Why does Sprint have the worst coverage?

[Dngrsone]

When I got the phone, my region was scheduled for wimax installation, and I was not going to throw down $200 for an LTE phone.

Frankly, I wasn't planning on using a lot of data.

 

[simcha]

Wow, OK, I'll comment here since s4gru.com is downright hostile to any criticism of the rollout of Network Vision. And yes, I'm so stunned by it I asked the administrator to delete my account there completely. One has to wonder if the owner of s4gru.com is Sprint affiliated or an employee of Sprint. I actually enjoyed seeing the information on rollout. It helped me to form my opinion that this rollout is stalled and is in fact being done very poorly based on their facts. And I have always thought that the administrator of that site was doing an excellent service to the Sprint community until now. Oh well. I'll stick to here.

Allegedly, according to s4gru.com the East Bay launched in 2/2013 (as I saw it before the deletion of my account). If it has then they missed doing the upgrades for the largest city in the East Bay, Oakland, and its neighbor, Berkeley. I still have 3g speeds that are no better than my dialup modem circa late 90's. And LTE is confined to very limited areas. The residential areas of Oakland and Berkeley don't have LTE yet. The reach of LTE hasn't even matched the reach of WIMAX, which was pathetic. These are facts and not opinions. I actually live here. I use the network, I've mapped for Sensorly, and I've tested the speeds on the ground myself.

If this constitutes as a rant, then so be it. I'm just stating facts as they are on the ground. No more, no less. If Sprint has really launched Network Vision the East Bay, then the Launch was an epic fail. And that is the fact as it stands now.

 

[Rxpert83]

When sprint launches a market, there's usually a public announcement by the company, just like any other carrier. If you Google "Sprint announces (your area) lte market" and don't come up with anything, you aren't in an official market.
Example:
http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2563

The official list:
http://newsroom.sprint.com/news/4glte-launchedmarkets.htm


I have LTE here...
Its spotty & many times slow, but our network hasn't been announced, and even when announced its only 50% or so complete.

Network vision is going to take a few years to complete. There's no magic switch to flip and get speedy four geees

 

[vicshalls]

I live in Houston and the service has been great up until a Month or so ago. I called sprint today and they said towers have been out since April and they are working on them. Ended up giving me a 25 credit for the next 4 months and I did not even ask. Guess I will put up with the crap a little longer. Way I figure it by the time sprint buildes out this new network Verizon will have something bigger and better out and sprint will be playing catch up once again.

 

[Stu675]

Wow, OK, I'll comment here since s4gru.com is downright hostile to any criticism of the rollout of Network Vision. And yes, I'm so stunned by it I asked the administrator to delete my account there completely. One has to wonder if the owner of s4gru.com is Sprint affiliated or an employee of Sprint. I actually enjoyed seeing the information on rollout. It helped me to form my opinion that this rollout is stalled and is in fact being done very poorly based on their facts. And I have always thought that the administrator of that site was doing an excellent service to the Sprint community until now. Oh well. I'll stick to here.

Allegedly, according to s4gru.com the East Bay launched in 2/2013 (as I saw it before the deletion of my account). If it has then they missed doing the upgrades for the largest city in the East Bay, Oakland, and its neighbor, Berkeley. I still have 3g speeds that are no better than my dialup modem circa late 90's. And LTE is confined to very limited areas. The residential areas of Oakland and Berkeley don't have LTE yet. The reach of LTE hasn't even matched the reach of WIMAX, which was pathetic. These are facts and not opinions. I actually live here. I use the network, I've mapped for Sensorly, and I've tested the speeds on the ground myself.

If this constitutes as a rant, then so be it. I'm just stating facts as they are on the ground. No more, no less. If Sprint has really launched Network Vision the East Bay, then the Launch was an epic fail. And that is the fact as it stands now.

The sad part is most people think it is easy to just go and set stuff up and boom good to go, it is not. I work with Sprint all day everyday, and I can tell you it is not Sprint that is delaying themselves it is the vendors supplying the equipment. My company is hiring a ton of contractors (sadly) to help with getting these towers checked out and fix whatever issue they find, and from the meetings I have been in, the main vendors responsible for setting these LTE towers up are signing off stating they are completed and when my company goes and checks it out, will come to find the equipment is still all packaged up. It is a sad process, but I do know Sprint is trying to get this crap fixed ASAP, it just takes time.

For missing the largest cities/areas I am not sure I can go asking around to some of the wireless guys in the morning and see what they say, but I can tell you Sprint usually plans where they implement towers and their network for a reason, whether it is money, or something of that nature. LIke I said earlier I am a wireline guy dealing with the core of Sprintlink mainly so I do not deal with the LTE guys very often, but they obviously do connect to the core, so I get to work with them sometimes, and lately it has seemed a lot more often than when they started the LTE project and Network Vision.

