Database Users

T-Mobile shows NO LOVE for Raleigh, NC!

T-Mobile has no planned HSPA+ coverage for the "Triangle" in North Carolina?
WTF?
I went and checked the new HSPA+ Maps and coverage again. MAN! I live in the Capital of North Carolina (agreeable not exactly a HUGE Metropolis, LOL!) but it IS where Research Triangle Park is, Home to a fair amount of the East Coasts Tech Companies Lucent, Ericsson, VMware, Network Appliance Etc. (IBM where I work has 12,000 ppl here)
If Sprint can put their 4G Wimax here in Raleigh, why are we not even on the "coming soon" maps for TMOUS? I mean, they don;t even have PLANS to implement here? Meanwhile, the HAVE coverage in other places in the state, such as:
Charlotte?
Winston-Salem?
Fayetteville ??
Greensboro????
I mean, Fayetteville?
AARRRRGGGHHH!

I have been scouring these board for a long time, I came out of hiding for this one.
I'm in Raleigh too, I saw that map last week, I was thinking the exact same thing.
I can see Charlotte, it is a big city with a lot of people.
I can see Fayetteville, It is home to a bunch of military who deploy frequently.
I can maybe see Winston-Salem, that is the VA's main medical facility, and a lot of govt buildings.
But seriously, Greensboro???? WTF?
David

Ya it suks, but I just did a speed test (speakeasy) within RTP and I get 3mbps down and 1.5 up, which really is faster than what i'm getting with roadrunner crap at home. (unfortunately I don't get full HSDPA at home, especially downstairs, or else I would just use the phone instead).
Hopefully they'll roll out HSDPA+ in RTP at the start of 2011.

2011 is too long. I want it now *insert tantrum*

yeah but u gotta think... we were the last ppl in the state i think to get 3G coverage.... look at the coverage map. they seem like they bein cheap wit it. its all jumpy and only right near the city thats messed up. hope they have it in MD where i'm from so i can test it out somewhere atleast... this is bs i want 6 mb dl then i might cancel clearwire lol

Well it wasn't 2011, but it was close enough. HSPA+ FTW!!!!

21productionz said:
Well it wasn't 2011, but it was close enough. HSPA+ FTW!!!!
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I just read the post and the first thing in my head was chicago got it just a week ago. One of the largest cities in the states. They have a LOT of work set out for them. Give it time.

WTF!!! Calling anyone in CT that can connect to 4G

So today I was trying to kill my battery after wiping all data to rebuild the battery stats and randomly turned on 4G to help kill the battery, but found that it connected to Clearwire, rather than Sprint. Now I will have to drive around and try and locate the broadcast point.
I live in Wolcott, CT and small town in New Haven County that boarders Hartford County, next to Waterbury. This was a fluke that I turned on 4G but was surprised to see that it connected.
My speeds are crap but have gotten it up to 6mbps down, nothing better than 3G upload speeds though ~0.33mbps up.
Here are some pictures to show.

I live in stamford, no luck with 4g here.

Rene2.5RS said:
So today I was trying to kill my battery after wiping all data to rebuild the battery stats and randomly turned on 4G to help kill the battery, but found that it connected to Clearwire, rather than Sprint. Now I will have to drive around and try and locate the broadcast point.
I live in Wolcott, CT and small town in New Haven County that boarders Hartford County, next to Waterbury. This was a fluke that I turned on 4G but was surprised to see that it connected.
My speeds are crap but have gotten it up to 6mbps down, nothing better than 3G upload speeds though ~0.33mbps up.
Here are some pictures to show.
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i see your 4g bars, dont seem to much!

Sprint and Clearwire
I thought Sprint used Clearwire's WiMax network. (i.e. Sprint 4G is really a rebranded Clearwire WiMax) Not to mention Sprint owns the majority interest in Clearwire.
In Orange County California I came across a small pocket of 4G coverage. The weak signal only allowed about 1.65 Mbs down and 0.48 up which is far below the 4G spec but better than the usual 3G (altho also below the 3G spec).

