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Rumor: Sprint and T-Mobile may team up to complete 4G network

On paper, Sprint and T-Mobile seem like complete opposites: Sprint has 4G, T-Mobile has "4G speeds" with HSPA+; Sprint is CDMA, T-Mobile is GSM; Sprint is yellow, T-Mobile is magenta. Ok, maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch, but you get the point. Despite the glaring differences, a rumor has surfaced today stating that the two carriers may soon be in cahoots to finish building out Sprint's 4G network. Three people "familiar with the situation" have spoken to the Wall Street Journal, saying that Sprint's board of directors is considering allowing T-Mobile to invest in Clearwire, the company that is aiding Sprint with their WiMAX network (Sprint also owns 54 percent of Clearwire). Clearwire currently needs billions of dollars to finished expanding its 4G network, the WSJ says, and it needs to figure out if it will continue to soldier on alone or get some financial aid from T-Mobile. This isn't the first time we've heard the possibility of Sprint and T-Mobile teaming up and, if Clearwire and Sprint need as much cash as the WSJ says they do, it may not be the last time.
Although Sprint and T-Mobile could use each other to help bring the fight to AT&T and Verizon, I would be kind of surprised to the number three and four carriers come together. T-Mobile seems pretty invested in their HSPA+ network upgrades and, if they were to invest in WiMAX, their hot new HSPA+ phones would become kind of obsolete. It would, however, allow them to immediately have a 4G network available to some of its customers, so maybe the idea isn't so far-fetched. What do you think, readers? Will we soon be hearing about SprinT-Mobile?
source: http://www.phonedog.com/2010/09/03/rumor-sprint-and-t-mobile-may-team-up-to-complete-4g-network/

I'll believe it when I see it. Number three and number four? I agree with T being four in terms of network Sprint is #2 behind Verizon last I heard.
auau465121 said:
On paper, Sprint and T-Mobile seem like complete opposites: Sprint has 4G, T-Mobile has "4G speeds" with HSPA+; Sprint is CDMA, T-Mobile is GSM; Sprint is yellow, T-Mobile is magenta. Ok, maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch, but you get the point. Despite the glaring differences, a rumor has surfaced today stating that the two carriers may soon be in cahoots to finish building out Sprint's 4G network. Three people "familiar with the situation" have spoken to the Wall Street Journal, saying that Sprint's board of directors is considering allowing T-Mobile to invest in Clearwire, the company that is aiding Sprint with their WiMAX network (Sprint also owns 54 percent of Clearwire). Clearwire currently needs billions of dollars to finished expanding its 4G network, the WSJ says, and it needs to figure out if it will continue to soldier on alone or get some financial aid from T-Mobile. This isn't the first time we've heard the possibility of Sprint and T-Mobile teaming up and, if Clearwire and Sprint need as much cash as the WSJ says they do, it may not be the last time.
Although Sprint and T-Mobile could use each other to help bring the fight to AT&T and Verizon, I would be kind of surprised to the number three and four carriers come together. T-Mobile seems pretty invested in their HSPA+ network upgrades and, if they were to invest in WiMAX, their hot new HSPA+ phones would become kind of obsolete. It would, however, allow them to immediately have a 4G network available to some of its customers, so maybe the idea isn't so far-fetched. What do you think, readers? Will we soon be hearing about SprinT-Mobile?
source: http://www.phonedog.com/2010/09/03/rumor-sprint-and-t-mobile-may-team-up-to-complete-4g-network/
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Last I read, Sprint is moving forward with LTE purchases. That opens talks again with T.
T will not move to wimax.

Bielinsk said:
Last I read, Sprint is moving forward with LTE purchases. That opens talks again with T.
T will not move to wimax.
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I heard that too... but HSPA+ is not LTE and neither are technically 4G. i dont really consider wimax to to be 4G either thou.
"An IMT-Advanced cellular system must have target peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access, according to the ITU requirements. Scalable bandwidths up to at least 40 MHz should be provided."

