Database Develop

WiMax > LTE?

Will most areas with Wimax get LTE? I didn't care too much about this until I read that AT&T Ones get both Wimax and LTE. How exactly does this work? Has it to do with the GSM/CDMA thing?
I was with T-mobile before and you could say I was spoiled by their HSPA speeds. Now its normal for me to get anywhere from 80 to 100 kbps with Sprint. Occasionally I get an LTE signal and speeds upto 1.5 mbps. Would I get faster speeds if I had an older, Wimax phone?
Also, I was told by the Sprint rep that the Nextel towers will be converted to LTE. Is this true?

Where'd you read that att models support wimax?
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta

It's magic, considering ATT never deployed wimax whatsoever. Sprint is the only major cellular provider who went with Wimax, everyone else went lte or HSPA+
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta

sauprankul said:
Will most areas with Wimax get LTE? I didn't care too much about this until I read that AT&T Ones get both Wimax and LTE. How exactly does this work? Has it to do with the GSM/CDMA thing?
I was with T-mobile before and you could say I was spoiled by their HSPA speeds. Now its normal for me to get anywhere from 80 to 100 kbps with Sprint. Occasionally I get an LTE signal and speeds upto 1.5 mbps. Would I get faster speeds if I had an older, Wimax phone?
Also, I was told by the Sprint rep that the Nextel towers will be converted to LTE. Is this true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of this is true except AT&T ONE getting WiMax. As was said, AT&T has never had WiMax and the ONE is not capable of it. Whoever told you that is either mistaken or lying.
Depending on where you are WiMax could be more available then LTE as of right now. As they shut down the 800mhz Nextel towers, Sprint will be rolling out LTE 800 on those is the story most have heard.

I'm in Chicago and we have a lot of wimax. But also a lot of lte too. I did get faster speeds on wimax, but I could only get wimax if I were outside. So... I kept it off and only used wimax if I really needed it. It was a major battery hog.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app

I had og Evo and Evo 3d which were both wimax phones. The signal was much more consistent than I get on my Evo lte and HTC one. As far as speed, I HAVE spiked to 22mbps once or twice on lte but I have to be right there in that sweet spot which is on the side of a major hwy. I can pull 5-8 mbps on an average lte signal but I am constantly loosing it and switching back to 3g and going back and forth. My wimax signal was a goo 7-8 inside my house. Lte is very inconsistent and my area is suppose to be over 80% complete I think last time I checked.
And like gk said wimax was a battery hog. I could never get half a day if I left my wimax radio on and off the charger. My lte devices last a lot longer. This one I take it off the charger in the morning and still have half battery at night most times
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app

sauprankul said:
Will most areas with Wimax get LTE? I didn't care too much about this until I read that AT&T Ones get both Wimax and LTE. How exactly does this work? Has it to do with the GSM/CDMA thing?
I was with T-mobile before and you could say I was spoiled by their HSPA speeds. Now its normal for me to get anywhere from 80 to 100 kbps with Sprint. Occasionally I get an LTE signal and speeds upto 1.5 mbps. Would I get faster speeds if I had an older, Wimax phone?
Also, I was told by the Sprint rep that the Nextel towers will be converted to LTE. Is this true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would be surprised if it were directly true. The Nextel towers were all IDEN-based and are in the process of being torn down. I have no doubt they will be eventually switched to CDMA/3G and then LTE (or maybe built with LTE from the get-go), but probably not until after Sprint rolls out LTE to its existing tower infrastructure.

Not to go off topic too much but when I lived in Columbus Ohio we had pretty good wimax coverage. And in complete honesty the battery hit was hardly any worse than 3g so I would leave wimax on all of the time. I could go a full 12 hour day at work on my 3d with moderate usage and get home with 30 percent left. Similar comparisons in battery life on my 4g, shift, and et4g as well. Apparently its similar to any other signal issue.... But if its a good area wimax doesn't hurt the battery too bad at all really.

I used to get really inconsistent lte a month ago. I'm not sure if they improved the network to correct it or what but when I unlocked the bootloader, I saw a very consistent experience. Not sure if wiping everything did something to correct it, placebo, or new towers were flipped on the same day.
But I only get 2-3 mbps on lte
Wimax I was getting about 8-10
In any case... Sprint is the only major wimax carrier in the USA and att doesn't use it - as mentioned earlier, OP was lied to about this.
Also, I hear the Nextel iden network will be configured to lte on 800 mhz which our phones don't support. None do at this point actually.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app

wimax is awful & I live in a "good" wimax area. Besides Sprint quit building on the network once they realized it sucked.

All right thanks for the clarification guys. I was suspicious when I read it (no idea where, some random forums). Since Sprint is letting go of Wimax and replacing their Wimax devices with LTE, would it be safe to assume that places with "Best" Wimax coverage and/or Nextel coverage will get LTE at some point (6 mos-1 year)? It's really sad when it takes 30-45 minutes do download Cut the Rope at the local mall (in silicon Valley).

