General Message on the state of Sprint and their Evo line

[monkeyzero]

Even if I didn't get 4G, which I do, I'd still pay the 10 bucks for premium data. Why? Because I used close to 20GB last month without tethering. That's about as premium as it gets.

I second this. I average 12 to 16gb per month.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

 

[onesie13]

capitalistic greedy liar.

Not sure how im a "capitalist greedy liar". I'm not employed by sprint nor do i get any profit from pointing out the fact. Are you implying in fact that sprint can have network improvements and install new LTE towers from thin air? I'm just tried of people still whining over the "4G tax" when its clearly been stated that it applies to all smartphones. Seems like a clear cut case of NIMBY, everyone wants improvements but they don't want to pay the price for it.

 

[BergerKing]

Three things to learn in any business.

1. People want it all.

2. They want it right now.

3. They don't wanna pay for it!

Now, calling someone a 'greedy capitalist liar' is sheer folly. Without incentives, people sit on their lazy cans and expect someone to give them what they want.

Sprint stepped in a pile of something warm and brown. They tried to tell everyone it was hot chocolate. Call it WiMax, but it was a bad business decision. With a proprietary network, you aren't open to cross carrier deals on roaming. You 'force' manufacturers to make devices that are limited in utility and resale value. Someone else's castoff is another's treasure.

Well, I'm getting ready to upgrade phones. Whether I choose BlackBerry, Android, or WP, There's gonna be a $10 a month bump in my rate because I'm buying a smartphone.

That's the price I pay to play. Yeah, the folks that got the 4G got the bite earlier. Was it fair? Yes, and no.

So we get two Photons, we're gonna pay the $10 extra a month, regardless. My wife won't have coverage, but being as I travel the country for my job, I'll at least get to use what 4G exists.

WiMax is dying in it's toddler stage. We will own the BetaMax of the smartphone data war.

Sometimes, you just don't have a good day. But, another is coming with the dawn.

And by the time LTE has a chance to propagate, we'll be ready for upgrades, with a system we'll actually be able to use, likely, in more than just our "local" areas.

 

[emagdnimohno]

No.. it is all BS.. first of all, they call it a 4G network/phone.. I'm in Arizona.. a state that never even had 4G announced. Especially hearing all of the lies from employees for years hearing them say "they are putting up 4G towers as we speak in Arizona" not only that, the 3g is slow too.. I really hope this becomes a class action lawsuit..

 

[dtreo]

Look, fact of the matter is everyone increased their rates and so did sprint. Everyone just gets better out of shape because it's called premium data on sprint. If they had just increased the base price of plans $10 it would've prevented alot of this whining. Sprint has been losing money for years, I don't know how you could've expected any "premium data" without them having any capital. Sprint is a business just like any other and without increasing their fees to match the competition they would go under.

I know it sucks that wimax rollout was terrible, that's what happen when you back the wrong kind of technology. I personally think they made the right choice in cutting their loses and stop expanding wimax and work on LTE since that seems to be way things are headed. I get 4g here but I never use it because it gets spotty depending on where I live and, but like I've said I've found their recent 3g improvements acceptable so I can live with that for now.

Totally agree. Sad, but true.

 

[Quis89]

You guys illiterate I swear. How many times has it been said it isn't a 4g tax?! You're not paying for 4g. You're paying for the increase of data used in comparison to feature phones. You people we complaints about anything I swear!! What if Sprint dropped the fee and capped our data or throttled it? You'd be complaining about that as well right? Maintaining these devices costs money. Lots of it. If you don't like the fee then get a phone that doesn't require it but stopping crying about 4g! It's not for 4g. It's for the increased data used. You guys are ridiculous.

 

[Quis89]

Even if I didn't get 4G, which I do, I'd still pay the 10 bucks for premium data. Why? Because I used close to 20GB last month without tethering. That's about as premium as it gets.

How?!

 

[BergerKing]

You guys illiterate I swear. How many times has it been said it isn't a 4g tax?! You're not paying for 4g. You're paying for the increase of data used in comparison to feature phones. You people we complaints about anything I swear!! What if Sprint dropped the fee and capped our data or throttled it? You'd be complaining about that as well right? Maintaining these devices costs money. Lots of it. If you don't like the fee then get a phone that doesn't require it but stopping crying about 4g! It's not for 4g. It's for the increased data used. You guys are ridiculous.

You can make some of the people happy some of the time.
You can't make all of the people happy all of the time.
You'll never take the all the gripe out of all smartphone users.

