t-mo quality around washington dc - General Questions and Answers

so im considering switching to tmobile and getting the hd2 and risking not getting wp7 but i had tmo like 7 years ago and they were awful quality wise.
have they improved dramatically in the northern va area and washington?

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Don't Knock Sprint & CDMA

There's been a whole lot of knocking the Touch Pro 2 on the CDMA network and Sprint (one person referred to shoving a cactus up his a**), so I just want to write and defend it. True, CDMA is kind of backwards and not internationally common, but the phone does include GSM support for foreign travel. I just bought a TP2 on Sprint, and my experience was awesome. I purchased online, and I declined to bring my number with me. Upon receiving my phone I changed my mind, so customer support told me to take my new phone to a Sprint store to get help. Service was quick, friendly, and knowledgable. They even told me it would be at least 3 hourse before I got service with my old number, if not a day, but I had it by the time I left the store. Sure, the phone is $450 upfront, but there is a $100 rebate, plus more if you list a friend on Sprint as a referrer. Plus, I sold my old Tilt for $95, and if you use 'save50' as a coupon code, you get $25 off service for the first two months. Really, not too bad at all. I actually get coverage on Sprint inside buildings where AT&T always dropped. Finally, Sprint's Simply Everything plans are better than any other network's data plans, and on them you can now call any mobile phone in America for free. I know some people trash Sprint like there's no tomorrow, but my experience thus far has been great. I grew to hate AT&T by the time I left, and I don't think I could ever go back to them. Their data prices are ridiculous, store staff are snobs, and although I would never buy an iPhone, their whole handling of that situation has been ridiculous. To sum this ramble up, don't be afraid to make the plunge and jump on Sprint. Just my two bits.
PS This was all written on my TP2; this phone rocks! If you've been debating, stop, just buy it.
I will have to agree with trogdor1138
I was a AT&T customer for 4 years, and hated the last year and a half of service! You might ask why only the last year and the half. It all stated when I leased a new office building and got 1 to 0 bars of Edge service, my brother who was on Verizon had 5 bars of 3G. Which made for a really crap experience during the whole office phone transition. I don't even want to get into AT&T's customer service because its no existent. I got my Touch Pro2 from Sprint on the 8th and all I have to say is WOW! At my office I get 5 bars of service and I have yet to find a place in my everyday travels where Sprint doesn't have great coverage. And the best part is my cell phone bill when from 129.99 a month on at&t to 99 bucks. So yeah I paid a bit more for my phone but those poor guys on at&t will pay out their nose for the service!
I need to jump on this band wagon. My experience with AT&T and Sprint is exactly like the first two posts. I could not use my AT&T phone in my house or office or more than a mile away from the interstates (out side of metro areas). Sprint covers the whole state, (WI) has better customer service and is about 20% cheaper than what I was paying AT&T. And to top it all off, my TP2 is rock solid. I've never had a phone that was this easy to use and at the same time this versatile.
I am glad to see some support for Sprint! I have had Sprint for 8 years and my service has only got better over time. I always have signal and when I don't I roam on Verizon. Sprint has a credibility problem that was self imposed-no getting around it. But Sprint has been making the right moves for a couple years now and I hope it continues.
This reply was also typed on my Touch Pro 2.
I just switch from t-mobile to sprint. I was with t-mobile for 5 years. Thought about getting tp2 with them but there always behind everybody else and i did like all the changes they made to the tp2. What were they thinking. Anyway besides that they didn't have any of the extras internet services like internet TV,music and radio like all the other carriers do. With sprint i get all that in it's only costing me about $5 dollars more a month. So i ported my number and it only took 1 day to get the phone and have it activated with my ported number. No regrets at all.
This is soo nice after posting charts of of data throughputs of carriers proving sprints better- posting data charges from carriers where sprint wins every time - and Now 4G (yes WiMAX in my area as of sept1) it does me happy to see the light in others - sad that no matter what you say no matter what proof you provide others continue to defend spending more for getting less
AT&T was and still is horrible in my area. I canceled within the trial period. Sprint has much better service, and in my opinion better customer service.
I was with T Mobile for 8 years
I switched to Sprint from T Mobile at the begining of this year. I just couldn't wait for 3g any longer here in Salt Lake City. I am very happy with Sprint. I like both Sprint and T Mobile but I have to say that I don't feel I miss T Mobile at all.
Before I got Sprint I asked a few people about it and they told me that some times their bills were bigger than others, I am thinking this might be because I have found my phone goes into roaming but it doesn't affect me since I'm on the Everything Plan.
