I don't understand why wifi calling is so important to people. Especially if it means you can have multi window without it. Anyways doesn't everyone have unlimited minutes these days?
trevor7428 said:
I don't understand why wifi calling is so important to people. Especially if it means you can have multi window without it. Anyways doesn't everyone have unlimited minutes these days?
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I agree!
★ Sent by an Idiot with a phablet ★
For me its the fact that reception is horrible in my apartment, if you go outside its fine. I dont like going outside just to make a call every time so the wifi calling gives me reception inside.
Reception is the issue
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
I guessing it's free and reception issues. I'm not a big fan though
I live out in the boonies absolutely no signal within a few miles from the house. Wish I didn't have to have it esp since I love that All Star so much.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
I live in a townhouse within viewing distance from a cell tower and yet in my house I can get maybe 1 signal at one of the house (sometimes none at all). If I wanted to make a call I had to go to the garage. So wifi calling is important to me.
I'd be willing to sacrifice wifi calling for a multi-window rom if (and only if) I found a reliable option for wifi calling that's free, because t-mobile's wifi calling works very well for me.
It ABSOLUTELY is reception for many people. T-Mobile's fantastic when you get a good signal, but step inside any building made of concrete, or a brick house, or a house with other signal attenuating characteristics and you're screwed, dead zone. It's why I dumped TMo a couple of years ago, though I came back to try their Note II and newer HSPA+42 data service.
My office building is still a data dead zone, but voice calls come in if I'm near a window. My house, though, TMo's gone from a dead zone two years ago to a full-bars signal.
I went to south dakota a few weeks ago to visit my brother and his family.. t mobile, Verizon, Sprint and att reception there is abysmal.. if it wasn't for Wi-Fi calling i would've been screwed.. it's so bad there i asked my brother, "how do u deal with this reception?" Seriously i had zero bars from Irene sd to sioux falls sd if it wasn't for Wi-Fi i wasn't gonna be talking to anyone...
Sent from my SGH-T889
trevor7428 said:
I don't understand why wifi calling is so important to people. Especially if it means you can have multi window without it. Anyways doesn't everyone have unlimited minutes these days?
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Click to collapse
minutes aren't free. still eats into your monthly rate plan for minutes, but providers better reception. my house has horrible to no signal so I use wi-fi calling not necessarily so people can call me, but so my phone doesn't eat up battery looking for network all the time.
Jinra321 said:
minutes aren't free. still eats into your monthly rate plan for minutes, but providers better reception. my house has horrible to no signal so I use wi-fi calling not necessarily so people can call me, but so my phone doesn't eat up battery looking for network all the time.
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If you are on an eligible plan you can add the free wifi calling as a additional service. My grandfathered preferred plan won't allow the free wifi calling service... It deducts minutes from my allotment. There are parts on my house that get poor reception so I use it for that purpose.
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement
As most have mentioned, reception is the main reason. I appreciate wifi for vocal quality. Typically, wifi calling is higher quality, though can be plagued with volume issues on some phones
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samklee said:
As most have mentioned, reception is the main reason. I appreciate wifi for vocal quality. Typically, wifi calling is higher quality, though can be plagued with volume issues on some phones
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You guys do know that if you put wifi calling on you plan it doesn't use your minutes
deeznutz1977 said:
You guys do know that if you put wifi calling on you plan it doesn't use your minutes
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Click to collapse
If your plan allows it...
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement
Coug76 said:
If your plan allows it...
Hastily spouted for your befuddlement
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Click to collapse
i have it on my dads add a line line 500 minutes unlimited messages 2 gigs. can you not add to prepay??
deeznutz1977 said:
i have it on my dads add a line line 500 minutes unlimited messages 2 gigs. can you not add to prepay??
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You can add the feature but it will use your minutes. Prepaids "do not" qualify for this plan. The only benefit for prepay to activate this feature is if you have poor reception this will allow you to still make a phone call.
As others have said, it is free and won't use up your allotted minutes only if you are on a qualifying plan.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
I will give you a more detailed run down.
Actually under a corp plan all wifi calls are free if you add it to that account. Also it doesnt always take mins away. Its more like 70 no 30 yes. From my testing over the last two years.
I work in network security which means I'm in a lot of "heavy secure "wink wink" data centers etc that have zero cell signal for a reason. They use to even bar camera phones. These days they just put a really thin tape over your cameras front & back. So if you even tried removing partly before seeing the "SO" at the exit it will tear and then you got big issues. That being said voip coms are allowed as long as their tied to your imei number like T's.
So wifi calling is needed when I and my guys are at those locations. Other uses as many have said is reception from a poor signal. Tmobile has a great network in the city, its when u get out in the boonies where there's nothing alot of the time. Those times I just click on my VZW MiFi and make call that way or pull over at a McDonalds. Kinda of a end around but being with T allows us alot of flexibility where the other carriers relies on there massively fake reception maps.
Tmobile is great in that it also allows me personally to swap phones easy.
There kinda like a rich man's garage with a dozen super cars, I wake up and pick at will what phone to fly with that day. Doing that on VZW is a pain. Plus the cost for corp plans with Tmobile is about one third of that of VZW or the Death-Star. The only option the other providers have is a wifi extender which requires and hard line and a GPS signal. Try getting that through x amount or so feet of concrete.
As a side note with reception where in the middle of nowhere Ky the only cell and data service was Tmobile.
Typically for me what phone I use depends on what Rom its on. I love cm9/10 but as everyone knows it doesnt support T's wifi calling features. So if im going to be in a secure environment I will have to grab one thats on a samsung kernel with wifi calling. Sometimes I can get away with wifi/google voice or my corp voip pbx but nothing compares to T's 93kb voice codec period.
