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Bye Bye Slow Sprint. My impressions

Markiie

Markiie

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
473
213
Los Angeles, California.
Well I don't know where to start but here goes...

I had a AT&T iPhone 4 but couldn't upgrade to the 4s without having to pay the crazy 799 they cost to buy outright. I ended up giving the phone to my Mother and traded her for a Sprint Blackberry that she was out of contract for. Perfect. I pay 299 and I get the 4S. She keeps my iPhone 4...everyone wins.

As you can see with all the treads going around Sprints download speeds have been downright horrible and its no different here in Los Angeles. Ive ran a speed test the iPhone 4 with AT&T and the Sprint 4S iPhone and the AT&T iPhone is clearly faster by 2.5/3.0 the upload and download speeds. For someone who is always online with their phone and tethers this is unacceptable for me.
In my short time of owning the Sprint iPhone I did noticed the reception is a lot better than AT&T in the area but the speeds are clearly faster on AT&T by a mile. The talk and surf was something I never appreciated until today when I found myself calling Sprint and trying to look at something online while i was on hold.

When I called Sprint and they said I have 3 days to return my phone and cancel without penalty. So tomorrow morning I'm going back to the Sprint store to cancel and go back home (AT&T). For any of you who want to try to make a switch now. You have until tomorrow if your not happy with Sprint.
 
Yep. Sprint's hardware physically cannot handle anything higher 3.1Mb/s while AT&T can physically handle up to 14.4Mb/s.

Sprint is pretty location based. Some places are excellent, and some just downright suck. I'd consider switching, but I think they're more expensive than AT&T. No point paying more and getting less.
 
lucky you..... at least you have a home to go to, i been with sprint since cell phones hit the market,switch to verizon when they annouced they where getting the iphone 4 but my bill was to freakin high so just came back home to sprint not knowing the data speeds was gonna be this slow. Im praying that they update there systems or whatever they have to do to speed the data up....
 
I will say I am laughing at all these threads about people who left AT&T to jump to sprint. Going in you had to know the data speeds would be slower.
As for talk and surf the trick to that is get in range of wifi.
 
I've found the 3G speeds to be quicker tonight than they were last night. I came from Verizon and tonight they seem almost the same. Last night was horrible.
 
Yep. I told myself if the iPhone 4 came out with 4G capability I'd take a look at Verizon. I hate AT&T mostly because thier customer service blows and their lack of coverage, although the coverage issues only impact me when I'm traveling to semi-remote places. But unfortunately without a 4G iPhone I'm stuck with AT&T because I'll own no other phone other than an iPhone and thier network is indeed much faster than Verizon or Sprint. I greatly value the simultaneous talk/data as well. It's a catch-22 at the moment. Barring any huge price differences between AT&T and Verizon when an iPhone with 4G capability comes out I'm definetly going to re-evaluate different carriers. I dont foresee AT&T's customer service improving even in the next year or two so at that time it may be the only difference between the two carriers and I may switch. Of course I've read from some that Verizon's customer service can be bad as well but it'll be a judgement call I guess at that time, all other things being equal (pricing, talk/data, speed, coverage, etc.).

I'm afraid Sprint's going the way of the dodo bird. I would be surprised if they are still around as an independent carrier a year from now. Sprint getting gobbled up would be a bad thing for us all unless it was bought by a new player in the US market, perhaps from overseas. The AT&T merger with T-Mobile won't go through. There are too many politicians that are rightfully pissed off about how much smart phone plans cost and how restrictive plans are. AT&T, Verizon & Sprint have been colluding or working together to keep thier plans pricey for many many years.
 
Sprint is in the process of upgrading all of their towers for not only faster and more reliable 3G, but the LTE rollout in 2012. Supposedly they're doing the 3G improvements right around this time, but it's too little, and not where it's needed apparently. (Sprint "Network Vision" is their term for the rollout)

Once this is done, I'm sure the iPhone experience will be pleasurable on Sprint, but until then we're stuck with the most horrid data rates I've seen since 2006.

I'm going to hold on for a few months and hope for the best. Perhaps iOS5.1 will address some concerns, but I don't see how. Normally I'd say it was a mistake for you to leave so early, but if you rely on your cell connection heavily, you've really got no choice but to switch asap.
 
This is why I don't understand why some people are so quick to switch carriers just to get a phone. Glad you were able to try it out and make the decision that you did. The grass is not greener, but grassier.
 
this is very unfortunate.

I hate it for anyone suffering slow data speeds.

I am very glad to be with at&t
 
iMrNiceGuy0023 said:
are all Sprint devices the same way??
Click to expand...

No it's just the iPhone.

Androids on Sprint are great. It's what's kept Sprint in business.

When the EVO came out it gave Sprint a huge boost in revenue.

The iPhone is responsible for giving AT&T a bad name, since the original iPhone was equipped with a chip that was not 100% compatible with AT&T's network. However Apple used their power, influence, and skill to hide the facts and blame it all on AT&T. It worked well, assisted by the Apple worshippers, AT&T was blindsided. Lesson learned was never underestimate Apples power to influence people & manipulate them for Apples gain. Apple didn't get to where they are based only on good products, they took alls means required to claw to the top.
 
burnout8488 said:
Sprint is in the process of upgrading all of their towers for not only faster and more reliable 3G, but the LTE rollout in 2012. Supposedly they're doing the 3G improvements right around this time, but it's too little, and not where it's needed apparently. (Sprint "Network Vision" is their term for the rollout)

Once this is done, I'm sure the iPhone experience will be pleasurable on Sprint, but until then we're stuck with the most horrid data rates I've seen since 2006.

