Network Vision/LTE - Miami/West Palm Market

[digiblur]

3 weeks from parts to acceptance that is pretty quick i think.

Kinda.. Seen a few go from legacy to 3g/4g online in 4 or 5 days.

[mm2kay]

Yea I am sure there are faster ones, but I did see them unload all the equipment on to the roof. It might have been faster if it wasn't raining as often has it has been.

[Mondays In Flames]

So Sprint here in Coral Gables has gone to shit. I keep losing signal inside and outside, I can't make calls or send texts. Worst of all I call sprint to report it and they never answer. 

 

I have seen 4g twice here. But the service is getting really bad.

 

 

-Luis

[endurorider]

Anyone have an IPhone 5c/s in this area? Experiencing any improvement in service? 

[aride4ever]

So i have noticed something rather disappointing concerning the samsung S4 in the corals springs area. It seems that the s4 has some radio issues.  We just did an upgrade to 3 S4 and one HTC one as well as the Motorola photon. All 3 of the S4 can not connect to LTE yet the other 2 standing in the same spot can. On family outings the  Htc one and motorola preform well yet the S4's struggle to even maintain 3g. Is this something that others have noticed as well ?

[hiltonMIA]

Wow, no comments or postings here in almost a month! I wish that meant that the network was completely built out in this area and nobody had any new observations, but I know that's not the case. Personally I am still incredibly frustrated by how bad things are in downtown Fort Lauderdale, where I get 1x along Broward Blvd from US1 all the way to 95. It's one of the busiest roads in the area, you would think Sprint would give it more priority. A year ago when I switched from AT&T I knew that the data service on Sprint was shoddy, but the voice quality was superb and I never had dropped calls. Now my data still sucks, but voice quality has also deteriorated and I get several dropped calls a day. It's very frustrating and when I called to ask about getting an Airave I was told I would have to pay $99... which is absurd. I had perfectly good reception when I signed up - they've made changes and now my calls drop and people say it sounds like I'm underwater. Argh!!!

[rjw]

Honestly I gave up and moved over to TMobile.

 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

 

[Moropo]

Honestly I gave up and moved over to TMobile.

 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

Same.

[mm2kay]

I am satisfied with the progress.. I am not satisfied with the Galaxy Note 3 being single band. though, but i guess that saves me from paying full price on a phone lol.

[Jaggrey]

Honestly I gave up and moved over to TMobile.

 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Wow you guys too? I switched to T-Mobile about a month ago also.

[Terrell352]

I guess that explains why its so quiet. Everyone got fed up waiting and bailed to tmobile lol

[Jaggrey]

lol... the calls did it for me.  SMS failing and calls dropping was the last straw for me.  But I do look forward to seeing how Sprint comes out of this!

 

Only thing... I still know how to spot Sprint towers.  I have no idea how T-Mo's panels look like!  If I don't figure that out I'll have a hard time kicking that habit!

Edited October 16, 2013 by Jaggrey

[aride4ever]

Monday the network around 95 and deerfield beach boulevard was down due to a tower upgrade. This caused havoc for the business park i work in. lots of people with sprint couldn't make/receive calls or txts  and the phones stayed in roaming.  They fixed it by tuesday afternoon but it was definitely  no joy.   Got home tuesday and same thing happened in coral springs.  I couldn't even roam.  4G signal went to crap afterwards and I can no longer get 4g in or around my home like before.   I will say that i posted a question on FB and the person responding was a hell of a lot more helpful than there phone support.   I was asked for cross streets etc and withing a few hours I got a response as to exactly what was going on both at home and work,  near the home they detected erratic transmitter issues and opened a ticket for it, In deerfield they detected excessive blocks ? as well as they were upgrading the tower to LTE.   Today I get to work and i actually get a decent 3g signal as well as in some spots I get 4g..  I think I will hit up sprints FB page in the future when  having issues, they seem to get things done..  

[Carioca_FL]

I've had Sprint for over 8 years and while 3G was never great, old WiMAX 4G was reliable, though scarce in my area (Ft Lauderdale, FL). Fast forward to late last year and the beginning of this year and coverage has taken a dive, on both 3G and 4G.

