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Pulled the trigger on TMO

alostpacket

alostpacket

Over Macho Grande?
They need to find a way to use a transporter beam so it is in my hand, like now!

Will post back my LTE speeds. Could be interesting since this phone doesnt support TMO's HSPA+ bands.

Really wish MotoMaker would get their act together though :(

EDIT: Scroll down for about 25 speed test results.
 
I'm looking forward to your feedback. I've been wanting to try TMo for a while now and this might be the opportunity I take.

I'm a bit confused on some of the contract and technology details though. If I pay full price for a Moto X and use it on T-Mobile for a month or two, is there anything technology wise keeping me from getting AT&T for a month to compare? With a new nano sim can the same phone work on both?

Good luck with your new phone. I can't wait to hear the results.
 
Wheresatom said:
I'm looking forward to your feedback. I've been wanting to try TMo for a while now and this might be the opportunity I take.

I'm a bit confused on some of the contract and technology details though. If I pay full price for a Moto X and use it on T-Mobile for a month or two, is there anything technology wise keeping me from getting AT&T for a month to compare? With a new nano sim can the same phone work on both?

Good luck with your new phone. I can't wait to hear the results.
Click to expand...

I recently switched to T Mobile from Boost and I gotta say its been great. The only thing I did learn is that their lte runs on a different frequency band then At&t or Verizon. I ended up buying an At&t phone and unlocked it to use with them.

Since the switch even the 3g I'm getting when I'm not in a 4g/lte area is still pretty good.

My speed texts are as followed.

3g was about 3,000 k

4g was between 8-10 k

Lte was between 15-30 k depending on where you're at.
 
I'm interested to see how you do on Tmo. I was dead set on escaping the death star (ATT) for Tmobile but I kept hearing the spotty coverage thing from all 4 corners of the globe. So for sure post your findings once you're up and running.

:D
 
Got my SIM, went prepaid on TMO for $30/month (100min talk, unlim text, 5GB data, tethering allowed...well tolerated).

Havent had much chance to test yet but near where I live (suburban NY) I am getting LTE with speed between 10/2 mbps and 20/10 mbps (roughly). Ping was around 40ms.

This beats VZW which used to be the only good coverage around here. I will be traveling tomorrow and will post how that goes. I should pass through some spots that one might expect are a bit dead coverage wise.

It will most certainly vary depending on where you live but I have been pleasantly surprised thus far. I was on a VZW GNex before this, and a TMO N1 before that. I was disappointed back when I was on my N1, but that was awhile ago now and HSPA+ then vs LTE now. My VZW GNex got pretty good LTE coverage in most places but not so much near my home.

The true test comes tomorrow. :)
 
OK, not going to travel much today actually but I did go out for breakfast :)

I was on HSPA:10 ( !? which I thought the phone doesnt support )

I got around 7-8 Mbps down and ~750 kbps up. To me that's generally acceptable.


Ping was between 100-450ms, but mostly near 450. (editing above post for ping on LTE...~44ms)

That's a bit bad, but for web surfing it's fine. Anyway, will be traveling more Monday, and will keep posting results. So far I am pleased, especially with the LTE.
 
Hopefully this formatting works, here are my speedtest result from the past few days. I traveled about 60 miles (120+ round trip). There were definitely some dead-spots. But mostly I was very impressed. Really only one area on my trip where I was on edge for a few miles. (Edge is just horrible, none of the below results show edge, but it does show a semi-random cross-section NYC-ish to New Haven, CT).

ConnTypeDownloadUploadLatency
Lte16381271051
Lte4084184451
Lte20109835449
Lte16474989297
Lte21340735991
Lte18021627799
Lte9626738088
Lte71327188109
Lte123344719101
Lte23589597987
Lte142141474100
Cell122041590105
Cell80201082452
Cell1177028765
Lte13284841843
Lte12096971450
Lte9207675649
Lte8759426240
Lte8715915247
Hspa3116911106
Cell6772665440
Hspa5192876447
Cell5150658458
Wifi396442540144
Lte17299883838
Lte12595820045
Lte11549337088
Lte9404205896
 
I was dead set on firing Verizon and jumping to T-Mobile, until I got in on the unlimited glitch. I'll put up with them for another two years. Unless there is a major change of heart at Verizon (unlikely), I'm looking forward to T-Mobile's coverage improving for another two years. I travel quite a bit around the country and just need Verizon's network in the meantime.
 
