my dillemma, to switch or not to from boost to metro

[akmsr]

hi all,

I live in south florida. currently with boost prevail 35$ a month plan. since sprint started rolling out 4g lte, the service went to dogs. dropped call, barely one signal bar at my location, 300 kbps down on 3g. on a bad day can't call my voice mail . I tether occasionally to my laptop and tablet. data intensive things were done on wifi. was eyeing the CDMA s3 on metro since it came out because metro has better coverage at my house and 4g lte too. did not happen yet 'cause merger with T-Mobile>>>yay GSM>>>yay s4>>> spectrum combining huh??
I have to tether for a while for personal reasons and I don't think sprint is the network for it with 3g speed. couple of weeks ago I checked and realized that T-Mobile has only 3g at my location hoped spectrum combining would somehow let me get a metro GSM phone to run off metro 4g lte where t-mo 4g is not available.......

so guys what do you suggest? oh to throw a monkey wrench, sprint has my home covered in their 4g map current signal quality leaves a lot to be desired for me to believe in their 4g lte signal and data.

 

[Shabbypenguin]

you get a gsm device you connect to tmobile's network. tmobiles 3g is by far still faster than sprints (4-5mbps down). if you are wishing to go with a cdma device i would highly suggest snagging something other than the sgs3. its a great phone make no mistake, the best of the cdma devices. but youd spend a good penny on it and in 2015 the cdma network is shutting down, so youd have to upgrade then again. i would suggest getting the LG spirit, it is a decent phone at a decent price and will still be a much welcomed upgrade over the ole prevail .

as far as metro service is concerned... well we even got hroark to switch to metro

 

[jvillejoe]

hi all,

I live in south florida. currently with boost prevail 35$ a month plan. since sprint started rolling out 4g lte, the service went to dogs. dropped call, barely one signal bar at my location, 300 kbps down on 3g. on a bad day can't call my voice mail . I tether occasionally to my laptop and tablet. data intensive things were done on wifi. was eyeing the CDMA s3 on metro since it came out because metro has better coverage at my house and 4g lte too. did not happen yet 'cause merger with T-Mobile>>>yay GSM>>>yay s4>>> spectrum combining huh??
I have to tether for a while for personal reasons and I don't think sprint is the network for it with 3g speed. couple of weeks ago I checked and realized that T-Mobile has only 3g at my location hoped spectrum combining would somehow let me get a metro GSM phone to run off metro 4g lte where t-mo 4g is not available.......

so guys what do you suggest? oh to throw a monkey wrench, sprint has my home covered in their 4g map current signal quality leaves a lot to be desired for me to believe in their 4g lte signal and data.

Metros speeds are ok where I live. South Florida speeds I heard were great. As for me, as soon as the nexus 5 comes out I'll be going to At&t prepaid. Tmobile gsm sucks where I live. Especially indoors. Also if you're going gsm you might have problems with the signal loss I was running into. TMobile blocks tethering. Not sure about the byod through metro gsm. I'm assuming its the same. The cdma, and lte devices allow tethering. So you may want to get a metro cdma phone with lte on the 60 dollar a month plan so you can tether. Good luck with the choice you make.

 

[Gman9831]

Signal here is great overall. 4G is fast and so is 3G which I hardly ever fallback to its when I force it. Like shabby said, I would recommend going with a GSM phone because tmobile 4G is much better, on average 5 times better

Palm Beach btw

 

[Shabbypenguin]

Metros speeds are ok where I live. South Florida speeds I heard were great. As for me, as soon as the nexus 5 comes out I'll be going to At&t prepaid. Tmobile gsm sucks where I live. Especially indoors. Also if you're going gsm you might have problems with the signal loss I was running into. TMobile blocks stolen tethering. Not sure about the byod through metro gsm. I'm assuming its the same. The cdma, and lte devices allow tethering. So you may want to get a metro cdma phone with lte on the 60 dollar a month plan so you can tether. Good luck with the choice you make.

you can tether just fine on any of tmobiles plans, or metropcs' 40/50 dollar plans with teh addon.

