Database Users

Sprint Killing Iden and Moving to LTE?

Recently read that sprint will be phasing out the iden network by 2013 and Dan Hesse Admitted Wimax was a failure and is considering the switch to LTE.
Could a switch to LTE ruin our 4Gness on our beloved Evos or would they still work?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/09/clearwire_sprint_wimax/
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Sprints-25-Billion-Network-Improvement-Plan-Hints-At-LTE-111703

Im just going out on a limb here but gonna throw my thoughts in on this . The phase out wont be till 2013 . With that being said most of us on the Evo will be well into a new phone by that time . General life span of phones (I said general) seems to be one year maybe two at most before someone jumps ship and gets another phone . I have also read that Wimax is an older technology that has been around for a while and the next logical jump would be LTE much like verizon is pushing . Now if for some reason you still have an Evo by the time the phase out is complete , I would suspect Sprint would either offer their customers an upgrade to work on the new network or atleast reduce the bills of the current evo owners still running an evo at that point . But from what I have seen and said in this post the likelyhood of any of us having the EVO in its current form by that time is very low . Its also possible the next gen of phones being released next year will start incorporating the LTE system (say for the sake of argument EVO2 LTE) to adjust to this change .

Wimax 2............ftw

Current wimax network can be easily switched to LTE via software upgrade that's why the current wimax buildout will continue. Also wimax is backwards compatible with wimax 2. So sprint has a couple ways it could go. And they own a lot of spectrum.
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Expect ptt over ip and not in the failed Qchat form. Most likely over 4G(wimax1,2 or LTE) data. Sprint has plenty option. They just have to play it right.
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david279 said:
Current wimax network can be easily switched to LTE via software upgrade that's why the current wimax buildout will continue. Also wimax is backwards compatible with wimax 2. So sprint has a couple ways it could go. And they own a lot of spectrum.
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Click to collapse
So wimax and LTE hardware are compatible, interesting.

Sort of. It only takes a firmware update to switch.
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hmmmm...maybe wimax and lte along with cdma and gsm...world wide phone..anywhere. Maybe Sprint quad band phones with quad core cpus in next 5-10yrs? Quad band with quad core.."4x4" on 4G. ok..dream over...
Youd need a 12 volt battery too. lol

I read a while back that sprint chose WiMax as its "4g" provider because the infrastructure was already in place since clear had been launched. And that if LTE deemed a better route that the WiMax network could be patched relatively easily to run LTE. Im not worried about it. If sprint was the first company to have 4g im pretty sure they wont leave their current WiMax customers without high speed service if Wimax is pulled off the market. But remeber as well that the article specifies Iden which is nextel. Thats a conpletely different animal. Only time will tell.
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nebenezer said:
So wimax and LTE hardware are compatible, interesting.
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Click to collapse
No. The transmitters use a WiMax card to transmit WiMax signal. All they would have to do on their end is swap the cards in the transmitters for LTE cards and then patch the software to interface with them instead of WiMax cards.
The bad news is that for us Evo and Epic (and Overdrive) owners, we won't get LTE with current hardware. And I know they'll use the "early adopter" excuse. Either way, I love my Evo, 4G or not. I hardly use 4G. I just hope they do the right thing and offer people money back or towards an upgrade. WiMax is fast, but isn't that great to begin with. I'd rather have LTE seeing as how it's becoming an international standard. The only thing I don't like is the cluttered frequency. Verizon and AT&T will both be using 700 MHz.

david279 said:
Current wimax network can be easily switched to LTE via software upgrade that's why the current wimax buildout will continue. Also wimax is backwards compatible with wimax 2. So sprint has a couple ways it could go. And they own a lot of spectrum.
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Click to collapse
Thats good the two technologies are that compatible, I didn't know they could be used like that. You're right about Sprint having the Spectrum for it too. My guess is they tried getting rid of IDEN a few years back to use that spectrum for 4G but couldn't because of all the people still using it. The higher frequency WiMax is at now is what's holding it back.

