Sprint Vaguely Jumps on Windows Phone 8 Bandwagon

God, I hope it is the Ativ S and not the paltry Odyssey. I really like the 8x but the lack of removable battery is a deal breaker for me unless i can get over 24 plus hours of battery life on heavy use. The lack of removable storage is not bad as long as I have 32 GB of space on the phone itself.

But either way this is great news for someone who has been on Sprint and wants to have a windows phone as an option.

I posted a question on Sprint's FB page on why Sprint is not offering a Windows 8 phone until summer. Here's the reason I was given by another poster, no idea if he is a Sprint employee but his explanation seems reasonable and at least it's better then Sprints:

It's called "Fixing the broken CDMA coding and encryption as it was strongly recommended to Microsoft by the FCC back in 2011!" All developers of the current mobile platforms have a follow up hearing later this year with the FCC in preparation to meet what most likely to be new encoding and encryption standards that every carrier and cell phone manufacturer must meet (or surpass like in the case of Blackberry and iOS) for both GSM and especially CDMA, and Microsoft is the only one not meeting the requirement yet.

It's the same story for the rest of the postpaid and prepaid CDMA carriers in the US, which more likely select between the devices Sprint chooses to carry (Nokia will not deal with other CDMA carriers outside of Verizon for the time being). Microsoft has five and a half months or so to fix the coding and encryption for CDMA functionality on WP8, or face major action by the FCC and FTC for engaging (and perhaps encouraging/demanding from OEMs) discriminatory practices against SPRINT and every CDMA carrier in the US who is a member of the association involving regional and rural carriers.

And before you mention Verizon has 3 WP8 devices, have in mind the two sold right now are NOT selling well, especially the Nokia Lumia 822 which is now being offered at no charge with a Two Year agreement. A device your buddies at WPCenTROLL betting to have sold well because they wanted to make Sprint (and every CDMA carrier in the US which decided to skip the launch of WP8) look bad. It has backfired on them, and they still say the higher encryption required by nearly all CDMA carriers is a joke (try running the full form of Simultaneous Voice and Data Operation [SVDO] with less than 512bit encryption, and you get only 1X advanced [2G] like the Lumia 822 does).

And I know you'll come back to complain more about the devices thenselves because you want a Lumia 920, which Nokia only offers on GSM format in the US, and has NO INTENTIONS TO BUILD A CDMA variant for US Carriers because their relationship with CDMA carriers does not exsist since 2001.

And by the way, US celluar is also a national carrier which does not have a single WP8 device

Anthony, what I stated is what every CDMA carrier in the US has decided to do. Protecting their networks, protecting their customers, and offering Simultaneous Voice and Data Operation (SVDO) is the main reason why 512bit encryption is now used in the US (and Verizon is included).

However, Microsoft wanted for months CDMA carriers pick up devices with the lower encryption with a promise the encryption and coding issue would be addressed sometime this year. The main problem with that proposal is that Microsoft may only have until June to issue a major update which must include the coding prior to the FCC hearing. Verizon accepted and has two devices which are capable of doing a lot more than being limited to 1X advanced in order to talk and surf while on Verizon's network with 256bit encryption based WP8 devices, while the rest of the smartphones (including the upcoming Blackberry 10 devices) come coded and encrypted to use no less than 512bit secure encryption (android uses 512bit encryption since ICS, blackberry uses 1024bit = 1Mb encryption, and iOs use 2048bit = 2Mb encryption. Even the Pre 2 on WebOS uses 512 bit).

I hope Paul comments on Windows Weekly.