ericdabbs

I highly doubt that Sprint will get more than a 10x10 block of 600 MHz spectrum especially if there is not much 600 MHz available. Of course I would welcome a 15x15 contiguous block of 600 MHz spectrum. Tmobile will be real aggressive in the 600 MHz auction so I expect them to be a major player to compete with Sprint for the 30 MHz of reserve spectrum and I don't buy for a second that AT&T and Verizon will not participate or care that much about the 600 MHz block. I am not at all in favor of swapping low band spectrum for high band spectrum. What Sprint needs to do instead of trying to obtain more PCS spectrum is actually to do PCS spectrum swaps that align itself next to the G-block so it can have contiguous blocks of PCS spectrum. None of the other big 3 carriers have any interest in getting rid of all of their PCS spectrum so its useless to wish for that. I do like what Tmobile does periodically with Verizon and AT&T by doing AWS/PCS spectrum swaps to align itself to have contiguous blocks of spectrum.

Looks like I'll keep Sprint Global Roaming for now. Its such a shame that Sprint makes your choose between the 2 and Sprint Open World is not convincing enough for me to switch.

I hate to say it but I agree when critics make fun of Sprint for confusing the hell out of things. So I just want to understand a few things about this Sprint Open World thing. It sounds like from what I read that it is an additional add on that you need to enable onto your account. Also does this mean that unlimited free 2G data is gone in European/Asian countries if you have both add ons enabled? I just don't know why Sprint doesn't just make things simple with a single add-on. Can someone clarify the ins and outs of this program.

Is it possible that Sprint can start reorganizing frequencies where they can put CDMA/EVDO carriers on the G-block and leverage some on the main block (ex: Los Angeles has 30 MHz A-block). Perhaps they can do a 10x10 LTE carrier in the A-block and then use the remaining 10 MHz in the A-block and 10 MHz in the G-block for all the CDMA/EVDO carriers. I don't know how much disruption this will cause but I feel at some point Sprint has to make this transition in order to boost overall LTE speeds. But then again some of the older devices (especially older samsung devices that supported only the 5 MHz BWs). Its one of those things that the Sprint management is going to look back and regret why they made that decision at the time. First generation LTE phones....fine just have 5 MHz BW but starting the second generation LTE phones, they should have all been FCC tested for at least 10 MHz BW. That way any future Sprint plans can be more easily implemented without having to worry about shutting people out of LTE.

Downgraded by Oppenhemimer to Underperform. A 10% hit.

Hopefully they announce the 2x CA thing at the earnings call tomorrow so that they can put out an official press release. Also announcing a ton of new countries added to the International Value Roaming program will be much appreciated. They are way far behind Tmobile in this area. Hopefully the numbers won't be too bad in Q2.

My account was credited for the my Canada 3G usage...so Sprint did follow through with what they said.

Didn't Sprint begin in Feb 2015 to unlock devices once you have finished your 2 year contract or paid off your device?

I was connected for the most part to Rogers Wireless. I don't know how just by having the IVR add-on to your account that it can prevent a phone from searching for airwaves from Bell and Telus especially if they use the same frequencies. I find that hard to believe. Unless my phone had to download some sort of program to use IVR and run it which can be configured in some configuration file to look for specific carriers and frequencies for each country, I don't see that happening.

You are right. I misread that part.

No no I think you are confused, I was connected to Telus's 3G EVDO network which is not part of the IVR program. SignalCheck Pro confirmed it was EVDO and not HSPA. That is probably why I was dinged the charge. Basically the best way to avoid any chance of getting charged is to set your phone to GSM/UTMS phone mode and not on global so you don't bounce between potential networks that use CDMA and UTMS.

So you have to have the Sprint connection optimizer option enabled to use the free Boingo wifi? I usually have that option disabled.

I asked them where the charges came from. The sprint rep said it looks like you were connected to 3G at some point and that is where the charges came from. And then when he said that it hit me that at one point, I saw my phone display the "3G" icon vs. the "GSM" icon. I just assumed that even though it said "3G" that my speeds would be throttled to 2G speeds. So the Sprint rep put me on hold and about 5 minutes later, the sprint rep told me that they will credit my account for the amount charged. I should have known about it and just set my phone mode to GSM/UTMS and avoided the fiasco. Basically the Sprint rep told me that normally when people are going to travel internationally, they advise calling their phone number to give you the run down steps on how to prep your phone to use the International Value Roaming data plan to avoid connecting to non GSM networks.

