Once I hit the ground, I’ll fire up the WiMAX 4G phone in the EVO. As [...]]]>

I’m headed out to Las Vegas for DEFCON 18. To get the whole Jeff Pulver “Living in the State of Now” experience, I’ve got my Sprint HTC EVO fired up, GPS radio “on” and logged into FourSquare. 

Once I hit the ground, I’ll fire up the WiMAX 4G phone in the EVO. As I run around Vegas, I’ll try to remember to “check in” on FourSquare and look at 4G signal strength and performance.

Las Vegas should be a good 4G city; it’s officially turned-up, dry and flat, lots of clear sight lines and should have good coverage because of all the WiMAX demos run in town over the past couple of years.

Written by: Doug Mohney (moo@vegascommando.com)

Last updated: 6/24/2010; added solution for problem.

(OK, to be fair, this is a Cisco WRT310N firmware issue rather than an EVO issue, but the buzz I’ve heard circles around the EVO….)

Observed Issue: Sprint HTC EVO fails to find unbroadcast/”hidden” SSID [...]]]>

Sprint HTC EVO Wi-Fi SSID Problem Report

Written by: Doug Mohney (moo@vegascommando.com)

Last updated: 6/24/2010; added solution for problem.

(OK, to be fair, this is a Cisco WRT310N firmware issue rather than an EVO issue, but the buzz I’ve heard circles around the EVO….)

Observed Issue: Sprint HTC EVO fails to find unbroadcast/”hidden” SSID network on Cisco WRT310N 802.11n with older firmware release.

EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE INVOLVED

Router: Cisco Linksys WRT310N Wireless-N Gigabit Router, version 1.0 hardware, Firmware version v1.0.07-LS-HND (v1.0.07 build 014-LS-HND Dec 1, 2008)

Device: Sprint HTC EVO Model PC36100

Hardware information
Hardware version
0003

Firmware version
2.1-update1

Baseband version
1.39.00.05.31

Kernel version
2.6.29-a2443432
htc-kernel@and18-2 #1

Build number
1.32.651.6 CL171253 release-keys

Software number
1.32.651.6

Other wireless devices on network at time problem was observed: TiVo 802.11 b/g network adapters (two in operation)

Wireless security in use on network when problem was observed: WPA/WPA2 PSK

DESCRIPTION OF PRIMARY ISSUE:

Sprint HTC EVO fails to discover wireless network when network mode is set to “Mixed” (i.e. when the Cisco router is willing to accept 802.11n, 802.11b, and 802.11g clients) and SSID Broadcast on the Cisco router is set to “Disabled” — even though Wi-Fi network is defined on EVO properly with SSID, security type, and correct password.

HTC > Wi-Fi networks says the not-broadcasted SSID network in question is “Not in range, remembered” but other devices (HP laptop with 802.11 b/g, Linksys USB 802.11n dongle, Tivo 802.11 b/g network adapters, Apple iPhone 3GS) have no problem finding the network.

Issue appears to be consistently repeatable .

SOLUTION:

Upgrade WRT310N firmware to latest release version -  v1.0.09 (December 2009 release date).

Issue goes away; also appears to be some observed increase in WiFi throughput/signal strength when communicating with EVO with the latest firmware, but I can’t swear to it in a court of law.

SUGGESTED WORKAROUNDS IF A FIRMWARE UPGRADE CANNOT IMMEDIATELY BE IMPLEMENTED :

1) In “Mixed” mode, set SSID Broadcast to “Enabled” or

2) Select “Network Mode” to “BG-Mixed”

Do one or the other, depending on your preference. You don’t have to do both!

ISSUES WITH WORKAROUNDS:

For option 1) Decrease in security by setting SSID to Broadcast

For option 2) a) Forcing network mode to “BG-Mixed” defeats the purpose of having 802.11n devices.

Unclear if using either 1) or 2) provides any signal strength advantages.

# # #

(If anything, Sprint is on my bad list because one of their call center people told a whopping fat lie about the [...]]]>

I’m currently working with a Sprint HTC EVO phone. Please be advised this is MY phone bought with MY money at *gulp* FULL price, so I’m not enthrall to Sprint for nothing.

(If anything, Sprint is on my bad list because one of their call center people told a whopping fat lie about the carrier getting the iPhone real soon)

More details to come, but I’ve discovered a bug in the EVO’s Wi-FI implementation; under certain circumstances – and also reported by others – the phone doesn’t pick up an unbroadcast SSID network.

Retail electronics chains in the D.C. area, such as Best Buy, are expected to start selling WiMAX-capable gear in mid-July prior to [...]]]>

Los Angeles, CA – Clearwire (www.clearwire.com) plans to soft launch Washington D.C. area service to select customers in July, followed by general availability (i.e. for the rest of us) in August.

Retail electronics chains in the D.C. area, such as Best Buy, are expected to start selling WiMAX-capable gear in mid-July prior to the official service launch.

Sprint, however, has been wasting no time in prepping the local D.C. markets for the wonders of WiMAX. The company included a pamphlet for the 3G/4G WiMAX EVO phone in papermail bills sent to area residents in early May and has run promotional teaser ads at local movie theatres.

