Time to ante up on Sprint 4G

[lkillen]

I bought my EVO June 4th, 2010. That was a 0002 and I am up to a 0004 now. I bought my daughter the same for Christmas.

I live north of Atlanta, GA and when I got the phone, I was given a coverage map that showed I lived just outside of the 4G area but I was assured the map was outdated so my home was probably covered. Of course, this is cutting edge technology so expect things to be a little bumpy for a while until ALL the towers get upgraded blah, blah, blah

When I went home, I would see a hint of 4G on the porch. Hardly enough bandwidth to run a successful SpeedNet. Sometimes when I did, I would get a 6.5 Meg down and about 1 meg up but nothing to write home about. I always turn on WiFi in the house, anyhow.
But I worked in Sandy Springs in Atlanta so I was pretty sure I would get good 4G there. It is densely populated and the home of UPS, where I was a programmer.

So, I get to my desk and crank up 4G. No cigar. Now I am 20 feet from a window since I am a contractor and only REAL UPS'er get to see the light of day. But I hike over to the window and I have 4G!!! So I stand there playing with the bandwidth but it is spotty and dropping out. I am 7 stories high in one of the largest cities in the Southeast but 4G is nothing but a novelty toy. I turn it off and connect to the highly restricted WiFi.

But in the car, out from the mean rooftops, I am sure I am going to be in Bandwidth heaven. I turn on 4G and after about 30 seconds, it acquires and I start streaming Talk Radio. There is Rush Limbaugh beating up on commies, just like I like. But he drops out and WunderRadio hangs. I dick around again and get him back up but if I drive 50 feet, it drops. This goes on for a half hour and then I switch it off and stream 3G. 3G gets the job done but I am paying 4G premium for 2 phones.

Being the generous guy I am, I don't whine to Sprint. I figure it'll take some time. Rome wasn't built in a day and nothing is guranteed except Shipping and Handling. I am a pretty accepting kinda guy. But every now and then, I crank up the old 4G, just to see if something has changed. Sometimes I am in a new city, getting off the plane. Maybe these people are the lucky ones. But, if anything, it seems to have gotten worse.

Then a co-worker comes to work with his ThunderBolt!! He runs Speednet and out of the box, he is getting 40 MB down!!! I actually tether to him and get like 15 down!! He is on LTE, of course. He has to pay for data after a level. But his works. I tell him, no I curse him, "your bandwidth will slow, my son" after everyone else gets on but that was over six months ago. True, he is not hitting 40 and has to suffer a reliable 25 MB deep inside the bowels of the building.

Some are there any Sprint users here that truly get a reliable, usable and solid 4G without hugging a window or sitting under the stars, perfectly still on a moonless night? Or have we been taken to the cleaners?