Sprint introduces $50 unlimited plan for 6/6 Plus owners (iPhone for life program)

Well this just made my choice a lot harder. I wonder what the lease cost of the phone per month is if you go for the 64 or 128GB options...

How fast is sprints LTE compared to Verizon's? Anyone who had both services know?

HolyGrail said:

How fast is sprints LTE compared to Verizon's? Anyone who had both services know?

Click to expand...

When I had strong LTE signal I found Sprint's to actually be faster than Verizon's. The LTE doesn't last long though, and when it drops to 3G you're DONE. Verizon's was more consistent and spread out.

HolyGrail said:

How fast is sprints LTE compared to Verizon's? Anyone who had both services know?

Click to expand...

Terrible, got an iphone on sprint, made me miss my AT&T days. Yes, that bad

$70/mo for unlimited everything and an upgraded iPhone every two years?

Am I the only one thinking this is a good value? (provided you live in a Sprint area of course)

nnacrumors said:

$70/mo for unlimited everything and an upgraded iPhone every two years?

Am I the only one thinking this is a good value? (provided you live in a Sprint area of course)

Click to expand...

Not at all. I'm VERY tempted by this, as Sprint is actually pretty decent in my area... I'm wondering the leasing cost per month for a 64 or 128GB model though.

I wouldn't accept a sprint phone for free. Yes its that bad.

This is perfect if you're looking for a carrier with terrible reception, slow speeds, and plenty of dropped calls. Perfect choice for you!

I'm making the switch to tmobile. Doesnt matter where I'm at here in Texas the signal is terrible and when I do get LTE the speeds are slower than 3g. WTF?

Slow LTE, Slow 3G (Even in the heart of major metros), CDMA, non-unlockable phones, low resale value phones, lots of dropped calls, delayed texts.

Wouldn't use Sprint even if it were $20/mo

But that's the experience they offer in my area and the places I travel to. For those in the few areas where they're good this is a pretty good deal.

A lease? For a phone? Wow. Just wow. Pretty soon the things will be so expensive that they will have 30 year phone mortgages

1981d said:

A lease? For a phone? Wow. Just wow. Pretty soon the things will be so expensive that they will have 30 year phone mortgages

Click to expand...

Wait until you have to refinance.

CEmajr said:

Slow LTE, Slow 3G (Even in the heart of major metros), CDMA, non-unlockable phones, low resale value phones, lots of dropped calls, delayed texts.

Click to expand...

To be fair that's one of the bright spots of this plan. You don't have to deal with any sort of nonsense with resale value.

You simply get a new iPhone 6 for free, then 2 years later you trade it in and get an iPhone 7 for free.

I like simplicity

nnacrumors said:

To be fair that's one of the bright spots of this plan. You don't have to deal with any sort of nonsense with resale value.

You simply get a new iPhone 6 for free, then 2 years later you trade it in and get an iPhone 7 for free.

I like simplicity

Click to expand...

Better buy insurance, because the first you don't...

----------

Curious about the iPhone + pricing, because this looks like the 4.7 plan.

Thinking about doing this, because I will admit that I'm tired of 2gb on Verizon and want the iPhone 6. I'm disappointed in myself. Have talked to neighbors and they say the new towers in our area have helped a ton.

The other thing I thought about was getting out of my Verizon contract and starting a new one, selling my 5C to pay off my EFT. But, I would lose my number in that process, which would suck. In addition, Sprint is paying EFT.

I don't get how Sprint is still so far behind in coverage. I had them for about 6 years (2003-2008), and their data was horrendous but call quality wasn't bad. I left them finally because they kept putting bogus charges on my bill. Crazy stuff like access to some "latino chat" or something similar. I remember having to call them every other month for almost a year. I finally got fed up and left. I would never go back.

Hell....I can't believe Verizon is actually offering the best deal for individuals now. They have always been the most expensive in the past. $60 for unlimited talk and text w/ 2 gb of data.

Unlimited data on Sprint doesn't mean much if it's so slow you can't use it.

accountforit said:

I don't get how Sprint is still so far behind in coverage…

Click to expand...

Well. Here's why.
• Network Vision is planned out by guys in offices and cubicles.
• This includes Just-In-Time™ Backhaul delivery planning
• Contractors are hired and contracts signed
• These contracts include no incentives to finish early.
• These contracts include no penalties for finishing late
• Sprint goes with a First Available Tower© gets the upgrade concept.
• Towers in rural areas have far less red tape and permitting issues (and far less towers to upgrade). Guess which towers get done first? Right. Rural towers. So Nowhereville with it's two towers is now a launched market with full on LTE while New York City and Los Angeles aren't even in the permitting stages.
• Sprint marketing has the very, VERY bad habit of "launching" a market when LTE coverage reaches 40% of the population. Not 40% complete, 40% of the population.
• Remember that Just-In-Time™ Backhaul? Well, it wasn't. Guess what? Turns out that if you order backhaul up front you can get it in bulk at good rates - up front. But if you order it here and there as you need it (JIT) you are subject to availability. If it's not available, or the backhaul provider has no incentive to deliver on time - you don't have backhaul. All your fancy new equipment is still connected to old copper T-1 lines!!!
• Add in screwups, red tape, the tin-foil hat brigade (NO TOWERS IN MY BACKYARD!!!), landlords who own the property the tower is on but cannot be found to grant access to the tower, contractors that are your COMPETITOR and inexperienced crews to all of this and you get delays and more delays.

Seriously. What do you expect when you hire AT&T as one of your major backhaul providers? Let's not talk about CenturyLink, which also has ties to AT&T. And there is at least one contractor I've heard of (AutoUnion39 can confirm this) that assigns their least experienced crews to the Sprint jobs. Why? Because if it's screwed up there is no penalty.

