And that is why Sprint is charging less. They can't get charge the same prices that AT&T and Verizon charge for the iPhone for not even half the data speeds.
I'll keep paying my $80/month for super fast 3G speeds. Well worth it.
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Sprint iPhone Users Complaining of Slow 3G Data Speeds
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And that is why Sprint is charging less. They can't get charge the same prices that AT&T and Verizon charge for the iPhone for not even half the data speeds.
I'll keep paying my $80/month for super fast 3G speeds. Well worth it.
Yes, Apple had a reason for both those actions. And ATT network quality is not the reason.
But see, that isn't true. I can count on one hand the number of dropped calls I've had in the last decade on Tmobile, and now 1/2 year on VZW. And even those I can't be sure were the fault of my phone/network, there's the other side of the call as well. Dropped calls is a really annoying problem, and I can't believe ATT still hasn't addressed it. It just screams "unprofessional" for the company, for you, etc. My company dropped ATT for VZW a year or 2 ago for these reasons. (I don't have a company phone, if these comments seem contradictory)
Sprint is not great around here, per my friend. But he's surviving it, still has some old Palm-related phone, I wonder if this will sway him in any way, he does like Apple products. Sprint appears to be the worst of the big 4 for overall reception in Mpls are. In a weird twist, I used to go to a specific wireless store that sold all brands years ago. The employees all used Sprint, because in their downtown store that was the only one that got any signal at all. They used to send people about 200' away to test other networks.
Actually it is not well stated.
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/07/sprint-aiming-to-launch-lte-network-in-mid-2012-full-buildout-by-end-of-2013/
Mazda 3s
macrumors 6502a
We moved from Sprint to AT&T a few months ago. I have iPhone 3gs and it was much faster than Sprint's 3g. I figured Sprint iPhone users were in for a sad surprise.
johncrab
macrumors 6502
Gee, I left Sprint for the very first iPhone over four years ago. Part of it was for the iPhone and part was to get away from Sprint. Any time I crossed a state line I had to find a wired phone, call in and have my service reconnected. Given that experience, I am not at all surprised that Sprint is making dial-up Internet seem fast.
You made my point. You don't get dropped calls wherever you are. I am in Florida and I can count on one hand how many dropped calls I have had on AT&T in a decade. I know several people on Verizon in Florida that have dropped calls all day long. So, point made. It is cellular and its different for everyone in different locations.
Shall we take your word on why Apple chose AT&T or should we go back factual history on why Apple does what they do to protect their name? They were looking at protecting their brand and did a great job doing it. AT&T was able to build out a great network to hang with the smartphone growth.
Also, I guess if you drop back to the edge network on AT&T you can get Verizon speeds and even a more consistent call network for AT&T.
ericrwalker
macrumors 68030
They probably didn't want to launch it on a carrier with less than 1,000 subscribers.
steadysignal
macrumors 6502a
Issue with Speedtest.net app?
Using a 3GS and the Speedtest.net app says my home network is running between 5-6 mb however from by Macbook pro on wifi and my iMac over ethernet, I get approx 15mb. As my network is not slowing things down I would suspect that the mobile app may not be translating the speed correctly.
I'm outside of the US (Guernsey in Channel Islands UK)
Wayne
Using a 3GS and the Speedtest.net app says my home network is running between 5-6 mb however from by Macbook pro on wifi and my iMac over ethernet, I get approx 15mb. As my network is not slowing things down I would suspect that the mobile app may not be translating the speed correctly.
I'm outside of the US (Guernsey in Channel Islands UK)
Wayne
WannaGoMac
macrumors 68030
Actually most tests show this results because there is less latency on the Verizon network in the real world -- streaming is where at&t can catch up with overall speed, but on web pages with lots of open and closed connections not so much.
And apple chose AT&T because Verizon et al told Apple "No" to the changes Apple wanted in terms of how the phone is marketed, visual voicemail etc. AT&T was desperate, Verizon wasn't ... that's all.
Also, in terms of LTE roll out., Verizon is ahead of AT&T.
alphaod
macrumors Core
Apple depends on other manufacturers to make the wireless radios. At this point is is only one chip that supports both GSM and CDMA, and that's what Apple has in the iPhone 4S. This chip does not support the AWS bands used by T-mobile for 3G.
Yes there are chips that support all the GSM band (pentaband chipset) like you see on the Nokia N8, but the chips don't support CDMA.
Maybe in the future we'll see a chipset that supports all GSM bands, supports CDMA bands, and support both SIM cards and RUIM cards.
You are obviously because you don't pay $80 on AT&T...nice try pal. Plan + Data Plan + taxes do not come out to 80. I don't get .2 mbps and why would I need coverage for anywhere other than where I reside? Are you at more than one place at a single time? Probably not. Butthurt much.
So if I'm looking for a good network contract to pair with a new iPhone 4S in the biggest economic market in the world I have exactly three choices. Two networks with faster connections and tightwad datacaps, or a network with much slower connections and no datacaps. Um, unless you haven't noticed NONE of those options is worth bragging about. Reading this thread is like listening to three medieval prisoners talk about who has the best cell in the dungeon.
