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I don't see any smartphone advantage with VZW. Sprint has just as many, if not more - and Sprint also appears to have more feature phones. In BlackBerry, VZW had an advantage until recently - but that was because they still offered some that were older than dinosaurs.
On the smartphone side, VZW still offers the XV69XX - I think its because they couldn't sell any of them.
If we leave out Symbian & Linux platforms, Sprint wins as VZW doesn't have a Palm in its lineup - of course, Sprint doesn't have an Android 2.0 either, but that will be remedied shortly.
Maybe I'll run a direct comparison of the smartphone lineup on each carrier. Just not right now...
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com11-09-09 03:54 PM - Outstanding point - I thought about going into family plan advantages, but I wanted to keep it out of encyclopedia size.
Besides, if I did include it, I'd have to then judge Sprint the winner & then Lastraid would accuse me of being a Sprint fanboy.
What I keep looking at - and this is directed towards those who are negatively impacted by the current worsening economy - is that if Sprint coverage is good in your area, it is difficult to justify VZW, especially with the new roaming agreements.
If I take say two Touch Pro2s or a pair of BlackBerry Tours, I would spend about $150 more per line on the hardware devices. Then looking at VZW vs Sprint on a family plan, with Sprint, I get a lower initial rate, then only $20 for each additional line. On VZW, I get a higher initial rate, then $10 per line, plus $30 per line for data, plus $10 per line for navigation, plus $15 per line for TV - oh wait, few VZW phones have TV, so let's leave off TV.
Two lines with unlimited text & data...
VZW 1400 minutes: $180.00
Sprint 1500 minutes: $129.00
Savings: $50
Two lines with unlimited text, data & navigation...
VZW 1400 minutes: $200.00
Sprint 1500 minutes: $130.00
Savings: $70
Four lines with text & data...
VZW 1400 minutes: $260.00
Sprint 1500 minutes: $170.00
Savings: $90.00
Four lines with text, data & navigation...
VZW 1400 minutes: $300.00
Sprint 1500 minutes: $170.00
Savings: $130.00
Sprint, like VZW, allows you to have data on some lines & no data on others. The difference is Sprint will allow you to have any plan variant on any line. Want 3 lines no data & one data or one smartphone, one feature phone & two regular phones? VZW restricts which of those lines can be primary, while Sprint allows you to mix & match.
And, of course, the Sprint plans give you everything except international & tethering.
Regardless, we're talking real money here - what could you do with the $50-$130 monthly saved above? Is it really worth that much money to be able to sit around & smugly brag about your VZW service?
If I were a regular consumer, it would be a no-brainer & I'd be carrying Sprint phones.11-09-09 07:34 PM - The OP had everything to do with VZW - if you can't handle the realities of discussion, close your browser & go elsewhere. Or you might be able to explain to us what the Random Reps thread you're so active in has to do with VZW.
This forum is full of arrogance - my initial intention was to shut down some of that arrogance, shed a lot of reality on the subject & explain why VZW charges more - personally, I think I did a pretty decent job of defending VZW's pricing, as well as giving a good word to Sprint - something too many on these sites fail to do.
I have been particularly hard on Sprint in the past, but I have also been rough on VZW. Why? Because I hold no loyalty to any carrier & I call it like I see it.
Another little tidbit to shut down some of the arrogance - Sprint pays slightly better than does VZW. And, to Lastraid's comment about 1,000 people laid off at Sprint - it is actually 2,000-2,500 & reflects a higher level of customer satisfaction that results in fewer calls per subscriber. The cuts reflect internal & external positions, as call centers are now overstaffed. They have cut their customer calls by over 30% in the past year & those gains are accelerating.
VZW people should be very concerned - instead I see reps whining about being in high-volume queues. Fine - you sit around without back-to-back calls & you will find yourself expendable. There are reports that VZW & AT&T may both be contemplating cutting way back on outsourcing & may be consolidating call centers. None of you are safe in your jobs & you should be begging to get on those higher volume queues & praying for more calls.
Competition is good - instead of badmouthing Sprint, you should be thankful for their existence. When I was with AT&T, we used to tell our people that MCI & Sprint were good for us, because they made us better. We disciplined employees who badmouthed the competition.
The Sprint layoffs are a good thing, considering they were staffed way up to handle upset customers - now that customers are no longer unhappy, too many Sprint reps have been sitting around without much to do, just like the VZW reps I've read in the Random Reps thread. The same one that really needs to be moved to the Social Forums.
These days, Sprint customers leave Sprint because they see iPhones & BOGOs and other schemes cooked up by the competition, because the competition doesn't want to compete on price & the average consumer is too stupid to look at the financial ramifications of long-term costs.
Don't forget - it is VZW who is now trying to play catchup in the data arena - they have the lowest percentage of data users of any of the big four & Sprint has the highest - because of phones & pricing.
The Network isn't exclusive anymore.
So Darth, until you can put forth something of value & on-topic in this thread, why don't you ignore it & go hang with the crowd in the Random Reps thread.
And please - don't anyone quote my long posts in their entirety anymore. No one should have to read them, or scroll through them, more than once.11-09-09 08:39 PM - Because of different roaming agreements, no carrier will have the exact footprint of another. You will find dead spots on Sprint where a VZW phone will work & VZW dead spots where a Sprint phone will work. Overall, unless you often find yourself in one of these dead spots, it is a moot subject - I mean, how many times do you find yourself 100 miles into the North Dakota wilderness?
We're not talking AT&T or T-Mobile here - VZW & Sprint's coverage is now roughly equal.
If we took out roaming areas, VZW would be superior for one reason - frequency. 800MHz cuts through walls better than 1900MHz PCS at fringe coverage areas. 1900MHz PCS is a local technology, after all & much more line-of-sight than 800MHz. But because of the shorter range performance of the higher frequency technology, Sprint typically has a much greater facility density. In my area, you can find yourself 4 miles from a VZW tower, but you're almost never more than a mile from a Sprint tower. More towers means less signal degradation & better odds of higher speeds. In rural or fringe areas, PCS gets sketchy, but your phone will then pick up the stronger 800MHz signals, as long as you don't set it to Home Only.
What you don't want to do is get Sprint if you live & call primarily from a roaming area. Of course, the same thing would apply to any carrier, unless you have no other options.
It is one thing to compare a CDMA carrier network to a GSM carrier network in North America. CDMA wins hands down & anyone who tells you differently is a liar. But the very nature of CDMA means that each national CDMA carrier is roughly comparable to another national CDMA carrier. VZW makes too much money from their roaming agreements to exclude anyone.
If the network performance is basically equal, you then have only price vs customer service vs device offerings to consider & balance. Is any carrier worth $50 to $200 (or more) per month extra? That is something each customer has to judge for themselves.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com11-10-09 12:35 PM
