Quote:
Originally Posted by masetas
thanks for replying
When you say Stop supporting it does that automatically mean they will shut it down or will they treat it like they do the IDEN they still have it on but they dont do any support on it
I just dont want to purchase a phone were i get a suprised notification saying that the network my phone runs on is no longer going to be on making my phone in to a big media player only and drastically messing up the resale value
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Sprint made an announcement back in 2005 saying that they would keep iDEN running to at
LEAST 2007, in December 2010 announcing that finally it's shutting it down in 2013 for good. That's some pretty good notice giving...
I got two thoughts of reasoning here, one don't forget about the 3G radio as well. If Sprint did turn off WiMax (4G) the other radio will still work. However, it would be a
PR nightmare if Sprint screwed over that many people and just turned off WiMax before your hardware became obsolete, plus the lawsuits alone wouldn't be worth all that trouble. If and when I finally upgrade to a WiMax phone, I'll probably leave the 4G off most of the time as it kills the battery faster then 3G alone. If I'm stuck somewhere bored off my a$$, I might turn on the 4G radio here and there in certain circumstances.
The second school of thought is, if they did turn off 4G you
should be able to get a significantly discounted phone of equal or lessor then the value you currently have. Just remember this though, pay attention to when Sprint stops selling 4G phones, not when they stop becoming available. I can see eBay or Craigslist selling the EVO 3D off contract for $49.99 new in box, the day before Sprint flips the WiMax switch off.
I'm betting the only way you're going to get burned is if LTE is
SOOOO much better then
WiMax and you are stuck with JUST WiMax until your next upgrade, whenever that is--"oh the humanity"!!!
