ericdabbs

I wasn't expecting that test to be a representative of the Sprint or Tmobile network nationwide. I was just curious how it currently stands as of today in terms of voice and data on Tmobile. All 4 of the carriers have not completed their LTE upgrades so it doesn't matter. Its not like any of the 4 major carriers were making claims that they have completely finished 100% of their LTE overlay nationwide.

Just would like to see how the 4 national carriers fare between each other. Also would have been informative to see which areas and how often Tmobile jumped between EDGE, 4G and LTE. Sidenote: Bro are you still using the Photon 4G??? Dude you should upgrade already unless you are waiting for a specific phone.

I can't wait to see Boost and Virgin prepaid brands merge. There is no point to have two separate prepaid brands at this point. Too much overhead and the funds can better be used for supporting Network Vision project.

Completely agree with all your points. Don't know how proactive Sprint is thus far but it sure is lacking in several key markets and they need to step it up to prevent this bleeding before it becomes a hemorrhage.

I think until Sprint steps it up in the LTE acceptance department in all markets. LTE network coverage and slow data speeds are why people are leaving Sprint. I don't hear people that live in the urban areas complaining about the lack of voice coverage but its all about data speeds.

I actually wanted to see how Magenta held up during this road trip. I want to how it fares with the other big 3.

I would much rather go with the LG G Flex than the HTC One Max. Since screen size will be the same the size of the phone for the G Flex will be shorter, less wide and thinner, bigger battery and better processor than the One Max. The main "knock on" (no pun intended..haha) the G Flex is the screen resolution is only 720p which is still pretty good but the expectation was that it would be 1080p.

Agreed. I hope the LG G Flex does well in the US. Maybe if LG can be start to become a threat then maybe Samsung will try to innovate again.

According to this site, it is still ZVA. I would hope that they are not testing any more builds if it is rumored to be released on the 24th which is only 3 days away. http://device.sprintpcs.com/LG/LS980-SPRINT/latest

I would be so happy when people start reporting OTA messages on their phones on the rumored 24th date. I hope that still remains true.

In a perfect world they probably could but the problem right now I would imagine is equipment and manpower. Unless Sprint has the same NV crews who do all parts of the NV equipment installation for 800/1900/2500 MHz (which currently doesn't happen...Sprint has different crews for all aspects of installation. Ex: cabinet installers, LTE integration crews, antenna panel/RRU installers, electrical power crews, backhaul crews,etc), I don't see this happening. Sprint's goal right now is to ensure all 39K Sprint sites are upgraded with NV equipment first. Once a site is finished these crews should be moving to upgrading the rest of the sites still in that market that have not been touched with NV OR upgrading those sites that have just 3G only accepted to 4G. There are still way too many red dots on the NV Complete maps that still need LTE 1900 upgraded which tells me that a lot of upgraded NV equipment sites still need backhaul and couldn't support 2.5 GHz LTE anyways. At some point, Sprint needs to complete their 1900 MHz rollout 100% before trying to install new bands. Critics of Sprint already claim that Sprint is all over the place and can't focus on a single task. There are plenty of Sprint customers all over the US that have still not had a lick of LTE in sight so I would say that 2.5 GHz is not as high of a priority currently than LTE 1900 deployment. The Clearwire 2.5 GHz LTE sites should be able to hold over many of the major markets in the mean time until Sprint can get to it. The scope of the NV project is too big and keeps getting larger and larger as we add more puzzle pieces into the mix especially post Softbank. I know we all have a tendency to want Sprint to do 10 things at once but that is just not reality.

Hopefully we will get some more information on Sprint tower 2.5 GHz at the Q4 CC. In terms of the Q2 2014 start, I wouldn't be surprised if its delayed. They still haven't finished upgrading all the Clearwire sites which to me should be #1 priority since the 2.5 GHz infrastructure is already in place.

I don't think small cell deployment will occur until 2015. With the Clearwire purchase their macro cell deployment plans went exponentially up. Sprint needs to get on the ball and start deploying 2.5 GHz on every single Sprint tower as soon as 800 MHz LTE NV 1.0 is wrapping up.

Ok thanks.

So is the PCS H block auction still scheduled for Jan 22?

NO. Sprint needs to keep all of their existing EVDO carriers in tact. All DO-Advanced does is make EVDO more efficient in terms of load balancing, single multi link, etc. There is no such thing as EVDO Rev A. Advanced.

Yes on the part of NV 1.0 since DO Advanced is part of installing NV gear. No on Verizon adding DO Advanced to their 3g network. Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

I think the customer losses are going to be worse in Q1 2014. With Tmobile's ETF promotion I get a sense from reading forums and tech blogs that a lot of these defectors will be Sprint customers.

Nope because I have confidence that Sprint can fix the RF issues on the G2. They use the same chip anyways. Even if the G Flex has a better signal by 2-5 dBm, it is not enough to sway me.

You do know that all the crazy amount of 800 CDMA acceptances yesterday were just backlogs from a long time ago that Robert finally caught up to. It didnt all occur in the last one or two days. Sent from my LG G2 LS980 using Tapatalk

Nope no plans to bail on the G2. While the G Flex does have a nice 3500 maH beefy battery and the self healing back, I have been pretty happy with the G2 so far. What i don't like is the 720P display, the possible grip of the phone (wide and long) and now that you mention the lack of OIS sucks. To address your concerns you can enable multiwindow on the G2 by flashing a mulitiwindow mod via TWRP from XDA here. The mod was extracted from a LG G Flex korean version system dump back around Thanksigiving: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2544206 In fact I posted a picture in this thread that shows off my phone with the multiwindow function enabled by flashing that mod from XDA: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4886-lg-g2-users-thread/?p=245845 Also the USB 2.0 vs. 3.0 thing is not that big of a deal to me. Like 98% of the time I charge via AC adapter and it shouldn't really make a difference in charging times over AC power. The only benefit of USB 3.0 is the charging via USB is quicker and faster transfer rates. The LG G2 charges pretty quickly from 1% to 100% in about 1.5 hrs.

I was assuming if you are within your first 14 days of signing a new contract you should try to exchange and ask for a new one. I agree that if you are outside of that 14 day window and are just reporting a warranty issue then a refurbished device is fine and by no means does a "new" vs. "refurbished" equate to less issues with a "new" device.

Post echoing? What does that mean? do you have the XDA link?

Is it only if you claim insurance that they send you a refurb phone? So I guess if you are just exchanging it within your first 14 days then they are suppose to give you a new one.

*Runs away in shame*