Sprint Megathread: Dead Man Sprinting

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Sprint Megathread: Dead Man Sprinting

Duckman2008: Jan 6, 2010; TFW you see Flyers goaltending.; Grimey Drawer

DaveKap posted:

My 2 year Sprint plan is up. Looking at my past year of data usage, I never went over 500MB in a month. I used less than 200 minutes in call time. Is there any good reason to renew my plan with Sprint other than getting a discount on a phone upgrade? Paying $400 for a Galaxy S3 and moving to Virgin's $35 a month plan would save me money over Sprint's plan in about 9 months (not including Sprint phone upgrade cost, which would make it even shorter) and keep me off a contract. Plus I'd still be on Sprint's network and my usage is already under the limits of the plan.

Not trying to poo poo on Sprint, just honestly curious. Plus I can't find a Virgin Mobile thread.

Prepaid thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3474380

Virgin Mobile will be a bit more hit or miss coverage wise than Sprint due to roaming. Compare all prepaid options, I would say TMo's $30 data plan would be a good one for you, and it would have better data coverage than Virgin. Nexus 4 at $350 is also a good option there.

Edit: Confirm with the prepaid thread, but i think VM does have LTE off Sprint now.

Duckman2008 fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Jul 16, 2013

# ? Jul 16, 2013 20:53

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# ? May 30, 2024 15:14

DaveKap: Feb 5, 2006; Pickle: Inspected.

Grumpwagon posted:

One thing to consider about moving to Virgin is AFAIK, you can't use Sprint's LTE on it, so if your area has been developed for LTE, you'd be losing out on that.

I'm in San Francisco where Sprint apparently turned on (or is about to turn on) their LTE service. I am curious, though, why Virgin Mobile advertises that they have LTE availability.
"Enjoy blazing 4G LTE speeds where available while on the Sprint Network."
Any reason why that wouldn't be available to me?

Duckman2008 posted:

Prepaid thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3474380

Virgin Mobile will be a bit more hit or miss coverage wise than Sprint due to roaming. Compare all prepaid options, I would say TMo's $30 data plan would be a good one for you, and it would have better data coverage than Virgin. Nexus 4 at $350 is also a good option there.

Ah, good call. I'll go over to that thread in a bit. Reading the details of TMo's plans, this is not what I want for a few different reasons. Won't extend the conversation here though.

# ? Jul 16, 2013 21:05

beamrider: Sep 22, 2000; Posting "This needs much more love" IS BANNABLE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86417206@N05/9301548819/

Hell, I'm just hoping that LTE will be faster than my home internet.......

# ? Jul 16, 2013 23:18

Oddinary: Jul 25, 2006; Awake in a Dream

beamrider posted:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86417206@N05/9301548819/

Hell, I'm just hoping that LTE will be faster than my home internet.......

That would depend on how fast home internet connection is...

# ? Jul 16, 2013 23:26

beamrider: Sep 22, 2000; Posting "This needs much more love" IS BANNABLE

Makkari posted:

That would depend on how fast home internet connection is...

The 2 wi-fi tests there are my home internet. "Up to 10Meg"...

# ? Jul 16, 2013 23:31

nate fisher: Mar 3, 2004; We've Got To Go Back

Comparison of my wifi to what I get on 3G at home:

I tired to test 4 more times on 3G, but I kept getting this:

So I would take 1/20th on what I get on wifi right now.

# ? Jul 16, 2013 23:37

OMGMYSPLEEN: Jul 12, 2009; Rawwwwhiiiiide; College Slice

When they start doing NV work on a tower does the signal there usually get worse while working on it? I ask this because I'm in Buffalo NY where they finally started upgrades. Downtown where I work I usually had a weak but mostly usable signal, and now suddenly I have no data and lucky if texts come through.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 00:13

nate fisher: Mar 3, 2004; We've Got To Go Back

ninmeister posted:

When they start doing NV work on a tower does the signal there usually get worse while working on it? I ask this because I'm in Buffalo NY where they finally started upgrades. Downtown where I work I usually had a weak but mostly usable signal, and now suddenly I have no data and lucky if texts come through.