I dont want a merger lol less competition equals more money from my pockets. There is plenty of competition right now though among the monthly plan companies keeping things low I guess.
Also it sounds like T-Mobile would be paying Sprint to help build 4G and T-Mobile would get in reward to use 4G. So... now we gotta share with T-Mobile. Also I bet if we start sharing we get capped. I mean currently 4G is uncapped mostly because there arnt a huge network of people using all of its resources.

twilk73 said:
I dont want a merger lol less competition equals more money from my pockets. There is plenty of competition right now though among the monthly plan companies keeping things low I guess.
Also it sounds like T-Mobile would be paying Sprint to help build 4G and T-Mobile would get in reward to use 4G. So... now we gotta share with T-Mobile. Also I bet if we start sharing we get capped. I mean currently 4G is uncapped mostly because there arnt a huge network of people using all of its resources.
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Not quite. The reason there aren't any worries with WiMax is because of the huge amounts of bandwidth Clearwire and Sprint have access to. The bandwidth combined with the shorter range of towers means that the network can handle a lot of people using the network at any given time. T-mobile is small enough, it shouldn't make a big enough difference. The bandwidth part won't change if they ever convert to LTE, so Clear and Sprint have the advantage right now due to having the only functioning 4G capable network and the ability to upgrade that network relatively effortlessly, and still have enough bandwidth to beat Verizon/everyone else.

I actually don't think this is a bad idea. If it would help expedite the expansion of the 4G network then onward and upward I say. For the amount of bandwidth that T-Mo would gain access to it would be a benefit to them. And maybe Sprint could get some pointers from T-Mo on customer service. Sprint has come a long way in that respect since we signed up, but I hear a lot of T customers swear by the service they get. All in all it sounds like it could have a win-win for both companies and the customers. Then again corporate America has an amazing penchant for screwing up what could otherwise be a good thing. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Rumor has been going around for quite some time - today was hardly the first mention of this in the media...
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Pierceye said:
I actually don't think this is a bad idea. If it would help expedite the expansion of the 4G network then onward and upward I say. For the amount of bandwidth that T-Mo would gain access to it would be a benefit to them. And maybe Sprint could get some pointers from T-Mo on customer service. Sprint has come a long way in that respect since we signed up, but I hear a lot of T customers swear by the service they get. All in all it sounds like it could have a win-win for both companies and the customers. Then again corporate America has an amazing penchant for screwing up what could otherwise be a good thing. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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You would be right.my brother had/has nothing but great things to say about tmobile cs.
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I wish they would team up so I could get my hands on a G2.

It's official, CDMA call quality and bandwidth reduction coming on 10th of February.

Severe bandwidth problems to come on the 10th of February and onwards. I left ATT for this?? Crap.. I knew i should have gotten an Epic.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/iphone.jsp

The main difference between AT&T and Verizon is that verizon purchased the largest carrier in the country(network footprint wise) a couple years back leaving them with the most robust network in the country.
AT&T is a bunch of asshats that stopped spending on towers when they figured out that their customers were sufficiently complacent about the network problems being a way of life.

Have you seen any of the articles stating that Android/BB users tend to use more bandwidth on average than iPhone users? What are the biggest smartphones on VZW? Will it cause more network load, yes, but I doubt it will be anything that's going to cripple Verizon's network like it did for AT&T.

imnuts said:
I doubt it will be anything that's going to cripple Verizon's network like it did for AT&T.
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true dat.
VZW got that beefy backhaul
big red prepared, at&t underestimated and has paid for it in customer satisfaction ever since
for more on this: http://gizmodo.com/5730554/will-the-iphone-crush-verizons-network

I really don't think the Iphone is better then any android phone with the balls to back it up. Really you get more out of Google's Android for free then you do from Apple and their aps that you pay for.
I'm going to hold out till something convinces me that my Fascinate is no longer worth it. Could be 2 more years since I just got mine last September.

Interesting. Read the tech specs, it's all GSM information. Wonder if that's live information or just something they put up there for now.

pinecone said:
Interesting. Read the tech specs, it's all GSM information. Wonder if that's live information or just something they put up there for now.
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The phone is identical except for having a CDMA radio instead of the GSM radio. So just replace quad band gsm with 800mhz and 1900mhz for CDMA and remove the ability to talk and download at the same time.

Xanius said:
The phone is identical except for having a CDMA radio instead of the GSM radio. So just replace quad band gsm with 800mhz and 1900mhz for CDMA and remove the ability to talk and download at the same time.
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.... and gain the ability to actually talk when you want to wherever you are.

DarthCivicus said:
I really don't think the Iphone is better then any android phone with the balls to back it up.
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Yeah, but that's not the point... The point is that some of the iHerd will be coming over from AT&T to *add* to all the Android users we're sharing bandwidth with now. Especially in the major markets where AT&T is really bad (like, um, Manhattan), this could mean a BIG spike/shift in data use.
Swyped from my Voodoo-powered Fascinate via XDA

haha^^
Besides, even if it did cripple data (and it wont), why would it cripple voice? Uninformed threads ftl.

