JonnygATL

Question:  Will the benefits of the Nextel shutdown be immediately visible to the entire Sprint network (well, at least on the towers that are NV ready)?  I guess, to clarify, is this something that will immediately "light up" or will there be another visit to the tower necessary for some additional, physical infrastructure that isn't already present?  

Is it a magic flipping of a switch or is it a multi pronged process?  

Taking a page out of the fruit company's rule book? 

 

Watch this phone be the first 800LTE device and be a huge piece of garbage in the realworld RF dept.

OMG thanks for saying that (note sarcasm).  Ugh.  If so I would SO commit suicide.  But I have a gut feeling you may be correct.  I never thought I'd say this, but I hope I'm wrong!

I'm super stoked about this.  I think Sprint (well, their subcontractors) have really kicked it into high gear since the weather warmed up this spring.  I just wish the rest of the nation knew what we did - that most major metros DO have some accessible LTE in their areas, it's just that it has yet to be announced!  Speaking of, when do you think Sprint will make another major announcement?  Philly, DC, Miami, OKC, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Memphis, NOLA and NYC and San Fran I would think are all about where they need to be for an an "official" unveling.  Again, I know it means little to us but it does to the masses.  I would love for everyone to quit saying that Sprint's LTE coverage sucks.  It actually doesn't..it's just that not many people are aware of it.  And, soon enough, even places like Middlesboro and Lexington, KY will have decent LTE coverage.  Bring it!

GS4.  Same obvious reasons - removable battery, expandable storage.  These are just basic "musts" for me and for most people.  But, beyond that, I'm used to Samsung's Amoled screens and actually prefer the oversaturation of colors that I've grown accustomed to.  To me, the display on the HTC one (and on the iphone's "retina" display as well) shows muted, washed out colors that aren't terribly pleasing to the eye.  Again, I know it's only because I've grown accustomed to AMOLED's tendency toward color oversaturation but, hey, just my two cents.

Also I am very much against the vertical scrolling on the HTC One versus the lateral scrolling on, oh, every other phone on the market.  It simply feels unnatural and definitely counter-intuitive.  

One last thing: regarding the myriad Samsung "gimmicks"...yes, they are many but I choose to simply ignore them.  It's just too much and I don't have time to worry about it, to be 100% honest. 

Sprint and Dan Hesse also need to get the SEC involved on Crest. A hedge fund with 0 skeletons in their closet? I'd love to see that. Sprint melting Crest into a million pieces of molten rubbish would send a pretty clear message to the world.

 

At this point, I don't care if Sprint destroys Crest to the point where careers and lives go down the drain. Frankly, that's what Crest deserves.

Damn.  Tell us how you really feel.  LOL....but I actually agree with you 100%.

I received the same notification here in Santa Fe, NM via Sprint Zone.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Robert - is your gut feeling that this is truly the beginning of the start for both markets (Santa Fe and Lexington)?  They are both 3rd round if I recall correctly and about the same size (not that city size is relevant in deployment as previously demonstrated).  To be clear - was it a system wide notification or is it really the start of NV?

In the sponsor section of the site I have posted pictures of work going on in Lexington. Confirmed 1 site has Panels, RRUs, and Cabinets installed but not active.

 

Possible work on at least 2 more sites.

Good news indeed!

Yep. Been to Frankfort many times. Whenever I come home, though, I want to be sure and have Sprint LTE! I know VZW and ATT have had LTE in both Frankfort and Lexington for quite some time. One peculiarity: ever noticed that T-mo doesn't even have HSPA+ there? I never understood that unless it's a spectrum issue...

I ran sensorly on both phones from Auburndale, FL, to Atlanta, GA. I think the points or w/e it is was around 27-30k points. I stopped it once or twice when we were at a rest area and restarted it so everything would be collected. Service for Sprint sucked bad around Gainesville and the I10-I75 intersection area and Gainesville, FL area (3G, Wimax, and LTE). When my wife had LTE in Atlanta it was nice, but it went in and out a lot while driving. 4G Wimax was about the same. I'd actually be happy with Wimax speeds so long as they were constant. It's nice to live in an area like Atlanta to be able to get good coverage for the most part whether you are on LTE or Wimax.

 

 

I ran Sensorly on the way back home, but didn't do it the whole way; maybe 3/4.

