Mobility Digest » Sprint

Sprint getting 1.5GHz Galaxy Nexus LTE Version?

Doug Smith — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:50:40 +0000

Well, check this out! Looks like Sprint is not going to lay down and watch Verizon push the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Google flagship device that is currently running a 1.2GHz Processor. The Sprint LTE version will, according to the ad that CNET has, will be running a hopped up 1.5GHz dual core processor. The rest of the specs look pretty inline with the current Galaxy Nexus: 4.65 inch HD Super AMOLED display, Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, fresh off his successful campaign to end the AT&T / T-Mobile merger, is now talking up Sprint’s LTE service. Hopefully the Sprint Galaxy Nexus sporting a 1.5GHz dual core processor won’t turn out like the iPhone 5 exclusive they were going to get, but we’ll keep you posted in any event!

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Should Microsoft be targeting the Carriers in the Patent Wars?

Jim Szymanski — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:14:21 +0000

Reading all this stuff about patent infringement of intellectual property lately I got to thinking. What about the Carriers? It can be said that they are simply transferring the stolen property from one entity to another. But once they take possession of an OS, and work their magic (basically adding useless crap) on it, have they not taken ownership of said OS. I thought possession was 90% of the law. And what about OS updates, where they get another opportunity to do even more tinkering. While physical characteristics of a device, like button placement, are on the OEM, the OS that the Carrier manipulates and calls their own seems to make them more than simply a facilitator.

Would be interesting to see Microsoft make one such claim. I bet the Carrier in-store shopping experience would change overnight. But maybe Microsoft wants to wait for Windows Phone to reach a 10-15% market share before ruffling those feathers.

AT&T throws in towel to acquire T-Mobile

Doug Smith — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:34:31 +0000

The rumors have been circulating and now it has become official that AT&T has given up on acquiring T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom. In the agreement formed with Deutsche Telekom back in March 2011, AT&T would pay 4 billion dollars should the merger fall through. I cannot even imagine how painful writing that check is going to be and how AT&T would plan to recoup a loss of that nature. Further, AT&T has entered an agreement with Deutsche Telekom which will involve international roaming. The details of the roaming agreement have not been made public.

Not a good day to be standing around the AT&T water fountain and it’s my bet there are a lot of people ducking around the corporate AT&T suites as things are probably being thrown at the life size Fathead of Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse that AT&T has had made and posted around the office with a bull’s-eye on his forehead. The US DOJ and FCC probably wont be on the Christmas Card mailer list either.

Check out the fill press release by AT& below.

AT&T Ends Bid To Add Network Capacity Through T-Mobile USA Purchase

Company Reaffirms Its Commitment to Mobile Broadband Leadership

Dallas, Texas, December 19, 2011

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said today that after a thorough review of options it has agreed with Deutsche Telekom AG to end its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA, which began in March of this year.

The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.

“AT&T will continue to be aggressive in leading the mobile Internet revolution,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “Over the past four years we have invested more in our networks than any other U.S. company. As a result, today we deliver best-in-class mobile broadband speeds – connecting smartphones, tablets and emerging devices at a record pace – and we are well under way with our nationwide 4G LTE deployment.

“To meet the needs of our customers, we will continue to invest,” Stephenson said. “However, adding capacity to meet these needs will require policymakers to do two things. First, in the near term, they should allow the free markets to work so that additional spectrum is available to meet the immediate needs of the U.S. wireless industry, including expeditiously approving our acquisition of unused Qualcomm spectrum currently pending before the FCC. Second, policymakers should enact legislation to meet our nation’s longer-term spectrum needs.

“The mobile Internet is a dynamic industry that can be a critical driver in restoring American economic growth and job creation, but only if companies are allowed to react quickly to customer needs and market forces,” Stephenson said.

To reflect the break-up considerations due Deutsche Telekom, AT&T will recognize a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2011. Additionally, AT&T will enter a mutually beneficial roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

AT&T rated worst again by Consumer Reports

Doug Smith — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:12:37 +0000

I have been a long time AT&T customer mainly because of their devices and not because of their service or policies. Even though I have never really had a problem with AT&T, it seems I have been in the lucky few category according to Consumer Reports who just ranked AT&T worst for the second straight year. 66,000 of Consumer Reports subscribers said “No Ah Ah” to the Death Star which spanned 22 metropolitan markets.