I am starting to think yes. Knoxville started getting LTE in the Spring, but since my service has been awful. I am going to give them a benefit of a doubt until they go officially live here.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 00:23

datajosh: May 3, 2002; I had the realization these aren't my problem!

beamrider posted:

The 2 wi-fi tests there are my home internet. "Up to 10Meg"...

It will be then, with LTE at home I get about 10-15Mbps down but upload never tops about 1.5Mbps. (At work it's a completely different story though.)

# ? Jul 17, 2013 00:37

sethsez: Jul 14, 2006; He's soooo dreamy...

Grumpwagon posted:

One thing to consider about moving to Virgin is AFAIK, you can't use Sprint's LTE on it, so if your area has been developed for LTE, you'd be losing out on that.

Apart from that, seems like a good plan. I'd consider craigslist or eBay for a used S3. I'm pretty sure the Sprint version can be flashed over to Virgin (but check on that, I'm not sure).

Virgin Mobile absolutely gets access to the Sprint LTE network. And while it's not the best, it's certainly a hell of a lot better than their 3G.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 02:01

Kia Soul Enthusias: May 9, 2004; zoom-zoom; Toilet Rascal

ninmeister posted:

When they start doing NV work on a tower does the signal there usually get worse while working on it? I ask this because I'm in Buffalo NY where they finally started upgrades. Downtown where I work I usually had a weak but mostly usable signal, and now suddenly I have no data and lucky if texts come through.

It certainly seems that way for me. At least, the sprintcare twitter account said they're both upgrading in my area and have an outage. I dunno.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 02:27

z16bitsega: Nov 26, 2005

beamrider posted:

The 2 wi-fi tests there are my home internet. "Up to 10Meg"...

You're displaying your results in kilobytes per second instead of kilobits per second. 10 meg = 10 megabit = roughly 1250 kilobytes per second. You're getting better than advertised speeds on your home connection.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 04:05

Oddinary: Jul 25, 2006; Awake in a Dream

My home Wi-Fi gets 30 down/25 up. The best I've seen so far from Sprint, in my area (NYC), is 17 down/5-10 up. That said, NV isn't anywhere near complete here; it's anemic at best and worse than Swiss cheese.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 04:09

The Shep: Jan 10, 2007; If found, please return this poster to GIP. His mothers are very worried and miss him very much.

DaveKap posted:

My 2 year Sprint plan is up. Looking at my past year of data usage, I never went over 500MB in a month. I used less than 200 minutes in call time. Is there any good reason to renew my plan with Sprint other than getting a discount on a phone upgrade? Paying $400 for a Galaxy S3 and moving to Virgin's $35 a month plan would save me money over Sprint's plan in about 9 months (not including Sprint phone upgrade cost, which would make it even shorter) and keep me off a contract. Plus I'd still be on Sprint's network and my usage is already under the limits of the plan.

Not trying to poo poo on Sprint, just honestly curious. Plus I can't find a Virgin Mobile thread.

Have you considered that your data use is so low because Sprints network is utter poo poo? Honestly, there are many times when I just give up trying to use spotify, YouTube, download an app, etc because the network is so slow. If I could, I'd be streaming music on all my commutes, watching YouTube and Netflix at work, but I can't do those things.

My data use went down when I switched to Sprint from US Cellular (where I had a tiered plan) and one of the reasons I switched was to get unlimited data...

# ? Jul 17, 2013 07:00

Tedronai66: Aug 24, 2006; Better to Reign in Hell...

Cmdr. Shepard posted:

Have you considered that your data use is so low because Sprints network is utter poo poo? Honestly, there are many times when I just give up trying to use spotify, YouTube, download an app, etc because the network is so slow. If I could, I'd be streaming music on all my commutes, watching YouTube and Netflix at work, but I can't do those things.

