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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.

My carrier dilemma

I have been with att for about 3 years until january 15th when I switched to sprint because of AT&T's bullcrap top 5% throttling thing. I like sprints service but in the middle of the day they're 3G goes horribly slow, like 200kbps to 500kbps.
I work rotating shifts and at about 12am to 4 am it always runs at above 1.5mbps wish it ran like that all day. I noticed that right when I opened the sprint account, I started getting charged for texting internationally to vietnam which I have no idea why as I don't know anyone there. anyways I had them block the single number which they said was only outgoing texts never incoming. anyways, I am lockeed into a contract with sprint now but I called earlier and complained about them changing my discount to only my primary line and told them thats a breach of my contract and voila!!! they said if thats how I feel about it I can cancel My account without ETF fee's. So I have to decide on sprint or att heres the breakdown
on my plans please tell me which one would you guys go with?
Sprint (current carrier)
about $148 a month
1500 minutes with any mobile to any mobile
unlimited text and data
ATT:
$138 a month for 2 iphones
700 minutes with any mobile to any mobile
A-list: 10 landlines that I can assign unlimited minutes too
unlimited data on both lines
unlimited text
I have about 7000 rolled over minutes sitting there at all times
I like my ATT plan better but the throttling is what is keeping me on sprints side as I consume up to 10GB's a month and ATT is throttling down to less than edge after about 2gb's. Also att seems to give me a more solid signal here in Los Angeles. spriint is spotty in some areas and I have already ran into 2 spots where there is no signal at all in the middle of the city.
which one would you guys choose? Consider that sprint is also supposedly upgrading its 3g network this year and rolling out it's LTE network too

As much as I dislike AT&T, it seems pretty obvious that for you AT&T is the better plan, both in terms of coverage and price. Sprint's 3G is a joke in many places around the country. Unless, of course, you're privileged to live near a good cell site in an area that hasn't been oversold. Sprint claims their Network Vision plan will improve 3G speeds, but I'll believe it when I see it (I have Sprint, but I'm contemplating leaving them for T-Mobile, which offers great coverage/speeds in my area). My question is: how are you paying $148 a month with Sprint on a single line? Even their unlimited everything plan is $109 a month (with a 4G phone), as far as I know.

Sorry that was for 2 lines. With my 18% discount
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I also find it weird that with sprint u can be sitting in the sAme spot for hours and the signal will keep jumping around. Is that normal with cdma or is it my nexus s 4g ics rom acting up?
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cell128 said:
I also find it weird that with sprint u can be sitting in the sAme spot for hours and the signal will keep jumping around. Is that normal with cdma or is it my nexus s 4g ics rom acting up?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
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No, I've noticed that with CDMA, too. I used T-Mobile for a few days a while back for a phone review and the signal was a lot more consistent, but that could have something to do with the frequencies GSM uses compared to Sprint's CDMA, or the protocol itself.

T-mobile opinions

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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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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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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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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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.
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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.
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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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's nice to have, but kind of crappy that it still counts against you, even though you aren't using their towers...

Straight Talk: ATT or T Mo Sim?

Been using T Mobile $30 100 minute 5GB and I have to say I am thoroughly unimpressed. I live in my college town and I only get HSPA+ when I'm not at my house (otherwise its edge when I am at home). Amazingly, on my campus I get 1G in buildings.
So I'm concerned because I want to move to Straight Talk, but will I essentially see the same results with Straight Talk depending on whose Sim I use? My house is in HSPA+ territory for my home and campus for ATT, is it worth the slower speed for consistency? How slow is ATT HSPA+ compared to T More?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Without somebody from your area to give you specific information you won't know without trying.
That said I've tried ST ATT and ST TMo on my N4, ATT gave me slightly more 3G coverage but I was seemingly capped to ~1.5Mbps of data in most areas, Tmo gives me the coverage I was used to (I had Tmo for 3yrs) but I see ~5Mbps in most areas. I kept Tmo and personally I only care about data outside of the house, I have wifi at home so it's a non-issue.