NotSkywalker said:
I thought Sprint used Clearwire's WiMax network. (i.e. Sprint 4G is really a rebranded Clearwire WiMax) Not to mention Sprint owns the majority interest in Clearwire.
In Orange County California I came across a small pocket of 4G coverage. The weak signal only allowed about 1.65 Mbs down and 0.48 up which is far below the 4G spec but better than the usual 3G (altho also below the 3G spec).
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Clearwire is Sprint's 4G provider. I have just never seen Clearwire listed as the ISP while in labeled 4G areas thats all...
What I find funny is Clearwire does not list any active broadcast location in CT, so I wonder why I am picking anything up...

A quick google finds that Clearwire is hiring in the Hartford, CT area. Everyone from customer support to RF Engineers. Perhaps you were close to their Hartford location.

last time I was in hartford (at the club lol) I got like 3-4 bars of 4G, it was AWESOME! That's the only place I've ever had 4g, since I live in the springfield area (I wouldn't give my city, that's just stupid. Even though I use my real name as my username and you could easily find me via google. lol)
anyways I was getting like 8mbps down and 2-3mbps up

That's pretty cool and all, but do you really want to post a map to your home on the internet?
Sent from my blah blah blah blah

NotSkywalker said:
A quick google finds that Clearwire is hiring in the Hartford, CT area. Everyone from customer support to RF Engineers. Perhaps you were close to their Hartford location.
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Hartford is about 20-25 miles away from Wolcott, but I have noticed that they were hiring here.
Samzebian said:
last time I was in hartford (at the club lol) I got like 3-4 bars of 4G, it was AWESOME! That's the only place I've ever had 4g, since I live in the springfield area (I wouldn't give my city, that's just stupid. Even though I use my real name as my username and you could easily find me via google. lol)
anyways I was getting like 8mbps down and 2-3mbps up
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fachadick said:
That's pretty cool and all, but do you really want to post a map to your home on the internet?
Sent from my blah blah blah blah
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I'm really not that worried, user name is my real name, and if you or anyone else really feels the need to come visit me have at it... Nothing a quick search on the internet wouldn't pull up anyways.

Im in manchester, I tracked down the tower...right in back of the sprint store...got nearly 12mbit on mobile speed test...at my house 1.5 miles away I couldn't even get a signal. I think its in low-power test mode. The signal drops like a rock as you drive away...what's wimax range? I thought it was many many miles, 20 to 30 if you still had a good line of sight....?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

daneurysm said:
Im in manchester, I tracked down the tower...right in back of the sprint store...got nearly 12mbit on mobile speed test...at my house 1.5 miles away I couldn't even get a signal. I think its in low-power test mode. The signal drops like a rock as you drive away...what's wimax range? I thought it was many many miles, 20 to 30 if you still had a good line of sight....?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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I will track down the broadcast point. There are a couple large cell towers in my area that I will start with.

I found the broadcast point, it was were I thought it would be, top of route 69. Was getting almost 11mbps down and around 1.5mbps up. Kind of weird that there is 4G in this area now.

I had 1 bar in new haven not to long ago and got a little over 4 mbps down and about 1 mbps up.

4G Waterbury CT
Hello everyone. Found this post searching around and figured I would join this great forum.
I found out earlier today that 4g service was started up in Waterbury. I saw that the OP is in wolcott. Flip on ur 4G and give it a minute to set up.
With speedtest.net Im getting an average of 9.25 down and 1.75 up.
The internet flies on this phone at those speeds. Web pages load in a second or so compared to 10 secs on 3g.
Finally we get our 10 bucks out of the deal, lol.

4g is all over newhaven and hartford
It's also available in stamford, ct - there is a tower on the TOP of the new Trump building.
Just google "4g stamford" or "4g your town here"
download the sensorly app on your phone and you can see real time reports of it down to road level.
You have to zoom in on this link before it gets accurate
http://www.sensorly.com/Map/4G/USA/Sprint/wimax-sp

nobody tried sensorly?