Now we are going to find out the truth. Is it the iphone or AT&T's crappy network.

Kristopherr said:
Now we are going to find out the truth. Is it the iphone or AT&T's crappy network.
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Both, my iphone and my wifes iphone had vastly different signal quality and dropped calls even when sitting right next to eachother.

I have an ipod touch 4g and a fascinate. Once they get the jailbreak for the 4.2 OS the touch will complement my rooted facinate nicely. Don't need no iphone

I think everyone kind of glossed over what Adrynalyne was saying so let me say it again for him. We use a different type of technology from ATT for cell phone service. It would be pretty hard to create the same type of technical problems due to this. ATT uses a gsm service that uses data and voice over the same bandwith pipe, so huge spikes in either could potentially disrupt the other. Obviously now a days people use data way more than voice, so it has been a thorn in ATT's side because they could never keep up with the bandwith. Verizon on the other hand has voice and data coming down two different pipes, which keeps them separate. All the worrying about call dropping and quality doesn't make sense because iPhone users don't just make phone calls and leave their phone running on calls all day (at least the ones I know) It can, however, effect our data speeds and usage. We already have slower theoretical max speeds than that of ATT, so a slowdown could affect us with less users that of ATT users. But luckily for us, when the iPhone 5 drops, we more advanced android users will be on LTE leaving the unwashed masses to their iPhones on CDMA .

CDMA technology also requires a denser tower configuration compared to GSM, so VZW should have more towers in place where they have service compared to AT&T. Each tower has it's own connection to the internet, so the denser tower configuration should also help distribute the potential increased data load. I also think that the load will be a temporary spike. The first week or two after the release will be the worst as every goes data happy with their new phones. After that, there will be normal usage and rates should return to a somewhat normal level.

I used a Captivate, iphone and several other phones on ATT. It's always the same story, multiple disconnects during travel, very slow data rates and bad reception frequently. We know that ATT fudged their signal strength already, the towers are simply too far apart. But with the expected 9 million plus users, even Verizon towers could get onslaught-ed. I would expect that APPLE, notoriously known for strong arm tactics even forced VERIZON to bump us android users off a call if an iPhone user was using simultaneously and there was no room. Probably part of the contract with Apple. We know Verizon was desperate for this move and is scheduled to lose over 5 Billion in the first year subsidizing Apple. If you in anyway think this is not going to affect us, you are crazy.
It's possible that the ATT users of iphones actually get a boost from this while we Verizon subscribers suffer.

As of around this point last year, Verizon had 91+ million subscribers, and AT&T wasn't too far behind (~85 million). The number of VZW subscribers isn't going to spike by some crazy number so much so that VZW's network is going to be brought to it's knees. Android phones aren't exactly bandwidth friendly, so if it's not an issue now, it won't be when the iPhone gets release.
Verizon is seriously OCD about their network, it's part of the reason testing takes so damn long. You can bet they've thought long and hard about the projected spikes, and have made sure their network can handle it. AT&T was in a position where they needed everything they could get, and they underestimated the iPhone's popularity. It's no mystery that the iPhone will sell on Verizon, but there's a history Verizon can use to make sure they're prepared.
I'm not concerned...

orateam said:
I used a Captivate, iphone and several other phones on ATT. It's always the same story, multiple disconnects during travel, very slow data rates and bad reception frequently. We know that ATT fudged their signal strength already, the towers are simply too far apart. But with the expected 9 million plus users, even Verizon towers could get onslaught-ed. I would expect that APPLE, notoriously known for strong arm tactics even forced VERIZON to bump us android users off a call if an iPhone user was using simultaneously and there was no room. Probably part of the contract with Apple. We know Verizon was desperate for this move and is scheduled to lose over 5 Billion in the first year subsidizing Apple. If you in anyway think this is not going to affect us, you are crazy.
It's possible that the ATT users of iphones actually get a boost from this while we Verizon subscribers suffer.
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1. Not all AT&T iPhone users are going to switch over on 2/10, and there are a ton of reasons for this. Mainly corporate discounts, service, carrier history, cost, etc.
2. They will not kick people off of their connection if a tower is overloaded. If they do and get caught, you can imagine the law suit that would cause.
3. Verizon is not desperate for customers/iPhone. If the rumors are true, Verizon passed up the iPhone the first time around. And with all the money being put into the DROID lineup, why would they be desperate to bring in it's biggest competitor.
4. AT&T users will still have issues because AT&T has a crappy network. It won't be as bad, but it will still have its problems.

lets be honest. at&t sucked before the iphone. vzw will have a proportional number of people switching to lte anyway will offset any iphone att&t ship jumpers.
we will be fine with our robust network and ****ty customer service. vzw will be able to justify their arrogance well into the future.
have no fears.

