TRMK technophiles, school me on 4G wireless carriers!

Freyith

Freyith

New member
Here's the skinny, glamorous and lovely folks of TRMK; I've had AT&T for five years and I'm dead tired of them. Their coverage sucks, they drop calls, and their networks is slow. I'm looking at switching myself and my fiancee to either Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile. What we're looking at doing:

  • Two 4G Android OS Smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S III & Motorola Droid RAZR)
  • Unlimited talk, unlimited text and mobile-to-mobile
  • Shared data (4GB or more 5-6 ideal).
  • Perhaps a mobile 4G hotspot for our devices.

The prices between the two carriers seem pretty comparable, even taking out to account perhaps getting a 4G hotspot like the Jetpack or Mobile-HotSpot. My goal out of this is to get the most modern mobile experience and best coverage in the east coast for the least amount of money. On the surface of it, it seems T-Mobile has less of a subsidy on new contract phones (I think the SIII is $250 through them vs. $200 through Verizon, for the 16GB version), and from what I've read (like on CNET's comparo of the major smartphone data plan providers in the US), Verizon is more invested in 4G LTE than T-Mobile, though that seems to be changing as T-Mobile catches up. The prices for their access and mobile hotspot seems to be nearly identical.

What are peoples' experience with either carrier? Do you like the service, the speeds, the quality of the plans and the pricing? Do you feel buttraped (40lbs box!) or satisfied that you're getting your money's worth? For us this would be a big change from having the most affordable phones we can find (my last one was a Blackberry Curve, for God's sake) to joining the ranks of real, non-dumbphone smartphone users. I'm out and about with our laptop snapping pics and editing them on the fly, often need to get information on the spot and do work from my laptop, so that hotspot option sounds very appealing too.

We have a couple of months to decide as we're waiting for my fiancee's contract to expire, so any thoughts/reviews would be much appreciated.
 
tittiemcnuggets said:
I currently have AT&T and I've had them since I got my first cell phone like 9 years ago. I've never really had any problems with them as far as service signal/dropped calls. As far as their 4G, it's pretty decent to me. I miss unlimited data when they had it, I try to use wifi wherever it's available.

Alllllsoooo, go with the Galaxy S3. I have the S2 right now and it's awessomeee. My upgrade is in December so I will probably get the S3 then.




This post was useful. You should thank it.
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I didn't think att had 4g yet, maybe.some cities do, I just thought they had really fast 3g. I got an Inspire 4g, and the reason I say that is because the crappy town in Missouri I used to live in didn't have att 4g only had 3g, but my phone kept saying that it was getting 4g, which is noted as h+ on my phone. So it makes it hard for me to believe that I'm getting 4g.

Don't get an inspire, battery life sucks, till its about to die, then it'll last you awhile. Don't pay attention to that since you are not doin att
 
Just drop wireless altogether and save yourself tons of money. Mankind survived without it for thousands of years. You can too. :)
 
Not gonna lie, I looked at the title quickly and thought it said 'paedophiles', and I was all, wow, we have a lot of those here.
 
Love Cowboy said:
Just drop wireless altogether and save yourself tons of money. Mankind survived without it for thousands of years. You can too. :)
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Because yes, this is obviously what I'm looking for. /rolleyes. I've actually been without a cell (because my phone has so many issues and I hate my carrier) for most of the year. So, no thanks to depending on just landlines.
 
Short answer:

If you get anything with 4G make sure it's LTE. That's the "new hotness" and the only real "4G". Great option.

Verizon LTE is the fastest and most widespread coverage. If you don't have Verizon LTE coverage in your area, then you'll be on Verizon 3G which is about 1/3rd the speed of the AT&T 3G you are used to.

AT&T LTE is also good, not as widespread as Verizons but growing fast.

Both AT&T and Verizon have SHARED data plans now. They are quite equal really. http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/18/atandt-and-verizon-shared-data-plans-compared/

Sprint has barely turned on their LTE yet, so avoid at all costs. Their 3G is even slower than Verizon's 3G. Sprint has "4G" but it's fake and will be turned off soon.

Also a certain "fruit company" will be releasing an LTE phone next month for major carriers.
 
Freyith said:
I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan.

Thanks, Pat. I was very curious as to your view/opinion. :)
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Bows...

The one issue I have with AT&T is their signal issues in crowded places. So downtown Chicago on a weekday has almost no data service. Otherwise their service is great for me. I have a year left on my contract so I'm going to ride it out and buy my next iPhone straight out without extending it.

Verizon has better coverage and ways to handle network load and now with the new shared data plans they are not more expensive.

Before you make a decision, find a friend with service you are considering where you have AT&T signal issues. It could just be the building being nasty with all radio signals.
 
Also here is the speed of Verizon LTE on my iPad

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