Review of Sprint PCS

J. Carlton Collins, CPA

carlton@accountingsoftwareadvisor.com

 

Are you thinking about subscribing to wireless internet? If so, you may be interested in learning about my personal experience with the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet service.                  Executive Summary I used the Sprint PCS service for 23 months and have concluded that the Sprint PCS service to be almost worthless to me. The problem is that Sprint PCS provides poor service or no service where I need it most - in hotel meeting rooms. As a professional presenter on the topic of technology, a good robust Internet connection is a necessity. In almost all cases, Sprint PCS would not connect, or barely connected me to the Internet. The performance was no different than a crummy dial up connection. On many occasions I demonstrated the Sprint PCS service to my audiences along side dial up and cell phone access. The results were that Sprint PCS was never any faster than these other two alternatives. Other problems included dropped connections, which required a complete reboot of my computer system in order to reconnect. Sprint PCS seems to only make sense if you need to access the Internet while driving down major Interstate highways - that seems to be the only place where Internet performance is acceptable with Sprint PCS. Further, there are many new high speed Internet options popping up all over the place including wired and wireless hotspots which meet my needs fairly well. High speed Internet connections in airports throughout the US, Crown Rooms, and T-Mobile Hotspots seem to be increasingly available as well. I've cancelled my Sprint Service after $3,000 in payments to Sprint PCS, and in my opinion this was mostly a worthless use of my money. I feel that Sprint owes me a refund. More detailed comments follow: I purchased the Sierra Wireless Air Card for $350 and subscribed to Sprint PCS at the monthly cost of $100 for unlimited service. Since then I have used Sprint PCS Wireless Internet to access the Internet throughout the United States. Overall this service has been extremely unreliable and not worth the money. Here are some details: My first experience using this wireless service was in an automobile while my wife drove from Atlanta to Savannah, GA. For the most part I was able to connect to the internet and stay connected for 30 to 50 minute increments before being dropped. The resulting Internet access speed was about 42K – about the same as a good phone/modem connection. Basically it worked. This worked because Sprint has cell phone towers along major interstates – in my case I-75 and I-16. Sprint’s system has been designed to accommodate salesmen while driving down the road. It makes sense that internet access would work fairly while driving down the road. I was initially encouraged by this result. However, seldom am I in a position to access the internet while driving down the road. In most cases, I am in hotel meeting rooms and teaching facilities.   My primary need for high speed internet access is for teaching and lecturing. I lecture on the subject of technology such as accounting software, Windows XP, Office XP, the Internet, etc. I need live access to the Internet while I teach and lecture so that I can demonstrate Internet related activities such as publishing web sites, remote access to accounting systems, shopping for lower prices, etc. In recent years, phone line access to the Internet has gotten worse as more people share these phone lines. In most cases, a phone line results in a 19.2K connection, which is pathetic. Most hotels do not yet offer high speed Internet access in their meeting rooms and most of those who do charge about $150 a day and up for this service and require that these arrangements be made well in advance.   I was hoping that Sprint PCS wireless Internet would solve my dilemma, but it does not. About 70% to 80% of the time, my Sprint PCS Wireless Internet Service is unavailable in the hotel meeting rooms – there is simply no signal. Specifically there was no signal at dozens of hotels including the following example locations:   Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, MN The Gaylord Hotel in Orlando, FL The Marriott World Center Hotel in Orlando, FL The Marriott Marquis in Atlanta The Bellagio in Las Vegas The Hilton Long Island/Huntington, New York City I did have Sprint PCS Wireless Internet access in a few places such as the Windham Hotel in Columbus, GA. My meeting room was on the main floor and had windows to the outside world. However, I did not have the same connection success across the street the next day in the Columbus, GA coliseum. I have been able to connect using my Sprint PCS wireless Internet at most, but not all airports. On those occasions when I am able to use this, it has worked fairly well as it makes me a little more productive on those 20 to 30 occasions each year. I have also been able to connect in my hotel rooms about half the time, which is also useful and makes me more productive. However internet access at airports, interstates, and hotel rooms are not my primary need.   Most disappointing has been the stability of the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet service. On those occasions when I am able to connect to the Internet, my Sprint PCS Wireless connection disconnects frequently. When this happens the software thinks that it is still connected even though it is not. When this happens, the software does not allow me to close the application down. Further, I can not shut off my computer IBM A30 until I close the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet application. Therefore I must instead use CTRL-ALT-DELETE to access my task menu and force Sprint PCS Wireless Internet to close. This is a royal pain in the neck. Once I have performed this procedure, I then find that Sprint PCS Wireless Internet will not connect again unless I reboot my computer. On many occasions, I have performed this procedure multiple times trying to get just one e-mail out the door.   After 5 months of use, I determined that my Sierra Wireless Air Card was damaged - the antenna including internally components just slide right out of the card. Calling Sprint to get service on this was a nightmare - they didn't seem to want to help me. Finally I obtained a new cellular modem and continued testing this product and service throughout the United States. In conclusion, I have found that this service only works when I am in a good cell area, and even then my access is only about as good as a 56K modem connection at best, but usually my Sprint PCS connection performs equivalent to a 33K dial up connection - which is unacceptable to me. Most of the time in hotel meeting rooms Sprint PCS is not available or is poorly available - which is also unacceptable to me. In addition, the Sprint PCS service forced me to fight buggy software that disconnects and freezes my computer. If you are traveler like myself and you travel to different hotels and spend time in hotel meeting rooms – you may find that the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet Solution to be a weak choice for you.

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