iPhone Switching to T-mobile from Sprint!

[Amaro2021]

Regarding my last post about sprint canceling my contract because I was “Roaming” to much actually turn out to be a good thing. They gave me a couple days to port my number which I did over to T-Mobile I must say that I am very happy with T-Mobile and there plans are alright. I am disappointed with the credit check they do to buy the phones I don’t have good credit so I had to buy the phone out right which I figured I was going to do anyway nothing goes easy for me when it comes to credit checks. So the day my number transferred properly was on the 6th of this month now I had T-Mobile service everything was ok I just needed to buy an IPhone. Well I had saved up some money to buy one out right I was going to buy the IPhone 5 64gb Black, When I had the money I called T-Mobile back up and said I would like purchase the IPhone they said ok so they tried to process the transaction and my card was declined now my bank has a 1500 limit a day. So I said well let me call my bank and see what’s going on so I can buy the phone. Well the bank said “Well T-Mobile has your money they owe you a phone” I called T-Mobile and the bank back a lot of times to get my money back, I was 2 weeks without a phone and I was coming back to California (home) at the time I was coming from Nebraska (visiting) and I made a stop in Colorado so I was afraid if I leave Colorado will my phone ship to Colorado while I’m in California? I was very confused so this past Tuesday I received my money in my account I took my ass to the apple store over here bought the IPhone 5 black 64 gb, and after all this trouble, confusion I finally got the IPhone on T-Mobile. I will say that I am very pleased with it great call quality, great cell service and awesome LTE and 4G very fast speeds as you can see so I would like to say that I do recommend T-Mobile and the IPhone for it and its a million times better then sprint haha!!

 

[locoboi187]

I'm giving Sprint one more contract before I dish out. They are terrible. All I want is 4G. Nation's first 4G network is now the crappiest and most spotty service I've ever seen. If they have nothing to offer by 2015, I am out for good. The Unlimited data is a gimmick for me since I rarely get 3G. More like 1G or sometimes roaming.

 

[darricksailo]

Where are you at to get T-Mobile LTE?

 

[Applejuiced]

I'm giving Sprint one more contract before I dish out. They are terrible. All I want is 4G. Nation's first 4G network is now the crappiest and most spotty service I've ever seen. If they have nothing to offer by 2015, I am out for good. The Unlimited data is a gimmick for me since I rarely get 3G. More like 1G or sometimes roaming.

I wouldn't waste another 2 years with them.
They are the worst and dealing with bad service and turtle data speeds in this day and age is unacceptable.
Many better options out there.

 

[Amaro2021]

Where are you at to get T-Mobile LTE?

I'm in Sacramento ca great coverage over here.

 

[locoboi187]

I wouldn't waste another 2 years with them.
They are the worst and dealing with bad service and turtle data speeds in this day and age is unacceptable.
Many better options out there.

The thing is, I just don't know which carrier to pick. I had VZW before and they were great. I only switched to Sprint because I fell for the "unlimited" thing. I would say my choices would probably be VZW or AT&T. T-Mobile is a hit or a miss in NJ.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm giving Sprint one more contract before I dish out. They are terrible. All I want is 4G. Nation's first 4G network is now the crappiest and most spotty service I've ever seen. If they have nothing to offer by 2015, I am out for good. The Unlimited data is a gimmick for me since I rarely get 3G. More like 1G or sometimes roaming.

My wife and I have been on Sprint since 1999. My wife has been out of contract since 2011, but I reupped to get the iPhone 5 last September.

Despite the network issues we can still call and text each other and that's mainly what we use our phones for. And the one dead zone I know of is small and immaterial. I don't plan to leave except if in September 2014 Sprint still does not have LTE in my area. That's all the time I plan to give them.

I object to paying Sprint for service when most of the time I am on WiFi. I particularly object when it's the WiFi I am already paying another company for. But when you get right down to it, we have service. We aren't experiencing (except for data) the problems that most people on Sprint are having. It's only because of that that I am giving Sprint till the end of my contract.

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They are the worst and dealing with bad service and turtle data speeds in this day and age is unacceptable.

I agree. Sprint once had me on hold for 3.5 hours. And that was before the Nextel merger. I was at work at the time and it became a battle of wills where I refused to hang up and call back. So I left the phone on speaker and kept working until they picked up.

