Ask a Sprint Guy!

[ericUT]

Dear Sprint Guy,

What's the word? iPhone4s SIM locked or unlocked for international use?

Thanks in advance,

numb3rmonkey

As far as I know right now, we're looking at Sprint only international roaming. This is an unusual move for Sprint. On ore recent world phone (Blackberry 9650 and 9630) were completely SIM unlocked. I've actually placed a call on a Sprint 9650 using an ATT SIM card. My instinct tells me that unlock codes will be availabe to customers but it may take a while. Right now I would go into it with the expectation that you will be stuck using Sprints international SIM.

 

[anon(5335877)]

I have another question. How hard is it to get a TOL on a SERO plan? I've read on other forums about some people being unsuccessful, or that the Sprint reps won't do it unless you are an existing SERO customer or have an EPRP plan.

 

[ericUT]

I have another question. How hard is it to get a TOL on a SERO plan? I've read on other forums about some people being unsuccessful, or that the Sprint reps won't do it unless you are an existing SERO customer or have an EPRP plan.

Never tried it personally, but I asked around the store. Most reps were convinced that it couldn't actually be done. Some of the more experienced reps said that it used to only be done through customer care, but that now since retail outlets are servicing SERO's customer care refuses to do almost anything with them anymore. The docs that I found on SERO do not mention a TOL so I don't think it's necessarily disallowed, but probably HIGHLY discouraged as SERO lines do not make Sprint anything. If it can be done, you're going to have to find an experienced rep who REALLY likes you.

 

[cr12#IM]

Hey how are prl updates handled on the iPhone with sprint?

 

[godpop]

Other Sprint Exclusive Apps for iOS?

My impression is that it will happen much like how AT&T does AT&T Navigator. Basically, there will be an app in the App Store (either Sprint Navigation or, more likely, Telenav) which you will be able to download for free. It will then check your phone to see if you are subscribed to navigation from your carrier (which all Sprint data customers are by default) and then it will work based on that subscription status.

What about the other Sprint Exclusive Apps like Sprint TV, NASCAR, and Sprint Football Live? I hope there are plans for Sprint iPhone customers for these as well as the Sprint Navigation.

 

[ericUT]

What about the other Sprint Exclusive Apps like Sprint TV, NASCAR, and Sprint Football Live? I hope there are plans for Sprint iPhone customers for these as well as the Sprint Navigation.

There is absolutely no official answer on this. I've searched high and low trying to find an answer about Navigation and have nary a clue. For now, consider these apps and services gone. However, I do expect at some point, that there will be a Sprint Navigation app in the App Store at some point. In fact, I'd bet my salary on it. Sprint TV? Not likely to happen for a while. Football live? Not likely either, but there are MANY replacements in the App Store that I can see right now. NASCAR? Really...?

You have to realize that the majority of the company found out about the iPhone when you did. Even AT&T was several months late to the navigation game. For now, rely on the Google Maps app, buy a third party solution, or be patient for a few months.

 

[Justin55372011]

Google maps is horrible, telenav is in the app store for 0.99

 

[RBrown9180]

Can you tell me the differences between a family plan and a business plan? Thanks in advance.

Ryan

 

[ericUT]

Can you tell me the differences between a family plan and a business plan? Thanks in advance.

Ryan

Family plans would apply to normal consumers with 1-5 lines (you can have more than that if you have good credit but they won't be on a family plan).

A business plan would have to be set up under a business name. You can use a tax ID if you are a large corporation or your SSN if you are a small business with no tax ID. Business plans will either be a slightly discounted version of the consumer family plans OR special 6-99+ lines plans (set up as a series of discounted individual plans with pooled minutes). Accounts set up with a tax ID generally are approved for more lines. After a few months of good payment history you can usually get approved for more lines. We also offer discounts for different organizations you might do business with. For instance, if you do business with a credit union, we can give you something like an additional 15% your monthly rate and waived activation fees IIRC. In addition, people in certain industries are eligible to sign up for Group Purchase Orders which require a small membership fee but allow you to get insane discounts on wireless service but this requires a lot more work and a knowledgable rep as GPO's are not business as usual items. If you can swing it, business plans are the way to go. But you need to make sure you have a legit business.

