Sprint Gives Network Improvement Update

All these improvements will be meaningless if Sprint can't improve their public image. They can build the best network in the country but it won't matter if people still think of Sprint as the network with poor coverage, crappy speeds, terrible customer service, etc.

Personally I think they should have used their "Network Vision" overhaul as an opportunity to build a new brand. The Sprint brand has name recognition but not in a good way.

But if they did that better to wait till roll out is complete, even more than now. Then the new brand image will not get an instant tarnish from the start.
When the rural carriers kick in I think many will be pleased.

But if they do want a new brand better to still wait a bit. let the Sprint image take any last hits.

Agree they should change the Sprint name but wait until 800 LTE covers most of their existing footprint, which they claim will be by end of next year. 1900LTE covers 260M population but they need 800 to cover at least that same footprint before bothering to change their name and remarket themselves 800LTE currently only covers 100M population. Canada/Mexico border will still be an issue for 800 but they can at least be more competitive when getting 800 to match 1900 coverage. 2600 is important too but only needed where they need more capacity, not everywhere.

I could eventually see partnerships with Tmobile. Tmobile is strong with metro density but weaker outside that. Sprint has much broader LTE footprint but until 800LTE is complete, not as dense as Tmobile. Tmobile could provide Sprint with LTE along Mexico/Canada borders while Sprint allows Tmobile to use Interstate, outer metro/rural access.

T-mo doesn't need Sprint. It is aggressively pursuing its own LTE expansion, and T-mo's contractors are doing much better job than NV. Much better.

Tmobile has more depth currently in metro areas but that will change when Sprint turns on 800LTE for their entire footprint. Tmobile has a long way to go to broaden out, will take years. Sprint and Tmobile may as well share where they have gaps. The gaps will close for both of them over time but in the meantime, could compete better with ATT/VZW by sharing.

This is just user reported but is clear Tmobile has more depth..
»www.sensorly.com/map/4G/ ··· coverage

...while Sprint has much more breadth, especially along interstates and in metro exurbs...
»www.sensorly.com/map/4G/ ··· coverage

Am back to visiting a rural area of Tampa. Sprint 800LTE works fine even indoors, Tmobile 4G non-existent.

The reality is, at least here, their network has the worst coverage, slowest speeds, most dropped calls and terrible customer service, so it's not just "what people think", it's reality. This has been confirmed time and again by cell testing groups, such as RootMetrics and local news groups. They MUST fix their network before they can fix their image. Their poor image comes from their poor network. They have areas where LTE just simply isn't there in the Metro area... Even T-Mobile has LTE everywhere in the metro area.

I don't feel bad for Sprint, they've had a very long time to fix their network and their image, and they just simply haven't.

Please tell me Sprint has worse coverage than T-Mobile with a straight face. If you can, then you've just told me that you've never traveled anywhere your entire life.

Sprint's overall coverage is a bit better, but in areas that they do cover, they don't have nearly the site density of T-Mobile. But let's face it, both networks are miserable compared to AT&T and Verizon.

It must vary greatly by area as both Verizon and AT&T suck green donkey d**k around here, even though Verizon's coverage map says how great they are. Personally, can't stand either of those companies and their ripoff tactics and just plain miserable business practices, so, even if I did have to suffer a little worse coverage with Sprint, I still wouldn't use either of those companies!

And where are you?

Well I was sitting in an elementary school auditorium in Farmingdale, NY with my sister and brother-in-law today. Both have Verizon and had full scale dots on their iPhone's signal strength. I am on Sprint with an iPhone and I had a single dot.

Regardless, my days with Sprint are numbered. My employer chose, against my detailed research, to renew the corporate account with Sprint. They also offered me a 32GB iPhone 5C but it is half the storage I have now with my 4S and would require me to delete a lot of data in order to switch to it. I told them no thanks and that I would make preparations to port myself out. I am really sick of Sprint and having a third-party "control" my cell phone. It was great from a financial standpoint since all charges were paid by the company but lousy with having to put up with crappy Sprint service.

