[Q] 4G locations - Epic 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Anyone know where I can find out where they are building out new Wimax towers in the US? (cities)
Yes, I searched Google, couldn't find it...

http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?ECID=vanity:coverage
Google seemed to work for me. try sprints website. They are not really giving future expansion as in next areas because the 4g servers are extremely expensive and not owned by sprint. But it is safe to assume the high population areas would get 4g before medium and low population areas.
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MedicStuder said:
http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?ECID=vanity:coverage
Google seemed to work for me. try sprints website. They are not really giving future expansion as in next areas because the 4g servers are extremely expensive and not owned by sprint. But it is safe to assume the high population areas would get 4g before medium and low population areas.
Sent from my viperROM rooted ext4 epic 4g
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You seemed to have misunderstood me. I AM asking for the locations of NEW Wimax cities. Future expansion. So thanks...
sent from my Epi[demi]c:-D

You seem to have misunderstood him as well.
They are not really giving future expansion as in next areas because the 4g servers are extremely expensive and not owned by sprint.
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As someone who works for a Sprint retailer, I can confirm this. I occasionally find out which couple of cities are going to launch shortly before they launch, but no one is going to be able to tell you Sprint's plan.

Related

[Q]Use Evo on another wimax network ?

I just want to know is it possible to use evo 4g on another wimax network, outside usa ?
Or it's just a dream
There are wimax networks outside the US?
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quietpopcorn said:
There are wimax networks outside the US?
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Heh... Wimax is very popular, actually... Just not widely used by Phone carriers...
In macedonia we have wimax
Living in the greater New Orleans, LA area, the red-headed step-child to Sprint where 3G is slow, inconsistent, and 4G isn't even on the roadmap yet, I'd like to know if its possible to use my Sprint Evo's Wimax capabilities on Verizon's Wimax network, since they've had Wimax here since last year. It appears that the kind of roaming agreement between the two carriers includes phone and basic data, but not Wimax.
Any ideas?
If they had any brains they'd do a raoming agreement for that, too, getting them both much greater Wimax coverage much more quickly. But there I go again, expecting intelligence from a service provider...
Thank you for your time.
nYdGeo said:
Living in the greater New Orleans, LA area, the red-headed step-child to Sprint where 3G is slow, inconsistent, and 4G isn't even on the roadmap yet, I'd like to know if its possible to use my Sprint Evo's Wimax capabilities on Verizon's Wimax network, since they've had Wimax here since last year. It appears that the kind of roaming agreement between the two carriers includes phone and basic data, but not Wimax.
Any ideas?
If they had any brains they'd do a raoming agreement for that, too, getting them both much greater Wimax coverage much more quickly. But there I go again, expecting intelligence from a service provider...
Thank you for your time.
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Verizon does not have Wimax.. they use LTE
strohj said:
Verizon does not have Wimax.. they use LTE
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Sorry, I was made to understand that this was their Wimax. I'll take it from your response that though it may be a comparable service, it works in a different, non-compatible way.
I posted a question last week about how we could find out when we may be getting wimax in NOLA. Nobody seems to know so I am not holding my breath. Kinda sucks watching all these cities getting wimax and paying the $10 per phone every month without even a hint of when it may be coming.
tgrgrd00 said:
I posted a question last week about how we could find out when we may be getting wimax in NOLA. Nobody seems to know so I am not holding my breath. Kinda sucks watching all these cities getting wimax and paying the $10 per phone every month without even a hint of when it may be coming.
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Downtown NOLA has WiMax, Sprint just hasn't announced it yet. It is only in the downtown area though. I assume their probably still doing network testing or waiting for all of NOLA to be covered before they announce it to the public.
Found out about it yesterday and tried it out today. Was getting 5-6Mbps download and around 1Mbps upload earlier today. Though you won't find it on a Sprint coverage map (yet) you can see on clear.com what areas are covered in NOLA

why is clear/sprint expanding wimax/4g coverage?

