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Disappointed in Sprints speeds in your area?

any network engineer would use the very standard rule You may not. But I have built many networks and I set a range or scope of IP's for Data and if the network has VOIP and I add a scope of IP's for voice. Voice over data all the time. And yes data and voice are the same to telco but to the end user it is not the same. And most users still do not understand how DSL even works. And yes most ATM's are adding fiber even OC is old new like you said. When it comes to wireless the Voice over data RULE still applys. I do agree with you and for sure you are coming from a telco side of things but like you said technolgy moves fast and even to fast for the old telco's to handle. I think I can say we agree to agree on this one :)
Well I'm not coming from the telco side of things, but I did my telco homework when I got into brick and mortar IT. That knowledge came in handy as the Internet age bloomed, and after I moved to engineering colo facilities.

Sorry for talking down to you; I didn't realize that you were a pro.

I understand you so far as you're saying "this is how you set up a computer network to handle VoIP calls best". What I'm saying is that it's not a law of nature; you can break the rule. I'm saying that a company like Sprint can break that rule if and when mobile data users become the squeaky wheel. I don't know why for sure, but I have a feeling this might happen soon.

If we go back to my original heresy and look at that tasty 2.5GHz spectrum and how it could solve all of Sprint's current problems if only they could get it intact, stuff like this wouldn't matter. But because it does seem to matter, we might as well think about the unthinkable just in case.

Sure most people don't know (or care) how DSL works. Most people don't know or care that cellphones are radios. America has become a society of mindless consumers. But that's for another topic. :D
 
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It's supposedly been activated since the 15th, but it's extremely scarce. Especially compared to the map showing sprints LTE platform. Not to mention, when it briefly finds lte and then disconnects, it takes time to reconnect to 3g...annoying. anyone else feel this way?


I don't know much about Sprints LTE network besides that it is brand new and using a different bandwidth than Verizon. My understanding is the frequency they are using is Meant to travel further So not every tower is LTE equipped. This may cause slow speeds and signal issues since there might be a lot of gaps. I know when Verizon first launched their LTE network 2 years ago they had the same tactic in my area the signal sucked and was constantly going in and out. It was about a year before they worked out all the bugs out and changed the spectrum and all the towers upgraded. This might be something similiar. I could be totally wrong, I just going by my experience what I have read in past articles. Here is an article on it.

http://www.phonedog.com/2012/04/13/sprint-planning-to-deploy-lte-on-800mhz-spectrum-by-2014/
 
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It's supposedly been activated since the 15th, but it's extremely scarce. Especially compared to the map showing sprints LTE platform. Not to mention, when it briefly finds lte and then disconnects, it takes time to reconnect to 3g...annoying. anyone else feel this way?

Sprint's own coverage maps are obviously overstated. You should understand that the DFW market was officially launched with less than 20 percent of the towers converted to LTE, but work continues. What matters is what performance will be when the project is fully built out in a few months. Also, there are questions about whether handsets, including the GS3, are configured to downshift to 3G prematurely, although a weaker LTE signal would perform better than a stronger EVDO signal.

If you want to understand the LTE rollout, go the S4GRU.com and read everything.
 
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I live in Hurst and work in Fort Worth.

I get slightly better coverage in my office at work compared to WiMax on my Evo 3D. Speed is only a bit faster, but with the 3D, there was a section of my desk that I'd get a 4G signal and another section that I wouldn't. I get it all over, now.

The most delightful surprise, though, is the speed I get nearly everywhere else. Significantly faster than WiMax was. It might downshift to 3G a little quick at times, but I can't say that it causes any downloads to freeze up. Seems to be fairly seamless to me.

Screenshot_2012-07-15-12-14-59.png
 
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It's supposedly been activated since the 15th, but it's extremely scarce. Especially compared to the map showing sprints LTE platform. Not to mention, when it briefly finds lte and then disconnects, it takes time to reconnect to 3g...annoying. anyone else feel this way?

I am collecting addresses in the dallas area where this is the case

if you want to contribute please pm

exact address or intersection
phone tested with

ensure lte is in fact on, testing is done stationary while outdoors.
 
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I can officially say that Sprint has the slowest data speeds (3G) in the industry. I can also say that I offically hate Sprint.

I work in Berkeley, CA. I live in Oakland, CA. At home, speeds aren't great but at least I can use data on my phone. At work in Berkeley, that's entirely different.

Most of the time at work for the past week or two I've been getting 29-40kbps down and 25-30kbps up with pings of 200-1500ms. Today, it's gotten as bad as 6kbps down and 4kbps up with 3000ms+ Pings. And it seems that at times data isn't working at all.

I called Sprint on Friday of last week after being very frustrated at work for weeks. Over the past couple of weeks it's only gotten worse instead of better. I thought someone else might call and complain and things would improve, but no dice.

This morning I could use data, even if it was slow, at work. Now, I can't even receive or send email.

Last Friday I spent 10 minutes plus waiting to speak with a customer service representative because fools are flooding customer service with calls about the damn iPhone 5. (They are out of stock) And I spent over 45 minutes with a representative and her supervisor discussing the issue and attempting to get a ticket. They were pleasant enough, but 45 minutes?