Once LTE 800 is wide-spread where you are, you'll blow them away. I routinely blow away most VZ customers. I work in a high school and deep in the center today, where I used to have poor service, I had full bars of LTE on the 800 Mhz band. A friend had 3G still on Verizon.

So, it really still depends on your geography, but all that is changing FAST.

Up until spark went live locally I frequently complained about the crappy network. Now it's a dream. The configuration of the new network is beautiful and I'm always getting reliable connections even if the number of "bars" is low most of the time.

The number of bars is a totally unreliable measure of anything because it's algorithmic calculation of signal strength where things like spectrum at a specific wattage aren't equivalent across networks, phones or operating systems. The result is a measure that's absolutely meaningless. The fact is if you can make calls, and browse the internet at reliable high speeds then how many "bars" you get isn't even relevant. The only thing that matters is dropped calls and download speed, if those aren't up to par then you have a legitimate complaint, but if you complain because you have one "bar" rather than 5 your complaint is ridiculous.

You're correct that signal strength is not nearly as important as the band used by the wireless carrier (700mhz/800mhz/1900mhz/2500mhz) and means nothing if there is no/little data bandwidth available. The BIG caveat to your statement though is that consistently having a very weak signal (-105Db or worse) means that your phone has to use significantly more power to maintain communication with the cell tower. And if you're traveling on an interstate in the middle of nowhere, it's not uncommon for a Sprint call to drop because the towers are located so far apart (it's often -110dB+ at the weakest point between the towers). That has nothing to do with bandwidth or any technical restraint...Sprint just did its interstate deployment on the cheap!

Bottom line, a consistently weak signal (especially at your house or office) with Sprint means you're using more of your phone's battery simply communicating with the cell tower because the phone has to 'talk' louder to maintain the connection.

their 800 mhz voice is so awesome. When my local tower had 1x800 fired up I went from dropping calls in my basement to having signal strength of ~-85 dBm. Awesome!

I swear I had 800 at my house for a few days months ago. Was great signal. Then disappeared and never returned.

It was probably testing.

The bars are complete BS set by the cell provider in the branded firmware. I remember Sprint CDMA phones would give 2 or 3 bars at -95 db on 1900. A Verizon phone at -95 on 800 would show 1 bar. Verizon at 2 bars never drops a call and very very rarely at 1 bar. Spring half the time drops at 2 bars and no sound is heard at 1 bar and the call drops after a few seconds. I only look at the db reading from the phone. -100 voice drops, only text messages get through, unless it is a very rural area or DAS in a underground metro. -90 voice is fine, questionable if EVDO or 1x mode will be faster, your internet speeds will suffer at -90. -80 almost full internet speed. -70 flat lined maxed out internet assuming no tower congestion.
-60 line of sight to cell tower antenna and maybe 1 window or a light wall in the way. -50 outdoors, light of sight to tower. -40 you less than 100 feet away from the tower and in the center of its beam path. -30 you are close enough to the sector antenna to touch it, I suggest you get off the roof of the building and stop messing with the equipment.

Sprint has ZERO 800 spectrum where I live NONE. This what sprint owns in my area

Sprint EBS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Television 2496 - 2690 NSAC, LLC MADISON, TN L000005357

Sprint EBS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Television 2496 - 2690 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III,LLC MONTGOMERY, TN L000008894

Sprint EBS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Television 2496 - 2690 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III,LLC MONTGOMERY, TN L000008893

Sprint EBS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Television 2496 - 2690 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III,LLC MADISON, TN L000009939

Sprint EBS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Television 2496 - 2690 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings II, LLC MONTGOMERY, TN L000003389

Lease Sprint Broadband PCS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Mobile Radio; Phone 1850 - 1865
1930 - 1945 WIRELESSCO, L.P. MTA043 - Nashville KNLF285

Sprint Broadband PCS Broadband; Fixed Wireless; Mobile Radio; Phone 1910 - 1915
1990 - 1995 Nextel License Holdings 1, Inc. BEA073 - Memphis TN-AR-MS-KY WQKV570

Might be listed under Nextel, as that's where the spectrum is coming from since iDEN was shut down.