So, recently I saw a post that clear/sprint wimax/4g coverage suddenly appeared in toledo ohio. a couple days later I saw the coverage (although still minimal) had almost doubled. I lived in seattle and now chicago, and not too far from downtown in either place, yet I happened to have an apartment within 4g coverage that was "best outside" meaning that short of setting my phone on a window sill with the window open, I couldn't get a signal. I suppose that's beside the point, but what I'm wondering is... What is sprint thinking? I know sprint owns a significant portion of clear, but do they actually intend to switch to lte eventually? Are they currently deploying their new unified towers and don't mind adding wimax with them? Are they throwing money at clear, who I thought was nearly bankrupt? Can these wimax towers quickly and easily be converted to lte, or have lte added? What does clearwire do besides sell modems and annoy me at the mall? How long does it take and how much money does it cost to put a wimax tower somewhere? Will holes in chicago and seattle ever get patched or is indoor signal lower priority than new markets? Why does there not seem to be any information or leaked roadmap about their plans?
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Well For 1
I would be pissed if they discontinued clear/wimax expansion, it's the reason I bought my evo, with that being said I've seen articles that state they will be working out a way to carry lte and wimax, via tower conversions, which some people say isn't possible, others say anything is possible. There are many opinons, but just like any new technolog, money must be invested, and pushed forward. Plus maybe clear/sprint plan on selling the wimax off at a later date, or subcontracting the towers or something like that. If they fail to continue pushing wimax or fail to develop it then that outcome would be much harsher then pushing a technology that may be adpapted or replaced all together. But to push 4g so hard then discontinue wimax development would be suicidal for both companies
Yeah, I can see how they would need to stick with it now, it just seems to be very secretive. I know you want an upper hand on the competition, but if I were a stockholder id want to know the plan. If sprint wants to go hard with 4g, why not just throw several million at clear, give people some jobs, and put a ton more towers up. I guess I don't understand why, if theyre pushing wimax, they don't have a lot more towers popping up a lot more quickly then they are. Even with a recent appearance of a lot of new markets, you'd think they could tell us the next dozen cities, or light it up more quickly.
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wrb123 said:
Yeah, I can see how they would need to stick with it now, it just seems to be very secretive. I know you want an upper hand on the competition, but if I were a stockholder id want to know the plan. If sprint wants to go hard with 4g, why not just throw several million at clear, give people some jobs, and put a ton more towers up. I guess I don't understand why, if theyre pushing wimax, they don't have a lot more towers popping up a lot more quickly then they are. Even with a recent appearance of a lot of new markets, you'd think they could tell us the next dozen cities, or light it up more quickly.
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My guess is that this is the reason why all plans are getting the extra $10 charge for data. The added income will allow Sprint to throw more money at Clear and get more 4g towers up more quickly. More money means more workers which means more towers more quickly. Plus that'll give more money to the research and development team to get us quicker 4g.
It all makes sense to me. I think stockholders need to decipher current events and figure it out instead of making the company hold their hands through everything.
If they go LTE I'm going back to T-Mobile. I do not want LTE ever.
What's wrong with lte? I know lte in itself isn't dependent upon a certain spectrum, but i also heard sprint could possibly decommission its iden/nextel frequency and use that for something, and if lte and wimax are approximately the same speed, and there is adequate coverage, who cares what technology is behind it? using the lower frequency for lte and phasing out wimax (or having them coexist) would be fine with me if it meant a lower frequency for better indoor reception. I think google and intel should throw some of their extra money at clear... or are they regretting having invested?
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If you haven't read before, ltd gives carriers the ability to control data 100%. If they want they can make you pay to gain access to things like YouTube.
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Is there a page somewhere that states what areas are on the waitlist for 4g?
Sprint is planning on using new white space to penetrate into buildings. But I'm sure we will see the wimax / lte combo soon. Especially since Verizon wants to stop sprint from roaming on their census towers.
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There is a new technology that condensed 2G, 3G, and LTE into one base station and antenna ......and it's the size of a rubrics cube. Perhaps they would use those to add LTE.
more Info on phonescoop
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WiMax can be fairly easily switched to LTE, with a "software update and push of a button" from what I've heard. So putting out new WiMax means they're putting out the infrastructure for LTE later.
wrb123 said:
What's wrong with lte? I know lte in itself isn't dependent upon a certain spectrum, but i also heard sprint could possibly decommission its iden/nextel frequency and use that for something, and if lte and wimax are approximately the same speed, and there is adequate coverage, who cares what technology is behind it? using the lower frequency for lte and phasing out wimax (or having them coexist) would be fine with me if it meant a lower frequency for better indoor reception. I think google and intel should throw some of their extra money at clear... or are they regretting having invested?
