Jump to content

Questions about returning to Sprint


thatrandomguy

Recommended Posts

I was a Sprint customer earlier this year but in March I was forced to switch to AT&T because of Sprint's network being unusable and me roaming like a crazy data freak. My parents keep saying I should switch back to Sprint but I've been spoiled with the sheer speed of AT&T's BLAZING FAST LTE. I just want to know if Sprint in the East Bay has improved to near AT&T coverage and speed because their network is crazy fast and has coverage everywhere I have been this whole year. I have recently started to look at Sprint's LTE coverage and was amazed that Alameda and the entire East Bay was fully orange. I know that their coverage maps aren't 100% but it's still an improvement over the Sprint I left. I just have some questions like:

  1. Do you get relatively decent in building penetration with LTE?
  2. Are the speeds comparable to AT&T's LTE and even HSPA+?
  3. Has 3G improved from 0.21 mps?
  4. Do voice calls drop as often?
  5. Has Sprint started to deploy anything on the 800 band in this area?

I'm not trying to bash Sprint in anyway I just want to know if the overall experience has improved greatly or should I just wait until they finish NV in the Bay and the greater LA area? 

 

EDIT: Changed AT&T screenshot and added around the time I left Sprint screenshot for comparison.

post-6377-0-21416400-1375905520_thumb.png

post-6377-0-86415500-1375905558_thumb.png

Edited by thatrandomguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

I was a Sprint customer earlier this year but in March I was forced to switch to AT&T because of Sprint's network being unusable and me roaming like a crazy data freak. My parents keep saying I should switch back to Sprint but I've been spoiled with the sheer speed of AT&T's BLAZING FAST LTE. I just want to know if Sprint in the East Bay has improved to near AT&T coverage and speed because their network is crazy fast and has coverage everywhere I have been this whole year. I have recently started to look at Sprint's LTE coverage and was amazed that Alameda and the entire East Bay was fully orange. I know that their coverage maps aren't 100% but it's still an improvement over the Sprint I left. I just have some questions like:

  1. Do you get relatively decent in building penetration with LTE?
  2. Are the speeds comparable to AT&T's LTE and even HSPA+?
  3. Has 3G improved from 0.21 mps?
  4. Do voice calls drop as often?
  5. Has Sprint started to deploy anything on the 800 band in this area?

I'm not trying to bash Sprint in anyway I just want to know if the overall experience has improved greatly or should I just wait until they finish NV in the Bay and the greater LA area? 

 

EDIT: Changed AT&T screenshot and added around the time I left Sprint screenshot for comparison.

1. U will not get the same buliding coverage with sprint lte until they start using 800 for lte. They are working on that right now, by the end of the year most of the sites should be 800 for voice and have lte on them also.

2. Att lte I believe has what they call a 10mhz by 10mhz in sfo, so u can see speeds up to 75 mbps per a second and until sprint starts using td lte from what use to be clearwire(now sprint lte) It wont be as fast, but honestly anything over 6 mbps u wont see a difference.

3. 3g is getting upgraded long with 4g on sprint, so that is getting better. Honestly sfo is just over 50 percent of lte sites turned on, so u dont have it everywhere yet.

4. With the new 800 voice, they are using voice technology that has 4x the use on it. So it helps with drop calls and has better signal then on the 1900. So yes less drop calls.

5. They have 800 voice in some areas not all yet, and it will be all over sfo soon. It is a samsung market loves turning on 800, I believe they and the contractor get paided if the 800 goes on lol.

 

My honest opinon would be to wait until christmas, by then sfo will be nearly done and it will have 2600 lte. Also the new tri-band phones will be out and u can take advantage of what we call network vision 2.0 :-). I hope this answers your questions, thanks for stopping by s4gru and if u want to see the progress donate some money, this website is right. It helps me understand what was going on with sprints upgrade and made me stay with them. I also got to have unlimited data, I am data hog when I travel.

 

If u donate suggestion 10 bucks or more :):D (basically help cover costs and s4gru time) u can see all the cell sites and which ones have what on them already.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What could possibly motivate you to return to Sprint when it seems that you are

enjoying nirvana with AT&T? Cost of nirvana per chance or is it something else?