They're compatible from the transmitter's end, not the receiver's end (our phones).

Product F(RED) said:
They're compatible from the transmitter's end, not the receiver's end (our phones).
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That's the only problem. If sprint goes with wimax 2 well be alright though. Early adopters always the test dummys.
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Yeah, that's true but I still think the Evo is the best Android phone out. Maybe not the most powerful, but the most polished and well-built (software and hardware-wise).

Product F(RED) said:
Yeah, that's true but I still think the Evo is the best Android phone out. Maybe not the most powerful, but the most polished and well-built (software and hardware-wise).
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This is true until the G2 came out. That would be the only phone I would leave sprint for. I think the problem that came about with the Evo was it was rushed out for sprint. They could have cleaned up a bunch of problems before it even hit the street. **off soapbox**
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Product F(RED) said:
They're compatible from the transmitter's end, not the receiver's end (our phones).
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Click to collapse
As long as they don't switch frequencies, then they will need to transmitters as well. Although they could probably leave the infrastructure they already have in place and finish the rest of it on the other frequency.

No, what I mean was that LTE and WiMax are not intercompatible in themselves.

Im glad to see that they can switch between wimax and LTE easily. I did not know that. Hopefully all the companies will have a roaming agreement in place. Also, isnt the range of LTE further than Wimax or is it the other way around?

Product F(RED) said:
No. The transmitters use a WiMax card to transmit WiMax signal. All they would have to do on their end is swap the cards in the transmitters for LTE cards and then patch the software to interface with them instead of WiMax cards.
The bad news is that for us Evo and Epic (and Overdrive) owners, we won't get LTE with current hardware. And I know they'll use the "early adopter" excuse. Either way, I love my Evo, 4G or not. I hardly use 4G. I just hope they do the right thing and offer people money back or towards an upgrade. WiMax is fast, but isn't that great to begin with. I'd rather have LTE seeing as how it's becoming an international standard. The only thing I don't like is the cluttered frequency. Verizon and AT&T will both be using 700 MHz.
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By the time any switch happens, both the Evo and Epic will be very outdated. Not to many people will still have them. lol

wimax and lte
My best friend worked for sprint. Now works for AT&T. Wimax is not the problem. LTE is a different technology. What you have to understand is not the sofware but the signal. The Wimax from Sprint is running between 2.0 and 2.5 ghz. The problem with this is the structure penetration. 2.4ghz, if you remember is what older home cordless phones run on. Get to far away and, bam, no signal. Sprint could switch to the LTE format the the carrier frequency in the 2.0 to 2.5ghz spectrum will still not be able to penetrate structures well. My friend says the spectrum needs to be cleared up. vhf uhf tv. WTF. Get rid of them. You need to be at the 650mhz spectrum (his personal choice) so the the wavelength of the carrier wave will be able to penetrate building/structures. And pagers? Are you kidding me all phones double as a pager. Dump them. A doctor is going to get a page and use his cell phone to call in? waste of spectrum. So sprint needs to change the carrier frequency of wimax or lte (if it changes its mind) so that you can get your service indoors. The carrier frequency only is a delivery system(such as a semi truck delivering a tv). If you have a bad truck, tv does not get delivered. Know what I mean. All carriers need some free up of current spectrum so we can get some real penetration and better bars. I hate being a nerd. But WFT. Get a divorce and get an new life.
Cole

Bad news for WIMAX

http://www.pcworld.com/article/219901/sprint_wimax_lte.html#tk.rss_news

Oh well.
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94tbird said:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/219901/sprint_wimax_lte.html#tk.rss_news
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Unless you plan on using your EVO for the next 4-5 years , i dont think it really matters. If/when they make this move, there will be plenty of phones to come out that will support the new network. I doubt anyone will still have their EVO's /Epic's by the time this actually comes to reality.