According to maps at S4GRU.com, there are several sites near you broadcasting at least 1x800 Mhz (for voice).

Nope only companies that have a license for 800 MHz in my area are at&t and Verizon. This is from the FCC website which I'll take as more official than some other place since they are the ones that hand out the licenses.

For whatever reason the FCC spectrum dashboard seems to be missing Sprint's 800 block entirely in many areas. According to the Dashboard Sprint's 800 block simply doesn't exist in my area. I am guessing someone miss entered the information because Sprint has 800 service active in this area.

Does it show as Nextel?

No in my area the spectrum simply doesn't exist according to the Dashboard.

Same in my area. According to Dashboard Sprint doesn't have anything in 800. But it's certainly there as my phone is almost always on Sprint B26. (Eastern Iowa)

Sprint in only covering 100M pops with 800LTE so far, so there is 1 in 3 chance it won't be in someone's area. They claim they will complete 800 by end of 2015.

You're right. I'm not arguing that the network is widespread. But when it's there it's amazing. Was in Denver recently, using Spark was a pleasure, even beat my Verizon device hands-down.

It's probably under another holding companies name where the spectrum was acquired from the buyout of another small wireless company in the past.

Nope

Then go look at the FCC website for Montgomery County again and you will see Nextel. Lots of Nextel entries show as canceled but there are 2-3 that are still active. You also live in SouthernLinc territory which is another cell provider with an iDen network.

I don't live in Montgomery County. I'm good hour away.

Then why did you show Montgomery in your first post saying this is what Sprint has in my area?

How do you know where I live? The IP address under my name is not my location. Where do you find maps on that site?

It's been cruddy here for more than 10 years. Nothing has changed...yet.

Yea and? Do you have a cell phone so you can look at "dots" all day? With your single "dot" could you take calls? Text? Browse the net?

Fact of the matter is and "dots" aside, yuor family had service in the auditorium and you also had service in the auditorium.

I agree with the crappy Sprint service comments, I've had them for nine years and it has been pretty awful. With that said, I have seen great improvements over this past year in coverage and speed. I think now is not the time to leave Sprint, nine years ago was.

I am looking forward to see what they can do this year with 800Mhz now getting a foot hold.

I've had Sprint over the last 10+ years in Tucson and they have greatly improved service here. LTE is about everywhere not as fast as it should be but much improved over the crappy 3g service they had and the false promise of WiMax coming here but never did.

Yeah when Sprint did "phase 1" of Network Vision on our rural 3G tower it improved things tremendously. We now pretty much get consistent 5 bars (-76 dbm) and this is in a heavily wooded area.

What Sprint needs to focus on now is backhaul backhaul backhaul. I'm pretty sure our tower is being fed by a single T1 line, because it maxes out at about 1.2 Mbps, and if there are a lot of us on it, our speeds can plummet to around 2-300 kbps.

Same happened up here. The Delaware Water Gap used to be a dead zone all the way through, including much of the woods around it. Since they did the first stage of network vision there was actually some 3G in that area.

The experience I had with them was very consistent. It consistently sucked. I even tried a spark enabled phone and the data speeds were pretty bad in a lot of areas. Even the ones that were supposedly upgraded.

And I'm not watching movies or other high data stuff. I'm just trying to check work email, read the news or check flights, directions and other light load activities.

Maybe things have improved in the past few months. But unfortunately after years of missed promises from them I am not sure I'm ready to give them another shot.

Over 7000 towers still on 3g,they claim backhaul provider problems.

I've been with Sprint about 14 1/2 years, but tomorrow will be my last day. There service has been consistently mediocre, but it was always cheaper. So I put up with it. I can now get on a plan with Verizon that is actually cheaper. The big difference will be going from unlimited data to 15 gigs a month. We have never gone over 6 1/3 gigs of download in a month. So I don't see any issues with the switch.

We all need to wake up one day and Sprint no longer exists. The name is (and has been for some time) too damaged to be recovered. Companies do this type of thing all the time. They need to flip the switch, and overnight a new name, new branding, new marketing material all needs to be available and Sprint no longer exists. I subscribed to Sprint services for a few years on and off since the early 00's. Never once was I actually impressed with what I received for my money.