Same for me. All things must either be local or wi-fi only to not throw my hands up in frustration/give up.

Whereas I'd love to use GMusic to stream/radio, I can't unless I'm also on wifi.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 17:48

DaveKap: Feb 5, 2006; Pickle: Inspected.

Cmdr. Shepard posted:

Have you considered that your data use is so low because Sprints network is utter poo poo?

It took me a bit but, yes, I've come to the realization that this is most likely the case. As such, I'm checking with friends to see if the TMo waves in SF are faster than Sprint's... which is very much most likely the case.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 20:55

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

DaveKap posted:

It took me a bit but, yes, I've come to the realization that this is most likely the case. As such, I'm checking with friends to see if the TMo waves in SF are faster than Sprint's... which is very much most likely the case.

How would it not be the case?

I wonder how Sprint's subscriber numbers look. I understand a bunch of goons lamenting the terrible speeds are not equivalent to the general public and their twitter habits, but I've heard from a lot of people who are/were on Sprint who got fed up with paying big carrier prices for poo poo data speeds and embarrassingly bad dead spot problems due to poor building penetration.

# ? Jul 17, 2013 22:58

DaveKap: Feb 5, 2006; Pickle: Inspected.

The Entire Universe posted:

How would it not be the case?

If every friend of mine who uses T-Mobile tells me that they have awful reception all over the city and posts speed tests somehow slower than mine, it would not be the case. This isn't happening, though.

I would like to note that Sprint's reception as a phone has been perfect for me. The only trick there is that I barely ever use it as a phone.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Jul 18, 2013

# ? Jul 18, 2013 00:29

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

DaveKap posted:

If every friend of mine who uses T-Mobile tells me that they have awful reception all over the city and posts speed tests somehow slower than mine, it would be the case. This isn't happening, though.

I would like to note that Sprint's reception as a phone has been perfect for me. The only trick there is that I barely ever use it as a phone.

Sprint's the network for octogenarians who haven't got any use for that Tweeter or Facelook hogwarsh and just want a reliable phone to call Sophie and Ester with over Jeopardy.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 00:45

DaveKap: Feb 5, 2006; Pickle: Inspected.

The Entire Universe posted:

Sprint's the network for octogenarians who haven't got any use for that Tweeter or Facelook hogwarsh and just want a reliable phone to call Sophie and Ester with over Jeopardy.

Yeah and two years ago this wasn't true, thus why I'm switching. It's just a matter of making sure I don't somehow go somewhere worse.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 01:07

Loucks: May 21, 2007; It's incwedibwe easy to suck my own dick.

I feel for those of you in non-NV areas. I routinely pull 2GB or more of Usenet data during my commute, and often even more at work. NV in Indianapolis made Sprint more than usable.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 02:08

td4guy: Jun 13, 2005; I always hated that guy.

Trip report: A buddy of mine just signed up for a couple of those new plans through the EPRP site. Then he called in and was easily able to have them switch his lines to the old EPRP Everything Data plans. Saved $10.02 per month for two lines versus the new plans.

And NV upgrades have hit Portland, OR:

_{network vision and 3g is gonna be awesome for me i cant wait}

td4guy fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Jul 18, 2013

# ? Jul 18, 2013 04:21

ceebee: Feb 12, 2004

Is there a reliable app to download usenet/newsgroup nzbs on android? I'm stuck in a hotel and the internet is utter garbage but I've got 4G here and I want to utilize the poo poo out of it. Apparently I can't tether it to my laptop which is dumb.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 07:15

Loucks: May 21, 2007; It's incwedibwe easy to suck my own dick.

I use NZB Leech and have no complaints.

ZArchiver is a decent no-frills decompression utility.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 09:40

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

DaveKap posted:

Yeah and two years ago this wasn't true, thus why I'm switching. It's just a matter of making sure I don't somehow go somewhere worse.

