coorsleftfield

If the Note 3 can be used as a world phone with sim cards?

 

Could you potentially use a tmobile month by month sim or boost mobile type pay as you go plan?

 

That is, could one use another service provider besides sprint with a sprint branded note 3 in the united states or would it only work with international sim cards?

I've has the same thought. I am committed to Sprint, but I'd love to have an AT&T prepaid SIM in the phone while waiting for their NV build in Phoenix to be completed.

I ended up buying a nexus 7 w/LTE and I carry both the tablet and my phone around currently.

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vote with your wallet and get the nexus 5 assuming it ends up acceptable.

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Thanks for the replies.

If Sprint's LTE in other towns that are working are nice, that gives me a little more patience to renew my contract here (since I could use a new phone) and wait for our towers to be turned on.

The wait continues to be painful, though, as all of you know.

It's not all roses. I've also been to the Bay area, Portland and Seattle. 4G seemed to work fine, but was not blazing fast, you can expect about 5MB from my experience.

However visit Austin and San Antonio and you'll be begging for your 3G service back. In the downtown areas LTE was completely unusable IMHO.  If your phone actually went into 4G mode, typically there would be no data actually working, or speeds worse as bad as 3G..  I've been told on this forum that the Texas markets are spectrum  constrained more than other parts of the country, and I can say that the Texas experience was worse than Portland or Seattle. 

Why not drive to one of the local towers in Phoenix and check the speeds  ? When I get LTE in Phoenix it seems to work ok, but I still don't see the speeds I do on AT&T or even Tmobile LTE. 

I'd get a cheap note 2 if the 3 isn't dual or try band. Doesn't seem like the 3 is much of an upgrade and the note 2 should be getting a large price cut soon.

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I recently received my Nexus 7 w/LTE. Current using the one month of free tmobile. Already stopped in an AT&T store to get a prepaid SIM. Are they not going to allow this tablet on their network?

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We you get to about 30-40% of towers broadcasting LTE, you will start seeing much more consistent coverage and speeds. When they are all complete, it will be fantastic.

If I sound skeptical it's because I recently traveled to Austin and San Antonio, both launched 4g markets and LTE coverage and speeds were not good at all and unusable many times. Usually the issue was in the downtown areas. So this was a bit of a let down as we wait here in Phoenix. I think a lot of it is due to the 1900 mhz LTE and I have faith that as 800 comes online these gaps in coverage will get filled in.

I have tmobile LTE on my tablet and see the same coverage issues on 1900. Grass isn't any greener on their network.

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Yup, nature of the beast. I guess another option would be for Sprint to block all LTE sites until each market has x amount of LTE coverage. I'll gladly take the method they are using now, though!

 

Edit: Also, I don't think the "if," in regards to whether we get blanket LTE coverage, is really necessary.

Is the end state goal that we never see the 3g symbol on our phones at some point or will there always be gaps?

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I'm seeing this problem as we have scattered LTE sites. My phone will lock on to weak 4g signals and have no data access. I assume this WI self correct when (if) we get to blanket LTE coverage. I own a condo that is right on the edge of a LTE tower and I have to disable LTE when I'm there.

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I'll be visiting Chicago soon, so I'm curious, being a launched LTE market with 98% of NV sites accepted, and  78% of LTE sites accepted how is life on Sprint's network now? Should I expect to pick up 4G in most places in the city?  I'm on a S3 so it's 1900mhz only.  How are the speeds?

Does turning on LTE 800 require another visit to the site or is it just a remote switch flip?

You would think AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile would have had to deal with all the same providers and they seemed to have no trouble rolling out Lte to the Phoenix area.

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That carrot has been waving in the face of Phoenix for years now.

It's been so long, it rotted a long time ago...

There is no way that Phoenix will be complete by next summer at the current pace of 4G activation. The math just isn't there. With around 80 towers showing NV complete, I don't understand why we are not seeing 2-3 new 4G sites a day.

I'm standing on the balcony of the 17th floor of the Hinton by the Riverwalk getting a very strong signal and the 4G speeds are pathetic..

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My GF is telling me she is getting LTE at ray and rural in chandler which would bet yet another new tower online.

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And this is better than its been. Unacceptable that LTE speeds are slower than other carriers 3G speeds.

Is SA LTE still slow or is it my phone. I visited SA and Austin this week and LTE speeds are mostly on par with the old 3G network, if I see 4G at all.

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I'm visiting Austin this week, staying downtown at the Radisson. My S3 is picking up 4G on and off but the speeds are very poor, slower than then old 3G frequently. What is going on? I thought Austin LTE was well built out at this point?

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I have Tasker set up to alert whenever the phone sees 4G

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I had the exact same thing happen at Kyrene and Ray. It's on sensorly.

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Someone should check around 51 and cactus as well. Looks like a tower might be up in that area.

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Looks like another LTE tower may be up in the Sun City area.

Looks like sensorly is starting to starting to map new LTE downtown. 

I want see 5 sites a day

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Sad that it's been over a week since the first LTE towers came online. I was hoping that the start of 4G coming online, but seems to have been a false start.

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They should backhaul over AT&T LTE

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