Related
I, obviously, have a Herald and I was wondering that if I get a Mogul and go with Sprint because they have EVDO and apparently their plan would have everything mine has but would be almost 30% cheaper, would that be a good deal?
I was also thinking about the Kaiser and I've read that you can unlock it to work for any kind of service provider but I was wondering if it supports EVDO and I'm just wondering if it was worth switching because of all the buying/selling of things things.
The Herald does has a slow processor and not only is the service plan good but I wondering if either of those phones are "better" than this one?
EDVO and GMS are imcompatible. You won't be able to use a tilt in Sprint's network, only in other GSM networks. (AT&T and Tmobile, for example.)
Where do you live? T-Mobile's 3G roll-out is picking up momentum, they've been cracking out 2-3 cities per week lately. It may not be too far off for you. Of course you will need a new phone, but the Android device is supposed to be announced next week...
I live in El Paso, Texas. Is there a place where I can check on the status of T-Mobile's 3g area progress?
The main thing I want is faster internet for my phone (or possibley a different one) and a faster processor. I was going to sell my Wing since it's only a month old (got a new one ) and get a Mogul on ebay and get Sprint's 70 dollar plan that has all the same features my T-mobile plan has but Sprint's is cheaper and faster internet, plus the phone is better no?
Also. Do you know the specs for this phone? Wow how much better is the Android cause I read a lot of nice things about it
Looks like El Paso isn't getting 3G by the end of 2008, but several other places in Texas already have it or will by the end of the year.
http://tmonews.com/2008/09/t-mobile-officially-announces-3g-cities/
I don't know the specs for the Android phone, but there are some vids on Youtube and it's looking pretty sweet. Supposedly T-Mobile is going to have something official to say on it on Sept. 23.
Ah yeah I've seen videos and read about how people gossip that it's only going to cost 200 dollars. I hope it has a slide-out keyboard.
Hmm damn maybe I should just wait it out then??
Oh I was also wondering if the 5.99 T-Zones proxy hack still works to get full internet? Cause 20 dollars is very outrageous and that's one of the concrete reasons as to why I want a different plan with faster, and cheaper, internet.
Re: T-Zones proxy hack. Some users are reporting that it is still working in certain areas, but T-Mobile is actively closing this loophole. It hasn't worked here in close to a year. Even if it works for you now, I wouldn't bet it will last.
Which data plan are you looking at on Sprint? Some of their 'everything' plans are decent, but IMO $20 for unlimited internet is one of the best deals in the industry.
Hmm that sucks. See I wouldn't have mind paying 20$ for unlimited internet if it went faster than 150kbs/s. This 25kb/s is blasphemy for 20 dollars.
I was looking at sprint's 70$ plan; unlimited texting and picture messaging plus 450 whenever minutes with nights starting at 7pm and their wonderful EV-DO internet. I was planning on buying an HTC Mogul.
I think that's a better deal no? But that Google Android phone is wnticing me to keep T-mobile...
buru898 said:
I live in El Paso, Texas. Is there a place where I can check on the status of T-Mobile's 3g area progress?
The main thing I want is faster internet for my phone (or possibley a different one) and a faster processor. I was going to sell my Wing since it's only a month old (got a new one ) and get a Mogul on ebay and get Sprint's 70 dollar plan that has all the same features my T-mobile plan has but Sprint's is cheaper and faster internet, plus the phone is better no?
Also. Do you know the specs for this phone? Wow how much better is the Android cause I read a lot of nice things about it
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Click to collapse
haha me too!
but 3g sounds too expensive haha
Ahh lol well I'm sure the OS for the G1 will be ported... The main reason I wanted a new phone and better internet is because my parents are cheap and can't afford anything and I use internet sharing ALOT for my homework and it's so painfully slow . Plus it would be good to be able to download things that take a few hours rather than a few days.
Yeah but I'm thinking about selling this phone to get it. If the plans are under 100 dollars, I'm going to get it .
Well thanks guys for all the help and answering my questions. I guess I'll wait it out for the G1. I'm glad it's cheap.
buru, do you have EDGE coverage in your area? 25kbs is abysmal, even for straight GPRS! Before EDGE, I could pull close to 40kbs on GPRS, now that EDGE is here my speeds hover just under 200kbs. From what I've heard, some newer phones can surpass 200kbs on EDGE to, if they have up to date hardware with support for the latest EDGE specification. Granted, the Herald is no spring chicken, but you should be able to manage ~175kbs. It doesn't sound like much, but most sites I need to access on my phone offer a mobile site and EDGE speeds are quite tolerable for loading these pages.
