Sprint Spark....Where is it?? - General Questions and Answers

I feel like I'm the only one who is noticing that the greatly anticipated Spark for Sprint just disappeared from discussion once it launched. I'm not seeing any data speeds or discussions but regardless, has anyone had much success with it yet? I know for myself in San Antonio Tx, we barely manage 3g, no joke. San Antonio has been one of the first to launch 4g LTE and still has them in the same places. I was told literally by a sprint rep,
"Wait until Spark hits. Trust me, Sprint will be back in the game. You dont want to cancel your contract because you'll be sorry. Just wait till February, and perhaps even March." Well, Febuary is here and I see no difference. I get, 0.20 LTE speeds on a GOOD day, 0.01 mostly, so I Just keep my 3g on most of the time.
So what are you all's thoughts, because I am stumped right now what to make of all this. Is sprint spark just another joke?
BTW, here is the URl to some info on sprints website about it. I looked for my "0.01" speeds and found that my LTE speeds are ranked at the 2g speeds. Wow.
http://newsroom.sprint.com/presskits/sprint-spark.htm

Time to switch to T-Mobile sprint is nothing but a bunch of promises that arnt ever kept.
T-Mobile can achieve sparks speeds without sprints marketing gimmik with 3 bands and all
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

My Sprint Netgear Hotspot recently started displaying that (annoying) Spark icon. However, I'm in the Portland OR area and don't believe there is any service as of yet. I will say that the 4G LTE service here is outstanding and completely blows away the previous (almost non-existent) 4G WiMax service.

What's your normal speed?
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Sprint spark in tampa florida ... spark logo next to lte
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Related

So did Sprint stop implementing 4G in other cities or what?

I'm always hearing about Verizon's LTE service going live another city. And now I find out that its going live where I live. I mean Sprint was the first and still I don't have any wimax 4g where I'm at.
Sorry for the rant....I just don't get how Verizon's LTE service is live in my city when sprints 4g is not.
In fact I believe Verizon's LTE service is live in a lot more cities than Sprints Wimax 4G service
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
i talked to a sprint rep about sprint losing its contracts that allowed them to use other carrier's towers. he tried to reassure me that to offset the issue, theyre starting to rollout more 3g/4g towers. now i don't know how much truth is in that, but i'm just gonna take it with a grain of salt.
both sprint and clear have no money to roll out more 4g. they havent turned on any markets in months.
Yah and also there talk of Sprint/clear moving to Lte.
They just rolled WiMax out to like 40 new markets a couple of months ago.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I'm still waiting for 3G to show up in my area.
Heck, I'd be happy to get any sort of cellular service at all at my house.
tailsthecat3 said:
both sprint and clear have no money to roll out more 4g. they havent turned on any markets in months.
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This couldn't be more incorrect, and yes they have been rolling out coverage in many areas. Go ahead and go over to the Clear.com site and look at coverage. Zoom in to areas and you will see green in many places, even though they aren't official Clear cities yet. Clear actually has been doing quite well, as has Sprint.
http://corporate.clearwire.com/releases.cfm
This will show they are expanding with Sprint. They also had one of the most successful quarters to date for them. That is also in there.
Don't spread misinfo!
They also will be upgrading it to be faster.
http://www.talkandroid.com/41725-fc...idForums+(Android+News,+Rumours,+and+Updates)
poor, naive, uninformed customers being taken advantage of...