Supposedly the wimax radio could be flashed to support LTE per shinzul and the wimax thread.

this might explain why:
a. the 'featured' echo doesn't have wimax
b. the $10 premium fee for non wimax phones
i think that sprint will discontinue the production of wimax phones and wait for the deployment of lte before they release any new 4g phones. if that turns out to be the case, i don't care if they release a evo with a quad core cpu and 8 gigs of ram. there's no way i'm going to stick around with only sprint's absolutely pathetic 3g.
i also doubt that the evo will be hackable to use lte. what about authentication? lte is supposed to use sims. no way the evo will be able to connect even if some clever hackers get the radio itself to be compatible.

Doesn't bother me too much. Yes, I enjoy the speeds of WiMax, but the battery drain is too much of an issue.

detusueno said:
this might explain why:
a. the 'featured' echo doesn't have wimax
b. the $10 premium fee for non wimax phones
i think that sprint will discontinue the production of wimax phones and wait for the deployment of lte before they release any new 4g phones. if that turns out to be the case, i don't care if they release a evo with a quad core cpu and 8 gigs of ram. there's no way i'm going to stick around with only sprint's absolutely pathetic 3g.
i also doubt that the evo will be hackable to use lte. what about authentication? lte is supposed to use sims. no way the evo will be able to connect even if some clever hackers get the radio itself to be compatible.
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Makes sense, also could explain why we haven't heard about an EVO 2. They could be trying to figure out how to apply a triband radio up in the phone.

detusueno said:
i also doubt that the evo will be hackable to use lte. what about authentication? lte is supposed to use sims. no way the evo will be able to connect even if some clever hackers get the radio itself to be compatible.
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Well obviously it wouldn't be a hackers hack it'd have to be a Sprint flash of some sort. I am not saying its even plausible more of food for thought.

detusueno said:
this might explain why:
a. the 'featured' echo doesn't have wimax
b. the $10 premium fee for non wimax phones
i think that sprint will discontinue the production of wimax phones and wait for the deployment of lte before they release any new 4g phones. if that turns out to be the case, i don't care if they release a evo with a quad core cpu and 8 gigs of ram. there's no way i'm going to stick around with only sprint's absolutely pathetic 3g.
i also doubt that the evo will be hackable to use lte. what about authentication? lte is supposed to use sims. no way the evo will be able to connect even if some clever hackers get the radio itself to be compatible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not so sure about that, I've seen some mean hacks here in the community, we have good talent here that work hard (and free) to get the most out of our devices so.....I hope our Devs here will do something to keep the EVO alive as the did with the Vogue.

mikevillarroel said:
I'm not so sure about that, I've seen some mean hacks here in the community, we have good talent here that work hard (and free) to get the most out of our devices so.....I hope our Devs here will do something to keep the EVO alive as the did with the Vogue.
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Click to collapse
Not so sure about that. WiMax currently require some form of key/pw authentication with Clear to connect. LTE on Sprint will probably require SIM cards to connect, like Metro PCS does even as CDMA network. I don't see how they (or even Sprint themselves) will get around that issue. It'd probably be as futile as trying to connect with AT&T's/Verizon's LTE network with a hacked WiMax radio.

Ok sprint will have wimax and lte dual so that good thing imaging and evo 2 with rev b for 3g 1xadvance and wimax and lte omg and being coverd with that much technology
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Good I better get my $10.00/mo back

spiicytuna said:
Supposedly the wimax radio could be flashed to support LTE per shinzul and the wimax thread.
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Click to collapse
No, the TOWERS can be fairly easily converted. No phone can be unless explicitly designed for that (like Qualcomm GoBi data chips).

spiicytuna said:
Supposedly the wimax radio could be flashed to support LTE per shinzul and the wimax thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really? that would be awesome if one of the devs can get wimax radio flashed to verizon's LTE

I hope Sprint Goes LTE - The Verizon LTE speeds look awesome

detusueno said:
this might explain why:
a. the 'featured' echo doesn't have wimax
b. the $10 premium fee for non wimax phones
i think that sprint will discontinue the production of wimax phones and wait for the deployment of lte before they release any new 4g phones. if that turns out to be the case, i don't care if they release a evo with a quad core cpu and 8 gigs of ram. there's no way i'm going to stick around with only sprint's absolutely pathetic 3g.
i also doubt that the evo will be hackable to use lte. what about authentication? lte is supposed to use sims. no way the evo will be able to connect even if some clever hackers get the radio itself to be compatible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
with speeds under 200 kbps there is absolutely no phone in the world that would make me wanna stay with sprint.
Boy,if this is true they will be losing customers like crazy come this summer.