I understand, I was on Sprint until about 3 months ago when my roaming usage (somehow the usually serviceable signal I have at work turned into Roaming and the WiFi sucks) got me dropped. They were good until around the time they announced NV.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 16:32

WoG: Jul 13, 2004

ceebee posted:

Is there a reliable app to download usenet/newsgroup nzbs on android? I'm stuck in a hotel and the internet is utter garbage but I've got 4G here and I want to utilize the poo poo out of it. Apparently I can't tether it to my laptop which is dumb.

I like powernzb alright. The interface is a bit unintuitive, and I just use my browser to grab nzbs rather than customize their search page, but for all-in-one grab/par/unrar functionality, you can't ask for much more.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 17:37

NyetscapeNavigator: Sep 22, 2003

If I try to change my plan the page says:

code:

Service add-ons you'll no longer need
We removed these service add-ons because either they are covered in your new plan, incompatible with your phone or older, obsolete services that we no longer sell.
 	img_select_services_Xed Miscellaneous: Google Voice - $0.00 removed

Is Sprint axing GV integration?

# ? Jul 18, 2013 21:37

ExcessBLarg!: Sep 1, 2001

So apparently Sprint has a new activation page that allows accounts with SIM-LTE devices to activate SIMless-LTE devices and vice versa (say, when you're tired of your S4 and want to swap back to your S3).

However, on my "SERO Premium 500" account, step #2 of activation is "Change your plan", for which the page states:

Sprint posted:

Instructions about what the user is seeing and what they need to do on this page to move forward in the ESN swap. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod incidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

(Not kidding, there's actually Lorem Ipsum on there.)

Anyways, it gives me the option to switch to these plans, none of which are SERO:

Unlimited, My Way℠ ($50/mo + $30/mo)
My All-in℠ ($110/mo)
Individual ($70/mo and up)

So, long story short, if I want to swap devices I have to have a CSR do it, as in the past?

# ? Jul 18, 2013 21:46

Kia Soul Enthusias: May 9, 2004; zoom-zoom; Toilet Rascal

I used the little chat button to do an ESN swap between my two phones. I couldn't get the auto dealy to work. The chat techs seemed competent and did it pretty quickly.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 21:48

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

Tora Tora Torrents posted:

If I try to change my plan the page says:

code:

Service add-ons you'll no longer need
We removed these service add-ons because either they are covered in your new plan, incompatible with your phone or older, obsolete services that we no longer sell.
 	img_select_services_Xed Miscellaneous: Google Voice - $0.00 removed

Is Sprint axing GV integration?

I'm pretty sure all plan changes require disabling GV integration. You just have to enable it again. When my wife moved from android to iPhone early last year, it had to be disabled first, so it's been that way for a while.

# ? Jul 18, 2013 22:45

uapyro: Jan 13, 2005

Loucks posted:

I feel for those of you in non-NV areas. I routinely pull 2GB or more of Usenet data during my commute, and often even more at work. NV in Indianapolis made Sprint more than usable.

I found a new LTE area in Helena, AL yesterday that I got 20/10 on a speed test. In about 25 minutes I already downloaded a gigabyte of data

# ? Jul 18, 2013 23:11

NyetscapeNavigator: Sep 22, 2003

In Minnesota I've yet to see LTE speeds outdo anything a decent HSPA+ connection would do. Nice low pings though I guess? :shobon:

# ? Jul 19, 2013 00:37

FAUXTON: Jun 2, 2005; spero che tu stia bene

Omaha: LTE is apparently available at Crossroads of all places.

Non Omaha: Crossroads is a dead mall that has been dead for close to a decade now and nobody wants to buy it because the cost of tearing down a loving mall but leaving the anchor stores (Target, Sears, Barns and Noble) is pretty steep, and there's a much more fully-featured mall less than 10 minutes down the road.

