e3geek

Yes, but I didn't know that. My bad. Also it is hard to compare plans without local market knowledge. Now I know H2O $10 plan is sufficient for me.

hungryhorace

Have you actually done that? I couldn't get my T-Mobile US card activated in the UK.

e3geek

The MVNOs are activated online on their websites. What he is saying makes sense to me and there are heaps better plans than the T-Mobile one.

hungryhorace

Not if you want LTE there isn't.

Markie

My suggestion is T-Mobile if you're staying urban and AT&T (GoPhone not contact) if you're not. In my area, there only are AT&T and Verizon, so I have to use AT&T or an AT&T MVNO.

I use an AT&T MVNO - Straight Talk (aka Net10, Tracfone, and a bunch of other brands they use). It's cheap, but it sucks. Yes, I get LTE, but all data goes through their servers so it's really slow and inconsistent with 300+ms ping times. I'm VERY tempted to pay the extra $10 a month and just get AT&T (about $55 a month when you find 10% off deals) for the higher speeds.

Straight Talk is unlimited but with the speed and reliability, you'd find it hard to go over AT&T's 2GB limit.

T-Mobile is awesome. And their contract plans have free international roaming. But the coverage is atrocious, there's no T-Mobile within 150km of me!

hungryhorace

Completely agree with all of this. Straight Talk are junk and should be avoided for any serious usage. ATT GoPhone is fantastic, especially as callingmart.com are adding in the 10% discount by default now once you have setup automated recurring billing.

I was a T-Mobile customer when I moved here, but I found the network to be largely junk. Even just 20 miles outside of Boston I would drop from 4G HSPA+ to 2G, and even IN Boston I would lose 4G reception at random times dropping back to 2G. It was so frustrating. I couldn't deal with it any longer and switched to GoPhone.

Now I have an iPhone 5S the situation with T-Mobile may be different, as they have put a huge effort into their LTE network which my old 4S couldn't use obviously.

Either way, I felt burned by how generally useless T-Mobile was and it would take something staggering to make me go back to them now.

That said, John Legere is *definitely* changing the cell market here for the BETTER. He's exposing the duopoly ATT/VZW have held for the sham it really is. I can't wait for his talk later today at CES.

e3geek

Since I have been bitten by this so I am adding it for others, just buy an H2O sim over ebay and get it delivered to your address before departing US. Get a PAYG plan and activate it online before boarding the plane. You can always change the plan once you are here depending on your usage. And if you don't like the H2O service at all the sim is only a couple bucks.

Don't get yourself tricked by T-Mobile

hungryhorace

What are you talking about? There is no getting 'tricked' by T-Mobile. You just have a shit phone that doesn't support many common US bands. The iPhone 5s has none of these issues.

e3geek

OK. I change my statement.

Guys, if you don't have that one type of phone you won't be able to work with 'common' US bands. Good luck.

Markie

Different networks in different countries use different bands, LTE is the biggest mess for this. There are four common GSM bands. Most phones support all of them. There are 5 common UMTS bands (3G). Many phones only support 3 or 4 of them. There are ten quintrillion LTE bands (okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but I lost count - 30+). No phone supports all of them.

You're mad at T-Mobile because your phone doesn't support their bands? That makes no sense.

I used to hate being at my grandparents house in the UK until I got an iPhone because the only 3G service was O2 and it was on the 900 band which my phone didn't support? Should I have got mad at O2 for daring to use a band my phone didn't support? Of course not (ironically, now that I have a phone with UMTS 900, 3 now covers their house with UMTS 2100).

P.S. looking at the link you sent, your phone will ONLY work on 3G with AT&T, and even then, only in some areas - AT&T doesn't have UMTS 850 everywhere. They use UMTS 850 and 1900. T-Mobile uses UMTS 1700/AWS and 1900.

e3geek

Yes, I know AT&T will give me H+ not 4G. But thats OK. I dont have to watch videos on my phone since I have got wifi at home and office.

Markie

Only in some areas, your phone only supports one of AT&T's UMTS (3G) bands. They do not hold or use 850 nationwide. There are plenty of places your phone will only get GSM (2G) on AT&T.

Your blame is so misguided to blame T-Mobile because you don't own a phone compatible with their network (it's not really compatible with AT&T either).

AT&T and T-Mobile are using international standard technology and bands and have open network policies. Compare to Verizon and Sprint that are locked-down, proprietary, hell.

hungryhorace

HSPA+ is referred to as 4G in the US.

e3geek

But is it really comparable?

hungryhorace

Comparable to what? LTE? No, I don't think so, not in terms of latency. But that's largely irrelevant. LTE isn't even a true 4G technology, so both the UK & US are technically wrong in their branding of HSPA+ and LTE.