Sprint lte (any carried for that matter) is very signal dependent. Stronger signal = faster connection. If u connect to lte and its a slow connection, chances are you are connected to a site farther away then u think, or have a site (one that serves your voice coverage) between the lte site and your phone. All sprint sites are being converted to lte. Most Nextel sites are not. During the conversion, sprint is putting up panels has house both voice and lte on 1900mhz, voice on smr800 and lte on 800smr. No 800smr lte devices are out yet, will will be starting this fall. When Nextel is turned off (last day of this month), sprint will start turning on the 800smr on voice and lte but may take some time (especially lte side). 800smr voice is already being broadcasted in parts of the county, such as in Chicago. Most if not all native sprint coverage will have lte by this time next year. For much more info, go to s4gru.com
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

I had Wimax on my evo3d as well as for my home internet through clear. Wimax signal is much weaker than LTE it is easily affected by weather and even wind.it has poor building penetration, hence Sprint dumped the Wimax program and began with lte!!!
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

Paleryder said:
I had Wimax on my evo3d as well as for my home internet through clear. Wimax signal is much weaker than LTE it is easily affected by weather and even wind.it has poor building penetration, hence Sprint dumped the Wimax program and began with lte!!!
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't so much wimax sucked based on the symptoms you described, it's the frequency Clearwire was using. They used 2500 mhz for wimax and if it were lte on that same band, we'd still have poor building penetration and weak signal.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app

jcwxguy said:
No 800smr lte devices are out yet, will will be starting this fall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the htc one should actually be capable of 800smr lte with some changes to the radio config (and possibly radio software too, but i'm pretty sure that won't be necessary)... once 800smr lte is up and running somewhere near where i live i'll be able to test and figure out what exactly needs to be done to make it work.

hotaru2k3 said:
the htc one should actually be capable of 800smr lte with some changes to the radio config (and possibly radio software too, but i'm pretty sure that won't be necessary)... once 800smr lte is up and running somewhere near where i live i'll be able to test and figure out what exactly needs to be done to make it work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is not capable of 800smr lte....its a hardware thing (no 800smr antenna within the phone) with the HTC ONE, check out the FCC docs...
https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=1898233 (note page 5, only LTE BAND 25 (g block, 1900 mhz, sprints current lte network)
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-342-updated-all-for-htc-one-htc-one-for-all/

jcwxguy said:
it is not capable of 800smr....its a hardware thing (no 800smr antenna within the phone) with the HTC ONE, check out the FCC docs...
https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=1898233 (note page 5, only LTE BAND 25 (g block, 1900 mhz, sprints current lte network)
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-342-updated-all-for-htc-one-htc-one-for-all/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first link just says "You are not authorized to access this page.", but i have already seen the fcc filings for the sprint htc one.
from the second link:
CDMA1X + EV-DO band classes 0, 1, 10 (i.e. CDMA1X + EV-DO 850/1900/800)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Antenna 0 max RF ERP/EIRP: 20.10 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 850), 23.80 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 1900), 19.23 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 800), 12.30 dBm (LTE 1900)
Antenna 1 max RF ERP/EIRP: 13.78 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 850), 13.58 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 1900), 14.27 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 800), 23.63 dBm (LTE 1900)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cdma band class 10 is 800smr. both antennas work for 800smr. the radio can transmit and receive on 800smr frequencies.
it's very likely that a simple configuration change will enable lte on 800smr. if that turns out to not be the case, it's definitely possible to do it by modifying the baseband software.

I asked Sprint support about a month or 2 ago if the One would be compatible with 800 when they launch it and they said none of the currently released phones are capable and none will be released until Q3 or Q4
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app

Note that by the time Sprint actually deploys in large-scale any non-1900mhz LTE, you'll be up for a new phone (that is, 2 years). It's going to take a long, long time. They haven't even started yet.

hotaru2k3 said:
first link just says "You are not authorized to access this page.", but i have already seen the fcc filings for the sprint htc one.
from the second link:
cdma band class 10 is 800smr. both antennas work for 800smr. the radio can transmit and receive on 800smr frequencies.
it's very likely that a simple configuration change will enable lte on 800smr. if that turns out to not be the case, it's definitely possible to do it by modifying the baseband software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that radio (antenna) will not work on 800smr LTE. Voice 800smr yes, lte, no
The Sprint version of the HTC One is limited to band 25 LTE 1900. It does not support either of Sprint's upcoming LTE bands -- band 26 LTE 800 and band 41 TD-LTE 2600.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---------- Post added at 12:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 PM ----------
Vincent Law said:
Note that by the time Sprint actually deploys in large-scale any non-1900mhz LTE, you'll be up for a new phone (that is, 2 years). It's going to take a long, long time. They haven't even started yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint has started an 800smr LTE fit in Montana.
---------- Post added at 12:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 PM ----------
gk1984 said:
I asked Sprint support about a month or 2 ago if the One would be compatible with 800 when they launch it and they said none of the currently released phones are capable and none will be released until Q3 or Q4
Sent from my HTCONE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is correct :good:
***THIS IS LIKE THE OLD "WILL MY WIMAX DEVICE WORK ON LTE" DEBATE " lol ....we all know how that ended up

[SPRINT] Enable Tri-Band LTE on your N5!

