Is sprints roaming network decent?

[Airforcekid]

I currently have a sprint phone for work but it does not roam I'm reluctant to switch to sprint because I get some coverage but most of the time it's bad. I'm currently using straight talk AT&T sim but Verizon coverage is really good in my area is that who I would occasionally roam on? Also I do not have a smartphone for sprint is data really that slow on sprint to make it unusable? Thanks for any help!

[NGeorge]

I currently have a sprint phone for work but it does not roam I'm reluctant to switch to sprint because I get some coverage but most of the time it's bad. I'm currently using straight talk AT&T sim but Verizon coverage is really good in my area is that who I would occasionally roam on? Also I do not have a smartphone for sprint is data really that slow on sprint to make it unusable? Thanks for any help!

For the most part you will roam on Verizon, although if US Cellular is in your market you may roam on them first (USCC usually matches or beats Verizon in the areas they cover).

Sprint also has agreements with MetroPCS and Cricket if you are in one of their markets, although chances are if you can't get a Sprint signal, you can't get those carriers either--so you're on Verizon.

Sprint's data did go through a really bad phase for a little more than a year after having some of the fastest 3G data available, regularly beating Verizon (I've had Sprint since 2002)--they are working on it, and it's getting better and better. I'm back up over 1mb. regularly on 3G so they've done a lot of the upgrades they said they have been doing and I am happy. It's not quite to where it was before they had the big crush of smartphones--but then again, a reasonable 1 meg connection is acceptable on 3G since I'd rather see them invest that money into launching LTE vs. getting EV-DO back to 1.5-2 meg for everyone.

I think you'll be happy... you might have some slowness initially, but I think they are making progress--and if you get an LTE phone (out in early May), you'll be ready as soon as it launches in your market. Unlike WiMax, LTE will be launched on all existing towers so the 4G coverage should match the 3G nearly exact.

Nat

[Wireless Junkie]

Just remember you can't roam more than about half your voice minutes or 300mb of data because they can terminate you for excessive off network usage.

Thats plenty for occasional roaming but if your roaming like 100% of the time you will have to watch your usage.

Also when you are data roaming on Verizon, typically it will be 1x voice and data which is 2G data speeds so it will be much slower than on network speeds.

Sprint is really working on improving their network. I hit some areas that are still very slow, but every carrier has those areas. Generally it's been very good lately, and they still have unlimited data which is a huge plus.

On your work phone, you should be able to roam though at no cost. It probably is disabled in your network settings, and you can go in and enable it and you should automatically roam if you go into an area with no coverage.


Sent from my iPhone 4S on Sprint using Tapatalk

[corrupt81]

On my road trip from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Kinder, LA (border with Texas) my Sprint phone worked 100% of the trip. I had a Sprint 3G signal roughly 98% of the trip, and the other 2% of the trip the phone switched to automatic roaming.

In comparison, I also took my T-Mobile phone, which was on 2G the majority of the trip, and I hit quite a few 'dead spots' where I had no service at all. Worst of all, T-Mobile didn't even roam.

+1 on watching how many minutes you roam on also.. if it's going to be majority roaming on Verizon, then Sprint may not be your best answer.

The data speeds are going to vary, but in my personal experience Sprint 3G is terrible. 2+ years ago I would hit 1mb+ on average, now I'm lucky to hit 0.30mb. I think between all the prepaid and MVNO users sharing the 3G network with us is taking it's toll. My speeds took a considerable hit after the EVO launch and haven't gotten better since.

Even so, while the data sucks, I do give credit to Sprint for giving me a working phone for a long road trip across several states while if I had just brought my T-Mobile phone and my car broke down in one of their dead spots without roaming I'd be SOL.