Heads Up, Motorola Droid Bionic May Just Get Blindsided This Summer

[Oxn]

Who cares about ATT, they are the worst provider EVER. I would not go to them if they had quad core months before anyone else.

Hell ill pick up boost mobile before i go ATT.

 

[xRodo]

Who cares about ATT, they are the worst provider EVER. I would not go to them if they had quad core months before anyone else.

Hell ill pick up boost mobile before i go ATT.

In rural Georgia, Verizon is the ONLY network with coverage. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint phones simply do not function in the entire county my parents are from. Besides that, I had never had a problem with AT&T until this year. After using their internet service, however, I refuse to ever use anything by AT&T again. They have done nothing but take our money and screw us over this year. My roommates and I were charged for six months of internet service during which time it was never activated, despite our multiple calls to correct the issue. After six months of insisting it was our fault, we finally convinced them to come look, and we would incur the costs of the technician coming if it was a problem on our end. It wasn't. They fixed it, but they refused to give us any of the money back we had paid during the previous six months or credit our bill for even a single month going forward. They said it is our fault for waiting so long to get a technician to come fix it. They ignored the multiple phone calls per month that they have in their logs since September (they went over each one in March with us, so they are all on file) to resolve the issue and said we should have requested a technician earlier. They also chose to ignore that they attempted to charge us $150 each time they suggested a technician come check it out. Anyway, I REFUSE to ever use AT&T for anything for the remainder of my days.

 

[z71kris]

I am curious to find out who did not know ATT was going to release LTE? LTE will be the 4G standard for every (at least US) provider, sprint will be changing/adding to wi-max, and I think TMo as well, if you have been researching this you know, I have read multiple articles stating just this, now what I dont know is if the LTE networks will be compatible, or if they will run completely different spectrums ( I assume so).

 

[Castor Troy]

Gopher I feel your pain. I was stuck with AT&T when I lived in Beverly Hill. After I moved I just transferred everything to my new apartment. A month later everything went dead and I called them and they told me I owed them $400.00 or I wouldn't get my service back on. Needless to say I flipped because I transfered my service and always payed my bill. After 2 days of no phone service and internet and calling and being transfered all over the place they FINALLY fixed their mistake. Next day I cancelled service. Never again. My mom has similiar issues with them over billing and she's perfect when it comes to paying.

Sent from my Droid

 

[Preach2k]

If AT&T had a better network I would rethink thinks and go back to them.. But as of right now after 7 years I will stick with Verizon.

 

[916ninja]

This is assuming ATT has a flawless launch of their network too, im guessing. Theories and ractice are two completely different realms. It isnt as easy as building a tower amd calling it good. What if ATT has config issues? Then again it may end up perfect and ATT is up and running without a hitch. People need to remember that there are more factors involved than we think. Transitions to new technologies fail all the time. There are business and technical processes that have to be fine tuned and performance tested pior to any go-live. And I can almost guarantee there will be issues. And the next rollout will have even more issues because the initial specs will change and the performance tuning from initial roll out will be insufficient.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[The_Engine]

I don't know the details but att is using same 700 MHz spectrum as VZW but they own much, much less of the available bandwidth. So yes it will be LTE, but probably not any where near as pervasive or robust as VZW. They just did but bid enough or but enough of the 700 MHz spectrum.

not sure how t mobile purchase affects tha.

 

[916ninja]

I don't know the details but att is using same 700 MHz spectrum as VZW but they own much, much less of the available bandwidth. So yes it will be LTE, but probably not any where near as pervasive or robust as VZW. They just did but bid enough or but enough of the 700 MHz spectrum.

not sure how t mobile purchase affects tha.

I figure the tmo acquisition will help ATT with some experience but let me give an example.

ATT is filling a bottle with water(lte network). They want to give the bottle out and share it with everyone. So they start pouring out cups(go live). Now ATT has a few options. They can start with a slow pour filling these cups(end users aka customers) or just tilt that bottle up and dump it into the cups. The aforementioned article states 28 mbps to the cups. Is the bottle opening going to be truly capable(referring to when you tilt a gallon jug and it only comes out so fast. You know the chug effect that keeps water from simply pouring out)? Did ATT filter the water for all impurities(perf. Tuning and tech tuning vs tech And perf. issues)? All this is just high level too. I dont know the details to a tee, but simply the best solution for anyone is for ATT to slowly pour their water so their bottle can perform. After pouring a bit they can further upgrade their bottle to pour harder, faster, stronger. Plus, what about our cups? Will the cups(the customer and their phone or usb thingy ma jig) themselves perform admirably?

