Database Users

[Q] Anybody know of a good pre-paid/alternative phone company?

With the news of an AT&T merger in the next year, I'm starting to make plans. I would rather exhaust every other options than to be stuck with AT&T.
Anybody know of any good pre-paid, alternative GSM phone company? My friend has H2O but I don't think they support the Vibrant.
So, what is you guys experience with them? Does their data/coverage suck?

For GSM, you're out of luck... you could try simple mobile or walmart, but they both use tmobile's network.
You have to move to a cdma provider Verizon, sprint, cricket, metro pcs, virgin mobile., etc.

Which actually makes a good point. After this merger AT&T will pretty much be the one and only GSM network in the US. Would this still be considered a monopoly? I LOVE being able to pull my sim out and put it in another phone quickly and easily plus I believe the call quality is much better. But that means I MUST use AT&T.

[Q] Carrier switching

I'm thinking of switching my carrier from Verizon to something else. I have unlimited data with Verizon now so its my main reason to stay (this to shall pass). My main reason to change carriers is for devices. I noticed AT&T and T-Mobile get better phones all the time compared to Verizon's line up. So my main question is this, "Is a carrier switch worth it simply for a better device?" If so is AT&T my best choice or should I still consider T-Mobile?
Please try not to carrier bash in this thread. This is not what its for nor is it my goal. Thanks!
PS - I have an iPhone because it was cheaper to repair than my Thunderbolt at the time... worst mistake I ever made!

I'm sure this will get moved, but in general AT&T is going to have the better coverage.

In general, AT&T will offer better coverage while T-Mobile will offer better pricing. The two also handle data overages differently: AT&T will charge you an extra $15* per GB, while T-Mobile will still let you use your connection but at 2G speeds.
Since both are GSM carriers, you also have the option to outright buy any unlocked GSM compatible phone and have it work with at the very least Voice/Text/2G data. For 3G/4G to work, make sure you get one with AWS bands for T-Mobile or 1900Mhz bands for AT&T. Because of this, I dont think choosing one carrier over a phone is a good idea unless you absolutely need that subsidized price. And in that case, I would say go with AT&T since they tend to get the higher end phones (ex. One X vs One S).
Hope that helps.
*Havent checked in a while, this may not be accurate

talk2nate said:
I'm thinking of switching my carrier from Verizon to something else. I have unlimited data with Verizon now so its my main reason to stay (this to shall pass). My main reason to change carriers is for devices. I noticed AT&T and T-Mobile get better phones all the time compared to Verizon's line up. So my main question is this, "Is a carrier switch worth it simply for a better device?" If so is AT&T my best choice or should I still consider T-Mobile?
Please try not to carrier bash in this thread. This is not what its for nor is it my goal. Thanks!
PS - I have an iPhone because it was cheaper to repair than my Thunderbolt at the time... worst mistake I ever made!
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Your question is subjective - you're going to get opinions from several people who have different priorities than you do and, more importantly in terms of getting a "good" answer, their experiences will be different from what yours would be.
Look at coverage maps in your area and decide which carriers will be available, then make the decision yourself.
There are objective distinctions to be made in the case of AT&T vs. T-Mobile if you were going to buy an unbranded device, but that's not a concern for you.

If you need out of your contract, PM me. I may consider doing an assumption of liability for a line with unlimited data plan. I realize I'd have to outright buy the phones in the future, but Verizon is great in AZ.

Where do you live? Around here (Wichita) T-Mobile only really gives 4g coverage in the city and they didn't used to cover outside at all. But recently they got GRPS in a bunch of rural areas and good voice coverage on the way to my hometown which is NW. Also if they continue refarming the towers they will soon probably get 3g if you have a 1900 UTMS phone now even though it is CDMA. That is what I am doing now and I'm waiting for Wichita to get refarmed.
Sent from my XT862 using XDA

I have a Droid 3 I had on Verizon but pretty much left their service just because I couldn't stand the prices.
Sent from my XT862 using XDA

HTC Trophy on T-Mobile (I have searched)

Believe me, I have searched and can't find a definite answer.
Assuming I get an unlock code from Verizon, and run the Connection Setup, will the Trophy work on T-Mobile at 3G speeds? Yes or no.
If yes, will it work on Verizon again after that, or is it "banned" from their network?\
Hoping for an answer from someone who has actually done this before.
Thanks!