I can speak from my experience with AT&T and TMO(in NYC). I'm on a post paid AT&T plan and the $30 prepaid 100min 5gb TMO plan.
In NYC my speeds with TMO are much faster. On average with AT&T I get anywhere from 3mb-6mb download speeds depending where I am. With TMO I've been seeing more like 9MB-14MB down. Upload speeds seem to be pretty close to one another
With my AT&T sim I do get service in more places than with TMO. In a few NYC subway stations for example, I'll get a signal with AT&T and nothing with TMO. I also have a stronger AT&T signal when I'm indoors compared to TMO. To me the speed is more important especially on a device with limited storage where I have to stream a lot of media

Rebel908 said:
Been using T Mobile $30 100 minute 5GB and I have to say I am thoroughly unimpressed. I live in my college town and I only get HSPA+ when I'm not at my house (otherwise its edge when I am at home). Amazingly, on my campus I get 1G in buildings.
So I'm concerned because I want to move to Straight Talk, but will I essentially see the same results with Straight Talk depending on whose Sim I use? My house is in HSPA+ territory for my home and campus for ATT, is it worth the slower speed for consistency? How slow is ATT HSPA+ compared to T More?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried TMo and was happy with speed of 12 - 18 Mbs; however, indoor performance at home, some offices, and large stores was disappointing. I would be on Edge or lose signal altogether while indoors. I switched to ST AT&T and couldn't be happier. My speeds are 4 - 6 Mbs, but I have signal almost everywhere. This is in South Florida, YMMV.

Thanks everyone for your input. I guess I will just need to order both SIM cards to see how everything works out

[SOLVED] (XT1053) AIO wireless not worth it

Greetings fellow XDA'ers
I'll be writing breifly about my exprience with AIO using the XT1053. So first off, it's completely compatible and you probably knew that already if you're on XDA. All speeds work as advertised. then the prices you pay for AT&T service are amazing! but here's the thing.
I've been with them for 3-4 months. and the issues are constant and as follows:
MMS messaging constantly fails to send with correct APN settings input
several occassions of no service! (Emergency call only) while in places that I know have great coverage because I 've used my phone there before. like my college campus
Like most MNVO's they have bad customer service, didn't matter if I chatted or called in.
The ZTE prelude they advertised has Major MMS issues & runs super slow!
They also had an outage once for a whole night even though AT&T network was fine I have suspicions that they are having constant outages and not reporting this to users, which explains me having dropouts and no service!
Lastly I have had the issues, not using customs ROMS, across 3 phones, ZTE Prelude, Moto X XT1053, and the Samsung Skyrocket I727 which gives me very good credibility!
As a member of XDA, a believer in saving money and great quality service! I felt the need to report my issues to my friends and the great community that is XDA and the internet. AIO is not the way to go.
UPDATE!!!
:::Follow up report:::
1. The issue's I had existed for me with T-mobile as well. Therefore it certainly is a phone issue (I had 3 replacement phones is how I know it's a phone issue)
2. I have confirmed with Motorola Level 2 the stock messaging app has bugs in it [no ETA on a fix]. and I have confirmed thru reading a google plus thread that AIO APN settings were unsupported until recently, I think 4.4.2 supported it. idk and I can't find the post again lol.
consider yourself updated!
ANOTHER UPDATE!!! The signal loss was also a Moto X issue. There is a thread somewhere around here about it. I got a refund being that Motorola couldn't fix any of the above problems. They were fine to give it to me, you just have to push them a bit.

i live kinda remote. inside my house i get 1 bar from tmo at best. was with att but couldnt afford any more. my only question is does aio have the complete signal coverage as att does?
drago10029 said:
Greetings fellow XDA'ers
I'll be writing breifly about my exprience with AIO using the XT1053. So first off, it's completely compatible and you probably knew that already if you're on XDA. All speeds work as advertised. then the prices you pay for AT&T service are amazing! but here's the thing.
I've been with them for 3-4 months. and the issues are constant and as follows:
MMS messaging constantly fails to send with correct APN settings input
several occassions of no service! (Emergency call only) while in places that I know have great coverage because I 've used my phone there before. like my college campus
Like most MNVO's they have bad customer service, didn't matter if I chatted or called in.
The ZTE prelude they advertised has Major MMS issues & runs super slow!
They also had an outage once for a whole night even though AT&T network was fine I have suspicions that they are having constant outages and not reporting this to users, which explains me having dropouts and no service!
Lastly I have had the issues, not using customs ROMS, across 3 phones, ZTE Prelude, Moto X XT1053, and the Samsung Skyrocket I727 which gives me very good credibility!
As a member of XDA, a believer in saving money and great quality service! I felt the need to report my issues to my friends and the great community that is XDA and the internet. AIO is not the way to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have none of those issue. Motox works as expected
Sent from my XT1049 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