 

[jean15paul]

I don't have a problem with Sprint. The customer service is good, the unlimited data is great (althought I've only going over 2GB once in the past year), and even with the $10 premium data fee, the Everything Data plan is still cheaper than the competition. Yeah, I wish I had 4G here in New Orleans, but 3G is fast enough for streaming both standard def video and music (usually).

Even though I have Evo 3D, I think they are making the right decision to abandon Wi-Max and start developing LTE. I'm hoping by my 2014 upgrade their LTE network is respectibly competitive and I'll get a sexy LTE phone then.

 

[cgardnervt]

I like my Evo. But in Vermont we wont ever have 4G of any sort!

 

[Phoenixhawk]

To be honest not having the 4G work doesnt bother me the least, not having the phone work for calls and text is almost enough to make me get a flip-phone. For years and years I just got whatever free phone was out. I finally broke down and bought the iPhone 3G, learned to curse AT&T service, Apple and iTunes.

Switched to Sprint and got the HTC EVO 4G, I don't think I ever once had 4G on it. But I always had full bars outside and three bars inside of Home/Work/School. Even when I happened to be out in the middle of nowhere and by some act of god I was showing 1 or 0 bars, it still made the call clearly or sent the text.

Dual Cores? I beat down the doors to downgrade my beloved 4G for the HTC EVO 3D, and it and Sprint both have been worthless since.

Original Unit, Overheated & Constant error messages about radio resources, took it back to exchange for a "Working" HTC Evo 3D, they were kind enough to consider it a return and locking me into the new Evo.

5/3/0 Bars Sprint, 5/3/0 Bars Roaming. Battled it out with Sprint for MONTHS, got a couple credits, then a Airwave. The Phone is still all but worthless for Voice or Text, works great on Wi-fi though. 6 Trips to the local Sprint Store, 3 Trips to the not local Sprint Repair Store, emails to Sprint and HTC, call after call after call to Sprint. Got hold of one of the repair store techs, sent him sent weeks worth of logs to Sprint proving that regardless of signal strength the phone was switching towers non-stop. (Mind you the same Home/Work/School locations as my beloved Evo 4G) give up on "Customer Service" After a year of this I'm debating paying off whats left or selling off the phone/contract remainder just to be done with the two company's

 

[jcthorne#AC]

You guys illiterate I swear. How many times has it been said it isn't a 4g tax?! You're not paying for 4g. You're paying for the increase of data used in comparison to feature phones. You people we complaints about anything I swear!! What if Sprint dropped the fee and capped our data or throttled it? You'd be complaining about that as well right? Maintaining these devices costs money. Lots of it. If you don't like the fee then get a phone that doesn't require it but stopping crying about 4g! It's not for 4g. It's for the increased data used. You guys are ridiculous.

Pretty hard to get 'increased data used' when the phone only sees data speeds of 128kbps. Its slower in 'ulimited' than TMo is when capped.

I still maintain that I have been paying $10 a month for 'Premium Data' that I have never recieved. Still, the overall cost of device and service is less that the competition and I do believe its going to get better with the LTE rollout. Hope springs eternal.

 

[michikade#AC]

Pretty hard to get 'increased data used' when the phone only sees data speeds of 128kbps. Its slower in 'ulimited' than TMo is when capped.

I still maintain that I have been paying $10 a month for 'Premium Data' that I have never recieved. Still, the overall cost of device and service is less that the competition and I do believe its going to get better with the LTE rollout. Hope springs eternal.

So, you are saying that you don't have increased data over a feature phone, even though you have a perpetual data connection where a feature phone does not? Because I guarantee that, even if you are an extremely low data user, your phone uses more than it would if you had a feature phone under similar usage conditions. That's why they're charging us the $10. We don't have to like it, but if you really think about it, it makes sense.

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[rayln]

So, you are saying that you don't have increased data over a feature phone, even though you have a perpetual data connection where a feature phone does not? Because I guarantee that, even if you are an extremely low data user, your phone uses more than it would if you had a feature phone under similar usage conditions. That's why they're charging us the $10. We don't have to like it, but if you really think about it, it makes sense.

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No it doesn't. It's just marketing.

They advertise their "Everything Data" plan at 69.99$. But it is de facto 79.99$. They just wouldn't make such an impression and win eyeballs/converts if they were upfront that their plan is really gonna cost you eighty bucks. Makes them seem a helluva lot less competitive, especially given their, generally, lower quality of service.