Even cellular companies have done this before. I also used to be a customer of Ameritech Mobile back in the late 90's. While I wasn't paying attention I became a customer of some strange company called "Verizon Wireless". The same thing happened to friends of mine across the nation who were subscribers of companies like Airtouch, Bell Atlantic Mobile, and GTE Mobilnet.

If Sprint can actually manage to execute anything they need to reinvent themselves. No more Network Vision, Framily, etc. No more gimmicks, just wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. I know people who are happy with MetroPCS service here in the Chicagoland area who absolutely detested T-Mobile. MetroPCS didn't exist for all intents and purposes here until they were purchased by T-Mo.

Sprint sucks, yes. But they have a network and subscribers and plenty of potential. Potential that will never be realized until they find a way to convince people to actually try their hopefully improved network. I'll never use Sprint again, not after their draconian handset locking policies, the botched network upgrade (that still isn't finished!) that I was promised for years until I finally decided to go to T-Mobile on my secondary line, and the worst and positively most bullheaded customer service that makes Verizon's CS look like saints. But most people who aren't telco geeks don't know any of this, they just know "Sprint sucks" because that's what everyone says.

Hell, even if they just called it SoftBank, I'd be more inclined to give them a second look. But I'll never pay one more dime to Sprint, even if they had the best network in the world. It's like a totaled car. Sure, you can get the best mechanics and body techs on the job, and it may be just as roadworthy as a new Lexus, but until you stop spraying perfume on the proverbial turd and just reinvent it, no one will ever want to drive it.

If there are plans for that I still think they will wait a bit. Let the old Sprint name take any last hits and wait for a more complete build out especially 800. Then a bit more backhaul complete for 4g. Plus maybe some rural carriers online with native roaming.
Will not be that long. Most tower work for 4g (not spark) is done waiting on backhaul.

Yet another Sprint's LTE-to-the-Press announcement...

Sprint's been by far the worst performing LTE carrier two years in a row according to every imaginable independent benchmark. They've been losing millions of subscribers because of that consistently incredibly terrible LTE performance. Even the very latest RootMetrics scores still have Sprint as the slowest wireless carrier by a large margin.

So I truly feel bad for Sprint's users that stayed with the carrier throughout the years of unfulfilled promises, hoping that Sprint will eventually come through. Especially now with barrage of BS press releases claiming that the Network Vision has been "substantially complete", even though the network is still consistently the worst performing in the industry. Is this as good as the famous "Network Vision project" gets?

We stayed with Sprint because reasonable pricing ($45/phone/mo, including a $20/mo subsidy) and unlimited everything. Two years ago we finally got Sprint LTE which collapsed from 10/5 to 2/3. Signal quality improved to the point where we were able to ditch our Airave, and dropped calls disappeared. A few towers in my area have been upgraded to 2.5, and those towers average 40/10 even with mediocre signal.

Sprint still has far too much 3G with insufficient backhaul but they are far better than T-mobile in terms of coverage area. Where Tmobile has LTE, they Sprint still struggles to meet their project deadlines. It seems that Tmo is far more technically competent - especially in roll out speed and advanced features (ipad calling etc.).

Prepaid cricket (ATT) seems to be the best option for good coverage and price. Tmo for urban dwellers and foreign travelers, Verizon for LTE everywhere. Sprint doesn't seem to have a niche - not good in coverage, not good in price, not good in data speed.

We have been on Sprint for a few years and its been up and down. Where we currently live reception is almost nothing for all carriers. The airrave was the fix until we got our new phones. An S5 and iPhone 6. I got the S5 mainly for wifi calling. Now on tri-band we get spark. And its fast enough 30down/7up.

As I have been driving around our area, speeds are all over the place. Across from the closest Sprint store, the speeds are like old 3G. Sprint is clearly not done with this rollout.

Sprint doesn't roll over for the NSA like Verizon does, and works indoors like AT&T doesn't. I have great service where I go.

