[Q] External Antenna R1 / R2 ports ? - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note II

Hey everyone. Long time XDA'er here. Ive found little to nothing regarding the external antenna ports on our note 2. I've found that Ebay and Amazon do carry some external ones listed specifically for the note2, but I have also read that plugging anything at all into the r1 / r2 ports will cause a permanent disconnect to the internal antenna on other Samsung Galaxy series devices. Has anyone tinkered with the ports yet?
They are standard sockets and I have a spare back cover for mine. I don't mind modifying the cover to make things work if I knew it wouldn't damage my internal antenna. I'm looking at this for when I go camping ( to keep in the car for emergencies of course ).
Im also debating on just buying a cellular repeater even though they cost 4 times as much. The advantage to those is that you can get AWESOME amplified antennas and attach them to the repeater. Im just beginning my research on cellular antenna technology so any heads up would be appreciated. I do know enough about electronics and frequencies in general ( was previously an electrical / mechanical technician and repaired things at component level following schematics ) but I certainly dont want to damage my baby .
Here are links to the antenna I'm looking at :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Gal...tenna-antenna-adapter-cable-3db-/370780049306
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-external-antenna-adapter-pigtail/dp/B00BVLA2FK
Here are some repeaters im looking at :
http://www.amazon.com/T-mobile-Cel-fi-Repeater-Booster-Nextivity/dp/B00BTN02HS
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wilson-8023...907?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336e128a4b

Won't perm. disconnect....
As far as I know it won't permanently disconnect the internal antenna unless you damage the connection, I've been looking at this myself and getting an antenna is sure cheaper, the cel-fi is no longer available from t-mobile, and they keep giving me the runaround on it. Some say it's just not in Stock, but a tech Rep told me that there are real issues worth liability, it seems that the cel-fi interferes with the location on emergency calls. The Wilson products seem to mainly work with other carriers, not t-mobile, the have one of their cradle setups that will work for the cell and 3g part, but their Rep tools me that while it will work, it would be a REAL tight fit as it is not designed for phones as large as ours.
Looked at that Wilson link you posted, expensive piece of equipment there. Should work, but I'd go to Wilson's Web site to check the exact specs before I spent that kind of money on eBay. Also, Compu-Vision is not an authorized online retailer of wilson products, so if something goes wrong toy might have a real nightmare, we all know grey market sellers can be a hassle. , like I said, go to wilsonelectronics.com

revjamescarver said:
As far as I know it won't permanently disconnect the internal antenna unless you damage the connection, I've been looking at this myself and getting an antenna is sure cheaper, the cel-fi is no longer available from t-mobile, and they keep giving me the runaround on it. Some say it's just not in Stock, but a tech Rep told me that there are real issues worth liability, it seems that the cel-fi interferes with the location on emergency calls. The Wilson products seem to mainly work with other carriers, not t-mobile, the have one of their cradle setups that will work for the cell and 3g part, but their Rep tools me that while it will work, it would be a REAL tight fit as it is not designed for phones as large as ours.
Looked at that Wilson link you posted, expensive piece of equipment there. Should work, but I'd go to Wilson's Web site to check the exact specs before I spent that kind of money on eBay. Also, Compu-Vision is not an authorized online retailer of wilson products, so if something goes wrong toy might have a real nightmare, we all know grey market sellers can be a hassle. , like I said, go to wilsonelectronics.com
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Thanks much for the feedback. Ill check out wilsonelectronics.com for sure. I'm still looking into all of the possibilities at the moment though. Im not quite sure if I want to spend that much on a device not knowing where cellular technology will be in the near future. I was worried from all of the posts I read about the permanent antenna disconnects on other galaxy devices. I have asurion insurance but still.... i just had a horrible experience with them " not finding" the broken note 2 I shipped back after they billed my account for it. they game me the " you dont have your tracking number? Sorry you are stuck with the bill" speech. Thank god Tmobile was a little more helpful than that and found it for them ( in their possession ) !

pyraxiate said:
Thanks much for the feedback. Ill check out wilsonelectronics.com for sure. I'm still looking into all of the possibilities at the moment though. Im not quite sure if I want to spend that much on a device not knowing where cellular technology will be in the near future. I was worried from all of the posts I read about the permanent antenna disconnects on other galaxy devices. I have asurion insurance but still.... i just had a horrible experience with them " not finding" the broken note 2 I shipped back after they billed my account for it. they game me the " you dont have your tracking number? Sorry you are stuck with the bill" speech. Thank god Tmobile was a little more helpful than that and found it for them ( in their possession ) !
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Click to collapse
Did you every thy that antenna? I am very interested in hearing about any results

Related

future t-mobile tp2

ok i was reading somewhere else that was speculating that some time later on htc will start manufacturing tp2 with 3.5mm headset jack is this at all true or what they said that it was possible bcus why would htc spend more money making one with the usb ext if they could make it with the other tp2 with a 3.5 mm head jack, please tell me because its either getting it now or getting it later on which 1 should i get
I have a CDMA Pro2 on Telus network in Canada and I have a 3.5 mm headphone jack ....
The CDMA ones have a 3.5mm jack. And though it is POSSIBLE they might decide to start manufacturing the GSM variants with the 3.5mm jacks, it is unlikely, in my opinion, that they shall decide to start making them. And I think they stated they had no plans of adding 3.5mm jacks to future productions of the GSM variants as of now. You also have to remember that if you're with T-Mobile in the US. They would not only need to start making GSM variants with 3.5mm, but specifically the t-mobile one if you want 3G.
Hey solsearch, do you have your TP2 already? with movistar in Mexico?