We never get the excuse that "I couldn't call in cause there wasn't signal" from my guys. So productive has gone up a fare amount due to this tech it also allows better live tracking cause T's employee finder works over any data connection even when outside gps isnt available. So there's more security that my guys feel as we always know where they are if something like a "misunderstanding" comes up.
Does that help? Lol.
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casperi said:
I will give you a more detailed run down.
Actually under a corp plan all wifi calls are free if you add it to that account. Also it doesnt always take mins away. Its more like 70 no 30 yes. From my testing over the last two years.
I work in network security which means I'm in a lot of "heavy secure "wink wink" data centers etc that have zero cell signal for a reason. They use to even bar camera phones. These days they just put a really thin tape over your cameras front & back. So if you even tried removing partly before seeing the "SO" at the exit it will tear and then you got big issues. That being said voip coms are allowed as long as their tied to your imei number like T's.
So wifi calling is needed when I and my guys are at those locations. Other uses as many have said is reception from a poor signal. Tmobile has a great network in the city, its when u get out in the boonies where there's nothing alot of the time. Those times I just click on my VZW MiFi and make call that way or pull over at a McDonalds. Kinda of a end around but being with T allows us alot of flexibility where the other carriers relies on there massively fake reception maps.
Tmobile is great in that it also allows me personally to swap phones easy.
There kinda like a rich man's garage with a dozen super cars, I wake up and pick at will what phone to fly with that day. Doing that on VZW is a pain. Plus the cost for corp plans with Tmobile is about one third of that of VZW or the Death-Star. The only option the other providers have is a wifi extender which requires and hard line and a GPS signal. Try getting that through x amount or so feet of concrete.
As a side note with reception where in the middle of nowhere Ky the only cell and data service was Tmobile.
Typically for me what phone I use depends on what Rom its on. I love cm9/10 but as everyone knows it doesnt support T's wifi calling features. So if im going to be in a secure environment I will have to grab one thats on a samsung kernel with wifi calling. Sometimes I can get away with wifi/google voice or my corp voip pbx but nothing compares to T's 93kb voice codec period.
We never get the excuse that "I couldn't call in cause there wasn't signal" from my guys. So productive has gone up a fare amount due to this tech it also allows better live tracking cause T's employee finder works over any data connection even when outside gps isnt available. So there's more security that my guys feel as we always know where they are if something like a "misunderstanding" comes up.
Does that help? Lol.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Lol ya that explains it a lil. I live in Las Vegas and I never lose signal anywhere. I guess that why I never understood. But when people are saying no reception is that mean no data either? Cause even if you have no reception but have data. Can't you use a 3rd party app that makes calls over data (not wifi)
Cell and data are basically the same as voice runs over the data lines pulled to the towers. It will be even more so as carriers upgrade to LTE-rev14 I think which is from my understanding is pure carrier level voice IP network vs switched network now.
Basically now voice is segmented out to a Nortel, Lucent, Alcatel gear to handle the phone side and then data is routed to their respective network gear. In a pure IP network both voice and data are run data only. Voice will be filtered out with QoS rules with along with virtual pbx box vs the circuit switched like we have now. The advantages of going pure IP are
1) Carriers are no longer tied to large circuit switched gear that runs into the millions and is proprietary to each manufacturer's specs. So the carriers try to buy just one type of pbx so not to run into compatibility issues. Just replacing a line card which typically hosts 129 lines at the "CO" known as central office is always same day aired if they don't have a replacement handy and those cards run 5 or so grand a piece. So downtime is a problem and cost vs ROI is as well.
2) In a pure voice IP setup the carriers can run a virtual PBX that is software bound vs hardware that the call is then routed via data to CO or datacenter to the last leg to terminate the call with say level 3 being your terminating host that then routes the call from there. If that call is cell phone to cell phone then it can stay data the entire way. This cost the carriers fare less as the hardware is agnostics, think vmware etc. Also audio codec on the BOX and towers can be adjusted in learning mode and then into dynamic mode as to give the callers the best overall call experience and if the tower gets loaded down with calls that gear can downgrade to a lower codec to handle more call volume. Think rush hour traffic where your stuck and everyone is on their cell. I could go into more details but you would fail asleep but this killer feature alone.
Bottom line is this cost the carriers far less, the audio codec used has much better call quality and can be setup to be dynamic to the load of individual towers vs switched which is hard coded. Downtime is dramatically reduced as there's no actual phone/linecards to go bad.
Many T-Mobile users "use" the Wi-Fi calling feature because it just sounds better. The reason that is because the audio codec "your call" runs around 96kbs. With voice over LTE "depending on tower config and load" can provide the same call quality. For example vzw cell call is 4.7kbs "data" which means that call is heavily compressed. You can tell if you listen, the bass and highs are gone. It's like talking to someone that speaks monotone. The reverse, GSM to GSM call uses a audio codec in the 14.8kbs range and sounds awesome. Even better is two T-Mobile callers using Wi-Fi calling. The problem the carriers have is CDMA to GSM or the other way around, all those calls sound like crap cause the voice gear has to downgrade or upscale to meet the setting of caller and vzw doesn't scale higher than 9.2kbs so the convo sounds mutilated with call echo, drop data packets which sounds like garbage like distorted audio. Think Sat radio when you go under a long bridge. Voice over LTE "voice over data" will allow all carriers gear to talk correctly and adjust audio codecs correctly on the fly giving the callers the best call possible.
I know I went WAY beyond and in depth but I love this stuff and its fun to share it with others.
