snowtrooper1966

Note the LTE indicator, I'm in San Diego!

No regrets!

Knew I would eventually be stoked with Sprint.

Woot!

Any updates here?

 

 

Oh. Well, if he literally took a wad of $100 bills in hand to purchase , thats a little unusual and somewhat understandable I suppose. I would be irate if they refused a credit back to my debit/credit card

Not that unusual.

Part was from bank account, part was PayPal and then some cash.

Was trying to streamline process....

Never considered having issues at refund, as that was not part of the plan. My mistake, and I am paying for it now!

I did even ask if they would just put it in my bank account via debit card...no dice.

Sprint has the best voice network by far between the top three. I have used VZW and ATT for many years. Sprint is a little better than Verizon and night and day better than ATT. I've never used Tmo.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

That has been my experience as well.

Did use TMob, for a time.

 

 

Wow.... Is it like that everywhere when returning Iphones? I'm trying to think of another line of retail where you can surrender product for return in person, to a human where it was purchased, that is obviously not defective and not receive a refund on the spot. Maybe I'm just outta "the know". Was this not a corporate store?

Yep, corporate.

It took every iota of restraint not to flip out....

Glad to have you back. I read somewhere that it took Verizon 6 months to refund him for his 1st monthly payment. I hope it comes back soon considering the amount its worth. Did you just reopen 5 lines with sprint? Does that mean you got 5 new phones, too?

Original ETA on refund was 3 to 5 weeks. After some time on the phone with VZN financial they have approved "expedited" refund, but that still could take 3 weeks....

I had 3 lines on Sprint, added another when I jumped ship. Bought four iPhone 5's.

Intended to port all lines back to Sprint, but after the VZN debacle, had no funds for new phones.

Currently just the wife and my line active, using our iPhone 4S's....

Haha, welcome back to the fold snow...this just goes to show that the grass isn't always automatically nor universally greener on the other side.

Not greener for me, by a longshot....

To add insult to injury, I paid cash (1500) for 5's at VZN store.

On competing the return, employee said I could expect my mailed refund in a few weeks....

 

 

Holy moly! I almost choked on my cherry coke when I read this. Surprising. Thanks for the update.

 

Robert

Mmmm, Cherry Coke, my favorite!

Just like S4GRU is not a good fit for everyone who wants to discuss the Sprint network. With some people, we just need to part ways.

 

Robert

Not so fast!

After all that, I wound up returning the deivces and cancelling my contract w/VZN.

Was not happy with the cellular phone service (many dropped calls ) and the limited 4G LTE near my home. VZN 4G "limited" service was no better than current Sprint 3G data speeds.

Not worth the extra dough....

Going to ride this out with Sprint. More hopeful about Sprint's future than VZN's current capabilities.

 

 

I'm not surprised one bit. Sprint, as with all wireless carriers, is trying to make money, and would rather be rid of people who are unhappy with their service and very vocal about it. They had been giving you service discounts for how long and then you wanted a $350 early upgrade on top of that. It made no sense for them to comply. They used to cancel service for people who called customer service too much. With you, they cut their losses.

You make it sound like I had no reason to be calling customer service, and was expecting too much by at least hoping to get the minimum data speeds advertised.....

you were pretty disgusted with Sprint 3G speeds

More discouraged. I was surprised they were more willing to cut me loose than allow me an early upgrade.

I waited patiently for 11 months for them to get up to speed, what's a few months to them? I would have signed a new 2 year contract....

Went to the darkside for now:

By no means am I encouraging anyone to leave Sprint, just worked out for my needs now.

I will be keeping a close eye on Sprint........

Excellent breakdown, pyroscott, thanks!

.....So simple even a snowtrooper can understand it.....:D

For me, the most worrying aspect of switching to VZN is this:

They also have no ability to throw more spectrum at LTE with the current crop of devices, the only options are to roll out LTE on cellular band or PCS for the iPhone 5, or roll out on AWS, but they have zero phones that support AWS LTE at this time

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in with helpfull replies.

I've got untill Friday to make my choice:

Move to VZN:

Faster data now w/ 4G LTE & new iPhone 5 but higher monthly bill. Likely dimminishing data speeds as subscriber levels reach critical mass.

Stay on Sprint:

Slow data (now), iPhone 4S (so no 4G LTE), unlimited data plan w/ "friends and family" discount, possible increased data speeds very soon.

If I do jump ship to VZN, I will definitely be keeping my eye on Sprint.

I have always been excited about the possibilities for network vision since first reading about it in October of last year......

