Today, metroPCS announced compatibility with select unlocked GSM devices, and Nexus 4 is on the list as supported.
http://www.androidcentral.com/metropcs-now-welcomes-unlocked-gsm-devices-its-network#comment-616891
I have a few things I am wondering after hearing this news and realizing that they offer completely unlimited voice/text/4G for $60, while Tmo costs $70 for the same thing.
1. are they on Tmo's network yet?
2. is the '4g' service they refer to actually LTE, or is it hspa like Tmo?
3. what data speeds will I be able to connect to with my N4?
4. does metroPCS use band 4 for LTE? if so, is there a list of cities with LTE coverage available?
hp420 said:
Today, metroPCS announced compatibility with select unlocked GSM devices, and Nexus 4 is on the list as supported.
http://www.androidcentral.com/metropcs-now-welcomes-unlocked-gsm-devices-its-network#comment-616891
I have a few things I am wondering after hearing this news and realizing that they offer completely unlimited voice/text/4G for $60, while Tmo costs $70 for the same thing.
1. are they on Tmo's network yet?
2. is the '4g' service they refer to actually LTE, or is it hspa like Tmo?
3. what data speeds will I be able to connect to with my N4?
4. does metroPCS use band 4 for LTE? if so, is there a list of cities with LTE coverage available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I believe for this service they will be using tmobiles hspa+ network since they currently support CDMA.
2.4g is hspa+, I'm not sure about the lte.
3.standard T-Mobile speeds for hspa+ because they are more than likely using t-mobiles network.
4. It could be that they are using t-mobiles lte network along with the hspa network.
Also its only available in Boston, las Vegas,Dallas and hartford. They said they will add more cities in the future.
http://www.metropcs.com/metro/stati...pyourphone&int_camp=byod-hp-m1-spot=full=true
heat361 said:
1. I believe for this service they will be using tmobiles hspa+ network since they currently support CDMA.
2.4g is hspa+, I'm not sure about the lte.
3.standard T-Mobile speeds for hspa+ because they are more than likely using t-mobiles network.
4. It could be that they are using t-mobiles lte network along with the hspa network.
Also its only available in Boston, las Vegas,Dallas and hartford. They said they will add more cities in the future.
http://www.metropcs.com/metro/stati...pyourphone&int_camp=byod-hp-m1-spot=full=true
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's nice that MetroPCS is finally doing a bring your own phone thing instead of making you buy a phone as they used to do but it's still T-Mobile service which sucks here. And those cities listed are where T-Mobile already has LTE service up and running so they might be limiting this to where T-Mobile plans to bring in LTE. I also looked at the plans and while they are unlimited they are capped. For $40 a month you only get 500 MB of 4G(LTE) data but I can't find what speed it drops to after that, is it HSPA+, 3G, 2G who knows.
This is a great idea for metro......I get really bad tmo service in my house might make the switch if the prices are on par.....
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nelsonator1982 said:
This is a great idea for metro......I get really bad tmo service in my house might make the switch if the prices are on par.....
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Click to collapse
I don't think its gonna make any difference if they're using t-mo's gsm network
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lowrider262 said:
I don't think its gonna make any difference if they're using t-mo's gsm network
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Click to collapse
I'm hoping at some point they combine the networks
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kzoodroid said:
It's nice that MetroPCS is finally doing a bring your own phone thing instead of making you buy a phone as they used to do but it's still T-Mobile service which sucks here. And those cities listed are where T-Mobile already has LTE service up and running so they might be limiting this to where T-Mobile plans to bring in LTE. I also looked at the plans and while they are unlimited they are capped. For $40 a month you only get 500 MB of 4G(LTE) data but I can't find what speed it drops to after that, is it HSPA+, 3G, 2G who knows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hartford is a short drive for me to get a sim card at a local store. also, they are not on tmobile's lte yet. the only area in ct where it's on is stamford & norwalk, about an hour and a half from hartford. if it's tmo's network i would assume the speed after the data cap is 2g
nelsonator1982 said:
I'm hoping at some point they combine the networks
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They can't combine the networks as MetroPCS has no infrastructure of their own they use Sprint's network.
kzoodroid said:
They can't combine the networks as MetroPCS has no infrastructure of their own they use Sprint's network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They already made a deal on May 1st 2013,..
kzoodroid said:
They can't combine the networks as MetroPCS has no infrastructure of their own they use Sprint's network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true. Metro PCS has spectrum holdings of their own that will be refarmed once they move their customers to T-Mobile's network.
Here is a good article that explains it
http://gigaom.com/2012/10/03/a-birds-eye-view-of-a-combined-t-mobile-metropcs/
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kzoodroid said:
They can't combine the networks as MetroPCS has no infrastructure of their own they use Sprint's network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? T-Mobile bought MetroPCS purely for their spectrum. Granted it will take several years before most of it is usable by T-Mobile users.
bozzykid said:
What? T-Mobile bought MetroPCS purely for their spectrum. Granted it will take several years before most of it is usable by T-Mobile users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MetroPCS has limited spectrum, but their LTE is compatible with T-Mobile, 1900 MHz AWS but its very limited as to its coverage. Only in a couple, maybe 6, states and mostly large metro areas. They have like 13 MHz of spectrum in New York, Boston, Dallas, Miami, Detroit, LA and San Francisco which is still mostly CDMA right now. T-Mobile will be expanding in those areas but not elsewhere once they shut down the CDMA network. And for nationwide coverage MetroPCS was using Sprint's network which is who they have roaming agreements with.
One of T-Mobiles biggest problems of late was that it was bleeding subscribers which results in lost revenue which in turn lowers the stock price. Now all of sudden they've added 9 million new subscribers which in the short term will increase the company's revenue and thus its stock price. The limited amount of spectrum it gained will help it compete for subscribers in the large markets I listed above hopefully turning the trend around.
But if someone say from Chicago, or St. Louis asks how does this merger affect me the answer is it doesn't. MetroPCS has no spectrum there, or in about 95% of the country, so nothing changes.
I disagree that this merger will prevent T-Mobile from buying more companies for spectrum. Given their small size compared to Verizon and att, T-Mobile should have no problem clearing anti trust hurdles with the government. They also seem to be now an american company with a majority stake owned by the German parent. I may be wrong but I think before it was just a whole German subsidiary of Deutsche telecom. What I'm sad about is that they didn't merge or buy the wireless spectrum of dish network when that merger was a rumor. Perhaps the cost is too high. They have been bleeding customers for years now but have always been a profitable company. They got enough spectrum and money from the failed att buyout agreement and this metro PCs buyout to roll out a great lte network but I don't understand why people don't realize how good their hspa service is. Att is very slow and clogged and Verizon rarely gets better on lte with their congested network. Never mind the 50+ dollar difference in price per month. I just don't understand why T-Mobile can't make more traction. Maybe with the top tier phones they have been getting as of late and the iPhone will ultimately help their bottom line. I really want to see them expand as long as they don't raise prices too much.
Hopefully their next move will be to buy up spectrum or towers in areas with no coverage previously. I would be more than happy to get plain old 3g service in the more rural areas that are stuck on edge like New York (upstate) and other spots in the north east.
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Jayrod1980 said:
I disagree that this merger will prevent T-Mobile from buying more companies for spectrum. Given their small size compared to Verizon and att, T-Mobile should have no problem clearing anti trust hurdles with the government. They also seem to be now an american company with a majority stake owned by the German parent. I may be wrong but I think before it was just a whole German subsidiary of Deutsche telecom. What I'm sad about is that they didn't merge or buy the wireless spectrum of dish network when that merger was a rumor. Perhaps the cost is too high. They have been bleeding customers for years now but have always been a profitable company. They got enough spectrum and money from the failed att buyout agreement and this metro PCs buyout to roll out a great lte network but I don't understand why people don't realize how good their hspa service is. Att is very slow and clogged and Verizon rarely gets better on lte with their congested network. Never mind the 50+ dollar difference in price per month. I just don't understand why T-Mobile can't make more traction. Maybe with the top tier phones they have been getting as of late and the iPhone will ultimately help their bottom line. I really want to see them expand as long as they don't raise prices too much.