Holy **** what?? About 175 kb/s?? Aww **** El Paso, Texas gets nothing good!!
Well I'm not sure but I believe it's GPRS. Plugged in using internet sharing or just downloading on Opera 4.1 my average is always about 25kb/s.
Man that blows that mines rediculously low. Where do you live and should I call T-Mobile and ask what their average speeds should be for my Wing? Cause I do have the total internet.
Damn even at 40kb/s I would be content but 200!! Geez... sadness. Now I'm even more disappointed.
buru- Go to this page and enter your zip code. Be sure to check "Display data coverage" at the bottom. When I searched El Paso, it showed the whole area fully covered by EDGE.
http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx
Are you running the stock ROM on the Wing? It is notorious for being crap. Also, check your data connection settings... perhaps your Wing is only set to GPRS. I'm not sure what the options are, but when I had my Treo 750 you could choose between GPRS and GRPS/3G... maybe the Wing has an option for EDGE...?
**** yeah I'll check it right now.
Lol the stock ROM is mad slow, screw that . I'm using ttran's wonderful Open Touch 6.5 no throttle and no spb.
I don't believe there's an option for EDGE cause when I connect to the internet it always displays "Connecting to GPRS..." regardless of anything.
Hmm... I'll mess with the internet options a bit and see what's up. If I find that everything points to my internet speeds being faster, should I call T-Mobile or go to their store over here and ask what's up?
Thanks also btw. But does the Wing even support EDGE? Maybe that's why?
The Wing definitely supports EDGE. If it is not a problem with the internet connection settings, you should call Customer Care (1-800-937-8997) and ask for PDA support. Be sure to call from a different phone, as they will want to go through some steps with you on the Wing. Don't even bother going into a store because this is going to be beyond the capabilities of 99% of the reps, and they will just put you on the phone with support anyways.
Hmm I think I will because I looked in the data connections and the only options are Cellular line (GPRS), Cellular line, My ISP, and some other one.
Damn that sucks though. So for sure my phone's internet speed should be faster than 25kb/s?
Based on your options, GPRS is the right setting. Technically, EDGE is a form of GPRS (unlike 3G, which is a whole new protocol). You should be getting more than 25kb for sure.
For the record, using my wing here in Tennessee, it ALWAYS says connecting to GPRS, but it displays an E for Edge network, or a G for GPRS Data network next to the signal icon up top of the screen. In most of the area(in backwoods TN) I get pretty darn good Edge coverage, running around 150 to 175 kbps. Definitely check it out, might try a different ROM if all else fails, just to eliminate that as a problem.
Syn
Hmm well it's always an E next to the network icon but it's easily less than 40kb/s all the time.
**** it I'm calling T-Mobile and asking how fast my internet speeds should be over here where I live.
I'm sure it isn't the ROM I'm using... It's ttran's OT 6.5 and I'm sure almost everyone else is also using it and not getting crappy ass speeds?
Ok I use have a Wing and ive never gotten a data plan because of the price. I finaly broke down and got a G1 cause there was more power under the hood plus anyone could develop on it being open. Well i got a deal on one and the price was decent so I got a data plan bundled with my original plan. Ive never used a data connection before so when I got home I started playing with it. I wasnt all that impresed with the connection speeds, Its almost like its on a crappy dial-up connection. The Youtube app is pretty much useless unless your on wifi it only plays about 2sec's before it buffers for a minute and then plays another 2sec's. Now is this normal? Is this what 3g really is? Am I missing a bigger picture here?. Heres some of the things i have done to try and get some sort of improvement.
Screwed around with APN's.
Tryed it in diffrent areas around the state.
Flashed it with 1.5 which i do believe came with a new radio.
Any input would be greatly appreciated, Im not putting down the phone as a matter of fact i love it, Im just not too fond of this connection technology.
I was dealing with some of the same issues.I installed Adrenaline and my connection seems way better
How is the coverage in you area? I've never had any problems with my 3G on my G1, always between 2 and 3 MBit connection...... Are you sure your carrier supports UMTS/HSDPA? Without those 3G is worth nothing..... Also make sure you are stationary when testing speeds.
Coverage is great ive never lost a 3g connection its just slow as hell and almost is useless to me, My carrier is T-mobile and wether or not it is supported i dont have a clue as to find out if it is.
well my test speed stationary was 38.6 Kbit\s with full bars, Doesnt even come close to your speeds. Any other Ideas?
