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What kind of data speeds are people getting with the T-Mobile $30/mo "4G" plan? With my Galaxy Nexus I'm getting around 500 kbps down and it always seems to drop down to "3G" from HSPA "4G" ("H" next to the signal bars) almost immediately whenever I start doing anything data-related. This doesn't seem to be affected by location or signal strength. I know it's not my phone because I was on StraightTalk AT&T last month (because I was visiting a relative in an area only covered by AT&T) and I was able to get a stable HSPA connection and 2 Mbps down consistently. 500 kbps is fine for only $30/month (and I spend 90% of my time around wifi connections anyways) but I'm wondering if this is common or if there's something wrong with the towers in my area or what.
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Aug 21, 2012 16:08
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:26 |
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Huh. I'm in the Twin Cities, could any other TC goons post their results? Maybe there is something wrong with my phone, but only on T-Mobile's frequencies? I also tried a different speed test (the one you guys are posting) than the one I'd been using and it's reporting better speeds (2-4 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up) but they're not consistent and depend heavily on whether it can keep a "4G" signal for the entire speed test or if it drops down to "3G" during it. I'll do more testing when I get home.
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Aug 21, 2012 16:32
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Lblitzer posted:To quote myself from the first page: Thanks. Those speeds are consistent with what I'm getting with the SpeedTest app so maybe T-Mobile just sucks around here (speed-wise). And for $30/mo I'm not going to complain too much.
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Aug 21, 2012 16:47
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ShadowHawk posted:So, I've been using an AT&T frequency phone on T-Mobile for a while now. Yep. They started rolling the service out a few weeks ago. There's an unofficial map of PCS-band HSPA "sightings" here.
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Oct 12, 2012 04:05
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Jerk McJerkface posted:How does it work taking an At&t phone to T-Mobile? As long as the phone is carrier-unlocked then voice, text and 2G data should "just work". 3G/"4G" HSPA data may or may not work. If the phone supports the 1700 MHz AWS band for HSPA (I don't think any AT&T-branded devices do) or you are in an area where T-Mobile has rolled out 1900 MHz PCS band HSPA service it will work, otherwise it will not. 4G LTE will not work because T-Mobile currently doesn't have 4G LTE service. When they do start rolling it out over the next year, AT&T LTE phones should in theory be able to use it because T-Mobile will be using an LTE frequency compatible with AT&T LTE devices, though of course we won't know for sure until someone tries.
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Oct 31, 2012 20:43
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Orange_Lazarus posted:My wife and I decided to cancel our Sprint plan ($200 bucks to get out and it's still worth it) and to use 2 Ipod Touches since Wifi is everywhere these days along with 2 cheap cheap cheap prepaid phones for emergencies. If you don't need data and are basically planning on using your phones only in emergencies then look at T-Mobile's "pay as you go" plan. If you purchase a $100 refill then your minutes don't expire for a year and that applies to future refills as well (so you only need a $10 refill once a year afterwards to keep your account going). If you use your phones so little that you don't run through your initial $100/1000 minute refill for several years then it's probably the cheapest way to get phone service in the US. There are two major downsides. One is that when you refill T-Mobile pay-as-you-go plans the cost per minute for the minutes the refill adds to your account varies depending on the size of the refill, so if you actually get low on minutes you'd want to get at least a $50 refill. The second is that each text message (sent or received) literally costs as much as a full minute of talk time but that's not unusual for pay as you go-type prepaid service.
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Jan 11, 2013 06:14
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Mostly likely your package isn't in the tracking system yet. Give it 24 hours and check again.
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Jan 15, 2013 03:01
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Stick100 posted:http://spareone.com/spareone-features.php That's a good idea, but terrible execution. First, dual-band 2G-only in 2013? Really? Also, that's going to be a problem when phone companies start phasing out 2G GSM service to make more room for 3G and LTE over the next decade. T-Mobile USA is already planning to reduce their 2G allocation to just a handful of channels by 2015 in major markets, though they are the most bandwidth-strapped of US Big 4. 2G-only also means it won't be useful in the large areas of the western US where the only GSM coverage is AT&T 3G (with no AT&T 2G or T-Mobile anything available). Second, it has no screen which means no text messages, clock or calendar (or Snake, for that matter). Text messaging should be a central feature of any "emergency" phone because of its lower power use and resilience in marginal reception situations. A cheap Nokia candy bar (or equivalent with pentaband UMTS/WCDMA support) with a portable AA-powered charger would be a much better (and cheaper) solution. Mr.Radar fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Jan 16, 2013 |
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Jan 16, 2013 07:30
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Gimbal_Machine posted:I have a feature phone from circa 2002 with AT&T and a phone number there I'd like to keep. I just received my Nexus 4 (I am a full time android developer) and I am considering trying to go with the t-mobile data+text+100m plan for $30. Setting up Google Voice is pretty straightforward. Setup an account with Google Voice online (through your computer) and let Google assign a number for it. Add your desk phone and T-Mobile number (assigned by T-Mobile when you activate your account) to it as forwarding numbers. To use your phone to make calls through Google Voice without using your voice minutes you'll need to use a 3rd party app like GooVe IP or Talkatone. To make calls through your computer use the Google Talk plugin with Gmail (which automatically uses your Google Voice account). When you're ready to leave AT&T all you need to do is port your AT&T number to your Google Voice account (voice.google.com -> Settings -> Change/Port) which will also cancel your AT&T service.