Hopefully their next move will be to buy up spectrum or towers in areas with no coverage previously. I would be more than happy to get plain old 3g service in the more rural areas that are stuck on edge like New York (upstate) and other spots in the north east.
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I agree....their hspa+ isn't half bad:
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I still can't believe I'm only paying $30 a month for my plan with 5gb data! People are blown away when I tell them that. Even though it only includes 100 minutes, 10cents a minute after that is still a pretty good deal, unless you use like 2000 minutes a month usually. After the month's up I usually average about $45 between the base price and extra minutes. This month I topped up early because I killed my 5gb in about a week lol. Even after it cost me $60 this month, I still saved $30 over what I would have spent if I had stayed with sprint.
considering the cities cited metro will be on its own network(the northeast was recently built out new about 4 yrs ago). Hartford, New Haven and Springfield network was built by pocket wireless before they were absorbed by metro... I'm pretty certain the network in New England is capable of delivering 4g lte
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Metro is going to be gone by the end of next year...i just came away from them to come on to T-Mo...their network sucks ass..and so does their customer service...
I will stick with T-mo instead of going back to MetroPOS
hp420 said:
I agree....their hspa+ isn't half bad:
I still can't believe I'm only paying $30 a month for my plan with 5gb data! People are blown away when I tell them that. Even though it only includes 100 minutes, 10cents a minute after that is still a pretty good deal, unless you use like 2000 minutes a month usually. After the month's up I usually average about $45 between the base price and extra minutes. This month I topped up early because I killed my 5gb in about a week lol. Even after it cost me $60 this month, I still saved $30 over what I would have spent if I had stayed with sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you about the HSPA+ speeds. I'm in an HSPA+21 area and my highest “down" was 13 Mbps gotta love Build Prop tweaks! I work with a couple of people who have Metro PCS and none of them recommend it. Their “3g" is terrible and even their LTE is under par. America has become so brainwashed with 4GLTE being the best thing since sliced bread, that they're not reading into or even trying out T-Mobile.
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i must say it worked as these things normally do. They threw the word LTE out there a send most of America has bought into it.. So you are telling me you are doing that much more if you connect at 21mbps than 13-20mbps because that usually my speeds on HSPA+ network. Really LTE draining more battery but ok so you downloaded that app on the Play Store 6 seconds faster than me....
As long as I can stream with my Plex, Slingbox, Youtube videos and anything else I need without a hiccup I could care less if its 13 or 31.... Just my opinion
playya said:
i must say it worked as these things normally do. They threw the word LTE out there a send most of America has bought into it.. So you are telling me you are doing that much more if you connect at 21mbps than 13-20mbps because that usually my speeds on HSPA+ network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTE can handle a much bigger load of users and the latency is much smaller. All major carriers are moving to it as fast as possible because it is just a much more efficient network. It has nothing to do with individual speeds of users.
playya said:
i must say it worked as these things normally do. They threw the word LTE out there a send most of America has bought into it.. So you are telling me you are doing that much more if you connect at 21mbps than 13-20mbps because that usually my speeds on HSPA+ network. Really LTE draining more battery but ok so you downloaded that app on the Play Store 6 seconds faster than me....
As long as I can stream with my Plex, Slingbox, Youtube videos and anything else I need without a hiccup I could care less if its 13 or 31.... Just my opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you are not what's considered a 'power user' so you may not benefit from LTE. Others, like myself, prefer to not pay additional money to a landline internet provider if we have the capability of getting decent speeds and coverage from a wireless host. I, personally, would rather just pay my mobile provider for an unlimited data plan and just turn on the wifi hotspot on my phone for all my devices to use. This can only work with a good fast connection, though. As small as they can be, have you ever tried downloading a rom zip on 3g? Or 2g? It can take well over an hour if you don't have a decent connection. And rom updates are one of the many things users in this community consider a commodity. If I can't get HSPA coverage I won't even bother trying to download a rom, because I know it's going to time out eventually. And yes, I would definitely prefer to have LTE even when downloading a rom. I'd much rather it take me a minute to download it than 4 minutes....I know it must sound crazy to not want to waste 4x as much time waiting lol Just because it's a small amount of time doesn't make it any less significant
Related
Specifically the chicagoland area... Right now I have an at&t traditional plan with unlimited data. I'm CONSTANTLY dropping calls (did the same on my iPhone too) and once I hit 5gb of data, I get throttled to the point of uselessness. Yes, I am a data hog, I work overnights and there is a lot of down time, so Netflix is my friend.
So T-Mobile's truly unlimited data and far cheaper month rates are appealing. My wife and I would be saving 80 bucks a month going to T-Mobile. I just want to see if anyone here can share some good stories about T-Mobile before I make the switch.
Thank you
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Yes, I am pleased with the $30 5GB plan. Good coverage in the Southwest burbs.
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I'm happy with them as far as phone calls and data usage goes. I've only ever had dropped calls on my first ever day on T-Mobile, and it hasn't happened since, even in areas with a weak signal. Data is spotty for me in certain areas. If I'm in the city, it's strong, perfect, no complaints. In suburbs, I can sometimes get a 3G connection, other times I get no signal at all.
90% of the time I am in the city, or at home and have a perfect HSPA+ signal, so I'm happy with the amount I pay. Verizon was definitely a lot better for me since I had perfect service no matter where I was, or where I went but I couldn't justify the cost of the new crappy "Share everything plans" which rob you.
Since you watch a lot of netflix, be sure to get the $50 plan, and add the extra $20 for "unlimited nationwide 4G". The normal $50 version comes with 500MB of LTE/HSPA+ speeds, then they throttle you at 2G speeds. I currently use the $60 plan which gives you 2.5GB of 4G speed data. I never use more than 1-2 monthly.
I live just north of the wi border and whenever I go anywhere near Chicago my reception is awesome, full bars of h+. Also ive heard LTE is live there. Pretty much I'm saying youll be pretty happy with tmo I think. Definitely cheaper than at&t and I've personally never had dropped calls or anything, the only time tmo sucks is if you go way out to the boonies, you'll pretty much get no data.
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I dumped big red and never looked back. I love T-Mobile.
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sub1287 said:
I dumped big red and never looked back. I love T-Mobile.
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Click to collapse
I work downtown and live not far north. TMobile is the fastest i've used. verizon and att are just so mobbed. my buddy on verizon rarely breaks 6 mbps download and his upload is around .1 mbps haha.
No I cry everytime I make a phone call
T-Mobile has no contract. Can't hurt to try them anyway and they have a 30 day guarantee. You can also try their prepaid for a month if you don't want to go through the hassle.
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I've NEVER, EVER, EVER had a dropped call in all the years of using T-Mobile.
I'd give T-Mo a 9/10. I can't think of a complaint or ill feeling I've had in the 6 years I've been with them (more if you count the Voicestream days). I docked them a point for the handful of spotty areas in LA.
I paid $140/month 10gb limit and barely could hit 4g LTE at home forcing me to run 3g on Verizon getting speeds around 2-3mb.
Here's why I love T-Mobile...
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(Hit 70GB my first month.)
(On my weakest home signal avg between 9-12 down)
And an avg speed test I can get around town...
