Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Joybulb

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 3, 2011
182
0
I was one of the hapless sprint customers eager to get a 4s on launch day, and then subsequently lied to just long enough to get me past the 14 day return period. This time, I decided to try the 5s because the sprint store liars said LTE worked, only to find that it was equivalent to using a Ferrari in a school zone. Anyone having these same thoughts?

Needless to say, I returned the phone to sprint w/in the 14 day return period and I'm waiting for my Verizon 5s to arrive.
View attachment 442015
 

0r30

macrumors 6502a
Aug 12, 2010
529
29
Texas
I was one of the hapless sprint customers eager to get a 4s on launch day, and then subsequently lied to just long enough to get me past the 14 day return period. This time, I decided to try the 5s because the sprint store liars said LTE worked, only to find that it was equivalent to using a Ferrari in a school zone. Anyone having these same thoughts?

Needless to say, I returned the phone to sprint w/in the 14 day return period and I'm waiting for my Verizon 5s to arrive.
View attachment 442015

I had the same problem with the Iphone 5 on Sprints network. In some areas it worked ok, But for the majority it was pretty poor performance and the dropped calls were horrible as well.

I got fed up and ended up going with Verizon and I'm extremely happy. :)
 

Black Magic

macrumors 68030
Sep 30, 2012
2,787
1,499
I was one of the hapless sprint customers eager to get a 4s on launch day, and then subsequently lied to just long enough to get me past the 14 day return period. This time, I decided to try the 5s because the sprint store liars said LTE worked, only to find that it was equivalent to using a Ferrari in a school zone. Anyone having these same thoughts?

Needless to say, I returned the phone to sprint w/in the 14 day return period and I'm waiting for my Verizon 5s to arrive.
View attachment 442015

I'm on Sprint and I have the iPhone 5. LTE is in my city and it works flawless. My city is 91% LTE complete so when Im around the city Im on LTE most of the time.

The key for you is doing research before you buy. Below is Sprint rollout plus percentage complete:

Linky

You may want to do the same research for Verizon as well or you could be in the same boat.
 

Dave Felix

macrumors 6502a
Apr 9, 2011
964
17
Scranton, Pennsylvania
I think this type of question depends on location. I'm in the Poconos in PA. Only Verizon and AT&T work best here. Good luck with t-mobile and sprint unless you are in the middle of a city.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,713
I got the iPhone 5 last year on launch day (I pre-ordered through Apple, not Sprint) knowing full well that Sprint did not have LTE in Phoenix. It took them a year to get LTE here and the first two towers that went live are 15-20 minutes from my house. Only about three weeks ago did LTE make it to my house and just last week it finally made it to work.

But for about a year I was mainly on WiFi in the places I go because 3G was pretty much like the screenshots you showed in the other thread. Right now on LTE I'm averaging about 8-12mbps down and about 1.5mbps up. It's nothing like the other carriers, but it is useable.

My biggest problem with Sprint is how they rolled the whole Network Vision thing out. ~38,000 towers to upgrade because Gary Forsee (predecessor to Dan Hesse) allowed the network to go to hell and by the time Dan Hesse inherited the mess there was no money to fix anything.

The culture at Sprint is CYA and protect your job. Performance is based on good customer reviews so Sprint reps will lie to you profusely in order to keep their jobs. Thankfully, I just now deal with Apple for any phone problems and since I now have LTE I only need to deal with Sprint once a month when I pay my bill.
 

Joybulb

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 3, 2011
182
0
I'm on Sprint and I have the iPhone 5. LTE is in my city and it works flawless. My city is 91% LTE complete so when Im around the city Im on LTE most of the time.

The key for you is doing research before you buy. Below is Sprint rollout plus percentage complete:

Linky

You may want to do the same research for Verizon as well or you could be in the same boat.

That's all well and good, but here's the problem. Sprint and their bootleg maps say there will be LTE by the end of the year. That's nice, but according to sprint, .12 mb download speed is perfectly acceptable, and considered "within acceptable range". They have told me they don't guarantee any speed of data period. My location is on your link, and it's saying the rollout is now into March. This is typical of what sprint has done for 2 years. Delay and promise.

I don't trust the carrier coverage maps, they can do whatever they want with them. Thus I had a friend with an i5 physically drive to my house/neighborhood to check true speeds.

Verizon will work.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,713
That's all well and good, but here's the problem. Sprint and their bootleg maps say there will be LTE by the end of the year. That's nice, but according to sprint, .12 mb download speed is perfectly acceptable, and considered "within acceptable range". They have told me they don't guarantee any speed of data period. My location is on your link, and it's saying the rollout is now into March. This is typical of what sprint has done for 2 years. Delay and promise.