But being with Sprint for so long you develop methods to protect yourself. Many Sprint customers make the big mistake of dealing with Sprint over the phone or on the internet. Don't. Ever. Anything those guys say will NEVER be backed up by anyone at a corporate store. Deal with them direct, face to face so that you have a name and possibly a business card to use against them when they lie to you. Phone or internet, all you have is a name belonging to some faceless person at some remote location. With a corporate store it's a small group of people. And those people are real, live and in person. Not somewhere else where you can't see them.

In my particular recent history I also lucked out in the sense that I bought my iPhone direct from Apple. I don't have to deal with Sprint at all. Sprint has a bad habit of denying you anything about your phone; service, repair, etc. So, cutting Sprint out means I don't have to deal with them. And that's the paramount point with Sprint. The less you have to deal with them the better.

I'll be glad when I finally get LTE because then Sprint and I can go back to not communicating except when it comes time to pay my monthly bill.

 

[ValerieDurden]

My wife and I have been on Sprint since 1999. My wife has been out of contract since 2011, but I reupped to get the iPhone 5 last September.

Despite the network issues we can still call and text each other and that's mainly what we use our phones for. And the one dead zone I know of is small and immaterial. I don't plan to leave except if in September 2014 Sprint still does not have LTE in my area. That's all the time I plan to give them.

I object to paying Sprint for service when most of the time I am on WiFi. I particularly object when it's the WiFi I am already paying another company for. But when you get right down to it, we have service. We aren't experiencing (except for data) the problems that most people on Sprint are having. It's only because of that that I am giving Sprint till the end of my contract.

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I agree. Sprint once had me on hold for 3.5 hours. And that was before the Nextel merger. I was at work at the time and it became a battle of wills where I refused to hang up and call back. So I left the phone on speaker and kept working until they picked up.

But being with Sprint for so long you develop methods to protect yourself. Many Sprint customers make the big mistake of dealing with Sprint over the phone or on the internet. Don't. Ever. Anything those guys say will NEVER be backed up by anyone at a corporate store. Deal with them direct, face to face so that you have a name and possibly a business card to use against them when they lie to you. Phone or internet, all you have is a name belonging to some faceless person at some remote location. With a corporate store it's a small group of people. And those people are real, live and in person. Not somewhere else where you can't see them.

In my particular recent history I also lucked out in the sense that I bought my iPhone direct from Apple. I don't have to deal with Sprint at all. Sprint has a bad habit of denying you anything about your phone; service, repair, etc. So, cutting Sprint out means I don't have to deal with them. And that's the paramount point with Sprint. The less you have to deal with them the better.

I'll be glad when I finally get LTE because then Sprint and I can go back to not communicating except when it comes time to pay my monthly bill.

In the areas that have Network Vision construction going on the service is greatly improved, I witnessed first hand for about a week how slow the old Sprint really was and that was .25Mbps or so on average now I am averaging 2.2-2.7Mbps on 3G. LTE is even better, granted it's not everywhere yet but when you're on it expect speeds of up to 37Mbps, I usually average about 25Mbps in a non-complete area.

 

[eyoungren]

In the areas that have Network Vision construction going on the service is greatly improved, I witnessed first hand for about a week how slow the old Sprint really was and that was .25Mbps or so on average now I am averaging 2.2-2.7Mbps on 3G. LTE is even better, granted it's not everywhere yet but when you're on it expect speeds of up to 37Mbps, I usually average about 25Mbps in a non-complete area.

I am looking forward to getting LTE. Unfortunately, I'm in an Alcatel-Lucent market where they do the 3G upgrades first and LTE last. So, I'm waiting.

The problem is that (I have been told) the LTE work that A-L is doing is having an adverse impact on the 3G upgrades they've already done. So, while the 3G has been/is being upgraded, because of the LTE work, 3G speed has not increased much.

I've noticed a difference in the towers near my home, but my speed has not increased much from the sub 110k area. And the tower near work still has not been worked on yet and that one is overloaded.

When LTE gets here, I'll be ready. I don't however think the speeds that you are getting right now will stay. Sprint is advertising about 8mbs up with LTE. Once more people with LTE start connecting to the towers I think that's probably going to be the realistic speed.

My biggest issue with Sprint was that 3G speeds took a hit with my iPhone 5. My old Touch Pro didn't need an Airave at home and did just fine. But my iPhone 5 on 3G? Well…speed sucks. That's a separate issue with the iPhone and Sprint's network that they aren't working on because they expect LTE to fix the problem simply by moving iPhone users off 3G and on to LTE.

