[turtle]

Is Sprint a bad option? I'm currently with AT&T but I had to stop by a Sprint store today. While I was there I talked with a sales rep and they told me that I would be able to get three iPhones and similar service level as I have with AT&T for the same price per month. Right now I have no equipment fee with AT&T, all my bill is for service. Basically this makes it so I go from about $122 /mo with AT&T to $125 /mo with Sprint but I get a new iPhone every year because they call the three lines a lease option. While I normally steer clear of leases, this just seems like a good option. Plus they'll take three old iPhones to knock each line down in the cost. Since I have an iPhone 3Gs and two iPhone 4 phones then I would get to keep my more modern 4S, 5 and 5S though they are with AT&T bands.

So with Sprint, can I use data and talk at the same time? There was a time when you couldn't with Verizon and I think Sprint was in the same boat. How is the signal quality overall? I don't mind if I can't get a signal in the swamp, but what about normal travels?

[alcimedes]

I'm with sprint and I hate them, but it has more to do with where we live than the carrier themselves.

Reception was fine in MN, and horrid in CO. Probably going to switch vendors for that reason.

If you get good reception with them, then I wouldn't have any problems sticking with them.

[turtle]

In this area they say the coverage is pretty good. I actually went into the Sprint store near me and asked about the exact cost because I was ready to buy the phones and switch. The Sprint Corp rep wouldn't tell me what the tax and surcharge was going to be. Like not even a rough "don't hold me to it" number. She would only tell me the cost in my original post. When my wife and I pressed her she got defiant. Needless to say, she didn't get our business.

Today we went to the mall near us and talked to someone at a kiosk there. This guy was upfront and clear about everything. No side stepping. He wasn't afraid to talk the numbers at all. As of last night I was going to stay clear of Sprint like it was the plague. We really like the deal though and the options for getting the iPhones so we took a chance on talking to the Sprint location at the mall.

If they had the phones we wanted in stock we would have signed up right then. They didn't have the phones in stock though. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.

[turtle]

Well, I am now the proud owner of three iPhone 6s phones and on Sprint's network. I like the concept that it has WiFi calling and hope it works as well as I hope it does.

My first call with my wife was awesome. Much clearer than I've ever heard on AT&T. The only thing was we hit the "Tron mode" a few times where we had to work to understand what was being said. That has a lot to do with my need for a MicroCell with AT&T and likely WiFi calling in my home. I'm sure I'll post more about my experiences here later. For now though, I'm happy.

[alcimedes]

I've had horrible luck with wifi calling. Even with terrible phone reception, it's been more reliable than the wifi calling. When wifi calling was on, the calls would be perfect for anywhere from 30 sec. to a min., and then just drop out of the blue. I'll be interested to see if it works for you though.

[Luca]

Old thread but if you see this Turtle, how are things going? I've been on Sprint for a while (actually the prepaid carrier Ting, which uses the Sprint network), and I'm also in the Twin Cities like alcimedes.

It's been up and down for me. The biggest plus is reception. I haven't run into many dead zones; it's similar to Verizon in that regard. The BIG minus is data speeds. It varies a lot by location, but I've never had good data speeds in Minnesota. Several years ago before LTE, I had a WiMAX phone on Sprint. WiMAX 4G was fast, but drained battery ungodly quickly and I didn't get it in a lot of places. Their 3G routinely clocked in at under 100 kbps, so barely better than dial-up speeds.

I switched to T-Mobile for about a year and got great speeds but not as good coverage, especially when entering rural areas. Went back to Sprint about a year ago and it's more of the same. The speeds are at least usable now, but LTE is only around 1 Mbps for me (the other networks typically have at least 8 Mbps LTE). In some cases, 3G is actually faster than LTE.

Now I'm switching to T-Mobile again, but my wife is staying on the Sprint network. Ting operates on both networks and you can bring a device from either one. So she's keeping her Sprint phone to make sure we always have signal even in rural areas, and I'm getting T-Mobile so I get better speeds.

The ultimate would be to go to Google Fi, which lets you use both the T-Mobile and Sprint networks at the same time, intelligently switching between them. But it's only compatible with a select few Google Nexus devices.

[turtle]

I wouldn't mind trying a different carrier now. Two months in and Sprint isn't bad, they just aren't as good as AT&T in this area. I am down to 3g regularly. Not only that, but my call quality is not as good as it was with AT&T consistently. There are some times where I wonder how AT&T could have had such horrible call quality because the Sprint connection was stellar. Then most of the time though I wish I was back on AT&T and end up hanging up and making it a FaceTime call so it will sound like I'm talking to a human on the other side instead of an 80's computer.

