Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sprint iPhone Users Complaining of Slow 3G Data Speeds
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can't say I'm surprised, but this is really too bad for Sprint. Sprint is betting their company on the iPhone, and they might really be screwed. I am not a Sprint customer, but competition is good, and if Sprint goes under because of this debacle (and their 20 billion dollar iPhone contract), that will be one less competitor.
Sprint is trying to roll out LTE all over the place, and it might indeed be ready when iPhones come out on LTE in the future, which might just save them, but certainly they can't be happy with all these people complaining about their data speeds now.
Sprint is trying to roll out LTE all over the place, and it might indeed be ready when iPhones come out on LTE in the future, which might just save them, but certainly they can't be happy with all these people complaining about their data speeds now.
I'm kind of surprised. I had a broadband card for about three years through Sprint and for the most part, I was always happy with the data speeds. My computer would test out at about 1Mbps which is what I get sometimes with AT&T on my iPhone.
LOL. You get what you pay for. You can pay $50 and enjoy your 0.2mbps with 25% overage and I'll pay my $80 and get 5mbps with 95% coverage. Who's the retard?
AT&T uses HSDPA which enhances UMTS data speeds. HSDPA normally supports up to 14.4 mb/s while Sprint uses CDMA2000 EVDO (3G) and WiMAX for their "4G" network. Normally, most WiMAX operators that I am aware of rarely offer speeds above 10 mb/s and the most common offerings are between 1-8 mb/s which are well supported by HSDPA. In fact, I've subscribed to a WiMAX ISP and at that time they are limited to 2.4 mb/s but HSDPA can exceed that with no effort.
So AT&T wins speed wise.
Last edited:
So far my experience has been issues with my 4s speed in my area with others getting solid speeds on other devices. On my 4s I am barely seeing 1mb averaging around 0.5mb.
My wife and my cousin who both own the Evo 4g are seeing around 12mb on 4g and 3~4mb on 3g using speedtest. (non Comcast servers for those who notice they are always slower)
When I called about this I was told in so many words "Your device is not designed for the faster speeds."
Well, then MY device is not designed for me then. This may go back Tues.
My wife and my cousin who both own the Evo 4g are seeing around 12mb on 4g and 3~4mb on 3g using speedtest. (non Comcast servers for those who notice they are always slower)
When I called about this I was told in so many words "Your device is not designed for the faster speeds."
Well, then MY device is not designed for me then. This may go back Tues.
In theory yes, real world tests (some posted in this thread) show mostly AT&T theoretical speeds end up being in the real world the same speed or SLOWER than Verizon due to packet loss and latency issues on AT&T
For example, Verizon mops the floor with AT&T in this NYC test http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wd7taHnHzcg
For over a year now, in the Boise/Nampa, ID areas, I've been experiencing 25k (slower than dial-up) to 300k 3G speeds (half of their lowest advertised 3G) and averaging 75k - 150k 75% of the time.
I've called them and talked to just about every level possible; in short, they wouldn't say or do anything, and insisted the cause was because my phone was 'rooted' and had a 'custom rom' installed on it, therefore, it's my fault, and not their ****** ass network. I explained how 6+ of my friends with EVOs also experienced slow speeds, but of course, they refuse comment or check on anything besides your phone and the tower closest to your house, when in reality, it's 9 out of 10 of their towers that are complete ****. I gave up.
I got a new iPhone 4S and did some speed tests on my way home tonight:
Route can be seen here: http://g.co/maps/2h8ut
Siri didn't work once on the way home.
Also, they supposedly did a 'capacity upgrade' (not network vision) to the tower 2.5 miles S.W. of my house (from the ending point on the map above) on Sept. 30th (the last day of the given time-frame, of course). From the evening of the 30th until the afternoon of the 1st Oct., I got 1000k (1mbps); since then, I haven't seen it over 300k, and it's usually exactly where it's been for a year (75k - 150k)
I'm going to hound Sprint nonstop until they fix their network, I'm paying absolutely nothing, or I get out ETF free with my iPhone 4S.
I've never dealt with a company with a worse company. Their employees lie constantly. No one has the same answer about anything. They deserve to go bankrupt as far as I'm concerned. They make stupid choices and never seem to finish/complete anything. They're a complete flustercuck of a company.
P.S. Doesn't everyone just love paying $10 extra a month for 'Unlimited Premium Data'...as if it was humanly possible to use more than 2GBs a month with their speeds.