[deleted]

Great work. Should be useful to Sprint users.

You can skip the computer part if you install logcat and begin at step 5 after launching.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Wouldn't battery use increase from enabling this? Because it would be constantly scanning for the other 2 frequencies?

This thread was already done by me a week ago. Use the search function to avoid repost clutter.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

sweet!! thanks been wanting to get my MSL since i got the phone.. just hate talking to sprint reps to get it.. worked great thanks!!:good:

i live in fort worth and set 41 to 1 and the others to zero and i have lte , so does mean i have tri band in my area? and will the other bands set to zero still be used when needed . thanks

randalldeflagg said:
You can skip the computer part if you install logcat and begin at step 5 after launching.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True enough, but you need to get the right logcat app, some don't work as well as others. I initially tried aLogCat, but didn't seem to work. CatLog app worked great, however.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

Just saying. No one has been able to get a B41 (TDD-LTE 2496-2690) connection with a Nexus 5 and that's with actual maps of Clearwire sites that's been upgraded and knowing where each site is located at. I've personally visited over 24 sites to no avail and know of others that visited many sites as well. Looks to be a much bigger issue than just changing up the LTE Engineering settings and may be network related.

Just got the phone but I'm pretty disappointed with the LTE speeds 1/2mb down, outside it's a bit better. Went downstairs and it disconnects from LTE altogether. Anyone know if it's a radio (hardware) issue with the phone or firmware radio? Some spots of my house won't even catch LTE, whereas my s2 would get wimax.
I've tried spark but it makes my connection more unreliable more pocket loss, but indeed it does seem to make it faster, placebo? I'm in Los Angeles don't know if it's been rolled out. I tried updating prl/profile to no avail. My next choice would be to try the LG 2 in hope of it having a better radio.
GPS is spot on, and wow this thing is fast!

Just a question, but wouldn't prioritizing band 26 make more sense since that is the 800MHz frequency band?

jxr94 said:
Just a question, but wouldn't prioritizing band 26 make more sense since that is the 800MHz frequency band?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, band 41 has the most capacity so you would want to connect to that if you are actually in range of it. It will automatically drop you down to the lower frequency bands as you move out of range of the higher frequency bands.

uh60james said:
No, band 41 has the most capacity so you would want to connect to that if you are actually in range of it. It will automatically drop you down to the lower frequency bands as you move out of range of the higher frequency bands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet, thanks for the explanation!

Hello, I tried this on my N% for Sprint today. btw. I live in N. OC, near Los Angeles. If I happen to be in and out of spotty LTE coverage areas. Will these adjustments cause more battery use or or worse performance?
When viewing HD youtube videos, it seems to play smoothly for a while, and then pauses as it the speed is going and up and down or being throttled.

About Band 41
So you means the Band 41 is unopen under default setting?
we need to open it by manual?
You know, the biggest mobile carrier China Mobile's 4G is TDD-LTE, and also use the band 41
But if I use the 4G sim card, it still work in 2G.

ggoomani said:
Hello, I tried this on my N% for Sprint today. btw. I live in N. OC, near Los Angeles. If I happen to be in and out of spotty LTE coverage areas. Will these adjustments cause more battery use or or worse performance?
When viewing HD youtube videos, it seems to play smoothly for a while, and then pauses as it the speed is going and up and down or being throttled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am with uh60james spark seems to offer more throughput and less disconnects.
I drove to Corona from Carson the other day and i was shocked how much coverage sprint has improved on. I wasn't able to stay connected to LTE on my the entirety of my drive but it is impressive how Sprint has extended lte coverage around corona at least on the freeway.
Spark works better for me, less drop offs.

I am in Naperville. Will check this out and see if tri band goes this far out west from chicago.

parmend said:
i live in fort worth and set 41 to 1 and the others to zero and i have lte , so does mean i have tri band in my area? and will the other bands set to zero still be used when needed . thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't heard anything about DFW having Spark anytime soon, so more than likely not. I live in Arlington myself, and would love to see this area Spark-enabled sooner than later.

Enabled this on my n5 a couple weeks ago .... dismal speeds on lte in downtown Los Angeles as usual around 4 down and 2 up.... Yesterday for the first time spark kicked in and I got 44down and 14 up. BUUUUT today its back and slower than ever. around 2 down/1up on LTE

guoting2409 said:
So you means the Band 41 is unopen under default setting?
we need to open it by manual?
You know, the biggest mobile carrier China Mobile's 4G is TDD-LTE, and also use the band 41
But if I use the 4G sim card, it still work in 2G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems that due to Nexus 5 lacks TD-SCDMA for China Mobile 3G, it is very hard for Nexus 5 auto connect to LTE.
You need *#*#4636#*#*, change mode to "LTE Only" and wait connect to band 41/38 cell and then change it back to "LTE/GSM Auto (PRL)".
After it, you will on LTE until one of following happens: no LTE cell signal; incoming call; make a outgoing call. If fallback to GSM, you will need another round of "LTE Only" settings. Please check some chinese forums, there are plenty of guides.
It seems N5's baseband firmware did not implement some directly GSM to LTE function and do not support China Mobile 3G, so ...