Casperi
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Reception is one thing, but there is another reason..
For people that travel frequently outside the Tmobile coverage area (ie: International).. Wi-Fi calling is important and critical.. Even with a Corp plan, international minutes when you need to call back to the US is expensive and without having to deal with call forwarding, or grabbing a local SIM.. (though I usually get one for data)
Related
I'd like to see whether it exists and can anybody extract it out and I'll try to install on nexus one to see how it works.
mingkee said:
I'd like to see whether it exists and can anybody extract it out and I'll try to install on nexus one to see how it works.
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Click to collapse
It's not on the shipping rom...
You should be able to pull it from the dumped euro rom if I'm not mistaken.
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rUsTyRuSs said:
You should be able to pull it from the dumped euro rom if I'm not mistaken.
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Lol what.no
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
http://www.androidcentral.com/t-mobile-g2-wont-have-free-tethering-may-have-wifi-calling
doesn't come installed yet- from what I've read, it will be included in an OTA
It is not installed got mine this weekend in austin at the android bbq from the tmobile pr rep
Wonder if G2 will be support for the wifi application and service ?
Sounds awesome, but no body is discussing price. Do WiFi minutes use your normal minutes, or is there a separate cost (has to be for international), or is (National) WiFi calling completely FREE?
If I can save minutes using WiFi at home and have no additional costs, that would be awesome.
...also, I assume the phone cannot receive calls (from your normal number) over WiFi, can it? It would be even nicer to be able to make and receive calls with the cellular network completely turned off. Imagine the battery life!
rpmccormick said:
Sounds awesome, but no body is discussing price. Do WiFi minutes use your normal minutes, or is there a separate cost (has to be for international), or is (National) WiFi calling completely FREE?
If I can save minutes using WiFi at home and have no additional costs, that would be awesome.
...also, I assume the phone cannot receive calls (from your normal number) over WiFi, can it? It would be even nicer to be able to make and receive calls with the cellular network completely turned off. Imagine the battery life!
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Click to collapse
Price will most likely be free like uma. On my wife's bold, wifi calls are free. The cellular radio will not need to be active as that would defeat the purpose. However, the new system doesn't do wifi to cellular hand-off. So if you leave the range of your wifi network, the call is dropped. also, I'm not sure how this is going to pan out, but the system apparently connects to the towers via the internet and the towers connect the call. I'm not sure if this means you need to be in a serviceable area or not, but it seemed rather odd to me.
In regards to the wifi calling app. The service (ability to make calls over wifi) will be free, making phone calls will deduct from normal minute buckets. T-Mobile states that they have it use your minutes because while it doesn't use a local tower it still goes through their system (ie call gets routed through web to tmobile switch and then is sent through a landline, which of course tmobile still pays the owner for, using @home only cuts the use of the one tower and base station, you still register on the network so you can use your normal # and receive calls. Which brings me to my last point...) you should be able to receive calls just fine.
One thing to keep in mind, wifi signal is degraded more heavily by the way you hold the phone than cell signal, if you download an app that monitors cell and wifi signal, you can see this for yourself. Something to keep in mind if you notice your calls are dropping a lot on wifi or you are missing calls.
In regards to needing to be in a servicable area, the service will work as long as there is wifi. Even in other countries.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2
But no free min via wifi, even for incoming? Lame and usless unless you have poor voice signal where you are.
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rpmccormick said:
But no free min via wifi, even for incoming? Lame and usless unless you have poor voice signal where you are.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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True enough. In the past you could add unlimited calling over wifi for $10 per line or $20 for up to five. This feature was discountinued in 2008, with tmobile claiming only a tiny percentage of consumers used the service and that it would remain fir business customers (albeit at a higher price.)
If enough people request it, maybe tmobile will come out with the feature sooner. If you really want something like that, request it at @tmobile on twitter, ask on facebook, post on the support forums or call customer care. If enough people want it, it will happen.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2
Skype????????
I wonder how this will work on corporate plans.
we have about 150 blackberrys with wifi calling and we have a deal where it does not deduct from our minute pool
I really hope it comes out as an OTA.
Not because I'm concerned with wifi calling, I'm concerned with an OTA coming out... one that can help those many times smarter than I get root.
..That said bring it up to tmo at any chance!
so let me get this straight, so if i have the unlimited wifi (which i do) then when the wi-fi calling gets here (hopefully soon) then it will NOT be deducted from my minutes bucket right ?
Use skype........
-FuRBz- said:
so let me get this straight, so if i have the unlimited wifi (which i do) then when the wi-fi calling gets here (hopefully soon) then it will NOT be deducted from my minutes bucket right ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will still use your minutes.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
jasonvieira said:
I wonder how this will work on corporate plans.
we have about 150 blackberrys with wifi calling and we have a deal where it does not deduct from our minute pool
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Click to collapse
tl;dr
In short, no idea yet
In the billing system your calls from uma phones (and @home phones) get tagged as being a hotspot call (you see this on your paper or net bill with a letter designation.) The free uma calling service relies on the tag to make the calls free. If calls from the wifi calling app get this tag (it should show even without the free calling feature) the the calls will be free from the wifi calling app through the unlimited uma calling feature, otherwise no.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2
-FuRBz- said:
so let me get this straight, so if i have the unlimited wifi (which i do) then when the wi-fi calling gets here (hopefully soon) then it will NOT be deducted from my minutes bucket right ?
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Click to collapse
no, it won't be deducted from your minutes if you're already grandfathered & paying the monthly fee for unlimited uma/hotspot minutes (that's directly from the tmo techs' wifi calling training doc)
Technology moves faster than the carrier of those technology.
