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Apple Stops Allowing Sprint iPhone Activations, Removes Sprint References From Online Store
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Wow! That Mitsubishi is a true vintage... I had forgotten they used the Diamond brand for phones too, their CRT monitors were branded as Diamondtrons, some of the best monitors ever made.
I worked the Genius Bar from 2007-2014. When Sprint got iPhones, their network was such garbage AppleCare momentarily halted hardware swaps for certain issues on Sprint model iPhones because it was clearly the carrier network, not the hardware. Some techs would swap the phone to make the customer happy, and no surprise, they’d continue to drop calls and receive SMS days after being sent.
First and only time I recall that happening in my tenure.
First and only time I recall that happening in my tenure.
Sprint was an actual MNO (mobile network operator) while Mint is a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) that uses T-Mobile's network. There are currently still four MNOs and many MVNOs in the U.S.
Hell yes I do. It was an excellent WiMAX device. Loved the interface as well. Sprint itself was still a lower tier carrier compared to Verizon and AT&T but when that device came out they had some of the best coverage along the Southern California coast.🪦 RIP Sprint! Do you guys remember the HTC EVO 4G? 🥺
I rememeber WiMAX. I took my laptop once when we went down toward Philly and it everntually got a signal. Never worked at home in Bethlehem though. Wonder why they killed it off here.
WiMAX was prototypical even when it was in production through Clearwire. It suffered from inordinately high power requirements for high speed data transmission and as such if you were further than half a mile from a tower you’d see rather poor performance compared to the specification’s promised values.
Sprint then acquired Clearwire and integrated it into their network but the other big problem with WiMAX is it required an entirely separate radio as Qualcomm was not developing them at the time. That only compounded the power requirement issue and Sprint never integrated VOIP to the extent that you could reliably “switch to” WiMAX and use all their services. It was though, for it’s time, the fastest long distance wireless transmission standard and gave Sprint a few brownie points… until 4G began rolling out over the newer GSM / LTE infrastructure used by everyone else.
Cool article for anyone interested in the history: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e-in-wimax-network-pact-idUSN1941797320070719
In one sense, they weren't. T-Mobile stopped sending out actual Sprint SIM cards a long time ago and transitioned almost all existing Sprint customers over to T-Mobile SIM cards. All of my "Sprint" phones have T-Mobile cards in them.
I imagine what this references is the ability to add a new phone line to an existing legacy Sprint account which has not yet transitioned over to the T-Mobile billing system. And of course, you might reasonably find it peculiar that existing customers would not only choose to remain on a legacy Sprint account, but also add new phone lines to that account... right?
Well, speaking as one of those few remaining legacy billing customers: The answer is, last I checked all of the lines on my account are still grandfathered into real unlimited data, for all things but tethering. No data usage caps, no manipulated quality, no crimping of bitrates on Netflix or other streaming services, no deprioritization in peak usage periods... just straight up unfettered data access. I'm pretty sure you can't buy that at any price, in today's cellular market.
(I suspect I would still be able to add new lines to my account by logging on at sprint.com... but I'm sure they'll eventually close off that option as well.)
AT&T Unlimited Premium is actually that. You have to turn off "Stream Saver" to disable the bitrate limits on video. But once you do that it's truly unlimited priority data -- at QCI7, actually. Hotspot is limited, but it's still 50 GB more than Sprint gave out on those old lines.
But other than that one plan, you're correct.
The battery life this phone has oh gosh lol🪦 RIP Sprint! Do you guys remember the HTC EVO 4G? 🥺
🪦 RIP Sprint! Do you guys remember the HTC EVO 4G? 🥺
I do. It was my first Android phone and my first time buying a phone on my own plan instead of my parent's. I was in my early 20's I think when this phone first came out and it was the hottest one on the market. The phones back then were changing at a rapid pace and for a short time, the EVO could not be touched by anything else around I mean the specs and features were off the charts CRAZY.
I had the iPhone 3G back then, my first smartphone and obviously first iPhone and I loved it but the EVO put it to absolute shame pound for pound. I was getting a little bored of the iPhone so the day the EVO was released I went to Best Buy and opened an account with Sprint and picked one up and was completely blown away. Nothing to this day hit me with such a rush as this phone did when I saw it for the first time, even my iPhone 3G didn't have the same effect.
The EVO was truly special, really showed the power of a "super" phone though I will say the love affair did not last. The build quality of the phone was horrible - cheap plastic body, a bright spot formed on the LCD in the corner of the screen, the flash was way way way too bright on the camera (though it did offer 2x LED flash when the iPhone had none) and the speaker blew out I guess due to playing music on it too loud?? I think I also had microphone problems on it which made calls infuriating.
All in all, an unbelievably and incredibly specced phone but build quality flaws would manifest themselves after a while. I jumped to the Samsung Epic 4G shortly after the EVO and that was whole other can of worms, lol. 😅
Yes, I can attest to this. My personal phone is AT&T and my work phone is Verizon. Where I go 90% of the time AT&T has coverage when Verizon does not (Northwester MA, Southern VT, Southern NM), but some areas Verizon (Pound Ridge, NY) will have coverage where AT&T does not. When I have not tired T-Mobile, people who have it have told me it is fine in urban areas but not that good outside of urban areas.
I agree. With T-Mobile I get between 30 to 800 mbps. The variance of the speed is very high, and service is still pretty spotty to poor if you’re outside of major cities. All those purchases of spectrum and carriers and still the network is not that great outside of big towns.