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iPhone 4s Carrier Adventures, p1 (updated)

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Kary Brown   |   Google+   |   Comments

Let’s start this off with a disclaimer.

I have never really been an iPhone supporter. I have always maintained that Android is the better platform. And, in some cases I stand by that. However, I have been having major issues with my Droid Incredible. There were two times this year that I lost everything on my phone when Verizon decided to shoot me an OS update. I don’t know if this problem is widespread or if I’m just unlucky.

Either way, I’d had enough.

Two weeks ago I ventured to Best Buy just to see what my options were. I ended up leaving with an iPhone 4s from Sprint because Verzion wouldn’t let me out of my contract. It was cheaper for me to go to another carrier and pay the pro-rated termination fee than to buy an un-subsidized phone.

Whatever, water under the bridge.

For the past two weeks I have been using the 4s on Sprint’s network, and I have been underwhelmed to say the least. I should have turned directly around when I attempted to pull up the Google site in the middle of Hattiesburg and it took two red lights before that familiar logo was staring back at me. Sprint may have unlimited data, but it is SLOW. What’s the point of having a media hungry phone with unlimited data if you don’t have the network throughput to enjoy it? It’s like driving a Ferrari in a traffic jam. I will say that Sprint is the first to have “4G” (yes, the quotes are intentional since no carrier truly has 4G) in our area, but that doesn’t help me much with a 3G iPhone, now does it?

That brings me to today. I spent 2 hours at BB trying to get back with Verizon. Thankfully, they have given me 60 days to come back, and if I return I am able to retain my unlimited data account. However, their customer service was slammed today (it is, after all, the day after christmas). After waiting for 45 minutes, I decided to just port my number over to ATT instead.

I have only had the ATT iPhone 4s for about 3 hours, so I will be updating this accordingly. Apparently the 4s supports hdspa+ (aka fake 4G) on ATT’s network. More on this next week. UPDATE: The preliminary tests are looking good though:

500 kB/s translates roughly to 3.92 Mb/s. And this is about 8 miles outside of Hattiesburg. Wow, that’s even faster than my 1.5 megabit DSL (which is the only thing I can get in my semi-remote location)! It’s actually even faster than my Verizon connection was (which was about the same speed as my DSL).

More on this to come.

The lesson for today, however, is STAY AWAY FROM THE IPHONE ON SPRINT.

 

  • http://www.iamclarence.com Clarence Brown

    Yeah, this iPhone 4S supports twice the download speed on HSPA+ networks w/ the dual antennas. Pretty sweet. Not sure why most manufacturers don’t do this. Seems like a no brain-er.

  • Carl Minor

    I would assume additional network congestion would be the problem.  Some carriers struggle with their customer’s single antennae(Mostly Big Cities, downtown).  If you double that then its possible half the customers may not have a solid connection.  But with the push to 4G (Where supported) I would expect that opens most of the 3G spectrum since its different radios wouldn’t necessarily cross bands.  So dual antennae should work great in 4G areas and less concentrated(rural, small town) 3G areas.