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Anyone know when Sprint will turn on 4G LTE for the NYC & Metro Area? Or how is T-M?

pilot1226

pilot1226

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2010
601
15
USA
Heya, title says it all. I have an iPhone 4S and I'm eligible for an upgrade in a few months. The other 3 lines on my family's account are available for an upgrade immediately. I have told them to wait on the upgrade to the iPhone 5 (they all want to upgrade to an iPhone incantation) until Sprint decides to turn on the 4G LTE network in our area.

I've tried calling and using the chat support, but the answers were dreadful. I feel like I'm talking to a computer. They use their canned responses and don't say anything else.

I live in North NJ right now, probably about 5 miles west of Times Square, NYC. So I imagine once they turn on the network I'll be all set.

All the information I have suggests that it's "coming" to NYC area, but I've seen that it's "coming" to NYC for about a year now.

We have been Sprint customers for about 3 1/2 years now. Our current contracts expire in January of 2014 for two of our existing lines, and the other two are out of contract now. We are on Sprint primarily because it was unlimited, though I don't use that much data, and the price was at least $30/month lower than all the other carriers in my area.

We will most likely change to another carrier, most likely T-Mobile, coverage permitting, because they offer no-overage Data. I don't really use that much data. I probably use less than 1 GB per month, my wife the same, and the two other family members on the account use less than 250 MB combined between the two of them.

If anyone has any experience with T-Mobile around central/southern NJ, that would also be appreciated. We frequent Brick / Point Pleasant / Toms River / Lavalette / Ocean City (NJ) in the summer, but spend a majority of the time throughout the rest of the year up in North NJ.

Thank you,
Pilot
 
C

coolio93

macrumors 6502
Apr 15, 2013
304
50
Houston, TX
Sprint and LTE don't go in the same sentence. (I had them for the past 5 months and I live in Houston - a market that was launched last summer and is supposedly 70% complete according to the website on the bottom.) LTE in Houston is not consistent at all and their 3G network SUCKS...at least from my experience.

As for T-Mobile, they haven't officially launched LTE in NYC but apparently they are going to do that this summer. I live in Houston which is a an officially launched LTE market for T-Mobile and I can say that LTE here is pretty good considering it only launched last month. There are big spots where there is no LTE, but in those spots my iPhone connects to their regular 4G towers and thats plenty fast for me. (wayyyyyy faster than sprints LTE).


Here is the website for Sprint's LTE rollout. It's not official, but a lot of people use it.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/

Looks like NYC is about 50% complete. (I doubt it)
 
pilot1226

pilot1226

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2010
601
15
USA
coolio93 said:
Sprint and LTE don't go in the same sentence. (I had them for the past 5 months and I live in Houston - a market that was launched last summer and is supposedly 70% complete according to the website on the bottom.) LTE in Houston is not consistent at all and their 3G network SUCKS...at least from my experience.

As for T-Mobile, they haven't officially launched LTE in NYC but apparently they are going to do that this summer. I live in Houston which is a an officially launched LTE market for T-Mobile and I can say that LTE here is pretty good considering it only launched last month. There are big spots where there is no LTE, but in those spots my iPhone connects to their regular 4G towers and thats plenty fast for me. (wayyyyyy faster than sprints LTE).


Here is the website for Sprint's LTE rollout. It's not official, but a lot of people use it.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/

Looks like NYC is about 50% complete. (I doubt it)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. Ouch. New estimate for completion 2014. I wonder how many people in the local Sprint shops with zero LTE coverage are getting scammed into buying an LTE phone like the iPhone 5, even though they won't get LTE on it. Sounds like a future class action suit.

Alright, I guess I'll keep an eye on it, and worst case scenario I'll stroll into a T-Mobile shop when I'm eligible for an upgrade and see if they're willing to absorb my early termination fee (Sprint did this back in 2009 when I switched from Verizon.)

Now I have to see if I can find some REAL T-Mobile usage charts.
 
E

EstaVidaLoca

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2012
149
0
pilot1226 said:
Thanks for the link. Ouch. New estimate for completion 2014. I wonder how many people in the local Sprint shops with zero LTE coverage are getting scammed into buying an LTE phone like the iPhone 5, even though they won't get LTE on it. Sounds like a future class action suit.