That sensorly map seems to be inaccurate for me at my current location, it says I should have 4g coverage but I do not. Back at home in seattle though I do have 4g almost everywhere so I am used to having it.
Edit: I stand corrected by the fact that if you download the app and zoom in really close (better then you can on the website) it shows I do not have coverage.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I get 4G throughout E.Hartford and Manchester. None in Glastonbury though. I get 5-8 Down in E.Ha.

There are pockets of 4g in Rocky Hill & Newington. Conveniently, the Newington Sprint Store has 4g coverage ;-)

Results from real-world testing 4G: Verizon LTE vs. Sprint WiMAX in NYC

So watching this video inspired me to do a little real-world field testing.
I just got out of the Verizon store by Grand Central in NYC.
This is disappointing, because I was pricing out the Thunderbolt all day and almost signed up.
Side to side, Sprint beat Verizon at least 75% of the time. It was always 2-4MBps faster on the download (~8MBps vs ~4MBps or so). The other 25% of the time that Verizon was faster it was about 1MBps or less.
I checked coverage maps before I did this and Verizon has full dark red 4G coverage all over NYC, so it should be as fast as it can get. And I can't imagine there's a lot of congestion on their network the day after the phone came out.
Sprint on the other hand has only light green coverage (not dark green "best") in that area. Again, I was inside the store so LTE should have had the edge.
The latencies were comparable, both around 110ms. The only part that blew me away was Verizon's upload speed, about 38MBps compared to Sprint's 1MBps. But as we all know download is more important than upload.
Sorry to say, but LTE isn't all that it's cracked up to be, at least when and where I checked it for myself. Surprisingly, Sprint seems to hold the crown for 4G speeds at the moment.

The problem is as always talked about - the fact that WiMAX kills battery and i assume LTE does the same. They need to come up with a way to have these great - high speed options with better battery life or its relatively useless.

I think the problem with wimax is penetration, because I was at the park today in Philadelphia Pa(Center City). and I reached speeds of 8.04 Mbps but when I am at home (South Philadelphia)...I barely get 1.5Mbps...

OPPOSITE here in Chicago. Both had strong signals
Evo got hammered by the T-Bolt repeatedly on site downloads and speedyest apps. Not even close. ONE time in 15 minutes of test Evo beat TBolt and that's because I didn't hit the Url cleanly!
LTE Verizon + TBolt is fastest mobile phone experience to date. By a mile.
Sprint Wimax is a crock.
aph said:
So watching this video inspired me to do a little real-world field testing.
I just got out of the Verizon store by Grand Central in NYC.
This is disappointing, because I was pricing out the Thunderbolt all day and almost signed up.
Side to side, Sprint beat Verizon at least 75% of the time. It was always 2-4MBps faster on the download (~8MBps vs ~4MBps or so). The other 25% of the time that Verizon was faster it was about 1MBps or less.
I checked coverage maps before I did this and Verizon has full dark red 4G coverage all over NYC, so it should be as fast as it can get. And I can't imagine there's a lot of congestion on their network the day after the phone came out.
Sprint on the other hand has only light green coverage (not dark green "best") in that area. Again, I was inside the store so LTE should have had the edge.
The latencies were comparable, both around 110ms. The only part that blew me away was Verizon's upload speed, about 38MBps compared to Sprint's 1MBps. But as we all know download is more important than upload.
Sorry to say, but LTE isn't all that it's cracked up to be, at least when and where I checked it for myself. Surprisingly, Sprint seems to hold the crown for 4G speeds at the moment.
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jonathaflores said:
I think the problem with wimax is penetration, because I was at the park today in Philadelphia Pa(Center City). and I reached speeds of 8.04 Mbps but when I am at home (South Philadelphia)...I barely get 1.5Mbps...
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I was INSIDE the store , a good 20 yards away from any exit

rockky said:
OPPOSITE here in Chicago. Both had strong signals
Evo got hammered by the T-Bolt repeatedly on site downloads and speedyest apps. Not even close. ONE time in 15 minutes of test Evo beat TBolt and that's because I didn't hit the Url cleanly!
LTE Verizon + TBolt is fastest mobile phone experience to date. By a mile.
Sprint Wimax is a crock.
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Appreciate the feedback, but simply not so in NYC. So decidedly very regional.