Yes, it is very nice to have the choice between decent Wimax coverage and LTE here in Atlanta. LTE is finally essentially ubiquitous across the entire metropolitan area and Wimax is ok, despite its spotty/somewhat inconsistent nature. This is the only reason I'm still holding onto my wimax-enabled GS2. I'll cave in later this year and go full on LTE though.

I just can't wait until the great LTE coverage we currently have here in Atlanta extends across the entire Sprint 3G footprint. Here's looking at you, Lexington, KY (my hometown).

Mine is that high here in Atlanta.

You know, that's how she operates in real life. She is the hub of her friends network. Always talking on the phone, Facebook or texting with her friends, helping them with their problems and listening.

 

I was recently teasing her she was Tammy Faye when she was talking with my cousin (who is gay) and all of his buddies wanted to talk to her too. I don't think she appreciated being associated with Tammy Faye. I wonder why she hasn't talked to me lately. I'm sure there is no correlation.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

Epic.

I have no problems with anyone that is a part of the GLBT community. Its just I wasn't expecting someone to post about same sex love on s4gru. But anyway its just a build up of all the crazy post I see in the threads here at s4gru and when I saw that one I was like wtf.

Love is what makes the world go round. The post wasn't "about" some sort of agenda, just a cheeky remark that anyone else (heterosexual or otherwise) is allowed to make in passing. Look, it's 2013, no one's hiding anymore. It is what it is. Don't read anything to it other than people being themselves and not being bullied into the shadows anymore. That, I should think, is a good - nay, GREAT - thing. Happy Friday.

What? Not all of us are straight. Some of us are lookin' for nerdy love in all the wrong places..

Agreed.

Wtf......... the things you guys say on s4gru

Is there something wrong with any part of what "koiulpoi" said?? I'm searching for the problem but, alas, I simply can't find it. Care to elaborate?

The issue with WiMAX was not so much speed as it was coverage and battery life. In Atlanta, you have pretty good WiMAX site density, as do/did I in Kansas City. But how is your battery life? The problem is that WiMAX handsets all utilized multiple chipsets, and those chipsets were several generations prior to the ~28 nm process chipsets that we have now. Had WiMAX stayed relevant longer, we would have seen improvements in power management, just as we have with LTE handsets.

 

 

 

Keep in mind that Atlanta is a SouthernLINC market; thus, Sprint has to share rebanded SMR 800 MHz with SouthernLINC. For that reason, there may be no LTE 800 in Atlanta. Or, if there is, it will likely be 3 MHz FDD bandwidth, as compared to the 5 MHz FDD bandwidth available outside of the Southeast and IBEZ. So, LTE 800 could help with coverage in Atlanta, but it would not likely help with speed.

 

AJ

AJ

YES, the battery life is borderline awful. Thanks for the background info on that. However, i try to mitigate that issue as much as possible by using wifi at home (even though our wifi is fairly slow by wifi standards). But at work and out and about, I will periodically toggle to 4G.

Something I left out in my previous post, however, is that the 3G speeds here are now generally good enough for casual web surfing, streaming and the like (whereas they weren't before the start of NV). This is wonderful, indeed.

Regarding the 800 mhz spectrum issues you speak of..wow, I had no idea. I need to read up more on this so that I fully understand it. I blindly assumed that LTE on 800 was the magic bullet for the whole of the Sprint network, nationwide. I now see that I was in error. That is not the best news that I've heard but not the worst either. Either way, anything above 4 or 5 mbps is plenty enough for a smartphone, at least in my experience.

The information I learn from this site continues to surprise me on a near daily basis. Thanks again!

Given your circumstances, and the GS2 meeting your needs, I would hang out for a tri band phone. In fact, if something happens to your phone, I'd just pick up a replacement WiMax or LTE phone on the cheap on Ebay to tie you over until the tribands come out. You are in a good spot to hang out for triband. However, if you decide to take the plunge with the new One or GS4, you will likely still have a good experience for your whole contract.

 

Robert

Thanks, I appreciate the input. One last thing - do you think we'll see tri band phones before Christmas? My instinct is that that is precisely when we'll see them....mid to late fall. But what do you think?

Your perspective is all wrong. First, I can't help but contrast this to another prevalent comment I see...why does Sprint sell LTE devices if they do not have LTE in my area? If you make devices for a not yet built network, people complain. If you don't sell devices for an upcoming network, people complain.

