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Advice for a possible convert

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
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Clearwire goes LTE

Now that Clearwire announced the move to LTE what happens to all of us with WiMax antennas in their phones stuck in a city where there is no towers? Can they do a software upgrade and change our phones to support LTE? I heard that if they implement LTE on the same frequency as WiMax is currently, the software upgrade would be possible.
http://m.cnet.com/Article.rbml?nid=20087725&cid=null&bcid=&bid=-266
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whether its possible or not is regardless no carrier would let you upgrade your 2 year old phone to work as nice as the current ones when you can come in and buy something new and shiney.
afaik they are using lightsquared for lte and supplementing it with clear wimax/lte

Well I'm foreseeing a lawsuit case for every city which doesn't have and will never get WiMax for all the devices sprint is currently selling. New models still come out with 4g WiMax antennas built-in and it seems like it would be in sprint's best interest to make sure they can switch all these phones to work on the "new" LTE network. Especially when they force people to carry that $10 / mo charge which started as a 4g charge and since had been changed to be called "premium data" charge.
Too many phones on sprint have that big 4G title on the box for consumers not to notice that there are no 4g connections anywhere.
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sprint has their ass covered with a coverage may vary. no lawsuit would be taken serious after that. sprint has no obligation to "upgrade" users to lte (if its even possible). yes there were rumors of it but if they use different freqs well then sorry sucks to be you. besides by the time lte is available to most everyone on saprint there will be new faster phones etc etc.
as for the 10 dollar charge, i had mine removed thanks to a very nice csr on both lines., and i have 4g here

shabbypenguin said:
sprint has their ass covered with a coverage may vary. no lawsuit would be taken serious after that. sprint has no obligation to "upgrade" users to lte (if its even possible). yes there were rumors of it but if they use different freqs well then sorry sucks to be you. besides by the time lte is available to most everyone on saprint there will be new faster phones etc etc.
as for the 10 dollar charge, i had mine removed thanks to a very nice csr on both lines., and i have 4g here
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Looks like there is already one lawsuit in progress. An then there is this website which I'm not sure who owns.
Judging from the past consumers lawsuits, it really doesn't matter what you put in the fine print. Walk into any Sprint store or Best Buy and the 4G now network signs could be very much misleading consumers because of other carrier’s which do offer nation wide 4G. Some people could be simply switching to sprint thinking they'll get 4G phone which has 4G speeds.
But I may try to get that $10 charge removed. Thanks for the tip.

Question about Sprint's new LTE vs WiMax

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)

Sprint discussion

What is the status of Sprint?
They put a lot of money into supplying iPhones and they're probably hoping the EVO 4g Lte will bring them up some too. Their WiMax network cost them some big bucks, and now its costing them more to rebuild their network into an LTE one. The war between WiMax and LTE is similar to the technology war with HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays. Sprint went the wrong route though with their network choice in the beginning.
Sprint is out some money.
I hope in five or ten years, we don't see Sprint gone/bought out from the industry. What does Sprint have going for them? Really, over the other carriers? Unlimited data is really all I can think of.
I was with ATT for two years in West Virginia. Sprint had better network speeds than ATT at the time in WV. I am not sure about now. So my allegiance with Sprint stems from my better experience with them at that time.
Opinions? Views?

My experience with them has always been very slow data speeds (20kbs) and constantly dropped calls. I finally went to at&t and while it's more expensive, the better data speeds and zero dropped calls has been worth it for me.
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Closed, post in proper section

Verizon, att, or sprint can't decide!?

Right now I have Verizon and can upgrade next month but my contract ends in december if I upgrade with Verizon I'll loose my unlimited I was thinking about going to att cause I'd get an extra gig for the same price then was thinking about sprint cause they have the cheapest plan and unlimited but no 4g I either want to get the HTC evo lte/htc one x or the S3. So I guess I'm wondering if I should break my contract and get another gig with att, go with sprint for unlimited but only 3g for who knows how long or should I just stick with Verizon?
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Att is good but expensive bad covrage in buildings. Varizon is kind of limited have good signal inside building 850 band is great. Sprint and t-mo cheaper but weak signal data slow. In my area t-mo is using atts towers. Sprint is cheap... but you ge alot of CAN You hear me nowwwww. JM2C.
Signed &

I really, really hate VZ. Been with T-Mobile for 14 years and very happy. Good service and best prices. Very good coverage in my area.
Speaking of coverage... Coverage with any carrier is EXTREMELY location-dependent. Coverage maps can only give approximate coverage areas. Signal strength within a coverage area can come and go from mile to mile, block to block or even room to room.
People are constantly asking about coverage but trying to give meaningful advice about expected coverage is just worthless. It is. The only thing that really works is first, check a map to get a rough idea what to expect. Pick a provider that shows good coverage in the area then actually try their service in places you expect to use it. Walk around the house, work, etc and see if it drops calls or loses data connection.
It's the only way to be fairly sure you'll be happy with any provider's signal quality.
Registered Linux user #266531. Android user since v1.0.

Yea I'm starting to hate Verizon as well with the shared data andno option for the individual plans anymore unless your grandfathered in like me but that will probably change next year like there doing with the unlimited plans. Both att and Verizon have about the same coverage in my area. Sprint has cover mostly in my area but some dead zones. And tmoblie only has voice in my area so that's out of the question. I'm thinking I'll stick with Verizon even though I really don't want to... was also thinking about a prepay smartphone but none in my area has good enough coverage.
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Honestly AT&T's LTE Is plenty fast for me but id want a Sprint phone

Verizon has the only SGSIII with a locked boot loader. That would be enough for me to leave.
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lowandbehold said:
Verizon has the only SGSIII with a locked boot loader. That would be enough for me to leave.
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What does that mean?
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But being that Verizon is CDMA, phones sell much cheaper here and on eBay. You could get decent phone for $300ish, not use your upgrade, and keep unlimited. Just a thought.

Mark930 said:
What does that mean?
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Locked bootloaders prevent custom images/roms from being loaded on the device. A good example of that is the now ancient DROID X on VZW there was a huge fuss about their being a chip that would destroy the phone and ish, but I digress, it essentially makes it so you can only load VZW Official or VZW based roms. No AOKP, No CM- anything etc.
If you're not into that, it's not a big deal. But I, as a flashaholic must have unlocked bootloaders.
Now carrier wise, Tmo is better because if you exceed data they just slow you down.
Att (mine) charges $10/GB over 3GB so 2GB over costs you the same as the 5GB plan essentially.
Sprint... Well do you want people to hear you?
But as it was said before, coverage is the deal breaker. But Tmo is also adding brought spectrum from VZW, which should prove interesting since the Tmo/Att merger got the kaibosh
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Ah OK I don't think I'll be rooting my next phone cause I'm pretty sure I messes up my last phone the Samsung fascinate from rooting and flashing ended up buying an iPhone on cregslist caue I can't even boot my fascinate any more. I think Verizon is $10/1G overage too but who really knows with all their changes
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good nice
_________

I just upgraded with Verizon which forced me to change to a shared plan from unlimited. I was bummed about this, but Verizon has been amazing to me.
Here's how I justified it. Largest network/Best service. I had unlimted data...I rarely use more than 100 - 500mb as I have Wifi at home and at work/school. So it wasn't really a loss. Check out your data use...do you really use that much data? (You could, I'm just sharing my experience)

I use around 1.8-2.5G a month and how smart phones are getting better and better I can see data use going up as well I don't have wifi t work and my wifi at home is choppy.
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So did they make you join the shared plan or did you have the option to drop down to 2g from unlimited?
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