Develop Bugs

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.
Sent from my evo 4g

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.
Sent from my Epic 4G with midNIGHT 3.3 ROM

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.
Sent from my baked and emotionless SPH-D700

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.
Sent from my baked and emotionless SPH-D700
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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.
Sent from my Epic 4G with midNIGHT 3.3 ROM

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.

Understanding Sprint's Strategy

Today’s Sprint strategy meeting revealed a significant amount of information about the future of the Now Network. Sprint has began the rollout of its new network and the rapid deployment of LTE on their 800 and 1900MHz frequencies. In fact, the “Network Vision” deployment is going so well that Sprint is expecting to be completely finished by the of end of 2013, rather than the speculated 3 to 5 years.
Sprint is investing $4 to $5 billion into “Network Vision,” with an expected net return of $10 to $11 billion by 2017. Sprint is expecting to launch it’s first LTE device by mid-2012 (posibly an LTE EVO device) and close the year with 15 LTE devices in it’s lineup. The agreement between Clearwire and Sprint is set expire at the end of 2012. Sprint will sell WiMax devices all the way through til the end of 2012, but support for WiMax devices will continue for an unspecified period beyond 2012.
Sprint is progressively turning over the Nextel 800MHz spectrum for use on CDMA. The 800 and 1900MHz spectra are owned and operated by Sprint, and will provide for voice, data, and 4G as per “Network Vision.” Pending FCC approval due to GPS interference, LightSquared’s 1600MHz spectrum will also be used exclusively for LTE on Sprint, in addition to the 800 and 1900MHz frequencies. There are no plans to use Clearwire or their 2.5GHz spectrum after 2012. However, Sprint is waiting to see what happens with their network change to LTE.
Many of you have numerous questions such as: “Why is LightSquared paying Sprint to use their LTE network?”, “Where is Sprint getting the money to invest in “Network Vision?”, “What is going to happen to my WiMax device?”, or “How does this effect me?” Keep reading for answers to all these questions.
http://briefmobile.com/understanding-sprints-strategy

My question is why do they need so many frequencys of lte
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gtuansdiamm said:
My question is why do they need so many frequencys of lte
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Because it answers spectrum issues while allowing for building penetration when needed.

gtuansdiamm said:
My question is why do they need so many frequencys of lte
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1900MHz will be the primary LTE usage. 800MHz will be used by around 20% of users, and that's mainly deep in buildings and in extremely rural areas. 1600MHz is basically a bonus that came with LightSquare. There is still a chance the FCC might not pass it's usage of the frequency because it is so close to the GPS frequency. It's only 20MHz of spectrum in the 1600MHz realm, so it's no big deal. It's the money that Sprint needs.

Does this mean that our Wimax devices will be worthless? I hate that we have to pay an up charge for 4g devices using a technology that will not be in service in two years and Sprint really dragged their butts in trying to implement in the first place. I will probably upgrade to a new device by this time, but it is really pissing me off that they do this and cancel the one year upgrade.
Not that my Wimax is really doing anything in the first place, whenever I go to a place that has Wimax coverage (per Clearmax's maps) I can get just enough signal for my phone to tell me it has 4g. I get excited and then find out that its not strong enough and this is with two different phones (Epic & Epic Touch) and then the phone gives up on connecting to 4g anyway.
I paid the 3g up charge around 2006 when I lived in a town that did not have 3g coverage. I did not mind as Sprint upgraded their towers and eventually got me 3g. I would be pissed to pay this fee on phone using technology that they will abandon requiring me to buy something else to take advantage of newer technology that I have subsidized through a charge that I have never really taken advantage of.
Thanks Sprint for selling us devices with an up charge for a technology that you will abandon in a few years.

mag44 said:
Does this mean that our Wimax devices will be worthless? I hate that we have to pay an up charge for 4g devices using a technology that will not be in service in two years and Sprint really dragged their butts in trying to implement in the first place. I will probably upgrade to a new device by this time, but it is really pissing me off that they do this and cancel the one year upgrade.
Not that my Wimax is really doing anything in the first place, whenever I go to a place that has Wimax coverage (per Clearmax's maps) I can get just enough signal for my phone to tell me it has 4g. I get excited and then find out that its not strong enough and this is with two different phones (Epic & Epic Touch) and then the phone gives up on connecting to 4g anyway.
I paid the 3g up charge around 2006 when I lived in a town that did not have 3g coverage. I did not mind as Sprint upgraded their towers and eventually got me 3g. I would be pissed to pay this fee on phone using technology that they will abandon requiring me to buy something else to take advantage of newer technology that I have subsidized through a charge that I have never really taken advantage of.
Thanks Sprint for selling us devices with an up charge for a technology that you will abandon in a few years.
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WiMax will be supported for around 2 to 3 years after 2012. I will bet on that.

