I have a LTE device in NYC and do not get LTE all over NYC. It's spotty. You'll get it here and then a few blocks down, you'll lose it and be on that crap 3G.
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Carrier Sprint is pathetic
- Thread starter Squilly
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I have a LTE device in NYC and do not get LTE all over NYC. It's spotty. You'll get it here and then a few blocks down, you'll lose it and be on that crap 3G.
Italianblend
macrumors 68000
They are but T-mobile has passed Sprint LTE wise and I'm not fond of counting data so that's where I will land.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Robert Herron finally got around to updating the running list recently over at s4gru.com.
It's just a good thing that I have LTE now because the completion date for LTE in Phoenix has rolled back to October 2014! This is what happens though when you contract with your competitors (AT&T/Verizon) for fiber optic backhaul.
This, when Sprint already mentioned back in August that their projected completion date for NV had moved back to mid-2014. So, of course, Phoenix a city of 6 million people (give or take) gets completed way later than the norm!
Sprint signed contracts for NV in late 2010. So, they will have been at this for 3.5 years provided the date does not slip again. Starting to think that maybe reality about how much of a cluster this whole rollout has been is setting in over at s4gru. Not really much they can say I guess. Seems to be pretty quiet lately, except for the knee jerk thread closings and casigations of those who dare point out Sprint's faults.
Be interesting to see if the rollout outlasts s4gru.com! 😀
It's just a good thing that I have LTE now because the completion date for LTE in Phoenix has rolled back to October 2014! This is what happens though when you contract with your competitors (AT&T/Verizon) for fiber optic backhaul.
This, when Sprint already mentioned back in August that their projected completion date for NV had moved back to mid-2014. So, of course, Phoenix a city of 6 million people (give or take) gets completed way later than the norm!
Sprint signed contracts for NV in late 2010. So, they will have been at this for 3.5 years provided the date does not slip again. Starting to think that maybe reality about how much of a cluster this whole rollout has been is setting in over at s4gru. Not really much they can say I guess. Seems to be pretty quiet lately, except for the knee jerk thread closings and casigations of those who dare point out Sprint's faults.
Be interesting to see if the rollout outlasts s4gru.com! 😀
pilot1226
macrumors 6502a
Yes. I agree. It's taken them a long time. But I think they really shot themselves in the foot with the whole WiMAX thing. It was a gamble and they lost.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Actually, if anything, they broke even with WiMax. Rock and a hard place.
The problem then was that LTE was just a concept. Sprint had spectrum licenses and the FCC said that Sprint either had to use the spectrum or lose the licenses. Clearwire had WiMax ready to go and was building out, so to save the licenses Sprint partnered with Clear.
Eventually there was a dispute about the premium data fee and Clearwire stopped building out WiMax. Sprint was giving Clearwire cash to build out the network, but Clear sat on the money and did nothing. That's when Sprint finally got stable enough to start on Network Vision on it's own.
So, what would you do? You have no money to build out a network that only exists as a concept in 2009 and the FCC says use the licenses or lose them?
pilot1226
macrumors 6502a
I agree, they were in an impossible situation.
That being said, they are finally starting to bring the nodes on my commute up to LTE. Some days they're active, other days they're not. It's certainly noticeable now.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
That's good! LTE is fairly strong for me at home. Work is the problem. There is an LTE tower close to work, but far enough away that a simple shift at my desk can cause me to lose the signal and grab the 3G signal from the tower down the street. Waiting for that tower to finally get upgraded.
As they build it out you'll notice that the signal just gets stronger and that in places where you didn't have LTE or weak signal or no coverage you all of a sudden have coverage.
sjperformance
macrumors 68010
I did the same almost 2 months ago. Left sprint (after 12years) for AT&T. Its like night and day.
AT&T doesn't have unlimited data though, right? Is there a noticeable difference in pricing?
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
What if it isn't **** service? Am I throwing my money away then?
I ask because where I am at I'm getting reliable, useable service. Should I leave Sprint and pay more so i can get 100000mbps down and 50000mbps up on AT&T-Mobilerizon?
You are the exception to this rule, my friend 🙂
Sprint is improving no doubt, but they fail to provide reliable service for most of the US.
Sprint Spark is interesting, but I'm not sold on them just yet. They are quoting peak speeds of 50-60mbps on the tri-band network. VZW and AT&T have been hitting that for almost two years with their 2x10 700 network.
zmon
macrumors regular
Stick with what works for you, not what others say. My only experience with Sprint is an LTE hotspot a relative has in the south Chicago suburbs, works fine and is decently speedy, it's not bad where it works anyways.
Maybe Softbank will invest in, and improve Sprints network.
Maybe Softbank will invest in, and improve Sprints network.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Yes, I know I (and a few others) am an exception. That said, I just object to blanket statements. Sprint sucks eggs in a lot of places, far more than they are good in other places. I get that and I've never denied it.
Still, the service is not bad everywhere. As it is on 1900mhz it will never approach the speeds of the other carriers, but it's useable as I have often mentioned.
Now, if we're talking Sprint customer service, that's a whole OTHER ball of wax! 😉
As to Spark 😡
Sprint, let's get the current, year behind, no vendors working, shortage of backhaul fiber optic worked out before we even think of talking about dreamland speeds!
