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Marcelo Claure, Town Hall Meetings, New Family Share Pack Plan, Unlimited Individual Plan, Discussion Thread


joshuam

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They said they are already working on 5xca. I dont know how its gonna work but thats what they said.

 

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That requires more B41 carriers unless FDD is involved

 

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I understand but i thought it was only live due to testing which to me doesn't count as an official launch. How prevalent is the 3xCA coverage in these markets?

All the B41 towers that have 3 Carrier have 3CA. I have only seen 2CA once on a tower that I think only has 2 carriers. Samsung markets are good to go with 3CA. 3CA in DC is only a software update to the towers. They can do that in one night there is still time.

 

If anyone have an s7 they need to be hitting update over and over again.

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All the B41 towers that have 3 Carrier have 3CA. I have only seen 2CA once on a tower that I think only has 2 carriers. Samsung markets are good to go with 3CA. 3CA in DC is only a software update to the towers. They can do that in one night there is still time.

 

If anyone have an s7 they need to be hitting update over and over again.

 

 

Sprint has to push updates to iPhone 7/7+ (for example) to enable 3CA capability. Time is running out for that to happen before the inauguration.

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Sprint has to push updates to iPhone 7/7+ (for example) to enable 3CA capability. Time is running out for that to happen before the inauguration.

Maybe I missed it, but when did Sprint set the inauguration as the deadline for enabling 3CA on their network and phones? I thought they announced 3CA was going to be enabled early 2017 and not necessarily the inauguration.
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Maybe I missed it, but when did Sprint set the inauguration as the deadline for enabling 3CA on their network and phones? I thought they announced 3CA was going to be enabled early 2017 and not necessarily the inauguration.

Q1 2017.

 

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Maybe I missed it, but when did Sprint set the inauguration as the deadline for enabling 3CA on their network and phones? I thought they announced 3CA was going to be enabled early 2017 and not necessarily the inauguration.

 

Here's the timeframe Sprint gave more recently: (Dated: 12/14/2016)

 

Device VP Sullivan told me that the upgrades will come for Apple, Samsung and a host of other vendors early next year. This will be "well ahead" of the Mobile World Congress show in late February next year, he said.

 

Mobile World Congress: February 27, 2017 - March 2, 2017

 

I'm hoping that Sprint actually has 3CA deployed and live on devices for the Inauguration so that its network can perform well and Sprint users can have a better experience with the crowds.

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The press release states that they have COWs set up with 3xCA to handle the load. I suspect they're just not powered up or not available for public connections. Inauguration isn't for another week.

 

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When they setup COWs in SF for the Superbowl, they went online about 3 weeks before the event, then they disappeared a few days after.

 

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I really hope Sprint comes through and performs well for the Inauguration. Maybe it's just my impression from Trip's reports, but it seems like the other carriers are better prepared than Sprint is.

 

That's my impression as well.  I actually didn't get to go back over there today as I got a ride to my meeting, but I intend to wander around one day before or after work.  I will report what I see.

 

- Trip

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T-Mobile amps DC network by 1,000 percent before Trump’s Inauguration http://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/01/13/t-mobile-amps-dc-network-by-1000-percent-before-trumps-inauguration/ They must have a 5x5 b12, 5x5 b2 and 20x20 b4. I hope Sprint can compete.

 

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They are including 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM which is very limited on time of actual use and real benefit.  Plus the number of supported sites are less then actual sties apparently.

 

Lot of people on reddit are basically saying "nope, not here"

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That's my impression as well. I actually didn't get to go back over there today as I got a ride to my meeting, but I intend to wander around one day before or after work. I will report what I see.

 

- Trip

Thanks for keeping us updated on this! Great info.

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Random: but one of my friends and I went to see Rogue one, he has T-Mobile (major fanboy) and constantly talks down about sprint. Well we were in theater and he had no service and I had 3 bars of LTE lol

 

I honestly can't remember when my phone said "no service" or "extended".

