[Ciege]

I have the Nexus 5 on Sprint. The wife has the Galaxy S5 on ATT.

We live in Phoenix where Sprint is rolling out LTE. Some places I get decent LTE service but slow DL/UL speeds (compared to her speeds on ATT). Many places I go I get limited to no data at all (like inside the Coyotes stadium I got nothing). The wife get pretty darn good LTE coverage throughout Phoenix (including indoors where I will drop to 3G or no data at all).

From the reading I have done the Nexus 5 is supposed to have a pretty decent radio so I'm guessing my coverage issues are carrier related and not hardware related. I've stuck with Sprint for such a long time because I am a legacy SERO customer (i.e. very cheap bill). I've been hoping Sprints LTE expansion would be done by now, but to me it's a crapshoot weather or not I get reliable data service across Phoenix.

Is there a way I can reliably check if I am having issue with hardware (radio/antenna) that is causing my poor data speeds/connections, or is it probably just Sprint since I do get OK speeds when I am close to a known good LTE tower...

Or, should I just switch to ATT with my wife. Bite the bullet and spend a little more but hopefully get the better and more reliable data speeds that she gets with her S5 (assuming it is not a hardware issue with my Nexus)?

Things that make you go hmmmmmm...

[srkmagnus]

This sounds like a network issue more than device related problems. Check with Sprints website in coverage areas. Although it's not 100% accurate (coverage maps may be exaggerated to benefit the carrier, it will give you a good idea. I let us know what you find and if there's any improvements to your network coverage.

[Ciege]

What would happen if I put my wife's SIM into my Nexus 5? Will it screw up all my Sprint programming on my Nexus? Screw up her account or phone? In other words, is it as simple as putting in her SIM, checking ATT coverage, then putting my Sprint SIM back in and it just working the way it did before? I've been on Sprint since forever, so swapping SIMs is pretty foreign to me and I'm not positive what effects (ill or otherwise) it will have.

As for coverage maps, Sprint has always shown very strong coverage for all my areas of interest, reality proves otherwise (shame on Sprint for such crappy maps!).
Sensorly shows strong LTE in the areas that I have also found it and spotty LTE where I also find it nonexistent.

[Sentrix]

No service inside a major sports arena is unacceptable if you ask me.
I have phenomenal service with my Nexus 5 on AT&T.

[Yung_Dilla]

What would happen if I put my wife's SIM into my Nexus 5? Will it screw up all my Sprint programming on my Nexus? Screw up her account or phone? In other words, is it as simple as putting in her SIM, checking ATT coverage, then putting my Sprint SIM back in and it just working the way it did before? I've been on Sprint since forever, so swapping SIMs is pretty foreign to me and I'm not positive what effects (ill or otherwise) it will have.

As for coverage maps, Sprint has always shown very strong coverage for all my areas of interest, reality proves otherwise (shame on Sprint for such crappy maps!).
Sensorly shows strong LTE in the areas that I have also found it and spotty LTE where I also find it nonexistent.

Don't do it i made the same mistake doing that and it backfired. I tried out t mobiles network didn't like it in my area that i was in most of the time even tho everywhere else was great. Went back to sprint and i couldn't make calls. It was just say dialing with no sound even tho whoever i called their phones would ring, they just couldn't hear me. I tried everything downgraded back to 4.4.2 > .3 >.4 didn't work. Countless wipes didn't work. Only thing that got it to work was putting a developer android l on my phone and it worked fine except it's too unstable so i downgraded back to 4.4.4 and that fixed it. Not worth it man lol..

[krifor03]

What would happen if I put my wife's SIM into my Nexus 5? Will it screw up all my Sprint programming on my Nexus? Screw up her account or phone? In other words, is it as simple as putting in her SIM, checking ATT coverage, then putting my Sprint SIM back in and it just working the way it did before? I've been on Sprint since forever, so swapping SIMs is pretty foreign to me and I'm not positive what effects (ill or otherwise) it will have.

As for coverage maps, Sprint has always shown very strong coverage for all my areas of interest, reality proves otherwise (shame on Sprint for such crappy maps!).
Sensorly shows strong LTE in the areas that I have also found it and spotty LTE where I also find it nonexistent.