JavaS said:
I was dead set on firing Verizon and jumping to T-Mobile, until I got in on the unlimited glitch. I'll put up with them for another two years. Unless there is a major change of heart at Verizon (unlikely), I'm looking forward to T-Mobile's coverage improving for another two years. I travel quite a bit around the country and just need Verizon's network in the meantime.
Click to expand...

I am with you on this one as well, the only complaint i have is that if it isn't on TMOs phone list you have to pay full price for it????

no really sure but i think that is how it works.
I do hope TMOs coverage improves greatly. I am looking to move in 3 years time or less and hoping that by then I will either be on another carrier or still with verizon... time will tell.
 
I get edge but in only one or two places, mostly I have hspa+ or lte. I've been impressed with their service and switched to truly unlimited data and 2.5 gig tethering.

Its hands down the best service I've ever had.
 
VoidedSaint said:
I am with you on this one as well, the only complaint i have is that if it isn't on TMOs phone list you have to pay full price for it????

no really sure but i think that is how it works.
I do hope TMOs coverage improves greatly. I am looking to move in 3 years time or less and hoping that by then I will either be on another carrier or still with verizon... time will tell.
Click to expand...

Yeah they have no contract plans but lock you into a two year contract to pay off the phone.

If you have decent credit you can get approved to pay like 10 something a month til its payed with a deposit.

You can get a tmo phone online for a decent price, especially at swappa.com
 
VoidedSaint said:
I am with you on this one as well, the only complaint i have is that if it isn't on TMOs phone list you have to pay full price for it????

no really sure but i think that is how it works.
I do hope TMOs coverage improves greatly. I am looking to move in 3 years time or less and hoping that by then I will either be on another carrier or still with verizon... time will tell.
Click to expand...

Basically even though you buy the phone at a subsidized price, you still have to repay the part of the subsidy that the carrier provided you. But rather than make it another spot on your monthly bill, the carriers baked it into your service costs. T-Mobile recently has severed this connection and has reduced monthly service fees as a result. So if you buy full retail, it keeps your rates lower. However if you buy at the subsidized rate, they tack on monthly payments towards the phone which brings the bill back up to where it was with normal subsidies. If you buy a device at full retail on Verizon, AT&T or Sprint, you don't get lower monthly service costs. Also, if you pay off the device on T-Mobile then they lower your service costs back to what they would have been if you had paid full retail. On the other 3 carriers, once your contract ends your bill doesn't drop and you still get charged every month for the subsidy repayment.
 
jhawkkw said:
Basically even though you buy the phone at a subsidized price, you still have to repay the part of the subsidy that the carrier provided you. But rather than make it another spot on your monthly bill, the carriers baked it into your service costs. T-Mobile recently has severed this connection and has reduced monthly service fees as a result. So if you buy full retail, it keeps your rates lower. However if you buy at the subsidized rate, they tack on monthly payments towards the phone which brings the bill back up to where it was with normal subsidies. If you buy a device at full retail on Verizon, AT&T or Sprint, you don't get lower monthly service costs. Also, if you pay off the device on T-Mobile then they lower your service costs back to what they would have been if you had paid full retail. On the other 3 carriers, once your contract ends your bill doesn't drop and you still get charged every month for the subsidy repayment.
Click to expand...

verizons plans have that subsidized price built in, whether you buy the phone full price or not.
I have tried to plead a case with them as far as lowing the bill if the phone was bought full price.. no dice.
 
VoidedSaint said:
verizons plans have that subsidized price built in, whether you buy the phone full price or not.
I have tried to plead a case with them as far as lowing the bill if the phone was bought full price.. no dice.
Click to expand...
It's one of the sad cases where it actually makes more sense to subsidize the device, if you're not held hostage by unlimited data.

VZW may not be all to eager to force people off unlimited, after all, given they don't take any hit with the above, and can pretty much assume a person who has paid full price for a device, will stick around for a while.
 
SEMIJim said:
T-Mobile's really being disruptive. The others have got to be looking a T-Mobile real nervously, right about now, and praying they fall on their face.
Click to expand...

I think the other carriers are taking notice, but don't see it as a serious threat yet. If T-Mobile passes Sprint to become number 3, then maybe it will sink in. However, I don't see that happening anytime soon. T-Mobile coverage is so hit or miss outside of cities and their suburbs and not owning any spectrum with a frequency < 1GHz is a partial reason for that. Obtaining a good chunk of the 600MHz spectrum in next years auction with an aggressive rollout of it could really swing the entire landscape.
 
verizon has put in a plan now where you cannot upgrade 2-3-4 months before you contract end date. I found out about this last week and was shocked that VZW has done this.

now if you're on vzw you can only upgrade the day your contract is up.
you aren't automatically enrolled, but as soon as you upgrade you are, if you make any plan changes you are. I don't understand their thought process behind this move.
 