Just because vzw did it doesn't mean ATT's implementation will go the same. Look at companies running SAP. It worked for some and not so well for others. Rumor has it intel is going to be reimplementing SAP. Why didnt their implementation work out poorly compared to others? It was all in the execution and pre-implementation and what followed suit.

Did that makes any sense to anyone?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[corymcnutt]

I don't know the details but att is using same 700 MHz spectrum as VZW but they own much, much less of the available bandwidth. So yes it will be LTE, but probably not any where near as pervasive or robust as VZW. They just did but bid enough or but enough of the 700 MHz spectrum.

not sure how t mobile purchase affects tha.

Engine/CK - Will LTE phones work on either AT&T / Verizon, or will they be vendor specfic? If AT&T had a really awesome phone, would we be able to purchase one and use it on Verizon's network?

 

[Oxn]

Engine/CK - Will LTE phones work on either AT&T / Verizon, or will they be vendor specfic? If AT&T had a really awesome phone, would we be able to purchase one and use it on Verizon's network?

u wish

 

[The_Engine]

Engine/CK - Will LTE phones work on either AT&T / Verizon, or will they be vendor specfic? If AT&T had a really awesome phone, would we be able to purchase one and use it on Verizon's network?

That's a good question. I think the LTE radios would be fairly compatible but after that its night and day. Keep in mind that the devices on VZW are LTE/CDMA and ATT will be LTE/HSPA. So if you somehow got an ATT LTE device running on the VZW LTE network your be dead as soon as you lost LTE signal.

I am no engineer and there are probably others reading this who can give much better info.

But for devices to be carrier agnostic would be huge. Its something the FCC looks at all the time. As the technologies become more compatible you might be able to go buy an LTE phone and then pick your network. Of course like anyone managing any data network, carriers want some control of what is using their network.

 

[corymcnutt]

That's a good question. I think the LTE radios would be fairly compatible but after that its night and day. Keep in mind that the devices on VZW are LTE/CDMA and ATT will be LTE/HSPA. So if you somehow got an ATT LTE device running on the VZW LTE network your be dead as soon as you lost LTE signal.

I am no engineer and there are probably others reading this who can give much better info.

But for devices to be carrier agnostic would be huge. Its something the FCC looks at all the time. As the technologies become more compatible you might be able to go buy an LTE phone and then pick your network. Of course like anyone managing any data network, carriers want some control of what is using their network.

Once they both go to totally LTE, will that difference of CDMA/HSPA drop out of the picture? Just thinking 3 years down the road, or will they always retain that system as a backup to LTE?

 

[Droid800]

Pure speculation and I will agree. But it still leaves 4-5 months to launch and LTE phone or 2 if RUMOR holds up.

Will it happen? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But It's very possible. You can't just discount everything as a joke and bunk without all the information. The fact remains that AT&T may just release a GREAT LTE phone by years end. Nobody really knows. Certainly wouldn't be a surprise though.

Oh by year end for sure they'll have at least one. But I very much doubt it will happen before Fall.

 

[The_Engine]

Once they both go to totally LTE, will that difference of CDMA/HSPA drop out of the picture? Just thinking 3 years down the road, or will they always retain that system as a backup to LTE?

Think more like 10 years plus to get rid of 3g networks. 1x is still around. VZW has stated that the EV-DO network will be around for 10 more years.

And even them how compatible is T Mobile and ATT today? Both are HSPA+, but you cant just un lock a device and port it over. Look at the hulla baloo on the G2X. Since ATT and VZW are in the 700 mhz Spectrum with LTE, it may be more compatible.

 

[Castor Troy]

Once they both go to totally LTE, will that difference of CDMA/HSPA drop out of the picture? Just thinking 3 years down the road, or will they always retain that system as a backup to LTE?

