Thinking about jumping ship

[HeyCori]

To T-Mobile.

Probably sometime in the fall because it won't cost me so much to break contract with AT&T. My main reason is price. My family plan will be way cheaper on T-Mobile. In fact, I should be able to recoup my losses in about 6 months due to a massively reduced monthly bill.

My biggest concern is data speeds. I use my phone most when I'm away from a wifi connection and relying on T-Mob's slow speeds sounds painful. I'm hoping that my Titan/Focus will be able to take advantage of T-Mobile's spectrum deal with AT&T. It looks like T-Mob will use the 1900 MHz spectrum to deploy 3G/4G sometime in 2013.

The Titan/Focus both support the 1900 MHz band so my hope is that my data speeds will return to "normal" and I will get better coverage. Though I'm quite sure there's probably a flaw in my plan somewhere.

 

[Verkunder]

Good luck. I'd have awesome speeds with T-Mo in Charlotte, but once I was out of the county, I'd have no coverage. Hopefully that's not a problem for you!

 

[cp2_4eva]

I hate to play favorites here, but as long as you are on the WP7 team, I'm cool. lol. I just hope T-mo is good in your area. ATT has been swell around my area for the most part, and I have a 21 percent company discount....so yeah I have a decent reason to stick with ATT. Plus I feel they have the best windows phone backing. Did you see the new Samsung Flash 2? Looks nice!!! 4 inch screen. LTE. Be sure you know all the pros and cons before you jump ship!

 

[fatclue_98]

To T-Mobile.

Probably sometime in the fall because it won't cost me so much to break contract with AT&T. My main reason is price. My family plan will be way cheaper on T-Mobile. In fact, I should be able to recoup my losses in about 6 months due to a massively reduced monthly bill.

My biggest concern is data speeds. I use my phone most when I'm away from a wifi connection and relying on T-Mob's slow speeds sounds painful. I'm hoping that my Titan/Focus will be able to take advantage of T-Mobile's spectrum deal with AT&T. It looks like T-Mob will use the 1900 MHz spectrum to deploy 3G/4G sometime in 2013.

The Titan/Focus both support the 1900 MHz band so my hope is that my data speeds will return to "normal" and I will get better coverage. Though I'm quite sure there's probably a flaw in my plan somewhere.

If your plan is about to expire, have you looked at the possibility of going prepaid? Since I left contracts about 3 years ago, I've been very satisfied with the services available and my wallet sure appreciates it. Straight Talk GSM has a full unlimited plan for $45/month and runs on AT&T's network (I get 3G or 4G depending on where I am). Simple Mobile offers the same for $40/month and runs on T-Mob's 1700 band. However, the caveat is that they throttle you to 119kbps even if your phone is showing a 4G connection. Page Plus is a Verizon MVNO that has the best coverage (South Floriduh) but is a little lacking in the data plans. They have a $55/month plan but only 500 megs of data. T-Mobile's own prepaid plan is $50/month but they throttle after 100megs as well.

As for customer service, it depends who you get. I always try to call during normal business to lessen the chance that I'll get someone in Asia answering. That applies to ANY company in ANY industry these days. Whatever you decide, make sure you do your homework first, especially if you're already considering an Apollo device in the near future. Upgrade charges could put a hurtin' on you if you're not careful. Good Luck!

 

[scottcraft]

I wish tmobile had better coverage here. Their prepaid 4g plans are nice.

Sent from my Windows 7 phone using Board Express

 

[fatclue_98]

I wish tmobile had better coverage here. Their prepaid 4g plans are nice.

Sent from my Windows 7 phone using Board Express

Watch that throttle on prepaid. It's usually in very tiny print. They got me good last year when I crossed that 100 meg threshold.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Watch that throttle on prepaid. It's usually in very tiny print. They got me good last year when I crossed that 100 meg threshold.

Not to hijack this thread, but I have unlocked my Lumia 710, and will be popping in an AT&T Straight Talk SIM for mine once my T-Mobile minutes run out this month. Two questions:

1. How has that service been working for you? I am needing this because I travel to my hometown every weekend, and T-Mobile poops out in my hometown. At point do they throttle you?