womp womp. they dont have money to roll out more service. they have eliminated most retail outlets. do more research and you will see, that even though they posted gains last QUARTER, it doesnt help the last two years of losses. regardless of posting gains, they are NOT rolling out 4g.
I think its both....
Clearwire is behind the 8 ball, but getting rid of retail was a good move. Now they can concentrate strictly on building out the WIMAX network, and eventually push out WIMAX 2 to legitimately compete in the 4G war. The question is whether or not they can stay afloat to do so....
tailsthecat3 said:
womp womp. they dont have money to roll out more service. they have eliminated most retail outlets. do more research and you will see, that even though they posted gains last QUARTER, it doesnt help the last two years of losses. regardless of posting gains, they are NOT rolling out 4g.
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Once you again you clearly show 0 knowledge in this. They shut down outlets because Sprint had asked them to spend more interest and money into building out the infrastructure. I have about 10 sources that can confirm this, and I can also confirm it by showing coverage that is showing up in the map every day. Stop trolling and get some real facts. Clear has also been testing LTE and a wider spectrum for Wimax here in PHX. So you either do your research or zip your mouth. I posted links to hard facts, showing coverage being built and turned on, and the fact the speeds are being upgraded. I will also note that a Clear truck has been building a new tower about 500FT from my house.
Once again I will post it
May 12th they opened up more coverage to the Bay Area.
http://corporate.clearwire.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=576679
Here is more proof, Sprint helping them build Multi-Mode towers. That 2.5ghz is the Wimax Spetrum.
http://newsroom.sprint.com/press_kits.cfm?presskit_id=19
Clear has been hurting for money but they have rolled out a few places like grand rapids, mi and a few more. Sprint is working on project leap frog which is combining the base towers to give way better signal and merging the 800mhz into all the towers to provide 1xadvanced coverage for simultanious voice and data. I for one am excited especially when the 800 mhz spectrum turns from iden to lte plus the wimax out will be awesome just be patient, sprint has really good things coming
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
Today sprint has a event here in Puerto Rico to announced the 4g
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abrcrmdl23 said:
Clear has been hurting for money but they have rolled out a few places like grand rapids, mi and a few more. Sprint is working on project leap frog which is combining the base towers to give way better signal and merging the 800mhz into all the towers to provide 1xadvanced coverage for simultanious voice and data. I for one am excited especially when the 800 mhz spectrum turns from iden to lte plus the wimax out will be awesome just be patient, sprint has really good things coming
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
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This is also known as network vision. http://tinyurl.com/4xeq89p (at least as far as I can tell)
To the poster who said a sprint rep tried to reassure you they have posted many internal docs recently about this to help educate reps.
And the western MI outages that happened has helped to lite the fire on this burner.
I can now connect to 4G in my house near Lansing, MI. To my knowledge, they have never announced anything in the Lansing and Flint areas, but if you go to http://www.clear.com/coverage, you can see if it is available in your area.
I really hope sprint puts lte on 800 MHz ...it would line up with where Europe will be so eventually we will have a situation where most phones in the us have at least 700mhz domestic...and 800mhz for international roaming ....if they use it for evdo now it could be a long time before we see a lte rollout on sprint
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Sprint reception getting worse ?