Saludos,
No... but I am picking it up tomorrow (knock on wood)
The seller got a shipment of phones in last week, but they didn't confirm that mine was amongst them till this week and I haven't been able to go pick it up till now, but tomorrow first thing at 9:30am I hope to be there ready to inspect the phone and get it. I'd have bought it online and stuff, except that as a starving student (not that young) without a credit card... well, I don't feel comfortable buying online with my debit card as if anything happens it's a lot harder to get the money back. This way I can go in person, inspect, pay, and if there's anything wrong, take it back to the sellers to make good their initial warranty (and thereby save on shipping).
But Orb, how was your import? I see you got two of them I've heard horror tales on importing products, did you have to pay a lot in custom fees/taxes? That was one of the things worrying me about ordering online.
PM sent you to explain all Mexican history

ATTN: people who blame brickers for rise of TEP

While I cant say that people that brick havent affected the TEP prices, I can say I think a big part of it is sprints fault.
Today I filed my first TEP claim with sprint since I have been with them (late 09-early 10).
My headphones were cutting in and out so I replaced them, and it still happened. I took it to sprint and they said they dont have many parts for our phone.
They didnt even bother to take it apart they just ordered me another phone. This is a waste of money for something like a headphone jack not working, and just giving me another phone. This is the reason the costs are going up.
fryingpan0613 said:
While I cant say that people that brick havent affected the TEP prices, I can say I think a big part of it is sprints fault.
Today I filed my first TEP claim with sprint since I have been with them (late 09-early 10).
My headphones were cutting in and out so I replaced them, and it still happened. I took it to sprint and they said they dont have many parts for our phone.
They didnt even bother to take it apart they just ordered me another phone. This is a waste of money for something like a headphone jack not working, and just giving me another phone. This is the reason the costs are going up.
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Someone told me since these phones are getting so complex little things like replacing the screens would cost them more than ordering a new phone. I might be wrong tho. I remember sprint loved to take apart my og epic.
_dan said:
Someone told me since these phones are getting so complex little things like replacing the screens would cost them more than ordering a new phone. I might be wrong tho. I remember sprint loved to take apart my og epic.
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Then whats the point of paying techs lol
fryingpan0613 said:
Then whats the point of paying techs lol
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To wipe your phone and say it's fixed.
phatmanxxl said:
To wipe your phone and say it's fixed.
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Click to collapse
lmao did that alot when i had a mogul and it kept messing up. Remember though they arent just gonna toss your old phone when u get the new one, it will go to a repair facility to get refurbed then out to the next customer.
Too late now (and it may have voided the warranty trying to fix it), but unless the actual jack was broken, Deoxit probably would have taken care of it.
Love that stuff.
[duh me.. it's a contact cleaner. same stuff that cleans guitar jacks/knobs from all of the bar smoke and spilled beer]
Lol, this thread tickles me.
What do you really think we're going to do with your exchanged phone, just toss it?
Its going back to the warehouse, the jack will be fixed, then shipped to a store. Only difference from it being fixed in store is shipping.
I would be glad if I were you. You know, we could be like Verizon, and say it doesn't warrant an exchange, so instead ship it off to get fixed.
The truth be told, the issue of not having parts for this phone is not a problem, but rather a symptom: sprint doesn't have much money to spend with vendors, and one of the results is that I and all my other fellow techs have had to be very resourceful when it comes to fixing phones; consider we haven't gotten new parts for a phone that is any newer than the EVO Shift
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Stupid double post
squshy 7 said:
Lol, this thread tickles me.
What do you really think we're going to do with your exchanged phone, just toss it?
Its going back to the warehouse, the jack will be fixed, then shipped to a store. Only difference from it being fixed in store is shipping.
I would be glad if I were you. You know, we could be like Verizon, and say it doesn't warrant an exchange, so instead ship it off to get fixed.
The truth be told, the issue of not having parts for this phone is not a problem, but rather a symptom: sprint doesn't have much money to spend with vendors, and one of the results is that I and all my other fellow techs have had to be very resourceful when it comes to fixing phones; consider we haven't gotten new parts for a phone that is any newer than the EVO Shift
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
I wasnt complaining, it was more just to state that it seems like a waste of money.
Hell even the bricked phones Im sure they could salvage a lot of it, the screen and other parts would be useful.
I guess when I went into the store I was expecting a on the spot fix. Why dont they keep referbs in store?
You know, I had a similar thing happen. My soft keys, or whatever they are, werent working very well, so I figured they would replace the screen. The problem was the ribbon cable on the bottom of the screen that connects to the keys. Instead they gave me a brand new phone.....a new one, not a refurb. It had never been activated before.
TEP isn't going up because of people breaking their phones, it's going up to cover the latest devices being $550+.
Also, what you did isn't a "claim".
Sunsparc said:
TEP isn't going up because of people breaking their phones, it's going up to cover the latest devices being $550+.
Also, what you did isn't a "claim".
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Click to collapse
Since you brought up prices, its interesting to point out that I noticed at best buy the retail for this phone is $699 or $749,while the sprint store was $499. I would guess that it is because sprint gets them cheaper because its directly with the manufacturer?
And I said claim because when I looked up the coverage, it says you are allowed up to 3 claims a year I thought. Or is that for like broken screens?
And why wouldn't sprint send my phone for an example to samsung under the 1 year warranty (I think) and save them some money?
Tep is only going up for new lte devices with a full retail price of $549.99 or higher. It will be $11/mo and a $150 deductable. All current phones will stay at $8/mo and only new lte phones with a msrp lower than $549.99 will stay at the current $8/mo with a $100 deductible
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
A. We do keep refurbished phones, but maybe the didn't have one.
B. We harvest the crap out of returns in your case, we will take it apart and harvest everything but the jack and the motherboard.
C. Lately, it seems Samsung has been doing some of their own refurbished , because they come in a different box.
D. Yes TEP is going up thanks to the phones being more expensive.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Its also not so much the cost of phones going up. Its the amount of devices at that cost level being sold now. The more high cost phones sold the higher the chance if a high cost claim. Like any insurance they reevaluated and adjusted.
