greenbastard

Theres a difference between a cellphone tower being inside private property vs. a 70 foot tall pole sticking out right next to the side of the road.

This pretty much sums it up. Places like Las Vegas and Atlanta had a smooth user experience. Anytime the phone would come out of my pocket, I had B41. If my phone ever fell to 800 (in Atlanta) or 1900, the phone would go back to B41 as soon as possible. I even saw my phone do this when playing a video or streaming music, which was amazing.

It's not the device. I had this issue with a Galaxy S5 and two other Nexus 5x (M8994F is the current one). I also see it with the iPhones in the other lines I have under contract (though iPhone engineering screen can't be trusted). I've always had access to good RSRP and SNR on B25 (surprisingly, SNR is way better for me on B25 than it is on B26). Unfortunately the network just isn't working as it should. It's gotten better...that I will admit, but not good enough. In 2014, all Tri-band devices would be exclusively parked on B26. Today, I see B25 more now, but not enough to make the network consistent. One thing I do admire about T-Mobile in this part of the state is that their network is extremely aggressive at getting you to switch to B4 LTE if you happen to fall to B12. Which is good for their network because parts of midtown have brought T-Mobile's network to its knees. A Sprint 5x5 B25 carrier outperforms T-Mobile's 20x20 B4 in that area.

As of this writing, I'm currently in the heights. But similar results in Cleveland and Conroe. I usually would not mind the slow speeds. Heck, I've had slow speeds for the longest when I lived in Lufkin. But what really has me looking for a different provider is the fact that Sprint has the ability to provide stable service, yet they don't. They cannot manage their bands correctly. I hate to turn this into a speed test screenshot fest, but this is B26, which I'm on for the most part (Even if B25 is readily available) And this is B25 (taken after I turned off B26). Same location in the heights, indoors.

I'm waiting for the contract to run its course. If there has ever been a time to switch, it is now. All of the phones in our lines now support LTE bands for all carriers. And since Sprint has to unlock them, it should be a breeze. I'll definitely be taking my old Tri-band phone to ringplus to track any Sprint activity. Unfortunately, I highly doubt Sprint does a rip and replace of Clearwire equipment now that Rootmetrics has pinned them the king of Data download speeds. Theres no incentive for them to do so. Unfortunately, not many people are aware that those were outdoor tests and Sprint is pretty slow in real life usage through most of SE Texas. The last known permits for Sprint in this area were for gas powered generators in 2014. Not many network improvements are happening at the moment and with capex down, I'm not expecting them to start in the immediate future.

In New York. But in SE Texas, some B41 towers (Clearwater) won't go past 2 city blocks outdoors. I live 1500 ft from a Clear B41 site and I can't get it indoors. Meanwhile, B25 seems to give me 5 Mbps which is more than I need. But unfortunately the network puts me on B26 even though my average RSRP is -105 indoors for B25. Those small cells better not be B41-only for the sake of VoLTE. Sprint won't be able to keep this 50% off deal much longer. Let's face it, considering that this deal seemed pretty good, the numbers it attracted were a bit disappointing. Sure they got customers, but not as many you would hope for. I've never seen an uncongested B26 cell in Houston. Seeing as how the network keeps me on B26 most of the time all over town (even if B25 is available), I think I did him a solid. He currently has at&t, so a switch to Sprint would have been a downgrade. If he had T-Mobile, I would have told him to test it out since T-Mobile also has some issues in this area. Now had he asked me about San Antonio, I would have told him to try it. The Sprint network in SA is a lot better than the Sprint network in Louisiana, Dallas, Austin and Houston. Even before NV rolled out, 3G wasn't as congested as it was in other markets. At&t is king in SA, but Sprint also holds its own there. But recommending Sprint in Houston? My conscious won't allow me to.

That number is extremely misleading. Take Houston or Dallas for example. The city limits may be 85% covered by B41 from my personal experience. But inside that 85%, the number goes way down when you consider indoor coverage of B41. The corporate restructure has had many positives. The Overland Park HQ was extremely bloated and I'm glad Sprint isn't playing around anymore with unnecessary expenses. Like others have said, we've been hearing the same thing for so long. It's almost become a broken record sadly. Actually, they do have to march to the beat of someone else's drum. The market is fierce and they don't have much room for mistakes. Subscribers will continue to leave if network improvement isn't seen. I do like that Sprint is thinking long term, but they may not be around for long if their network isn't improved in the immediate future. I recently had a friend ask how Sprint was since he was recently intrigued by the 50% half off promotion for his family plan. I had to be honest talked him out of it. There's just no reason to jump on Sprint at the moment in most of Texas . In the future? Maybe.

No. Just random posts by users pointing it out. For example, see some of the latest posts on the HTC 10 thread for other people seeing the same thing you're seeing. If I had to take a wild guess, this is a Verizon issue that will likely never be fixed. They have no incentive to fix this issue since they are moving on to VoLTE.

It's a growing trend nationwide for Sprint users when roaming on Verizon. Some users on this board have seen the same thing. Calls and SMS are fine, but no data while on Verizon. I haven't been able to establish a data connection on Verizon in East Texas since last fall.

Sorry, meant it as speculation. Seeing as how they are selling some their spectrum and then leasing it back to themselves, I'd figure they may be more open to other streams of revenue.

Well, Sprint is going to lease some of their BRS spectrum in the near future. I'd imagine that they will want to get paid and create roaming agreements during the process.

I'll be one of the first to criticize Sprint for things they lag behind in (mostly data speeds being slower than dialup in my area). But one thing Sprint really excels on is Customer Service. I've had 2 SIM cards shipped to me for free, with the second one being shipped overnight since the first one failed (or so we thought it did...phone factory reset fixed LTE issue). They've also added a 50 dollar credit in the past due to outages in my area. How did you contact Sprint? Chat, email, phone? International Chat support won't hesitate to ship the sim card to you for free.