Xanius said:
The phone is identical except for having a CDMA radio instead of the GSM radio. So just replace quad band gsm with 800mhz and 1900mhz for CDMA and remove the ability to talk and download at the same time.
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Stop parroting AT&T's marketing, it makes you look like a shill. CDMA has never had that ability. It's a function of the radio hardware, and yet CDMA carriers still dominate the cell phone market in the US, and many other areas.
Read facts, then post. It's a much more rewarding path.
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mp3 file throttling/shaping by tmo

I don't know how many here use podcast app that download mp3 files such as google listen, but for me this has recently been very slow unless using wifi. No mater wich app, kernel, modem, rom... I can only get 10kB/s. I'm not over the 5 gig limit either and everything else is plenty fast as it should be.
It appears that tmo is slowing all mp3 files down except the amazon mp3 app. Has anyone else been having issues with this?
I've found one other thread on the tmo forums about the issue.
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My data connection was pretty crappy last week. Back to normal this week.

This has been going on for almost two months for me
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I haven't been able to dl car talk via npr podcast apps on 3g as of late, this would explain why
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Amazon MP3 is slow on AT&T or T-Mobile for me.

This is impossible unless they are targeting particular hosts, but I think that might be illegal.
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It's definitely not impossible. As to the legality of it, that may be more of a gray area. They can make many seemingly reasonable claims to justify it, including improving the efficiency of their network.
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Well I really hope this is not true because this will heavily sway my current somewhat positive view of them.
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SeanFloyd said:
Yeah, **** tmobile. Never realized how ****ty the network was till my gf got a Samsung Epic on Sprint. ****s all over tmobile.
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Sprint is garbage around these parts and they have traffic shaping as well - all carriers do. 4G a horrible experience because of the constant disconnects/loss of signal.

heygrl said:
Sprint is garbage around these parts and they have traffic shaping as well - all carriers do. 4G a horrible experience because of the constant disconnects/loss of signal.
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Can't comment on the 4g sentiment but her 3g on Sprint seems at least twice as fast as T-Mobile's 3g. I am living in the Phoenix area so there should be ample coverage.

SeanFloyd said:
Can't comment on the 4g sentiment but her 3g on Sprint seems at least twice as fast as T-Mobile's 3g. I am living in the Phoenix area so there should be ample coverage.
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You're kidding right? You must be in an area with a ton of T-Mobile customers because the last time I was out there Sprint 3G was complete garbage and I was getting 2-5Mbps easy with T-Mobile's 3G. Not to mention, Sprint's data card was switching back between 1X and EV-DO on Sprint and downloading any type of file at 27KB/sec. It was really pathetic and still is. There are rampant complaints about Sprint 3G in Phoenix right on this forum.. look in the Evo section.

This is definitely real. Just google it, people are complaining lots of places. It's odd because I can download other audio formats of the exact same file (or any other type of file I've tried) at normal speed. Speedtest confirms a solid 5.5mbps connection. I hit tmo up on twitter about it but haven't heard a response. Haven't tried calling them but others confirm they have.
I not sure it's illegal as of now. They control their networks until some form of net neutrality is passed.

yea ive noticed the same thing

I've noticed the same thing, google listen downloads over 3g are slow, wifi fast. When listening to shows on rapid transit, invariably the TCP connection will either break or I will hit the 'end' in the middle of the down load, and I'm left with like half a friggin download to listen to.
Slowing it down is easy to do. There are traffic shapers, the most popular ones are Sandvine and the Cisco Service Control Engine, that can pick out traffic and traffic signatures and rate limit them in hardware.
The legality is questionable if they don't disclose what they are doing up front.
I've been meaning to setup a vpn with home and the phone to avoid this slow down, but haven't found the time.

