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Hey folks! I'm currently an Sprint customer, but I'm considering a switch to ATT. I'll lay out a few facts so you can understand where I'm coming from. I'm not worried about cancellation fees because I can make our phones roam to VZW until sprint drops us.
-When I got cell service, none of the national carriers could compete with Sprint's prices (family plan, unlimited messaging/data, dont care about minutes). Now ATT's family plans have gotten competitive.
-Between people leaving VZW for economic reasons and people leaving T-Mo because of the ATT purchase, Sprint's network is very overburdened (at least in my area). Given the way Sprint has been flaking out on the 4G front, i'm not exactly filled with confidence that they'll expand their network capability in a timely fashion.
I'll ask folks in my squadron about local reception, but I want opinions from similarly minded people (you guys) about things like customer service and general happiness with the network. Also, what's ATT's 4G plan? As of now, all I've heard of is HSPA+, and I really dont know how it stacks up against WiMax, LTE, regular HSPA (thats 3g for GSM, right?) The store rep said that ATT will be using LTE, but I'm not sure if thats true given that Inspire and Atrix both are advertised as being 4G and use HSPA+.
Thanks in advance for any helpful feedback. For the flamers....well, u know where to stick it.
jdelforge5684 said:
Hey folks! I'm currently an Sprint customer, but I'm considering a switch to ATT. I'll lay out a few facts so you can understand where I'm coming from. I'm not worried about cancellation fees because I can make our phones roam to VZW until sprint drops us.
-When I got cell service, none of the national carriers could compete with Sprint's prices (family plan, unlimited messaging/data, dont care about minutes). Now ATT's family plans have gotten competitive.
-Between people leaving VZW for economic reasons and people leaving T-Mo because of the ATT purchase, Sprint's network is very overburdened (at least in my area). Given the way Sprint has been flaking out on the 4G front, i'm not exactly filled with confidence that they'll expand their network capability in a timely fashion.
I'll ask folks in my squadron about local reception, but I want opinions from similarly minded people (you guys) about things like customer service and general happiness with the network. Also, what's ATT's 4G plan? As of now, all I've heard of is HSPA+, and I really dont know how it stacks up against WiMax, LTE, regular HSPA (thats 3g for GSM, right?) The store rep said that ATT will be using LTE, but I'm not sure if thats true given that Inspire and Atrix both are advertised as being 4G and use HSPA+.
Thanks in advance for any helpful feedback. For the flamers....well, u know where to stick it.
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My advice is go for VZW if you want legit 4g. I haven't seen any 4g speeds on my Inspire and I live in Boston. The 4g data plan is basically 3g, and it costs teh same too.
I still can't bring myself to pay VZW's prices. I know their network is the best, but its not enough of an improvement for me to pay that much more. I'm not so much concerned with current 4g capability, i'm in between 2 4g markets right now, so I think it's going to be a while before I get it. I'm more curious about the future of 4g with ATT based on the fact that the rep, who seemed otherwise knowledgeable, said that ATT would be using LTE in Q4 of this year yet they've already released two phones sporting HSPA+ as their 4g devices. Does anyone know if they're going to switch their technology to LTE?
So what exactly would you like to know? Ask any questions you'd like and I'll answer them.
ATT has great coverage imo. I even have service where my girlfriend (verizon) does not (in many cases).
The inspire is the best phone on att. This is coming from a lifetime iphone man, and I also tested the Atrix for a month and CAME BACK to the inspire.
Data speeds are more than adequate for me, even if it is not the 'true' 4g of verizon. I am more realistic when it comes to data. I am thankful for the ability to be connected to the internet at all times, and if I have to wait a second for a page to load - I'm not complaining. What does matter to me is the performance and speeds of the gps/maps function, which, on the inspire are great. The google maps/nav is implemented directly into the phone and definitely has the upper hand on the iphone, which I feel is att's other competitive smartphone.
Basically, I feel your decision simply comes down to dollars and sense (get it??? haha...), as well as what kind of service you are receiving in your area. Att & sprint are comparable, and both carriers have great android devices (sprint is launching evo3d too, which looks pretty cool).