It originally was simply a fee for those with a WiMax compatible phone but too many people called in to complain about having to pay extra simply because their device carries a 4G radio when they don't even have any 4G towers near their area.

So they changed the language and rolled it out to everyone with a smartphone.

When I first dropped Verizon for Sprint a few years ago, they were competitive with both service and pricing.

My monthly bill has steadily risen over the years while my quality of service has gone down.

I flashed a corporate Sprint PRL just the other week to check it out. It allowed me 3G roaming on Verizon.

Guess what?

Not only were my calls literally crystal clear where before they muffled, full of static and would constantly drop, but Verizon's 3G is many times faster!

Now, I know that compared to some of Sprint's other devices, my E3D doesn't have the best radios/call quality but this proves that a major part of the equation isn't my phone, it's the network it's on!

Sprint has failed to maintain adequate upkeep of their 3G infrastructure over the past few years and their WiMax network turned out to be a multi-billion dollar investment gone south in the course of a year or so.

I'm aware of their gigantic Network Vision multi-year plan. Hope it works out for them. Maybe if their plans and prices become attractive and competitive again, I'll rejoin them in the future.

However, I don't have blind loyalty and faith to a financial entity that ultimately does not care much for their customers besides their wallets. I think it's stupid and irrational, though almost default human nature to want to draw clear lines, join sides and defend/justify purchases and decisions.

When my Note arrives in the mail next week, I'm having my contract terminated, flipping my E3D and snatching up T-Mobile's monthly 30$/plan. Pathetic that their EDGE network is faster than Sprint's 3G during the day.

 

[michikade#AC]

They advertise it at $79.99 now. And it's advertised as a "premium data for smartphones" now.

Lots of people are going to blame sprint for past mistakes, and, I don't have a problem with that, but now (and for the past 6 months at least) we can at least give them the benefit of the doubt and call it what it is.

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[jtemple33]

Sprint is going to attempt to implement LTE towers, but they don't have the capital to do it... at least not effectively. In the next 5 - 8 years they'll at least go bankrupt. If they can even bother to introduce a LTE network it's going to half baked and spotty just like their 4G service. They're going to lose all of their customers.

They gambled on the wrong technology and lost, and in this economy that's a fatal mistake. I hope they can figure it out, but I don't see it happening.

 

[Quis89]

Pretty hard to get 'increased data used' when the phone only sees data speeds of 128kbps. Its slower in 'ulimited' than TMo is when capped.

I still maintain that I have been paying $10 a month for 'Premium Data' that I have never recieved. Still, the overall cost of device and service is less that the competition and I do believe its going to get better with the LTE rollout. Hope springs eternal.

That you've never received? Lmao ok. Go and get a feature phone then. I'm sure you'd enjoy the same exact service you're getting now since you haven't received that premium data. And you wouldn't be paying the extra $10! Problem solved, right?

 

[rayln]

That you've never received? Lmao ok. Go and get a feature phone then. I'm sure you'd enjoy the same exact service you're getting now since you haven't received that premium data. And you wouldn't be paying the extra $10! Problem solved, right?

Cut the snark.

Owning a device with an increased ability to access data (smartphone) =! receiving premium data.

The 10$ fee was a 4G tax for 4G capable smartphones, whether or not owners lived in an area with access to WiMax.

It later evolved into surcharge on all plans with smartphones attached during the same period that their WiMax network became a failure to launch and their 3G infrastructure remained stagnant; service became worse as they added net users in the form of postpaid and recently more subs with the release of the iPhone.

The general populace has not received their so-called "premium data," pathetic 3G speeds that, during the day, are slower than EDGE.

 

[Quis89]

Cut the snark.

Owning a device with an increased ability to access data (smartphone) =! receiving premium data.

The 10$ fee was a 4G tax for 4G capable smartphones, whether or not owners lived in an area with access to WiMax.

It later evolved into surcharge on all plans with smartphones attached during the same period that their WiMax network became a failure to launch and their 3G infrastructure remained stagnant; service became worse as they added net users in the form of postpaid and recently more subs with the release of the iPhone.

The general populace has not received their so-called "premium data," pathetic 3G speeds that, during the day, are slower than EDGE.

The premium data is the excess data used by our powerhog devices. Period. If you don't like it then get a basic phone that doesn't use as much data. I can guarantee our devices use more data than a basic feature phone. It is for that reason we are charged the extra $10. If you don't like it then ask that Sprint cap or throttle our data. All cost saving strategies. People will find a reason to and moan about anything.