I actually spoke to a tmobile rep about this cuz I had experienced this problem for about a month. they went through the usual steps..... Turn off phone, take out sim card and battery, and ofcourse clear my browsers cache, that was a load of crap. Anyways the rep told me that I had an outdated sim card in my phone, I got a new one and still my downloads of twit podcasts and other MP3 files are slow as hell.
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Same issue with a Nexus S. Called tmobile, claimed they have never heard of the problem, but their engineers will look at it when they get a chance since it is a low priority issue. So lame. However, not everyone is having this problem, it almost seems to be affecting people in certain area's I for one am in Orlando.

It's not a problem, you've just wasted your time by calling in.. it's intentional to manage network traffic. Even Slacker streams are shaped.

heygrl said:
Sprint is garbage around these parts and they have traffic shaping as well - all carriers do. 4G a horrible experience because of the constant disconnects/loss of signal.
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Sprint has a bigger network 3G network than T-Mobile - Voice too. T-Mobile depends on Roaming for voice, and they aren't building out their data network - just upgrading them to HSPA+ (Software upgrade, not hard or expensive).
Traveling around with an AT&T or Sprint phone is a different experience than T-Mobile. Driving to Houston, my Vibrant was drops signal (Voice and Data) between major cities like nothing.
That never happened when I had an AT&T phone. I could basically be on 3G the whole way there... My phone would never become useless while traveling.
With T-Mobile if you travel to some cities you also run the risk of having nothing but GPRS for voice and no decent data connection. The risk of that with the larger carriers is much less. T-Mobile is decent in bigger cities, but outside of them (I'm talking, drive 3-5 miles out of some of them) they are terrible.
They're cheap because the service is cheap, compared to other carriers. AT&T and Verizon get by with charging more because their networks are huge by comparison, and while AT&T has had issues they have been consistently building their network out and adding capacity. T-Mobile and Sprint haven't (not that they need to, they aren't that large). AT&T just put up a new tower here, for example, so they're the only carrier around here with 3G/HSPA coverage.
T-Mobile gets voice coverage due to roaming contracts. Verizon and Sprint get little to no coverage here...
EDIT: GSM 3G is faster than CDMA 3G. There's really no argument about that. Of course, if T-Mobile doesn't have great towers/service where you live that can flip. But Coverage and Reliability > Speed, and that's why T-Mobile is still the smallest carrier despite having the best prices/plans. Their 3G network is too small, and unreliable especially if you travel and/or live outside of major cities.

ibous said:
It's definitely not impossible. As to the legality of it, that may be more of a gray area. They can make many seemingly reasonable claims to justify it, including improving the efficiency of their network.
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Horrible since with that excuse they cap everything,while still selling in BIG LETTERS The FASTEST 4G NETWORK.