 

[pottyvick]

I live in Phoenix. I had sprint for 7 years. it was great the first few years. But towards the end it was horrible. They dont have any type of 4g here. And no plans on it yet. So 2 years ago i decided to switch to tmobile. And i have been happy with the service. It does get spotty in some areas but thats fine as long as it has fast 3g/lte everywhere else.

I couldnt stand sprints data speeds on 3g. They are terrible.

 

[eyoungren]

I live in Phoenix. I had sprint for 7 years. it was great the first few years. But towards the end it was horrible. They dont have any type of 4g here. And no plans on it yet. So 2 years ago i decided to switch to tmobile. And i have been happy with the service. It does get spotty in some areas but thats fine as long as it has fast 3g/lte everywhere else.

I couldnt stand sprints data speeds on 3g. They are terrible.

Yeah, that was WiMax. Clearwire was the company rolling that out and Sprint contracted with them for 4G. Phoenix was one of the test areas. Clearwire never got any of it out to the West Valley though. Clearwire also run out of money to build out WiMax at around 40% of completion.

One of the particular irritants in the NV rollout is that Sprint made the decision to not do any former WiMax market first. According to the last info I have Phoenix is at 23% of LTE buildout with a completion date of July 2014. Now, that slipped three months from the time I checked before that, so anytime that thread updates again over at s4gru.com I expect the completion date to again slip three months.

And all they are doing at the moment if 3G updates! At this rate we should have LTE by the time Sprint decides to shut down 3G like it did iDen.

 

[eytanraz]

Clarification

Thank you experts.
I have one question.

What can I do with my phone once I decided to not use Sprint anymore. I am sick of them and I do not want this carrier anymore.

But since i cannot unlock my Iphone, should I assume it is just garbage now?

Is this what it is?!!?!?

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Thank you experts.
I have one question.

What can I do with my phone once I decided to not use Sprint anymore. I am sick of them and I do not want this carrier anymore.

But since i cannot unlock my Iphone, should I assume it is just garbage now?

Is this what it is?!!?!?

As far as I know, and eyoungren can correct me if I'm wrong, but Sprint will ONLY unlock the phone for international use. And even then, you need to be in good standing for at least 90 days. I think you are SOL (unless you are moving overseas some time soon).

 

[Applejuiced]

Thank you experts.
I have one question.

What can I do with my phone once I decided to not use Sprint anymore. I am sick of them and I do not want this carrier anymore.

But since i cannot unlock my Iphone, should I assume it is just garbage now?

Is this what it is?!!?!?

Sell it to another sprint user.

 

[eyoungren]

As far as I know, and eyoungren can correct me if I'm wrong, but Sprint will ONLY unlock the phone for international use. And even then, you need to be in good standing for at least 90 days. I think you are SOL (unless you are moving overseas some time soon).

Yep Bumps, that's the right of it. The poster asked the same question in another thread as well. He's also been answered there.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Yep Bumps, that's the right of it. The poster asked the same question in another thread as well. He's also been answered there.

Ahh I see haha. Well good luck then!

Edit: So funny, after I posted this comment it brought me back to the bottom of this thread. As I started to scroll back up to go back to the jailbreak and hacks section, the blue link in your signature caught my eye. I laughed when I saw its a link explaining that domestic sprint unlocks are not possible haha

 

[eyoungren]

Ahh I see haha. Well good luck then!

Edit: So funny, after I posted this comment it brought me back to the bottom of this thread. As I started to scroll back up to go back to the jailbreak and hacks section, the blue link in your signature caught my eye. I laughed when I saw its a link explaining that domestic sprint unlocks are not possible haha

LOL!

Yeah, that particular thread was a combination of frustration (about repeated new threads on Sprint unlocking iPhones) and finding out about UICC SIM cards and Sprint iPhones. That particular day that I posted it there was no less than FOUR new threads in the iPhone section about unlocking Sprint iPhones.

A lot of people fail to do their homework and a lot of people who DIDN'T do their homework and burned themselves turn right around and resell these phones without telling the new buyer anything. So, I was hoping this might slow down the flood of "How do I unlock my Sprint iPhone" threads by providing a little information.

There's also another poster who has a similar thread, but his deals with unlocks with all four carriers and not strictly Sprint.

I also find it interesting that people seem to think that a SIM interposer is a legit unlock. Of course it isn't, because if you remove the interposer and put a normal SIM in there, it's still locked. But people only hear what they want to sometimes (a lot).

 

[eytanraz]

thanks but...

thanks everybody for their answers.