brew182 said:
Believe me, I have searched and can't find a definite answer.
Assuming I get an unlock code from Verizon, and run the Connection Setup, will the Trophy work on T-Mobile at 3G speeds? Yes or no.
If yes, will it work on Verizon again after that, or is it "banned" from their network?\
Hoping for an answer from someone who has actually done this before.
Thanks!
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Yes, it should work, you may get 3G speeds, but not HSPA+ speeds.. I do believe. There have been others who have done it, they would know. Even if you get an unlock code, you can still use the phone on Verizon so long as the ESN remains clean. If you really want a Trophy on T-Mobile though.. I'd wager you are better off getting the GSM Euro model for full network speed.

TheXev said:
Yes, it should work, you may get 3G speeds, but not HSPA+ speeds.. I do believe. There have been others who have done it, they would know. Even if you get an unlock code, you can still use the phone on Verizon so long as the ESN remains clean. If you really want a Trophy on T-Mobile though.. I'd wager you are better off getting the GSM Euro model for full network speed.
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Thanks for the input. Maybe some back story would explain it a little better. Debating on whether or not to switch to T-Mobile monthly 4g from Verizon, saving some money a month. I currently have the Verizon Trophy and wanted to try it out for a month to see how the service compares before I make the switch. Any other help is appreciated from someone who has done this before!

For me, the choice is clear: Verizon. T-Mobile's converge is vastly inferior, and for where I live, it isn't worth it (since T-Mobile is non-existent in this market outside of major cities).
Take a very close look at where you live, and where you travel on the coverage maps.
If you have Verizon and are on Unlimited data via 3G... for the love of God do not switch. lol Stay Grandfathered in and buy a 4G LTE phone outright (not via a plan) and your Unlimited data should carry up to 4G LTE.
Also remember, T-Mobile doesn't have IRL 4G service (LTE) and probably never will. It sounds like a great deal now, but switching might bite you in the ass, especially if your sitting on a Verizon Unlimited data plan. T-Mobile (and AT&T for that matter) run something I like to refer to as "the FAKE-G." Its HSPA+ or what the rest of the non-United States world calls 3.5G service. While AT&T is installing true 4G LTE towers, T-Mobile is simply trying to sell itself off instead of upgrading its network to compete.
Remember, the only real 4G is LTE.
If your on a metered Verizon data plan, it might be worth considering the switch (and shouldn't really change anything if you do). If you got Unlimited data via Verizon, don't even consider it. Wait for a 4G Windows Phone on Verizon and grab that when it hits at full price (even if it cost a pretty penny) and enjoy unlimited true 4G LTE data.
Read this for more information on keeping a Verizon Unlimited data plan with 4G. The only thing is, it doesn't account for the recently announced "truly Unlimited" T-Mobile plans, where they won't throttle your connection after 2GBs for some extra money a month that was just announced.
I'm not trying to sound like some kinda Verizon fanboy, but I want you to know some facts before thinking about switching.

N7 as phone....Possible? Please Read (LTE Only)

Please read this before all the flaming post are posted. I have read enough discussion on this board to know there is no chance of it. How Google locked everything down. How ever, we could maybe find a turning post with this message.
This was posted on Tmobile blog:
http://multimediacapsule.thomsonone.com/t-mobileusa/t-mobile-brings-voice-over-lte-to-seattle
Tmobile is turning on VoLTE in Seattle. I will try to explain this as best as I can since I work in the Industry and atm Tmobile. You can read further techs in the blog post. But simply, Tmobile is putting its Voice network on its LTE network.
As you know, our LTE devices, operate on all (US) GSM/CDMA/LTE Bands but voice calling we were always locked out of (because of Google). You can see if you are using a regular smartphone, if you place a call, your phone will swtich from LTE to 4G service. The current standard. But with Tmobile and ATT rolling VoLTE out, our phones will stay on LTE provided you are in the service area.
Inside these cabinets there used to be two devices that handled each technology, GSM and LTE. But i just started seeing Tmobile roll out a new devices that carries both of these technology in the same unit, providing this capability. I can tell you NYC and the Boroughs roll out is wwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy behind. We have completed 1500+ LTE upgrades around the city and i just started seeing the new device about 3 weeks ago. So i can tell you that Tmobile has alot of sites to go back and retrofit in order to make this work in NYC. ATT will be done in NYC before tmobile, because they are getting ready to upgrade their LTE network but they will install the newer device at the same time. ATT should be ready by years end. Tmobile, will probably turn it on by end of year as well but the service will be very scattered.
Now i wonder if some devs with deeper knowledge of these devices and programming could turn these devices into a phone. As of right now, only a developer in Seattle could work on this (For Tmobile). And where ATT has turned on this service. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. So maybe there could be hope on the LTE devices. God speed developers.