Basically, how's your service going to be? I would talk to people with ATT in your area and get their opinion. Also, how much money would you save/spend if you made the switch? I'd make a decision on those two factors.
at&t is currently releasing "4G" phones that have HSPA+ at 14.4/5.76Mbps download and upload respectively but they DO plan to run with LTE. Starting in May, they will be decommissioning their 2G network starting in the west coast and moving east, in order to free up bandwidth that they can use to launch LTE. Also, while Verizon purchased the "C" block of spectrum, at&t purchased a company that had vast amounts of what I believe was "D" spectrum on the 700 band as well and ended up paying a LOT less than what Verizon did to get their nationwide 700Mhz LTE licenses.
What I would do is go to the store, get a phone, drive EVERYWHERE that you think you may use it and watch your phone signal, run a few speed tests, check out voice quality, etc., before you make your decision.
While I am FINALLY figuring out the cause of my at&t issues at my new residence (Netgear 2.4GHz WNR2000v2 router is actually interfering with my cell signal massively), I have had issues around town and I am in Denver (the suburbs now) and should have EXCELLENT signal at all the locations I have had issues at.
T-Mobile is phenomenal if you look at their maps and make sure they have service of the utmost quality in your area - I read your post and believe you said T-Mo wasn't an option but I've had a few too many and just can't be bothered to go back and read the post again - T-Mobile has been deploying ridiculous HSPA+ speeds for some time now (on a recent speed test, my buddy got 26Mbps down and 2Mbps up on T-Mo's HSPA+ network) and I don't see them slowing down.
Verizon and Sprint are just disappointments and I think nothing more needs to be said about that.
EDIT: Sorry, at&t bought a large chunk of B-block 700MHz spectrum, not D-block.
EtherealRemnant said:
at&t is currently releasing "4G" phones that have HSPA+ at 14.4/5.76Mbps download and upload respectively but they DO plan to run with LTE. Starting in May, they will be decommissioning their 2G network starting in the west coast and moving east, in order to free up bandwidth that they can use to launch LTE. Also, while Verizon purchased the "C" block of spectrum, at&t purchased a company that had vast amounts of what I believe was "D" spectrum on the 700 band as well and ended up paying a LOT less than what Verizon did to get their nationwide 700Mhz LTE licenses.
What I would do is go to the store, get a phone, drive EVERYWHERE that you think you may use it and watch your phone signal, run a few speed tests, check out voice quality, etc., before you make your decision.
While I am FINALLY figuring out the cause of my at&t issues at my new residence (Netgear 2.4GHz WNR2000v2 router is actually interfering with my cell signal massively), I have had issues around town and I am in Denver (the suburbs now) and should have EXCELLENT signal at all the locations I have had issues at.
T-Mobile is phenomenal if you look at their maps and make sure they have service of the utmost quality in your area - I read your post and believe you said T-Mo wasn't an option but I've had a few too many and just can't be bothered to go back and read the post again - T-Mobile has been deploying ridiculous HSPA+ speeds for some time now (on a recent speed test, my buddy got 26Mbps down and 2Mbps up on T-Mo's HSPA+ network) and I don't see them slowing down.
Verizon and Sprint are just disappointments and I think nothing more needs to be said about that.
EDIT: Sorry, at&t bought a large chunk of B-block 700MHz spectrum, not D-block.
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Okay. This makes me want to know if my 2g I get here will be converted to 4g by the coming time.
Hmmmmmmph..that would be nice compared to my 150kbs download..lol
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4g using XDA.
MIUI Gingerbread 1.4.1v4
catlleprods cyan0#3.7
So as i understand, 4g LTE is official with Sprint according to a Coming Soon page on Google's website.
What does everyone think about the 4G LTE rollout on sprint? I'm not too familiar with how the rollout would work, but from what I've seen with verizons; it went very fast, and Verizon had a lot more coverage in 1 month with LTE then sprint did in 1+ year with Wimax. If that makes any sense... Especially in New York, my friend with VZ gets more LTE coverage then I do with Wimax.
Do you guys think Sprint's 4G LTE coverage rollout is going to be as sloppy as its WiMax rollout? or is it a lot easier to deploy LTE. I liked the speeds of WiMax, but it was probably the flakeyest technologies i've ever used: going from Wimax tower to tower on the move and sometimes would disconnect.
The reason I ask because my contract is up, and I'm thinking of switching to VZ galaxy nexus immediately. Or should I hold it out for sprint's LTE to come around.
bigblueshock said:
So as i understand, 4g LTE is official with Sprint according to a Coming Soon page on Google's website.
