yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
- You finish paying back the cost of your phone, on average, 12-14 months into your contract. So you are entitled to a new phone, or they should lower your bill since part of your bill goes towards paying back the rest of the cost of the phone. T-Mobile does this.

- Even as Premier Gold, when you upgrade your phone yearly, you're renewing your contract, so instead of having 1 year left, you'll have another 2 years left. This is good for them since you already paid back the cost of the phone and you're probably not going to go anywhere since you don't want to be hit with an ETF. And this yearly upgrade only applies to the primary line.

- Sprint Premier, in Sprint's own words, rewards customers for their loyalty. Sprint also has a "Right Plan Promise". I shouldn't have to pay for more minutes than I need or be with Sprint for 10 years before they see me as "important".

- I already qualified for Sprint Premier a few weeks before they split the program into Gold and Silver, meaning I would have gotten the upgrade in August if they hadn't split it. On top of that, they lie and say that the most wanted feature, according to customers, is the plan checkup, not the yearly upgrade. The plan analyzer already does this for free and you don't have to be a Premier customer to use it.

- I've been going for 4 months with useless data speeds. According to the contract, for any carrier, if they cannot provide you with advertised features (in this case data speeds of 600 kbps - 1.4 Mbps down), you are entitled to leave without ETF. Despite this, I've stayed and never once threatened to leave. THAT is loyalty. Never once was I offered anything, even to be credited for this problem. I'm a student and I have to take time out of my day to run Speed Tests for them and send them back debug data from my phone. I don't have time to do their jobs for them.

You tell me, what would you do in my case? I have their flagship phone, but I can't stream YouTube or use Pandora, or upload or download anything at a decent speed. I can't video chat. At one point I wouldn't get calls or texts. Just as a reference, 56 kbps is dial-up speed. In the video, I hit 75 kbps tops for download.
[EVO 4G General] sitlet:
So I had an epic fail yesterday. I was trying to watch a 1 minute video on a news station's site on my way to work. First, it took a full 5 minutes to fully load the page, which had little on it other than the video and a header. It took another 5 minutes for the video to even show up. After that, the video started playing, for 2 seconds, then would buffer for 3 minutes, then play another 2 seconds. It took over a half hour to fully play this 1 minute long video. At work, I looked at the video on the page on my computer, and it said the entire video was just over 1mb. It took me over a half hour to load 1mb.

I borrowed my friend's verizon droid 1, the video loaded instantly, and played the whole thing without buffering once. Sprint = fail.
[EVO 4G General] Nate14:
After much thought and being sent a "refresher" (whatever the hell that is) I'm going to return my Evo and cancel my contract. My 30 days are nearly up and I can't justify paying nearly $90 for my plan when the speeds are this bad and not knowing when they will be fixed. I'm going to fight the etf since Sprint can't give me the premium data I'm paying for. Hopefully the data speeds will be fixed when the Evo 3D is released and I can jump back on board for that :/

I have a quick question though, what is the normal speed we should be getting from Sprint? I know Product F(RED) posted a little back something about 600 kbps-1.4 Mbps.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Sprint's site says on average it should be 600 kbps - 1.4 Mbps. Last night I was hitting up to 100 kbps. Right now I'm hitting 2.3 Mbps down. This inconsistency every hour of each day everywhere I go is what's pissing me off. I can't go 29 days a month with useless speeds and then 1 day with awesome speeds (in any given area).

edit: 4 blocks later, I'm hitting 400 down, 90 up...my block didn't even have any data.
[EVO 4G General] Nate14:
Seems soo bad. Here in Colorado, no matter where I go I get no more than 130 kbps max. I haven't seen anything above that even at 6 in the morning...
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Just got a voicemail back regarding the email I sent last night. I'm gonna call the guy back in a few hours.
[EVO 4G General] Zabalba:
Just wanted to put my two cents in. In Miami, a few weeks before 4G went "live" I was able to consistently get 1.2-1.4 mbps down with around 800 mbps up. I was pretty astonished that the speeds were better than I expected when I switched to Sprint for the EVO. SO much so I recommended the service/speed and phone to many of my friends. I'm the go to guy for tech in my social circle.

