How's Sprint mobile service in Nova? (Virginia Beach, Hampton: townhouse, buy, live)

[VRE332]

I'm looking to switch over to Sprint, and wondering if anyone can compare the service to Verizon.

[CaliTerp07]

I have sprint for my personal phone, husband has verizon for his work phone. No real noticeable difference. Sometimes I have better service, sometimes he does. I don't know if it's still true, but when I signed up for my sprint plan, their roaming service was verizon (so if there was no sprint service I could pick up verizon's network).

[BarqCider]

relatively all services in the dc area are the "same", however i find the services to be like this: Verizon/att, tmobile,sprint,boost and cricket.

if i were you i would look at the coverage map of places you often go to, or travel through to get a feel.

[RusUs]

VRE332,
We had Verizon for years but just switched to Sprint about a week ago. So I am still in the "testing mode" but so far I have not noticed any difference.

[jillybean720]

I switched from Verizon to Sprint about a year ago. The only difference I noticed so far is a lower monthly bill

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by VRE332

I'm looking to switch over to Sprint, and wondering if anyone can compare the service to Verizon.

I have Sprint and my biggest gripe is not being able to get 4G in the Virginia Square or Ballston areas. Small annoyance maybe but it is too bad I spend 90% of my workweek in either area.

[slim04]

Wow, I am surprised with these responses. AT&T and Verizon both picked the DC area as one of their key areas of focus, so they devote way more cell towers and infrastructure here than most regions in the country. For example, when they both first started putting in LTE towers, they chose DC as the first cities to get them. When Sprint decided to do this years later after their WiMax 4G failed, they chose Baltimore instead.

Sprint and T Mobile also have other issues besides towers. Each does not have access to much space in low frequency bands, as they rely on higher frequency bands. Higher frequency bands do not penetrate walls very easily, so you get terrible reception indoors vs. outside.

I had Sprint and had trouble getting calls to my cell phone in both my house and office, so I switched after a few months. The data speeds to Sprint were pretty slow as well. I usually hear a lot of complaining about Sprint, especially after they added the iPhone and got a lot of traffic on their 3G network. Too bad because Sprint and T Mobile are much cheaper, especially if you go prepaid.

Not to say the cost saving are not worth it. T Mobile unlimited plans can be had for $45 to $50 per month prepaid. Plus you can buy a very high quality unlocked GSM phone that will work on both T Mobile or AT&T for $300 from Google called the LG Nexus 4.

[VRE332]

Originally Posted by slim04

Wow, I am surprised with these responses. AT&T and Verizon both picked the DC area as one of their key areas of focus, so they devote way more cell towers and infrastructure here than most regions in the country. For example, when they both first started putting in LTE towers, they chose DC as the first cities to get them. When Sprint decided to do this years later after their WiMax 4G failed, they chose Baltimore instead.

Sprint and T Mobile also have other issues besides towers. Each does not have access to much space in low frequency bands, as they rely on higher frequency bands. Higher frequency bands do not penetrate walls very easily, so you get terrible reception indoors vs. outside.

I had Sprint and had trouble getting calls to my cell phone in both my house and office, so I switched after a few months. The data speeds to Sprint were pretty slow as well. I usually hear a lot of complaining about Sprint, especially after they added the iPhone and got a lot of traffic on their 3G network. Too bad because Sprint and T Mobile are much cheaper, especially if you go prepaid.

Not to say the cost saving are not worth it. T Mobile unlimited plans can be had for $45 to $50 per month prepaid. Plus you can buy a very high quality unlocked GSM phone that will work on both T Mobile or AT&T for $300 from Google called the LG Nexus 4.

Thank You, that was good info. Do you work in communications?

[jillybean720]

hmm...I'm inside my office right now and am only one bar shy of full bars on my Sprint phone. I had to stand right next to my back patio doors to get enough service to be able to talk on my cell phone in my townhouse when I had Verizon. I've actually even driven through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel on 64 heading to/from Virginia Beach and was able to not drop the call on my Sprint phone. So, while I won't contest the technical information included above (because I'm completely non-technical), the statements about service don't necessarily apply across the board.

[majicdonjuan]

Originally Posted by jillybean720

hmm...I'm inside my office right now and am only one bar shy of full bars on my Sprint phone. I had to stand right next to my back patio doors to get enough service to be able to talk on my cell phone in my townhouse when I had Verizon. I've actually even driven through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel on 64 heading to/from Virginia Beach and was able to not drop the call on my Sprint phone. So, while I won't contest the technical information included above (because I'm completely non-technical), the statements about service don't necessarily apply across the board.

My personal experience with Sprint (I've been with them since 2005) is very mixed but I find that their service in the DC area is pretty good. At home I have no problems, and though my signal at work is pretty bad I can still make and receive clear calls from there. I attribute that more to my location in the middle of a gargantuan building than any fault of Sprint, as a lot of my coworkers who have various cell services have poor signals too.

However, about six months ago, without warning, Sprint completely rebuilt the tower closest to my house, effectively rendering my phone useless at home (no calls, no text, no internet) for a month. This was INFURIATING, however, since I have a Texas number I figure that they had no idea that I even lived in the area where they were rebuilding the tower. It was particularly annoying because once I got about half a mile away from my house in any direction, my phone worked perfectly.

Overall, I think Sprint is pretty solid here. My phone works in the 395 tunnel in DC (handsfree of course) and in the HRBT as the poster above noted. 4G is hit-or-miss but is quick enough for my needs when it's reliably working. 3G is fairly slow though.