^^ what he said. I work for Sprint too, i run the largest ASC (repair center) in our region, and the way we work is this: if your phone is broke, we attempt to repair it using either Sprint-supplied parts, aftermarket parts, or parts harvested from devices that were exchanged through the Advanced Exchange program- all of this is covered under TEP, but if you don't have it, we then charge you $35. If we can't fix it, we order a replacement. If it's liquid damaged, smashed, spider-cracked, or lost, w refer you to Asurion to file a claim (which is an extended feature of TEP) and then you pay a deductible. If you bricked it, then it's a case-by-case basis (TIP: dont be a condescending a-hole who knows everything, and don't lie to us).
Some phones we simply can't get parts for from Sprint, so we have to order from a 3rd party (e.g. Global Direct), or rely solely on having a harvest-able device on hand. So when we exchange a device for a customer, we hold onto it for 14 days and we use it to harvest parts from part-for-part as needed, then ship it back to the warehouse. We can't stockpile harvested parts, as we are required to replace the parts we take with the defective ones (or else we get charged back).
Whoever said we just hard reset and say have a nice day must've had a bad experience somewhere, because at our store, we take our work pretty seriously. Our goal isn't to be super-techs, but rather make you so happy that you'll take that survey call that's generated a couple days after the service and answer it with a "very satisfied". Our jobs depend on those customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT's), and any response less than a "very satisfied" is a failing score for the particular tech who fixed your phone. Those CSAT survey scores keep us up at night, and is the bane of our very existence. So please, if we fixed your device, help us keep our jobs.
I can't speak for other ASC's, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are a few techs out there who aren't that good, but hey, you get that in EVERY company. Don't go in acting like we need to lick your sack because you're super important and can't be without a phone for the 30 mins we need to work on it. Don't treat us like we're idiots because YOU dropped your phone in a mud puddle. Don't get pissed at us because you forgot your Google account password and expect us to be able to magically figure it out. We want to help you. Help us help you.
But yeah, the price change on TEP is due to the rising cost of the bleeding-edge devices that are coming out, the cost of our Network Vision roll-out, and i am totally guessing here, but to re-coop on the overhead of having unlimited data.
Tep is going up because the iPhone came to sprint. Watch for Verizon double data promo to end once iPhone lte comes out. The phone is a game changer for these networks
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
newalker91 said:
So you work for a 3rd party?
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He must...I definitely enjoy stockpiling harvested parts at my corporate store
Though, seriously, we need to. Sprint has hung us put to dry with a lack of new parts; bins full of harvested parts is the only way to keep under that exchange rate. Especially with HTC touchscreens lately...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
I'm curious, does TEP now cover iPhone? I had the impression when iPhone first came out, TEP wasn't available for it. Then I think a month or so ago, I read rumors that they were planning on having TEP cover iPhone.
sfhub said:
I'm curious, does TEP now cover iPhone? I had the impression when iPhone first came out, TEP wasn't available for it. Then I think a month or so ago, I read rumors that they were planning on having TEP cover iPhone.
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No, not at all. Only AppleCare+ is available for the iPhone. Which is fine by me, the less I have to work on that phone the better.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Need Samsung Galaxy S3 Sprint help

Hello,
We are long time Verizon customers but have had enough of their capricious attitude, the insane recent price hikes and limited data plans. (although we currently have unlimited data). However, my husband's phone was stolen about a month ago and while we're using an old phone for the moment, we need to upgrade it for him. I like Sprint's current business model of unlimited everything (& we plan to sign up for everything data plus from the employees referral to save a bit and get more minutes). We also like the fact that Sprint is a green company and supports more things that we believe in. Yeah, I know that we're giving up the network for a bit until Sprint's Network Vision is completed but I think we can live with that.
Here's my dilemma. There are no Sprint owned stores in our area, just third party stores and only a couple of those so I can't buy through them &get everything data plus... Which is fine because they don't know much at all. I went there to try to see both the Evo 4G LTE side by side with the Samsung Galaxy S3...both working. Unfortunately, they didn't have a working model of the S3 but they opened up a package so I could at least hold them next to each other.
My concern most of all is with the radio quality and reception. I have some serious medical issues so being able to call for help is a frequent need. I took my current phone (HTC Rezound), my husband's Motorola DROID X, and the Evo LTE, and did side by side comparisons of the radios. My Rezound came in top at -80 give or take a few both directions, the DX, at -86 also give/take & the Evo LTE at -97 to -103. I then tried to load a webpage on my Rezound and the Evo. I picked yahoo because it has mixed media &was a first thing that popped into my head. My Rezound loaded the desktop version in less than 20 seconds... The Evo was still attempting to load the mobile version after several minutes.
So, do I believe the story that the mall kiosk has terrible Sprint reception? Was the demo Evo LTE one of the bad first batch? I know that there will be a step back in service speed but this was unbearable. I'm hoping that this isn't the normal for Sprint service... I mean it can't be, right? Right no one would use them.
What I'm unable to find out is what the Samsung Galaxy S3 radio is like compared to the Evo LTE in similar circumstances. I can't afford to get one of the phones, not have it work, pay the restocking fee and a second activation fee. With two lines that's over $200 just to switch away from a defective phone. Is there any leeway given for phones that won't hold a signal... Like allowing us to switch to another phone if the first is defective? I know that the base chipset is the same between the two phones but from what I've read the radios themselves can be different based on the manufacturer. So, I don't know what either the HTC Evo LTE or galaxy S3 would be like on any specific phone and it sounds like there are differences in the batches. What do I do or what would you do? I know we're taking a risk switching to carriers but we want to live authentically and put money into companies that are supporting the things we believe in and shaping their company based upon similar values. We will be having to do a transfer of our Vzw account (assumption of liability) once we're settled into Sprint but not until we're positive it works for us. Then we'll give up our Vzw contract so we don't owe an ETF. It also gives my DH the phone upgrade he needs since his was stolen during one of my medical emergencies. Vzw refused to help us at all through the whole process.
