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Old 05-06-2012, 01:20 PM
 
8,411 posts, read 7,379,826 times
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I'll be moving where Metro PCS has service. Does anyone have the service? How does it compare to the big three Verizon, Sprint and AT&T has far as data speed and call coverage? I've had all 3 of the big three because I've travel alot. But my bills are too much with Verizon. I'm going to use my iPhone 4s for the other stuff though. How would you rate Metro PCS? How much is it to add additional lines?
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Old 05-06-2012, 01:51 PM
 
Location: 92037
4,630 posts, read 10,241,214 times
Reputation: 1955
Quote:
Originally Posted by Singlelady10 View Post
I'll be moving where Metro PCS has service. Does anyone have the service? How does it compare to the big three Verizon, Sprint and AT&T has far as data speed and call coverage? I've had all 3 of the big three because I've travel alot. But my bills are too much with Verizon. I'm going to use my iPhone 4s for the other stuff though. How would you rate Metro PCS? How much is it to add additional lines?
MetrocPCS leases from Verizon or Sprint depending on area. Their technology is CDMA/LTE so no AT&T or TMo coverage which is GSM/UMTS/LTE.

So inherently you are getting one or the other.

Not sure if they do additional lines.
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Old 05-06-2012, 05:06 PM
 
Location: Wandering.
3,549 posts, read 6,636,523 times
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It's been a few years since we had our kids on Metro so things may have changed a bit, but here's the way it was then.

Look closely at the coverage map. If you leave the home area you will be roaming, and roaming wasn't included in any plans at the time. We were in Tampa Bay and once we drove about half an hour north of Tampa the phones were dead. They would get a signal again when we got around Atlanta, but lost it as soon as we left the metro area.

If you wanted to roam you had to pre pay into your account, and physically change the phone to roaming, which then always used the roaming fees if you didn't put it back into normal mode when you got back into their area.

The discount for the second line was trivial at the time.

Also look closely at what's included in the price. You'll probably find that you'll pay extra for things that are included with the big guys.

Also, customer service is not included at that price. There was a fee to deal with a human face to face, including to make payments (instead of paying via credit card or their automated machine) and getting a human on the phone took an act of congress, and actually resulted in nothing.

We knew all of this going in, and since the phones were for our teenage kids we were fine with it. At the time we didn't have any service of our own since my job provided both my and my wife's phones. Once we had our own service it was cheaper to put the boys on our Verizon account.
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Old 05-10-2012, 11:52 PM
 
Location: Not where you ever lived
11,535 posts, read 30,128,588 times
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I wouldn't. First of all it is either just been bought out or it is negotiations to sell. My friend in Tx near Dallas has one and half the time it doesn't work and the other half it drops calls. I do not know why. If I were in your position I would buy a TracFone because they work well all over the US. It is no contract and if you do not talk a lot you may find the $30 works well.

The best piece of advice is to find out whether GMS or the DMSA technology works best where you will use it. TracFone has phones for both. The other option is a military grade flip phone with both chips. In theory I can call 122 countries and it will work if I travel internationally. I got it from Verizon. I was told I could go on the $50 no contract plan with this phone when my current plan expires.

TracFone just bought T-Mobile Simple Phone. The beauty of this is if you have an unlocked phone and a SIM card you can switch into TracFone plan at any time. What you will lose, however, is your phone number; it doesn't port numbers.

Cellphones are craps shoot because they are evolving so quickly.

The iPhone uses HSPA. With it and the military grade you have all the bands covered all the time for today.
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Old 05-11-2012, 10:33 AM
 
Location: 92037
4,630 posts, read 10,241,214 times
Reputation: 1955
Quote:
Originally Posted by linicx View Post
I wouldn't. First of all it is either just been bought out or it is negotiations to sell. My friend in Tx near Dallas has one and half the time it doesn't work and the other half it drops calls. I do not know why. If I were in your position I would buy a TracFone because they work well all over the US. It is no contract and if you do not talk a lot you may find the $30 works well.

The best piece of advice is to find out whether GMS or the DMSA technology works best where you will use it. TracFone has phones for both. The other option is a military grade flip phone with both chips. In theory I can call 122 countries and it will work if I travel internationally. I got it from Verizon. I was told I could go on the $50 no contract plan with this phone when my current plan expires.

TracFone just bought T-Mobile Simple Phone. The beauty of this is if you have an unlocked phone and a SIM card you can switch into TracFone plan at any time. What you will lose, however, is your phone number; it doesn't port numbers.

Cellphones are craps shoot because they are evolving so quickly.

The iPhone uses HSPA. With it and the military grade you have all the bands covered all the time for today.
linicx,

While its true that cell service can be spotty just about anywhere, the MVNOs (like Virgin, Metro or Cricket) lease air time from the either Sprint or Verizon, so inherently you are using one of those networks depending on regional roaming agreements. Sprint and VZ are CDMA not "DMSA", there is not such thing

As far as GSM (not GMS) these are all SIM card enabled devices and networks.
LTE ALSO uses SIM cards for CDMA and GSM carriers. So in the case of Verizon or Sprint or the MVNOs, while they are natively CDMA, but they still require a SIM card if they are going to be used for the LTE network.

The 'military grade' phone is completely inaccurate. While there are military grade components used for the phone itself as in some of the Verizon Casio G series lineup, they are not actually military grade. In other words just because a phone is made of aircraft aluminum, doesnt make it military grade. There are 'military grade' memory wipes on some devices like Blackberrys.
The military typically uses satellite or hybrid technologies for their radio systems, this is for reasons of security depending on application.
What I think is confusing is that the 'military grade' phone you are talking about is actually a hybrid radio device. Blackberrys have them and some of the newer phones or 'global' buisness phones.
They are actually a single chip hybrid capable of utilizing quad band frequencies for both CDMA and GSM technologies. Yes you can use it for ~122 countries. But Verizon really is the big player in that arena.

As far as the iPhone, yes the 4S uses HSPA+ which is a 3G technology on steroids. They have been trying to sell it as a 'true' 4G device which it isnt. As a matter of fact LTE really isnt even 4G its more like 3.5G. 4G is still in development and they are working on a global standard for it.

I hope this clears things up for anyone that is looking at plans. Its incredibly confusing out there with all of the deals and networks.
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Old 05-11-2012, 03:53 PM
 
Location: Not where you ever lived
11,535 posts, read 30,128,588 times
Reputation: 6423
Exactly! And you explained it better. Thanks! According to what I read about this Verizon phone represented as "military grade" is it can be dropped in 5' of water or 1.5x with no damage. However, it does not work in US Cellular areas; Walmart's Straight Talk does. Also, in theory, the buy out of Metro PCS is supposed to make it better, but in meantime it is still a problem in some areas around Dallas.

I live in a Verizon dominated rural area where Sprint and Verizon CDMA phones work very well, but they aren't too snappy in US Cellular or AT&T territory.
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Old 05-12-2012, 08:15 AM
 
1,182 posts, read 1,136,132 times
Reputation: 439
In Las Vegas Metro has their own network and it is 4G there and works good for the most part. In Los Angeles, it works good for voice and text but for apps and data it is painfully slow. I don't know if they roam or have their own network here.
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