Just curious..don't be offended it's just that I watch to many detective pictures and

motives always seem to matter; someone that knows your area will attempt to answer

your questions but in the end a cellular experience (like real estate) is all local..where you

live and where you go!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

East bay is pretty decent. But depends where you are talking about. Berkeley is awful. Wait a couple months until 800 gets going more. And more Triband phones are available.

 

Sent from my Android HP Touchpad using Tapatalk 4

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would test it out on a trial with the LG Optimus G2 when it comes out. Know that even if all of the sites around you have LTE on them they are still a far cry from being fully upgraded. 2500 and 800 LTE will dramatically improve service

 

2500 LTE will give you those ridiculous 50+mbps speeds when it arrives (and it will as a full overlay over existing sites)

 

and

 

800 LTE will give you the in-building LTE coverage other carriers have

 

If you like Sprint's current 1900 LTE network in your area keep the Optimus G2 and enjoy while looking forward to being able to use the new 800 and 2500 networks in the future (the G2 is the only one that can support them for now)

 

If you don't like your experience, return the G2 and wait until 800 and 2500 LTE arrives in your area then give Sprint another try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would wait until next year. Sprint has improved since than but next year Sprint will LTE on all 3 of their networks plus voice on the lower frequency as well. Also I recommend getting a TriBand device.

 

 

 

With all of those things your service and experience should be comparable with AT&T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

East bay is pretty decent. But depends where you are talking about. Berkeley is awful. Wait a couple months until 800 gets going more. And more Triband phones are available.

 

Sent from my Android HP Touchpad using Tapatalk 4

I live and go to school in Alameda so that's where I am most of the time. Coverage at school is CRUCIAL to me I don't care if it's only voice because we have wifi around campus. Personally I don't want to switch but paying 2 phone bills(AT&T 1 line and Sprint 2 lines) is a bit much for a family. 

 

Other than price/tiered data, why switch if you're getting 50+ mb/s down

The only reason their considering switching me is just price because paying 2 phone bills isn't ideal.

 

What could possibly motivate you to return to Sprint when it seems that you are

enjoying nirvana with AT&T? Cost of nirvana per chance or is it something else?

Just curious..don't be offended it's just that I watch to many detective pictures and

motives always seem to matter; someone that knows your area will attempt to answer

your questions but in the end a cellular experience (like real estate) is all local..where you

live and where you go!

Only 'motive' is price essentially. 

 

1. U will not get the same buliding coverage with sprint lte until they start using 800 for lte. They are working on that right now, by the end of the year most of the sites should be 800 for voice and have lte on them also.

2. Att lte I believe has what they call a 10mhz by 10mhz in sfo, so u can see speeds up to 75 mbps per a second and until sprint starts using td lte from what use to be clearwire(now sprint lte) It wont be as fast, but honestly anything over 6 mbps u wont see a difference.

3. 3g is getting upgraded long with 4g on sprint, so that is getting better. Honestly sfo is just over 50 percent of lte sites turned on, so u dont have it everywhere yet.

4. With the new 800 voice, they are using voice technology that has 4x the use on it. So it helps with drop calls and has better signal then on the 1900. So yes less drop calls.

5. They have 800 voice in some areas not all yet, and it will be all over sfo soon. It is a samsung market loves turning on 800, I believe they and the contractor get paided if the 800 goes on lol.

 

My honest opinon would be to wait until christmas, by then sfo will be nearly done and it will have 2600 lte. Also the new tri-band phones will be out and u can take advantage of what we call network vision 2.0 :-). I hope this answers your questions, thanks for stopping by s4gru and if u want to see the progress donate some money, this website is right. It helps me understand what was going on with sprints upgrade and made me stay with them. I also got to have unlimited data, I am data hog when I travel.

 

If u donate suggestion 10 bucks or more :):D (basically help cover costs and s4gru time) u can see all the cell sites and which ones have what on them already.

