Sprint Data Speeds in Bay Area

[mikegg]

Hey guys,

I live in the Bay Area and thinking about switching to Sprint. How's their data speed in San Francisco or just the Bay Area in general? I heard Sprint has speeds like dial up which makes me nervous.

 

[zerocool84]

It really depends where you're at. Here in the LA area my speeds vary greatly, sometimes it's fine but many times it's dog slow. WiMax isn't everywhere either and it's inconsistent. They seem to be rolling out their LTE in many places now so hopefully that helps with their speeds. I don't have an LTE phone so I can only talk about 3G and WiMax.

 

[mikegg]

It really depends where you're at. Here in the LA area my speeds vary greatly, sometimes it's fine but many times it's dog slow. WiMax isn't everywhere either and it's inconsistent. They seem to be rolling out their LTE in many places now so hopefully that helps with their speeds. I don't have an LTE phone so I can only talk about 3G and WiMax.

Just can't seem to win with these carriers.

If you use Verizon's blazing fast LTE, you can hit their cap in less than an hour. If you use Sprint's unlimited "4G", you run dog slow. :'(

 

[dagamer34]

It really depends where you're at. Here in the LA area my speeds vary greatly, sometimes it's fine but many times it's dog slow. WiMax isn't everywhere either and it's inconsistent. They seem to be rolling out their LTE in many places now so hopefully that helps with their speeds. I don't have an LTE phone so I can only talk about 3G and WiMax.

Why on earth would anyone recommend a WiMAX phone at this point? You might as well ignore that part of Sprint's network.

 

[Anonemous]

Why on earth would anyone recommend a WiMAX phone at this point? You might as well ignore that part of Sprint's network.

Because there's not a lot of people on the Wimax network and Virgin mobile has unlimited Wimax for 35/mo (no contract, no taxes/fees). It actually gets pretty good speeds (2-5Mbps) in the Bay Area if you get 4G signal (it works somewhat indoors but YMMV).

 

[mikegg]

Because there's not a lot of people on the Wimax network and Virgin mobile has unlimited Wimax for 35/mo (no contract, no taxes/fees). It actually gets pretty good speeds (2-5Mbps) in the Bay Area if you get 4G signal (it works somewhat indoors but YMMV).

Does the iPhone 5 support WiMax?

 

[ImDonly1]

Does the iPhone 5 support WiMax?

No, LTE only.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

you should just forget about sprint in the bay area. their 3g is supposed to be awful, wimax is spotty (and doesnt work indoors) and outdated, and they dont have lte here yet.

 

[Anonemous]

you should just forget about sprint in the bay area. their 3g is supposed to be awful, wimax is spotty (and doesnt work indoors) and outdated, and they dont have lte here yet.

I got pretty good speeds in Mountain View (Castro St.) (1.5-2Mbps on Sprint 3G) but other areas were not as good. Supposedly, Sprint is launching LTE by the end of the year and have already started testing some of the LTE towers in the Bay Area.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2119-san-jose-ca-south-bay-market-updates/

 

[novasatori]

I use Sprint, live/work near SFO. The speeds are alright, I mainly have sprint because of the price of my plan for the features. With WIFI at home and Work, I don't use 3G much, but when I do it is around 1mpbs up and down.

I do have an LTE phone though and am hoping that when LTE comes, it will be much better.

 

[swanysto]

I have been reading different forums about the Sprint LTE rollout, cause it will determine whether I stay with them or not come November. From what I have read, they haven't really turned it on yet, even though they list cities like Chicago as being done in September. People have been able to connect to it, but they get cut off pretty quickly, which they think is because it is not live, just being tested at certain times. I have a feeling this is a much bigger project than they thought, and that it will take a while.

I have loved sprint for a while. But once they got the iPhone last year, the 3g speeds really started to drop. I was still happy cause the Wimax was plenty fast for me 3-5mb down, 1-3 up. But since they started the LTE rollout, the wimax has become extremely unstable, and has made my phone pretty much useless. If I were getting a new plan right now, I would not get sprint, cause while the unlimited was great, I can't even use much more than 2gb on these speeds.

 

[mikegg]

Can anyone with Sprint + LTE + living in bay area tell us speeds? Has LTE rolled out in the Bay Area yet?

