burnout8488

On 10/9/2017 at 9:42 AM, shaferz said:

Well... I pulled the trigger yesterday.  Walked into Target with my family and noticed an LTE Apple Watch on display.  Went to the glass cabinet where they keep the Apple products under lock and key, and there was a damn 42mm Apple Watch LTE in Space Grey IN STOCK.  

 

I had originally wanted the SS version, but they seem to be out of stock until November everywhere, so I decided to go ahead with the Aluminum version.  Got it all set up yesterday and have had no major issues.  The sign up with Sprint (to get it added to our account) was simple, and I first tested the ‘LTE’ of the Watch this morning.  It was both an odd feeling and liberating to leave the house without my phone.  Haha.

Nice find!!

Ended up returning my watch. The signal issue was a little ridiculous, it's just way too weak to be useful indoors. If I exercised more outside rather than in a gym, I could justify it.

30 minutes ago, Galaxyguy said:

I'm not an apple person, but is there a chance it's not latching onto B26? I could see how that could really limit your range. Otherwise, that's not good if its radio is that weak. 

It really seems like it - this whole experience is taking me back to the coverage when this area only had B25. It performs exactly as if B26 isn't working at all, but there's no way to know. Or, the radio is just poor.

I hope others are able to chime in with similar findings.

My day 1 impressions of the AW LTE is that it can't grab LTE very well. In my home with completely usable band 26 on my iPhone, the watch struggles to find a signal. If I go outside, it will manage to connect, but still doesn't have great signal strength. (Though it is usable)

I'm hoping a carrier/modem update fixes this soon, but if it's inherent with the antenna design, I'm going to have to return it. It doesn't get LTE at all at my gym where my phone *does*, and that's the whole reason I got the LTE model.

Is there an avenue where I can log this with Apple in the hopes for a fix?

21 minutes ago, anSarakhJackie said:

I installed the Call Plus on my Gal S8+  early last week and found within a few days that my battery just didn't last even a half day!  I've  been used to it lasting the full day with moderate use and almost two days with low use.

So, given that I had battery issues back with my Note 4 when I kept the WiFi on all the time, I turned off the WiFi portion of Call Plus and suddenly I've got more out of my battery.  Makes sense.  But still being frustrated by not having a full day of usage yesterday I've turned off that feature entirely.

I like the idea, but am unwilling to take the hit too my usage.  The calls were clear, but certainly not worth the hassle.

How long did you talk on the phone when you had CP turned on? 

Looks like it's going to be 3-months free initially per their press release. 

Macworld states:

"Sprint's data plan for Apple Watch Series 3 costs $15 a month, but customers who sign up for auto-pay will get a $5 discount, bringing it down to the same $10 as the other three carriers. And Sprint is also offering a three-month free trial with no activation fee."

Pretty crappy if you don't do AutoPay, so that's a must. Sprint intentionally pricing themselves higher than the competition seems like a bold move to me. 

13 hours ago, ZebraDude said:

well...sadly I came to the conclusion that the LTE Apple Watch is not for me. The Watch only has LTE data and no failover to CDMA (NO CDMA Radio) and I run into a lot of 3G areas still.....Verizon has the same issue BUT I bet their LTE coverage is much better...

Here's how I look at it: Is there LTE in the areas where you would plan to ONLY have your watch, and not have it tethered to your phone? 

I can find plenty of 3G around here, but if I have my phone with me anyways (not working out, or on a walk), the watch will still work. When I'm at the gym and don't have my phone on me, that's when LTE matters. (And the gym does have LTE) 

I would still get the LTE watch if you can, chances are those 3G areas will be upgraded and even if not, are they somewhere you don't plan on having your phone with you? 

42 minutes ago, jefbal99 said:

Are the specs out on the LTE connectivity for the Watch? Triband?

Yup. 25/26/41. No word on CA though 

1 hour ago, ZebraDude said:

I chatted with Sprint and they will not discuss pricing till Friday. I tried telling the rep that the LTE Watch 1st production run will be sold out within the first hour so it would be nice to know the pricing....crickets.......:( 

Really? Of course, Sprint has to be the odd man out. I guess at 3AM EST Friday we'll know for sure.

If they were coming out with an amazing deal, I'm sure they would have touted it by now in front of the competition. Probably going to be $10/mo.

In a few days we'll know if Sprint plans on using Calling Plus for LTE calling on the new Apple Watch Series 3. If not, it might be the first VoLTE device rolled out en masse on the network, since it lacks CDMA entirely. 

