Welcome to South Dakota... (Sprint)

[dcvanderbush]

So, Here I am, in Eastern South Dakota along the I-29 Corridor; where, oddly enough, our "Sprint" network infrastructure is actually owned and operated by a local city's municipal utilities. That's right, from Watertown, SD to south of Sioux City, IA the Sprint towers are under the control of the Brookings Municipal Utility company. The first downer here comes in the form of a lack of 4G coverage, however, I realize that the vast majority of the nation is currently suffering through the same situation. Now, for the major downer for a man with hist 4th Pre....

Since the "Sprint" coverage is essentially franchised to the local utilities, the Evo will not be for sale in this market; as of right now. I talked to the market representative from "Sprint" a.k.a. the utilities board, and they are currently trying to work it out so that the Sprint retailers in the area: 1 Best Buy, Numerous Radio Shack's and Sprint stores, will be able to carry the phone. However he said that hitting the launch date looks like it could be a bit of a stretch.

Last, but not least, Not only can a person with a local cell number not purchase an Evo close to home, if he/she were to pre-order one, the OTA activation would not be valid, and would then render the handset useless.

The explanation I received was along the lines of: If you were to get an Evo, and travel outside of our market to an area offering 4G coverage; the city's utility company would, in essence, have to pay roaming charges to Sprint for your data usage on those trips.

This is supported by the fact that the local Best Buy, in Sioux Falls, has display dummies and pricing for the Overdrive and 3G/4G single access point broadband cards.

Wow... this sucks...

 

[Gekko]

time to move out of the sticks.

 

[dcvanderbush]

thanks...

 

[ImmaSlave4U]

Hmmm...do you have a Sprint corp. store in your town? What do THEY say about this?

 

[dcvanderbush]

Nope, the Brookings Municipal Utilities owns all of the stores in Watertown, Brookings, Sioux Falls, and Sioux City... Best Buy, Radio Shack and Walmart all have been informed that they can not currently sell the phone in our market. It's a contractual thing, the way I understand it at least.

 

[Gelst]

I have always gotten great sprint service in watertown or sioux falls.

 

[dcvanderbush]

I agree, I have no complaints about the service; just the contracts and such are a bit disheartening. Oh well, a little waiting never killed any body... so I'm told.

 

[ImmaSlave4U]

Who told you the information in your first post? This is pretty damn annoying for you, I'm sure! I wonder how they could disable your activation if you bought it on sprint website or through telesales.

 

[dcvanderbush]

The Sprint Brand Representative. I work in the connection center at WalMart, where we sell Sprint phones, but I ran into him at Best Buy when I went in to see if I could pre-order an Evo. Plus side of the whole situation is that I'm first on the call list for when they get this contract mess figured out.

 

[dcvanderbush]

I forgot the gentleman's name. He was super nice about it, but I guess it's just a negotiation thing. It'll get taken care of, hopefully sooner rather than later.

 

[Jesse]

And I thought I had it bad here in Maine.

That sucks dude.

 

[Gekko]

i would consider canceling Sprint and going to Verizon and getting an Incredible if i was in this situation. i would also demand that Sprint waive any ETF or cancellation fees given the circumstances. the Incredible is not as nice as the EVO - but it's not bad.

 

[Prkl8r]

I live in Sioux Falls as well. This killed a bit of my buzz. HOWEVER...since I am not eligible for the upgrade until July 1 AND I have a MPLS #. I may be golden, since it is totally worth that 4 hour drive (And I was going to be up there anyway)!! I have been with sprint for a good 12 years and have never had a problem, so not really inclined to change.

 

[Prkl8r]

The Sprint Brand Representative. I work in the connection center at WalMart, where we sell Sprint phones, but I ran into him at Best Buy when I went in to see if I could pre-order an Evo. Plus side of the whole situation is that I'm first on the call list for when they get this contract mess figured out.

Hey have you talked to anyone at the Sprint stores themselves? Even though I'm not too worried yet, I may have to make a trip over there.

 

[densitystill]

Wow! I thought North Dakota was bad! Have you called sprint and asked them if you could buy it?

 

[Brett636]

I guess this is what happens when governments get involved in these matters. The people suffer as does the options for the consumers. I wonder how the utility regulatory agency ever got their greedy little paws into the cell phone business like that. Seems a little anti-free market to me.

 

[neilept]

can't you drive 100 miles to another city, buy the phone, and then use it at home. Or better yet, order directly thru Sprint?

 

[Writermind]

Sorry to hear about that.

Totally sucks that you're not able to join in on the EVO release date for no other reason than semantics.

 

[god_trentonj]

I lived in Sioux City until a month ago and am very familiar with all this. The actual utility name is Swiftel Communications and imho, they are TERRIBLE. I bought my first Pre on launch day from the Sprint store in SC (owned by Swiftel) and got really bad service with it. Looked into the Airave and called Sprint retentions who sent me one for free, only to find out when I plugged it in, Swiftel tours didn't support the Airave. Also, Swiftel is REALLY slow at implementation of new tech. They didn't even have EVDO implemented in Sioux City until November.

I do know that Swiftel wants to sell everything besides what they have in Brookings and had a deal going last summer (when they re-negotiated their contract with Sprint, which was renewed for another 12 years)... but their deal fell though....

You Can buy the EVO from a Sprint store in another Market... and you may even be able to buy it from tele-sales (if they are selling it). I bought the BB Tour for another line on my account in Ames Iowa because Swiftel didn't get it on launch day.

 

[Gelst]

Hey if it's any consolation to you guys I'm heading up to Sioux Falls and Watertown from Austin,Texas with my girl to visit some family and hit up MT.Rushmore the week of July 4th.
If you want I'll let you hold my EVO for a few minutes while I'm in town.