 

[Dunkin]

Prl?

I recently just purchased my first iphone from sprint. I was on an EVO up till this time. I read the instructions on updating my profile and PRL and went through the process and let it complete. Currently my old EVO has a PRL of 60681 were the iphone has a PRL of 51082. Why is this? I am no expert so please explain. Am I wrong in thinking the higher number PRL is the most recent and best one?

 

[jxc]

why are data speeds on the iphone 4s significantly slower than on the EVO 4G or other sprint phones using 3g in the same location?

i did several test using speedtest.net app on an iphone 4s and evo 4g both using 3g, both phones using the same server on the app and both phones were inches apart. On the iphone 4s i averaged 150 kbps down and 200 kbps up, on the EVO 4G i average 1,000 kbps down and 200 kbps up.

i already contacted sprint customer support and they said they were aware of the issue and would call me back within 72 hrs which they didnt, but can you shine some light on what is happening? Did sprint force the iphone to be only use 800 mhz or 1900 mhz and the other phones are allowed to use both at the same time?

Please clarify if you can.

 

[ghostface147]

##update# for the PRL update on sprint networks............

 

[ericUT]

I recently just purchased my first iphone from sprint. I was on an EVO up till this time. I read the instructions on updating my profile and PRL and went through the process and let it complete. Currently my old EVO has a PRL of 60681 were the iphone has a PRL of 51082. Why is this? I am no expert so please explain. Am I wrong in thinking the higher number PRL is the most recent and best one?

While it is true that a higher PRL is "newer" different classes of devices may be in a different PRL series. Generally, smartphones and feature phones have a different PRL series depending on age. I think the difference my lie with the fact that the iPhone is a world phone and therefore may carry different roaming information.

One of the common misconceptions about Sprint service is that updating your PRL magically increases your signal. This is wrong. The PRL is there to simply mitigate tower selection to reduce roaming usage. Now, I have seen cases where Sprint has pushed bad PRL updates (Once they pushed the global roaming PRL to the EVO and EVO Shift. What a nightmare) that can severely effect network performance but usually those are corrected promptly. VERY rarely does an incremental PRL update actually improve signal, however the placebo effect has convinced some that their signal is improved.

There are, however, two situations in which PRL updates would make a noticeable difference. The first is if you live on northern or southern border of the U.S. and occasionally your phone tries to roam on Canadian or Mexican towers. This will result in large international roaming bills. Updating the PRL can help to keep your phone on American towers. The other situation in which this would help would be if you live in an area of new development. Updating the PRL can keep your phone up to date and attaching to the best towers in the area. This is becoming a rare case as 3G rollout is not being undertaken nearly as much as it would have two years ago.

##UPDATE# will update your PRL

 

[ericUT]

why are data speeds on the iphone 4s significantly slower than on the EVO 4G or other sprint phones using 3g in the same location?

i did several test using speedtest.net app on an iphone 4s and evo 4g both using 3g, both phones using the same server on the app and both phones were inches apart. On the iphone 4s i averaged 150 kbps down and 200 kbps up, on the EVO 4G i average 1,000 kbps down and 200 kbps up.

i already contacted sprint customer support and they said they were aware of the issue and would call me back within 72 hrs which they didnt, but can you shine some light on what is happening? Did sprint force the iphone to be only use 800 mhz or 1900 mhz and the other phones are allowed to use both at the same time?

Please clarify if you can.

AFAIK the iPhone is capable of both 800 and 1900 MHz operation on Sprint. This has to be the case as there are many areas in which 800 is used to relieve excessive volume on the 1900 band. In addition, the limitation in cellular data does not lie with the carrier frequency, but rather with the limitations of CDMA, how much traffic that tower was designed to accommodate, what the status of the backhaul connection is, and of course signal quality. In fact, Verizon's admittedly blazing fast LTE runs on the 700 MHz carrier frequency which used to belong to analog TV signals. Now, you may notice that in some places you may be able to lock on to a signal much better indoors than in others. This is because signals sent at a lower frequency (800 MHz vs 1900 MHz) have a higher building permeability. Obviously data speeds at 4 bars are going to be better than with one bar so where you have 800 MHz service you might notice SOME difference. 800 MHz is a little bit rarer to come across and is mostly used in dense areas to alleviate traffic on the 1900 MHz band.

