Black Magic
macrumors 68030
Yea, but even without the merger, I don't know if the T-Mobile coverage is extensive and great. Im not gonna take any chances when I switch for the iPhone 6.
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Carrier Sprint is pathetic
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Yea, but even without the merger, I don't know if the T-Mobile coverage is extensive and great. Im not gonna take any chances when I switch for the iPhone 6.
wordoflife
macrumors 604
Wow I remember using the first generation iPhone back in 2007 and I was complaining about AT&T's EDGE speed...
.....7 years later, I take it back...
Funny thing is, I toggled off LTE after that test and ran it again. The 3G network got to almost 2Mb down.
I had sent Sprint a message about LTE availability in my home area just before the text arrived saying they should be done in the area within a month. I received their response and it was within the next 3 months. They offered a Airave extender for the house as well. Thing is, I already have one. It makes me question how much they really looked into the message, and that its not a canned response.
Truefan31
macrumors 68040
Isn't tmobile edge about as fast as sprint 3G? And tmobile still has hspa and a better lte network.
I said it before SoftBank should've bought tmobile instead of sprint. It would've been cheaper and with Legere the turnaround would be even better cuz of the cash infusion from SoftBank.
I said it before SoftBank should've bought tmobile instead of sprint. It would've been cheaper and with Legere the turnaround would be even better cuz of the cash infusion from SoftBank.
I would say it really depends on where you live, but at least around where I am, yes in most cases.
My Korean buddies from their country are here for college and most bring their own phone, then pop in t-mo sim card. Sad thing is that because of the frequency differences they only get Edge most of the time, unless they go out to more urbanized area of the city(then they get 3G).
This one time I was with my only friend who has Sprint iPhone 5 along with group of other friends and did a speedtest comparison between t-mo's EDGE with Korean Galaxy S2 and Sprint's 3G/LTE with iPhone 5 (I say that because the service was so unstable it was jumping back and forth). Sprint's LTE on average was getting around 3~mbps with 5.3 mbps peak. Now, this is the real funny part because T-mo's EDGE was going solid with results between 0.4-0.6mbps(not fast, but stable), while Sprint's 3G failed to even start the test twice. When it did start the test it was so unstable to tell and didn't know which test result to believe because once, it was showing peak down speed of 0.87mbps but then all the sudden speed just dropped down to measly 0.01-0.02mbps(10-20kbps). I didn't even know it was possible to measure such low numbers like that. I really wish I took a photo of the results that day. We were just having too much fun making fun of my friend's 'Sprint LTE capable' iPhone 5 🙂
I'm sure Sprint does well in some areas, but sure seems like they need to work on stability of their network first before even offering the unlimited data. It's just pointless to even have unlimited data around my area.
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CrimsonKnight
macrumors 6502
Tthomas612
macrumors 65816
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Jealous!
I'm still topping out at around 8 down and barely 1 up. That's at night when traffic is low. Normally it's around 3-5 down with less than 1 up. Fastest yet I've gotten was 12 down with 1.5 up.
The GRU fanboys strike back with yet another, hilariously pathetic thread.
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5...izons-lte-comparison-but-using-sensorly-data/
Seriously? These kids need to get out more. AT&T is running a far more comprehensive network (over 500+ markets) with speeds almost 2x Sprints
Fact of the matter is that Sprint has the smallest LTE footprint out there. Sprint missed their 200 million POPs deadline (something that is NEVER brought up) and they conveniently ignore the fact that the Sprint folk waste hours on end putting up LTE on sensorly, whereas the VZW/TMo/AT&T folks couldn't care less.
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Ouch. I would say that it could be a backhaul issue, but I'm not so sure anymore. Those are HSPA speeds, not LTE speeds.
I have a feeling that T-Mobile is in your future very soon. 🙂
Tthomas612
macrumors 65816
I thought about T-Mobile myself. I know eyoungren was close to t-mobile as well a few months back...
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Yes, I have hit low numbers like 8 down and 2 up, but it lasted about 2 days and went back to my regular 20's down and 8-12 up.
I don't understand though as I would believe Phoenix to be a bigger market than mine in Lexington, Ky. Plus I know LTE in my area is not completed yet.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Yeah, I saw that thread. SMH.
As to T-Mobile in my future, quite possibly. I'll let my contract run out in September and see where I stand then. At that point I really can't justify it to myself anymore as I will be out of contract and Sprint will have had two years to start and complete LTE in PHX.
Back to s4gru
It seems lockdown is now the response to what they call trolling (reality). I've heard a few complaints that it's this kind of thing (allowing opinion about other networks to be shared) that killed sprintusers.com. Sure, sprintusers has taken a traffic hit, but as I've said previously there is no comparison between registered users. And sprintusers is not requiring payment to get access to information.