When you're using your mobile network, does the 3G symbol show in the notification bar? Or does it say E? If it says E and you're getting those speeds then those are about right for the EDGE network. However, if you're connected with the 3G symbol next to the link, then those speeds are too slow. If it says E, make sure you don't have 2G network only checked under settings>wireless>mobile network. If that's not checked, then its likely you just don't have 3G in your area.
nope the notification is always 3G
Meh my edge is 10kb download, I would kill for 3g...
It takes miniutes to load pages and seconds to load google.
RBRat3 said:
Im just not too fond of this connection technology.
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Click to collapse
It's not the connection technology - it's either a problem with your phone, or just that your carriers network isn't very good and/or doesn't have the necessary backbone to cope with the amount of traffic generated by its subscribers. Given that T-Mobiles 3G network in the US isn't exactly pervasive, I'd hedge my bets that it is a network issue.
Here in the UK, I live in a very rural area, and I get 2.4mbps on my G1 via T-Mobile UK. Can't really tell the difference between being on WiFi and 3G given the actual processing speed of the device.
Of course, we're very lucky here in the sense that we are a small country (thing of Georgia and Florida combined) with a high population density. This means it is comparatively simple to get blanket 3G coverage (say 95% ish at least in terms of population).
Regards,
Dave
I never really said it was the connection technology, Its just that my first impression with 3g has been unfavorable, Damn I just sold my wing and i didnt even think of trying out the 3G on it to see if anything was better. Ohh and sadly when i do get edge Its great and alot more faster which is odd to say but to face the facts i can watch youtube videos with edge with no problem. Ill probley reflash it with official 1.5 and if i get the same results then is there a way to dumb down the browser to make it almost txt based without any image and uneeded script loading to atleast make browsing the web alittle more likeable.
RBRat3 said:
I never really said it was the connection technology, Its just that my first impression with 3g has been unfavorable, Damn I just sold my wing and i didnt even think of trying out the 3G on it to see if anything was better. Ohh and sadly when i do get edge Its great and alot more faster which is odd to say but to face the facts i can watch youtube videos with edge with no problem.
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Click to collapse
Theoretically, EDGE maxes out at 192kbps and "standard" UMTS 3G at 384kbps. With HSDPA, the theoretical maximum is 7.2mbps, but most carriers don't support speeds such as this yet (T-Mobile UK supposedly at 4.5mbps).
So, if you are getting better performance over EDGE than you are over 3G, and assuming that T-Mobile uses the same backhaul network for both 3G and EDGE traffic, it seems more likely to me that you may have a problem device. I'd suggest a trip to a T-Mobile retail location may help, since they should be able to compare your experience with other devices.
Regards,
Dave
Well ill check out some nearby stores and see if they have working display models to try it out and cross refrence them to see if they compare the same. To get alittle off topic here so far i have had one problem with the device I played Retro defense from the market (Game BTW) and i played it for 2 hours straight. After 2 hours of gameplay that phone was hotter than hell which was kinda scarey and It just shut off blinking red on the notification LED so i figured the phone can actually overheat. I can reproduce this over and over only with that game. So if that hasnt happend to anyone then its a possibility that your assumption might be right that my device might have a defect. But its kind of a big crossover between overheating and connection difficulty.
I wrote them an email asking why my data connections were so slow. Here was my reply:
Hi *****,
Thanks for your email to Virgin Mobile about your new phone.
We can only provide you with the information that's stated on the website when it comes to the technical information as we're not given any additional facts of the phone. After checking the website it doesn't state anything in regards to what the speeds should be when the phone is connected to the internet. If you'd like to take a look, click here.
There isn't any speed caps involved on your Virgin Mobile contract. Your HTC HD2 is able to connect at up to 3.5G, also known as HDSPA. You may find the connection slow if the tower you are connecting to is a 2G tower. You can identify what speed your connection is by looking at the top-right corner of the phone, a G icon would mean a slow connection. A 3 or a H should allow you to view web pages extremely quickly.
If you find that you're not getting on with the phone and you're unhappy with how it runs you've got 28 days from purchase to return the phone.
We hope that the above information provides useful.
If there's anything else we can help you with, just reply to this email. You can also give us a call on 789 from any Virgin Mobile phone – it's just 10p, no matter how long you talk for. Or, you can call us on 0845 6000 789 from a fixed line phone. These calls are charged at local rate.
Kind regards,
*****
Virgin Mobile
So I've got a phone capable of 'up to 3.5G' but they make no claim about what speeds I should be getting.