Not giving, but taking over the debt (consolidating and then becoming the creditor) and giving Sprint more time and a more favorable interest rate. I doubt that happens, but it's a possibility.

I got the same problem when roaming on Verizon in East Texas. I can use Text and Calls just fine, but my phone cannot establish a data session. It seems to be a regional thing since 1x Data roaming worked fine in Arizona last month with Verizon.

Unfortunately, I don't think Sprint can do a B25 10x10 in SF or Houston unless they trade spectrum to pair their 5x5 blocks and thin out EVDO & 1x. There's information about this on the sponsors page, so it's definitely an option for Sprint. I just doubt they do it in SF and Houston.

Which hospital? Is it in the Medic Center?

Bull Manure! I call bull Manure. Yes, Sprint can deliver those 100+ Mbps speeds but only if you are relatively close to a Sprint or Clear tower. B26 is slower than 3G at the moment and the network is not properly balancing users between bands. I can't even stream a 32 kbps stream on B26 in some areas. Sprint is not tied for #1. No way in hell. Call and texts? Maybe. But not data speeds.

I'm about 1500 feet away from a Clearwire/Sprint colocation and can't receive B41 indoors. Of course, it is important to note that the tower is one of the shortest towers in the area, I'm sitting between sectors, it's using Clear equipment, and there is a lot of vegetation covering my line of sight. But still, 1500 feet... If you can see the tower, then you shouldn't have any problems, especially since this is likely 8T8R, which performs better than Clearwire. It is in places in which you lose LOS in which you should test out B41.

Could be that 3 triband devices (two CA) could be faulty, but I doubt that. B41 just isn't the bread and butter many people make it out to be in my neck of the woods. We can argue that maybe I'm sitting between sectors or that each building I visit is made out of (nerd alert!) Valyrian steel. Let's say that is true...then why is it that Sprint still suffers from slow speeds on Band 26, Band 25 and Band 25²? A lot of sites around me are all triband (mixture of Clear and 8T8R), yet they are all incredibly slow on LTE SMR and PCS. If B41 was truly working like it should be, then B25 and B26 should have been offloaded by now. Unfortunately, EVDO is now faster than both B25/B26 so B41 offloading is not happening anywhere in Texas or Southern Louisiana. Physics are physics and the higher we go in frequency, the harder it is to penetrate buildings and get past obstacles. Now that's not to say I haven't seen B41 flourish. I've had decent encounters with B41 in places such as Las Vegas. No trees or vegetation to block towers and sites are more tightly spaced than most markets in the Southeast. Unfortunately Jacksonville is nothing like Vegas. It has a high density of medium to tall trees that produce a lot of foliage which hurts B41. Terrell simply asked what the reason was he hasn't seen B41 live and I offered a possible explanation. It's not out of the realm of possibility that B41 has been on this entire time. It could just be that it doesn't reach him. I'm just giving him my personal experiences so he can understand what he may encounter. In my experience, 8t8r B41 won't reach the same places B25 currently does, especially when you're indoors.

Well, how close are you to the cell? The first time I got a triband phone, I searched for B41 around South Austin without any success. I almost thought Sprint was pulling my leg until I was finally able to latch onto it...standing next to a tower. I know many people will hate me for saying this, but in my opinion B41 may as well be a glorified wifi hotspot. It's range is very limited, it doesn't penetrate walls, and thick brush rapidly diminish the quality of the signal. I've seen 8t8r installed and deployed next to a shopping plaza only for it to fail. Its awesome to see 100+ Mbps in the parking lot with -85 RSRP (+/- 5 dbu). What's not awesome is losing B41 as soon as I go inside one of the big box stores. There's a reason why that B41 is still pulling down 100+ Mbps while B25/B26 are crawling to dialup speeds. It's because B41 doesn't travel far. That's just my experience. I know many people will claim it's not properly optimized or it's not at full power. But it's been about 2 years now since B41 launched in my area. Optimization should have come and gone by now. I doubt small cells will do much unless you're an outdoors person. And seeing as how this is Jacksonville, us southerners avoid the outdoors for most of the year (because it's hot). My advice is to get in a line of sight position to the tower and let the phone sit for a while. Maybe B41 is live, you just don't know it because it can't reach you.

As far as the PCI changing, the same thing happened throughout Southeast & Central Texas around the same time you reported the change. Both Sprint B25/26 and Clear B41 saw changes everywhere in my area as far as I can tell. For what is worth, only one panel for both 800/1900 is being used in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Lots of useless Clear B41 which may as well be a glorified wifi hotspot in most areas. I'm just as confused as you are as to why Sprint would just change PCI out of nowhere. I'm sure they had a reason. Unfortunately, it hasn't made the network balance any better.

I always get mail promotion telling me that I get bill credit for adding a line. It's possible.

Even if it were 4 national carriers, they would still push themselves to find ways to gain a competitive advantage. What you're talking about only happens when a monopoly holds control over a market. No competition = no incentive to improve.

And who will that one entity be that builds, maintains, and upgrades the network and its infrastructure? If your answer is the 'government', then your pipe dream is no better or worse than arsyns. In an perfect world? Sure. But we don't live in one.

The government may have had a role in giving out Cellular licences, but they no longer have a role in deciding who gets what. That's why they have an auction. If a company doesn't have the capital to purchase spectrum, what makes you think they have money to deploy it to begin with? See Exhibit Dish Spectrum. That's impossible and counterproductive. Let the market sort it out. No. Will never work. It will create more headaches than it will create solutions. Your best alternative is to let carriers sort themselves out by trading licenses in order to pair their spectrum, which they are doing now. Socialism won't work.