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i opened this thread to argue that tmobile is great because i live in chicago. but then i saw your post was about chicago...
i have dropped a few calls and identified a few buildings where i cannot get service on AWS band, but I can usually overcome it by forcing 1900mhz in the network menu.
south of I-80, it sucks, GPRS or EDGE for 100 miles and then UMTS/HSPA21
I swear they used to have ads up at the jackson red line that said t-mobile, the only provider who works in the subway. well it doesnt work for **** in either subway- no provider does.
they also led me to believe that if i went postpaid i would get ATT roaming, and I was stupid and didnt do my homework. no roaming anywhere in chicagoland period.
that said, I'm very happy with what I get for $60/mo.
I had an ATT iphone4 for 2 years and it was like I traveled back in time 10 years. I got to the point that I didnt ever even try to use data in the loop. I wasnt mad about it, it was a fact of life that I cant have an ATT smartphone because I'm in the city.
edit: any certain place you will be using it? if there is no crowdsourced data there i can test for you before you sign. im all over town all the time
I think it's just your area. I love T-Mobile, I don't think I'd go to any other carrier, unless T-Mobile drastically changed in the future for the worse. Only bad thing is that I get no signal at all at a few of my friends houses. Seriously none at all, only near windows. But once I leave the house, it's perfectly fine. Even in their neighbors houses, I get signal....
Love T-Mobile.. The only way you could have a problem with them is not looking at their coverage area and signing up blindly.. They aren't Verizon so if you signed up with T-Mobile and expect a data connection or a signal in general in east-bumble-funk Nebraska... Yeah, I don't feel sorry for you..
T-Mobile is exactly as advertised.. Their coverage area is dead on as the map shows.. Their speeds are incredible and I've done 4hr voice calls without drops.. Even their G/Edge service is `workable' for basic web browsing.
Zero complaints..
Chicago + LTE @70 Unlimited = Awesome Service
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I'm in Orlando fl and I can't complain. No dropped calls. Data is fast, average 11 down and 1.5 up. Peaks at 20 up 2.5 down.
Way cheaper then att and Verizon.
I'm a satisfied customer.
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If you're in any big cities. T-Mobile is awesome. I visited Chicago and had full bars all around downtown and around the city. If you ever have bad reception then you can use any of the T-Mobile branded phones that have T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling which is awesome. Nexus 4 does not have it yet unfortunately, but all the others do like the s4.
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sub1287 said:
I paid $140/month 10gb limit and barely could hit 4g LTE at home forcing me to run 3g on Verizon getting speeds around 2-3mb.
Here's why I love T-Mobile...
(Hit 70GB my first month.)
(On my weakest home signal avg between 9-12 down)
And an avg speed test I can get around town...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the plan I'm looking at too. That plan for my wife and I will be saving around $80 a month from at&t. Saving almost a grand a year would be great!
dcd1182 said:
i opened this thread to argue that tmobile is great because i live in chicago. but then i saw your post was about chicago...
i have dropped a few calls and identified a few buildings where i cannot get service on AWS band, but I can usually overcome it by forcing 1900mhz in the network menu.
south of I-80, it sucks, GPRS or EDGE for 100 miles and then UMTS/HSPA21
I swear they used to have ads up at the jackson red line that said t-mobile, the only provider who works in the subway. well it doesnt work for **** in either subway- no provider does.
they also led me to believe that if i went postpaid i would get ATT roaming, and I was stupid and didnt do my homework. no roaming anywhere in chicagoland period.
that said, I'm very happy with what I get for $60/mo.
I had an ATT iphone4 for 2 years and it was like I traveled back in time 10 years. I got to the point that I didnt ever even try to use data in the loop. I wasnt mad about it, it was a fact of life that I cant have an ATT smartphone because I'm in the city.
edit: any certain place you will be using it? if there is no crowdsourced data there i can test for you before you sign. im all over town all the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd be using it in the southwest suburbs like the Orland Park area and then the west suburbs like the Woodridge area. I very rarely go downtown and am only in the Mt. Greenwood area of Chicago when in the city at all.
To the rest, thank you very much for your responses. I had T-Mobile a about 11 years ago for a bit, but never any data plan or anything like that, so I didn't know. I sole be doing this soon here, so we'll see.
Oh, one more thing. Any issues with T-Mobile's sims and Google wallet? I use Google wallet every day and I don't want to have issues with that.
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lowrider262 said:
I live just north of the wi border and whenever I go anywhere near Chicago my reception is awesome, full bars of h+. Also ive heard LTE is live there. Pretty much I'm saying youll be pretty happy with tmo I think. Definitely cheaper than at&t and I've personally never had dropped calls or anything, the only time tmo sucks is if you go way out to the boonies, you'll pretty much get no data.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Way out in the boonies like the entire state of Michigan. Maybe that will change now that they have MetroPCS's spectrum as they had a large presence in the state but I doubt it.
Coming from Sprint, data is night and day difference...literally. GPS locks on instantly. The no contract was big for me. But I will say I do notice some quirks with the service, but I can live with it. It might be since I have LTE enabled on my phone, but when I make a phone call, sometimes it takes like 5 seconds to start ringing. I'm guessing because it has to change from LTE to 3G to make the call? That and I've found a few dead spots around town. That only really effects me when streaming pandora sometimes. But like someone else said, if I can get this service 90% of the time then I'm happy. I get 4G at work and 4G at my house.
Well, I've had this phone for a good 3 months now. I used to have an S2 with H+. I'm not exactly sure how fast 3G(EVDO) is supposed to be, but I'm assuming I should be able to, at the very least, do a Google search. I can barely browse sometimes on LTE, let alone 3G.
Well, today, my buddy showed be a website on his Verizon iPhone 4. It was, at the very least, ten times faster than my browsing experience. It felt as fast as my Wi-fi!
This raises a serious question for me:
Is the HTC One slow? Or is it just Sprint being Sprint? Because I have yet to see such browsing speeds, even in strong(ish) LTE areas.
I have only the One on Sprint, so I have nothing to test it against, but can Sprint's 3G be that bad? Can verizon's 3G be that good?
Are you guys able to browse comfortably on 3G? Is my device defective?
I have no idea. I just want to be able to use my mobile phone as a mobile phone. As in, able to use the internet outside of my house. It's very frustrating sometimes when I want to look something up and the connection times out.
So, how fast is your browsing experience?
sauprankul said:
Well, I've had this phone for a good 3 months now. I used to have an S2 with H+. I'm not exactly sure how fast 3G(EVDO) is supposed to be, but I'm assuming I should be able to, at the very least, do a Google search. I can barely browse sometimes on LTE, let alone 3G.
Well, today, my buddy showed be a website on his Verizon iPhone 4. It was, at the very least, ten times faster than my browsing experience. It felt as my Wi-fi!
This raises a serious question for me:
Is the HTC One slow? Or is it just Sprint being Sprint? Because I have yet to see such browsing speeds, even in strong(ish) LTE areas.
I have only the One on Sprint, so I have nothing to test it against, but can Sprint's 3G be that bad? Can verizon's 3G be that good?
Are you guys able to browse comfortably on 3G? Is my device defective?
I have no idea. I just want to be able to use my mobile phone as a mobile phone. As in, able to use the internet outside of my house. It's very frustrating sometimes when I want to look something up and the connection times out.
So, how fast is your browsing experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3g maxs out at around 2-3 mbps I'm not sure but this is the limitation of the evdo technology that's is being used. Sprints internet service has been decreasing over the years probably due to their backhaul but as network vision is being applied your data speed rates should be increasing. Verizon has fast 3g because of their network as of now sprint is playing the catch up game but it shouldn't be that long until it's there. If you just want ur mobile phone to work like a mobile phone shouldnt that just be calls?
luigi311 said:
3g maxs out at around 2-3 mbps I'm not sure but this is the limitation of the evdo technology that's is being used. Sprints internet service has been decreasing over the years probably due to their backhaul but as network vision is being applied your data speed rates should be increasing. Verizon has fast 3g because of their network as of now sprint is playing the catch up game but it shouldn't be that long until it's there. If you just want ur mobile phone to work like a mobile phone shouldnt that just be calls?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the question: No. By mobile, I mean being able to move around. Smartphones are the new definition of mobile phones.