I think Sprint is a great company and I'm happy with them.
Battery life vs data transfer
For the US:
If you don't travel heavily, don't need broadband and live in an area with good GSM coverage then GSM is a no brainer. The battery life is better and you don't have to fiddle with phonebook transfer programs and the like.
If you need coverage and broadband then CDMA is the way to go.
My gripe with CDMA is that it takes forever to get good phones. You wait and wait for someone to make a CDMA phone that has year old GSM features.
If CDMA could fix the talk time and get manufacturers to make phones for it I would say that CDMA wins, period. As it stands though, if you live outside of the US, or live in the US and don't travel or just use your phone for talking, SMS and the occasional MMS then GSM is for you.
Basically I just want a world standard. If that means CDMA has to switch over and I lose some bandwidth, so be it. It look like Europe is flirting with (W)CDMA, so maybe GSM will be phased out. I guess it's market share vs technology at this point.
I agree, I love my TP2 on the Sprint Network. This phone is too hot. Finally a real size screen, best keyboard I have ever used, just a sturdy build for such a device that moves many ways. Money well spent.
I agree! I was a long-time AT&T customer and was quite unsatisfied with the service I was getting. I made the jump to Sprint last week with the TP2. Ordered online Thursday night, and the phone was on my desk early Monday morning. The phone and network has exceeded my expectations--great service everywhere (EVDO service is awesome in WI)--not a single dropped call. As for the phone, battery life is pushing 2 days, which is including the constant data connection for email and occasional music streaming.
Saving $20/month from AT&T to Sprint and gaining features? Yes, please!
Another solid vote for Sprint...
Switched from Suncom (T-Mobile now). I've also had Nextel, Alltel, and AT&T.
As far as I am concerned Sprint is a no brainer.
I haven't found any company that can come close to their prices and they have definitely stepped up their hardware. (TP2 FTW!)
My current plan on Verizon and matching services was around 80 bucks more expensive. When asked why they were so much more than Sprint their answer was "We have the best customer service". Well putting opinion aside for the moment my response was "For 80 bucks a month you had best be at the foot of my bed every morning at 6am, waking me up, and handing me a cup of coffee"
They did not respond.
I also have Sprint and love it. Never a dropped call, or any problems here in s. calif. Was with Verizon for years, but coverage was bad at home and work. The two places I used my phone the most. Tried AT&T for one day. Just terrible. Been with Sprint for a year now...its all good.
trogdor1138 said:
There's been a whole lot of knocking the Touch Pro 2 on the CDMA network and Sprint (one person referred to shoving a cactus up his a**), so I just want to write and defend it. True, CDMA is kind of backwards and not internationally common, but the phone does include GSM support for foreign travel. I just bought a TP2 on Sprint, and my experience was awesome. I purchased online, and I declined to bring my number with me. Upon receiving my phone I changed my mind, so customer support told me to take my new phone to a Sprint store to get help. Service was quick, friendly, and knowledgable. They even told me it would be at least 3 hourse before I got service with my old number, if not a day, but I had it by the time I left the store. Sure, the phone is $450 upfront, but there is a $100 rebate, plus more if you list a friend on Sprint as a referrer. Plus, I sold my old Tilt for $95, and if you use 'save50' as a coupon code, you get $25 off service for the first two months. Really, not too bad at all. I actually get coverage on Sprint inside buildings where AT&T always dropped. Finally, Sprint's Simply Everything plans are better than any other network's data plans, and on them you can now call any mobile phone in America for free. I know some people trash Sprint like there's no tomorrow, but my experience thus far has been great. I grew to hate AT&T by the time I left, and I don't think I could ever go back to them. Their data prices are ridiculous, store staff are snobs, and although I would never buy an iPhone, their whole handling of that situation has been ridiculous. To sum this ramble up, don't be afraid to make the plunge and jump on Sprint. Just my two bits.
PS This was all written on my TP2; this phone rocks! If you've been debating, stop, just buy it.
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Click to collapse
Ide have to say my switch from VZW to Sprint was as good. I had a c ouple issues with getting rebates in the begging but Sprint took care of that. Customer service in the stores is normally pretty decent. At VZW.... well... Service was good once you got somone one.
Overall I am very happy I switched. I switched for the Diamond though, not TP2. I did however just purcahse a TP2 and I am loving it!
I too just got my TP2 from Sprint and love it.
Verizon, here in LA, is pretty terrible. I could be at my internship and not get a signal at all - open space with lots of tall buildings around. Additionally, my old apartment in the Valley got almost no reception. Tons of dropped calls.
