MetroPCS Launches Dallas as Second LTE Market

Metro must conserve spectrum. What it's capable of is irrelevant if they can't keep up with the demand.

There is truth to this, but from what I'm hearing, people aren't lining up enough to demand a conservative measure.

John B.

Keep up with demand? Metro has, what 7.2m customers? I'm sure they have room to expand. And how the avg Americans income continues to shrink, I'm sure more people will find MetroPCS's prices to be very intriguing.

When metro was young in the Florida market, you couldn't make a call between 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm. You'd get nothing but system busies. Why? Because they offered an unlimited service for less than 1/3 the cost of a typical plan that made you count your minutes. It gave them a terrible reputation that they're only now starting to get over.

It's called learning from past mistakes.

Yikes, how are they now?

Voice service is extremely reliable. Very few dropped calls, no system busies.

Data on the other hand is 1xRTT and it's painful. I can't wait for LTE to launch and then be ready for prime time. I'm itching for a reason to tell Sprint to take a hike on our personal lines.

I have no experience with either Sprint or Metro. What is it you don't like about Sprint?

I had a run in at their store with a tech who didn't even know what file types were supported by the media player on my phone. It used to be Sprint had fine voice and data service and terrible customer service. They upgraded in the customer service department, but clearly not enough.

Also, Sprint keeps adding BS to my bill every 6 months or so. Last year they added a $2,97 "administrative fee" and this year they took my corporate discount away on additional lines. This does not appear to be the actions of a company that wants to decrease churn and add new customers.

Write to Dan@Sprint.com. Sprint has spent a ton of cash on this department which has increased their customer satisfaction percentage by leaps and bounds. If you don't hear back from them within 3 business days, I would be extremely surprised.



John B.

As much as it's a good suggestion, I'm going to hit the road after they took that discount away. There's no sense in trying to nickel and dime me. I'm no power user and frankly shouldn't be spending $138 monthly on wireless anyway.

I'm no employee of any carrier so I can be free to be candid in my response. Sprint isn't for everyone. But using the nickel and dime metaphor in your complaint, strikes me as rather odd. Sprint has saved me, my family and friends a good chunk of money every month. If there has been a problem, I have had it rendered almost instantly. Most of their fees are no different in what other carriers add to their bill every month.

As far as company discounts, I don't know your situation. However, I do know several companies in my area that have eliminated offerings of this type to thier employees. Perks of this nature are optional for employers.

John B.

There was a bill insert that said they would no longer offer corporate discounts on additional lines of service. This was a Sprint decision, not a company perk taken away.

The $2.97 administrative fee is not typical of the industry. Frankly I just don't get this one. So we're talking about $10 more every month between two changes in Sprint's policies with no change in my usage or my plan. In an era of flat rate prepaid programs, this doesn't seem OK to me.

I've got no problem with Sprint's voice or data service. My biggest complaint is throwing another $120 per year at them for no good reason. My next step is likely to T-mobile and possibly to Metro. 3 lines at Metro is $105 out the door with unlimited everything.

I am as curious as everyone else to see what the speeds are. Now how does everyone test there speeds? Speedtest.net I found has been so unreliable. I was getting 1.3mbs off my phone wireless tether ( I know because my phone was sitting there telling me that number) and speedtest.net said it was .2mbs! Note this is the 3G speeds from my phone.


I am not sure about the "Administrative fee", but as far as the discount on add a lines for family plans, to my knowledge no company offers a discount on add a lines. It is not that they "nickel and dime" I find that a term that customers use as an excuse. I am not a fanboy but it sounds like no matter what they do for you, you will not be a satisfied customer. I hope you have better luck on anothe...
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OK, lets make this clear. I signed a 2 year contract at X amount. Less than 6 months later Sprint later says they want Y amount. Now less than a year after that they want Z amount. How is this an excuse? If you want to change the terms of my service, you're more than welcome to AFTER my 2 year contract expires. I'm not object to increases, I'm object to material changes in what I signed up for.

Did you happen to read the T's and C's when you signed that contract? Probably not. You might want to look into that.

Kindly point me in the direction of the term or condition that they can change what I pay at their whim.

Hmm, he hasn't responded yet.

It's because it's not there. I'm not trying to start anything, I just think you need to wait until the contract is complete before you start making changes to it.

How would you like it if you signed a car loan for $275 per month for 36 months and they decided to throw in an extra $10 for the heck of it 12 months into it?

Same thing with an apt, you sign for 12 months at $575, during that entire 12 months they can't raise the rent.

I know most providers actually do have that clause, there's stuff like regulatory fees tacked on by the Gov't that fluctuate. There's no contract for the exact costs, its a contract for the services and the ability to use them. In this case, Sprint's T's&C's state:

Our Right To Change The Agreement & Your Related Rights
We may change any part of the Agreement at any time, including, but not limited to, rates, charges, how we calculate charges, or your terms of Service. We will provide you notice of material changes, and may provide you notice of non-material changes, in a manner consistent with this Agreement (see "Providing Notice To Each Other Under The Agreement" section). If a change we make to the Agreement is material and has a ma...
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OUR RIGHT TO CHANGE THE AGREEMENT AND YOUR RELATED RIGHTS: We may change any part of the Agreement at any time, included, but not limited to, rates, charges, how we calculate charges, or your terms of service.

Yes, which gives me the right to opt out by switching carriers within 30 days...which I'm doing.

Alright! Well as you said I also was not trying to start anything. I can be a smart as5 though. 🙂

Since you are cancelling within 30 days, I can only presume you haven't even gotten your first bill yet. I have 5 lines under my name and I rarely pay above 230 dollars. Everyone under my plan has unlimited everything. I have found this unbelievably the best deal around for post paid. Just something to keep in mind.

However, Both Tmo and Metro are good companies. I wish you well in either one of those.

I will say this though. In my 50 years of life, I have learned that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

John B.

No, what they mean there is cancellation within 30 days of the changes. It's basically a legal grace period. You get notified about it, you have 30 days to dispute the change unless there's a clause against disputing it or any clause wrapping the dispute or change back around on itself.

"Since you are cancelling within 30 days, I can only presume you haven't even gotten your first bill yet."

GeeksAreBest has it right. I've been a Sprint customer for 5+ years without interruption and almost a decade of combined service. I'm canceling due to a material change to the terms of our agreement.

Between my office and 3 home cells I pay $188 now. I will be at $140 if I switch to Metro which is the way I'm looking at going. I look at it the same way I did when I quit smoking, it's $576 every year in my pocket.

im sorry i dont understand why ur mad at the rep for not knowing specific file types supported by the phone..im relatively knowledgeble here in my dept but iv never checked that info, cause nobody really asks about that. but if she didnt even try looking for that info then i guess u should really be disappointed. but then again u have an account here at phonescoop..why not just chek it here?...im not flaming...im just saying...and also i hope the $10~ u save would be worth switching companies...

Speeds will increase as they reach full deployment and add more developing technology. For me currently, I find 5-10Mbs plenty fast and sufficient for my wireless broadband needs.

John B.

5-10 is ok, if it's consistent.

I am sure they do not advertise speeds because if they do then some idiot will sue them the second they do not get the advertised speeds. I would be surprised if they did come out with a speed as the speed is a function of the network, application and handset HW. So it would be almost impossible to quote a reliable throughput.

Clear advertises their speeds, 3-6mbps, and they advertise it as an average speed with bursts up to 10mbps.

Not quite sure how accurate it is but using www.mobilespeetest.com in Orlando last weekend on my EVO it "said" that I was consistently hitting 10-12 mbps

10-12 is nice. The fastest I ever got with Clear was 15