Leaving VZW for Sprint?

[phositadc]

Currently on Verizon and am testing out the Bionic. At my house (both with the Bionic and my previous Droid Incredible), I get 0-1 bars of 3G service, and a weak (but stable) LTE signal. I don't care about the LTE signal, but 0-1 bars of 3G at home is pretty bad. Data connection drops sometimes, and voice calls are weak.

So I am considering picking up an SGS2 from Sprint and seeing if my signal at home is any better with Sprint than it is with Verizon. I live in the DC area, and I do not travel much, so if I get a good signal at home and a good signal at work (Verizon is fine at work), I am pretty satisfied.

Am I crazy for considering the jump from Vzw to Sprint? Obviously, if it does not give me a better signal at home or an acceptable signal at work, I would have to return. Is Sprint's service generally pretty decent, or am I likely to experienced a massive increased in dropped connections, etc, etc.?

Any input greatly appreciated.

 

[whatsitsname]

If you have unlimited data on Verizon now, don't do it.

 

[steveh552]

Sprint has unlimited data. Give it a try if it dont work return it

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Sent from my Motorola Photon using Tapatalk

 

[dcgore]

Sprint is very good but you won't see nearly the speeds you get with LTE on VZ. I tried the 3D when it came out and i was getting 3mbps down. I get 19mbps with LTE.

 

[Bond32]

The network extender for your home is reasonably priced... I would look into that before messing with Sprint's aged technology.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[bad1550]

I am switching from Verizon - Returned Bionic due to horrible battery life on LTE.

Phone is super fast but not worth it to leave on charger all day. Ive had Sprint before - rather have slightly slower 3G and better battery.

 

[phositadc]

The network extender for your home is reasonably priced... I would look into that before messing with Sprint's aged technology.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

That's an interesting thought. I wonder how much bandwidth it sucks up though. It would be unfortunate if I were streaming a movie or something, and my wife gets a phone call and all of a sudden my streaming feed deteriorates.

 

[phositadc]

I am switching from Verizon - Returned Bionic due to horrible battery life on LTE.

Phone is super fast but not worth it to leave on charger all day. Ive had Sprint before - rather have slightly slower 3G and better battery.

I also don't care about the speed so much. In terms of coverage and general call quality then, you liked Sprint pretty well compared to Vzw?

 

[oskar1995]

Depending on your plan there is a good chance you will save a nice chunk of change when you switch over to Sprint. The plans are pretty reasonably priced and they have unlimited data. If you have a grandfathered unlimited data with Verizon, I would wait to switch until you are confident of the signal. I would start at Sprint's coverage maps (3g, 4g available) and see what that tells you:

Sprint - Nationwide Coverage

I've found it pretty accurate for my projected signal strength. When it says "Outside" it means "Outside".

 

[bad1550]

I also don't care about the speed so much. In terms of coverage and general call quality then, you liked Sprint pretty well compared to Vzw?

Yes, Had Evo for one yr, switched to Verizon due to current family plan. I would rather have a better phone as long as service was good. Have to pay early termoniation fee for that line but $$ I save from returning Bionic Galaxy and port credit hopefully will offset.
Plus Lets Talk offers free activation

 

[Thunder82]

I'm doing the same, leaving my unlimited LTE VZW plan (droid charge) for the SGS2. I'll trial the phone for a week or two before porting my number over, but assuming i get decent coverage everywhere i go.. ill be switching carriers. Cost savings will be huge (i get 28% discount with sprint - and my VZW bill is 200+$ for 2 lines) and all of Verizon's LTE handsets are crap. I've had the thunderbolt, charge, and spent good time with the Bionic. All have major issues in my book - Thunderbolt had severe data connectivity issues, Charge has poor voice quality and is a bear performance wise, and the Bionics screen would drive me batty.

I can deal with slower data for the pros i believe Sprint will bring me. (cost savings and a device i want)

 

[whatsitsname]

How you get $200+ for 2 lines on Verizon?

 

[Cory Streater]

Absolutely. I was a loyal Sprint customer for 9 years and switched to Verizon only because their text messaging worked well and Sprint's didn't. After year's of crippled phones, higher prices, and devices that either never make it to market or don't get released at all, I am giving Sprint another shot. Sprint also throws in GPS and a bunch of other stuff that the big red wants more money for. Some suggestions:

1) Use WiFi at home and wherever else you can. For me, that reduces the value of LTE significantly.
2) Ask a Verizon friend to come over to your house and see how his/her signal strength is. I think a lot of towers are fairly close to one another, so there's a good chance that Verizon won't be much better if at all.
3) Use the extender mentioned above.
4) Sprint is all about retention. If you ever think you're paying too much just call them up and ask for a credit. You'd be surprised at how accommodating they can be.
5) They will credit you $150 for switching from another carrier. I just happened to run across that after I completed my order last night.
6) Unless something changed, wherever Verizon has coverage, you will have coverage. They have roaming agreements in place that all but eliminates the whole Verizon has the best coverage concern.

Order online. Buying a phone in any carrier store is a painful experience. At least for me it is regardless of the carrier. I like the ritual of doing my own unboxing in private.

Their $10 charge still doesn't sit well with me. They should just roll that cost into the plan and skip the checkbox that says "you must have this" which psychologically annoys me. But I wouldn't think much of it if it was incorporated into the plan total.

These are opinions based on my experiences, which may be totally different from others.

Not sure this phone will have better battery life. You and I need to be the judge of that.

If I'm mistaken about any of the above speak up.

 

[phositadc]

Order online. Buying a phone in any carrier store is a painful experience. At least for me it is regardless of the carrier. I like the ritual of doing my own unboxing in private.

Any idea how easy it is to return a phone to Sprint and cancel the new contract in the 14-day window if you have done everything online? I would totally do online... except that if Sprint turns out to suck just as much as Verizon does at my house, it seems it would be easier/quicker to do the return if I had just purchased it from a Sprint store...

 

[badbubba]

I switched from Verizon to Sprint about 3 weeks ago. Gave up my unlimited plan with Verizon to do it. Got the Photon. Phone was awesome. the service was horrible. I wanted it to work so bad, because Sprint really does have attractive calling and data packages. I too was told that due to the roaming deals with Verizon, that I would have coverage every where I had with Verizon. That is very , very misleading. I had to basically lose my complete signal with Sprint before it would switch to Verizon's signal. That means the call would drop. I had no data roaming no matter what settings I changed on the phone.
On the good side, I have too say that Sprint support was very good to deal with, but they seem to use foreign support. I had some problems always understanding them due to their accent, but it was not that big of a deal. I cancelled my contract with them 4 days after using there service. It was very painless and there were no charges whatsoever. I had to send the phones back to Amazon wireless, which provided me a full refund including a prepaid return shipping label. So you can try them out without any cost. You may have better luck than me. The only mistake I made was selling my Verizon phones. I would have had to buy new phones at full retail to keep my numbers and data plan. It was easier just to open a new account and get the Bionic at new customer pricing.