sad answer.....
but I actually followed that logic! Thanks so much! Such a waste of time and money for them to roll that out for only a few years partially then just abandon it. Doesn't really make much financial sense to me. Maybe this will convince me to hold tight before jumping to the Note 2. Although the BF who is getting my old Epic touch will need a new phone by the end of 2014. He will be eligible for an upgrade by then. Okay! have everything planned out a bit more. LOL
You're not alone in that boat, wondering what their logic was.
There are a lot of technical details behind it that many (more knowledgable than myself) have elaborated on in extreme detail. The bare bones explanation is Wimax is a 4G delivery system that is owned by Clearwire, which Sprint controlled majority stake of. Beyond that, Wimax used to be the preferred 4G delivery system outside the US. Problem was, the US domestic providers had already put their investments into LTE 4G delivery, which was seen as more expensive to deploy (and would take longer for build out). When Sprint chose to start with WiMax, they did so with the understanding that it would be easier to transition from WiMax to LTE, should they need to. Well, when they started to deploy WiMax, they didn't have complete control of the delivery, so the towers were made live extremely slowly at launch. As time went on, the deployment and opening of new towers wasn't going as fast as expected, so when Verizon launched their LTE, coverage area and speeds were already better than what existed for Sprint (with exception to a few areas). At that point, Sprint had to make a business decision and move to LTE...but, they decided to build out their own LTE network that they could control. On top of that, they made the business decision to shut down the iDen towers (e.g. Nextel) to convert them to dedicated 3G. This is all a part of the Network Vision. In the short term, for the customers, it seems really bad...but, if you look at the potential for the long term benefits...Sprint could surprisingly jump up in popularity by the time Network Vision is scheduled to be complete (2014).
If you look at the positive side of Softbank's purchasing majority stake in Sprint, then you'll believe that the extra money will help speed up Network Vision, so that both Softbank and Sprint can see benefits from the Network upgrades more immediately than originally projected.
As for planning your upgrade, I can tell you that without a doubt, upgrading to the Note 2 will be worth it because it is relatively "future proof." Even though LTE might be slow to deploy right now, the upgrade window at Sprint is 18 months now (for everybody), so that's only 1 1/2 years. If you're already paying for the premium data fee, then the only reason not to upgrade is if you currently have strong Wimax signal. If you do and you feel that you can last until the end of 2014, then you'll be completely fine sticking with your Wimax enabled phone, since it will be supported until that time. So, realistically, it all comes down to your needs to upgrade. Each of the past 2 years, I've upgraded because I truly needed to (Touch Pro was going bad and the EVO was highly anticipated...so that was my first Android endeavor. EVO didn't have enough storage to host all my apps and cache needed for certain apps, so I upgraded to the Photon. Loved the Photon more than the EVO, but Motorola isn't going to continue full support of the phone, so I'm giving Samsung a shot). For me, it's all about my needs. As much as I love tech, I've been happy with the rapid advancements and as long as the phone continues to function without a lot of headache, I'll be fine.
I'd just sit down and find out realistically what's best for you and your BF. Weigh the pros and cons.
I will tell you though, that the Note 2 will be very popular that I believe this sub-forum will be one of the most active out of all the phone sub-forums.
Also why I should wait and see if there is a sale. I'll probably have to pay full price for the next best thing mid contract, so I should be smart now. 