I don't trust the carrier coverage maps, they can do whatever they want with them. Thus I had a friend with an i5 physically drive to my house/neighborhood to check true speeds.

Verizon will work.
The Sprint maps are handled by the marketing department and reflect where Sprint expects to be, not where it actually is. But of course, they never indicate that.

If the maps were actually done by the tech/engineering departments they would show a much different story. But then Sprint would have marketing issues with the maps.

Note that the link that Black Magic gave you is to s4gru.com. That site is a bunch of RF radio tech heads that happen to be Sprint customers and follow the rollout of NV. The admin has a few inside sources at Sprint. s4gru.com is not affiliated with Sprint, but I've never registered there because those guys are complete Sprint apologists.

Sensorly.com is a much better way to see what coverage is in your area.
 

tremlock

macrumors 6502a
Jun 16, 2008
658
261
The Land of Cleves
This is what shows for Sprint in my area. The service was so spotty that it was unusable. I switched to Verizon and am very happy. My wife is still on Sprint and will be making the switch as well.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    186.9 KB · Views: 145

Joybulb

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 3, 2011
182
0
Note that the link that Black Magic gave you is to s4gru.com. That site is a bunch of RF radio tech heads that happen to be Sprint customers and follow the rollout of NV. The admin has a few inside sources at Sprint. s4gru.com is not affiliated with Sprint, but I've never registered there because those guys are complete Sprint apologists.

Sensorly.com is a much better way to see what coverage is in your area.

Thank you, I didn't know about these sites. I'll def check them out, as my wife is stuck on sprint for another year.
 

iosuser

macrumors 65816
Mar 12, 2012
1,003
748
I think this type of question depends on location. I'm in the Poconos in PA. Only Verizon and AT&T work best here. Good luck with t-mobile and sprint unless you are in the middle of a city.

I stop by the outlet at Poconos every 2-3 months. Last time I visited I noticed AT&T LTE coverage on my phone, the first time outside of NYC and surrounding areas. All along I80 LTE signal remain strong and fast, pretty surprised there's such good coverage out in the boonies.
 

donkeycrushr

macrumors member
Sep 2, 2013
38
0
This is what shows for Sprint in my area. The service was so spotty that it was unusable. I switched to Verizon and am very happy. My wife is still on Sprint and will be making the switch as well.

I am in the Pompano Beach area, I switched from sprint to att about a month ago, I couldn't be happier. What DL and UL are you getting with verizon in The Coral Springs area?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,713
Thank you, I didn't know about these sites. I'll def check them out, as my wife is stuck on sprint for another year.
No problem!

s4gru.com is an interesting place. I say that because the information they provide about the NV rollout is good info. If you become a sponsor you can get access to even more in greater detail. But my problem with the site is the Sprint apologist culture. Sprint is the underdog, it's great, everyone else is just whiners and part of the problem, etc. One of the admins I swear has to be a closet Luddite and would be happy if the world went back to payphones.

Sensorly is crowdsourced. Any data on the site is directly uploaded via the Sensorly Android app. You drive around and the app maps LTE/3G/2G/whatever as you go. That data gets sent up to the site. So, if it's on the site it's because someone had a signal at that location and reported it.

Note, that Sensorly does have an app for iOS, but no mapping feature.
 

2298754

Cancelled
Jun 21, 2010
4,890
941
I'm on Sprint and I have the iPhone 5. LTE is in my city and it works flawless. My city is 91% LTE complete so when Im around the city Im on LTE most of the time.

Honestly, this is the most ridiculous part about Sprint and TMobile's LTE rollouts. Being on LTE most of the time. You should never see EVDO or HSPA, if the rollout was done correctly.

LTE has been in Boston via Sprint for a good amount of time now. Fenway is still barely covered. There are like 2 towers with LTE live by the Prudential Center/Newbury. It is one of the most busy streets in Boston.

VZW and AT&T have no problem blanketing the city with LTE. I never see H+ or EVDO these days on my VZW/AT&T devices.

The people on S4Gru keep telling people that the network will be getting better. But it STILL hasn't. It will never rival VZW/AT&T with their snail-pace LTE rollout. Even TMobile has them beat.
 