I remember reading a article about a city (can't remember now)who's 3G speed plummeted after getting 4G activated. Similar to what is going on now in Miami. I can't get speeds higher than 700 kbps on a good day. Usually around 400 kbps down 100-150 kbps max.

I would like to know the 3G speeds of a major city who does not have 4G planned anytime soon to see if there might be a connection between the two.
[EVO 4G General] LargePrime:
there has been a change.

I am getting 150KB during peak and hitting 300KB overnight.

This is better than ever.
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
Detroit area doesn't officially have 4g although a very small part has a few towers.

My area doesn't have 4g and my speeds are still awful.
[EVO 4G General] Zabalba:
I meant more along the lines that the city in question has no foreseeable clearwire 4G service on the horizon. That it's not even on the list of 'coming soon'.
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
I don't see why that would matter but how about Ann arbor Michigan ...they had these issues and its been fixed.

I don't see them on the coming soon. But I'm currently mobile.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
I was getting 4G before it was officially "released" here in NYC and speeds were fine. I don't think Sprint is balancing their speeds between 3G and 4G, if that's what you're implying. 4G is supplied by Clearwire, so it shouldn't affect 3G speeds. I think it's more of a capacity issue. Once people hear 4G, they go bat**** crazy and go on a buying spree. Even then, it's Sprint's responsibility to be able to upgrade and maintain the network to accommodate all of its customers.
[EVO 4G General] Zabalba:
Because I suspect upgrading the wireless network for 4G has some sort of effect on 3G speeds. I know these 4G towers are not even the same 3G towers. But this might have some sort of connection.

My 3G speeds were fine before 4G implementation.

Others complained their 3G went to down the toilet after getting 4G

Miami gets 4G. 3G service goes to crap.

More cities get 4G, their 3G service goes to crap. More people start to complaining because more people might be affected.

Just saying it might be worth investigating :p
[EVO 4G General] Nate14:
What exactly does an Airwave do?
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
Using your home internet connection, it acts as a personal tower.

It does a pretty damn good job of it too.
[EVO 4G General] 2k4mach:
theres really no relation in the slow speeds and cities that have just 3g vs 3/4g

im up in salem oregon visting my pops and 3g speeds are 1200k/400k and 4G is 8meg/1meg.
[EVO 4G General] Nate14:
Ah I see. Well to further complicate my speed woes I just got out of a Sprint store and no one there knows of a problem with the speeds. They gave me a new phone but the speeds are the same. They also didn't know anything about the speed tests.

Now to make me look like a jackass I ran a speed test on a store Evo with 4g and WiFi off and the damn thing got almost 1.3 Mbps! My Evo next to it still only got ~70 kbps... I haven't a clue to explain this.
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
I have a theory.

Call from that store Evo.

Does it beep three times before it starts ringing?

If so, it's connected to an Airave.
[EVO 4G General] Nate14:
I'll test that theory when I go back. So an Airwave doesn't effect every phone, just ones connected to it?
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
There used to be a way to discriminate what phones could be connected but at this time you do not have that option.

It doesn't really matter though it doesn't affect security of your account or anything.

Also, I believe that all calls are free as long as they're on the Airave because it uses Voip.
[EVO 4G General] Sirchuk:
So my EVO has been having issues lately, I thought it was just my phone, but not anymore.

In the last several days, my 3G service has been dropping, to the point that it kicks over to 1g or EVDO, whatever it is that is below 3G.

It's doing this constantly for the last week. I thought it was because I switched to CM7, so I switched to Mikfroyo and it's still doing it. Last Friday I added my wife to my plan and got her an EVO. She is complaining of the same problems.

So, is it the EVO or is it Sprint's service? Is it just a hiccup or something permanant that has changed?

If this is the new Sprint, I'll cancel our plans this weekend as we can't even use our phones reliably for data anymore.
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
Service, especially on multiple devices.

Not a permanent change, no.
[EVO 4G General] Sirchuk:
Can we call and complain? Tell them that it's noticeable and is directly affecting our service?
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
You're more than welcome to.

Many of us have.