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Outside of carrier controlled data (one of my greatest fears, as I use my wireless tether rather sporadically and for various reasons) I would have to go with that my Sprint phone doesn't have a LTE chip in it. If sprint switched to LTE exclusively then our Evos would drop back to 3g and we'd still have to pay for 4g. Or, if they switched to LTE/wimax combo, it would give them almost no incentive to upgrade wimax anymore and our speeds would be stuck where they are now.
Also, I've always been a huge fan of company competition. Sprint/Clear vs Verizon/LTE vs Tmobile, ATT/HSPA+ (if it did stay that way) would mean a plethora of options for us, the consumer. This would keep things like data rates low. What would stop all 4 carriers from charging $50 for data if they all ran off the same network?
I'm also curious if they're working at all on expanding coverage in markets that have some here and there but not all over. For instance Austin has it in a lot of the metro area but it is nowhere near as covered in residential areas.
http://nexus404.com/Blog/2011/02/10...s-to-give-up-retail-without-giving-up-retail/
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From what a sprint rep told me was that they plan on having 4g to all their markets sometime early 2011. At first I thought she meant major markets but Ive noticed up here in Indiana even some of the smaller cities like Kokomo etc have weak 4g in some spots.
neopolotin75 said:
up here in Indiana even some of the smaller cities like Kokomo etc have weak 4g in some spots.
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Kokomo, Indiana has 4g? fml
a lot of subscribers would be very upset if they dropped wimax.
the lawsuits would be destructive to sprint.
my bbb complaints would get me free service for life.
tgrgrd00 said:
Kokomo, Indiana has 4g? fml
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Yea believe it or not......you can get a test signal....its not full blown but its there....
I'm in a best indoor/outdoor coverage area near Tampa, FL and can't even get 4G outside in the wide open.
Was quiet the letdown getting my Evo and smashing the 4G button excited that Sprint finally had 4G in my area and getting 'Poor' signal and then disconnecting shortly after.
Verizon shows solid LTE around here, that's next on my list to try. Even if I have to pay out the ass for it.
cutthroatamft said:
There is a new technology that condensed 2G, 3G, and LTE into one base station and antenna ......and it's the size of a rubrics cube. Perhaps they would use those to add LTE.
more Info on phonescoop
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i heard about those, and they seem cool, but i only want wimax. i just want to get it where i live (LA county) so i can use it on my evo. i don't care what they do anywhere else. also how much does it cost to upgrade a tower to 4g? if the richer ppl (myself somewhat included) using sprint donate some $$$ can we get 4g faster? then they get more people joining sprint because they got more 4g, and we got some of our $$$ back? i just wanna get 4g out here ASAP. rumors going around that it's coming out here in march, anyone know where i can check? about to call sprint later and ask.
I tried a T-Mobile hspa+ phone inside my apartment where 4g is mysteriously absent (bad frequency and bad building penetration) and on T-Mobile 3g it got 3000kbps+ consistently! really considering going to tmobile before the end of the day and getting a free g2, just paying the sprint etf and selling the evo.
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Future WiMax coverage?

This is likely a dumb question, buts its worth a shot, do any of you Sprint insiders have any info on some future WiMax cities? I have used 4G going through Nashville and Atlanta, but I would really love it have it here in Louisville.
Its just frustrating that a city with a metro population of 1.4 Million doesn't have 4G, yet smaller towns like Lansing, MI and Wichita Falls, TX do.
It has to do with the way Clear does business. They will go into small cities because there is less competition. Grand Rapids, Mi, for example, gave Clear tax incentives to build their network there. They are in a lot of larger and mid-sized cities, but they are going to go where there is less competition, or some other type of incentive to go there. Sprint is going to have a good amount of say in where Clear builds out since they own a majority of Clear, but Clear still needs to be profitable (which they are not), or at least try.