This week my signal in a formerly decent area has become atrocious.
(I'm in Brooklyn NY)
Has anyone else experience this?
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I've seemed to notice that my 3G signal has been dropping to 1G often on my drive home (from Queens NY to Suffolk County)... maybe Sprints doing some work?
kegacide said:
I've seemed to notice that my 3G signal has been dropping to 1G often on my drive home (from Queens NY to Suffolk County)... maybe Sprints doing some work?
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Yeah, I'm getting a lot of 1X data on my phone right now....used to be strong 3G....
Could be the ridiculous weather we've got ?
grifforama said:
This week my signal in a formerly decent area has become atrocious.
(I'm in Brooklyn NY)
Has anyone else experience this?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
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Its a trend. 1-2 years ago I got 1.5-2 Mbps on average since then its been getting progressively worse on any phone I try.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
I was having similar issues in Fairfield County. The Guy at the Sprint store told me they were doing a ton of tower work in the area and it has been causing issues. He said it was suppose to be done by the end of April. We will see.
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I have been experiencing this with whatever phone I've had (Palm Pre, Epic, Nexus) here. It was just FLAKY with the Pre, but the Epic and Nexus recently my 3G has been the pits. It will show I have full bars and my phone will crawl. Called Sprint and they said there is a "outage" in my area and that they were working on it.
My company gives discounts for people on AT&T, and if this keeps up it might be time for a change...........I hate the idea of having tiered data but what's the point of having unlimited usage that I CAN'T USE?
jrdatrackstar said:
I have been experiencing this with whatever phone I've had (Palm Pre, Epic, Nexus) here. It was just FLAKY with the Pre, but the Epic and Nexus recently my 3G has been the pits. It will show I have full bars and my phone will crawl. Called Sprint and they said there is a "outage" in my area and that they were working on it.
My company gives discounts for people on AT&T, and if this keeps up it might be time for a change...........I hate the idea of having tiered data but what's the point of having unlimited usage that I CAN'T USE?
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If you switch, take a look at TMo. They are great here and their pricing/data plans are good.
ATT speeds are good here too, I have them but am grand fathered into unlimited data. Don't know if I'd recommend them to a new customer.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
Yeah I'm in NY as well and have been facing atrocious signal issues. Manhattan works fine including some parts of Queens, but once I head out into Long Island, forget about it, I see my bars drop to one, to none, and sometimes 1x.
Sprint is pushing out the update, just confirmed the release date to be the 25th. Hopefully, this will solve the signal issue that so many of us wishes to be finally resolved.
http://community.sprint.com/baw/com...ns-on-july-25-to-boost-nexus-s-4g-data-speeds
North NJ here and my signal is horrible..... sprint 3g is the worst...i had Verizon b4 i came over to sprint 2 months ago and boy do i regret it...
Same here in Stockton, CA. Been getting weak signal and when I use data it actually looks like my signal drops a bit.
I average speeds of .5 megs. Which is just terrible compared to other carriers.
BTW dont use the speedtest app from the market. Its borked, use a test through the web browser.
Award Tour said:
If you switch, take a look at TMo. They are great here and their pricing/data plans are good.
ATT speeds are good here too, I have them but am grand fathered into unlimited data. Don't know if I'd recommend them to a new customer.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
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thanks....but the problem is T-Mobile is going to get gobbled up by AT&T soon so I'd lose that battle either way......
i also hate AT&T because they are against net neutrality (last time I checked), but that's a whole different subject
Not for me Been getting around 2mbps like forever besides outages from towers Going down
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I agree... I live in Clifton, NJ and work in Woodcliff Lake, NJ. At work, I no longer get reception at all unless I'm roaming, when last year I had full signal.
At home, I had to get an Airave because I never have more than half my bars, this also used to be full.
i'm not getting reception at all right now and i normally have full bars inside my house.
On top of that when i do get reception, the white bars never turn green so i can't even call my voicemail WTF
Same for me in san. Diego CA. I hope they get this fixed soon. If not they better refund us the amount of money we paid for they're "premium data plan" that we can't even use.
Sent from my MIUI powered Nexus S 4g using XDA Premium App
To add to it,
In CT I'm in an area with "Good/Fair" coverage, or whatever. I hardly get enough of a data connection at home to load the facebook app.
The past few days, however, I've seen my phone on 1X a lot, and even no service at all for extended periods. But I'm wondering if it's from Sprint or from the latest nightly I just flashed. >_>
akabadnews said:
To add to it,
In CT I'm in an area with "Good/Fair" coverage, or whatever. I hardly get enough of a data connection at home to load the facebook app.
The past few days, however, I've seen my phone on 1X a lot, and even no service at all for extended periods. But I'm wondering if it's from Sprint or from the latest nightly I just flashed. >_>
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I think its sprint cuz I get the same thing while I was on stock,miui, and cm7.
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AT&T LTE Network Going Live This Sunday

