CDMA bars in more places

Just for the record, at&t "more bars in more places" campaign is complete horseshit.

On a GSM carrier, bars don't mean shit. I've had 2-3 bars on at&t or T-Mobile and was unable to make a call.

On a CDMA carrier, often you can have 0 bars and make clear calls and get ~300 kbps data speeds.

The bars are just calculated differently.

So far, I usually have very few bars of Sprint reception here in Seattle... but I can usually make... and HANG ON to calls much, much better than at&t.


Quality of Service: A+

Airaves require GPS... and UPS.

Lesson learned: for clever reasons, Airaves require a GPS signal. Why you ask? Why the fuck would it need GPS? Well... because they don't want you taking your Airave to Botswana and using Sprint. Why? Well... well because they want you to rent a GSM Roaming phone for $45 a week, as well as pay $5 a minute for roaming in Botswana.

WTF right?

Let me just say this: T-Mobile does not use Microcells. T-Mobile uses WIFI UMA (unlicensed mode access something rather) to relay your phones through VOIP while still using your phone number. It's a great thing, and as WIFI chips require less and less power, they are a viable option, sometimes delivering better talk time than on normal cellular networks. While T-Mo UMA should only work in the USA, you can easily rig it to work worldwide.

Not so easy with the Airvana Airave from Sprint. Not only does it require GPS for Big Brother... so they know where you are using it, but it also requires uninterrupted power supply (UPS).

Okay not really, but if your power goes out for a few days, The Airave (for the same reasons mentioned above) "deprovisions" itself and you have to spend 2 hours on the phone with Sprint getting it to work again.

Once you hook up your Airave, pray to god your power does not go out.

Sprint can't handle Cyrillic from at&t

When my friends SMS me Cyrillic characters from at&t, they are not decoded properly and I get gibberish. BTW I gotta give Sprint support credit here because I spoke to a lovely young lady who was kind enough to actually have me send her Cyrillic to her Sprint phone, and she sent it back to me.

Here is what we learned. Sprint to Sprint, Android to Android Cyrillic works fine.

However at&t iPhone Cyrillic to Sprint Android Cyrillic is a no-go.

NVM we have Airaves.

Completely dumbfounded, I called Sprint again a few days later just to doublecheck.

You are not going to believe this, but the rep just calmly told me: sure, we have Airaves. We just got a new stock. Let me send one your way!

When you are on the NOW Network, miracles sometimes happen.

What? There's no Airaves?

One thing I will say time and time again, is that unless you need to talk to the Port-In department, which seems to be for some reason stupidly understaffed, I love Sprint support's short hold times, because I have to call them often.

Luckily, I did not give up on the Airave, and the next day, I called again explaining my Airave dilemma. This time, the rep agreed, and even apologized for the stupidity of the first rep. She said I can gladly get an Airave for free (no $100 purchase cost). She said I do not have to pay the $5 a month fee to use it either. (a.k.a. bullshit fee because we still have to route your call).

There was only one dilemma. She said there are no fucking Airaves in stock anywhere and they won't be available till sometime in 2011. (This takes place in October 2010).

To this, I say WTF?

You ADVERTISE them on your site. The store reps didn't mention not having any. Seriously. I said can I find one myself and use it? And she said yes. I called 10 Sprint stores in my area and no one had them. I saw one on eBay but it was $400. I was at a loss.

For the next 3 weeks I kept calling Sprint every few days asking if they had any Airaves.

On my 5th call, a high-tier superviser kindly finally told me that they ran out of Airaves and that the new Airave 3G's were recalled and not going to be available until March 2011.

I think around this time my 30 days return policy expired.

I need an AIRAVE!!!!

Reading gadget blogs for years, I saw them mention this device Sprint has called an Airave. It is what is often referred to as a Femtocell but is more accurately called a Microcell. It hooks up to your ISP through your ISP connection and gives you a mini tower of coverage in your home (~5000 sq. ft.).