 

I've read in a few places that it's due to NV deployment, but every Sprint rep I've talked to says NV would never cause service disruptions, only enhancements. I'm on a family plan, and although one line was recently upgraded, the second is without a contract. I'm really torn about switching to AT&T, as their customer care is awful (I've never had an issue with Sprint's CC, they've always been helpful -specially Retentions Dept and their retention credits ), but AT&T's 4G speeds, specially inside buildings is phenomenal!

 

While I get a paltry 2Mbps at work, my friends get around 20-25Mbps -and that's when I don't lose signal altogether... My question is: for you guys on the inside, what's the hope of this situation getting better? I've been hearing "another 3-4 months" for about a year; with the recent acquisition by SoftBank, there was a lot of hope that they would invest aggressively on Sprint, as they've done in Japan and other markets, but their own CEO mentioned this week that they expect a slower build up. See link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-sprint-softbank-idUSBRE98T18D20130930

 

So what's the picture here? Anyone with any knowledge as to the NV roadmap for South Florida -specifically Fort Lauderdale (33309)? Thanks for listening! Looking forward to any replies! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited October 16, 2013 by lilotimz

[rjw]

I think things will get better much sooner here in South Florida but it's just an overall waiting game. My main reason for leaving was the tower by my home all of a sudden started working really poorly signal wise and Sprint acknowledged it but didn't correct it.

 

The tower is still waiting for NV and because it's where I spend 60% for my time I could no longer accept calls going to voice mail and my phone never ringing. I got tired of calling for credits and when they finally decided to let me out of my contract I was continually lied to after returning the devices and it was an absolute pain getting ETF fees waved.

 

I eventually moved 5 lines away. I hope mid year next I can test out the service again when they have a more complete build out more competitive pricing on family plans. I was $280 plus down to $110 + taxes

 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

 

[yellowman82]

For those of you that have moved to T-Mobile how is the coverage here in Miami? I've been wanting to get a note 3 but since sprint note 3 is single band that leaves me to move on to T-Mobile but I have no clue how good is the coverage and data here in Miami even though on their site it shows real good Coverage so for you guys that moved on are you happy with coverage and speed data?

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

 

[Moropo]

For those of you that have moved to T-Mobile how is the coverage here in Miami? I've been wanting to get a note 3 but since sprint note 3 is single band that leaves me to move on to T-Mobile but I have no clue how good is the coverage and data here in Miami even though on their site it shows real good Coverage so for you guys that moved on are you happy with coverage and speed data?

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

Ok so AJ usually dislikes if T-Mobile gets praised and maybe he deletes this, but anyways lets make it short and see if it survives:

 

I have a 5-line family plan with Sprint. I only switched one line to T-Mobile for now to test their network. Experience has been excellent. Speeds are consistently good all throughout the city. Outdoors the signal is always good, 4-5 bars. When going inside a building the signal drops dramatically to 1 bar but for some reason, even at 1 bar, speed tests are still 10+ mbps.

 

I have seen mentioned that LTE remains usable until -118 RSRP or so. I dont know why but all throughout Miami, if my LTE signal on Sprint reaches -110 or lower, that means unusable internet, meaning websites dont even load etc. To give an example, the other day I went with my wife to this hookah inn place and I had LTE (-110 RSRP) on Sprint and she had LTE (-114 RSRP) on T-Mobile. Websites were not loading for me (Sprint). On my wife's phone (T-Mobile) I was pulling 10+ mbps. I dont know why T-Mobile performs well in low signal whereas Sprint doesnt even work.

 

I can see why rural people hate T-Mobile, but if you are in a city and seldom venture out, T-Mobile's good.

[Fraydog]

Do we have to take a potshot at AJ though to make a point about T-Mobile?

 

I don't think anyone is doubting their coverage in places like Miami where they got lots of towers, spectrum, and DAS out of the MetroPCS merger. It's the rural places where their network goes to hell in a hand basket.

[Jaggrey]

For those of you that have moved to T-Mobile how is the coverage here in Miami? I've been wanting to get a note 3 but since sprint note 3 is single band that leaves me to move on to T-Mobile but I have no clue how good is the coverage and data here in Miami even though on their site it shows real good Coverage so for you guys that moved on are you happy with coverage and speed data?