And they told me that I would hear from someone within 48 hours about the problem so they could ask more questions (and not even deal with the issue yet). And guess what? No one has called all day. And this evening, data is completely unusable today.

I'm on the phone again as I write this with customer service after waiting 10 minutes to get through due to iPhone 5 madness again. The customer service representative is friendly but she is taking forever to simply pull up the ticket.

I have absolutely zero confidence that Sprint is able to handle the volume of customer service needs after experiencing what I've experienced lately. Also I have absolutely no confidence in their ability handle network issues. Most likely the iPhone jerks are taking up all the bandwidth here and there simply isn't enough bandwidth to keep everyone connected to the 3G network. Crappy Samsung is supposed to be working on Network Vision in this area. Yeah, the crappy data connection speeds are exactly what I would expect when Samsung is on the job.

Allegedly they have started Network Vision upgrades in my area. My guess would be that they have screwed something up around where I've worked and that they are "way too busy" trying to "fix" other problems to bother "fixing" this issue.

I'm not happy. I'm locked in for another 24 months and if this is what I'm going to get for the 6-8 months that Network Vision is promised to take, I'm thinking it might be worth it to pay an early termination fee and jump ship to AT&T or Verizon who has a fantastic 3G and LTE network up and running here. My coworkers are laughing.

OK, now I've been on the phone with this representative for 15 minutes and she still can't pull up the ticket information. I'm so tired of their stupid "on hold" music. :mad:

Welcome to Sprint... The "Maybe Later" Network

Finally a supervisor has been on the phone and she is clueless. She is giving me a 1-800 number to call the technicians and a website to look at the towers because she can't get any information about the ticket? How am I supposed to find information if she can't get it?

And she told me that I have to call back whenever they get around to "fixing" this issue using my ticket # to get a credit for the time I couldn't use data. I have to call back to get that. They won't automatically do it. Whatever.

And she is taking 5 minutes plus to find a website address for me to look up towers. She initally gave me an email address and told me to look that up as the url (website address). Now the phone is ringing? And I'm being asked to leave a message for a sales associate??? Really? And I'm being transfered to a sales associate now? Nelton Truck lines? Who is that? They transfered me to Nelton Truck Lines??? I just hung up because I'm not leaving a message with a truck line when I called Sprint to get my network issues fixed!!! I hate Sprint!!!

If they don't fix this within the next couple of days, I've had it. I'm going to seriously plan to jump ship. I've been a loyal customer for 13 years and this is what I get? Really???

Sprint Customer Service, Thanks for wasting 35 more minutes of my life!!!

I love my phone. I absolutely hate that the Sprint Network completely cripples it.
 
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Don't mean to "pile on" to Sprint, because, truth is, I've been very happy with Sprint for the 13+ years I've been with them. But I have to be honest: With everything I've seen and heard about their data network (incl. local-specific info), and the feedback I've gotten from a friend in the area that has data, I think I'd be disinclined to buy in to a smartphone on a data plan with Sprint, right now, even if they did have an acceptable phone for me. I'm kind of feeling, right now, that their dropping the one device they did have that would've suited me enabled me to dodge a bullet.

Jim
 
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Sprints undergoing huge changes in the network right now. I'll admit it currently sucks, but it's on It's way up

Frankly, if you bought a 4g lte phone without 4g in your area I'm not sure what you have to complain about

Verizon's fast, but they kill you on the bill. Especially now that unlimiteds gone
 
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Sprints undergoing huge changes in the network right now. I'll admit it currently sucks, but it's on It's way up

Frankly, if you bought a 4g lte phone without 4g in your area I'm not sure what you have to complain about

Verizon's fast, but they kill you on the bill. Especially now that unlimiteds gone

Did you read my post earlier in the thread? :thinking:
 
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Sprints undergoing huge changes in the network right now. I'll admit it currently sucks, but it's on It's way up

Frankly, if you bought a 4g lte phone without 4g in your area I'm not sure what you have to complain about

Verizon's fast, but they kill you on the bill. Especially now that unlimiteds gone


i am in Dallas/Ft Worth area. which has 4G both Wimax and LTE.
but lets forget 4G for now.

we pay for data.
3G speeds are below .5mb .. and normally around .1kb
it has been this was for over 1 yr!!!
you can not use your smartphone as it was intended and i paid for data service.

I am complaining about crappy 3G speeds!!!
 
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Yes, speeds are slow because of the ongoing network vision

You have many towers under maintenance


over a year?

and i understand that .. during rollout of new tech.. there can be issues.
and most of us can deal with this.. for a REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME.

but if your clients are SUFFERING for extended amount of time... anything over a week... periodically... is asking way too much.

but we are talking about over year of shiiit speeds! on 3G
are you saying this is reasonable and that customers should suck it up?

Sprint needs to rethink this!!! ASAP.
or they will soon move from 3rd to 4th biggest carrier... then next to bankruptcy court!
 
