Develop Bugs

Foolish to buy Wimax device now?

With all the hubbub surrounding the Clearwire Wimax deal that was signed for the next few years, and the looming launch of LTE (mid-2012?), is it really foolish to sign a new contract and get a Wimax device?
All of the LTE devices I've seen on VZW/AT&T have atrocious battery life at the expense of crazy speeds (20Mbps+). A few coworkers got the Droid Bionic and barely make it to the end of the work day. Old college roommate works for AT&T and he says most of their LTE stuff needs extended batteries in order to be usable for a whole day.
Frankly I can live with Wimax's 3-5Mbps if it means I don't have to keep hovering around a charger all day. The Epic 4G Touch is so very tempting but I'm afraid I'm committing to "old" tech and that in 12 months I'll have regretted it.
(current VZW customer off-contract with an OG Droid)

dparm said:
With all the hubbub surrounding the Clearwire Wimax deal that was signed for the next few years, and the looming launch of LTE (mid-2012?), is it really foolish to sign a new contract and get a Wimax device?
All of the LTE devices I've seen on VZW/AT&T have atrocious battery life at the expense of crazy speeds (20Mbps+). A few coworkers got the Droid Bionic and barely make it to the end of the work day. Old college roommate works for AT&T and he says most of their LTE stuff needs extended batteries in order to be usable for a whole day.
Frankly I can live with Wimax's 3-5Mbps if it means I don't have to keep hovering around a charger all day. The Epic 4G Touch is so very tempting but I'm afraid I'm committing to "old" tech and that in 12 months I'll have regretted it.
(current VZW customer off-contract with an OG Droid)
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First and foremost the spectrum allocated to Sprint's WiMax sucks. It's a razor thin chunk. That is why Sprint's 4G sucks...LTE isn't inherently better in this regard. If LTE was on the same crappy spectrum it would suck too.
When you can connect to WiMax it's fantastic. I used to get 12-15mbps all day long in my area. Now it's in the 3-8mbps range depending on time of day.
That razor thin strip of spectrum allocated to Sprint/Clearwire's "4G" WiMax makes your connection easily disrupted by such disturbances as a closed window or a stiff breeze...seriously. If you aren't in a very solid 4G area (don't ask Sprint or Clearwire, ask people who have the service in your area) I wouldn't bank on getting a 4G signal very often, if at all. When a rom comes out that doesn't support 4G I don't care at all...yeah, it can be that bad.
With that out of the way it should be noted that you likely won't have Sprint LTE coverage in your area for at least a year, likely 2, maybe 3 or 4. Sprint has some rosy estimates flying around right now, but, I remember how their 3G and 4G rollouts went, so, I wouldn't take their word with a grain of salt...I would outright disregard it.
So where does this leave you? Most likely in an area with sparse (if any) 4G and LTE anywhere from 1.5-3 years away and you want a phone now.
Luckily Sprint's 3G service is improving quickly around the country--quicker in some places than others of course. Also the level of improvement will vary wildly depending on many factors, so, don't even bet on the future...especially when it's in Sprint's hands.
My advice? If you want to be/stay on Sprint and are currently satisfied with your service and would also like the ET4G, well, just go get it. By time your contract is up the LTE devices will actually exist and the LTE will be rolled out and WiMax will still be up and running and hopefully the 3G network is up to snuff.
EDIT: As a current Vzw customer you will likely be either disappointed or even horrified by Sprint's current 3G speeds. Ask around, some markets/areas have amazing performance. Where I live is so-so. I'm now getting 600-1000kbps regularly, though last month it was 300-500kbps. However 5 miles away at my friends house I actually saw 2.8mbps and killer 15mbps 4G all the time. Many people here are nowhere near as lucky as either me or my friend, so, ask around....you can never tell.

I'm in downtown Chicago, so I'm sure that it'll be a high priority area for deployment.
My job is 100% travel though, so for a few months at a time I could be anywhere else in the US (Mon-Fri). Typically it's big cities though, like Houston, NYC, Miami, Denver, etc. I just want something fast but consistent. Voice quality/coverage is priority 1, then battery, then data speeds.
I visited two Sprint stores in different parts of the city this week and the web browsing on their 4G seemed plenty fast.