I have been using Atnt for last three years, they had 'Unlimited Data' Plan which I had with my HP Ipaq 6283 WM 6.5.. than the Iphone came and Atnt said:
'NO NEW CUSTOMERS WITH UNLIMITED DATA PLAN ANYMORE, OLD CUSTOMER CAN KEEP THEIR PLAN'
I paid 35 dollars a month for unlimited data plan from jan 2010 - dec 2010 even when i was using a flip phone with zero data usage, because if I switch back to regular I will never get 'unlimited data at fixed cost' plan...
Now I bought Windows Phone and am using data, but I feel cheated.. coz for last three months I have noticed that whenever I cross the 1000MB usage mark, my connection speed slows down and I also feel like someone had deliberately slowed down that speed to restrict my usage.
This post needs to be moved to the General Discussion area.
AT&T is not smart enough to throttle individual line speed yet (T-Mo does). The connection speed varies a lot because AT&T's network is woefully overloaded. It has nothing to do with how much data you have used, especially at only 1GB range.
I routinely get below 100kbps speed in 3G even though I only use around 400MB a month.
Damn dude, I gotta ask, what are you doing that pushes you over 1gb a month?
My wife and I each have 500mb, she uses her iPhone constantly for Facebook, etc and barely cracks 200. I've been using wifi so only clocked in 4mb last month. I'm actually trying to go a month without wifi to see how much I use. Lots of internet useage.
sure haven't said:
Damn dude, I gotta ask, what are you doing that pushes you over 1gb a month?
My wife and I each have 500mb, she uses her iPhone constantly for Facebook, etc and barely cracks 200. I've been using wifi so only clocked in 4mb last month. I'm actually trying to go a month without wifi to see how much I use. Lots of internet useage.
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Click to collapse
I regularly cross 2GB mark the imaginary 'standard' mark here for most carriers.. but unlimited data means unlimited, at the same quality speed from first KB to last KB.
I am always moving/commuting so I listen to lot of streaming music and I also constantly check streaming live FX Rates which opens on Sunday and dosent close till Friday evening..
unlimited...
not really, we're just selling you on the idea of unlimited... you don't really get unlimited.
unlimited would be, as fast as possible on their cellular network. throttling was considered unlimited by the carrier, but it's a lie. throttling hampers the unlimited part, by reducing, or placing a limit on the amount of data you can use per billing cycle.
it's wrong, it's a lie, and people accept it hundreds of millions of times each month. shame.
Well, I just received an Email from AT&T notifying me that my (Grandfathered) "Unlimited" 3G USB AirCard Laptop Connect card Data account has been SUSPENDED because I just went over the 5GB Data Limit! So much for that "Unlimited" Data Plan that I've been paying for all of these months/years that wasn't really Unlimited! AT&T Lies and BS!!!
Go figure, I was syncing all of my music and files to my Amazon Cloud service! I think the carriers have us all by the [email protected] now that everything is moving to cloud-based and streaming services! They know we will need more data and they are in a prime position to reap even more $ from our pocketbooks.
I opened my 3G Aircard Account at the same time I had purchased the iPhone 3G when it was first released in July, 2008. The AT&T rep that I just talked to said that beginning in September 2010, AT&T had started INDIVIDUALLY notifying customers that have "Unlimited" USB AirCard Data Plans, informing them that their "Unlimited" Data Plan was "discontinued" and that customers had the choice to either cancel the service (with no ETF) or continue with the same pricing ($9.99/mo. for the additional line + $59.99/mo. for the data plan) but with a 5GB/month Data Limit (and $0.05 per 1mb over the 5gb limit)!
AT&T did not mail or email an official notice to all customers regarding this new policy and/or terms, but only contacted individual customers (and Suspended their AirCard accounts) on a case-by-case basis when they met or exceeded the 5GB Limit! Of course they had quietly revised the Terms of Service in the meantime.
So now, with the new not-Unlimited USB AirCard data plan, if I happen to use 6GB of data one month (just 1GB of additional data over my 5GB limit) it would cost an additional $50, or a total of $120 for that month, JUST FOR freakin' DATA!!! And that's not even True 4G service! I am lucky to get decent 3G service in the area I live and travel to, and many places are still using the flippin' Edge network! Even when I have gotten an HSPA+ signal (using unlocked Sierra Wireless USB308 "Shockwave"), I have NEVER seen over 7.2mbps-down (which has been the theoretical 3G spec limit for years)!
Upon asking, the AT&T CSR did tell me that my Unlimited SMARTPHONE Data Plan (currently using Sammy Captivate, but am Grandfathered-in from my iPhone 3G plan) is still completely "Unlimited" and that there are no plans to do away with it as of this time (that they were willing to admit at least), so that was a relief. I'm sure this will change soon enough though, especially if the T-Mo merger finalizes.
/end of rant and hijack!
My friends and I have a saying: ATnT happens to ruin everything they touch. I believe this is true based on what made me switch from ATT to a local carrier. In 2008, there was absolutely no service in Greater Cincinnati. That may not be an issue to all of you, but it was an outrage over here. Where I go to school in Florida, people who have ATT say that they can get no signal anywhere on campus. Why is ATT claiming they have 96% of the country covered, when we cant get signals at 2 basic places? Its not like we are in the boonies here...
Of course, when called about this issue, ATT cites problems with the towers. Typical BS if you ask me.