N8ter said:
Sprint has a bigger network 3G network than T-Mobile - Voice too. T-Mobile depends on Roaming for voice, and they aren't building out their data network - just upgrading them to HSPA+ (Software upgrade, not hard or expensive).
Traveling around with an AT&T or Sprint phone is a different experience than T-Mobile. Driving to Houston, my Vibrant was drops signal (Voice and Data) between major cities like nothing.
That never happened when I had an AT&T phone. I could basically be on 3G the whole way there... My phone would never become useless while traveling.
With T-Mobile if you travel to some cities you also run the risk of having nothing but GPRS for voice and no decent data connection. The risk of that with the larger carriers is much less. T-Mobile is decent in bigger cities, but outside of them (I'm talking, drive 3-5 miles out of some of them) they are terrible.
They're cheap because the service is cheap, compared to other carriers. AT&T and Verizon get by with charging more because their networks are huge by comparison, and while AT&T has had issues they have been consistently building their network out and adding capacity. T-Mobile and Sprint haven't (not that they need to, they aren't that large). AT&T just put up a new tower here, for example, so they're the only carrier around here with 3G/HSPA coverage.
T-Mobile gets voice coverage due to roaming contracts. Verizon and Sprint get little to no coverage here...
EDIT: GSM 3G is faster than CDMA 3G. There's really no argument about that. Of course, if T-Mobile doesn't have great towers/service where you live that can flip. But Coverage and Reliability > Speed, and that's why T-Mobile is still the smallest carrier despite having the best prices/plans. Their 3G network is too small, and unreliable especially if you travel and/or live outside of major cities.
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Verizon has better cover than both from what i read.
But here in Puerto Rico T-mobile is good,and i have data pretty much any were i go,they are cheap because they are the smaller guys not the big ones,and have a much better customer service than AT&T which ranked last.
Some of the best phone plans here were made by a company call Movi Star,before Movi start everything cell phone related here in Puerto Rico was ultra expensive.
In fact by the late 90's here you were charge by the minutes,in plans of 400 minutes and so and they counted both ways in or out,text ultra expensive as well,like .30 cents a text or more.
Movi Star actually came with the first all call receive free plan,and it was a hit,they also boosted the first pre-pay phones with unlimited receive calls free as long as you had balance to make calls as well.
Not only that they also came with the first plan here in Puerto Rico,that included both calls incoming and outgoing unlimited for a fixed price,in that time it was $99 dollars i remember it,it was like 1998 i think.
By that time the PRTC,Cellular One were the tops dogs here,and a 1000 minute plan on any of the 2 could cost you almost what Movi Star charged,but you only have 1000 minutes that counted both ways,with Movi Star it was unlimited.
Now that company is call Open Mobile and they sell just pre-pay phones,they are not as attractive to customers because they don't have a huge selection of phones,and they sell the phone to you without financial,unlike T-mobile and AT&T which sell you the phone cheap or free to tie you in the contract.
In fact they have the cheapest plan of any company here in Puerto Rico and have good signal to,they charge you $55 for unlimited calls, unlimited data,unlimited text.unlimited US long distance calls,Unlimited roaming in US,and even 411 (information to ask for numbers) Unlimited.
All that for $55 dollars,the only down side is that they don't use sim cards,and that only some Sprint phones are compatible out side the ones they sell you,and android phones like the hero are expensive like $300.
So you see usually the best plans comes from the smaller guys,because when they are big like AT&T they charge people what ever they want,is the number 1 reason why AT&T and T-mobile merge should not be allowed,because once T-mobile is in and the rest of the contracts are up,the abuse will begin,and believe me they will rise they price once your contract is done.
T-mobile service is not cheap because is bad,is cheap because T-mobile is not as big as AT&T and Verizon so to bring customers in they have to offer better prices,just because AT&T over charge for their services doesn't mean that what T-mobile is doing most be because their signal is bad.

Nearly half a million customers left T-Mobile in Q1 2011

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/08/nearly-half-a-million-contract-customers-left-t-mobile-in-q1-201/
Will YOU be leaving?

If the merger goes through, then yes. I have been a tmobile customer for 7 years. I have been satisfied with the hardware, the accounts, and even the customer support. Especially the customer support.
AT&T want a stellar company before the SBC buyout, but it became terrible after. I expect the same thing if Tmobile is consumed.
I do not look forward to finding a new carrier.

I don't think I'll leave TMO unless AT&T acquires it and doesn't let me keep my current plan and pricing. I travel accross USA and do not have a voice coverage problem with Tmobile. Its excellent with few to none dropped calls. But the data sucks, my phone switches to edge 80% of the time as compared to my co workers AT&T and Sprint.
Not to mention I pay less than $160 for 2 lines with unlimited everything.... The next cheapest is sprint @ $210

If the buyout goes through, absolutely leaving. I will never be an AT&T customer again, even if it means taking my Vibrant over to Simple Mobile.
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I'll be leaving as well. As far as when, that depends on when the merger goes through and who gets the SGSII. One things for sure, I'll NEVER use AT&T again.

I agree with most the other comments....... I pay 152 per month for 2 lines unlimited everything......... and I use it............ When and IF ATT does get T-mobile. . . then I will have to find a new carrier, I really like TMO but tempus fugit......
As far as the customer loss I do not see that as a real big issue, if I remember correctly, the average for all the major carriers is between 6-8 million per carrier per year or as it is called in the industry the "churn"
I agree with KWKSLVR it is about who gets the S2

It depends on my dad....he pays me and my sister's phone bill cuz we're in college...no matter if we stay or go...i still gotta unlock my Vibrant for another carrier

If the plans stay the same then ill stay plus some might have better coverage
in areas they never did

T-Mobile coverage is terrible Verizon has the iphon now and at&t had some good Android phones.
I'll be leaving.
Also, t-mobile hasn't cared about building out their data network for a long time. Data id more important than voice to me. I use 50 voice minutes a month but 2gb data. I don't mind paying more for a better network...
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any other provider sounds better then att. i would gladly switch to boost with an unlocked android. or even metropcs has got a few good androids to date. att is making a losing bet unless they all of a sudden change their pricing plans.

