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PSA: No SVLTE or SVDO on spark Devices

IOWA

Mr. Logic Pants
Dec 2, 2009
8,898
2,484
Chicago
I just ordered the Galaxy S5, and it appears it only has one antenna for one radio. That means no simultaneous voice and data.

...so ... it's going back. I wish it wasn't the case but that's a deal breaker now. Why they'd go backwards in functionality is beyond me.

Anyone have any insights?
 
this is the direction for their new handsets. the sprint spark devices (the one max being one of them) are setup like this.

there are reasons sprint chose to go in that direction and I have not had any issues with the different RF design, and ive had the one max since launch day.

we all have our own opinions and YMMV, but for me it has not been an issue.
 
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It's been known since the 1st Spark devices started coming out
Sprint's tri-mode LTE smartphones don't support simultaneous voice and data - FierceWireless
They say simultaneous voice and data will come back with VoLTE but then there's this Sprint's network chief isn't rushing to deploy VoLTE - FierceWireless

Yep. I might give the S5 a fair shake though. The only time I really *need* both voice and data is in the car mostly, and I might just pick up a freedompop mifi for that to hold me over.

I was planning on picking up one of those mifi's anyway, why not now.
 
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Note 4 is here and nope no Vo
LTE

---


in the past week i upgraded every phone on my plan.

S4 to G3
iphone 4s to iphone 6 128gb
note 2 to note 4

my 3 older phones could connect to LTE and make voice calls without issue, i have always been lucky that where i live and work LTE is great. Now that i have switched to the newer phones i have the same great LTE but now i cannot surf the web when I am in a call. this is crazy.

Surely i am not the only one with this issue.

thoughts? I live near Houston but work in Houston. I have until Friday to return all the phones which i am really considering doing. I have been with sprint since the 90's
 
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Yet another one of the many, many, many, many reasons to dump Sprint.
That is an ignorant comment. Why would anyone care about SVDO? That means your using 3G data. It's an old technology and it's dead with LTE.
SVLTE is a stepping stone to VoLTE. Sprint has decided to skip SVLTE entirely and focus on VoLTE. VoLTE is where every other carrier wants to eat and has little if any deployment. Some carriers are dabbling with SVLTE in some markets but it too will be dead with VoLTE. Long term VoLTE is all that matters.
 
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It's not an ignorant comment.

Right now with a Spark phone you can't get data and make voice calls at the same time with LTE.

That's a huge step backwards in the SVDO usability I enjoyed for two years.

Used to be - "Check your email." "OK, just a second."

Now - "Check your email." "OK, I'll call you back."

Even WiMAX when available would let you do voice and data at the same time.

VoLTE, SVLTE is once again in the future.

That's just great but I don't like waiting for the future to catch up with the past.

Or for Sprint LTE to be available everywhere, as promised years ago.

So now in no LTE areas and a new phone, no more voice and data.

Sprint announced in 2012 that all of their LTE phones would be VoLTE capable. And the HTC Evo 4G LTE certainly was. No such service but it was capable.

It's been 3 years.

I think that the comment was far from ignorant.
 
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Every carrier is moving away from SVDO and SVLTE. So if you want that where are you going to go? If you realize that only VoLTE has a future then the same question exists. Where are you going to go? No carrier has that built out yet.
You're not really listening, you're trying to win an argument.

Sprint has been and continues to provide SVDO capability, you simply need a phone that supports it.

But you can't buy one any more.

Sprint does not have LTE coverage everywhere that they have 3G.

Your whole either / or deal is really missing the point of an essential reality.

You seem to think that SVDO is an alternative build out.

It's not.

It's a missing phone feature - about this >< much additional microcode in a programmable modem - that would be nice to have until they get it together on VoLTE.

My last Sprint phone supported SVDO and VoLTE *in hardware*.

Had I kept it, I could have easily transitioned to VoLTE when it arrives.

But I didn't and I can't.

And they didn't warn us.

It's really, really, really simple.
 