Alright, I guess I'll keep an eye on it, and worst case scenario I'll stroll into a T-Mobile shop when I'm eligible for an upgrade and see if they're willing to absorb my early termination fee (Sprint did this back in 2009 when I switched from Verizon.)

Now I have to see if I can find some REAL T-Mobile usage charts.
Click to expand...

There's about a 0% chance of that happening now that T-mobile has dropped contracts. Sprint has been lying about LTE for years now. When they do cut it on it'll probably 5 blocks in Manhattan but the entire city will be under LTE on a coverage map.
 
C

CEmajr

macrumors 601
Dec 18, 2012
4,450
1,230
Charlotte, NC
Sprint has possibly the strangest rollout of a high speed data network that I've seen. It's supposedly been going on for over a year now and they chose to launch in cities like Joplin, MO to serve like 50,000 people and bypassed a large chunk of the major metro areas. I'm guessing they're doing it this way because it makes it easier for them to say we have xx number of LTE markets. What a joke. What makes it worse is that Sprint has such a horrible 3G network (usually as slow as Edge on AT&T and Tmobile) that if you're not in an LTE area then your data isn't very useable.

You might get LTE in NY by the end of 2014 waiting on Sprint.
 
Zaft

Zaft

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2009
4,553
4,032
Brooklyn, NY
Im not sure about jersey. NYC is almost all lit up with LTE. I live in brooklyn and get LTE just about everywhere. Speed average around 16mb/s
 
osofast240sx

osofast240sx

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2011
2,539
16
Zaft said:
Much better then the below 1mb speeds i was getting before. The difference between 16mb/s and 25mb/s is not even noticable. I get 24mb/s also just not that often.
Click to expand...
Since sprint will never have: HD voice, VoLTE, VoIP, LTEa, talk and surf the web at the same time it's a no go for me.
 
2

2298754

Cancelled
Jun 21, 2010
4,890
941
Wow, Sprint is really ****ing around when it comes to LTE deployment. Boston was supposed to be done last fall, but is still ~50% complete. I was looking at S4gru and those guys are seriously brainwashed. Even after multiple delays, they still believe Sprint is the best :D

I'm sure by the time Sprint is done with LTE, AT&T/VZW will be knees deep into their LTE-A upgrade and regular LTE deployment will be finished for a while.

Completely pathetic.
 
J

jeffe

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2008
601
50
AutoUnion39 said:
Wow, Sprint is really ****ing around when it comes to LTE deployment. Boston was supposed to be done last fall, but is still ~50% complete. I was looking at S4gru and those guys are seriously brainwashed. Even after multiple delays, they still believe Sprint is the best :D

I'm sure by the time Sprint is done with LTE, AT&T/VZW will be knees deep into their LTE-A upgrade and regular LTE deployment will be finished for a while.

Completely pathetic.
Click to expand...

I won't say Sprint is the best but it can be a terrific value if the service works for you. My area is less than 50% upgraded but I've been having great service and am connected to LTE about 90%. I stream music all day and browse the web on the network and don't get any dropped calls. It is also cheaper for me than TMobile and Verizon. What else could you really want?

If you're curious about LTE coverage, I'd recommend taking a look at http://www.sensorly.com to get an idea of what you may expect. All carriers have trial periods so you should just compare and find what works best for you. Here is also the specific new york network vision upgrade thread on that site: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1901-network-visionlte-new-york-city-market/page__st__3020
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
I would find or switch to a carrier that works reliably and satisfies your needs in your local area right now.
Not if they will in the future maybe they will roll LTE with hopes and dreams.
Customer reps will tell you things like they're working on it and soon they will be up and running to string you along but I wouldn't tolerate bad service and slow speeds in this day and age in a major city like NY.
 
Izaiah

Izaiah

macrumors regular
Apr 12, 2013
102
1
FL
I can share my experience having had T-Mobile for years. I just picked up an iPhone 5 from them on the 12th.

I live in central Jersey(Trenton/Princeton area) and I'm always on 4G around here. I also drive back and forth to NYC and Philly on a regular basis and signal is always consistent.