"I have great service where I go"

That's all that really matters. I don't care who has be best coverage in places where I am not, just places where I am.

Let me tell you my experience, summarized as best I can.

I switched to Boost Mobile on Black Friday 4 years ago. I switched because at the time, it seemed that Boost (and Sprint, by extension) were the only company that had a cell phone signal that worked indoors. It's funny to think about this, because for what it's worth, I had been a customer of theirs longer than I'd ever willingly been with any other carrier before, and especially any contract carrier before.

Then, this year, it all went wrong. Before this year, at least here in AZ, even if I didn't have LTE from my phone, I at least had a consistently clear voice signal, so again, I could make any calls I needed to even at home. Then their network team decided something was wrong with the towers and recalibrated. And as of May 22nd, I had both crap data and crap voice quality. And I started having dropped calls on top of that.

Months of complaining, and swapping phones, and finally getting fed up I submit my complaint to the BBB. I also give explicit contact instructions given the nature of my duties meaning I have limited availability to talk to someone. And being aware of the federal unlock law, I finally get to the point that I would rather at least have my phone unlocked so that at least that $300 I spent to replace wouldn't go to waste. Not only does Sprint's executive department explicitly never contact me when I'm available, but then they keep insisting and making every excuse to say that I'm not entitled to it, despite being a customer of theirs for as long as I have, and the fact that their network is that fubar.

They send network techs that refuse to do any work.
They send network techs to the wrong zip code, much less to the correct tower.
After a month of this they have the audacity to tell me that it will be an ETA of six months or more before they even look at the tower serving me at home. No ETA was ever given for the towers serving me at work. Even when they did finally try to offer some kind of compensation, it was nowhere near matching the five months of degraded service I've received, nor the value of the S III replacement phone I was made to buy at their insistence that it was a "device issue".

Even when I was in downtown Phoenix in a spot where I got actually great LTE service according to Speedtest.net's app (~27Mbps), I still couldn't even pull up a video on YouTube or Netflix to save my life. And when they hit the brakes with their throttling, it's even worse. I literally couldn't even use the Google maps app to navigate home because the speeds were that boned.

Even now, because of the trouble I had raising money toward getting a new phone, one of my friends had offered to send me their phone for free if it would help. Problem is, despite insistence from the company that it was properly unlocked, when I actually get it, I find that it is still locked to sprint! And at this point both Sprint and T-Mobile are pointing fingers at the other insisting it's the others' fault, and at the moment I can't use it as a phone.

So, needless to say, they've earned their hatred with me.

It seems that their voice coverage (there lack of actually ) is still the same while their data portion of their coverage is well into my area.. But what is the point of having a phone if all calls are going to be roaming charges..

Supposedly my market Louisville, KY has spark. I have a Galaxy S5 and my speed test barely top above 1.5M down and 3M up. No matter where I am in the city with full LTE signal. I get better speeds when I leave this area and am on 3G!!!

Seems Louisville doesn't really have the "Turbo" spark yet (ie TDLTE Band 41 2.5ghz). There's only very few tower with that service in the area

still you should be able to pull up to 20mbps on B26 or B25.... have you installed the Signal Check App? (available on the app store) its give good information as far as your signal strenght and cell tower.

LTE speed is very signal strength dependent, the worse the signal strenght is the slower it get.

For all the people complaining about Speed/Coverage issues in this thread, you need to report them using the "Sprint Zone" App. (You can use the GPS-location feature or enter a specific address for your report. Then, select the applicable issue: No service, Unable to access 4G, slow data speeds, dropped calls, etc.)

Download it here for iOS: »itunes.apple.com/us/app/ ··· 018?mt=8

The App is pre-installed on Android. (Except for Nexus devices)

Sprint collects these issue reports. The Network Team reviews them to see what the issue is, and assesses what the appropriate fix would be.

Sprint see's it on paper and push their smack to the public. Their network speeds still suck no matter how much 800mhz upgrades (or any other for that matter) they do. They offer that new "cut your bill in half" crap but what these people who get sucked into don't understand, they are also getting half the network they once had.