dparm said:
I'm in downtown Chicago, so I'm sure that it'll be a high priority area for deployment.
My job is 100% travel though, so for a few months at a time I could be anywhere else in the US (Mon-Fri). Typically it's big cities though, like Houston, NYC, Miami, Denver, etc. I just want something fast but consistent. Voice quality/coverage is priority 1, then battery, then data speeds.
I visited two Sprint stores in different parts of the city this week and the web browsing on their 4G seemed plenty fast.
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I travel for work sometimes. Chicago is covered in 4G as are most major metropolitan areas.
So far as voice/text ("2G") is concerned you will be well served everywhere. Sprint has pretty thorough 2G coverage and you will roam on Verizon if not. You get "Unlimited" Roaming. If you roam too much they'll give you the boot. I wouldn't worry about it.
So long as you understand all said about 4G and are fine with that 3G is the only real sticking point and is as I described earlier. You will roam on Verizon (at 1x, ick...but we have ways around that if you are forced to roam momentarily), but, it's usually not Sprint's coverage so much as the performance. I personally have never experienced horribly un-usable 3G anywhere...even tethered to my laptop. But I haven't gone on any business trips in the past 9 months when things have gone downhill rapidly--or so the posts here would have me believe.

I'd say buy a VZW phone outright and stay out of contract. Their speeds will be faster as well as the reliability. If this were my only phone I would've dove headfirst off a bunk bed.
I have a company Blackberry on AT&T and a regular feature phone on AT&T so I'm covered service wise. To give you an idea AT&T's HSDPA (3.5G) technology is faster than Sprint's faux 4G.
I love this phone but something needs to happen soon or people are going to leave in droves. The phone is awesome but the service is something to be desired.
I'm in Northern NJ by the way.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Lately the Verizon 3G coverage in downtown Chicago and the burbs have been sucking. I have updated my PRL several times and even flashed a different ROM just to be certain.

I get 4g in plenty of places. (I live in the bay area). Sprint just gave clear some money so I'm still good with buying my next wimax phone. From what I see and hear, lte isn't better than wimax just yet. Fastest speed I've seen is on hspa+ 22mbps.

I think its a waste if you live in an area like I do that doesn't have Wimax and never will.

I am coming from Verizon and the Thunderbolt and until phones get better battery's lte is not worth it unless you want 8 to 12 hours of battery depending on your usage(on my wifi and 4g and 3g service with sprint after 16hours of usage moderate I have 33% life left) In a few years when sprint gets lte maybe batterys will be caught up. Or if sprint doesnt ill switch to at&t or Verizon again. But I am happy with sprint. And I love this phone
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

I have known since the beginning of the year when the Galaxy S II became available internationally that that was the phone I wanted to upgrade to. The decider for me to go for the Epic Touch 4G variant on Sprint was the truly unlimited data. I was off contract on AT&T, and even though I was fortunate enough to actually get very good service in my area on AT&T, I liked the idea of never having to worry about my data usage, no matter how I might choose to use my phone.
I don't generally get as good data coverage on Sprint as I did on AT&T, but when I do have service it is generally faster than what I got on AT&T, most especially on 4G. And when it does lose Sprint coverage, it roams on Verizon towers, so I really am never completely without service.
And the phone itself is great. No regrets there.

Thanks. Like I said, Verizon's coverage down here lately seems really lousy. The data speed is "acceptable". My OG Droid is still hanging on by a thread and I am still on an unlimited data plan, though I rarely go over 2-3GB per month.
I'm having trouble finding Chicago Sprint owners to comment on coverage and data speeds, though. Only one or two friends of mine have it and they're not really geeky enough to know what I'm interested in...they see a phone as a phone.

dparm said:
Thanks. Like I said, Verizon's coverage down here lately seems really lousy. The data speed is "acceptable". My OG Droid is still hanging on by a thread and I am still on an unlimited data plan, though I rarely go over 2-3GB per month.
I'm having trouble finding Chicago Sprint owners to comment on coverage and data speeds, though. Only one or two friends of mine have it and they're not really geeky enough to know what I'm interested in...they see a phone as a phone.
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You definitely needs to find someone. You do have a buyer's remorse period you could use.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

CODteabagger said:
You definitely needs to find someone. You do have a buyer's remorse period you could use.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Yes, the 30 day return period is nice. Would give me a shot at really test driving the thing.
Any suggestions on how to get some real details on Chicago Wimax and voice?

wimax will be around thru 2015 at the least... buying a wimax device now wouldnt be the end of the world.
also.. the first sprint lte devices wont get super awesome. and we wont be seeing the good lte chips(the ones that work on multiple bands) until 2013(sprints 2nd lte gen).

