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Switching from ATT sim to Tmob sim. What do I do?

Fuzzy13

Fuzzy13

Extreme Android User
I bought a Tmobile sim card last night to test out that network in my area and see if its better or worse than the ATT sim I am currently running on right now. From all the info I've gathered, Tmob's sim card has much faster data speeds than the ATT sim card. I dont mind spending $10 to find out.

My question. I'll obviously be keeping my current Galaxy Nexus and my phone number but which process would I use to switch to the Tmobile sim card?

Will I have to choose the option to port my number from a carrier, even though Im currently on Straight Talk? This will cut my plan short too right?
Not sure if there is a better option than this and keep my number at the same time.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
 
Fuzzy13 said:
I bought a Tmobile sim card last night to test out that network in my area and see if its better or worse than the ATT sim I am currently running on right now. From all the info I've gathered, Tmob's sim card has much faster data speeds than the ATT sim card. I dont mind spending $10 to find out.

My question. I'll obviously be keeping my current Galaxy Nexus and my phone number but which process would I use to switch to the Tmobile sim card?

Will I have to choose the option to port my number from a carrier, even though Im currently on Straight Talk? This will cut my plan short too right?
Not sure if there is a better option than this and keep my number at the same time.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
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If you don't mind me asking what kind of speeds were you getting with your at&t sim and where are you located? Would you consider the at&t speeds slow or just not quite as fast as T-Mobile?
 
Dmowry said:
If you don't mind me asking what kind of speeds were you getting with your at&t sim and where are you located? Would you consider the at&t speeds slow or just not quite as fast as T-Mobile?
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I'm in Georgia about 15 miles south of Atlanta. I've been getting anywhere between 5 and 8mbps at my house and much less at my work as its further out of the spectrum.

The reason I want to try t mobile sim is I've heard people being able to use up to 5gigs a month consistently without any notice from st and some even saying they've gotten into the 15 - 20 gig range where as att limits to around 2gigs. Also the speeds that people have posted up comparing the two has t mobile blowing att out of the water. Now this is all hear say and I hate hear say but it gives me the thought. I try things so I can see first hand which is why I tried st to begin with even though there's a lot of bad press shit them.

So I figure for 10 bucks it's worth trying to see what's better in my area and worst case scenario I get the same speeds with the t mobile sim but can go well over the allotted 2gigs that supposedly they cut you off at with the att sim. I barely use 2 gigs a month but it's refreshing to not have it on the back of your mind or worrying about it and watching your data closely.
 
please keep us posted about this endeavor. i too am looking at switching to ST. im currently on VM. only reason i haven't switched is because of the tremendous developers' support on my motorola triumph (MTDEV-CM9).
 
While you can switch carriers just by swapping out sim card. You still have to sign up with the new service, So you would have to port your current number anytime you switch. You can't use the same number on two different carriers at the same time.
 
Fuzzy13 said:
I'm in Georgia about 15 miles south of Atlanta. I've been getting anywhere between 5 and 8mbps at my house and much less at my work as its further out of the spectrum.

The reason I want to try t mobile sim is I've heard people being able to use up to 5gigs a month consistently without any notice from st and some even saying they've gotten into the 15 - 20 gig range where as att limits to around 2gigs. Also the speeds that people have posted up comparing the two has t mobile blowing att out of the water. Now this is all hear say and I hate hear say but it gives me the thought. I try things so I can see first hand which is why I tried st to begin with even though there's a lot of bad press shit them.

So I figure for 10 bucks it's worth trying to see what's better in my area and worst case scenario I get the same speeds with the t mobile sim but can go well over the allotted 2gigs that supposedly they cut you off at with the att sim. I barely use 2 gigs a month but it's refreshing to not have it on the back of your mind or worrying about it and watching your data closely.
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what i did was got two sim cards ported my old metro number to tmo and got another for att just for testing i got the $30 dollar plan on tmo but if you look around you can get the refill cards cheaper than 30 i did the same with att. of course a penta band phone like the nexus works wonders for experiments like this and prepay is great for the simple reason that if the service stinks youre only out 30-40 bux and you test in different locations what coverage is like.
 
eljefe0000 said:
what i did was got two sim cards ported my old metro number to tmo and got another for att just for testing i got the $30 dollar plan on tmo but if you look around you can get the refill cards cheaper than 30 i did the same with att. of course a penta band phone like the nexus works wonders for experiments like this and prepay is great for the simple reason that if the service stinks youre only out 30-40 bux and you test in different locations what coverage is like.
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Pm sent
 
All I just did was go to:

Welcome To Straight Talk >>> ACTIVATE/REACTIVATE>>>Transfer my Existing Straight Talk Service.

Logged into my account and I was told/asked "Please enter your NEW PHONE's 18 digit Serial Number/ MEID DEC. Your NEW PHONE is the number you would like to transfer the number to.

If you purchased a SIM card for the Bring Your Own Phone program, please enter the last 15 digits of your SIM card number. New Phone's Serial Number/ MEID DEC"

Im waiting for the swap to happen.

When your CURRENT PHONE stops working, follow the steps below in your NEW PHONE. This is necessary to complete the upgrade process.
Turn your phone off and immediately back on.
Make a call. If after 10 minutes you are unable to make and receive calls, turn your phone OFF and back ON again.
If your call was not successful, wait 1 hour and repeat these steps.