Depending on how my day goes tomorrow I will try to update with what I find out.

 

[NYCHitman1]

Wow, OK, I'll comment here since s4gru.com is downright hostile to any criticism of the rollout of Network Vision. And yes, I'm so stunned by it I asked the administrator to delete my account there completely. One has to wonder if the owner of s4gru.com is Sprint affiliated or an employee of Sprint. I actually enjoyed seeing the information on rollout. It helped me to form my opinion that this rollout is stalled and is in fact being done very poorly based on their facts. And I have always thought that the administrator of that site was doing an excellent service to the Sprint community until now. Oh well. I'll stick to here.

Allegedly, according to s4gru.com the East Bay launched in 2/2013 (as I saw it before the deletion of my account). If it has then they missed doing the upgrades for the largest city in the East Bay, Oakland, and its neighbor, Berkeley. I still have 3g speeds that are no better than my dialup modem circa late 90's. And LTE is confined to very limited areas. The residential areas of Oakland and Berkeley don't have LTE yet. The reach of LTE hasn't even matched the reach of WIMAX, which was pathetic. These are facts and not opinions. I actually live here. I use the network, I've mapped for Sensorly, and I've tested the speeds on the ground myself.

If this constitutes as a rant, then so be it. I'm just stating facts as they are on the ground. No more, no less. If Sprint has really launched Network Vision the East Bay, then the Launch was an epic fail. And that is the fact as it stands now.

I've noticed that a lot of people have misinterpreted what "launch" actually means in terms of Network Vision. It doesn't mean that you'll automatically receive enhanced coverage, 3G, and/or LTE. It only means that a percentage of that particular market was deemed useable by Sprint, so they made a press release to confirm as such. The market will continue to expand as time goes on. No US carrier that has or is rolling out LTE still has "officially launched" a market at 100%.

 

[DonB]

@Stu675, FRT, I was not making fun of you because you were on Verizon, I was simply saying it was funny seeing a tech discussing Sprint and on a Verizon phone on his BIO. Was just making light of it to change the mood . I know many have a few different phones with different carriers for different reasons. One thing I don't do is make fum of people, so I hope you did not think I was mocking you, cheers

 

[Dngrsone]

The sad part is most people think it is easy to just go and set stuff up and boom good to go, it is not. I work with Sprint all day everyday, and I can tell you it is not Sprint that is delaying themselves it is the vendors supplying the equipment. My company is hiring a ton of contractors (sadly) to help with getting these towers checked out and fix whatever issue they find, and from the meetings I have been in, the main vendors responsible for setting these LTE towers up are signing off stating they are completed and when my company goes and checks it out, will come to find the equipment is still all packaged up. It is a sad process, but I do know Sprint is trying to get this crap fixed ASAP, it just takes time.

Depending on how my day goes tomorrow I will try to update with what I find out.

One of my co-workers was tasked with monitoring the implementation of on-board Wi-Fi in our regional jets; the subcontractor started zooming through the job, he stopped them, saying "hey, this isn't what the engineers drew."

They replied that "this is the way we did it for airlines A, B, C... it's good."

He said, "no. Do it according to the drawings." Near riot. They threatened to strike, a few people were fired, they tried to call breach of contract, but finally knuckled down and did as he told them.

Six months or so later, ours was the only regional with FAA approved Wi-Fi on-board; all the others had to shut down, tear everything out and reinstall.

The moral is, subs are going to cut as many corners as you let them, and if you don't watch their every move, you are likely going to pay for your inattention...

 

[simcha]

Well, well, well, I finally have something positive to report in regards to customer service at Sprint.

I was treated very well when I called today after a call dropped three times here where I work in Berkeley. They ran some quick tests and the tower to which my phone is connecting is at 89% and it should be well up in the mid 90's. They have a new system where they don't have to generate tickets and call you back and wait several weeks before anything will be done. Now this problem will automatically go to technicians who will go to that tower and see about the problem, all without the need for me to be "on call" to give information. I love it!!! That's a much more sensible system.

Also, for my trouble, they are crediting my account $25 per month for 4 months since I have been experiencing this issue and others with the network here for over 7 months. They apologized saying that while they couldn't credit me for previous months, they could credit me for these 4 months coming up. That's $100 worth of credit! That is the most I've ever been offered.

OK, perhaps Sprint is starting to right the ship at last. The network here is still iffy but it sounds like they are streamlining mainenance requests and have improved customer service. That's a step in the right direction.