Interesting. VZW told me I could upgrade in August, but my contract was up in December. But they wanted $30 for the "privilege" of upgrading. My reaction was not pleasant. They said this $30 upgrade fee would apply even if I waited until the end of my contract. So I jumped ship.

I ended up paying the ETF though because I am saving so much on TMO and wanted my number. I took a week testing with 2 numbers and found that TMO was roughly equivalent coverage to VZW in my area (tri state NY metro). I think my ETF will be ~$140ish

Here is my personal breakdown of the prices I had for each carrier though:


VZW

Device:
- 32GB Gnex w/ 2 yr contract ~$250 +tax

Plan:
~$110/month
- corporate business plan, just had to ask for it, gives you more data for the same price as the tethering plan, plus gives you tethering
- 450 mins talk
- 10GB data (5GB plan + 5GB from corporate)
- 1000 text messages @ $10/m (bumped near this but never went over)


T-Mobile

Device:
- 16GB unlocked from Moto ~$600 +tax

Plan:
Prepaid ~$45/month ($30 plan, 15 tethering)
- Tethering was blocked in the default app, but I did not try EasyTether or Foxfi or any third party apps, I just paid the fee for convenience.
- 100mins talk
- unlimited text
- 5GB at 4G, unlimited 2G thereafter


So I am saving roughly $60/month,
-300 less minutes (which is OK I dont really use them),
- unlim txt
- 5GB less data

So in 10 months I will have saved more than the cost of the phone, in a year I will have saved the cost of the phone + the ETF.


If you ignore tethering from both carriers it would have been $90/m for VZW and $30/m for TMO, roughly the same savings.


Note: to get the $30 a month prepaid plan you must be a new TMO customer, and it takes a little hunting around to find it on their site, but not rocket science. You also need a different SIM that costs like $2 to be shipped to you.
 
Regarding coverage, I have found that T-Mobile is very good in the Northeast, in urban and suburban. Equal to VZW for the most part.

However if you live in a more rural area or the midwest Verizon looks to be the clear winner.

I suggest looking at 3G and 4G LTE Cell Coverage Map - OpenSignal

Note, those maps WILL be biased towards routes people often travel (you will see what looks like excellent coverage on a railway, but that doesn't mean the sorounding area is less, just that it MAY be over-reported by so many people taking the train or highway.
 
alostpacket said:
Here is my personal breakdown of the prices I had for each carrier though:


VZW

Device:
- 32GB Gnex w/ 2 yr contract ~$250 +tax

Plan:
~$110/month
- corporate business plan, just had to ask for it, gives you more data for the same price as the tethering plan, plus gives you tethering
- 450 mins talk
- 10GB data (5GB plan + 5GB from corporate)
- 1000 text messages @ $10/m (bumped near this but never went over)


T-Mobile

Device:
- 16GB unlocked from Moto ~$600 +tax

Plan:
Prepaid ~$45/month ($30 plan, 15 tethering)
- Tethering was blocked in the default app, but I did not try EasyTether or Foxfi or any third party apps, I just paid the fee for convenience.
- 100mins talk
- unlimited text
- 5GB at 4G, unlimited 2G thereafter


So I am saving roughly $60/month,
-300 less minutes (which is OK I dont really use them),
- unlim txt
- 5GB less data

So in 10 months I will have saved more than the cost of the phone, in a year I will have saved the cost of the phone + the ETF.


If you ignore tethering from both carriers it would have been $90/m for VZW and $30/m for TMO, roughly the same savings.
Click to expand...
I actually had similar plans and costs. 450 Talk/500 SMS(to outside users)/unlimited, which was running me a bit over $90 with tax.

The jump to T-Mobile yielded better 4G, and I also did the prepaid plan. Just so you know, the tethering options do work (I use portable wifi hotspot), and at least the one I use can be enabled seamlessly through the native tethering function, which is nice.

The 100 minute limit did bother me, so I use Zoiper for unlimited VoIP calls, after creating a free PBXes account and Google Voice (where I ported my number). I was a bit bummed to find we couldn't do wifi calling with T-Mobile, but well...I can now do wifi calling.:smokingsomb:

$1.05 for nano sim (shipped) + $20 GV number porting = $21.05 + phone for the process. Overall, just a different price for entry with no ETF, but same ~$60 savings.
 
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