Database Users

Online Activation for Phone Switching

I recently won a Nextel Blackberry in a raffle and I wanted to use when I bike so as not to break my Hero. I know about Sprint's online activator but I never used it before and I'm not sure if it would work given that its an iDen Blackberry but that's just me talking. Has anybody done this before and how long does it take to take effect? Thanks for the help.

it should work no problem. I work for sprint. when I was a agent I showed corp customers how to do it online.. since the recent sprint.com update don't know.
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The online system is pretty easy to use and changes take place within seconds in most cases.
However, I have run across some issues going from iDen to CDMA. Most notable is that you will lose ALL voicemail and will have to set it back up each time. Also, Iden SMS is terrible, if you communicate with SMS be prepared to have significant SMS delays. not to mention the poor data speeds. Beyond that, there are provision delays from time to time and it could take hours for the switch to go through when you do an Iden to CDMA switch. I actually had on that took about 36 hours. Granted, the exception to the rule, but considering I do about 100 esn swaps a month, I have some experience with the system. These problems don't happen NEARLY as often as a CDMA/CDMA trade. My advice, sell the iden, buy a cheap CDMA device.

Net neutrality

Hello everyone,
I am concerned that some mobile carriers restrict tethering or offer tethering to their plans for a fee, how this is legal , i am paying for the bandwidth , and this is my pipe i will do whatever i want with it.
I understand forcing speed limit and threshold , ISPs uses "shared" pipes, downloading too much will impact the network .
But downloading 5 MB Image have the same impact on the network whither i do it from my mobile,laptop or desktop.
This definitely break Network neutrality , Wikipedia definition:
Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle which advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers or governments on consumers' access to networks that participate in the internet. Specifically, network neutrality would prevent restrictions on content, sites, platforms, the kinds of equipment that may be attached, or the modes of communication.
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I see this as starting point for a growing trend, I think some ISPs already give you advantage to access Netflix over other on demand video providers (same practice also for VOIP), who knows when ISPs will start charging you different fees for different sites , maybe they will offer "Facebook" plan, or "Youtube" plan ... the thought of this is a scary one.
We need some kind of campaign to stop mobile providers from charging extra for tethering.
What's your point of view.

i agree 100%. Its plain and simple greed.

I think in all honesty, all companies should just give us our unlimited data back for a flat fee, and give the people that don't use data as much, the option for like.. a 200MB/month plan or however you want to look at it.
As for tethering fees and stuff like that. I just recently rooted my phone with a custom ROM, so obviously I do have that option for use if I absolutely need it. As for people not comfortable. I definitely agree with providers breaking the network neutrality.
Just my personal thought.

I like t-mobile's approach to the situation. All mobile data is unlimited over all, but it comes with a speed cap, so if bandwidth hogs decided to ruin the mobile experience for the rest of us they get throttled til the bill cycle is up. For the people who need a higher cap, there is a higher option at a higher price. even with tethering to my laptop to play online (MMO) games for hours on end and such I have never hit my 5gb cap.

hmmm may be thats good sometimes!!!

The Dutch have a law for it now !! They RuLe!

I agree very scary. Glad I'm rooted.
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I just want to continue to add a note of encouragement to my fellow colleagues even though monsur has already done an incredibly good job.

pyrator said:
i agree 100%. Its plain and simple greed.
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I would agree

i agree with you 100% as well

We need to get one network to do this and everyone else would follow suit. No way is one of them going to stick the the old charging plan if everyone else is offering it for free! Healthy competition baby!

Confusion about carriers and cloud services

So with all the U.S. Carriers either severely limiting or capping Data on their phone/tablet plans(only a matter time for sprint too) why all the focus on cloud based services like google music/ iCloud etc. I would think that these 2 are in direct opposition to each other. I am currently on Sprint and enjoying the unlimited data but not holding breath on it staying around forever. I use Google Music and Netflix/Hulu+ as well as Pandora. I have a premium account where possible and have used others in the past like rhapsody and spotify. What incentive do I have to keep using these services if my data is limited. I see very little point to using them if I have to "triage" my data usage based upon priority. For reference I typically use 4-6gb a month on my sprint account and no I don't tether, I have a Time Warner Cable connection at home rated at 30+MBPS.