And 2-3 megs on 3g? Ha! That's a good one... I barely get 2 on LTE. I get like 80kbps, if even, on 3G. Is there something wrong with my phone or is it just Sprint?
sauprankul said:
To the question: No. By mobile, I mean being able to move around. Smartphones are the new definition of mobile phones.
And 2-3 megs on 3g? Ha! That's a good one... I barely get 2 on LTE. I get like 80kbps, if even, on 3G. Is there something wrong with my phone or is it just Sprint?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just sprint ... Sprint made a bad call when they invested in wimax while others like Verizon went lte ... Verizon's 3g is pretty fast especially now that a ton of their devices prioritize lte.
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sauprankul said:
To the question: No. By mobile, I mean being able to move around. Smartphones are the new definition of mobile phones.
And 2-3 megs on 3g? Ha! That's a good one... I barely get 2 on LTE. I get like 80kbps, if even, on 3G. Is there something wrong with my phone or is it just Sprint?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If ur really fedup with sprints 3g u can always SIM unlock and load up a at& or tmobile SIM and use their 3g. Theres also just leaving sprint completely and going to another company
luigi311 said:
If ur really fedup with sprints 3g u can always SIM unlock and load up a at& or tmobile SIM and use their 3g. Theres also just leaving sprint completely and going to another company
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I tell Sprint that I'm getting crappy-a$$ speeds and ask for a free contract termination? Or, at least, a discounted ETF?
I don't wanna pay $1000+ for phones I'll have to sell for like <$300 each.
sauprankul said:
To the question: No. By mobile, I mean being able to move around. Smartphones are the new definition of mobile phones.
And 2-3 megs on 3g? Ha! That's a good one... I barely get 2 on LTE. I get like 80kbps, if even, on 3G. Is there something wrong with my phone or is it just Sprint?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any problems with 3g or lte. There was problem for a month, or so when they were working on lte towers. Brooklyn, NY. The only thing that I didn't update radios.
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In Manhattan on the other hand speed is not good at all.
Sent from my lair.
volk9029 said:
I don't have any problems with 3g or lte. There was problem for a month, or so when they were working on lte towers. Brooklyn, NY. The only thing that I didn't update radios.View attachment 2161342
In Manhattan on the other hand speed is not good at all.
Sent from my lair.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In absolute disbelief at your 3G speeds. Do you think that the problems around South Bay area are because of Network Vision upgrades and LTE? The Sprint rep told me, when I bought my phone, that we would get LTE by August (this month).
I really like this phone, and Sprints prices are very reasonable. How long do you think before South bay gets a stable 3G network?
sauprankul said:
Can I tell Sprint that I'm getting crappy-a$$ speeds and ask for a free contract termination? Or, at least, a discounted ETF?
I don't wanna pay $1000+ for phones I'll have to sell for like <$300 each.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very unlikely you'll get any adjustments towards contract termination. If you happen to get ahold of a sympathetic Care rep, they may be able to reimburse you x amount of dollars per x months, but that's probably going to be about it. They give you 14 days to "try" their network. If you did not cancel within that 14 days, you are stating that you are OK with everything and agree to roll with it for 2 years.
As far as speed issues, I have seen ups and downs as well. I believe ever since the Network Vision expansion, Sprint has devoted less attention to general tower maintenance on the whole and more towards beefing up for future performance. Therefore a local cell site with a capacity issue does not get repaired/upgraded/tweaked as fast as it should, and all of a sudden your phone is pinging towers even further away just to establish data connection, hence the lower speeds and reliability.
sauprankul said:
In absolute disbelief at your 3G speeds. Do you think that the problems around South Bay area are because of Network Vision upgrades and LTE? The Sprint rep told me, when I bought my phone, that we would get LTE by August (this month).
I really like this phone, and Sprints prices are very reasonable. How long do you think before South bay gets a stable 3G network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in union city and I have ****ty 3g and spotty 4g but I see a bunch of areas lighting up with 4g... The roll out has been slow. I checked the sprint website and if I search for my address it says I have lte in my are which I don't
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
Man. I wish I had read up more about Sprint. I would have known about how much of a failure wimax was and would have stayed away.
Well, here I am.
My other concern is: Does anybody have a different brand of phone on Sprint and get better data speeds? I am utterly shocked that data speeds could be so slow in Silicon valley. Its really hard to believe that Sprint is so bad that it barely covers the 680 and 101 here.
Really, the slow speeds limit basic functions like searching and browsing. Forget about streaming and downloading.
sauprankul said:
Man. I wish I had read up more about Sprint. I would have known about how much of a failure wimax was and would have stayed away.
Well, here I am.
My other concern is: Does anybody have a different brand of phone on Sprint and get better data speeds? I am utterly shocked that data speeds could be so slow in Silicon valley. Its really hard to believe that Sprint is so bad that it barely covers the 680 and 101 here.
Really, the slow speeds limit basic functions like searching and browsing. Forget about streaming and downloading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had almost all devices on sprint and it makes no difference the speed is crap. Only reason I'm still with sprint is because my business pays for it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
I get about 700kbit download and 600kbit upload on average which is good enough for browsing and video calls but forget about downloading 50+mb apps.As long as texts work all the time and I can roam for free I'm good to go.
Just remembered thanks to that guy mentioning roaming. Apperently people in the past people would flash a Verizon prl that would allow them access to their 3g service by forcing roam. After a while sprint would message them via a letter or something telling them they are excessively roam and their account will be terminated. This was a method that some were using to get out of their sprint contracts without having to pay the etf. Although this is morally indecent so it is up to u to try it. I don't know how the results for u will come out though since u just opened ur account just tossing it out there
Lmao!!! This is the very reason there is a sick of sprint thread. 3g is not usable in most areas. I was with them for 10 years b4 I finally got myself kicked off and went to att. Their data speeds are disappointing. I was never able to stream a YouTube video. I do think that call quality was a little better on sprint tho. I would suggest anybody who wants to use their networks data DO NOT GO WITH SPRINT
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
N0wy0ud1e said:
I get about 700kbit download and 600kbit upload on average which is good enough for browsing and video calls but forget about downloading 50+mb apps.As long as texts work all the time and I can roam for free I'm good to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would kill for this. Maybe 10 days out the the year I get 1500kbits for some reason. The rest of the time? 150kbits down. LTE I usually get about 2. I'm located in a major city along the east coast, 10 miles from the ocean.
gmfeny said:
Lmao!!! This is the very reason there is a sick of sprint thread. 3g is not usable in most areas. I was with them for 10 years b4 I finally got myself kicked off and went to att. Their data speeds are disappointing. I was never able to stream a YouTube video. I do think that call quality was a little better on sprint tho. I would suggest anybody who wants to use their networks data DO NOT GO WITH SPRINT
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm desperate people. I can't go along with this kind of service. I would be perfectly happy with 2 megs down. I dont need 30 megs down or whatever, and chances are, if Sprint has never really taken the effort to put decent 3G around here, they probably won't with 4G.
So about the roaming thing... Will I really get kicked out without an ETF? I think I can because I technically didn't ask them to kick me off, right? I just ended up accidentally roaming a bit too much. Does anybody have experience with the roaming loophole? Will I be able to keep this phone or what? Will they give me roaming fees? Is Verizon's 3G going to be that much faster?
sauprankul said:
I'm desperate people. I can't go along with this kind of service. I would be perfectly happy with 2 megs down. I dont need 30 megs down or whatever, and chances are, if Sprint has never really taken the effort to put decent 3G around here, they probably won't with 4G.
