Well I guess I will reply to myself. It's like a game of solitaire. I went with Cricket and its $60 per month plan so I could get the 10 gig of data. Cricket won't let you tether so if I can't get a hack to work I will drop to the $40 per month plan that has 1 gig.
I live in South Coast MA and the AT&T network is so far beyond T-Mobile it is hard to describe. Wi-Fi calling was the only thing that made T-Mobile usable for me was also the cause of many woes. I now get 4 or 5 bars inside my house so the Wi-Fi calling is not needed. The only problem I see with Cricket so far is the lack of stores.