Apple came to Verizon as their first choice but Verizon turned them down. Facts are AT&T might have faster network but where can you use it? Not nearly as many places as Verizon. Both AT&T and Sprint are far behind Verizon with LTE because they wasted time and money with other technologies they called 4g. Verizon has well over half the population of the us with LTE and is expanding it much faster. They have over 175 markets to AT&T 5 but they will have 15 by year end 2011. While Verizon will have almost 200. When the IPhone gets 4g maybe with the 5 how many markets can use it with any carrier other than Verizon? While Verizon will have 80% coverage by then
WannaGoMac
macrumors 68030
Well, someone is full of their britches.
I must have missed the law that requires providers to provide nationwide coverage. I know there were some restrictions on some of the 800MHz spectrum that was recently opened, but I'm not aware of a similar requirement for the existing wireless leases. In fact, I know of a number of instances where the federal government has subsidized wireless networking to remote communities. Seems curious if that was a responsibility of the major wireless providers. Well, and the existence of regional carriers certainly seems odd given such a scenario as well.
But even if it were, you are making baseless assumptions about the ratio of revenue available for capacity build out in dense areas. I'm glad you've convinced yourself, so pat yourself on the back.
Personally, I read the leaked memos from AT&T regarding their motivations in the T-Mobile acquisition as an indicator of their desire to remove consumer choice so they can continue slacking on infrastructure investment. But hey, that's just me and the DOJ.
Because despite your assertion, it's still a choice of the carriers as to whether or not they build reasonable capacity in the dense areas of the country, and given the lack of regulatory pressure compelling them to do so, on the whole we have rather lackluster telecom infrastructure.
Now I give credit to Verizon on their leading the international push into LTE, but that's the only example of US primacy that I can think of. Outside of that we're pretty terrible. Our landline speeds are a joke compared to the average available in the rest of the developed world, and unless there is some national requirement affecting the various regional providers (hint) there really isn't much of a reasonable explanation there other than lack of consumer choice resulting in crap development. Sure I can understand why speeds are slow on some ranch in the middle on Montana, but NYC should have speeds comparable to Tokyo or Seoul, and it doesn't even come close.
can you read? he said "after rebooting twice, it's fast now"
not "after rebooting it's twice as fast now"
Or maybe, you were just too "fast" to make a smart ass comment.
rocknblogger
macrumors 68020
To be completely honest in the almost 12 years I've been with Sprint I never once checked my speed. Since getting my first Android (Hero in '08) phone 3G service has been decent. When I got my EVO 4G it's been fine. And now my iPhone is fine too. First of all like I already said I don't constantly check how fast or slow my 3G connection is. To me the important thing is my user experience and thus far it's been fine.
I generally view sites that are mobile optimized and for the most part I actually use apps if available rather than the browser (Like for news as an example). I think it's very easy to get caught up in the numbers and specs and all that stuff. I almost got caught up too after reading this post. I decided to check my speed and it didn't look great. So I started testing my wife's EVO 4G vs my iPhone back and forth and so on. SOmetimes the EVO loaded faster and sometimes the iPhone loaded faster. I did notice if I had both phones side by side loading times ere slower for both. So then I started taking them outside one at a time and on my third time going out I stopped and realized what I was doing. Like I said before, I was okay with the speeds I was getting. I have no idea what they were but if I went to msn.com, nfl.com, mlb.com or yahoo.com they all loaded fast. All the sites loaded within a few seconds and were navigable almost immediately.
I don't doubt for a second that some of you are having issues and are very dissatisfied. If you came over from AT&T I wouldn't blame you for wanting to go back if your service happens to be in one of the good areas. Quite frankly I've read about and heard first hand about horror stories about AT&T's service and I for one would never switch. Compared to what I've heard Sprint sounded much better. However, Sprint probably is busting at the seams with the amount of data being transferred since Friday but I've seen enough to know that they will work on it and will make it better.
The other thing I think a lot of people have to consider is, why did you buy an iPhone? If you bought it to specifically surf the web using desktop mode then perhaps you made a mistake. If you on the other hand like me bought it for the Apple ecosystem, the incredibly good apps, the camera, 1080p video, having the ability to be truly productive like for example being able to create a quick wireframe or a last minute presentation with Keynote or any number of other productivity abilities then you bought the right phone. If you bought it for the solid operating system that wont reboot on you like my EVO did on me a number of times at the worst possible times, then you have to take that into consideration too.
I guess what Im saying is you have to look at the whole package. Is the rest of the good stuff worth being patient and dealing with a possibly slower data connection for a little while? We are on the verge of Sprint beginning LTE implementation next year. They say by mid year LTE will start being deployed and finished by the same time 2013. I for one, a long time customer, am willing to wait one more year and one more version of the iPhone. I bought mine full price as I wasnt eligible for an upgrade yet. It would be just as easy for me to quit Sprint and move to Verizon for approximately the same amount of money. But Im going to stick it out for another year or so. Can you do the same thing and does it make sense for you?
