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Sprint: We Lost Early Customers Due To Spotty WiMax Coverage
Though company claims they've shored up the gaps
As we've noted repeatedly, consumer complaints about Clearwire's WiMax service have been fairly significant, not only focusing on coverage gaps within a market, but coverage and signal quality issues within the home. On the plus side, Sprint and Clearwire revamped their coverage maps earlier this year, helping make those coverage gaps more obvious before you fall into them. Sprint this week admits they lost customers early on due to coverage issues, but tells Computerworld they believe they've shored up most of the problems they were having:
quote:
"We lost some customers in early deployments," said Matt Carter, president of 4G at Sprint in a brief interview at 4G World here. The first deployments occurred nearly two years ago in the Baltimore area, but Carter didn't say where the problems occurred. . . Sprint advertises average download speeds of 3-6 Mbit/sec, and upload speeds that are capped with Clearwire at 1 Mbit/sec to prevent heavy peer-to-peer data sharing abuses.
While we've seen no complaints of this among Sprint users, Clearwire's biggest problem right now is the inconsistent throttling practices we've been reporting on for weeks, which as this six page thread in our forums attests, leaves users with speeds of 64 kbps. While some network management is expected on a wireless network, Sprint and Clearwire executives have made a big deal about how users are able to "browse, download and stream to their hearts content" -- which at least for Clear customers -- is far from the truth.
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King P
Don't blame me. I voted for Ron Paul
Premium Member
join:2004-11-17
Murfreesboro, TN

King P

Premium Member

Really?

I'm actually pretty happy with Sprint. Some issues with my Samsung Moment aside (micro usb port broke and they wouldn't replace it...at first), I've been pretty happy with them for the last 5+ years.

I really could care less about WiMax at this point. I don't plan on using it, nor will I be getting a 4G phone anytime soon (although Nashville does have decent coverage).

Maybe the folks they lost are just ones that are fairweather users, that cry/moan/pitch-a-fit, when something doesn't work exactly right?
ChuckIL9
join:2005-11-07
Peoria, IL

ChuckIL9

Member

Forget WiMax....how about fixing 3G in my area

They're about to lose another customer here over 3G speeds. I've been on the phone with customer service every week for the last 5 weeks trying to get 3G download speeds higher than 56K. Everything was fine until 5 weeks ago when suddenly 1.5M slowed down to 56K. Every customer service rep has taken information, put in a ticket, but when I call the next week the customer service rep can never find the previous ticket.

digiblur
Premium Member
join:2002-06-03
Louisiana

digiblur

Premium Member

Re: Forget WiMax....how about fixing 3G in my area

said by ChuckIL9:

They're about to lose another customer here over 3G speeds. I've been on the phone with customer service every week for the last 5 weeks trying to get 3G download speeds higher than 56K. Everything was fine until 5 weeks ago when suddenly 1.5M slowed down to 56K. Every customer service rep has taken information, put in a ticket, but when I call the next week the customer service rep can never find the previous ticket.
Join the club... they haven't fixed the coverage issues here and their 3G has been in the toilet since they got off the leased Alltel 3G 3 months ago in my area.

Their network planners ran ONE T-1 to the downtown tower for 3G that covers all the state capital offices!! Yes...ONE!

This is daily for me right here...


Don't waste your time trying to call customer service...put in tickets yourself with the tower guys. Email them and they will call you back and get all of your info. Here is the email: just to prevent spam to their address... it is trvesc at the typical sprint.com

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

tiger72 to ChuckIL9

Premium Member

to ChuckIL9
speeds seem to have decreased for my girlfriend's Sprint service too ever since Virgin started their broadband package.

hamburglar
join:2002-04-29
united state

hamburglar

Member

WiMax

Sprint has already stated they are looking at LTE. I don't see WiMax phones being released much past 2011. Besides, if someone bought an EVO or Epic because of the 4g, they need to realize it's not much more than a novelty in most places. I bought it because of the its other capabilities and Sprint's plan pricing.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: WiMax

said by hamburglar:

Sprint has already stated they are looking at LTE. I don't see WiMax phones being released much past 2011. Besides, if someone bought an EVO or Epic because of the 4g, they need to realize it's not much more than a novelty in most places. I bought it because of the its other capabilities and Sprint's plan pricing.
If Sprint goes LTE it would likely be in 5+ years converting CDMA spectrum once there is an LTE voice service - and I think they should. They'll continue to do WiMAX via Clear for several more years if not for the long haul. Clear has enough spectrum to do both.

Would like to see Clear stick with WiMAX in the term and Sprint convert CDMA spectrum to LTE in 5+ years. Qualcomm is working on a way to ease CDMA/LTE migration.

Mr Anon
@k12.il.us

Mr Anon

Anon

No they haven't

I have a buddy who was visiting in an okay south side Chicago neighborhood and had great clear 4g even in a basement. traveled to an apartment on the north side near the end of the brown line and no 4g what so ever.

ryder9
join:2003-01-09
here

ryder9

Member

Re: No they haven't

what does that have to do with anything??

Mr Anon
@k12.il.us

Mr Anon

Anon

Re: No they haven't

One would expect the second location to have a better signal than the first. It's near a university, near a transit location, VS. the first location which is basically... no where.

While his sprint phone (non 4g) is the opposite, Location 1, no service except *some* outside, location 2 full strength 3g, so is the clear but as stated before no 4g at the second.
Angrychair
join:2000-09-20
Jacksonville, FL

Angrychair

Member

Sprint 4g = clearwire?

Because I can say wholeheartedly that it's underwhelming. I live in an area on their map that lists me as getting 4g within my home, but my phone gets one or two bars in 4g in my living room. Out on the main road it gets full signal, but still pulls very underwhelming speed tests (less than 2mbps down, less than 25kbps up).

