Should I switch to Sprint ?

[PusBucket]

Long-time reader/lurker (> eight years), but I never post, obviously.

I don’t know the specifics of your situation, as in where you live and work, and where you travel to. Sprint might work for you, but I highly doubt it, based upon my experience and those of a few friends. I split my time between NYC and DC/Baltimore, traveling frequently, mostly East Coast, but sometimes to the flyover states and to the West Coast.

Sprint might offer decent data pricing, but you won’t be able to use much data. Most likely you will rarely get a good 4G signal. If you do, you won’t be permitted to utilize it. They always throttle, never sustaining speeds above one Mbps.

Don’t put much faith in Sprint’s coverage maps. Sprint’s network covers a lot of the country, in theory, but in reality you will get intermittent one-to-two bar signals in many places, resulting in dial-up-like data speeds (or worse).

Most of their data network is still 3G, and some is 4G WiMax. They claim to have 4G LTE in many of the major metropolitan areas (in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia). I (and my friends) find that the 4G coverage (of either flavor) is usually spotty in areas Sprint claims to be fully covered. The newer 4G LTE devices won’t operate on 4G WiMax, and 4G WiMax devices won’t work on 4G LTE. Even the 3G coverage is hit-or-miss.

And if you do happen to spend most of your time where you are able to get a strong Sprint 4G signal, their throttling is ridiculous. Burst speeds might be six or seven Mbps, but you will always be immediately throttled back below one Mbps, regardless of time of day, day of week, etc. Plan Terms and Conditions state, “Usage Limitations: Other plans may receive prioritized bandwidth availability. Streaming video speeds may be limited to 1 Mbps,” but this will be the case regardless of which app you’re using.

The My-All-In-One plan, in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic is not $80/month; it’s actually $110/month plus all of the taxes and fees. This plan includes ‘Mobile Hotspot’ but only up to 1 GB/month or 5GB/month (read that tiny little text in ‘Pricing Information and Terms&#8217. The ‘Unlimited, My Way’ plan is $80/month but doesn’t include ‘Mobile Hotspot.’ You will have to root your phone to tether – usually not a big deal.


Was that a rant?

FYI – Ten-plus-year Verizon Wireless User. I get one to two Mbps sustained using my four-year-old 3G Droid, almost anywhere – still have unlimited data. I wanted to try 4G so I picked up a Sprint Galaxy S3 for my business and rooted it. You can probably guess which phone I use to tether.

 

[ImDonly1]

Delete

 

[Thegonagle]

Don't be a victim. Friends don't let friends use Sprint PCS or Sprint-Nextel or any other name Sprint's incompetent Nextel-buying management decided to call themselves that year.

My first cell phone was with Sprint in 1999. I decided that Sprint was a bad deal in 2001 when I finally realized that they all but tell you "we want your money, but we don't want to see you, talk to you, provide a reliable network, deliver your voice mail notifications the same day let alone the same hour, or take care of you in any way that costs us money."

Funny thing is it wasn't until the day I cancelled (the day after my contract expired) that they tried to roll out the red carpet with a gazillion minutes, an awesome new phone for free, and a ridiculously low monthly price. Way to keep that revenue flowing, dummies... Giving away the store for inferior service instead of charging me regular price but keeping me happy? That's not how I would want to run a business.

Joke was on them though. I had signed a Verizon contract two months earlier, was paying a few bucks more for fewer minutes, and I was AMAZED! WOWED! There was no going back. There was no way I was going to stay with Sprint after I finally saw the greener grass on the other side with Verizon. Sure, it cost a few bucks more, and I needed to watch my minutes more closely, but I could USE and RELY on those minutes like I hadn't previously thought possible with a cellular service.

I could use the service reliably irrespective of peak hours (or congestion on the freeway outside the window of my downtown apartment, which seemed to clog Sprint's circuits), if I called 611 with a question, Verizon answered the phone right away instead of making me wait on hold for 10 to 50 minutes (that was the range at Sprint--it was never once ever less than 10 minutes, and the 50 minute hold happened once during the 5 PM hour of a weekday), and the Verizon reps acted like they were happy to talk to me instead of seeming stressed and overworked like they were at Sprint.

It's been 12 years, and nothing I've heard or personally experienced recently using a $5 Samsung/Virgin Mobile "PayLo" burner would bring me back to Sprint's contract service.

IMHO, they have a poor corporate culture that focuses inward on their stock price, instead of outward keeping customers happy. That was evident in 2001, and it hasn't changed much since then.

EDIT: I was just reading some of the back-dated threads about Sprint that I missed, and with this rant post http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34512782&postcount=26 I was reminded of the time when Sprint so obviously did not want to talk to their own customers that they charged a $3 fee to talk to a live human if their touch-tone phone tree gave no satisfaction.

I have to also point out the logical flaws in their later strategy of terminating customers who either call customer service "too often" for the executive office's liking, or use too many minutes of their "no roaming charges" plans while--you guessed it--roaming!

I mean, why fix the problems that lead to customer service calls and off network roaming, when you can just say goodbye forever to that monthly revenue and probably eat a device subsidy? Lose a customer forever to save a buck today? Makes perfect sense, right?

Or more likely, they're just a bunch of buffoons with no foresight or common sense.

 

[lothar]

I'm surprised anyone is considering going to Sprint in this day and age.
They charge the same amount as Verizon and AT&T does (+/- $10) without providing the premium coverage.

Basically you'll be paying 95% of the Verizon price but only get 20% of the Verizon coverage.
Sprint also has the worst data speeds of the major carriers.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Check your area for LTE coverage very carefully. You need to be blanketed by it to even consider Sprint IMO.

I was over in Bucks for a year and the quality of service was very spotty.
4G did not exists at the time and many times I was using auto-roam because Verizon was the stronger signal.

In terms of plans, much depends on what you need.
with a Corporate discount of 45%; I am paying under $150 for 4 smart phones; unlimited.
Credit is issued whenever I complain about coverage and the local store customer service is very helping when needed.

We have had Sprint since '98 using them from one end of the country to the other

 

[ImDonly1]

I was over in Bucks for a year and the quality of service was very spotty.
4G did not exists at the time and many times I was using auto-roam because Verizon was the stronger signal.

In terms of plans, much depends on what you need.
with a Corporate discount of 45%; I am paying under $150 for 4 smart phones; unlimited.
Credit is issued whenever I complain about coverage and the local store customer service is very helping when needed.

We have had Sprint since '98 using them from one end of the country to the other

Highest corporate discount I was aware of is 27%.
45% you must sell phones or work for Sprint.