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Is Sprints $50 iPhone 6 plan truly unlimited?
- Thread starter wrcousert
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They don't automatically throttle like AT&T does after 5GB for unlimited plans.
There is no set limit on when Sprint will start throttling you, but if you use less than 5GB you don't have anything to worry about. If you use more, then Sprint may perhaps start throttling you at some point, but who knows.
The real question is whether Sprint has good coverage in your area. "Unlimited" doesn't hold any meaning if you get bad 3g speeds and no lte.
There is no set limit on when Sprint will start throttling you, but if you use less than 5GB you don't have anything to worry about. If you use more, then Sprint may perhaps start throttling you at some point, but who knows.
The real question is whether Sprint has good coverage in your area. "Unlimited" doesn't hold any meaning if you get bad 3g speeds and no lte.
Yeah - Agree.
Depends where you live.
Where I've tested it -- it's like "unlimited water in your cup"....but I was always "never near a faucet"
Depends where you live.
Where I've tested it -- it's like "unlimited water in your cup"....but I was always "never near a faucet"
Sprint doesn't throttle. At least not in the sense everyone assumes.
Here is what Sprint does. They call it "load balancing".
If you are in the top 5 percent of data users in any given month AND you connect to an OVERLOADED tower Sprint will reduce your speed.
If you then move to an UN-OVERLOADED tower, your connection speed will go right back to where it should be. That is - full speed. This same thing will also happen if the OVERLOADED tower you are connected to becomes UN-OVERLOADED.
The key takeway here is that Sprint will ONLY reduced the speeds of the top 5 percent whenever they connect to an overloaded tower.
At all other times you will receive no "load balancing".
Now. There is something else to consider and this is buried in the contract fine print. Sprint reserves the right to "optimize" your connection. What that means is that if you stream movies or video, once you hit 1GB of streaming data Sprint will automatically reduce the quality of the stream to your device. Reducing the quality is therefore not throttling but results in less load on the network.
So, the thing you never know here is just who Sprint considers to be in the top 5%. Right now this is a problem because in lots of areas people haven't been able to use very much data. So the general consensus has been that if you use 5GB or less you should be safe.
Personally, having been on Sprint for 15 years I wouldn't worry about it. Before the network upgrades I routinely had 10-13GBs of usage a month and never had any issues. There are people I know of who use anywhere from 50-150GB per month and never have problems. So, all the way around this is nothing to worry over. That's the whole point of unlimited data. Use it and don't worry about it.
Here is what Sprint does. They call it "load balancing".
If you are in the top 5 percent of data users in any given month AND you connect to an OVERLOADED tower Sprint will reduce your speed.
If you then move to an UN-OVERLOADED tower, your connection speed will go right back to where it should be. That is - full speed. This same thing will also happen if the OVERLOADED tower you are connected to becomes UN-OVERLOADED.
The key takeway here is that Sprint will ONLY reduced the speeds of the top 5 percent whenever they connect to an overloaded tower.
At all other times you will receive no "load balancing".
Now. There is something else to consider and this is buried in the contract fine print. Sprint reserves the right to "optimize" your connection. What that means is that if you stream movies or video, once you hit 1GB of streaming data Sprint will automatically reduce the quality of the stream to your device. Reducing the quality is therefore not throttling but results in less load on the network.
So, the thing you never know here is just who Sprint considers to be in the top 5%. Right now this is a problem because in lots of areas people haven't been able to use very much data. So the general consensus has been that if you use 5GB or less you should be safe.
Personally, having been on Sprint for 15 years I wouldn't worry about it. Before the network upgrades I routinely had 10-13GBs of usage a month and never had any issues. There are people I know of who use anywhere from 50-150GB per month and never have problems. So, all the way around this is nothing to worry over. That's the whole point of unlimited data. Use it and don't worry about it.
If only it was that simple. Most of the time sprint data was completely unusable for me.
If i wanted to look up a website I had to wait a couple minutes for it to load...and If i wanted to watch a video I just gave up because it would get stuck at constant buffering.
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What's even more annoying is when you actually start losing money because your wireless provider's network sucks.
For example when you're in a store and you want to look up a coupon to save money but you can't because your internet is too slow.
Another scenario, you get a call to set up an important job interview, and your call drops. They call you back and your call drops again. This time, they don't call you back.
To the OP: make sure Sprint has good service in your area, or you are looking at your worst nightmare. Throttling should be the least of your concerns.
I hear you. I am in the exact same boat. All the towers around the ones I routinely connect to have been upgraded, but I still sit at home and work on LTE that is slower than 3G! The tower at work has a ticket on it that's been open for months. It's in an industrial area and the backhaul is still waiting. The tower(s) at home, God only knows when they will get updated. And I can't stream music on the way to work because there is still one 3G only tower along my drive that stops my music cold whenever there's a handoff.
I gave Sprint two years in Sept. 2012 and this is the best they could do in Phoenix up to this point. So, early next year I'm leaving. It's good everywhere else and in other markets, but 59% of completion after two years is just really not acceptable to me.
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Again I hear you. Try being stuck in an industrial area and nothing will load when you are trying to get directions. Your kids are in the back seat, you're late for an important appointment and your wife is demanding to know why, if you've looked up the directions BEFORE you left work, you aren't where you're supposed to be at that very moment!
Or, in extreme cases where I've heard from others. No service when you need 911!
Thank God that's not an issue for us because we do not have landlines at home, but if it were I would have dumped Sprint a long time ago over it.
I didn't even think it was $50. It's its 70 with the iPhone lease and those not on contract are 'subject to $35 fee'. Wtf.