You didn't get that high of an upload speed. I know your phone says you did, but you didn't. Google it.
Btw id drop sprint for verizon anytime, but the girl won't let me grrr
swyped from my cyanogenized and gingerbreaded EVO

Yay for WiMax, if I paid attention to my networking class correctly, WiMax will be expanding for faster up and download speeds in the next year or so.

twiz0r said:
You didn't get that high of an upload speed. I know your phone says you did, but you didn't. Google it.
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Tried, got a link?
twiz0r said:
Btw id drop sprint for verizon anytime, but the girl won't let me grrr
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I was planning on the same thing today until I ran the tests side by side.

I only get a download speed of about 2.5 MBps and upload of about 1.7 MBps in St. Louis.
And it kicks me off the 4G every 2-3 minutes. My 3G speeds are literally in the 100-200 KB/s range.
It's the most pathetic thing I've ever experienced. Can't believe I've got one of the best phones on the market with speeds as terrible as these.
I tried to download a beer drinking app the other day from my car and it took a good 10 minutes to download.
EDIT: The St. Louis, MO server is 25.80 miles away. My last test just got 107 KB/s download speed. I wish I were exaggerating.

aph said:
Tried, got a link?
I was planning on the same thing today until I ran the tests side by side.
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go to engadget and read their review on the Thunderbolt. They have a report from speedtest.net saying their app doesn't accurately test the upload speed of the phone. An update will be out shortly to fix the issue. I would assume other speed test sites are the same. The phone hooked up to a PC via hotspot produces much slower uploads than the "38" your phone told you it does cause it is tested correctly. All of that info is found in engadgets post.

aph said:
So watching [Link Removed] video inspired me to do a little real-world field testing.
I just got out of the Verizon store by Grand Central in NYC.
This is disappointing, because I was pricing out the Thunderbolt all day and almost signed up.
Side to side, Sprint beat Verizon at least 75% of the time. It was always 2-4MBps faster on the download (~8MBps vs ~4MBps or so). The other 25% of the time that Verizon was faster it was about 1MBps or less.
I checked coverage maps before I did this and Verizon has full dark red 4G coverage all over NYC, so it should be as fast as it can get. And I can't imagine there's a lot of congestion on their network the day after the phone came out.
Sprint on the other hand has only light green coverage (not dark green "best") in that area. Again, I was inside the store so LTE should have had the edge.
The latencies were comparable, both around 110ms. The only part that blew me away was Verizon's upload speed, about 38MBps compared to Sprint's 1MBps. But as we all know download is more important than upload.
Sorry to say, but LTE isn't all that it's cracked up to be, at least when and where I checked it for myself. Surprisingly, Sprint seems to hold the crown for 4G speeds at the moment.
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HAHA thats funny, i was at the same verizon store last week and i had the same results as well.

The things that will condemn Sprint's 4G in competition against Verizon's LTE have more to do with external factors than the technologies themselves.
Here in Houston is a perfect example. This was a debut WiMAX network, but has been largely abandoned (along with a ton of other cities) by Clear in favor of spending on new-market rollouts in places like Hemet, CA (I suppose the buffalo and trailer parks needed 10Mbps down on the go) and building worthless retail locations. The Sprint 4G map shows dead spots at a great many busy intersections here in town, and the Clear map shows no planned expansion to remedy the issue. Even Clear's current developmental floundering is set to come to a grinding halt as Clear runs out of debt capacity. Sprint can't/won't come riding to the rescue for two reasons: (1) Sprint shot its load on the network modernization project in December; (2) Sprint and Clear already had a falling out over the last few billion Clear wasted on retail locations instead of service and coverage upgrades. WiMAX coverage in most locations is unreliable and spotty (Try watching ESPN on Sprint TV next time you are on a highway as a passenger for more than 2 straight minutes) and that will almost assuredly not improve.
The bottom line is that Sprint and Clear have neither means nor unity of purpose required to deliver a solid, reliable nationwide 4G network. Verizon has deep pockets and only 1 management chain to control. Unless Sprint's modernization project is going to be truly revolutionary in what it delivers to the entire Sprint coverage footprint, Sprint's 4G just can't compete long-term against the Verizon money machine. I can already see the Verizon guy walking around with a Thunderbolt everywhere going "Is it streaming in HD now? ... Good." Verizon can and will deliver more dense and reliable 4G coverage than Sprint in the next couple of years.

