OTA software update starting 7/26.

[Yoshiaka13]

Lol because if you look at a map nw indiana is part of the Chicago market. We're only a 20-30 minute drive from the city. And Chicago is getting one of the first major tower upgrades. Our towers been running T1 data off them which each tower can only handle a couple hundred people at a pop before it bottle necks. The new towers are being rebuilt almost from the ground up with fiber optics data and updated technology to handle the new phones and 3x-4x the traffic before it bottle necks. Then Sprint is moving to another city to upgrade the towers the same as here.. if they get to SF be warned it will be a few months of hell because each tower takes a week to finish. It's a hardware upgrade. Which means almost a whole new tower. While that tower is being rebuilt its off line and causes all towers around it to act up.. dropped calls, delayed text messages, and slow or no data at times. But its only until they get the towers done.

 

[Mobius360]

Got the update a few days ago so far things are fine. Never used search so no biggie on that. Really hoping Sprint treats this phone like a Nexus sometime soon.

So they turned LTE on, I turned it back off but was wondering if having the CDMA/LTE mode on causes any additional battery drain if I'm not yet in an LTE area?

Sent via my Galaxy Nexus
60% of the time, It works every time!

 

[Danf]

After I got the update ( while phone was on charger) about an hour after I took it off the charger my battery had dropped 11%. found the update had turned 4LTE\3G on and turned it back off. after that battery consumption went back to normal.

 

[Yoshiaka13]

Ya i did notice the battery drain at first.. i still show 4g when I'm back in Hammond/Griffith area near the expressway but not as fast of a battery drain. They need a 4g toggle widget like the Nexus S4G had after the ICS update so we can turn the LTE radio off when we don't need it.

 

[TropicalSammich]

After I got the update ( while phone was on charger) about an hour after I took it off the charger my battery had dropped 11%. found the update had turned 4LTE\3G on and turned it back off. after that battery consumption went back to normal.

must be a bum phone. I've had my network priority set to LTE / CDMA in hopes to find 4G someday, and this has had no negative reaction to my battery life at all, before nor after OTA.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[armyturtle]

Thanks Yoshiaka13 for the info about the potential upcoming problems on the tower upgrades. It sounds like you have a bit of knowledge of CDMA - though I actually worked on the BTS cells for Sprint (back when Sprint maintained their own network - now it's maintained by Ericsson). You are right that hundreds of users can negatively impact performance and speeds, though on LTE the equipment is built for that (all data for each user is interleaved in a time slot on the T1 line). Also there's more than just one T1 line on a BTS (Basestation Transceiver Subsystem). When EVDO Rev A. came along there were supposed to be at least 2 T1's per BTS. Though the dirty trick I saw Sprint pull was that they put the EVDO Rev. A cards in every site but didn't install any more than 1 T1 in most sites - all so they could "claim" their entire area was "EVDO Rev. A" (3G). I suppose you could say it was, though technically to be "EVDO Rev. A" a site had to have more than just the equipment in it that could run Rev. A - it had to be able to actually pass data at 3.0 Mbps.

For LTE (4G) I don't know off hand what the touted throughputs (data speeds) are, but I'm guessing they'll need about 4-8 T1's at a site for it to TECHNICALLY be a 4G LTE COMPLETE site.

The thing is... the T1 lines are rented on a monthly basis from the local telco companies. Each T1 line can run as much as $3-7k a month. What they're trying to do is keep from having to install additional costly T1's in areas that are less likely to generate as much revenue for them. So the people of Nebraska, Buffalo, Waco, etc. can count on being the last on this continent to see anything even close to 4G - there just isn't enough business in the area to warrant that kind of investment for Ericsson and Sprint.

must be a bum phone. I've had my network priority set to LTE / CDMA in hopes to find 4G someday, and this has had no negative reaction to my battery life at all, before nor after OTA.

To TropicalSammich:
Even Sprint themselves recognized there's additional VERY noticeable battery drain with LTE/CDMA turned on and recommended leaving it in CDMA position until further notified by them. I think the FG01 update Sprint pushed was pretty stupid to turn LTE/CDMA on for EVERYONE when there's NO WAY most areas will utilize it for at least 8-10 more months - just MHO.

 

[Yoshiaka13]

Hey army turtle you are also very knowledgeable.. and you are right about ericsson did the last tower upgrades and monitoring. I don't know about the rest of the cities but Chicago is the first to get this major tower over haul and its not ericsson doing it this time. Sprint gave the oh so fun job to Samsung this time. No offense to ericsson but in my opinion Samsung seems more on the ball.

When you ask the right questions to Sprint tech services and are polite it's amazing what info they will share with you. They assume the majority of people calling have no clue what a T1 is and how towers actually work. Which i don't blame them because compared to the number of subscribers on the Sprint network tech knowledge people like us are a small blip on the big scope.

But once you start talking tech and know what's going on they get so relaxed and friendly and laugh and joke with you. Lol.. then they will share info with you. Not the secret stuff but more in depth of what's going on with towers and such.

 

[Barongreystone]

I'm not thrilled with this update being pushed on me. It won't magically give me 4g or the latest version of the operating system, but what it will do is take away some of the functionality I already bought and paid for. I sort of have a problem with that. I also don't like being constantly harassed multiple times per hour to do the 'upgrade.' I'd like that to stop. Someone mentioned in an earlier post that they located where the update file had been downloaded to, and removed it, and the constant notifications to 'upgrade' stopped. Can anyone give me a little advice about that? I'd like it to stop bugging me, and I'd like to hold off on any updating until it's actually to my benefit. Thanks in advance.