I've taken the pledge-no more contracts

[mrmw]

After 12 years with Sprint I'm moving on. The voice service was always ok, neither better nor worse than anyone else's. The 3G data is slow, the 4G practically has no coverage and the LTE remains problematical--but who cares, our two lines live in a wifi world.

The exit started eight months ago. After upgrading the phone on one of our two lines Sprint required we confirm our 25% "employee discount" via email. The problem was--Sprint Executive Services had extended the discount to us five years ago unbidden. I called, explained and was met with a blank wall.

The net: a $35 per month increase in our bill, service quality unchanged.

Wait, there's more. I upgraded to a Motorola Photon in October 2011, with Sprint's assurance it would upgrade to ICS. It has the strongest radio and cloud connections of any phone I've ever had. Overall I'm happy. Eleven months later Sprint pushed out the 2.3.5 OTA upgrade and bingo, the bootloader is now locked down so hard that even the wizards at XDA-developers.com can't crack it. Then 45 days later Motorola/Sprint announces that there will not be an upgrade to ICS, that the phone is stuck on Android 2.3.

No ICS. No unlocked bootloader. No upgrade path. $35 more per month.

Two weeks ago I came across this thread at XDA [How-To] Unlock ATT/T-Mobile on 2.3.5 OTA - xda-developers on how to unlock the Photon's Sim slot for USA GSM carriers. It works, and works great. It works so well I picked up two Photon 4G factory refurbs off of ebay. Now we have three--one for each of two lines and my original in the drawer for self-insurance.

The two lines are on Net10 AT&T Sims--unlimited talk/text and 1.5GB 3G data each at a total cost of $92 monthly,compared to $155 per month on Sprint. That's a savings of more than $1500 over two years.

In ten days of testing voice coverage here in the Technology Park/Atlanta area is no better or worse than Sprint. Side by side data comparisons, however, are an eye opener.
--Sprint 3G, 297k to 2.4 MBS
--ATT 3G, 2.7 MBS to 6.86 MBS
We stream neither video or music, nor are we gamers. We talk, text, email, and lightly browse. Just like disco, FB sucks. Sic.

As I said, we live in a wifi world. Goodbye contracts. Goodbye Sprint.

 

[friedtators]

i am prepaid and have been for several years. for the first year i kept kicking myself for not making the move sooner. i have forgiven myself now and would never go back. its mostly selfserve but thats fine. when you want a phone now you just buy it

 

[Almeuit]

Okay so this whole post basically said.. There are other better options and you took it? I am glad for you but you act like they had you in a jail or something lol.

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums.

 

[delta7]

I'm joining you when my contract is up, Sprint has got to Go!!
I'm Sero P and I'm still complaning of this slow azz speed.

 

[IAmSixNine]

I was with them for 11 years. The Network Vision upgrade and LTE brought nothing but worse service for me. But i am in a major metro area and rarely travel so i opted for TMO.
Saving 30 a month and have the best data speeds ever.. so yeah im happy..

 

[berdinkerdickle]

The OP probably felt like he was in jail.
Now he has 'freed' himself from 'bondage' to contract.

 

[mrmw]

The OP probably felt like he was in jail.
Now he has 'freed' himself from 'bondage' to contract.

Yes, the food got worse and the portions smaller than ever.

 

[Almeuit]

Yes, the food got worse and the portions smaller than ever.

You put yourself there.. Don't sign the dotted line if you don't want to .

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums.

 

[HawaiiD]

I was with them for 11 years. The Network Vision upgrade and LTE brought nothing but worse service for me. But i am in a major metro area and rarely travel so i opted for TMO.
Saving 30 a month and have the best data speeds ever.. so yeah im happy..

Same here bro I was with sprint for over 13 years it started with nextel. I don't know why sprint has let their network degrade for
A lot of us for so long?
Now that I have moved over to T-mobile. I really see how much better a good network is.
Even the customer support workers are really, really nice compared with sprint. With sprint it was always
Oh your tower is working 100%
Sorry about your 90kb speeds, but there is nothing I can do for now, except send you an airave, that
Sends my text messages 10 times in a row to whom ever I text and locks up my phone. I could tell
That sprint knew why I was calling every month as soon as a csr answered the phone. It got to a
Point of where I figured spending 160 dollars a month for useless data speeds had to end.
As soon as I got my HTC One
With T-mobile a month ago with HSPA+ speeds of
15-22 MB download? I was kicking myself in the rear for being a sprint
Homer for so long waiting for Nv to come to Hawaii? Then LTE hit
With 30+MB downloads? LTE coverage is so
Strong in Honolulu now, I don't see hspa+ anymore. My plan also includes
Unlimited everything, yes data with no throttling , tethering and
Free wifi calling from anywhere in the world and to top it off 30 dollars
Cheaper each month than sprint with my corporate discount. I am using my phone so much now I burned through 9.3GB of data since
The 28th of may. And coverage at work where I work 2 stories underground in a central power plant , where my Sprint nor my company's nextel with 800 mhz frequency would have no signal? T-mobile powers through with 2-3 bars of signal for phone and my data speeds on LTE is still about 20MB down.

Yes the grass is much greener for me with T-mobile.

Sent from Da Coconut Wireless HTC One