Thinking of leaving sprint, would like some opinions. - Verizon HTC One (M8)

I have been with sprint for 8 years now. Just got the M8 for the new spark network that according to sprints coverage map, I was fully covered in. We'll, that's not the case. Been having a lot of problems, mainly if I drop to 3g, I actually have no data and no phone calls and can't send texts. Apparently this is a mass problem that could be a while to fix. I still have ten days to return it and reverse my contract. I would like to know from those of you on Verizon, how the service and speeds generally are. Sprint is so bad that if I'm somewhere I don't know where I'm at and try to pull up a route on maps, it will fail to pull anything up, or search for a route until it says no connection, even with 4 bars. It's hard for me to leave since I've been with them for 8 years, but I'm really getting tired of it. Also I would like some opinions on if I should get the phone through Verizon itself or best buy. Reason I ask is when I bought my original HTC one I went through 3 of them, all for different hardware issues. Each time it was a hassle. Had to go to different stores, call sprint, one store even said I was lying about my LTE not working on the phone and that I don't have LTE in my area, even tho the previous one got LTE.

Varekai said:
I have been with sprint for 8 years now. Just got the M8 for the new spark network that according to sprints coverage map, I was fully covered in. We'll, that's not the case. Been having a lot of problems, mainly if I drop to 3g, I actually have no data and no phone calls and can't send texts. Apparently this is a mass problem that could be a while to fix. I still have ten days to return it and reverse my contract. I would like to know from those of you on Verizon, how the service and speeds generally are. Sprint is so bad that if I'm somewhere I don't know where I'm at and try to pull up a route on maps, it will fail to pull anything up, or search for a route until it says no connection, even with 4 bars. It's hard for me to leave since I've been with them for 8 years, but I'm really getting tired of it. Also I would like some opinions on if I should get the phone through Verizon itself or best buy. Reason I ask is when I bought my original HTC one I went through 3 of them, all for different hardware issues. Each time it was a hassle. Had to go to different stores, call sprint, one store even said I was lying about my LTE not working on the phone and that I don't have LTE in my area, even tho the previous one got LTE.
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Click to collapse
Where are you located?

Spring hill, FL

download open signal or sensorly from the market it should give you a idea of the coverage Verizon or hell even sprint offers in your area before you decide

I was in your exact position a week ago. I had been with Sprint for 12 years and it almost felt like cheating on my wife going into a Verizon store. I am in Austin, TX which has been one of the first markets to get network upgrades. When I first got the EVO LTE it was about 6 months before I saw my first LTE signal and it was at work. The speeds were GREAT....for a few months. Once everyone got an LTE capable phone it was all downhill and speeds went to crap. Anytime I traveled I had the same problem with getting maps to work, like you described. I had to pull into a Starbucks or McDonald's to get WiFi to figure out where I was going. I finally had it last weekend when both my wife (iPhone) and I couldn't get any data to find the nearest oil change place while sitting at an intersection of two major highways on a Sunday morning. We could have hoped for better service with the Spark network but it just seemed liked deja vu all over again.
I went into Verizon store that had the phone I wanted (M8) and they would give my wife $210 on her iPhone 4s trade in along with $100 per line activation. I switched over and even though its only been a week I am amazed. I am getting LTE on Verizon where I couldn't even get 3g on sprint. And the LTE speeds are about 3-5 times better than I got on Sprint. I don't have unlimited data anymore but having an unlimited amount of something that never works is worthless. I'm paying the same amount for a 4 GB plan now BUT IT WORKS! Based in the performance I've seen the past week I just feel stupid for not doing this sooner. All my favorite apps that require data just start working immediately (e.g. steaming music or video). I mistakenly thought there was only a subtle difference between carriers but I was wrong. Just check out rootmetrics.com (HUGE help). You won't be sorry you changed.
TLDR: Sprint sucks. Change carriers. Don't look back. M8 rocks.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using xda premium

I think we all know by now what carriers can deliver. If anyone is traveling in mostly rural areas Verizon or AT&T is your best option. For overall coverage Verizon wins hands down, but you pay more for it. I live in the city of Atlanta and every carriers has great coverage in the heart of the city. Which makes me want to switch T-Mobile because I would save about $40, but whenever I take a road trip I'm reminded why I pay for Verizon and deal with locked bootloaders, and of course my unlimited data. While I love Verizon, I also love flashing ROMS. Verizon doesn't help us at all in that regard and it's something to consider IMO. Most people don't know you get university discounts on carriers and it's usually 15%, which has me looking at AT&T also knowing I'd be giving up unlimited. [emoji30]
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