 

Of course each market is different but I was pretty shocked that he didn't have service at all since T-Mobile is fairly good in the D.C. Metro area.

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My brother in law got screwed well due to lack of knowledge and then Verizon!

 

He left VZW for Sprint due to savings.  Moved 4 phones over to Sprint unlimited.  They traded in a iPhone 5, two iPhone 6's and a iPhone 6s.  (I thought these were able to port from VZW to Sprint once unlocked?).  Anyways, they got four iPhone7's. 

 

These guys aren't techy and they hated the service cause the throttling.  Then for some reason they didn't understand they were leasing the phones so got a "surprise" bill when it was $100+ higher due to the leased phones. 

 

So in anger they went back to VZW.  They saw they had a deal, trade in a phone and get $650. They went into the VZW store and the damn rep there took their 1 month old iPhone 7's as trade in.  That rep HAD to have known they were leased.  So my brother in law, his second bill from Sprint is over $3000.  After a while he should get $650x4 from VZW, but he still at a net loss that hurts and out $3k until he gets his money from VZW.   And he is still going to have a lease on his new VZW iPhone 7's.

 

He got the 16GB shared bucket.  I told him, why not just get Sprint's shared bucket if you didn't like the unlimited plan.  He was pretty upset cause he thought he was going to save his family some money by switching.  But instead they got bit really hard in the butt.  This is what happens to you today when you just jump in without research.  Even with what TMobile is doing,  feel like it is too damn complex and too much small print out there and my brother in law paid the price.

 

 

What sucks though is they totally hate Sprint now.  But VZW actually was the carrier that really screwed them taking in brand new iPhone 7's on trade in.  I asked him "Did you go to this store and talk to Nick?" He said "Yeah, he's a great guy!".  I say "yeah, a guy who is great at ripping people off".  I hate Nick.  I have dealt with him a few times and he is really good at ripping people off and them not knowing it or making it sound like its company policy.  Im the tech/knowledge guru in the family and for some reason my family goes at it a lone, get screwed over.  lol.

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My brother in law got screwed well due to lack of knowledge and then Verizon!

 

He left VZW for Sprint due to savings. Moved 4 phones over to Sprint unlimited. They traded in a iPhone 5, two iPhone 6's and a iPhone 6s. (I thought these were able to port from VZW to Sprint once unlocked?). Anyways, they got four iPhone7's.

 

These guys aren't techy and they hated the service cause the throttling. Then for some reason they didn't understand they were leasing the phones so got a "surprise" bill when it was $100+ higher due to the leased phones.

 

So in anger they went back to VZW. They saw they had a deal, trade in a phone and get $650. They went into the VZW store and the damn rep there took their 1 month old iPhone 7's as trade in. That rep HAD to have known they were leased. So my brother in law, his second bill from Sprint is over $3000. After a while he should get $650x4 from VZW, but he still at a net loss that hurts and out $3k until he gets his money from VZW. And he is still going to have a lease on his new VZW iPhone 7's.

 

He got the 16GB shared bucket. I told him, why not just get Sprint's shared bucket if you didn't like the unlimited plan. He was pretty upset cause he thought he was going to save his family some money by switching. But instead they got bit really hard in the butt. This is what happens to you today when you just jump in without research. Even with what TMobile is doing, feel like it is too damn complex and too much small print out there and my brother in law paid the price.

 

 

What sucks though is they totally hate Sprint now. But VZW actually was the carrier that really screwed them taking in brand new iPhone 7's on trade in. I asked him "Did you go to this store and talk to Nick?" He said "Yeah, he's a great guy!". I say "yeah, a guy who is great at ripping people off". I hate Nick. I have dealt with him a few times and he is really good at ripping people off and them not knowing it or making it sound like its company policy. Im the tech/knowledge guru in the family and for some reason my family goes at it a lone, get screwed over. lol.