Case in point. Almost the entire Albuquerque market had to be redone because none of the towers met spec.

But this is Sprint. It was done on the cheap, poorly planned, poorly executed and is STILL being rolled out! Phoenix, MY market as of today is only 59% complete after a year and a half of work!

I'm leaving when I get my tax refund. I gave Sprint two years and they have not met the expected improvement. I don't care how good it gets in the future, I'm done with them and will be gone as soon as I can get out of here financially.

eyoungren said:

Well. Here's why.
• Network Vision is planned out by guys in offices and cubicles.
• This includes Just-In-Time™ Backhaul delivery planning
• Contractors are hired and contracts signed
• These contracts include no incentives to finish early.
• These contracts include no penalties for finishing late
• Sprint goes with a First Available Tower© gets the upgrade concept.
• Towers in rural areas have far less red tape and permitting issues (and far less towers to upgrade). Guess which towers get done first? Right. Rural towers. So Nowhereville with it's two towers is now a launched market with full on LTE while New York City and Los Angeles aren't even in the permitting stages.
• Sprint marketing has the very, VERY bad habit of "launching" a market when LTE coverage reaches 40% of the population. Not 40% complete, 40% of the population.
• Remember that Just-In-Time™ Backhaul? Well, it wasn't. Guess what? Turns out that if you order backhaul up front you can get it in bulk at good rates - up front. But if you order it here and there as you need it (JIT) you are subject to availability. If it's not available, or the backhaul provider has no incentive to deliver on time - you don't have backhaul. All your fancy new equipment is still connected to old copper T-1 lines!!!
• Add in screwups, red tape, the tin-foil hat brigade (NO TOWERS IN MY BACKYARD!!!), contractors that are your COMPETITOR and inexperienced crews to all of this and you get delays and more delays.

Seriously. What do you expect when you hire AT&T as one of your major backhaul providers? Let's not talk about CenturyLink, which also has ties to AT&T. And there is at least one contractor I've heard of (AutoUnion39 can confirm this) that assigns their least experienced crews to the Sprint jobs. Why? Because if it's screwed up there is no penalty.

Case in point. Almost the entire Albuquerque market had to be redone because none of the towers met spec.

But this is Sprint. It was done on the cheap, poorly planned, poorly executed and is STILL being rolled out! Phoenix, MY market as of today is only 59% complete after a year and a half of work!

I'm leaving when I get my tax refund. I gave Sprint two years and they have not met the expected improvement. I don't care how good it gets in the future, I'm done with them and will be gone as soon as I can get out of here financially.

Click to expand...

How do you know so much about Sprint? It's like you are a walking Encyclopedia Britannica about them

I've been a Sprint customer since 1999. I've dealt with all the crap over the years, including the Nextel transition. But more than that, I spend a lot of time doing Google searches and gleaning info from s4gru.com. That site is a great site for info (although I will never register there) and is actually where I get my numbers as far as what market is at what percent completion and so forth.

I've also been a member of sprintusers.com since 2009 so there's plenty of info there as well. Lots of stuff going on there when Sprint tossed out Gary Forsee and hired Dan Hesse.

I lurk, I search and I glean what I can because I just want to know what the hell is going on and why it's all screwed up. It's easier to swallow poor signal if you understand why, even if you don't like the reason(s).

eyoungren said:

I've been a Sprint customer since 1999. I've dealt with all the crap over the years, including the Nextel transition. But more than that, I spend a lot of time doing Google searches and gleaning info from s4gru.com. That site is a great site for info (although I will never register there) and is actually where I get my numbers as far as what market is at what percent completion and so forth.

I've also been a member of sprintusers.com since 2009 so there's plenty of info there as well. Lots of stuff going on there when Sprint tossed out Gary Forsee and hired Dan Hesse.

I lurk, I search and I glean what I can because I just want to know what the hell is going on and why it's all screwed up. It's easier to swallow poor signal if you understand why, even if you don't like the reason(s).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the great info! I'll have to check it out if I decide to deal with the devil (I probably won't)

Just curious, I've seen you say before that you were going to switch from Sprint to T-mobile once you get your tax return. Does the lack of T-mobiles LTE band 12 (700mhz) on the iPhone 6/6+ change those plans in anyway?

nnacrumors said:

Thanks for the great info! I'll have to check it out if I decide to deal with the devil (I probably won't)

Just curious, I've seen you say before that you were going to switch from Sprint to T-mobile once you get your tax return. Does the lack of T-mobiles LTE band 12 (700mhz) on the iPhone 6/6+ change those plans in anyway?

Click to expand...

IDK. Here's the thing. Sprint has Spark, which is actually just it's term for three different frequencies that are aggregated. Phoenix is speculated for Spark sometime maybe 2016 or so.

But my iPhone 5 right now can do 20+ down on one frequency. I've never seen that fast on Sprint (16, I think is the highest I've gotten, but I average 1.5-6). I'm not in the market for the iPhone 6 and T-Mobile already has the 5 and 5s that can do at least these speeds in my market. What's more, there seems to be way more coverage. Part of my problem is that where I have LTE it's slow and where I don't (3G) I can't use my phone.

If the iPhone 6 can provide at least that speed (20+ down) on whatever frequencies it uses and I'm in the market for it later on (probably not) then no, it would not deter me from getting the phone.

Quite honestly, if Sprint LTE would maintain a steady 6+ or so I would have stayed. But as it is, paying for LTE at the speed of the 3G I used to pay for is just asking too much of me now. So, now I just don't care how fast they get it. I want out.

Nice plan, but the Sprint Data service sucks. I can never use it. It lags and lags. I get good voice calls though. After 15-17 years with Sprint, I have to part ways when I get my 6+.