N8ter said:
T-Mobile coverage is terrible Verizon has the iphon now and at&t had some good Android phones.
I'll be leaving.
Also, t-mobile hasn't cared about building out their data network for a long time. Data id more important than voice to me. I use 50 voice minutes a month but 2gb data. I don't mind paying more for a better network...
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If you knew T-Mobile coverage was bad in your area perhaps you should have started out with a different carrier in the first place. Here in Dallas I get 3G or H almost everywhere.

Add me to the list of people who will leave T-Mobile the day AT&T goes through. Keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen.

XPLANE9 said:
If you knew T-Mobile coverage was bad in your area perhaps you should have started out with a different carrier in the first place. Here in Dallas I get 3G or H almost everywhere.
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Hi idiot.
I did. No one else had coverage but t-mobile thanks to voice roaming, but at&t put a New 3g tower up so now they have everything. I went from at&t to sprint before t-mobile.
Thanks for using that pea sized brain of yours, though.
At&t... Building out their network.
T-mobile... Dead end.
And traveling with a t-mobile phone is a lesson in frustration compared to at&t other Verizon.
I'm with them cause I live in a rural area and had no choice then.
NOW I do... So ill be leaving.
Don't care where you live and how your signal is, tbh. even at the hspa+ market down the interstate your phone can go from full 3g to edge at any random time.
T-mobile are not defendable, so stop ****ing trying Even with good phones and low prices people are leaving, and for a reason. They aren't spending more just cause they can... There are sizeable cities here that can't get more than 3 bars gprs from t-mobile here, but the other three carriers have full 3g
Thank you.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I've been a T-Mobile customer for almost 5 years. Up until I transferred to the college in this town now, my 3G data service has been great. Im actually so unhappy w/ T-Mobile..Right now i live in Huntsville,TX where I goto college at and T-Mobile is beyond garbage here. Personally, If I'm going to pay the same amount of money as someone who has 3G/4G coverage, i have to have to have the same equal coverage. I'm back and fourth on GPRS and Edge here missing important calls like clockwork. I can get a similar plan with AT&T for the same amount with 4G service here in this town. (Trust me i work for Radioshack and I know all about both companies plans and prices as well as restrictions) When the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes out this summer for AT&T, I'm leaving T-Mobile to give AT&T my money instead. I'm not handing over my whole pay check for a Verizon phone LOL and I'm not going to Sprint with their 3G coverage map looking like a pepperoni pizza LOL
For the most part, T-Mobile has been beyond great as far as customer serviceand pricing, its just that voice and 3G data coverage is, always, and forever will be their weakness and that doesn't work for me.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Lesser of evils: Verizon or T-Mobile?

I recently switched from T-Mobile to Verizon to get myself a Galaxy Nexus. I became severely ticked off when I found out that Verizon had messed with the wifi hotspot feature - it asked me to pay $20 per month to tether. I had been tethering for free with my Nexus One on T-Mobile. I thought phones branded as Nexus were supposed to be free from carrier modifications, but I guess that is no longer true.
This annoyance has sparked a deeper question for me of which company is the lesser of two evils, T-Mobile or Verizon. Verizon obviously has the coverage edge in the USA, but T-Mobile appears to have a less draconian business style. Being an idealist, I find it hard to give my money to Verizon. They are just too stubborn and usually do things that make me mad. T-Mobile seems a bit less harsh, but also may lack in coverage performance.
So, all of you fellow developers out there, to whom should I give my business, Verizon or T-Mobile? Please vote.

No brainer, TMOUSA!
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium

Birdsfan said:
No brainer, TMOUSA!
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thanks is more of a thumbs up lol
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

Verizon. I can get better coverage, faster data if I wanna go 4g lte. And I can tether straight from cm7. No restrictions. Verizon is continuing to prove to me that they really ARE America's most reliable network. And I'm happy.
-My life is a shooting range, people never change-

watt9493 said:
Verizon. I can get better coverage, faster data if I wanna go 4g lte. And I can tether straight from cm7. No restrictions. Verizon is continuing to prove to me that they really ARE America's most reliable network. And I'm happy.
-My life is a shooting range, people never change-
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Click to collapse
I wouldn't mind Verizon, if they didn't do things like charge an extra $2 just to give them money.

MartyLK said:
I wouldn't mind Verizon, if they didn't do things like charge an extra $2 just to give them money.
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They retracted that fee because of customer backlash. You're fine.
I'm using Verizon now and am not having any issues whatsoever. Great coverage and it's only gone down maybe once the entire time that I've been with them.

