centermedic

I know this was briefly covered a few times before, but it really seems like Sprint is dropping the ball by not allowing existing subs to join the same "family". I get that thanks to the internet, nearly EVERYONE would be in a 7+ person "framily", but if Sprint wants to push the great "savings" with Framily (while moving people away from subsidized plans), they've got to be more flexible with this.

 

Sprint's LTE upgrades in my area have basically been on pause for 6+ months, and I've thought about switching carriers. Upon hearing about Framily and figuring out the savings, I thought about switching my five lines, getting one friend thinking about switching to Sprint to join, then having another couple friends who have Sprint but are considering leaving all to join a Framily together. Even if we aren't thrilled with the current service, the promise of upgrades and savings with Framily are worth it.

 

But wait, my two other friends can't join my Framily, meaning it'd be six people until I find a seventh. And what if the 6th person dislikes the lack of timely LTE upgrades and the fact he's paying $5\month more than intended, and leaves after a few months? It's a $25\$50 swing. Then I leave because I can't maximize my savings, and it seems cruel to sell Sprint to non-Sprint users in an area where their upgrades have slowed significantly.

 

All of a sudden Sprint goes from 7 existing user and one new sub, to no new sub, and losing seven lines. Obviously this is a case by case situation, but I want to like Sprint and I'm frustrated that every time it seems like Sprint does something good, they do something to make it far less good.

The biggest issue I have with the Framily plan is it seems like a return to the old ways were NEW customers were valued over loyal customers. This was a big complaint about Sprint around 2001-2006 ish. Sprint finally set up loyalty rewards with the tiered upgrade based on tears with Sprint which they got rid of. I understand not allowing everybody to combine their accounts but they should at least allow an existing customer to combine with one other existing customers account. Maybe they will change their mind on this.

Freedompop has much better prices.

Might as well, vzw will remain the only LTE carrier I can get, maybe at&t later this year since they own the tower that vzw sits on. Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

Wait, AT&T and VZ still own towers?

Looking in as a third person, Sprint is the worst carrier in the NYC as of now. I advise against anyone to switch to sprint at this point. things might change in the future, but AS OF NOW, sprint is the worst carrier in NYC without any hesitation. 

Really? You need to at least provide your reasoning.

Well he has a point, they always talking about the benefits of NV and how great it is but thats all they do, talk about something that is not there, the network is slow at least here in New Orleans it is, i rather turn off LTE on my iPhone and use 3G, half the time i have full bars of LTE and i cant even pull down a meg. and yes band 41 is supposed to fix that problem but thats not coming anytime soon and based on how fast they are deploying it it will take years, i do believe its a shitstorm and the Spanky network, no better word to describe it. Once Sprint deploys the network they been hyping about for the past years ill consider them as a carrier again. Their network works as wifi, you have to find the hotspots to get something done, and there are not many of them.

User results may vary depending on geography. My network experience has improved 100% in Raleigh since the NV rollout and they are not done yet.Justify Legeres remarks at your own peril. 

You are right to point out that tmobile will not have their WLTE across their entire lte foot print and the exstint of this roll out is important. But vzw will have a very extensive roll out of the AWS lte well before 2016. I doubt ATT is going to stand still either (although it is much harder to see where the come up with additional spectrum.). Here is why I think it is painfully slow, tmobile will be hammering the faster network and in carrier message for the next two years (providing they are not bought out which is what I think they are angling for) Verizon will continue with it message and likely see their reputation remained unchanged, ATT might be the only company that might have problems as it is hard to see where they go from here. What is sprint message for the next two years? There pricing plans are innovative and maybe that will be it. But they aren't really the cheapest (nor do They want to be known as that really). So what do they go to market place with as the reason people should choose sprint? Are network is the slowest (in terms of average speeds), our plans aren't the cheapest, every one is doing HD voice (except vzw), they will have the most advance network but the average end user won't see it that way, They'll see slower lte data, so what is the marketing message that they can deliver on. one of the appeals of NV was the speed of the original time line and had it been exicuted sprint would be at rough parody with all the other carriers today. But it wasn't and so they aren't in most areas. Maybe it can argued and maybe it is true that sprint band 41 rollout will keep them in line with their competition but that is not what sprint needs to be doing right now. They need to pull a head of the competition and really try to differinciate their network ( which is what they claim to be doing). For the reasons mentioned above I don't think their current time table will allow them to do this. But maybe this new pricing scheme will be the message.