So about the roaming thing... Will I really get kicked out without an ETF? I think I can because I technically didn't ask them to kick me off, right? I just ended up accidentally roaming a bit too much. Does anybody have experience with the roaming loophole? Will I be able to keep this phone or what? Will they give me roaming fees? Is Verizon's 3G going to be that much faster?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol yes sir I just got kicked off July 23rd but I switched to att the day I found out I could. I would just stay with a Verizon prl not like 00003 or something and you have to do it for at least 3 months in a row. I would leave my phone downloaded torrents every night before I go to bed. At least a couple gbs in size. Sprint didn't kick me off right away tho. I did this in December January and February then I eventually gave up BC I didn't think they would boot me. Then in June they sent the letter saying my service would be disconnected ETF FREE!!! So I Porte's my number to att and the rest is history
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
gmfeny said:
Lol yes sir I just got kicked off July 23rd but I switched to att the day I found out I could. I would just stay with a Verizon prl not like 00003 or something and you have to do it for at least 3 months in a row. I would leave my phone downloaded torrents every night before I go to bed. At least a couple gbs in size. Sprint didn't kick me off right away tho. I did this in December January and February then I eventually gave up BC I didn't think they would boot me. Then in June they sent the letter saying my service would be disconnected ETF FREE!!! So I Porte's my number to att and the rest is history
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems very doable if I set up a hotspot.
Just to confirm, does anybody else have experience with this? Are there any fees involved? This sounds too good to be true. I've looked this up online, and I see very few people who actually tried this and reported back.
But if I get to keep my phone and sell it and leave Sprint and go to AT&T and not have to worry about fees then I'll definitely do this with no hesitation.
Honestly, it's all about your location.
In areas with no Network Vision upgrades and ancient T1 backhauls, sprint's 3G is going to basically be unusable. While the EVDO towers can easily handle 1.5-2mbit of speed, the backhaul is so clogged that you are lucky to get 128kbps. (.1mbit)
I disabled the 4G Radio in my phone and did several speed tests on EVDO. This was in peak usage time (~1PM). I live in Maryland and I am in the Baltimore market rollout. This is a Network Vision tower, with 4G LTE I am connected to. The backhauls are fully upgraded with fiber. My speeds mostly sat around 1.7-1.8mbit. Enough to stream music on the go, load web pages, stream 360p youtube.
http://imgur.com/a/ygmHN
If you live in an area that is getting a 4G LTE rollout, the 3G speeds will definitely increase - and will probably be equal to those 3G speeds of the other CDMA provider - Verizon.
Then I enabled the 4G radio in my phone, ran another set of sets. About the same time (~1PM.)
http://imgur.com/a/4clVb
My average during peak times is anywhere from 5-9mbit down, with 3-5mbit up. Easily enough to stream HQ Music, HQ Youtube, quickly load web content, and even some HD netflix worked without problem.
During off-peak times, I easily speed test at 15-16mbit down, and 7-8mbit up.
http://imgur.com/a/MJbZc
My favorite has to be off-peak times. After about 11pm, everything is amazing. I can do multiple things online without issues. Tether to my PC, stream music, download files, ect. I've hit 16mbit down pretty easily, and I'm actually pretty far away from the tower. My RSSI is generally about 110-113dBm, which is getting to the edge of usability. I never lose my connection. (75 is right next to the tower, 120 is the edge of the signal.)
I figured I'd post this here
http://pocketnow.com/2014/06/07/softbank-usa
As John Legere, the future CEO of Softbank USA has said, Uncarrier is here to stay!
I hope this means that I get Tri-Band on my Nexus 5!
-A T-Mobile Customer.
I have no problem with this even though my Sero plan will probably be going away as long as Dan Hesse gets canned and John Legere takes control with the TMO way of doing business.
this sounds awesome
Not a big fan of the name. SoftBank USA sounds more of a bank name than a carrier name.
zephiK said:
Not a big fan of the name. SoftBank USA sounds more of a bank name than a carrier name.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftBank
SoftBank is a Japanese telecommunications company who owns Sprint and soon T-Mobile.
I hope they keep unlimited data.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Hope they merge to a all GSM network, instead of a hodgepodge of all the different tech used by Sprint and T-Mo.
Wouldn't the logical and smart name for the company be SprinT-Mobile?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Beauenheim said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftBank
SoftBank is a Japanese telecommunications company who owns Sprint and soon T-Mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm aware of what soft bank is.. I was saying that I'm not the biggest fan of the name because it sounds like a bank more than a carrier name.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Seriously, what does this mean for us N5 users? With the addition of Sprint Spark, the N5 can connect to literally EVERY band both companies have, 3G, HSPA+, T-Mo LTE, Sprint Band 25/26/41 LTE, etc...Will SoftBank issue new SIMs to utilize both networks? They might consolidate into GSM, but Sprint Spark is significantly more advanced then HSPA+/T-Mo LTE, and I think that they'd want to utilize that...Either way, should be interesting...
Koopa777 said:
Seriously, what does this mean for us N5 users? With the addition of Sprint Spark, the N5 can connect to literally EVERY band both companies have, 3G, HSPA+, T-Mo LTE, Sprint Band 25/26/41 LTE, etc...Will SoftBank issue new SIMs to utilize both networks? They might consolidate into GSM, but Sprint Spark is significantly more advanced then HSPA+/T-Mo LTE, and I think that they'd want to utilize that...Either way, should be interesting...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile also has 20x20 LTE which is pretty fast. They're most likely going to go to VoLTE route.
in the end i dont really see a down side to any of this. just really hope they dont do away with unlimited data.
May the Mobile Data Gods be with us!
If you don't see a downside to this, you have never been on Sprint (lucky you). The absolute worst network has been hemorrhaging customers for quite a while for a reason, me as one of them. I am glad to see the rumor mill is for T-Mobile CEO to take the lead job, but I see great potential for my wonderful T-Mobile to be harmed mightily. Lets hope for the best
StevieJ
steviejake said:
If you don't see a downside to this, you have never been on Sprint (lucky you). The absolute worst network has been hemorrhaging customers for quite a while for a reason, me as one of them. I am glad to see the rumor mill is for T-Mobile CEO to take the lead job, but I see great potential for my wonderful T-Mobile to be harmed mightily. Lets hope for the best
StevieJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speak for yourself. T-Mobile has 2G coverage in my town. Sprint(which I'm on) has 3G, and in the city next to me, Sprint has blanketed LTE, while T-Mobile has spotty HSPA and barely any LTE. In the sticks, Sprint is almost always better than T-Mobile, hell AT&T has more deadspots around my area than Sprint...
I'll be ok with the merger, as long as its like T-mobile taking sprint over, and not the other way around. Get rid of all sprint higher ups, and keep t-mobiles, because obviously the current t-mobile is much more capable then sprint has ever been since the sprint/nextel merger.
And i better get to keep my $30 100 min, unlim text 5gig data plan.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
As long as they keep unlimited data and the UP phone upgrade program, I'm all for it.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
misfit0313 said:
Hope they merge to a all GSM network, instead of a hodgepodge of all the different tech used by Sprint and T-Mo.
Wouldn't the logical and smart name for the company be SprinT-Mobile?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The most likely course of action is that the networks will remain as is and the combined company will transition to all LTE and eventually shut off the CDMA/GSM/UMTS networks completely.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Considering they will most likely have 800, PCS, AWS and the spark band; they could take one of those bands and use a third for voLTE.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Koopa777 said:
Speak for yourself. T-Mobile has 2G coverage in my town. Sprint(which I'm on) has 3G, and in the city next to me, Sprint has blanketed LTE, while T-Mobile has spotty HSPA and barely any LTE. In the sticks, Sprint is almost always better than T-Mobile, hell AT&T has more deadspots around my area than Sprint...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where I'm located (Houston Tx) T-Mobile sucks. I work w/ some guys who have great flagship devices and they have Tmo and are always getting dropped calls and data is spotty as all get out.