I've called them and talked to just about every level possible; in short, they wouldn't say or do anything, and insisted the cause was because my phone was 'rooted' and had a 'custom rom' installed on it, therefore, it's my fault, and not their ****** ass network. I explained how 6+ of my friends with EVOs also experienced slow speeds, but of course, they refuse comment or check on anything besides your phone and the tower closest to your house, when in reality, it's 9 out of 10 of their towers that are complete ****. I gave up.
I got a new iPhone 4S and did some speed tests on my way home tonight:
Route can be seen here: http://g.co/maps/2h8ut
Siri didn't work once on the way home.
Also, they supposedly did a 'capacity upgrade' (not network vision) to the tower 2.5 miles S.W. of my house (from the ending point on the map above) on Sept. 30th (the last day of the given time-frame, of course). From the evening of the 30th until the afternoon of the 1st Oct., I got 1000k (1mbps); since then, I haven't seen it over 300k, and it's usually exactly where it's been for a year (75k - 150k)
I'm going to hound Sprint nonstop until they fix their network, I'm paying absolutely nothing, or I get out ETF free with my iPhone 4S.
I've never dealt with a company with a worse company. Their employees lie constantly. No one has the same answer about anything. They deserve to go bankrupt as far as I'm concerned. They make stupid choices and never seem to finish/complete anything. They're a complete flustercuck of a company.
P.S. Doesn't everyone just love paying $10 extra a month for 'Unlimited Premium Data'...as if it was humanly possible to use more than 2GBs a month with their speeds.
Last edited:
Speedtest.net is nice, but look at how fast Verizon loads pages during actual phone use. It's just shocking how speedtest results don't translate into "real world use" speed differences.
Last night I was leaning towards keeping with AT&T, today am now back to thinking of a switch to Verizon given real world results being often faster and always more reliable than AT&T in urban areas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wd7taHnHzcg
Last night I was leaning towards keeping with AT&T, today am now back to thinking of a switch to Verizon given real world results being often faster and always more reliable than AT&T in urban areas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wd7taHnHzcg
1.81 down 0.67 up - on Sprint yesterday - 1.5 hours outside Chicago. I've been streaming Netflix with no issues. Also, it looks Siri is overloaded. The apple support site has a few threads with people from all carriers not being able to connect. [https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3388900?start=0&tstart=0]
Attachments
Last edited:
I switched from T-Mobile where I had great speeds along with free hotspot. My iPad ran great on their network through my 4g phone. I did miss the iPhone so I switched to Sprint.
For individual plans I can see that the price difference between the 3 carriers isn't that much. At least not enough for you to select price over service.
However, with a family plan that has 4 iPhones on it price does become a significant factor when choosing which carrier to go with. I figure I'm saving over $100 per month compared to Verizon and over $60 per month compared to AT&T when I compare similar plans and options. I'm using the minimum data packages on each carrier for 3 of the iPhones.
Calculate those savings over the 2 year contract and I can deal with the slower data speeds. If siri doesn't work or is slow sometimes then WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL !! Plus now we've all got an iPhone. I'd rather have an iPhone on a slower network than no iPhone at all. I simply can't afford AT&T or Verizon, at least not until the kids get on their own
BTW, the speeds that I'm seeing aren't that far off from the DSL lite that we had with AT&T a couple of years ago.
There's a lot more to having an iPhone then the data speeds. The iPhone is a fantastic phone even without data.
For individual plans I can see that the price difference between the 3 carriers isn't that much. At least not enough for you to select price over service.
However, with a family plan that has 4 iPhones on it price does become a significant factor when choosing which carrier to go with. I figure I'm saving over $100 per month compared to Verizon and over $60 per month compared to AT&T when I compare similar plans and options. I'm using the minimum data packages on each carrier for 3 of the iPhones.
Calculate those savings over the 2 year contract and I can deal with the slower data speeds. If siri doesn't work or is slow sometimes then WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL !! Plus now we've all got an iPhone. I'd rather have an iPhone on a slower network than no iPhone at all. I simply can't afford AT&T or Verizon, at least not until the kids get on their own
BTW, the speeds that I'm seeing aren't that far off from the DSL lite that we had with AT&T a couple of years ago.
There's a lot more to having an iPhone then the data speeds. The iPhone is a fantastic phone even without data.
I switched from T-Mobile where I had great speeds along with free hotspot. My iPad ran great on their network through my 4g phone. I did miss the iPhone so I switched to Sprint.
For individual plans I can see that the price difference between the 3 carriers isn't that much. At least not enough for you to select price over service.
However, with a family plan that has 4 iPhones on it price does become a significant factor when choosing which carrier to go with. I figure I'm saving over $100 per month compared to Verizon and over $60 per month compared to AT&T when I compare similar plans and options. I'm using the minimum data packages on each carrier for 3 of the iPhones.