Here is the problem. Sprint was criticized, sometimes here, for over promising and under delivering. There is the distinct possibility that they are now under promising. Additionally, if Sprint covers the major metro areas with band 41 then I really don't think anybody is going to care if the network overly takes two years. In that comparison T-Mobile will not have a leg to stand on.

For the spectrum? Dish has plenty and Verizon can buy Dish.

I dont know how valuable Dishs spectrum is in practical terms.

That would be interesting but I dont think it would happen. Verizon recently got into bed with the cable companies. I dont think they would try to compete with cable at this point.

Ah, reminds me of the introduction of overlay area codes that confused the crap out of everyone.

 

201 and 973 got 551, and people went nuts.

 

Remember when 10 digit dialing was mandated?

Grrrr. They are doing right now in Raleigh NC and it is driving the centrex systems nuts. Some numbers need a 1+ area code and some just need the area code. The problem is it is still all the 919. Throw that in with a centrex system that requires that you dial 9 for an outside line and BAM, you have a recipe for anarchy.

How long ago was this

In the 80's. IIRC even the news media did it. Especially weather forecasters after the city broke up into 212 and 718 area codes. So that would be right after we ditched the stone tablets, nails and hammers.

I'm sure that's what the OP intended.

 

Just threw me off since no one in their right mind would use the area code to refer to anything in NY or NJ.

HA! Must be generational because we used to always say in da 212!

ah yes, forgot to mention that. i did do ##72786# and ##3282#. Since I am in range of the airave I can only activate if I turn on wifi or unplug the airave to connect to a local tower through eHRPD.

Not sure if it would make a difference but I would try  to have the tech desk reprovision the phone.

Not everybody has the know how to build their computer's I'm one of those. I have a book on building computer's but it is so confusing. I'm a marine tech so it's not like I don't have the skill but matching all the part's and making them work is daunting. I would like to give it a go at some point but I think I would need some help getting the right stuff. Don't think it would be a problem putting it all together might need a few tool's  for all them tiny screw's.

Its actually pretty simple. These days you can buy the motherboard complete with the processor. In the past you had to look it up to see what was compatible with what.

Sprint users lose cell service

 

HAMPTON ROADS (WAVY) - Sprint customers are experiencing a loss of service in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

 

Officials told WAVY.com cell towers are down and technicians are working on the issue and hope to have it fixed by 3 p.m.

 

Users may not be able to use the internet or text with their devices.

 

Stay with WAVY.com for more information on this developing story.

 

 

 

 

https://www.wavy.com/news/local/sprint-users-lose-cell-service

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

There isn't much of a story here but it's still a shame to see.

 

Does anyone have any first hand experience how widespread it was? Or if it was just a tower here and there?

 

I wonder what would cause a large scale outage.... (If it was, indeed, that.)

 

If this was already posted elsewhere, I apologize. I did attempt to look for it.

Happens more often than you think. Verizon had some pretty significant outages early on on their LTE deployment. I can tell you that we had one just this past august in the triangle area(NC).

Everyone cries for rebranding. Sprint talks about brand consolidation and everyone cringes. If sprint can come up with a compelling business solutions package and wants to call it "nextel solutions" ... is that really any worse than the immediate paralysis that the sprint name apparently gives people? Killing boost would be silly though. Too much low end street cred....there are boost stores even in my tiny market and you actually see people using boost more often... At least killing virgin would save licensing with branson... Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I think this would have been a great idea if they had transitioned Nextel into this model. Rather they killed off the brand and in the process they damaged it. I dont know if this is such a great idea. On the other hand, consolidating the two pre paid brands into one makes sense.

Great info guys, thanks.  I think I'll go through Amazon for my wife's upgrade and to add my brother to the account, assuming I can keep my plan intact.  She want's the S4 and it's free, but $200 through Best Buy.