These are good questions but like the engine said that tech will be around for a long time. Hypothetically speaking though lets say that that tech was completely gone and all carriers were LTE. You bring up some interesting questions . I would think the carriers would want to protect their equipment and not allow it to be used on other newtworks but I really dont know. Sure would be nice though I could finally stop complaining about poor equipment on Verizon and buy what I wanted.

Good questions Cory but unfortunately I don't have the answers.

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[Droid800]

Think more like 10 years plus to get rid of 3g networks. 1x is still around. VZW has stated that the EV-DO network will be around for 10 more years.

And even them how compatible is T Mobile and ATT today? Both are HSPA+, but you cant just un lock a device and port it over. Look at the hulla baloo on the G2X. Since ATT and VZW are in the 700 mhz Spectrum with LTE, it may be more compatible.

EV-DO will be, yeah. But CDMA is going to be phased out as soon as they can get VoLTE working and the LTE network covering their entire current footprint.

ATT and T-mobile are more compatible than most people realize. EDGE works on any device that's unlocked. 3G doesn't, but that's because of frequency issues. HOWEVER, as part of the merger plan, T-mobile will apparently be issuing software updates to newer handsets to allow high-speed data on AT&T's network.

LTE won't be compatible. Verizon uses LTE solely on 700. AT&T will use a MIMO set up on their 700 spectrum, and then their AWS spectrum as well. (and once the T-mo purchase goes through their LTE network will operate almost entirely on AWS)

 

[The_Engine]

These are good questions but like the engine said that tech will be around for a long time. Hypothetically speaking though lets say that that tech was completely gone and all carriers were LTE. You bring up some interesting questions . I would think the carriers would want to protect their equipment and not allow it to be used on other newtworks but I really dont know. Sure would be nice though I could finally stop complaining about poor equipment on Verizon and buy what I wanted.

Good questions Cory but unfortunately I don't have the answers.

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From what I understand the carriers don't make money on devices. In fact they pay the manufacturers subsidies so they lose money. their revenue is mostly tied to the monthly payments made to access the network.

So I would think getting out of the device retail business would be good for them. They could stop paying subsidies, stop paying developers to make crapware, stop paying device sales reps, etc. So they could cut a ton of overhead.

They would just need to provide a list of acceptable equipment and where you can get it. Crapware they are under contract for (and which generate revenue)*coughs*bing*coughs* could be pushed to any device once on their network or sold via app stores like VCast.

The monthly fees wouldn't change and they wouldn't be making up that $200+ subsidy they paid to the manufacturer when you bought the the device. They could Still have 2 year contract and an ETF since those both are tied to network access and not your device. Ex: you can go pay full retail and swap in a new device without affecting your contract.

I guess it would be a paradigm shift, but could reduce a ton of overhead and result in much higher profits for carriers.

In the end I think this was the model Google was looking for with original Nexus. I thinknthe problem lies in control. The carriers want a high degree of control with the devices on their network.

 

[Castor Troy]

I thinknthe problem lies in control. The carriers want a high degree of control with the devices on their network.

Correcto. Plus handsets are becoming a HUGE market. The phone wars have just begun and the manufacturers are jockeying for position. While the carriers do not make money off equipment having a great line-up is very good for business. I said a few years back that when LTE was the norm and if Verizon didn't change it ways (poor equipment) people would start to leave (assuming the competitors LTE network was up to par)

If Sprint or T-Mo was great here in Los Angeles I would have already left because of better equipment choices. I'm sure I'm not alone.

So will the carriers allow their equipment to be used across all carriers (when LTE is the standard)? I really don't know but if a competitor's network is just as good what else will keep you loyal? Pricing and equipment.........

 

[The_Engine]

So ck, take equipment out of the mix. If the FCC regulated that devices must be portable then the carriers could only distinguish themselves by their network strength, price and service.

Now I am not sure if we as consumers would get the better end of this deal. Devices would cost more without the subsidies and I don't think network access costs would decrease despite less overhead for carriers.

Not to mention the manufacturers often struggle with the radio stacks as it is, so making them support everything would probably slow device releases and lead to a poor experience for us.

This is one of those "the devil that you know..." things.

 

[Castor Troy]

All GREAT points the_engine......

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