I was in the same boat you are. I am in Western NY and had Sprint for almost 12 years and was relatively happy with the service *for the price* until 4G/LTE was being rolled out by all of the carriers and they left Sprint in the dust (in my area). I've had THREE 4G capable phones in the last 5 years (Evo, Evo 3D, Evo 4G LTE) and didn't see any 4G service in my area until late last year. Just last week I started getting a 4G signal at my house - one bar and DL speeds were around 1 Mbps. Furthermore, I was paying the monthly $10 fee for the 'smartphone experience' and never saw any real ROI.
I went to Verizon yesterday and picked up an M8 on the $60/1GB plan. For me, 1GB is just fine as i'm on WiFi 80% of the time and i'm good at monitoring my data usage. Service-wise I get a full signal at my house and 30Mbps DL speeds. I'm not looking back.

Thanks for the replies. I downloaded the apps and will check them out. Bootloader being locked down was mentioned, does this mean you can't unlock it with HTC Dec unlock to s-off and root? I don't know if I can live without rooting. Also does Verizon give a hard time about exchanging a rooted device? I know people at sprint store have always given me a hard time with it.

Well according to those two apps, sprint actually has better 4g from where I live to where I work.

I was with Sprint for 10 years. I live in Naples Florida. About 2 years ago the big news was all the 4G LTE towers that were going up. When they lit ours up, it was spotty at best. My service was always terrible with Sprint. I had the EVO 4G lte when the service went live, but it wouldn't hold a 4g signal. I was due for an upgrade when the M7 came out, so I got one. Same crap. When Verizon came out with the M7, I decided to give Verizon a try. I think I had the phone for about 10 minutes when I decided to cancel my contract with Sprint and go with Verizon. To this day I still cant get over how much better the service, especially the data is. What good is unlimited data if it hardly works?

I also left Sprint for similar reason. It has all been hope and not much to show in the end. I live is the greater Los Angeles area. When I first switch to Sprint was because their family plans were actually priced well and the discount I was getting made my 2-line family plan with unlimited everything for $110 a month, compare to other carriers.
As to.e went by and policies have changed, being that their data plans are $30, I now only get discount on the data (Verizon does the same). I was barely getting a $3 discount.
Their 4G WiMax was good but spotty. Their 4G LTE now was also ok but spotty. And I really didn't want to hope that their spark will be any better in terms of coverage.
My company gives me a Verizon Android base phone. In which it has work so damn great and that's what it made me switch to Verizon now on my personal line.
Sprint 2 lines - employee discount = $155 a month
Verizon 2 lines - employee discount = $147
I do get 22% discount because of my employer.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

I've had Sprint for the past 10 years & finally gave them the boot. Well almost, I'm still stuck with them for another week or so since I'm waiting for my M8 to come in. I went thru best buy and they had to order the phone. My wife & kids are on Verizon now and absolutely love it. On Sprint, we have to use an airave just to make calls in the house. On Verizon, they have full bars on 4g lte. Without the airave, I'm lucky to to have 1 bar. It's the same at my work. In fact, I'm better off setting my phone to roam. I get Verizon 3g because of the PRL I use. On Sprints network, maybe a bar. I've complained numerous times to Sprint, and they don't really care. All they kept saying was that lte is right around the corner. They've been saying that for a few years now. If I'm going to spend this kind of money for 4 smartphones I'd like to be able to use them to their fullest.

I loved Sprint when I first had my original EVO. But the WiMax was virtually nonexistent, and when I bought my first LTE phone it was nonexistent for a year but I still had to pay for it. That was the first major strike, and as of the last year with them the LTE coverage was terrible, and due to that and their crappy 3G I couldn't even stream music the whole way home from work, it would drop out. Sooo, me and the wife decided it was time to go. Contracts up this year, and when the M8 was announced we got new phones that day. I'll never look back. LTE all the time with like two exceptions, and I get about 25 Mbs in downtown St Louis. Plus, we paid about $200-210 per month on Sprint and now we pay about $160-170 on Verizon. Well worth it.