I suppose having them know that another user is having the issue can only help get it resolved.

Some of us have had our bills reduced pretty significantly, been sent a free Airave, ETFs waived, even given SP Gold status...all in the wake of this issue.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
If they set me up for Premier Gold and credited my bill for the time so far I've gone with useless data speeds, I'd be more patient. As it stands, this Gold/Silver bull**** says, "You're not as important to us as the other people who pay for more minutes or who have been with us for 10 years or more". But again, it's not about that. It's about incentive to stay. I've been going through this since January, with no foreseeable resolution. This thread has over 1000 posts with people complaining. The least they could do for all of us is offer us something to stay. According to our contracts, for any carrier, if the carrier cannot provide you, consistently, with the service they advertise (in this case 600 kbps -1.4 Mbps download speeds), they are required to let you leave without an ETF.
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
I agree.

And 10 years is a really long time anyway.

I could see something like 5 years you get one upgrade a year.

At 10 freakin' years you should get all lines with yearly upgrades.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Not even. 4 years, because you shouldn't have to renew 3 times (or 2.5 times) to be considered important. They should have left the yearly upgrades in place for the primary line for customers who pay enough, and then given upgrades to all lines on accounts that have been active for 10 years or more, like you said.
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
I just received a phone call from a network specialist.

He seemed extremely knowledgeable, he wanted some data from my phone but I didn't have another phone he could call.

He explained about some switch issues [due to over capacity] that have been occurring in multiple major cities including my area.

So he has to call me back in a bit when I have another phone.

I guess he was saying that they are getting close to having all these issues resolved.

Take that for what it's worth.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Hopefully that's the case and they fix it quickly. I just had a call from Dwayne @ D.H.'s office. He told me they would credit me after the issue is fixed because they don't want to credit month-by-month. He also said that upgrading someone's account to Premier Gold is only possible 2 ways:

A) Your pay enough to qualify

B) If you've been with Sprint 10 years or more and your account doesn't reflect it, they will look for evidence of your account age and then put in a request to change it to Gold.

So CheezyNutz, I guess you either got lied to or the guy is withholding what he's actually capable of.

I told him I have very little incentive to stay and that if I can have to pay a little more on another competitor's network to get better service, I will. This guy is so by-the-book instead of trying to make me stay. For example, when I brought up the advertised data speeds and leaving without an ETF, he said that it doesn't say anywhere what the data speeds should be. I had to tell him on the Sprint site it says 600 kbps - 1.4 Mbps. This seems hopeless guys...It's like they're just waiting for people to leave the network so it won't be overcrowded instead of spending money to allow it to accommodate more people.
[EVO 4G General] Nate14:
All three reps I spoke to said there was nothing wrong with the network and didn't know what to tell me. Neither did they understand what I was talking about regarding my speed tests

-__-'
[EVO 4G General] 4redstars:
first person I spoke with yesterday said there was nothing wrong with the network, she tried to get me to replace my phone and when I pushed to get the billing department (to find out what it would cost me to cancel my line) I got a service rep willing to work with me and to possibly waive my ETF if I keep having problems.

He offered me an airrave which I declined since my problem is at work, to give it time and to also work with me through email (unheard of!)...I want to stay with sprint so I'm giving it a little more time,

I guess it's just how you speak to people and treat them like humans you get somewhere.
[EVO 4G General] johnnymcmahan:
Just complained (patiently and courteously) for 45 minutes to a low level tech, then a low level manager, and finally to his senior level manager...after refusing excuses of "there is a reported outage" to "there are 28 towers in your area out", I enlightened him that I am aware of the national prolem and know of several folks that have received adjustments and credits. The low level manager stated that they do not do credits until the prolem is resolved as they can credit the proper amount. I said that I have been patiently waiting for 4+ months and need something done today. The senior manager gave me a full credit for next month, and told me to call back next month if the situation is not resolved...