I'm in Biloxi Mississippi now and I have LTE about 70% of the time on Sprint. I have it 90% of the time in Houston and have for a while now. They have come a looooooooooong way. Guess it just depends on where you are located.
I hope the deal goes through. [emoji41]
Sent from my Nexus 5
If this is seriously the final verdict of the merger...I have to say I'm terrified and excited all at the same time. Sprint is right next to Verizon with me..and I hate both of them, no opinion of AT&T though.
But I'm excited because as long as Legere is still CEO I don't think us original T-Mobile clients have to worry too much (been with T-Mobile since 1999)..and hopefully we end up on a grandfathered plan so we don't lose features or have an insane price hike... Because the most important thing to me on my plan is unlimited data.
Edit : this makes sense now and it goes along with Uncarrier 5.0... Legere wanted to increase revenue...so he got did away with 15% discounts with programs like Triple A (AAA) and made it so only government and military workers are the only ones capable of getting a discount)
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Hello,
Just a FYI, this is NOT a direct rant or rave. I believe these are obvious facts. Just wanted to see peoples thoughts.
I am from New York. I mainly work in the 5 boroughs in NY, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, and Manhattan, and I live in Long Island. I have been through the 3G, 4G wimax, and 4G LTE Transition. I have also been through multiple phones. HTC Evo 4G, HTC Evo 4G LTE, HTC One (M7), and HTC One (M8).
Unfortunately when driving around, all the LTE phones dropped back to 3G way too often. I assume this is because some towers have not been LTE upgraded yet, weak spots, and I may be driving past those towers with no LTE.
I gave the M8 a shot and it helped with the Tri-Band Spark (connecting to the 800 mhz spectrum when the 1900 was out of range). I understand Spark roll out isn't complete yet. A prime example is driving around and having Pandora internet radio cut out because the phone loves to swap between 3G and 4G when there is a weak 4G signal. Pandora is NOT critical, it's just the principle of the matter if it cutting out. I will not rave about any other carriers, but let's be honest, there's some carriers out there where you could drive around ALL day long, go inside buildings, etc, and not loose LTE once.
The situation was all too common where I would be in a mall, or large store (such as walmart or sears) trying to look up something in the store on my phone. Not only would it be on 3G but pages would not load. Indoors in a mall or a store I almost never was able to acquire 4G. Only in Spark areas where I would actually hit the 800mhz spectrum.
Also another example. Yankee Stadium in the Bronx which is outdoors, Address 1 E 161st St, Bronx, NY 10451. My friends have different carriers and I wanted to rave about sprint's new Spark service on my HTC M8. Both times I was there I got FULL LTE service, but it was completely unusable. Webpages would not load, speedtests would not work at all, and I was laughed at. Changed phone to CDMA Only mode and webpages actually loaded, but barely. I know it wasn't the phone because LTE worked at home in Long Island with no problem. I had the most up to date software on my phone at the time.
The M8 was my last hurrah with Sprint for now. Here is the main flaw in my book. Spark would need to have strategically picked the frequency band with the best speed, but I guess that's not possible. It's counter productive for my phone to be connecting to a Band 41-2600MHz frequency with weak signal/slow speeds, over a Band 25-1900MHz signal. It's also counter productive for my phone to be connecting to Band 25-1900 MHz spectrum with slow speeds over a Band 26-800mhz with high speeds. I was in a hotel for a few weeks at a time in a Spark enabled area. I was near a window getting LTE Band 25-1900MHz and only pulling about 1.5 mbps. I strategically had to put my phone further into the hotel room away from a window to obtain Band 26-800 mhz which gave me over 10MBPS!
I will miss Sprint. I liked them, they had great customer service, and I may come back in a couple of years when New York / 5 boroughs are fully ready. Network Vision has definitely improved speed and coverage, just not how I expected yet.
tl;dr
exSD said:
tl;dr
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And the world is a better place now because of your wise words. Seriously, there was no point to making such a garbage post. None.
OP, thank you for this. I also live in NYC and have Sprint. I'm due for an upgrade on August 1st and trying to decide what phone to get. I've read things on Sprint's own message boards that suggest that HTC's firmware conflicts with Spark and Sprint and HTC know this. HTC is supposedly working on a fix, but who knows. I really wanted to get this phone but I think I'll look at the G5 or new LG instead. I've read they work much better in NYC. Leaving Sprint isn't an option right now, unfortunately. Thank you again.
BretonGirl said:
And the world is a better place now because of your wise words. Seriously, there was no point to making such a garbage post. None.
OP, thank you for this. I also live in NYC and have Sprint. I'm due for an upgrade on August 1st and trying to decide what phone to get. I've read things on Sprint's own message boards that suggest that HTC's firmware conflicts with Spark and Sprint and HTC know this. HTC is supposedly working on a fix, but who knows. I really wanted to get this phone but I think I'll look at the G5 or new LG instead. I've read they work much better in NYC. Leaving Sprint isn't an option right now, unfortunately. Thank you again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey BretonGirl,
Thank you for the response! I believe certain areas had an issue with making/receiving phone calls at times (i had the issue) with the M8 when on LTE. However the most recent firmware update fixed that for me.
I hope this post doesn't persuade you go for the S5. Sense blows TouchWiz out of the water! From what I've read the radio is actually better in the M8. I've never had an issue in Manhattan itself due to how saturated it is with cell sites.
Most of the time while driving around my phone kept LTE and bounced off between towers with no problem. Other times it would revert to 3G (I assume when the phone couldn't find an LTE signal at all after it was going out of range).
All in all, I don't believe it was an issue with the M8 itself, but rather the gaps between different LTE sites.
For example, driving from point A to C in a straight line for 3 miles. A, B and C are sprint cell towers. A and C have LTE active, however B does not. Once you get to point B (say 1.5 miles down the road) you loose LTE and revert back to 3G because LTE signal from A and C are both too weak to reach you. It may take your phone *up to* 5 minutes depending on how far through the LTE scan timer your phone is.
As for the LG. I've never used one, but have heard good things Good luck on your pick!
bigblueshock said:
Hello,
Just a FYI, this is NOT a direct rant or rave. I believe these are obvious facts. Just wanted to see peoples thoughts.
I am from New York. I mainly work in the 5 boroughs in NY, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, and Manhattan, and I live in Long Island. I have been through the 3G, 4G wimax, and 4G LTE Transition. I have also been through multiple phones. HTC Evo 4G, HTC Evo 4G LTE, HTC One (M7), and HTC One (M8).
Unfortunately when driving around, all the LTE phones dropped back to 3G way too often. I assume this is because some towers have not been LTE upgraded yet, weak spots, and I may be driving past those towers with no LTE.
I gave the M8 a shot and it helped with the Tri-Band Spark (connecting to the 800 mhz spectrum when the 1900 was out of range). I understand Spark roll out isn't complete yet. A prime example is driving around and having Pandora internet radio cut out because the phone loves to swap between 3G and 4G when there is a weak 4G signal. Pandora is NOT critical, it's just the principle of the matter if it cutting out. I will not rave about any other carriers, but let's be honest, there's some carriers out there where you could drive around ALL day long, go inside buildings, etc, and not loose LTE once.
The situation was all too common where I would be in a mall, or large store (such as walmart or sears) trying to look up something in the store on my phone. Not only would it be on 3G but pages would not load. Indoors in a mall or a store I almost never was able to acquire 4G. Only in Spark areas where I would actually hit the 800mhz spectrum.
Also another example. Yankee Stadium in the Bronx which is outdoors, Address 1 E 161st St, Bronx, NY 10451. My friends have different carriers and I wanted to rave about sprint's new Spark service on my HTC M8. Both times I was there I got FULL LTE service, but it was completely unusable. Webpages would not load, speedtests would not work at all, and I was laughed at. Changed phone to CDMA Only mode and webpages actually loaded, but barely. I know it wasn't the phone because LTE worked at home in Long Island with no problem. I had the most up to date software on my phone at the time.