Upgrading to a Wimax phone this year seems fine. And you can enjoy the unlimited data. It will set you up to upgrade in 2013, when new phones will be ready to utilize Sprint's LTE (800MHz/1.9GHz) and Clear's LTE-Advanced (2.5GHz).

dparm said:
Yes, the 30 day return period is nice. Would give me a shot at really test driving the thing.
Any suggestions on how to get some real details on Chicago Wimax and voice?
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It's 14 days now.

daneurysm said:
It's 14 days now.
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Ooo that sucks. It'll probably get ****ty 3G speeds on the 15th day.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

CODteabagger said:
I'd say buy a VZW phone outright and stay out of contract. Their speeds will be faster as well as the reliability. If this were my only phone I would've dove headfirst off a bunk bed.
I have a company Blackberry on AT&T and a regular feature phone on AT&T so I'm covered service wise. To give you an idea AT&T's HSDPA (3.5G) technology is faster than Sprint's faux 4G.
I love this phone but something needs to happen soon or people are going to leave in droves. The phone is awesome but the service is something to be desired.
I'm in Northern NJ by the way.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
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Yea Im gonna have to disagree here, one of my customer just bought a skyrocket from att and my touch destroyed his phones speeds while he was on the socalled 4gLTE hspa+ network and I was only in a 3g area (all of san diego county) there is nothing faux bout WiMax, it is all a money issue when it comes down to it.

Yes I am anxious for LTE-A as well as more power efficient radios. I remember when the first "3G" stuff came out years ago (HSDPA or whatever)...the battery life sucked but within a year or two they got it worked out.

daneurysm said:
...Sprint's 4G sucks... When a rom comes out that doesn't support 4G I don't care at all...yeah, it can be that bad.
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Yeah, it's not anything to write home about.
But I mostly use wifi at home and work so I'm not too put out by the slow speeds.
It is good enough to have a halfway decent skype session, youtube, etc...
I was hoping to get some gaming action though.
That ain't happening unless it's on wifi, at least in my area.

Sprint vs Tmobile. If you could switch.

Ive been with Sprint for a year, and Ive been putting up with there slow network for a couple of months. Im trying to give Sprint a fair chance to launch LTE in my area( there suppose to start network vision this month) before I start making a decision. I have no prblem buying my device outright so Tmobiles value plan woould save me some money (no i dont want the galaxy nexus, its already last year tech and i would like to see what happens for the holiday season or how the beastly the next nexus is) and i had them before so I know how the service is in my area. My question is if some of you had a chance to switch to tmobile (or some other carrier) rite now or by the end of your contract would you switch.

Sprints in a much better position than tmobile in terms of spectrum and network upgrades. In a year or so sprint will be up there on par with Verizon. If you're in an LTE area, you have unlimited and lte.
Tmobile is good in major cities in terms of data speeds, but I think their building penetration and voice over gsm technology aren't too good. Sprint can roam on Verizon so in theory you have so much coverage.

Tmobile has unlimted data and Tmobiles future position will allow them to roam with at&t 3G/3.75G network and use unlocked devices in there network natively (since the pcs 1900 DC-HSPA+ refarm) and on top of that since their using aws for LTE they can roam on Verizons and at&t future LTE network. So, Tmobile is looking good as well, plus they could always sign with clearwire for extra bandwidth.

Master_sk3 said:
Tmobile has unlimted data and Tmobiles future position will allow them to roam with at&t 3G/3.75G network and use unlocked devices in there network natively (since the pcs 1900 DC-HSPA+ refarm) and on top of that since their using aws for LTE they can roam on Verizons and at&t future LTE network. So, Tmobile is looking good as well, plus they could always sign with clearwire for extra bandwidth.
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I doubt Verizon and att will allow that lol
Sent from my iPride 6g

They will cause the FCC is suppose to put that clause in the deal to allow Tmobile and Verizon sell/swap spectrum around.

Bump. Anybody else have thoughts?

Very tempted. 7 years with Sprint but the prospect of International unlocked phones unlimited data and no contract is attractive.
let's face it sprints data speeds suck. I've been on LTE since it went live and the coverage is too spotty to be effective. Ends up being just a faster mostly 3G experience with frequent loss of connection due to constant 1x, 3G, LTE handoff.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

I switched to T-Mobile for six months last year but I couldn't stand it. I could only get a decent signal if I was outside or near a large window. I came back to Sprint and would rather deal with "slow" speeds than have faster speeds that are severely limited by location.
I'm in the St. Louis area but if T-Mo has great coverage where you are and you can't wait for Sprint's network then you should choose maroon.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

How's TMO in Atlanta?
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washjayb said:
Very tempted. 7 years with Sprint but the prospect of International unlocked phones unlimited data and no contract is attractive.
let's face it sprints data speeds suck. I've been on LTE since it went live and the coverage is too spotty to be effective. Ends up being just a faster mostly 3G experience with frequent loss of connection due to constant 1x, 3G, LTE handoff.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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Sprint is still working in Atlanta. You'll have LTE everywhere you get 3g when it's finished. Sprint also has HD voice, which is where gsm is lacking.