newalker91 said:
Stop it. You're not paying any fee for 4G, you're paying for having a data intensive smartphone. So tired of hearing people whine about $10 saying it's for a service they don't get. It is not a charge for 4G. Go price a plan on another unlimited carri- oh wait you cant.
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Yes, corporate double speak from from Sprint. They did the exact SAME THING during the 3G roll out. I remember I had a Samsung A900 phone at the time. You are paying to subside their 4G roll out and I personally don't care about this if they didn't bungle it with this Wimax crap that they are abandoning in a few years.
Data intensive is just a joke after they realized that they weren't going to get 4g into many markets and even the markets that they got into implemented it in the coverage was too spotty.
Anyway If they really wanted to tax "data intensive" phones why didn't they do this earlier, they had phones that sucked up data before this whole charge.
I'm not complaining about the charge itself, I would appreciate it if it was used like the 3G charge. Which I believe helped the speed of the 3g implementation. I have been with Sprint since 2002 moved from a big city to a smaller town since then and was impressed with their service upgrades in the 2006~2007 time period.

mag44 said:
Yes, corporate double speak from from Sprint. They did the exact SAME THING during the 3G roll out. I remember I had a Samsung A900 phone at the time. You are paying to subside their 4G roll out and I personally don't care about this if they didn't bungle it with this Wimax crap that they are abandoning in a few years.
Data intensive is just a joke after they realized that they weren't going to get 4g into many markets and even the markets that they got into implemented it in the coverage was too spotty.
Anyway If they really wanted to tax "data intensive" phones why didn't they do this earlier, they had phones that sucked up data before this whole charge.
I'm not complaining about the charge itself, I would appreciate it if it was used like the 3G charge. Which I believe helped the speed of the 3g implementation. I have been with Sprint since 2002 moved from a big city to a smaller town since then and was impressed with their service upgrades in the 2006~2007 time period.
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So what if you are? They have to pay for it some how!
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newalker91 said:
Stop it. You're not paying any fee for 4G, you're paying for having a data intensive smartphone. So tired of hearing people whine about $10 saying it's for a service they don't get. It is not a charge for 4G. Go price a plan on another unlimited carri- oh wait you cant.
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Dude, it's not worth it.
It's been discussed and proven 10000000000000000000000000000 times on this boards.
They're trolls.
They should honestly get a ban for not reading and just trolling.

Korey_Nicholson said:
So what if you are? They have to pay for it some how!
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The whole point is they picked the wrong 4g technology. They decided to charge people for 4g initially, then realized that they messed up and decided to call the extra charge to a "data intensive" fee to cover their butts so people would not complain about not having 4g. And people like me would get labeled as whiners for even bringing up the issue. I travel a lot and even when I am in 4g cities the coverage is spotty at best. Now Sprint has changed paths, along with their upgrade offer, potentially leaving people in the dust with their extra fees.
Like I said in my earlier post I paid the extra fee to have a 3g phone when they first came out, but I would be pissed if they changed to some new 3g technology and my phone lost one of its selling points. I didn't mind that I got no 3g service at first in my home town but it eventually came.

mag44 said:
The whole point is they picked the wrong 4g technology. They decided to charge people for 4g initially, then realized that they messed up and decided to call the extra charge to a "data intensive" fee to cover their butts so people would not complain about not having 4g. And people like me would get labeled as whiners for even bringing up the issue. I travel a lot and even when I am in 4g cities the coverage is spotty at best. Now Sprint has changed paths, along with their upgrade offer, potentially leaving people in the dust with their extra fees.
Like I said in my earlier post I paid the extra fee to have a 3g phone when they first came out, but I would be pissed if they changed to some new 3g technology and my phone lost one of its selling points. I didn't mind that I got no 3g service at first in my home town but it eventually came.
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1) At no point was it ever labeled a 4g fee.
2) By the time the Wimax network is shut down no one on XDA will have one and most of the rest of the population will have moved on as well.
See newalker91....its pointless.
Its literally the same pointless and rehashed arguments that have been used the last year and a half