[Q] Not able to connect to data while making phone calls

Just received my new HTC One (M8) yesterday. After setting it up and thinking everything was good to go. I made a phone call and tried to look up something on the internet. The page didn't pull up and when I looked at the status bar I noticed that the LTE symbol was gone. I looked in setting and my mobile data was on but showing disconnected. Has anyone else not be able to use voice and data together?

palo117 said:
Just received my new HTC One (M8) yesterday. After setting it up and thinking everything was good to go. I made a phone call and tried to look up something on the internet. The page didn't pull up and when I looked at the status bar I noticed that the LTE symbol was gone. I looked in setting and my mobile data was on but showing disconnected. Has anyone else not be able to use voice and data together?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's been like since the Evo 4G LTE days.

From s4gru dot com (can't post link for being too much of a noob on this site still)
"In previous Sprint LTE phones, when a device was in Sprint LTE coverage it would park in both the LTE and CDMA Sprint networks at the same time. When a voice call came in, it would just go straight through to the device. And signal to the LTE network would be maintained the whole time while the call was active.
In contrast, a Sprint Triband LTE device can only stay on one technology at a time. CDMA or LTE, not both. So when a Sprint LTE Triband device is in Sprint LTE coverage it parks only in LTE. And doing so means it cannot transmit calls without Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) on the network side. CSFB and eCSFB (Enhanced Circuit Switched Fallback) are network controls that will allow a single mode/single path network to operate in two modes, both CDMA and LTE.
Here is how it works in the simplest way I can describe. When your Triband LTE device has an LTE signal, it cannot receive or make calls on its own. It is just using LTE data happily. However, what if someone calls you? How does it get through the CDMA network to your device? Via CSFB.
When the Sprint network tries to forward a call to your device but cannot see it via CDMA, it then checks for an LTE connection to your device. If it sees one, it tells your device to disconnect from LTE for a moment and reconnect to CDMA. Your device then jumps over to take the call on Sprint CDMA and the LTE session is interrupted. This happens very fast and seamlessly. Except for the loss of data availability. If you receive a text, the Sprint network is able to route it to your device via LTE."
This is why I tried to upgrade from the EVO 4G to the EVO 4G LTE recently, I was trying to get a phone that handled LTE and had SVLTE, but it didn't work out reception-wise in my area, so bit the bullet and got the M8, knowing that if I use it for tethering will have to figure out if there is a way to force it to stay in LTE and have phone calls go straight to voice mail.

rhe12 said:
From s4gru dot com (can't post link for being too much of a noob on this site still)
"In previous Sprint LTE phones, when a device was in Sprint LTE coverage it would park in both the LTE and CDMA Sprint networks at the same time. When a voice call came in, it would just go straight through to the device. And signal to the LTE network would be maintained the whole time while the call was active.
In contrast, a Sprint Triband LTE device can only stay on one technology at a time. CDMA or LTE, not both. So when a Sprint LTE Triband device is in Sprint LTE coverage it parks only in LTE. And doing so means it cannot transmit calls without Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) on the network side. CSFB and eCSFB (Enhanced Circuit Switched Fallback) are network controls that will allow a single mode/single path network to operate in two modes, both CDMA and LTE.
Here is how it works in the simplest way I can describe. When your Triband LTE device has an LTE signal, it cannot receive or make calls on its own. It is just using LTE data happily. However, what if someone calls you? How does it get through the CDMA network to your device? Via CSFB.
When the Sprint network tries to forward a call to your device but cannot see it via CDMA, it then checks for an LTE connection to your device. If it sees one, it tells your device to disconnect from LTE for a moment and reconnect to CDMA. Your device then jumps over to take the call on Sprint CDMA and the LTE session is interrupted. This happens very fast and seamlessly. Except for the loss of data availability. If you receive a text, the Sprint network is able to route it to your device via LTE."
This is why I tried to upgrade from the EVO 4G to the EVO 4G LTE recently, I was trying to get a phone that handled LTE and had SVLTE, but it didn't work out reception-wise in my area, so bit the bullet and got the M8, knowing that if I use it for tethering will have to figure out if there is a way to force it to stay in LTE and have phone calls go straight to voice mail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I just came from the HTC Evo 4G LTE. Never had any problems with Simultaneous Voice and Data so I was very surprised when I couldn't talk and use data on this phone. Of course Sprint tech support was useless. They believe it should work just fine.
Thanks again!

