pecosdave

I understand this, I've also found that industries tend to watch their fan sites, and other forums they don't host themselves while ignoring / censoring the outcries on their own forums. (To Sprints credit they usually don't censor their forums this way, but many other corporations do) Outcry on Slashdot is usually one of the best fixes for any tech industry wrong that needs righting, and I've personally sparked responses and even changes within at least two large industry players by making well informed statements that can be backed up, without angry name calling. I went with Sprint because a colleague highly recommended it to get the Evo 4G. He lives in an area with great WiMax coverage and works inside the loop, which also has great WiMax coverage. To his/their credit only recently has someone come up with a mobile that beats the Evo 4G in every department, that's two years at the top. Sure some phones beat it in one or two areas before then but none all around until the Galaxy S 2 came out. I on the other hand live about a mile south of excellent WiMax coverage. If I'm spending time on Bay Area or NASA Parkway I too can get great coverage. I live less than a mile South of NASA Parkway and tend to head South when I need something instead of to the more crowded North. If I stand outside where I live sometimes I can get a weak WiMax signal. If I go any further South the 3G coverage becomes so weak my battery drains at nearly three times the normal rate just by having data polling on and if I decide to upload a picture while in Galveston I can use up 10% of my charge just for trying. At least text and voice coverage is superb, Sprints data leaves something to be desired. If the rumored iPhone 5 exclusive happens there's going to be a lot of upset hipsters unless they really fix the issues with the LTE upgrades. So far Sprint has been great about a few things. They don't care about my custom firmware, you seem to actually gain a level of respect with some of the store employees I won't single out, if they know you're running it. They allow me to use Google Voice integration which I totally love. Despite having custom firmware I actually do pay the $30 extra a month for tethering, and when I'm between Texas City and Conroe it works great even if I can only use it at 3G speeds most of the time. In their core areas 3G is awesome! On the outskirts the backhaul connection bites, even when I get a great 3G lock on data is slow, this is most of Louisiana and anything more than a couple of miles from major white collar employers. Sprint needs to hear these things in the open, like here, and not in the shadows where it can be easily covered up. One of my coworkers has T-Mobile with LTE and he has awesome coverage nearly everywhere. Just a few years ago T-Mobile was one of the crappiest large carriers there was, at least in this area. I'm encouraging Sprint to follow their lead by posting as I have. My contract is up in a few months. If I can walk into the Sprint store off of 646 and I-45 (even further South from the white collar coverage zone than I live) and they have an Android phone cooler than my Evo with LTE coverage that works in the store and the surrounding area I'm sticking with them. If not I'm going to T-Mobile. My biggest complaint about Sprint outside of the "protection level of coverage" they offer is my phone would be next to useless had I not put custom firmware on it. The apps that were pre-packaged and could not be removed or disabled ate batteries at a phenomenal rate. Even after rooting the phone I had difficulty removing these apps (it's easier now that newer ROMs are out). As long as you root your phone and live in a dense white collar area Sprint is the best phone company around as it stands. I want to encourage them to expand on that.

Am I supposed to feel less screwed for buying into the whole 4G WiMax thing I've paid a fortune for over the past two years but could rarely use?