Verizon and Sprint where one and two followed by T-Mobile who rated “significantly better” than higher priced AT&T. But Consumer Reports said that it was prepaid phones that hit closer to the mark with consumers:

“Our survey indicates that subscribers to prepaid and smaller standard-service providers are happiest overall with their cell-phone service,” said Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports. “However, these carriers aren’t for everyone. Some are only regional, and prepaid carriers tend to offer few or no smart phones.The major carriers are still leading options for many consumers, and we found they ranged widely in how well they satisfied their customers.”

So what say you? Drop a comment and let us know what you think.

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Verizon and Sprint Again A No Show For The Latest Windows Phones

David K — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:36:25 +0000

Anyone see the 2nd generation Windows Phones from Verizon and Sprint? What about a large scale release of Windows Phones from T-Mobile? (You know, more than one device) Anyone else have flashbacks to when Windows Phones were first released? Deja vu and until Microsoft can get manufacturers and carriers in line to release phones on a widespread basis then they lose mindshare, market share and credibility. Advertise all you want, but if the only phone you have on the largest carrier is a year old it’s a hard sale.

I know, after the holidays the Nokia devices will hit, etc, etc. It so eerily reminds me of the 1st en Windows Phone launch it’s scary…And to remind you the HTC Trophy hit Verizon on May 26, 2011 and the Nokia talks focus around CES 2012 (starts January 10) so again we’re after the holidays and that’s an announcement date, not release date.

Ok I’m being too hard. Let’s see if by Windows Phone 8 this changes…

For now, color me frustrated.

HTC announces which devices will get Ice Cream Sandwich first

Doug Smith — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:38:14 +0000

There have been several high end Android devices announced by HTC that all will launch with Gingerbread, the current Android operating system. The biggest question to device consumers is if they will get the ICS update and when. HTC has dropped the names of the first devices to get the ICS update and here they are:

HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL and HTC Sensation XE, as well as the HTC Rezound*, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G* and HTC Amaze 4G* through close integration with our carrier partners.

Here is the bad news folks. Ice Cream Sandwich will not roll out until early 2012. Sorry guys. But it is good to know that you will in fact see the upgrade on your newly purchased device. We’ll keep you posted on any other devices getting the nod by HTC and getting the ICS update.

[HTC-Facebook]

Sprint, Reduce the Price for the Arrive Already!

Danny Lam — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:04:41 +0000

My friend, who happens to be on Sprint, was looking for a new phone and asked me for a recommendation. Being in love with my Windows Phone, I of course recommended a similar device and offered to let her play with mine to see what she thought. She loved it! So we went to the Sprint store to get her one.

Sprint only sells one Windows Phone device, the HTC Arrive. I’m not a huge fan of this particular device, especially when stacked up against the array of Android devices in the store. However, I’m a big believer in usability over reasonably superior hardware, and since she’s not the most tech-savvy person who doesn’t want to spend too much time with learning curves(the phone she’s replacing is not a smartphone) I don’t feel that Android is for her. Android is great for people who know what they’re doing and/or have the time to learn and take full advantage of their device. She, however is not one of those people.

My problem arises when I notice the price tag on the Arrive, a whopping $200 with a 2 year service contract!!! Are you joking Sprint? This is a year old device and you’re still asking $200 for it? The, just released, 16GB iPhone 4S is priced at the exact same price! The top of the line Android smartphones are all priced no higher then $200, so what is the year old Arrive doing at that same price point? How can I recommend an almost obsolete device for the price of a new high-end one? Look at AT&T and T-Mobile, T-Mobile’s HD7 brand new Radar 4G are both priced at $100, AT&T has dropped the price of the Focus to just $50 and the HD7 to $100, all of which I think are better than the Arrive in terms of build quality and/or screen size/quality.

So here’s my problem, I’ve all but sold my friend on a Windows Phone. Would’ve been able to get Sprint’s customer to renew their contract (something Sprint needs judging by their recent quarterly earnings report) and a new Windows Phone user (something Microsoft needs more of). But can I seal the deal? Nope. Because I cannot honestly recommend a year old device for $200. That’s just silly. So either she’s got to switch carriers to get a decent price on the UX she likes, or take a UX that she wont like as much and stay with Sprint. Most likely she will just stay with Sprint and get an iPhone, which is probably why Sprint doesn’t care about lowering the price.

