Category: Cell Phone Talk
for anyone interested, this is the deal.
AT&T and tMobile are paying customers to jump ship to their carriers.
In the case of AT&T, they're only paying customers to switch from tMobile.
In the case of tMobile, they are paying anyone to switch from sprint, AT&T, or Verizon wireless. they'll pay up to 300 for your phone, in trade, if you leave with a qualifying handset, and then, they will pay up to 350 dollars to cover your ETF from your old carrier.
I'm considering the jump from AT&T to tMobile because i'm paying way to much on AT&T currently, but i'm honestly not sure how usable T-Mobile's service is in north California. mainly sacramento and the bay area..
I've heard that when you're in a good service area, they often out class AT&T, but i've never had problems getting signal on AT&T, unless i'm out in the middle of nowhere.
If anyone can answer that question, i'd be grateful. In addition, I hope someone finds this information useful.
Ok James I'll be brutally honest.
Assuming you have an iPhone, though this is often true of Android as well: Where T-Mobile is good, it's really good now, and where it's bad, you get Edge speeds.
Calls are generally fine though mountain areas leave all GSM carriers out, at least in the U.S.
So check online for your city and the cities you frequent.
Then, go do a bit of McGyver detective work: would they call this carrier sniffing? Anyway get a buddy with a T-Mobile fun, and cruise around the areas you use, and check their signal bars, and see if you get 4G / LTE or just Edge. This is really the only way to know.
There are always dead zones with cell phone carriers, and that has to do with the angle ratios between line of sight of nearest tower and where you are at, plus the structures around which cause the extremely high frequency waves to bounce rather than refract.
There's no way to really know except by trial and error.
For example, Portland has really quite good T-Mobile coverage. But my daughter's apartment in outer Southeast only gets Edge speeds on my iPhone - your Android or maybe a newer iPhone will still get LTE but with my 4S I'm looking for 4G.
Then you go downtown which is of course fantastic, but you go to my parents' in law's place which is on the sixth floor of a condominium overlooking the river, and again, it's Edge speeds. Down in the lobby it's fine.
So all I'm saying is, know your frequent haunts, where you mostly use your phone and for what purpose in said location, and do as I suggested with the sniffing.
This jump ship motivation was only inevitable, and in a few years there will be no cell phone contracts at all, only payment plans to pay full price for your phone from the carrier if you want.
I know it's a lot, but I hope some of it helps you get better data on which to base your decision.
I've been sniffing around for a friend that could help with this. suppose I could test drive a sim on their network and see how well things work, as well. My iPhone 5 is unlocked, so i'd get some LTE out of them.
this deal looks a lot better for families than singles, but its still a thought on my mind.
What i've noticed in researching is the following.
If you don't plan on using much data at all, you could make out cheeper than AT&T, but if you want unlimited data, and you are not planning to buy your phone out right, you'll probably be spending about the same amount of cash.
Unless you're on a family plan, the shared data is significantly cheeper between devices, than on AT&T.
one more thing I should tell you:
T-Mobile, when they say Unlimited data, means they will not charge you extra for going over your cap. Instead, your speed is throttled to Edge. Sort of as though your electric company allowed you a certain number of kilowatt hours before it reduced your intake so all you got was lukewarm water and dim lights.
Anyway, remember that. I also upgraded my personal plan from 2 to 5 gb so that I could use their tethering which does work great between the 4S and the iPad.
Turn on when you need it, off when you don't.
Anyway, LTE is a different network. So remember, where LTE does not exist you will get Edge speeds, or maybe 4G, but I believe T-Mobile has rolled out LTE only in those areas where they formerly had 4G.
there still rolling out LTE and updating the network so LTE can be in as many places as possible.
Sprint also pays to jump ship from time to time.
Here's the thing. If you make calles, read a bit of email, text, and generally use data for music listening, you'd be fine.
As Leo says, depending on where you are service sucks.
Now, it doesn't suck necessarily, depending on what you do, so I'll say it is lacking.
Next, the more supscribers on a weak network, the worse it gets. A T and T experienced this for a while when they got the iPhone.
When I think about switching, I think about what I pay, and what it is worth to me.
T Mobile works fine, especially if data is what you need, and after an amount, as Leo says, you don't mind it slowing down.
the slowing down part depends on what plan you have, my plan does not throttle me at all. The 50 dollar plan does however slow you down but I do not have that plan. A T and T throttles you as well, my friend who has been with them found that out sometime late last year.
Hi,
I've had T Mobile since 2005 and I've never had my data throttled down because I went over my limit. Also, I'd say the easiest way to find out if T mobile would work for you would be to go to a store and simply ask them if they have a lot of customers in your area. Have them check on a coverage map for you on their site and tell you what they see. They did this for my grandpa, when he was considering switching to T mobile and being on the family plan with my mom and I. Also, borrowing a friend's T mobile phone works well, too. T Mobile now has a refer a friend feature where if you refer a friend, you get a $25 visa card, if they sign up with their own plan and mention your name as the one who referred them. I think it's pretty cool.
take Care,
Dawnielle
Note that AT&T quietly rolled out new mobile share value plans last month. You should look into these. Before the change, I paid like $70 for unlimited talk, a mandatory $20 for unlimited text and $50 for 5 gb of data so I could tether my phone to my laptop on the road. This was annoyingly expensive. I didn't need that much data, but I did need the ability to tether as I use my personal phone for work and I'm often on the road. With the new plans, you pay $25 for a phone you bring which includes unlimited talk and messages, and then you choose a data plan. I chose 4 gb for like $70, meaning I now pay about $90 or so for the ability to tether with unlimited talk and text. This is significantly cheaper than what I was paying, and AT&T's service in rural areas is much better than tMobile, at least in my state.
My problem with tMobile comes down to their coverage. There are lots of places on major interstates where I only get Edge speeds. I almost never have this problem with AT&T. To put this in perspective, my old Nokia 6670 phone got Edge speeds almost 10 years ago. I don't care how cheap their plans are or how good their customer service is if I don't have service in the first place.
There is another factor. Does T Mobile offer free hotspot?
Many times you'll get unlimited data, but that is only phone data. You pay extra if you wish to use the phone as the poster above me describes.
It is one reason I stick with Verizon, because I can use my laptop anyplace I can sit.
I also feel it is more secure to tether your laptop to your own service instead of a hotels if you need to do banking or whatever. The hotel is for browsing and just general online pleasure, but if you need security, you are better with your own.
the answer for tethering is yes, you get free tethering but a limited amount of data with tethering. That is it, you can streem on your device all day long.
Starfly is correct. I tether the iPad to the iPhone when I am out, and I agree with Wayne about security.
How much data do they allow, before you have to pay for the tethering?
I think its about a gig before they slow you down but you can pay for more data for tethering if you wish. T-mobile does not charge you for going over they just slow you down until your next bill cycle.