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Sprint is switching to LTE in the near future so WiMax is going away
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giantmidget said:
Sprint is switching to LTE in the near future so WiMax is going away
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Where's your source on this?
obiwrx_3zero3 said:
Where's your source on this?
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Excellent question. Would give you thanks but apparently I'm limited to 5 a day.
I work at a Sprint service & got to listen in on a conference call with the sprint engineers. I shouldn't have said near future cause ETA is 2012 for it.
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obiwrx_3zero3 said:
Where's your source on this?
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There's a topic on Engadget about it. http://m.engadget.com/default/artic...ur-to-six-months/&category=classic&postPage=1
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Sooo...if sprint did decide to switch to LTE...would that make us obsolete? I'm assuming I wouldn't get "4g" since my phone is wimax right? If that's the case, there would be some serious hell to pay since 4g and sprints pricing is the only reason I got rid of my 4 year old xv6800 and switched from verizon.
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squshy 7 said:
Sooo...if sprint did decide to switch to LTE...would that make us obsolete? I'm assuming I wouldn't get "4g" since my phone is wimax right? If that's the case, there would be some serious hell to pay since 4g and sprints pricing is the only reason I got rid of my 4 year old xv6800 and switched from verizon.
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Thats a good question? anyone want to answer this?
davidrules7778 said:
Thats a good question? anyone want to answer this?
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My best guess would be that the current 4G hardware would be fine. Clear is where Sprint gets their WiMax and Clear has a lot of customers using WiMax for home internet with a lot of equipment and I don't see it being cost effective to try and get everyone on LTE at the same time. Sprint and Clear would probably shift everyone over to LTE at some point, but that would be years down the road after LTE comes out. Kind of like the way the cell providers handled the switch from analog to digital. Just a guess, but when LTE comes out, there will be overlap while they sell out of their WiMax equipment as cheaper phones and sell new LTE equipment as their premium phones and they will support WiMax for 3-5 years longer. This is all conjecture, but I think this is the way it will happen.
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Yeah, and lets be honest with ourselves too...by the time this would actually happen across their entire current 3G spectrum, most people would already be on new phones by then anyway, regardless of how happy or not they are on their current one anyway.
giantmidget said:
I work at a Sprint service & got to listen in on a conference call with the sprint engineers. I shouldn't have said near future cause ETA is 2012 for it.
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I call BS.
While Sprint can/will be able to flick a switch and enable LTE, there is no good reason to do it unless they want to BYOD Verizon phones. Which might be a reason to do it.
WiMAX has done better than LTE across the board. WiMAX comes from an IT background, with it's endless dev cycle and fierce price competition. LTE comes from a telco background, with it's bloat and ponderous plodding.
This means LTE deployments are very slow but work well. WiMax customers are going to suffer through bugs but they will be patched and reved through quickly.
Sprint has never has GSM phones, tho they are more common. Why Sprint would give up there mufti year head start to switch tech is beyond me.
LargePrime said:
I call BS.
While Sprint can/will be able to flick a switch and enable LTE, there is no good reason to do it unless they want to BYOD Verizon phones. Which might be a reason to do it.
WiMAX has done better than LTE across the board. WiMAX comes from an IT background, with it's endless dev cycle and fierce price competition. LTE comes from a telco background, with it's bloat and ponderous plodding.
This means LTE deployments are very slow but work well. WiMax customers are going to suffer through bugs but they will be patched and reved through quickly.
Sprint has never has GSM phones, tho they are more common. Why Sprint would give up there mufti year head start to switch tech is beyond me.
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Not to knock anything you're saying but in my opinion, Wi-max isn't really good.
Sure, it has great range. Building penetration however, sucks. 2.5 ghz spectrum is not good IMO. Right now Verizon is testing VOLTE, voWIMAX on phones will be awful. It works well on Clear because most people put their modems in one spot and that's it. For phones, it would call for frequent disconnects.
I love Sprint, but after the froyo debacle, and me playing around with LTE 4G.
I believe LTE is the way to go
WiMAX is an open spec and does not have a frequency requirement. LTE is worse at building penetration then WiMAX, but that is not important. It is about frequency.
Sprint could run WiMax over 800 MHZ just fine. Poof no more reason for LTE.
But penetration, I understand, is not going to be a problem when we get around to 802.16m.