Shockwave78

macrumors 65816
Jul 10, 2010
1,082
60
I cannot fathom why someone would even choose Sprint as an option. Please tell me your reasons as to why you would do this to yourself. They are widely known as the worst carrier in the U.S. There WiMax/LTE roll out is a complete cluster ****. They have no idea what they are doing, I really cannot understand how they are still in business after all these years.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,713
I cannot fathom why someone would even choose Sprint as an option. Please tell me your reasons as to why you would do this to yourself. They are widely known as the worst carrier in the U.S. There WiMax/LTE roll out is a complete cluster ****. They have no idea what they are doing, I really cannot understand how they are still in business after all these years.
This again.

You know, some Sprint customers aren't new. We chose Sprint back when it had a decent reputation. Way back in 1999 Sprint didn't have the "Sprint sucks" reputation it has now.

We stayed because the service has been useable and the call quality good. Data is great (in the sense that it's great to have data, not that Sprint's data itself is great) but we mainly use our phones for phone calls. There are ways to work around the crappy customer service. Even with the NV rollout our problems were never as bad as they have been other places and were never enough to actually force us to leave. I didn't even realize 3G data sucked until I got my iPhone 5 last year. The 3G data always just worked on my 3G only HTC Touch Pro and had been just fine from 2009 to 2012.

Now that I actually have LTE I have an unlimited data plan. Yay me! Anyway, your question assumes that ALL Sprint customers are suffering the same bad service quality. While true in a lot of instances (OK, a majority of instances) it's NOT true everywhere.

My question back to you is why should I leave if I have useable unlimited data, good service and am paying a lesser price for it?

P.S. There is no WiMax rollout. WiMax ended in 2011. That was a business deal with Clearwire. Now, Sprint is converting all the WiMax towers (or most of them) to LTE, but WiMax is dead and has been since 2011.
 
Last edited:

Black Magic

macrumors 68030
Sep 30, 2012
2,787
1,499
No problem!

s4gru.com is an interesting place. I say that because the information they provide about the NV rollout is good info. If you become a sponsor you can get access to even more in greater detail. But my problem with the site is the Sprint apologist culture. Sprint is the underdog, it's great, everyone else is just whiners and part of the problem, etc. One of the admins I swear has to be a closet Luddite and would be happy if the world went back to payphones.

Sensorly is crowdsourced. Any data on the site is directly uploaded via the Sensorly Android app. You drive around and the app maps LTE/3G/2G/whatever as you go. That data gets sent up to the site. So, if it's on the site it's because someone had a signal at that location and reported it.

Note, that Sensorly does have an app for iOS, but no mapping feature.

RootMetrics is another one like Sensorly that I have used in the past.

Linky

----------

Honestly, this is the most ridiculous part about Sprint and TMobile's LTE rollouts. Being on LTE most of the time. You should never see EVDO or HSPA, if the rollout was done correctly.

LTE has been in Boston via Sprint for a good amount of time now. Fenway is still barely covered. There are like 2 towers with LTE live by the Prudential Center/Newbury. It is one of the most busy streets in Boston.

VZW and AT&T have no problem blanketing the city with LTE. I never see H+ or EVDO these days on my VZW/AT&T devices.

The people on S4Gru keep telling people that the network will be getting better. But it STILL hasn't. It will never rival VZW/AT&T with their snail-pace LTE rollout. Even TMobile has them beat.

No argument here. Just being honest that there are still some spots that I don't have LTE coverage. I'd love to see the entire city blanketed with Sprint LTE but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. To be honest, I have a Verizon LTE work phone and I see the same spotty coverage to a degree. I doubt any of the carriers provide 100% coverage of a city at this point in time LTE wise.
 

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,627
342
I cannot fathom why someone would even choose Sprint as an option.

Think of Sprint as the Walmart of carriers. They offer a quantity of service ("unlimited") at a price lower than other competitors. The quality isn't very good of course, and customer service is inarguably atrocious, but it's cheap. And there are people who value cheap over quality. That's the niche where Sprint has fit in.

Occasionally, you do get people who get fed up with the poor quality, and they eventually trade up.

And on the other hand, you also have people who are lucky enough to live and maybe work in places where Sprint has islands of decent coverage with an acceptable service level. The wifi at home, combined with wifi at work, is enough to insulate them from slow cellular data speeds. They don't travel much within the US, or when they do, it's in other well-covered islands, or the lack of coverage is still justified by the low cost. So, they stay.
 
Last edited:

Shockwave78

macrumors 65816
Jul 10, 2010
1,082
60
This again.

You know, some Sprint customers aren't new. We chose Sprint back when it had a decent reputation. Way back in 1999 Sprint didn't have the "Sprint sucks" reputation it has now.

