What US carrier/ plan to get

[grove12345]

Im getting a N4.
I currently got Metro PCs and am doing $50 flat plan. Loving the 4g mostly. But i love the flat rates.

From my understanding i can get the unlocked N4, or any phone, and do a prepaid no contract plan and save money with carriers as opposed as to buying a phone and getting a contract. Saving 15-20 bucks a month sounds great to me in the long run.

What US carrier or plan should i use. I dont want to go over $65 (with taxs). I want to have 4g or a really good 3g+ and have great service.

Im sure this has been asked but seems rules and contracts have changed over time and N4 uses different bandwidth. And i have no idea about other contract plans, other than my friends pay like $80-100 for them. Is it even worth getting a unlocked phone vs a contract phone financially? So any help would be great

 

[SquirrelNuts]

I wouldn't recommend T-Mobile post-paid, as taxes suck. T-Mobile coverage sucks in my area too.

I would check out AIO Wireless, new pre-paid from ATT. It's $55 for 2GB data. But they throttle it to 4GB/s. But that's Metro 4G speeds anyway

 

[PlayfulGod]

T-mobile's prepaid is great... if they have coverage in your area, I pay $60mo, and if you get a good HSPA+ signal you wont really notice much difference from LTE.

and pay-as-you-go shyt sux.

 

[Crashdamage]

16 very satisfied years with T-Mobile. Much faster data speeds than AT&T. Coverage is good in most areas, but as with any provider it varies with location. Go postpaid if you want the best service and coverage, prepaid if the cheapest service.

 

[PlayfulGod]

16 very satisfied years with T-Mobile. Much faster data speeds than AT&T. Coverage is good in most areas, but as with any provider it varies with location. Go postpaid if you want the best service and coverage, prepaid if the cheapest service.

What are we calling postpaid & prepaid?

 

[Crashdamage]

??? Well, obviously with postpaid you get a bill once a month and pay for the service *after* it's provided. Prepaid means you must pay *before* service is provided.

There are several nice advantages to going postpaid. Prepaid only offers slightly cheaper rates and no credit required.

 

[PlayfulGod]

??? Well, obviously with postpaid you get a bill once a month and pay for the service *after* it's provided. Prepaid means you must pay *before* service is provided.

There are several nice advantages to going postpaid. Prepaid only offers slightly cheaper rates and no credit required.

ah, didnt know they had postpaid then since they dropped contracts. I've had no issues with the $60 prepaid and actually have had the best customer service with tmo than with any other carrier combined.

 

[PilotBob]

I just activated my N4 on t-mo pre-paid $30 a month. That plan works very well for me because it is 5GB of data before throttling, unlimited text, 100mins of talk. Since I generally use around 10-20 mins of talk a month I much preferred that than to the step up to $50/mo which is unlimited talk/text with 500MB before throttle.

I'm still kind of trying here. My old phone, on virginmobile (Sprint) has a 0-1 bar signal at home but very good signal at work. On t-mo that is reveresed, I have a much better signal at home and very week signal at work.

Speed test has shown between 5-10Mbps compared to my 3G Elite which is about 1.5Mbps on a good day. I am going to give the LTE hack a shot but I'm not sure if t-mo has LTE in my market yet.

If you have more than one phone, the post paid on t-mo is really nice, because it is only $10 extra per phone line. So, for $60/mo you can get two phones unlimited/unlimited/500MB and you can pay $10 per line to bump up the data to 2GB. So, at $45 per phone you're pretty good. If you add a 3rd it gets even better.

BOb

 

[PilotBob]

I would check out AIO Wireless, new pre-paid from ATT. It's $55 for 2GB data. But they throttle it to 4GB/s. But that's Metro 4G speeds anyway

That number can't be right. 4Gbps (I assume you mean small b here not capital B) is 4096Mbps. Google fiber is 1Gbps. My FiOS is 25Mbps.

I think LTE on a good day is 20-40Mbps.

So, perhaps you mean they throttle to 4Mbps??? (which is only about 2x as fast as 3G).

BOb

 

[grove12345]

I just activated my N4 on t-mo pre-paid $30 a month. That plan works very well for me because it is 5GB of data before throttling, unlimited text, 100mins of talk. Since I generally use around 10-20 mins of talk a month I much preferred that than to the step up to $50/mo which is unlimited talk/text with 500MB before throttle.

BOb

wow $30 sounds great. Honestly like you said i dont need much talk time. 100mins is descent. I live in S FL and coverage is great on most networks. Do areas offer different planned prices? I dont want to get this phone walk into a T Mobile and they tell me $60 plus taxes is the lowest they can do. Is the $30 flat or they add on fees in the end?

 

[PilotBob]

wow $30 sounds great. Honestly like you said i dont need much talk time. 100mins is descent. I live in S FL and coverage is great on most networks. Do areas offer different planned prices? I dont want to get this phone walk into a T Mobile and they tell me $60 plus taxes is the lowest they can do. Is the $30 flat or they add on fees in the end?

It's $30 flat... but you have to pay sales tax on top-up. Or, you can buy pre-paid cards at best buy, whatever, add them to your account. AFAIK there plans are the same country wide. I'm in Tampa.

No need to go to the store. Just go to t-mo web site and buy the micro sim pre-paid activation kit, it's $10. Then when you activate it online chose the $30/mo price. Notice, this price isn't listed on the activate form you get with the sim... but it is an option online.