Im on m7 currently talking on the phone and checking email... are you saying I wont b able to do this on the m8?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

thesabri said:
Im on m7 currently talking on the phone and checking email... are you saying I wont b able to do this on the m8?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently so, more or less. See http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...upport-simultaneous-voice-and-data/2013-11-19

thesabri said:
Im on m7 currently talking on the phone and checking email... are you saying I wont b able to do this on the m8?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's exactly what it means. After discussing this on various forums it seems that no new phones on Sprint will be able to do voice and data simultaneously. The tri-band doesn't all these phones to operate on both the LTE band and the CDMA band at the same time. I'm trying to decide now if I'm going to return my M8 and switch to T-Mobile. Then purchase it from them.

this may be a deal breaker for me as well. i have been paying for wimax wifi untill lte deployed in my area... that the phone i want wont allow the vlte is very disapointing.

I thought I heard a while ago that is a thing of the past. GS3 (and apparently the Evo 4G lte) was the last to be able to do that. They removed that feature from the S4, and any device from that point on iirc. Not 100% on all that, but I know I read something like that before.
Never investigated as to why, but the only thing I can think of would be for safety reasons. Its bad enough that people text and drive, and I can just imagine how many would be driving, on the phone, and texting, or trying to browse the web.
Certainly a feature I will miss though, coming from an S3. Neither my wife nor mom want to upgrade because they don't want to lose that capability.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

It works on the m7 so that's not true djroc007
Sent from my HTC One

indiscriminant said:
It works on the m7 so that's not true djroc007
Sent from my HTC One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He probably meant while on 3g.
Sent from my lair.

indiscriminant said:
It works on the m7 so that's not true djroc007
Sent from my HTC One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the m7 is a tri-band phone so it should work.... it works on my evo lte no matter what network im connected to but on my m8 it wont work at all.. I will try in on the g2 because that's also a tri-band phone and see what happends

Fair enough. I wasn't 100% sure, I just remember seeing somewhere that they were doing away with that capability at some point. It's stupid though either way. There's been plenty of times while talking about something on the phone where I've said "hold on, I'll Google it", or had the other person send me a picture of something. Will miss that feature.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

For clarity, please confirm is my understanding is true: this issue will be fixed in time, but we just don't know when - and Sprint is being shady about it.
I am an AT&T customer on the old Skyrocket. Long overdue for an upgrade, and I've been leaning toward switching to Sprint and getting the m8 ('real' unlimited data is a major factor). Now I'm weighing this issue, deciding whether it's significant enough to not make the switch after all.

buffjam9011 said:
For clarity, please confirm is my understanding is true: this issue will be fixed in time, but we just don't know when - and Sprint is being shady about it.
I am an AT&T customer on the old Skyrocket. Long overdue for an upgrade, and I've been leaning toward switching to Sprint and getting the m8 ('real' unlimited data is a major factor). Now I'm weighing this issue, deciding whether it's significant enough to not make the switch after all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, this is not really an “issue” since it’s not a feature that’s performing improperly. SVDO and SVLTE (being able to hold a call while on 3G or LTE, respectively) is simply not possible due to the new antenna design.
On the EVO 4G LTE, SVDO and SVLTE were both possible, but that phone wasn’t the greatest RF performer. On the One M7, SVLTE was still possible, but SVDO was removed to help offset RF fade so that the signal could be improved. I suspect that the antenna design was changed again on the M8 to further increase performance, but at the cost of only being able to do voice OR data at any given time. Also, there appears to be a network limitation with tri-band LTE devices. See the post from rhe12:
rhe12 said:
From s4gru dot com (can't post link for being too much of a noob on this site still)
"In previous Sprint LTE phones, when a device was in Sprint LTE coverage it would park in both the LTE and CDMA Sprint networks at the same time. When a voice call came in, it would just go straight through to the device. And signal to the LTE network would be maintained the whole time while the call was active.
In contrast, a Sprint Triband LTE device can only stay on one technology at a time. CDMA or LTE, not both. So when a Sprint LTE Triband device is in Sprint LTE coverage it parks only in LTE. And doing so means it cannot transmit calls without Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) on the network side. CSFB and eCSFB (Enhanced Circuit Switched Fallback) are network controls that will allow a single mode/single path network to operate in two modes, both CDMA and LTE.
Here is how it works in the simplest way I can describe. When your Triband LTE device has an LTE signal, it cannot receive or make calls on its own. It is just using LTE data happily. However, what if someone calls you? How does it get through the CDMA network to your device? Via CSFB.
When the Sprint network tries to forward a call to your device but cannot see it via CDMA, it then checks for an LTE connection to your device. If it sees one, it tells your device to disconnect from LTE for a moment and reconnect to CDMA. Your device then jumps over to take the call on Sprint CDMA and the LTE session is interrupted. This happens very fast and seamlessly. Except for the loss of data availability. If you receive a text, the Sprint network is able to route it to your device via LTE."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Apparently in a theoretical future, when Sprint rolls out voice over LTE, this issue would, well, not be an issue anymore.
"Schlageter said the tri-mode LTE smartphones will be able to handle simultaneous voice and LTE data when Sprint deploys Voice over LTE. She noted Sprint has not yet set a timetable for when that will happen."
Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...upport-simultaneous-voice-and-data/2013-11-19