We stayed because the service has been useable and the call quality good. Data is great (in the sense that it's great to have data, not that Sprint's data itself is great) but we mainly use our phones for phone calls. There are ways to work around the crappy customer service. Even with the NV rollout our problems were never as bad as they have been other places and were never enough to actually force use to leave. I didn't even realize 3G data sucked until I got my iPhone 5 last year. The 3G data always just worked on my 3G only HTC Touch Pro and had been just fine from 2009 to 2012.

Now that I actually have LTE I have an unlimited data plan. Yay me! Anyway, your question assumes that ALL Sprint customers are suffering the same bad service quality. While true in a lot of instances (OK, a majority of instances) it's NOT true everywhere.

My question back to you is why should I leave if I have useable unlimited data, good service and am paying a lesser price for it?

P.S. There is no WiMax rollout. WiMax ended in 2011. That was a business deal with Clearwire. Now, Sprint is converting all the WiMax towers (or most of them) to LTE, but WiMax is dead and has been since 2011.

Of course Wimax is dead..the point was they had and still have no idea what they are doing. WiMax...lol. Like it ever had a chance. Everyone else was going the norm and Sprint creates this garbage WiMax rollout. When they finally gave up on it, AT&T and Verizon had full blown LTE networks here already.

"way back in 1999" Seriously...your going there to defend your point? A "useable" network justifies sticking with them?


meh, i am not going to argue about it, not worth it. Have a nice day :)
 

Black Magic

macrumors 68030
Sep 30, 2012
2,787
1,499
I cannot fathom why someone would even choose Sprint as an option. Please tell me your reasons as to why you would do this to yourself. They are widely known as the worst carrier in the U.S. There WiMax/LTE roll out is a complete cluster ****. They have no idea what they are doing, I really cannot understand how they are still in business after all these years.

Sprint isn't as bad (at least for me) as the crap that is regurgitated over and over on these forums. Key things to note:

1. If you are in an LTE area, it's unlimited and its not bad at all.

2. Reasonably priced plans.

3. Good call quality and minimal call drops.

Most folks spend most of their time at home or at work which means you will be on WIFI more than likely. Having 15 GB down versus 40 GB down especially in regards to an iPhone does very little to the functionality of the phone. Websites can only open so fast. Music only downloads so fast and the server you are getting it from may not have a blazing fast connection.

Looking at the alternatives, I could switch to AT&T but then I gotta deal with call drops galore, paying to use face time, and overall getting nickeled and dimed until I file for bankruptcy. Yea, I will be able to say I get 40 GB downloads on speed test but that is irrelevant when you look at the big picture.
 

PNutts

macrumors 601
Jul 24, 2008
4,874
357
Pacific Northwest, US
Sensorly.com is a much better way to see what coverage is in your area.

I'm freaking out right now. Does everyone who opens sensorly.com see central Kansas or does it pull something from your browser? I ask because I grew up in central Kansas but moved away a long time ago and this laptop has never been there.

This again.

You know, some Sprint customers aren't new. We chose Sprint back when it had a decent reputation. Way back in 1999 Sprint didn't have the "Sprint sucks" reputation it has now.

Yes, many folks don't realize how groundbreaking Sprint's network was at the time. Their technology backed up the "Pin Drop" marketing (and Candice wasn't too bad herself). It introduced amazing digital call quality that we now take for granted. I was an early customer and stayed with them as long as I could until their customer service eventually drove me away.
 

faiz23

macrumors 6502
Oct 8, 2010
304
0
I'm getting roughly 12mbps down with about 3mbps up on LTE. If that's dialup, I'll take it.



Let me know once you travel outside of your home territory. Your speeds will plunge like a rock. Once everyone and their dog jumps onto lte sprint phones you can expect old speeds that you were use to. San antonio has lte and it is pretty much dialup. Sprint has the smallest LTE coverage in the nation and slowest too.

I have prepaid with straight talk that cost me $36.50 a month and that speed test is faster than yours. Yes I only get 2.5gbs of data but that is data I can use when ever I want and not worry about what speeds will be like on 3g or 4g. It is consistent every time without fail. I have wifi at home and at work so only time I need data is when I am traveling.

Sprint gave me the opportunity to terminate my contracts that still have 22 months left on it due to material contractual changes. I took advantage of it and left with 3 iphone 4s that were subsidized thanks to the dialup network.


https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/112683
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    419.9 KB · Views: 380
  • photo (3).PNG
    photo (3).PNG
    592 KB · Views: 111
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.