I'm in Houston and I have a Thunderbolt for test purposes. Speedtests show download speeds of 18-40mb/s consistently, and I've also hit 50 mb/s occasionally. Upload speeds have been proven incorrect on the speedtest app, but when I go to the speedtest website and test uploads are showing 3-4mb/s.
Sprint Wimax doesn't work at my house so I leave it off most of the time. When it does work I normally get 3-5mb/s.
Clear is broke and i don't expect them to do much building out until they find an investor, but I don't see that happening. Tmobile was rumored to have some interest because they needed spectrum, but now with the AT&T deal this isn't gonna happen.
Sprint has signed a deal with Lightsquared and I expect to see LTE sooner rather than later. Lightsquared is backed by a private equity firm (it means they have money). Their goal is to build out a nationwide LTE network and be a wholesaler (unlike Clear who wanted so badly to have a successful retail operation). Sprint is a partner, and Cricket has also signed a deal with them. Sprint's deal with Lightsquared will also allow them to put their equipment on Sprint's towers so this well help with the build out. Previously Sprint wanted Clear to do the same and help coordinate the build out, but Clear refused and wanted to do their own thing. Lightsquared has spectrum I believe in the 1600mhz frequencies so penetration won't be an issue like 2500mhz wimax.
Check out Lightsquared's website for more info. They expect to have some consumer products available the 2nd half of 2011, and they say smartphones from partners in 2012. Everything I've posted I pieced together reading about Sprint and Lightsquared, but I think this makes a lot of sense.

Riverside, CA 4G a Joke

So I take my son to a medical appointment and I get 4g here. Average speeds of 8.5mbps down and 1.4 up. Crazy fast. However the 4g only gets signal in maybe a 3 mile radius. What a joke. Its obvious there is a wimax tower, so why such bad saturation? Been that way since I got the phone, it blows that they don't get their S together and give us here a decent signal, speaking as my average 3g speeds are 300k down and what's weird 600k up. Faster upload than down? Bittorrent on me!
Sent from my ridiculously slow EVO 4g using Tapatalk

Well you are in Riverside.....
Come down into OC and you will be surprised where you have 4g. Very few dead spots.

Bielinsk said:
Well you are in Riverside.....
Come down into OC and you will be surprised where you have 4g. Very few dead spots.
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I was on business in OC and man was 4g strong there. I live north of Seattle and 4g is not nearly as consistent or strong where I live. I'm jealous.
Pocket posted...

RE:
I understand that I'm in Riverside, but you can even see from Sprint's map they have a 4g tower here, but such small coverage? That's ridiculous. I've read numerous articles how Sprint is doubling down on 4g and Android in 2011, I'd really like to see that. I know it's also partly with Clearwire, which Sprint owns part of. Clearwire is having bigtime money issues and I can't see WIMAX spreading at any kind of rate in the short term. I'm curious if this is the reason why Dan Hesse has said so many favorable things about LTE lately, because the company they used to help implement WIMAX couldn't get the job done.