Before I came to Sprint, I knew I was gonna need one of these suckers because at a family house on Whidbey Island, where I take care of my grandparents, I have non-existent coverage. I even told the rep at the store when I was getting the EVO that I'm gonna need to get my hands on one. He said that while he cannot guarantee, he THINKS it shouldn't be a problem and customer service would provide me with one. If not, I could always just cancel service and return the EVO.

I will say the Airave was particularly important to me as an incentive to bring over my entire family plan from at&t because my grandparents would sit on it 100% of the time while they are at home. There is no tower coverage at all.

Now let me explain something to y'all about how this bedonkulous concept of a Microcell works with our loverly 4 carriers. On 3 of the 4 (Sprint, Verizon, and at&t) WE, WE THE CUSTOMER have to purchase the device. WE THE CUSTOMER THEN HAVE TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL MONTHLY FEE of $5-$20 to use the goddamn Microcell.


To this I say WTF!


It's our internet pipe. It's YOUR lack of coverage, and we have to pay for it? You guys should be grateful that we have service with you at all and you should be sending us these things by the bucketload!

Thinking that Sprint is desperate for new Postpaid customers, and is eager to retain them, I erroneously assumed that they would be willing to listen to some of my ideas about the stupidity of the Microcell pricing system.

The first rep I talked to flat out told me: NO. You cannot get a free Airave. You cannot get Airave without a monthly fee. It is your fault for getting service where you have no coverage and I urge you to cancel and return the phone.

WTF right?

Welcome to the Now Network!

My affair with Sprint began with a divorce from at&t. After almost 10 years of stellar turned substandard turned fraudulent turned compensatory service, I decided to part ways with at&t Orange (I came from Cingular).

My tenure at at&t involved leveraging a MAGNIFICENT unlimited MediaWorks Cingular plan that included unlimited SMS and Data for an unheard-of $20 against at&t's inability to see what devices used what plans. The tenure featured over 10 devices, and several ups and downs. One remarkable incident involved a scam the local at&t store reps were running, removing and re-adding features to increase each others' commissions. Little did the idiots know, but they managed to get rid of my precious grandfathered MediaWorks plan and were then unable to add it back!

Long story short, I called and complained to several tiers of support, about how the morons screwed me over. Support says they can't re-add the plan. My friend, who was a regional manager, informed me of the scam the guys run, where the local stores delete features, and then have their buddies at a nearby store re-add it. And here they were caught.

Finally, I managed to get $20x24months contract length  = $480 dollars + $60 for time on the phone credited to my account for my troubles.

After that came the iPhone era. For the first time, I no longer felt like I needed the next new badass phone that comes out every 3 months. For years, I was finally content with the iPhone I had, because it destroyed all competition.

There was only one problem with the iPhone: it used a new Radio chip not used in any other phone. The chip, it turned out, was a complete dud. The iPhone dropped calls left and right. The radio system often failed, where we would get "Call Failed" messages in 5 bars of reception. The situation was pretty ridiculous because other at&t phones could make calls without problems.

As time went by, Android phones grew up and the superior widget/notification interface suddenly looked more appealing than the frozen-in-time UI of the iPhone. I got tired of the rows of apps. I wanted to see more information at once! At&t had one decent Android phone at the time, which was the Samsung Captivate.

The Captivate was a sweet piece of kit. It didn't drop calls like my iPhone. It had HSUPA, unlike my iPhone (3GS). It had that sweet AMOLED screen. There was only one thing it didn't have: a functional GPS.

The thing didn't fucking work at all. On all 3 units I tried. I STILL can't believe Samsung got away with selling ALL THOSE Galaxy S's worldwide.

Faced with a dilemma and a lack of other usable Android phones,  I, for the first time, seriously considered leaving at&t.

I carefully compared all the rates, all the reviews, all the coverages, and save for the coverage, I took a liking to Sprint.

I remember sitting at an at&t store at the end of October waiting to talk to them and Samsung on the phone to see when that Froyo update for Captivate will roll out and whether or not it will fix the GPS. They could not give me any answers. I returned my Captivate right then and there and went down the street to the Sprint Store to get an EVO.


Welcome to the Now Network.

P.S. as of 2/28/11 there is still no Froyo or functional GPS for Samsung Captivate.