One complaint though:
My number from Sprint was a recycled phone number. I'm getting four robocalls a day from various political organizations (many of which are in Spanish) and different schools reminding me that my mythical children are about to start school in the next few days.
I've put myself on the Do Not Call registry, both the federal one and the political one, but the calls keep rolling in. Most of the time, if I press 0, it claims my number is erased from their registry, but I doubt that. And if you try to call the number back, they are mysterious ghost numbers that don't connect to anything.
Sprint says there's nothing they can do about it. Luck of the draw, and they've offered to give me a new number (which I'm a little loathe to do, since I've already updated so many people with my new number.) I just wish there were something (maybe even a piece of software for the phone?) that would let me block individual numbers. A lot of the calls I get are repeat offenders.
I have worked for 2 different wireless carriers. The honest answer to the cell phone debate in the US is use what works for you. The ratings you see are typically an average of experiences across the whole US. Most carriers have stronger regions and weaker regions. I have seen poor numbers out west for Verizon Wireless and strong numbers out east and the complete opposite for AT&T.
Network limitations (mainly in-building penetration) may skew your experience from one carrier to the other at the places you use the phone most like your residence and workplace. We are dealing with radio signals that have a very short effective distance, and if you only get one bar of signal, you are going to have a rougher experience with everything than if you had 2 bars or more.
Customer service experiences vary greatly. It depends on who you get when you call. Outsourcing calls makes it a crapshoot. I have heard the horrid Sprint stories, but those were mostly calls that got outsourced and when you reached an actual Sprint rep they were good experiences. At least with wireless carriers they all are trying to provide as good a service as possible due to competition. I wish cable and landline services back in the day had that type of competition. 3 major nationwide carriers minimum in a market and various regional carriers help keeps the competition going, and it is a very competitive market considering the ammount of investment needed to put up a nationwide network in the United States. (Europeans can't quite understand the size of our country and how much empty space there is between major cities). It isn't really quite cost effective to put up a $200,000 tower for 500 customers in a small town, but we expect to have coverage everywhere we go.
Sprint has the good price plans, no denying that. I would put Verizon's network up against Sprint any day though when comparing them nationally. Both EvDO networks are superior to AT&T and T-Mobiles at this point for overall consistancy of service nationwide. But you might live in one of those lucky areas where AT&T or T-Mobile will have their 7Mbps services running well and not overloaded, and they could be the best option. It really comes down to what works best where you use your device and that is going to be different from person to person.
Sprint phone roaming on Verizon?
I am considering a Sprint TP2. I have read differing statements regarding roaming on Verizon. I have several questions:
Basically: does Verizon allow Sprint customers to roam onto their network?
If yes, then: (If... then... an old BASIC programmer, haha)
Can TP2 be "forced" to roam if for example Verizon has a stronger signal a certain area?
When roaming onto Verizon, will you get only the slower speeds and no 3G?
Thanks very much!
I don't really get the knocking of CDMA since it is faster than gsm. If you have a faster network that equals better right? GSM really only has the sim card which i have seen to be a problem actually drop your phone and the sim seems to get creamed fairly often. I have used both CDMA works better and faster. And with programs like My Phone the address book is really a non issue.
my friend been complaing HSPA chew thru battery faster on his phone than my CDMA phone
gliscameria said:
For the US:
If you don't travel heavily, don't need broadband and live in an area with good GSM coverage then GSM is a no brainer. The battery life is better and you don't have to fiddle with phonebook transfer programs and the like.
If you need coverage and broadband then CDMA is the way to go.
My gripe with CDMA is that it takes forever to get good phones. You wait and wait for someone to make a CDMA phone that has year old GSM features.
If CDMA could fix the talk time and get manufacturers to make phones for it I would say that CDMA wins, period. As it stands though, if you live outside of the US, or live in the US and don't travel or just use your phone for talking, SMS and the occasional MMS then GSM is for you.
Basically I just want a world standard. If that means CDMA has to switch over and I lose some bandwidth, so be it. It look like Europe is flirting with (W)CDMA, so maybe GSM will be phased out. I guess it's market share vs technology at this point.
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Click to collapse
Default option is only Sprint only and "automatic"
maybe someone can tweak it to roam only
however, if you roam too much, sprint will drop you as a customer

