Returning strictly due to Sprint's horrible data speeds

[Statusnone]

Sprint 4G (Which I only get in my apartment? Makes 0 sense. There's no 4G network within 60 miles of here according to Sprint. And it makes it completely useless because I use WiFi in my apartment)

Sprint 3G (Epic Touch 4G)

AT&T 3G (iPhone 4 32GB Black)

So I don't know what to do. I'm still in contract with AT&T another year. My plan was to sell my iPhone 4 and buy myself out of the $175 ETF. This phone is absolutely gorgeous. I haven't enjoyed a phone this much since the original iPhone came out. The speeds are not too horrible compared to AT&T in my apartment, but with my job I travel quite a bit. The voice quality is actually pretty damn good out on the interstate, despite the phone reading "0-1 bars frequently" but the data speeds are absolutely horrible.

Stick with AT&T, get bent over for capped data (which I never really come close to cap), but reliable 3G service in Central Florida. Or stick with Sprint, a company who has the phone I've been waiting for since February of 2011 and considering the rumor is now the AT&T variant won't be out for another couple months which is far too long to bear the Apple burden any longer.

I have a lot of testing to do within my 14 day return policy, and a lot of pro and con weighing. We'll see what happens. Worst case scenario: We wait for Sprint to get their **** together. If not, sell the current Epic Touch 4G to buy out of the ETF.

 

[Slingbox]

Another one

 

[maverick96]

That doesn't even compute with what speedtest is telling you. Try the Blue Angels one. And how long does it take to load the front page of Android Central?

This is blue angel

Sent from my Sprint Eptouch 4G

 

[maverick96]

That doesn't even compute with what speedtest is telling you. Try the Blue Angels one. And how long does it take to load the front page of Android Central?

Took me 20 seconds to load androidcentral full site with flash set to "on demand"

Sent from my Sprint Eptouch 4G

 

[Thunder82]

Sprint 4G (Which I only get in my apartment? Makes 0 sense. There's no 4G network within 60 miles of here according to Sprint. And it makes it completely useless because I use WiFi in my apartment)

Sprint 3G (Epic Touch 4G)

AT&T 3G (iPhone 4 32GB Black)

So I don't know what to do. I'm still in contract with AT&T another year. My plan was to sell my iPhone 4 and buy myself out of the $175 ETF. This phone is absolutely gorgeous. I haven't enjoyed a phone this much since the original iPhone came out. The speeds are not too horrible compared to AT&T in my apartment, but with my job I travel quite a bit. The voice quality is actually pretty damn good out on the interstate, despite the phone reading "0-1 bars frequently" but the data speeds are absolutely horrible.

Stick with AT&T, get bent over for capped data (which I never really come close to cap), but reliable 3G service in Central Florida. Or stick with Sprint, a company who has the phone I've been waiting for since February of 2011 and considering the rumor is now the AT&T variant won't be out for another couple months which is far too long to bear the Apple burden any longer.

I have a lot of testing to do within my 14 day return policy, and a lot of pro and con weighing. We'll see what happens. Worst case scenario: We wait for Sprint to get their **** together. If not, sell the current Epic Touch 4G to buy out of the ETF.

I'm in a very similar situation myself although I'm coming from a Droid Charge. I had been assuming that Sprint 3G/4G would be sufficient for my needs.. but in Chicago here I have yet to see more than 3bars. Generally the phone sits at 0-1.

This phone is absolutely spectacular in every aspect except Sprints network where I'm at. Hate to say it.. buy the phone may have to go back =\ I never considered myself someone that'd be tied to a network but having full bars of LTE everywhere I go has spoiled me.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[Statusnone]

I'm in a very similar situation myself although I'm coming from a Droid Charge. I had been assuming that Sprint 3G/4G would be sufficient for my needs.. but in Chicago here I have yet to see more than 3bars. Generally the phone sits at 0-1.

