Phone Number

[jon carman]

I got a new phone number,

615-818-3085

This phone will be on me all the time, and I stepped into the 2000's by finally getting email on my phone.

[glenoweth]

Nice grats what did you get a driod? iphone?

[jon carman]

Droid Evo 4G. Battery sucks, reception stinks. But I can't get the iphone on sprint.

[angel]

Sprint uses a different band than other companies. And they make their phones have less reception than is possible too. It's got to be that they use less signal at the towers because they have an internal antenna that if you complain about it they'll offer to sell you that solves the reception issue. I solved the reception issue--I switched to AT&T

[signde]

Apr 5, 2011 13:09:01 GMT -6 angel said:

Sprint uses a different band than other companies. And they make their phones have less reception than is possible too. It's got to be that they use less signal at the towers because they have an internal antenna that if you complain about it they'll offer to sell you that solves the reception issue. I solved the reception issue--I switched to AT&T

sorry but no.

sprint uses cdma, at&t uses gsm. so you are right, it is a different band.

it is no secret sprint has a smaller area of coverage than verizon and at&t. having said that, it is also much cheaper than those two especially once you start adding on data, text messages, and factor in nights/weekends. even better, most people don't know that sprint automatically gives you free roaming on verizon. if verizon works where you are, sprint will also.

at&t is by far the worst at dropped calls of any of the other carriers. there are plenty of facts to back this up. having said that, different carriers might work better in different areas due to coverage so in the end you have to go with what works for you.

if you are having dropped calls at your house, call sprint and tell them. they will GIVE you the airave for free. AND. they will not charge you $5 a month for it. i know because i do this. not because sprint has bad reception at my house... no carrier works at my house.

i have an evo 4g. i love it. so do about 20 of my friends who all have one. battery life is okay if you follow a few good practices. remind me at the swap or next time i see you and i'll give you some tips.

<- self proclaimed phone nerd.

[angel]

They wouldn't do it for me. I tried. I had Sprint for 5 years and in all that time they would NOT give me the air thing for free. And dropped calls in my house? I couldn't get ANY bars to 1 bar in my house. I had them call me on my cell and proved it. They just didn't care. And I'm paying no more for AT&T than I paid for Sprint but I travel to the rest of the world and AT&T works there. Sprint said they did but didn't deliver. Their band wasn't available in Spain or Italy.

[angel]

Oh I forgot to mention--been with AT&T for a year and no dropped calls. I LOVE that! Because sometimes I'm DJing a wedding next to a river or lake, or on a farm, and still get reception. Ha! WEDDING--RECEPTION! No pun intended.

[signde]

i was given an airrave for free. same for my mother (who has the cheapest plan possible btw). same for another one of my friends. and i found this out from reading about it on the sprint forums from many many other people who all have done the same. all you have to do is ask for retentions.

sprint is a cdma network. cdma is north america and korea only. that has nothing to do with sprint. at&t operates on gsm and that is what the rest of the world uses. the only world phones sprint offers are those that are both cdma and gsm. you have to buy the right phone.

sprint's everything plan for a single person has unlimited data, unlimited texts, unlimited calling to ANY mobile network (not just sprint), and free nights and weekends starting at 7 for $70 a month. i check rates on at&t and verizon every so often and the cheapest i can ever get is $10-20 more than that for later nights and weekends, capped data, capped text messages, and unlimited calling only on their network.

as i already stated, different folks might have different experiences with coverage. it all depends on your area. nashville seems to fair better than the rest of the nation when it comes to at&t. overall, at&t has the highest dropped calls and worst customer satisfaction of any carrier.

AT&T customers log the most dropped call complaints
www.intomobile.com/2010/05/05/att-customers-log-the-most-dropped-call-complaints-verizon-claims-least/

your experiences with sprint are not the norm and your experiences with at&t are better than most. i'd hate for someone to read what you said and disregard sprint without hearing both sides.

[angel]

Yeah. Because I did buy the world phone. A Samsung Ace. JUST so I could use it overseas. They told me it would work .Before I went I phoned them to see if there was anything I had to do besides already paying for the world plan. No--just go and have a good time. Got there--phone didn't work. What they DIDN'T tell, and won't tell, is you have to buy a SIM card from a network there EVEN THOUGH you're paying for world coverage, because the band is locked down as long as that SIM is in the phone. For me, it's not the right phone company. But I gave them 5 years before giving up on them.

[signde]

Just because you have a world phone doesn't mean it is going to work everywhere you go overseas. Case in point, when I went to Ireland last summer at&t SIM's did not work there. We had to buy pre-paid SIM's from a local carrier.

Getting a pre-paid SIM is a common practice. This is how all my friends from overseas do it because it is always cheaper than paying your USA carrier's overseas rates and it is guaranteed to work.

Unless you have an unlocked phone, with a SIM the carrier has to give you the unlock codes. AT&T are notoriously stingy with those and it is not available on certain phones like the iphone. They want you to pay for their overseas rates ($$$) and not use some other company. About the only way to get the unlock code is convince them that their overseas partner doesn't have coverage in the areas in which you are traveling.

Final word of advice... I never trust sales people or customer service reps who get paid minimum wage to read responses from a script. Always do research yourself. SIMs and unlocked phones are a pretty standard thing when it comes to "world phones" and a quick search on the web would give you all the information I just provided.

[angel]

Well I'm happy. I might have had to pay .99 a minute to phone home, but most of my communication is via email and txt, and both of those were free. I have a business acct so the disclaimer is the rate might be different. I don't use an iPhone. I have a Samsung Jack. It's good enough, and I didn't pay anything for it other than signing the standard contract.

[jon carman]

Thanks, any good new apps I need

[signde]

pandora for streaming music at work
yelp when traveling for places to eat
springpad for keeping track of notes and memos
google navigation is great for turn by turn directions and also walking directions
i have directv so i use their app for setting dvr recordings
google sky is pretty cool for showing you constellations

those are the ones i use the most apart from twitter, facebook, and gmail

[jon carman]

Thanks,
I only have google sky, and scan bar, all the rest were preloaded.