Using AT&T or T-Mobile sim in a DNA?

[CrackedLCD]

Has anyone tried using an AT&T or T-mobile sim in your DNA? I've seen several reports that this phone is sold completely unlocked by Verizon, and since it has built in GSM support it should work on both carriers' networks, minus LTE support.

I'm interested in checking out AT&T coverage in my area. If it's as good as Verizon I may consider switching. All I need for evaluating is how good the HSPA data works when you're not on their LTE service.

 

[CrackedLCD]

Since no one replied and I couldn't find much information one way or the other elsewhere, I decided to try it myself in the cheapest way possible. I snagged a $10 SIM starter kit for Consumer Cellular at Target. They run the AT&T network. I bought the cheapest minute/data options I could. Setup wasn't painless as I had to go through two or three different sets of APN settings for Consumer Cellular before I found the one that worked, and it required multiple reboots for some reason to get the DNA to accept the new APN settings. And at every boot, Verizon pops up a nag message saying the SIM is from an unknown source.

But everything did eventually work. Call quality was noticeably better than Verizon. There's no LTE obviously, but it did work fine on HSPA+ and speeds seemed as snappy as Verizon's LTE aside from a slow connect time. I guess on GSM networks they still have to take a second to "connect" data, like it did in the old days when it was just GPRS and EDGE data. That delay before data came through was annoying but only if the connection fell idle. Using Waze kept the connection open and the delay went away as long as I kept the connection alive that way.

The signal strength meter seemed to behave different, too. It almost never registered more than 2 bars, and I only saw the full five standing right in front of an AT&T tower, but I never lost signal and never had a place where there was no HSPA+ or HSDPA 3G service. Standing on my front porch, running SignalCheck Pro, it showed me connected to a tower several miles away, with the phone seeing a whopping 15 other cells nearby. I've attached a screenshot showing the cell info.

The service and data speed certainly seemed adequate. HSPA+, which is technically still 3G for AT&T and T-Mobile certainly blows the doors off EVDO or eHRPD 3G on Verizon, but in the end AT&T's lack of compelling handsets means I'll probably be sticking with Verizon and picking up a Moto Turbo next month.

 

[Bearcats]

A nice experiment. And I agree I wish ATT had better coverage and I would jump as Big Red is very expensive for all their control.

You mentioned 15 towers in your area for the new sim...how does that compare to towers of Verizon in your area?

 

[CrackedLCD]

You mentioned 15 towers in your area for the new sim...how does that compare to towers of Verizon in your area?

Sadly, there appears to be no mechanism for reporting adjacent cells on CDMA networks like there are with the GSM system. So I couldn't say for sure, but having had Verizon for two years now, their coverage certainly seems as good as AT&T's so I'd expect the numbers to be basically the same.

That 15 towers is just what the phone can "see" from my home location. I checked that data at multiple spots through my region and if I was near an AT&T tower then the number was often just two, one or even none in a few cases. Since I'm within spitting distance of a Verizon tower, I doubt many others cover this area. I do know that at least two are reachable from here because the one near me tends to randomly go offline for a few seconds each night around 2 am. I've seen two different IDs when the phone briefly jumps to a much further off tower. It's obvious when the local tower drops because the signal goes from -69 dbm on LTE to -109 dbm and is 3G only.

 

[Bearcats]

An interesting comparison. Reason I ask is I am on Verizon due to coverage for work. But I am getting annoyed with all of the "updates" being forced on me that trash the phone and make me go fix stuff to get it back to pre update functionality. I am considering maybe jumping back to ATT but not sure where the brown spots are there. No service provider is the "best"; they all have issues.

Using the same phone and jumping networks is a cool test.