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Feb 7, 2013 23:31
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johnny sack posted:Quick question because I haven't seen the answer on TMobiles webpage: T-Mobile's "4G" (HSPA) is what others call 3G* so after you reach your limit you drop to 2G EDGE speeds. There was a rumor they were going up the limit on that plan to 500 megs last month, but it looks like it didn't happen. *Though most people experience better real-world speeds on T-Mobile "4G" than on other 3G networks, especially compared to CDMA 3G networks.
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Feb 10, 2013 19:10
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shymog posted:I had one more T-Mobile question. I'm doing the $30/100/5GB monthly plan. I read something about "gold rewards" and getting 15% more minutes after hitting that. That's on the pay-as-you-go plans, where you pay for each minute and text you use and can't use data. The $30 plan in a "Monthly4G" plan with bundled minutes, text, and data which "Gold Rewards" doesn't apply to.
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Mar 1, 2013 02:34
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rear end Catchcum posted:Is this $70 4G T-Mo deal likely to be around for a while or is it a special offer I should jump on? It's one of their standard plans, I'd bet on the $30 4G plan going away sooner. However, if you're thinking of the $70 prepaid plan then you would probably be better off with their $70 no-contract postpaid plan instead. The main advantages are US-based customer support (vs. India-outsourced), limited AT&T data roaming (vs. none with prepaid), and 500 megs of tethering (vs. none with prepaid). If you're buying a new phone you can also get 0% financing for up to 24 months through T-Mobile when you sign up for their postpaid plans.
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Apr 3, 2013 02:51
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MAJOR STRYkER posted:Net10 only seems to have T-mobile SIMs as well. Net10 sells AT&T SIMs if you give them a ZIP code with no T-Mobile coverage. I live in an area with great T-Mobile coverage but I wanted an AT&T SIM for traveling to visit relatives in a rural area with only AT&T. Putting in my home ZIP code gives me only T-Mobile SIMs but putting in my relative's ZIP code gives me AT&T SIMs.
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May 31, 2013 05:41
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The Entire Universe posted:Generally any unlocked modern GSM (non-Sprint/Verizon) phone will work on both T-Mo and ATT. The exceptions if I recall are few and far between as long as you're not looking for a phone older than a couple years old. Specifically you're looking for AWS bands 2 and 4, aka 1900 and paired 1700/2100 respectively. I am fairly sure those numbers are still up to date. There are some PCS frequencies that I think may work in some areas due to the MetroPCS acquisition but those AWS ones are the ones you definitely need. To expand on this here is a chart of which GSM carriers use which frequencies (MHz) for which services: code:Carrier-branded phones generally only support the bands their carrier uses*. As you can see on the chart AT&T and T-Mobile use the same bands for 2G and have some overlap for 3G and 4G LTE. An AT&T phone will receive T-Mobile 3G in limited areas (which they are expanding as part of their 4G LTE upgrade) and will receive 4G LTE in areas where it is available. A newer T-Mobile phone on the AT&T network should be able to use AT&T 3G service (though older T-Mobile phones may not as T-Mobile did not previously support 3G on the 1900 band) and may be able to use 4G LTE in the extremely limited areas where AT&T has deployed LTE on the AWS band (but don't count on it). Because the AWS band is an oddity of spectrum allocation in North America, international phones (that are not from the Canadian carriers that use AWS) usually do not support it. *A notable exception is the newest version of the North American GSM iPhone 5 which supports both T-Mobile and AT&T bands (other versions of the 5 and all models of the 4s and earlier generations only support AT&T bands for 3G). Mr.Radar fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Jul 18, 2013 |
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Jul 18, 2013 19:01
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DaveKap posted:Yeah, there wasn't supposed to be a "no" in that sentence so it looks really stupid. My bad. None of the versions with the octo core processor support the AWS band for 3G or 4G LTE (Wikipedia has a chart of all the variant models). You would still be able to get 3G on the 1900 MHz band if it is deployed in your area, though user reports say that even in areas where the 1900 MHz rollout has been "completed" T-Mobile's 1900 MHz 3G coverage is still much spottier than their AWS 3G coverage.
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Jul 19, 2013 02:03
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berzerker posted:Wow, those are really expensive and would take many months to pay for themselves, that sucks. Oh well. If you don't mind paying $5/mo more Net10 AT&T is exactly the same service (though with an explicit 1.5 GB data cap instead of Straight Talk's vague "somewhere between 1 and 2 gigs" cap). If you buy your SIM online you might need to give them a zip code with no T-Mobile service in order to get them to sell you an AT&T SIM.