Net-net, Sprint subscribers can speak their text messages and email, with Talk to Text available immediately for all Blackberry devices [...]]]>

Coming out of CTIA, Yap (www.yapinc.com) has announced that its automated, cloud-based speech recognition service has been selected by Microsoft for its speech-to-text capabilities in its Talk to Text mobile application developed for Sprint.

Net-net, Sprint subscribers can speak their text messages and email, with Talk to Text available immediately for all Blackberry devices running on the Sprint network. Using Talk to Text, Sprint users can drastically reduce keystrokes and time needed to compose an email or a text messaging.

Yap brags that its speech cloud provides fully automated and highly accurate speech recognition via simple web services interface, enabling Microsoft to quickly integrate Yap’s speech recognition into its Talk to Text app with just a few lines of code.

Over on TMCNet, I wrote about Virgin Mobile USA’s Broadband2Go prepaid mobile broadband offering For occasional Sprint EVDO users, Broadband2Go is sorely tempting and cheaper than the Sprint [...]]]>

Sprint is buying Virgin Mobile USA for no more than $688 million.  It’s a great deal for Virgin and a “stop the bleeding” move for Sprint.

Over on TMCNet, I wrote about Virgin Mobile USA’s Broadband2Go prepaid mobile broadband offering For occasional Sprint EVDO users, Broadband2Go is sorely tempting and cheaper than the Sprint phone-as-modem (PAM) deal.  A Sprint customer pays $480/year for a PAM plan,  while the Broadband2Go deal requires a one-time purchase of an EVDO USB frob  at $150, plus usage at $20 per 250 MB on a 30 day use-or-lose basis.

Since Virgin Mobile is/was a Sprint MVNO customer, a Sprint data customer would get the same coverage area and presumably the same QoS through Virgin Mobile.   Crunch the numbers and Sprint’s ARPU on such a customer goes from $40/month to $0.  Purchasing Virgin Mobile means Sprint gets some pre-paid revenue to make up for the PAM drops which in some respects is “better” revenue (better margins baked in, few people use all of the data in 30 days),  but net-net meant Virgin Mobile USA would be cannibalizing some of Sprint’s own customer base.

Broadband2Go is currently the only prepaid mobile data offering in the U.S.  Be interesting to see if Verizon Wireless goes beyond its “day pass” concept with pre-paid devices and rolls out a similar product by the end of the year.

At VoiceCon this spring, Sprint was talking about its love for OCS and how it would save them a ton of money since [...]]]>

Adam Uzelac — aka voiploser on Twitter — is tweeting Global Crossing rolling out Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) R2.   This makes two carriers that have embraced OCS for internal usage.

At VoiceCon this spring, Sprint was talking about its love for OCS and how it would save them a ton of money since the company was consolidating onto one PBX platform — an important thing, given Sprint’s current financial straits.

Critics of OCS hype at VoiceCon noted the platform didn’t have any good answers for survivability or E-911 support and that Microsoft wasn’t expected to roll out something with both features to make OCS a “true” PBX replacement in 2010 with Release 3.

VoIPLoser, er Adam, says Global Crossing will tackle the survivability issue with more servers and E-911 through the use of cell phones.

Putting Sexy Back into WiFi

Satellite Arrives (Again)

What Could Be With LTE

The Potential Promise of WiMAX

Looking Past Palm Pre Madness

Broadband On The Pay [...]]]>

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been contributing to TMC.   I’ve listed my most recent pieces on wireless IT below:

Putting Sexy Back into WiFi

Satellite Arrives (Again)

What Could Be With LTE

The Potential Promise of WiMAX

Looking Past Palm Pre Madness

Broadband On The Pay As You Go Plan

Android Smartphones as a Business Device?

Is Now the Time to take the iPhone Plunge?

Some of these make me go “Hmmm…” because I’m thinking about getting a new phone down the road.

I’m also looking at the Virgin Mobile broadband pay-as-you go plan as a backup connectivity solution and dropping my Sprint PAM (Phone as modem) data plan for tethering.

I was a little shocked when I first saw the Best Buy Sunday ad flier — I thought that there had [...]]]>

Best Buy is offering Sprint bundle deal offering a netbook for 99 cents (yes, under a dollar) with a two year contract commitment. Dan Hesse, are you crazy, or crazy like a fox?

I was a little shocked when I first saw the Best Buy Sunday ad flier — I thought that there had been a mistake on the price, especially since AT&T and Verizon wanted a couple hundred dollars AND a two year commitment for the same machine — a Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX netbook with embedded 3G connectivity and listing for $389 without a contract.

The actual netbook ain’t all that great actually; given  it has a 10.1 inch screen and only a 3 cell battery, it is a little pricey for what you get with the exception of the built-in connectivity.

So how does Sprint manage to eat $200 relative to AT&T and Verizon? Subsidy deals are no big deal in the cellular industry, and the 99 cent notebook seems to be Sprint’s latest gambit to grab market share.

Compare $390 list for the netbook to the list price of the spankin’ new Palm Pre – $850.  The price drops to $200 after you buy at Best Buy and sign a two year contract with Sprint so the delta is $650 or so if everyone is paying list price. The Samsung Instinct, listed at $600, goes down to $100 after a two year contract, so there’s $500 of magic math difference.

Some phones are already effectively “free,” so seeing a netbook at “free” in exchange for a two year commitment isn’t surprising.

Be interesting to see if AT&T or Verizon have to respond.  Will they go 99 cents, $99 dollars, or $149.99?