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I do not want my new flagship phone's chipset to be selected based on the limited ones that can still support a technology that is no longer being pursued regardless of whether there are areas of the Country (getting smaller every day) that could still use it for a little while longer. Nor do I want my new flagship phone's battery to need to support two simultaneous amplifiers, again, regardless of whether there are some pockets of the network that could still support it.

We are in a transition period off of old technologies onto VoLTE and in any transition we'll be missing some functionality in the process until it's done.

The expectation that chipset and handset makers are going to support all previous technologies until the new technology is ready is not realistic.
 
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I do not want my new flagship phone's chipset to be selected based on the limited ones that can still support a technology that is no longer being pursued regardless of whether there are areas of the Country (getting smaller every day) that could still use it for a little while longer. Nor do I want my new flagship phone's battery to need to support two simultaneous amplifiers, again, regardless of whether there are some pockets of the network that could still support it.

We are in a transition period off of old technologies onto VoLTE and in any transition we'll be missing some functionality in the process until it's done.

The expectation that chipset and handset makers are going to support all previous technologies until the new technology is ready is not realistic.
Dude, it is generally not a good idea to argue with a moderator. Quit while you are ahead.
 
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Dude, it is generally not a good idea to argue with a moderator. Quit while you are ahead.
No no - unless it involves the rules - and this clearly doesn't - we're just two buds hashing out a difference of opinion.

Names you can't lay on others here, you can on mods. (OK, obviously not using hate crime language, I mean, within common sense lol.) No big deal, the badge alone pisses some people off thanks to bad experiences and we can dig it. So you get more latitude with us personally, not less.

It's all good. :)
 
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I was out of line to use the word ignorant. I just get tired of the Sprint bashing that, in my opinion, isn't warranted. I took offense to the "many, many reasons to dump Sprint" comment because I feel like there are as many reasons to stay with them as well. They have a right to their opinion as do I and calling that comment ignorant was out of line on my part.
 
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Well, I wasn't Sprint bashing. Actually as of today I no longer have Sprint. After 16 years with Sprint I finally left.

I think I know a few things about being a Sprint customer for that long. I can honestly say that I have not been satisfied with the network or the service for years. I got tired of complaining about it. And I got tired of waiting for tomorrow.

For me, the slowness of implementation of new technology and the slowness of fixing the network made it an easy decision. This was just icing on the cake for me.

Where I went isn't the cheapest, but it sure feels good to not have to worry about dropped calls while driving or waiting for implementation of new technology.

Time will tell if I made the right decision.
 
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different strokes for different folks...

been with sprint since 1998. they were called sprint spectrum. "PCS" was used then to describe their technology. I was on ATT through a small local re-seller (Bellsouth Mobility) and being an early adopter, i jumped at the chance to be on their network (i already had their long distance service).

I have lived in several states since then and here in LA i have reception everywhere I go. Even inside studios with massive HMI ballasts, EMI(sometimes), high discharge arc lamps, multiple wifi networks, all types of wiring--you name it. Have always had access to data and voice.

last year I worked NAB and with many people inside the buildings (mostly apple users on ATT) not having any reception, I was able to stream netflix to my htc one max (rocking the nexus 6 now) during down times when others had no access to data (nab didnt have any public wifi points setup).

point of all this is i have had solid results with sprint and i too feel i can lend my opinion with some credibility.

i can honestly say i have been satisfied with Sprint and its service, so there you go...
 
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I just drove cross country including some out of way places and had good enough coverage between Sprint and roaming that I had great results with Google Maps and streaming music the whole way.

At my local recycling center, I can't call home lmao so go figure. :D

But it's pretty good to me otherwise - I just want voice and data back.
 
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I've been with Sprint a good ten years, at least. Before that, I was AT&T. I have coworkers on Verizon, everything else.

My experience is this: everyone sucks equally. I once bought an AT&T phone and couldn't get reception in front of the building where I purchased the phone. I complain about crappy reception at work, but so do my coworkers on the other networks.

Probably doesn't help that we work in a low-population area with few towers, and our buildings are veritable Faraday cages. Yet the signal does get in.

Sprint has a better overall plan for my needs.
 
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