What does everyone think about the 4G LTE rollout on sprint? I'm not too familiar with how the rollout would work, but from what I've seen with verizons; it went very fast, and Verizon had a lot more coverage in 1 month with LTE then sprint did in 1+ year with Wimax. If that makes any sense... Especially in New York, my friend with VZ gets more LTE coverage then I do with Wimax.
Do you guys think Sprint's 4G LTE coverage rollout is going to be as sloppy as its WiMax rollout? or is it a lot easier to deploy LTE. I liked the speeds of WiMax, but it was probably the flakeyest technologies i've ever used: going from Wimax tower to tower on the move and sometimes would disconnect.
The reason I ask because my contract is up, and I'm thinking of switching to VZ galaxy nexus immediately. Or should I hold it out for sprint's LTE to come around.
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I think the best indicator would be AT&T's rollout which seems to be moving fairly quickly and smooth. If you were to switch carriers, you should run far and fast from CDMA and get with the rest of the world on GSM...
Two year contract, pick your bulls**t supplier carefully
Trying to jump carriers to follow the LTE trail feels like jumping lanes in heavy traffic; sure you can make some progress but is it really worth the trouble?
Most people sign a two year contract; in two years, the three major carriers will have better LTE networks and we'll be back to who covers your area better.
The problem is most people think the grass is greener on the other carrier, with the phones or speed; if it were, it's because of all the bulls**t they fertilize with.
ATT just raised rates, Verizon has tried junk fees, and still does. Sprint has smaller service areas. They all have customer no-service.
So the real question is, who's bulls**t do you want to put up with for the foreseeable future?
Just to be clear, I have had Sprint for 10 years and I have had service area problems but every time I called to deal with a billing or account problem, they fixed it and gave me a discount of some kind for my trouble. So this is me, dealing with the devil I know.
Sprint and the future of LTE
something interesting about Sprint is they are upgrading their entire network with their project vision
http://newsroom.sprint.com/press_kits.cfm?presskit_id=19
Some interesting things on this project is it is an "all in" for Sprint. This will replace all of their existing gear and fill in a lot of coverage holes they have... or atleast that is the plan. Sprint needs a lot of additional capital to get the project to really work built they maybe setup forsucess in the future. Sprint has also publicly said this will dramatically reduce their costs which for us users is important to know as it could mean lower data rates. this also will deploy LTE (I beleive) to many more towers which with Clearwire & WiMAX never seemed to get the deployment to become useful outside of a metro area...but if you don't travel a lot this is not a big deal as surfing on a phone with EVDO is fine...
Like someone else mentioned unless you have an all you care to eat package with ATTM or VzW you are going to be paying a lot more to change to them. If you travel globally I think ATTM is the best with support for UMTS/GSM if you are US and Americas only then CDMA with VzW/Sprint/MetroPCS/Cricket would be fine.
I have a both a VzW and ATTM phone and depending on the area they both are good or suck... I don't have a Sprint phone currently but think I will be getting the Nexus when it comes out and ditching my VzW phone (blackberry)
I used to be on my dad's ATT plan, but he suspended the account and nixed my unlimited data and I moved to Sprint. Now I kind of have buyers remorse because they embed their SIM cards, get terrible signal inside buildings (being a non VZ CDMA carrier) unless you're right next to a window, and have a slow 3G network, and are taking forever to get LTE up. VZ is not an option, its too expensive, altho its by far the best network. I'm thinking of going to T-Mobile, because their 3G is HSPA+, which is kind of 4G, and LTE gets bad battery life anyway. They also have unlimited data, and I feel like even if I got to the point of throttling, it might STILL be faster than Sprint. I also like the idea of GSM too. But T-Mobile is going under and I wanna know more about their service.
I'm in Eastern LI right now, and probably will be in NYC later this year. I do still own a Photon, which I could use for overseas if Sprint doesn't update their GS3 like Verizon will, but I don't wanna bother owning 2 phones. Helpppp!