newalker91 said:
They have openly stated that the Premium Data fee is to help carry the costs of both 4G roll-out and 3G backhaul improvements. The reason they need to do these things is because of the fact that a smartphone can now burn through 5-10 GB of data in a month without much effort at all. With the increase in data streaming/file hosting/social networking applications, it will only get higher. Add in the addition of the iPhone, the network cannot handle it. People want more than what they pay for, it's a rule of thumb with any service, it just gets really frustrating after hearing it day in and day out.
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I keep hearing the iphone will take down your network argument but how is an iphone any different than any top line android phone. They run the same or similar applications.
Anyway, I don't think anyone understands my frustration or bothered to read my posts. I DO NOT MIND PAYING THE EXTRA DATA FEE. I just feel used by having to pay to subsidies for some crappy "4g" technology that Sprint is abandoning and changed their phone upgrade policies to screw people who are attempting to take advantage of at the moment.
I have been a Sprint customer since 2002 and like their service for the most part, they provide value that I have not seen with the other carriers. I also love move Epic Touch it is a great phone its just stuff like this that gets me pissed off.
---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 AM ----------
mattykinsx said:
1) At no point was it ever labeled a 4g fee.
2) By the time the Wimax network is shut down no one on XDA will have one and most of the rest of the population will have moved on as well.
See newalker91....its pointless.
Its literally the same pointless and rehashed arguments that have been used the last year and a half
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Okay not a 4g data fee but a PREMIUM DATA FEE. The 4g was not the total decider but it was a major decision point in their implementation of this fee. And I think that you are missing the point, I honestly don't care about the fee if they were using this to improve their Wimax. As far as phones using more data, they've had plenty of smartphones on the network before they did this, it was the 4g that allowed them to charge people.
http://androidandme.com/2010/05/new...s-mandatory-10-premium-29-for-mobile-hotspot/
Argument is also not "rehashed" as Sprint didn't decide to abandon their technology until this week but reading comprehension is beyond you so I will have to forgive you.
Again not complaining about the fee itself, I'm complaining about Sprints Wimax wasteland. If you read my posts I paid a $10 fee for my Samsung A900 3g and did not care because it garnered results. But here it ends up subsidizing some worthless and eventually abandoned technology. But, I am just a troll so what do I know.
And saying that nobody will have a wimax phone by the time they are phased out is an excellent argument. First, Sprint has changed their upgrade polices so many people NOT ON XDA (I do care about people not on this website) will be stuck on second tier wimax crap. Next, if you have a 4G phone right now you are paying for 4g wimax coverage (Yes you are also paying for the great camera on the phone and your facebook usage but if you read Sprint's statement this is mainly driven by 4g). I know that Sprint's official statements say that this extra charge is to cover the amount of data used by these phones but they decided to wait until their 4g phones were release and their poorly implemented 4g roll out. Its not smart to say its okay because by the time it comes through "we'll all have new phones".
And one more question, "Is the regular user burning through 5~10 GB of Data of their phone?". The only people that I know doing this are people who stream Netflix or something similar, who are not in the majority and Nextflix is not on every phone yet. I understand that there are users using an healthy amount of data on their phones but these people are NOT in the majority.
Although take my words for what its worth I just a troll though I've been here longer than the people who think that I am

newalker91 said:
They have openly stated that the Premium Data fee is to help carry the costs of both 4G roll-out and 3G backhaul improvements. The reason they need to do these things is because of the fact that a smartphone can now burn through 5-10 GB of data in a month without much effort at all. With the increase in data streaming/file hosting/social networking applications, it will only get higher. Add in the addition of the iPhone, the network cannot handle it. People want more than what they pay for, it's a rule of thumb with any service, it just gets really frustrating after hearing it day in and day out.
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Except we were just sold shiny new $600 phones, of which 4G is a prominent selling point... and now the majority of us in the country who don't currently have WiMAX are now hung out to dry for 2 years because we have no hope of ever GETTING 4G unless we want to fork out ANOTHER $600 for a new phone.
If I knew I was going to benefit by eventually being able to use 4G with this device, or even get reasonable 3G speeds in the major city I live in, I wouldn't be resentful of the fee at all. However, I will never be able to use 4G on this phone, and they could triple my current average 3G speeds and I'd be up to a whopping .5mbps.

Dalmus said:
Except we were just sold shiny new $600 phones, of which 4G is a prominent selling point... and now the majority of us in the country who don't currently have WiMAX are now hung out to dry for 2 years because we have no hope of ever GETTING 4G unless we want to fork out ANOTHER $600 for a new phone.
If I knew I was going to benefit by eventually being able to use 4G with this device, or even get reasonable 3G speeds in the major city I live in, I wouldn't be resentful of the fee at all. However, I will never be able to use 4G on this phone, and they could triple my current average 3G speeds and I'd be up to a whopping .5mbps.
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More like 1.5 mb/s consistently
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Dalmus said:
Except we were just sold shiny new $600 phones, of which 4G is a prominent selling point... and now the majority of us in the country who don't currently have WiMAX are now hung out to dry for 2 years because we have no hope of ever GETTING 4G unless we want to fork out ANOTHER $600 for a new phone.
If I knew I was going to benefit by eventually being able to use 4G with this device, or even get reasonable 3G speeds in the major city I live in, I wouldn't be resentful of the fee at all. However, I will never be able to use 4G on this phone, and they could triple my current average 3G speeds and I'd be up to a whopping .5mbps.
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If the gimmick that is "4g" is that big of a deal to you then sell your phone, go back to whatever phone you had and use that money when the LTE devices are available.
When Sprint Vision is released the 3g will be plenty fast.
Believe it or not, I know Verizon has convinced people of otherwise, you don't need 20mbit/s on your phone.
Or any speed close.
Christ, most people don't even have 20 mbit/s in their home!
Is that a server in your pocket? Didn't think so...