Sprint Effing Up

Doug Simmons — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:18:51 +0000

Sprint’s zillion dollar deal to get that iPhone is also buying them a reputation for intolerably poor network performance. It’s a snafu. Even the Zimbabweans are talking trash!

This Sprint subscriber comment, one of over 1200 from an eighty paged thread with 220K+ views (also getting some press), encapsulates the increasingly vocal discontent among Sprinters:

I have been a Sprint user for years and have been using the Evo 4G since the launch date I Purchased the Iphone 4S yesterday and have terrible results as far as network speed. On the EVO I consistantly got 120 kB/s on 3G at least; so far with the Iphone the most I’ve got is 45 kB/s but most of the time is closer to 15 kB/s.

Feel this lady’s pain, feel it:

When I was in the grocery store yesterday I was trying to use my 4S for data and couldn’t. I had a full 5 bars of signal and a 3G symbol and it wouldn’t connect, so then I ran a test and was getting 0.00Mbps – 0.01Mbps. Went outside and only got 2 bars and was getting 0.25Mbps. How can Sprint explain this if they are not throttling speeds or if there is no antenna problem? I’m not paying Sprint for Wi-Fi access, I’m paying them for 3G which they don’t provide even though there are plenty of towers in my area.

I think I’m now locked into the contract so the only way out is to sell the phone for full price on eBay and pay the ETF or tell Sprint to shove it and report me to collections. Maybe Sprint will go out of business soon and then we can all sign up our phones with another carrier with no contract.

These people are actually begging each other not to run speed tests in order to save bandwidth. And not just iPhone owners, this guy’s got an Android, taking a below-the-belt jab at Sprint:

I really think it is sprint. My EVO timmed out trying to load the google search page. I have never had data so slow from sprint. I ran speed test.net and I’m only getting 4 or 5 K download speeds. I’m getting frustrated.

Sent from the ~~NOW~~ MAYBE LATER Network.

Ouch:

An earlier poster here back to update everyone on my spped. Things have gotten worse for me in San Marcos (San Diego). I just recently got 0.00Mbps DL and 0.10Mbps UL. Its impoosioble for me to stream anything at the moment.

Androids and iPhoners are turning on each other:

Dont even complain about weather or not Sprint is crippling the iPhone data. It’s all of you iPhone users who think that piece of **** is actually a good product who are clogging up the network and f**king up service for everyone else. I’m using an Epic Touch 4g, My father is using an Epic 4g, my girlfriend is using an Epic 4g my kids are using an EVO and they all suck ***. Typically this is what I get when I turn WiFi off. Real nice Sprint. Then if I can manage to get any signal at all… well the numbers speak for themselves. And we all pay "Premium Data" charges.

I blame Sprint for selling that stupid iPhone and I blame iPhone users for causing the already crappy network to get even worse. Nice going.

Incredulous iPhone guy returns fire:

Let me get this straight. Now some of you are blaming the consumers for having the "nerve" to buy an iPhone and, heaven forbid, wanting to get some enjoyment out of it?

Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Phoenix0115 drives his or her bottom-line home:

I’m tired of waiting on sprint to do something about the horrible slow data, I can’t do anything. If I don’t see any resolution by Thursday, I am going to terminate my contract.

If you want to enjoy the drama yourself, or vent yourself if you’re a Sprint customer, here’s the link and its on-topic title: iPhone 4S on 3G data network too slow to be useful

I’m not cherrypicking for anecdotal speedtests and angry bloggers to bash Sprint. I’m the guy who hates, really hates, AT&T. But Sprint made this investment to sell a lot more phones, otherwise the investment wouldn’t make sense, therefore how hard could the math possibly be to determine that iPhones plus unlimited plan plus what I’ll call modest infrastructure would yield too much subscriber and media blowback over being known for having the worst network? This is good business right here?

Hey, maybe responding to this by ditching their beloved unlimited package and going 2GB like the other iPhone carriers was the plan from the start. Doesn’t it now sound like the responsible thing to do?

