Stew503

I've been running Nova Launcher since Friday and I haven't had that happen.

 

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

Got the G4 today and like it. The leather back feels good in the hand and looks premium. The slight curve in the screen combined with the beveled corners fits in the hand well and disappears in the pocket better than expected for the size. My only complaints are the large bezels and that it wobbles when used laying on a desk or table.

U.S. cellular thinks they're big and bad like Verizon, so they are demanding Verizon roaming fees. Idiotic but that's how they work. Roaming probably accounts for a significant portion of their revenue.

 

 

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How can they get away with that? If they are part of the CCA, shouldn't they have to follow the same rules as the other members?

Why Robert? What is taking them so long? Camping season is coming up soon and I need that US Cellular coverage in central Oregon.

Can anyone confirm that US Cellular 3g roaming is native or not?

Are you saying that the G4 will not have band 12 LTE?

But seriously, it'd be nice if Sprint would give an update on this.

I couldn't agree more

A minimum amount of bands? Verizon's Upper 700 C band 13, overburdened in most markets; AT&T's Lower 700 band 17, overburdened in most markets, Sprint's Extended PCS band 25, overburdened in many markets, and T-Mobile's AWS band 4, starting to slow down in a number of markets.

 

Wow, that looks very counter intuitive to me.

 

Sprint has 3 LTE bands it's deploying on, AT&T, 4 or 5, Verizon, 4, and T-Mobile, 3, and working on a 4th with LAA.

 

For truly universal devices, there would have to be 10 or more LTE bands per device, for just the U.S. market, not counting international roaming.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

The new Intel XMM 7360 LTE modem is LTE category 10, supports five different transmission modes, and supports 29 LTE frequency bands. That is what I'm talking about.

A "pleasant experience" is an ambiguous term. It has variable meanings to different people at different times, present and future.

 

Also, the unlocked handset street tends to be one way -- away from Sprint. A Sprint handset may provide a "pleasant experience" for some on other operators. But another operator's handset generally provides a zero experience or notably compromised experience on Sprint.

 

AJ

That is why we as consumers need to back the FCCs efforts in mandating that all handsets be capable of supporting a set minimum amount of bands from each domestic carrier. It is then that we would finally have a "free market" in the wireless industry.

No, that last statement is not true.

 

The iPhone 6, for example, is not compatible with Lower 700 MHz band 12 nor WCS 2300 MHz band 30 -- both of which are included in the just recently disclosed AT&T variant Samsung Galaxy S6. And the Nexus 6 supports band 12 but not band 30. Additionally, both the iPhone 6 and the Nexus 6 lack BRS/EBS 2600 MHz band 41 carrier aggregation -- though they support carrier aggregation for other bands.

 

In the end, there are simply too many bands and too many carrier aggregation combinations in use -- and continually expanding -- for a single SKU to rule them all. Maybe that will happen someday, just do not expect it for several years. So, an unlocked handset may possess base capabilities for use on any domestic network, but it probably will not be truly a jack of all trades. It will be missing certain bands or carrier aggregation capabilities that are needed for an optimal network experience.

 

AJ

The iPhone 6 and Nexus 6 do leave out what you mentioned but they do however, support the current core technologies of all domestic carriers which allows you to take your phone to any domestic carrier and have a pleasant experience.

Well, the at least the good thing about the Sprint variant is that it is essentially fully compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile's networks (except a couple of minor things: the lack of UMTS1700 which I would no longer consider a concern and VoLTE which hopefully Sprint will some day enable in the S6 via a firmware update).

No band 17 on the Sprint variant. Not compatible with AT&T.

I'm massively dissapointed as well. Ive been a Samsung smartphone user since my first one, but this looks like it might be the end of the line for me.

I'm disappointed that they are still making carrier specific models, especially with the new unlocking policies. Why would anyone buy a six hundred dollar phone that can only be used on a certain carrier's LTE network. All manufacturers should be following the iPhone 6 and Nexus 6 and support all domestic LTE bands.

US Cellular had said they were going to sign an LTE roaming agreement with a large carrier by the end of last year. Is there any updates on this? I am crossing my fingers that it is with Sprint and that it happens before my central Oregon vacation over Memorial day weekend.

I stopped into the nearest sprint store to check the speed of the new band 41. Wow! Time to retire my S3. Or should I hold out for band 12 capable devices?

Have you used LTE Discovery or Signal Check to confirm you are on band 26?

How's the experience on band 26? Do you get LTE now where you would normally drop to 3g?

4550 NE Cornell Rd is the tower I was connected to.

Spark is finally live in Hillsboro.

4 billion profit in just last quarter alone. And that's even after they reported their first subscriber loss. T-Mobile went in debt by buying out contracts and still barely put a scratch on the VZ giant. http://m.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/04/24/verizon-loses-wireless-phone-customers-gains.html?page=all&r=full

I hope sprint buys them all!