Thanks for the replies. Seems like a usability oversight (or just bad decision) to me. Are other carriers able to support SVLTE or SVDO on Triband LTE devices or is this a device constraint?
Thinking about it, I only occasionally use data and voice at the same time so this might be more of a minor irritation to me. I have a question for those you who have experience with this - Is there any noticeable lag when CSFB occurs for either user (caller/receiver)?
Also, the language in the spokeswoman's replies in that article is frustrating.

buffjam9011 said:
Thanks for the replies. Seems like a usability oversight (or just bad decision) to me. Are other carriers able to support SVLTE or SVDO on Triband LTE devices or is this a device constraint?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn’t say it’s an “oversight,” either. I would say it’s more of a limitation of the compromise between RF performance and features. Sprint’s M8 variant will have access to more LTE bands in more areas than any of the other carriers. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the trade-off for SVLTE has something to do with the fact that the Sprint M8 will be switching between LTE bands more often than other carriers’ variants. Let’s take a look:
For the One M8, these are the LTE frequencies that each carrier-specific phone has the radio/antenna for:
AT&T: 700/850/AWS/1800/1900/2600 MHz
Sprint: FDD 800/1900 MHz , TDD 2600 MHz
Verizon: 700/AWS/1800/2600 MHz
TMUS: 700/AWS MHz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source: M8 spec page
As it currently stands, these are the LTE frequencies the above carriers have deployed or will soon deploy:
AT&T: 700/AWS/1900/2300 MHz
Sprint: 800/1900/2500 (2600) MHz
Verizon: 700/AWS MHz
TMUS: 700/AWS/1900 MHz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sources:
List of LTE networks - Wikipedia
AT&T Mobility - Wikipedia
Sprint - Wikipedia
Verizon - Wikipedia
T-Mobile USA - Wikipedia
This means that only the AT&T and Sprint versions can use 3 LTE bands on their respective networks. However, since only Sprint will have all 3 bands available nationwide, I suspect that there might be something network-related which would allow the AT&T model to still allow SVLTE, but again, I could be wrong. I think I’ll take this to S4GRU.com to fact-check.

[Q] Question regarding Spark / Multiple Bands

This could be a simple or complex Question/Answer...
Throwing the LTE bands out on the table for non-Spark devices (such as M7) vs. Spark devices (Such as M8)
M7: 1900mhz
M8: 850/1900/2600 MHz
Now those who had an M7 know the fallbacks with the 1900 spectrum. While driving around depending on your area, or limitations of wall penetration, it's very easy to loose LTE and fall back to 3G. Then it's no fun waiting to get back to LTE when your streaming music or video.
The reason I am posting this question is because I don't want to assume, I'd rather have feedback for someone with an M8. If you're inside a building, or driving, have you noticed an improvement with a spark phone?
For instance, is it possible to be on the 850 spectrum and NOT the 1900? or as soon as it looses the 1900 will it still fall back to 3G? I'll be honest, I love/hate LTE on non-spark phones. Love because its unlimited data, hate because of how easy it is to loose LTE. I've had several non-spark phones and had this issue between all of them, and I also have a Verizon phone which is on LTE over 99% of the time. I live in the Tri State Area in NY.
So the bottom line question... If only one band is available (say the 850 because it should theoretically have better wall penetration), will it use that band? Or.. is Sprint Spark all three bands or bust..back to 3G?

im pretty sure from what ive read that spark uses all bands at the same time, so if you lose one youll still be connected on the others until you lose them all. my area doesnt have 850 yet so i couldnt tell you but i definitely feel the diference between having 2500+1900 and only having 1900... when i have both i get aroung 35Mbps then i lose 2500 indoors and i get 5-8Mbps but my phone never "disconnects" from lte when im testing that
Sent from my SM-T217S using xda app-developers app

bigblueshock said:
This could be a simple or complex Question/Answer...
Throwing the LTE bands out on the table for non-Spark devices (such as M7) vs. Spark devices (Such as M8)
M7: 1900mhz
M8: 850/1900/2600 MHz
Now those who had an M7 know the fallbacks with the 1900 spectrum. While driving around depending on your area, or limitations of wall penetration, it's very easy to loose LTE and fall back to 3G. Then it's no fun waiting to get back to LTE when your streaming music or video.
The reason I am posting this question is because I don't want to assume, I'd rather have feedback for someone with an M8. If you're inside a building, or driving, have you noticed an improvement with a spark phone?
For instance, is it possible to be on the 850 spectrum and NOT the 1900? or as soon as it looses the 1900 will it still fall back to 3G? I'll be honest, I love/hate LTE on non-spark phones. Love because its unlimited data, hate because of how easy it is to loose LTE. I've had several non-spark phones and had this issue between all of them, and I also have a Verizon phone which is on LTE over 99% of the time. I live in the Tri State Area in NY.
So the bottom line question... If only one band is available (say the 850 because it should theoretically have better wall penetration), will it use that band? Or.. is Sprint Spark all three bands or bust..back to 3G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if only one band is available, the M8 will only use that band as long as the signal is strong enough to stay on it. Spark enabled phones have the ability to connect to all 3 bands as you have mentioned but can only connect to a single band at any given time as far as I'm aware. Unless it uses some modulation technology. I haven't read much into it, though.
The 2600Mhz band offers the highest theoretical speed out of all of them. Sprint just calls all their Tri-Band phones, Spark enabled for simple identification and as another means of marketing both their network and devices.
I haven't noticed any issues when I'm driving on my normal routes with the M8. Though, with the M7, I would sometimes hit points where it would drop to 3G and Google Music would buffer slightly and resume playing shortly thereafter. I'm not entirely sure its due to the phone, though as it might just be Google Music caching more data or Sprint has worked on the towers recently. I also haven't paid much attention as to which bands, if any, it has been connecting to as I believe this area is still limited to 1900Mhz LTE.