IMPORTANT: In order for your phone's INTERNET and MULTIMEDIA/PICTURE MESSAGING to work, you will need to update your phone’s APN (Access Point Name) settings using the steps below. This update can be done now.

Once you have reached your phone's APN (Access Point Name) setting:
Create a new APN with the following values depending on whether it's a Smart Phone or not.

Smart Phone:
APN Name: Straight Talk
APN: wap.tracfone
Port: 8080
MMSC: http://mms.tracfone.com
All Other Phones:
APN Name: Straight Talk
APN: wap.tracfone
Proxy: 216.155.165.40
Port: 8080
MMSC: http://mms.tracfone.com
MMS Proxy: 216.155.165.40
MMS Port: 8080
Delete the current "APN/Access Point Name" from your phone.
Reboot your phone.

If you encounter any difficulty updating your phone, please refer to your phone user manual and manufacturer for further assistance. Keep in mind, your APN setting can be found on the red Activation Card that came with your *SIM Card*, or go to our website’s Frequently Asked Questions.
 
About 15 mins about I made a phone call and data is working. So the swap was about a hour. And data was or is working on both at the same time.
 
I will be switching from T-mo to Straight Talk (with a Nexus 4) in Jan and I would like to get the T-Mo version sim from Straight Talk. How do you specify which version you get?
 
When you go to the site click on t mobile compatible phone not gsm phone.


Curious as to why your switching? I'm actually switching from st to t mobile today. The data speeds with st are cut down from what t mobile or att actually offers. Plus t mobile had the 30 dollar plan that gives you 5gb of data, unlimited texts and 100 minutes. Plus t mobiles data speeds are double what st speeds are.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner and swiftkey flow.
 
I am not currently on a data plan. I am not willing to wade into Google talk or other options, so 100 minutes is a deal breaker.
 
mundane24 said:
Fuzzy13, how did this work out for you? what did you end up keeping/using?

just got my n4. wondering about prepaid options.
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I've been trying them all. I took a 3 month period and tried the ATT and T mobile SIM for ST. I then switched to the $30 5GB on T mobile. The 100 minutes a month wasn't cutting it so I switched back to the T mobile sim for ST. All in all ST is the best option hands down. unless you use use your phone for a TV and radio. The people that complain about ST are the ones using the service to tether and run their whole damn house off $45 a month. Then they wanna bitch cause ST booted their thieving ass. If you stay under 4-5Gb of data usage a month then you cant go wrong.

I compared the ATT and T mobile sims for my area. ATT had better coverage but their data speeds were pathetic. 3-5Mbps tops. T mobile's coverage was not quite as good but their data speeds were 20mbps+ and that's on a HSPA+21 phone. My buddy has the note 2 which is +42 and he is in the high 20's. Where else can you get those kind of speeds and unlimited talk and text for $45 a month? you can't. So I have finally settled down with ST and I have no complaints thus far with their service.
 
Fuzzy13 said:
When you go to the site click on t mobile compatible phone not gsm phone.


Curious as to why your switching? I'm actually switching from st to t mobile today. The data speeds with st are cut down from what t mobile or att actually offers. Plus t mobile had the 30 dollar plan that gives you 5gb of data, unlimited texts and 100 minutes. Plus t mobiles data speeds are double what st speeds are.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner and swiftkey flow.
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so is ST's speed really cut down compared to what you would normally get directly from at&t or t-mobile (post & prepaid)???
 
mundane24 said:
so is ST's speed really cut down compared to what you would normally get directly from at&t or t-mobile (post & prepaid)???
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Nope, not at all. Speeds are exactly the same as if you were to go straight to the carrier. That was 1 of the many things I tested in my 3 month journey of pre paid GSM plans.

I was on T mobile's $30 plan for a month and there is one spot at my work that I know I can stand at and get consistent full speed data speeds so that's where I would try and do all my testing. So when switching from ST to TMobile and then back to ST I found that the speeds were exactly the same consistency which was an average of 14-16Mbps. Sometimes I would hit more and sometimes less but you lose nothing when going with ST.

After trying out all the options I could and different plans I found that ST is by far the best choice for me. I would say I'm an average user in that I don't watch movies and I don't stream music on my phone. I have a TV and MP3 player for that ;) So my data usage usually stays under 5Gb a month and usually is around 3Gb or so. I have had ZERO problems with ST and I have no complaints about their service. They are doing things right, right now. Hell they are even offering home phone landlines for CHEAP. They are making moves and they are definitely making carriers think about how they should present their plans and move more towards pre paid.


Also, you have to make sure that when T mobile and ST is compared that the comparison is done using HSPA+21 together or HSPA+42 together as +42 is a good bit faster than +21. My buddy has a Note 2 on T Mobile right now and in the same spot I test in he pulls mid 20's to high 20's where as I stay around 14 ish. People will sometimes compare a Nexus with a Note 2 and they cant understand why the Note 2 is getting faster data speeds when they are on the same carrier. +42 is the reason. You might already know this but I was just adding it in :D


Hope some of my endless babble and info helps :D

Feel free to PM me with any questions or concerns. I dont get on here much anymore but I will get messages regardless. ;)
 
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