But I digress.
What do you think phone wise? Bad reception? Bad Evo LTE? Would you take a chance on the S3 with Samsung's past radio issues... Do you think that they've improved them? Would you take a chance on getting a bad Evo LTE since HTC /Sprint have admitted to a problem there? Since I can't compare them side by side working or compare radio strengths I really need advice!
Thanks so much in advance!
All the best,
Rae
varaonaid said:
Hello,
We are long time Verizon customers but have had enough of their capricious attitude, the insane recent price hikes and limited data plans. (although we currently have unlimited data). However, my husband's phone was stolen about a month ago and while we're using an old phone for the moment, we need to upgrade it for him. I like Sprint's current business model of unlimited everything (& we plan to sign up for everything data plus from the employees referral to save a bit and get more minutes). We also like the fact that Sprint is a green company and supports more things that we believe in. Yeah, I know that we're giving up the network for a bit until Sprint's Network Vision is completed but I think we can live with that.
Here's my dilemma. There are no Sprint owned stores in our area, just third party stores and only a couple of those so I can't buy through them &get everything data plus... Which is fine because they don't know much at all. I went there to try to see both the Evo 4G LTE side by side with the Samsung Galaxy S3...both working. Unfortunately, they didn't have a working model of the S3 but they opened up a package so I could at least hold them next to each other.
My concern most of all is with the radio quality and reception. I have some serious medical issues so being able to call for help is a frequent need. I took my current phone (HTC Rezound), my husband's Motorola DROID X, and the Evo LTE, and did side by side comparisons of the radios. My Rezound came in top at -80 give or take a few both directions, the DX, at -86 also give/take & the Evo LTE at -97 to -103. I then tried to load a webpage on my Rezound and the Evo. I picked yahoo because it has mixed media &was a first thing that popped into my head. My Rezound loaded the desktop version in less than 20 seconds... The Evo was still attempting to load the mobile version after several minutes.
So, do I believe the story that the mall kiosk has terrible Sprint reception? Was the demo Evo LTE one of the bad first batch? I know that there will be a step back in service speed but this was unbearable. I'm hoping that this isn't the normal for Sprint service... I mean it can't be, right? Right no one would use them.
What I'm unable to find out is what the Samsung Galaxy S3 radio is like compared to the Evo LTE in similar circumstances. I can't afford to get one of the phones, not have it work, pay the restocking fee and a second activation fee. With two lines that's over $200 just to switch away from a defective phone. Is there any leeway given for phones that won't hold a signal... Like allowing us to switch to another phone if the first is defective? I know that the base chipset is the same between the two phones but from what I've read the radios themselves can be different based on the manufacturer. So, I don't know what either the HTC Evo LTE or galaxy S3 would be like on any specific phone and it sounds like there are differences in the batches. What do I do or what would you do? I know we're taking a risk switching to carriers but we want to live authentically and put money into companies that are supporting the things we believe in and shaping their company based upon similar values. We will be having to do a transfer of our Vzw account (assumption of liability) once we're settled into Sprint but not until we're positive it works for us. Then we'll give up our Vzw contract so we don't owe an ETF. It also gives my DH the phone upgrade he needs since his was stolen during one of my medical emergencies. Vzw refused to help us at all through the whole process.
But I digress.
What do you think phone wise? Bad reception? Bad Evo LTE? Would you take a chance on the S3 with Samsung's past radio issues... Do you think that they've improved them? Would you take a chance on getting a bad Evo LTE since HTC /Sprint have admitted to a problem there? Since I can't compare them side by side working or compare radio strengths I really need advice!
Thanks so much in advance!
All the best,
Rae
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all varies on your area, you need to find people who live around you and ask there opinion. Some ppl say the HTC radio sucks, others say Sammys sucks. Rumor was without pure fact that Samsung was using a radio like the Motorola phones use. Lots of ppl are reporting positive feedback with the GS3. So it's something you can try, and if the store can't help you avoid a restocking fee, I would call customer service to see if theyd waive it.
However I know Sprint hasnt charged me a restock fee yet or ever, and if you have reception issues at home they will send you a free airwave...
I've heard that Sprint 3g is awful in some areas. I get decent enough speeds here and LTE is coming to my area soon so I won't be changing carrier. However, if LTE wasn't coming soon I'd definitely consider jumping ship.
juanpow3r said:
I've heard that Sprint 3g is awful in some areas. I get decent enough speeds here and LTE is coming to my area soon so I won't be changing carrier. However, if LTE wasn't coming soon I'd definitely consider jumping ship.
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The thing is and to be honest, once LTE hits, everyone will be *****ing about battery life. There is not a reason you cant jump on WIFI if avalible. Or use 3g... I have been stuck and still am stuck on 3g, and things load instantly for me... granted I'm not downloading big videos or anything...
But I know her main point was coverage... so she'd really need to stop at a store and talk to people who use the phone outside of the business
I'll let you know. Mostly I want to know that Sprint will stand behind either phone if the radios aren't up to par without the restocking fees and a second activation fee... I can't afford $210 of activation, restocking and another reactivation fee for phones that are defective. I'm not talking about just changing my mind and wanting a different phone but needing to trust that one way or another I'll get two phones with no radio issues.
It's not as simple as just staying with VZW, my husband's phone was stolen during one of my medical emergencies... He's currently using an old phone but it's not working very well. So, we either pony up for a new phone (even if it's via Craigslist) or we get a new provider (who hopefully gives a care bc Vzw certainly didn't!), both get new phones and sell our current ones to cover most of the upfront cost of the new phones. We could wait until Network Vision is completed or moreso but will they still be able to offer unlimited data plan at that point. Since we feel that we want to switch, now feels like a good time to do so. Does that make sense?
