shifted

I can't think of a single reason anybody would buy this phone from Sprint off contract...

Only reason I can think is google's horrible supply issues.  I could see some people paying the $90 premium to get the device when they want vs playing the waiting and luck game with google getting them in stock and then hopefully you buying one before they sell out again.

It will be updated by Sprint at a later date a la the G2.

Hmm, so they can target updates based on which carrier you are on?  Since the sku is the same right?

Updates will come from google.

Wow, I wonder how they pulled that off?  In the past it is what made Sprint nexus devices not quite as good.

Does anyone know if Sprint will activate these if bought through Google.  If so how are updates going to work? I thought you couldn't just pop in a sim for a cdma phone.  I know the LTE portion can be on a sim but as far as the CDMA radio, doesn't Sprint have to actually activate that for you?  In the past they wouldn't activate phones not bought through them or like radio shack. 

At Como Park it is blazing.  Downtown St. Paul I only get a faint signal outdoors from a distant tower outside of downtown.  In my office in the North Loop of Minneapolis I get LTE.  You are right though that it's currently hit or miss in places, but they keep lighting up more towers each week and it's been getting better and better. 

While this is true, this hit or miss stuff that's been going on for probably a year now is really annoying.  If you take mass transit to work it makes the internet basically unuseable due to the signal bouncing back and forth between 3G and 4G.  I had no idea the rollout was going to be so long and annoying.  I thought it would just sort of turn on and boom, all of the cities has 4G.  Boy was I wrong.

How long does it take for them to finalize LTE once the LTE has been switched on a tower?  For instance.  I work near the Metrodome in Minneapolis.  LTE has been available for several months when I am walking around outside but the speeds are much worse than 3G, around 300kbps down or so.  I thought this was due to LTE being on but backhaul not being complete but I am really not sure a this point since it has been going on for so long.

The thing that impresses me about this rollout is that they are covering entire markets, not just the city-centers like wimax (yes, I know all the reasons why that happened the way it did) and they have not added any of the 800Mhz spectrum yet.  I cant wait to see the map be completely covered, and with darker areas around cities indicating TDD LTE and speeds around 100MB/s.  

I prefer city centers.  Flipping between 3G and 4G every other block due to holes makes the network unusable.

Ah I see Robert addressed this on the first page. Bummer...

Ok I just found out my hospital uses a DAS system. An email was sent out with a planned outage and they described the system as DAS. So I have two questions.

1. Will DAS systems ever be upgraded to LTE?

2. If not, will DAS systems benefit from network vision?

Edit...tapatalk is messing with the formatting of this post...sorry.

Gives the same message where the map is supposed to be. Hopefully it is temporary.

Suddenly today I got a message on my work computer that looks like this. Kind of stinks as I like to follow the site while at work.

Based on your organization's access policies, this web site ( http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/Sprint/lte_310sprint ) has been blocked because it has been determined by Web Reputation Filters to be a security threat to your computer or the organization's network. This web site has been associated with malware/spyware.

Threat Reason: IP address is either verified as a bot or has misconfigured DNS.

Notification: WBRS

I am switching to a Galaxy S III on Monday.

There are a couple reasons but the main one is Sense has a 5 minute time out on their notification light so it shuts off even if you don't clear the notification after 5 minutes. Plus the light is kind of hard to see from a distance. I sit at a Microscope all day long and I need to be able to glance at my phone and know if someone has contacted me without having to take my hands off my work. I know the S3 has a nice, bright notification light and there are apps that actually work with it like Light Manager which allows me color customization for various notifications (Sense/EVO LTE is limited to green unless you run Cyanogenmod which has its own issues like dropping data randomly. Also, because The SIII has an AMOLED display I can use an app like noLED to get my notifications lit up on my screen without using much battery.

I don't particularly care for Pentile displays after owning the Nexus S 4G. That phone's display really bugged me because any orange or red app icons or whatever had a noticeable grainy look to them. Having looked at the Galaxy S III display at a Sprint store I no longer get that feeling. The much higher resolution has eliminated most of the negatives I had for Amoled screens. I do wish the SIII had the same display technology the Note 2 uses but really for me it isn't a big issue any more. I just hate knowing I will be using a pentile display again after having sworn it off on the Nexus S, lol.

