Im looking to move into the smart phone market, I’ll need a family plan with 500min+ unlimited sms/txt/media and unlimited data and an android phone.

So far the best value with features and bonuses is Sprint i get a 23% discount on them Verizon is about the same with 22% discount.

What im wondering is connection speed, reliability and dropped call rates. Sprint does not charge for roaming or incoming and its free mobile to mobile on every carrier and there nights start @ 7pm. Verizon has only in network free calls and roaming but I think there network is faster all around speed wise.

Anyone with Sprint and can comment on them and there reliability and network speed? Ive gotten a good amount of “I like sprint there service is good and the speed is too” all the way to “there customer service is crappy and I have a ton of dropped calls”

As Verizon goes im happy with there voice but I have no experience with there data plans. So again I ask if anyone has experience with them.

Update: I confronted some high level whatever at sprint and said point blank LTE has you by about 4mbps or more on eery test, tell me why i should leave Verizon and move to your company. He said there is no reason and if im happy i should stay with Verizon on a month-month basis and watch Sprint closely comming near the end of 2011 for a 4G update.

What the? are they talking tri mode phones WiMax/CMDA/LTE? or are they dropping WiMax with has been shown to be the slowest of all 4G networks?

For a smart phone it will only be as fast as the network you're in allows. Always check before switching carriers at your local coverage. I know for a fact that Sprint and Verizon offer 4g in different areas, so be mindful of that before going with a smart phone.

Also keep in mind that there may be additional costs. I know someone with a smart phone on Sprint's network, and they get charged a $10 monthly fee for premium data which includes 4G access where available as well as a way for Sprint to maintain their infrastructure. I'm not familiar with Verizon's charges, so you definitely want to contact customer service with them before deciding to re-up your contract.

I also know that Sprint is doing maintenance in a wide area across several states at the moment, which might be why some of your friends have complained of all the dropped calls.

Personally, I don't use a smart phone or a texting phone. I got myself a Tracfone and 120 minutes, and plan for the $30 investment to last me the next 3 months. Obviously, your needs are different. All I can really recommend is research, research, research, and given that my knowledge is second hand I am not the most reliable person.

Give it 24 hours or so, and you should have several responses from people who actually use these two carriers to better base a judgement on ;)

I have been with Sprint for around 5 years and have never had any issues - Family Plan - 5 Phones - 2 Internet enabled (kids) - I plan on getting the EVO Shift soon as I need the full keyboard to text with the kids. Have you seen the EVO View - it looks cool.

I can tell you in the land of hippies and Birkenstocks Sprint PCS is super reliable, I almost never have call issues... unless I'm calling someone on T-Mobile or AT&T that is:)

Sprint's 4G is crap, from what I've read. WiMax doesn't offer much in the way of speed the same way LTE on Verizon does. I suppose these days, if you're getting a phone you might as well get a 4G one.

Verizon basically has the best network and the best customer service (and customer satisfaction) but all of their plans are more expensive than any comparable plan from somebody else. I can't speak for 4G because it's not widespread enough to make accurate judgments yet, except on a local basis.

Sprint isn't actively bad like AT&T or hit-and-miss like T-Mobile, and it's cheaper than Verizon. It just boils down to price vs. quality.

Also, different providers perform better in different cities. Some places, T-Mobile is twice as good as everyone else. Other places, it's Sprint or Verizon as king. AT&T never wins, which kinda amuses me since it's one of the oldest telecom companies in existence. You'll probably want to go into one of the stores and look at their maps, and collect data locally as well.

What he said. I used to have T-Mobile but when I lose my cell at anime con, I call them the next day and they refused to replace my cell so I was like frak them and switch over to Verizon within few hours just because T-Mobile irked me very much.

Speaking from personal experience, I'm very happy with Verizon and I'm strictly data plan guy so I'm very pleased with their service. Yes, I do pay more (About 15 dollars more than I used to pay for T-Mobile) but I'm very happy with the service so far.

Recently, my cell died during anime con (oh noe!) so I went to Verizon store next day and they immediately shipped it to me the next day because I paid for the insurance on monthly fee so I'm satisfied.