LTE will have a crystal clear voice with VoLTE and IMS plus I dont care about voice quality cause i mostly text or dont use minutes at all. I mostly use data only anway.

Ascertion said:
Sprint is still working in Atlanta. You'll have LTE everywhere you get 3g when it's finished. Sprint also has HD voice, which is where gsm is lacking.
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well in overall its a matter of choice, personally ive been with sprint for about 7 years now non-stop, yeah ive had some issues with connectivity and signal loss but very rarely...not enought to make me wanna swich to another carrier, now only reason why im still with sprint is for 3 reasons, 1 is verizon, 2 is AT&T huge desapointing networks very expensive and very limited to their service data plans. now T-mobile does have great service and cheaper plans, but u gotta pay extra just to get 4g if u wanna use it for longer times, and now that 4g LTE is coming i can garantee u that their data plan is gonna sky high up the roof, not by much but it will go up i can garantee u that. so if i had my choice betwen does 2, limited 4g LTE or unlimited 4g LTE, id still stick with sprint, ive hadnt had any issues with their CS ive actually had great customer services no problems their althought maybe 2 or 3 every now and then in a blue moon that didnt know jack sh**. i can deal with the slow 3g i barely get 1.5mb/s over here without LTE still waiting for LTE which hasnt been listen just yet in my area but comming soon. if i can listen to music on pandora, watch netflix and surf the web at decent speeds without taking 10 seconds to load a page and have any interruptions then im happy enought and can deal with it. thats why i got wifi waiting for me back home when i get there so i can download does big files that i know i wont be able to download in seconds. until LTE arrives.

washjayb said:
How's TMO in Atlanta?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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My Buddy gets around 10-17mbps all the time. T-Mobile in Colorado is also really really good.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

I think it's all a matter of where you live but here in ol San Antonio at least for me, Tmo suckssss! I've been with Sprint for 7 years and all I have to say is that 3g does suck compared to ATT but at least I have unlimited 4G which I use at least 5+GB's worth a month. Okay 4G is spotty but I'm only paying about $70 a month and super slow 3g is my only complaint. Mostly connected to wifi anyways and have never had a dropped call.
Sent from my Galaxy S III baby!

I got to give a thumbs up to Sprint's customer service too. They always take care of their long-term customers or did when I was in the financial bind a few years ago.... during the Fed lockdown in arguing over unemployment for two months I never lost my cell and couldn't pay the bill for quite a while. They were great.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Tmo if I didn't go out of town so much
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iphones are the creation of people with nowhere left to turn
sent from stock jelly bean on toroplus

washjayb said:
How's TMO in Atlanta?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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I was with t mobile for about 7 years before I switched to Sprint. Only reason I switched, was my company put me on their plan and started to pay for the bill. That being said, I think t mobile was hands down better than Sprint. (I'm in the Atlanta area btw). T mobile had extremely better data speeds 99 percent of the time. Reception is about the same. My gf still has t mobile and I check mine vs hers all the time. Every once in a while I'll get a decent data speed, but usually t mobile is faster. If I had to pay for my own line, I would switch back to t mobile in a heart beat. Better service, better data, upgrades every year (even let me do my upgrades every 6 months if you call their customer service).
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

jonathanm1978 said:
I got to give a thumbs up to Sprint's customer service too. They always take care of their long-term customers or did when I was in the financial bind a few years ago.... during the Fed lockdown in arguing over unemployment for two months I never lost my cell and couldn't pay the bill for quite a while. They were great.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
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I don't like the fact that T-Mo outsources CS jobs.

Honestly if i do decide to switch to Tmobile, i wouldnt be apposed to coming back to Sprint if I had to. (Tmobile goes bankrupt, I move and Tmobiles coverage is bad.. etc) Sprint has a god network vision strategy theyre moving slow and there wont be any real results of network vision until 2015, after most markets will be complete and they phase out iden for use of the 800mhz band for LTE-A. Also Clearwire should have a good LTE-A coverage by then.

dougstoner said:
I was with t mobile for about 7 years before I switched to Sprint. Only reason I switched, was my company put me on their plan and started to pay for the bill. That being said, I think t mobile was hands down better than Sprint. (I'm in the Atlanta area btw). T mobile had extremely better data speeds 99 percent of the time. Reception is about the same. My gf still has t mobile and I check mine vs hers all the time. Every once in a while I'll get a decent data speed, but usually t mobile is faster. If I had to pay for my own line, I would switch back to t mobile in a heart beat. Better service, better data, upgrades every year (even let me do my upgrades every 6 months if you call their customer service).
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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if that is true that t-mobile does have better service and better data, then whats stopping u from switching back to t-mobile, despite that ure company is paying for sprints service, that shouldnt stop yah from switching...the fact of the matter is...if u really wanted to switch to t-mobile u would have and just spent that money out of ure pocket, im sure u earn well enought to pay for it on ure own, other whize u wouldnt be saying that. as for upgrades u can also do ure upgrades every year with sprint as well.