People will start to take them even more seriously... Especially att/vzw..

Tmo and Sprint can't compete where Tmo doesn't have coverage... That would def make the big 2 start to look over their shoulders out in the boonies where they thought they had things on lock...look out for double the data- headed your way soon!!

I agree. I think that is the only way that Sprint or T-Mobile will be able to survive long term. They need comparable coverage to AT&T and Verizon or else it's only a matter of time before the big two decide to cut prices and put T-Mobile and Sprint out of business.

I'll echo what GoBigRed79 said and add this thread from the Howard Forums that seems to have covered quite a bit of the information already:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1843922-Sprint-US-Cellular-merger/page4

Thanks for the link cletus. Here is a post from that link that I liked so much I had to share.

 

 

 

[http://www]

 

NGeorge said:08-21-2014 01:07 AM

 

I'm firmly in the Sprint/USCC merger camp... it only makes perfect sense to me. Sprint IMMEDIATELY solves their rural issue in many, many important areas with a PRL change for 3G-- and the USCC LTE network is solidly built out on Band 5, which is a subset of Band 26--they had to do this for the iPhone.

 

Not only does it solve their rural issue in many areas, it SOLIDLY solves it -- USCC has built out in many areas that the Big 2 STILL haven't touched. They'd also inherit all the retail presence in the rural areas to support it -- and would have the national network to back it up, which is one of the BIG gripes about USCC subs: You leave the licensed market, you have 200 meg roaming caps and 1x data at that. They'd probably get most subs to upgrade to a new Sprint phone just based on that promise alone. 

 

Adding MFBI to it can't be any worse than when Sprint had to add eCSfB across their entire network, which actually went fairly quickly, considering. The bigger issue I think would be getting USCC's NSN equipment to play nice with Sprint's existing Samsung and ALU equipment where it overlaps (don't think USCC is in any Ericsson areas for Sprint)

 

As for all that 700a and a tiny bit of AWS -- I don't see any reason why they wouldn't immediately spin it off--probably mostly to T-Mobile--and make a few bucks of their investment back, or possible trade for some smaller chunks of PCS in more urban areas where they need it. They absolutely wouldn't need the 700 or AWS considering they already have unused SMR across the entire USCC footprint--in fact, a lot of USCC CLR is in the A Band, which could open up some interesting opportunities to offer higher speed LTE with low band spectrum in rural areas that otherwise would never see 2.5: SMR and the A Band are contiguous. Once the USCC subs have upgraded to new handsets, they can start clearing some of the CDMA out of CLR -- keeping their single channel of 1x at the low end of SMR and a couple of EV-DO and 1x channels at the top of the A Band gives a contiguous 30 mhz. slice between SMR and A (the total combined is around 37-40 mhz. depending on the area) -- which could either mean up to 15x15 or (more plausible since I don't think existing Sprint phones are wideband) a 5x5 in SMR and a 10x10 in the CLR (which they could then do in the B areas as well)...

 

So the biggest question is whether the Carlsons are ready to sell... Either they need to sell out to Sprint since I can't see their situation getting better or B. get REALLY CLOSE with Sprint in the CCA so that USCC can offer the illusion that they have a national network through "roam like home" and Sprint can do the same on USCC -- and with a proviso that Sprint gets first dibs if they do eventually sell so a repeat of Alltel doesn't happen and Sprint loses all this coverage again if someone else pulls the trigger first... 

 

N

In the Montana thread it was discussed how US Cellular would be the perfect acquisition for Sprint to pursue. I wanted to dedicate a thread to this topic in hopes that it will build up momentum and influence the execs at Softbank and Sprint to actually do it and do it quickly. It's been in the news that USCC has been losing subs quarter after quarter and if Sprint doesn't act soon one of the other three tier 1s will buyout USCC.

I saw them putting up antennas at the site near Murray on 26 West in Beaverton. Most towers in Hillsboro have been B41 updated also. Nothing turned on yet. I am thinking maybe the end of the summer spark will go live here.

No "Tisdale" is doing it for AT&T for sure in Nebraska. A roaming deal with USCC is the likely path at this point for Sprint and rural Nebraska.

US Cellular has better rural coverage in many parts of Oregon than Verizon does so a reciprocal roaming agreement with USCC would "stoke my fire." Even better idea, they should just buy USCC. That would make much more sense than a purchase of T-Mobile. I promise you that as soon as Sprint proved to have much better rural coverage than T-Mobile and Spark speeds in town, they could have all T-Mobile's subscribers voluntarily without having to buy them like they tried to do.

I just drove by the Sprint tower near Brookwood and Cornell in Hillsboro and spotted crews up on the tower. I stopped to ask questions. The Foreman let me take some photos of the 2.5ghz equipment. We can all get excited now, it's finally happening. Funny thing about it is I was driving to the AT&T store to check out my options when I spotted them on the tower.