The M8 was my last hurrah with Sprint for now. Here is the main flaw in my book. Spark would need to have strategically picked the frequency band with the best speed, but I guess that's not possible. It's counter productive for my phone to be connecting to a Band 41-2600MHz frequency with weak signal/slow speeds, over a Band 25-1900MHz signal. It's also counter productive for my phone to be connecting to Band 25-1900 MHz spectrum with slow speeds over a Band 26-800mhz with high speeds. I was in a hotel for a few weeks at a time in a Spark enabled area. I was near a window getting LTE Band 25-1900MHz and only pulling about 1.5 mbps. I strategically had to put my phone further into the hotel room away from a window to obtain Band 26-800 mhz which gave me over 10MBPS!
I will miss Sprint. I liked them, they had great customer service, and I may come back in a couple of years when New York / 5 boroughs are fully ready. Network Vision has definitely improved speed and coverage, just not how I expected yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to actually agree with a lot of what op is saying. Wimax signal was an absolute joke, not only did they not finish the wimax network the parts that were done you couldn't even drive down the road without the signal dropping. I have had friends leave Sprint after 10+ years of service just because they couldn't take it anymore. The unusable 3G data speed, the dropped calls (which I NEVER had dropped calls with sprint since NV begun). Some have jumped ship, I have stayed. The signal issues have got much better in my area over the last year where but it is still at an embarrassing level at a lot of places. My home tower was broken for oh maybe 6 months. It was SO BAD that my local news station did a story on it for all the people complaining of dropped calls. Most of those issues are now gone and I am finally starting to see actual results such as 800 coverage and I even picked up the new Spark Bad the other day
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If someone wants to leave, I 100% understand why but I am holding out and think the network can get there someday. It's been a very painful road and a lot if it goes back to the Nextel disaster and betting the wrong horse with wimax. I also stream music and you are right it's not critical but when driving around the signal cuts in & out all the time all over it pisses you off. I suggest checking it out in another year so how it's going, I am hanging tough and it has been getting better all the time. HD voice is awesome and Sprint will get the voice network back to what it use to be and I do notice most of my data usage is now 4G over 3G.
You do gotta remember what I try explaining to people is they are rebuilding the network tower by tower, one by one. Imagine if they did road construction on the entire system at the same time it would suck.
You know what, for $25 per month (without managing a big family plan or being managed), I don't complain at all.
Sim-X said:
I have to actually agree with a lot of what op is saying. Wimax signal was an absolute joke, not only did they not finish the wimax network the parts that were done you couldn't even drive down the road without the signal dropping. I have had friends leave Sprint after 10+ years of service just because they couldn't take it anymore. The unusable 3G data speed, the dropped calls (which I NEVER had dropped calls with sprint since NV begun). Some have jumped ship, I have stayed. The signal issues have got much better in my area over the last year where but it is still at an embarrassing level at a lot of places. My home tower was broken for oh maybe 6 months. It was SO BAD that my local news station did a story on it for all the people complaining of dropped calls. Most of those issues are now gone and I am finally starting to see actual results such as 800 coverage and I even picked up the new Spark Bad the other day
If someone wants to leave, I 100% understand why but I am holding out and think the network can get there someday. It's been a very painful road and a lot if it goes back to the Nextel disaster and betting the wrong horse with wimax. I also stream music and you are right it's not critical but when driving around the signal cuts in & out all the time all over it pisses you off. I suggest checking it out in another year so how it's going, I am hanging tough and it has been getting better all the time. HD voice is awesome and Sprint will get the voice network back to what it use to be and I do notice most of my data usage is now 4G over 3G.
You do gotta remember what I try explaining to people is they are rebuilding the network tower by tower, one by one. Imagine if they did road construction on the entire system at the same time it would suck.
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Yeah, I would have not minded Sprint skipping wimax from the beginning so they wouldn't be 2 to 3 years behind on LTE. I was even in a WiMax area and still never used it due to how fast it killed the battery.
ljwnow, You must be on the Framily plan or SERO? Yeah definitely cant go wrong with that lol.
bigblueshock said:
Yeah, I would have not minded Sprint skipping wimax from the beginning so they wouldn't be 2 to 3 years behind on LTE. I was even in a WiMax area and still never used it due to how fast it killed the battery.
ljwnow, You must be on the Framily plan or SERO? Yeah definitely cant go wrong with that lol.
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I remember the 1st time I tried wimax, I pulled just over 10 down was like wow. No other carrier had 4G but yea it just killed the battery. I just don't know what they were thinking with wimax especially put it on a such a high frequency the coverage was absolutely horrendous. Yes I am on SeroP, I use to have the old $30 (plus 25% discount) plan but of course that doesn't work with "smart phones". So that is part of my reason for staying. However there are plenty of people who don't have that plan and are paying much higher rates for crappy service. While Framily is pretty good deal, you give up subsidized phones which rightfully so but if I was a new customer in the market I would overlook sprint at the moment for at least another year. Even when I'm close to a tower on 800 a lot of times I still have a very week signal but you still gotta give it some more time. Overhauling a network tower by tower takes a long time.
ljwnow said:
You know what, for $25 per month (without managing a big family plan or being managed), I don't complain at all.
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SeroP for $25/mo? Do tell.
Kisakuku said:
SeroP for $25/mo? Do tell.
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Framily plan. Not SERO...
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ljwnow said:
Framily plan. Not SERO...
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Gotcha. Sim-X answered the question directed at you, which got me confused.
I've been thinking about Framily, but hard to let go of SeroP. My feeling is that if the merger goes through, Sprint will solve my dilemma by making SERO go the way of Premier Gold and all the other good perks.
I've been a Sprint customer for 12 years now. It's been painful and frustrating at times but I believe they have finally gotten their act together and are on the right track.
Kisakuku said:
Gotcha. Sim-X answered the question directed at you, which got me confused.
I've been thinking about Framily, but hard to let go of SeroP. My feeling is that if the merger goes through, Sprint will solve my dilemma by making SERO go the way of Premier Gold and all the other good perks.
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I would never give up SeroP for Framily. Framily would be 25+20 unlimited data with no phone upgrade. SeroP 40+10 with upgrades and don't have to work about keeping framily full. Technically I only get 500 min but n/w starts @ 7 (I use to have 6) but mobile 2 mobile is free (anynetwork) and I also have any pick 6 #'s (landlines) on my account for unlimited. The few land lines I do call anymore I have set into my picks so basically unlimited.
My old plan was 500 Anytime for $30, -$7.50 a month discount. N/W at 6, first incoming min free, unlimited data, sms & picture mail. plus a few bucks in taxes and fees my bill would come out lil over $25 after taxes. All my addons were free except for insurance which I did have for a little bit was $7 a month back in 2009 so about $32 with insurance and taxes but SeroP is still pretty solid especially with being able to get upgrade pricing. I would never give up SeroP. if they got rid of subsidizes phones then you could make a switch to Framily.
Sim-X said:
I would never give up SeroP for Framily. Framily would be 25+20 unlimited data with no phone upgrade. SeroP 40+10 with upgrades and don't have to work about keeping framily full. Technically I only get 500 min but n/w starts @ 7 (I use to have 6) but mobile 2 mobile is free (anynetwork) and I also have any pick 6 #'s (landlines) on my account for unlimited. The few land lines I do call anymore I have set into my picks so basically unlimited.