The story was on Engadget the other week. Technically, the Sprint network guy said it was being evaluated for six months...but with no new Wimax phones on tap for the next six months (that we know of), the conclusion will be the same at the end of six months as it is now.
If they are going to make the move, then throw the switch, and have a plan in place to get us off of our EVO's (and them off of their Epics), even if it's three months out, because then that class action thread that's out there may start looking real good and actually get five stars.
Note: If all that's needed is to switch out the baseband cards and run a firmware update, that would mean that Wimax would have to get turned off, because it's the Wimax equipment that's getting the upgrade. So this won't be a side by side Wimax/LTE network. It's either or...right???

i hope not...
LTE will be bad for cost conscience customers.
LTE is carrier's wetdream... consumers nightmare.

Good riddance? Wimax is a joke in my area (metro Atlanta), to this day I can barely connect to Wimax from inside my house and the coverage map "according to Sprint" shows my area lit up with Wimax. I have to stand by my second story window in my house to connect to it and the connection is "poor", Hell its poor when I go outside.
Love the phone itself though.

Dan330 said:
i hope not...
LTE will be bad for cost conscience customers.
LTE is carrier's wetdream... consumers nightmare.
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Click to collapse
How so? If it's what I think...network access can be controlled just as easily on a Wimax network as on a LTE network. It's all IP traffic. Verizon just chooses to control it.

Sprint switcing from Wimax

Well as many of you read on Engadget about Sprint switching from WiMax to LTE. Well naturally being curious, while I was stopping by my parents house on the way home I asked my dad who worked in telecom for most of my life doing contract work for Sprint. He now has since moved out telecom to some other department, but he still keeps up with his telecom friends who do contracting work for Sprint. Anyways back to the point I asked if these rumors were true. He said Yes they are switching from WiMax, but not to what and that Samsung is providing the equipment. If i find out anymore information I will let you know.

i dont really know anything about the 4g radio in my evo, but would it still work on LTE?

omgzilla85 said:
i dont really know anything about the 4g radio in my evo, but would it still work on LTE?
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Everything would still work on the phone but the 4G LTE.

There aren't phasing out WiMax yet from what it sounds like, but since the Evo 4G wasn't designed with LTE in mind then no the LTE won't work on the Evo.

evilware said:
There aren't phasing out WiMax yet from what it sounds like, but since the Evo 4G wasn't designed with LTE in mind then no the LTE won't work on the Evo.
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but does this mean that they are going to stop expanding the 4g network, and focus only on getting LTE up in more places? this is kind of a kick in the balls for people who just bought 4g capable devices with sprint.

They'll probably continue to expand and run Wimax on 2.5 Ghz and run LTE in parallel on 850 Mhz.

The way I understand, you would be able to swap out cards in the towers to swap out from wimax to lte... At least on new towers. Is that true?

Bukem75 said:
The way I understand, you would be able to swap out cards in the towers to swap out from wimax to lte... At least on new towers. Is that true?
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Click to collapse
Yes, but you can't swap out the hardware in your phone from wimax to LTE.

