LTE capability in it. I am sure it will be marketed as a low end device just like the LG Viper but I am sure people will still buy it since it probably would be an upgrade over the Arrive.

Well when you mean coming out, I don't think its any time soon. I am thinking Jelly Bean won't come until Q4 2012 probably Oct or Nov. Reason being is that one of Jelly Bean's key features will be Android Assistant which will rival Siri which is coming out on Q4 2012. Plus we know that Google likes to take their sweet time on these things.

Yeah but I believe that the LG Viper will get the ICS update later on this year hopefully before Jelly Bean comes out.

It looks like we may have 2 Windows Phones coming out this year by Sprint. One of them has been confirmed by Robert and the team. This other one was yesterday's news but apparently it hit the FCC again yesterday. This phone the LG LS831 (not the official model name but its codename) apparently hit the FCC in Oct 2011 previously but now is being retested by the FCC for whatever reason. This phone doesn't appear to have LTE capability but it does have 800 MHz CDMA support. What do you guys think? Are you guys excited to see Sprint bring more interest to Windows Phone and to attract those customers? I for one are happy about this for those Windows Phone fans and even though I don't own a Windows Phone, I am glad that they are trying to catch up to AT&T in providing more Windows Phone options besides just the HTC Arrive. http://www.engadget..../#disqus_thread

If they created a Windows Phone subforum, would you guys be interested in it? Maybe turn the Nokia subforum into a Windows Phone subforum since Nokia only makes Windows Phones anyways.

When you are talking about "they" are you referring to Verizon and AT&T? Because if you are talking about Sprint then I would say ..Yes they are making efficient use of their limited spectrum that they have. Most people on this site know how Sprint is showing that they are making the most of its spectrum through the 800 Mhz refarming plan. In terms of Verizon and AT&T, I would say "No" they are not making the most efficient use of the spectrum since that they haven't even tried such things as "Wifi offloading" on their network as well as deploying "small cells". Also Verizon is not looking to refarm any of its current 850 or 1900 Mhz spectrum first before resorting to buying more spectrum on the market. I would say the same for AT&T. They have a crap load of 850 Mhz and 1900 Mhz spectrum that could be refarmed before trying to starve the competition. Tmobile is even doing a better job of making use of their spectrum by refarming HSPA+ to 1900 Mhz by kicking out 2G EDGE folks and of course repurposing the AWS spectrum for LTE.

4rings..when was this LG LS-831 phone FCC approved? I hope this is not the phone that will be launched this fall. I want that Windows Phone in the fall to have LTE service as well as the Windows Phone Apollo OS preinstalled. Edit: It looks like this was approved back in Oct 2011. Seems like such a long time to be released after being approved about 6 months ago. Hopefully it gets launched soon.

Josh...I think the problem is that physical keyboards on large smartphones adds thickness which is a no-no in terms of smartphone trends. All the manufacturers are striving for thinner and bigger screen smartphones especially to compete with the iPhone. While I agree with you that there are still individuals including yourself that would like to see a smartphone that has all the features of a high-end smartphone but with a physical keyboard, the market demand just isn't as high as it was once before. I used to be like you in that I loved the physical keyboard on the smartphone because to me it was easier to type text messages, websites or anything that requires word entry but the more I used the onscreen keyboard, the more I got used to it and probably would not get a physical keyboard anymore. Not to mention that the physical keyboard smartphones are thick as heck.

Hopefully more markets get bumped up. There are plenty of markets that need to be accelerated to catch up to AT&T.

Hopefully that is true that it sticks with the 15th and that will definitely validate the nice info Robert has received.

According to TheVerge, it looks like there is a flyer that has the release dates for the LG Viper and the Galaxy Nexus. The LG Viper is still staying put for Apr 15 but now the Galaxy Nexus is pushed back one week to Apr 22. I guess maybe Sprint thought they wanted to give the LG Viper at least a week head start to gain some sales. I don't think its going to make much of a difference given the popularity of the Galaxy Nexus. http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/1/2918755/sprint-galaxy-nexus-lte-release-date

Keep in mind that it was Pioneer that decided to end the roaming agreements with Sprint and jump in bed with Verizon. I am positive it was not intentional. Lets face it, Verizon is more attractive to Pioneer especially if Verizon approached them with guaranteeing LTE through its Rural America Program. Unfortunately that area is covered by Pioneer so its not much Sprint can do other than to do roaming agreements in that area. In terms of whether Sprint cares about OKC for NV, I feel that OKC/Tulsa will be a 3rd round market and not fall into the 4th round. Don't feel sad as some of the other bigger cities like Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Denver, Pittsburgh, etc will probably be in the 3rd round market as well.