Thought I would share my results
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
This is what I got after my call. Notice "We do not want to lose you as a customer". He never said that during the call lol.
[EVO 4G General] gpz1100:
When it works, it gives you better signal for both voice and 3g. When it doesn't work, it's a major pain in the @ss. I've had mine for about 3 months now. Initially, once configured it worked great. Sometime in early feb, sprint rolled out a firmware update which essentially bricked the device. The device still turned on, but my phone had great difficulty connecting to it, or maintaining a connection. This went on for over a month. Eventually they replaced it. The new one worked for 2 weeks, then I couldn't get inbound calls -- they'd go straight to VM. Nearly 90 minutes on the phone with airave tech support resolved the issue. They did a full refresh of the account. That was 2 days ago. We'll see how long that lasts.

If I actually had to pay $$ for this thing, i would have sent it back a long time ago. Retentions offered it free of charge because of the poor data speeds around here. But frankly, with all the time wasted with it, the better solution would have been to get a wireless router.
[EVO 4G General] Award Tour:
I don't get this. If data was the main problem, why get a airwaves at all? Just connect to your home WiFi. You have to have home internet for it to even work, right?
[EVO 4G General] gpz1100:
I'm set up with gigabit switches here, no wifi. Never had a need for it.
[EVO 4G General] martuseich:
I found that data speed spec on a page somewhere in my account a few weeks ago, but for the life of me, I can't seem to find it now.

Any chance you can give me any direction as to where to find that?

What I did find was this:

http://shop2.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/compare_data_speeds_popup.shtml

and

http://unlimited.sprint.com/?id16=3g data speeds

notice no promise of speeds AND

"Sprint reserves the right, without notice, to limit throughput speeds"
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Here you go: http://shop2.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/compare_data_speeds_popup.shtml

Also they're not limiting the speeds; There is an issue that is out of their control and is therefore also out of my control.
[EVO 4G General] martuseich:
That's the same link I posted above. What I saw the other day when I looked was not a comparison or an "average speeds to be expected", but a specification as to what data speeds are "promised" with your data plan.

I understand there seems to be a problem with their infrastructure not being sufficient to meet the demand. I was pointing out the current verbage that actually plainly says they can throttle whenever they feel like it whether you like it or not even though you're paying for and expecting quality service.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Right, but:

A) They advertise that they don't throttle you [probably in fine print, like you said, it says that if you use excessive bandwidth, they will].

B) There is a legitimate problem with their infrastructure, so the issue is not throttling.

C) The issue is mostly likely capacity-related, and therefore

they have a responsibility to

spend money to fix that issue.

In other news, no one that is going to be rewarded with Premier Gold, despite our loyalty...It's just not fair. We finish paying off the phone cost after about 12 months, and they don't lower our bills, so where is our yearly upgrade that we actually deserve?
[EVO 4G General] hypersonicx:
Area

I was on T Mobile for the last couple of years but have recently just switched to Sprint. The problem I was having was that my area is a 4G area according to the phone (H icon) AND according to the coverage maps on tmobile.com BUT My speeds were far from 4G LOL.

Every speed test I did on my Android phone returned results of .7 and maybe 1Mbps. I had 4 Lines so decided to close my line and just eat the ETF which is $200 I left the other 3 lines on since my family use those but anyway.

Now that Im on Sprint. I get real 4G speeds. Doing a speed test now I get 7 to 10Mbps on average. Ping around 100-150

So depending on your area, it might just be best to switch companies.

Also now on Sprint, I rooted the Evo and use the Wifi tether app and constantly see a full 1MB/s in download speed from torrents and also use the connection for my XBox live.

I go through at least 4-5 gigs of data a day and haven't seen any throttling yet. Eventually Il probably go ahead and pay for the hotspot add-on if I continue to use it as my main internet connection. Not to mention that on Sprint the connection really is UnLimited vs 5GB cap from TMobile.

Long story short. I love my Sprint connection coming from TMobile sloppy no coverage data cap network.
[EVO 4G General] martuseich:
Here it is:

http://shop2.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/4G_coverage_popup.shtml

Not posted ANYWHERE in the details of my contract, but there it is.