LTE is a closed, expensive, protocol. It is not network centric, it's Telco centric.
Anywhere in louisiana Please
ryno502 said:
Its just frustrating that a city with a metro population of 1.4 Million doesn't have 4G, yet smaller towns like Lansing, MI and Wichita Falls, TX do.
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Oh that frustrates you?
How about this, Sebring, a city about 60 miles west of me has 4G via Clear. It is only Sebring, not bleed over from a neighboring city or anything like that.
Their population is around 10,000.
Suck on that for a while.
giantmidget said:
Sprint is switching to LTE in the near future so WiMax is going away
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+1 I met a guy that works for ERICSSON which that company maintains Sprint towers here in Austin Texas.
He told me that LTE is more reliable/cheaper than clear-wire 4g. And not to expect anything till 2013/2014.
And he also told me that clear-wire 4g is not making profit.
If this is true ..I really don't know
Personally I think 4g sucks..unreliable
Why you do not want LTE
The thread is long and through. I think I'ma sig it.

Foolish to buy Wimax device now?

With all the hubbub surrounding the Clearwire Wimax deal that was signed for the next few years, and the looming launch of LTE (mid-2012?), is it really foolish to sign a new contract and get a Wimax device?
All of the LTE devices I've seen on VZW/AT&T have atrocious battery life at the expense of crazy speeds (20Mbps+). A few coworkers got the Droid Bionic and barely make it to the end of the work day. Old college roommate works for AT&T and he says most of their LTE stuff needs extended batteries in order to be usable for a whole day.
Frankly I can live with Wimax's 3-5Mbps if it means I don't have to keep hovering around a charger all day. The Epic 4G Touch is so very tempting but I'm afraid I'm committing to "old" tech and that in 12 months I'll have regretted it.
(current VZW customer off-contract with an OG Droid)
dparm said:
With all the hubbub surrounding the Clearwire Wimax deal that was signed for the next few years, and the looming launch of LTE (mid-2012?), is it really foolish to sign a new contract and get a Wimax device?
All of the LTE devices I've seen on VZW/AT&T have atrocious battery life at the expense of crazy speeds (20Mbps+). A few coworkers got the Droid Bionic and barely make it to the end of the work day. Old college roommate works for AT&T and he says most of their LTE stuff needs extended batteries in order to be usable for a whole day.
Frankly I can live with Wimax's 3-5Mbps if it means I don't have to keep hovering around a charger all day. The Epic 4G Touch is so very tempting but I'm afraid I'm committing to "old" tech and that in 12 months I'll have regretted it.
(current VZW customer off-contract with an OG Droid)
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First and foremost the spectrum allocated to Sprint's WiMax sucks. It's a razor thin chunk. That is why Sprint's 4G sucks...LTE isn't inherently better in this regard. If LTE was on the same crappy spectrum it would suck too.
When you can connect to WiMax it's fantastic. I used to get 12-15mbps all day long in my area. Now it's in the 3-8mbps range depending on time of day.
That razor thin strip of spectrum allocated to Sprint/Clearwire's "4G" WiMax makes your connection easily disrupted by such disturbances as a closed window or a stiff breeze...seriously. If you aren't in a very solid 4G area (don't ask Sprint or Clearwire, ask people who have the service in your area) I wouldn't bank on getting a 4G signal very often, if at all. When a rom comes out that doesn't support 4G I don't care at all...yeah, it can be that bad.
With that out of the way it should be noted that you likely won't have Sprint LTE coverage in your area for at least a year, likely 2, maybe 3 or 4. Sprint has some rosy estimates flying around right now, but, I remember how their 3G and 4G rollouts went, so, I wouldn't take their word with a grain of salt...I would outright disregard it.
So where does this leave you? Most likely in an area with sparse (if any) 4G and LTE anywhere from 1.5-3 years away and you want a phone now.
Luckily Sprint's 3G service is improving quickly around the country--quicker in some places than others of course. Also the level of improvement will vary wildly depending on many factors, so, don't even bet on the future...especially when it's in Sprint's hands.