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Thread moved to Q&A due to it being a question. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
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The thing is, that technologies like HSPA+ and EV-DO can't handle the amount of data that is pushed through them, that's why Verizon and AT&T are going to LTE, because it CAN handle the amount of data they push now, and more, which is why they give you such high speeds, because it can handle it.
As time progresses, and carriers realize that Unlimited data can easily be offered, they'll switch back to that.

I don't know. I would like to think that way but corporations have repeatedly shown that they will do anything they can to get us to pay more. I don't see them offering unlimited data regardless of the network's capability. It frustrates me to no end to try to get someone on an android phone to use any of the cloud services from drop box to Google docs and music and then realizing they are not on a data plan that allows for what is in my opinion one of the major benefits of the platform.
I own a Nexus S and I think I am one of the very few I have seen or talked to that has no problem with only 16gb storage, the cloud negates the need for a massive memory card but the data limitations on carriers trump that.
I have no illusions of my Sprint plan staying unlimited much longer either and once it is gone I am gonna to adjust my android experience to accomodate and use it in a way that I am forced to, not the way I prefer.

ktt4510 said:
I don't know. I would like to think that way but corporations have repeatedly shown that they will do anything they can to get us to pay more. I don't see them offering unlimited data regardless of the network's capability. It frustrates me to no end to try to get someone on an android phone to use any of the cloud services from drop box to Google docs and music and then realizing they are not on a data plan that allows for what is in my opinion one of the major benefits of the platform.
I own a Nexus S and I think I am one of the very few I have seen or talked to that has no problem with only 16gb storage, the cloud negates the need for a massive memory card but the data limitations on carriers trump that.
I have no illusions of my Sprint plan staying unlimited much longer either and once it is gone I am gonna to adjust my android experience to accomodate and use it in a way that I am forced to, not the way I prefer.
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Just give it time. Eventually the FCC will sue the carriers. That will be a fun day.
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Longcat14 said:
The thing is, that technologies like HSPA+ and EV-DO can't handle the amount of data that is pushed through them, that's why Verizon and AT&T are going to LTE, because it CAN handle the amount of data they push now, and more, which is why they give you such high speeds, because it can handle it.
As time progresses, and carriers realize that Unlimited data can easily be offered, they'll switch back to that.
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I disagree. You'll see that Verizon and ATT's data tiers for 3G and 4G phones are the exact same, same price for the same amount of data. However, Verizon is running a limited time promo where 4G customers get twice the data for the same price, eg. $30 for 2gb turns to 4gb. They launched this promo right after ATT launched their first LTE smartphone last month, certainly not a coincidence. Thank goodness for competition!
The main reason is the carriers realize how hooked we are to our smartphones, many of us couldn't go back to a feature-phone and want to take advantage of our addiction by having us pay more and more to keep using them.
Sadly, I think unlimited plans will never come back. One reason tiers have been implemented is because of exploding data demand and capacity and strain issues. But really, the main reason is just pure greed. Why do you think after you pass your monthly allowance, ATT and Verizon charge you for each extra gig instead of throttling your speed like T-Mobile? They want to get you hooked on bandwidth intensive applications like NetFlix and after you go over your allowance, they hope you'll keep ponying up more cash for data overages to continue using your phone.
There was even a public interview recently with a Verizon executive stating he wishes for as many customers as possible to move up from the $30/2gb plan to their higher $50/5gb and $80/10gb plans just to gain increasingly more revenue each quarter.

How slow is Verizon 3G When Network Optimization Kicks In?

Okay.
I moved my family to a new apartment in a new area.
Wifi isn't up yet, and I've been trying to get all of our business conducted by means of a WiFi Hotspot on my Droid X.
We were past the 2 GB threshold 36 hours into the billing cycle, and I suspect we're being subjected to Verizon's Network Optimization 'feature'.
I suspect this because we will intermittently become unable to use the Internet when we're hanging out at the local cafe working, or at the apartment working. (We can't use the wifi provided freely at the cafe due to restriction imposed by a certain vendor we do business with.)
Is there any way that I can tell that I am, for certain, being effected by Network Optimization instead of just bad luck or oddities of the building/weather/etc?