Bear this in mind if you're thinking of going Virgin too.
There is no network in the world that can gaurantee that you will be getting HSDPA speed 100% of the time.
Thats just common sense mate.
:facepalm:
Audio Oblivion said:
There is no network in the world that can gaurantee that you will be getting HSDPA speed 100% of the time.
Thats just common sense mate.
:facepalm:
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Click to collapse
You are correct.
But surely there should be a minimum amount of service a customer should expect.
Imagine a water utility company saying they couldn't guarantee how much water would come through the pipes, but you should pay your bills anyway for 'up to' a certain amount of water per month. And if it falls to a cupful of water per day, then too bad, it just means your neighbours were using a lot of water, tough.
I'm not expecting full speed 3G. I'm expecting pages like this one to load faster than 1 minute later, and without constant drop outs when I'm sat still in a chair in central London with full bar reception and my phone displaying 3G at the top.
There are so many variables to consider, forum usage can slow down, bandwidth usage in your area, atmospheric conditions etc, I'm also on virgin and when browsing this site on opera via 3G speeds are plenty addequate, no more than 3 seconds between links.
Sometimes i will get dropouts too but they are very rare the 3G network is massively over stretched with the popularity of 3G dongles and people sat there torrenting and what not, this is why the FUP is in effect, the 3G network at the moment cannot sustain a free for all.
Having said this you should be expected to get a reasonable service, in the past when on Tmobile, same as Virgin as it happens I have complained when not having any service for 3 days and they have knocked a few quid off my bill.
I found this on another forum from a poster called DBMandrake:
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Having been with Virgin (with my iPhone) and then leaving them due to their poor data network I feel I should comment here.
Virgin can not (or will not) provide true HSDPA speeds on a mobile plan. Even if you see an HSDPA indicator on your phone, at best you will get around 350kbit/sec, which is standard 3G speed not HSDPA, as they throttle the bandwidth. You can get HSDPA speeds on a mobile broadband dongle from Virgin, but not on a data plan for a phone.
Before a dozen people jump in and say "but I get more than 350Kbit on Virgin", some older grandfathered plans may still have uncapped speeds, but currently selling ones do not.
I contacted technical support on more than one occasion regarding this and they were unable to do anything or offer any means of increasing the speeds above 350kbit, (even by paying more) and were unaware of what speeds I should be receiving in the first place, and had no idea whether 350kbit constituted an acceptable speed.
Secondly, Virgin put all web traffic through an image optimizer that dramatically compresses the images. While that may look acceptable on a 1 inch screen, and speed up page loads, it looks god awful on an iPhone screen, especially when zooming in, and there is NO way on a mobile phone to disable or bypass this image optimizer.
Both of these policies are in place because T-Mobile (whose network Virgin piggybacks on) also have these policies, except in T-Mobile's case you CAN pay more to get your speed uncapped (web 'n walk plus tethering addon) but you still cannot get the image optimizer disabled.
For these reasons (and others) I left Virgin and went to 3 and never looked back. No annoying image optimizer, and uncapped speeds which regularly exceed 1.2Mbit and go as high as 3Mbit in some locations, and far better 3G coverage to boot. No comparison if data is important to you as it is to me.
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http://www.talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?p=36854
I can only assume it's a problem in certain areas, which by the nature of things there's not much that can be done, other than put more masts in, its purely down to location and network load.
But if the limit on Virgin/Tmobile is capped at 350kbit is that really a problem for general browsing, email and social networking? I certainly haven't encounted a lack of bandwidth since moving to virgin last week.
I would think the limit is there to keep the network usuable to all, as said before an unlimited uncapped network would surely grind to halt. If you read virgins T&C they state they cannot guarantee any speeds, to do so would be wrong due to the nature of the of the whole system.
I'll admit I'm being a bit hyper sensitve to the data rates. It's because I was really excited about the HD2 and really putting it through its paces. Which I can do, apart from mobile web, which is more of a gentle Sunday stroll after lunch... with my gran.
I appreciate that it's a bit of a phone mast lottery when it comes to data rates, but when you work in Zone 1 of London you'd expect the infrastructure to be better able to cope by now.
And I detest the whole 'up to' measurement on data when advertising plans. I understand why it's written such, but providers should have to provide a realistic picture of what the average punter can expect on a daily basis. Not what theoretical person could get while pigs are landing on the moon.
Virgin Speed
I have seen this in other forums.
