dcmike

So you're saying an abusive user can still saturate the airlink even if their bandwidth is throttled at the router?

This is why things like abuse of unlimited data and unauthorized tethering are so harmful to the network. If one guy is sitting there chewing through all the bandwidth of a single sector/carrier, it harms the experience of others on that site.

It won't matter whether your phone is on as the change occurs on the network side of things.

To simplify it, your SIM card is your "key" to the LTE network. It contains a unique number known as an ICCID. Each time an LTE device wants to connect to the network, it transmits it's ICCID number. The network then checks to see if this number is associated with a subscriber, and if so the device is granted access. 

So when you make this change to your account online, you're simply telling Sprint, "hey, when you see this ICCID please allow it to connect and use whatever services bmattox79 subscribed to!"

Yes sir, except after waiting on hold for who knows how long, you may be asked to walk through several useless troubleshooting procedures first. Then you'll have the fun of reading and confirming a 20 digit number over the phone . That's why I suggested using sprint.com instead but by all means if you're more comfortable calling, then go that route.

If you do end up calling, politely but firmly insist all you need them to do is change the SIM card they have on file for your account. I've found the more details you provide them, the more confused they become. Well, tier 1 techs at least.

You can fix this yourself simply and easily. Just log in to sprint.com, open the drop down menu labelled "manage this device", and select "activate a new SIM card". Boom done.

Yeah I know. I just want to know if anyone knew when does sprint rolling out 800 in this area.

They have been, and it's definitely around. The reason you're not seeing it is because it's broadcasting on a special "testing" SID, 22429, which the official Sprint PRLs ignore. There is an 800MHz testing PRL available in the sponsors section that will allow you to connect to the SMR towers in DC metro.

My response to digiblur was intended as sarcasm, but now that we're on the topic..

There's all types of infrastructure lurking behind facades all around us. For example, these houses are actually electrical substations:

More details here

Sometimes this is what needs to be done in order to overcome vocal NIMBY-types or restrictive zoning laws. There's some other interesting examples, including a row house concealing train tracks.

And last but not least, bringing it around full circle are the houses specifically built just to conceal cell phone towers:

From WebUrbanist. My favorite from that page is the, umm, fake telephone pole.

If they are mounted to a building then it is no longer a tower right?

What if the "building" is nothing more than an elaborate disguise for the radios and equipment? Thus the building itself is in fact the tower, and it's contents and use as a building are merely incidental to the primary purpose: something to bolt the panels to! 

"Nature Calls" by photographer Emily Shur. Via The Atlantic. 

I had this same exact problem when I was on VZW with an HTC Thunderbolt. On LTE (with good signal and speed) anything Google related and bit.ly links would work at a snails pace. 

So interesting you mention bit.ly links. I've been experiencing this same issue with t.co links (Twitter forces all links through this domain for analytics). When on LTE I am unable to open any links from within the Twitter app. Nothing else is slow at all except for t.co - if I copy/paste the full address and open it in a browser, it's fine. 

Union crews can only complete as much work as they have manpower.

Am I misunderstanding something? Isn't the ability to perform manual labor always limited by manpower availability, regardless of union affiliation?

 When in a place with LTE, iphones are fine, but when it goes to 3G, i get a lot of "o" and moving back and forth. 

When you see that, your phone is scanning for an LTE signal. If you're not in an LTE area and this bothers you, you can turn off LTE in settings and that will go away.

Couldn't resist.

I hope this years iPhone will be Triband LTE but I doubt it

Agreed. Triband compatibility will likely be reserved as a selling point for a future model (this is my opinion based on historical Apple marketing strategy).

Thanks, cool spreadsheet!

I see the 51xxx series PRLs are intended for any device not utilizing simultaneous LTE and voice. Is the iPhone the only hardware on the network that falls in to this category?

Agreed, there's certainly no shortage of skilled labor in this region. Getting anything done in DC is a bureaucratic nightmare - even if you're a contractor hired by the District itself. One would think the efficiencies of a combined city-county-state government would make things easier but there's actually a long list of federal agencies to deal with.

Great question! I did a little poking around and unfortunately there's very little information regarding Sprint's wireless network and IPv6. Their Tier 1 network is of course fully compliant by now but that's the only concrete info I could find. I did come across a press release dated 2007 indicating that Sprint has been working on IPv6 since 1997   and a PowerPoint talking about Sprint beginning deployment on their wireless network in 2013. I also found a few random forum discussions that seem to agree there's no intent to upgrade the legacy network to IPv6 but the LTE network of course will be.

The mandatory rule you're thinking of might be the one required by the ITU for "true 4G" but there's no such requirement for LTE alone that I'm aware of.