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

I have actually been surprised at T-Mobile's coverage vs. Sprint in the areas I frequent. I moved over a total of 4 lines, but I first moved myself and my wife. First the bad news: we get worse reception where we live, but it still works for the most part. Where my wife works she doesn't get reception either. In both cases, wifi calling saves the day. And there's one restaurant we go to on occasion where we get no reception, but Sprint was terrible there also. Aside from those places, I've been really surprised in the amount of LTE they have rolled out across Miami. In some places it's quick, and others it's blazing. I still don't like how my phone says "4g" for non-LTE and that can mean HSPA+, UMTS, or something else. But I've noticed it says LTE more often than not. There are also places where I work that I remember having nothing on my Sprint phone, but I get coverage now with T-Mo. But all carriers have their spots.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling. Coverage has been great for us aside from the trouble spots I mentioned, again which all carriers have. I don't regret the switch. I know Sprint has been rolling in filling in the 4G gaps, but the calls and texting taking a dive is what made me switch. Before that I was just patiently enduring.

Edited October 17, 2013 by Jaggrey

[yellowman82]

Do we have to take a potshot at AJ though to make a point about T-Mobile?

 

I don't think anyone is doubting their coverage in places like Miami where they got lots of towers, spectrum, and DAS out of the MetroPCS merger. It's the rural places where their network goes to hell in a hand basket.

So big city places like miami and so on are is okay then? I mean I usually don't travel much and I'm only concern in having good speeds data in the area's where I'm always at tge most which is at work, home and jose marti gym on sundays lol that's about it but I might go tomorrow and try them out for 14 days see how it goes.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

 

[Fraydog]

I have no idea since I've never been to Miami.

 

I would try that $30 SIM out first though. In my neck of the woods, that gets EDGE.

[rjw]

The speeds on Tmobile are by far better than Sprint. Within the last few weeks TMobile went from a 5x5 network to 10x10. As far as coverage it's been great through Miami and Fort Lauderdale area with a few exceptions of a few spots where you'll need to use wifi calling. I never had much of a coverage issue with Sprint but as mentioned above I had poor speeds even on LTE. I expect Sprint will be much better though when LTE 800 is deployed.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 

[yellowman82]

The speeds on Tmobile are by far better than Sprint. Within the few week we went from a 5x5 network to 10x10. As far as coverage it's been great through Miami and Fort Lauderdale area with a few exception of a few spots where you'll need wifi calling. I never had much of a coverage issue with Sprint but as mentioned above I had poor speeds even on LTE. I expect Sprint will be much better though when LTE 800 is deployed

 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Ok see I wouldn't mind sacrificing a sprint coverage for tmobile speeds and wifi calling as to I barely used my phone much for talking I probably average about 90-100 minutes on my family plan with Sprint I'm more of a text person and browsing and such and well I cant wait for sprint any longer for their speeds to pickup plus they screwed the note 3 with no tri band or atleast dual band im not really an LG person and im already impatient having this note 2 for so long lol if anything when Sprint get it together then I'll just come back but it all depends I guess.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

 

[SJperformance]

After 12 year finally decided to leave sprint 2 weeks ago. The constant call drop. MMS and SMS not being sent out was the final draw. Switched over 3 lines to AT&T. The difference is like night and day. My iPhone5S finally stays on LTE mostly everywhere in Miami. The few times I'm on 4G even that is fast. Sending SMS and MMS is a breeze. Can finally talk/data at the same time. I get better battery life as with sprint I was constantly switching from 3G to LTE and that drains battery. GSM phones have much better resale value too. With my monthly discount only paying $20 more a month over sprint. It was nice knowing this forum. Learned a lot and met great people. I will still read around and what not. Good luck to everyone.

 

 

...via iPhone5S from TapaTalk...

Edited October 18, 2013 by SJperformance

[Mondays In Flames]

I'm debating leaving sprint too. Unfortunately it's beyond frustrating to never get calls through. I've tried redailing numbers 4, 5 or even 6 times and it still won't connect. I have service, even with full bars. The data is getting better, but their voice and sms services are becoming so bad it's unbearable. 

 

Glad to hear that T-mo has great service down here. I'll be jumping back soon to T-mo (plus I'll pay less for service).

 

 

-Luis