I have gone to a speed test site (www.dslreports.com) and run from opera browser with both phones on my desk showing 4bars (H)
- on my HD with orange 1M to 1.2M
- on my HD2 with Virgin getting 200k - 250k.
Will be looking into this further with a view to returning HD2 under 28day return policy.
Im after selling my iphone 3g and buying this phone sim free and using a sim only plan/pay as you go smart phone plan....
anyone seen any good deals on a decent network? im looking for unlimited txts and as much net time as possible, dont care about minutes...who uses the phone part these days eh!
i know tmobile do a basic £10 +£5 per perk which could be internet or unlimited txts but i dont know how good the network actually is....
also tesco mobile seem to be a dirt cheap one too and thats meant to be based on the o2 network?
im quite interested in knowing what vodaphone/orange are like as a 3g/HSDPA provider...my house is just outside the 3g range on o2 but seems to be well in range for orange/vodaphone according to the coverage "maps"
thanks in advance.
3 PAYG has a data add on for £5 which gives you 1GB downloads in a month. Personally speaking I havent had any issues however much I download.
according to the 3 coverage map i may struggle to get a signal indoors.... lol.
orange seems by far the best coverage for me, all excellent coverage for 3g. of course it depends how you interpret these maps...
while on the subject does anyone else think the new 500mb download limits for the majority of UK networks is simply horrible? over 30 days thats around 16-17mb per day.......even browsing and viewing a few videos on youtube might be touching around that.....
I was just wondering what the opinions of T-mobile was for the members here. I have been on a Radioshack/AT&T employee plan since 2006 and even though I quit in 2008 I have continued to be on this plan. It was amazing (2000 minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data for $25 a month), however I just received notice today from my old AT&T rep that I will finally be taken off it. I am currently looking at switching to one of the major US carriers and am looking at the plan prices. I want to stick with an Android phone, so I'll need data. Verizon's cheapest plan looks to be $89.99/month for what I want (450 minutes, unlimited text, 2GB of data), with AT&T and Sprint's around $10 cheaper. I rarely use minutes (average of 250 a month), but I text quite a bit so I would want unlimited text. I also don't use data much. My max in the past year has been 134MB, however I know if I have a faster phone I will probably use data more. I was looking at T-mobile's plans and noticed they are drastically cheaper. $49.99/month for 500 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of data. Is their service much worse than AT&T, even though they are both GSM? I'd hate to switch to them and end up hating my service.
So in short, does anybody who has had AT&T and T-mobile notice a major difference between the two? Would I be better with sticking with Verizon or AT&T or are they all about equal nowadays?
Thanks in advance!
I recommend you buy an unlocked phone (hello Nexus!) and get a sim card from Straight Talk. They are a MVNO that runs on the AT&T network. I believe plans are $45.
It always depends on your area. For years I used Cingular(now At&t) and I had pretty decent service. About 5 years ago, T-Mobile was carrying a phone I wanted, so I decided to switch. (This was before I knew about the glory of unlocking ;P). T-Mobile's network was so horrible I never (read:NEVER) got service within a 2 mile radius of my home, and about the same at work.
I couldn't make a phone call with out it dropping, so I was forced to switch back to At&t. The guy at T-Mobile pulled up a "coverage map" and it claimed I should have the best service right in the area I needed it. So it was a bunch of bull if you ask me.
My suggestion has always been to talk to people who you know in the area of where you will be using your phone. I know some people from around my area who get great reception with T-Mobile and get awful service with At&t. I honestly have no idea how it happens, but it does.
Another route would be to get the phone to test (perhaps one of their pre-paid, no contract options?) and use it for a few days. If you are unhappy, simply return it. If you are returning it because of bad coverage they HAVE to take it back and give you a full refund.
I still think the asking people around the area is the best option. Perhaps you could give a general location, and ask people on the forums who are located near by to give you some of their opinions on their coverage? Its probably the best way to be sure, if you ask me.
T-Mobile was great to me in the East Bay area of northern California, until last November, when they instituted traffic-shaping policies that meant every single JPEG image on the internet was horribly compressed into an ugly mess of artifacts and banded gradients.
I really miss T-Mobile's HSPA+ speed. AT&T just can't quite get as fast. But I'll take a 20-25% slower connection that isn't adulterated over a faster one that's been tampered with.
