PhoneDog Road Trip Test: Sprint performed well

[bucdenny]

http://www.phonedog.com/2014/01/20/on-a-road-trip-with-at-t-sprint-and-verizon/

 

Once Sprint is done with NV 1.0, pretty sure LTE the whole way! 

[jamisonshaw125]

http://www.phonedog.com/2014/01/20/on-a-road-trip-with-at-t-sprint-and-verizon/

 

Once Sprint is done with NV 1.0, pretty sure LTE the whole way! 

Probably a good thing Magenta was left at home...wouldn't had been very useful. If this road trip was done with 800 fully deployed, there would be no reason for a comparison. 

[Ascertion]

I drove from South Jacksonville to The Villages, Florida and I had 4G LTE streaming Pandora seamlessly about 90% of the time.  The only dead zones were actually Verizon-only territory, which was in Ocala National Forest, but even then I was able to stream Pandora over 1x. Saweet!

 

I was impressed with density of sites.  I know for a fact T-Mobile would have just had no coverage at all along parts of the highway and I would've been SOL in Ocala Forest.

[jamisonshaw125]

I drove from South Jacksonville to The Villages, Florida and I had 4G LTE streaming Pandora seamlessly about 90% of the time.  The only dead zones were actually Verizon-only territory, which was in Ocala National Forest, but even then I was able to stream Pandora over 1x. Saweet!

 

I was impressed with density of sites.  I know for a fact T-Mobile would have just had no coverage at all along parts of the highway and I would've been SOL in Ocala Forest.

Wow great coverage. I drive down south every now and then as that is where my family and office headquarters are located. Last time I drove down there I had LTE I would say probably 65-70% of the way. I'm sure it's been improved lately.

[JeffDTD]

I'm offended someone running a site named "Phonedog" would allow an article loosely revolving around "it has bars" using 2 different phone manufacturers, 3 different platforms and zero commonality between internals.

[Terrell352]

Surprisingly Tmobile has 4G in the forest and edge. Everyone has coverage of some kind in the Ocala National Forest except for At&t. I tested this.

I drove from South Jacksonville to The Villages, Florida and I had 4G LTE streaming Pandora seamlessly about 90% of the time.  The only dead zones were actually Verizon-only territory, which was in Ocala National Forest, but even then I was able to stream Pandora over 1x. Saweet!

 

I was impressed with density of sites.  I know for a fact T-Mobile would have just had no coverage at all along parts of the highway and I would've been SOL in Ocala Forest.

[Terrell352]

Nowhere is this article did it say Sprint came out on top. It said At&t and Verizon had more coverage than Sprint most of the time. Sprint's LTE was non existent most of the trip and Sprint had the most bars when it came to 3G which is no surprise there since EVDO is not as fragile. Post needs a more accurate title.

[bruce]

Nowhere is this article did it say Sprint came out on top. It said At&t and Verizon had more coverage than Sprint most of the time. Sprint's LTE was non existent most of the trip and Sprint had the most bars when it came to 3G which is no surprise there since EVDO is not as fragile. Post needs a more accurate title.

I agree, the article also said that coverage was non existent for a large part of the trip.

[The Dave]

The author also used an Ativ S for Sprint while giving Verizon and AT&T the benefit of the much better Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s. I wouldn't have expected much from an Ativ, either.

[SpenceSouth]

Got a good laugh out of this so called test.  I'm sure his intentions were good with this, but this isn't going to mean anything to anyone unless they are going to be frequenting that route. 

[SpenceSouth]

Surprisingly Tmobile has 4G in the forest and edge. Everyone has coverage of some kind in the Ocala National Forest except for At&t. I tested this.

 

I go through the forest to visit my parents in Ocala occasionally.  There is a large swatch of dark territory where I can only roam on Verizon.  Curious to how well 1x800 will do there. 

[Terrell352]

Considering sprint only has 3 or 4 tower through the whole forest I wouldnt be surprised if even after the upgrades are done that there are some holes. Not voice but data holes.

