Best US carrier?

[heickelrrx]

Hello there.

My sister going to have a job on US. It should be take 6 months or so. She ask me to came along for a few days and she need to decide which carrier she use.

She bring Lumia 625H which work on both GSM and WCDMA. And roaming with Telkomsel drain my cash .

Any suggestions? I'm going home this Sunday since I can't afford to skip class on college

 

[RumoredNow]

Is it price, coverage, amount of data in plan?

What makes something best?

Personally I think few non-Americans realize how poorly our carriers look compared to elsewhere in the world. Since your sister is not here for years it would not be best to get involved with a regular carrier and their contracts. Prepaid would be better.

CDMA probably will not happen. US CDMA means carrier branded phones or no activation. (Although there are exceptions, working this out quickly is logistically difficult.)

I can only find one source on the radio... Even though it is an eBay ad, it strikes me as probably accurate given what it states:
Nokia Lumia 625 625H 8GB Yellow Unlocked Smartphone | eBay
GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS 850/900/2100, LTE 800/1800/2600

Throw out the LTE as it must be FD (Field Division) for compliance in China and in the US we have TD (Time Division). The two are incompatible even if the frequency is the same.

That leaves us with GSM (2G) which is a match anywhere and UMTS (3G) which seems off for the US market.

2G or EDGE speeds are about all you will get out of the 625H on any carrier in the US including mvno (airtime resellers).


Best bet... Go with an AT&T mvno like Cricket and purchase a Lumia 635 from them. Good value in a phone and your sister will enjoy decent data speeds and a generous 3GB allowance each month for highest speed data without paying a whopping phone bill. And that will help a lot when trying to Skype call back home. Speaking of Skype, the international voice rates are pretty good. Throw some $$ into Skype and you have instant international calling and messaging without an expensive plan required. It is month to month service and can be terminated without a penalty.

 

[heickelrrx]

Cricket huh?try to consider it.

Btw 625H doesn't have LTE but H+ Speed instead

 

[RumoredNow]

Cricket huh?try to consider it.

Btw 625H doesn't have LTE but H+ Speed instead

OK... Like I said, all I could find on radio was scant rumor and only the one frequency listing. If you have the frequencies that would help me match things up better.

Point with Cricket is good price and data allowance + AT&T towers for very wide coverage. Straight Talk, Net 10... There are more mvno's out there, you probably want an AT&T airtime reseller for best coverage reasons, but also knowing where in the US your sister would be helps narrow coverage down better as well.