 

[Stu675]

Well, well, well, I finally have something positive to report in regards to customer service at Sprint.

I was treated very well when I called today after a call dropped three times here where I work in Berkeley. They ran some quick tests and the tower to which my phone is connecting is at 89% and it should be well up in the mid 90's. They have a new system where they don't have to generate tickets and call you back and wait several weeks before anything will be done. Now this problem will automatically go to technicians who will go to that tower and see about the problem, all without the need for me to be "on call" to give information. I love it!!! That's a much more sensible system.

Also, for my trouble, they are crediting my account $25 per month for 4 months since I have been experiencing this issue and others with the network here for over 7 months. They apologized saying that while they couldn't credit me for previous months, they could credit me for these 4 months coming up. That's $100 worth of credit! That is the most I've ever been offered.

OK, perhaps Sprint is starting to right the ship at last. The network here is still iffy but it sounds like they are streamlining mainenance requests and have improved customer service. That's a step in the right direction.

That would be my company implementing that hahaha Sprint no longer has site techs or anything like that.
It is a lot better system, still a bunch of flaws in how it all works behind the scenes, but it is getting there, much like Sprints LTE network. Just takes time and trust me, all that are involved with this project are working A LOT of hours, as I am a prime example of that haha, I have only seen my house for about 3 hours in the last 48 hours.

 

[Stu675]

@Stu675, FRT, I was not making fun of you because you were on Verizon, I was simply saying it was funny seeing a tech discussing Sprint and on a Verizon phone on his BIO. Was just making light of it to change the mood . I know many have a few different phones with different carriers for different reasons. One thing I don't do is make fum of people, so I hope you did not think I was mocking you, cheers

Ok cool, I am obviously new, so I figured many people would maybe think I am some internet troll or something haha.

 

[Stu675]

One of my co-workers was tasked with monitoring the implementation of on-board Wi-Fi in our regional jets; the subcontractor started zooming through the job, he stopped them, saying "hey, this isn't what the engineers drew."

They replied that "this is the way we did it for airlines A, B, C... it's good."

He said, "no. Do it according to the drawings." Near riot. They threatened to strike, a few people were fired, they tried to call breach of contract, but finally knuckled down and did as he told them.

Six months or so later, ours was the only regional with FAA approved Wi-Fi on-board; all the others had to shut down, tear everything out and reinstall.

The moral is, subs are going to cut as many corners as you let them, and if you don't watch their every move, you are likely going to pay for your inattention...

Yeah it is the sad truth, that is why Sprint finally handed the work over to us and my company has hired a lot of contractors to get all the tier 1 stuff done, basically they try to contact the tower, if nothing comes back they dispatch a tech and he comes back with what all needs to be completed. So it is coming along my company is just trying to make up the slack.
Like I keep saying just hang tight, it is coming. If you don't believe me, just come and try to do our jobs and see if you don't pull your hair out. haha

And it is these times I am glad I race to get my stress out hahahaha

 

[jackroo]

If you have an LTE capable phone. Those of us stuck with wimax are SOL...

good point

 

[Stu675]

Well Sprint's 4G on the east coast should have seen a bit of a boast in speeds. Seems we were having issues with some circuits not wanting to stay up and basically taking away all redundancy. We also have them set up to load balance, but luckily I am a nerd and dug into this, since the wireless guys were being lazy. I found that for some reason when the circuit would go down it was not shifting traffic like it should. After all was said and done I realized I had been here for 28 hours LOL So you Sprint folks in the Maryland area, YOU ARE WELCOME. I am now running on 3 hours of sleep and my much needed weekend is starting early. haha have a good weekend everyone.

 

[NYCHitman1]

Well Sprint's 4G on the east coast should have seen a bit of a boast in speeds. Seems we were having issues with some circuits not wanting to stay up and basically taking away all redundancy. We also have them set up to load balance, but luckily I am a nerd and dug into this, since the wireless guys were being lazy. I found that for some reason when the circuit would go down it was not shifting traffic like it should. After all was said and done I realized I had been here for 28 hours LOL So you Sprint folks in the Maryland area, YOU ARE WELCOME. I am now running on 3 hours of sleep and my much needed weekend is starting early. haha have a good weekend everyone.

Boooooo MD! Yayyyyyy NY, but I know NY is a whole other beast in and of itself.

 

[Stu675]

Boooooo MD! Yayyyyyy NY, but I know NY is a whole other beast in and of itself.

Yeah I dont do anything wireless. Only reason I was involved was because the LTE stuff comes into my wireless AGG router, and that is where I found the issue, but it ended up being the wireless side. I am slowly trying to work my way into helping out with wireless so I can see the full aspect of how it is all working and put together, but I am currently swamped sadly.