No we're not out of contract with Verizon but have people lined up to do an AOL (assumption of liability or contract takeover) so we'd be out of it with no fees. However, we won't complete the AOL until we're sure that Sprint will work for us now.
Does anyone know if the everything data plus (we'd be looking at the 1600min family plan) has free activation? I'd have to order online and it would be via employee referral? Also, do you get any numbers you can pick that are unlimited to those numbers? Verizon had friends and family where you got to pick a handful of numbers that you call the most that don't count against our minutes. My only concern is my in laws as they have a VERY limited cell plan and use their land line almost exclusively. If we could add that one number that would help a ton. I'd read somewhere online that Sprint had something similar but now, of course, can't find it again.
I appreciate all of your help and advice so very much. I hope this explains more why we're considering the switch and why we need good phone reception... At least as good as is currently possible on their network.
BTW, when we informed Vzw about the phone theft we were tracking the phone on Google latitude and the refused to help or advise us as to what to do in any way. Super disappointed with their lack of help. If the customer service had been better, we might have gotten our phone back. I've heard good things about Sprint's customer service.
Any other thoughts or suggestions or advice... Please share! And many thanks to all of you who have shared!
Order directly from Sprint
As a former employee of a 3rd party vendor, if you are worried about the vendors complying with Sprint's 30-day no strings window, order your phones directly from Sprint. If your or your husband's employer have an agreement with sprint that nets their employee's a discount, they might also have an exclusive sales team and pricing. Most corporate discounts waive the activation fee on new lines and Sprint(corporate, not 3rd party) is very good about exchanges. Keep in mind 3rd party vendors can, and do, pretty much whatever they want, if they treat you poorly, email [email protected] and it will garner the attention of Dan Hesse's resolution team. But again if you want to avoid the 3rd party headache, just order online or over the phone. Good luck, and I will check back as I just ordered both, an evo lte and sIII, for my wife and I. I will let you know how signal goes.
Sprint is very giving... ill PM you a number to use when you call them.
Sent from my DynaTAC 8000S ;-) via 5G
Thanks so much for the new info. I really appreciate it. Please do send along the best number to call Sprint at. That's totally awesome. I just need to make sure that we have good enough reception in our area and that we get good working phones. I'm really glad to hear that they are a "giving" company or maybe best to describe as doing what it takes to satisfy the customer. Vzw seems to be purposely going the opposite way and I'm not impressed. Again, I'd love that phone number to use and would also love to hear your thoughts and impressions of the two phones when you get them! I Please keep the info coming!
varaonaid said:
Thanks so much for the new info. I really appreciate it. Please do send along the best number to call Sprint at. That's totally awesome. I just need to make sure that we have good enough reception in our area and that we get good working phones. I'm really glad to hear that they are a "giving" company or maybe best to describe as doing what it takes to satisfy the customer. Vzw seems to be purposely going the opposite way and I'm not impressed. Again, I'd love that phone number to use and would also love to hear your thoughts and impressions of the two phones when you get them! I Please keep the info coming!
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Click to collapse
As of right now i get great signal and battery on my sprint s iii. I support ur cjoicr to switch. As far as customer sipport u eont regret it. If u have bad sifnal call them at any customer service number and request an airrave theyll send one for free. Those give u full signal at home. I believe emergency calls work without signal too so 911 shouldn't be a problem anyway, and airave should fix signal worries. So far this phone has great radio so far as I can tell.
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[Q] Help: Options for a cracked phone and carriers

So i managed to drop and crack the lcd on my note 2 and the display wont show now. so after arguing with asurion on them not giving me a replacement even though i had insurance and was willing to pay the 200 dollar deductible. Now i want personal opinions on what i should do. Im most likely going to cancel with them seeing it will save me money in the long run since i am paying around 90 monthly. Now is it fairly easy to do a screen replacement myself on this device? if so can someone be kind enough to give me links to the part and a tut maybe or if theres an online solution. Then i was considering maybe flashing it and using H2o i heard its a decent company. does anyone know of any cheap solutions to a monthly payment?
any information will be helpful and personal thoughts on what i can/should do in my current situation.
thanks again
Masturbatoe said:
So i managed to drop and crack the lcd on my note 2 and the display wont show now. so after arguing with asurion on them not giving me a replacement even though i had insurance and was willing to pay the 200 dollar deductible. Now i want personal opinions on what i should do. Im most likely going to cancel with them seeing it will save me money in the long run since i am paying around 90 monthly. Now is it fairly easy to do a screen replacement myself on this device? if so can someone be kind enough to give me links to the part and a tut maybe or if theres an online solution. Then i was considering maybe flashing it and using H2o i heard its a decent company. does anyone know of any cheap solutions to a monthly payment?
any information will be helpful and personal thoughts on what i can/should do in my current situation.
thanks again
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Click to collapse
First of all I don't understand why asurion wouldn't cover it, unless you've already had 2 claims this year. But if that's the case, you might be better off buying a second hand device and selling yours for parts. If the LCD itself is broken, the minimum to replace is going to be $300+, and if you're not experienced at hardware repairs, this might be a tough one. As far as what carrier to go to, it depends a lot on your location. In cities, H2O is solid, and cheap, but straight talk is supposed to be pretty good (or better, at least where I live). Anyway, below is a link to one of the many youtube videos on this subject.. Good luck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxgZeb5QytM
zoso28 said:
First of all I don't understand why asurion wouldn't cover it, unless you've already had 2 claims this year. But if that's the case, you might be better off buying a second hand device and selling yours for parts. If the LCD itself is broken, the minimum to replace is going to be $300+, and if you're not experienced at hardware repairs, this might be a tough one. As far as what carrier to go to, it depends a lot on your location. In cities, H2O is solid, and cheap, but straight talk is supposed to be pretty good (or better, at least where I live). Anyway, below is a link to one of the many youtube videos on this subject.. Good luck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxgZeb5QytM
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something about i didnt use my phone after the claim? idk i asked them to explain it but they gave me the same thing.
but yes the lcd is broken i mean i receive messages and stuff cause i feel it vibrate and all.