I’m happy with T-Mobile but I like Sprint I hope the additional subscribers prove to be worth the AT&T-like reputation (but with thinner coverage) for network performance they are in the process of earning. If it weren’t for this noise, if Sprint were to get the next Google Nexus before T-Mobile, I might have bailed; now I definitely won’t. It sucks actually, having Sprint ruled out and off my list. I was this close.

In their defense, Sprint’s ramping up that WiMAX (wow) and, a little more importantly, working on LTE (also “Super-LTE” with a company that’s quite insolvent), but with an offered ETA of somewhere in the neighborhood 2013 barring hiccups. No problem.

Damn shame.

Hey Sprint, wherever you found that twenty billion for Apple (loan shark?), you may want to go hit that guy up for another pile of billions and strike a roaming deal to get your customers a taste of Verizon’s LTE.

Doug Simmons

Some Best Buys have short supply on iPhone 4S

Doug Smith — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:15:35 +0000

I just got back from my local small town Best Buy and all they got in was a very limited amount of 16GB Black iPhone 4S. They did not receive any White, 32GB, or 64GB versions. This left a few disgruntled people this morning as you can well image. Listening to the staff, they were saying the second wave of iPhones from Apple were not due to hit until the end of the month, October 31st.

While I got there early, there was no real need as most of the preorder folks and walk ups got there at 7:50am. The corporate AT&T Store was very busy as well as the franchise AT&T stores we have. There has also been a lot of reports of Sprint stores loaded with first time iPhone buyers. They obviously taking advantage of the unlimited data plans that Sprint obviously has at least for now. I am still grandfathered in on the unlimited AT&T plan and intend on keeping it until they pry it loose from my cold fingers after they kill me, or put the breaks on my data by throttling it.

Did you get the iPhone 4S today? Drop a comment about your experience.

Oh Stop It, AT&T

Doug Simmons — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:31:03 +0000

AT&T’s iPhone 4S has an HSPA+ radio in it and AT&T’s worked hard to get consumers to accept HSPA+ as 4G versus HSPA without the + which we all call 3G. HSPA has a top theoretical downlink of 14Mbps. AT&T’s version of the iPhone 4S supports the HSPA+ standard, which is pretty fast, but that phone’s radio has a max theoretical speed of 14.4Mbps, just like non-Evolved HSPA which AT&T has touted as 3G. It’s almost as if Apple gave it a slower HSPA+ radio to even the G playing field between the three carriers.

If there’s any difference between a phone with a 14.4Mbps HSPA+ radio and a 14.4Mbps HSPA radio, I can’t find it. What I did find without looking to hard is AT&T touting their HSDPA/HSPA as offering a peak theoretical rate of 14.4Mbps in a press release from years ago and not until now have they tried to call that speed 4G.

So, according to TIMN, AT&T is duking it out and “in talks” with Apple to get a little 4G icon thingy on the status bar indicating its connectivity as being 4G regardless of the iPhone 4S’s radio having a candy-ass theoretical peak of 14.4Mbps, which is not only very misleading and in my view crossing the line of touting in this 4G/3G debate way too much, getting that icon and executing the ensuing marketing about their special 4G iPhone 4S, talking and surfing at the same time at 4G speeds versus the garden variety, but 3G, CDMA of Sprint and Verizon’s iPhone.

When someone hears the term HSPA+ and has a vague idea of what it means, the theoretical speeds that come to mind are 21Mbps minimum. Not 14.4. When you say 14.4, people think HSPA. When you say HSPA+, 21 or 42 or more; HSPA with no plus, 14.4 tops. Why might they think that? Common sense, some time on Wikipedia and AT&T marketing.

Pathetic, AT&T, trying to split a hair again many argue should have even been split the first time. As usual, you suck.

By stretching the 4G-marketing barrier to characterize a standard with a matching top theoretical speed of the radio inside their new iPhone, they’re lying too much and should be called out on it. If Apple gives this to them, I will be disappointed. This isn’t just about getting a status bar tweak. If they get that 4G icon for speeds that could be achieved on a 3G standard, they’ll market the hell out of it and screw Sprint even harder.

Doug Simmons