Any faith left for sprint

[Robbie317]

My "LTE" Speed in Coppell, Texas....... That is horrendous...

 

[Gekko]

take your Nexus 5 and switch to AT&T GoPhone - 2.5GB 4G LTE data + Unlimited Talk & Text + Wi-Fi hotspot = $60/month. Additional 1GB per for $10.

New GoPhone Plans with Unlimited Text to Mexico, Canada, and over 100 Other Countries

 

[choclab1]

View attachment 116507

My "LTE" Speed in Coppell, Texas....... That is horrendous...

Those are the speeds I WAS used to. If I was lucky it was 2-3 mbps

 

[Robbie317]

take your Nexus 5 and switch to AT&T GoPhone - 2.5GB 4G LTE data + Unlimited Talk & Text + Wi-Fi hotspot = $60/month. Additional 1GB per for $10.

New GoPhone Plans with Unlimited Text to Mexico, Canada, and over 100 Other Countries

I am going to test out AT&T very soon... My line is locked into a contract until May 23 (My EVO 4G LTE I bought two years ago) and it would cost me $100 to switch right now... I am looking at the 2 gig data, unlimited talk & text regular plan... I get 25% off the $65 monthly plan via my corporate discount so it will run me $48 and change per month plus tax.. Only catch is I am then locked into a 2 year contract with AT&T to get the discount.. But the break up fee is only $150 and goes down by $4 per month... but I do get a 30 day money back deal.... So it's worth the try for 30 days to see how well it plays....

 

[choclab1]

I am going to test out AT&T very soon... My line is locked into a contract until May 23 (My EVO 4G LTE I bought two years ago) and it would cost me $100 to switch right now... I am looking at the 2 gig data, unlimited talk & text regular plan... I get 25% off the $65 monthly plan via my corporate discount so it will run me $48 and change per month plus tax.. Only catch is I am then locked into a 2 year contract with AT&T to get the discount.. But the break up fee is only $150 and goes down by $4 per month... but I do get a 30 day money back deal.... So it's worth the try for 30 days to see how well it plays....

Just an FYI, I still had 7 days left when i went to att,in my sprint contract but when I called customer service to ask what my ETF would be, I was informed by 2 employees and a supervisor that there is no ETF within the last 30 days of the contract. Something about the legal obligation is up and no charge would be applied.
They haven't made up my final bill yet so I'll know if its true in a couple more days.

 

[Robbie317]

Just an FYI, I still had 7 days left when i went to att,in my sprint contract but when I called customer service to ask what my ETF would be, I was informed by 2 employees and a supervisor that there is no ETF within the last 30 days of the contract. Something about the legal obligation is up and no charge would be applied.
They haven't made up my final bill yet so I'll know if its true in a couple more days.

lol... well if you get a bill soon and remember let me know... I did a chat session with Sprint yesterday to confirm and they said my ETF was at $100 until May 23rd at which time my contract would be satisfied... I bought two old iPhone 4S for my daughters off craigslist and added them to my account.... I have my account in a Framily group with 10 people now and each line should have been $25 per month... but those two lines were $25 plus $15... I called and they said the $15 was for a discounted device.... I asked and they informed me the $15 was because I got the devices at a discount and they were on a two year contract... I had to inform them I paid cash for them from people off craigslist and then met at a Sprint store to verify clean ESN and add them to my account..... They came back and said it was mistakenly tagged as if I had bought them on contract at a discounted price... Ugh....

Basically they were trying to ding me for $15 a month times two lines for two years..... Ummmm NO!!!! They did remove it and refund me that first months rate... but really????

 

[Golfdriver97]

Here is my last speed test for Sprint.

From an SOKP Nexus 5

 

[Paul627g]

Lots of good discussion in here everyone!

