Sprint Nextel forced IDEN migration versus Early Term Fees

[jennajj8]

Hello Everybody:

 

I have a situation with 30 devices on the Nextel IDEN network that as we all know has to migrate to the Sprint network by June . We have a lot of data usage but we also have a lot of Push To Talk usage. I am currently testing some phones on the Sprint Direct Connect PTT. Also though there is a strong possibility that we will need to move off of Sprint all together.

 

We are looking at over 3K in Early Term Fees. I have heard that Sprint will forgo the fees if we are on towers that are impacted and there are documented trouble tickets on the issue. 26 of our 30 devices are still on the IDEN according to Sprint. At the same time we are told that we are not "migration eligible" I have also heard that legally Sprint cannot hold us to the contracts because Sprint is no longer able to offer the same product anymore on the contract.

 

Does anyone have any feedback or advice for me on this?

 

Thanks

Jennajj8

[tongboy]

If you move from iden to Sprint CDMA you get upgrade pricing regardless on when you purchased the phones.

 

To leave Sprint while still under contract you almost need to prove that they are not holding up their end of the contract. As you said, filing all sorts of network tickets is one way, or unrepairable device issues...

 

I operate 300 DuraXTs. What phones are you testing and what do you think of Sprint DC so far?

 

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

[irev210]

More details would be helpful - as tongboy mentioned you should easily be able to get 99 cent devices.

 

I have the same question for both of you - after all of the recent updates, how are you liking Sprint Direct Connect? How does it compare to iDEN and other PTT solutions?

[S4GRU]

More details would be helpful - as tongboy mentioned you should easily be able to get 99 cent devices.

 

I have the same question for both of you - after all of the recent updates' date=' how are you liking Sprint Direct Connect? How does it compare to iDEN and other PTT solutions?[/quote']

 

And to add another question...how is it working while roaming on other networks?

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[shaunm82]

Our company is in a similar situation. We have about 200 Sprint Nextel phones that we are currently moving over to Verizon

[tongboy]

I guess I will tell you my story...

 

Our migration was forced since they shut down the iden tower serving our work area. They gave me a three week notice and I saw no choice but to proceed.

 

The migration itself was a disaster. Sprint was very supportive and helped as much as our account rep could , however apparently Sprint activation servers and DC servers were so overwhelmed (probably because many customers were doing the same thing) it made it really tough on us. The first day we actually had to fall back on our old two way radios.

 

As time went on they did get a little better, however anyone that used the duraxt for DC wanted to throw it against the wall. DC on it was a test in patience. Many times DC calls would error out, and we make a lot of group connect calls and that really was a struggle. Two people would be standing right next to each other, with a really strong signal, and only one of them would get the groupconnect call. The tower we hit has a fast download speed (900k) however the upload for some reason is pathetic (15k or so). I knew that was not right, and was probably why the DC was horrible... It started happening when the tower was network visioned. I tried to create multiple network tickets but they would get closed immediately because we were in an active network vision area.

 

Then a firmware upgrade came out for the duraxt and I immediately applied it to our 300 or so phones. DC now works like a dream and people are finally happy. Group DC actually works much better than nextel group connect worked. DC is actually comperable to nextel, although in my experience it is maybe a second slower with the initial connection then iden was.

 

I honestly see no difference in speed or quality in DC when roaming on 3g or on sprints network. 1x makes response a bit slower then evdo but it is just as clear.

 

Overall I am impressed with it now, but I really wonder why such a horrible firmware release made it out on the devices. If the phone roamed at all it would not switch back to sprints network, ever (really sprint?!) They almost lost us as a customer.

 

It is nothing like the original qchat that sprint introduced a few years ago. Much, much better.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

[irev210]

Our company is in a similar situation. We have about 200 Sprint Nextel phones that we are currently moving over to Verizon

 

How did you guys decide to move over to Verizon?

 

What were the biggest reasons? From what I've heard, Verizon PTT choices are fairly limited but a lot of people are switching to smartphones and tablets.

 

Just curious why people would leave SDC to Verizon. It seems like a lot of the network issues have been fixed (e911com over at howardforums posts good updates on firmware releases/improvements).

 

It seems like, with roaming, SDC is a far superior PTT solution - so I am probably missing other factors of why people are switching.

[shaunm82]

How did you guys decide to move over to Verizon?

 

What were the biggest reasons? From what I've heard, Verizon PTT choices are fairly limited but a lot of people are switching to smartphones and tablets.

 

Just curious why people would leave SDC to Verizon. It seems like a lot of the network issues have been fixed (e911com over at howardforums posts good updates on firmware releases/improvements).

