Sprint vs Verizon in Manhattan

As usual, the only advice that can be giver is to try them out for yourself where you go the most, and make the decision on your own.

All I can say is that if you spend most of your time in the city, you may want to go with Verizon over Sprint because they are an 800 MHz carrier. OR, you could go with sprint now that they have roaming included. That will give you access to the Sprint network, verizon network, and cingular analog. Thats a lot of networks!

 

Well, in city conditions...you want 800 MHZ. 800 is able to penitrate objects better than 1900 MHz. 1900 has its upsides also, but lets not get into that now.

 

Verizon wins hands down!

And yes, 800Mhz is usually but not always better in urban, suburban and rural environments. In a crowded city, 800Mhz penetrates buildings better. In a rural area, 800Mhz reaches further per tower.

 

I'm not sure about the hands down thing. Sure Verizon probably has more coverage...but Sprint has free roaming. You can use the sprint network..and where that dosent work, you can roam on verizon anytime.

 

If a 1900 Mhz network is built out well enough it can equal or even be better than a 800 mhz network. It's all about cell site placement. But of course sometimes it's more difficult for the 1900 Mhz carriers to get up as many cell sites as they want/need due to costs and NIMBY's.

 

I certainly agree with this. When I roam in Europe on 1800, the coverage is excellent, even in buildings.

 

I am just talking about NYC as the original poster asked. I am not venturing to compare in other places or making blanket statements as we all know all carriers perform differently in different areas. As for the free roaming, Verizon has free roaming too. And in a place like NYC there's no need for Verizon to roam since it covers everywhere Sprint covers and more.

 

This is absolutely true. That's why I said 800Mhz is usually but not always better.

 

Hurray! Welcome to sprint!

 

Now comes the fun part. Make sure your Sprint phone works in all the places you need it to work, such as work, school, relatives/friends place, other places you frequent, etc. But at least it works good in your apartment so that's a good start.

Just out of curiosity, why did you limit yourself to explore only Sprint and Verizon? There's more out there than just those two.

Good luck!

 

The Sprint salesmen gets the award for this one. Even the OP sounds like an experienced Sprint salesman after the second post.

Classic.

At first he only wanted a phone that worked, then decided that crippled bluetooth and ugly Motorola phones were all VZW offers. LOL.

 

You only activated two lines and were given the 3rd phone for a subsidized price? That phone retails for $ 199.99 w/o contract or $ 19.99 online with a two year advantage agreement.

I believe it is also ReadyLink capable too.

How did you know the a630 has poor reception? It's only been out a week or two.

My LG rocks. The only thing I cannot do via bluetooth is sync phonebook contacts or transfer GIN downloads. MP3's, midi's, wallpapers etc I can transfer. I can pair my 8100 with my MAC too.

Bluetooth DUN is disabled by default and requires you to go into the phone's menu system to enable it.

 

Hey remember that Sprint's new phones have a new roaming setting (LG excluded) that favors CDMA roaming over analog. It comes in handy for any situations where Sprint's signal might be too weak to use. Only drawback is no Vision services. But even text messaging is starting to work while roaming. This of course assumes a roaming included plan which are now widely available.

 

Absolutely. Verizon has done an excellent advertising job and managed to get many people to jump on their bandwagon with their "our network is the best" campaign.

 

Of course I do. But I'm picky.

I was a little confused when I read your post because you first seemed to indicate that you only wanted a "phone that works" but then later indicated specific detailed techy reasons for not liking certain equipment.

That leads me to believe that the salseman who sold you your phones did their job and educated you or persuaded you to choose one phone or service over another.

 

Something doesn't seem right about that. Even free phones require an annual agreement; usually a two year agreement. So did you activate three lines or two?

If you only intentionally activated two lines, and walked out with three phones, the rep dishonestly charged you an activated price without it being activated or he signed you up for three lines and didn't tell you.

Check your bill and/or contract carefully.

 

Well like I tell people: It's one thing to sign up a customer and another thing to actually keep them.

A good sign of consumer satisfaction is to consider each companies churn rate.

A company claiming to have a superior network will lose customers if they can't live up to their name.

 

Excellent post, YourDaddy, I could not have said it better.
Larry, it is true that Verizon's network is not great in every area of this country where they run their 'our network is the best' ads, but you have to admit that if their network really wasn't good/great in most areas, their churn levels wouldn't be the lowest in the industry, plus they wouldn't keep signing up more people than any other company. Even though you are biased(and we all are) you have to admit that it's not all about the advertising, that there has to be something that's keeping the customers, but I agree that VZW has done an EXCELLENT job advertising.

 

See, this is precisely why we recommend the trial period. You may never know what you're missing if you just go by what people say. Have you tried a Cingular phone yourself? While you might have the vision that Cingular phones are disappointing, don't forget that anything can give you a surprise!

 

I used to sell mobile phones. I also used to secret shop the competition.

Unfortunately, just like any business, there are a few shady characters out there who will try to slip in a service or even extra line w/o disclosing it to the customer.

I hope the rep who helped you didn't intentionally misinform you or decieve you. Just be careful. I could also be totally off base.

I have lots of stories from my years of experience!

 

I would say it is a combination of the four. When your service works when and where you need it, there's really no need to be calling CS to complain or any need to start exploring other carriers.