skizzled said:
Yes, if only one band is available, the M8 will only use that band as long as the signal is strong enough to stay on it. Spark enabled phones have the ability to connect to all 3 bands as you have mentioned but can only connect to a single band at any given time as far as I'm aware. Unless it uses some modulation technology. I haven't read much into it, though.
The 2600Mhz band offers the highest theoretical speed out of all of them. Sprint just calls all their Tri-Band phones, Spark enabled for simple identification and as another means of marketing both their network and devices.
I haven't noticed any issues when I'm driving on my normal routes with the M8. Though, with the M7, I would sometimes hit points where it would drop to 3G and Google Music would buffer slightly and resume playing shortly thereafter. I'm not entirely sure its due to the phone, though as it might just be Google Music caching more data or Sprint has worked on the towers recently. I also haven't paid much attention as to which bands, if any, it has been connecting to as I believe this area is still limited to 1900Mhz LTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh. I was under the impression sprint was able to bond all 3 channels together to get a lot higher speed. but if it only connects to one at a time, that's a different story

bigblueshock said:
ahh. I was under the impression sprint was able to bond all 3 channels together to get a lot higher speed. but if it only connects to one at a time, that's a different story
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might very well be the case, I'm not entirely sure how the Tri-Band works on Sprint phones yet but will definitely be looking into it moreso since I have a M8.
Band 41 (2500Mhz) will offer higher theoretical speeds at the expense of less range and wall penetration.
Personally, I'm much more interested in Band 26 (800Mhz) as this will hopefully greatly increase range and improve reception. I've been on Sprint long enough to realize that I mostly use data services which don't require huge amounts of bandwidth and when I really need a fast connection, I have access to Wi-Fi more often than not.

T-Mobile LTE signal

I just got the phone on Monday. With the original ROM and after taking several OTA updates, my LTE signal strength at home and at work was horrible. I'd get around -120 dBm and it would frequently change to HSPA and even EVDO.
One thing that I noticed is that on LTE, it was using band 4, which is 2100 MHz. On my Note 2, it always used band 14, which is 700 MHz. The lower frequency penetrates buildings better and gave me a better signal at work and home (not great, but useable).
I just updated to the latest T-Mobile ROM from the developer site. The LTE signal strength is a bit better at -116 dBm and so far, it isn't changing to HSPA or worse. However, it is still using band 4.
Does anyone know why my old phone used band 14 and this new phone uses band 4? I would think that the phone would use whichever band gave it the best signal, which would certainly be band 14. Is there any way to force this?
Thanks.

I didn't look up the Note 2's specs but I'd guess it didn't have band 4. What are you using to see your band? OpenSignal?

Powell730 said:
I didn't look up the Note 2's specs but I'd guess it didn't have band 4. What are you using to see your band? OpenSignal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just looked up the specs on Wikipedia. It says that the T-Mobile version uses band 17, but I know that the phone said band 14 before I swapped SIMs.
Wikipedia says the Nexus 6 uses bands 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 12 / 13 / 17 / 25 / 26 / 29 / 41.
This is from the T-Mobile Support site: "TMO uses bands 2 and 4 on LTE/4G & 3G". Also from Support: "LTE band 4(1700/2100), 17(700)". I'm not sure what to believe, or what is in use around here. Like I said above, I know that the Note 2 said it was using band 14.
On the Nexus 6, I'm using an app called LTE Discovery.

T mobile only uses band 2,4,12 for LTE. The note 2 doesn't support band 12. I never heard of band 14.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

mojoehand said:
I just looked up the specs on Wikipedia. It says that the T-Mobile version uses band 17, but I know that the phone said band 14 before I swapped SIMs.
Wikipedia says the Nexus 6 uses bands 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 12 / 13 / 17 / 25 / 26 / 29 / 41.
This is from the T-Mobile Support site: "TMO uses bands 2 and 4 on LTE/4G & 3G". Also from Support: "LTE band 4(1700/2100), 17(700)". I'm not sure what to believe, or what is in use around here. Like I said above, I know that the Note 2 said it was using band 14.
On the Nexus 6, I'm using an app called LTE Discovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm by no means an expert when it comes to bands/frequencies, however, if the app told you the Note 2 was on band 14, I think it was lying to you. I'm pretty sure there isn't even a band 14 in the U.S., and almost positive T-Mobile does not run LTE on that band.