Switched to Straight Talk. I have 2 issues (slow speed and error message)

So as the Thread Title says, I have switched my Verizon Galaxy S5 over to Straight Talk, however i have 2 issues.
Issue #1 My HSPA+ data speeds are verrrrrry slow at times, currently averaging between 2.5MB/s and 4.1 MB/s Download speeds with between 0.8 and 0.95 upload speeds.
It has gotten as low as 0.12MB/s Down and .02 MB/s Up on HSPA+ I was wondering if this could possibly be an APN issue? Also it tends to switch between HSPA and HSPA+ alot but only seems to switch to HSPA when im not using data.
Issue #2 My phone shows an error This SIM card is from an unknown source. Is there any way to get rid of this without root (which we obviously don't have)??
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

Verizon phones are CDMA not GSM. Probably why you are limited to ultra slow speed for data, and also probably why you are getting an 'unknown sim' error being that the phone is verizon, and you put in a Straight Talk Sim.

kprice8 said:
Verizon phones are CDMA not GSM. Probably why you are limited to ultra slow speed for data, and also probably why you are getting an 'unknown sim' error being that the phone is verizon, and you put in a Straight Talk Sim.
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Obviously you're unaware that the Galaxy S5 supports CDMA at LTE speeds AND GSM at HSPA+ speeds. The Verizon Galaxy S5 is a "world" phone and does not require any sort of SIM unlocking in order to be used on other carriers. (as i can show you with a simple screenshot). However i think my decrease in speeds is caused by a bad tower on the opposite side of town from where I actually live. While at home (with only 2 or 3 bars of service) i am able to get fairly decent speeds without issue. As far as the point of this thread goes i was wondering if anybody had any tips or tricks for better stability of the HSPA/HSPA+ network on the Verizon Galaxy S5 and to see if anybody was able to remove the SIM error without rooting. With rooting i know it can be achieved as i have already researched how to do so. I know why the SIM error is there, I'm not that oblivious. But thank you very much for your comment.

Your issue is very simple. You obviously didnt do your research before switching to straight talk. With straight talk you can have any carrier, you just have to have the right sim for that carrier. You probably got the t-mobile sim because thats the one they give if you dont ask. I have the at&t sim and it works perfect on my at&t phone. The only 2 sim cards you can get are at&t and t-mobile. You can use verizon and sprint with straight talk also. All you have to do is go to their website and it will tell you what to do. You have to look for the cdma section for activating a new phone if you want verizon. If you ported your number you can still keep it once you switch carrier options as long as you choose that at checkout. I just did all of this a couple of months ago and have done it several times in the past so I know what im talking about.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using XDA Free mobile app

