When the Nexus Huawei comes out and I buy it I will admit I have given myself to the Google overlords. Order online, shipped instantly, no branding, no contracts. I feel like a dirty apple user though.
That's the future. Cell phone contracts are dead in this country (Thanks to T-Mobile for putting this change into motion). Motorola and Alcatel One Touch have employed the same model (online orders of unlocked phones). The American 2 year contract pretty much forced users to buy phones from the carrier because they came at a discount. Now that carriers have dumped that model, you'll see more and more phones distributed exclusively through independent online distribution and regular retail. EIP programs are the only thing that carriers have to entice customers and online distributors (including google and apple) have launched their own EIP programs. You can buy phones interest free from Apple, Google and Motorola now and I suspect others will introduce similar programs as well.
I've been contract free since my Nokia E72 that I bought through Amazon. I just meant that this next phone will be my third Nexus in a row because of laziness lol.
I wouldn't thank TMobile exactly. The change was inevitable. Long before smartphones were around, I expected this. Simply put, phone subsidies were not very profitable. The US has had several different flavors of wireless technology (CDMA, GSM, ect ...) that prevented manufactures from providing phones that would work across the board. The wireless industry capitalized on this. As wireless technologies start to meld into a common flavor, you will see the wireless companies will focus more on being a carrier than owning the customer. Prepaid will become more of the standard.
I thought I would make it through the year without any issues from my LGG2, but it has just started acting up -- it really hasn't run that great since the big OS update. Guess i'll be in the market for a phone as soon as it's time for a new contract. I really want removable battery/ memory, but now i'm a little leery of getting a G4 since the G2 is running poorly already.
Is there any time table when the major carriers will entirely drop GSM and CDMA and be entirely dependent on LTE? I would assume that would also improve battery life since smartphones will only need a LTE radio rather than an LTE radio + GSM/CDMA radio.
Has anyone tried Project Fi? If the forthcoming Nexus phones support it, I'm considering trying Fi out.
There really is no alternative from the LG G4 if you want a removable battery. Samsung has completely ditched that avenue for some reason.
There is no committed timeline when these technologies will sunset. Back in 2013, Verizon once stated they would like to retire CDMA in 2021 and ATT would like to retire 2G GSM in 2017 (3G GSM would still be around). To understand what it will take, you first have to understand that all voice calls are on non LTE networks. The voice transition to LTE will be called VOLTE, or as ATT and Verizon are branding it, HD Voice. In 2014, Verizon and ATT have announced they are starting HD Voice and in 2015, they will have inter-operative HD Voice between Verizon and ATT. Verizon, ATT and TMobile all have some form of active HD Voice (VOLTE) currently. And then there is Sprint, always lagging behind. They too have "HD Voice", but it is not VOLTE. They are not even close to rolling it out... which means CDMA has to stick around for Sprint. Once HD Voice has become the norm, we will start to hear about decisions to fully retire non-LTE networks. I give it 5 years before we hear about it, another 5 when carriers start to shut it down and another 5 years after that before its fully retired.
Damn, didn't know the timetables are that far in the future. Unfortunate. LTE has been around for a while now.
There are regulatory requirements in regards to coverage. It would cost too much to upgrade those geographies to LTE so 2G and 3G will be around until the government forces them to switch over much like digital TV.
That's actually not true anymore. Its only true for part of Sprint's 800 mhz spectrum (which is still subject to separate issues because it was originally assigned as spectrum for radio dispatching. Sprint is still waiting on re-banding and still has issues operating around the US and Mexican borders). It was also true for the original AMPS networks that were built in the US but the government got rid of those requirements in 2008. The last exception is the 700a block which T-Mobile and US Cellular use. There are some TV stations that still broadcast in that range so carriers have to either get them to move off to different frequencies or develop concurrent operations agreements. The only technical barrier is getting 3GPP and the FCC to create an LTE band for use and then getting manufacturers to put it on phones. But all 2g/3g spectrum are now common LTE bands found on most phones. 2G and 3G in the US is broadcast on 850 mhz (band 5 LTE), 1900 mhz (Band 2 or Band 25 for Sprint) and 1700/2100 mhz (band 4). The barrier to refarming to LTE is primarily getting sufficient backhaul to rural sites. Many times you simply can't get a proper fiber connection. But carriers have gotten around this by installing microwave dishes to provide backhaul to those sites. In addition to backhaul, you have to other equipment upgrades at the tower. Sometimes the equipment upgrades are just ground level while other times you might have to actually go up the tower and swap out antennas which requires significantly more work.
my invitation arrived a month ago and i've yet to make the switch for a couple of reasons. 1. one of the perks of a nexus device is running an aosp rom, but project fi wifi calling handoff to/from cellular is borked on all but one rom available (last i checked anyway). 2. gophone (att's prepay) gives you four gb unthrottled with none of that priority nonsense for 60 bucks. no probs with network congestion or coverage. when i travel internationally i may sign up with fi for a month to get the 20ยข calls/unlimited, 3g data, and free texts. waiting on one of the new nexuses to see of they throw in the free case/earbuds like they do for the n6.
Tmobile has 4GB unthrottled plus unlimited text for $30 per month but only 100 minutes (.10 per minute after that)
tmobes data covers only half of galveston... the east end. the part that they do cover, especially this time of year, is spotty a lot of the time or congested. for me personally it's a no go and also i'd burn through those minutes.