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Aug 3, 2013 06:07
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TopherCStone posted:My dad is giving me his old iPhone 4s. Currently I'm on TMobile Monthly4G (the $30 unlimited data plan) with a Nexus One. If I unlock the iPhone, will I have any issues on TMo's network? The first post says the best bet for iPhones is Straight Talk, but it hasn't been updated in a year so I'm not sure if anything has changed since The biggest issue is that you won't get 3G/4G on an older iPhone unless you live in an area where T-Mobile has rolled out 1900 MHz 3G/4G service (unofficial map) and even then reports suggest 1900 MHz 3G/4G is much spottier than their normal AWS service.
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Aug 12, 2013 18:59
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drat Bananas posted:The OP has my head spinning, so could someone set me straight? I have a Verizon iPhone 4S that should be out of my dad's family plan contract in December. Do I have an option to use this phone on any prepaid plan in the OP? If it matters, I'm in DFW. I think the only prepaid plan you can use old postpaid Verizon phones on the the Page Plus plan. You can't use it on any of the Sprint-based plans (like Virgin Mobile), you can't use it on a GSM carrier (like T-Mobile or AT&T) and you can't use it on Straight Talk Verizon or any other Verizon prepaid plan.
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Aug 27, 2013 01:48
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CraigSlice posted:About to purchase the Nexus 4 and want to go on the tmobile $30 plan. I currently use ST and ZTE merit and and dont use many minutes. For the $30 5gb plan you need to activate online. You can't activate it over the phone.
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Sep 2, 2013 04:29
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The Entire Universe posted:Will the Nexus 5 (the one that comes from the play store, not the one that comes from Sprint) work on Ting? I keep hearing about it working on Sprint. Ting will only activate certain Sprint phones and it looks like for now the N5 isn't one of them. In the future they might add it but even then I'm not sure if you'd be able to activate directly or if it would have to be activated on Sprint proper first and transferred over (I don't see any reason why you'd have to but I've never understood the arbitrary rules about CDMA device "activation" so v  v).
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Nov 3, 2013 21:31
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hotsauce posted:Well GV isn't for you I guess. The benefits far outweigh not getting a silly MMS forward for me. It's at least 51 days because I let my plan lapse between June 23rd and August 13th earlier this year due to temporarily switching to Net10 AT&T (for back-to-back vacations in AT&T-only land slightly greater than 30 days apart) and T-Mobile reactivated my SIM just fine with the same number.
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Nov 12, 2013 18:41
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Ribsauce posted:What is the cheapest way for me to try out straight talk for a month? I just need a phone I can install Google Voice on so I can make and receive calls using my google voice number. I want to test it vs Sprint before eating my ETF and fully switching. I have a Sprint Evo4g but I do not think that will work according to my googling. I am willing to buy a piece of crap phone if I can install Google Voice. If after a month I decide to switch I will probably invest in a nice phone then. That phone runs the Symbian OS and Google does not have a Voice app for that OS. If you want to use the Google Voice app you will need to get an Android or iOS device. Regarding throttled speeds, according to some people on Howard Forums the "2G" throttle speed for Straight Talk is 10 kbps (yes, ten kilobits per second) which is actually way lower than the normal 2G data speed for 2G GSM/EDGE (which is up to 236 kbps theoretically with mid-high 100s possible in the real world). Also keep in mind that ST AT&T has a total ban on tethering and streaming so it's actually somewhat hard to reach that monthly cap.
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Jan 1, 2014 19:29
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A Sleepy Budgie posted:I'm not sure if this has been answered before, but here goes: T-Mobile financing is only available with post-paid plans. The $30 plan is pre-paid so you'd have to purchase the phone outright or put it in a credit card. Between the iPhone 5c/s and the Galaxy S3 the iPhone will have better longevity both because they are current-gen products while the S3 is previous-gen and also because Apple provides much better support for upgrading older hardware than any Android manufacturer (Google and Motorola are the only ones that come close). Is there any reason why you're not looking at the current thread favorites, the Moto G ($179/$199 8/16GB no-contract), Moto X (now only $399/$449 16/32GB no-contract direct from Motorola), and Nexus 5 ($349/$399 16/32GB no contract)? The G is available no-contract for less than 1/2 as much as the S3 through T-Mobile for pretty comparable specs (the biggest drawbacks being a mediocre camera and no LTE, but T-Mobile's 3G HSPA is pretty fast) and the X and Nexus 5 are both current-gen flagship phones for about the same as the S3 from T-Mobile. All of these also have 18-month Android OS upgrade guarantees which the S3 does not.
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Jan 2, 2014 00:21
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slidebite posted:I am actually OK with buy an lovely phone. It's mostly for emergencies or making a hotel reservation on the road. I would give up calling Canada but both my and Mrs. Slidebites folks are starting to get old and it's to be able to talk to them without getting hit with a $1.50/min (yes) roaming charge with our Canadian phones. Scroll down to where it says "More Plan Options". There's a plan where you pay $2 for a day of service (with unlimited talk, text, and 2G data) if you use your phone that day.
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Jun 8, 2014 16:19
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