delbitter

I am just getting a PAYG sim for my current samsung S3 as it is starting to die on me now @ around 2 years old. It will be my UK phone for when I come home

hungryhorace

StraightTalk suck. They route all traffic through a proxy server (in Florida) and have phantom bandwidth limits which mean you can be stuck at dial up speeds until your monthly renewal.

A far better bet is GoPhone for 'post paid' quality level, or AIO Wireless for prepaid quality (latency is higher with AIO compared to GoPhone).

T-Mobile is also an option but ONLY if you have an LTE capable phone, and supports AWS 1700.

Pulaski

[QUOTE=Markoncarp;11211509]Well if you take your phone from the UK, then you'll have to use either T-Mobile or AT&T, as I think they are the only two that supply phones that are SIM compatible. ....../QUOTE]
All new Verizon phones are SIM phones now, I hear, and have been for a couple of years since Verizon transitioned over to LTE. Previously only AT&T and TMobile used GSM, the predecessor to LTE.

Markoncarp

Slightly more than 45 seconds, but impressive none the less.

Markoncarp

I have an Iphone 4S. I dont think its LTE capable. I get 4G on my T-mobile. It works fine.

Now, my wife has an iPhone 5 which IS LTE capable and it is blisteringly quick... I just dont think its essential.

hungryhorace

Correct. VZW will only activate phones that they have registered to their database (ie, purchased through VZW or an authorised reseller).

brit_usa2014

Hi, slightly OT, but we have a Note 3 which is locked to TMobile at the moment, but if I want to unlock it and use it on say AT&T or Verizon or any other network will it reduce the 4G speed which we're having at the moment? TMobile were unhelpful when we called them, but few friends have suggested it might get reduced! Help!!

Yorkieabroad

We've had a few Motorola handsets, and would have agreed with you until our last "upgrade" on the plan saw us getting 'mytouch' from T-Mobile which they told us was Motorola (though stand to be corrected). It is a steaming pile of crap. To make things worse, we have been told that our 10+ yo family plan that has been grandfathered into some great rates and upgrade phones every 2 years will be terminated at the end of May. We will be transferred to the new plan that will be 100/month for 4 lines unlimited everything (not sure what the cap for full speed data is) which is fine, but we now have to buy our own handsets. Wife wants an iphone 5 for $650 I'd be happy going back to a 1990's fliphone.....

hungryhorace

It is absolutely essential with T-Mobile.

1. Their ENTIRE network is being converted to LTE by 2015.
2. No new HSPA+ (ie, 4G, which is actually 3.9G) cell sites will appear.
3. T-Mobile already has pretty ropey HSPA+ coverage (ie, non existent outside of major cities).
4. T-Mobile converted a bunch of 2G spectrum to 3.9G on the AWS 1700 band. An iPhone 4S does NOT support this band, hence won't receive coverage.

I could go on and on. This isn't about the speed of LTE v HSPA (of which you're wrong, there's a HUGE difference. LTE feels like WiFi because of its low latency and being designed solely for data, HSPA+ feels laggy and slow in comparison).

Rather, the point is about if you're going to chose T-Mobile make sure you have the correct handset to provide you the best possible coverage with their network.

NB: There is a 'second' iPhone 5 model released last year which includes support for AWS 1700. Your UK phone won't have this support.

delbitter

My wife wanted an iPhone but I talking her round. It's a nice phone but a target for thieves and the latest versions are not impressive compared to s5 or HTC one M8 IMO

wtkp0u

Another option is a Nexus 5 and a T-Mob PAYG. You own the unlocked phone and have LTE. Depending on how much you talk, can be very cheap, e.g.
$30 for 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds

As others have mentioned, don't count on T-Mob once you leave the city.

kodokan

My son is currently using an iPhone 4 on our T-Mobile family plan; he has unlimited calls, text and data. It's not LTE compatible, so he gets slower data at 3G/ 4G/ E/ something or other, which is fine as he's only a very occasional user. We're in Phoenix, ie, a major city with good T-Mobile coverage.

I'm not very techie and don't quite understand about bands and things. Does this change mean that his phone won't work at ALL for data once the network is converted? Or is it more that T-Mobile aren't expanding their non-LTE network, but they'll leave it in areas where it's already in place, at least for another couple of years until everyone's caught up with the technology?

S Folinsky

Do note that for the moment, self-unlocking in the US is apparently illegal.

Also, look for the coverage area. I'm with T-Mobile -- last September we took a trip to Yellowstone and environs. When we had mobile service, it was not with T-Mobile. So, I turned off the data for most of the time unless I was in a hotspot and could get it wirelessly.

hungryhorace

The latter. It means customers will be forever stuck with the current coverage provided. Unless they upgrade to an LTE compatible handset, they will see no increased T-Mobile coverage (which T-Mobile are currently very aggressively rolling out).

See: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/13/t...lte-expansion/

kodokan

Thanks hungryhorace! It'll be a temporary problem, as hubby and I will get new iThings late 2015, and cascade our current 5s down to the kids (we do an approximate 2-3 year replacement cycle depending on what new shinies Apple adds to tempt us; we always buy unlocked phones separate to contracts so the timing is entirely up to us).