Verizon, T-mobile or AT&T

Hi all, I have a 2 year contract with Sprint, but I just cant take it anymore, I am planning on cancelling my contract and sign with another company, but I am not sure which one is the best (or less bad) for me in NYC.
Can anyone recommend one with good reception and real data (not the 30kbps 3G sprint has)
Thanks.

In NYC i get 2mbps on where ever the subway is above ground
1.5mbls when ever I'm outside
1mbps ish in building
All on 3g
But i would go use Verizon
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

gtuansdiamm said:
In NYC i get 2mbps on where ever the subway is above ground
1.5mbls when ever I'm outside
1mbps ish in building
All on 3g
But i would go use Verizon
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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I get 2.5 mbps in NYC but that is at 3 am. other wise i get between 1-2 mbps. I am also fed up. TMO has a new unlimited no throttle for about 80 per month..My co-worker speed on tmo is 10-14 mbps....

I am starting to think that my phone is broken, because on cloudy days I dont get reception inside buidings, I serious, I am having a bad experience with sprint
Sent from my SPH-L710 using XDA Premium HD app

Been hearing that we should be getting lte soon in NYC, but even then that is probably gonna be spotty at best...I had T-Mobile for a long time and never had any issues speed wise, and its fairly cheap, do some research on their new unlimited plan if you can't wait.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

30Glock said:
I get 2.5 mbps in NYC but that is at 3 am. other wise i get between 1-2 mbps. I am also fed up. TMO has a new unlimited no throttle for about 80 per month..My co-worker speed on tmo is 10-14 mbps....
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Isn't slightly over 2mbps the max for 3G speeds? If you're getting consistently over 1, I wouldn't complain. There are plenty of people elsewhere getting a fraction of that...like 10% of that.
I'd be thrilled with consistent 1-1.5mbps 3G speeds. I'm around Chicago, so LTE is in a few places which is nice, but I'm excited about when they finally upgrade the backhaul for 3G so the speeds will be better.
As for the OP, I would also try changing modems as well, see if some of them work better. Check with other NYC people and see what they're using. Modem can have a HUGE impact on speeds.

hayzooos said:
Isn't slightly over 2mbps the max for 3G speeds? If you're getting consistently over 1, I wouldn't complain. There are plenty of people elsewhere getting a fraction of that...like 10% of that.
I'd be thrilled with consistent 1-1.5mbps 3G speeds. I'm around Chicago, so LTE is in a few places which is nice, but I'm excited about when they finally upgrade the backhaul for 3G so the speeds will be better.
As for the OP, I would also try changing modems as well, see if some of them work better. Check with other NYC people and see what they're using. Modem can have a HUGE impact on speeds.
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Usually here that from sprint users. Some seem to conform. Others like me who tried sprint realize that's not the 3G full potential.
So I rather pay less for tmobile And get awesome speeds. IMHO
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Mark's ollars
Having tried Att and Sprint....I got pretty $hitty coverage with both and this was living in the Bay Area.
For my previouscontract, I selected ATT based on reading the online reviews about them having absolute the fastest service. What the reviews didnt mention was that I couldnt get ATT service 10% of the time which got annoying real fast.
When it works...ATT and Sprint work great....but the 10% of the time you don't get connection, you'll wish you went with Verizon. They might be a tad slower based on the bandwidth test results online...but at least the coverage is more consistent

I will try changing modems, and see if I can get a better reception, thanks.

diazf09 said:
Usually here that from sprint users. Some seem to conform. Others like me who tried sprint realize that's not the 3G full potential.
So I rather pay less for tmobile And get awesome speeds. IMHO
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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I don't mean Sprint 3G, I mean the technology limitations themselves. Even if I hop onto Verizon's network with a 3G PRL, I don't ever remember seeing anything over 2mpbs. I have plenty of friends and co-workers who have Verizon and I've never seen anything over that on any of their phones either.
Is it more of a CDMA/GSM 3G thing? Is GSM 3G faster than what you could get on a CDMA network?