Nice XDAdvertisement, Mr. Nicholson.

k0nane said:
Nice XDAdvertisement, Mr. Nicholson.
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Hehe , attack strategy
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I am fine with 400-600KB/s

I must say I'm sad that I bought the ET4g and will never in its lifeget to turn on the 4g radio... seriously though its a little saddening I see both side of the story. When I got my evo4g I had 1.2Mb/sec download which is less than half of verizons 3g speeds on kauai and now in the last 6 months I'm at .3-.2 Mb/sec. Just makes me sad is all. I have a ferrari of a phone with a moped engine of a network hahahaha

mattykinsx said:
If the gimmick that is "4g" is that big of a deal to you then sell your phone, go back to whatever phone you had and use that money when the LTE devices are available.
When Sprint Vision is released the 3g will be plenty fast.
Believe it or not, I know Verizon has convinced people of otherwise, you don't need 20mbit/s on your phone.
Or any speed close.
Christ, most people don't even have 20 mbit/s in their home!
Is that a server in your pocket? Didn't think so...
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No, 4G isn't a big deal to me... And no, I don't need 20 mbits. You are right.
However, when I'm paying a "premium data fee" and the vast majority of the locations I go in the large city I live in have data speeds of about 15-20 kbytes/s, I get irritated. That's 1xRTT speeds. Three blocks from a tower. How do I know? Because I can force roam onto Verizon and get the same data speeds as I do native on Sprint.
If I lived in the middle of nowhere, I would expect bad 3G coverage, but I don't. I'm three freaking blocks from a Sprint tower, in a top 20 city in the country. I get the same speeds at 4am as I do at 4pm when all the 15 year olds get home from school and play on their phones.
And now, I get to wait until some mysterious time between now and the end of 2013 for them to implement their Network Vision plan in my area. Then my speeds can triple, and I'll get and average of 60 kbytes, which is still slower than Verizon, AT&T, and even Billy Bob's Cellular Emporium.
Believe me, I stay because I get a 25% discount from work, so my monthly bill is far cheaper than anything Verizon or AT&T can offer. But that is the ONLY reason. I generally discourage people from moving to Sprint, which in the long haul is worse for Sprint than if just left for Verizon.
Maybe Network Vision will result in finally getting the same, or at least similar, 3G speeds as everyone else on the planet... I'll be a happy camper. But with Sprint's history of a decreasing network footprint and decreasing data speeds, I'm not going to count on it.

[Q] Sprint and the future of 4G?

While this is not necessarily an Epic question...I have been lurking in here for the last year or so, so I feel pretty comfortable with the Epic folks. I have been the goto guy for my family in regards to phone support and advice. In the past, I have always had a pretty good answer to "Which new phone should I get?"
Now, one of my family members wants an Android phone...one that is pretty fast and does "stuff" like internet, gps, apps, blah, blah, blah.
So what do you think? Would you recommend a 4G phone, knowing that Sprint is not going to be expanding the current 4G network? I know that they said current 4G phones will continue to be able to use the available 4G network, but if you live in an area without 4G...and they aren't expanding...???
Would you recommend waiting for the new 4G phones to come out? Are they 'around the corner' or years away?
What are your thoughts?

New 4G phones with Sprint LTE won't be available to mid 2012. If you have WiMax in your area now then a current 4G phone from Sprint will serve them well. Otherwise it will be a bit of a wait.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Depends on your location. My concern would be if sprint would be keeping the current data plans when they switch over to LTE or if they will increase the price and limit the usage. If you have WiMax available and it works well i would suggest getting a current 4g model, otherwise i would say get if a phone is needed now, get it second hand lock in the contract, then when LTE is avail use the discount to get one of the new lte phones.

ok, i just did some reading about sprint's data network problem. it sounds from my understanding that, if they were to put a data cap, that it will be higher than all the other carriers and it would be for LTE. to answer your question, go ahead and get that android phone that you want. don't worry about will be in the next couple years or so, just worry about what is available now. you never know, you may win or you may lose. it's part of the data game.

What? No 4g expansion?! They have been working on it in my area but never got it fully functional.
Now I'm mad.
Why am I paying a $10 service charge for this device?
sent from my secret underground bunker

I think the $10 was so they could be the first to roll out sub-par 4G and then have some cash to scrap it and roll 4G again to compete with other carriers.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

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.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

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

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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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.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
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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..