I go through the forest to visit my parents in Ocala occasionally. There is a large swatch of dark territory where I can only roam on Verizon. Curious to how well 1x800 will do there.

[TheForce627]

I wonder if this guy had roaming turned on because I don't believe he would've been without coverage if vzw had coverage there

[SpenceSouth]

I wonder if this guy had roaming turned on because I don't believe he would've been without coverage if vzw had coverage there

 

Yeah, but roaming coverage doesn't always behave the same as regular coverage in my experience.  Sometimes for me it was only good for seeing bars on the display because I still couldn't text or call.  Nothing beats native.

[TheForce627]

Yeah, but roaming coverage doesn't always behave the same as regular coverage in my experience. Sometimes for me it was only good for seeing bars on the display because I still couldn't text or call. Nothing beats native.

oh yeah I know all about that. In this test he was just basing it on bars so the sprint device should've had bars. His whole point was being able to make calls in an emergency.

[ericdabbs]

I actually wanted to see how Magenta held up during this road trip.  I want to how it fares with the other big 3.  

[irwinshere]

I actually wanted to see how Magenta held up during this road trip. I want to how it fares with the other big 3.

Why?

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

[ericdabbs]

Why?

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

Just would like to see how the 4 national carriers fare between each other.  Also would have been informative to see which areas and how often Tmobile jumped between EDGE, 4G and LTE.

 

Sidenote:  Bro are you still using the Photon 4G???  Dude you should upgrade already unless you are waiting for a specific phone.

[bcltoys]

This is a area I live.http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/Sprint/lte_310sprint#q=Earleville%2C+MD+21919%2C+USA  http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/ATandT_Mobility/lte_310410#q=Earleville%2C+MD+21919%2C+USA  http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/T-Mobile/lte_310260#q=Earleville%2C+MD+21919%2C+USA  http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/Verizon/lte_310verizon#q=Earleville%2C+MD+21919%2C+USA

[irwinshere]

Just would like to see how the 4 national carriers fare between each other. Also would have been informative to see which areas and how often Tmobile jumped between EDGE, 4G and LTE.

 

Sidenote: Bro are you still using the Photon 4G??? Dude you should upgrade already unless you are waiting for a specific phone.

We don't have lte here yet so my photon is as good as any phone for now, probably better RF performance then the one they used in that "test". Legacy market so might as well let them fix it before upgrading. On ting so there is no upgrade cost in my monthly bill.

 

Has Sprint finished their upgrades in this guy's test area? If not what could this test even tell us? Case in point, a small town 15 miles from here had dismal service last month. Now they have lte and good fast service everywhere in and out of town. A test last month would be totally bogus now.

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

[ericdabbs]

We don't have lte here yet so my photon is as good as any phone for now, probably better RF performance then the one they used in that "test". Legacy market so might as well let them fix it before upgrading. On ting so there is no upgrade cost in my monthly bill.

 

Has Sprint finished their upgrades in this guy's test area? If not what could this test even tell us? Case in point, a small town 15 miles from here had dismal service last month. Now they have lte and good fast service everywhere in and out of town. A test last month would be totally bogus now.

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

I wasn't expecting that test to be a representative of the Sprint or Tmobile network nationwide.  I was just curious how it currently stands as of today in terms of voice and data on Tmobile.  All 4 of the carriers have not completed their LTE upgrades so it doesn't matter.  Its not like any of the 4 major carriers were making claims that they have completely finished 100% of their LTE overlay nationwide.

[irwinshere]

I wasn't expecting that test to be a representative of the Sprint or Tmobile network nationwide. I was just curious how it currently stands as of today in terms of voice and data on Tmobile. All 4 of the carriers have not completed their LTE upgrades so it doesn't matter. Its not like any of the 4 major carriers were making claims that they have completely finished 100% of their LTE overlay nationwide.

Oh, I see. Might be interesting to see what a sprint -tmo merger would look like in terms of tower locations and future coverage.

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2