I am aware of Sprin't timeline for LTE deployment locally, and said as much here:

....since joining in a effort to discern real time line for LTE deployment (which has corroborated my info of the first quarter 2013.)

Many people have stated in this thread that Verizon has a spectrum advantage in terms of coverage with 700 MHz. That doesn't mean that what Sprint is using with 1900 MHz is less inferior than 700 MHz. The best combination for LTE for any carrier is a combination of low freq (700 MHz) and high freq (1700 MHz) in Verizon's case and in Sprint's case its low freq (800 MHz) and high freq (1900 MHz).

That is helpfull, thanks for your patience.

I think its ridiculous how much the cell phone takes over people's lives like its a bigger decision over a house or car.

I just don't think people should get some wrapped up about their cell phone.

Sorry for being really blunt or even rude but i just can't stand it when people obsess over their cell phone like its a life or death situation.

I think it's ridiculous that folks feel the need to offer unsolicited judgment to others. For you to presume your view of what should be important in others lives seems a bit narcissistic and myopic.

I would not be surprised to see similar comments on FB or Twitter. I am surprised to see them here on a tech savvy forum.

I don't see why this is a big struggle. If you don't care to learn or understand about why Sprint is in their current pickle and can't envision what the huge benefits are for Sprint doing Network Vision when its done or can't wait until Network Vision lands in San Diego, then just sign up with Verizon or AT&T and be done with it

It's a struggle as I am in a time crunch and there are many technolocical factors to try and soak in. I learn by by doing, so it's challenging for me to jamb all this in my cranium on short notice and feel like I "got it".

Seems a bit odd that you would question my desire to learn, as I am here on the only site I felt could give me a reasonable crash course.

If I could not see the future potential of network vision, I would have been gone already.....

It seems to me from reading your responses and other responses in this thread that you are leaning towards VZW. If anything, why not just do a 14 day trial with Verizon to see it works out for you? Maybe you learn that it is not worth the extra costs for VZW. Don't port your number entirely or else you'll be committed to VZW for 2 years and just use the temporary phone number. Also you claim that you use only 1.8 GB/month but I can tell you that this is only a fallacy because when you start getting faster speeds, you tend to use more data. For example if you only had 300 Kbps internet (Sprint) but then you upgrade to a 10-15 Mbps internet (Verizon LTE), I can pretty much tell you your data usage habits will likely change a bit knowing that you have access to faster speeds. I am not trying to say that you'll use like 15 GB/month but instead of just 1.8 GB/month on Sprint you may use up to 4-5 GB/month on Verizon which means higher costs.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position for a trial. I have to sell my current devices to cover cost of subsidized units, and my window to exit Sprint without fees is on the 21st, iPhone 5 launch day.

I do suspect we will see an incrimental increase in our data usage due to speed upgrade. If I do switch, I am willing to deal with the inconvience of having to monitor a few billing cycles and adjust if needed.

Verizon has made a requirement for all phones on their network to be LTE. As people have mentioned above as the network gets saturated the speeds will come down. This lead they have is only temporary until AT&T and Sprint catch up. I would wait it out...

That would seem to indicate the conventional wisdom is with VZN, they have a backhaul limit, and once they acheive a specific density with subscribers will be in the same boat Sprint is now.

I don't wnat to have to deal with this again.

I prefer not to wait it out, as I am unhappy with current data speeds and have a short window to terminate service without early termination fees.....

Struggling to make an informed decision based on available data now, while still looking to the future.

There is no "best" spectrum, only different. Sprint is deploying LTE on an unused portion of the spectrum they currently run voice and data on (hence my comment, if your Sprint voice/3G coverage is good, so will Sprint's 4G coverage).

I appreciate your effort to simplify this as much as possible, but you may have gone to far there. I thought voice and data use different frequencies.

With the above statement, I take away that I should have good 3G data now, as I have had zero voice issues to date. I'm sure that’s not what you meant. …

I’m really just struggling to wrap my head around what carrier is going to be the best choice long term, based on my needs. Looking to base this decision on quantifiable technical data and stay away from emotional subjective reasoning.

I suppose if it was that easy, everyone wold be on one carrier.....

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the input and patience.

Looking back over the past 11 months, our highest monthly data usage was 1.8 GB.

We obviously are not data hogs, and do most of any serious usage at home on WiFi, so I'm not even certain that unlimited data is a carrot worth chasing. I would like to have that available, should those usage needs increase due to technology or changing family habits.

What I'm currently struggling with is the frustration over the past year over slow data speeds on Sprint while out and about in town. I did believe in network vision, and that Apple would not have released flagship device on a crippled network if there was no resolution in site.

