“Sprint Nextel believes it has a fix for the connection issues facing some of its iPhones.” says Roger Cheng at CNET. The carrier says it’s spent the past few weeks rolling out “network enhancements” designed to improve data speeds. Sprint found where to make the improvements through its own checks, and feedback from customers.
Fared Adib, vice president of product development said:
Initial customer response to the improvements has been very positive, Sprint continues to monitor device and network performance to ensure that customers get the performance they expect from our products.
Initial complaints of slow data service put a damper on the excitement of Sprint finally getting the iPhone. The company expects the device to play a large part in its turnaround, so they’re sensitive about any problems, real or perceived, with the phone or the service.
Some Sprint customers grumble that they continue to see dramatically slow data service. Chicago customer Gabriel Mayhugh complains, “I live in downtown Chicago and experience this constantly ever since I purchased the 4S.” Mayhugh said he doesn’t get much more than 500kbps, with evening speeds dropping down to 200kbps. He says friends on Verizon opened web pages in less than a quarter of the time it takes him. As for downloading apps, “forget it.”
Some Sprint customers remain pessimistic that these improvements will reach them.
“Now we are stuck with something that is not living up to their promise and is most likely not going to be fixed,” Mayhugh said.
The speed issue continues to dominate the discussion on Sprint’s customer service board, the topic has received more than 376,000 views and more than 1,700 responses.
