No more Sprint in Western KS/Eastern CO/OK Panhandle

[Matt Tottle]

No more Native Sprint in Western KS/Eastern CO/OK Panhandle

I meant to post this earlier but it slipped my mind.. Effective June 4, Sprint has lost more Strategic Roaming Partners in KS, OK, and CO. So basically you will now be roaming anywhere west of I-135 in KS to east of I-25 in CO, to north of I-40 in TX (I know the bulk of TX and OK already lost Sprint last year). When roaming you are only allowed 300MB of data or else you may be flagged for termination. Sprint MVNO's like Boost and Virgin Mobile no longer have ANY service in these areas.

For those of us Sprint customers who actually live in the affected area, this constitutes a significant material change in your service, therefore you are entitled to break your contract without penalty until July 19.

Western KS/Eastern CO Sprint coverage was formerly provided by NexTech Wireless, who like Sprint also has unlimited on-phone data, and they give you 2GB of free tethering per month, with 5GB and unlimited tethering as an option. Some little birdies told me that they will also be going live with LTE this fall, so if you can find a used phone and stick it out with a no-contract option until then, they will have all new phones to go with it (their current phone selection is kind of moldy, and unfortunately they will not activate a Sprint phone on their service).

 

[Mark Blue]

This is bad news indeed as I'm a Sprint customer as well. I have to question myself why with news like this coming out of headquarters. I thought an unlimited BYOD plan on Millenicom was the way to go, but come to find out they are only activating those new plans on Sprint towers. I have a Sprint 3G data card plan from 2007 that I'm reluctant to get rid of as they never hassle me, but times are changing and for me it may be time to switch.

 

[John goelz]

I recently got caught up in the US Cellular buyout and switched back to sprint. I was terminated from sprint before I had US Cellular. The reason was roaming data, in my house which was clearly in the heart of 3g in the STL area. The sales rep this time around told me flat out that they do not do roaming data termination of contract anymore. Maybe he lied, or maybe we are good to to go.

 

[John Wetter]

I'm thinking that this year will be my last year with Sprint. Losing most of Kansas as native is the last straw. That's always been a nice thing not needing to worry about data in Kansas... And basically roaming only now in Nebraska and the Dakotas, I think that's it... Off to Verizon I go. Chased with a Verizon MIFI in the car on my chase vacation this year and the coverage seemed pretty equivalent to sprint... While having an amp and antenna on the sprint card and nothing on the Verizon MIFI. Just waiting for the antennas and amps to support everything.

Here is the Sprint statement and map

 

[Andrea Griffa]

I cannot believe this It's terribly sad to hear these news..Instead of growing Sprint is getting worst.

This year I had a terrible experience in Nebraska, Tx Panhandle and North KS.

I'm thinking that this year will be my last year with Sprint. Losing most of Kansas as native is the last straw. That's always been a nice thing not needing to worry about data in Kansas... And basically roaming only now in Nebraska and the Dakotas, I think that's it... Off to Verizon I go. Chased with a Verizon MIFI in the car on my chase vacation this year and the coverage seemed pretty equivalent to sprint... While having an amp and antenna on the sprint card and nothing on the Verizon MIFI. Just waiting for the antennas and amps to support everything.

Here is the Sprint statement and map

 

[N Parker]

Why after being a Sprint customer for 4 years, I dropped them for Verizon. My S3 was always hunting for signal while friends with Verizon were at full signal. Data speed was a joke no matter where I went. I picked up a jetpack for my laptop and found over time that my S3 was much faster and more reliable for data using it as an access point.

Sprint's "unlimited" data is good for places with WiMax, but for me being in a rural area, it made no sense. I am VERY happy as a full Verizon customer for 2 months now. Signal is always great and the data speed is quite awesome as more 4G towers keep poping up. In fact, I drive from Paducah, KY to Evansville, IN through Illinois on very rural roads and I am on 4G signal 98% of the time.

 

[Michael Towers]

I previously had Sprint and was reluctant to change given my years of satisfaction with the performance of my 3G aircard/amp/antenna setup. Living in an area covered natively by Sprint made roaming usage concerns mostly irrelevant but the relatively slow connectivity combined with the progressive erosion of their territory led me to switch to Verizon last week. The improvement at home is so huge (and I use wireless exclusively at home) it’s already made the switch an excellent choice and I’m looking forward to a vast improvement in the quality of coverage while chasing as well. I also feel less concerned about realizing the elimination of coverage in some areas in the future…although I do have concerns addressed in a related topic about 4G/3G transition problems.