So sprint gonna issue new lte Evos to us? Lol I mean if this happens then I guess we all have grounds for leaving sprint without etf for them not holding up to their end of the contract....wimax. not saying I'd leave but I enjoy 4g.....on my Evo!
Sent from the Evo

mbaseball3 said:
So sprint gonna issue new lte Evos to us? Lol I mean if this happens then I guess we all have grounds for leaving sprint without etf for them not holding up to their end of the contract....wimax. not saying I'd leave but I enjoy 4g.....on my Evo!
Sent from the Evo
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By the time this is completed, the Evo will be obsolete.

mbaseball3 said:
So sprint gonna issue new lte Evos to us? Lol I mean if this happens then I guess we all have grounds for leaving sprint without etf for them not holding up to their end of the contract....wimax. not saying I'd leave but I enjoy 4g.....on my Evo!
Sent from the Evo
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No lol.. i am sure if you have 4g service you would still get it.

No offense but you have like 5 posts Including 2 in this thread, and you've been a member here just as long as I have pretty much...I'll believe it when I see it, and as ruge said, the evo will be the compare to as the nextel chirp phones back in the day and the razor, obsolete, trust me, no evo will have lte

the Evo 2A will have lte, I promise

Edit: I am changing this because I read this post wrong. You are right they are about to use Samsung products on the new towers but its not to change wimax, it is to make the towers more efficient and smaller. From what I was told they will use new technology which will allow them to add all services on one tower and be able to free up frequency to build out. It would not be imho to drop wimax because they will be the only ones to utilize it giving them an advantage in developing. Back on topic he is correct they are making upgrades and using new hardware within the towers but I think its imho to have voice/data simultaneous on a cdma network (a first) and they will do it with wimax 2 starting 2012...(that is just my opinion)

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Credit-Suisse-SprintLightsquared-Deal-to-be-Announced-Soon-113587
They seem pretty adamant on sprint moving to lte
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gamer4208 said:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Credit-Suisse-SprintLightsquared-Deal-to-be-Announced-Soon-113587
They seem pretty adamant on sprint moving to lte
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yes it will be BOTH, in years from now, which will be = 2 the razr in todays age

craigbailey1986 said:
This is complete bs as I know 2 top engineers working for sprint and neither have heard such news.... now I usually don't feed into this he say/she say because it won't change a thing but please don't spread speculations amongst the forum without having concrete facts. Sprint also stated recently they were keeping there 800 spectrum and making upgrades to it for business who utilize the "ptt" phones and not using it for lte. All it takes is a little reading....
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Click to collapse
I believe I know the article you are referring to as it was in another thread on here and discussed the new PTT service they will use once IDEN is turned off and it will include more speeds and the likes for data.
The way I took the article was that the new PTT phones will take advantage of the new network upgrade they are performing i think its called Sprints Network vision. The multimode base-stations will be the key to it all.
In the end the change allows them to use all the networks more interchangably from what I understand.
I would not expect them to keep the 800MHz band for CDMA PTT. they stated that CDMA PTT phones will be out late this year and if thats the case and they were planning on having them run on the IDEN 800MHz band wouldn't IDEN need to be shut off first? I take it as the CDMA PTT phones will run on the regular network and use data form the 800MHz once they deploy LTE on that. they can't put WiMax on the 800MHz b/c WiMax isn't provisioned in that spectrum at this point.

As I stated in my edited reply it would not make sense to use technology the others are using because it would not make good marketing. Also wimax 2 will be out second quarter or half this year, can't recall, and around the exact same time frame for those new phones. Also the new hardware being supplied to sprint and their new plan is at the core of what wimax 2 is. Which is stated to give better download speed and efficiency thru multi data channels. The company supplying the hardware, Samsung, also The first company to test wimax 2 and said it got 130mbs download, but that's with no one else testing it. But you get the picture.... I hope
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My main issue with sprint is signal penetration. Once I get in a building or etc my signal just goes to ****. My coworkers have t-mobile and Verizon and they get full bars sitting next to me laughing at my 1 bar. It has been this way for years.
~ d3rk

dirkyd3rk said:
My main issue with sprint is signal penetration. Once I get in a building or etc my signal just goes to ****. My coworkers have t-mobile and Verizon and they get full bars sitting next to me laughing at my 1 bar. It has been this way for years.
~ d3rk
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Sorry to hear that... I also don't get good signal in certain places but hey each carrier has bad spots, when I am in the studio some artist who have iPhone or att don't have any service while myself and engineer have full bars, though he has Verizon
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Lightsquared LTE

http://www.talkandroid.com/49332-sp...idForums+(Android+News,+Rumours,+and+Updates)
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ok?
10char