Please someone help me, I still have time to return the sprint s3 which I paid full price for
I've been with verizon since 2000 and never really had an choice to change since they always had the best service in my area. I've never liked at&t and the rep for tmobile has been its known for prepaid and shotty service. Thing is now, I see more and more people moving over to tmobile and are loving it. Its cheaper per month than verizon and service in my area in NJ is pretty much the same as verizons. Plus there are some features like the wifi calling, the hspa+ coverage, lte. that make it pretty attractive. But the kicker on whats making me consider the change is the phone selection. Verizon seems to always be lagging behind and I'm tired of having to wait for new phones to hit verizon and for updates to be released. Has anyone else thought about a move?
topaz330 said:
I've been with verizon since 2000 and never really had an choice to change since they always had the best service in my area. I've never liked at&t and the rep for tmobile has been its known for prepaid and shotty service. Thing is now, I see more and more people moving over to tmobile and are loving it. Its cheaper per month than verizon and service in my area in NJ is pretty much the same as verizons. Plus there are some features like the wifi calling, the hspa+ coverage, lte. that make it pretty attractive. But the kicker on whats making me consider the change is the phone selection. Verizon seems to always be lagging behind and I'm tired of having to wait for new phones to hit verizon and for updates to be released. Has anyone else thought about a move?
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I'm probably going to switch to their pre-paid service when my contract is up. I want a Nexus.... Verizon doesn't seem to be getting another any time soon.
I would definitely go with Tmobile for better phone selection & price, but the service in my area is below average. Hopefully LTE rolls out to my area then I'll jump ships.
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I have to jump ship Verizon breaking my bank bad got to pay a fortune to keep service . I gotta switch back to my iPhone I know -_- and go to T-Mobile prepaid because they have the 1900 MHz support in my area
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If you go to a T-Mobile store they might be able to help you pay for your ETF fee, at least that's what they did for me. I would have to pay Verizon 150, but the rep just credited my T-Mobile account 100$ when I switched. He told me that this is something every store has a budget for. It's definitely worth a shot just asking the rep. It's saved me quite a bit of money so far (even if coverage isn't perfect)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I had T-Mobile and really liked 'em. They were NOT cheaper, I'm able to get on VZW's Old Fart Plan and it was just $5/mo more than the T-Mo plan I had.
CS is about equal with both except for T-Mo's prepaid which gets you people who speak no intelligible English, with postpaid you get good CS.
Coverage, very close to zero with T-Mo, everywhere I went. Only spotty coverage in the largest cities, VZW has 3g or better everywhere I travelled.
A phone that can't make a call until you find a Starbucks with free WiFi isn't useful to me.
Have your car break down on California 371 in the middle of the Cahuilla Indian Reservation? You're 50 miles from ANY T-Mo signal and you've got 2 - 3 bars with Verizon.
I really liked T-Mo but it wasn't usable for me.
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
I don't like Verizon's pricing, phone selection, and the hassle required to unlock their phones for international use.
That being said, I switched from t mobile to Verizon in 07 for one reason: coverage. I use to live in Philadelphia in an 5 floor apartment with a T-Mobile store like three blocks away. No coverage in my apartment unless I kept the phone by the window.
Now I live and work in north nj and Verizon is the only reliable wireless carrier (by word of mouth). Not sure how much has changed in six years but I would leave Verizon if anyone had coverage close to the theirs
topaz330 said:
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
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I tried 2 weeks ago, just to test their service and see how it was since I haven't been with them for 1 year and a half and its still sucky. They do have 4G (HSPA+) in my area now but I get 1 bar of it and when it dont get a strong signal it'll go to Edge. I hear a nearby area "might" get LTE in late June so that means my area "might" get it late 2013. I'm just waiting to see what happens...my contract is up in November for Verizon
My buddy has tmo and hates the service. He doesn't get service with his phone and winds up using his Verizon work phone 90 percent of the time to make calls.
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I had Verizon before I switched to T-Mobile. T-Mobile is cheaper, has just as good of support and a good selection of phones. However, Verizon does have better service so if you travel frequently expect some dead zones.
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I used to have T-mo and I loved it! The reception in my area was incredible. I moved to verizon and it's still in the same category in satisfaction. T-mo is a lot cheaper than verizon, so I would give it a try. You're not going to regret it. Sim cards are the best.
I recently jumped from Verizon to T-Mobile and pretty much all comments thus far are justified.
topaz330 said:
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
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They've added -some- sites in recent times, but the "re-farm" you seem to have heard about is primarily a massive equipment refresh for about 85% of the existing WCDMA sites. Unlike Sprint's Network Vision or AT&T's "add an LTE panel to an 8 year old WCDMA site" rollout, T-Mobile is doing a -complete- equipment refresh on said sites using either Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Base Station solutions or Ericsson's Antenna Integrated Radio setups. For the sites that get the new equipment, coverage could see a 10-15% improvement in coverage and in-building penetration due to each of the NSN/Ericsson setups having the radio at tower-top.