hayzooos said:
I don't mean Sprint 3G, I mean the technology limitations themselves. Even if I hop onto Verizon's network with a 3G PRL, I don't ever remember seeing anything over 2mpbs. I have plenty of friends and co-workers who have Verizon and I've never seen anything over that on any of their phones either.
Is it more of a CDMA/GSM 3G thing? Is GSM 3G faster than what you could get on a CDMA network?
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Gsm carriers use a backhauled network capable of much faster speeds ....at least on speedtests
Sprint is implementing backhaul tech over the next year or so.
On 3g (hspa+) I have seen as much as 12mbps down but average 3-5 . This is on our att phones.
Funny thing is though side by side we did some comparisons last year and web pages actually loaded slower on attempt s2 vs sprint s2 .. we never really found an explanation.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

Have you considered forcing the phone to roam and having Sprint cancel your contract due to that? They shouldn't charge a ETF for that either.

88EVGAFTW said:
Have you considered forcing the phone to roam and having Sprint cancel your contract due to that? They shouldn't charge a ETF for that either.
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Great way to get out of this miserable non existing service.. In NYC I can get between 1-3 mbps, this is acceptable to me, however where I live sprint is unusable 12kb D/L up does not exist. I called to complain and their attitude was pay the 350 ETF and you can leave.....Well I'm leaving w/o paying this fee..Thank you Roam Control....

Put a post on the marketplace offering to let another user assume responsibility for the contract. I know i would have considered a cheap s3 that way earlier
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Sprint is actually getting better. With the softbank deal, Sprint controls a majority of the lte footprint. They are also getting an $8 billion cash infusion that will help them finish building out their lte footprint faster and at a higher quality. I know a few people that work for Sprint corporate. They have big plans and are actually executing those plans
Sent from my Jelly Bombed SGS3

Will they be bringing service to places that do not have it (is western Washington)
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Personally i would toughen it out good things are to come for those who wait
Sent from my phone

I'm near Baltimore and over the past 11 years have had Verizon, ATT, T-mo, and Sprint. Each provider had pros and cons. I eventually stuck with Sprint (6 years now). They are the most reliable and ever present. Not the fastest but the only time I've been without service is in the Shenandoah mountains south of us where there is no service coverage by anyone. Sprint has addressed every problem I've ever had as long as I was patient with the rep. Oh wait I was patient with the reps from every provider and they bent over backwards to help me. A Sprint rep have my wife an iPhone for $25 during her last upgrade. We presented then with a problem on our bill and they hooked us up with the phone and fixed the bill.
I don't think any service provider is going to be perfect in all situations. I myself would pick reliable over fastest speed.
Just my opinion but stick it out things are changing with Sprint.
- Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S3 running Paranoid Android 2.22, KT747-Kernel-AOSP-JB-SPRINT-10-14.zip using XDA Premium.

Opinions on sprints network and upgrading to the S4

So as I am sure many of you will be doing eventually. I and thinking about getting the S4. Only issue I am having is Sprints network. I am really debating in my mind if sprint is worth the cost considering they have one of the slowest networks. I have been thinking about going to t mobile since most of my phone use is in major cities in the US, with and occasional use in the Caribbean.
So will you be staying with Sprint or moving to a new network?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I get good wimax and this phone does everything. S4 is S3 on steroids so I am thinking about passing for S5!

Mship said:
So as I am sure many of you will be doing eventually. I and thinking about getting the S4. Only issue I am having is Sprints network. I am really debating in my mind if sprint is worth the cost considering they have one of the slowest networks. I have been thinking about going to t mobile since most of my phone use is in major cities in the US, with and occasional use in the Caribbean.
So will you be staying with Sprint or moving to a new network?
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i've already moved from Sprint over to Verizon.. I live in nyc and for me Sprint just sucks out here, the 4g is like 3g and the 3g is like 1x. Lots of dropped calls too, so i flashed over to Verizon. Much better network IMO. T-mobile is good to my g/f has them, great 4G speeds.

It depends on where you spend most of your time. The Sprint network is great in some places and sub par in others. We dont have any official 4G service in KY and 3G is sometimes questionable, but I lived in TX last year and had great service. I occasionally get unofficial wimax here and have no interest in switching phones until LTE arrives. My wallet can't handle Verizon so if I switch service in the future it will probably be to prepaid or back to TMO.