My advice? If you want to be/stay on Sprint and are currently satisfied with your service and would also like the ET4G, well, just go get it. By time your contract is up the LTE devices will actually exist and the LTE will be rolled out and WiMax will still be up and running and hopefully the 3G network is up to snuff.
EDIT: As a current Vzw customer you will likely be either disappointed or even horrified by Sprint's current 3G speeds. Ask around, some markets/areas have amazing performance. Where I live is so-so. I'm now getting 600-1000kbps regularly, though last month it was 300-500kbps. However 5 miles away at my friends house I actually saw 2.8mbps and killer 15mbps 4G all the time. Many people here are nowhere near as lucky as either me or my friend, so, ask around....you can never tell.
I'm in downtown Chicago, so I'm sure that it'll be a high priority area for deployment.
My job is 100% travel though, so for a few months at a time I could be anywhere else in the US (Mon-Fri). Typically it's big cities though, like Houston, NYC, Miami, Denver, etc. I just want something fast but consistent. Voice quality/coverage is priority 1, then battery, then data speeds.
I visited two Sprint stores in different parts of the city this week and the web browsing on their 4G seemed plenty fast.
dparm said:
I'm in downtown Chicago, so I'm sure that it'll be a high priority area for deployment.
My job is 100% travel though, so for a few months at a time I could be anywhere else in the US (Mon-Fri). Typically it's big cities though, like Houston, NYC, Miami, Denver, etc. I just want something fast but consistent. Voice quality/coverage is priority 1, then battery, then data speeds.
I visited two Sprint stores in different parts of the city this week and the web browsing on their 4G seemed plenty fast.
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I travel for work sometimes. Chicago is covered in 4G as are most major metropolitan areas.
So far as voice/text ("2G") is concerned you will be well served everywhere. Sprint has pretty thorough 2G coverage and you will roam on Verizon if not. You get "Unlimited" Roaming. If you roam too much they'll give you the boot. I wouldn't worry about it.
So long as you understand all said about 4G and are fine with that 3G is the only real sticking point and is as I described earlier. You will roam on Verizon (at 1x, ick...but we have ways around that if you are forced to roam momentarily), but, it's usually not Sprint's coverage so much as the performance. I personally have never experienced horribly un-usable 3G anywhere...even tethered to my laptop. But I haven't gone on any business trips in the past 9 months when things have gone downhill rapidly--or so the posts here would have me believe.
I'd say buy a VZW phone outright and stay out of contract. Their speeds will be faster as well as the reliability. If this were my only phone I would've dove headfirst off a bunk bed.
I have a company Blackberry on AT&T and a regular feature phone on AT&T so I'm covered service wise. To give you an idea AT&T's HSDPA (3.5G) technology is faster than Sprint's faux 4G.
I love this phone but something needs to happen soon or people are going to leave in droves. The phone is awesome but the service is something to be desired.
I'm in Northern NJ by the way.
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Lately the Verizon 3G coverage in downtown Chicago and the burbs have been sucking. I have updated my PRL several times and even flashed a different ROM just to be certain.
I get 4g in plenty of places. (I live in the bay area). Sprint just gave clear some money so I'm still good with buying my next wimax phone. From what I see and hear, lte isn't better than wimax just yet. Fastest speed I've seen is on hspa+ 22mbps.
I think its a waste if you live in an area like I do that doesn't have Wimax and never will.
I am coming from Verizon and the Thunderbolt and until phones get better battery's lte is not worth it unless you want 8 to 12 hours of battery depending on your usage(on my wifi and 4g and 3g service with sprint after 16hours of usage moderate I have 33% life left) In a few years when sprint gets lte maybe batterys will be caught up. Or if sprint doesnt ill switch to at&t or Verizon again. But I am happy with sprint. And I love this phone
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I have known since the beginning of the year when the Galaxy S II became available internationally that that was the phone I wanted to upgrade to. The decider for me to go for the Epic Touch 4G variant on Sprint was the truly unlimited data. I was off contract on AT&T, and even though I was fortunate enough to actually get very good service in my area on AT&T, I liked the idea of never having to worry about my data usage, no matter how I might choose to use my phone.
I don't generally get as good data coverage on Sprint as I did on AT&T, but when I do have service it is generally faster than what I got on AT&T, most especially on 4G. And when it does lose Sprint coverage, it roams on Verizon towers, so I really am never completely without service.