 

[Anonemous]

Can anyone with Sprint + LTE + living in bay area tell us speeds? Has LTE rolled out in the Bay Area yet?

LTE is not available yet in Bay Area. It's on in some pockets but not fully up (slow/unstable). (Redwood City, some pockets in Cupertino, and along the highways). I drove along the highway last week and I got some 4G LTE data usage on my iPhone5. So it's there just not readily up and running.

www.sensorly.com has an updated user map of the 4G LTE for all networks. Sprint LTE is just not operational and probably won't be up until the end of the year.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/ has info for you.

 

[mikegg]

Just got Sprint and iPhone 5. I'm in an area of SF without LTE. I'm getting 110kbps/130kpbs. What a joke.

No wonder it's unlimited. You can't use more than 2 GB even if you want to.

 

[Sid59]

Just got Sprint and iPhone 5. I'm in an area of SF without LTE. I'm getting 110kbps/130kpbs. What a joke.

No wonder it's unlimited. You can't use more than 2 GB even if you want to.

sorry to hear and didn't see this before .. sprint data speeds suck in the Bay. Return if you can, especially if dont get LTE in places you're in most of you day/week.

 

[mikegg]

sorry to hear and didn't see this before .. sprint data speeds suck in the Bay. Return if you can, especially if dont get LTE in places you're in most of you day/week.

Supposedly, they'll be finished with LTE in SF by Jan. I'll see if they put up a LTE tower near my house. If not, I'll be pissed.

 

[Dulanic]

www.sensorly.com has an updated user map of the 4G LTE for all networks. Sprint LTE is just not operational and probably won't be up until the end of the year.

Highly inaccurate map as it only shows if someone has used the app in that spot. I know lte is available in much more area then the map shows for me. In fact it shows no lte for me yet I have full bars.

 

[Anonemous]

Highly inaccurate map as it only shows if someone has used the app in that spot. I know lte is available in much more area then the map shows for me. In fact it shows no lte for me yet I have full bars.

Works for me, looks like there is more LTE coverage since that map was posted... you know it's constantly updated right?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Works for me, looks like there is more LTE coverage since that map was posted... you know it's constantly updated right?

i live in the bay area. what kind of speeds do you get in the city on sprint lte

 

[Anonemous]

i live in the bay area. what kind of speeds do you get in the city on sprint lte

It varies, I don't get LTE where I live but the best speeds I got was 29.2Mbps/ 4.15Mbps at (37.4623 Lat/ -122.1402 Long) in Ikea. Average speeds are around 10Mbps/3.5Mbps with 3 bars of LTE. Worst LTE speed I ever got was around 2Mbps/.5Mbps when I had 1 bar LTE.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

It varies, I don't get LTE where I live but the best speeds I got was 29.2Mbps/ 4.15Mbps at (37.4623 Lat/ -122.1402 Long) in Ikea. Average speeds are around 10Mbps/3.5Mbps with 3 bars of LTE. Worst LTE speed I ever got was around 2Mbps/.5Mbps when I had 1 bar LTE.

ikea in emeryville or east palo alto? is it fair to say that coverage, while good some places, is pretty spotty right now?

 

[Sid59]

Supposedly, they'll be finished with LTE in SF by Jan. I'll see if they put up a LTE tower near my house. If not, I'll be pissed.

Return if you're within the grace period. Sprint LTE build-out starts along major freeways and the outwards from there. Even if they manage to get decent coverage in your area with LTE, you're dropping to their dismal 3G speeds if LTE isn't up.

Verizon and ATT have really good LTE coverage and speeds with ATT have the best 4G backup in the Bay Area.

T-Mobile pretty much has HSDPA+42 covered in the Bay Area.

 

[Anonemous]

ikea in emeryville or east palo alto? is it fair to say that coverage, while good some places, is pretty spotty right now?

EPA.

It is spotty since they are still building out from the freeways. You should compare it on Sensorly.com.

Verizon

AT&T

Sprint

 

[mikegg]

EPA.

It is spotty since they are still building out from the freeways. You should compare it on Sensorly.com.

I work at Palo Alto so that's good. But I use slow AT&T DSL at home. Hoping I can get LTE signal in the near future so I don't have to us my Wifi at home.