I personally think you should drop sprint like a rock because I have sprint out here in Detroit and their empty promises of 4G for the last 2 years has been nothing shy of an insult, not to mention their signal sucks horribly out here and their 3G speeds rival that of Dial-Up, and that's if you're lucky enough to get data over the 3G connection at all...
T-Mobile also has one of the smallest 4G networks (from what I've heard, don't know how true that is), and I've heard of nothing but problems from the few people that I know that own a T-Mobile phone. My other friends with AT&T never have a single issue, and my other friend with Verizon also has absolutely no problems with them what-so-ever, so I'd say go with AT&T or Verizon - I know I will be as soon as my sprint contract is up in a year.

TMO's LTE network just launched I think so it's naturally almost nonexistent. Their HSPA+ network is more than enough though.
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For those with bad call & data connections, it'd probably be best to switch to a different carrier. As for me, I switched to Sprint from T-Mobile last year because T-Mobile had crappy call quality and connection problems. Fortunately, Orange County has really good 4G WiMax coverage and speeds (my 4G WiMax is faster than my friend's at&t LTE speed on his Note 2) and we're due for 4G LTE in a month or so.

New York City is an active Network Deployment market that is well under way by Alcatel-Lucent. The only places where I wouldn't upgrade to an LTE device on Sprint are in areas where NV has not yet begun and won't begun for an another few months (and then it'll take a month or two to get the stuff up and running after they begin).
Look here to see what other people reported..
http://www.sensorly.com/
and look here for more info about Network Vision.
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1901-network-visionlte-new-york-city-market/

It depends on how strong the T-Mobile network is in your area. In mine, it isn't that good. I have this phone, s2, and I have a lte backup phone. My area does have lte coverage but it's not completely saturated yet. I have 4g lte at home and an area of one of my jobs. My best dl speed test with lte has been just shy of 4000 KB. There are a lot of if's to consider if switching to another carrier. Do your homework first before making a final decision. There's an app out there, I forgot the name, that shows the coverage area on a map with different carriers and modes. I'd suggest checking that out to gather more information. Here you go. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sensorly.viewer

Your question is very area dependent. I live in Pittsburgh PA there's no lte in my area yet but it's coming. My 3g/4g is awesome though, I rarely find myself running 4g because the 3g is so good. I will be getting the S4 but not right away, I'm gonna wait for the price to drop and development to pick up.

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm going to stay with the S2 for at least 2 two 3 more months or so before making a switch. I want to see what sprint has to offer in my area of NYC.
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In my area Memphis, TN we have bad sprint coverage and i don't like it. Internet is very slow and sometimes calls don't come through

optimummind said:
For those with bad call & data connections, it'd probably be best to switch to a different carrier. As for me, I switched to Sprint from T-Mobile last year because T-Mobile had crappy call quality and connection problems. Fortunately, Orange County has really good 4G WiMax coverage and speeds (my 4G WiMax is faster than my friend's at&t LTE speed on his Note 2) and we're due for 4G LTE in a month or so.
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inland empire is terrible wish it was like orange county...
i travel to and from inland empire, orange county, SGV and Las vegas alot and inland empire is terrible which is were i am the most of the time...
was thinking of going to tmobile but worried about there coverage.. some people say its good but others have nothing but problems.. wonder how there service is away from the major cities.. Verizon is the best but too much .. thinking of flashing phone to verizon prepaid but would only get 2-3mb download but still alot better than sprint in the inland empire.

Switch to TMo?

Hello all,
I am thinking of leaving Sprint and going Tmo. I don't have the greatest service in my house and currently have a Airwave. I checked Sensorly and it looks like Tmo may not be strong around my house also. I understand Tmo has wifi calling. I was wondering of I could get input on how it is working? Any issues with it?
Also how is your cell service? I'm located in Los Angeles (So Bay).
Thank you
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

BigE-evo said:
Hello all,
I am thinking of leaving Sprint and going Tmo. I don't have the greatest service in my house and currently have a Airwave. I checked Sensorly and it looks like Tmo may not be strong around my house also. I understand Tmo has wifi calling. I was wondering of I could get input on how it is working? Any issues with it?
Also how is your cell service? I'm located in Los Angeles (So Bay).
Thank you
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I just did the leap two days ago.
I'm in Pasadena, and work in Santa Monica... Let me tell you. It's the best decision I've ever made.
Sprint is horrible, with constant slow data speeds, and disconnects.
I now get 4g LTE everywhere I go, including my daily commute on the 10fwy.
Do it. This phone is awesome and you deserve the 4G speeds
Edit- I was a sprint loyal customer for 10years

I switched from at&t a couple months ago and am glad I did. I get a more consistent signal in my house (near downtown Cincinnati) and wifi calling works really well. .. Just make sure you have a strong even signal in your house, because the call will drop if you walk into an area with weak coverage. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the lack of lte in this market. Everyone wise has it but us an from what I've read, it could be because another local provider blocking deployment. .. Not sure if it will be a deal breaker yet, although Verizon and att are too expensive to go to. .
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The Walmart exclusive T-Mobile no contract plan is the best. $30 per month 5gigs high speed data then throttled after 5gigs. Unlimited text but only 100mins. I use google voice anyway paired with a VoIP then you have free calling. I just keep my out on swappa for a good used gsm phone. I am forever done with contracts.