Maps rarely tell the store. Why don't you purchase a new verizon line and try it. Don't port your number just yet. All carriers have a 14 day return policy and a 3 day zero cost guarantee. If you cancel within 3 days you pay nothing, between 3 and 14 you only pay for the partial month service and activation fee. If you go through a 3rd party like Best Buy Mobile, there are no restocking fees either.
This way you can see for yourself how it works. If you decided to keep the carrier, call them up and have them port your old number over the top of the new temporary number.

I'm at Ocala Fl, had Sprint for ten yrs no matter how much I tried to ignore the network,it's just too slow. Any emergency I need like us I g Google maps quick, it just took for ever. I've been in Verizon 3 yrs and love it, I hate that they are more strict with rooting and unlocking but their 4g???? Solid every where I go. I have the Dish Network app that I can watch cable anywhere I go and because of 4G, the quality it's awesome
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

I left sprint also, their LTE speeds where great at first, now the suck.
From West palm beach, Florida

Varekai said:
I have been with sprint for 8 years now. Just got the M8 for the new spark network that according to sprints coverage map, I was fully covered in. We'll, that's not the case. Been having a lot of problems, mainly if I drop to 3g, I actually have no data and no phone calls and can't send texts. Apparently this is a mass problem that could be a while to fix. I still have ten days to return it and reverse my contract. I would like to know from those of you on Verizon, how the service and speeds generally are. Sprint is so bad that if I'm somewhere I don't know where I'm at and try to pull up a route on maps, it will fail to pull anything up, or search for a route until it says no connection, even with 4 bars. It's hard for me to leave since I've been with them for 8 years, but I'm really getting tired of it. Also I would like some opinions on if I should get the phone through Verizon itself or best buy. Reason I ask is when I bought my original HTC one I went through 3 of them, all for different hardware issues. Each time it was a hassle. Had to go to different stores, call sprint, one store even said I was lying about my LTE not working on the phone and that I don't have LTE in my area, even tho the previous one got LTE.
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Click to collapse
I had the exact same problems as you with my Sprint HTC One M7 and switched to Verizon late last year. It's been a WORLD of difference. I too was sick and tired of hearing Sprint talking about launching 14 different 4G networks and getting charged for them only to never receive the service. Verizon's coverage is so much better, I don't drop any calls anymore and my connection is actually usable. Even when I only have a bar or two of service I can still access the data network which I sometimes couldn't do when I had 4 bars on Sprint. It was also a bit cheaper for me to switch as I had two unlimited my way plans on Sprint costing around $180 a month whereas with Verizon I can have two lines with 4G of data (more than enough considering I was used to always connecting to WiFi because Sprint's network was so bad) for $150/mo.
Seriously, make the switch. Sprint is awful.
P.S. I paid TWO large ETFs to get away from Sprint. That's how bad I wanted to get away from them.

The 3 different times I tried Sprint, in 3 different parts of the country, it was so slow I couldn't stand it.
Both AT&T and Verizon are light years ahead of Sprint, based on my experiences.

LPChris said:
I had the exact same problems as you with my Sprint HTC One M7 and switched to Verizon late last year. It's been a WORLD of difference. I too was sick and tired of hearing Sprint talking about launching 14 different 4G networks and getting charged for them only to never receive the service. Verizon's coverage is so much better, I don't drop any calls anymore and my connection is actually usable. Even when I only have a bar or two of service I can still access the data network which I sometimes couldn't do when I had 4 bars on Sprint. It was also a bit cheaper for me to switch as I had two unlimited my way plans on Sprint costing around $180 a month whereas with Verizon I can have two lines with 4G of data (more than enough considering I was used to always connecting to WiFi because Sprint's network was so bad) for $150/mo.
Seriously, make the switch. Sprint is awful.
P.S. I paid TWO large ETFs to get away from Sprint. That's how bad I wanted to get away from them.
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Click to collapse
I did this morning. Went from .03mb to 223mb on speed test at work. Unfortunately I'm having a problem with the phone locking up. Twice I hit the power button abd screen wouldn't turn on I had to hold power ablnd vol buttons to reboot

Oops, double post

Related

Probably leaving T-Mobile.. any suggestions based on rooting options??