I've seen this issue myself on my iPhone and I've seen this complaint by many in various places on the internet. Sprint has not said anything specifically. However, there was a leaked Sprint document (no I didn't leak it. That memo was not even intended for anyone in the retail channel) that suggested that there would be a fix for it soon. For now, we just have to sit and wait and be patient. We have to trust that the issue is being worked on and that both companies are understandably trying to avoid bad press. Try to use WiFi whenever possible.

 

[ericUT]

Hey how are prl updates handled on the iPhone with sprint?

##UPDATE# will update your PRL

 

[ChaosShadow]

While it is true that a higher PRL is "newer" different classes of devices may be in a different PRL series. Generally, smartphones and feature phones have a different PRL series depending on age. I think the difference my lie with the fact that the iPhone is a world phone and therefore may carry different roaming information.

One of the common misconceptions about Sprint service is that updating your PRL magically increases your signal. This is wrong. The PRL is there to simply mitigate tower selection to reduce roaming usage. Now, I have seen cases where Sprint has pushed bad PRL updates (Once they pushed the global roaming PRL to the EVO and EVO Shift. What a nightmare) that can severely effect network performance but usually those are corrected promptly. VERY rarely does an incremental PRL update actually improve signal, however the placebo effect has convinced some that their signal is improved.

There are, however, two situations in which PRL updates would make a noticeable difference. The first is if you live on northern or southern border of the U.S. and occasionally your phone tries to roam on Canadian or Mexican towers. This will result in large international roaming bills. Updating the PRL can help to keep your phone on American towers. The other situation in which this would help would be if you live in an area of new development. Updating the PRL can keep your phone up to date and attaching to the best towers in the area. This is becoming a rare case as 3G rollout is not being undertaken nearly as much as it would have two years ago.

##UPDATE# will update your PRL

Where on the iPhone would we be able to locate which PRL we're currently on?

Also, I remember from my Android days, I could type in ##DATA# to access the data profiles on the phone... what would that be on the iPhone... since the above code doesn't work

 

[Maestro1#AC]

AFAIK the iPhone is capable of both 800 and 1900 MHz operation on Sprint. This has to be the case as there are many areas in which 800 is used to relieve excessive volume on the 1900 band. In addition, the limitation in cellular data does not lie with the carrier frequency, but rather with the limitations of CDMA, how much traffic that tower was designed to accommodate, what the status of the backhaul connection is, and of course signal quality. In fact, Verizon's admittedly blazing fast LTE runs on the 700 MHz carrier frequency which used to belong to analog TV signals. Now, you may notice that in some places you may be able to lock on to a signal much better indoors than in others. This is because signals sent at a lower frequency (800 MHz vs 1900 MHz) have a higher building permeability. Obviously data speeds at 4 bars are going to be better than with one bar so where you have 800 MHz service you might notice SOME difference. 800 MHz is a little bit rarer to come across and is mostly used in dense areas to alleviate traffic on the 1900 MHz band.

I've seen this issue myself on my iPhone and I've seen this complaint by many in various places on the internet. Sprint has not said anything specifically. However, there was a leaked Sprint document (no I didn't leak it. That memo was not even intended for anyone in the retail channel) that suggested that there would be a fix for it soon. For now, we just have to sit and wait and be patient. We have to trust that the issue is being worked on and that both companies are understandably trying to avoid bad press. Try to use WiFi whenever possible.