Thunder_47 said:
My friends and I have a saying: ATnT happens to ruin everything they touch. I believe this is true based on what made me switch from ATT to a local carrier. In 2008, there was absolutely no service in Greater Cincinnati. That may not be an issue to all of you, but it was an outrage over here. Where I go to school in Florida, people who have ATT say that they can get no signal anywhere on campus. Why is ATT claiming they have 96% of the country covered, when we cant get signals at 2 basic places? Its not like we are in the boonies here...
Of course, when called about this issue, ATT cites problems with the towers. Typical BS if you ask me.
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Click to collapse
I live in NYC and their is absolutely no tower problem here, or atleast their shouldnt be one.. still I have the worst 3G experience so far..
I think many public places have started installing these jammers to make your cellphone not work.. in places like schools.. but i have noticed many restuarants and simple diners have started doing this which is rude i think.. I am not talking on phone loud or anything, i know its impolite, but I want to be able to check news if I want to over 3G if i want to.. but they jammed it..
Originally Posted by Thunder_47
My friends and I have a saying: ATnT happens to ruin everything they touch. I believe this is true based on what made me switch from ATT to a local carrier. In 2008, there was absolutely no service in Greater Cincinnati. That may not be an issue to all of you, but it was an outrage over here. Where I go to school in Florida, people who have ATT say that they can get no signal anywhere on campus. Why is ATT claiming they have 96% of the country covered, when we cant get signals at 2 basic places? Its not like we are in the boonies here...
Of course, when called about this issue, ATT cites problems with the towers. Typical BS if you ask me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"All AT&T 3G devices connect to AT&T's EDGE network covering 301 million people or 96% of the population." Also note that AT&T includes roaming service (on other carrier's networks, haha) in this coverage, lol.
Purple11 said:
I live in NYC and their is absolutely no tower problem here, or atleast their shouldnt be one.. still I have the worst 3G experience so far..
I think many public places have started installing these jammers to make your cellphone not work.. in places like schools.. but i have noticed many restuarants and simple diners have started doing this which is rude i think.. I am not talking on phone loud or anything, i know its impolite, but I want to be able to check news if I want to over 3G if i want to.. but they jammed it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is true (using cellular jammers), it's not just rude, but truly unethical and should be illegal! What if there is a fire or other emergency in the restaurant or on campus? There aren't nearly as many land-line pay phones around as there used to be to dial 911!
And what if, God forbid, a friend or family member gets in a car accident, etcetera, and doctors or other friends or family are desparately trying to reach you on your cell phone from the hospital, etc, but you are not receiving the calls because of these jammers?!?!
bbfoto said:
If this is true (using cellular jammers), it's not just rude, but truly unethical and should be illegal! What if there is a fire or other emergency in the restaurant or on campus? There aren't nearly as many land-line pay phones around as there used to be to dial 911!
And what if, God forbid, a friend or family member gets in a car accident, etcetera, and doctors or other friends or family are desparately trying to reach you on your cell phone from the hospital, etc, but you are not receiving the calls because of these jammers?!?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% true.. go to any private university/school in tri-state area and you will see your connection is almost dead as soon as you enter any building, step outside the building and your got signal again.. the thing is these jammers dont completely block your cellphone, they leave just a small last bar, enough to receive any call, but to talk you have to step outside the building orelse your call will not be clear.. making 911 call work too since its an 'emergency' number..
So what if you're trapped inside a campus building in a science lab working on a project after hours and your entry/exit is blocked by fire, earthquake,?
Or I remember a news story not to long ago about a girl/student who had disappeared...last place they could trace her to was inside one of the lab buildings on campus via a hallway security camera. I think it was another student or school worker that had raped then killed her. *Maybe* in a circumstance like this one, a cell phone call from within the building could have saved her!? But if you can't dial out...Yikes! I don't understand how they can limit the jammers to not block 911 calls?
The universities should instead implement in-building cell phone "tickets" or citations that are expensive or that count against your credits/GPA or financial aid. This might build a bit of revenue for the school, instead of costing the school a lot of money to install a cellular jammer in each building (I'm sure this is quite expensive on a large campus), and it would definitely keep everyone safer.
I know that it would be hard to "police", but if the penalties were harsh enough, I think it would work. I do understand how hard it would be to not use my smartphone at school...texting, calls, browsing, etc...but I think after a few people got tickets and word spread I think it would mostly remedy the problem. ...but maybe I'm wrong, too.
I just know that if it were my daughter or son in an emergency situation, there would be a lawsuit if the phone was recovered and the call log or billing statement showed that 911 or another number was dialed but could not connect!
Purple11 said:
100% true.. go to any private university/school in tri-state area and you will see your connection is almost dead as soon as you enter any building, step outside the building and your got signal again.. the thing is these jammers dont completely block your cellphone, they leave just a small last bar, enough to receive any call, but to talk you have to step outside the building orelse your call will not be clear.. making 911 call work too since its an 'emergency' number..
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Jammers are illegal to sell or operate in the United States without special waivers from the FCC. You're just getting a weaker signal due to being indoors.
bkaul said:
Jammers are illegal to sell or operate in the United States without special waivers from the FCC. You're just getting a weaker signal due to being indoors.
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They get away with it by saying that their buildings are fitted with barriers that keep Wi-Fi signals inside the building. Those barriers also keep cellular signals out.
bkaul said:
Jammers are illegal to sell or operate in the United States without special waivers from the FCC. You're just getting a weaker signal due to being indoors.
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In my university (hofstra university) we have a highrise building with library and classrooms. All cellphones are blocked in the library area, call breaks and its impossible to talk, we have to run outside if anyone calls.. few yards away we have another highrise with exactly the same height, build and size.. buts its a residence building for full-time students living on-campus and their I get full high speed 3G inside..
