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 Review by mwvsnet 
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 9 years, 144 visits, last login: 12 days ago
 Chicago,Cook,IL
 $54 per month (12 month contract)
 about 13 days
 Sprint
 "Allways on - works like a T1"
 "Up load speed still needs to be better 175k tops just does not cut it"
 "This is for a person with dialup to upgrade to if they can't get anything else"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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Sprint Broadband Direct was ordered today 04/03/01, will be installed on
04/17/01.
On 4/17/01 Sprint tech arrived at 2:15pm, 3 hours later the service was up
and running. This tech knew just what he was doing. Speed test from Linkline
at 11:28pm was 1.086Mbps down/216Kbps up not bad for 49 bucks. We shall
see if it remains like this for a while. Megapath speed test at 11:38pm was
1.262Mbps down/213Kbps up. This is all good. I am not using their mail servers
or DNS servers at all for now. All most as good as ADSL service but not even
close to SDSL service.
On 4/19/01 service is still running great, upload speeds and down load speeds
are still the same. Now if they could just get the up load speed up some more
that would be a good thing.
7/21/01 Well 90 days later still going strong, for 50 bucks not bad at all.
764951 29th 60617 sprintbroadband 5440/33 1500/384 21 il.sprintbbd.net
764951 28th 60617 sprintbroadband 3980/173 1500/384 18 il.sprintbbd.net
764951 27th 60617 sprintbroadband 3837/35 1500/384 18 il.sprintbbd.net
764951 24th 60617 sprintbroadband 1421/121 1500/384 09 il.sprintbbd.net
764951 23rd 60617 sprintbroadband 1283/123 1500/384 23 il.sprintbbd.net
764951 18th 60617 sprintbroadband 1262/213 1500/384 00 il.sprintbbd.net
7/28/2003 We now have 4 ip's so our cost has gone up but for the money
it is worth it. The upload speed stills sucks, we have been down only
once in 2 years for about 2 hours due to network/modem problems.
7/16/2004 We now have three ip's & have not been down at all for all most
a year. The max speed has topped out at 7.6MB at 2:AM & the slowest
speed has been around 700K at 1:PM very bad day all day. For the money
this has been the best broadband connection we have ever seen. It is still
twice as fast as cable & 3 times faster than dsl without the distance limits.
We are looking forward to see what Sprint Broadband Direct will replace
this service with, I have been told the new service will have a upload speed
of 900k. Can't wait for that.
08/06/2004 Another bad day for Sprint Broadband speed test came in at
800K down & 12.8K up. Will run another speed test at 9:PM today.
08/17/2004 Micro outages have been a major problem for the last 3 hours.
Problems started at 6:PM & is still going on at 9:32PM, this my third attempt
to finished this review.
08/31/2004 Modem needed adjustments up/down speeds went in the toliet &
that lasted all day until 7:05PM.
09/07/2004 New modem was installed, everything is back to normal.
09/13/2004 New top speed test record, from my dish to Sears Tower was
14.5MB that is twice as fast as the top speed test for last year was 7.2MB.
09/14/2004 The service is running good today, but it is very bursty & all large
downloads/uploads starts off very fast then slows down. Adverage upload
speed is 120k & download speed is 2.5MB.
09/21/2004 Sprint BBD service has been running great since they installed
the new modem.
09/27/2004 Sprint BBD service still running just fine for now.
10/05/2004 Bad day for Sprint BBD speed test from DSL Reports is at
96K up & 600K down, also Sprint BBD speed test from Sears Tower is
at 919K down. Service not working to good today.
10/05/2004 Things are getting worse, 3 hours later the numbers are slowing
down even more. New download speed is 486K & upload speed is 144K.
I did not check Sears Tower speed. Today's service is now the pits.
10/27/2004 Speed test to Sears Tower did not work, had to call TS & they
needed to reset the connection. Sears Tower test over 5MB's, things are
back to normal.