I mean i am experienced i replaced several screens on other devices.
well i live in california and my only question at this moment is, if i replace my screen can they flash it so it can work with them?
For the price of the phone and the screen replacement I personally would have asked more about this "something". If you have insurance and are willing to pay the $200 there shouldn't be a reason why a replacement is not issued. Is there more to your story? Well as it has been stated already in the other post the replacement screen is around $300.
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TMo recent announcement, "Personal Cellspot"

This looks pretty interesting, just noticed that a few news aggregators that I check had some info about the "Uncarrier 7" announcement. Apparently, starting on 9/17 for only a $25 DEPOSIT (easily reclaimed if I understand correctly) for what they're calling a "Personal CellSpot" wifi router. I'm super curious about the specifics of this device, this article http://www.geekwire.com/2014/t-mobi...nal-cellspot-wifi-router-boost-call-coverage/ reports that in the announcement Tmo said that it could even replace your current router... which is not something I'm at all interested in doing, but adding it to my network to get max LTE inside is something that I'm most definitely interested in doing. So just wanted to let you all know about this news, which I find quite interesting (particularly the literally unbeatable price). Anyone feel free to post any details that you can uncover about the device; I'll continue researching and do the same.
jazzmachine said:
This looks pretty interesting, just noticed that a few news aggregators that I check had some info about the "Uncarrier 7" announcement. Apparently, starting on 9/17 for only a $25 DEPOSIT (easily reclaimed if I understand correctly) for what they're calling a "Personal CellSpot" wifi router. I'm super curious about the specifics of this device, this article http://www.geekwire.com/2014/t-mobi...nal-cellspot-wifi-router-boost-call-coverage/ reports that in the announcement Tmo said that it could even replace your current router... which is not something I'm at all interested in doing, but adding it to my network to get max LTE inside is something that I'm most definitely interested in doing. So just wanted to let you all know about this news, which I find quite interesting (particularly the literally unbeatable price). Anyone feel free to post any details that you can uncover about the device; I'll continue researching and do the same.
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This actually looks pretty cool. Reminds me of the AT&T 3G thingy that they have, except full LTE
Just thought "Hmm, I wonder if there's any info about it on the TMo site... durrr." Here's a like to the overview of the device on their support site: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-15754
After looking through that info: the setup instructions basically tell you to replace your current router with it (plug into modem, web setup gui), but there has to be a way to set it up as a bridge. Interestingly, In the troubleshooting section they link to the Asus support page for the (newer version) of the router that I have for advanced configuration, which seems promising. The device itself definitely has solid specs though: AC wifi, dual band, USB input etc. If my current router didn't have the same features, I'd definitely consider upgrading to it (after learning about it's firmware, config capabilities) if I didn't currently have an Asus RT-AC66U running Merlin's custom AsusWRT firmware (adds many features to the router, and I actually thought the stock AsusWRT wasn't bad... builds of DD-WRT ect. seem kind of iffy for it though). Anyways, if putting it in bridged mode isn't possible, I would look into attaching it via an ethernet splitter at my modem... that would actually work well (if it would work, continually trying to expand my knowledge in the complex realm of networking) because I almost always connect to a VPN client on my desktop machine... if I could set up an additional router, then I could just connect all the devices I wanted on the VPN to the Asus router which I would configure with OpenVPN, and my phone on other devices that I prefer I straight connection on to the T-Mo router.
However it ends up working, getting a device with those specs that also gives you strong LTE for approximately zero dollars and zero cents flat out kicks ass (unless it has some kind of backdoor to intercept all packets or something, that's my fear about using it as a solo router). Keep on un-carrying TMo!
toastido said:
This actually looks pretty cool. Reminds me of the AT&T 3G thingy that they have, except full LTE
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Yeah, back during the lengthy time that I paid ATT excessively due to the flat out false impression that my "grandfathered unlimited" plan still resembled the plan that I initially signed up for in any way... AT&T actually sent me one of those ($300 I believe) devices completely gratis because inside my old apartment, my phone could barely touch a mobile network other than AT&T's and still, the signal was super weak. They never asked for it back after I ditched them after finding out in an emergency situation just how "unlimited" my data plan really was, when I hit 5 gigs for the first time in years, and was immediately throttled down to "can't load a webpage" unusable. Calling CS several times, I had NO option to regain usable data until the month rolled over short of changing to a new plan where I would be *allowed* to buy additional data (and of course, signing a fresh contract, when my prior two years had just ended). But wait! there's more! Despite no-longer being an ATT sucker.. er, customer, I still receive a monthly bill for $16 from them. It's because of the fact that at one point, I had to buy a new un-subsidized phone, and they had this deal where you could get an S4 or something and an LTE tablet for the price of just the phone (but the tablet needed a data plan). That sounded pretty good, so I grabbed a Note 8 (i467, not realizing how crippled it was vs. the wifi 5110 version). So that tablet got stolen soon after purchase, and I replaced it with the wifi only model (in retrospect, MUCH better device... quite dev friendly vs AT&T model w/ obligatory locked bootloader which took forever to even find a working root method but custom ROMs pretty much out of the question). So I obviously didn't need want the tablet data anymore... well, they did me a huge favor, and changed my tablet plan to this one that costs $16 / month, which they clearly plan on charging me for the duration of 2 years, unless I can figure out how to void it or something.
Man, a totally OT tirade in my own thread! Actually that thought was sparked by your mention of the AT&T device, which I seriously need to sell on eBay! That could quite possibly cover this BS data-less data plan that AT&T insists that I owe them...