T-Mobile will do you well if you are a city-rat. The lack of rural expansion pre-AT&T failed merger was due to the cost of infrastructure and backhaul when the only spectrum you have is high-frequency (PCS/AWS). Even in areas of excellent coverage, there's still a few limitations: Deep inside buildings, attenuation -will- eat the signal. Terrain is another big one that affects all carriers... if you happen to be in a place where terrain blocks your line of sight, you're not gonna get a good signal. Now, the equipment refresh is to facilitate LTE, as both setups are capable of LTE-A out of the box. T-Mobile had to sit on their hands for 18mo and not do any proactive system/coverage upgrades due to the AT&T merger debacle, but it was a good thing as now that they have the money and spectrum from both the merger fallout and MetroPCS plus new equipment, they're good to go. So, depending on where you live, work, and play, T-Mobile could potentially be great...
but...
bbqsfire said:
My buddy has tmo and hates the service. He doesn't get service with his phone and winds up using his Verizon work phone 90 percent of the time to make calls.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
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MiG8GT said:
I had Verizon before I switched to T-Mobile. T-Mobile is cheaper, has just as good of support and a good selection of phones. However, Verizon does have better service so if you travel frequently expect some dead zones.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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Unfortunately, when all you have is high-frequency spectrum to use and a network that hasn't seen significant expansion since 2009, this is going to happen. As with all carriers, one man's perfect signal might have a crap signal from another carrier in the exact same spot. Happened to me: with Verizon, could pull 30mbit LTE from bed, but at work I could kill an entire charge with light use because the phone had crap signal on all 3 services (1x EVDO and LTE(whose average speedtest at the desk was 2-3mbit down)). Meanwhile, terrain eats T-Mobile's WCDMA signal at my house(edge only), but I pull 3x the speeds on T-Mobile because of a near perfect signal than I could with Verizon at work.
If you have a friend with T-Mobile, treat'em to lunch and ask them to take a ride around town with ya to see how the service is where you go. Another option is to borrow someone's unused, unlocked T-Mobile phone and grab a sim, sign up for the $30 100min/unlim data&text online and carry that around with you for a bit.
For someone like me who -rarely- leaves metro areas when I travel, T-Mobile is great. For you, it could be different, just take the "ZOMG SPOTTY COVERAGE TMO SUCKS" with a grain of salt, and understand that no carrier is perfect everywhere, even if those comments for that individual are justified.
Forgot to add: T-Mobile won't see any WCDMA expansion for the foreseeable future since their current focus is on the equipment refresh on existing sites. The next round of expansion will come after the 600MHz auction next year.
Shoot me an IM/PM if you have any more questions.
Opposite for me, since Tmo coverage is awful for even making calls in a lot of areas where I live. I agree that they are easier to deal with, but lack of coverage in a lot of areas in Kentucky and Ohio nix them for me.
rushless said:
Opposite for me, since Tmo coverage is awful for even making calls in a lot of areas where I live. I agree that they are easier to deal with, but lack of coverage in a lot of areas in Kentucky and Ohio nix them for me.
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yes, I have Vzw, for two reasons, one they have good coverage nearly everywhere in the us and two data speeds are good. important if you need t use Google Navigator.
topaz330 said:
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
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I have a T-Mobile S3 and Verizon Z10 for work, Verizon Bionic and TB for personal.
I get better coverage and internet speed on my Verizon devices than my T-Mobile.
I'm in Chester County, PA.
coverage
You could always do a bit of research for your expected area to see what the coverage is like across the various carriers.
www dot opensignal dot com
As if the captchas and relogins aren't enough, I can't friggin post links either.
I've started to take a hard look at T-Mobile and seriously thinking of switching when my contract end on Verizon. I live in southern NH and work in MA. There are T-Mobile 4G towers close to my house and work, but my commute would be mostly 2G.
Comparably, Verizon is mostly 4G in the area, a strong 4G signal at work, but at home I rarely get a 4G signal and half the time the phone will drop because of poor signal strength. There are 3G spots and some bare areas on my commute.