A little background:

My family is using 3 iPhone 4S's, purchased on launch day last October when we started Sprint service.

I noticed right away the slow 3G data speeds, and opened a trouble ticked within a few days. After the initial runaround from the low level CSR's of endless phantom tower outages, PRL update suggestions and shifting the blame to Apple, and with a bit of persistence, I was able to get credit for premium data charges on all three lines for the first 5 moths. I then ht a wall with them, and it was getting increasingly difficult to get any real time frame for expected upgrades. I decided to file a FCC complaint. It was effective in regard that I now had a top level trouble ticket that could not be closed and had a easier time with continued premium data fee credits to my account, but the communication was sporadic at best.

Through my conversations with sprint techs, I was able to glean that build-out here would start near the end of 2011, and may be online as soon as 1^st quarter 2012.

As an early adopter, I was looking forward to the newest iPhone 5, and was hopeful that the inclusion of LTE and better reception via redesigned antenna would afford me a small modicum of improved data speeds now, and a HUGE improvement once network vision was initiated in my area and shortly after deployed.

I approached my contact in Executive and Regulatory Services department in an effort to secure permission for a subsidized early upgrade on my line with a new two year contract. After nearly a week, she returned my call. To my great surprise, she informed me they were prepared to let me out of my contract without any ETF's. They were adamant that was all they could (were willing) do and that was my only choice. It was unbelievable they would rather churn me as opposed to letting me get a device that would possibly alleviate my issues in the short term and likely completely eradicate them once network vision was deployed in my city.

Unless....they don't see any relief in the future for my speed issue and/or they are looking for an easy out to get rid of a customer that filed an FCC complaint.

At this time I started my research into LTE deployment on various carriers. From that admittedly limited effort from less than cohesive sources, I really started to doubt network vision's ability to provide me with the quality of LTE service I was looking for. By all appearances the big two were offering that in abundance.

It was my limited understanding the best (ease of transmission, superior building penetration) LTE frequencies were the lower 700 to 900 range, and that big blue and red had snatched most of that up while Sprint was fumbling about with WinMax.

Since Sprint was left scrambling for appropriate LTE frequency, they had very little spectrum of what they did have, forcing them to broadcast on a less than efficient single carrier configuration.

That was my thought joining this forum, and since joining in a effort to discern real time line for LTE deployment (which has corroborated my info of the first quarter 2013.

I have since come to the realization that my conclusions were way off base, but it has not been made clear why Sprint’s LTE may or may not be better than the other 2 big providers. While I appreciate the participation of members here in this thread, I think I'm more confused than ever.

I really hope to be able to make an informed choice based on at least a basic idea of best LTE deployment strategies, frequency use and spectrum availability for each carrier.

I also worry that Sprint may not survive for long, may be gobbled up by one of the big two, merge with T-Mobile or even bought by Apple.

With less than a week until my penalty free contract dissolution offer expires, I appreciate everyone’s efforts to help me make that decision.

Again, thanks and apologies for butchering any of the technical info above...

COVERAGE, not data speeds. If Sprint's 3G signal is usable, Sprint's LTE will also be usable. You are indicting the LTE on the fact that the back haul or carriers are overloaded.

And that is the usefull info I need.

You ae correct, I did erroniusly relate data speed and coverage. Just have so much new info I'm taking in, it's hard to sort it at times.

Funny thing is, that was my original thought when I first was trying to superficially wrap my head around all this many months ago. It was my initial impression that netowk vision would be worth waiting for, once the backhaul was releived and LTE was deployed.

I hate to be the only one that says AT&T but my friends that have AT&T are very happy. Their iphones download at 5 mbps on 3G. This is what Sprint is promising for 4G. I also know that AT&T has a lot of spectrum in San Diego so I'm sure their LTE will be fast like Dallas and not so-so like their Chicago LTE coverage. I also hear great things about Verizon but no one I know has their LTE phones either.

I don't know anyone with a Verizon phone to check the real world usage results in my neighborhhod either.

It does look like you are correct tho, based on the maps posed above, AT&T looks to have my town saturated in at least a 15 mile radius with the best LTE signal.

I'm just apprehensive based on the reputaion of dropped calls and bad customer service.....

The reality is, if your current Sprint 3G coverage is adequate, so will Sprint's 4G coverage. If not, Sprint's 4G LTE deployment will not change that and you are better off with another carrier.

It is not even adequate. Averageing in the 200kbps range during peak usage time.

If your observation is correct, I'm really in trouble

As it appears AT&T would be my best bet, but last choice....