About as much hatred/disgust for sprintusers over there as there seems to be for s4gru.com in other places. Whatever.
After a particularly bad day at work yesterday though, this post in the same thread gave me the laugh I needed. It's so patently false that if another user had said it they'd be pummeled by the other s4gru users. It's especially NOT true when it comes to the admin's second in charge.
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It's just one of those slow drawn out things. Why, I don't know. It's not like we have weather issues. Hell, it's been in the low 40s for mornings and the high 70s for the daytime! We've had quite a few days in the last two weeks or so that were 80-81º!
As to T-Mobile in my future, quite possibly. I'll let my contract run out in September and see where I stand then. At that point I really can't justify it to myself anymore as I will be out of contract and Sprint will have had two years to start and complete LTE in PHX.
Back to s4gru
It seems lockdown is now the response to what they call trolling (reality). I've heard a few complaints that it's this kind of thing (allowing opinion about other networks to be shared) that killed sprintusers.com. Sure, sprintusers has taken a traffic hit, but as I've said previously there is no comparison between registered users. And sprintusers is not requiring payment to get access to information.
About as much hatred/disgust for sprintusers over there as there seems to be for s4gru.com in other places. Whatever.
After a particularly bad day at work yesterday though, this post in the same thread gave me the laugh I needed. It's so patently false that if another user had said it they'd be pummeled by the other s4gru users. It's especially NOT true when it comes to the admin's second in charge.
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Ah, it goes back to the same old same old. It's backhaul. The towers are being upgraded. I can see via Signal 2 (my iPhone 5 is jailbroken) that there are new towers as well, but the backhaul vendors are lacking the same sense of urgency that Sprint has.
It's just one of those slow drawn out things. Why, I don't know. It's not like we have weather issues. Hell, it's been in the low 40s for mornings and the high 70s for the daytime! We've had quite a few days in the last two weeks or so that were 80-81º!
CrimsonKnight
macrumors 6502
T-mobile is all fun and games until you leave the city and want actual LTE COVERAGE.
Actual sensorly data.
Actual sensorly data.
Sprint is still below 200 million POPs on their LTE rollout while Tmobile is at something like 220 million.
Sprint has more announced markets but many of them are small. Tmobile does suck outside your city more often than not but the problem with Sprint is that they suck even inside the city. Often way below the other 3 carriers in Rootmetric comparison tests. Their rollout of LTE and NV has been nothing short of pathetic. How does the smallest carrier catch up and surpass you with a year head start?
Sprint has more announced markets but many of them are small. Tmobile does suck outside your city more often than not but the problem with Sprint is that they suck even inside the city. Often way below the other 3 carriers in Rootmetric comparison tests. Their rollout of LTE and NV has been nothing short of pathetic. How does the smallest carrier catch up and surpass you with a year head start?
CrimsonKnight
macrumors 6502
Here's what Verizon shows for coverage in their newest commercial for those who haven't seen the January version:
It pretty clearly shows Sprint in last place for total footprint, which I do not believe to be the case.
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T-mobile did not have the same extensive upgrade that Sprint had to endure. T-mobiles was a simple add on to existing sites , as opposed to sprint replacing everything from the switches , RRU's to back haul. This is why. Nonetheless it has been quite a hurdle for Sprint, but we are starting to see the payoff. This summer we should see the end of phase 1 and begin to see more cities light up with spark.
It pretty clearly shows Sprint in last place for total footprint, which I do not believe to be the case.
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T-mobile did not have the same extensive upgrade that Sprint had to endure. T-mobiles was a simple add on to existing sites , as opposed to sprint replacing everything from the switches , RRU's to back haul. This is why. Nonetheless it has been quite a hurdle for Sprint, but we are starting to see the payoff. This summer we should see the end of phase 1 and begin to see more cities light up with spark.
The one on the Verizon site is more accurate. Sprint isn't last in announced LTE markets, but they are last in POPs covered by LTE.
These screenshots were taken in Janesville WI. The city has had LTE since August, and was launched by Sprint in October. The highest Speed I have ever achieved here is around 18 down and 4 up once. Typically it is more often 3-6 down if still and around 2 at highway speed. I was in Madison WI recently at the West Towne shopping center and was pegged at around 3 down and not even 1 up. Madison is an announced city as well.
CrimsonKnight
macrumors 6502
AT&T just intro'd a new plan. Seems like a pretty decent deal for two smartphones and 10gb of data.
Yeah I'm aware of their issues. I hope they do indeed sort them out sometime this year so as to help put more pressure on AT&T and Verizon.