As a 9 yr + Sprint customer its getting close to coming to an end in about 3 months. Got 5 lines coming up for renewal and were outta here. I've tried to be loyal and patient with Sprint but I just can't do it anymore. I live about 40 minutes south of Chicago in a very huge suburb of about 60,000 +. Chicago alone is one of the major markets for any carrier and from what I continue to see from Sprint isn't impressing me at all. Yes I will admit I haven't used one of the new Sprint Spark technology devices but at this stage of the game I'm a bit tired of jumping on another one of Sprint's attempts at fixing its network shortcomings. First there was WiMax, then the NV upgrades to LTE now were on Tri Band (Sprint Spark) and I just can't keep doing it any longer.

We have a wide spread of devices in my household. S3, S4, NS4G, Sprint GNex, iPhone 4 and HTC One (M7) all have been used or currently active and the results are just okay at best. From dropped calls, text messaging being shotty at various times, 3g/LTE handoff being horrible often requiring an AIRPLANE MODE toggle to resolve and on LTE only seeing speeds in the 3-5 mbps down range. I get reasonable signal ranges around -85 to -95 dBm which should result in good network signal but the backbone just doesn't seem to be there to support it. Often struggling to grab LTE in an area that is saturated by competing carriers (AT&T, Verizon & T-Mo) its getting aggravating and embarrassing when my neighbors enjoy using their phones on mobile signal and we have to resort to WiFi. I'm not even going to go into detail on the poor battery life that results from the shortcomings of Sprint's network.

I tip my hat to those who are willing to stick it out and see what Sprint is going to do with Sprint Spark and those who are having success in the areas they frequent with good coverage and network speeds. I hope Sprint can turn it around and do better, but I'm moving on..

 

[Golfdriver97]

And AT&T tests...

From an SOKP Nexus 5

 

[dan1431]

A friend if mine work for American Tower and he said that for Sprint's 2.5GHz network (basically the spectrum they acquired from Clearwire) to reach the same levels of coverage as their current 1.9GHz network they would need approximately 40,000 new cell sites.

That does not sound promising for Spark IMHO.


Fierce Wireless (an industry trade rag) published an article on it as well.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/...-cell-sites-25-ghz-tower-exec-says/2014-05-04

Dan

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Almeuit]

A friend if mine work for American Tower and he said that for Sprint's 2.5GHz network (basically the spectrum they acquired from Clearwire) to reach the same levels of coverage as their current 1.9GHz network they would need approximately 40,000 new cell sites.

That does not sound promising for Spark IMHO.


Fierce Wireless (an industry trade rag) published an article on it as well.

Sprint may need up to 40,000 new cell sites for 2.5 GHz, tower exec says - FierceWirelessTech

Dan

Posted via Android Central App

Wow if they need that many new cell sites.... There is no way it will be done soon. Ouch for Sprint users .

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[Robbie317]

I get reasonable signal ranges around -85 to -95 dBm which should result in good network signal but the backbone just doesn't seem to be there to support it.

Exactly.. I work less than mile from DFW international airport in the Heart of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (Slightly major metro area like Chicago) and when I come in at 6 am I can get a "DECENT" signal and usefulness out of my phone.. but by 9 when the place is full it become completely unusable.... I see the same in a few major shopping areas around here... if I go early fine but in the heart of the day when its busy all the traffic just brings their network to a crawl..... It's like they have nothing but two lane back roads.. Perfectly fine if your by yourself but add in a few thousand of your friends and it's a parking lot....

 

[Paul627g]

A friend if mine work for American Tower and he said that for Sprint's 2.5GHz network (basically the spectrum they acquired from Clearwire) to reach the same levels of coverage as their current 1.9GHz network they would need approximately 40,000 new cell sites.

That does not sound promising for Spark IMHO.


Fierce Wireless (an industry trade rag) published an article on it as well.

Sprint may need up to 40,000 new cell sites for 2.5 GHz, tower exec says - FierceWirelessTech

Dan

Posted via Android Central App

I guess this once again spell FAIL for Sprint.

 

[Bront]

If Sprint buys T-Moblie it will be the Nextel deal all over.... Nextel used a totally different system and it didn't play nice with the Sprint system... Nextel phones didn't work on Sprints Network and vice versa... I think Sprint would have to go back to the drawing board yet again and switch to GSM... I mean I think Sprint just last year FINALLY shut off the Nextel iDen network if I am not mistaken so it could be YEARS in the making..