This phone is absolutely spectacular in every aspect except Sprints network where I'm at. Hate to say it.. but the phone may have to go back =\ I never considered myself someone that'd be tied to a network but having full bars of LTE everywhere I go has spoiled me.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

The fact of the matter is this phone is a POWERHOUSE. And to bottleneck it's capabilities with this beyond sub par network is like throwing low octane gas in a Ferrari engine. AT&T has always been good to me, I have 0 problems with their network. It's Apple I'm sick of. I'd put my salary on them being responsible (maybe not directly, but involved in some way) with this phone not being released on all carriers MONTHS ago. So it's really the iPhone I want to get rid of, not AT&T. But AT&T's selection of high end Android devices (Atrix is just NOT for me) is terrible. And compared to the SGS2, at this point in time 0 phones can compete. I was sure of that before I got my hands on it. Now that's I've had this gorgeous piece of technology in my hands I can say there is no going back. Kind of stuck in a catch-22 here.

 

[Johnly]

Back from a road trip with a buddy that has at@t. Sprint wins the coverage battle in the foothills. Data was about the same.

 

[maverick96]

Back from a road trip with a buddy that has at@t. Sprint wins the coverage battle in the foothills. Data was about the same.

Which AT&T phone was being compared to your Eptouch 4G? Any results to post for comparison? As in screenshots etc.....? I'm not trying to be an ass, it's just after all the complaints from all over the country, it's hard to believe Sprint's data beats anything.

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

The data speeds in the Chicago area are bad, bur to be honest, when I had Sprint I didn't notice much because I used wifi all the time.

 

[Droid800]

LTE is part of Network Vision, but it's the long-term part. Like Wimax, LTE requires a completely separate network infrastructure on different freqencies than CDMA and is hugely expensive to implement; AT&T and Verizon are spending upwards of a billon dollars per major metro market on their LTE deployments. Sprint doesn't have that kind of coin so plans to build out LTE in conjunction with partners Clearwire and Lightsquared, both of which have had various technical and/or financial problems. Long story short, it will take Sprint years to build out LTE.

That's not actually true. The dirty little secret of Sprint's WiMax expansion over the last year or two has been that the base stations they've been using are dual-compatible with LTE. All they need to do is switch out one component and load new software and they have LTE. What network vision does is expand the use of these components, and provide significantly upgraded backhaul to support the bigger LTE pipes. It also unifies all of their variety of network options into one single base station, which will also have the side effect of allowing sprint to (finally) phase out i-den and nextel's network. That freed up spectrum will give sprint a heckuva wide berth for their LTE.

All that Sprint lacks right now is the money to do it; the components are there and all they need is the backhaul to support it.

 

[Johnly]

Which AT&T phone was being compared to your Eptouch 4G? Any results to post for comparison? As in screenshots etc.....? I'm not trying to be an ass, it's just after all the complaints from all over the country, it's hard to believe Sprint's data beats anything.

Iphone. We just did data. Att is the worst in the foothills. I had sprint before, and traveled with Nextel.coverage was good. I am a data freak, and vzw and sprint have robust 4g here. Having experienced throttled data, I find Sprint refreshing. I can link you with coverage maps and app screens but i am not at my pc. I live in a 3g area, but 4g from sprint is north and south of here like VZW and.I have not had crappy data speeds and I will be the first to complain. Lots of folks in this thread also have robust speeds. Funny how this pops up with a killer phone. Oh the timing. If sprint is not providing you with coverage and healthy data, try another network. Att has sprint and VZW beat in areas too just as VZW beats them both as well. Like I say, I have nothing to gain here. But if you find it hard to believe sprint flies in areas then you need fresh air.

 

[Droid800]

Are today's LTE phones (like the Thunderbolt, Charge, etc) using that multi-mode chip? I know you can turn LTE off, which is why I assumed that meant it was a separate radio.