My step-son has T-Mobile and he get a strong 4G signal at our house. He also says he mostly has phone service in the area(drop spots) and data is mostly 2G. When you get closer to the highways or bigger tows / cities there is better service.
Verizon
T-Mobile is awesome, if you live in a coverage area, work in a coverage area, and/or go to school in a coverage area. Also, if you DO NOT EVER plan on traveling, or, at least, taking your phone with you when you go.... Their coverage is horrible compared to Verizon, but their prices are nicer, the packages are more appealing, and prepaid is way better. Really, it's just all up to you, and what you want.
I never had any problems while traveling with t mobile service I have gone from one end of the country to another with mine when I had them before and I'm looking to switch back only switched because I wanted to give Verizon a try not liking them way to pricey and crappy phone selection
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I've had Sprint SERO for years. I live in the SF Bay Area, and even though the coverage is bad (it ALWAYS drops calls on the Bay Bridge), and the data is slow in most place, it's only $59 per month (with taxes, etc.). Of course, I've always had the hope that it will get better. Those hopes have now been bolstered by the Softbank deal.
Now that I have a Nexus 5 that can be used on multiple carriers, as a test, I got an AT&T Straight Talk SIM ($45 per month) and have been using that for a few days. It's night and day - calls go through and don't drop, data is fast - it's RELIABLE! Although Straight Talk has gotten (deservedly) bad rap for throttling, recently they changed their policy and published a 2.5 GB limit at which point you get throttled. That's enough for me, and, in the rare case that I go over before the end of the month, I can pay the next month's $45 early and get a new 2.5 GB. And, if ST goes bad, there's always AIO or other AT&T MVNOs.
But, I'm reluctant to switch. If Sprint really does get a good LTE network going and I can use unlimited data to watch Netflix without worry, that would be a nice thing. And, once I cancel the SERO plan, there's no going back.
Of course I've hung on for years because I thought Sprint would get better, and it never has. But, with my luck, the month after I cancel my SERO plan Sprint will improve 1000%.
Any thoughts? I can't be the only person going through this.
(I use Google Voice so the (perhaps) temporary change of carrier is not notice by people that call me, except there is no MMS.)
I just dumped Sprint and paid a $140 ETF. It was worth it friend. I did not have the SERO deal, but I now know what it's like to have real phone service. I switched to a Go Phone plan and could not be happier. Living in NYC and being with sprint was BEYOND painful. Each morning, I would try to listen to NPR on my way to work. It would take forever for the stream to get going on LTE and when we would reach a spot in my commute where it had to hand off to 3g, the stream would just die. I would then have to toggle airplane mode until I finally found a usable signal. So yeah, now that I have Go Phone as my provider, even on 3G I can stream my liberal news to my hearts content. Not to mention, that I have LTE almost everywhere I go with actual LTE speeds. Dump those suckers.
AliLaPointe said:
I just dumped Sprint and paid a $140 ETF. It was worth it friend. I did not have the SERO deal, but I now know what it's like to have real phone service. I switched to a Go Phone plan and could not be happier. Living in NYC and being with sprint was BEYOND painful. Each morning, I would try to listen to NPR on my way to work. It would take forever for the stream to get going on LTE and when we would reach a spot in my commute where it had to hand off to 3g, the stream would just die. I would then have to toggle airplane mode until I finally found a usable signal. So yeah, now that I have Go Phone as my provider, even on 3G I can stream my liberal news to my hearts content. Not to mention, that I have LTE almost everywhere I go with actual LTE speeds. Dump those suckers.
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No car radio?
More seriously, how many GB do you have from Gophone - and can you listen to NPR and not burn up all your GB?
Go to s4gru, donate a couple bucks and look at the map for your area.
Maybe read a little and educate yourself on how sprint is improving their network.
After you do that you can make an informed decision based on facts rather then asking for opinions here.
---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 PM ----------
AliLaPointe said:
I just dumped Sprint and paid a $140 ETF. It was worth it friend. I did not have the SERO deal, but I now know what it's like to have real phone service. I switched to a Go Phone plan and could not be happier. Living in NYC and being with sprint was BEYOND painful. Each morning, I would try to listen to NPR on my way to work. It would take forever for the stream to get going on LTE and when we would reach a spot in my commute where it had to hand off to 3g, the stream would just die. I would then have to toggle airplane mode until I finally found a usable signal. So yeah, now that I have Go Phone as my provider, even on 3G I can stream my liberal news to my hearts content. Not to mention, that I have LTE almost everywhere I go with actual LTE speeds. Dump those suckers.