The other reason I am switching is because I love how smooth the phone feels. I don't like the sharp edges on the EVO, particularly the edge around the display right at the edge of the glass. I like the smooth feel all around on the SIII. This didn't really factor in my decision too much until recently though. My wife got a Note 2 and that made me realize I really like the feel of her phone(which is very similar to the SIII), it is just too large (and too expensive) for me.

Finally, a small part of me really dislikes that the EVO has known 4G performance issues. LTE is being rolled out to my area right now and I want the best chance of using it as possible without having to toggle radios all the time. That was a nightmare with my EVO Shift and NS4G using Wimax and I never want to mess with radio toggling again.

Anyway, I really think it all comes down to personal preference and how you need or want to use the phone as they are both really nice.

It's a known bug. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2382-password-on-tapatalk/page__hl__tapatalk__fromsearch__1 Workaround here: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/693-sponsors-forum-via-tapatalk/ Basically, just set "The S4GRU Club" as a favorite and access it under your "Favorites" menu.

Great, thank you!

Is there a way to gain access to the password protected forums for sponsors using tapatalk? I automatically get in using my pc but tapatalk prompts me for a password even though I am logged in. I don't think I ever got a password for those forums....I just suddenly got access when my sponsorship kicked in.

OK could this be something related to Sprint? Check out my signal strength while standing right below it.

If the hospital infrastructure is just a bidirectional amp and leaky coax, as I surmise, the coax is fine. Only the bidirectional amp might need to be replaced with a new one that supports the PCS G block.

 

shifted, does the hospital have an arrangement specifically with Sprint? Or does the installed infrastructure benefit most/all carriers?

 

AJ

It seems to be specific to Sprint. No one else can get cell service down here at all, not even a text will go through. I know for sure Verizon and AT&T users have nothing.

Yes, that is an awesome signal for a basement. I'm a block over from the tower and just being inside our building even by the windows I see about a -72 to -75 signal.

Yeah, it does fluctuate though. Like right now I am at -73.

Darn, I guess I won't be taking any pictures then If I see a telecommunications guy working around down here sometime I'll see if he knows anything.

Thanks for the info. If I can find some sort of equipment mounted around I'll take some pictures of it. You guys will probably know immediately what it is.

I work in the basement of a hospital. In this basement I only can get Sprint coverage (eHRPD and -67dBm signal. 3G speeds are around 800kbps-1mbps down which doesn't seem overly fast to me compared to some areas above in the real world) because Sprint is the only company that wanted to put in the necessary equipment to allow coverage in the basement.

Does a "special" site like this need extra work to get LTE coverage or will LTE simply start working when the towers above in the real world start working?

I really don't know how they get signal to the basement like this which is why I am curious if LTE requires different equipment or not since I really don't know how my phone communicates with cell towers while I am down here vs the way it does when I am up in the overworld.

And, are situations like this covered in Sprint's overall LTE plan or would situations like this be addressed much later? Anyone else have a situation similar?

I got to thinking about this more today because of the Sprint announcement about LTE in Minneapolis.

Yeah sorry. I read the first couple posts while I was in my car waiting for someone and responded quickly while I had a chance. Now that I've read through I realize I shouldn't have posted...

Probably weak signals in the terminals, could be building materials or other RF interference. As stated many times by Robert, LTE is very signal strength dependent and will drop off much before EVDO and then again 1X

Great. So LTE is basically going to be like wimax all over again then? I thought because the frequency was the same as 3G it would be better...

How do you know if ehrpd is working? I'm in downtown Minneapolis and in about> phone it says evdo revision a. Would that say ehrpd if it's working?

Whatever the strategy is it feels awfully slow for the people not in the upgraded areas. 3G keeps getting slower and slower... A lot of times I cannot even open my installed apps list in the google play store because of slow data and it giving me an error.