I didn't deal with top up cards or anything, I just activated and then paid the $30 with my credit card, it was $32.10 with the sales tax... and I set it to easy pay, so it will just pull $30 ($32.10) each month.

I also think there is a per-minute if you go over the 100mins... so you can keep a bit of a balance on your account in case you think that might happen. No, I don't know off hand what the per minute is... I think $.10 or something like that.

Also, I think the diff pre-paid vs post-paid is pre-paid has no roaming. Although, who wants to pay for roaming?

BOb

 

[SquirrelNuts]

I believe T-Mobile pre-paid and post-paid coverage is the same. But my $80 post-paid bill turned into $98 after taxes. Complete BS.

When your in a good spot, the speed is awesome. But when I'm at home, I have 3 bars one moment... Then the wind blows and I have no service at all...

And yes, that's 4 Mbps. My apologies for capitalizing the wrong letter.

 

[PilotBob]

I believe T-Mobile pre-paid and post-paid coverage is the same. But my $80 post-paid bill turned into $98 after taxes. Complete BS.

That's a big difference with post-paid and pre-paid. With post paid you pay alot of fees and stuff, and that is all rolled into the pre-paid prices. So, you actually pay less for the $50/mo pre-paid than you do for the $50/mo post-paid even though the plans are for the same exact service.

BOb

(it wasn't the capital B so much, it was using a G rather than an M, that's orders of magnitude different speeds. but, no worries )

 

[new optimus]

From my understanding prepaid tmo has roaming voice and text, but no data. While post paid tmo gives you a small amount of data roaming. I am guessing its under 500mbs.

 

[Crashdamage]

Prepaid and postpaid are NOT exactly the same service. There are significant advantages to going postpaid. Prepaid is not for everyone.

 

[jhawkkw]

... But when I'm at home, I have 3 bars one moment... Then the wind blows and I have no service at all...

I have that same issue in one particular area, it's an edge only area. But other than that, I love my 30 dollar plan and I buy my refill cards at best buy because I'm a silver reward zone member so I get triple points on it.

 

[ritchea]

It's $30 flat... but you have to pay sales tax on top-up. Or, you can buy pre-paid cards at best buy, whatever, add them to your account. AFAIK there plans are the same country wide. I'm in Tampa.

No need to go to the store. Just go to t-mo web site and buy the micro sim pre-paid activation kit, it's $10. Then when you activate it online chose the $30/mo price. Notice, this price isn't listed on the activate form you get with the sim... but it is an option online. BOb

In fact, I'm pretty sure you can only activate that plan online (or with a Wal-mart phone purchase) not in a T-Mobile store.

 

[PilotBob]

There are significant advantages to going postpaid.

Such as?

BOb

 

[Banished Angel]

Such as?

BOb

Priority on the network.

Nationwide support (you can go to almost any decent sized town and find a Verizon or AT&T store).

Higher bandwidth caps if you're willing to pay the money.

Better coverage.

It's expensive don't get me wrong. It's clearly not the best choice for everyone, but it does have advantages.

 

[Crashdamage]

Postpaid also has better customer service, device financing, conditional call forwarding, company discounts and no worries about running out of prepaid allotment.

I would never go prepaid. Not worth it to save $5-10/mo. With my 15% AAA discount I actually pay less postpaid than I would prepaid anyway.

 

[jhawkkw]

If t-mobile offered the 30 dollar plan as postpaid like they do every other prepaid plan, I'd switch to postpaid in a heartbeat. But the 30 dollar plan is just too good of a deal to pass up Imo.

 

[PilotBob]

Priority on the network.

Um who told you that?

Nationwide support (you can go to almost any decent sized town and find a Verizon or AT&T store).

Same with T-Mobile stores. Remember I was comparing T-mo pre-paid with T-mo post paid.

Higher bandwidth caps if you're willing to pay the money.

Better coverage.

It's expensive don't get me wrong. It's clearly not the best choice for everyone, but it does have advantages.

Once again, at least with t-mo you get the same coverage if it is pre-paid or post-paid... it is the same network so you get the same exact coverage.

Now, if you want to compare Metro PCS to Verizon wrt coverage, sure there is a big difference.

BOb

 

[PilotBob]

I would never go prepaid. Not worth it to save $5-10/mo. With my 15% AAA discount I actually pay less postpaid than I would prepaid anyway.

That must be a heck of a discount. Can you please share your monthly cost, what provider that is with, and how much talk/text/data you get? Maybe there is something I don't know.

BOb

 

[Crashdamage]

T-Mobile, unlimited talk + text + 500mb 4G data per line. $68/mo for 2 lines plus taxes. Cheap service with all the advantages of postpaid.

All providers give network priority to postpaid. And prepaid and postpaid coverage is not the same. You get what you pay for.

 

[PilotBob]

T-Mobile, unlimited talk + text + 500mb 4G data per line. $68/mo for 2 lines plus taxes. Cheap service with all the advantages of postpaid.

All providers give network priority to postpaid. And prepaid and postpaid coverage is not the same. You get what you pay for.

Yes, with t-mo post paid is much better price if you have more than one line... since you get the benefit of $10 per additional line. I would certainly go that route with multiple phones a last 3 others in my family just got iPhone 4Ss with virgin mobile and they are locked. I guess we could jailbreak them and move them over.

I still don't believe the the pre-paid vs post-paid network priority. Where is that written in t-mo's terms of agreement?

BOb