Just came back to Sprint.... First thing I did was install iOS11 and try the Wi-Fi to LTE handoff. :-) Seamless!

Hopefully there is a carrier update in a few months that allows Calling Plus, if not full on VoLTE. Sprint has been building out like crazy in Upstate NY the last few months and I think that's why. The time is up for GMO sites....

At the Whiteface Mtn. Summit right now, gf has Sprint LTE. I think that narrows down which site has it in this area.

We spotted some LTE between Binghamton and Oneonta on 88 yesterday, where the map says it's 3G. That's definitely gotten built out very recently.

Also, we got Sprint LTE on a hike in Lake Placid. Downtown Lake Placid is still 3G, but I think there is another site in the area that is broadcasting LTE. (There's probably only two Sprint sites up here in total, if I had to guess)

There is absolutely no reason to get anything less than an iPhone 6/iPhone SE right now. iPhone 4 through iPhone 5S are the point where the original batteries aren't going to be good for much longer.

Unfortunately not; I finished up the work there.

 

I am currently up in Binghamton NY this weekend and despite being under LTE, it seems that calls are dropping when changing bands(from 26 to 25). Very strange....apparently on my end I can still hear the person I'm talking to, but on their end my voice is digitally rastered and skips. 

Sounds about right for Binghamton... severely overloaded sites with little capacity. I wonder if it was a bandwidth limitation on B25.

I know this is an old post but just curious which tower you are talking about?  Hooper rd one? 

 

 

Thanks 

Yup! This tower was slated for B41 (They had permits and everything) however it never received it. B25/B26 only now.

My experience has only been with iPhone to iPhone, in my post above. Not sure how it applies to iPhone --> Android calling or vice versa. 

Who/what were you calling?

Also, I don't know why they say HD voice is disabled with Wi-Fi calling, because it sounds glorious when talking to another Sprint user that is on Wi-Fi calling.

Maybe they mean it doesn't work, because they assume you'll be calling Cellular sprint users? (In which case they're right, it won't be HD from wifi to cellular)

For iPhones:

HD Voice will work over cellular Sprint to cellular Sprint calls even if either device has Wi-Fi Calling enabled on their account. This was fixed last year. 

If one party is using Sprint Wi-Fi calling for the call, and one is cellular, it will not be HD. 

If both parties are using Sprint Wi-Fi calling for the call, it will be HD. 

Really all that's left is the ability to do HD voice on cellular to Wi-Fi calls (or vice versa).... and then cross-carrier compatibility. 

I have a J7 that I just flashed the build on. 

Did it come in the form of an OTA software update? 

No QoS - yet. This is just an early implementation for testing voice over LTE with a very small sample size. It's only on these two devices, I'd imagine by the time it hits the iPhone it will be full blown VoLTE with QoS. (Who knows, that could be a year off, or more.) 

Is anyone testing Calling Plus in the wild? The two devices currently compatible are the LG Stylo 3 and Samsung J7 Perx. The service supposedly went live on 5/31/17.

"Calling Plus" bullet points, gathered from Reddit:

• Voice is transmitted over LTE
• Voice is not prioritized at the network level like in a traditional VoLTE implementation (Saturated LTE will cause call quality degradation)
• Simultaneous voice and data
• VoLTE/VoWi-Fi smooth handoffs both ways
• No 1x fallback

Does anyone have the J7 Perx yet? "Calling Plus" (VoLTE Lite) is supposedly going live today and is supported on this device. 

The I-81 GMO corridor from Scranton to Binghamton seems to have LTE in a lot of places now. It used to be 3G-hell, and seems very usable now. Something has definitely happened in the last month or two. 

Try entering in the dialpad ##25327# then hit ##873283# which will reset network settings on the phone.

Thanks for the tip! I did the codes and that combo didn't work, but Settings -> General -> Reset Network Settings did work. Up and running!

I've used Wi-Fi calling ever since it came out, and have been using it on my iPhone 7 with no issue. A few days ago, it stopped saying "Sprint Wi-Fi" when my phone would connect to all Wi-Fi networks. My girlfriend's Sprint 7+ works fine with it in my house, but mine will never enable. 

I toggle Wi-Fi calling, it takes me to confirm my 911 address, I confirm, then it bounces me back to the toggle screen. I have Wi-Fi calling enabled on my account, but can't remove the "service" from My Sprint, nor can I remove it from the 911 address page. I've updated my PRL and rebooted the phone multiple times to no avail. Haven't tried a restore yet. I'm on 10.3.1. 

Are there any tricks to get it back?