Sprint Enhances 3G Network Coverage in St. Louis

[strung]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sprint-enhances-3g-network-coverage-in-st-louis-2012-03-20

[bkrodgers]

I certainly can't say I've seen any major improvements. It's still pretty pathetic in most of the places I spend the day in St. Louis. Network tickets seem to be useless. They said they didn't see a problem and closed the ticket. When I asked what speed the technician saw, they said they don't test speeds when they check the towers. They ran the checks during off peak hours in an area that's almost 100% commercial, so of course they didn't see problems. They said whenever NV comes, it should improve, but said St. Louis isn't scheduled to get NV yet. SERO premium is tough to let go, but if they don't do something, I may have to ditch them. I'd rather pay $90 a month for a usable network than $50 a month for a worthless one.

Edited April 4, 2012 by bkrodgers

[S4GRU]

I certainly can't say I've seen any major improvements. It's still pretty pathetic in most of the places I spend the day in St. Louis. Network tickets seem to be useless. They said they didn't see a problem and closed the ticket. When I asked what speed the technician saw, they said they don't test speeds when they check the towers. They ran the checks during off peak hours in an area that's almost 100% commercial, so of course they didn't see problems. They said whenever NV comes, it should improve, but said St. Louis isn't scheduled to get NV yet. SERO premium is tough to let go, but if they don't do something, I may have to ditch them. I'd rather pay $90 a month for a usable network than $50 a month for a worthless one.

 

Welcome to S4GRU. I can understand your frustrations. It may be worthless to you. And although Network Vision will likely fix the network in your area into something that performs more than satisfactorily, it will not be coming to the Missouri market very soon. Most likely NV improvements and LTE deployment will not begin until Winter.

 

The purpose of S4GRU is to help inform Sprint customers out there about the network and the changes that are occurring. It is going to mean different things to each of the 50M+ Sprint customers. You are going to have to decide what's right for you and your needs there in St. Louis.

 

However, if you can hang out in the long run until permanent Network Vision upgrades make it to your area, you will be very happy with the result.

 

Best of luck to you.

 

Robert

[bkrodgers]

Thanks Robert. I really appreciate your site. I wish the reps had half the information you do. That's probably my biggest problem. They deny that anything's wrong with the network at all, claiming this is the first time they've ever heard anyone complain about network speeds in all the years they've worked for Sprint. Twice I had a rep tell me they were entering a network ticket, but when I asked for a ticket number, they said their system didn't let them give it to me. When I called back a week later, the new rep said the ticket had never been created. Multiple reps saying that 600 kbps (which I rarely get) is all that a 3G network is capable of (despite their ads listing 600-1.4 as the average speeds). Or tell me that I need to be looking for WiFi hotspots when I'm out instead of expecting the Sprint network to be there. Or that if it can load the Google Mobile home page (probably one of the simplest pages on the Internet), that means there's nothing wrong at all. Or, once a ticket was finally created, telling me that their network technicians do not test or look at speed when they're investigating speed issues, so they're closing the ticket.

 

Maybe worthless is a strong word for the network. There are pockets where, at times, I get solid 1Mbps or higher. It's the rare exception though, not the rule. I've been with Sprint almost continuously since 1999, and a smartphone user since 2001 (Samsung i300), so I have a LOT of experience as a mobile data user. I mean, I get it, they didn't invest in their network enough during years when smartphone usage was exploding. That can't be fixed overnight. I do have faith that NV will deliver a strong, competitive network. But simply denying to customers that anything is wrong and giving no indication when it will be fixed is quite frustrating. Even though I know there is a solution coming in NV from sites like yours, it'd be much less frustrating if Sprint themselves would be more forthcoming, apologetic, and ideally offer something to solve the problem or at least tell me when to expect something.

 

Again, thanks so much for your site. I'm not 100% in love with the options on other carriers right now (I'd really like something with a high DPI screen like the Gnex and great battery life like the Razr Maxx), so I may stick it out a bit more. And yeah, price of SERO-P and unlimited data are a big factor as well. I'm also possibly moving to Chicago, which I know is in the first phase of NV underway now. In fact, I'll be up there tomorrow for the weekend. Shoud l I try the 60684X PRL while I'm up there? Or will I see whatever NV benefits are already live even without that?