Why Sprint's Text Messaging is Different

Does anyone know why Sprint is the only carrier whose text messaging
is not like everyone elses??

Thanks

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Sheri wrote:
> *Does anyone know why Sprint is the only carrier whose text
> messaging
> is not like everyone elses??
>
> Thanks *

Because at the time that Sprint implemented shortmail, SMS was not the
norm in the U.S.

Sprint does realize that they have fallen behind in the text messaging,
and will have SMS delivered about mid-November, with SMS phones
shipping early next month.

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www.sprintpcsinfo.com

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In article <[email protected]>,=20
eSheri@www.com says...
> Does anyone know why Sprint is the only carrier whose text messaging
> is not like everyone elses??
>=20
> Thanks
>=20

Someone, sometime in the past, thought it would be neat and cool to make=20
your text messaging available on the SprintPCS web site with a PC, so=20
you didn't have to use minutes to read and send messages.

A complete diconnect of understanding from what text messaging is really=20
about, but whomever it was appears to have had a lot of sway with the=20
people who made the choice.

To the bane of users *and* support reps ever since. Let's just say a=20
few higher-ups may be getting wind of that.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

"hatoncat" burbled to the world:

> Sprint does realize that they have fallen behind in the text
messaging,
> and will have SMS delivered about mid-November, with SMS phones
> shipping early next month.


Okay, so I'm not an engineer.

Is it going to take a new phone to make this work? Or will
they be able to update the software on the current phones?

Chris

Chris Pisarra wrote:
>
>
>
> Okay, so I'm not an engineer.
>
> Is it going to take a new phone to make this work? Or will
> they be able to update the software on the current phones?
>
> Chris
>
>

You would think that they could do it through a firmware update and add
it to the software on the phone. Will the manufacturers do it is
another question.


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In article <[email protected]>,=20
[email protected] says...
> You would think that they could do it through a firmware update and add=
=20
> it to the software on the phone. Will the manufacturers do it is=20
> another question.
>=20

Firmware updates aren't the responsibility of the manufacturer, although=20
they *do* play a significant role in the process. We do the final=20
testing and feature selection. And we make the choice to release it.

Based upon some internal communications (like a partial outage in one-
way text messaging coming up), I think software upgrading will enable=20
it.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

O/Siris wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] says...
>
>>You would think that they could do it through a firmware update and add
>>it to the software on the phone. Will the manufacturers do it is
>>another question.
>>
>
>
> Firmware updates aren't the responsibility of the manufacturer, although
> they *do* play a significant role in the process. We do the final
> testing and feature selection. And we make the choice to release it.
>

Isn't it the manufactueres responsibility to MAKE the firmware upgrade.?
I know Sprint does a test of the firmware before they release it, but I
thought it was the manufactuer who did the actualy firmware programming.

> Based upon some internal communications (like a partial outage in one-
> way text messaging coming up), I think software upgrading will enable
> it.
>


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On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:45:52 GMT, DItalianSalami
<[email protected]> wrote:

>O/Siris wrote:
>> In article <[email protected]>,
>> [email protected] says...
>>
>>>You would think that they could do it through a firmware update and add
>>>it to the software on the phone. Will the manufacturers do it is
>>>another question.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Firmware updates aren't the responsibility of the manufacturer, although
>> they *do* play a significant role in the process. We do the final
>> testing and feature selection. And we make the choice to release it.
>>
>
>Isn't it the manufactueres responsibility to MAKE the firmware upgrade.?
>I know Sprint does a test of the firmware before they release it, but I
>thought it was the manufactuer who did the actualy firmware programming.

I know nothing about the cell phone process but have some general
knowledge of firmware updates on computer related products. Normally,
a manufacturer releases the "specifications" on what the phone is
capable of doing through firmware. The seller or the company that
does the distribution creates or modifies the firmware to suit their
needs and distributes it. Two examples come to mind, video cards and
cdrom dirves. With video cards, assume you have a Nvidia chipset card
made by Jaton. Jaton supports the card and creates all documentation
and drivers for the card. They MAY use Nvidia's drivers for a
reference but that is tranparent to you. You normally have a choice
to use Nvidia's drivers also but you may lose or gain some
functionality that was not included with the Jaton drivers. Cdrom
drives are almost the same. Company A makes one model of drive,
company B, C, and D all buy the drive from A but rebadge the drive and
include their own firmware and material with the drives. Company A
is in no way obligated to provide support to the end user but may or
may not work with B, C, and D later in the future. I know these
examples are not specifically related to cell phone firmware but the
whole process depends on the business relationship and agreements
between Sprint and the phone makers on who does what.

DItalianSalami <[email protected]> wrote in article
<[email protected]>:

> Isn't it the manufactueres responsibility to MAKE the firmware upgrade.?
> I know Sprint does a test of the firmware before they release it, but I
> thought it was the manufactuer who did the actualy firmware programming.