I've had ok experiences with T-Mobile. When I lived in Atlanta there were many areas where I simply didn't get a signal, but that's probably due to to the terrain. As suggested you should probably ask others in the area where you will be how their coverage is. In regards to plans, I'm on a contracted unlimited talk/text, 2GB data for $90. I'll be modifying that at the soonest opportunity... I guess at least the phone itself was cheaper at the time :/
Thanks for info!
.
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Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.
I've had T-Mobile for a few years now, and I can't wait to leave this company. I'm currently in the process of jumping ship. I've driven from California to Tennessee, Tennessee to Iowa, Iowa to Michigan, and back again. I've never seen such garbage coverage from a cellular company. I have a 4G compatible phone, but I've only ever seen 4G when I fly through Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Their 3G coverage area is also terrible.
So, Cons are as follows:
4G: What 4G?
3G: Doesn't exist
2G: Covers the entire country with data speeds barely faster than dial-up, unless you live more than 25 miles outside a big city, or in North Dakota in general.
Reception: It's a well known fact that T-Mobile cannot maintain or even guarantee any sort of standard level of service indoors.
Pros:
Pricing: They are cheap for a reason.
"Unlimited" Data Plans: They "throttle" them after a certain amount of time, and it's throttling to less than 2G speeds. In fact, you should try being throttled while trying to drive across the country using Google maps...
Customer Service: The only pleasant part of my time with T-Mobile.
cdchris12 said:
I've had T-Mobile for a few years now, and I can't wait to leave this company. I'm currently in the process of jumping ship. I've driven from California to Tennessee, Tennessee to Iowa, Iowa to Michigan, and back again. I've never seen such garbage coverage from a cellular company. I have a 4G compatible phone, but I've only ever seen 4G when I fly through Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Their 3G coverage area is also terrible.
So, Cons are as follows:
4G: What 4G?
3G: Doesn't exist
2G: Covers the entire country with data speeds barely faster than dial-up, unless you live more than 25 miles outside a big city, or in North Dakota in general.
Reception: It's a well known fact that T-Mobile cannot maintain or even guarantee any sort of standard level of service indoors.
Pros:
Pricing: They are cheap for a reason.
"Unlimited" Data Plans: They "throttle" them after a certain amount of time, and it's throttling to less than 2G speeds. In fact, you should try being throttled while trying to drive across the country using Google maps...
Customer Service: The only pleasant part of my time with T-Mobile.
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Click to collapse
Those may have been YOUR experiences and I'm not discounting that BUT....
I have FIVE LINES with T-Mobile
NEVER HAVE I HAD an issue with signal or coverage indoors.
Full bars in my home, excellent signal (68dBm-72dBm).
Very good coverage in Jersey City, NJ where I live.
My husband whom travels all over the tri-state area (NY,NJ,CT) doesn't have any reception issues either.
Fast HSPA+ (yes, it's a 3.5G technology) speeds depending on the device used. (I have the Amaze,,Sensation and, a Nexus S on T-Mobile ATM)
Wasn't me!! I didn't do it!
I completely disagree with cdchris12 however I always lived in area with good T-Mobile coverage and their throttle speed is fast enough to view website and use Google Maps. I do find that depends on the phone, usually older ones can have problem keeping data and gps in door, unless you're next to a window. With newer big phones with good antenna is not so much a problem.
I'd say get an unlocked phone and go with T-Mobile prepaid $50/month plan which give you unlimited everything and throttle to 2G after 2GB of usage. Unless you need roaming which isn't available with prepaid. I have family and friends who use ATT 3G and T-Mobile 3G network is always faster to me. In fact, with a Galaxy SII with dual HSPA+ antenna I get speed excess of 20mbps. Straight Talk has the same plan for $45 I believe and they go through T-Mobile network.
T-Mobile also allows you to tether which ATT don't, although recently I heard they changed that for people with $70 plan.
You might also find this useful: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21604722&postcount=2
To get T-Mobile 3G you need a phone that support 1700/2100Mhz band.
In the East Bay area T-Mobile's HSPA+ speeds are really quite fast. I often saw 8-9Mbps downstream on my Galaxy Nexus before I switched to AT&T.
Unfortunately a fast internet connection is useless if your carrier alters all images on the internet so everything looks like dogpoo.