Anyone try this out?

I wonder if the Nexus 5 (2015) will support 3x CA just like the Note 5.

I just think its silly that each US carrier has to have their own variant of the same exact model. I just think its overkill especially now that LTE phones can contain many LTE bands in the same phone. I am pretty sure that Verizon/Sprint/Tmobile/AT&T want their own variants to promote all their bloatware which is absolutely unnecessary. Would be nice to see all US carriers be able to support all the different LTE bands out there especially the superset ones.

I finally got to use the International Value Roaming add-on during a 1 night layover in Toronto, Canada. It was great, I just turned on my data and after enabling a few options on my G2 (Settings -> Roaming -> Allow international data and allow GSM data) I was able to connect to Rogers Wireless via 2G (GSM spinning circle icon). My mobile network setting on my phone was set to "Global" and it was great for the most part except at 1 point, I was connected to Telus network which uses CDMA and I was connected to 3G at point. Little did I know until later that by doing that I was connecting to 3G outside of the International Value Roaming program and when I checked my account it was dinged $36.36 and it was due to the phone connecting to Telus's 3G network. I called Sprint to ask them about that and they credited me the $36.36 on my account. So my warning is when you are using the 2G data outside of the country, please ensure the mobile network setting on your phone (Settings -> Mobile Networks -> GSM/UTMS) is set to GSM/UTMS to ensure you don't accidentally connect to CDMA/EVDO. I mean I should have known that going in regardless but for some reason I didn't think I would connect to a CDMA network. Overall I was very happy to be able to use my data outside of the US without penalty and hope they continue to expand their country list. In fact because of the IVR program, I was even able to call an Uber to take me to the supermarket to get my beloved Ketchup/All Dressed potato chips =). However Tmobile just always finds a way to 1-up the competition by allowing full 4G access in Canada and Mexico which really makes it attractive but 1 step at a time.

I was more leaning towards the data speeds. I could care less about the calling. I can't count the number of times when I was travelling internationally where i needed the phone calling more than the data.

Speaking of Canada, the new Tmobile "Mobile Without Borders" program looks to be really good. If Hopefully Sprint steps up and tries to does the same thing eventually. http://gizmodo.com/t-mobiles-us-phone-plan-is-expanding-to-canada-and-mexi-1716739953

Are you asking about calling or data? If its data, then Canada is not yet supported under the IVR plan. Hopefully by the Q2 earnings call Sprint will release a decent update of new IVR markets hopefully most first and second world countries so that it can be even useful for most folks.

Has anyone seen any 800 MHz RRUs being put up in the NV sites in the LA/OC county from the SB County restriction zone in anticipation of quick fire up once the rebanding is finished in August? I have been trying to keep an eye on NV sites that currently just have 1900 MHz RRUs but I haven't seen it yet. I hope Sprint is going to start deploying crews to put up the 800 MHz RRUs on the NV sites that are in the SB country restriction zone.

I am in the same boat as you man in terms of having the G2 currently and looking to upgrade. Since my 2 year upgrade isn't up until Oct, this will probably be my first time I am looking at buying a Nexus device this time. I am hoping it does stay true to the 5.2 inch screen and hopefully it comes with a USB type-C port.

When do you guys think Sprint will announce more markets? Hopefully by the Q2 earnings CC they will announce a lot more markets added. Too bad it will be after my vacation is over

Agreed. TBH the Nexus 5 battery should be above 3000 maH. I could care less about an extra 0.1 or 0.2 mm thicker to have a beefier battery. A 3300 maH battery would be nice.

I am hoping that the rumors are true about a Nexus 5 (2015) with a 5.2 in screen. It will be awesome if it can maintain the screen size as my LG G2. Hoping it will be packed with a USB Type-C port and quad HD screen. A fingerprint sensor would be nice to really get Android Pay up and running.