Following up on Clearwire’s announcement, Sprint has followed up with its spate of announcements for its bespoke Sprint 4G WiMax service.
The carrier has announced that the first markets it will launch with Sprint 4G will be Portland, Las Vegas and Atlanta, with specific details expected next month. Sprint is also touting the speed of its service with claimed peak download speeds of more than 10 Mbps and average speeds of 3-6 Mbps.
Future markets expected to launch later this year include Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle, mirroring Clearwire’s future footprint. Sprint owns a majority stake in Clearwire, and matches the Clear network buildout with Sprint 4G offerings.
Are specials being offered to move EVDO customers to Wimax?
So when are these plans going to be released or at least know the price?
Jeff, you can migrate to Sprint 4G if you are a Mobile Broadband customer. However, you do have to pay full retail price.
Sprint sees Sprint 4G just like QChat. It’s new technology, and if you’re a Sprint customer you have to pay a premium (since you already got a subsidy on the first model). With Apple no longer doing iPhone 3G early-upgrades upon the release of a new model (3GS), it’s a trend that has staying power in the industry.
As such, you can switch to Sprint 4G, but you have to pay full retail for the hardware. Well, unless you’re upgrade-eligible.
JJ, Sprint 4G is available, but only in Baltimore. Next month Sprint will detail the launch dates for Portland, Las Vegas and Atlanta.
Of course, if you want Sprint 4G right now, you can just convince Sprint that you are in Baltimore, and then change your address over to the cities currently. Sprint 4G works wherever there is Clear coverage.
California,the most populated state, still nowhere in sight!!
Las Vegas, with hardly any population, a tocken release, a la “Tour July 12th” style!
Meanwhile, per Tier2 tech support, Sprint has across the line removed the “roam only” function, of all the phone systems, including older phones!
Meaning,if you are in an area in L.A., or anywhere else for that matter, the only option other than “Sprint only”, is “Automatic”, which droppes calls within first 2 minutes up to 3 times in a matter of 5 minutes!!
Before I was able to switch to “Roam only”, and carry a safe conversation without dropping the important call, now no longer, this is outrages, it is not even announced to anyone.
Warning!!!
Be aware, if you update your firmware/software, it will remove the “Roam only” option, period!
This sabotage policy is yet another cost control, by C.E.O. D.Hesse!
Is this even legal?
I have unlimited roaming, yet I can not switch when needed, interestingly over the past year, on my now dead m610, I was told by Tier2 to force the radio to “Roam only” mode, hence preventing the “confused weak Sprint signal tower”, to kick in and out, and dropping calls left and right.
I had to get the NEW LG X600 Lotus, with more dropped calls NOW!!
Ohh, as a bonus,I don’t get people’s text messages either!
4G??? How about a working 3G first!
I have 3 weeks left, to move to another carrier,one that is more ethical and not B.K.!
I guess, Sprint would rather have me move… to Las Vegas, Baby!
Thank You
F1, if your going to switch to another carrier don’t choose att. They like to do the same type of stuff. Plust have you told sprint your situation about roaming? I have a touch diamond and I have the option to roam. Maybe they will give you an upgraded phone at no charge for your trouble. Let us know what happens if you decide to stick with sprint.
JJ, most new Sprint phones have removed the Roam Only option… a new phone could actually work worse in F1’s situation.
Sprint did this because people were leaving their phones in Roam Only mode, for situations like what F1 is suffering from. Problem is, they don’t turn Roam Only mode off when they leave the affected area… and were/are constantly roaming.
“Is this even legal?”
What? For Sprint to remove and stop offering the ROAM ONLY option on the phones that they offer? Are you serious??
If you’re having to use the ROAM ONLY option that much, you really need to switch carriers. Of course, every time that I’ve been in LA I’ve had flawless coverage. Go figure.
F1 just wants it his way but Sprint isn’t Burger King, Cali has good coverage so the device might be to blame
@ JJ
Thank You kindly, regarding the heads up on AT&T!
Yes, I have talked to them at Tier2, the most savy of the Srint staff, they understood my position, but were not able to reverse or “Force Roam” back on the Phone, furthermore they told me it came from top, nothing they can do about it.