01/04/2005 Service is still running normal for now. When is the new wireless
system coming out that is the question? We added AT&T VoIP service to this
connection & so far no problems with it at all.
04/20/05 Speed test from NAC was 2239 down & 138 Up not bad for 8:30AM.
Speed test from Sears Tower was 2207 down, this is a bit slow.
05/01/2005 Micro outages are becoming a small problem everyday,
outlook express hangs up a little to often & our network monitoring
server sends us an email at least once a day to say connection down.
Our AT&T VoIP service has cut us off while we were on it due to the
micro outages.
05/30/2005 As of 7:AM to 9:PM the micro outages have keep us offline 80%
of that time & tech support is closed for the holiday.
07/05/2005 Sprint Broadband Direct's web site is back selling the service &
they are taking orders now. Micro outages has not been a problem since
05/30 but overall download speed has dropped too 1.9MB from 3.2MB.
09/11/2005 Sprint's download speed has been sitting around 2.8MB & the upload
speed is still at 120K.
10/08/2005 Sprint has been having issues now for 5 hours. These micro outages
have been a major problem today & things are so bad we can't even check our
email accounts. We have called TS & they are working on the problem but have
no idea when the problem will be fixed.
10/08/2005 Sprint has now fixed the problems that has made their system
useless for most of the day. From 10:AM to 4:PM the service was very
unreliable & all VoIP calls have been dropping out or not connecting at all.
10/08/2005 Here are our speed test for today. Upload speed still sucks.
2005-10-08 18:00:00 Speed test @ ec 2288/139 kbps
2005-10-08 17:58:27 Speed test @ dslreports.linkline.com 1659/97 kbps
2005-10-08 17:56:46 Speed test @ dslr-west1.megapath.net 1579/97 kbps
07/07/2006 Connections are going into the crapper everyday at peek times.
Upload speeds are crazy I have topped out at 32k but now I am back at 97k
that still sucks. Download speed is still around 2500k I have seen better when
the service was first installed & one test from Sears tower to me was at 14,000k.
Now if I could get that at peek time I really would be happy with the service.
Where is Verizon Fios when you need them???
07/25/06 Micro outages happen every 48 hours or so, we ran a test
web radio stream from the connection & the connection is not stable
too do that at all. Connection speeds are about the same down is ok
up still sucks.
02/03/2007 Service has gone down a bit. PBX VoIP service has problems
with the Sprint Broadband Direct service. Conference calls can't be
maintained for long without serious breakup in the call. With DSL & Cable
services far faster than the 2MB's download speeds we are getting now it is
time to think about a change.
03/26/2007 Sprint today changed all of our ip address without notice & took
us offline for 4 hours. We have had the service for almost 6 years & it has
been going down for the last 3 years. Our speeds have dropped from 4.5Mb to
1.2Mb with no word why from Sprint. The upload speed has never changed
from the 60k to 150k of the listed speed of 256k. If their is something better
get it but if not. Also we dropped all of our extra ip's & we still have a bit of
a problem with our voip pbx ip phone system. This is the second time Sprint
has changed our ip's & I guess they want to make sure that we have no type
of servers running on our connection.
04/03/2007 Sprint is having a bad day our speeds have been under 500k
all day & TS is now telling us they need to send a tech out to check the
hardware. But we have no contract so to replace anything their will be a
$99 x 2 charge or sign up for a year with a contract & they will replace
every thing for free.
09/07/2007 Well Sprint is some what back to normal but the service is still all
over the map with the speeds. We have gone from 200k one day to 3.2MB
another day. We had to move out voip pbx service off of the Sprint service &
back to WOW cable business class. I told myself I would not go back to WOW
but here I am again. We will install Comcast some time in the future & then
compair the two.
11/23/2007 Sprint is almost back to normal with 6.2MB's download speeds & the
normal 160k upload speeds. It is still a far cry from WOW cable with it's 8MB/1MB
speeds that seems to do this all day long. Today's slowest speed from Sprint were
2.8MB/154k
05/06/2008 VoIP was put back on Sprint today wow is down for 11 hours so far.