To be fair about the speed test I was sitting about 200ft from the tower when I did that test but I was still shocked at the speed because I have never attempted to speed test mainly to stay under 3GB which isn't that hard. I only posted asked because Sprint has a deal that if you buy an S4 or S3 you get another one free and my parents want me to switch because of price but as you can see AT&T and my S3 have spoiled me from day 1. Also I had no idea AT&T LTE could reach those speeds in this area. Now I want to stay up until 3am and try to reach it!  :D

Oh wait one question: Do/all Sprint LTE phones minus the iPhone 5 do voLTE? Because my S3 only does "4G" (HSPA+ or UMTS) and voice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the other 2 lines are still sprint take them with you to school. Alot of phones are already 800 voice capable. I don't think any towers in Alameda are 800 yet but they are some in east bay already.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But LTE is not not on 800/ or 2500 so it's best to wait until those networks are somewhat deployed

 

The TD-LTE network has been deployed over a good portion of Clearwire Sites in the San Francisco bay area market. To what extent, no one knows for sure except Robert and premier sponsors in the coming weeks. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you REALLY need 55Mbps, then you should probably just stay with AT&T.  

 

There's no reason to NEED 55Mbps on a cell phone.

I don't NEED the speed but it is nice to have!  :tu:

 

If the other 2 lines are still sprint take them with you to school. Alot of phones are already 800 voice capable. I don't think any towers in Alameda are 800 yet but they are some in east bay already.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

I doubt the other lines are 800 capable because one's a Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G and the others a Motorola XPRT or something but it's basically the Driod Pro but for Sprint. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't NEED the speed but it is nice to have! :tu:

 

I doubt the other lines are 800 capable because one's a Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G and the others a Motorola XPRT or something but it's basically the Driod Pro but for Sprint.

 

Neither are not CDMA 800 but you can buy a cheap one on eBay (htc Evo 3d, or the gs2) and test it out

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The TD-LTE network has been deployed over a good portion of Clearwire Sites in the San Francisco bay area market. To what extent, no one knows for sure except Robert and premier sponsors in the coming weeks.

 

Hmm I might become a premier sponsor lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But LTE is not not on 800/ or 2500 so it's best to wait until those networks are somewhat deployed

 

There are 8 markets where 2500 is live as addressed in a memo Robert posted on July 19. In addition, many more markets are getting upgraded pretty quickly, as we've already had a 2500 sighting in St. Louis of all places. 

 

 

  1. Do you get relatively decent in building penetration with LTE?
  2. Are the speeds comparable to AT&T's LTE and even HSPA+?
  3. Has 3G improved from 0.21 mps?
  4. Do voice calls drop as often?
  5. Has Sprint started to deploy anything on the 800 band in this area?

 

Most of your questions have been answered, hopefully satisfactorily. Just wanted to add a couple of things.

 

Sprint's current main LTE band (1900) has a maximum of 37.5Mbps. So the speeds do not compare to AT&T's, at least at this time. However, with the low pings that come with LTE, anything over ~5Mbps and you won't notice the difference.

 

3G speeds have improved in some places, but in many the legacy 3G network is still operating, which means slow speeds. However, if you have an LTE phone, that's not an issue.

 

Sprint is deploying 1xRTT on the 800 band right now, it should be live in many places around your market. Calls are more stable, and coverage has been enhanced quite a bit with this new band.

 

Sprint is trying to have their current LTE footprint lit up with 800 LTE by the end of the year, so LTE coverage will be improving here shortly if you have a compatible phone (there are none currently).

 

So, if you can, I would wait a couple months for the Tri-Band phones to be available. If you want to switch now, I'd say go ahead and take that S4 deal. Even without 800 LTE, you still get decent data coverage, and great voice coverage. And speeds should be acceptable as well. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Neither are not CDMA 800 but you can buy a cheap one on eBay (htc Evo 3d, or the gs2) and test it out

I think if I do switch it will be either the end of this year of the beginning of next year like others have suggested so the change isn't that dramatic from blazing fast AT&T LTE. Also my current ETF is $265 and there aren't or not that many tri band phones which would give me similar speeds and coverage.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think if I do switch it will be either the end of this year of the beginning of next year like others have suggested so the change isn't that dramatic from blazing fast AT&T LTE. Also my current ETF is $265 and there aren't or not that many tri band phones which would give me similar speeds and coverage.