Wow that sucks. The thing that VZW did is something that TMO reps would do also. TMO also would have given them a bunch of accessories, told them they were free then you would have noticed that you are paying for them on an installment plan.
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Yeah, they are waiving that bill around like a badge on how hard Sprint sucks.  My wife showed me on her facebook, sister in law has made a couple memes with how upset they are at Sprint.

 

When he showed me the bill and started talking to me about it I was like "yeah, it wasn't Sprint's fault.  Everyone does leases now, you never owned those phones. That part is your fault. Then VZW screwed you over for taking phones you didn't own.  One VZW your leasing your new phones and your bill will be just as high as on Sprint, just with a much smaller data bucket compared to what you could have gotten on Sprint." 

 

He did say that the unlimited plan was Sprint's only plan.  I told him they do buckets as well like VZW.  I'm guessing Sprint is pushing those plans and not really advertising their buckets anymore in the store? I told him to get on a bucket plan and he said he didn't know Sprint had those.

 

Place I think Sprint messed up was on the phone trade-in to them.  Im pretty sure at least the 6's could have been unlocked and ported to Sprint from VZW no? I'm pretty sure they flat out owned there VZW phones so could have gotten VZW to unlock them.  Sprint rep could have messed up on telling them what was up with the leases and showing them all offers, but I wouldn't know unless I was actually there.

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Yeah, they are waiving that bill around like a badge on how hard Sprint sucks.  My wife showed me on her facebook, sister in law has made a couple memes with how upset they are at Sprint.

 

When he showed me the bill and started talking to me about it I was like "yeah, it wasn't Sprint's fault.  Everyone does leases now, you never owned those phones. That part is your fault. Then VZW screwed you over for taking phones you didn't own.  One VZW your leasing your new phones and your bill will be just as high as on Sprint, just with a much smaller data bucket compared to what you could have gotten on Sprint." 

 

He did say that the unlimited plan was Sprint's only plan.  I told him they do buckets as well like VZW.  I'm guessing Sprint is pushing those plans and not really advertising their buckets anymore in the store? I told him to get on a bucket plan and he said he didn't know Sprint had those.

 

Place I think Sprint messed up was on the phone trade-in to them.  Im pretty sure at least the 6's could have been unlocked and ported to Sprint from VZW no? I'm pretty sure they flat out owned there VZW phones so could have gotten VZW to unlock them.  Sprint rep could have messed up on telling them what was up with the leases and showing them all offers, but I wouldn't know unless I was actually there.

 

Despite Sprint getting better with their network, many of the corporate store representatives are not good to deal with. Many of them are uneducated about the devices, plans, and service, while also lying where they know something that isn't right for the customer but will benefit them as employees. I know that if I ever do go back to Sprint, it'll either be through an exclusive membership online program offer, or with something similar while dealing with a high-up retention/special operations representative. I will never go into a Sprint store to get Sprint service ever again, considering my negative experiences dealing with them, which I've written about here on S4GRU in the past.

 

However, that isn't to say that Verizon and T-Mobile stores are any better. I've experienced very arrogant, snooty service from Verizon store employees, and well T-Mobile employees act as though they are at some nightclub party when at work and are quite unprofessional. At least despite being arrogant, Verizon representatives are more professional in being at work, rather than appearing drunk and high as many T-Mobile store employees often appear whenever I've been there, though certainly not all have. Quite the opposite, the others appear as though they'd rather not be there. Which in comparison, many Sprint store employees act as though they don't know where they are, or simply act that way out of embarrassment. Sprint needs to do a much better job at training and boosting employee presence at the store level.

 

AT&T isn't perfect in this regard, but it is much better in my experiences at their stores than at its competitor carrier stores. They are great dealing with anything that is clear in their operations and is part of normal business. The only thing they are not so good at, is dealing with exclusive programs/situations, where you have to deal with a store manager and hope they are willing to help you through these issues, which is very dependent on how it will affect that store's performance. They don't seem to mind if it involves getting discounted from corporate, so long as their store doesn't take a hit. I think this is a flaw with AT&T, as all stores ought to be run more integrally, and not so much independently. This is bad for the consumer where one store may be willing to help, whereas another store may not, despite the stores being corporate,meaning nothing to do with authorized dealer stores. Which by the way, Cricket stores, authorized dealers for Cricket/AT&T, are a big avoid at all cost, go directly online if you want Cricket service.  

