In a post to the Android Building group earlier today, Jean-Baptiste Queru announced that Samsung's Nexus S 4G has officially and fully been brought into the AOSP fold. The device is now fully supported by AOSP, meaning its CDMA – and WiMax – binaries can now be "properly" distributed. Here's the full text of the announcement:
Sprint has long been the refuge for data-hungry users that don't want to deal with caps or overages. While Sprint's regular 3G and 4G data usage on phones is still unlimited, back in October the Now Network started capping the mobile hotspot feature at 5GB per month. Starting last Friday, May 18th, that plan is gone. In its place are two pricier options.
The low-end option comes with 2GB of monthly bandwidth and costs $19.99 per month. The high-end offering is quite a jump; 6GB for $49.99. It's a clever way to push you to a much more expensive option that you might not need.
If you've been looking to jump ship from the carrier juggernauts and get in on Sprint's promised "truly unlimited data", may we suggest now might be a good time to do so? From now until March 26th, all of Sprint's 4G phones (read: Sprint's best phones) are available for a penny with a new activation. Sorry upgraders.
Update 4/20/12: All Sprint Android phones are free again thanks to the Sprint Through Spring promotion... well, at least until the Galaxy Nexus shows up. Remember, offer ends April 30th and midnight PDT.
Amazon is even waiving the activation fee, so you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal on a shiny new Epic 4G Touch right now.
It's only been a couple years since the EVO launched as not only the first WiMax phone, but the first "4G" phone (by carrier reckoning). Now, though, Sprint says that not only will there be no more WiMax phones, which we knew earlier, but no more WiMax devices at all. That means hotspots and tablets will also lack any WiMax antennae. Don't worry, though. Sprint has promised 15 LTE devices by year's end.
Sprint's LTE plans have been no secret, although not without a fair amount of bumps in the road. Still, Sprint insists that its LTE plans are on schedule.
Sprint posted its fourth quarter earnings this morning, and they definitely painted a mixed picture of the company's financial position. On the one hand, the Alamo of unlimited data increased its subscriber base by 1.6 million in the last quarter, with big thanks likely owed to the addition of the iPhone to Sprint's lineup - giving them a significant advantage over their primary price point rival, T-Mobile.
Unfortunately, also because of the iPhone, the company managed a $1.3 billion net loss for the quarter, owed in large part to the massive cost of providing the device ($15.5 billion over 4 years) to customers at heavily subsidized price points.
It would appear that Sprint plans on going full speed ahead in focusing on product development for its 4G LTE lineup this year. David Owens, Sprint's VP of Product Development made clear at CES Wednesday that Sprint "won't be introducing any more WiMax smartphones," adding "April, May, June, July, August, those will be very aggressive times for us." This may be a hint that we could begin seeing LTE devices as early as April, which is great news for customers holding out for a new device (like Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, which is poised to be Sprint's first LTE device).
While Sprint doesn't plan on releasing new WiMax smartphones, the carrier evidently plans on selling WiMax hostpots (like the Sierra Wireless hotspot we saw at CES) alongside LTE devices.
Update: Dow Jones Newswires apparently left out a key piece of information from Hesse's statement on throttling, in an example of truly stellar journalism and attention to detail (unfortunately, we have no audio or video record to verify Hesse's statements). Hesse was discussing throttling of those who are on networks that Sprint has roaming agreements with (which, admittedly, Sprint has a lot of - including with Verizon). While this still makes Sprint's ads technically misleading, the throttling really only applies to those who live in areas where Sprint's data network relies chiefly on roaming - not to those using primarily Sprint towers.
And so it begins - Android Police's First Annual Mega-Holiday Giveaway Series. For the next ten days, you'll have chances to win all sorts of awesome Android phones, tablets, and other goodies. (As a note to our international readers, this first contest features prizes that don't work outside the US, but don't worry, we have some more stuff coming for you later today.)
- Grand prize - White EVO 3D: Anne Kaluza, a.k.a. @mrs_puddle
- EVO Design 4G: Will McKee, a.k.a. @Skullshank
- EVO Design 4G: Chris Webster
- EVO Design 4G: Rachel L Farhi
- EVO Design 4G: Eric Camil, a.k.a.
Sprint has network problems. Major problems. And they've gotten a lot worse lately. Really, really bad. Not all areas are affected - and in fact some have improved already, but more and more areas are getting so bad that Sprint's 3G data is completely unusable there, especially since the introduction of the iPhone. Troubleshooting and update my phone's "profile" and PRL didn't help, as evident from the screenshot #2 you see below.
Earlier this week I contacted Sprint's customer service, followed by an email to an executive and CEO Dan Hesse himself (or whoever fields his emails). The former told me there was a tower outage in my area, and a fix was incoming the next day (as you've guessed nothing is fixed as of today, 5 days later).
Sprint announced today it will be switching 4G technologies from WiMax to LTE. The LTE network should go live in mid 2012 and and have a "full rollout" by 2013. Sprint eventually hopes to double current amount of 4G customers with its LTE rollout.
Joining the LTE ranks puts Sprint in the same technology corner as AT&T and Verizon, with only T-Mobile still clinging to HSPA+. Sprint's slice of the LTE airways will be the 800 and 1900Mhz spectrum and, pending the FCC's blessing, 1600MHz.
The LTE device wave will start in 2012 with 15+ devices. Phones will be dual-mode CDMA/LTE and even some tri-mode CDMA/LTE/WiMax mobile hotspots.



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