I would wait. We all like Sprint here but the network is not quite up to par with the duopoly in terms of speed. I'd place Sprint firmly in 4th place for network speed. Over the next 6-12 months that will most likely change but that is the current reality. If you are happy with AT&T I would wait out the contract and then reevaluate. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are 8 markets where 2500 is live as addressed in a memo Robert posted on July 19. In addition, many more markets are getting upgraded pretty quickly, as we've already had a 2500 sighting in St. Louis of all places.

 

 

 

Most of your questions have been answered, hopefully satisfactorily. Just wanted to add a couple of things.

 

Sprint's current main LTE band (1900) has a maximum of 37.5Mbps. So the speeds do not compare to AT&T's, at least at this time. However, with the low pings that come with LTE, anything over ~5Mbps and you won't notice the difference.

 

3G speeds have improved in some places, but in many the legacy 3G network is still operating, which means slow speeds. However, if you have an LTE phone, that's not an issue.

 

Sprint is deploying 1xRTT on the 800 band right now, it should be live in many places around your market. Calls are more stable, and coverage has been enhanced quite a bit with this new band.

 

Sprint is trying to have their current LTE footprint lit up with 800 LTE by the end of the year, so LTE coverage will be improving here shortly if you have a compatible phone (there are none currently).

 

So, if you can, I would wait a couple months for the Tri-Band phones to be available. If you want to switch now, I'd say go ahead and take that S4 deal. Even without 800 LTE, you still get decent data coverage, and great voice coverage. And speeds should be acceptable as well.

I really don't care that much about the speeds because I only recently decided to start speed testing again because constantly speed testing goes through A LOT of data. I only care that it's comparable to AT&T but with Sprint it's less of a problem because their network is not as crowed like AT&T where you need to be ahead of the load like being on LTE vs crowded HSPA+ or UMTS. The only problem with me having AT&T is paying 2 separate phone bills and if I do switch back I will definitely grab a tri band phone hopefully when most of NV is done in this area. A part of me wants to switch back when everything is done so I can have unlimited data again!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

I was a Sprint customer earlier this year but in March I was forced to switch to AT&T because of Sprint's network being unusable and me roaming like a crazy data freak. My parents keep saying I should switch back to Sprint but I've been spoiled with the sheer speed of AT&T's BLAZING FAST LTE. I just want to know if Sprint in the East Bay has improved to near AT&T coverage and speed because their network is crazy fast and has coverage everywhere I have been this whole year. I have recently started to look at Sprint's LTE coverage and was amazed that Alameda and the entire East Bay was fully orange. I know that their coverage maps aren't 100% but it's still an improvement over the Sprint I left. I just have some questions like:

  1. Do you get relatively decent in building penetration with LTE?
  2. Are the speeds comparable to AT&T's LTE and even HSPA+?
  3. Has 3G improved from 0.21 mps?
  4. Do voice calls drop as often?
  5. Has Sprint started to deploy anything on the 800 band in this area?

I'm not trying to bash Sprint in anyway I just want to know if the overall experience has improved greatly or should I just wait until they finish NV in the Bay and the greater LA area? 

 

EDIT: Changed AT&T screenshot and added around the time I left Sprint screenshot for comparison.

 

 

As most other people have said - wait until at least Christmas. It will make absolutely nuts to go between having LTE and good speeds, and then dropping back to the legacy network and having it almost unusable. There are plenty of areas that will still give you the same speeds you showed in your old Sprint speed test. You will also want to make sure you get a tri-band phone, and that will be much easier even in just a few months. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • large.unreadcontent.png.6ef00db54e758d06

