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I've been a Sprint customer for a few years and considering I get unlimited for such a low price I cannot complain. I've only lost service once (under a bridge) and have LTE in all the places I travel to and fro. I've only encountered lack of service in rural Wyoming. member for 6.5 years, 2037 visits, last login: 1 day ago updated 4.1 years ago
UPDATE 6-9-18 I'm now (and have been for nearly six years) in Austin, Texas. Since the Mogul, I've had the HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Epic 4G (a Galaxy S variant), Galaxy S III, Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, Google Pixel (original), and now the Essential PH-1...and that's just phones that I've used with Sprint postpaid on the line I have now. I've also used various Sprint mobile broadband devices, including the Karma Go, MiFi 500, Netgear Zing, whatever Netgear calls their wired 4-port AC1900 router, and the ZTE Pocket WiFi. Plus a Galaxy Tab 7 of some vintage. The Pixel and Essential Phone appear to have comparable radio capabilities for use around here, and the Pocket WiFi is in the same league, so I'll based my experiences on those. But before I do that, it's worth noting that Sprint has no truly great mobile hotspot device available right now. AT&T's Netgear Nighthawk device qualifies for that, but Sprint's ZTE Pocket WiFi will occasionally drop connectivity for a few seconds, despite being ~1500 feet away from the nearest cell site. My Essential Phone doesn't have this issue, so it's not the network. I hear the newer ZTE Warp isn't really any better, though it might not have the drops. Hopefully post-merger T-Mobile comes out with a device like the Nighthawk sooner or later, because I have no confidence in Sprint doing so in the next year. Anyway, quality of service varies widely. In some areas, Sprint has three or more Band 41 LTE carriers, and devices made within the last few years (my first supporting the tech was the Nexus 5X) will carrier-aggregate across them for download speeds. As a result, I've seen 90 Mbps speeds for a few years now in the best parts of the network, and hit over 100 Mbps at times at my new condo (see my Time Warner Cable review for why this matters). Uplink carrier aggregation still appears not to be a thing though, so if you latch onto the B41 network you're going to max out at 5-6 Mbps up from what I've seen, though I also don't own any devices that have HPUE tech to blast upload signals a bit more forcefully and thus sustain higher data rates. More to this, Sprint flat-out doesn't have HPUE-capable mobile hotspots, apparently. But I'm getting off-track again. The catch with Sprint is that some areas still have poor data connectivity. Part of that issue has been with baseband firmware, which particularly on the Essential Phone has not played well with the old Clearwire LTE sites still mixed into Sprint's network anywhere Clearwire used to have WiMAX (including here in Austin). But even with that aside, there are still areas where Sprint's network is too congested to be of much use. Fortunately I'm not in those areas much, and those areas are getting less common, but they're still a consideration. That said, where I'm sitting right now, Sprint has higher download speeds, consistently, than any other mobile carrier...and the one wireline carrier serving this location at the moment. They're able to deliver that speed reliably, provided you use a phone rather than one of their hotspot devices, and they're dirt cheap as carriers go; I'm paying around $51 per month for unlimited everything on-phone plus 3GB of tethering. Not bad. ORIGINAL REVIEW I'm currently using my HTC Mogul smartphone for internet with Sprint's mobile broadband offering. Over the time I've had the service (since August) I've gone from EvDO Rev. 0 to Rev. A capability on the phone, and from cable to WiFi (MWiFiRouter) and Bluetooth tethering. I must say that the connection is very reliable, if not terribly fast. Though the 800-1250 kbps downlink and 200-350 kbps upload speeds that I'm getting are probably the fault of my using a phone rather than an aircard. Jitter is pretty bad on the connection, but again I attribute this to not using an aircard for data. Latency is generally under 250ms, sometimes even 150ms. Packet loss is decently low. I live outside of town at home (vs. having a high bandwidth college link at school) and wireless is the only option for high speed internet, whether through a local WiSP (Bee Creek), Verizon, Sprint or satellite. I don't use my cellular connection as a main line at home due to bandwidth constraints on the Sprint side (I don't want to go over the new 5GB cap), but if they hadn't capped the service as of a few days ago I would be using them with an aircard as my main line of internet service. If you use less than 5GB per month I'd still recommend Sprint's service as high=speed, relatively low-cost, and of course highly mobile. Unfortunately, even relatively heavy internet users (like me) will need to look elsewhere for a primary means of internet communications. member for 17.1 years, 5506 visits, last login: 12 days ago updated 5.8 years ago
Sprint has served me well since 2001. It tends to jump ahead in tech, which is often right, but sometimes wrong. My legacy contract is through the VFW and gives me broad, free roaming rights when in the hinterlands. It’s urban and suburban service has been quite sound. Buying Nextel was a mistake. T-Mobile, like Nextel, is TDMA. I hope the integration costs don’t make it a wrong move. member for 24.1 years, 409 visits, last login: 188 days ago updated 5.8 years ago
Unlimited freedom plan with 5GB hotspot data and the unlimited hot spot dial up 2G speeds which is so useless member for 11.3 years, 90 visits, last login: 7 years ago lodged 7.1 years ago
member for 22.1 years, 34 visits, last login: 2.8 years ago updated 7.8 years ago
A lot of hate for this provider, but I have used them for the past 6+ years to see how much the company has changed. Only recently for the better. Sprint has many MVNOs that use its network. Boost Mobile Google Fi RingPlus Ting Virgin Mobile Check these options out before going to Sprint directly as prepaid as often cheaper. »[4G Speed test: 15.06/4.31 54 ms] member for 17.2 years, 1115 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago updated 8.4 years ago
