Any way to get out of a Sprint contract for shoddy connections?

[weirdichi]

The place I'm currently living has mediocre 3G while I'm paying for 4G. I read somewhere I can get out of my contract for sucky connection in my area. Anybody ever done it and want to share? Thanks.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

You aren't paying for 4G service. You are paying for them to expand their network. It's spelled out in the contract. They changed this a few years ago when they started charging an extra $10 for the 4G phones but was unavailable to anyone. So they changed it to a premium service fee, which they can do.

As far as poor reception where you live, call them and tell them. They should send you a device which triangulates towers and serves as a mini cell tower for your location.

 

[Peter Nixeus]

You can only get out of the contract if you cannot make or receive calls from your place of residence. Sprint will verfiy this through their cell towers too.

 

[weirdichi]

Hmm... I shall give them a call then. Thank you very much.

 

[Anonemous]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2296972

Info can be found in this thread. Using a certain PRL on your phone to force roaming on Verizon which will have Sprint cancel your contract.

 

[dbk]

Back when I signed up I couldn't even make calls from my house.. they sent me an airave - a wifi signal booster - for free! Over the past 2 years the coverage in my area has greatly improved. Not really an issue anymore for me. GL

 

[vincedea]

Where do you live?

 

[jaedaliu]

Back when I signed up I couldn't even make calls from my house.. they sent me an airave - a wifi signal booster - for free! Over the past 2 years the coverage in my area has greatly improved. Not really an issue anymore for me. GL

It's pretty sweet. The airrave is a femtocell that uses a broadband connection to connect to their network, and is a mini cellphone tower inside your house. It also uses GPS to make sure that you are in the US. (you're not supposed to take it to Europe to use it. If your GPS connection drops, you get really shitty call quality)

As an additional bonus, you get a VOIP landline with the airrave.