SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Another staple of America life is gone. Goodbye Radio Shack.

Posted: Feb 13 2015 11:45 am

GeorgeTaylor wrote:

The final nail in the coffin for me was this...

http://www.radioshack.com/defense-mobile

What an annoying way to try to take advantage of older vets who may not be in the cell phone loop.

What's wrong with it? All those plans are cheaper than what I got for the same services, plus they get a 10% off discount. What am I not seeing?

Posted: Feb 13 2015 10:51 pm

Knyte wrote:

GeorgeTaylor wrote:

The final nail in the coffin for me was this...

http://www.radioshack.com/defense-mobile

What an annoying way to try to take advantage of older vets who may not be in the cell phone loop.

What's wrong with it? All those plans are cheaper than what I got for the same services, plus they get a 10% off discount. What am I not seeing?

those plans seem quite reasonable... im not sure im missing something

Posted: Feb 14 2015 12:01 am

Went in there today to see if they were having any going-out-of-business sales. Saw that they were selling tiny 8GB mp3 players for $50 (the same ones that are $15 at Wal-mart), turned around and left. I always thought that Radio Shack sells almost nothing that I could get somewhere else at a better price, and my suspicions were confirmed. I'm not at all upset they're closing.

Title: Miss Madness 99 Joined: Sep 09 2012 Posts: 225

username wrote:

Knyte wrote:

GeorgeTaylor wrote:

The final nail in the coffin for me was this...

http://www.radioshack.com/defense-mobile

What an annoying way to try to take advantage of older vets who may not be in the cell phone loop.

What's wrong with it? All those plans are cheaper than what I got for the same services, plus they get a 10% off discount. What am I not seeing?

those plans seem quite reasonable... im not sure im missing something

Cricket, which is owned by AT&T aka better service gives you unlimited talk text and 2.5 GB of LTE for like 35 a month. You can also use any AT &T phone with a Cricket sim.

If that Defence Mobile service was using Verizon towers instead of Sprint I would say it was a good value. Sprint is barely better than TMobile.

To be honest people using Sprint probably have it on a family plan which makes more sense than using a MNVO with less support. I have a friend who uses Sprint because he is on a family plan and basically gets unlimited everything for 40 a month.

Posted: Feb 15 2015 01:30 pm

Sprint is fucking terrible for cell service. When I had them a few years back I got so fed up with all of the areas where there was no service, and that was in a major metropolitan area. Just horrible.

Posted: Feb 25 2015 12:57 am

sprints coverage sucks out here in AZ. i used to get dead spots in my room when i lived with my brother. i would get 4g service right outside the house, but once i walked inside the house, it went down to 3g. ive switched to tmobile & the coverage is leagues better than sprint. sprint did have some good pricing, but the service sucked otherwise.

Title: Miss Madness 99 Joined: Sep 09 2012 Posts: 225

I feel that using a phone with GSM (ATT/TMobile) technology is vastly superior to using a cell phone with CDMA (Sprint/Verizon) technology especially with regards to browsing the internet on the go. Its really like Sega vs Nintendo in some ways

What people don't realize is that you get a more balanced coverage with GSM as instead of dropping from LTE to 3G on CDMA you get LTE/4G /then 3G.

Back like 3 or 4 years ago Sprint was rolling out their "4G" network based on WiMax which they ending up abandoning while the GSM's were rolling out and keeping 4G based on HSPA. Basically Sprint had to play catch up leaving a "speed void" while they adapted LTE and had no middle ground for customers who went straight from LTE to 3G. Verizon had the best network but they skipped WiMaxx and just went to LTE which left customers on the slower 3G network while ATT/Tmobile customers were enjoying the superior 4G HSPA.

WiMaxx was as good technology adapted heavily in Europe but would have cost Sprint too much as LTE showed to make more sense for the CDMA companies as it was backward compatible with existing towers already.

My honest opinion is that if you live in a rural area you should go with Verizon for call quality and chance of having a tower in your area despite not always having LTE, if you live in a Metro Area just go with ATT. Tmobile or Sprint are too hit at miss unless you get a super value package for either because if you go down a road off the main highway you can find yourself with no bars.

I say this as someone who repairs cell phones everyday and hears stories from all walks of life about service.

Posted: Mar 01 2015 11:09 pm

GeorgeTaylor wrote:

I feel that using a phone with GSM (ATT/TMobile) technology is vastly superior to using a cell phone with CDMA (Sprint/Verizon) technology especially with regards to browsing the internet on the go. Its really like Sega vs Nintendo in some ways

What people don't realize is that you get a more balanced coverage with GSM as instead of dropping from LTE to 3G on CDMA you get LTE/4G /then 3G.

Back like 3 or 4 years ago Sprint was rolling out their "4G" network based on WiMax which they ending up abandoning while the GSM's were rolling out and keeping 4G based on HSPA. Basically Sprint had to play catch up leaving a "speed void" while they adapted LTE and had no middle ground for customers who went straight from LTE to 3G. Verizon had the best network but they skipped WiMaxx and just went to LTE which left customers on the slower 3G network while ATT/Tmobile customers were enjoying the superior 4G HSPA.

WiMaxx was as good technology adapted heavily in Europe but would have cost Sprint too much as LTE showed to make more sense for the CDMA companies as it was backward compatible with existing towers already.

My honest opinion is that if you live in a rural area you should go with Verizon for call quality and chance of having a tower in your area despite not always having LTE, if you live in a Metro Area just go with ATT. Tmobile or Sprint are too hit at miss unless you get a super value package for either because if you go down a road off the main highway you can find yourself with no bars.

I say this as someone who repairs cell phones everyday and hears stories from all walks of life about service.

very good info. thanks man