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General: Query friends and neighbors to find out who they use for cellular service and if they are happy.
Services/Features
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| Coverage |
Really depends on where you live work and play. Strong states for Sprint seem to include all eastern states, and California/Arizona in the West. Other states coverage tends to cover cities and major highways. Roaming is included with their modern rate plans (provided you don't over-do it). Too much roaming is defined as 800 minutes or more than 50% of your usage. Sprint is decent in Oregon, but sometimes their 1900Mhz PCS signal does not penetrate buildings as well as their competitors. To compensate, Sprint tends to have denser tower spacing and coverage has most definitely improved with the Nextel merger. |
| Customer Service |
Sprint's customer service is really hit or miss. When possible, I recommend going in to see them at a local store where I have had better experiences. When they "miss" they are the worst in the industry. Luckily, many folks just need customer service for initial setup and then not at all. This tends to be my case, and I like Sprint's pricing. |
| Interface and features on phones |
non-crippled in general. I'm not aware of any Sprint phones that have been intentionally cripped or vendor UI totally changed. |
| Phone Selection |
I'd call it good, at least better than Verizon. Not as good as for GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile. |
| Cost |
Decent to good. Their "killer" feature is unlimited data and messaging from the handset (on all but Blackberry models) for $15. If you can get their SERO plan, price and features are exceptionally good. Sprint is the *only* provider I am aware of with a real retentions department capable of wheeling and dealing to keep you if you are thinking about quitting them. Anyway, they tend to be more flexible in this regard than any other national carrier. |
| International |
Personal experience has been horrible. The SIM card they provided me with didn't work while I was in Europe, and others on the forums have complained of the same. The "best" part was that their own customer service told me that the card may not work, and if it didn't there was no method for me to deal with it from there. Bottom line, if you truly need international service I'd simply choose a GSM carrier (either AT&T or T-Mobile). |
| Replacement Phones |
All of the carriers can be hard if you don't have insurance and haven't completed a contract yet want a decent price on a phone. This is where ebay.com can make sense. In-warranty replacement is $35. |
| My status with Sprint |
I'm a current customer, and have been with them for 2 years. I currently have a SERO plan with 2 lines, including the HTC Mogul data device (which I really like). Sprint's pricing enables me to used enhanced features that I might not ever use if I had to pay for each of them separately. Low cost is my main reason to choose Sprint. I'd go so far as to say I wouldn't stick with them if my pricing was the same as it is on other carriers. |
| Freaky Problems You Might Not Expect |
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Initial Errors |
Both for me, and family members I've converted to Sprint, there have been errors initially. Things like having 6pm nights for an extra $10/month appear without my request. When you couple this with the difficulty it takes to reach them on the phone initially, and the problems getting issues resolved generally, it's almost a deal-breaker. Hopefully, you will not have this issue, or if you do, Sprint is saving you enough money monthly to make it worth your while. In all cases, after several phone calls I did work these issues out, and none resurfaced later provided I don't make changes to my plan. |
| No conditional call forwarding |
I absolutely love this feature and used it frequently on all other national carriers. Sprint doesn't offer it, even if you are willing to pay for it. They do offer non-conditional forwarding for 20 cents a minute. Note that Verizon offers both types of forwarding without any additional monthly charge, but calls do use minutes. T-Mobile supports conditional call forwarding up to 500 minutes for free. Cingular can do it for a per-minute fee. [This feature allows you to forward an incoming call to another number if you do not pickup after X number rings] |
| Changing phones can adversely affect your plan |
Sprint is the only carrier I have ever been with where switching phones can jeopardize plan features. For example, if your plan includes unlimited power vision 1xRTT EVDO, and you temporarily switch to a non-powervision phone, you can lose that feature even if you later try to re-activate a powervision enabled phone. |
| No online ESN swaps |
Sprint does not currently provide any way online to switch phones. They advertise a per-phone swap fee which may or may not actually be charged when you switch phones. |
| No Non Sprint Branded Phones Ever! |
Sprint will not activate non-Sprint phones even if they are technology compatible and otherwise unlocked. |
| No backdoor numbers for voicemail |
The limited number of backdoor numbers that used to exist have been all eliminated as far as I know. These special numbers used to permit roamers to check voicemail from a landline, or leave a voicemail without ringing someones phone. They could also be used for cellular paging. |
| Customer Service |
Already mentioned this one above, but Sprint's customer service is the worst of any of the national carriers. For starters you might literally wait 40 or more minutes just to reach someone. Once you get someone on the line, you may find multiple calls are required even to fix something that seems simple. Sometimes you will receive good service too. |
| Picture Mail Address (email gateway) |
You should be able to SMS, and MMS to phone numbers. The email gateway address is:
user@pm.sprintpcs.com
or phone # for "user" |
| Sending Email |
Server Address |
SSL/Authentication? |
Port |
Notes |
| Outgoing Email (SMTP Setting): |
smtp.sprintpcs.com |
No SSL. AUTH is required. |
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Use your Sprint email username and password. I believe you can use the site to create one if you do not already have one. The username is of the form "user@sprintpcs.com" and must include the '@' |
Sprint News and Information (Press Releases from Sprint)
Contact Information (for all carriers)
Free Mobile Email Client Now Available
New Free cellular assisted GPS application is available for some Sprint phones.
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