Data is hit or miss like you say too. Normally it's "OK" but that is not the norm. It isn't bad, just AT&T really was better, by a long shot. I don't travel outside of Tidewater much but within this area I have decent speeds overall. I haven't gotten near ISDN levels, but I have not stayed near the speed I consistently had with AT&T.

In my house I have two bars on my iPhone 6s and my speeds are 6Mbps/.4Mbps. The upload sucks horribly, but most aren't pushing data as much as pulling. Unless you think about photos going up to photo stream.

I'm not so disappointed that I'm ready to cancel out and go back to AT&T or try Verizon/T-Mobile though. Normally these little things don't matter but every now and then I have to work not to make a change happen.

[alcimedes]

I'm now at the point where my 2 year contract will be up in Aug., and I'm not sure I want to wait that long before I cancel and switch to someone else. Sprint really has not impressed me.

There are things I would hope the smaller carrier with less overhead would excel at, and instead they fall flat on their face.

And their tethering cost/requirements suck.

[Luca]

Sprint's data speeds are just so slow, I cannot fathom spending more than I already do for their service. On Ting, my wife and I spend a combined $40 per month for two smartphones, and we generally keep it under 500 MB of data per month (failing that, under 1 GB for sure). The low cost is the only reason why the low speeds are acceptable. I definitely wouldn't pay your typical postpaid plan cost AND sign a 2-year contract on top of that; if I did, I would probably be complaining like crazy trying to get out of it.

Just earlier today, I was waiting at the dentist and I decided to run a speed test for the hell of it. LTE, don't remember how many bars but it was at least half full. I got 0.6 Mbps download and "network connectivity error" upload. Maybe my results aren't typical for the Sprint network but it is nearly unusable for me. The crazy thing is, I was a Sprint customer several years ago, switched away for a while due to poor data speeds and switched back (via Ting) hoping they had made some improvement in the intervening years. Nope, they did nothing.

Luckily, Ting now supports T-Mobile GSM phones, so I'm getting one of those and I'll see how it does. There isn't a very high bar for it to clear.

[turtle]

AT&T was doing a contract buyout option recently. I'm interested in that other than it won't really work for me since I'm only 2 months in now. Verizon still doesn't strike me as wanting to get a large batch of new customers. Their coverage isn't worth the premium if you asked me.

I have to say that the one thing I like about Sprint over AT&T is the WiFi calling on my iPhone. It is very clear when on a good connection like at my house.

[kieran]

AT&T has wi-fi calling now too, so don't let that be a deciding factor for you.

[turtle]

Well that is just awesome news... though now making me dislike being with Sprint all the more. Plus, AT&T made me buy a MicroCell because my home is a dead zone thanks to the construction and towers around my home. It was MicroCell or stand outside to make phone calls.

[kieran]

I tried to get AT&T to give me a MicroCell because of how bad service deteriorated over a few months at my house, but they wouldn't budge.

But now, with the wi-fi calling, it's perfect. I was making phone calls from the Bahamas last month that sounded just like FaceTime Audio calls. Definitely a nice feature to finally have.

[Yontsey]

If anyone needs an AT&T Microcell, let me know. I have two that have been collecting dust that I'd give away.

[TheOtherDave]

"Sprint doesn't have customers; they have victims", at least around here. At least according to my friend. I didn't have any issues when I was a Sprint customer for a couple months. But it really was just a month or two before I switched to AT&T, so maybe they just didn't have time to abuse me.

[kieran]

Originally Posted by Yontsey If anyone needs an AT&T Microcell, let me know. I have two that have been collecting dust that I'd give away.

If this was a few weeks ago, I'd be all over that, but now with wi-fi calling, it's not really needed. The wi-fi calling does the same thing basically.

[turtle]

Man, every day I am hating Sprint more and more. Today I called my mom (who is on my plan) and when she answered the phone I was sent to a Sprint operator message that said "[I wasn't] authorized on Sprint's network. If I am a Sprint customer dial...."

I hung up and called my mom right back and she informed me that he friend had called her (from Verizon) and was given the same automated answer a few days before. I never had stuff like that with AT&T.

Not only that, Sprint's speeds just suck in my area. I don't know what crack they are smoking when they made those ads, but they must have forgotten to measure it in my region.