Increase Smartphone Data Speed to Keep Up with Your Business’ Needs

Last week I experienced a bit of déjà vu.  It wasn’t one of those moments where the last time it happened I ended up finding some money in my pocket.  Unfortunately it brought me back to a time when I had one of the worst smartphone experiences that I’ve ever had since owning one, and I’m sure more than a few of you recently experienced this as well.

The Nightmare

It all happened two weeks after I had purchased my brand new Nexus S 4G last year.  After being jealous of owners of the original Nexus I finally had one of my own, so of course I was excited to see what it could do.  The first week was great!  The second week was a totally different story.  I barely had a signal.  My phone’s signal consistently dropped between 1 and 2 bars.   My battery was draining like crazy.  And to top it off, text messaging was a nightmare.  Not only did I receive a return message saying that my texts didn’t go through (when in actuality they were), but I was receiving double text messages as well.  This lasted for roughly a week to a week and a half, which didn’t make for a pleasant experience as a brand new owner of an NS4G.

The same thing happened a year into my contract.  And get this…the experience was even worse than last time!  This time around I literally received in excess of 20 text messages from one person that all said the same thing.  It got so bad that when I went to sleep, I had to silence my notifications because I was getting so many repeat ones.  To top it all off, I was roaming -_-  If someone told me this story I wouldn’t even believe it myself, so here’s a screen shot to prove it:

All of the back to back messages I received while the network was being upgraded.

So What Really Happened?

The culprit behind all of this was none other than Sprint.  They were simply updating their network in order to strengthen it for their customers :-).  This is an area where many wireless services providers can improve.  As we all know, communication is a major key in any relationship.  A email or text to customers letting them know of tower updates would help everyone.  When this happened last year, I went into one of the Sprint stores and the representative told me that all kinds of customers were complaining about the network.  This panic could have been solved if Sprint would have sent out a mass text message letting everyone know they were in the process of upgrading the network, along with the time-frame that this will occur.

Thus was the case last week, the upgrading of towers contributed to my smartphone woes.  As bad as the experience is in the short therm, in the long term it allows for:

• faster data speeds
• improved signal strength
• fewer dropped calls
• better coverage

Updating Your Signal

When wireless companies upgrade their network they’re streamlining it all across the country, so it’s not just the area.  No matter what network you’re on (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc), it happens.  If you happen to be on Sprint and want to know what the status is in terms of upgrading towers around your area, you can view that here.  Hopefully you do notice that your data speeds are faster and that 4G, Wi-Max & LTE, comes to your area as well.  Don’t forget to update your PLR and data profile by going to menu > settings > about phone.

If you’re on T-Mobile, restarting your device will refresh your signal.