If you had actually read my posts, you would have seen that I had Sprint for 13 years, so I do have experience with them. And so do the other posters here. And just because they've improved in your back yard doesn't mean they've improved in mine.
Softbank Mulling Sprint / DISH Combo
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If you had actually read my posts, you would have seen that I had Sprint for 13 years, so I do have experience with them. And so do the other posters here. And just because they've improved in your back yard doesn't mean they've improved in mine.
I hate AT&T too. Had them for years, switched to T-Mobile for a while but could not get reception in areas I frequent, and have similar issues when I use the company-provided Sprint hotspot in those same areas. So AT&t or Verizon's networks were my only options. Good thing I'm not actually a customer of either.
And if you had read Trip's posts, then you'd see where he also stated they are improving ..that means currently.
The service you had yesterday maybe not be the service you get today. That's how improvements work.
The people who had bad service 5 years ago don't necessarily have bad service now... because they've made network improvements.
People who had bad service 3 years ago don't necessarily have bad service now. That's all we've been trying to say.
Sprint didn't even work in my back yard 7 years ago.. Now they do. That's an example of what is being said here. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less... aside from the people thinking the magic box can't improve Sprint more than a femtocell can, or that the magic box is a femtocell itself.
And the other example of what's being said here is that while improving, Sprint and Tmo still have a long way to go to reach T and VZN coverage, as I've pointed out in my post above.
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Ideally, I'd prefer to not require some sort of small box being installed to provide me better service...because once I travel more than 300' from that box, I will lose said service it's providing.
But that's ideally speaking. I understand the short-term gains from that approach...and long-term as well. It can be the band-aid they need while making the network improvements they are continuing to make. So it has many positives.
The "magic box" is a repeater. You have to have at least one bar to make it work. Tmobile has had the same thing for years.
I'll know when Sprint improves in my neighborhood because there will be another set of cells on top of the tower in my backyard (i.e., never).
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I like how my posts about having Regional managers not liking the reliability or service currently, got ignored and because I haven't been a customer for a couple years, I don't know anything about Sprint. Again, I trust the people that HAVE to buy in to it for a paycheck, especially when they will not use it for their personal service. It's not just one of them either, all the ones I went to school with agree on that fact, that reliability is with the top 2.
I like how that is supposed to be such a significant factor for everyone else..
That's significant for you, in your area.. It isn't significant for other areas in the 200+ markets that Sprint services..and probably a vast majority of the 65,000,000 people aren't too worried about 2-3 regional managers' opinions.
Sixty million +...
60,000,000 ....
10 regional managers.
10 regions out of 200+ regions (markets, DMA's, whatever).
I just stated 10 because it's such a nominal number compared to the 218 markets (or whatever it is now) and also compared to the 60,000,000 customers.
To have Sprint post a profit for the first time in 3 years as of Aug 1, speaks masses for their work on the network. People speak with their wallets, and Sprint posted a profitable quarter...
Yep, exactly. No one is saying how out of this world wonderful they are, we’re just saying they’re not that bad, and that they’ve made great improvements.
It’s all relative. For me, my anecdotal evidence trumps a map of the country that shows coverage of places I will never be in. No one in Kansas cares about me getting faster speeds on Sprint then most people have in their homes off of a tower in a rural village in Upstate NY. And likewise, it’s not a concern of mine that coverage is lacking in other areas. Verizon and AT&T have the most built out network, no one is denying that. I attribute that to two things. The buying up of smaller regional cell phone providers 15-20 years ago and the fact they are ILECs and have a lot of ground based infrastructure that powers the cell phone towers. Since as we all know, cell signals work on rainbows and unicorns.
Your car analogy hits home. Just had this conversation last weekend with a guy I used to work with. He’s a big Chevy guy as when his dad was alive he worked at the GM plant in the area. Doesn’t have a lot of money and always bought crappy, beat up, high mileage Blazers and Tahoe’s either from private sellers or Buy Here/Pay Here type places, and over the course of time would sink thousands into them, until he could find another POS beat up, high mileage Blazer or Tahoe. Wash, rinse, repeat. To save on gas, the last time a Tahoe took a dump, he did the unthinkable and bought a Ford. A 175,000+ Escape from the first year they came out, 2001 or 2002. All he does is talk about what a piece of junk it is, and how he’ll never buy a Ford again. Knowing that I’m a Ford guy, I think he does it just to try to get under my skin, but all things considered, his Escape is probably no better or worse (just smaller) then his GM trucks, he just doesn’t like Ford and will complain without thinking about that he had the same experiences with GM.