Around the first of the year Best buy opens up it $50 off program for cell phones. I will keep an eye open for it and post here when I see it.

It has also been mentioned here that you cant goto a third party retailer as they only have access to the new plans. I don't know how true that is but I did try to add another line online and was unable to keep my data everything plan and add a new line. I went into a sprint corporate store and they were able to add it on for me.

My specs are kind of pedestrian:

Desktop

HP Pavilion

AMD Athlon II Quad Core 640 processor @ 3.00 ghz

Motherboard M2N68-LA

4 gb ram

64 Bit OS

1 tb Seagate HD

320 gb Seagate HD

Invidia GeForce 6150se integrated 

Laptop:

Presario C700

Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.47 ghz

1.5 gb Ram

320 gb HD

and of course the Acer Chromebook.

Here you go, guys.  Line up your e-penis right here...

 

 

AJ

You are going to need a larger ruler!

Contracts have a way of making them more entrenched. So do phones technologically locked to a particularly band or bands.

Thats exactly my point. The average cell phone consumer would gravitate towards switching providers if not for the contracts.

Very true.  Actually what I wish they would do is release the device no more than a couple of weeks after it has been officially announced.  When the One was announced there was quite a bit of hype for it but a lot of it faded away being that it took two to three months for it to be available for sale and by that time the s4 was right around the corner.  Like you said though, as long as there aren't any delays of any sort, I really hope that when they officially announce the device that the street date be no more than two weeks later.

Now that would be friggin awesome!

I still have not publicly endorsed this Sprint-T-Mobile transaction.  But I will rebut those who oppose it on unsubstantiated or untenable grounds.  And here is my rationale...

 

A truly equivalent third competitor to VZW and AT&T needs to blow the duopoly out of the water with spectrum/capacity in cities.  That is the only way to compete with their essentially insurmountable coverage footprint advantage -- gained from regulatory oversight allowing them to buy up nearly all sub 1 GHz spectrum and associated mature networks over the last 15 years.

 

This hearkens back to what the FCC seemingly intended over 20 years ago when it designed the PCS 1900 MHz band to serve as a competitive foil to the Cellular 850 MHz band.  Back then, it was the digital "city phone" versus the analog "coverage phone."  Of course, the Cellular incumbents circumvented that dichotomy through overlay of digital airlinks and consolidation by the duopoly.

 

But the new dichotomy could be the massive capacity "city device" versus the low capacity "coverage device."  For once, for all, that could put the duopoly in its place -- maybe even on its heels -- as increasingly data gluttonous consumers would have to choose between much faster service in cities or much broader service outside of cities.

 

AJ

I understand what you are saying and I should preface my comments as being based totally on my own opinions. I will stand by my concern about the debt load and there being more negatives to this deal than positives. Short story, I believe this deal may very well HAMPER Sprints ability to compete with the big two rather then enhancing it. I will be more than happy to retract that opinion if the details of the alleged deal show otherwise.

Two weeks or two months, doesn't really make a difference.  There is nothing htc can do to significantly impact sales of the next galaxy phone.  HTC simply doesn't have the marketing budget like what samsung has, and thats what it will always come down to.  I really hope HTC can partner up with a much larger corporation so they can get the capital needed to compete with samsung on advertising.

I agree to a certain extent. Mostly because we have no idea how many more phones HTC would have sold if there was no delay and how many of those sales would have been stolen from Samsung. What we do know is that releasing your flagship phone  so close to Samsungs flagship is not a good idea for anybody save Apple.

LOL let them go! They will leave outta spite and regret it later and prolly come back.. 

I have a tmo account on suspension as I was all set to leave,..... Then 800 started popping up on my phone and I noticed I was getting a lot more lte... just not in my home but I thought i should wait a little longer....

Thats what my issue is. You spend billions just to watch folk walk out the door when you can invest that same billions into your company and run t-mo into the ground. I know that is an overly simplistic outlook as T-mo does bring spectrum to the table but Sprint already has an enviable spectrum portfolio and T-mo does not extend Sprints footprint. I have yet to see anything that would convince me that this is a good idea.

If they could somehow launch it in mid to late Feb or early March then they might be okay.

Thats what the rumor is but with HTC you never know.