Interesting 4G information I heard (why areas don't have them)

I was trying to figure out when 4G would be full rolled out in a certain area, & here is a response I received.
..............................................................
There will not likely be any more (my city) coverage until Winter at the earliest. Sprint/Clear are running around putting up "Protection Sites" in every CMA (Cellular Market Area) in the country. There are over 700 CMA's in the U.S. These are regions that the FCC breaks down the country into to issue spectrum licensing for mobile carriers.
There are two types of crews putting up new 4G service now. Fill-In Crews and Protection Site Crews. The Fill-In crews are adding service in primary markets that already have service. They expanded service in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle and New York this year. They will keep moving on in Primary Markets only that already have service. (your city is a secondary market) The Protection Site crews are running all over the Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands installing at least one tower in every CMA. Two or three in secondary markets.
The two towers already operating in your city are "Protection Sites." These are limited deployments. They are operating at full strength signal, but do not have all the antennas as a full deployment would, and also the antennas are not fully directed to help building penetration. They are pointing straight out for maximum coverage area. Also, these do not have upgraded backhaul (microwave or fiber) that 4G really needs for maximum data throughput and speeds. They just utilize whatever internet service is already at the tower. Which may or may not be sufficient. Varies greatly from tower to tower and market to market.
In the Fall, Sprint is coming out with a new 4G plan. We know it will include LTE. But no one is sure to what extent. Whether Sprint and Clear will stop expanding WiMax completely and just service existing WiMax areas. All new deployments after the announcement might be LTE. Or they might finish building out WiMax completely, but this is unlikely. Or maybe they will announce they will finish WiMax in primary and maybe secondary markets before switching to LTE. We just don't know.
So no one knows how communities like yours will be impacted with their Sprint 4G deployment with this all up in the air. Only the highest executives are in on what's in-store. They are being very tight lipped. I think it's because they aren't even 100% sure yet. They are out striking deals with vendors, sub-contractors, joint venture partners and trying to get Network Vision off the ground too. But the Protection Site roll out will not be complete until Fall. Then those crews will be going on to something else. But no one knows where for sure yet.
In the end, it leaves a very frustrated Sprint customer service experience for 4G device owners. And with their 3G network speeds deteriorating below 2G, it just is ticking off people all the more!
------------------------------------
Well guess what? VERIZON has 4G NOW in my area. Anyway, it was an interesting read & I wonder how that will affect the phones that are going to come out, or even our Epic 4G
I really wish I had answers, but the above post is the best I have right now for those wondering WHY 4G is not in your area yet.
Is this why there is no Galaxy S2 yet on Sprint because they don't know what it will run on? Maybe that's the wait. Frustrating to say the least, & yes, 3G is declining not only in my area, but probably others as well. I really thought when I bought my Epic 4G i'd be looking at 6 months & 4G would be all set to go. Little did I know i'd be getting a phone I could never use for its full potential. At least not where I am at.

First
Looking forward to lte
Grapes

The protection towers has been well known for quite a while...along with the nothing new for this year.

Whats upsetting is nyc has the most dense population out of all the 4g markets and they still can't cover the entire city in 4G, and I am not talking about inside buildings, there are just too many holes on their coverage map.

4g? What's that? I would be happy with decent 3g coverage in my city. I don't think that's too much to ask for a city with a population of roughly 420,000 (and growing.)
.

This kind of thing makes me want to get sprint on the phone and scream to all hell about this issue, but in the end, the customer service rep, their superior, and THEIR superior can't do anything about it. All the good, "decent" phones are 4g now anyway, so I guess all the biggest city in New Hampshire has to show for itself is 3g and FIOS....oh wait, we don't have FIOS either. Whenever my contract is up, for the first time in 9 years, I'm going to look at switching carriers. Uhg.

Same here. Upsets me as well. You could always tweet about it, & maybe Dan Hesse will get back to you......or maybe not.
I am a premiere member & just got a $5 credit for my anniversary. While nice, it doesn't change the fact that not only does 3G suck, 2 out of 3 places I really use my phone I barely get coverage or it roams, but 4G is only in this tiny section
I have a feeling I will be switching, or something, because aside from the 4G, I tested my phone in a new home we are buying, & guess what? Just like the other two places I use my phone. CAN'T GET SERVICE. My wife said it even sucked outside when we were in the new home.
I'm just about exhausted & fed up with Sprints lack of coverage.

That's what I realized why they are cheaper and unlimited not because they claim to be different but no service issues.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I will stay Sprint for now as long as they provide an unlimited data plan.
However, if I get sufficiently rich, I may switch to Verizon and pay for their largest data plan.