So I'm over T-Mobile and their crappy reception in my area.
I've had work tickets opened for trouble-shooting in my area and nothing..
I've written to corporate and was basically told either deal with it or pay the termination fee.. this 2 days after re-newing. Little did I know that you cant cancel as soon as you renew a contract, unlike when you open a new line (Thanks for NOT telling me that T-Mobile).
Anyhow, I'm probably gonna sell my Sensation, my wife's Galaxy S 4G, and our niece's Vibrant to pay the cancellation fees, and look to go elsewhere.
Verizon & Sprint seem to have the best reception in my area, but I like rooting my phones and I'd like to know, what phones or service have the more options when it comes to rooting??
wait... you are not even getting 2G ? as in EDGE?
you can certainly ROAM for free in the USA, back then when i was living there even when i get no 3G i can still roam just fine in 2G and get reception everywhere where 3G did not reach without additional charges
AllGamer said:
wait... you are not even getting 2G ? as in EDGE?
you can certainly ROAM for free in the USA, back then when i was living there even when i get no 3G i can still roam just fine in 2G and get reception everywhere where 3G did not reach without additional charges
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Click to collapse
Well the reception is so choppy that in and around my condo, the reception goes from 4G to Edge, to nothing, to edge, and back n forth - ALL DAY around my place! I literally have to cross the street to receive a picture message!!
I've just had it with all that and the fact that I kinda got duped by the freakin Loyalty dept themselves, I'm over T-Mobile.
AllGamer said:
wait... you are not even getting 2G ? as in EDGE?
you can certainly ROAM for free in the USA, back then when i was living there even when i get no 3G i can still roam just fine in 2G and get reception everywhere where 3G did not reach without additional charges
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Click to collapse
Before I moved all I got was gprs sometimes. Most times I had to use wifi calling to make a call or stand by the street to talk. People could get 3 bars of AT&T 3G in my house.
Now I've moved and get full T-Mob coverage, but the 3G speeds are worse than Sprint and Verizon.
We plan to drop them soon, especiallyvafter they changed our rate plan and tried to extend our contract another.year.behind our backs and charged us $50 in minutes overages because their MyAccount app shoes the wrong minute used value on every phone.
Then lied about the rate plan change and told me there was a note on the account saying we were notified. After cussing her out for about 5 minutes I hung up in her face and called back. The next person fixed it probably just tobget me off the phone. I was fuming.
I'm going back to AT&T. They had much better customer service and infnitely better coverage. I don't mind paying more for piece of mind. Also, I want true unlimited mobile to mobile calling. Not T-Mobiles gimp version cause no one else except the people on my plan has them, anyways.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
I would get a Sgs2 of you can (At&T) or the sprint one. If the big (bad) red is your thing then the Razr seems to be the best from my useage. I work near a red store and Have gone to 2 and tryed both the razr and the 720p HTC and the razr seems more use able to me, but the S2 on AT&T H+ was able to = or beat them in loading web and video. The HTC could not even play 1080p video right and the first one I tryed at the store near me booted up and before I could do anything it went off for good.( I have never seen a phone do that in a store.)
I like AT&T now even if my speeds of 3-5mb is not as good as the 2.5-15mbs of LTE. P.S Yes I did a speed test on cnet and my phone got 3.8 and the HTC got 2.5. I don't think was right, but you never know.
Well in your area it could be complicated would not use Sprint their service is unreliable, so pick your poison, ATT and get bumped off alot from over crowding or Verizon and get over charged and deal with cdma
BTW, I have a friend who owns a percentage in the Arsenal team.....
You could get a booster for your house, TMO offers them, or you can buy a grey market one and THAT will solve alot of your problems.
perroh said:
So I'm over T-Mobile and their crappy reception in my area.
I've had work tickets opened for trouble-shooting in my area and nothing..
I've written to corporate and was basically told either deal with it or pay the termination fee.. this 2 days after re-newing. Little did I know that you cant cancel as soon as you renew a contract, unlike when you open a new line (Thanks for NOT telling me that T-Mobile).
Anyhow, I'm probably gonna sell my Sensation, my wife's Galaxy S 4G, and our niece's Vibrant to pay the cancellation fees, and look to go elsewhere.
Verizon & Sprint seem to have the best reception in my area, but I like rooting my phones and I'd like to know, what phones or service have the more options when it comes to rooting??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