Its easy to get caught up in knee jerk reactions and see nothing but negative things. You have 2 full weeks to bring it back if you so decide. So take those 2 weeks and if youre really dissatisfied and none of the other things I mentioned mean anything to you, just bring it back.
Good luck to all and I hope all you end up enjoying whatever device you end up with 🙂
I generally view sites that are mobile optimized and for the most part I actually use apps if available rather than the browser (Like for news as an example). I think it's very easy to get caught up in the numbers and specs and all that stuff. I almost got caught up too after reading this post. I decided to check my speed and it didn't look great. So I started testing my wife's EVO 4G vs my iPhone back and forth and so on. SOmetimes the EVO loaded faster and sometimes the iPhone loaded faster. I did notice if I had both phones side by side loading times ere slower for both. So then I started taking them outside one at a time and on my third time going out I stopped and realized what I was doing. Like I said before, I was okay with the speeds I was getting. I have no idea what they were but if I went to msn.com, nfl.com, mlb.com or yahoo.com they all loaded fast. All the sites loaded within a few seconds and were navigable almost immediately.
I don't doubt for a second that some of you are having issues and are very dissatisfied. If you came over from AT&T I wouldn't blame you for wanting to go back if your service happens to be in one of the good areas. Quite frankly I've read about and heard first hand about horror stories about AT&T's service and I for one would never switch. Compared to what I've heard Sprint sounded much better. However, Sprint probably is busting at the seams with the amount of data being transferred since Friday but I've seen enough to know that they will work on it and will make it better.
The other thing I think a lot of people have to consider is, why did you buy an iPhone? If you bought it to specifically surf the web using desktop mode then perhaps you made a mistake. If you on the other hand like me bought it for the Apple ecosystem, the incredibly good apps, the camera, 1080p video, having the ability to be truly productive like for example being able to create a quick wireframe or a last minute presentation with Keynote or any number of other productivity abilities then you bought the right phone. If you bought it for the solid operating system that wont reboot on you like my EVO did on me a number of times at the worst possible times, then you have to take that into consideration too.
I guess what Im saying is you have to look at the whole package. Is the rest of the good stuff worth being patient and dealing with a possibly slower data connection for a little while? We are on the verge of Sprint beginning LTE implementation next year. They say by mid year LTE will start being deployed and finished by the same time 2013. I for one, a long time customer, am willing to wait one more year and one more version of the iPhone. I bought mine full price as I wasnt eligible for an upgrade yet. It would be just as easy for me to quit Sprint and move to Verizon for approximately the same amount of money. But Im going to stick it out for another year or so. Can you do the same thing and does it make sense for you?
Its easy to get caught up in knee jerk reactions and see nothing but negative things. You have 2 full weeks to bring it back if you so decide. So take those 2 weeks and if youre really dissatisfied and none of the other things I mentioned mean anything to you, just bring it back.
Good luck to all and I hope all you end up enjoying whatever device you end up with 🙂
You are classy... I pay 210 for three iphones, one tethers @4gb and the other 2 are 2GB data plans. I also have two other phones included in my plan with 1400 minutes, rollover ( currently around 2200). I have unlimited texting, an a-list of 10 numbers that are free and did i mention that my total bill is $210 a month for 5 phones and three are iphones?
So you are not so smart afteralll... But everyone knew that, you bought a sprint iphone and are think you are getting a deal.
Keep you $50 a month, unlimited data at .2mbs. Maybe you can download 200mb a month if you work at it. Its like renting a car for a day. One company says you can drive the car up to 200 miles for $80/day. The other say you can drive it as many miles as you want for only $50, but the leave out the fact that their rental car only goes 2 mph. They play on idiots. Sounds like they found at least one.
snowtrooper1966
macrumors 6502
I bailed out of T-Mobile to Sprint for the 4S.
I see the numbers, but I also see my son in the back seat, watching classic Tom & Jerry cartoons on Youtube, laughing his ass off.
That would have never been possible with my old carrier's edge data connection in the car.
So, is my Sprint 4S slower than it could be with Verizon or ATT?
Perhaps.
If I was so myopic that all I cared about were numbers, I'd have a phone with a 4.5 inch screen and 1.5GB of RAM.
I see the numbers, but I also see my son in the back seat, watching classic Tom & Jerry cartoons on Youtube, laughing his ass off.
That would have never been possible with my old carrier's edge data connection in the car.
So, is my Sprint 4S slower than it could be with Verizon or ATT?
Perhaps.
If I was so myopic that all I cared about were numbers, I'd have a phone with a 4.5 inch screen and 1.5GB of RAM.
I've had an HTC EVO on Sprint for nearly a year, and if I switch to 3G mode, the speeds are pathetic. I knew that since the Iphone 4S only supported 3G on Sprint it would be a joke. So that's why I didn't upgrade to it even though I want an IPhone and could get it at a discount. I'm going to wait til my contract expires (or is near enough where the cancellation charges are small enough) and then switch to either AT&T or Verizon. Hopefully by then there's a 4G LTE Iphone