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/att_lte_network_going_live_sunday
The cities included in this initial wave are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Although users in those metro areas will still have very few LTE devices to choose from. Unlike Verizon, which has multiple LTE handsets, AT&T has no phones compatible with the new network. AT&T launched a data stick and a portable hotspot for the LTE network last month. The carrier has also started selling a massively overpriced Android tablet, the HTC Jetstream.
sweet im in San Antonio for a little while, now for AT&T to get some phones for me to use !!!
Now if they could hurry up and increase the HSPA+ speeds. I'm still only getting 3.5mb download and 1mb upload in downtown Dallas.... iPhone 3gs gets about the same download speed, although only half of the upload speed.
Come to the other side of the Metroplex. Downtown Fort Worth and I am getting 5-7mb down, 1.1-1.3 up. I can't wait for the Holiday with LTE. That will be SO sweet.
id10terrordfw said:
Come to the other side of the Metroplex. Downtown Fort Worth and I am getting 5-7mb down, 1.1-1.3 up. I can't wait for the Holiday with LTE. That will be SO sweet.
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X's dos my brotha from anotha motha.
Saved and Texan by the grace of God, Redneck by choice.
I know the Inspire is not a LTE phone, but just launching the network upgrade has helped me to see vastly improved data speeds. I also know the Speed test app is not accurate, but I have never seen it pull these kind of speeds, especially consistently.
Well, I would like if it came out in Madison soon... (and when AT&T has more LTE Android phones)
Ok I live an hour away from Houston. Do you think I would still be getting LTE? Also do we need a new sim card or anything or does it automaticly happends?
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using xda premium
codyperez86 said:
Ok I live an hour away from Houston. Do you think I would still be getting LTE? Also do we need a new sim card or anything or does it automaticly happends?
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using xda premium
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first of all you would need an LTE capable phone....the inspire is not
codyperez86 said:
Ok I live an hour away from Houston. Do you think I would still be getting LTE? Also do we need a new sim card or anything or does it automaticly happends?
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using xda premium
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Click to collapse
As mentioned, you would need a LTE phone first. But, being an hour away from Houston, I wouldn't run out and buy one when they become available. I live in the outskirt of Houston and HSPA+ is non existent at home. In Houston where I work, as posted, I am just now seeing the true benefit of HSPA+. Probably some bottlenecks from ongoing upgrades being freed up, maybe a little congestion as well.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk
Knowing how AT&T operates, I'd imagine they opened up more bandwidth to the land-based lines to the area first to make sure their LTE debut went well and you're just seeing some of that extra bandwidth.
fernandezhjr said:
I know the Inspire is not a LTE phone, but just launching the network upgrade has helped me to see vastly improved data speeds. I also know the Speed test app is not accurate, but I have never seen it pull these kind of speeds, especially consistently.
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Turn off your wifi, Comcast customer.
"at&t 4G? lol. It's more like 0.4G"
knarfl1 said:
Turn off your wifi, Comcast customer.
"at&t 4G? lol. It's more like 0.4G"
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Click to collapse
I'm not as stupid as you. I know when I'm on wifi. Here is the proof.
Here are some from earlier today. The first two were indoors, a large metal building with offices above on the second floor. The first run was bad, only 2800kbps, but I did hit 4916kbps on the second. I then went outdoors and tested a lil slower than yesterday, but not by much, 6485-7767kbps. I know we can't put too much stock in the Speed Test app, but there is some consistency and I'm getting much higher runs than I had been. Also, it seems to be reading my wifi at home with some accuracy.
fernandezhjr said:
I'm not as stupid as you. I know when I'm on wifi. Here is the proof.
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Click to collapse
lol.
Then why do you make statements like LTE network is improving the throughout of a HSPA+ phone on the 3G stack?
"at&t 4G? lol. It's more like 0.4G"
knarfl1 said:
lol.
Then why do you make statements like LTE network is improving the throughout of a HSPA+ phone on the 3G stack?
"at&t 4G? lol. It's more like 0.4G"
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Show me where I made that statement. I stated that since the LTE launch, my data speeds have suddenly increased and I'm finally seeing true hspa+, and that is a fact. I provided a couple of possible reasons for this, as someone else cited a possibility as well. I know what you saw. You saw the hosted by Comcast in the screenshot. Lol. Anybody with half a brain would know that there would have been a wifi icon in the status bar if I was on wifi. Next time you open your mouth, try not to put your foot in it. Your little signature says it all. Just because you are in a crummy area, doesn't mean it is like that everywheres.
Check my screenshot of prior tests and tell me if you see any improvement compared to yesterday and today. LOL.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk
Peace my friends peace
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trell959 said:
Peace my friends peace
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I'm good. I just don't appreciate someone implying I'm either stupid or I'm a liar. It certainly isn't inconceivable that while AT&T was building the LTE network here in Houston, they were improving the backhaul for hspa+. Whatever the source of the improvement, I'm thrilled to see true hspa+ speeds. It is something I never expected to see with my Inspire.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk
The cities included in this initial wave are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Although users in those metro areas will still have very few LTE devices to choose from. Unlike Verizon, which has multiple LTE handsets, AT&T has no phones compatible with the new network. AT&T launched a data stick and a portable hotspot for the LTE network last month. The carrier has also started selling a massively overpriced Android tablet, the HTC Jetstream.[/QUOTE]
No westcoast cities in the works??
They finally turned on hspa+ in okc ok I'm seeing 7-9 dl constanly ul still around 1 but better signal to at my use to get 10- 30 percent now 70 -95 crazy how just one day they just flipped it on finaly I use to leave my phone on edge as o could surf internet faster that way not anymore
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