Sprint loses 135,000 subs

No wonder my TP2 on Sprint is so fast. No one else is using the bandwidth!
I just hope they can keep the system running well with reduced revenue.
zdnet - Sprint loses money, more subscribers in third quarter
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=26742&tag=nl.e539
I just don't get it. I guess in other areas sprint isn't that good. Everybody I know here in Columbus has them or verizon. they have a loyal customer in me. they have been doing me right for quite some time.
I used to have Sprint when I lived in Boulder, and the service was OK, not great, but that was 8 years ago. I moved to a location in the mountains that only had AT&T, and I switched to them cause that was all I could get. They were crap. Their system had more dropped calls than Sprint, and the data speeds on AT&T were getting slower and slower, I think due to all the iPhone users.
I live in a new area now, and can have my choice of providers. As soon as I could I gave AT&T the boot.
I just switched back to Sprint about 1 month ago as their price for the TP2 and the all included data plan was way better than AT&T. My data speeds are at least double those from AT&T on my TP1, and often 4-5 times faster.
I have also been traveling a bunch and have found the Sprint coverage to be quite good. There is one location in the mountains that I have not gone yet that I need coverage, and their coverage map states it is available, but you never know for sure until you try it your self.
So far, consider me a happy Sprint customer!
Went from Alltel/VZW to Sprint.
So far so good, but I haven't had much chance to test it out. Live in Lincoln, NE right now. Far I have had flawless coverage within, and same with the drive to Omaha. So far no drops in Omaha. I also played pandora all the way from Lincoln to Kansas City with only dips in coverage when I got into the really hilly areas between St Joe and KC. Friends had the same issues, so it was terrain related.
Anyway, I am glad I switched to sprint, I just hope they last! Customer Service in store and over the phone is 100x better than anything I dealt with for Alltel and VZW. Lets hope my next trip to the mountains is as good as all my other trips have been.
Edit: Colorado_al does sprint cover Copper Mountain? I hope so, going there over Thanksgiving.
I'm not happy with Sprint (and HTC) about how they handled my TP1 situation. I just took their phone survey too. I went through 4 TP1's in a 7 month period and they refused to send me another refurb. The store ordered parts and took my TP1 apart in the store and attempted to repair it. They handed me the phone and said it was fixed. Before walking away I tested things and the radio would not power on. I wanted to scream.
I got the TP2 from asurion after they were going to send my 4th refurb and I refused to accept that (told them I wanted a NIB TP1). I'm guessing that such a critter does not exist. My wife and step daughter have another year on the contract so...we may be looking elsewhere soon. Sprint needs to wake up and realize that bad customer support is killing them IMHO. I like the TP2 alright. It has a more RAM/ROM, a bigger screen and dual radios but still has the same processor the TP1 did.
Oh well, its just a phone after all
Sprint doesn't even have service up here, beyond roaming on US Cellular that is, and Nextel phones are just dead paperweights, so I've never even really considered them. That said, how long can they keep bleeding like this and stay alive? OUCH!
MrNybble said:
I'm not happy with Sprint (and HTC) about how they handled my TP1 situation. I just took their phone survey too. I went through 4 TP1's in a 7 month period and they refused to send me another refurb. The store ordered parts and took my TP1 apart in the store and attempted to repair it. They handed me the phone and said it was fixed. Before walking away I tested things and the radio would not power on. I wanted to scream.
I got the TP2 from asurion after they were going to send my 4th refurb and I refused to accept that (told them I wanted a NIB TP1). I'm guessing that such a critter does not exist. My wife and step daughter have another year on the contract so...we may be looking elsewhere soon. Sprint needs to wake up and realize that bad customer support is killing them IMHO. I like the TP2 alright. It has a more RAM/ROM, a bigger screen and dual radios but still has the same processor the TP1 did.
Oh well, its just a phone after all
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Click to collapse
ive had 3 TP1s and all brand new in box from aurion... i havent had any problem with sprint besides fighting billing (all more my gain) in 14 years... i have tmobile as well and find there service shotty but am required to use it for work.. tryed att for a while that just made me start sharpening my knives so i left that back to tmobile.. soo ya havent had a bad problem considering every phone i have had since the old school 6600 has been brand new in box (expect one of the 6600's but that worked a lot longer then the other)
I've had AT&T since '95 in two different states, but just dropped them for Sprint because their coverage in my area is not getting better. So far I've no big complaints with Sprint, their coverage is better for me, no dropped calls in the area and I like the TP2.
I was not excited about going CDMA as I really like being able to switch my sim card between a couple phones as needed, but so far I've not needed to do that with the new phone.
My wife and daughter both use the Pre and love it. The Pre is a nice little phone is you don't need the keyboard much.
Sprint has got me as a customer for a while now. Hopefully they stay around

[Q] Anyone on T-Mobile San Diego?