At&t has E in my area, T-mobile has 4g

When I was on cm7 I could change to the t-mobile tower without incurring roaming charges and achieve 4g data but now that I am on SKY ICS, I can't...
I didn't have to do anything with setting up apn through the dialer with cm7, I just went to mobile operators and chose the tower I wanted on cm7. Is there a way to do the same on SKY ICS? Thanks.
Will I had the same deal except I was on T-mobile. Back in the g1 launch days. T-Mobile and AT&T have since redefined the roaming agreement and don't allow free roaming unless there its no AT&T or T-mobile coverage in that area. Other wise you get that "cannot register on network" error. This hadn't work from the T-Mobile side for a while. At least 6 to 8 months. But recently T-Mobile expanded coverage from Edge and now they have their 4g(hspa) coverage here.
I would much rather have T-Mobile then AT&T anyway. My wife rubs it in my face now that they have 4g(Hspa) coverage. She never switched over with me, and she is darn happy the merger never went through.
But I don't think its possible anymore. And if it worked while on cm7 I'd stick with it for a while longer. Maybe it had to do with open apn because I can't even choose a different carrier, its locked.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Jnewell05 said:
I would much rather have T-Mobile then AT&T anyway. My wife rubs it in my face now that they have 4g(Hspa) coverage. She never switched over with me, and she is darn happy the merger never went through.
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I've been feeling more tempted of late to buy out of my contract for T-Mo. When LTE was first lit up here, I averaged around 15Mbps down. Lately, it's been around 6MBps. While some of my friends on T-Mo have been averaging 8-9MBps on their G-Nex. WTF?
There's a family plan on T-Mo: 1000 min, 2GB ea= $70.
My current family plan on ATT: 550 min, 2GB ea= $110.
That's $960 ($480/line) over two years. This essentially wipes out any savings I had from buying my phone subsidized on AT&T even if I factor in my 15% company discount, especially if I look at the new price of the Galaxy Nexus on the play store.
I'm just a bit wary of their future since they're trying to get themselves bought out.
Won't matter if they get bought out because you have a contract with them so it wouldn't effect you at all. And if something happened such as price increase etc you could cancel and move to another company for free. It waives the cancellation fee if they change the contract. I don't see them getting bought out anytime soon.
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verizon vs tmobile

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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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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Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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
Sent from my SCH-I535

[Q] Straight Talk vs TMobile vs Ting vs ???