Honestly, the only place I've lost signal and/or dropped down to EDGE is while visiting my mother in Barnegat(20 min. inland from LBI).
 
pilot1226

pilot1226

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2010
601
15
USA
Yeah I can agree with that. The barrier island for some reason only has a Verizon tower and they choose not to allow roaming from other parties. My sister is on Verizon and she consistently gets 5 bars with her iPhone and I usually get 1 or 2 with Sprint. And I can't make a call, nor do anything with the phone, really.

My experience with Sprint up here has been relatively good. I would say I drop maybe one in a hundred calls, it's just the data speed that is making me crazy.

I'd love to switch to T-Mobile when the contract's up assuming that Sprint hasn't figured it out by then. We'll see.

I agree, most Customer Service reps are mindless, reading from a script. I worked at Vonage for about a year and I always shook my head when I overheard some of the cubicles nearby on calls.

In Sprint's defense, they have made some great changes to the towers around here. About a year ago I would estimate I had around 2 or 3 bars at work, and around the same at home. Now in both places is 4 or 5. The data speed is still annoying, but I guess unlimited makes up for it. I stream Spotify each way to work.
 
P

Pinkstiletto66

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2010
501
1
New York City.
You're best bet is to try it out within the return period, and pay for usage. It sucks because a person thirty minutes away from you might have a different opinion on the coverage they get. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet. I bit it, and it tastes good. :D

I had Metro, now I have Tmobile, faster speeds, I tested it out in a spot where I lost reception completely. Metro is not terrible by no means, but for a little extra I can get an iphone, and faster speeds.

I did get Edge in an elevator going down, leaving a building. In the lobby it was on Edge, I thought it was stuck for a minute but as soon as I left the doors it went to 4g. I thought it Entering the building going up was different story. I was 4g until I entered the elevator. I had no service at all until I exited the elevator.

Now, for me, I tried Sprint briefly, and the were worst than Metro. I had no data, in various places of Brooklyn, mainly my house. Call quality was fine.

In a nutshell it really is going to vary by location.
 
dontwalkhand

dontwalkhand

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2007
6,373
2,863
Phoenix, AZ
I switched (back to) T-Mobile from Sprint and never looked back! Sprint LTE? While they continue to deploy LTE in dumb places such as Wasalia, and places you never heard of, T-Mobile is busy building out NYC, LA, and you know....PHOENIX.
 
pilot1226

pilot1226

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2010
601
15
USA
Pinkstiletto66 said:
You're best bet is to try it out within the return period, and pay for usage. It sucks because a person thirty minutes away from you might have a different opinion on the coverage they get. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet. I bit it, and it tastes good. :D

I had Metro, now I have Tmobile, faster speeds, I tested it out in a spot where I lost reception completely. Metro is not terrible by no means, but for a little extra I can get an iphone, and faster speeds.

I did get Edge in an elevator going down, leaving a building. In the lobby it was on Edge, I thought it was stuck for a minute but as soon as I left the doors it went to 4g. I thought it Entering the building going up was different story. I was 4g until I entered the elevator. I had no service at all until I exited the elevator.

Now, for me, I tried Sprint briefly, and the were worst than Metro. I had no data, in various places of Brooklyn, mainly my house. Call quality was fine.

In a nutshell it really is going to vary by location.
Click to expand...

Did you have an actual 3G indicator on your status bar, or was it the Circle of Death?
 
P

Pinkstiletto66

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2010
501
1
New York City.
It showed an upper case E where the 4G is normally or it showed nothing, assuming that meant no data. Don't really recall if I had no call service at all but I believe I did.
 
V

ValerieDurden

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2010
673
70
Philadelphia, PA
Sprint LTE in Philly is pretty good, most places I go now have LTE and we're still in a pre-launch area so it's not officially launched yet, but I am finding almost everyday new places with LTE, I get some spots with 30Mbps/12+Mbps but generally now I am pulling around 18/6 in most places which is pretty damn fantastic. 3G speeds are also greatly improved with an average of around 1.5Mbps/.90Mbps which is perfectly acceptable for streaming music or watching video on the go, I have topped out at around 2.7Mbps in some places with uploads over 1Mbps but as I said it's all dependant on the area you're in.
 
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