DirtyShroomz said:
http://www.talkandroid.com/49332-sp...idForums+(Android+News,+Rumours,+and+Updates)
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I bet part of this was to stay competitive in the future iPhone market. I know there's only slight hints for an iPhone on Sprint, but I can feel it coming.The iPhone 5 will probably "only" be HSPA+ ready, but next year I'm sure it will be LTE ready. I very much doubt that Apple would build a WiMax version of the iPhone for only Sprint, and with Sprint's future looking bleak, they need every competitive advantage they can get.

tekkitan said:
ok?
10char
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok it is my good sir
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

Award Tour said:
I bet part of this was to stay competitive in the future iPhone market. I know there's only slight hints for an iPhone on Sprint, but I can feel it coming.The iPhone 5 will probably "only" be HSPA+ ready, but next year I'm sure it will be LTE ready. I very much doubt that Apple would build a WiMax version of the iPhone for only Sprint, and with Sprint's future looking bleak, they need every competitive advantage they can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could definitely be a reason. Steve Jobs wouldn't approve a WiMax iPhone.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

Well they need to something and i doubt its because of the iphone... Sure sprint has wimax but it Really can't compete with verizon LTE and the sprint 3g network is really slow compared to every other carrier... I am really curious to hear what they have planned... I want to be a sprint customer but i won't jump ship untill i can get consistently fast speeds like i have on tmobile
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

newspeak said:
Well they need to something and i doubt its because of the iphone... Sure sprint has wimax but it Really can't compete with verizon LTE and the sprint 3g network is really slow compared to every other carrier... I am really curious to hear what they have planned... I want to be a sprint customer but i won't jump ship untill i can get consistently fast speeds like i have on tmobile
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Their 3G was top notch for a while and LTE and WiMax would both be ****ty on the 2500 spectrum WiMax is on right now. LTE from light squares is going on 1600
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

But think about this. They are not going to be sinking any more money into Wimax now to expand it. And they are starting from scratch for LTE. By the time they even have enough LTE as they do Wimax (which still is not a lot) everyone else is going to be done building their LTE network. So basically Sprint is not going to have a good 4G network now for at least 4-5 years. So everyone get used to your slow data speeds. We are gonna have em for a while. Yay, way to go Sprint.

violent23 said:
But think about this. They are not going to be sinking any more money into Wimax now to expand it. And they are starting from scratch for LTE. By the time they even have enough LTE as they do Wimax (which still is not a lot) everyone else is going to be done building their LTE network. So basically Sprint is not going to have a good 4G network now for at least 4-5 years. So everyone get used to your slow data speeds. We are gonna have em for a while. Yay, way to go Sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your basing all this on the mistaken notion that Sprint is going to start building an LTE network from scratch starting right now.
Lightsquared has been working on this for a while and should launch next year.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

violent23 said:
But think about this. They are not going to be sinking any more money into Wimax now to expand it. And they are starting from scratch for LTE. By the time they even have enough LTE as they do Wimax (which still is not a lot) everyone else is going to be done building their LTE network. So basically Sprint is not going to have a good 4G network now for at least 4-5 years. So everyone get used to your slow data speeds. We are gonna have em for a while. Yay, way to go Sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're not stopping their wimax network if that's what you think
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

they have a contarct to use clears wimax until 2012, they said ages ago, to switch from wimax to lte takes 1 module added onto the tower, so a year tops to convert wimax locations to lte locations