What is the saddest thing is how it is becoming a 'trend'.. many restaurants have started installing these jammers and seem to be proud of it.. they think its tech savvy to block other people's technology..
rmcgraw said:
They get away with it by saying that their buildings are fitted with barriers that keep Wi-Fi signals inside the building. Those barriers also keep cellular signals out.
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Passive barriers in the construction (i.e. a giant Faraday cage) are perfectly fine. Active jammers are not legal, and I can just about guarantee you they're not running them if you're in the US. It's just that the building is constructed in such a way that radio signals don't penetrate inside well.
Do you have worse data signal reception (and use) with Sprint vs. Verizon indoors?
More often than not, inside a store or restaurant in an 'excellent coverage' area, Sprint's data network is not usable (connection timeouts) where as surfing on Verizon is no problem.
I suspect a combination of Sprint Rev A and possibly cell density / Sprint using lower signal strength.
I didn't get a lot of response in the top Networking thread, so I thought I would post with fellow Sprint/ Evo 4G users.
other sim thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1501051
Hey,
It all comes down to you get what you pay for, sprint has amazing phones with ok at best service sorry if anyone takes offence but its true. When on big red you are paying a lot but you get good phones and strong service its just how it is sadly. Sometimes I have great data in stores others I dont it just depends on the cell tower and how the building is built, but like I said it just comes down to you get what you pay for!
Stevo
While you would think the signal would be similar, since both Sprint and Verizon are CDMA, it's not.
On sprint, there is a tower less than 2 blocks from my house. Outside I get full bars, but the second I step inside my house, I get knocked down to 1 bar. Using the Verizon PRL, I also get full bars outside, but when I step inside, I only lose one bar, and get 5/6 bars consistently. The same thing happens at a few restaurants around town, sprint gets 0 bars inside, but almost full bars as soon as I step outside, but with verizon, the signal stays the same in and out.
Thanks guys. This is exactly my issue. For some reason, in larger market cities, this is less of a problem.
I wish I could find a technical reason. There seems to be a discrepancy too in the quality of data signal with sprint's own towers.
And I don't buy in to the 'you get what you pay for'. My wife and I pay $1800 a year for 'unlimited everything and the first 4G network with enhanced devices that connect to high speed data'
I hope this isn't out of context but it seemed to be the most relavent thread for my issue.
Typically I haven't had many issues with my Sprint server (I'm in the Denver metro area) however over the last few days every call I get on the end voice is choppy, and eventually will cut out. When monitoring my signal it will jump from 3 or 5 bars to zero and then back up again.
I do have a rooted phone, however the ROM I'm using has the stock kernel and the most up to date radio.
I guess my question is, has anyone experienced any issues like this over the past few days? Is it possible that I'm having a hardware issue and need to un-root my phone and take it to the sprint store?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm not quite sure how to start the problem solving process. Thanks!
IrideAgro said:
Thanks guys. This is exactly my issue. For some reason, in larger market cities, this is less of a problem.
I wish I could find a technical reason. There seems to be a discrepancy too in the quality of data signal with sprint's own towers.
And I don't buy in to the 'you get what you pay for'. My wife and I pay $1800 a year for 'unlimited everything and the first 4G network with enhanced devices that connect to high speed data'
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Thats a lot for that plan. I use to have and switched to the $70 one due to the fact that I barely call land lines anymore. You might want to look into the other plans to save some money.
Now as far as the signal problem...it really depends on the phone, freq, rom, area and the building. I dont have the problems that you have..in face ppl with vw have that problem around me.
edlokien said:
Thats a lot for that plan. I use to have and switched to the $70 one due to the fact that I barely call land lines anymore. You might want to look into the other plans to save some money.
Now as far as the signal problem...it really depends on the phone, freq, rom, area and the building. I dont have the problems that you have..in face ppl with vw have that problem around me.
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Um, Lets see, Family unlimited plan with two Evos (+$20) - with a discount on the line. Use to be under $130/month, now it is at $146/month. So not sure what you are talking about regarding price.
Regarding your signal response, I was looking for something actually technical and informative.
IrideAgro said:
Um, Lets see, Family unlimited plan with two Evos (+$20) - with a discount on the line. Use to be under $130/month, now it is at $146/month. So not sure what you are talking about regarding price.
Regarding your signal response, I was looking for something actually technical and informative.
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Sounds about right Iride. We have a family unlimited plan here as well with an Evo and an iPhone 4s and I think we're somewhere in the $160 range with insurance and everything.
On the technical side I've posted a few times in other threads pertaining to the same issue but haven't heard back.
It seems my service is now only sporadic at home, but I can't confirm that fully just yet. I was downtown (Denver) using my phone yesterday and it seemed just fine, however when I returned home any call I made immediately had a sporadic choppy voice. This is strange to me as I've never had bad signal here until now. That's over 2+ years of living in this same apartment.
Maybe this is something on Sprint's end. This may be a silly question, but when calling for tech support, they can't tell if you've rooted your phone or not right? It would only be if you took it in to get serviced without unrooting?
Hope to figure out something soon...
Ok just moved into a new apt that has poor 3g signal with 2 bars and was suggested by sprint to get the airwave with my high speed Internet.. Well I was wondering I'm like a mile maybe 2 away from 4g, will it boost me into 4g coverage or just give me good signal within the home??
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Doesn't help with 4g, but reception is way better.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
The Airave doesn't boost signal, it's a femtocell, which is essentially a mini cell tower. It's 3G only and doesn't broadcast a 4G signal of any kind.