But....Is what Sprint is doing legal?!?!?!? It does not sound very legal to me...

 

[TriJetHero]

If you entered a contract with them saying so, it is legal.

 

[Benguitar]

I'm just going to throw this out there since I have been on (in chronological order) AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Verizon.

That I was most displeased with my 96 hour experience with T-Mobile, their audio call quality is sub-standard when you are indoors or even outdoors in a covered area (amphitheater) my calls were distorted beyond recognition.

While Verizon is pricey, their quality has been fantastic.

Just my two cents for anyone readings forums as research for future carriers.

 

[darricksailo]

I'm just going to throw this out there since I have been on (in chronological order) AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Verizon.

That I was most displeased with my 96 hour experience with T-Mobile, their audio call quality is sub-standard when you are indoors or even outdoors in a covered area (amphitheater) my calls were distorted beyond recognition.

While Verizon is pricey, their quality has been fantastic.

Just my two cents for anyone readings forums as research for future carriers.

It all depends on the area you're in. Verizon might be great in some places but horrible in others, and same with AT&T & any other carrier out there

 

[eyoungren]

thanks everybody for their answers.

But....Is what Sprint is doing legal?!?!?!? It does not sound very legal to me...

It's absolutely legal. In the United States anyway.

As TriJetHero said, if you enter a contract…

First off, in the U.S. if you buy a new phone and sign a contract, the phone is subsidized. That means, until the contract has been fulfilled or you pay the ETF you don't really own the phone because you have not paid the full amount for it. So, since Sprint technically owns the phone and you are agreeing to the terms of using their network…Sprint keeping the phone locked is perfectly legal.

Once the phone is paid for, or if you pay full price, and get service without a contract, it's still legal for them to have it locked because in order to use their network you have to agree to their rules.

Now if Sprint was holding a gun to your head and saying that the only network you could use was theirs then this would not be legal because then you'd be forced against your will.

If you buy a Sprint phone for full price without any intent to establish service with Sprint this is still legal because they have a right to exclude any device from using their service and prevent any device sold by them from being used on another carrier.

So, all the way around this is totally legal. It's not ethical, but that's a different matter entirely.

 

[Applejuiced]

It all depends on the area you're in. Verizon might be great in some places but horrible in others, and same with AT&T & any other carrier out there

Exactly.
Your individual results will vary.
Not every place in the us gets the same coverage.
They all have their good and bad locations. Just gotta figure what works best for you in your home area.

 

[Benguitar]

It all depends on the area you're in. Verizon might be great in some places but horrible in others, and same with AT&T & any other carrier out there

Very true, I won't argue with you there. However I travel all over the USA and I've found in more places than not I've got great coverage with Verizon, (New York, Newark, Miami, San Francisco, Portland, Austin, Houston, Chicago, and etc)

 

[Carlanga]

Regarding my last post about sprint canceling my contract because I was “Roaming” to much actually turn out to be a good thing. They gave me a couple days to port my number which I did over to T-Mobile I must say that I am very happy with T-Mobile and there plans are alright. I am disappointed with the credit check they do to buy the phones I don’t have good credit so I had to buy the phone out right which I figured I was going to do anyway nothing goes easy for me when it comes to credit checks. So the day my number transferred properly was on the 6th of this month now I had T-Mobile service everything was ok I just needed to buy an IPhone. Well I had saved up some money to buy one out right I was going to buy the IPhone 5 64gb Black, When I had the money I called T-Mobile back up and said I would like purchase the IPhone they said ok so they tried to process the transaction and my card was declined now my bank has a 1500 limit a day. So I said well let me call my bank and see what’s going on so I can buy the phone. Well the bank said “Well T-Mobile has your money they owe you a phone” I called T-Mobile and the bank back a lot of times to get my money back, I was 2 weeks without a phone and I was coming back to California (home) at the time I was coming from Nebraska (visiting) and I made a stop in Colorado so I was afraid if I leave Colorado will my phone ship to Colorado while I’m in California? I was very confused so this past Tuesday I received my money in my account I took my ass to the apple store over here bought the IPhone 5 black 64 gb, and after all this trouble, confusion I finally got the IPhone on T-Mobile. I will say that I am very pleased with it great call quality, great cell service and awesome LTE and 4G very fast speeds as you can see so I would like to say that I do recommend T-Mobile and the IPhone for it and its a million times better then sprint haha!!

Brick walllllll
Please separate paragraphs.
Glad you are happy w. the change.