It should be fine, network intonation is stored on the Sim. I personally use my phone in the US, UK, Spain, Greece, and Romania with a different Sim from each country with zero issues.... Ever. The guy that said it was a bad idea probably should have reloaded his radio image first

Posted via the Android Central App

[jj14x]

There are reports of folks who tried out T-Mo's SIM card on their Sprint Nexus 5, and after switching back, they had issues with data connectivity. They had to reflash 4.4.4. (folks who tried it on 4.4.3 didn't seem to have that problem). Having said that, I had tried switching to T-Mo's SIM card several times while on 4.4.4, and was able to switch back to Sprint without any issues whatsoever.

Back to the op - what you are describing is exactly what I had experienced with Sprint's coverage in the DFW area. It was one of the initial cities where they rolled out LTE, and my neighborhood was supposed to have excellent LTE coverage, and subsequently, Turbo Spark too. But my data speeds were abysmal (2Mbps/1Mbps on average). If I went to the Sprint store (which is right next to a tower), speeds would go up to about 7-8Mbps/2Mbps. Coverage was terrible in almost any mall.

I finally switched over to T-Mo (after being with Sprint for over 14 years - on a SERO plan for several years). Things are good with T-Mo. Joined a friend's family plan (8 people) - paying under $25 a month, unlimited everything (2.5GB data is high speed, and it slows down to 2G speed after that). Their data coverage supposedly sucks outside of metro areas, but I think I am willing to put up with that inconvenience if I ever need that.

[Ciege]

Thanks all for your input... Looks like I'll be moving on from Sprint. It was... um... *cheap* while it lasted!

[anon(5600632)]

AT&T on new Nexus 5 is outstanding.

[Brian Low]

Hmm Idk. I've read in some places that the radios in the nexus 5 were a bitt shotty. Some units were either hit or miss. Anyways, I'm on sprint as well but in NYC and let me tell you, my signal coverage is TERRIBLE. Can't even use my phone whenever I drop to 3G because the speeds are ridiculously low. I mean the LTE is decent...but I don't know in my case whether I have a hardware problem or a signal problem. I tend to drop to 3G a lot but switching airplane mode on and off seems to get me back to LTE in some instances...its a hard call on my end.

Posted via the Android Central App

[Benjamin_NYC]

This is obviously a sprint problem.

Posted via the Android Central App

[Shilohcane]

See if your Nexus 5 has Enable Sprint Spark band 26 and band 41. These guys on Sprint's board think you should have the sunburst icon displayed in the upper right hand of your screen.

https://community.sprint.com/baw/message/797772

[Ciege]

Unfortunately I am not in a Sprint Spark area....

[N4Newbie]

Thanks all for your input... Looks like I'll be moving on from Sprint. It was... um... *cheap* while it lasted!

If you can get it in your area, consider Cricket Wireless (https://www.cricketwireless.com/). It's part of AT&T, uses AT&T's network and you can get unlimited talk/text plus 1GB data for just $35/month when you setup automatic payment (or 3GB for $45/month). If your wife's phone isn't under contract, you might want to move her to Cricket as well.

The last time I looked, Cricket does impose a data speed cap of 8Mbps for LTE devices, but I don't feel that is an issue worthy of consideration.

[jj14x]

See if your Nexus 5 has Enable Sprint Spark band 26 and band 41. These guys on Sprint's board think you should have the sunburst icon displayed in the upper right hand of your screen.

https://community.sprint.com/baw/message/797772

Not on the Nexus. That icon shows up on non-Nexus (Spark enabled) phones only.

[Soylent_Green]

I have great service wherever I go with my 5 on Sprint. Granted the Philly area is a lot further along with the network vision project then Phoenix. I say give it a little bit longer, when I switched to Sprint back in January of 2013 I was less than impressed, but now I am beyond satisfied, the coverage is just as good as the big two and I have absolutely no complaints about data speeds where I routinely see speeds in excess of 70Mbps. And the Nexus 5 is still regarded as having the best rf performance out of any phone.

Sent from my Nexus 5

[Ciege]

Well I swapped over to AT&T over the weekend. So far the speed and availability have been much better. The people at the AT&T store didn't have much of a clue about Nexus's (Nexi?). They sen the APN incorrectly and I was getting terrible speeds. Some internet sleuthing helped me figure out the changes I need to make for the APN, then the data speeds were amazing!

I seem to sit in H mode more than LTE mode, but I'm not sure where LTE is throughout Phoenix. That being said, data on H is still faster than the Sprint data on LTE.

I'll give it some time to see if I am truly happy or not.

[Ciege]

Just a followup for everybody.

Wow, what a difference! Having AT&T on my N5 here in Phoenix is like a night & day difference. I did lose my unlimited data, but I gained the bandwidth that Sprint couldn't offer.