 

The answer to your question is, Sprint is not ready to sell them. TD-LTE 2600 is a new band using TDD technology instead of FDD-LTE technology that Sprint is currently using. There is a lot of work that is being done to coordinate handoffs of these technology and getting the device ecosystem ready. While LTE 800 is FDD and not quite having those same challenges, Sprint only somewhat recently received authorization from the FCC to allow LTE in the 800 band. They just started testing that band in an FIT in Minnesota. These bands will be added to devices later this year, when Sprint and the OEM's are ready. It's just that simple.

 

It's not that it is so difficult for Sprint, as if they are inept. They are adding bands that are not mature and not currently supported by anyone really yet. Sprint is having to do all the heavy lifting with getting these two bands off the ground.

 

Also, I can't help but think of the original EVO LTE, Galaxy Nexus and GS3. People said the same thing. My phone is going to be outdated right away. Yet, here we are, they did not outdate and their upgrade cycle is already coming to an end. Sprint is not an exception to this. Up until recently, no Verizon devices supported LTE AWS, and still offers very few. T-Mobile still sells many device that do not support LTE at all. AT&T is the best when it comes to supporting multiple bands, but there were a lot of people mad who bought AT&T 4G flagship phones as LTE started being deployed.

 

What you are describing is not a problem with Sprint, but an issue with evolving wireless networks. And there is no end in sight. It is the nature of the business.

 

Robert

I have the GS2 which is actually a great phone in every way, even still. This is especially true now that it has officially received Jelly Bean. Up until receiving JB, I was itching to upgrade. Now, I'm actually cool. The only thing I am missing is LTE as this is clearly a Wimax phone. However, here in Atlanta as in some other wimax/LTE co-covered areas, the Wimax speeds are very good (at least where you can get it). I get great Wimax speeds at home and at work (even faster than what my coworkers get on LTE in the exact same spot, per the speedtest app). So, for me, the great urge to upgrade to LTE has been greatly diminished.

That said, would you recommend I wait to upgrade until this fall, once LTE 800 phones are likely to be sold? That way I'll be a little ahead of the curve and in no great pain for waiting. Or do you think there is a chance that LTE 800 phones will not be sold by then? Just curious as my contract is up in August and I am evaluating what's best for me (upgrading to HTC One or GS4 now with no 800 support, waiting til fall when I hope there will be 800 LTE phones being sold, or go to tmobile, at least temporarily and see how that goes).

Thanks for any input you may have in this regard.

I may have to look into getting a better router as well. Ours, apparently (after reading what some of you are saying) sucks! But, regarding having LTE at home...honestly that's where most Americans are likely to use it. I'm fairly certain when the carriers claim the # of people they cover, they're referring to where they live. That's important to most people, including myself, regardless of whether you happen to agree with it or not. Differences are what makes the world go round.

Now, do I use wifi? Sure, but it's really slow. So is the wifi at work. My 4G wimax connection in 4 times faster. Our wifi at home averages 2.75 mbps down on my phone and the same at work. My wimax averages 11-13 mbps down at work and at home. So, yeah, I skip wifi and use 4G during peak times when my roomies are home and wifi speeds are slow. Again, most people will find it important to have LTE at home. There's no rule saying we all have to agree.

I've been roaming at home a lot lately, so much that most of my minutes used this month were made while roaming. Sprint states you may not use a majority of minutes or risk being terminated.

 

What's next? Will I get a letter or just be disconnected? This is unfortunate.

In Los Angeles? You should be fine but there are micro (local) conditions that could limit RF propagation. Go to coverage.sprint.com and see if any coverage changes have happened recently. Expired roaming agreements or anything of that nature could also be at play. But if you appear to be covered - even after drilling down to street level on the site's coverage tool - then you should call sprint to see what can be arranged, up to and including an Airave or even contract cancellation.

Exactly. Yes, it's tragic but this has NOTHING to do with Sprint's network vision rollout..which is ALL this site is about. We don't need people acting as reporters. We have CNN and myriad other news outlets for that. STAY ON TOPIC!

Basically I think it's just spring fever; everyone's horny for spectrum. Lol

The folks at Dish need to get their lives together.

I can do pandora and google play music (cloud stored) but not my amazon cloud player. Different bit rate, I assume. But it works ok on wimax and i'm sure lte even morw reliably where it's actually live.

Here is the VZW style coverage tool map for the state of Colorado...

 

 

 

AJ

lol it's like the japanese flag..only far less spherical and with zero white space.

Its power and home at the same time.

Awesome! Right you are! Thanks!