But your results may vary from mine. :)

in 2005, the company I worked for suddenly up and went out of business, and I was laid off. I had a bunch of savings, luckily, and I knew I'd need to rely on my phone for a while as I searched for new work. So, I paid my cell phone bill with Sprint ahead for 6 months so that no matter what else happened, I could make and receive phone calls.

Next month I got a bill for about three fourths of my normal bill. Upon inspection, I realized that three days after the day i paid my bill, the record showed Internet usage by my phone and an access charge equal to almost 6 months of a normal bill. There appeared to be hours and hours of consecutive usage.

Of course this never happened. In the 20 months prior, I had never used the phone for anything other than standard phone calls. I had never once exceeded my minutes. I didn't even know how to make this old clamshell phone connect to anything other than another phone. I never even sent text messages (I don't text). I sure wasn't going to change now.

There was a fight between me and Sprint and it was held over many phone calls and in several of their stores and despite all my efforts, they never fixed the billing and I never got reimbursed.

So... essentially, Sprint stole my money. That's all there is to it. I paid ahead and Sprint stole my money. I was punished for my trust. I quit when my contract expired and joined Cingular (which AT&T bought later... oh well... they've been fine to me) and have warned everyone who has ever asked my opinion not to do business with Sprint for any reason.

HoneyBakedHam thats horrible, it was 6 years ago but still that's really crappy... i actually used this as a reference when i was grilling a corporate manager about there service. He said "That was under the old CEO and his management style" he went on to say "Were focused and committed to customer service, and regret that that was ever allowed to happen"

Its a basic common company line but, talking to so many different stores and people they all have the same general regard to service. They truly seem to be fore the customer, at Verizon i waited for a sales rep for almost 20 minutes and all he did was stand there and type on his tablet pc and never made eye contact... i got free coffee at sprint and got to sit on a couch and watch Sprint TV while we talked...

They're equally bad. They both had to get the WiMax standards body to modify their qualifications so that either would qualify. Here where we have both WiMax is actually better/faster. Their main issue now days is their techs are morons. I mean, really, they're the same 8 dollar per hour useless folks as anywhere. If you can get to second tier they're way better but at EVO launch I had issues and they didn't know the phone yet and so sucked. Be aware that Verizon has a deep and abiding love for locking phones down so they are not modifiable in any way. The DroidX just barely got hacked and I'm still not sure how extensive the hack is (note, the DroidX was rooted fairly quickly, but rooting won't allow you to load a ROM on it).

Happy Sprint customer here.

The problem with evaluating a nation-wide service is that the experience can vary so widely from one part of the country to another. Verizon may completely rock in, say, Cleveland, whereas Sprint may be the shiz in Kansas City. Makes it hard to give a fair comparison.

That being the case, Sprint has treated me fine over the last 8-10 years. On the couple customer service issues, they were both taken care of without hassle. When I go to the store with questions about phones or account changes, the people know what they're doing and what they're talking about. I don't get call drops unless the signal level drops to nothing; in other words, if I have a signal then I don't get dropped.

In the pre-data days of 6-8 years ago, I used to travel all over the country and still had a good experience. Now I travel all over the Midwest and likewise have good coverage experience. It seems that in the past year or so they have greatly expanded their in-network coverage out in the boonies (and I definitely travel in the boonies); there used to be areas where I simply knew not to try a call since I'd lose signal within a couple miles. Now, all but a couple of those spots are gone.

The flat-rate Everything Data plan works fine. It's not cheap but you don't have to worry about nickle-and-diming for texts, data usage, roaming, etc. Data coverage and speed is good though I've never tried 4G or other carriers for speed. The minutes are a bit limited at 400 for the base plan, but I've never run over since most of my incoming calls come from cell phones. As mentioned, cell-to-cell calls are free, not just those from Sprint and Nextel.

All that said, my area is different from your area (unless we live close by and just don't know it ; ) ) so I would get service opinions from people who live near you and who travel like you do. For what it's worth, I don't hear people griping about either Sprint or Verizon around here. US Cellular and Alltel are also big in this area.

Here is a link to an interesting article I read today.