Why I ditched Sprint & why I chose AT&T (Part 1)

About a month ago, I made the jump from Sprint to AT&T as my cell phone provider.  

I had been a Sprint customer for the last 9 years, and on and off for several years before that, so why did I make this change?  The answer is simple.  Sprint's data network.  In this post I'll explain why I left Sprint and in a follow-up post I'll share why I chose AT&T over Verizon.

Until about two years, I was a big proponent of Sprint.  I'm a pretty money conscious guy (aka cheap) and Sprint has always provided the best bang for your buck of the top three carriers.  Not only are their plans priced better but often they were also the most innovative.  Who doesn't like unlimited data and unlimited mobile to any mobile calling?  Sprint has never been know for amazing coverage but the fact that they allow you to roam on the Verizon network free of charge mitigated that issue for me.  They also have very impressive integration with Googe Voice if you utilize that service, which I do.  As for their customer service, I can't recall ever having a complaint about it.   

I had poor Sprint coverage at my house but Sprint mitigated that by providing an Airave free of charge.  That is a great little device that essentially creates a mini cell-tower in your house using your broadband connection.  The range within the house wasn't as good as I would have liked (coverage is similar to WiFi) but it did the job and allowed me to use my phone to make/receive calls while at home.  The Airave only provides voice/text services but since my phone was able to utilize my WiFi network for data that didn't matter.  It was a bit of a pain that Sprint coverage was so poor in my community, but it never bothered me enough to look at another carrier.

So what did it?  Like many of you, my mobile device usage has changed from primarily voice to mostly texting and data.  A little over two years ago, I upgraded my Blackberry to an Epic 4G (Android) device.  My wife had one as well.  Lucky for me, the day after I got this phone, Sprint launched their WiMax 4G network in Sacramento (where I work).  I was very impressed by the speed.  However, I noticed that coverage was very spotty.  I figured they would be adding more towers as they continued their WiMax rollout so didn't worry too much.  I also didn't mind paying $10 extra per phone as we were told that other areas (such as Yuba-Sutter, where I live) would be seeing WiMax coverage soon.   Unfortunately, Sprint didn't expand their WiMax network any further nor did they improve it in Sacramento, leaving me to pay an extra $20 a month for a service that I could hardly use.  I eventually just turned 4G off on my phone because there were large gaps in 4G coverage in the Sacramento area and the phone would not switch gracefully from 3G to 4G service.  My WiMax experience bothered me, but still not enough to make me consider switching.

Then, a little over a year ago I noticed something very annoying.  A spot in Olivehurst that I frequented on a regular basis where my phone showed almost full signal strength but data requests (such as pulling up FB or checking in on Foursquare) were very slow and often timed out.  This experience was consistant at that location.  I expect data performance problems in areas with poor signal but that didn't fall into that category   I called Sprint to report the problem but it was never addressed.  I began to notice other areas with similar issues.  Decent coverage but poor data performance on a consistant basis.  Two spots that come to mind were near my office in Rancho Cordova and in Downtown Yuba City.  As time went on, the number of spots where I experienced this issue seemed to grow.  Eventually, I started using the SpeedTest.net app to measure performance.  I frequently got less than < 100 kbps and in the worst trouble spots speeds were typically in the 10 kbps to 50 kbps range.  That is worse than dialup speeds.  Sprint 3G should be operating in the 300 kbps to 800 kbps range.

I also noticed a delay in the time it took me to send/receive text messages.  This didn't appear to be location or time specific and didn't happen all the time but when it did the delay could be measured in minutes rather than seconds.  This is very frustrating when you are trying to hold a time sensitive conversation via text messages.

As someone who hardly places a call on his phone, but primarily uses it for texting and data, I could no longer stand to use such a poor performing network.  As soon as my contract was up, I jumped ship for another carrier.  My next post will focus on why I chose AT&T over Verizon.

Do you have Sprint?  What has your experience been like?