Charter is another one. The amount of people at work who cry to me about getting ripped off from Time Warner for not getting the speeds they are paying for is astronomical. When I ask them if they bought or lease their modem, they say they bought it because leasing in nothing but a scam. I ask them for the model number. They come back the next day, and it’s some super old or super cheap DOCSIS 3 modem that can only do 4 channel downstream bonding. I tell them that their modem is too old and can’t support more than 4 channel bonding and that will cause problems is highly populated neighborhoods, I use the 4 lane-8 lane highway traffic scenario, but no one gets it. They grumble and whine and about TWC still. I tell them, hey if it’s their modem, it’s their responsibility, they didn’t want to be a part of Time Warner’s ‘scam’ so now you’re on your own. Most take no action and continue to whine. They refuse to buy a new 16x4 modem. They refuse to rent one, they refuse to switch to a new Charter plan where there is no modem rental fee. The couple of people that did upgrade their modems came back and said it made a big improvement and they now get what they pay for.
I guess if you come in with preconceived notions about something, you’ll find fault no matter what.
That said, I’ll probably switch over to T-Mobile. I’d like to see their network improvements first hand. When I had my two week stint with a Windows Phone, the phone was GSM only, but I never switched over to T-Mobile, just used wifi. When I get the Pixel next week, I’ll stay with Sprint, but once the Pixel 2 comes out, I’ll switch both lines to T-Mobile. And yes, the CEO is a bit touched and a wackadoodle.
You might like TMO. At least their extended range LTE brings service to areas once unserved or underserved. That's one of the reasons Verizon is so afraid of them. Verizon afraid of Sprint? Not so much.
My main concern is coverage at work, that's where I use my phone 90% of the time. Our company T-Mobile iPhones only get one or two dots, never looked at the Field Test screens on those, only on the Sprint phones. But since they're iPhones, I'm not expecting much. A couple people who have had company issued T-Mobile phones had to switch over to Sprint. The proximity to how close they lived to the Canadian boarder, combined with T-Mobiles poor coverage caused them to roam on to Rogers resulting in massive bills. And this is only going back about 6 months.
At least contracts are a thing of the past now and you can switch between providers with ease.
At least contracts are a thing of the past now and you can switch between providers with ease.
Read your post 163 and then read my response... I will take the word of those that have some control there, and have to buy in, when it matches my experience all over the Us while I was in the Army, and the experience of those in all the different places I was forced to travel. The fact that it took 3 years to post a profit, doesn't show that they are getting better. It is a sign that they lowered their overhead. There is a very large difference there.
The only religion I see here is the one that (to continue the analogy) equates Sprint with the devil. The only things that I and others are saying is that Sprint works for some, although it may not work for you. That's not religion, that's fact. Sprint is the best choice for me for several reasons. If it's not the best choice for you, then you shouldn't use it. That's, in fact, the exact opposite of a religious attitude--nobody is trying to convert you.
I'm not sure what your point is here. If you're using an MVNO that provides service on AT&T's network, you're still paying AT&T, just indirectly through a middle man.
It's a repeater of a sort. It uses the main cell signal as backhaul, but then creates an entirely new LTE carrier for your devices to connect to. So instead of boosting a weak signal, it creates a new, clean signal on different spectrum, so there's no self-interference into the larger network.
T-Mobile has most certainly not had the same thing for years.
This comment makes no sense. T-Mobile has 5x5 of 700 MHz in many (not all) markets in the US, which it purchased relatively recently. Sprint, by contrast, has about that much on 800 MHz in the whole US, notwithstanding the on-going issues in the Canadian and Mexican border zones. There's nothing fundamentally different about the two bands. By contrast, both AT&T and Verizon, in many markets, own 10x10 on 700 MHz. I cannot imagine why Verizon would be "afraid" of T-Mobile because they own licenses in some markets for a certain spectrum band that Verizon owns more of.