Award Tour said:
I bet part of this was to stay competitive in the future iPhone market. I know there's only slight hints for an iPhone on Sprint, but I can feel it coming.The iPhone 5 will probably "only" be HSPA+ ready, but next year I'm sure it will be LTE ready. I very much doubt that Apple would build a WiMax version of the iPhone for only Sprint, and with Sprint's future looking bleak, they need every competitive advantage they can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apple Exec's and Sprint Exec's do not like each other at all. Apple thinks Sprint is a 2nd rate wireless company going down the tubes. Sprint would not be willing to pay their royalty clauses that Apple wants. You like Iphone 4 or 5 you need to go to Verizon or At&T. Samsung & HTC phones have gotten so much better. It is real competition now to Apple. Until the relationship is repaired you will never see an Iphone on Sprint.

shabbypenguin said:
they have a contarct to use clears wimax until 2012, they said ages ago, to switch from wimax to lte takes 1 module added onto the tower, so a year tops to convert wimax locations to lte locations
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Click to collapse
sounds good but now i wonder if people are going to hold off on current phones and future phones waiting for LTE Models i doubt it but it could hurt a bit

Award Tour said:
I bet part of this was to stay competitive in the future iPhone market. I know there's only slight hints for an iPhone on Sprint, but I can feel it coming.The iPhone 5 will probably "only" be HSPA+ ready, but next year I'm sure it will be LTE ready. I very much doubt that Apple would build a WiMax version of the iPhone for only Sprint, and with Sprint's future looking bleak, they need every competitive advantage they can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish I could have profits in the billions and a loss of less than a billion and have my outlook bleak
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

cdw9800 said:
sounds good but now i wonder if people are going to hold off on current phones and future phones waiting for LTE Models i doubt it but it could hurt a bit
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I plan on switching to an LTE phone as soon as its available on Sprint. I live and work in the dallas area and their wimax coverage sucks here.
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Sprint LTE phone coming in Q3, 2012

While not Evo Shift related, but we should start seeing Sprint LTE phones late next year.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Spri...-the-second-half-of-2012-likely-in-Q3_id24383
Let the rumors and hopes begin!
Quad core, AMOLED screen, and minimal manufacturer skinning (I know, I know, a pipe dream)

All this talk about lte, wimax, clearwire, etc. has brought me to realize I know very little about the subject. I thought 4G was 4G. Apparently there are differences. None of the carriers offer 4G where I live, the closest being verizon about 60 miles away. I guess I'm off to the world of google and wiki to do some researching.
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My Shift should last me until then.

jsp254 said:
All this talk about lte, wimax, clearwire, etc. has brought me to realize I know very little about the subject. I thought 4G was 4G. Apparently there are differences. None of the carriers offer 4G where I live, the closest being verizon about 60 miles away. I guess I'm off to the world of google and wiki to do some researching.
Sent from my PG06100 using xda premium
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actually, none of the carriers anywhere in the country offer 4G, they offer somewhat advanced 3G that they've labeled as 4G. But that's a debate for a different place.
Chances are, if you don't have "4G" now, you sure as heck won't miss it if you get a phone that has "4G" capabilities and you're in an area that isn't covered by that service. I rarely use the "4G" on my Shift, because it's 150 miles to the closest site that has it. I think that's the case for a whole lot of people with the Shift, and other "4G" phones, especially on Sprint.
The LTE service Sprint is coming out with is supposed to be put in the same locations as their 3G within a year of the beginning of the rollout, so all 3G covered areas would also have LTE in theory (or so the rumors have said). That would actually make a difference in the phones people purchase, and make that extra $10/month for the "smartphone fee" worthwhile.
It's probably worth waiting on your upgrade until next fall to get the LTE phones if you're into the more advanced phones, but Wimax will still be supported (but not likely expanded), and of course they'll still have the 3G capabilities. Personally, I haven't decided whether I'll keep my Shift past my Feb upgrade or not, it'll depend on the condition of my Shift, the device rumors I'm hearing, and of course how much money I have to upgrade. It's my last yearly upgrade, so I have to actually buy a phone that I expect to last for two years.