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Did anyone catch this announcement about a new device called Essential?

Here's an article mentioning the developer talking to sprint.

 

http://bgr.com/2017/01/14/andy-rubin-essential-smartphone/

 

"At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, Rubin discussed the smartphone with mobile carrier executives, including some from Sprint Corp., people familiar with the talks said"

 

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Since we are talking about irate customers, a woman in Florida drove her SUV through a T-Mobile store.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/01/13/florida-woman-intentionally-drives-suv-through-t-mobile-store

Don't piss your customers off. :D  :P  :rasp:

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Despite Sprint getting better with their network, many of the corporate store representatives are not good to deal with. Many of them are uneducated about the devices, plans, and service, while also lying where they know something that isn't right for the customer but will benefit them as employees. I know that if I ever do go back to Sprint, it'll either be through an exclusive membership online program offer, or with something similar while dealing with a high-up retention/special operations representative. I will never go into a Sprint store to get Sprint service ever again, considering my negative experiences dealing with them, which I've written about here on S4GRU in the past.

 

However, that isn't to say that Verizon and T-Mobile stores are any better. I've experienced very arrogant, snooty service from Verizon store employees, and well T-Mobile employees act as though they are at some nightclub party when at work and are quite unprofessional. At least despite being arrogant, Verizon representatives are more professional in being at work, rather than appearing drunk and high as many T-Mobile store employees often appear whenever I've been there, though certainly not all have. Quite the opposite, the others appear as though they'd rather not be there. Which in comparison, many Sprint store employees act as though they don't know where they are, or simply act that way out of embarrassment. Sprint needs to do a much better job at training and boosting employee presence at the store level.

 

AT&T isn't perfect in this regard, but it is much better in my experiences at their stores than at its competitor carrier stores. They are great dealing with anything that is clear in their operations and is part of normal business. The only thing they are not so good at, is dealing with exclusive programs/situations, where you have to deal with a store manager and hope they are willing to help you through these issues, which is very dependent on how it will affect that store's performance. They don't seem to mind if it involves getting discounted from corporate, so long as their store doesn't take a hit. I think this is a flaw with AT&T, as all stores ought to be run more integrally, and not so much independently. This is bad for the consumer where one store may be willing to help, whereas another store may not, despite the stores being corporate,meaning nothing to do with authorized dealer stores. Which by the way, Cricket stores, authorized dealers for Cricket/AT&T, are a big avoid at all cost, go directly online if you want Cricket service.  

Yeah, dealing with reps is very annoying.  Especially when you know more then they do and on Spint are BYOD.  Took me 3 tries to get my Nexus 5 on Sprint's network.  Wasn't until my 8th try I go my Nexus 5X on the network. God blessed me with a rep who was amazing, knew exactly my issue.  Even called me shortly after I activated my phone online to just verify on my end all was well.  I'm only with Sprint cause the 2 for 100 unlimited.  If it gets taken away I'm finding the best plan for me on an MVNO hands down.  I was on few over 2015 testing out networks.  Never had any issues, never had to talk to anyone.

 

IMO they need to pay a higher hourly wage and reduce / eliminate commission.  Create a workforce with low turn over and knowledgeable employees. Also make their environment easier to deal with.  Simple plans with no gotchas and less rotating promotional plans. You know, kinda like an MVNO.  Promotions imo should be more down to giving discounts on current prices.  Like a sale.  Like MVNOs do.  And have it where if you are like on the Big XL package with 10GB, and it gets upgraded to 14GB at the same price due to competition, then everyone who already has the Big XL package should get upgraded to 14GB. 