I don't like it because I expect unlimited to mean unlimited, not just unlimited usage but unlimited throughput as well. Here's Sprint's little "out":

http://shop2.sprint.com/NASApp/onlinestore/en/Action/DisplayPlans

Notice the statements about throttling / limiting throughput at their whim. Just a note for the many who are griping about the throttling. It says right there in plain english they are entitled to throttle and they will at their discretion.
[EVO 4G General] martuseich:
That's encouraging. It sounds like they're in the process (apparently a VERY SLOW process) of upgrading.

My wife's got a Samsung Moment, nothin' grand, but I never topped 240 kbps until sometime after 9:00. Finally hit 980 kbps a few minutes ago. All here at the house. We just happen to be in a very small pocket of no 4G.

My EVO was getting 15 kbps to as much as 135 kbps yesterday (4/5) until after 9:00

Did the ##3282# restore this morning and kicked it uo to the 400-800 kbps until after 9:00. Majority of the time it hits between 750 - 1000 kbps. This is all 3G. I haven't been out in 4G territory for several days now. Allergies kickin' my @$$.

I ran that restore a couple weeks ago after flashing Koni's Elite rom. Wouldn't think you'd have to reset in that short a time period.

I ain't thrilled about the speeds, but I can live with what I have until they upgrade.
[EVO 4G General] immerstark:
I have been experiencing very bad speed issues too. Back in the fall a new ev-do carrier was deployed. Whenever my phone is camping on that channel I have horrible latency and bandwidth, however on the rare occasion that I am on the old channel my pings and speeds are good. This has been very frustrating, if it is not fixed by the time the evo 3d comes out I am goimg to jump ship to Verizon.
[EVO 4G General] hypersonicx:
Also wanted to add that all my speed test were always done on 4G WiMax. At home (Goodlettsville TN) I never turn off 4G. Except for when Im on the go to work ect with no charging. My 3G signal is also always max bars though.

As a last resort, you might have to leave Sprint and hop on with another company. In my area we have great reception on Verizon / Sprint. The GSM signals in my area not so fast.
[EVO 4G General] CheesyNutz:
Love sitting downtown enjoying the warm weather... with 1x speeds.... Damn sprint

from my phone duh
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
I been told people this. But you always have the same folks that come in with the "oh no Sprint would never do such a thing" chants.
[EVO 4G General] martuseich:
Just curious how you guys are getting the landscape style screenshots of Speedtest. Not that it really matters, just curious. I'm usin' the app from the market and getting portrait style display with the speedometer.

And how do you post the full size pic instead of the thumbnail. I uploaded this from the EGO via the "attachment" option and attached this pic from my "shoot me" pics.
[EVO 4G General] martuseich:
Don't misunderstand, I'm with pf on this whole deal. For what I've been paying every month for 8 years (HTC Touch Pro w/ "unlimited data" before the EVO & Crackberry 7520 w/ "unlimited data" before that) and having been with Sprint now through my business with 7 phones and the $29.99 wifi hotspot with the $10 surcharge, I expect better coverage & service, and without a doubt, they need to step it up & provide the data throughput they tout & live up to the "We don't throttle" claims despite the fine print.

I won't argue Verizon, hands down, has the best coverage, signal strength, and reliability of any of the carriers. They are also quite proud of it (translated "VERY EXPENSIVE").

Apples to apples (strictly based on features & plans) Sprint spanks Verizon. You just can't beat Sprint's prices for all the features offered. Sadly, the quality of the service obviously takes a back seat to Verizon. I just want to get the value I pay for by Sprint delivering what they so proudly proclaim.

Yes, they need to put their money where their mouth is. I was just pointing out, for the benefit of all those griping about the throttling, that although it's really not fair,

they already told you in the fine print that they'll throttle your throughput whenever they damn well please

whether you like it or not.

When I was talking to the tech about the abysmal speeds on my wife's Samsung Moment yesterday (never got above 254 kbps until 9:00 pm, 500 - 1050 after 9:00, so it ain't the damned phone, nor do I need the hard reset they were pushing me to try), he assured me that they're pressing to get the LTE going as fast as they can, it just takes time. Funny, when I asked, he even admitted that he rooted his EVO 4G to flush the bloatware, all the while warning me that rooting will void my warranty. In the meantime, they need to offer some concession until they can fulfill their stated data claims.