 Review by tcp1 
UPDATED: 156 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 431 visits, last login: 128 days ago
 Herndon,Fairfax,VA
 $59 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Fairly fast when your signal's good, New hardware is great. Sprint's coverage tools are decent. No 5G cap."
 "I'm tired of 2 year contracts. Sprint's EVDO-A is not as fast as Verizon's. And it's sprint. Customer service=nonexistent."
 "May not be as fast / as widespread as VZW, but not having to worry about a 5G cap wins it for me."
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(ratings match consensus)
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Update: 6/17/09
Well, it's been a bit more than a year now.
Like I hoped wouldn't happen, Sprint has kicked in the 5gb cap. I crossed it once to no ill effect - but I'm still not happy about this.
Speeds have definitely dropped in the past year, so I'm taking the "services" down a notch. I'm getting a bursty 5-700kbps in EVDO rev A areas, with an average around 500kbps. Not great.
I haven't had any other problems otherwise, billing or technical - so that's a good thing.
Not happy with the caps and speed changes though; feel I was sold something I'm not getting, but from what I hear, the other services aren't any better.
C'est la vie. It's Sprint, Verizon, or ATT. It's kinda like choosing between being kicked in the head, gut, or groin.
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First, the good points.
Purchase was painless and easy. Got a Novatel Ovation U727. Great little modem; USB 2.0 - works great with all my laptops, even in Linux and Vista x64. Coverage is pretty good, and speed is decent. (I average around 1.3mbps down, 4-500k up)
The service is pretty reliable, and I get coverage all up and down the I-95 corridor here.
Now, on to other considerations..
I was a sprint PCS customer for 9 years. I beta tested their stuff, and signed up before it was generally available. (Worked as a sales rep, so got early access.) I was psyched about PCS (now what we just call 'cell phones', but in those days, a 'cell phone' was a big AMPS brick). I tried to like Sprint. I took them from NJ to Denver to Illinois to Virginia. Probably bought 20 phones with them... But that's neither here not there. I angrily quit them in 2005 after their service went from average, to bad, to horrible, to atrocious, to offensive.
I swore I would never come back.
Fast forward to 2008. I'm traveling a lot more for business, and I need mobile internet. WI-FI is insecure and unpredictable, and a couple nights at a few hotels can cost you more than a mobile plans. Both Sprint and Verizon have dropped their plans from $80 to $60 - right around the point where I'd consider them. ($40-50 would be even better.)
So, I have to decide between VZW and Sprint.
I've compared the speed of the two, and I need to admit, Verizon *is faster*. Usually where you'll get 1.3MBPS on Sprint, you'll get 1.5 on Verizon. I'm not sure why, but Verizon's EVDO-A is always about 10-20% faster.
However, the kicker for me was Verizon's 5GB cap. Not that I think I'll be hitting that much traffic on my mobile broadband, but when I'm using a plan for business, I don't want to have to think about that. I don't want to count my bits and bytes. Sprint is still Unlimited, and that's worth a lot to me.
That, and Verizon's TOS is overly onerous. Part of my work requires me to view multimedia / videos over my connection, and Verizon's TOS specifically disallows that. Sorry, dealbreaker. I'll deal with a 15% slower connection to not have to get caught up in Verizon's TOS bureaucracy machine.
That, and Sprint's CEO has promised (wink wink) that their customer service will get better. I haven't had to deal with them yet - but I'm not holding my breath that when I do, the response will be good.
Until then, the service itself works great - and I don't feel as compelled to worry about a disconnect notice for doing something that the provider might disapprove of.
Lame, really - just when mobile internet is coming of age, major land-based ISPs (comcast) are thinking of counting bytes again. I really think US providers should get away from metering, but unfortunately that trend has reversed.
For so many years, Wireless companies didn't "get" data. Charging outrageous amounts per KILOBYTE. It's 2008, folks, the term "kilobyte" should not be relevant in our lexicon.
Let's hope Sprint doesn't follow Verizon's lead and start capping stuff. Maybe Verizon will go back to true unlimited if EVDO/Wimax takes off and gains competition.
(P.S.. At least Sprint's 'lite' evdo plan caps costs at $99/mo.. Verizon's doesn't - yikes. But seriously, what's with the 40mb lite plans on both? 40mb? I can use that in a few hours just looking at web pages!)
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