When (if) band 12 reaches your neighborhood receiption indoors should improve drastically. On band 4 I usually get -109 to -101 dBm. On band 12 I get around -89 to -94 dBm.

I have tried different ROMs and different radio modems. Nothing I do gets me a decent signal. Very occasionally I have had a moderately strong LTE signal, but even then, the download speed is only usable and the upload speed sucks.
The phone doesn't stay on LTE for long. It switched to HSPA and even EVDO most of the time. On HSPA, my old Note 2 got at least 2 Mb downloads. This N6 can't even get a kilobyte down on HSPA.
I don't know if it really affects things, but I read some comments that a bad SIM could possibly cause this. Is this true? If so, I'll drop by the T-Mobile store again and ask them to try another SIM.
I love the phone for the big screen and other features, but I really can't live with this lousy data connection. If I can't get this resolved, I'll have to return the N6 and buy another phone.
I might consider a Note 5 if I have to. It only has a 5.7 inch screen, but my Note 2 had a 5.5 incher. I don't really use the pen and the price premium is high, but I don't know what other phones have a 5.7-6 inch display, except for some Chinese phones. I don't know if they are any good, or if I could use them on T-Mobile.
Call me frustrated.

have you verified apn settings? mine needed a few changes. band 12 should be rolling out soon. i saw it for a day here in portland and service was amazing. can't wait!

nigelorion said:
have you verified apn settings? mine needed a few changes. band 12 should be rolling out soon. i saw it for a day here in portland and service was amazing. can't wait!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyway to see where band 12 is going live?
Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Powell730 said:
Anyway to see where band 12 is going live?
Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure. saw a few people on reddit mentioning they had seen it in my area. i have been using an app called lte discovery to check what band i am on. 12 only popped up once and haven't seen it since.

mojoehand said:
I have tried different ROMs and different radio modems. Nothing I do gets me a decent signal. Very occasionally I have had a moderately strong LTE signal, but even then, the download speed is only usable and the upload speed sucks.
The phone doesn't stay on LTE for long. It switched to HSPA and even EVDO most of the time. On HSPA, my old Note 2 got at least 2 Mb downloads. This N6 can't even get a kilobyte down on HSPA.
I don't know if it really affects things, but I read some comments that a bad SIM could possibly cause this. Is this true? If so, I'll drop by the T-Mobile store again and ask them to try another SIM.
I love the phone for the big screen and other features, but I really can't live with this lousy data connection. If I can't get this resolved, I'll have to return the N6 and buy another phone.
I might consider a Note 5 if I have to. It only has a 5.7 inch screen, but my Note 2 had a 5.5 incher. I don't really use the pen and the price premium is high, but I don't know what other phones have a 5.7-6 inch display, except for some Chinese phones. I don't know if they are any good, or if I could use them on T-Mobile.
Call me frustrated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure that you're on T-Mobile? EVDO is CDMA network and T-Mobile is GSM...
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

BigDig said:
Are you sure that you're on T-Mobile? EVDO is CDMA network and T-Mobile is GSM...
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am on T-Mobile. I meant Edge, not EVDO. Too many acronyms.
I just got home and even though the phone is currently showing three bars on LTE, the signal level is only -118 dBm, which isn't good. Speed test won't even do 1/2 Mb/s on download. This is pathetic.
As much as I otherwise like this phone, I can't live with this lousy signal issue. Unless someone knows of a fix, I will have to return the phone to Amazon. As I said, I have tried different ROMS and modems. I have also tried changing various settings that others have suggested (clearing cache, APN settings, etc.). I don't know what else to do.

mojoehand said:
Yes, I am on T-Mobile. I meant Edge, not EVDO. Too many acronyms.
I just got home and even though the phone is currently showing three bars on LTE, the signal level is only -118 dBm, which isn't good. Speed test won't even do 1/2 Mb/s on download. This is pathetic.
As much as I otherwise like this phone, I can't live with this lousy signal issue. Unless someone knows of a fix, I will have to return the phone to Amazon. As I said, I have tried different ROMS and modems. I have also tried changing various settings that others have suggested (clearing cache, APN settings, etc.). I don't know what else to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried calling tmobile and trouble shooting with them?

Andromendous said:
Have you tried calling tmobile and trouble shooting with them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've been to the store.

mojoehand said:
Yes, I've been to the store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Call and speak to tech support. Most people in the store don't know what there doing.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

mojoehand said:
Yes, I've been to the store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or chat with t force on twitter. I have had great success with them. They're awesome.
Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Because of the choppy voice calls, as well as the lousy data connection, I am returning this phone and getting a Note 5. Although it is my personal phone, I also need a reliable phone for when I am on call at work.
I have spent all week on this and can't waste any more time. I need something that works. My Note 2 was reliable. I hope the Note 5 will be also.
Thanks to all for suggestions.

I too am having LTE data connection issues on LYZ28K. Anyone on LMY48M having data issues? I tried setting phone info to "LTE only", but that didn't help. I don't need wifi calling, so I'm wondering if I should switch to LMY48M?