Review of Sprint Mobile BroadbandAll reviews of |
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My tower has been upgraded to 2 T-1 lines so now I get on avg ~2.5Mbps down and ~600Kbps up. Only had 1 major EV-DO outage but besides that and tower load its been great! Still on a unlimited plan doing ~50GB a month and have yet to be told to stop. ------------------------------------ First review Well my dad has been wanting something faster than 56k for awhile now but they live 10miles from the cloestest town. So a few months ago my friend got Sprint Mobile Broadband for his house (he lives out the the country to) and i thought this would be great for them (and me when i home) Ordered all of it all online, i got the Sierra aircard 595 with the linksys router. I get great speeds Last Result: Download Speed: 1141 kbps (142.6 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 156 kbps (19.5 KB/sec transfer rate) I can hit 1.3Mbps late at night most of the time. They love it, now they can surf the web, check email, etc so much faster and not wait for stuff to load. They will be canceling the 2nd phone line and the 56k provider. Followup comments:
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Currently I'm using this connection as backup. Of course, the slow connection can be due to the fact that the modem used is a cellphone (a treo 700p) and not an actual broadband card. The maximum speed reached is about 250 - 290 Kbps and about 128 Kbps upload. I'm sure a broadband card can reach about 1 Mbps. The low price is a bundled solution. Install is basically limited to connect a cable on the phone (USB) and running the application on the phone. So far, a few disconnections, as expected from wireless access. So far, I'm happy with the service. Followup comments:
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It was pretty easy to set up, as I recall. Since I haven't had any problems with the service, I have never had any need of tech support, so I can't rate them on that. Followup comments:
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I ordered device, it's an appliance that plugs into your router. After 2 days of trying to get it to work, I called support who immediately realized it had never been configured or provisioned correctly prior to shipping. Once this was fixed, the device did function. When you're connected you get a double ping dial tone; this tells you you're connected to the device. The device is able to support 3 simultaneous calls @ about 40kbps per call for a maximum of 130 kbs in both directions. One problem is that if you limit access to a specific set of phones, then ANYONE who's a Sprint customer who's not on that list CANNOT get cell phone service unless they are out of range of the device. And the range of the device is quite good. It's built to support a 5000 sq ft area. There's no middle ground. Phones have to be registered to the Airave the first time by keying *99. Secondly, call quality is highly dependent on the quality of your broadband connection. If it's clear, has few or no dropped packets, congestion, noise then you're good to go. If you have a lot of traffic on your line, a lot of latency then you are going to be MISERABLE. It will be unusuable if the broadband is saturated enough. Next, while I don't have numerical data to support it, I suspect there is something about it which can interfere with other VoIP services you may have. I often hear people at home complain that Vonage stops working when Airave is on. You can simply turn off the Airave device when this happens but it takes about 15 minutes to reconnect when you need it. But overall when it works it works acceptably well. In addition the ability to drop your home line and have unlimited cell phone minutes from your house OR wherever you plug the device in, and having only one phone number is a nice feature to have and very convenient. The Airave appliance is $100 OTC, the service $5/month. To put ONE phone number on unlimited minutes is $10/month. To put more than one phone number (shared minutes) on unlimited minutes is $20/month. So to put your family plan on unlimited minutes costs $25 month. Roughly the same as most of the unlimited VoIP services like Vonage. Followup comments:
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EVDO & voice inside the house was marginal at best. Ordered the Airave femtocell to improve voice coverage inside the home. EVDO coverage inside house not an issue because Palm Pre has WiFi capability and that is preferable to EVDO speeds anyway. Sprint gave a credit for Airave femtocell when I asked for it. But here is where Sprint's much maligned customer service came in to play. They lost the initial order for the Airave and when I checked 2 days later, they didn't know anything about it. After an hour on the phone, it was reordered and shipped overnight. It arrived next day and setup was painless. It was working in about 30 mins and voice coverage in the home was now 5 bars all over the house. Sprint gave me an additional $25 credit for the hassle. Sprint customer service has been very nice and very accommodating and goes out of way to please. But their backroom systems stink and their competence is still mediocre. After receiving second bill, it was fouled up because of all the credits and the Airave purchase. After 2 hours on phone and getting dropped calls twice on transfers to another department, that got straightened out. I got an additional credit for the hassle again. So, to sum up: Phone is great Voice quality excellent Cell connections good in areas I travel in(mostly South Jersey and Philly metro area) Store staff excellent Cust Svc very willing and accommodating Back room systems & personnel still mediocre Phone Speeds: 1200 kbps download on EVDO 4000 kbps on WiFi Wireless plan(Single everything data) for $70 includes: 450 mins voice calls Free calls after 7 P.M. & all weekend Free Sprint to Sprint calls Unlimited text msgs; unlimited internet(5 GB/mo in TOS); unlimited email; unlimited picture uploads Sprint navigation(GPS) Sprint TV Pandora music streaming Followup comments:
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I've been able to use VoIP fairly well on the Sprint connection with both Skype and SIP working OK. I purchased a Sprint approved Telular EVDO/phone device as a backup internet & phone connection and for testing. It uses a Sierra wireless EVDO rev A chipset with diversity antennas and has a built-in extended life battery (about 8 hrs). Despite having a green (strong) signal on the Sprint maps, I average around -93dbM with an indoor 5db gain antenna and speed tests ranging from 400-700 down and 200-400 up. Ping times range from about 200-300ms (average is closer to 200ms) with occasional jumps to 500ms. I've ordered a stronger YAGI antenna to try to increase the signal strength, which I hope will correct the jitter issue. The device also supports phone calls, which work well. SMS is not supported, which would be a nice addition. I had some initial problems with the device, but a firmware update made it much more usable and reliable. It now passes the public IP to my router via DHCP or with a manual entry. Sprint offers a static IP for only a $3 upcharge, which is a great value. On several recent trips on the I-94 corridor between Detroit and Chicago performance was flawless. My passengers played WOW and other games with no interruptions. On a trip from Atlanta to Toledo along I-75, we experienced brief drops in coverage through the Smokey mountains. VoIP works pretty well over the connection with only mild jitter. I've used skype and voicepulse with the G.711 codec which is pretty clear. So far, the maximum speed is around 1500/400. I have yet to experience a faster tower. A bonus is that Sprint does not block any inbound or outbound ports. Sprint even includes a reverse DNS record (which says Sprint) but is seems to be sufficient for mail servers which require a reverse record. The connection works as advertised. I wouldn't recommend it for a primary connection vs. DSL or cable because of speed, but it makes a great mobile & backup connection. Sprint, in combination with a cheaper internet connection makes a good alternative to T1 access. Update: It appears that Sprint broadcasts voice/1X and EVDO signals on (in my area, at least) different frequencies and/or different antennas (based on different signal strengths). I was able to use a Windows mobile phone in debug mode to optimize the antenna placement for EVDO, upgraded to a 9dB omni antenna (still indoor), and along with a Sprint Airrave unit (which took care of the poor voice/1X signal), I now get perfect voice and much, much better (-78 dBM) EVDO signal. Ping times have dropped to 150-200ms and are much more consistent, and speeds average about 950/450. The static IP works perfectly, (I was able to send and receive email with no interruptions after modifying the MX records), and reverse DNS works perfectly too. I had a 2 hour internet outage on my primary ISP where my router automatically failed-over to sprint, and apart from a degradation in streaming video and slow transfer speeds, the Sprint connection was almost indistinguishable from low speed DSL. Followup comments:
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The speeds are good; approx. 1.1Mb download and 300 Kb upload, latency 132 ms. I walked into the local Sprint store and ordered the service late Tuesday afternoon, the device was shipped to my home and delivered on Friday. It installed easily on the MacBook. Like most things, the install on windows vista will take some effort, as it blue screens the computer. At this time I have had no experience with tech support for this product. I reserve the right to update and/or change this review as my experience with this product grows. Followup comments:
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* Just about everywhere about Massachusetts, including the commute from Norwood to Boston along the commuter rail * Non-stop from Boston to Rochester NY * Very nearly non-stop (I went to sleep :^)) on the train from Boston to Pensacola FL * All around Austin, TX * All around Orlando & St Augustine, FL It consistently provides 1-1.5Mb/s downloads and >500kbps uploads, provides good service even w/ low signal The bills are simple to read and understand and there are minimal fees tacked on. Followup comments:
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Sprint Mobile Broadband
(18)
(49)
Derry,Rockingham,NH
$26 per month (24 month contract)
"Wide coverage"
"High Latency, this is pretty much standard with any wireless I guess..."
"SERO makes my world go round"
about 3 days
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YUK
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