DrDecoy said:
i live kinda remote. inside my house i get 1 bar from tmo at best. was with att but couldnt afford any more. my only question is does aio have the complete signal coverage as att does?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, they use AT&T's network and the company is actually owned by AT&T. You could join straight talk, AIO, H20, net10, and there are more just google "AT&T mvno". Hope that helps.

krsmit0 said:
I have none of those issue. Motox works as expected
Sent from my XT1049 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe the issue is regional or sporatic, but still something I expreienced and being that thgey're are owned directly by AT&T I would'nt expect those kinds of issues. I'm in New York City.

krsmit0 said:
I have none of those issue. Motox works as expected
Sent from my XT1049 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I have experienced none of those issues either, the phone works great on (AIO) At&t. Consistent LTE connection, even 20 miles out of town.

Save yourself the hassle and just grab the $60 AT&T GoPhone plan, yea you get less data but you make up for it with being on pre-paid AT&T, as you get better support than an MVNO, plus the ability to go to any AT&T corporate store to get help.
Oh and you can get refills on callingmart for like $54ish.

I've had AIO for 4 months with NONE of the issues you mentioned. My MMS send fine every time and I get no dropped service unless there actually is no service.
Also, AIO is not an MVNO and is owned by AT&T and I have gotten great customer support. I'm paying $45/month for 2.5gigs of data which is less than half of what I was paying with Verizon. I save ~$650 a year now and the service is as good as Verizon's if not better.
---------- Post added at 08:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 AM ----------
mastarifla said:
Save yourself the hassle and just grab the $60 AT&T GoPhone plan, yea you get less data but you make up for it with being on pre-paid AT&T, as you get better support than an MVNO, plus the ability to go to any AT&T corporate store to get help.
Oh and you can get refills on callingmart for like $54ish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AIO is owned by AT&T and is not an MVNO.

I'm not using a Moto X, but wanted to mention my AIO experience. I moved from a $30/mo T-Mobile plan to AIO and found the signal and LTE amazingly better in the sense that I always maintain LTE (~5Mbps) vs going from LTE (>20Mpbs) to Edge as soon as I hit the highway/leave the city. Almost 0% without signal since moving to AIO.
AIO has been great for me so far. I don't use MMS as I rely on my Google Voice number, which doesn't support MMS, so I can't comment there.

bekyndnunwind said:
I've had AIO for 4 months with NONE of the issues you mentioned. My MMS send fine every time and I get no dropped service unless there actually is no service.
Also, AIO is not an MVNO and is owned by AT&T and I have gotten great customer support. I'm paying $45/month for 2.5gigs of data which is less than half of what I was paying with Verizon. I save ~$650 a year now and the service is as good as Verizon's if not better.
---------- Post added at 08:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 AM ----------
AIO is owned by AT&T and is not an MVNO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both AIO and GoPhone are subsidiaries of AT&T correct, but AIO is not considered a pre-paid plan of AT&T, thus it is an MVNO.
However we are just bickering about semantics at this point anyways, I didn't realize that they dropped their prices recently (like literally within the past few weeks). Also, since they don't use a proxy to filter all the data (like StraightTalk), I may have to actually give them a shot; as it seems like it would save me ~$10-15 a month. I would really like to perform a speed test though to see if there are ping related issues before switching though.

mastarifla said:
Both AIO and GoPhone are subsidiaries of AT&T correct, but AIO is not considered a pre-paid plan of AT&T, thus it is an MVNO.
However we are just bickering about semantics at this point anyways, I didn't realize that they dropped their prices recently (like literally within the past few weeks). Also, since they don't use a proxy to filter all the data (like StraightTalk), I may have to actually give them a shot; as it seems like it would save me ~$10-15 a month. I would really like to perform a speed test though to see if there are ping related issues before switching though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They do use a Proxy for all data. Ping times are ~100-150 due to it. Never noticed an issue though. It's still about half of Straight Talk from what I have seen.