But that's typical Sprint too. "Hey look at this super cool concept we are backing over here and ignore the fact that most of our network right now is crap!"
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They already have. $5 billion this year and $5 billion next. Most of it to get Nextel 800mhz and Clearwire 2500mhz up and running and working with the current 1900mhz LTE rollout.
Network Vision was paid for back in 2010. The holdup is Sprint malfiesance, vendor incompetence and fiber-optic shortages.
I think Chicago has to be the ONLY market in the US that anyone can freely join Sprint and expect it to work decently.
It is the most completed NV market out there.
AT&T is a huge price increase from T-Mobile.
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Kansas City and other parts of MO also are served well by Sprint, but then again that is their home market. Oustide of that area I wouldn't touch Sprint.
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Sprint has been throwing money at new projects for years. In Minnesota we've been hearing about the "Sprint Vision" was supposed to first bring us 3G and then LTE, neither of which happened successfully or are even semi-useful.
Now Spark, how long will Sprint sheep wait got Spark to "work".... good luck Sprint Customers! 🙄
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Chicago was first. And Sprint went with that market first on purpose. One of the few times where the network engineers overruled the marketing department.
Chicago was a disaster and Sprint knew it was going to be because the Samsung legacy equipment was incompatible with the new Ericsson LTE equipment. When you transitioned from an area that had LTE while on a call to an area with 3G the legacy equipment could not take the handoff and dropped the call.
Sprint used the Chicago market to work out their deployment problems. Of course, this didn't win them any friends since the Chicago rollout was far longer than initially speculated.
Now if Sprint could just get it's vendors in line!
sjperformance
macrumors 68010
On sprint with 3 lines we used about 4GB-5GB a month. We all have wifi at home and office. Honestly im only paying $20 more a month on a 10GB plan for lines. We've been hitting 6GB-8GB a month which is fine since now we use more data because we can actually use lte data on our iphone. Even when I drop to 4G speeds are awesome. We do not miss sprint. Glad we switched. We've been using our data normally. Just like we did with sprint. 10GB is more than enough honestly for us.
pilot1226
macrumors 6502a
For what it's worth, I'm in the NYC Metro Area (Northern NJ) and we've got LTE almost everywhere on our commute now except for a few minor exceptions on the way, not noticeable when we're streaming music because by the time we're out of the LTE area and into the 3G "garbage data" area we've built up enough buffer to get us out.
Before LTE was active I was strongly considering switching.
The reason we didn't go to T-Mobile was because I have talked to a few co-workers that live very nearby that basically told me if I go off the Garden State Parkway I won't get signal.
The reason we didn't go AT&T or Verizon was because we would have had to pick a data plan and it wouldn't be unlimited. And it would cost more.
So, with the LTE working, the Sprint service is "acceptable." We recently went on vacation to the Florida Keys, and half the keys had LTE coverage, half had around 1 bar of "3G Garbage Data" so we just planned accordingly.
We pay around $215 per month after all taxes and fees are said and done for 4 lines of service, with which we share 1500 minutes between the lines, have unlimited texting and data, and have free nights and weekends, and free mobile-to-any-carrier-mobile calls. I think over the last 4 years the most minutes we've ever used as a plan is around 600.
I briefly looked at VZ and AT&T prior to the 5S launch and I found that I would be paying roughly $30-$40 more per month for service. I could get it comparable to what I pay now but I would be only allotted 4 GB of data per month shared between each of us... I think we need a little bit more cushion than that.
Before LTE was active I was strongly considering switching.
The reason we didn't go to T-Mobile was because I have talked to a few co-workers that live very nearby that basically told me if I go off the Garden State Parkway I won't get signal.
The reason we didn't go AT&T or Verizon was because we would have had to pick a data plan and it wouldn't be unlimited. And it would cost more.
So, with the LTE working, the Sprint service is "acceptable." We recently went on vacation to the Florida Keys, and half the keys had LTE coverage, half had around 1 bar of "3G Garbage Data" so we just planned accordingly.
We pay around $215 per month after all taxes and fees are said and done for 4 lines of service, with which we share 1500 minutes between the lines, have unlimited texting and data, and have free nights and weekends, and free mobile-to-any-carrier-mobile calls. I think over the last 4 years the most minutes we've ever used as a plan is around 600.
I briefly looked at VZ and AT&T prior to the 5S launch and I found that I would be paying roughly $30-$40 more per month for service. I could get it comparable to what I pay now but I would be only allotted 4 GB of data per month shared between each of us... I think we need a little bit more cushion than that.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
I've pulled down over 9GB this month already and I have four days left in this billing cycle.
It's sure nice to finally be able to use the unlimited data I pay for without worry!
I get 4 bars LTE here in downtown Boston, but can barely open a webpage once the day beings. Forget doing anything at 5pm. Bandwidth is what is lacking. Verizon has admitted this is an issue and as those with other carriers start to upgrade LTE phones this is only getting worse.
I got .03mbps this morning with those full bars. Calls sound great though of course.... Very Similar to how your cable internet works after 8pm and Netflix tanks. Share that pool everybody.
I got .03mbps this morning with those full bars. Calls sound great though of course.... Very Similar to how your cable internet works after 8pm and Netflix tanks. Share that pool everybody.