 

[averagewonder]

It would help if you could say what the price range you have for your new phone as well. If you are looking at the S3 we now also have a GSM version and its blue if that matters to you.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

i would suggest getting the LG spirit, it is a decent phone at a decent price and will still be a much welcomed upgrade over the ole prevail .

So which is it, a decent phone at a decent price or barely any better than the entry level Nokia 521?

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[the hulk]

make the switch lol, I have an average of 5 people a week, minimum, that come in to switch from boost to metro, and that was before the merger, datas faster on metro side and tmobile phone side phones are rockin too, heck, you can pick an a tmobile s2 and rock that bad boy out

 

[Shabbypenguin]

So which is it, a decent phone at a decent price or barely any better than the entry level Nokia 521?

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

I dont recall having to be forced to think that low end means terrible devices . IMO it is lower end phone, but that doesnt make it not a decent buy. IF for some reason you are having to buy a metropcs cdma device, i would suggest it as it is more usable than a motion, yet would save you money long term over a CDMA sgs3. if metro gsm is an option hands down sgs4/sgs3/f3.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

I guess I am just not getting how a nearly $300 phone (3rd most expensive Metro sells) is a Good Deal as a Low End phone goes...

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[Shabbypenguin]

I guess I am just not getting how a nearly $300 phone (3rd most expensive Metro sells) is a Good Deal as a Low End phone goes...

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

if im not mistaken it was dropped to 270 on launch and even then im sure could be found cheaper, OP wants to buy a cdma device. i suggested not dropping 400 on a sgs3 that wont last 2 years, if it was the gsm one then i would stand behind that as the gsm one will be long supported software wise and network wise afterwards.

so my reasoning is pretty simple, for what he wants/needs the spirit will be able to handle it. the original admire was a clone of the prevail to give you an idea on specs, so anything would honestly be a jump up. you could argue that it would be smarter still to just get the avid as that would save money and he would still get a great upgrade.

im not trying to backpedal or anything, i would still plunk down 100 for a lumia 521 long before a spirit. but i have had a chance to enjoy WP, my 1ghz single core 512 ram htc phone runs smoother than my sgs3 did. now if i had the s4 chipset in there like teh lumia does, i bet wp8 could be named i cant believe its not butter.

 

[the hulk]

how do you guys deal with the tiles? they need to get rid of that stuff lol

 

[Shabbypenguin]

how do you guys deal with the tiles? they need to get rid of that stuff lol

How do you deal with app icons on your home screen? you use em

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

How do you deal with app icons on your home screen? you use em

Our home screens aren't Just the icons themselves. (I think is what Hulk is saying.)

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[the hulk]

How do you deal with app icons on your home screen? you use em

lol fair enough, i just feel like when I played with it, it was kinda like playing a game of tetris that fought back

 

[jvillejoe]

you can tether just fine on any of tmobiles plans, or metropcs' 40/50 dollar plans with teh addon.

Tmo must have changed that then, cause I had tmo for a while. I used to tether, and then one day on my computer it redirected me to a TMobile message saying tethering its not prohibited our something like that lol. The 40/50 plan I heard if you tethered too much they will just cancel you? They might have been really heavy users lol. What about the byod plans?

 

[new optimus]

Tmo must have changed that then, cause I had tmo for a while. I used to tether, and then one day on my computer it redirected me to a TMobile message saying tethering its not prohibited our something like that lol. The 40/50 plan I heard if you tethered too much they will just cancel you? They might have been really heavy users lol. What about the byod plans?

If you tether too much during the month you get redirected to the sign up for tethering website, then when your data resets you dont get that redirect.

If you use, in the experience I have had, user agent switcher you dont get that redirect at all. But you have to pick what user agent to use, mobile browser is the best but then pages are displayed incorrectly.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

The most recent (past month or so) YouTubes show it being done with Only rooted phones, with a Rooted Only Wifi tether app And a user agent switcher. (Tethering on T-Mo)

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[new optimus]

The most recent (past month or so) YouTubes show it being done with Only rooted phones, with a Rooted Only Wifi tether app And a user agent switcher. (Tethering on T-Mo)

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

This is true, I have never tried tethering on non rooted phones.