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no you can only stream 2.5gb worth assuming you do not use data for anything else.
lafester said:
Go to s4gru, donate a couple bucks and look at the map for your area.
Maybe read a little and educate yourself on how sprint is improving their network.
After you do that you can make an informed decision based on facts rather then asking for opinions here.
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This may sound stupid, but what exactly is the different between s4gru map and the one from Sprint? That said, I look at the Sprint LTE map before and the current Sprint LTE signal is weak. There are many area in LA county(not city) that even though it show LTE on the map but I only have 3G. And yes Sprint 3G is suck. That said, I'm looking forward to try the Spark(tri-band LTE), which as far as I'm concern, most of the place I'll be around had good WiMax. So if things goes smoothly(meaning I'll have LTE signal like I used to have when I got WiMax), I will be happy to stay w/ Sprint SERO-P. Then again, this is my experience. My term w/ Sprint isn't up yet anyway. So, I will use it and try Spark when I have Nexus 5 until the term is over then decide.
I am in the same boat, no LTE in my town but I am supposed to have LTE at work in Midtown Manhattan. I get an LTE signal on my N5 with Sprint at work but when I do a speedtest I am getting .25Mbps down and like .01 up. I hear Verizon is no better in Midtown and now that they have publicly admitted it, they are not even a consideration. So that leaves ATT or Tmobile, I will not go with Tmo so that leaves ATT. Went to an ATT store on Park Ave close to my office and ran a speedtest on one of their display LG G2s and only got between 1-2mbps down.
So none of the carriers are good for me now in Midtown, but ATT and Verizon would be good at my house, but I am on wifi at my house so coverage at work is more important. I have been waiting and waiting for Sprint and I know their LTE network is going to be great when it finally gets here, but when will that be? How long can you wait and keep paying them for crap service, it is very frustrating.
I agree that you should do some research on S4gru, but that will only take you so far. Sprint was promising a great network back in the Wimax days and that stuff fell apart. They then promised LTE and I have been having spotty coverage for more than a year. I'm really happy after my switch to Go Phone. No issues here. Also, nowhere near to close on my data allotment. I dont use a car radio because, well, I live in NYC and take public transit.
AliLaPointe said:
I agree that you should do some research on S4gru, but that will only take you so far. Sprint was promising a great network back in the Wimax days and that stuff fell apart. They then promised LTE and I have been having spotty coverage for more than a year. I'm really happy after my switch to Go Phone. No issues here. Also, nowhere near to close on my data allotment. I dont use a car radio because, well, I live in NYC and take public transit.
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Maps can only take you so far. For example, the maps show a strong signal (Sprint calls it "Best" voice signal at my house, and calls constantly drop. There are other places on the maps where a strong signal is shown and the calls always drop. The fact that in the entire course of its existence Sprint has not been able to figure out (or hasn't bothered to figure out) how to not drop calls consistently for people driving across the Bay Bridge is amazing. There are places on the map where strong data coverage is shown and the data is so slow as to be unusable.
So, the real thrust of my question was whether Sprint is going to change its spots and have consistent and reliable service, not whether it can show a map which covers a large area but in reality is full of holes.
I'm sure there are a lot of us in this position.
I have this n5 with two SIMs two, AT&T works great just about everywhere I go, Sprint , junk. And now that LTE won't work at all until the 3G/4G towers have been fully completed, more bad news, from bad planning by Sprint.
I like the Google voice integration with Sprint, and my number is not eligible to be ported to Google voice.
It seems that Sprint is always promising a better service is just around the corner. They're doing this again with this 'spark' talk, which really won't do much.
They should their time implementing LTE 1900 Mhz, before they get ahead of themselves and offering LTE 2500 Mhz too, they need to walk before they can run.
I was thinking about using net10's 2 line family plan, over Straight talk, not sure of the different between the two, the same company.
If t-moble had coverage, i'd consider them too.
The S4GRU site will show you the Sprint tower locations, not the coverage.
Edit: One blog post here: http://seth.killey.me/?p=1049
I had sero on sprint and just ditched them for tmobile and could not be happier. I have been hanging on to sero for years waiting for coverage to improve and it has only gotten worse. I finally gave up and have not looked back since.
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