whitedragonz83 said:
They do use a Proxy for all data. Ping times are ~100-150 due to it. Never noticed an issue though. It's still about half of Straight Talk from what I have seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The APN on the AIO website doesn't have any proxy information, well besides for the MMS. Kinda strange how they would leave that out, mainly since the GoPhone doesn't have such a proxy either, I tried my phone next to a carrier sim based phone and we were getting roughly the same ping times (~100ish).
Straight talk is really bad about it, but I also think it has to do with the number of customers going through the proxy itself. So if/when AIO gets more congested then it will be just as bad :/
If this is the case then maybe I'll just stick with GoPhone, I haven't really had any speed complaints and I seem to be getting really good LTE speeds. The reason the ping is so significant of an issue is because it effectively reduces your data throughput when loading videos/websites. So you may be registering ~8 Mbps on speedtest, but the effective speed is much much slower due to higher ping/latency.
I've been using the GoPhone sim in my Nexus and the T-Mobile sim in the Moto, the reception has been amazing in the Moto, I'm actually scared of how good the AT&T signal would be. However, the Nexus uses a micro and the Moto uses a nano. I don't want to jeopardize my phone with a sim adaptor, so I think I'll just keep using T-mobile for the time being

mastarifla said:
The APN on the AIO website doesn't have any proxy information, well besides for the MMS. Kinda strange how they would leave that out, mainly since the GoPhone doesn't have such a proxy either, I tried my phone next to a carrier sim based phone and we were getting roughly the same ping times (~100ish).
Straight talk is really bad about it, but I also think it has to do with the number of customers going through the proxy itself. So if/when AIO gets more congested then it will be just as bad :/
If this is the case then maybe I'll just stick with GoPhone, I haven't really had any speed complaints and I seem to be getting really good LTE speeds. The reason the ping is so significant of an issue is because it effectively reduces your data throughput when loading videos/websites. So you may be registering ~8 Mbps on speedtest, but the effective speed is much much slower due to higher ping/latency.
I don't know why, but everywhere I search, the APN has a Proxy address for AIO. It's what I use too.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/289568-nexus-4-aio-wireless-apn-settings.html
I've been using the GoPhone sim in my Nexus and the T-Mobile sim in the Moto, the reception has been amazing in the Moto, I'm actually scared of how good the AT&T signal would be. However, the Nexus uses a micro and the Moto uses a nano. I don't want to jeopardize my phone with a sim adaptor, so I think I'll just keep using T-mobile for the time being
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regardless of the effective speed, it is not noticeable in real-life usage. I'll keep an eye out if it gets a lot worse, like Straight Talk sounds.
GoPhone should be outstanding, as it is nearly the equivalent to post-paid AT&T.
Are you sure you are using "GoPhone" on T-Mobile networks? GoPhone is AT&T Prepaid.
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/gophone.html

whitedragonz83 said:
Regardless of the effective speed, it is not noticeable in real-life usage. I'll keep an eye out if it gets a lot worse, like Straight Talk sounds.
GoPhone should be outstanding, as it is nearly the equivalent to post-paid AT&T.
Are you sure you are using "GoPhone" on T-Mobile networks? GoPhone is AT&T Prepaid.
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/gophone.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just hope it doesn't eventually become a factor in real life usage like ST currently is
I am currently using 2 cell phone plans, one for work and one for personal use. Personal is T-Mobile (5GB of data for $30? yes please), while the work is AT&T (mainly because of the unlimited talk time and the coverage). I'm debating on just going down to one since I have Google Voice ringing both phones currently and I don't spend 7GB a month (especially since Xposed), but I love the speeds and data connection of T-Mobile here in Dallas.

mastarifla said:
Save yourself the hassle and just grab the $60 AT&T GoPhone plan, yea you get less data but you make up for it with being on pre-paid AT&T, as you get better support than an MVNO, plus the ability to go to any AT&T corporate store to get help.
Oh and you can get refills on callingmart for like $54ish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I did when I demoed AT&T for my Nexus 5 vs. Verizon. AT&T vs. Verizon aside, I was very happy with the GoPhone plan. I was hesitant to go with AIO because I had read from multiple sources that AIO is throttled to 8mbps. Yes, it's still AT&T LTE, but your priority on their network is lower than if you were on their network directly through AT&T or their official prepaid. See the following excerpt from this Droid-Life article (http://www.droid-life.com/2013/09/06/atts-aio-wireless-prepaid-service-now-available-nationwide/) "High-speed access with download speeds up to a maximum of 8 Mbps for compatible devices. Maximum data download speeds are reduced when usage exceeds high-speed access allowance."
That is why I chose GoPhone over AIO.