You can still turn off specific frequencies with a multi-mode chip, since it still has the separate radios. Whats different is that there is one chip controlling all of them instead of a separate one for LTE and CDMA/EVDO like it is now.

None of the current LTE phones have a multimode chip because Verizon hasn't approved the first revision yet. Once they do, we'll start seeing thinner phones with multimode chips.

 

[Vegas_AMG]

F-16 test
3,942kb
2.834 sec
Somethings not right. My wife's new Epic 4G is much faster

 

[Cory Streater]

Always choose the carrier first and the phone second. If you like at&t's speeds you should stick with them. New phones will arrive on at&t faster than network upgrades will.

Personally, 23 seconds doesn't seem that long to me. Then again, I'm almost always on WiFi.

PS: at&t's Galaxy S2 is going to be dope.

 

[Slingbox]

If I was coming from Verizon to this beast of device and data was slower in my area hmm I would stick it. out.
This device is 800mhz capable data speeds are going to increase significantly very soon.
If service stinks at your front door call sprint have them set you up with free airwave.

 

[nkd]

LTE is part of Network Vision, but it's the long-term part. Like Wimax, LTE requires a completely separate network infrastructure on different freqencies than CDMA and is hugely expensive to implement; AT&T and Verizon are spending upwards of a billon dollars per major metro market on their LTE deployments. Sprint doesn't have that kind of coin so plans to build out LTE in conjunction with partners Clearwire and Lightsquared, both of which have had various technical and/or financial problems. Long story short, it will take Sprint years to build out LTE.

Lighsquared is loaded with cash, just google it.

 

[Cory Streater]

F-16 test
3,942kb
2.834 sec
Somethings not right. My wife's new Epic 4G is much faster

I take it that is 4G? What is your wife's result?

 

[folarino]

My results of the Blue Angels Test.

3G:

4G:

WiFi:

I'm ok with the 3G results. The 4G can definitely be better, but I rarely use 4G because 3G speeds in my area are fine for my needs, and it's usually not worth the opportunity cost of a drained battery.

 

[dguidry12]

No trolling here guys but honestly is this phone going to be like the EPIC fail that the Epic 4g was thats still plagued by many quality issues????? The main problem here is that the phone fails big time to connect to the network and explains why it takes even most mobile pages 25 seconds to load past half way and then another 30 seconds for the full page to load. I've been on the phone with Sprint Technical support for almost and our and have tried out at least 4 different things and we are getting now where. The problem I see with the phone is that it takes a long time to connect to the server which has nothing to do with Sprints network but the poor antenna's in the phone maybe. We also did a speed test on Sprint.com/speedtest and the Ping = 498 dwnld = .20mbs and upld= .013 mbps. To make matters worse it actually took 2 minutes to complete each test in which we had to take 3 test. If the problem which is the only problem i'm encountering other than missing widgets persist i'm going to have to hang it up on this Sammy.. I refuse to be glamatized by a big beautiful screen and a superb camera...I must have fast connecting internet!!!!

 

[Johnly]

No trolling here guys but honestly is this phone going to be like the EPIC fail that the Epic 4g was thats still plagued by many quality issues????? The main problem here is that the phone fails big time to connect to the network and explains why it takes even most mobile pages 25 seconds to load past half way and then another 30 seconds for the full page to load. I've been on the phone with Sprint Technical support for almost and our and have tried out at least 4 different things and we are getting now where. The problem I see with the phone is that it takes a long time to connect to the server which has nothing to do with Sprints network but the poor antenna's in the phone maybe. We also did a speed test on Sprint.com/speedtest and the Ping = 498 dwnld = .20mbs and upld= .013 mbps. To make matters worse it actually took 2 minutes to complete each test in which we had to take 3 test. If the problem which is the only problem i'm encountering other than missing widgets persist i'm going to have to hang it up on this Sammy.. I refuse to be glamatized by a big beautiful screen and a superb camera...I must have fast connecting internet!!!!

wow, copy paste huh?