Well, after searching high and low, I just can't find anyone with recent T-Mo experience around San Diego and surrounding areas. Recently I got the chance to use a new G2 and I was overall impressed with the phone, other than the obvious weird hinge, but anyway, it was the first time I was able to use T-Mobile down here. I was less than impressed.
Downtown was one of the few places I saw HSPA coverage, along with the Mira Mesa area. Anywhere south of downtown and north of Mira Mesa and most places in between, including where I live east of Del Mar were EDGE with spotty HSPA. Speed tests averaged 600 Kbps across the board, with peaks of 1.8 Mbps if I was lucky.
TL;DR: So my question is, is spotty sub-par coverage and slow throughput average for the San Diego area on T-Mobile?
I played around my friend's G2 over the weekend around the college area. He didn't even have 3G reception let alone HSPA+ (I think T-Mobile announced HSPA+ launch in San Diego a month or so ago).

Spring 4G (WiMax) in South Florida

Well, this is my first post ever in the XDA forums, but I just thought some people might want to know this:
I have a Sprint epic 4g (galaxy s) and even though Sprint has promised 4G in South Florida by the end of the year, no date was actually given, as we all know. I go outside and push the 4g button every day hoping to get a connection, as in when they may be testing it as many NYC users have reported connectivity before "official launch". I live in Boynton Beach, FL which is in Palm Beach County, which is in-between West Palm Beach, and Ft. Lauderdale. According to Sprint, when they say the "Miami Metro" they define it as "Miami north to Port St. Lucie (which is 40 miles north of me, therfore I am well in the defined area). While I still did not get a signal outside my house today, I started a new job in Delray Beach today (which is the next town south in-between Boynton Beach and Boca Raton) and while at work, guess what!! a strong 4G signal!!!!! All throughout Delray Beach, I used Speed Test and the FCC test to test speeds and I was getting approx 7mb/sec download and 3mb/sec upload with a ping of around 121ms. After work I drove around to see if I can hold the signal (oh, and BTW many people have mentioned that they get 4G outside but as soon as they go inside a building or a car it goes away, that was NOT the case at all with me. Strong signal regardless of inside or outside) So, even though it has not been "officially launched" in the South Florida metro, it is obviously being prepared as promised, so even though Clearwire is pulling out of the Miami metro as declared on their own webpage due to funding issues, Sprint was telling the truth that it will not stop owners of 4g enabled phones (evo and epic) of getting the service that was promised. I am very, very happy. When I pushed that 4g button and it didn't say "4g disconnected" I was in shock! So any of you in the South Florida area, (West palm beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami) it really is here (sorta) and it should not be long! I was most amazed that it did not drain the battery in my epic any faster than 3g.

[Q] Is Sprint going to get any better?

Well, I recently (3 months ago) bought into Sprint, with 3 HTC One's. Where I live, or frankly, anywhere I go at all, my speeds never have topped 5 Mbps. That's when I get lucky. At home, I barely even get proper voice coverage in the afternoons. My average speeds vary between 30Kbps and 500Kbps. My LTE speeds rarely go above 2Mbps.
AT&T on the other hand is supposed to be much better. I know for a fact that AT&T gives me data speeds literally 10x faster than what Sprint gives me at home (actual speed test). That is, if you assume I'm getting anything at all.
Will SoftBank's acquisition of Sprint or the Network Vision upgrades they are doing improve coverage in my area? I'm supposed to get LTE in San Jose, CA, USA (South Bay) by "the end of 2013, at latest". I dunno if I can wait that long. I do get an occasional LTE signal, which means they're working on it, but it's oh so unstable.
What is Sprint's focus? Is it to spread wider to cover more people, or is it to improve upon what little they have right now?
A friend of mine recently had Verizon terminate his contract for free because he wasn't satisfied with the service. Will Sprint do something like this for me? Or should I force roam? I heard this will drop you from your contract and you won't be hit with any charges. Will there be an ETF or will the phones be permanently disabled? Will there be a grace period?
Wherever I look, there are many people saying Sprint sucks, but then there are a handful of people saying that Sprint's technology is far more advanced and it will all be worth it once LTE rollout is complete. I'll probably be holding onto the HTC One for the next 3 years, and I don't want to be stuck on what speeds I have for the price I'm paying. What should I do? I'm currently supposed to be in a "Good 3G/Wimax area", which is disappointing. Will Sprint try to cover me better?
As you can see from this Sensorly data, Sprint technically covers where I live pretty well. But in the 3 months (ish) I've had my phone, I've never gotten any speeds that could compare to Tmobile's HSPA+.
Sprint just sucks, unfortunately. You can be standing on top of their antennas and still have no reception.
Try cspire lol worst carrier ever.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
Even I would like this to happen
Even I'd like to know what's the tentative plan from Sprint to cover whole of San Jose. I've been a long time customer and am getting frustrated with the fact that the speeds from all other carriers is higher than what I get.

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