Posted: 7/30/2013 1:08:40 PM EDT
| I am currently with Verizon and will soon be having to add some of the kids phones to the plans. I can save quit a bit off the monthly payments by switching to Sprint. How is Sprint's service and coverage around here? Coverage is pretty important as I get out in the sticks a lot on hunting and fishing trips. Any other cheaper options with good cell coverage? |
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I have been using Virgin Mobile which uses the Sprint network for the last 1.9 years, and works good. Good coverage going up I17 to Prescott (i make that trip). Signal is good for me at home ( South side of Lookout Mtn). Have used it over most of the greater Phoenix area and can't complain. I forgot to say - No 4G signal in the greater PHX area ! |
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I had sprint about 3 years ago and coworkers still have it.
Everytime coworkers come back from another city they bitch about no 4G in Phoenix. My experience back then and theirs now, is that Sprint signal is decent outdoors, but fails often indoors at homes and inside work buildings. My phone would ring when I was sitting in living room. I'd answer. Caller would fade in and out and sometimes drop altogether. Zero bars visible on the phone. Walk outside and halfway down the driveway, call would be fine and 2 bars showing. I'd recommend getting a sprint phone going and test it in your most important areas (especially indoors) and make sure you're happy before terminating Verizon. |
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Quoted: I had sprint about 3 years ago and coworkers still have it. Everytime coworkers come back from another city they bitch about no 4G in Phoenix. My experience back then and theirs now, is that Sprint signal is decent outdoors, but fails often indoors at homes and inside work buildings. My phone would ring when I was sitting in living room. I'd answer. Caller would fade in and out and sometimes drop altogether. Zero bars visible on the phone. Walk outside and halfway down the driveway, call would be fine and 2 bars showing. I'd recommend getting a sprint phone going and test it in your most important areas (especially indoors) and make sure you're happy before terminating Verizon. This! I had to drop Sprint for their atrocious coverage. Went back to Verizon, who seems to have the best coverage throughout the state, and couldn't be happier. |
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been with sprint for over a decade now. In town coverage is pretty solid, although I tend to find the occasional dead zone every once in a while. Coverage in the sticks is probably better than any other carrier though. If you'd expect NO coverage, that's where sprint will work best. Better than in town =)
Data upgrades are in progress still, and 4g is NOT here yet. 3g on an updated tower is pretty damn solid and more than usable though. If you run into signal issues at home, call and complain enough (perhaps getting to retentions) and they'll usually ship out one of their femtocell devices. It piggybacks off your home broadband and acts as a micro cell tower for your home. Works like a champ. Also, if you get a plan that has unlimited roaming (my older 'SERO' plan definitely does) you can often roam on the Verizon network if Sprint is a no go. Kinda get the best of both networks that way. Check the (ad-laden) sprintusers.com forum too as there are often ways to weasel into better plans/pricing. The current SERO plan is actually pretty damn good. |
| I have switched from Verizon twice in my life thinking I can save $ and here I am back again. I don't know if they spend more money to provide better coverage, but they flat out have better coverage and they know it. It was proven when they dropped grandfathering unlimited data plans. I doubt they lost that much business by doing it and what they did lose they will probably get most of it back. Their biz model is be better and charge more. I don't have a hard line at home therefor the best cellular service is worth the $ to me. |
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Have had Sprint for almost 10 years. Never hated them until we moved here. Never really a problem in HI and CA, but here the data speeds are deathly slow, and the connection isn't always there (for data). We don't use our phones a whole lot for calling at the moment, but mostly for text and data. We had to get one of them doohickeys (Airrave) since the wife couldn't get reception at home in the office, but could in our bedroom. Thankfully that was free. We visit Vegas a few times a year, and the speeds are deathly slow there as well. Looking to switch to possibly AT&T once our contract is up.
FWIW we're in northern Glendale (59th/Bell); YMMV. |
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Get Verizon. Wait a month. Call them and tell them you want to cancel. When they ask why, tell them its too expensive. Tell them its cheaper to pay the fee to cancel than it is to keep the service. You will be transferred to Customer Loyalty. Tell them the same thing. Its their job to keep you as a customer. You will be informed about "a special that just came out this week" or "a special rate plan that isn't available to everyone, only loyal customers" or some other BS. They'll give you a reduced rate for three months, six months, a year, whatever. When the time is up, rinse and repeat. Paying "retail" prices for services from these sorts of companies is dumb and completely unecessary if you're willing to do a little negotiating.
They (Verizon) also offers a fed/leo/gov discount (15%) if any of that applies to you. Same tactic works for cable companies, satellite companies, and other companies who make stupid amounts of money off of TCP packets traveling over networks they've already claimed as business expenses.... |
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Quoted:
Get Verizon. Wait a month. Call them and tell them you want to cancel. When they ask why, tell them its too expensive. Tell them its cheaper to pay the fee to cancel than it is to keep the service. You will be transferred to Customer Loyalty. Tell them the same thing. Its their job to keep you as a customer. You will be informed about "a special that just came out this week" or "a special rate plan that isn't available to everyone, only loyal customers" or some other BS. They'll give you a reduced rate for three months, six months, a year, whatever. When the time is up, rinse and repeat. Paying "retail" prices for services from these sorts of companies is dumb and completely unecessary if you're willing to do a little negotiating. They (Verizon) also offers a fed/leo/gov discount (15%) if any of that applies to you. Same tactic works for cable companies, satellite companies, and other companies who make stupid amounts of money off of TCP packets traveling over networks they've already claimed as business expenses.... This....we have a good freind that is regional manager for Verizon. She said that are lots of "deals" that they don't adverstise and save them for people they want to keep. Because if they lose a customer they figure it is for life because most people switch and then never switch back. So they will do as much as they can to keep you. |