I'm going to hold on for a few months and hope for the best. Perhaps iOS5.1 will address some concerns, but I don't see how. Normally I'd say it was a mistake for you to leave so early, but if you rely on your cell connection heavily, you've really got no choice but to switch asap.
Click to expand...

Well, no matter how much they 'upgrade' their towers. you will not see speeds above 2Mps. EVDO Rev A tops out at 3Mps. So Real world speed would be 1.5 to 2Mps under the best of conditions. LTE rollout to be completed in 2013, not 2012. Useless to current iPhone 4S users since the 4S doesn't have LTE.

I am not laughing but feel sorry for the people who switched. I even told people on here on more than a few threads not to do it and they don't know what switching would entail. They defended Sprint saying how great it would be, :confused: Lol.

No one listened. Take a slow 3G network and bog it down with a iPhone launch=slow.

What did they think would happen. Verizon isn't much better. They also utilize EVDO Rev A. At least their slow 3G will go at near the max of 1.5Mps to 2Mps. Mostly around 1Mps. Better than 300Kps. Lol.

----------
vitzr said:
No it's just the iPhone.

Androids on Sprint are great. It's what's kept Sprint in business.

When the EVO came out it gave Sprint a huge boost in revenue.

The iPhone is responsible for giving AT&T a bad name, since the original iPhone was equipped with a chip that was not 100% compatible with AT&T's network. However Apple used their power, influence, and skill to hide the facts and blame it all on AT&T. It worked well, assisted by the Apple worshippers, AT&T was blindsided. Lesson learned was never underestimate Apples power to influence people & manipulate them for Apples gain. Apple didn't get to where they are based only on good products, they took alls means required to claw to the top.
Click to expand...

That is false, where do people come up with this stuff?:confused:

Chip not compatible with ATT? Are you serious? Just what chip would that be? Lol. :roll eyes:

My business has contracts with ATT, Verizon, Sprint and I know a great deal of what goes on in the mobile space. What you are saying is make believe. Storytelling at it's worst.

The original iPhone did not use a 3G chip for the same reason the 4S is not using LTE, battery life and size of the chip.

ATT upgraded their EDGE network for the iPhone launch by adding backhaul, and speeds at first were well over the 200Kps. Mark, approaching UMTS speeds. It worked at first, then they got bogged down, and then recovered with added backhaul to their towers. Sprint is going through the same thing now.

The fact of the matter is that ATT was not prepared for the huge amount of data use from the thousands of iPhone users all at once. Same thing is happening to sprint. You do know that the iPhone users use the most data of any phone out there right? Had nothing to do with Apple or this mystery chip or conspiracies.

Stop telling fantasy stories. :mad:
 
I'll believe Sprint's LTE rollout schedule when it happens. You guys do realize that building new towers in certain area is not about who can do it the fastest right? AT&T can not build in many areas because of the political red tape. Prime example is downtown San Francisco and NYC.

So even if Sprint is dumping huge amount of money to expand the network, it may take a long time in those area, or never happen at all.
 
Unlimited data paired with all the new iPhone users.......sprint is getting it worse then att did in the beginning.
 
vitzr said:
No it's just the iPhone.

Androids on Sprint are great. It's what's kept Sprint in business.

When the EVO came out it gave Sprint a huge boost in revenue.

The iPhone is responsible for giving AT&T a bad name, since the original iPhone was equipped with a chip that was not 100% compatible with AT&T's network. However Apple used their power, influence, and skill to hide the facts and blame it all on AT&T. It worked well, assisted by the Apple worshippers, AT&T was blindsided. Lesson learned was never underestimate Apples power to influence people & manipulate them for Apples gain. Apple didn't get to where they are based only on good products, they took alls means required to claw to the top.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about?

Please refrain from posting about this subject...
 
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We have until tomorrow to return them?? Wtf? I thought it was 14 days...the phone just arrived on the 14th...
 
Sprint is most poorly managed wireless company ever...

CEO spent 20 billion dollars on iPhone.
They just went from Wi-max to LTE. Good thing to move to LTE as it becomes world's standards, but What the hell? Why did not they see this 2-3 years ago? They already wasted billions of dollars on wi-max.

Their 3G speed is whack.

Their network will be tested with iPhone 4S and iPhone 4.

I have seen speeds go like .12 Mbps. That's edge speed.

Sprint sucks, period.
 
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It's an app called speed test.
 
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Is the Sprint return deadline really tomorrow?
 
Frankied22 said:
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Is the Sprint return deadline really tomorrow?
Click to expand...

No. Sprint offers 3 days for a full refund of everything. I think they offer 14 days (30 in CA and other states that require 30 days) to return devices and cancel service, but you will be charged for what you used in those 14 days. The 72hr return is a net 0 out of pocket for you.

As to those claiming the iPhone is the only slow phone on Sprint's 3G, that is a load of garbage. It absolutely depends upon where you are.

Here is a screenshot from my Epic "4G" (no 4G in Phoenix on Sprint yet, so everyone has to use their 3G network) back in January of this year. That was typical for me around the Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa.
 

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I'm still trying to decide if I want to stick with my AT&T iPhone 4 or this new sprint iPhone 4S with unlimited data and a cheaper bill. So far Sprints network has been pretty erratic. In one spot I'll get .25mbs one test, then 1.10 Mbs the next...I am going to be on the road this week traveling from Michigan to north Dakota so that will be a good test between AT&T and sprint.

Thank for clarification on the return policies.
 
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