As I warned earlier, “Do not upgrade your software” on your touch diamond, it will remove this option of your phone and all the phones on the Sprint network!
I will let you know what happens if I decide to stay.
@Chris
Just curious, we (Sprint staff & myself), tried installing any Opera version on the Palm Pro,at the store for over an hour, no luck!
Mobile 6.1 on Palm Pro will simply not execute Opera Mobile.
Could one, tether out of the box on the Palm Pro, wit any data package,i.e. Evdo, Powervision,….?
Btw,Best Buy has it discontinued, perhaps in anticipation of the Touch Pro2!
@Don Louis
My way??,…very funny, please Don do your research, I challenge anyone to prove me wrong, I have had some of the best phones in the network, it does not matter it is like they stopped building the network, and started milking what they built a decade ago.
For the non L.A. customers, Ventura Blvd is one of the longest streets in the country,at over 12 miles long. Notorius for poor signal at South of the Blvd or up to one Block North of the Blvd, this is across six cities, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Tarzana and Woodland Hills, your pick anytime of the day, 24hrs, spotty at best, my phone today,
is “entering” and “leaving” the Sprint network, just like it used to, back in 1997!
@DP
Is this even legal?
Ever heard of “full disclosure”?
You sign an “upgrade” contract, nowhere does it say we are removing your back up “roaming only” feature, deception anyone??
It is more of a downgrade…, for the record, I never used over 90 minutes over a month period roaming, that left me with over 600min of my in plan, network consumption.
Cheap, is and should never be a substitute for the consumer Safety !
Thank You
Opera Mini won’t work on a Treo Pro, but Opera Mobile should. You may want to contact Opera about looking into a bug with the Treo Pro.
As to tethering, the default Internet Connection Sharing software now requires a Phone As Modem plan from Sprint. However, you can use a third-party tool such as WMWifiRouter or WalkingHotSpot to bypass this limitation. It appears to be legal, according to the FCC’s Comcast/BitTorrent ruling.
“Ever heard of “full disclosureâ€?
You sign an “upgrade†contract, nowhere does it say we are removing your back up “roaming only†feature, deception anyone??”
Show me a Sprint contract where it guarantees that your handset will have a ROAM ONLY feature.
F1 you ought to tell tech support so a ticket can be made, don’t see complaints about service in that region and if you consistently in that 12 mile stretch a new carrier may be needed
F1, its too late. I just remembered I ran the latest update on my diamond. I just checked and the only options I have are sprint or automatic. Although I still have the option to roam if sprint is not available. The problem with that is when I go into a building and I have a really bad signal with sprint but a great signal with roam it will choose sprint most of the time. I really hate that. Maybe their 4g technology works better indoors. I hope they release the cost for current customers to get on 4g once you have a 4g phone.
For those of you who have pocket pcs with sprint there is a way to force roam even if that option is not available. If you really want forced roam on your phone becuase this is the only way to get a signal then try this. You just have to do some registry edits. I won’t post instructions here so just google it! It worked for me!
@ Chris
Thank you, for your timely, informative response, I was considering the Palm Pro despite the smudge magnet finish, however it might be just too much work at this point.
1.After six months, Opera has not fixed the issue
2.Sprint had told me that my EVDO Plan was good enough, which it is not, I would have to spend an additional $30 on PAM
3.Potential roaming issues, regarding the “Roam only” mode drop
@ JJ
This will backlash in a major way, because people do not have the time or the know how, or the will to deal with this potential nightmare.
PPC, would include Palm Pro, is this process complex? Will it reverse, once you do another software update?
JJ, thank you for your continued sharing of your experiences.
@Don
All you have to do, is to visit, three Corp Sprint stores in Studio City, Encino and Woodland Hills locations on this 12 mile stretch, and you can see it on the display units or on your own Cell, sometimes you have to get to the store front/entrance area, no EVDO deep into the store,switching back and forth, that is despite boosters such as Airrave on site!
Just remember they have different operating, hours as a bonus!
Tickets are of no use, it is not like they send out a Van to test the location, “We do not have such capacity” per Tech support,it is all done remotely, which does not duplicate what one experiences at the location.
Trust me I have tried every option, within reason,I wanted it to work, it is no fun jumping ship, you should agree on that!