One day though haha

But I continue to say Sprint is going to catch up with the rest of the crew, and even people like me that do not work directly for Sprint appreciate the people that are using their service, it pays my bills and I consider myself a pretty hard worker haha especially since I do not like people that half (not sure say the "A" word) their work, but it does disappoint me in how long it is taking everyone to work together, especially since we are all after the samething and that is to provide service to the world, but I will say it again, hold tight and just believe there are a lot of people working day and night to get this stuff done and working at the best we can.

 

[IOWA]

Yeah I would check with Sprint to see if they're upgrading the network in your area. In the Chicago area it was pretty bad last summer until they completed the upgrades.

Now it's pretty good, pretty much a 4G signal wherever I go in the Chicago metro area.

I still drop calls all the time on 90. It's a nightmare when trying to talk to important clients.

 

[gme109]

You are in luck, I am one of the leading engineers for the company that maintains the Sprintlink and basically all of Sprint's networks. I personally do not work in the wireless area of network, but I do know a lot of people and have meetings almost daily with the people in charge of it.

Sprint will get better, it will just take time. They are spending a lot of money to get it rolling. Right now most of the hold up is not Sprint but vendors either taking forever or not doing the job correctly, so my company is slowly taking over the roll of getting everything working correctly. A lot of people think this stuff gets done in a day, but it takes time. I say be patient and you will see an improvement as time goes on is all I can truly say without getting into iffy water with what is legal to share and what not.

I don't think anyone was expecting things to get better in a day, or a month, or even a year, but it's been over 3 years since Sprint promised 4G, and still no 4 G in most markets.

I signed up with Sprint over 3 years ago, when they starting bragging about being the first company to bring 4G to the market. I bought the Epic 4G and signed a two year contract. In that two years, I think my Epic connected to 4G a handful of times. Then I find out that Sprint is bagging their Wimax 4G and will no longer be building that network. So at the end of my contract, stupid me, I buy the Samsung S3 4G LTE, thinking its right around the corner. Well it's been a year and no 4G LTE here in Denver, and to top it off, their 3G network and voice services have gone to hell in a handbag!!! I can hardly conduct any business using their service. And I'm not the only one!!!! Check out the Sprint community forums, under Network and coverage. Its not a pretty sight.

Sprint has OVER promised, and UNDER delivered.

 

[Rxpert83]

They are also having to roll out an entirely new technology which they hadn't planned on.

They went all in on wimax and have to start over.

It doesn't make sense to continue roll outs of a dead tech

 

[gme109]

They are also having to roll out an entirely new technology which they hadn't planned on.

They went all in on wimax and have to start over.

It doesn't make sense to continue roll outs of a dead tech

I understand that. But in the process of doing so, they can no longer provide the service that people are paying them for. Is that fair?

 

[Rxpert83]

I understand that. But in the process of doing so, they can no longer provide the service that people are paying them for. Is that fair?

Part of network vision is working on the old towers.


Id bet If you talk to anyone who's in a market that's rolled out, services are much worse before they get better.

This is normal.

If you bought a 4g LTE phone before rollout plans were announced or before 4g was in your area I'm not sure what to say. You had to know what you were getting into when you signed the contract.

My evo 4g never saw wimax. I upgraded to one of the first LTE phones they announced also. It is what it is. But I knew this going jn

 

[gme109]

Part of network vision is working on the old towers.


Id bet If you talk to anyone who's in a market that's rolled out, services are much worse before they get better.

This is normal.

If you bought a 4g LTE phone before rollout plans were announced or before 4g was in your area I'm not sure what to say. You had to know what you were getting into when you signed the contract.

My evo 4g never saw wimax. I upgraded to one of the first LTE phones they announced also. It is what it is. But I knew this going jn

Right now I settle for decent 3G and voice, which I'm not getting.

 

[Rxpert83]

Right now I settle for decent 3G and voice, which I'm not getting.

Have you called customer service?

 

[gme109]

Have you called customer service?

I've been beating my head against the wall with Sprint for the last 8 months. I finally realized just how futile that was, and filed a complaint with the BBB and FCC. Today I got a call from Sprint, asking me how they can make things better. Told them the only thing they could do for me now, was let me out of my contract, without the ETF. I about fell out of my chair, when the Sprint employee said I understand, and I'll take care of that for you. I'm now a free man, looking at other service providers. Probably just pony up, and go with Verizon.

 

[Rxpert83]

A call to customer retentions may have probably gotten that sooner.

I'm glad you got it sorted out though. Enjoy wherever you end up :thumbup: