Help Should I Keep My Optimus V?

[ron scubadiver]

On monday I picked up an Optimus V bundle at Bestbuy. $168 for the phone, $25 top up, screen protector and car charger. I had not used the 3g much because I had been home and was using my wifi.

I go to Chicago and yesterday there is a 3G outage. As some have observed, VM does not text subscribers to tell them what is going on. From reading the posts it appears this is at least the second major outage this month.

3G service did not come back on its own. I removed and replaced the battery then tried the activation app. Activation "failed". Then I did an airplane on and off, and 3G came back on.

I don't mind the slow processor and flash is not necessary for life. Heck, iPhones don't have flash. The screen could be larger; on an iPhone I tried text was about the same size, but the virtual keyboard was much easier to use.

A full price plan for something like a Thunderbolt (or even an iPhone) is not beyond my means, but seems hard to justify as I make few voice calls.

Are frequent outages a way of life with VM, and what should I do anyway?

 

[treven21]

You bring up a good question. Hopefully they have just been upgrading service. If they continue to have outages and intermittent data I may have to go to something more secure.

I love saving money but I don't like VM customer service or not having data.

 

[Timm129]

I've had this phone over a month and the random outrages do suck. However, when it works it is like greased lightning if they can get their service upgraded to be 100% reliable it will be a heck of cell, text, data plan......

 

[ron scubadiver]

Big "if". I went out for a walk this afternoon and the 3G quit. It came up when I returned. I have a feeling that when the network gets fixed, the prices will go up.

 

[Scyy]

From what I understand from past phones being introduced on VM there is often data issues for a month or two but it starts to get less and less problematic as time goes on. They have said they are upgrading the network so hopefully this should all be ironed out soon enough. I have already noticed my data is more stable since getting mine a couple weeks ago.

 

[ron scubadiver]

From what I understand from past phones being introduced on VM there is often data issues for a month or two but it starts to get less and less problematic as time goes on. They have said they are upgrading the network so hopefully this should all be ironed out soon enough. I have already noticed my data is more stable since getting mine a couple weeks ago.

That sounds upbeat.

My outlook with this phone is to go a few months and see what develops. There are two main trends. One is phones with dual core processors, which are a bit ahead of the software right mow. The other is expansion of alternatives on 4g. I think the landscape will be improved by June or July, but that is only a hunch based on expected product introductions.

I remain amazed that Verizon can get $20 for unlimited text when text uses so little bandwidth. The other big issue is tethering/hot spot. As more bandwidth becomes available one should be able to buy more of it for the same price, although the carriers are dead set against that happening.

 

[Scyy]

That sounds upbeat.

My outlook with this phone is to go a few months and see what develops. There are two main trends. One is phones with dual core processors, which are a bit ahead of the software right mow. The other is expansion of alternatives on 4g. I think the landscape will be improved by June or July, but that is only a hunch based on expected product introductions.

I remain amazed that Verizon can get $20 for unlimited text when text uses so little bandwidth. The other big issue is tethering/hot spot. As more bandwidth becomes available one should be able to buy more of it for the same price, although the carriers are dead set against that happening.

I should note there are also tons of people who are having much more issues with data than I am, I think a lot of it has to do with location as well. Sprints 3g service is pretty good in Minneapolis so I think I may get better results then some others who are in less covered areas. Just try not to get apps that work with or change data and radio settings to save battery life like juice defender(I however have been using juice defender beta and it seems to not have the same issue as the regular program.) as they seem to be one of the causes of data drops that don't reconnect. I get data drops every now and then between 5-10pm however they almost always reconnect on their own after a few minutes tops. I chalk that up to the fact that this is a 25 dollar prepaid plan and sprint likely has VM as lower priority as people contracted on sprint. Still get great speeds when it is working well though.

 

[ron scubadiver]

I was using wifi and a circuit breaker blew and shut off the router. OK , I think that I can get on my phone and use 3g. Whoops, 3g is out again. Perhaps VM can't do it for $25. If 3g only works occasionally, it's no better than trying to poach wifi. I get back home on Tuesday evening. I am pretty sure I will return the phone the next morning. My opinion is if they ever get this network working right, the price will go up. It might not be as much as a Sprint contract, but it will not be that different. Honestly, I think $80 plus tax a month is robbery, but if 3g does not work reliably , the plan is not worth anything to me.

Addendum:

I am reaching the conclusion that VM operates on Sprint's excess capacity. When Spring gets busy in the evening, VM shuts down. I can't prove this, but it sure looks that way.