I have no idea what you are talking about, you might be accessing website through some kind of proxy like Opera Mini/Turbo. I know you will reply that that isn't the case, but I really can't think why that would be the case, but it has to be through some kind of proxy. I also notice some roms are set to connect to SimpleMobile by default instead of T-Mobile, which also causes problems. With Opera Mobile using desktop user agent, it looks exactly like my PC, and I've tried 5 different Android phones with T-Mobile. I haven't heard of millions other T-Mobile users complaining about degrading pictures quality from browser.
eksasol said:
I have no idea what you are talking about, you might be accessing website through some kind of proxy like Opera Mini/Turbo. I know you will reply that that isn't the case, but I really can't think why that would be the case, but it has to be through some kind of proxy. I also notice some roms are set to connect to SimpleMobile by default instead of T-Mobile, which also causes problems. With Opera Mobile using desktop user agent, it looks exactly like my PC, and I've tried 5 different Android phones with T-Mobile. I haven't heard of millions other T-Mobile users complaining about degrading pictures quality from browser.
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Click to collapse
It's a proxy, but the proxy is on T-Mobile's end, not mine. It's a transparent proxy and it works exactly like the Opera Mini proxy, but I can't choose to turn it off. Connecting through a VPN would obviously fix the problem, but there's no easy way to force Android to auto-connect to a VPN every time I open the browser.
Trust me, I was thorough. The user agent wasn't an issue. The APN was set correctly. I spent over ten hours on the phone with T-Mobile's technical support and I hard reset the phones on both lines multiple times, restored to unrooted stock multiple times, and nothing fixed the issue. When I bought my Galaxy Nexus, I tested it before unlocking the bootloader and rooting it, and had the same exact issue.
Just to be absolutely sure, I even tested the issue on an iOS device (iPhone 3GS) and a WP7 device (HD7) with the same results--heavily compressed JPEG images when viewing any unencrypted page.
It no longer matters since I left T-Mobile for AT&T, which uses no such proxy.
Edit: I should note that I'm not the only one with this problem. Every person I know in the SF Bay area who uses T-Mobile has this problem. It may be automatic traffic shaping algorithms used on a tower-by-tower basis (which would explain why some people don't have the problem), but yeah, it's all over the place here. I tested demo phones in every T-Mobile store I could easily reach in the area--three in SF, two in Oakland, one in Berkeley and one in El Cerrito, and they all exhibit the same problem.
For example:
Actual quality, downloaded over wifi (180kb)
Very low quality, downloaded over T-Mobile 3G (55kb)
Yea, the compression thing on TMo is a well known thing. It doesn't bother me personally.
To throw in my experience with AT&T/T-Mobile here, I review phones as a side project. I've noted several differences in the two networks. Most are well known things that others have commented on. T-Mobile EASILY has better customer service. They always have. They pride themselves in their outstanding customer care. As long as you aren't being retarded or yelling at them, they will do everything possible to make you a happy customer.
As far as coverage goes, check the maps. AT&T has a bigger network footprint. T-Mobile has better network speeds. I get better speeds on T-Mobile 3G than on AT&T LTE. Obviously this is very dependent on location, but that's how it is here.
If you have coverage from T-Mobile and don't mind the picture compression, I strongly suggest it. I lived without 3G from T-Mobile for 2 and a half years while I was in the Army on base in Georgia. EDGE speeds are respectable from them. Their customer service and my ridiculously old $50 unlimited everything plan kept me going.
T-Mobile does throttle users once you reach your limits. I've never been throttled personally, but I've maxed out a test SGS2 just to see what it's like. You are still able to browse the web. No videos or streaming music, though. Speed tests put the throttling at around 70-110 Kbps. This is within EDGE speeds. Their unthrottled EDGE speeds are between 160-320 Kbps here. By comparison, GPRS speed drops down to about 20-40 Kbps.
My preference is for good customer service. T-Mobile has always been there for me, even when things got tight for me. I see no reason to leave them now. Look at the news just within the last 6 months. AT&T couldn't care less about its customers. It doesn't change anything until it gets sued.
cajunflavoredbob said:
Yea, the compression thing on TMo is a well known thing. It doesn't bother me personally.
To throw in my experience with AT&T/T-Mobile here, I review phones as a side project. I've noted several differences in the two networks. Most are well known things that others have commented on. T-Mobile EASILY has better customer service. They always have. They pride themselves in their outstanding customer care. As long as you aren't being retarded or yelling at them, they will do everything possible to make you a happy customer.
As far as coverage goes, check the maps. AT&T has a bigger network footprint. T-Mobile has better network speeds. I get better speeds on T-Mobile 3G than on AT&T LTE. Obviously this is very dependent on location, but that's how it is here.
If you have coverage from T-Mobile and don't mind the picture compression, I strongly suggest it. I lived without 3G from T-Mobile for 2 and a half years while I was in the Army on base in Georgia. EDGE speeds are respectable from them. Their customer service and my ridiculously old $50 unlimited everything plan kept me going.