From what I understand, we write the final version of it. The mfr may
send us a reference version, with any fixes that may be needed, but we
modify it for any propietary information.
--
-+-
RØß
O/Siris
I work for Sprint PCS
I *don't* speak for them


[posted via phonescoop.com]

norelpref wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:45:52 GMT, DItalianSalami
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>O/Siris wrote:
>>
>>>In article <[email protected]>,
>>>[email protected] says...
>>>
>>>
>>>>You would think that they could do it through a firmware update and add
>>>>it to the software on the phone. Will the manufacturers do it is
>>>>another question.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Firmware updates aren't the responsibility of the manufacturer, although
>>>they *do* play a significant role in the process. We do the final
>>>testing and feature selection. And we make the choice to release it.
>>>
>>
>>Isn't it the manufactueres responsibility to MAKE the firmware upgrade.?
>>I know Sprint does a test of the firmware before they release it, but I
>>thought it was the manufactuer who did the actualy firmware programming.
>
>
> I know nothing about the cell phone process but have some general
> knowledge of firmware updates on computer related products. Normally,
> a manufacturer releases the "specifications" on what the phone is
> capable of doing through firmware. The seller or the company that
> does the distribution creates or modifies the firmware to suit their
> needs and distributes it. Two examples come to mind, video cards and
> cdrom dirves. With video cards, assume you have a Nvidia chipset card
> made by Jaton. Jaton supports the card and creates all documentation
> and drivers for the card. They MAY use Nvidia's drivers for a
> reference but that is tranparent to you. You normally have a choice
> to use Nvidia's drivers also but you may lose or gain some
> functionality that was not included with the Jaton drivers. Cdrom
> drives are almost the same. Company A makes one model of drive,
> company B, C, and D all buy the drive from A but rebadge the drive and
> include their own firmware and material with the drives. Company A
> is in no way obligated to provide support to the end user but may or
> may not work with B, C, and D later in the future. I know these
> examples are not specifically related to cell phone firmware but the
> whole process depends on the business relationship and agreements
> between Sprint and the phone makers on who does what.
>
>

It does, but in the case of the video cards we are talking about a
company buying nvidia's chipset not video card. So the firmware runs
the video card not just the chipset. Qualcom makes alot of the chips
used in many phones and they have nothing to do with the firmware of the
phones, the company that manufactures the PHONES not the CHIPSETS
programs the firmware.

Now in your point about the cdroms that is a company buying a product
and rebadging it with their name. Now sprint doesnt' rebadge the
phones, all they do is add their badge to the phone stating it's a phone
that runs on Sprint service, but the phone still has it's company name
on it. Sprint does the tech support on the phone, but if you call the
manufactuer they will also support you.

But then again Sprint may go a whole different route because they
probably have some important information that has to be input into the
firmware that they don't want leaked out to other companys.

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O/Siris . wrote:
>
> From what I understand, we write the final version of it. The mfr may
> send us a reference version, with any fixes that may be needed, but we
> modify it for any propietary information.

So do you think there is a good chance Sprint will add SMS to current
phones. I'm not talking about all phones, just the newer ones. Cuz I
just got an A620 and hope they can add SMS to it.

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-DItalianSalami
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> Okay, so I'm not an engineer.
>
> Is it going to take a new phone to make this work? Or will
> they be able to update the software on the current phones?


95 - 100% of all phones made for Sprint in the last five years have
technically been designed by the manufacturer to support MO-SMS (the
feature we're talking about). But Sprint has always had it unimplemented
or disabled in firmware.

Could Sprint go back and create firmware updates for all of the old
phones to enable MO-SMS? Yes.

But it would cost a lot of money to create, test, and release all of
those updates, plus the employee time to service all the people coming
in to have their phones updated, and the extra load it might put on
customer service.

So will they do it? I doubt it. They *might* release updates for a few
phones in their current lineup, to go along with rolling updates in the
current inventory. But if the phone has already been discontinued as of
now, I'd say forget about a firmware upgrade for MO-SMS. IMO, it just
doesn't make sense for Sprint.

--
Rich Brome
Phone Scoop
http://www.phonescoop.com/


[posted via phonescoop.com]

DItalianSalami <[email protected]> wrote in article
<%[email protected]>:
> O/Siris . wrote:
> >
> > From what I understand, we write the final version of it. The mfr may
> > send us a reference version, with any fixes that may be needed, but we
> > modify it for any propietary information.
>
> So do you think there is a good chance Sprint will add SMS to current
> phones. I'm not talking about all phones, just the newer ones. Cuz I
> just got an A620 and hope they can add SMS to it.
>
> --
> -DItalianSalami
> -Remove Spamsux from Email to Respond
>

I have no definite information on that, but I do indeed believe that.

--
-+-
RØß
O/Siris
I work for Sprint PCS
I *don't* speak for them


[posted via phonescoop.com]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 21:23:26 GMT, DItalianSalami
<[email protected]> said:

>Qualcom makes alot of the chips
>used in many phones and they have nothing to do with the firmware of the
>phones, the company that manufactures the PHONES not the CHIPSETS
>programs the firmware.
>
So the relationship between the chipset maker (Qualcomm) and the phone
maker (Sanyo/Samsung etc..) in your example is non existant, that was
my point. In some instances, the chipset makers are out of the loop,
and sometimes they are not.

norelpref wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 21:23:26 GMT, DItalianSalami
> <[email protected]> said:
>
>
>>Qualcom makes alot of the chips
>>used in many phones and they have nothing to do with the firmware of the
>>phones, the company that manufactures the PHONES not the CHIPSETS
>>programs the firmware.
>>
>
> So the relationship between the chipset maker (Qualcomm) and the phone
> maker (Sanyo/Samsung etc..) in your example is non existant, that was
> my point. In some instances, the chipset makers are out of the loop,
> and sometimes they are not.


Well yeah, but we're talking about firmware between sprint and
samsung/sanyo, not between samsung/sanyo and Qualcomm. Well I guess Rob
answered the question. The phone manufacturer makes the firmware up to
a point and sprint takes over after that.

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