GSM or CDMA are different, but LTE is not, and it would unify the LTE side of the network, offering better 4G coverage. In theory, that would allow sprint to accept both GSM and CDMA phones for a while, and eventually move to pure LTE sooner.

Nextel was a problem because people wouldn't let go of direct connect and they couldn't find a really great solution on the Sprint side. In this case, phones are moving to a pure LTE market eventually, and more and more phones are starting to be universal (supporting CDMA and GSM), so the biggest issue would probably be combining antennas in areas where coverage is denser than it needs to be, and otherwise just offering the phone the ability to find the best signal it can, regardless of the signal type.

 

[Bront]

I'm surprised they admitted that to you. I spent 3 months with their tech support who INSISTED that I had LTE coverage in my area. They had me factory reset my device, and even had me replace my device before getting me to a network support specialist who took all of 1 minute to tell me that no LTE tower was enabled in my area and there was no ETA. Filed a FCC complaint about deceptive marketing (sprint.com/coverage doesn't state "future coverage"), and a week later, I got a call from Sprint apologizing for the inconvenience, and a month later, the tower upgrade that had been "in progress" suddenly went live!

I can top that one.

I spent a month in the Eastern Time Zone because they had the timezone wrong on 1 tower in my area (West of Chicago just off 88). They claimed they couldn't fix it remotely either and I'd have to live with it till it happened (They assumed it was just one phone till I got 20 other users to give a list of phone numbers effected and gave it to them).

 

[Almeuit]

GSM or CDMA are different, but LTE is not, and it would unify the LTE side of the network, offering better 4G coverage. In theory, that would allow sprint to accept both GSM and CDMA phones for a while, and eventually move to pure LTE sooner.

LTE definitely can be different as the carriers run on different bands.

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[Bront]

LTE definitely can be different as the carriers run on different bands.

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

Yes, but if they merge, they can use both, possibly with the same towers, with little upgrade (I believe).

 

[Robbie317]

Yes, but if they merge, they can use both, possibly with the same towers, with little upgrade (I believe).

Depends... The future is LTE but we are a long ways away from the voice over LTE.... or at least wide spread use of VoLTE... right now your 3G/Voice is going to need to go over GSM or CDMA...

They had talked a lot of how it won't be easy to merge the CDMA and GSM networks together when Sprint and T-Mobile discussed merging in the past..... AT&T/T-Mobile made sense because they pretty much use the same networks..... Sprint and Verizon would make more sense since they both use the same type of network...

Sprint has failed to show they can roll out their own network rapidly and successfully and they've shown in the past they are not good at merging with other companies.... and I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt for a long long time now.....

 

[crxssi]

GSM or CDMA are different, but LTE is not, and it would unify the LTE side of the network, offering better 4G coverage. In theory, that would allow sprint to accept both GSM and CDMA phones for a while, and eventually move to pure LTE sooner.

Nope. Not until they start supporting voice over LTE. The *DATA* side might be the same, but the voice and texting is very much not.

 

[Robbie317]

Just an FYI, I still had 7 days left when i went to att,in my sprint contract but when I called customer service to ask what my ETF would be, I was informed by 2 employees and a supervisor that there is no ETF within the last 30 days of the contract. Something about the legal obligation is up and no charge would be applied.
They haven't made up my final bill yet so I'll know if its true in a couple more days.

I just talked to Sprint and my contract is up May 23rd but they told me that there would be no ETF if I canceled today and switched carriers.. I also asked if it was going to lock the IMEI on my Nexus 5 (which I bought through the Play store but the line is linked to a contract EVO 4G LTE I bought before) and they said it would not lock the phone either.... So I am going to test T-Mobile out this weekend on a $30 prepaid plan from Walmart (5 gig of 4G unlimited 4G after that, Unlimited text but only 100 minutes of talk) and if I don't like that I'll try out AT&T which I already know is blazing fast in my area but the data limits will stink....