LivinWparnts
@sbcglobal.net

LivinWparnts

Anon

Re: Sprint 4g = clearwire?

Ya but its doing this wireless!! I think its a great product and love clearwire so far..

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207 to Angrychair

Premium Member

to Angrychair
I'm sure everyone's experience is different, but I could not be happier with my Sprint HTC EVO's 4G performance. Here in Northern Virginia, if I am in a spot with 1 or more 4G bars, I have been able to stream my Slingbox video to my phone without any issues. I've never seen it throttled and I've had great speeds at all hours of the day/night.

I watched an entire round of the British Open golf tournament, and several legs of the Tour de France without any problems. I just watched the Yankees - Rangers baseball game last night and it was perfect for the entire game.

Sprint's 4G is great for many of us, and hopefully it will improve in those areas where people are experiencing problems or poor performance.


HTC EVO 4G


I captured a couple of screen shots of the movie "The Blind Side" being shown on HBO with my EVO's SlingMedia player.


From Movie


From the Movie
Angrychair
join:2000-09-20
Jacksonville, FL

Angrychair

Member

Re: Sprint 4g = clearwire?

Well la-di-da. It's great to know they're not relative shit in your area.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

1 recommendation

Happydude32 to jmn1207

Premium Member

to jmn1207
Wow that's a terrible result for 4G. Here's typically what I get on my Evo





I love how low the pings are with Sprint. AT&T was always 250ms+ when I had the iPhone.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: Sprint 4g = clearwire?

Right, terrible, please.

I was inside my office building sitting at my desk, which is located away from the windows, so I had no GPS lock and the app ran the test on the last server that was used. Notice the latency on my test? When I use a test server in and around D.C., and I have better line of sight to the tower, my latency and speed results are much closer to what you are posting.

Still, a steady 6 Mbps wireless connection is freaking awesome for many, many people. Having absolutely no cap limit is the icing on the cake, until it melts away and Sprint has a change of heart.

But, I concede. You are the true champ of the 4G speed test.
simstick
join:2004-07-02
Houston, TX

simstick to Happydude32

Member

to Happydude32
said by Happydude32:

Wow that's a terrible result for 4G. Here's typically what I get on my Evo
I love how low the pings are with Sprint. AT&T was always 250ms+ when I had the iPhone.
The home users were bragging like that for about four months so they get the good reviews then they will cap your a$$.
vlad1000
join:2005-05-19
Brooklyn, NY

vlad1000

Member

wow!! they've just realized that?

clear should NOT even THINK of throttling new york customers or they will take their business elsewhere...

io chico
Premium Member
join:2003-12-30
Marble Falls, TX

io chico

Premium Member

Happy with Sprint

I've only been with Sprint for 2 months, but I'm very happy with them. I'm getting just under 1Mbps. It's the unlimited data that attracted me. The only other option in my area is at&t's 2GB cap.

That said, I can imagine the frustration if it dropped down and no one could help.
vlad1000
join:2005-05-19
Brooklyn, NY

vlad1000

Member

Re: Happy with Sprint

you're happy with under 1mbps???????
what do you use your connection for? plain text email only?

io chico
Premium Member
join:2003-12-30
Marble Falls, TX

io chico

Premium Member

Re: Happy with Sprint

It's just under my isp's connection of 1.2Mbps (up from .5Mbps of 4 months). Rural life. Either I get used to demanding less or I spend my life angry.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: Happy with Sprint

said by io chico:

It's just under my isp's connection of 1.2Mbps (up from .5Mbps of 4 months). Rural life. Either I get used to demanding less or I spend my life angry.
Or you can stop voting in politicians who hate you.

io chico
Premium Member
join:2003-12-30
Marble Falls, TX

io chico

Premium Member

Re: Happy with Sprint

??

DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

DavePR to vlad1000

Member

to vlad1000
You can stream very nice sounding radio at 1 mb/s. YouTube sometimes requires that you let the cache fill before watching. Most web pages open quickly enough. Beats dialup.
My ex in Texas uses a 3g dongle. 10 miles from the high tech capital of America and no cable, no DSL.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

1 edit

en102 to vlad1000

Member

to vlad1000
How much browsing requires +1 Mbps on a cellphone ?

I had Nextel BB 7100i with Opera Mini and it was slow - but that was ~60kbps.
By comparison 1x is fast.
I have a Sprint Treo 800w, and its relatively fast - as long as I have a connection. Many times I get a connection issue attempting to connect to data.
Voice isn't bad.

I'd rate it as a service similar to AT&T here in SoCal, with faster service on AT&T.
Latency is a little better on Sprint (using pockey PuTTy SSH client on Treo 800w vs iSSH client on iPhone 3GS). Both are very reliable - Pocket PuTTy client loses connection (as does Windows LCS) during a call or incoming SMS which can be a pain (work related).
chgo_man99
join:2010-01-01
Sunnyvale, CA

chgo_man99

Member

That is what I talked about a while ago

Its great for fixed hotspot like cafe, beach but not great when you are on a train or another moving vehicle. Too many small dead spots and/or hand-off between towers is not without an interruption.

I had never problem with that on 3G or EDGE
38632383 (banned)
join:2009-09-25
Houston, TX

1 edit

38632383 (banned)

Member

Such Coincidence !

Interesting how Sprint Employees are able to get 5 and 10 meggabits of perfect wireless service while the average customer gets dial up speeds and new taxes every month, and charges that the CSR can't even identify !

Oh, wait.... That is Verizon, not Sprint...

Never Mind !