 

ISPs do that all the time.  You pay the same price but automatically get upgraded speeds.  Shoot, even when I had Comcast I went from 1.5Mbps to 25Mbps.  When we got to 15Mbps they sent me a new power adapter for my modem and at 25Mbps they sent out a whole new modem.  All so I could get the new speeds without paying more.  And  local ISP they have upgraded 2 times.  Had the 50Mbps plan that has been upgraded to 1000Mbps, all for the same price. 

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Yeah, dealing with reps is very annoying. Especially when you know more then they do and on Spint are BYOD. Took me 3 tries to get my Nexus 5 on Sprint's network. Wasn't until my 8th try I go my Nexus 5X on the network. God blessed me with a rep who was amazing, knew exactly my issue. Even called me shortly after I activated my phone online to just verify on my end all was well. I'm only with Sprint cause the 2 for 100 unlimited. If it gets taken away I'm finding the best plan for me on an MVNO hands down. I was on few over 2015 testing out networks. Never had any issues, never had to talk to anyone.

 

IMO they need to pay a higher hourly wage and reduce / eliminate commission. Create a workforce with low turn over and knowledgeable employees. Also make their environment easier to deal with. Simple plans with no gotchas and less rotating promotional plans. You know, kinda like an MVNO. Promotions imo should be more down to giving discounts on current prices. Like a sale. Like MVNOs do. And have it where if you are like on the Big XL package with 10GB, and it gets upgraded to 14GB at the same price due to competition, then everyone who already has the Big XL package should get upgraded to 14GB.

 

ISPs do that all the time. You pay the same price but automatically get upgraded speeds. Shoot, even when I had Comcast I went from 1.5Mbps to 25Mbps. When we got to 15Mbps they sent me a new power adapter for my modem and at 25Mbps they sent out a whole new modem. All so I could get the new speeds without paying more. And local ISP they have upgraded 2 times. Had the 50Mbps plan that has been upgraded to 1000Mbps, all for the same price.

Very good ideas, and I definitely agree!

 

Especially good point about the simplicity of these plans, which the current plan structure is way too complicated, furthering difficulty at the store level. In regards to Sprint plans, I believe the current Sprint Unlimited Freedom plans are an absolute disaster. Having several different speed caps on different uses is just bad, very bad for Sprint to do. It not only complicates things, but it makes the network look weak, particularly having speed caps for audio streaming. Sprint really does not need to do that when it has so much spectrum and network capacity.

 

Besides, no other carriers are doing it. I for one, will not blame Sprint store employees for having difficulty explaining to customers how the audio streaming speed caps operate and can limit certain types of audio file streaming, because god knows having a few minutes of Tidal Flac streaming could kill Sprint's network. That certainly shouldn't be a message Sprint ought to convey, but sadly it does when people figure it out. Besides, Sprint's network can in fact, handle far more Tidal streaming than T-Mobile in areas such as Chicago.

 

I know this is a touchy subject some here heavily disagreed with me about when I talked about it in the past, but my mention of it again now isn't to debate the points of it again, but rather relate it to how it and other not so good decisons can affect the customer store experience at Sprint. Especially as the network is getting better. Yet, for the other things, Sprint is simply joining in on this move to complicate things at the stores which other carriers are doing too. Plans are becoming too complicated on all carriers, and its very bad for the customer experience.

 

I'm thinking that instead of having unlimited data plans with all sorts of limits for this and that, just have it at a flat speed cap for everything. Cricket charges $70 monthly for 8mbps speed unlimited data, so its reasonable carriers could have a 9mbps speed cap unlimited data for $75 monthly first line, then $45 monthly each additional line. Quite simple. Want uncapped data? Have high bucket data plans that actually compete well with unlimited data plans in their deprioritization threshold, which is nearing 30gb monthly. Same price as unlimited data plans, but have overages at $3 per gb full speed, or $1 per gb capped at 9mbps. Again, simple.

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