- Trip
TMO has had a repeater for years. Specs here: 4G LTE CellSpot overview
EDIT: the link above is for the femtocell. This link is for the repeater: 4G LTE signal booster
Hi Trip,
Thank you for your wealth of knowledge on the subject. Very informative, and a nice breath of fresh air.
Do you have any updates on IBEZ and Sprint LTE band 26 in areas that border Canada? I initially read something years ago about 2017 being the magical year, but haven't seen any updated information.
Also, what's the reason behind 800 MHz being fine for Nextel's iDen network, but not for Sprint's LTE for border dwellers? I know it's interference related with the Canadian providers, but shouldn't 800 MHz be 800 MHz regardless of the technology? I never understood that.
Nextel's 800 MHz network penetrated into Canada farther then one would think, not super far, but I was surprised. My mother and great aunt used to go up to the Canadian casinos all the time, and they had no problem maintaining the Nextel signal and using Direct Connect in while out and about in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Thank you for your wealth of knowledge on the subject. Very informative, and a nice breath of fresh air.
Do you have any updates on IBEZ and Sprint LTE band 26 in areas that border Canada? I initially read something years ago about 2017 being the magical year, but haven't seen any updated information.
Also, what's the reason behind 800 MHz being fine for Nextel's iDen network, but not for Sprint's LTE for border dwellers? I know it's interference related with the Canadian providers, but shouldn't 800 MHz be 800 MHz regardless of the technology? I never understood that.
Nextel's 800 MHz network penetrated into Canada farther then one would think, not super far, but I was surprised. My mother and great aunt used to go up to the Canadian casinos all the time, and they had no problem maintaining the Nextel signal and using Direct Connect in while out and about in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
My point was a direct response about avoiding AT&T like the plague due to their horrible billing and customer service. I use their network, but I don't have to deal with their pricing, practices and people.
I think the point Chad was trying to make about the 10 regional managers wasn't to give anecdotal evidence about 10 different markets out of the 200+ markets out there, but to point out their experiences traveling BETWEEN multiple markets. The differences with the providers are much more pronounced when in areas outside of the major markets.
Thanks for the links. As I thought, T-Mobile does not have a device like the Magic Box. It has a femtocell and a traditional repeater which is a poor solution for desperate cases at best. It is in two pieces with cabling connecting them, instead of one, and does not use a new LTE carrier on a different frequency, but rather boosts the original carrier off the cell tower.
- Trip
I have no updates on the IBEZ region. Much as I hate to say it, it will be done when it's done and not a moment sooner.
As to the difference, when it was set up, the 800 MHz SMR band was set up with narrow-band interleaved channels, so, as a made-up example, the US may have had 851.1 MHz, then Canada 851.2, US 851.3, etc. The domestic problem with that was that in the US, the commercial use (Nextel) was interleaved with public safety, which caused interference between the two, leading to the need to reband regardless. The problem that impacts both domestic and international is that LTE uses contiguous spectrum--that is, LTE uses a solid 5x5 MHz (for example), so to the extent that any of the previously-interleaved carriers remain in place, the spectrum is entirely unusable due to interference one way or the other. Even CDMA uses 1.25 MHz carriers, which are broader than the interleaved channels were.
- Trip
I travel between podunk towns between where I live and all along that stretch between me and Slidell/McComb ...
So not only do I have large swaths of interstate that are void of anything, including exits...I see MULTIPLE areas of service along that route that used to be nothing. When I had TMO and traveled that same route, there was a big "X" on the screen for signal...none at all. Not even a 911 call would get out..
In the "network improvements" example that I listed, this is part of what I'm including. I've seen Sprint personally bring service -- although it may not be 100mbps LTE, it's still USABLE service, to those desolate areas. The only other carrier that MIGHT have a bar or two in those areas is VZW..but I have no way of knowing that...
I do know that in McComb, MS, Sprint does NOT have native coverage. However, Sprint does have C-spire roaming LTE agreements in place, due to the Competitive Carrier association...