What datajosh said... And with wifi your data travels over that very fast.My two cents: I am so glad I have an Airave. I live in a fairly wooded area and both 3g and 4g (which I can get in town by the way) don't work well at all - for any carrier. I've had sprint up here for about 5 years and was looking at Verizon and ATT but neither could even get the anemic reception on 3g/1g I was getting on Sprint. Got an Airave and my signal is freaking great! I can walk out of my place to my garage about 50yds and still be on my unit. My sister got one because she too was was having issues down in SoCal (and the family has FIVE phones!). Now they can all get super reception. I set up my unit (and my sisters too) to be 'off' my network in a DMZ. Configured my router to allot an IP as DMZ and let the Airave use it as the 'public' IP. That way that traffic doesn't 'mix' with my local net and wifi. Lastly I just went to Amazon and baught mine for like $50.00 U.S. My sister made calls for about a week and finally spoke to the right person(s) and got one free!
I just got the Airave and the only thing I can see improved on is the reception of my calls (I get 5 bars instead of 2)
4g is the same
and 3g is still slow as heck..
also it has a build in GPS.. to tell you where you are..
It has about a 300 foot radius so if you go past that point you most likely will jump to another tower.
and when making and getting calls you get 3 beeps letting you know you are on the Airave. also dialing *99 will give you a message to let you know you are on the service.
If I am not mistaken the air rave is for call quality. 4g is purely data. Why wouldn't you just use wifi?I would think 4g would be slower than wifi anyhow. Feel free to call BS on this.
it only help with cell service.
you just get the air wave. ( they should offer it for free..)
and get on wifi network.
Have one myself. Great for calls and SMS/MMS but the data speeds are maybe half the speed of my DSL. I just use wifi for anything but calls, makes sense to me. Sprint had recently changed something with their towers out here and we were left with absolutely no service on my property. Sprints corporate numbers, including the CEO's, are not hard to find. I called and tore them a new one, I wasn't letting them get off easy with this one, being a sprint customer for yeeeaaarrrss. Long story short I got a free air rave for life out of it which I think was fair of them to do.
Just a note, if you have low bandwidth and you make calls while downloading stuff or just eating the bandwidth in general, you will have stupid delays in you conversations. Its just awkward.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Not true about data speed on my airwave at home i was at 2.5mbps
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Why not just connect to the wifi of your home network...
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daniel4653 said:
Not true about data speed on my airwave at home i was at 2.5mbps
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Well maybe their speeds vary, but the whole point is if you have an air rave you most likely have wifi so why not just use that for data? The air rave is completely dependant on the broadband connection, its not like a range extender for sprint tower signal. I'm sure the phones modem has a lot to do with it as well.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
i heard sprint will give you one of these free if you call and complain about the service in your house....any truth to this, cuz i cant text or call in my house if my depended on it
Oops blank post. I meant to say, read this thread...two people have said they got one from sprint for free...I was one of them. Do you read through posts before you ask a question at all?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
ShinigamiH4ck3r said:
i heard sprint will give you one of these free if you call and complain about the service in your house....any truth to this, cuz i cant text or call in my house if my depended on it
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YES & No!
If you have poor/fair service in your home, then just search xda forums for info on how to get it, or just PM me and I'll give you the info. I have very poor service in my home with sprint, that I just moved to. I and my family would all have to walk outside in the yard, to get a signal that was less likely to drop in the middle of the call. Even then, we only got 1-2 bars at most. In my house, we either didn't get a signal at all or it would drop out if we moved around.
I called the Sprint Retention line, and explained to them my issues with the service in my new home. I told her that I had searched the Sprint coverage map, and my area was listed with "Fair" service. She had me hold for just a few seconds to look up my address on their coverage map as well. Then she came back and explained the Airwave to me. I had never mentioned an airwave to this point.
She said that she had to check my area's coverage before offering it, because they've received a ton of request from people lately for this device, and many of them were in "excellent" coverage areas, and were simply calling because they heard they could get it for free. Just to have it I guess. Anyways, if you are in a poor-fair coverage area, and have real issues with coverage/dropped calls. Yes, they will send one for free and then not charge a dime. You just have to agree that it's their property and is to be returned at end of contract/service-termination.
I have one in my home as well. Works great. it doesnt support 4g but any sprint device will work with it. I get about 2-3 megs down with it running 3g.
I have a airave but get nowhere near the range some of you claim. Is there a way to boost it's range? I'm lucky to get 50 feet. Sorry if this is a hijack.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Free airaves
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1407446
JDinAZ74 said:
I have a airave but get nowhere near the range some of you claim. Is there a way to boost it's range? I'm lucky to get 50 feet. Sorry if this is a hijack.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Click to expand...
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sprint.com --> mysprint --> my preferences --> manage my airave --> range settings
Doctor_XXX said:
sprint.com --> mysprint --> my preferences --> manage my airave --> range settings
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Click to collapse
Awesome thank you.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Actually, my Airave sucks. Somebody else in my building has one that is locked to their phone number, and my ET4G always get confused and connects to that one. It basically keeps me from making any phone calls in my house. I have to go all the way into the street to call.
So, please be kind and don't lock down your airave to your account.
Also, even when it does work, I still get **** data speeds.
Hello all,
I am thinking of leaving Sprint and going Tmo. I don't have the greatest service in my house and currently have a Airwave. I checked Sensorly and it looks like Tmo may not be strong around my house also. I understand Tmo has wifi calling. I was wondering of I could get input on how it is working? Any issues with it?
Also how is your cell service? I'm located in Los Angeles (So Bay).
