AT&T vs. T-Mobile (iPhones, update, wifi, plan)

[HJ99]

Originally Posted by ciceropolo

I wish some company would still provide a basic talk text service that was truly pay for what you use. Although over the life of my plan they simply diluted the value of the minutes.

Your wish is granted young grasshopper. Look on ebay, a company called Liberty Wireless offers a 360 day plan for $30. Only unlimited talk and unlimited basic text, no data, no MMS. Its on Tmobile network. If that is what you need, it is a true bargain.


Whoops, just looked, they doubled the price, its now $60 for 360 day plan. Still pretty good deal if you have good access to Tmobile tower. Its only uncomplicated voice/text only plan I have seen. There are still some of those where you pay by the minute and get triple minutes if you own a particular phone and have to renew every couple month or whatever and minutes may expire or may rollover depending whether its a blue moon..... Unless that is your big thing in life, its easy to forget. Its intended to be confusing and hard to keep track of.

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by HJ99

Your wish is granted young grasshopper. Look on ebay, a company called Liberty Wireless offers a 360 day plan for $30. Only unlimited talk and unlimited basic text, no data, no MMS. Its on Tmobile network. If that is what you need, it is a true bargain.


Whoops, just looked, they doubled the price, its now $60 for 360 day plan. Still pretty good deal if you have good access to Tmobile tower. Its only uncomplicated voice/text only plan I have seen. There are still some of those where you pay by the minute and get triple minutes if you own a particular phone and have to renew every couple month or whatever and minutes may expire or may rollover depending whether its a blue moon..... Unless that is your big thing in life, its easy to forget. Its intended to be confusing and hard to keep track of.

Thank you for posting this.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Jethro Wireless had this plan (unlimited talk and text, no data)....a plan I’d never seen before (and eventually will work well for me) and I thought that was a great deal at $10 per month, and this is half that. if this (or better) is still available in April of 2022 (when my credit balances that Verizon and AT&T owe me will be bled out), I’ll jump on this. Like Liberty, Jethro Wireless is a T-mobile MVNO.

[vision33r]

People don't realize that Tmobile has more 5G coverage than both Verizon or AT&T. AT&T actually called out Tmobile years ago for buying up all of the 5G channels up for auction by the FCC. So the future for Tmobile is assured that it will unseat Verizon and AT&T in coverage once we move past 4G and into 5G.

[Peregrine]

OK? So?

5G is a solution to a problem 85% of us don't have. I can already stream video in Hi Def over 4g to my (like I actually need HD on my) 6 inch phone. What exactly do I need 5g for if I can ALREADY do that on 4g?

[HJ99]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

OK? So?

5G is a solution to a problem 85% of us don't have. I can already stream video in Hi Def over 4g to my (like I actually need HD on my) 6 inch phone. What exactly do I need 5g for if I can ALREADY do that on 4g?

What was it you said in the other thread, its what the market wants. You wouldnt want to be some luddite like me that only buys what they actually need, would you? LOL, the economy depends on people going into debt to buy stuff they dont need in order to make others rich.


I was perfectly happy with 2G. So suck it up, times change and whatever is most profitable will rule. You just need some bozo to soothingly explain all the virtues of 5G while he has his hand in your pocket.

[Peregrine]

But the future of 5G isn't really phones. Like I said there I can already stream on 4g. What else COULD you need faster internet for? The only possible reason is to download large files? Who does that on a phone?

5G will supposedly be able to cover more area eventually the 4g does. That is an advantage, but not to me. I get plenty of 4G coverage.

No, the real benefit of 5G is our car connected future.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/connec...auto-industry/

https://www.nokia.com/networks/5g/us...pleasant%20too.

For the record, I already have a 5G phone. It is Verizon's and it is true it sucks compared to TMobile.

[TexasLawyer2000]

Originally Posted by vision33r

People don't realize that Tmobile has more 5G coverage than both Verizon or AT&T. AT&T actually called out Tmobile years ago for buying up all of the 5G channels up for auction by the FCC. So the future for Tmobile is assured that it will unseat Verizon and AT&T in coverage once we move past 4G and into 5G.

But at low speeds. T-Mobile's coverage is great but their speeds are at 4G levels in most of it. Where they have been able to to use Sprint's frequencies for 5G, it's reasonably fast (not as fast at AT&T and Verizon) but that's not in many areas yet.

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by TexasLawyer2000

But at low speeds. T-Mobile's coverage is great but their speeds are at 4G levels in most of it. Where they have been able to to use Sprint's frequencies for 5G, it's reasonably fast (not as fast at AT&T and Verizon) but that's not in many areas yet.

Inside my house I get 2 bars of 5G (T-Mobile rates it as “fair”). I get 50+ Mbps.

On LTE I get 42, with much slower upload speeds, like around 1 Mbps on LTE vs 3 on 5G. That’s something that would make a material difference if doing Zoom on a hotspot connection.

In an area with full bars I get over 125 Mbps down on T-Mobile 5G. No way anyone gets that on 4G.

So while it’s not a huge increase in areas with lower quality signal it’s still better than LTE.

[TexasLawyer2000]

Originally Posted by markjames68

Inside my house I get 2 bars of 5G (T-Mobile rates it as “fair”). I get 50+ Mbps.

On LTE I get 42, with much slower upload speeds, like around 1 Mbps on LTE vs 3 on 5G. That’s something that would make a material difference if doing Zoom on a hotspot connection.

In an area with full bars I get over 125 Mbps down on T-Mobile 5G. No way anyone gets that on 4G.

So while it’s not a huge increase in areas with lower quality signal it’s still better than LTE.

It depends on where you live. No one where you live gets 125 Mbps on 4G but 80 Mbps to 150 Mbps is not uncommon on 4G.

Verizon and AT&T 5G hit 1 Gbps+ if you're in good range. T-Mobile doesn't hit that high in many areas.

[Peregrine]

My friend has TMobile. He can't get 5g at his house. Came over here and ran a speed test. It was over 150 inside my house.
I get maybe 40 on VZW 5g. I haven't been anywhere that good coverage though. The 5g coverage is so bad.