Whose LTE network will take the hardest hit with an LTE iPhone

Whose LTE network will be crippled the most with an LTE iPhone AT&T or Verizon? The reason I ask this is, even though it is an Android forum, a large number of members have LTE phones and will be affected by this. I would like to hear peoples' professional responses, not AT&T/Verizon sucks. Please talk about the technology and how the increased number of LTE phones will affect their networks.
As a whole Verizon will probably not be affected much. Individual towers in densely populated areas....may. I know in my area a year and a half ago...when vzw was having 4g outages every week that I was pulling down 30+ and about 15 on the up with a rezound. I have went thru a bionic, RAZR, nexus, and have an siii on the way and over the course of the year and a half my speeds have gone down to about 10 to 12 down and 3 up. Tells me either vzw figured out the throttling thing where they say you won't really notice it ( more like capped speeds) or that many more have gotten LTE on vzw in the north Chicago neighborhoods.
Can't answer about at&t as I don't have their service.
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I assume AT&T. I'm in Houston and they can barely keep a LTE signal right now. In the city, it fluctuates constantly.
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Definitely Sprint.
shirsch said:
I assume AT&T. I'm in Houston and they can barely keep a LTE signal right now. In the city, it fluctuates constantly.
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Yupp! I'm with you. Here in Houston ATT is crap, especially in Downtown.
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Hopefully the networks have been planning for this and are well prepared. They absolutely ought to be, considering that the iPhone 4S could have had LTE and they've had essentially an extra year to prepare. I know accommodating the record setting number of users will be tough, but I think they'll manage.

T-Mobile LET Question

I have a nexus 5 and just recently got LTE coverage in my area. I know that LTE is data only so when I make a call it drops LTE coverage and I get HSPA+. However the issue that I am having is that after I hang up the call it stays on HSPA rather than go back to LTE. It has taken anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours to regain LTE coverage after making a call. On my girlfriends iPhone on AT&T after making a call her phone regains LTE coverage immediately. Is this normal for T-Mobile ?
I would say it's not normal. I'm on T-Mobile and my N5 goes from HSPA back to LTE almost immediately.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
I am having the same issue. I called T-Mobile last night they are going to replace my unit.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
ILowry282 said:
I have a nexus 5 and just recently got LTE coverage in my area. I know that LTE is data only so when I make a call it drops LTE coverage and I get HSPA+. However the issue that I am having is that after I hang up the call it stays on HSPA rather than go back to LTE. It has taken anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours to regain LTE coverage after making a call. On my girlfriends iPhone on AT&T after making a call her phone regains LTE coverage immediately. Is this normal for T-Mobile ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does toggling data off then back on fix it? I've never experienced this myself, but I fully recognize that I don't really ever care to know if I'm on hspa or lte, (or even 3g for that matter) and very rarely do I even have the notification bar open to even know if I do. But I suspect it might. I also suspect that if this is indeed an issue, that exchanging your phone won't change anything.
Dude T mobile sucks arse unless you live like directly under a tower. At least in the northwest CT their service is complete garbage. By Tmob. Hello ATT
RoyJ said:
Dude T mobile sucks arse unless you live like directly under a tower. At least in the northwest CT their service is complete garbage. By Tmob. Hello ATT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PS You're advertising for the wrong cellular company in your profile. It still says you're on Verizon.
Sorry, lol. I really don't have a computer. Just browser on tapatalk lol. Can't edit it from that and I haven't updated my profile since the day I got my N5 and that was only my signature
But in all reality T-Mobile is garbage. They talk the talk but are far from walking the walk. Taking my N5 to ATT for a month lol.
Dude stop generalizing... Been on tmo for a month and a half now in NYC, surrounding environs, SC, CT and coverage has been good. Not great when you're further away from a major city but to say they're complete garbage is very misleading.
sent from my hammerhead
I live outside of Sacramento and T-Mobile coverage is great here. I get 10-15mpbs on HSPA+. 20-30mbps on LTE.

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