@ DP
“Ever heard of “full disclosure�
You sign an “upgrade†contract, nowhere does it say we are removing your back up “roaming only†feature, deception anyone??â€
When you advertise unlimited roaming as a key element of your Product/Plan,you are implying access, actively omitting a function to provide that service, hence hindering at will access, modifying your access without full disclosure, is playing with the flames of “false advetrising”, at the very least constitutes a breach of contract.
This would clearly not an issue If the so called “Automatic” mode, would work as advertised, as a real automatic function should, which it clearly does not, there would be no need for a “ROAM ONLY” feature,otherwise it is reasonable to expect the continued provision of the option, hence it is implied.
As I said before:
Cheap, should never be a substitute for the consumer Safety !
Thank You
The fun you’re talking about is more money, right? If you frequent those areas and have no service that is even less fun, a decision needs to be made instead of crying here
@ Don
Cellular service is a critical utility, not a “fun” factor!
Maybe this is your definition of fun? Crying ? Burger King ?
To most shopping in current economy ,for a reliable service, and a nice phone is not an easy deed, since most are not made of money, every penny has to work it’s value.
I consider any valid point, this however is serious, to most of us!
Thank You
@F1
In the total absence of Sprint signal, your handset should roam onto a CDMA roaming partner if one is available. If your handset is not roaming under those circumstances then there is aproblem with your handset and you should have it checked out or replaced. Again, no Sprint contract guarantees you a handset that will have the roam only option. Moreover, while Sprint may advertise that roaming is included with their plans, they do not advertise that you will have the ability to force roam at your leisure. If the problem is that severe for you then you have a few options: switch providers (btw let me know which one you’ll be goin to that guarantees you the ability to force roam at your discretion), call Sprint and put in a trouble ticket where you’re alleging weak signal or get a WinMo phone and edit the reistry so that the roam only option is there again. It is absurdly simple to do. However, whining here and continually offering up ludicrous and invalid arguments will not help your situation.
Sorry,this not going to be pretty!
But sometimes you just have to do it:
@DP
You sound like an offensive, bitter employee, stating nothing but the obvious,trying to make your self feel clever:
1.In the total absence of Sprint signal, your handset should roam onto a CDMA roaming partner if one is available.
A:No Kidding!! Define your standards for measuring “total absence”!
2. If your handset is not roaming under those circumstances then there is aproblem with your handset and you should have it checked out or replaced.
A:Sherlock Holmes?! Is that you?
3. Again, no Sprint contract guarantees you a handset that will have the roam only option.
A:That makes it right? For 12 years the function has been there, why now?
Because you have an overpaid greedy CEO, collecting $14 million a year, who does not want to pay the “roaming partner”!
Ask the U.S.M.C. how many Marines,roamed too much for their country, and got a love letter of termination of service,as a thank you for the service to their country at the time of WAR and fighting for our Freedom, courtesy of Sprint!
3. Moreover, while Sprint may advertise that roaming is included with their plans, they do not advertise that you will have the ability to force roam at your leisure.
A:Look up “truth in advertising”, there is no “may”, it is my choice as a consumer to use any of, or neither one of the services, for which I pay under the umbrella of an contract. who are you to judge the paying customer, and lable their action as “leisure”??
Every failed call is proof of your sheer incompetence, and a stain on the spreadsheet of your delivery, after over a decade of milking the so called “roaming partner” system, which is VZW (with 5 to 6 times your market share value, and over80 million customers),and not improving your network, further more taxing it by buying Nextel an incompatible system, you are a company on the verge of bankruptcy, sourced out, leased out to a skeleton of what it used to be, down to just 48 million customers, not for long I might add, thanks to individuals like you!
4. If the problem is that severe for you then you have a few options: switch providers
A:Wow, that is just an amazing idea! Genius! (first right idea! GoldStar?)
5. (btw let me know which one you’ll be goin to that guarantees you the ability to force roam at your discretion),
A:
a. That is your job!
b. Maybe their service will be adequate enough, with no need or at least much less of a need for forcing roam, ever thought of that concept?
6. call Sprint and put in a trouble ticket where you’re alleging weak signal
A:Must be a rookie employee, with these original out of the box ideas!