Thanks for the link. I am really digging this site. Now the more I look at the website and where the AWS spectrum licenses lies for both Leap and MetroPCS, I am starting to change my mind and now realize why Sprint went after MetroPCS. Previously I thought that Sprint should go after Leap since I though they would have better spectrum assets due to just looking at AJ's chart comparing MetroPCS and Leap spectrum where it seemed as though Leap covered more markets. Now with the website, I realized that MetroPCS has more AWS spectrum than Leap (20 Mhz for MetroPCS vs. 10 Mhz for Leap) in many of the bigger cities. What MetroPCS needs to do now is to obtain AWS spectrum for the central to east coast markets hopefully in a VZW AWS divestitures for the cable company deal or through bidding on SpectrumCo's AWS spectrum should the VZW cable company deal fall through to have nationwide AWS spectrum assets. This way MetroPCS can be a stronger player in the wireless market. Maybe at some point when Sprint's balance sheet is better that they could revisit a buyout of MetroPCS.

I think that it would be a good idea to partner up with the RCA folks for a LTE network sharing agreement. This way Sprint could get more revenue from the LTE network sharing and hopefully gain some more access to PCS spectrum from the regional carriers. Looking from the outside, my biggest concern is that though this is a great idea, a 5x5 LTE carrier is not enough to support Sprint's own postpaid customers let alone allowing more regional carriers to come in. If Sprint can manage to gather enough spectrum to have at least a 10x10 or even better a 15x15 LTE carrier then I think Sprint should go for it.

Finally Arizonians can breathe a sigh of relief. It never made sense to me why Phoenix was so low on the totem pole. To be honest, I would have expected Phoenix to be in the early to mid 2nd round announcements. Hopefully as time goes along we can see more markets being accelerated and looking forward to Sunday's chat.

As long as a deal is fair for both Sprint and Dish I would be happy with it. Sprint needs money and if there is any way that can help offset costs from Network Vision. Also any spectrum that is not in the hands of Verizon and AT&T is a victory in itself. I am sure AT&T has rubbed Ergen the wrong way already by crying to the FCC about the way they plan to deploy LTE. That is not to say that Ergen can't be bought though but I am sure it is not his first choice.

If Sprint and Dish Network were to partner up for network hosting it would be nice since the PCS band and the MSS bands are right next to each other. If Sprint were to obtain the PCS "H" block nationwide and make a deal with Dish it would be good for both parties since Sprint needs the money and Dish needs a LTE network. It would be like one large contiguous piece of spectrum.

I wish I had a map to see where all the CDMA and iDEN towers are in Louisiana because I would like to see what you are talking about. It does suck that in Louisiana that the towers are not located in optimal locations. I am not sure if complaining to Sprint will do anything but I guess it doesn't hurt.

I agree with you in that Sprint should keep some iDEN sites that are located much better than CDMA sites to provide better coverage throughout the area and convert those to Network Vision. However I don't agree with keeping all 68,000 towers and converting those to Network Vision because there is too much redundancy and keeps the operating costs too high. Sprint needs to cut down dramatically on operating costs that are causing a huge cash drain. Most of the areas where there is a CDMA tower there is an iDEN tower nearby so there is no need for that and probably would cause too much interference. I wish Sprint would keep at least 40,000-42,000 towers instead of just a little over 38,000 towers.

Sounds like its an isolated incident. I am not surprised if folks that live in certain areas for Network Vision are experiencing some slight problems. I believe he was having problems with an airave version 1 and it was a known issue it has problems with the Photon. The airave version 2 seems to have fixed the problem. I wouldn't worry about too much. If there was a massive outage, I am sure it would have made the news.