miller1821 said:
Your issue is very simple. You obviously didnt do your research before switching to straight talk. With straight talk you can have any carrier, you just have to have the right sim for that carrier. You probably got the t-mobile sim because thats the one they give if you dont ask. I have the at&t sim and it works perfect on my at&t phone. The only 2 sim cards you can get are at&t and t-mobile. You can use verizon and sprint with straight talk also. All you have to do is go to their website and it will tell you what to do. You have to look for the cdma section for activating a new phone if you want verizon. If you ported your number you can still keep it once you switch carrier options as long as you choose that at checkout. I just did all of this a couple of months ago and have done it several times in the past so I know what im talking about.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using XDA Free mobile app
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Not sure if you're aware that Straight Talk only supports T-Mobile. They used to support AT&T as well, but they switched to T-Mo. However existing customers that signed up when Straight Talk AT&T was around still get to use AT&T towers for now. There are some loopholes but 99.9% of people get T-Mobile when they sign up for Straight Talk as of today.
Straight Talk never used Verizon or Sprint.
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Travisholt92 said:
So as the Thread Title says, I have switched my Verizon Galaxy S5 over to Straight Talk, however i have 2 issues.
Issue #1 My HSPA+ data speeds are verrrrrry slow at times, currently averaging between 2.5MB/s and 4.1 MB/s Download speeds with between 0.8 and 0.95 upload speeds.
It has gotten as low as 0.12MB/s Down and .02 MB/s Up on HSPA+ I was wondering if this could possibly be an APN issue? Also it tends to switch between HSPA and HSPA+ alot but only seems to switch to HSPA when im not using data.
Issue #2 My phone shows an error This SIM card is from an unknown source. Is there any way to get rid of this without root (which we obviously don't have)??
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.
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Click to collapse
Sounds like your issue is 100% APN.
Here are the APN settings for both Straight Talk and T-Mobile. Try the ST one first and then T-Mobile if that doesn't work. Don't know what to tell you after that, maybe try a new sim card.
http://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/support/apn
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2090#android

I hate when people give out the wrong information. This is not the case and hasn't been the case for awhile. Do your research 1st. Go to straighttalk website and click on byop under shop. Now go to the very bottom where it says see all coverage and it shows the coverage maps of all 4 major providers. Now if you go with that same byop shop page and click on shop at the top, it will bring up a page where you can either buy a t-mobile or at&t sim, and on the right hand side you can also buy a cdma access code. This is not rocket science. Also, apns for every sim card for gsm and cdma access are different. I am not gonna list the apns because reply would be too long but its not hard to find. There are also numerous youtube videos covering this as well as multiple google results. I literally just bought an at&t sim when I upgraded to the gs5 because i had an t-mobile gs3 with the same straight talk service and didn't care for t-mobile. It is true that if you buy a straight talk phone from wal-mart then yes it will probably be a t-mobile phone but to say you can't bring your own phone and use whatever carrier is not an intelligent thing to say when you clearly can.
---------- Post added at 04:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
Syn Ack said:
Not sure if you're aware that Straight Talk only supports T-Mobile. They used to support AT&T as well, but they switched to T-Mo. However existing customers that signed up when Straight Talk AT&T was around still get to use AT&T towers for now. There are some loopholes but 99.9% of people get T-Mobile when they sign up for Straight Talk as of today.
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Click to collapse

miller1821 said:
I hate when people give out the wrong information. This is not the case and hasn't been the case for awhile. Do your research 1st. Go to straighttalk website and click on byop under shop. Now go to the very bottom where it says see all coverage and it shows the coverage maps of all 4 major providers. Now if you go with that same byop shop page and click on shop at the top, it will bring up a page where you can either buy a t-mobile or at&t sim, and on the right hand side you can also buy a cdma access code. This is not rocket science. Also, apns for every sim card for gsm and cdma access are different. I am not gonna list the apns because reply would be too long but its not hard to find. There are also numerous youtube videos covering this as well as multiple google results. I literally just bought an at&t sim when I upgraded to the gs5 because i had an t-mobile gs3 with the same straight talk service and didn't care for t-mobile. It is true that if you buy a straight talk phone from wal-mart then yes it will probably be a t-mobile phone but to say you can't bring your own phone and use whatever carrier is not an intelligent thing to say when you clearly can.
---------- Post added at 04:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
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No need to get in a bunch. I wasn't aware that they started using AT&T and others again. Last year when I was network searching, STalk just stopped signing up new customers with the AT&T plans and their data limit was 2.5gb and not 3 like now. Sorry.

miller1821 said:
Your issue is very simple. You obviously didnt do your research before switching to straight talk. With straight talk you can have any carrier, you just have to have the right sim for that carrier. You probably got the t-mobile sim because thats the one they give if you dont ask. I have the at&t sim and it works perfect on my at&t phone. The only 2 sim cards you can get are at&t and t-mobile. You can use verizon and sprint with straight talk also. All you have to do is go to their website and it will tell you what to do. You have to look for the cdma section for activating a new phone if you want verizon. If you ported your number you can still keep it once you switch carrier options as long as you choose that at checkout. I just did all of this a couple of months ago and have done it several times in the past so I know what im talking about.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
Nah I'm using the at&t sim. T mobile has garbage coverage out here. I bought the byop package from Wal-Mart that contains both SIM cards.
As for the people saying I should have done my research first, your input is irrelevant to me considering I'm not like every other person in this section of the forums. I know what I'm doing when it comes to this kind of things and of course I did my research ahead of time. So if you're going to come into my thread just to insult my intelligence, you can stop talking because chances are I probably know more about this subject than you do without having to have my face in a web browser.
As for the guy posting about apn, thank you very much for your input. I'll take a look to see if what you had linked is any didn't from what I currently have in my phone. However right now it won't make a difference because I'm being throttled down to .05 mb/s download and .08 mb/s upload.