I believe you may be mistaken somewhat. The iphone is only capbable of 1900 mhz pcs and 850 mhz cellular bands in CDMA. However sprint network is only 1900mhz, even though all sprint phone are capable of using 850mhz that only occurs when roaming, on networks like verizon who has cdma service in 850mhz and 1900mhz spectrums.

now sprint does have 800mhz smr spectrum that is currently used by its nextel iden service. Sprint will slowly move this spectrum from Iden to cdma 1x advanced over the next couple years. There are only a few phones that support that support cdma in the 800 mhz smr spectrum, and the Iphone is not one of them. in 2012 i believe all launched devices will include support for 800 mhz smr.

so right now all sprint users with iphones are stuck on 1900 mhz unless they are roaming.

 

[jxc]

I believe you may be mistaken somewhat. The iphone is only capbable of 1900 mhz pcs and 850 mhz cellular bands in CDMA. However sprint network is only 1900mhz, even though all sprint phone are capable of using 850mhz that only occurs when roaming, on networks like verizon who has cdma service in 850mhz and 1900mhz spectrums.

now sprint does have 800mhz smr spectrum that is currently used by its nextel iden service. Sprint will slowly move this spectrum from Iden to cdma 1x advanced over the next couple years. There are only a few phones that support that support cdma in the 800 mhz smr spectrum, and the Iphone is not one of them. in 2012 i believe all launched devices will include support for 800 mhz smr.

so right now all sprint users with iphones are stuck on 1900 mhz unless they are roaming.

iphone on CDMA does 800 and 1900......850 is on GSM.....also the evo 3d, evo 4g and i believe all sprint phones going back years and years have 800 and 1900 built in, smartphones and regular phones..

this is from the apple website and below is the link
CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)4

Apple - iPhone 4S - Technical Specifications

 

[Maestro1#AC]

iphone on CDMA does 800 and 1900......850 is on GSM.....also the evo 3d, evo 4g and i believe all sprint phones going back years and years have 800 and 1900 built in, smartphones and regular phones..

this is from the apple website and below is the link
CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)4

Apple - iPhone 4S - Technical Specifications

well I mixed them up, (the cellular band which consists of 800-850mhz are sometimes called 800 or 850 band interchangeably ) however what I was trying to say earlier is still true. Sprint phones have always come with 1900mhz and 800mhz, how ever sprint only holds spectrum in the 1900mhz pcs band, when you use 800mhz you are roaming. However lately sprint has been including 800mhz esmr capabilities in some new phones starting with the evo3d. The 800 MHz esmr band is what Nextel is currently running on, it is not the same as cellular 800-850 MHz bands which Verizon and at&t have.

as sprint begins to put cdma service in place of nextels iden service, it will be in 800mhz esmr bands, and sprint phones will have to be specially configured to utilize this spectrum. The iphone is not one of those phones.

 

[ericUT]

Where on the iPhone would we be able to locate which PRL we're currently on?

Also, I remember from my Android days, I could type in ##DATA# to access the data profiles on the phone... what would that be on the iPhone... since the above code doesn't work

AFAIK there is no ##DATA# option. (If there is, I haven't been able to find it, although provisioning seems to be going more or less perfectly for iPhones lately so I haven't had a need for it). Provisioning is in the vast majority of cases handled OTA like all of the recent Sprint phones. Likely, they did not include ##DATA# abilities into the firmware to keep the baseband and firmware on parity with the Verizon model, making updates cheaper and easier for Apple. It's not really recommended for the majority of our data capable phones to program manually as they usually detect provisioning status at boot up. Most phones will attempt to activate automatically and this is what the iPhone is doing except silently. This is why they ask you to keep the iPhone off during activation. If provisioning information is needed to be reset, they will direct you to perform a ##RTN# which is a full device clear since it's assumed you're backing up to iCloud or iTunes. For all intents and purposes ##DATA# is not needed. Note that some Blackberry models in the last few years have had the ##DATA# feature disabled.

You can use ##UPDATE# to update your data profile if you decide to switch numbers and this should remove the necessity to ##3282# in the first place.

As a sidenote or FYI, HTC and select other Android phones will respond to the ##DATA# diagnostic code, but other Android devices will use the ##SCRTN# diagnostic code. Especially if it's AOSP Android.