7.or get a WinMo phone and edit the reistry so that the roam only option is there again. It is absurdly simple to do.
A:Gold Star for you, for reading the blog or stealing somebody else’s quote (see JJ)
While on the subject of reading, here is a new concept for you, it is called “proof reading”,it is a must in the suggested reading department, it will assist you with your future polished presentation skills.
8. However, whining here and continually offering up ludicrous and invalid arguments will not help your situation.
A:
My situation?? It is called sharing and blogging, just like you did with item # 7, warning other paying customers, of the latest skim by your employer.
FYI, I have two references at Sprint who would do anything to keep me, unlike you however, I do not care for myself alone,it is about the Consumer, who is being milked to death with your sick policies of greed and ever incresingly higher taxation of administrative fees, like an old politically incorrect saying goes, “the I…. giver”,
i.e: Remember first incoming minute free, holidays free, get a copy of your purchased song for your PC (we will not tell anyone it will not play for long), have CNN on Sprint TV, oops let us take that back, who is watching right? Enough samples for you? If not checkout the new plans!
Information is power,….try to catch up !
Thank You
Wow, that’s a lot of typing without saying very much of any importance or intelligence.
1. I am not, nor have I ever been, a employee of Sprint or any of its subsidiaries. That, of course, renders the majority of your moronic posting moot. See, when you ASSume you really make yourself look like an, well I think even someone of your apparent limited abilities can figure out the rest.
2. “Define your standards for measuring “total absenceâ€!” No, thank you. I speak in plain English. If you can’t discern what such a simple phrase means, then I am truly sorry for you.
3. “That makes it right? For 12 years the function has been there, why now?” Is it it right? Why wouldn’t it be? However, your original question was something along the lines of: “is this even legal?” And then you go on to babble on about ‘full disclosure’ and other nonsense. Right, wrong or otherwise, there is nothing in your contract that assures you a phone with a ROAM ONLY option or the ability to force roam. Regarding roaming, all I can find is the follow: “”Roaming” typically refers to coverage on another carrier’s network that we make available to you based on our agreements with other carriers. These agreements may change from time to time and roaming coverage is subject to change.”
SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Is it really that hard to comprehend? In theory, Sprint could eliminate roaming altogether. It would be suicide, but they do give themselves that latitude. Moreover, 12 years ago, consumers were paying for roaming, so why wouldn’t the option have been there then? Since you babble about irrelevant matters, gasoline used to cost me around $1/gal. or less 12 years ago. Oh noes! Why does it cost me near $3/gal. today?? You know what though, I either deal with it by paying up at the pump or by find alternative transportation. Dealing with the supposed unfair twists that life deals is what us adults do. When you grow up, feel free to try it.
4. “Because you have an overpaid greedy CEO, collecting $14 million a year, who does not want to pay the “roaming partnerâ€!”
More irrelevant babble on your part. Do you suffer from ADD or ADHD? I will however, agree that Dan Hesse and numerous other CEOs are overpaid. That has nothing to do with this topic though.
5. “Ask the U.S.M.C. how many Marines,roamed too much for their country, and got a love letter of termination of service,as a thank you for the service to their country at the time of WAR and fighting for our Freedom, courtesy of Sprint!”
a. You’re trying to make some point out of 200 lines?
b.The lines were reinstated, so your silly non-point is again moot.
c. This non-issue has absolutely NOTHING to do with the topic. Do try to stay on point.
6. “Look up “truth in advertisingâ€, there is no “mayâ€, it is my choice as a consumer to use any of, or neither one of the services, for which I pay under the umbrella of an contract. who are you to judge the paying customer, and lable their action as “leisureâ€??”
I’m person with an opinion, like you and some common sense, unlike you. You can roam. However, the ‘umbrella’ of your contract does not grant you the right to force roam. I’m sorry that you are apparently too dim to realize the difference.
7. “Every failed call is proof of your sheer incompetence, and a stain on the spreadsheet of your delivery, after over a decade of milking the so called “roaming partner†system, which is VZW (with 5 to 6 times your market share value, and over80 million customers),and not improving your network, further more taxing it by buying Nextel an incompatible system, you are a company on the verge of bankruptcy, sourced out, leased out to a skeleton of what it used to be, down to just 48 million customers, not for long I might add, thanks to individuals like you!”