tatonka_hero said:
actually, none of the carriers anywhere in the country offer 4G, they offer somewhat advanced 3G that they've labeled as 4G. But that's a debate for a different place.
Chances are, if you don't have "4G" now, you sure as heck won't miss it if you get a phone that has "4G" capabilities and you're in an area that isn't covered by that service. I rarely use the "4G" on my Shift, because it's 150 miles to the closest site that has it. I think that's the case for a whole lot of people with the Shift, and other "4G" phones, especially on Sprint.
The LTE service Sprint is coming out with is supposed to be put in the same locations as their 3G within a year of the beginning of the rollout, so all 3G covered areas would also have LTE in theory (or so the rumors have said). That would actually make a difference in the phones people purchase, and make that extra $10/month for the "smartphone fee" worthwhile.
It's probably worth waiting on your upgrade until next fall to get the LTE phones if you're into the more advanced phones, but Wimax will still be supported (but not likely expanded), and of course they'll still have the 3G capabilities. Personally, I haven't decided whether I'll keep my Shift past my Feb upgrade or not, it'll depend on the condition of my Shift, the device rumors I'm hearing, and of course how much money I have to upgrade. It's my last yearly upgrade, so I have to actually buy a phone that I expect to last for two years.
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I'm in the same boat and I'm waiting for Q3 2012.

I use 4G all the time and honestly can't wait to see the improvements LTE bring
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tatonka_hero said:
It's probably worth waiting on your upgrade until next fall to get the LTE phones if you're into the more advanced phones, but Wimax will still be supported (but not likely expanded), and of course they'll still have the 3G capabilities. Personally, I haven't decided whether I'll keep my Shift past my Feb upgrade or not, it'll depend on the condition of my Shift, the device rumors I'm hearing, and of course how much money I have to upgrade. It's my last yearly upgrade, so I have to actually buy a phone that I expect to last for two years.
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From my understanding they're re-purposing their 1900mhz band they use for 3G/Voice for LTE. Once the re-purposing is complete our phones would lose 3G/Voice functions outside of roaming on Verizon as they're relocating their 3G/Voice services to 800mhz (Verizon uses 850mhz so our 850mhz radio won't work on Sprint's 800mhz band). Hopefully they'll keep 3G/Voice on 1900mhz so they can gradually phase out their 1900mhz phones on both Sprint and Virgin Mobile. I'm not due for an upgrade until March 2013.
thronnos said:
I use 4G all the time and honestly can't wait to see the improvements LTE bring
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You probably won't notice a huge difference except for the amount of coverage. Comparing my WiMAX speeds to those of my friends on Verizon's LTE we're about the same speed (around 10Mbps).

I didn't know people actually use 4G. I have in here in San Antonio but never use it cause I'm always on WiFi and if I don't have that I'm probably not on my phone downloading stuff
Supreme Sense mocking you with ICS style

I use 4G whenever 3G is crapping out because it really kills my battery. I think im going to start carrying a 2nd battery.

I have 4G where I am, great at the house. Can definately tell when I switch back to 3G. Use 4G all the time and love it.

I have 4g most of the time but my wifi is much faster. For a while I was using the 4g until I could figure out who my internet provider would be at our new place. 4g is still pretty bad as I live in downtown los angeles with cell coverage that dies as soon as you walk into any building more than 100 feet.
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I just hope sprints lte has better building penetration. That's the only reason i don't use wimax much now. It drops connection so easy inside buildings if you are away from windows and takes a long time to pick it up again and while it's trying to connect or if it's dropping you get no data.

Evo_Shift said:
I just hope sprints lte has better building penetration. That's the only reason i don't use wimax much now. It drops connection so easy inside buildings if you are away from windows and takes a long time to pick it up again and while it's trying to connect or if it's dropping you get no data.
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How's your 3G reception? They're re-purposing their 3G/Voice 1900mhz band for LTE so if you have crappy 3G reception most likely you'll have crappy LTE reception when it finally rolls out.