CraigLloyd said:
They retracted that fee because of customer backlash. You're fine.
I'm using Verizon now and am not having any issues whatsoever. Great coverage and it's only gone down maybe once the entire time that I've been with them.
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Click to collapse
I know the fee was retracted. But for a company to attempt that says a lot about their desired business practices.

watt9493 said:
Verizon. I can get better coverage, faster data if I wanna go 4g lte. And I can tether straight from cm7. No restrictions. Verizon is continuing to prove to me that they really ARE America's most reliable network. And I'm happy.
-My life is a shooting range, people never change-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most reliable...? Haven't they had like 3 data outages within the last month?
Yea, here's a link. http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/28/verizon-customers-dealing-with-third-data-outage-in-one-month/

If you get coverage with tmo, go tmo. It's cheaper, not as locked down, the customer service is better, it's just awesome. The second tmo gets a high end WP7 device from Nokia, I'm headed back.

T-mo USA for sure. Their CS is AMAZING compared to anyone else. Better prices, better phone selection. GMS > CDMA. Tethering is a smaller issue, but less of with T-mo. I am rocking a family plan that is custom/grandfathered thanks to T-mo. Basically unllimited everything, do't talk that much but everything is included.

papabear said:
T-mo USA for sure. Their CS is AMAZING compared to anyone else. Better prices, better phone selection. GMS > CDMA. Tethering is a smaller issue, but less of with T-mo. I am rocking a family plan that is custom/grandfathered thanks to T-mo. Basically unllimited everything, do't talk that much but everything is included.
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I disagree about T-Mo's phone selection, at least here in the US. Verizon and AT&T definitely have a much larger selection. Verizon has more Androids and AT&T more WP7.

Both companies are evil. Verizon is just more likely to get away with it.

I've had my fair share of luck with VZW, but everyone has their own experiences.

MartyLK said:
I disagree about T-Mo's phone selection, at least here in the US. Verizon and AT&T definitely have a much larger selection. Verizon has more Androids and AT&T more WP7.
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I agree. I'd actually put Verizon and maybe Sprint up there. AT&T still isn't completely on the ball with new phones. T-Mo not really up there.

Tmo.
one of the best customer service around and fair prices.
around my area I get better coverage then my friends on Verizon.
I'd have to say though far as latest phones go, Verizon has the best selection.
Tmous is getting better but not up to par to Verizon or Sprint, heck, AT&T too.
but they're starting to get pretty good phone selection as of late, which I'm happy about but definitely not there yet...
hopefully they make some serious strides on this front. it would make them complete.

T-Mobile may not be as "evil" as Verizon, but their network is an absolute joke compared to Big Red. Switching to Verizon from T-Mo was one of the best decisions that I made.

T-mobile is cheaper, and in New York, I'm pretty much covered. I've even gone so far as to get service while underground in a train station. Of course, Verizon is probably better in the coverage department.
I get 2gbs unlimited high speed data for 10$, and when that runs out, it just becomes regular internet without any extra fees. I've never went over 2 gigabytes of data. Never any lag or anything of that sort with data.
I've also been able to reduce my bill because of some unknown charges without any hassle. I've had great customer service, personally, although many others will justifiably argue otherwise.
T-mobile doesn't have the BEST arsenal of phones, but they usually get the ones I want.
I like my 60$ a month bill that includes unlimited messaging, data, and night/weekend minutes. Else where, I'd be paying close to 100$ for less than what I have now. Paying more for less doesn't sit well for me. =p

slapshot30 said:
Most reliable...? Haven't they had like 3 data outages within the last month?
Yea, here's a link. http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/28/verizon-customers-dealing-with-third-data-outage-in-one-month/
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I haven't been affected by that. When I am, ill change my stance.
-My life is a shooting range, people never change-

AT&T gave me my unlock code for my W810i over the phone. T-Mobile still hasn't email me my unlock code for my HD2 ! Been 5 days

Verizon is the most expensive and most restrictive carrier in the United States. CDMA phones are a nightmare. You can't import phones, they have the least amount of devs, they are huge into their bull**** "droid" line in which their biggest feature is a............locked bootloader! The nexus is even worse on verizon. Thicker housing, bad signal, verizon apps...Go ahead and talk about your LTE...most of us including myself get HSPA+ which is now supporting speeds up to 42 mbps. And really..with data caps, how many of us don't use wi-fi when we can? I can go on about this all day, Verizon is just that bad...