I have mostly used either wifi tether for rooted phones.app or built in hotspot on cm 10 or nexus devices.

 

[Shabbypenguin]

Tmo must have changed that then, cause I had tmo for a while. I used to tether, and then one day on my computer it redirected me to a TMobile message saying tethering its not prohibited our something like that lol. The 40/50 plan I heard if you tethered too much they will just cancel you? They might have been really heavy users lol. What about the byod plans?

Smartphone Mobile Hotspot | T-Mobile Support
if you have their 50 dollar plan you have 500MB's of tethering, if you have their 60 dollar plan you have 2.5GB's of tethering, unlimited comes with 500 for free, should you hit that limit you can buy additional bandwidth.

for metropcs they dont allow tethering on the unlimited plan, so if you drop to the 40/50 dollar plan you can add the mobile hotspot for just 5 bucks and have it work. as far as byod no idea.

 

[KOLIO]

you get a gsm device you connect to tmobile's network. tmobiles 3g is by far still faster than sprints (4-5mbps down).

^^^^
THIS!
Naturally,YMMV, as no two user experiences are identical/replicable.

I switched to T-MOBILE from SPRINT four months ago & if not for ETF's woulda done so sooner.
Building penetration is much better,just tried the native wireless tethering for the 1st time yesterday, works flawlessly. (500MB/MO free tethering on the UNLIMITED plan).

T-Mobile has a couple of LG's that are relatively inexpensive, both priced @ $240: The older model LG L9,a 4.5" model running ANDROID 4.1 & the LG F3,a brand new 4" model running ANDROID 4.2.2

 

[jvillejoe]

The most recent (past month or so) YouTubes show it being done with Only rooted phones, with a Rooted Only Wifi tether app And a user agent switcher. (Tethering on T-Mo)

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Yeah, my hd2 was what I was using. I didn't use a user agent. So, I guess that was my downfall.

 

[jvillejoe]

Smartphone Mobile Hotspot | T-Mobile Support
if you have their 50 dollar plan you have 500MB's of tethering, if you have their 60 dollar plan you have 2.5GB's of tethering, unlimited comes with 500 for free, should you hit that limit you can buy additional bandwidth.

for metropcs they dont allow tethering on the unlimited plan, so if you drop to the 40/50 dollar plan you can add the mobile hotspot for just 5 bucks and have it work. as far as byod no idea.

Wow I guess they really have changed. Anyone with metro byod plan needs to chime in.

 

[jvillejoe]

^^^^
THIS!
Naturally,YMMV, as no two user experiences are identical/replicable.

I switched to T-MOBILE from SPRINT four months ago & if not for ETF's woulda done so sooner.
Building penetration is much better,just tried the native wireless tethering for the 1st time yesterday, works flawlessly. (500MB/MO free tethering on the UNLIMITED plan).

T-Mobile has a couple of LG's that are relatively inexpensive, both priced @ $240: The older model LG L9,a 4.5" model running ANDROID 4.1 & the LG F3,a brand new 4" model running ANDROID 4.2.2

Just wondering if you've had Tmo in the past? I was with them for a while. I moved to a house with a metal roof, and signal was little to none inside. The same thing happened at my brothers house. He had a house with shingles. Go inside no signal. Step outside it came right back. This was around the time 3G, and hspa came out. I've never tried hspa+, but I'm assuming its the same result. If Tmos signal is better I might go with them again. That was the only problem I've ever had with them.

 

[Gman9831]

Just wondering if you've had Tmo in the past? I was with them for a while. I moved to a house with a metal roof, and signal was little to none inside. The same thing happened at my brothers house. He had a house with shingles. Go inside no signal. Step outside it came right back. This was around the time 3G, and hspa came out. I've never tried hspa+, but I'm assuming its the same result. If Tmos signal is better I might go with them again. That was the only problem I've ever had with them.

Ever since around Novemer of last year they've been rolling out new gear with about 30% better signal penetration