"Mini" report on Sprint Coverage

Drove up to Vegas on Friday and came back last night...stayed in the Fourm Tower at Caesar's Palace. My room was on the side facing away from the Strip, about 10 floors up. No usable Sprint signal at all. Calls dropped 100% of the time, often within 15-30 seconds of connecting. T-Mobile worked flawlessly (my gf has a TM blackberry thru work) in the room and I would like to thank TM for saving my butt, as I had an important call to make on Friday night.

I didn't drive the "normal" way from PHX to Vegas...decided to to something different. Along I-40 from just west of Needles (in CA) to the AZ SR-95 exit (toward Lake Havasu City) Sprint sucked again. Calls dropping left and right. Once I got off the 40, I placed and held a call from the exit until about 2 miles north of Lake Havasu, about 15 miles.

Of course, the fancy new Sprint coverage indicator shows "excellent" coverage in both areas where I constantly dropped calls. I can be a bit more forgiving of the bad coverage in the hotel room, though the fact that TM can work fine means Sprint should be able to as well.

 

Yeah, which is why I am pretty much willing to let the room coverage slide...I'm just glad I had a T-Mobile phone that actually worked or I would have been in trouble. The crap service along I-40 was disappointing though.

Incidentally...when I was in Vegas for my birthday (July) on was on the 3rd highest floor in the Mirage (not too far from Caesar's), also facing away from the Strip, and Sprint was great. So like you said...just goes to show that location is key.

 

Be thankful you didn't try to make a call near Needles. Every one I attempted, about 5 or 6, dropped in 10 seconds...it was worse than in the hotel room lol. As budney says, the signal was just fine, the calls simply dropped.

 

Nope. Can't force the BlackBerry to roam. The only options are "automatic" and "Sprint only." That is probably my biggest complaint about the phone.

So since my phone was finding a worthless Sprint signal in both locations, that was all I got....

 

Well, here in AZ I have used my BlackBerry for roaming on Alltel and data works just fine. No Alltel in Vegas tho...not that I could select it anyway.

I think all BB's for CDMA devices do not have a roam option. I think it is a holdover of their development as GSM devices first. Roaming is usually controlled by the SIM, so no real need to have a "roam only" option as the roaming networks appear in a list along with the home network, SIM permitting of course....

 

I agree...but its not any more useless to have an unusable signal. At least if I am roaming I should get decent voice coverage.

 

Not anytime soon....tho I would save a lot of money if I did.

 

When I start making some decent money again lol

Or when Sprint actually has a decent phone.

 

No use for iDEN since I don't know anyone with Nextel.

I guess I will take a wait and see approach with anything else that is forthcoming.

 

SLVR...no way...old phone with a new company. KRZR...probably out of my price range lol

 

Interesting that you say Sprint sucked at the top of TI, I found that it sucked in Caesar's, yet the Mirage (right between TI and Caesar's) worked just fine.

I am going back for Thanksgiving and will be making my second stay in the Luxor. I will see if all is the same or if I notice any differences from when I was last in the Luxor in 2003.

 

Yeah, I noticed this the last time I stayed there because my room was on the first floor righ tin the corner adjacent to the strip. Wonderful service that vanished as I entered the Luxor casino lol.

This time I am flying up there so no issues with spotty service along the ground next time!