 

It seems like, with roaming, SDC is a far superior PTT solution - so I am probably missing other factors of why people are switching.

 

It was actually the price savings we would have over Sprint. We were an independent company up until 8 months ago or so. Then we got swallowed up by Sonepar, who is massive, and has pretty hefty discounts with Verizon.

 

We aren't using PTT at all anymore. Just going the bluetooth route for our drivers, and smartphones for everyone here in the office.

 

But I think pricing was the biggest motivator. Even with paying some ETFs we'd end up saving long term with Verizon. Not sure on the details, but thats just what I was told, as the decision came from our corp office.

 

Our drivers had/have the Duraxt, and when they first got them there were a lot of complaints. But since a couple of updates they've been pretty pleased with the results overall.

[irev210]

It was actually the price savings we would have over Sprint. We were an independent company up until 8 months ago or so. Then we got swallowed up by Sonepar, who is massive, and has pretty hefty discounts with Verizon.

 

We aren't using PTT at all anymore. Just going the bluetooth route for our drivers, and smartphones for everyone here in the office.

 

But I think pricing was the biggest motivator. Even with paying some ETFs we'd end up saving long term with Verizon. Not sure on the details, but thats just what I was told, as the decision came from our corp office.

 

Our drivers had/have the Duraxt, and when they first got them there were a lot of complaints. But since a couple of updates they've been pretty pleased with the results overall.

 

Thx for the feedback - it seems like a big draw for a lot of companies has been bundles with iphones/ipads and other non-PTT devices.

[jennajj8]

I guess I will tell you my story...

 

Our migration was forced since they shut down the iden tower serving our work area. They gave me a three week notice and I saw no choice but to proceed.

 

The migration itself was a disaster. Sprint was very supportive and helped as much as our account rep could , however apparently Sprint activation servers and DC servers were so overwhelmed (probably because many customers were doing the same thing) it made it really tough on us. The first day we actually had to fall back on our old two way radios.

 

As time went on they did get a little better, however anyone that used the duraxt for DC wanted to throw it against the wall. DC on it was a test in patience. Many times DC calls would error out, and we make a lot of group connect calls and that really was a struggle. Two people would be standing right next to each other, with a really strong signal, and only one of them would get the groupconnect call. The tower we hit has a fast download speed (900k) however the upload for some reason is pathetic (15k or so). I knew that was not right, and was probably why the DC was horrible... It started happening when the tower was network visioned. I tried to create multiple network tickets but they would get closed immediately because we were in an active network vision area.

 

Then a firmware upgrade came out for the duraxt and I immediately applied it to our 300 or so phones. DC now works like a dream and people are finally happy. Group DC actually works much better than nextel group connect worked. DC is actually comperable to nextel, although in my experience it is maybe a second slower with the initial connection then iden was.

 

I honestly see no difference in speed or quality in DC when roaming on 3g or on sprints network. 1x makes response a bit slower then evdo but it is just as clear.

 

Overall I am impressed with it now, but I really wonder why such a horrible firmware release made it out on the devices. If the phone roamed at all it would not switch back to sprints network, ever (really sprint?!) They almost lost us as a customer.

 

It is nothing like the original qchat that sprint introduced a few years ago. Much, much better.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

Your story is exactly my biggest concern. I do not like the feeling that we may be up for service issues during the transition (giunypig) Our phones testing DC are to new yet to give an opinion. One thing you mentioned is a red flag in that opening trouble tickets may very well just get closed immediately as we are in an "active network vision area" I am very curious of the firmware update. What was the length of time your service was impacted? what is the firmware upgrade?, and how long ago did this happen? On roaming - we do not have a lot of roaming activity. I hope to have feedback to offer on the DC service soon.

[tongboy]

Your story is exactly my biggest concern. I do not like the feeling that we may be up for service issues during the transition (giunypig) Our phones testing DC are to new yet to give an opinion. One thing you mentioned is a red flag in that opening trouble tickets may very well just get closed immediately as we are in an "active network vision area" I am very curious of the firmware update. What was the length of time your service was impacted? what is the firmware upgrade?, and how long ago did this happen? On roaming - we do not have a lot of roaming activity. I hope to have feedback to offer on the DC service soon.

 

The day we moved over to sprint DC was the only day we had service so bad we had to fall back on our radios. DC didn't work well after that until last week when we ran a phone update. Since then it has worked well.

 

On your duraxt go into tools - update phone - update firmware and it pulls down the new software over the air.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE