Sprint really screwed the pooch by going with WiMAX instead of LTE years ago. Thus they are still behind in LTE deployment.
Rather than staying there and hoping they catch up, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T have better networks now. Why bother waiting around in no-data land?
This is a common fallacy I seek to correct whenever I see/hear it.
Dan Hesse had just taken the job of CEO when this all came about. The FCC came calling and they told Sprint that if Sprint wanted to keep it's spectrum licenses for certain frequencies, Sprint would have to start using those frequencies or the licenses would be forfeit and Sprint would lose them. The FCC gave Sprint only a certain amount of time to act.
When this happened, LTE was theoretical. It had not been launched, let alone planned by ANY carrier. The standard for it had not been decided.
WiMax however WAS ready and Clearwire was building out WiMax. So Sprint made a deal with Clearwire. Sprint sold it's spectrum licenses to Clearwire. In exchange Clearwire provided WiMax service to Sprint and protected the licenses.
Now, a lot of people hate on Sprint because it's a seriously screwed up and poorly managed company - and that is true. I do not deny it. However, imagine if you will another company that makes Sprint look like a paragon of organizational virtue! That's Clearwire. Or was anyway.
Clearwire charged Sprint $5 a device for access to WiMax, even if a customer was not in a WiMax area. Sprint turned around and double charged their WiMax customers ($10 per device). That later became applied to ALL Sprint customers using smartphones and became known as the Premium Data Fee (which I pay).
Eventually, because of Clearwire's dislike of it's agreement with Sprint it simply decided to stop building out WiMax altogether.
None of that is or was Sprint's fault. Network Vision was the reaction to Clearwire's obstinacy and Sprint's attempt to remove itself from being at the mercy of Clearwire.
But at that point LTE had finally moved into the planning and launch stages for the other carriers - so Sprint was behind. All of Sprint's towers (over 38,000) were still 3G because ALL the WiMax towers were owned by Clearwire.
So, que 2.5 years of ripping out and replacing all the old equipment and you get Sprint even further behind.
Now of course, Sprint has it's spectrum licenses back because they got them back when they bought out Clearwire as part of the deal in Softbank buying Sprint.
I don't object to people coming down on Sprint for things that are legitimately Sprint's fault. But, again, WiMax was not Sprint's fault.
What would you do if the FCC wanted to strip you of your spectrum licenses and the only thing ready to go RIGHT THEN was WiMax?
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well prior to the Iphone 5 LTE was not even optional, so of course if you are in an area with LTE you will get far better service.
I barely got a 3g signal when I had my 4s where I worked. Then I bought a 6 and nearly have a full LTE signal.
I have an LTE iPhone 5. I see a lot of 3G and the LTE I do see is sub-3G speeds.
Just saying.