I think Sprint is underrated and gets a worse rap than it deserves but their speed does need improvement. member for 21.3 years, 5057 visits, last login: a few hours ago updated 8.4 years ago
Virgin Mobile iPhone5 member for 19 years, 977 visits, last login: 1 day ago lodged 8.5 years ago
EDIT 21-JUN-2014: I switched to t-mobile in February of 2013. If you're with Sprint and you're on the fence about T-Mobile, just stop thinking about it and switch already. T-Mobile is night and day better, especially in the Phoenix area, not only that but I reduced my bill to only $114 a month for 5 lines, and unlike Sprint I get unlimited talk/text/data with the standard 1.5GB 4g limit. I've been offered numerous times to upgrade to unlimited 4G for another $15 more than I currently pay, but I've found that I never exceed the 1.5GB anyways, so I don't need it. In any case though: DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO SPRINT. ---Original review follows--- I've been a Sprint subscriber for 9 to 10 years now. In the beginning, it was good. Although it wasn't the tip top service in the world, it was inexpensive and they always had coupons and the premier program ready to hand out. Over the last four years, all of this slowly faded away. First, they scaled back the discount from applying to all 5 lines to only 3 lines. Lame, but whatever, was still a good price. Then it went from 3 to 2 lines, and then 2 to 1 line. My corporate discount went from about $150 a month off to $25 a month off over the span of 18 months. What assholes, but that's not all. You realize that you pay $10 extra for what they call "premium data" for each smartphone you have. Thing is, there's nothing premium about it. Their 3g data is literally slower than every MVNO's 2g speed. I live in the 6th largest city in the US, and they still don't offer 4g. Not only does every other carrier do 4g, but even several MVNO's also do 4g, in fact they've had 4g since only a few months after Sprint called themselves the first 4g network. Not only that, but some carriers even do 3g much faster than what sprint calls their 4g. Sprint should rename their company to Crawl. They should then change their slogan from "The now network" to "It's perpetually coming soon" because for years they've been saying a major upgrade is only a few months away, and none ever comes. They have a stupid chart on their website that tells which towers are being upgraded soon, have just been upgraded, etc. Thing is, these have to be minor changes, because you never observe sh*t for a difference. Meanwhile their support people tell you how many upgrades are coming soon based on the same data, but they don't know a damn thing. Also their tech support are morons. I bought my dad a Galaxy Nexus on Amazon, and had him take it to the Sprint store to activate it. They provisioned it wrong, and then told him that the phone was defective and that he's SOL because we got it third party. Pissed off, I de-provisioned it (to clean up their mess) and then told them try it again. Sure enough, it worked, no thanks to those dipsh*ts trying to take it out on us for not buying from them. Also, their $150 off of a phone upgrade is a scam. When I was in the Army, we had a Jody that went like this: "They say that in the Army, the pay is mighty fine. They give you a hundred dollars, and take back ninety-nine." That of course, was a joke, the Army actually did me a lot of favors. However Sprint missed the sarcasm and applied it to their upgrade policy: they give you $150 and take back $36. Used to be there was no activation fee, then there was one but you could talk your way out of it, now there's no getting out of it at all. Then on top of it, you get a two year commitment with horrible data rates and moron customer service. Stay away from Sprint and their fscktastic service. You've been warned. member for 12.4 years, 1647 visits, last login: 1 year ago updated 9.7 years ago
March 2014 Update- LTE has been launched around me and the areas that i travel locally. Speeds are great. They have also repurposed the nextel spectrum which has helped with coverage in my area and many other areas around the country. They are improving as a whole every month. December 2011 Update- Still loving my Sprint service. I also have their new 3G / EVDO Airave device so I get full service in my home. Spots of 4G have also popped up around me, but 4G coverage is still to spotty to be reliable. March 2010 Update- Still very happy with my Sprint service. Data coverage has gotten better I think, although that may have something to do with better equipment coming out over the years. Would love to see 4G service come up this way, but I may be waiting awhile. Sprint has really improved in all areas within the past couple of years as well. Highly recommend! I have the Sprint Fair and Flexible plan for $30 per month. This includes 500 anytime minutes with unlimited nights and weekends starting at 7 PM. I also get unlimited messaging and data. This package can not be beat! Data speeds are usually around 1 MBit down which is perfectly fine for me as I really only use it as backup or if I am in an area with no Wi-Fi. I am always very cautious with my usage as there have been reports of users getting warning letters about using data on there phone without a Phone as Modem plan...so I will play nice. I also have the Sprint Airave device which is essentially a mini-cell tower for your home that plugs into your router. Before this device, I had MAYBE 1 bar if I was lucky. I now have FULL service in my home. The Fair and Flexible plan that I am on is currently discontinued for new customers at the price I am paying, so to say the least, they will have to pry this plan from my cold dead hands! Customer support has always been great when i have needed to cal them about an issue. I totally recommend Sprint cell and data services to anyone. member for 20.2 years, 9491 visits, last login: a few hours ago updated 10 years ago |