Call and Internet at the same time ???

[abrigham]

Originally Posted by shaggylive

with the tp2, depending on the radio chip, I think it should be possible to use simultaneous gsm/cdma, but that's for someone way smarter than me to figure out. (although I'm willing to test/brick)

From what I've seen so far, all attempts to do simultaneous GSM/CDMA on the TP2 have failed. Since the TP2 World Phone is essentially a CDMA phone first, that network always takes precedence. The only way to get GSM when you are in a CDMA coverage area is to set the phone to GSM Only mode.

[shaggylive]

right, my thought is that there may be a way to tell data to use gsm and lock the cdma to 1x for voice/sms. but I realize it's been attempted, and is almost the holy grail, but wanted to clarifiy the cdma info. again, the network is capable, just not the handsets (or programming in the handset)

Originally Posted by abrigham

From what I've seen so far, all attempts to do simultaneous GSM/CDMA on the TP2 have failed. Since the TP2 World Phone is essentially a CDMA phone first, that network always takes precedence. The only way to get GSM when you are in a CDMA coverage area is to set the phone to GSM Only mode.

Mine sometimes defaults to my AT&T SIM after a soft reset and drives me straight up the wall whenever it does... I leave mine on GSM only now because of it.

My thoughts on WiMAX? It pains me a little.

Sprint's got a lot of money into it. That's all fine and dandy except it has problems. LTE is being picked up by almost every other single carrier. The biggest problem is its frequency. Wimax is high frequency - close to wifi, even. The HTC MAX couldn't have wimax and wifi enabled at the same time - the frequencies are too close and it caused interference. The same is going to be true for deployment here, I imagine.

High frequency also means less effective signal penetration of obstacles such as building walls when compared to the low frequencies of LTE. Flip side is that the high frequency should carry farther from the tower. Is this huge either way? No, not entirely, but it's just another unfortunate mark against wimax.

I really hope I'm missing something elementary here, though. I know they've got a lot more research into it than I do, but I see more advantages for LTE... except for WiMax is already on the ground running and LTE is a long ways out.

[bkrodgers]

Originally Posted by abrigham

I have a feeling that's the idea... WiMax is, of course, data only. However, I would imagine that most WiMax devices coming to Sprint will be CDMA/WiMax combined so when you're in a WiMax (a.k.a. 4G) coverage area, your data would go over WiMax and voice over CMDA and when in CMDA only, then be limited to one or the other when on CMDA only. Granted, this is all speculation as I haven't really done much research on any of the upcoming 4G/WiMax handsets but that's what makes sense.

Actually, my understanding of both WiMax and LTE is that it's a 100% IP based, packet switched network. The voice calls will basically be a form of VoIP. Simultaneous voice and data should be no problem.

-Brian

[shaggylive]

Originally Posted by ShadowDrake

I really hope I'm missing something elementary here, though. I know they've got a lot more research into it than I do, but I see more advantages for LTE... except for WiMax is already on the ground running and LTE is a long ways out.

it's been a while since i've had any time to dig up and read any white papers on the subject, but I was last left with the impression that wimax is more of a mesh(able) network, so nodes can communicate directly instead of getting routed through the 'network'. meaning a business could have thier own 'tower' (think Airave) and the users could link directly thus greater bandwith 'in-house'
this would also translate into scale-ability since sprint is big on events. they always bring in portable towers for things like daytona500 or election conventions.

your other points are completely valid however.

what I really think is that sprint is trying to replace wifi with wimax, since we all know wifi-N isn't all it's cracked up to be.