Do it! I just left sprint a month ago for the note 3 and I couldn't be happier.
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I'm back in the UK and Wi - Fi calling to the state's have been flawless. Free texts and 3G Web which is still manageable for Emails and browsing. But back to the subject: Wi - fi calling works great.
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The WiFi calling on the Note3 is a little buggy atm; there's already been OTA updates for the other carriers that fix it. I've disabled it both because it's buggy on my high-strength WiFi (echos, drops, CallerID;61 bug, etc), and because I don't really need it in NYC as T-Mobile is everywhere (except deep inside buildings and in basements)
I switched from AT&T (~$75/mo inc taxes&fees) to T-Mobile's prepaid ($30/mo) in June, and now get way more service for less money. All I really lost, which I don't miss much, is roaming, call forwarding (for GoogleVoice VM), and more voice minutes than I could use.
T-Mobile's making all the right moves with their UnCarrier initiative and gaining subscribers fast. Hope they don't end up bogging their network down like Sprint did.

Switch and don't look back, sprint is crap.
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I switched months ago from Sprint and never looked back, Sprint is total crap. Phoenix is still without LTE from Sprint, but Tmo has pretty good coverage. At my house I actually get faster LTE than I do cable Internet!
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Like everyone here, Pull the trigger.
I was on sprint using an iphone (yaya, whatever) for the price we paid or well ANYONE pays... its not worth it. Even after EIP on phones with TMOBILE, the global data just makes it sweeter. This is honestly a must-have if your frequent traveler. Sprint gave me the run around for three months with "promises" and tried to keep me over sprint spark, yeah sure softbank has deep pockets, maybe softbank WILL turn sprint around properly...
But its all about the now, not the waiting game. You wont have the data connection issues on TMO like sprint, Global data/text was a huge asset overseas when I went to see family vs. when I was in verizon even few years back (They murder you with data fees on blackberry overseas) then the next trip I took I suffered without data (due to LTE bieng new and HTC Thunderbolt bieng...well CDMA/LTE Only).. *cough* Sprints same way. But this time around I was superduper happy.
My boyfriend in IL uses TMO as his internet REPLACEMENT! and we have never had issues with lag during P2P oldies like AOE2, SC, to newer titles like SC2 or even PS3 games or skyping AND gaming...etc. So I am overall impressed. Very low ping compared to big red even, color me impressed.
Unless your in a magical sprint spark city, with a tri-band device (which you dont) and dont care for coverage outside of that tiny area (This is to ANYONE with sprint) come over to team magenta. Team banana needs to think things through better for the future. Itll average $15~ difference at most for 40x the service.
Sometimes I think sprints techs are idiots, where I work we see around 10,000 guests at a single park alone. Sprint has a single short range tower serving two themeparks Which on a good day will go over 20K, Lets say 14K Average. This tower was the LAST tower to recieve LTE rollouts in the city, and this tower is ALWAYS so overloaded nobodys sprint devices work in the area 99% of time. Infact itll flipflop so much your battery will be gone within 4 hours of being in its service radius. Everytime I call its "no issues reported, youll get a call from a tech within 72hrs". 3 complaints, 2 months later? oh yeah no calls!
I explained ^ to the technician I did somehow manage to run down when they were doing tower maint since I can access the backlot, he knew it too but said he could only keep bringing issue up. There are no extenders owned by sprint within the parks. Verizon, TMO, AT&T All have short range towers & extenders WITHIN park grounds to deal with the loads of people hitting the towers.
Looking at TMOs tower on the grounds, it houses nearly same amount of equipment as the big players. Sprints using a low cap tower in a high cap zone nearly everywhere i go & has "good enough to be passable equipment".
Hell even AT&T where I live...theres a tower so huge its like a mini eiffel tower with blinking lights for planes & all for a low-density area but it covers some major ground with some pretty insane LTE speeds. Very nifty retro fitting.
sprints like... MORE TOWERS WITH BAD RANGE!!! GOGOGOGO!

Do it!
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Sprint is the worst cellphone service provider, Consumer Reports says
http://www.latimes.com/business/tec...rst-consumer-reports-20131121,0,6644321.story

There is a sticky for this discussion http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466107