T-Mobile does throttle users once you reach your limits. I've never been throttled personally, but I've maxed out a test SGS2 just to see what it's like. You are still able to browse the web. No videos or streaming music, though. Speed tests put the throttling at around 70-110 Kbps. This is within EDGE speeds. Their unthrottled EDGE speeds are between 160-320 Kbps here. By comparison, GPRS speed drops down to about 20-40 Kbps.
My preference is for good customer service. T-Mobile has always been there for me, even when things got tight for me. I see no reason to leave them now. Look at the news just within the last 6 months. AT&T couldn't care less about its customers. It doesn't change anything until it gets sued.
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Click to collapse
This^^^^ %110. That being said, I've only experienced image compression in NYC, in a few areas (mostly midtown Manhattan). I live in Jersey City, NJ and haven't experienced it here. Even with image compression, images don't look THAT BAD....at least IMO.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
Babydoll25 said:
This^^^^ %110. That being said, I've only experienced image compression in NYC, in a few areas (mostly midtown Manhattan). I live in Jersey City, NJ and haven't experienced it here. Even with image compression, images don't look THAT BAD....at least IMO.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
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For me, they looked so bad I was willing to pay $40 more a month to AT&T in order to make it go away permanently. The other line on my account is used by my partner, and she would frequently read manga raws on her phone. When the image compression started, the Japanese characters in the raw manga scans became totally illegible. She was, to put it mildly, rather upset. This is probably 90% of why she owns a smartphone and is willing to pay for it, so I'm sure you can see the issue here.
For me it was an aesthetic issue, but for her it was a functionality issue. In any case, we pay a little more a month, but we also get more--and I personally prefer AT&T's method of handling data. At least on AT&T if I want more than 3GB a month I can pay to get extra GBs. On T-Mobile, you'd get throttled regardless and EDGE in the East Bay is completely unusable.
I would have stayed with T-Mobile had I been able to figure out how to automatically log into a VPN every time I opened an app that pulled image assets from the web (the browser, the Android Market, etc). Unfortunately, the only solution I found also wakelocked the phone permanently, preventing it from sleeping and killing any semblance of good battery life.
synaesthetic said:
For me, they looked so bad I was willing to pay $40 more a month to AT&T in order to make it go away permanently. The other line on my account is used by my partner, and she would frequently read manga raws on her phone. When the image compression started, the Japanese characters in the raw manga scans became totally illegible. She was, to put it mildly, rather upset. This is probably 90% of why she owns a smartphone and is willing to pay for it, so I'm sure you can see the issue here.
For me it was an aesthetic issue, but for her it was a functionality issue. In any case, we pay a little more a month, but we also get more--and I personally prefer AT&T's method of handling data. At least on AT&T if I want more than 3GB a month I can pay to get extra GBs. On T-Mobile, you'd get throttled regardless and EDGE in the East Bay is completely unusable.
I would have stayed with T-Mobile had I been able to figure out how to automatically log into a VPN every time I opened an app that pulled image assets from the web (the browser, the Android Market, etc). Unfortunately, the only solution I found also wakelocked the phone permanently, preventing it from sleeping and killing any semblance of good battery life.
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Click to collapse
I think that's the main problem with the way TMo handles it. It's not consistent. It seems to be worse based on location and usage. More compression in more populated areas or something. For me, I can tell that the images are compressed if I zoom in inside a webpage, but otherwise, it's business as usual.
Same with the data speeds. A lot of people say that it drops to regular GPRS speeds when they get throttled. I only tested it the one time with that review unit SGS2, but it wasn't that bad. 100Kbps is fine for web browsing. The problem seems to be that it's all very much a "your mileage may vary" situation.
AT&T is evil, but at least they are consistent.
They're all evil. We simply pick the lesser evil in any given location.
I'm kind of surprised that nobody's mentioned T-Mobile's Wifi Calling. It allows you to get service anywhere that has a Wifi network available, and you can do everything as normal (Call, text, internet) through your plan. I use it everyday, and I think it's great.
theholyfork said:
I'm kind of surprised that nobody's mentioned T-Mobile's Wifi Calling. It allows you to get service anywhere that has a Wifi network available, and you can do everything as normal (Call, text, internet) through your plan. I use it everyday, and I think it's great.
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It's nice to have, but kind of crappy that it still counts against you, even though you aren't using their towers...