from http://support.verizonwireless.com/information/data_disclosure.html
How do I know if I will be impacted by Network Optimization?
A good rule of thumb as of September 2011 is this: If you’re on an unlimited data plan, have a 3G device and are using more than 2 GB of data in a month, you’re in the top 5% of data users and will be impacted by Network Optimization when you’re connected to congested 3G cell sites.
Starting at the end of August 2011, if you are on an unlimited plan, are a high data user and had a contract prior to February 3, 2011, we’ll notify you through bill messages and on your My Verizon account if you may be affected.
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While I appreciate your digging that up for me, it wasn't what I was looking for.
I want to know *when* I'm on what VZW considers a congested site, and as such am being 'throttled'.
Will it make me half as fast, or will it push me down to 5K ?
I know that I'm a data hog, per their definition.

you are not going to get more detail than that.
Because this process is in place to ensure the best service to our customers, the speed will vary at any given time. It will depend on how many users are on the same site at that time and what data applications are being used on that site at that time.
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Is there a way I can tell which cell sites are congested?
There is no way for you to easily determine that today. There are many variables that can contribute to a cell site being congested including, but not limited to, the number of active users and the type of applications being used on that site. While we work to ensure we have the most reliable network for every location, these variables combined with other environmental factors determine whether or not a particular cell site reaches the limits of its capacity and becomes congested at any particular time.
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Okay.
I was hoping the community had experience with how slow "throttled" was, but all I can find is a thread or two on other forums where it seems like the throttling in question is still faster than I'm getting when things go sideways.
I have multiple incidents per day where I lose the ability to connect outbound from my laptop.
Based on readings on other forums, people who are throttled may be unable to stream video nicely, but continue to be able to at least browse text-based websites and run traceroutes.
So... I'm either sitting in bad locations or have a problem with my phone.

CoffeeCrown said:
Okay.
I was hoping the community had experience with how slow "throttled" was, but all I can find is a thread or two on other forums where it seems like the throttling in question is still faster than I'm getting when things go sideways.
I have multiple incidents per day where I lose the ability to connect outbound from my laptop.
Based on readings on other forums, people who are throttled may be unable to stream video nicely, but continue to be able to at least browse text-based websites and run traceroutes.
So... I'm either sitting in bad locations or have a problem with my phone.
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I don't believe they throttle. They just charge more
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SuperDefcon5 said:
I don't believe they throttle. They just charge more
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I'm on the grandfathered unlimited data plan.

How to utilize multiple cell towers for better signal

Today while at work I was informed there is a way to utilize other cell towers on other networks to increase the signal of your device by changing the imei on your device constantly. I was wondering how this is done. I looked into it and the furthest I got was to use an app called uncle moble but 99% of it is in oriental writing so its basically useless to me. Any advice or help would be great
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That would be false hypothetically if it were possible to use sprint verizon and tmobile towers in such a mimo fashion your battery life would be severely shortened. Secondly in the newer phones imei is a unique hardware identifier bassicly like a mac address it would not be what allows connection to a tower that is the Sim card and apn to hypothetically use multiple providers towers you would need multiple Sim card and multiple accounts one on each carrier... and a radio capable of multiple concurrent connections. It is just not there hardware wise.
Currently cellphones connect to a tower via a hand shake they send a burst out on a set frequency and wait for a coded response that response will tell the phone in a data burst I'm here and some other info the phone will then shift into low power listen mode until you use it only shifting to higher consumption mode to maintain a call or send a burst. But during the low power states the phone sits and listens for a ping.

It isn't my first time hearing something like this though. My father is a detective and I remember him working a case that his department had a hard time working bc the persons cell phone location kept changing every couple of minutes. Not minor changes, im talking like it would ping a tower in louisiana and a couple minutes later ping a tower in cali and jumped speratic like that. I'm curious how he did that and how its done
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dillonorden said:
It isn't my first time hearing something like this though. My father is a detective and I remember him working a case that his department had a hard time working bc the persons cell phone location kept changing every couple of minutes. Not minor changes, im talking like it would ping a tower in louisiana and a couple minutes later ping a tower in cali and jumped speratic like that. I'm curious how he did that and how its done
Sent from my SM-N900V using XDA Free mobile app
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In the early days of cell phones (pretty much through the 90's) there were ways to "clone" a phone and as long as both phones (or 3 or 4 or whatever) were not "online" at the same time...the system would report where one of the clones is/was.
I'm not saying that it's impossible to do that anymore....but it might as well be impossible with current systems.
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