RUFF1415 said:
BUT...

The majority of Sprint's roaming networks are analog, which many of Sprint's phones do not support. Also, even if you do have an analog capable phone, it is very hard to place and hold a call on any of the analog network.

All in all, Sprint's "largest" coverage isn't necessarily the best coverage.

wow that the most false post i have ever seen in this forums. all of sprints current phones (non dpa phones) are tri mode. that means duel band digital and analog.

and sprint has more roaming agreements then any other carrier. if there is analog cdma signal avalible your phone will be useing it. i would admit though a portion of the 90% coverage is analog. 20% of the 90% to be exa...
(continues)

sprint does the same thing every other carrier does, they show the map with all of the u.s. covered. this is a combination of their network and all of their roaming agreements. look at all of the major carriers maps(they are all almoast exact). if you want to see where their actuall network is look at the free and clear coverage map. for other carriers you will have to look at their pre-paid maps.

Woops, I do stand corrected that the majority of Sprint's phones are tri-mode phones. I must have had Verizon phones on the brain when I wrote this. However not all of the non-PDA phones are tri-mode. The a790 can only use CDMA in the U.S.

I know that Sprint has more roaming agreements than any other carrier, but that is because they rely on them. However, whenever you're in an area where Sprint is available, even if it is so weak that it can barely hold a call, you're not going to roam onto a stonger signal of another carrier.

20% of the 90%? That's a lot of analog. Do you have any idea how much of that 90% is actually Sprint's OWN coverage? That would be an interesting fact to know.

it doesn't really matter.. if ur making and receiving calls, no one cares who's tower they're using. plus there is NO FEE for roaming..

and yes, you can roam off another signal if sprints is week, simply switch ur phone off sprint mode onto roaming.

ali_dawn said:
it doesn't really matter.. if ur making and receiving calls, no one cares who's tower they're using. plus there is NO FEE for roaming..

and yes, you can roam off another signal if sprints is week, simply switch ur phone off sprint mode onto roaming.

Ahh..that's a lie, unless you buy roaming minutes from Sprint. Otherwise it's $.50 to .75 cent a minute.

Please keep the quotes accurate people or don't post at all. 👿

My point was that if you're already in call on a weak signal and it needs to hand off, it's not going to hand off to another carrier's tower cleanly, it will simply just drop the call. What is the point of having so much roaming if you're going to drop in the middle of a call?

I'm not familiar with Sprint's roaming charges but somebody else stated that there is an additional fee for "free" roaming, or else it is an additional per minute rate in call. That doesn't sound very free to me.

It's $5 to $10 for roaming minutes depending on the market you're in.

Speaking of said minutes. Why is it I could go to the twin cities and get unlimited roaming for $5, but in my area it's $10 for 60 minutes?

Sprint's network probably rely's more on roaming partners in you area, so natuarally Sprint would want to charge you more money. Spint's network may be sufficient for those users in the twin cities area and they do not expect those customers to roam as often.

That is just my theory.

RUFF1415 said:
Sprint's network probably rely's more on roaming partners in you area, so natuarally Sprint would want to charge you more money. Spint's network may be sufficient for those users in the twin cities area and they do not expect those customers to roam as often.

That is just my theory.

actually most of sprints network in minisota is what is called affiliate network. it is another company that sells the sprint brand and product. it is simalar to how the dobson comunications works. a company runs a netork for another company.

if that makes any since. it isn't roaming it is just antoher company who owns and runs that part of the sprint network. personally i find the whole affiliate thing ...
(continues)

What Stevelvl says is true -- affiliates and affiliate markets are not roaming areas, rather they are independent companies which help comprise the Sprint network (they are still in the dark green areas on the natioal coverage map) and who sell products under the Sprint name.

While these companies generally sell all the same phones and most of the same plans, they do have the autonomy to create some of their own plans and control pricing of those plans. For instance Airgate, a Sprint affiliate on the east coast, offers plans with nights and weekends starting at 5 pm, which is not something available on any of the regular corporate Sprint plans.

When it comes to roaming, the affiliates especially have different prices for those off-n...
(continues)