The speeds are still all over the place & no word on there wimax system her in Chicago.
05/16/2008 This notice arrived today.
Dear:
At Sprint we truly value your business, and we are always striving to
provide you with innovative products and services. Sometimes, however,
it is necessary for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make
adjustments as new technologies emerge and demand for bandwidth increases.
As the result of a recent FCC action, Sprint will no longer have access to the
spectrum used to operate our Sprint Broadband Direct Service in your area.
Due to this FCC mandate, Sprint will discontinue your service by 6/30/2008.
This discontinuance of service will also affect your EarthLink email account.
Please contact EarthLink directly if you choose to continue with their service.
To ensure you have continued service, we would like to offer you a replacement
for your current service. Sprint's EV-DO wireless service would be a comparable
replacement offering you the benefit of mobility that was not available to you
before. You'll also enjoy faster upload speeds, and 24/7 customer support. A
USB modem, PCMCIA card or, in some instances, a wireless/wired router is
required when converting to this service. Additional equipment charges may
apply.
Once again, your existing service will terminate by 6/30/2008. You will continue
to be billed until the service termination date unless you contact Sprint. We hope
you choose Sprint EV-DO wireless service as the replacement for your Sprint
Broadband Direct Service. Please contact an account service representative today
at 1-800-569-1064 to discuss your specific options or if you wish to discontinue
service prior to the termination date.
We value you as a customer and look forward to continuing to service all of your
wireless needs.
Sincerely,
Sprint
05/29/2008 Sprint BBD was canceled today. After 7years & 1 month 12 days.
I think there wi-fi project is dead & ev-do card is now a joke with a 5G cap on it.
Followup comments:  
Toby123
@comcast.net | The end Sprint Broadband direct in shuting down. | |
|
Truth B
@sprintbbd.net
| Sprint Service Termination Shows Customers NO Regard Sprint Broadband Direct was my only option over dial up back in 2001. The speed always seemed like the T1 I used at work. Cable was not available when I bought my house in 1996 so it was just adding another Dish on my house. I am a telecom geek - 15+ years in the Industry - and this product served me well.
Now the FCC, Sprint and EarthLink have some explaining to do!
The FCC has allowed Sprint to begin a phase out of a service with no notice to the entire customer base. I've known about requirements for going to digital TV for close to 2 years. The FCC and Sprint have given me less than 2 months notice (that is by the post mark not the date on the letter) and it requires me to change my email address. Sprint's letter informs me of my cut off date, that they hope I'll consider the mobile broadband wireless service, additional equipment charges may apply, this will also affect my EarthLink email account (which came with this service) and to contact EarthLink directly about their service.
Really FCC! A company can begin to shut down a service by notifying groups of clients.
Really! Sprint was given the room to collect my payments right up until they chose to let me out of my contract. The Sprint technician who changed out my modem and dish a few months back sprung it on me that I was locked into 2 more years of service.
Companies use these contracts like handcuffs.
Sprint you might have kept a customer by suggesting alternate services and not changing out equipment on a service already being phasing out. How did we get to a point where a customer is locked into a service however the provider can change or discontinue at anytime?
OH - and Sprint - one more thing…
You offered a $25 credit to my invoice for signing a contract for 2 years, an increased price of $60 with the purchase of equipment for $50.
Despicable!!!!
Really EarthLink! Didn't Sprint allow your company to read this letter first? Sprint rubbed their hideous customer service right on you. I've been using an email for 7 years and it is printed on calling cards, resumes and letterhead, used to register EVERY service /product / newsletter / subscrption, etc. EarthLink offered me a service for about $4 a month to keep my address.
FCC please make Sprint pay customers to buy out their contract. Going forward don't let a company profit by slowing notifying customers of a service termination. Sprint's letter blames it all on the FCC.
Sprint - Good Bye!
EarthLink please step up to giving long term faithful customers one email address for free. | |
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