Hey look! More irrelevant drivel and ignorance. You really should quit while you’re behind. Every point that you try to make simply illustrates how out of touch you are.
8. “Maybe their service will be adequate enough, with no need or at least much less of a need for forcing roam, ever thought of that concept?”
Every carrier drops calls, every carrier has need to roam at somewhere at some point. Try digesting that concept.
9. “i.e: Remember first incoming minute free, holidays free, get a copy of your purchased song for your PC (we will not tell anyone it will not play for long), have CNN on Sprint TV, oops let us take that back, who is watching right? Enough samples for you? If not checkout the new plans!”
All subject to change. Every carrier takes away perks over time. Again, we adults either deal with it or move on. Its truly not that difficult.
10. “Information is power,….try to catch up !”
You truly are amusing. Catch up? I hate to burst your bubble, kid, but I’m light years ahead of you.
Rated G “Amusing”
So he figured out instead proof reading his own attempt of writing, or plagiarizing someone elses research, he will go all out with a newly aquired skill of “Copy & Paste”, sprinkled it with some colorful, random choice words.This one summed it up as the most appropiate and quotable:
DP: “I’m person with an opinion,….”
F1: “Hmmm” !?
Clint Eastwood: “An Opinion is like an ………. everybody has one” !
Thank You
Please leave the attempts at wit to those who have something of a knack for it. Because you obviously process information slowly, here’s a hint: ‘Those’, unfortunately, don’t include you. Sorry.
Good job pointing out meaningless typos though. If the National Enquirer needs a copy editor, you’re all set!
At any rate, as you have no salient or rational rebuttal, I formally accept your concession on this matter.
Thank YOU for playing! Better luck next time.
Anyway, dp if you want to complain and tell people the only solution is to switch carriers, then go put your comments somewhere else. Most people on this post want to stay with sprint and are commenting on things that will actually improve their service. And when the company tries to screw the consumer the consumer finds ways to fight back and that is what these forums are about. So if you don’t have any positive comments on helping others with their cell phone service then just don’t say anything, especially a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make sense.
Anyway, F1 the registry worked with my diamond phone and can be changed back if it doesn’t work for your phone. I actually had to revert back to the old registry setting because although it gave me a better signal it only gave me 1x. I have to do a little more research on what the best registry setting is. The good thing is that sprints coverage is getting better. So maybe soon I won’t need it. Heres to wishing!
@JJ
Thank You JJ, I am contemplating the Tour and Palm Pro.
The Pro, does not require a chang to my Plan, I followed your advice on “registry”, I have read some positive feedback regarding Palm Pro and registry changes, but so far no luck on Opera mobile, my Lotus reception is just too weak, just two weeks left to decide on these two or to move on.
I also have learned that VZW, also does some fuzy math, I guess it is the nature of this Industry, jury is still out regarding Tmobile.
I very much appreciate all your feedback.
Thank You
Interesting:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/24/sprints-dan-hesse-says-android-coming-to-sprint-this-year-is-g/2#comments
End of 3Q, or Oct?
Thank You
Sprint sucks. They have to bootleg because they don’t have enough antennas. They also pay ragheads to answer phones. I left.
I don’t have time to read through all this right now, but the cab here provides roam only option for any ppc I think. Hope this helps for those that need the roam only option back.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=6160
Oops. Disregard above link. The cab is here.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=61603
Hey sprint sucks-what a great comment! I wish I could make such resourceful and sophisticated comments.
Because of your comment I am now going to leave sprint and pay an exorbitant amount of money, have less 3g coverage, and have slower speeds and switch to att.
THANKS A LOT FOR THE GREAT COMMENT!
4G cuando llega a Perú??????
Here is a tweak that i found to enable roaming on the Touch Pro 2. May work on others.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OEM\InitProv\PhoneSett ing
Change the ItemCount to 3
Add a String Value called “ItemName3” with the string being “Roaming Only”
Add a DWORD called “ItemValue3” with the DWORD Data being “5” (in Decimal
Hope this helps.