Sprint no longer has any "2G," has not for many years.

 

AJ

VZW is no different. No "2G." It was all upgraded to at least CDMA1X years ago.

 

AJ

I realize this is a pet peeve of yours and of course you're correct, but because of carrier branding and years of (ab)use of the terminology, most users generally accept 1x as "2G".

If you'd like to be technically correct on all fronts, then the entire name of this website is wrong and should be changed to s3gru.com. Neither LTE nor Wimax as deployed by Sprint meet the throughput or IP telephony standards of 4G set forth by the ITU.

http://wirelessman.org/liaison/docs/L80216-08_008.pdf

I've heard good things about Wilson Electronics' stuff, but haven't used any personally. Just remember that there must be some signal to begin with for any booster to work.

http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/store/index/category/37/mobile-solutions

Also it doesn't look like they've tested or verified compatibility with LTE yet.

That's actually incorrect, the number you reference is the LTE site acceptance rate which is really influenced by backhaul getting to the site than anything else. The NV completion rate is much higher. If you want to blame somebody I think it'd be whoever does a majority of the backhaul around here (Verizon? COX? Comcast?). 

The post that both you and I were responding to was specifically in reference LTE, not NV; hence the 22% figure. Additionally, I don't need to blame anyone: I think we're all just blowing off a little steam and having some conversation. Not having the backhaul is actually a big deal. Installing a new EVDO airlink while leaving it connected to the same old congested T1 does nothing to enhance the customer experience in most cases.

Another thing that's a bit misleading about the 1st round second round comparison is that second round markets tend to be (and for good reason) smaller metro's  than the first rounders. Given a constant as far as available crews in a given geographic area, and cell density somewhat relative to population density you are probably going to see the smaller second round markets catch up to or overtake the larger first round markets as time progresses not because "Sprint has abandoned us" but because of fairly simple logistical reasons.

Market size is not a constant, and not even really relevant to this conversation. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that Sprint knew the size of the markets when they began planning deployment schedules and fired up the PR machine. Sprint has fallen behind their projected schedule, it's ok, we've all accepted it. Also, please don't place the phrase "Sprint has abandoned us" in quotes when replying to me. I never used it so please don't attribute it to me.

I think it's a bit silly to call it a forgotten market, simply not true. Even in rural parts of the market where I used to have awful data service I am seeing dramatic increases in those speeds and the reliability of the data connection. And occasionally some LTE.

Again, I never called it a forgotten market. Please re-read what I said. It's great news that you and other customers in rural areas are seeing improvement, and I'm happy for you. However I (and the majority of Sprint customers in the DC market) live, work, and play in the city. There hasn't been a whole lot of activity in some of the most densely populated areas of DC, and that's worth mentioning.

It's frustrating to lose the ability to use one's phone the minute one walks in to a building, while friends and co-workers with VZW and ATT experience no such issues with their service. I made the decision to switch to Sprint based on promises from their corporate sales staff, and information presented here on S4GRU, that led me to believe improvements were just around the corner. Nearly a year in to my contract, these improvements have failed to materialize. Ultimately it was my decision to sign up with Sprint and I'm ok with it. But it's human nature to want to find others to commiserate with, and I think it makes us all feel a little better knowing we're not the only ones holding our breath for NV/LTE completion. 

Some of the metro stations even has great 3g with pings below 100 and fast down load speeds.  

I'm fairly certain this has absolutely nothing to do with Network Vision and everything to do with WMATA's contract with PowerWave Technologies to deploy system-wide cellular coverage underground.

It's still good news though!

as the market approaches completion things will slow down of course

I wouldn't exactly call 22% site acceptance "approaching completion". It's frustrating that many (more than half) second-round markets have a higher completion rate. I agree, it's far from dead - but does sort of feel like we're the forgotten first-round market.

I sent payment on the 12th but haven't received any response.

Do you have a Mac? Did you install the just-released 10.8.4 ML update? There were some changes made to the OS X client. Sign out of iMessage on all your devices and then sign back in.

It's funny how quick people are to blame "the jailbreak". If evasi0n caused an issue with iMessage there would be a huge backlash and it would be all over the tech news sites. If anything, your device may be experiencing a problem with a buggy app or tweak you installed - but it almost certainly has nothing to do with the jailbreak itself.

Is there a way to update the I5 PRL to search for 800 over 1900? I understand it is set up right now to prefer 1900. Just wondering.

But but but I can change the PRLs on my iphone easily

If your phone is jailbroken, then yes you can change PRLs. It's not easy but it's not particularly difficult either. See this post earlier in the thread.

digiblur maintains links to all current PRLs offsite here.