Curious what opinions are...
What is the best cheap provider?
I see there are some big threads about TMobile, but searching around the net, I see a lot of people who seem to like Straight Talk.
Anyone use Ting?
Any opinions? Any first hand experiences?
Thanks
www.lycamobile.us and www.gosmartmobile.com also have better deals, especially for pay-as-you-go users.
.jond said:
Curious what opinions are...
What is the best cheap provider?
I see there are some big threads about TMobile, but searching around the net, I see a lot of people who seem to like Straight Talk.
Anyone use Ting?
Any opinions? Any first hand experiences?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard too many complaints about Smart Talk to consider them a first option. They're good for basic AT&T-area coverage I guess, but not very heavy data usage. T-Mobile has less coverage but is much better about data.
Get a plan at aiowireless.com. They're owned and operated by AT&T and have great service. I've used them for 2 months now and don't regret switching from T-Mobile. I get way better coverage and LTE nearly everywhere. T-Mobile's LTE is still in infancy and only in a few markets across the USA.
AT&T is trying to buy Leap Communications which owns Cricket. If government regulators allow them to do so, AT&T will be merging Aio with Cricket. Same service, new name. Though Cricket has been viewed as a "cheap and crappy" pay as you go service for many years, if owned and operated by AT&T, I think it'll really boost it's way into competing with the bigger dogs now that it'll have better coverage and service to offer.
.jond said:
Curious what opinions are...
What is the best cheap provider?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One son switched his galaxy nexus from ST ATT to ST TMob in Dec. His coverage (Orlando, FL/UCF) improved and dl speed went from 6 to 11/12MB . In June, I switched him to TMob $30 (100 min) plan. Coverage seems the same, but now he has 5GB high speed data. I keep extra $ in the account in case he needs more minutes but he hasn't yet.
I moved two Iphones (4s) from ST ATT to GoPhone in July. The other three of us live in a rural south Florida area with decent coverage about 100 feet from our house. We usually get a signal inside the house. Local coverage/signal the same; however, I no longer have to constantly (weekly at times) re-negotiate the data connections and mms just works. (ST never fully supported GSM Iphones. ) I considered aio but went with gophone. ATT installed the sims and made certain everything was working. All I paid for was the first month ($60.+sales tax), no sim or activation fee. Since then, I have gotten refills for $54./month--no tax.
I have a Nexus 4 and am still on ST ATT. I was waiting on my last 90 day purchase to run out before moving to GoPhone, when they actually became transparent with their data policy. I just purchased another 30 days and a new LTE sim in anticipation that one day, Google will actually make the Nexus 5 available. After I experience LTE through ST, I will decide to stay or go.
My Orlando area son will take my n4 as he will be on LTE with it. I will get ATT LTE when in covered areas with n5.
We have no experience with other prepay. We had been Sprint customers for 12 years until we no longer were able to receive a signal in our house (tried TMob with same results). I do thank Sprint for not caring about our situation since it made me consider prepay. The best thing about prepay is you can leave if you don't like it. If you watch forums (howardforums is great for carrier info), you can find out when good deals are available. Last month I picked up TMob micro sim for a buck as I was considering trying them again. As I mentioned, ATT did gophone set up for free.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Great information! Very cool.
Anyone else?
Rarscaryfrosty said:
Get a plan at aiowireless.com. They're owned and operated by AT&T and have great service. I've used them for 2 months now and don't regret switching from T-Mobile. I get way better coverage and LTE nearly everywhere. T-Mobile's LTE is still in infancy and only in a few markets across the USA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also thinking of switching from regular AT&T to Aio, although it will mean the loss of some coverage since it will only talk to AT&T towers (no roaming). From a practical standpoint, however, this probably isn't a big deal since 99% of the places I'm likely to be have AT&T coverage; it's mainly on long trips to the west (Nebraska, Wyoming, etc.) where it gets thin.
How the hell is this Nexus 5 General?
ritchea said:
One son switched his galaxy nexus from ST ATT to ST TMob in Dec. His coverage (Orlando, FL/UCF) improved and dl speed went from 6 to 11/12MB . In June, I switched him to TMob $30 (100 min) plan. Coverage seems the same, but now he has 5GB high speed data. I keep extra $ in the account in case he needs more minutes but he hasn't yet.
I moved two Iphones (4s) from ST ATT to GoPhone in July. The other three of us live in a rural south Florida area with decent coverage about 100 feet from our house. We usually get a signal inside the house. Local coverage/signal the same; however, I no longer have to constantly (weekly at times) re-negotiate the data connections and mms just works. (ST never fully supported GSM Iphones. ) I considered aio but went with gophone. ATT installed the sims and made certain everything was working. All I paid for was the first month ($60.+sales tax), no sim or activation fee. Since then, I have gotten refills for $54./month--no tax.
I have a Nexus 4 and am still on ST ATT. I was waiting on my last 90 day purchase to run out before moving to GoPhone, when they actually became transparent with their data policy. I just purchased another 30 days and a new LTE sim in anticipation that one day, Google will actually make the Nexus 5 available. After I experience LTE through ST, I will decide to stay or go.
My Orlando area son will take my n4 as he will be on LTE with it. I will get ATT LTE when in covered areas with n5.