And the phone itself is great. No regrets there.
Thanks. Like I said, Verizon's coverage down here lately seems really lousy. The data speed is "acceptable". My OG Droid is still hanging on by a thread and I am still on an unlimited data plan, though I rarely go over 2-3GB per month.
I'm having trouble finding Chicago Sprint owners to comment on coverage and data speeds, though. Only one or two friends of mine have it and they're not really geeky enough to know what I'm interested in...they see a phone as a phone.
dparm said:
Thanks. Like I said, Verizon's coverage down here lately seems really lousy. The data speed is "acceptable". My OG Droid is still hanging on by a thread and I am still on an unlimited data plan, though I rarely go over 2-3GB per month.
I'm having trouble finding Chicago Sprint owners to comment on coverage and data speeds, though. Only one or two friends of mine have it and they're not really geeky enough to know what I'm interested in...they see a phone as a phone.
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You definitely needs to find someone. You do have a buyer's remorse period you could use.
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CODteabagger said:
You definitely needs to find someone. You do have a buyer's remorse period you could use.
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Yes, the 30 day return period is nice. Would give me a shot at really test driving the thing.
Any suggestions on how to get some real details on Chicago Wimax and voice?
wimax will be around thru 2015 at the least... buying a wimax device now wouldnt be the end of the world.
also.. the first sprint lte devices wont get super awesome. and we wont be seeing the good lte chips(the ones that work on multiple bands) until 2013(sprints 2nd lte gen).
Upgrading to a Wimax phone this year seems fine. And you can enjoy the unlimited data. It will set you up to upgrade in 2013, when new phones will be ready to utilize Sprint's LTE (800MHz/1.9GHz) and Clear's LTE-Advanced (2.5GHz).
dparm said:
Yes, the 30 day return period is nice. Would give me a shot at really test driving the thing.
Any suggestions on how to get some real details on Chicago Wimax and voice?
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It's 14 days now.
daneurysm said:
It's 14 days now.
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Ooo that sucks. It'll probably get ****ty 3G speeds on the 15th day.
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CODteabagger said:
I'd say buy a VZW phone outright and stay out of contract. Their speeds will be faster as well as the reliability. If this were my only phone I would've dove headfirst off a bunk bed.
I have a company Blackberry on AT&T and a regular feature phone on AT&T so I'm covered service wise. To give you an idea AT&T's HSDPA (3.5G) technology is faster than Sprint's faux 4G.
I love this phone but something needs to happen soon or people are going to leave in droves. The phone is awesome but the service is something to be desired.
I'm in Northern NJ by the way.
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Yea Im gonna have to disagree here, one of my customer just bought a skyrocket from att and my touch destroyed his phones speeds while he was on the socalled 4gLTE hspa+ network and I was only in a 3g area (all of san diego county) there is nothing faux bout WiMax, it is all a money issue when it comes down to it.
Yes I am anxious for LTE-A as well as more power efficient radios. I remember when the first "3G" stuff came out years ago (HSDPA or whatever)...the battery life sucked but within a year or two they got it worked out.
daneurysm said:
...Sprint's 4G sucks... When a rom comes out that doesn't support 4G I don't care at all...yeah, it can be that bad.
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Yeah, it's not anything to write home about.
But I mostly use wifi at home and work so I'm not too put out by the slow speeds.
It is good enough to have a halfway decent skype session, youtube, etc...
I was hoping to get some gaming action though.
That ain't happening unless it's on wifi, at least in my area.

What happens to WiMax phones now there's LTE?

I was wondering since LTE is rolling out (at least here in Dallas it is), what happens to ppl with WiMax phones? I'm sure we'll still be able to use it, but shouldn't we be able to enjoy the network also? I'm not saying give everybody free phones, but at least make it possible for everybody to get a LTE phone, especially those who have suffered thru these horrible "4G" years. We spend our money on "Data plans" every month, but who actually enjoys their coverage? I know its alot of ppl who agree with me cause i see it all the time in these forums. Anybody have an idea as to whats up with this?
mrbsb said:
I was wondering since LTE is rolling out (at least here in Dallas it is), what happens to ppl with WiMax phones? I'm sure we'll still be able to use it, but shouldn't we be able to enjoy the network also? I'm not saying give everybody free phones, but at least make it possible for everybody to get a LTE phone, especially those who have suffered thru these horrible "4G" years. We spend our money on "Data plans" every month, but who actually enjoys their coverage? I know its alot of ppl who agree with me cause i see it all the time in these forums. Anybody have an idea as to whats up with this?