# ? Jul 19, 2013 04:08

EdEddnEddy: Apr 5, 2012

ExcessBLarg! posted:

So apparently Sprint has a new activation page that allows accounts with SIM-LTE devices to activate SIMless-LTE devices and vice versa (say, when you're tired of your S4 and want to swap back to your S3).

However, on my "SERO Premium 500" account, step #2 of activation is "Change your plan", for which the page states:

(Not kidding, there's actually Lorem Ipsum on there.)

Anyways, it gives me the option to switch to these plans, none of which are SERO:

Unlimited, My Way℠ ($50/mo + $30/mo)

My All-in℠ ($110/mo)

Individual ($70/mo and up)

So, long story short, if I want to swap devices I have to have a CSR do it, as in the past?

Always have Sero support do the swap for you. Never use any automated or online or even normal store/*2 support tech do it. It takes no time to get ahold of them and in about 5 minutes your up and running on your new / old phone.

# ? Jul 19, 2013 07:45

FlyingCheese: Jan 17, 2007; OH THANK GOD!

I never thought I'd be happy to see yet another lubed up man-ass.

So with the recent changes, will I have any trouble using my upgrade to get either an S4 or a One* with an EPRP Family plan?

*(still on the fence, that lack of 32GB version S4 is kind of getting to me, considering androids spotty app2sd situation

)

# ? Jul 19, 2013 10:59

td4guy: Jun 13, 2005; I always hated that guy.

Nope, it turns out that the old EPRP plans are completely unaffected and have actually just been added back onto the EPRP website. So they're not gonna make you change plans or anything.

# ? Jul 19, 2013 11:52

Stick100: Mar 18, 2003

ExcessBLarg! posted:

So apparently Sprint has a new activation page that allows accounts with SIM-LTE devices to activate SIMless-LTE devices and vice versa (say, when you're tired of your S4 and want to swap back to your S3).

Any reason you didn't go into settings -> Device self service on the new device to do an ESN swap from the old device. As long as the plans (between devices) are compatible you should easily be able to swap to the new one.

# ? Jul 19, 2013 16:05

rhombus: Apr 20, 2002

The Entire Universe posted:

Omaha: LTE is apparently available at Crossroads of all places.

Non Omaha: Crossroads is a dead mall that has been dead for close to a decade now and nobody wants to buy it because the cost of tearing down a loving mall but leaving the anchor stores (Target, Sears, Barns and Noble) is pretty steep, and there's a much more fully-featured mall less than 10 minutes down the road.

Wow, Crossroads!?! Now I can be less bored while my wife looks at stupid stuff at Target. I picked up an LTE signal in Lincoln this weekend and my friends reported seeing one at the ballpark out west.

# ? Jul 19, 2013 16:18

PurpleButterfly: Nov 5, 2012

The Entire Universe posted:

Omaha: LTE is apparently available at Crossroads of all places.

Non Omaha: Crossroads is a dead mall that has been dead for close to a decade now and nobody wants to buy it because the cost of tearing down a loving mall but leaving the anchor stores (Target, Sears, Barns and Noble) is pretty steep, and there's a much more fully-featured mall less than 10 minutes down the road.

That's... an interesting choice of sites. When I get back into town, I am so going to go hang out at the B&N Cafe just to see if I can get 4G on my phone. Maybe it'll boost business at that location :v:

# ? Jul 19, 2013 16:42

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# ? May 30, 2024 15:14

Nnep: Jun 17, 2007; 3-2 2-0

In the Cincinnati region I've seen tiny improvement, specifically the Mason/Fairfield area. Improvement as in 50% of the time picture messaging failure now almost certainly goes through. Small steps folks, small steps.

Seems silly that I'm happy that I can celebrate basic use, but I'll take it. Still yet to catch that illusive 4g beast, but I hear she's out there.

# ? Jul 19, 2013 19:43

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