My old plan was 500 Anytime for $30, -$7.50 a month discount. N/W at 6, first incoming min free, unlimited data, sms & picture mail. plus a few bucks in taxes and fees my bill would come out lil over $25 after taxes. All my addons were free except for insurance which I did have for a little bit was $7 a month back in 2009 so about $32 with insurance and taxes but SeroP is still pretty solid especially with being able to get upgrade pricing. I would never give up SeroP. if they got rid of subsidizes phones then you could make a switch to Framily.
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Fair enough, I was just thinking about options. Also, lucky you for keeping pick 6; guess your SERO account never got audited for additional discounts. I used to have all the good addons on SERO back in 2008.
The thing about upgrade pricing on SERO-P is that since you can only buy handsets from Sprint Online or corporate stores, you miss out on all the crazy discounts and rebates that places like BB have. That's easily $100+ extra every upgrade cycle.
Kisakuku said:
Fair enough, I was just thinking about options. Also, lucky you for keeping pick 6; guess your SERO account never got audited for additional discounts. I used to have all the good addons on SERO back in 2008.
The thing about upgrade pricing on SERO-P is that since you can only buy handsets from Sprint Online or corporate stores, you miss out on all the crazy discounts and rebates that places like BB have. That's easily $100+ extra every upgrade cycle.
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Yea you can certainly miss some deals. I use to like going to best buy back in the day when Sprint did mail in rebates and BB was instant. I can't stand going to the Sprint store. I refuse to go there unless it's for a warranty swap only. So I like to order directly from Sprint anyway and since I get my phones on release day there really isn't any deals anyway and ordering direct from Sprint it shows up usually earlier than sometimes even the stores get them. I don't want some knuckle head at the store touching my phones anyway. I'm sure a lot of customers need the help but certainly not me. Going to the store is just painful. So even if I had the choice to use a 3rd party I wouldn't anyway unless they had some exclusive.
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BretonGirl said:
I've been a Sprint customer for 12 years now. It's been painful and frustrating at times but I believe they have finally gotten their act together and are on the right track.
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I've been w/sprint almost as long. It's been a pain in the a&@ . I have to agree service is becoming very acceptable. HD voice is not bad either.
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63sammo1 said:
I've been w/sprint almost as long. It's been a pain in the a&@ . I have to agree service is becoming very acceptable. HD voice is not bad either.
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HD Voice is awesome, especially with the new update I like how it shows the icon. Even was working with an iphone 5S. I'm hoping HD Voice will work carrier to carrier some time in the future. It it getting much better, one year ago it was an absolute mess. I remember when they announced it with the evoLTE, it did take a really long time for them to upgrade the network. I never got to use HD voice on the evoLTE and really I hardly got to use LTE on that phone either. M7 used 4G a lot more, a little of HD voice and now the m8 with tri-band prefers LTE over anything else. Only thing I don't like about the M8 is it will prefer a very week LTE signal over a strong 3G signal and since it switches back to 1X to take a voice call when you are on wifi I wish it would prefer the 3G signal to save battery. I know you can manually change it, but it's kinda a pain.
After 10 years I gave up on Sprint last weekend. I got tired of just about everything that is sprint. The waiting for the network to come on line while paying the cost of a fully functional network. The lies about plans from sprint employees that remind me of used car salesmen. And so on and so on. I switched to T-Mobile and can finally get a chance to be on a network that works... And very well. It's also a much better experience with the m8 on T-Mobile as well.
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LTE works for me pretty well but whenever my phone switches to 3G it's complete **** or really ****ing slow.
Las Vegas
tommason1968 said:
I switched to T-Mobile and can finally get a chance to be on a network that works...
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Just wait until the S-Mobile merger.
Hello guys,
I've been with sprint for about 20 yrs and I'm thinking about leaving because the promise of better coverage and LTE has been lack luster. I would like to hear from you guys on Tmobile if you like their service, do you get good LTE and are they still throttling data?
The only reason I'm still with sprint is because I think they offer the best in monthly options with their prices, never had a bad customer experience and real unlimited data for $20 with Tmobile I see that's at $45
So for those who switch to T-mobile are you happy and anything to look out for when dealing with T-mobile?
Thanks for any input
I left Sprint for T-mobs least year and haven't looked back. Prices are actually cheaper and was pleasantly surprised to go to Europe and found I had data and texting for no additional fee. The JUMP! program is pretty nice as well. Really it comes down to your location and who has more towers in the area.
And we, Canadians, are paying C$40 for 300MB per month... *cries internally* *cries externally* *cries uncontrollably with jealousy*
I have been on Tmo for quite some time. I like it. Not as good of coverage as Verizon and maybe Sprint when you get up in northern Minnesota but then again when I am off exploring in the north I don't wish to be constantly tethered.
stevenchen1995 said:
And we, Canadians, are paying C$40 for 300MB per month... *cries internally* *cries externally* *cries uncontrollably with jealousy*
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lol Steven I feel you but you guys have free Health Insurance lmbo.. But you did put things in prospective, $40 is $40 and for 300MB that SUCKS!
cwhiatt said:
I have been on Tmo for quite some time. I like it. Not as good of coverage as Verizon and maybe Sprint when you get up in northern Minnesota but then again when I am off exploring in the north I don't wish to be constantly tethered.
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Hmm, From their map I should be good here in the East cost.. philly area, but then again sprint map said I should be good also but clearly on a good day I will get about 60% LTE if that.
philly0128 said:
Hmm, From their map I should be good here in the East cost.. philly area, but then again sprint map said I should be good also but clearly on a good day I will get about 60% LTE if that.
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I had sprint for 6 years and switched to tmobile when I got the s6. T-Mobile was working better indoors than sprint. Plus having GSM in my opinion is better than CDMA because you can just pop the sim into another device.
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Depends on your coverage area. I'm a 10 year TMO customer and I live in the Los Angeles area. My reception SIGNIFICANTLY improved when I got my S6, which is my first band 12 phone. I used apps like LTE Discovery to monitor when my phone switches from band 4 (TMO's old LTE band) to band 12. I found my phone stays in band 4 most of the time. My band 4 reception is significantly better. I work in the center of a office building (no windows), where I got no reception with my old Galaxy S4. Now (on band 4) I get perfect reception for calls, text, and data. TMO really improved their LTE service.
I went from Verizon to tmoblile in may of last year. I'm in NJ so both really have great coverage but the WiFi calling was the deal breaker along with a gsm network.
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YES.
It really depends on where you live.
Believe it or not, Sprint actually has some really good service areas.
I just have never lived in one. Tmo kicks their butt in my area.
Edit: I never had bad signal from Sprint here. But I could have full bars of LTE, and still only get 2-6KB/s of data. The only way to get Sprint to work here was to force roam on VZW.
T-Mobile just got crap load of new towers so yeah come to T-Mobile. It's been perfect for me for a few years now. Left Sprint for T-Mobile.
T-Mobile Buildout 2016
WolfsFang said:
I went from Verizon to tmoblile in may of last year. I'm in NJ so both really have great coverage but the WiFi calling was the deal breaker along with a gsm network.
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I switched around the middle of last year. I miss Verizon's network strength. I've had a lot of issues with Tmobile's coverage. They seem to be more concerned with marketing and building a consumer base than investing in infrastructure.
I left verizon for t-mobile a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. If you live in and don't often leave a metropolitan area, tmobile's coverage is really good. I got on the $30 prepaid Walmart plan. 100 mins, unlimited text and data with the first 5GB at 4G. http://www.walmart.com/ip/39081494. Google $30 Walmart tmobile plan for more info.
socal87 said:
I switched around the middle of last year. I miss Verizon's network strength. I've had a lot of issues with Tmobile's coverage. They seem to be more concerned with marketing and building a consumer base than investing in infrastructure.
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I haven't really noticed that, some areas verizon has better coverage and in other T-Mobile is better. But in most cases both networks I would have full bars lte.
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I left sprint two years ago for tmobile and am so glad I did. Sprint sucks in California.
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