Sprint band switching

[a02]

Does anyone else experience their iPhone going 'skitzo' switching between LTE, 3G, and 1X repeatedly? It doesn't happen all the time but enough to be irritating, especially when the cycle ends and sticks to 1X when it had LTE just before.

 

[TheMacApple]

I'm in Chicago and for me only goes to 1x when I'm on a phone call. Switches right back to lte

 

[eyoungren]

You are probably in an area with fringe LTE coverage.

 

[cchs2014]

Does anyone else experience their iPhone going 'skitzo' switching between LTE, 3G, and 1X repeatedly? It doesn't happen all the time but enough to be irritating, especially when the cycle ends and sticks to 1X when it had LTE just before.

I know exactly what you are talking about. Coming from AT&T I had absolutely no idea what was wrong with Sprint. With At&t, if I was in a LTE area, the phone would immediately pick up the signal and remain on LTE until the coverage no longer existed. However on Sprint, I'd say they definitely have some issues with the programming and smoothness switching between bands. I'd be in a definite LTE area but the phone would rather choose 1X/3G and sometimes never switch back to LTE until I put it in airplane mode and tried again. I will admit it was horrendous on the iPhone 5, but it got better at switching and picking up the better signal with the iPhone 6. I am on T-Mobile now and no longer have to deal with this thankfully. My phone smoothly picks up and hangs onto the best signal automatically without me having to toggle around and mess with it.

 

[a02]

Yes it was much better automated with T-Mo. I have been giving Sprint a shot as they are much better around here with building penetration and some rural areas I pass through from time to time. I will give them credit for having a much more consistent signal in the area, however service quality has been something else. Voice quality at times sounds like the other caller is on the other side of a tunnel or just strait robotic. I thought I remembered it being much better a couple years ago. That and at times it looks like images are being further compressed. Kind of swaying towards going back to T-Mo at this point.

 

[cchs2014]

Yes it was much better automated with T-Mo. I have been giving Sprint a shot as they are much better around here with building penetration and some rural areas I pass through from time to time. I will give them credit for having a much more consistent signal in the area, however service quality has been something else. Voice quality at times sounds like the other caller is on the other side of a tunnel or just strait robotic. I thought I remembered it being much better a couple years ago. That and at times it looks like images are being further compressed. Kind of swaying towards going back to T-Mo at this point.

Yup... I definitely relate with everything you're saying. Sprint has definitely improved in coverage and stability, I'll give them credit for that. They are actually fine in my area but overall, I just couldn't find myself being actually happy on their network. I was taken by surprise when I finally tested out the voice quality on T-Mobile's network. I never knew a phone call could sound so good. And I definitely relate with the compressed images on Sprint's network. Trust me, they're compressing the heck out of images - It's part of their 'network management system'

Even though Sprint was fine in my area, I grew tired of constantly being on a lagging network. They move way too slowly in deploying new features and enhancements. So I am pretty thrilled to pay the same amount of money to a network with more up-to-date features.

In my opinion, GSM technology is way better than CDMA.

 

[eyoungren]

Just some thoughts. If multiple users are sharing a cell tower, the more that are added the more congested the tower becomes, which then translates into weaker signal/range from LTE down to 3G to 1x. This is particularly evident on 3G and is the difference between a CDMA carrier and a GSM carrier. Sprint, of course, is CDMA. GSM will hold signal, but the quality of the signal reduces as the tower becomes more congested.

As to image compression…that's been a thing for a while now. Sprint is compressing images to reduce file size, which results in faster speeds. It's particularly evident with video streaming. Sprint will compress the heck out of that.

 

[rigormortis]

if your not using VoLTE and on sprint or verizon, its normal for the phone to show 1X or 3G when making a telephone call.

 

[DcGamer05]

I had sprint for about 8 months I couldn't do it. Constant page hanging never completing awful speeds. 1x inside any building. I was in a NV area it was still terrible.

I ported my two lines to Verizon and things are much better but Verizon is full of themselves but their service is decent. I upgraded to the iPhone 6 and their XTLE has improved my data speeds significantly I was coming from an iPhone 5 on Verizon and LTE was painfully slow on band 13.

To answer your question though the dropping to 1x and such is due to the high frequencies sprint uses and the fact cell sites also breathe based on load. So the more loaded the tower the smaller the coverage area as the load lessens the site can expand slightly. If I'm wrong correct me I want to make sure the OPS question is answered correctly.