Calculate those savings over the 2 year contract and I can deal with the slower data speeds. If siri doesn't work or is slow sometimes then WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL !! Plus now we've all got an iPhone. I'd rather have an iPhone on a slower network than no iPhone at all. I simply can't afford AT&T or Verizon, at least not until the kids get on their own
BTW, the speeds that I'm seeing aren't that far off from the DSL lite that we had with AT&T a couple of years ago.
There's a lot more to having an iPhone then the data speeds. The iPhone is a fantastic phone even without data.
Also, if you have wifi at home, and at other places you go (work, etc). then you can compensate for slow network speeds.
What a marketing scam. Yes, Sprint offers unlimited plans, but your access is limited to around 0.2 mbs. That's like getting unlimited refills of coke....but you can only get an ounce at a time.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
Sounds like the same ole Sprint to me. I had a buddy switch to Verizon only to find his reception issues continued in Denver. Meanwhile my speed with the 4S on ATT is now ~3 times his. Right now Im paying about 240 a month to AT&T for 4 iPhones on family plan, 1400 shared mins, 2gb data per, unlimited txt, unlimited mobile to mobile any carrier, etc. I consider that quite reasonable enough.
Sounds like the same ole Sprint to me. I had a buddy switch to Verizon only to find his reception issues continued in Denver. Meanwhile my speed with the 4S on ATT is now ~3 times his. Right now Im paying about 240 a month to AT&T for 4 iPhones on family plan, 1400 shared mins, 2gb data per, unlimited txt, unlimited mobile to mobile any carrier, etc. I consider that quite reasonable enough.
Seems Fine
Switched to Sprint from ATT. I had the same slow speeds on day one and two things seem to be fine now... Where I live ATT is brought to its knees with various events in my city, ATT goes down to the point of not even being able to send a text message. Sprint holds up much better.
But in retrospect. I should be talking about how "AWFUL" Sprint is so that everyone else stays away allowing me access to more of the pipe.
Switched to Sprint from ATT. I had the same slow speeds on day one and two things seem to be fine now... Where I live ATT is brought to its knees with various events in my city, ATT goes down to the point of not even being able to send a text message. Sprint holds up much better.
But in retrospect. I should be talking about how "AWFUL" Sprint is so that everyone else stays away allowing me access to more of the pipe.
Attachments
Last edited:
Yeah, actually I do (well iPhone 4. I don't get eligible for an upgrade until February and I may or may not wait for the 5 judging by what i read about the 4s in the meantime and also if I find that my phone still seems to be up to date for the latest games and I'm not talking Angry Birds but the kind that do require good graphics ability).
Of course, it's called sharing a family plan with my roommate, having the lowest minute plans cause neither of us talk much (a grandfathered talking plan actually cause we've been there so long, longer than we've had iPhones with AT&T), but we both have unlimited (grandfathered), and he has a discount for the place he works (apparently so do I and I only work at some corporate run pet store so it's not like you have the best job to get one of those either). And, well, we have no wish to change as neither of us have had bad experiences with AT&T (in fact when I first got the iphone I probably wouldn't have even considered it if it wasn't on Cingular. I wasn't object to changing to Verizon or T-Mobile if there was a phone that really stood out to me on a decent plan but I did prefer staying with Cingular honestly).
So part of it is pretty much bonus for being with AT&T so long (we still have old plans) and a small part discount for a place that works with them to get a discount.
But honestly, I never was impressed with Sprint. Granted my experience was with them long ago (think early 2000) I couldn't understand how Sprint survived. They had the crappiest connection ever and it wasn't just me or people in my area that seemed to have that issue. Judging by this thread (not just this one incident but what I hear people saying here), Sprint really is no different (hell, a year ago the Verizon person at the mall was telling me they got the most switchers from Sprint).
Last edited:
Sorry, but one test? Maybe we can find a test in a different city where AT&T has a stronger presence. If you follow Apple at all, you know that Apple protects its brands. They chose AT&T for a reason. They stuck with ONLY AT&T for almost 4 Years for a reason.
Bottom line, cellular is cellular, and calls will drop on all networks and everyones experience is different. No one has a perfect cell network. Verizon has an antiquated network in most of the country and a few "4G" towers sparsley populated so they can run commercials indicating so. Their network has limited features and limiting bandwidth. So you can be an AT&T hater but that won't change the facts. Remember who partnered with Apple to re-invent the smartphone. Verizon laughed it off and turned it down. AT&T stepped up!