Slightly back on topic, this device appears to beat the pants off of the AT&T thing on every level. Spec-wise, it really does look like a very solid router available for only a refundable deposit! Good job TMo, this is definitely one of the more interesting un-carrier announcements...
This could be T-Mobile's replacement for their cell phone signal booster. They were $500 but giving them away free if you were in a bad area. Idk how much these cost to make but at least they arent giving them away for free.
A little more relevant detail (bolded) from a BGR link w/ more info about the whole announcement:
"T-Mobile’s second big announcement is a clear effort to work past any real or perceived indoor coverage issues by offering subscribers a free WiFi cell tower of sorts that can be used in their homes or offices.
Dubbed the “T-Mobile Personal CellSpot,” the device is basically a WiFi router that can work alongside or in place of your existing router. The CellSpot will allow all devices to connect to it, but it will prioritize WiFi calling voice traffic in order to ensure that calls are always as clear as possible.
A free Personal CellSpot can be obtained from a T-Mobile store or by calling the carrier’s customer service department, and a refundable $25 hardware deposit will be required."
http://bgr.com/2014/09/10/t-mobile-wifi-unleashed-announcement/
This would be great if your home network is good. Pointless if it's not. It sucks that I get LTE in one part of our house and then 4g/2g in another. An lte signal Booster would be more useful. I have an older signal Booster but it only boost 4g.
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Please don't get me started on ATT, it took 4 months, about 8 calls and 4 trips to different att stores to cancel expired contract account. Spoke to many different agents and managers, so it was company wide. On top of that they stole $150 (overpayments on cancelled account they promised refund, never did). I would take those gangsters to court, but just too busy and not worth my time. However I will never ever use their service, even if it was for free. Got great satisfaction when they paid billions to support my current cell company, T-mo. Sorry for my rant, couldn't resist.
Back to topic: Let us know how it works, I have LTE service at home, (about 10Mb down, 2Mb up) but this could speed things up a little.
jazzmachine said:
Yeah, back during the lengthy time that I paid ATT excessively due to the flat out false impression that my "grandfathered unlimited" plan still resembled the plan that I initially signed up for in any way... AT&T actually sent me one of those ($300 I believe) devices completely gratis because inside my old apartment, my phone could barely touch a mobile network other than AT&T's and still, the signal was super weak. They never asked for it back after I ditched them after finding out in an emergency situation just how "unlimited" my data plan really was, when I hit 5 gigs for the first time in years, and was immediately throttled down to "can't load a webpage" unusable. Calling CS several times, I had NO option to regain usable data until the month rolled over short of changing to a new plan where I would be *allowed* to buy additional data (and of course, signing a fresh contract, when my prior two years had just ended). But wait! there's more! Despite no-longer being an ATT sucker.. er, customer, I still receive a monthly bill for $16 from them. It's because of the fact that at one point, I had to buy a new un-subsidized phone, and they had this deal where you could get an S4 or something and an LTE tablet for the price of just the phone (but the tablet needed a data plan). That sounded pretty good, so I grabbed a Note 8 (i467, not realizing how crippled it was vs. the wifi 5110 version). So that tablet got stolen soon after purchase, and I replaced it with the wifi only model (in retrospect, MUCH better device... quite dev friendly vs AT&T model w/ obligatory locked bootloader which took forever to even find a working root method but custom ROMs pretty much out of the question). So I obviously didn't need want the tablet data anymore... well, they did me a huge favor, and changed my tablet plan to this one that costs $16 / month, which they clearly plan on charging me for the duration of 2 years, unless I can figure out how to void it or something.
Man, a totally OT tirade in my own thread! Actually that thought was sparked by your mention of the AT&T device, which I seriously need to sell on eBay! That could quite possibly cover this BS data-less data plan that AT&T insists that I owe them...
Slightly back on topic, this device appears to beat the pants off of the AT&T thing on every level. Spec-wise, it really does look like a very solid router available for only a refundable deposit! Good job TMo, this is definitely one of the more interesting un-carrier announcements...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pete4k said:
Please don't get me started on ATT, it took 4 months, about 8 calls and 4 trips to different att stores to cancel expired contract account. Spoke to many different agents and managers, so it was company wide. On top of that they stole $150 (overpayments on cancelled account they promised refund, never did). I would take those gangsters to court, but just too busy and not worth my time. However I will never ever use their service, even if it was for free. Got great satisfaction when they paid billions to support my current cell company, T-mo. Sorry for my rant, couldn't resist.
Back to topic: Let us know how it works, I have LTE service at home, (about 10Mb down, 2Mb up) but this could speed things up a little.
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Yo, strictly on topic man! JUUUUST KIDDING! Actually, it's rather shocking how many topics "Yes, AT&T seriously pulled this BS" stories are at least tangentially related to! I imagine that I would have had a similar experience, had T-Mobile not only kindly handled the entire process for me, but then also gave me money! That has worked out VERY well.
No need for this of you have a asus rt-n66u or higher router with qos(quality of service). If your have a cheap comcast or att router this is for you.
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How would a router increase your LTE signal? I don't think it's a cell phone reception booster so it wouldn't increase our signal strength. I think T-Mobile would rather give out cheap routers so we will leave our wifi on for wifi calling/texting/surfing instead of using their cell towers.
It's both. LTE and Wi-Fi. At least that's what I got out of it.
Sent from my leanKernel 3.8 powered stock 4.4.2 (NF9) SM-N900T
Here's a hands-on account: http://www.phonearena.com/news/T-Mobiles-Personal-CellSpot-hands-on_id60587 In addition to a little more hardware info (USB 2 & 3 port... not too shabby), there's some decent discussion, particularly re: QoS being configured heavily for optimal VoIP, and who knows if that can be re-configured. It also answers a question that I couldn't help but wonder about...