laur3n.newm4n said:
That's what I did when I demoed AT&T for my Nexus 5 vs. Verizon. AT&T vs. Verizon aside, I was very happy with the GoPhone plan. I was hesitant to go with AIO because I had read from multiple sources that AIO is throttled to 8mbps. Yes, it's still AT&T LTE, but your priority on their network is lower than if you were on their network directly through AT&T or their official prepaid. See the following excerpt from this Droid-Life article (http://www.droid-life.com/2013/09/06/atts-aio-wireless-prepaid-service-now-available-nationwide/) "High-speed access with download speeds up to a maximum of 8 Mbps for compatible devices. Maximum data download speeds are reduced when usage exceeds high-speed access allowance."
That is why I chose GoPhone over AIO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The benefits are both unique though, as follows:
ATT GOPHONE: You get to surf at that high speed the whole time. when it's done you have to pay up to keep it going.
AIO: You get the reduced speed, 8 mbps which is still fast and after you eat it up, you can still browse and check email, facebook. or any other light internet activities.
I've never had any use for super fast LTE on a mobile phone. Only on gaming consoles and a PC have I benefited from it.

laur3n.newm4n said:
That's what I did when I demoed AT&T for my Nexus 5 vs. Verizon. AT&T vs. Verizon aside, I was very happy with the GoPhone plan. I was hesitant to go with AIO because I had read from multiple sources that AIO is throttled to 8mbps. Yes, it's still AT&T LTE, but your priority on their network is lower than if you were on their network directly through AT&T or their official prepaid. See the following excerpt from this Droid-Life article (http://www.droid-life.com/2013/09/06/atts-aio-wireless-prepaid-service-now-available-nationwide/) "High-speed access with download speeds up to a maximum of 8 Mbps for compatible devices. Maximum data download speeds are reduced when usage exceeds high-speed access allowance."
That is why I chose GoPhone over AIO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Price is something you can't ignore though in your comparison.
$45/mo (tax/fees included) for 2.5GB/unlimited text/unlimited minutes on AIO
$60/mo (tax fees extra?) for 2GB/unlimited text/unlimited minutes on GoPhone.
I've had AIO for a month or so now. Maybe occasionally I notice the slow speed. 95% of the time, I probably don't and just enjoy the benefits of AT&T LTE everywhere I go saving $15/mo or $180/yr(maybe more if GoPhone is also taxed). This is though $15/mo more than my previous $30/mo T-Mobile plan. I just needed better coverage for highway driving and AIO was the next best thing imo.

I've been using them since October with an XT1055, and haven't had the SMS issues many others have.
Biggest problem until this past weekend was getting the Auto Pay to stick.
But this weekend I started experiencing 3 days of loosing connection and falling into the Emergency Call Only bin. A reboot would bring me back to "4G LTE/4 Bars", which would gradually settle down to a plain 2 bars. This was similar to what I experienced with my Palm 3, which was apparently related to WiFi/Phone/Bluetooth mutual interference. But I didn't see any software changes this past week that would have kicked something like that off.

whitedragonz83 said:
Price is something you can't ignore though in your comparison.
$45/mo (tax/fees included) for 2.5GB/unlimited text/unlimited minutes on AIO
$60/mo (tax fees extra?) for 2GB/unlimited text/unlimited minutes on GoPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're willing to forego auto-refill on GoPhone (if there is such a thing), $60 GoPgon refills regularly available from Callingmart for $54 - making the difference only $9 per month.
I was on Straight Talk (AT&T) for over 1 year, but eventually moved to GoPhone due to a calling issue I was having, combined with Straight Talk's horrible support. Then when I was evaluating the Moto X and Nexus 5 as replacements for my Galaxy Nexus, I found the added cost of GoPhone to be well worth it, in that it allowed me to walk into a store and switch between mini SIM, micro SIM and nano SIM on the spot, at no charge.

UncleMike said:
If you're willing to forego auto-refill on GoPhone (if there is such a thing), $60 GoPgon refills regularly available from Callingmart for $54 - making the difference only $9 per month.
I was on Straight Talk (AT&T) for over 1 year, but eventually moved to GoPhone due to a calling issue I was having, combined with Straight Talk's horrible support. Then when I was evaluating the Moto X and Nexus 5 as replacements for my Galaxy Nexus, I found the added cost of GoPhone to be well worth it, in that it allowed me to walk into a store and switch between mini SIM, micro SIM and nano SIM on the spot, at no charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are they always 54 ?I seem to remember seeing it closer to 60.
Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk