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milan03

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Posts posted by milan03

    Sprint or Tmobile?

    in General Topics

    Posted

    I don't disagree with anything you're saying, but I guess maybe what some might take issue with is the wordplay. They're basically saying that they're not going to put you in a contract with an ETF like their three "evil" bigger brothers. BUT, if you decide to cancel after say 4 months, cough up $400 promptly please but we aren't calling it an "ETF". Now, it's nice that they give you some flexibility in how much you put down and/or how much you pay towards it each month. However, until the phone is paid for, there is a ETF component there, but they just aren't calling it an ETF.

    It's not ETF because you can actually turn in your phone after 4 months, and they'll give you fair market value for it that'll go towards the remaining balance. Now if you wanna keep the phone, that's a different story.

    Sprint or Tmobile?

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Wahington got super pissed at T-Mobile for claiming that their plans were no contract. In fact, when you cancel your service there is no ETF, but you have to pay off the remaining price of your phone, which is very similar to an ETF, or in some cases, will be more than the ETF of carriers that offer contracts.

    Not sure what's there to be pissed at. If you're financing a phone at 0%, with minimum monthly of $20, you shouldn't expect that you're gonna be getting something for free. Pay more than $20 and your phone will be paid off sooner. Or if you don't like the service, cancel within 14days and return that phone.

    Gotta pay for that phone man! :)

    Sprint or Tmobile?

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Keep your Sprint line, get a $30 prepaid plan and test T-Mobile along with Sprint. Test and compare both, and decide yourself.

    I'm already seeing Sprint LTE all over Manhattan though, not just Bronx/Harlem/Uptown.

    • Like 2

    T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

    in General Topics

    Posted

    DC-HSPA+ also requires twice the spectrum bandwidth of 5 MHz FDD LTE. T-Mobile is using spectrum profligately, just throwing everything and the kitchen sink out there and seeing what sticks.

     

    AJ

    Absolutely agreed. And especially in markets with 30Mhz of AWS and HSPA+21 already deployed in PCS, having 20Mhz dedicated to HSPA+42 and only 10Mhz to LTE, makes little sense to me. You can have about the same capacity with two HSPA+21 channels in two different bands.

    Not to mention that the download throughput in a 5Mhz FDD layer is on par with HSPA+42.

    T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Its easy to think you are the fastest when the Tmobile LTE network is not loaded. Those speeds are impressive but Sprint had similar LTE speeds when the first 4 markets were released.

    As I said, I've seen better speeds out there, T-Mobile's are certainly not that impressive, but I've never seen a better latency on any US carrier. I think that latency is remarkable, most likely due to improved core and antenna integrated radios.

    T-Mobile LTE speed test on Note II, iPhone HTC One

    in General Topics

    Posted

    Technobuffalo had 3 articles testing different phones on T-Mobiles LTE network.

     

    Here is a summary of the speed differences:

     

    iPhone - Download: 32.32Mbps Upload: 13.57Mbps

    Note II - Download: 57.99Mbps Upload: 20.16Mbps

    HTC ONE - Download: 27Mbps Upload: 11.52MBps

     

     

    Why is a big difference between the HTC ONE and the Note II.?

    I don't know how many test were run, and if these are averages, but it doesn't look good for HTC to be the slowest.

     

    It's really odd and I have no explanation but my guess is that, again T-Mobile had set up 2x10Mhz LTE in a controlled, indoor environment, and maybe that Note II was closer to the base station? Other than that, all three phones were tested in the same location in NYC which is BTW T-Mobile's 2x5Mhz market... And iPhone 5 btw is known for having pretty solid RF characteristics, so I'm puzzled.

     

    Also, I'm kinda getting tired of all the tech writers that are getting paid to cover these events, and none of them ask these questions, or at least fire up FieldTest mode... I'm really fed up with the amount of irrelevant and false reports covered by mainstream sites like The Verge for example.

     

    Gah... I'll just stop here :(

    T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

    in General Topics

    Posted

    For what it's worth, Verizon's upcoming AWS LTE network will probably cover 80% of what T-Mobile's LTE (AWS) network will end up serving, with not GPRS, EDGE or even HSPA+ but actual LTE (in 700 upper-C) serving as a fallback. Now Verizon's speeds may not match T-Mobile's two years from now when both carriers have 20x20 AWS LTE deployed (I won't be surprised when 100M down, 50M up tests roll in from T-Mobile's side), but that's not due to T-Mobile's inherent network superiority. It's because Verizon will have more subscribers using AWS LTE than T-Mobile; Verizon is 3x T-Mo's size last I checked.

     

    That said, I don't have a problem with T-Mobile having higher speeds than VZW due to its lower subscriber cou nt. Keeps them on their un-carrier toes.

    Verizon is actually going to have 2x20Mhz AWS LTE this year in quite a few markets. They don't have to wait for any merger to finalize, for refarm to happen, they could deploy 2x20Mhz as a secondary LTE carrier today in NYC for example.

    They have contiguous 40Mhz of AWS (A+B block) just sitting and waiting here.

     

    So I'm expecting to see 100Mbps, or 150Mbps (with Cat 4 UE) coming from Verizon much earlier than T-Mobile, most likely H2 2013. :)

    SignalCheck - Android app to monitor your Wi-Fi/2G/3G/4G LTE/5G-NR signal strengths

    in General Topics

    Posted

    That seems like a good idea, I will try getting that in there in the near future. Thank you for the suggestion!

     

    -Mike

    I've been thinking how cool would it be if the app had the ability to log time + amount of time connected to LTE.

    When phone is in silent mode or late night when LTE is usually being tested by carriers we usually miss this opportunity to ever know that our area is being worked on.

     

    Just a thought... ;)

    SignalCheck - Android app to monitor your Wi-Fi/2G/3G/4G LTE/5G-NR signal strengths

    in General Topics

    Posted

    I experienced the same thing at work last week. The tower has been listed as having LTE complete for the past couple of weeks but I could never connect. LTE signal would show up in the app, but the phone would never connect. Today, I was able to connect to LTE for the first time. My guess is that when the towers are blocked, the phone still picks up the signal, it just can't connect.

    It's probably because at the early stage of LTE deployment and testing, only RF engineers are provisioned to authenticate to LTE network for testing purposes, most likely with different APN settings. Once that LTE cell site is properly set up and tested, they open it up which would explain why we sometimes see LTE network, but are unable to connect with our commercial equipment and default APN.

    • Like 1
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