  • gallery_1_23_9202.png

  • Posts

    • So, in summary, here are the options I tested: T-Mobile intl roaming - LTE on SoftBank, routes back to the US (~220ms to 4.2.2.4) IIJ physical SIM - LTE on NTT, local routing Airalo - LTE on SoftBank and KDDI (seems to prefer SoftBank), routed through Singapore (SingTel) Ubigi - 5G on NTT, routed through Singapore (Transatel) US Mobile East Asia roaming - 5G on SoftBank, routed through Singapore (Club SIM) Saily - 5G on NTT, routed through Hong Kong (Truphone)...seems to be poorer routing my1010 - LTE on SoftBank and KDDI (seems to prefer KDDI), routed through Taiwan (Chunghwa Telecom) I wouldn't buy up on the T-Mobile international roaming, but it's a solid fallback. If you have the US Mobile roaming eSIM that's a great option. Otherwise Ubigi, Airalo, or my1010 are all solid options, so get whatever's cheapest. I wouldn't bother trying to find a physical SIM from IIJ...the Japanese IP is nice but there's enough WiFi that you can get a Japanese IP enough for whatever you need, and eSIM flexibility is great (IIJ as eSIM but seems a bit more involved to get it to work).
    • So, the rural part of the journey still has cell service for nearly all the way, usually on B18/19/8 (depending on whether we're talking about KDDI/NTT/SoftBank). I think I saw a bit of B28 and even n28 early on in the trip, though that faded out after a bit. Once we got to where we were going though, KDDI had enough B41 to pull 150+ Mbps, while NTT and SoftBank had B1/B3 IIRC. Cell service was likewise generally fine from Kawaguchiko Station to Tokyo on the express bus to Shinjuku Station, though there were some cases where only low-band LTE was available and capacity seemed to struggle. I also figured out what I was seeing with SoftBank on 40 MHz vs. 100 MHz n77: the 40 MHz blocks are actually inside the n78 band class, but SoftBank advertises them as n77, probably to facilitate NR CA. My phone likely preferred the 40 MHz slices as they're *much* lower-frequency, ~3.4 GHz rather than ~3.9, though of course I did see the 100 MHz slice being used rather often. By contrast, when I got NR on NTT it was either n28 10x10 or, more often, 100 MHz n78. As usual, EMEA bands on my S24 don't CA, so any data speeds I saw were the result of either one LTE carrier or one LTE carrier plus one NR carrier...except for B41 LTE. KDDI seems to have more B41 bandwidth live at this point, so my1010 or Airalo works well for this, and honestly while SoftBank and NTT 5G (in descending order of availability) have 5G that's readily available it may be diminishing returns, particularly given that I still don't know how to, as someone not from Hong Kong, get an eSIM that runs on SoftBank 5G that isn't the USM "comes for free with the unlimited premium package" roaming eSIM (NTT is easy enough thanks to Ubigi). In other news, I was able to borrow someone's Rakuten eSIM and...got LTE with it. 40 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 40ms latency to Tokyo while in Tokyo...which isn't any worse than the Japan-based physical SIMs I had used earlier. But not getting n77 or n257 was disappointing, though I had to test the eSIM from one spot rather than bouncing around the city to find somewhere with better reception. It's currently impossible to get a SIM as a foreigner that runs on Rakuten, so that was the best I could do. Also, I know my phone doesn't have all the LTE and 5G bands needed to take full advantage of Japanese networks. My S24 is missing: B21 (1500 MHz) - NTT B11 (1500 MHz) - KDDI, SoftBank B42 (3500 MHz) - NTT, KDDI, SoftBank n79 (4900 MHz) - NTT Of the above, B42/n79 are available on the latest iPhones, though you lose n257, and I'm guessing you're not going to find B11/B21 on a phone sold outside Japan.
    • T-Mobile acquiring SoniqWave's 2.5 GHz spectrum  Another spectrum speculator down! T-Mobile is acquiring all of their licenses and their leases. Details are lacking but it looks like T-Mobile might be giving them 3.45GHz in exchange in some of the markets where they're acquiring BRS/EBS to sweeten the deal and stay below the spectrum screen. Hopefully NextWave is at the negotiating table with T-Mobile so NYC can finally get access to the full BRS/EBS band as well. 
    • Maybe. The taller buildings on one side of the street all have Fios access and the NYCHA buildings are surrounded by Verizon macros that have mmWave. I don’t think this site will add much coverage. It’d be better off inside the complex itself.
    • Looks like a great place for for FWA. Many apartment dwellers only have one overpriced choice.
  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...