Interested in Sprint with their great prices, but one of the locations where I work is roaming. Is roaming a deal breaker? How slow is roaming on Sprint for data? Does roaming affect call quality? I don't want to go through the hassle of buying and returning a sprint phone, there is only a Radio Shack in town and the nearest corporate store is 20 miles away.
I've never tried out the Data on roaming, but as far as the phone goes it works just like if it wasn't on roaming. I don't get the best reception at my house, but it's there. Sometimes it kicks me over to roaming, and the call quality actually increases. Again, can't tell you about the data, but the phone function is just fine when roaming.
I think roaming agreements between providers also establish whether you're given access to EVDO or just 1x when roaming on another network. Expect that to vary wildly between carriers, and expect that nobody will be able to tell you who does/doesn't provide EVDO roaming.
From what I've heard, Sprint roams on VZW's network for data, but it is 1x, and not EVDO. Coming from a VZW user who currently has a Droid, I can tell you that 1x is painfully slow when compared to 3G/EVDO. It's bad enough that it has me considering sticking with VZW rather than switching to Sprint for the EVO, even though I REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY want the EVO.
Where I live, I roam. The data is 1x when roaming. It is not brutally slow when surfing. I wish it was a little faster, but it is ok. Probably about 2/3 of 3g speed. Downloading is much slower than 3g, though. I use wifi to download when I roam, or I won't download until I get to 3g coverage. Call quality is the same as when on sprint's network, unless you jump between roam and sprint, then the call is dropped. Another thing is, sprint will drop you if you use too much data while roaming. It happened to my mother. Good luck to you...