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You're fortunate you actually have 4g... I've been paying for 4g for 3 years, and the closes tower to me is 90 miles away. I have yet to hop on 4g on my epic 4G Touch.
I do agree with you, though.... They should give some sort of upgrade option.
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I was told at the sprint store Wimax will be used for the pre paid services like boost mobile so they too can jump on the 4g band wagon. While the rest of us like yourself who have been waiting for a larger 4g coverage are now forced into a different 4g network. Although LTE is much better by far.
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Reply for past threads~
Blitz117 said:
I was told at the sprint store Wimax will be used for the pre paid services like boost mobile so they too can jump on the 4g band wagon. While the rest of us like yourself who have been waiting for a larger 4g coverage are now forced into a different 4g network. Although LTE is much better by far.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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mrbsb said:
I was wondering since LTE is rolling out (at least here in Dallas it is), what happens to ppl with WiMax phones? I'm sure we'll still be able to use it, but shouldn't we be able to enjoy the network also? I'm not saying give everybody free phones, but at least make it possible for everybody to get a LTE phone, especially those who have suffered thru these horrible "4G" years. We spend our money on "Data plans" every month, but who actually enjoys their coverage? I know its alot of ppl who agree with me cause i see it all the time in these forums. Anybody have an idea as to whats up with this?
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Click to collapse
Wiskid15 said:
You're fortunate you actually have 4g... I've been paying for 4g for 3 years, and the closes tower to me is 90 miles away. I have yet to hop on 4g on my epic 4G Touch.
I do agree with you, though.... They should give some sort of upgrade option.
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To sum this all up for you as a Sprint Representative that I am.....
-LTE is another ADD-ON of 4G that Sprint is rolling out with called "Network Vision". The addon/change is expected to be completely completed by the END of 2013. All future smartphones will only be LTE compatible. All CURRENT smartphone with WiMax will not be compatible on LTE 4G networks. Along with this, there is to be increased 3G as well (call quality and data speeds and fewer dropped calls and increased coverage overall).
-When 4G first came out there was a $10 charge (before most carriers even had limited data packages) now that other carriers have Limited packages the $10 premium is only required for SMARTPHONES ONLY. Whether or not you have "4G" or not for your Sprint smartphone. You can even have a "non-smartphone" on a data plan and NOT pay the $10 premium as it applys to ONLY smartphones.
-WiMax WILL continue to be with sprint ONLY at this current time. There is NO talk of Boost, Virgin Mobile, etc "other carriers" signing with "Clear-Wire" (WiMax) for their network. They will remain on Sprint's 3G network.
Hope that clears the air about some pondering questions.. Anything else just let me know..
Lately wimax is the only reason I have not hurled bricks through the windows of my local Sprint stores. Thankfully I get a good 4g signal at home and work because 3g has been unusable more often than not the last 6 months. Also in Sept I'm moving to a city (of over a million ppl) that is not on the first or 2nd round of LTE rollout so a phone with LTE would be worthless to me. I will probably be rocking my E4GT for the full duration of my contract.
re
someguyatx said:
Lately wimax is the only reason I have not hurled bricks through the windows of my local Sprint stores. Thankfully I get a good 4g signal at home and work because 3g has been unusable more often than not the last 6 months. Also in Sept I'm moving to a city (of over a million ppl) that is not on the first or 2nd round of LTE rollout so a phone with LTE would be worthless to me. I will probably be rocking my E4GT for the full duration of my contract.
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I understand that.. I currently have the Epic 4G Touch. Cause to me having like an EVO 4G LTE or the Galaxy SIII is pointless if I cant use 4G yet sense I'm not in an LTE area yet and the recently released smartphones and future smartphones dont have WiMax capabilities..
Along with that by the time I get LTE there'll be better newer phones..

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