We have no experience with other prepay. We had been Sprint customers for 12 years until we no longer were able to receive a signal in our house (tried TMob with same results). I do thank Sprint for not caring about our situation since it made me consider prepay. The best thing about prepay is you can leave if you don't like it. If you watch forums (howardforums is great for carrier info), you can find out when good deals are available. Last month I picked up TMob micro sim for a buck as I was considering trying them again. As I mentioned, ATT did gophone set up for free.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you get your Gophone refills at $54?
rochrunner said:
I'm also thinking of switching from regular AT&T to Aio, although it will mean the loss of some coverage since it will only talk to AT&T towers (no roaming). From a practical standpoint, however, this probably isn't a big deal since 99% of the places I'm likely to be have AT&T coverage; it's mainly on long trips to the west (Nebraska, Wyoming, etc.) where it gets thin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, where I work, my office is in a basement. I sadly cannot get coverage in the basement with Aio Wireless, but I got 2 bars of HSPA with T-Mobile. My coworker who has Aio also can get service though, I assume this is due to antenna differences in our phones. I have a nexus 4 right now, and it's commonly known is has a crappy antenna compared to some other phones. I'm hoping the antenna on the nexus 5 will pick up reception better, but it's no big deal since I walk up to the main level of the office multiple times a day where I can get perfect coverage.
Tmobile's $30/mo prepaid is tough to beat overall if you don't use much voice. 4G, good coverage, and cheap! I'm planning to dump my Verizon plan after I see some good reviews on the Nexus 5. I'll save $53/mo even with my company's Verizon discount.
TiltedAz said:
Tmobile's $30/mo prepaid is tough to beat overall if you don't use much voice. 4G, good coverage, and cheap! I'm planning to dump my Verizon plan after I see some good reviews on the Nexus 5. I'll save $53/mo even with my company's Verizon discount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you say good coverage?
ryude said:
Did you say good coverage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Duh.. a-yup....
Got 1 question, if you switch to tmo prepaid, would you be able to keep your number? And how long it takes for number transfer?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Lancez said:
Got 1 question, if you switch to tmo prepaid, would you be able to keep your number? And how long it takes for number transfer?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can transfer your number. Typically it takes up to 8 hours for everything to work. It took me 2 weeks to even get texting working. Once it kicked in though, I had no issues sending/receiving texts to and from people. It was a bit frustrating going 2 weeks without texts. I was surprised when I switched to Aio wireless and it only took 2 hours for me to send and receive SMS and MMS.
TiltedAz said:
Duh.. a-yup....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where I live Sprint has better coverage... and that's saying something.
Rarscaryfrosty said:
You can transfer your number. Typically it takes up to 8 hours for everything to work. It took me 2 weeks to even get texting working. Once it kicked in though, I had no issues sending/receiving texts to and from people. It was a bit frustrating going 2 weeks without texts. I was surprised when I switched to Aio wireless and it only took 2 hours for me to send and receive SMS and MMS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Took me 40 seconds after I ported my number, but maybe that's because I ported my number from TMo postpaid to prepaid
.jond said:
Curious what opinions are...
What is the best cheap provider?
I see there are some big threads about TMobile, but searching around the net, I see a lot of people who seem to like Straight Talk.
Anyone use Ting?
Any opinions? Any first hand experiences?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I say try both yourself and see which best works for you. You can pick up a Tmob SIM for $1 on sales they have all the time, ST sims they go for like $6, so one month port your # into TMob and the next month port it to ST, see which one works best for you.
Tmo Pros: 5GB data, $30 bucks flat, no extra fees
Tmo Cons: only 100 mins (why i use talkatone and port my main # to GV, no mins used, only data)
ST Pros: Unlimited Mins, ATT Towers
ST Cons: $45 bucks + $3 something in fees, 2.5GB and after that they throttle like crazy (basically useless), they are picky with streaming music/vid
miamidesigner said:
I say try both yourself and see which best works for you. You can pick up a Tmob SIM for $1 on sales they have all the time, ST sims they go for like $6, so one month port your # into TMob and the next month port it to ST, see which one works best for you.
Tmo Pros: 5GB data, $30 bucks flat, no extra fees
Tmo Cons: only 100 mins (why i use talkatone and port my main # to GV, no mins used, only data)
ST Pros: Unlimited Mins, ATT Towers
ST Cons: $45 bucks + $3 something in fees, 2.5GB and after that they throttle like crazy (basically useless), they are picky with streaming music/vid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And depending where you live, ST actually has service whereas Tmo does not.
You can also try Solavei. Offers the most data for the lowest price. (4GB for $49. First two months are $39 right now.) Best value I'd say compared to what others offer. Runs off of T-Mobile.
Disclaimer: I am an independent rep with them but I've personally used the service since November (when the Nexus 4 came out) and love it.
Link in my signature or PM me as I can get you some freebies as well.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Opinions Sought - Stay With Sprint SERO, or Jump to AT&T MVNO

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk

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