Thank you
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk
BigE-evo said:
Hello all,
I am thinking of leaving Sprint and going Tmo. I don't have the greatest service in my house and currently have a Airwave. I checked Sensorly and it looks like Tmo may not be strong around my house also. I understand Tmo has wifi calling. I was wondering of I could get input on how it is working? Any issues with it?
Also how is your cell service? I'm located in Los Angeles (So Bay).
Thank you
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I just did the leap two days ago.
I'm in Pasadena, and work in Santa Monica... Let me tell you. It's the best decision I've ever made.
Sprint is horrible, with constant slow data speeds, and disconnects.
I now get 4g LTE everywhere I go, including my daily commute on the 10fwy.
Do it. This phone is awesome and you deserve the 4G speeds
Edit- I was a sprint loyal customer for 10years
I switched from at&t a couple months ago and am glad I did. I get a more consistent signal in my house (near downtown Cincinnati) and wifi calling works really well. .. Just make sure you have a strong even signal in your house, because the call will drop if you walk into an area with weak coverage. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the lack of lte in this market. Everyone wise has it but us an from what I've read, it could be because another local provider blocking deployment. .. Not sure if it will be a deal breaker yet, although Verizon and att are too expensive to go to. .
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The Walmart exclusive T-Mobile no contract plan is the best. $30 per month 5gigs high speed data then throttled after 5gigs. Unlimited text but only 100mins. I use google voice anyway paired with a VoIP then you have free calling. I just keep my out on swappa for a good used gsm phone. I am forever done with contracts.
Do it! I just left sprint a month ago for the note 3 and I couldn't be happier.
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I'm back in the UK and Wi - Fi calling to the state's have been flawless. Free texts and 3G Web which is still manageable for Emails and browsing. But back to the subject: Wi - fi calling works great.
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The WiFi calling on the Note3 is a little buggy atm; there's already been OTA updates for the other carriers that fix it. I've disabled it both because it's buggy on my high-strength WiFi (echos, drops, CallerID;61 bug, etc), and because I don't really need it in NYC as T-Mobile is everywhere (except deep inside buildings and in basements)
I switched from AT&T (~$75/mo inc taxes&fees) to T-Mobile's prepaid ($30/mo) in June, and now get way more service for less money. All I really lost, which I don't miss much, is roaming, call forwarding (for GoogleVoice VM), and more voice minutes than I could use.
T-Mobile's making all the right moves with their UnCarrier initiative and gaining subscribers fast. Hope they don't end up bogging their network down like Sprint did.
Switch and don't look back, sprint is crap.
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I switched months ago from Sprint and never looked back, Sprint is total crap. Phoenix is still without LTE from Sprint, but Tmo has pretty good coverage. At my house I actually get faster LTE than I do cable Internet!
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Like everyone here, Pull the trigger.
I was on sprint using an iphone (yaya, whatever) for the price we paid or well ANYONE pays... its not worth it. Even after EIP on phones with TMOBILE, the global data just makes it sweeter. This is honestly a must-have if your frequent traveler. Sprint gave me the run around for three months with "promises" and tried to keep me over sprint spark, yeah sure softbank has deep pockets, maybe softbank WILL turn sprint around properly...
But its all about the now, not the waiting game. You wont have the data connection issues on TMO like sprint, Global data/text was a huge asset overseas when I went to see family vs. when I was in verizon even few years back (They murder you with data fees on blackberry overseas) then the next trip I took I suffered without data (due to LTE bieng new and HTC Thunderbolt bieng...well CDMA/LTE Only).. *cough* Sprints same way. But this time around I was superduper happy.
My boyfriend in IL uses TMO as his internet REPLACEMENT! and we have never had issues with lag during P2P oldies like AOE2, SC, to newer titles like SC2 or even PS3 games or skyping AND gaming...etc. So I am overall impressed. Very low ping compared to big red even, color me impressed.
Unless your in a magical sprint spark city, with a tri-band device (which you dont) and dont care for coverage outside of that tiny area (This is to ANYONE with sprint) come over to team magenta. Team banana needs to think things through better for the future. Itll average $15~ difference at most for 40x the service.
Sometimes I think sprints techs are idiots, where I work we see around 10,000 guests at a single park alone. Sprint has a single short range tower serving two themeparks Which on a good day will go over 20K, Lets say 14K Average. This tower was the LAST tower to recieve LTE rollouts in the city, and this tower is ALWAYS so overloaded nobodys sprint devices work in the area 99% of time. Infact itll flipflop so much your battery will be gone within 4 hours of being in its service radius. Everytime I call its "no issues reported, youll get a call from a tech within 72hrs". 3 complaints, 2 months later? oh yeah no calls!
I explained ^ to the technician I did somehow manage to run down when they were doing tower maint since I can access the backlot, he knew it too but said he could only keep bringing issue up. There are no extenders owned by sprint within the parks. Verizon, TMO, AT&T All have short range towers & extenders WITHIN park grounds to deal with the loads of people hitting the towers.
Looking at TMOs tower on the grounds, it houses nearly same amount of equipment as the big players. Sprints using a low cap tower in a high cap zone nearly everywhere i go & has "good enough to be passable equipment".
Hell even AT&T where I live...theres a tower so huge its like a mini eiffel tower with blinking lights for planes & all for a low-density area but it covers some major ground with some pretty insane LTE speeds. Very nifty retro fitting.
sprints like... MORE TOWERS WITH BAD RANGE!!! GOGOGOGO!
Do it!
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Sprint is the worst cellphone service provider, Consumer Reports says
http://www.latimes.com/business/tec...rst-consumer-reports-20131121,0,6644321.story
There is a sticky for this discussion http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466107