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Im saying for a company that is cash poor and spending huge amounts of money to get their network up to speed with the newest tech you can expect some poor service until the work is completed.

Connect to WiFi whenever possible, that's already a basic battery saving tip and relieves the network congestion problems too
 
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That "premium data" charge has been there for years.

I'm more than happy to have bad speeds now and unlimited data when the new network is up and running. If you aren't that's fine, you made the choice you needed to.

I'm of the opinion that Big red continues to screw the customers with the changes they are making.
 
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That "premium data" charge has been there for years.

I'm more than happy to have bad speeds now and unlimited data when the new network is up and running. If you aren't that's fine, you made the choice you needed to.

I'm of the opinion that Big red continues to screw the customers with the changes they are making.

If Sprint ever does get their network up and running, that unlimited data is going to disappear so fast your head will spin.
 
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Count me in...3G speeds in my local area are terrible (Anacortes, Burlington, Mt. Vernon and Sedro-Woolley, WA). Was a Nextel user for years (no data) and switched to Sprint Feb 2011. I don't have coverage at my home so they gave me an Airave which works well (because it's not using Sprint's network).

Me and wife both got Evo 4Gs and speeds were slow right off the bat. Which is how I found this forum. Spent a lot of time trying to tweak the phones because Sprint was telling me it's a problem with the phones. I soon realized that it wasn't the phones. If I travel 30 minutes north to Bellingham or 30 minutes south to Marysville, I get 1000kbps. But around here it's 150kbps or lower. Upload speeds are ok.

I've called Sprint numerous times and they are worthless. Techs who have no knowledge and are pretty much idiots. They try to help but they are uneducated about the Sprint network and the phones. They are working off scripts. I try to be nice because I know they are just trying to earn a living but it's very frustrating. Especially when they keep insisting it's a problem with my phone even though I can get advertised 3G speeds in other cities. Or they say I'm roaming (I'm not) or any other excuse. I go to the Sprint stores and they give me all sorts of excuses too.

And forget about 4G. The only place around here with 4G is a three block radius around the Sprint store. What a scam.

Attached is a Speedtest log. The first listing was up in Bellingham today where speeds are fine. All others are around where I live. The second listing was also taken this morning in Burlington just before driving up to Bellingham. I have a whole list of results going back to last year showing similar, abysmal results.

I paid for 3G data because I need to be able to access websites and manuals and parts ordering while working on boats in marinas where there is no WIFI. I use my phone for work and find that it's nearly useless because it's so slow. My contract is up in Feb 2013 and I'm seriously considering jumping ship to Verizon because I know their network around here works as advertised. I'm willing to put up with Verizon's crap as long as I can get reliable data over 3G. I'm tired of waiting on Sprint to pull it's proverbial head out of it's proverbial arse.
 

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My Sprint 3G speeds on my Photon have actually been improving in Austin as of late, but they were horrid over the summer. My newest conundrum is a rapidly draining battery when I'm on the 3G network. On wi-fi it's fine, but on both Monday and Tuesday I had no access to wi-fi and my battery was at 50% by 11:00am with the phone mostly idle. I'm not ready to blame Sprint for this one yet (need to poke around more) but it's weird.

Still holding out hope for data speed upgrades with NV, but there's a reason I haven't used my upgrade yet.
 
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Well, I'm getting tired of waiting for Sprint to deliver. I've been with Sprint for over 13 years and I've never experienced such crappy service. It's an outrage!

It's all fine and good that customer service representatives are friendly. Friendly doesn't fix a problem. If they are dumber than rocks and can't get information from their systems on what is actually going on then being "friendly" doesn't help me at all. I'd rather have them be nasty, competent, and have access to real information that can solve the problems at hand. I mean really... That "Supervisor" yesterday gave me an email address and told me to use it to go to a website to check the towers in my area. Um, yeah... Anyone who has been alive and who has accessed the Internet knows that you need a URL to access a website and an email address is only used for, well, email. Gah!!!

So, not only has customer service been deprived of the information they need to do their jobs, they have all received full frontal lobotomies! At least they're friendly... LOL!

I don't begrudge people who are just trying to earn a living. I do blame the corporation who is responsible for hiring "talent," training that "talent," and for giving that "talent" the proper tools to actually perform the job that they've been hired to do. Sprint has failed on all counts, except friendliness. Back in the day, I will admit that Sprint customer service representatives were not just useless, they were nasty. So I guess this is an improvement. Whatever....

And I've watched 3G just die over the past year here in the Bay Area. There is no excuse for making customers suffer for over a year as you claim to be "upgrading" the network while most customers see no improvement but actual degradation of service for over a year. That is unacceptable.

I want to warn everyone considering making a switch to Sprint. Stay the H*** away. Don't bother looking at Sprint until/when/if they ever get Network Vision up and running in all markets. I've been with Sprint for over 13 years and I've watched them fail over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. They have a lot to prove with this "Network Vision." So far the results are non-existent for most of us who suffer with 3G speeds that are worse than dial-up circa 1997.
 
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