2. How hard was it for you to set up (APN settings and everything)? Does Straight Talk give you instructions for all that?...

Again, sorry to hijack....

 

[Thuoudo]

I, too, am waiting for the 1900MHz refarming to use the 100 minute/unlimited text/5GB prepaid plan. But we'll have to see what happens with T-Mo's LTE because higher frequencies (like 1900Mhz ) have bad building penetration, whereas 700MHz is great. Hopefully the government will require LTE handsets to be network-neutral, unlike this AWS/UMTS/CDMA/PCS/LTE/HSPA stuff we have going on right now...

Oh yeah, I haven't switched to T-Mo yet because they don't have a WP worth buying True story.

 

[fatclue_98]

Not to hijack this thread, but I have unlocked my Lumia 710, and will be popping in an AT&T Straight Talk SIM for mine once my T-Mobile minutes run out this month. Two questions:

1. How has that service been working for you? I am needing this because I travel to my hometown every weekend, and T-Mobile poops out in my hometown. At point do they throttle you?

2. How hard was it for you to set up (APN settings and everything)? Does Straight Talk give you instructions for all that?...

Again, sorry to hijack....

Service in the Greater Miami/Ft.Lauderdale area is the same as AT&T. ST will send you all the apn & proxy info. Now, it depends on your phone how difficult (or easy) it is to set the info. In settings>cellular you add the apn and proxy and you're good to go with data. MMS can be a handful depending on your device. Some are a piece of cake, others a real PITA. As for throttling, I've heard they will throttle you if you're at around 70 megs a day or about 1 gig a month. I've never been throttled but I don't stream either.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Service in the Greater Miami/Ft.Lauderdale area is the same as AT&T. ST will send you all the apn & proxy info. Now, it depends on your phone how difficult (or easy) it is to set the info. In settings>cellular you add the apn and proxy and you're good to go with data. MMS can be a handful depending on your device. Some are a piece of cake, others a real PITA. As for throttling, I've heard they will throttle you if you're at around 70 megs a day or about 1 gig a month. I've never been throttled but I don't stream either.

I know the Lumia 710 has this app called "Network Setup" (all Nokia devices actually), so here is hoping that works for me. Throttle at 1GB? That sucks. I don't use that much, but I would gladly pay the same amount I am now with T-Mobile to get that extra 1GB back. I don't use anything close to my 2GB but it was nice having it.

EDIT guess Network Setup is gone from the market...dunno how I'm going to get MMS to work now =(

 

[HeyCori]

I hate to play favorites here, but as long as you are on the WP7 team, I'm cool. lol. I just hope T-mo is good in your area. ATT has been swell around my area for the most part, and I have a 21 percent company discount....so yeah I have a decent reason to stick with ATT. Plus I feel they have the best windows phone backing. Did you see the new Samsung Flash 2? Looks nice!!! 4 inch screen. LTE. Be sure you know all the pros and cons before you jump ship!

My first cellphone was a Nokia feature phone with T-Mobile. Never had a problem with them even when I moved a few states over. But I haven't used T-Mobile in a long time. Hopefully I'll still have good coverage. The hard part is getting the unlock codes from AT&T and making sure I don't lose my phone number.

 

[HeyCori]

If your plan is about to expire, have you looked at the possibility of going prepaid? Since I left contracts about 3 years ago, I've been very satisfied with the services available and my wallet sure appreciates it. Straight Talk GSM has a full unlimited plan for $45/month and runs on AT&T's network (I get 3G or 4G depending on where I am). Simple Mobile offers the same for $40/month and runs on T-Mob's 1700 band. However, the caveat is that they throttle you to 119kbps even if your phone is showing a 4G connection. Page Plus is a Verizon MVNO that has the best coverage (South Floriduh) but is a little lacking in the data plans. They have a $55/month plan but only 500 megs of data. T-Mobile's own prepaid plan is $50/month but they throttle after 100megs as well.