Travisholt92 said:
Nah I'm using the at&t sim. T mobile has garbage coverage out here. I bought the byop package from Wal-Mart that contains both SIM cards.
As for the people saying I should have done my research first, your input is irrelevant to me considering I'm not like every other person in this section of the forums. I know what I'm doing when it comes to this kind of things and of course I did my research ahead of time. So if you're going to come into my thread just to insult my intelligence, you can stop talking because chances are I probably know more about this subject than you do without having to have my face in a web browser.
As for the guy posting about apn, thank you very much for your input. I'll take a look to see if what you had linked is any didn't from what I currently have in my phone. However right now it won't make a difference because I'm being throttled down to .05 mb/s download and .08 mb/s upload.
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Click to collapse
I am not knocking on your intelligence here or anything, but you could have left that middle section out so you looked less like a turd for being rude to people just because they were rude to you. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Helpful tips on switching VW SG5 to Straight Talk
I have been trying all night to switch my boyfriends Verizon SG5 to Straight Talk but I can't get it to accept the SIM card or get it activated. For those that have done this successfully can you please provide me with the steps you took?

Travisholt92 said:
Obviously you're unaware that the Galaxy S5 supports CDMA at LTE speeds AND GSM at HSPA+ speeds. The Verizon Galaxy S5 is a "world" phone and does not require any sort of SIM unlocking in order to be used on other carriers. (as i can show you with a simple screenshot). However i think my decrease in speeds is caused by a bad tower on the opposite side of town from where I actually live. While at home (with only 2 or 3 bars of service) i am able to get fairly decent speeds without issue. As far as the point of this thread goes i was wondering if anybody had any tips or tricks for better stability of the HSPA/HSPA+ network on the Verizon Galaxy S5 and to see if anybody was able to remove the SIM error without rooting. With rooting i know it can be achieved as i have already researched how to do so. I know why the SIM error is there, I'm not that oblivious. But thank you very much for your comment.
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Click to collapse
I did the same with an s4 and s5, but were slow and had horrible battery life. I couldn't get either phone to activate on the cdma network, so i used a tmobile sim. t mobile has a horrible network her, so I am pretty sure my issue was signal strength.

Catumaros said:
I did the same with an s4 and s5, but were slow and had horrible battery life. I couldn't get either phone to activate on the cdma network, so i used a tmobile sim. t mobile has a horrible network her, so I am pretty sure my issue was signal strength.
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Click to collapse
tmobile is pretty terrible unless you're in a major city. AT&T is the way to go through straight talk. However i would recommend Cricket, much better pricing and less network issues.

miller1821 said:
I hate when people give out the wrong information. This is not the case and hasn't been the case for awhile. Do your research 1st. Go to straighttalk website and click on byop under shop. Now go to the very bottom where it says see all coverage and it shows the coverage maps of all 4 major providers. Now if you go with that same byop shop page and click on shop at the top, it will bring up a page where you can either buy a t-mobile or at&t sim, and on the right hand side you can also buy a cdma access code. This is not rocket science. Also, apns for every sim card for gsm and cdma access are different. I am not gonna list the apns because reply would be too long but its not hard to find. There are also numerous youtube videos covering this as well as multiple google results. I literally just bought an at&t sim when I upgraded to the gs5 because i had an t-mobile gs3 with the same straight talk service and didn't care for t-mobile. It is true that if you buy a straight talk phone from wal-mart then yes it will probably be a t-mobile phone but to say you can't bring your own phone and use whatever carrier is not an intelligent thing to say when you clearly can.
---------- Post added at 04:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
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Click to collapse
straight talk still supports att that is who I use and with an att phone