So you throw down $25 bucks for this thing, then strip it for parts that you need for your legit A.I. quantum computer... are there any consequences other than being down $25 (and obviously the inevitable outcome which follows the Terminator movies plot lines precisely, including dialogue)? This article states that you can just straight up buy the device for $99, so I imagine that you'd be on the hook for an additional $75 if you can't return it... when the time comes (? whatever than ends up meaning). That is unless you use that new QC to travel back to before you ever picked it up... as long as you're willing to risk almost certainly causing several tears in the space / time continuum in order to save $99 (which could VERY possibly actually be worth $99.01 due to reverse inflation). Either way, you win!
If I'm not mistaken that tmo-ac1900 is a asus rt-ac68u(that I own) selling for real cheap.... The only router better on the market is the rt-ac87u
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Folks, this is a QOS modified Asus router. IT does NOT increase or rebroadcast ANY cell frequencies. LTE, 3g, 4g, nada.
It's purely QOS enhanced to give you WIFI calling QOS settings which most NORMAL users have no clue how to set up.
That being said, if you do not have a quality sim dual band router or only B/A/G/N and want a high quality router with AC standards, this is an extremely nice device.
For those of us who are professional engineers in the field and already have a quality router, you can always get this and add it as a signal repeater for wifi elsewhere in your home/office.
I shall probably get it just to have it on hand in case Netgear dumps a bad firmware and wipes my current router.
Admiral2145 said:
If I'm not mistaken that tmo-ac1900 is a asus rt-ac68u(that I own) selling for real cheap.... The only router better on the market is the rt-ac87u
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OK, hmm... thanks for that interesting info! I have the previous model of that router (rt-ac66u). Have you ever come across Merlin's AsusWRT firmware? I found it it because the stock gui tool to update the download and flash firmware upgrades is just broken (at least for my model). Apparently AsusWRT is open-sourced, which is pretty excellent, particularly for router firmware, and I later came across other customized builds but it looks like Merlin's is the most popular (at least that was what Google told me when I was inquiring about that built-in firmware update tool constantly failing), and it adds some nice additional settings. The hardware itself is also solid; only power-cycled it a handful of times over several months of ownership (it was pretty new when I got it), and that likely wasn't even the issue some of those times. Well, actually, I suppose it did kind of start resetting itself at one point... the power adapter is crap for some reason, and I eventually noticed that a little bit of the wire had gotten stripped, so i put electrical tape around that part, but if I touched the wire after that point the messed up part would lose alignment until I messed with it and saw the router reboot. The adapter I replaced that with feels much better; plug connection (in router) is perfectly tight vs. stock which is slightly loose, and it's both significantly longer and thicker. Actually, that Just reminded me that that I had broken one of the stock antennae, so I bought a replacement set (made for the router) that are a bit longer/thicker and did improve the signal strength. So, two thumbs up for the router itself, but just one sideways thumb for the quality of the included additional components.
This deal would be particularly killer if you're able to flash alternative firmware, which I would imagine they at least attempt to prevent, particularly if you just drop the temporary $25 to use it vs. the $99 to own it. However, even if it requires a JTAG and some skills, one can now get a high end router for only $99. If you want to experiment, ya think you could just throw down $25 to grab one, brick it quickly, return to store, "The one I got is defective, I tried to set it up and it won't turn on! Now I can't even access the cloud tube!! Blah, blah, obviously I'm not technical enough to have messed it up, can I get a different one?" So I guess we'll find out how locked down this thing is... using a router that needs to be "rooted" is a major red flag IMO...
jazzmachine said:
OK, hmm... thanks for that interesting info! I have the previous model of that router (rt-ac66u). Have you ever come across Merlin's AsusWRT firmware? I found it it because the stock gui tool to update the download and flash firmware upgrades is just broken (at least for my model). Apparently AsusWRT is open-sourced, which is pretty excellent, particularly for router firmware, and I later came across other customized builds but it looks like Merlin's is the most popular (at least that was what Google told me when I was inquiring about that built-in firmware update tool constantly failing), and it adds some nice additional settings. The hardware itself is also solid; only power-cycled it a handful of times over several months of ownership (it was pretty new when I got it), and that likely wasn't even the issue some of those times. Well, actually, I suppose it did kind of start resetting itself at one point... the power adapter is crap for some reason, and I eventually noticed that a little bit of the wire had gotten stripped, so i put electrical tape around that part, but if I touched the wire after that point the messed up part would lose alignment until I messed with it and saw the router reboot. The adapter I replaced that with feels much better; plug connection (in router) is perfectly tight vs. stock which is slightly loose, and it's both significantly longer and thicker. Actually, that Just reminded me that that I had broken one of the stock antennae, so I bought a replacement set (made for the router) that are a bit longer/thicker and did improve the signal strength. So, two thumbs up for the router itself, but just one sideways thumb for the quality of the included additional components.
This deal would be particularly killer if you're able to flash alternative firmware, which I would imagine they at least attempt to prevent, particularly if you just drop the temporary $25 to use it vs. the $99 to own it. However, even if it requires a JTAG and some skills, one can now get a high end router for only $99. If you want to experiment, ya think you could just throw down $25 to grab one, brick it quickly, return to store, "The one I got is defective, I tried to set it up and it won't turn on! Now I can't even access the cloud tube!! Blah, blah, obviously I'm not technical enough to have messed it up, can I get a different one?" So I guess we'll find out how locked down this thing is... using a router that needs to be "rooted" is a major red flag IMO...
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Already asked merlin he said no lol... Even still I would get it and try flashing merlins on it. I use the fork version for my ac68u (it allows all channels and unlimited power). http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18914
[Fork] Update for 374.43 available
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This was listed under the "Personal Cellspot" section as well:
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-14947
toastido said:
This was listed under the "Personal Cellspot" section as well:
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-14947
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ya who knows but we all here will know soon I know i will get one as soon as i can :silly:
Tried to con the rep into pre-ordering the Cellspot today but no luck. Said they will be up for ordering on the 17th.

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