As for customer service, it depends who you get. I always try to call during normal business to lessen the chance that I'll get someone in Asia answering. That applies to ANY company in ANY industry these days. Whatever you decide, make sure you do your homework first, especially if you're already considering an Apollo device in the near future. Upgrade charges could put a hurtin' on you if you're not careful. Good Luck!

If I cancel in November I will still have about a year left on my contract. Never used Straight Talk but from what I hear MMS can be a hassle to set up.

 

[fatclue_98]

If I cancel in November I will still have about a year left on my contract. Never used Straight Talk but from what I hear MMS can be a hassle to set up.

It's not Straight Talk, it's any MVNO. The problem is getting the settings in for MMS. Some phones have the capability through Engineering Mode and others like the Focus requires a little more. Although I prefer USB tethering, the only WP7 phones I have been able to get Internet Sharing, 8107 update & MMS working on ST have been the Focus & Omnia 7. I would imagine it's the same with Simple Mobile or any MVNO.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

It's not Straight Talk, it's any MVNO. The problem is getting the settings in for MMS. Some phones have the capability through Engineering Mode and others like the Focus requires a little more. Although I prefer USB tethering, the only WP7 phones I have been able to get Internet Sharing, 8107 update & MMS working on ST have been the Focus & Omnia 7. I would imagine it's the same with Simple Mobile or any MVNO.

I hate this, because now I'm hesitant on using my Lumia 710 on Straight Talk. Nokia foolishly removed their Network Setup app, so I now have no way of getting MMS to work other than using WhatApp or something like that.

 

[cckgz4]

I had simple mobile and yes the price was great but the coverage was spotty and I had a lot of dropped calls in my apt

Sent from Le Lumia de Cyan using Board Express

 

[fatclue_98]

I hate this, because now I'm hesitant on using my Lumia 710 on Straight Talk. Nokia foolishly removed their Network Setup app, so I now have no way of getting MMS to work other than using WhatApp or something like that.

WhatsApp won't work without the carrier files. I already tried that on a LG Quantum. I don't know anything about the Nokias so I can't direct you on how to install the xml file for Straight Talk.

 

[eric12341]

If your plan is about to expire, have you looked at the possibility of going prepaid? Since I left contracts about 3 years ago, I've been very satisfied with the services available and my wallet sure appreciates it. Straight Talk GSM has a full unlimited plan for $45/month and runs on AT&T's network (I get 3G or 4G depending on where I am). Simple Mobile offers the same for $40/month and runs on T-Mob's 1700 band. However, the caveat is that they throttle you to 119kbps even if your phone is showing a 4G connection. Page Plus is a Verizon MVNO that has the best coverage (South Floriduh) but is a little lacking in the data plans. They have a $55/month plan but only 500 megs of data. T-Mobile's own prepaid plan is $50/month but they throttle after 100megs as well.

As for customer service, it depends who you get. I always try to call during normal business to lessen the chance that I'll get someone in Asia answering. That applies to ANY company in ANY industry these days. Whatever you decide, make sure you do your homework first, especially if you're already considering an Apollo device in the near future. Upgrade charges could put a hurtin' on you if you're not careful. Good Luck!

ST is totally useless if one has a smartphone,can't do any streaming.

 

[HeyCori]

Woot! Maybe I won't be waiting as long as I thought.

T-Mobile expands HSPA+ 42, picks LTE vendors and notches 1 million VoIP users -- Engadget

 

[fatclue_98]

ST is totally useless if one has a smartphone,can't do any streaming.

For my data needs, ST's price & service is the best. If you want streaming ability, go on a post-paid service such as AT&T or Verizon, bring a tub of KY, bend over and spread 'em.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

WhatsApp won't work without the carrier files. I already tried that on a LG Quantum. I don't know anything about the Nokias so I can't direct you on how to install the xml file for Straight Talk.

So no SMS/MMS app will work through 3G/4G? This is crazy =(