iPhone 4S Sprint Customers Complain of Slow 3G Speeds
Sprint set sales records with the introduction of the iPhone 4S yesterday, at least in part because it’s the only carrier to offer unlimited data for new iPhone customers. Unfortunately, reports are coming in that Sprint’s 3G network is extremely slow for some iPhone 4S users, making it impossible to use some of the latest iPhone’s core features, such as Siri.
Customers across the United States are complaining of shockingly slow upload and download speeds, even in locales where their other smartphones are performing quite well on Sprint’s 3G network.
Over at the Sprint Community forums there’s a raging discussion thread on the topic of slow 3G speeds. How slow are we talking about? According to the Speedtest.net tests many users ran, the Sprint version of the iPhone 4S is clocking in well below .30 Mbps on the download side of things and under .10 Mbps for uploads.
Network congestion could certainly be part of the problem, with a large number of Sprint customers activating their iPhones for the first time and testing out their favorite features.
One Sprint customer wrote:
Have you tired Siri? It will say “Sorry I am having trouble connecting to the network”. This speed is ridiculous, too slow to use the function provided by iPhone. I couldn’t even imaging how would navigation work at this speed when it has to load maps on demand.
Obviously iPhone 4S users want to be able to access the Internet and have other options. AT&T locked in many irritated iPhone customers for the first few years of the iPhone since it was the only carrier that sold Apple’s devices until earlier this year, but that’s not the case any more. Sprint has a very limited amount of time before some customers seek greener pastures.
Another Sprint iPhone 4S customer wrote:
Using the iPhone 4S in Orange California, Speed results are anemic at best.. 0.10 Mbps down, 0.06 Mbps up, since Siri requires network connectivity, I am unable to use it, might have to switch back to T-Mobile….or Verizon if I want to keep an iPhone 4S…
While part of the problem could be network congestion, many Sprint customers participating on the discussion thread at Sprint Community and elsewhere are complaining that their non-Apple smartphones are running significantly faster on Sprint’s 3G network at the same locations as where they’re testing their iPhones. Speedtest.net results will vary dramatically depending on your location, network conditions and which test server is being used. But there’s clearly something wrong her for at least some Sprint customers.
Sprint’s iPhone 4S plans with unlimited data start at just $79.99. By comparison, AT&T’s data plans start at $15 (200MB ) and Verizon’s start at $30 (2GB), plus the cost of your choice of voice and MMS plans. You can read more about each carrier’s plans and the trade-offs in this iPhone 4S carrier comparison article.
As we reported earlier, AT&T seems to be the fastest iPhone 4S 3G provider, beating Verizon handily in some locations. Of course AT&T’s 3G network doesn’t hold a candle to Verizon’s 4G LTE network, but the iPhone 4S is a 3G-only device.
The following is a 3g vs 4g argument, not apple vs android blah blah blah.
Getting 24+Mbs dl 3.3Mbs up on my Bionic. No lie or exaggeration. Can’t understand why people still volunteer to lock themselves to a 3g phone for 2 years, its truly yesterdays tech.
And before anyone mentions 4g battery life, I get 2 days easy with the ext. range battery from Moto, with only a minor increase in girth.
Honestly I’m saving $95/month for moving from verizon to sprint. I’ll deal with some slower speeds and a couple dropped calls. I got the 4s the day it came out n I’m not complaining!!
So should I get a iPhone
if other Sprint phones work fine, and iPhone has an issue, how is this a sprint issue? Isn’t this an iPhone issue?
AT&T and Verizon customers are not having issues with data speeds on iPhone 4S. Sprint is a bargain network and you get what you pay for.
I’m pretty sure sprint will be fixing it later. Come on it just came out.
[...] iPhone 4S Sprint Customers Complain of Slow 3G Speeds1 day ago Sprint's iPhone 4S plans with unlimited data start at just $79.99. By comparison, AT&T's data plans [...]
Just checked here in Santa Clarita: Dl: 1.28Mbps Ul: 0.48 and Ping: 262 ms… Not too bad.
HOWEVER: I keep losing Network with Siri !!!
I suspect Sprint. Hmmm
We are talking 3G here…. Hands down AT&T is going to be the fastest. How can Sprint users even think there 3G speeds would be comparable? Sprint probably has one of the worst data networks of the major cell carriers. It’s only going to get worse. Wait until more and more iPhones are activated and they are sucking up all the bandwidth. Apple will own Sprint in the next 2 years. Sprint will not be able to sell the 30 million iPhones to foot the $20 billion dollar deal with Apple.
You, sir, are an idiot if you think Apple would or even COULD purchase sprint.
Own as in destroy was the context i am sure. Att would have absolutely zero inerest in sprint because their network is differant technology and crap at that!
I’m sure SOME people on both networks are experiencing faster or slower speeds. I switched from ATT to Sprint and I was surprised to see that I actually get faster data speeds than I did on ATT, not to mention a significant reduction in dead zones (there were a lot of dead zones on my drive into work on ATT), not to mention excellent voice reception (something I didn’t have with ATT). All in all, I’m very pleased.
Sprint is faster where I live, AT&T is unreliable and overpriced. Verizon is just a rip off.
[...] some complaining about data speeds.Sprint customers took to the Sprint forums to complain about slow Sprint iPhone 4S speeds. Some users were looking to switch providers, and others report that their Android phones were [...]
[...] is being complicated because the issue is hard to replicate.Sprint iPhone 4S owners have been clamoring about slow 3G data speeds on Sprint’s message boards since the iPhone 4S launched in mid-October. Sprint’s [...]
I returned my sprint iPhone 4s back. Why pay for something that does not work. I rather pay a little more and have a network that works. Sprint sucks and thanks to AT&T the allowed me to return to my original grandfathered account.
I have have three people on the iphone 4s in minneapolis and they all exibit the same problem.. Extremely slow 3g speeds. I get .10 Mb. Yes point one! What is the point in unlimited data if you could never even download near that much. I am done with sprint, tomorrow they go back and i will be taking 20 lines elsewhere.
The code that a previous poster mentioned is: from your dialer enter ##873283# then press call. This has not solved the slow network problems on any of the iphones i tried it on but it cant hurt to try.
Sorry ##873282# call.