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I am happy with the wireless reception I get, but I'm looking at prepaid plans, for I am tired of the ancillary fees Verizon Wireless charges, the limited phone availability with basic plans, and the fact that I am "locked in" to a phone and/or plan, for two years.
AT&T prepaid wireless seems to have decent coverage, good plans, and I like the fact that I can buy an inexpensive phone, should my current phone break, outside of warrantee.
Anyone have any idea how AT&T's reception is outside of Charlotte, e.g. Monroe, Clover/York, Gastonia, etc?
Also, I have not the faintest idea of how SIM cards work...anything.
Can y'all fill me in on the basics - should anyone know?
Verizon and others use CDMA as wireless technology and as you know this does not use SIM cards.
GSM is more widely used and each carrier provided its own SIM card that slots into a phone. SIM cards ONLY work on the carrier's network that supplied them and most phones are also locked to the GSM network (as Verizon do too) to taht particular network. Most phones can be unlocked to work on other carrier networks but SIM cards remain on the one network that supplied them.
Thus if you have T-Mobile phone and SIM card it will never work on AT&T. Now if you put in an AT&T SIM cards and you have the phone unlocked (a one-time operation that costs from $0 - $20) then you phone will work on AT&T. There is more however in as much that T-Mobile and AT&T us diffwrent frequency bands for 3G data so whilst you will now be able to make phone calls and text people, hi-speed data won't work.
I know this sounds hard and I have written it in a rather terse manner but if you go over it a couple of times and do a bit of raking about on the internet, you'll soon get ist straiglened out.
All the major carriers now support virtual networks. This where they sell their traffic serrvices in bulk to someone who then resells to the public. Here's a list of the current crop of virtual networks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...work_operators
Any AT&T virtual network will work if you use an AT&T phone.
I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile prepaid a couple of months ago and been very happy with the service and obviously the money savings. Not being locked into a particular phone or carrier is a great feeling in itself.
T-mobile just went to no-contract plans. I'm on a business plan, but my part of that bill went down ~$15. We need to see how it all shakes out but that means I'm paying ~$28 for unlimited everything. The only negative is that I went from 2g of data to 500Mb before the speed drops off. I use so little data that won't affect me at all. My limited understanding is that the personal plans have streamlined as well.
T-mobile just went to no-contract plans. I'm on a business plan, but my part of that bill went down ~$15. We need to see how it all shakes out but that means I'm paying ~$28 for unlimited everything. The only negative is that I went from 2g of data to 500Mb before the speed drops off. I use so little data that won't affect me at all. My limited understanding is that the personal plans have streamlined as well.
All you say is absolutely correct. T-Mobile have some quite good deals right now. AT&T have their family plans and they are no more than straight robbery but, better than before. I don't know what Verizon are up to sine all my stuff is GSM 'cuz I need it here and in Europe and CDMA is not much use over there.
It really is worth a look at the major carriers one more time. Obviously the virtual carriers are going to be cheaper especially those who specialize in "bring your own phone" since some of them have only a web presence hence their overheads (and probably service) are very low. I feel this to be especially true on pre-paid deals.
I went to prepaid about 6 months ago. I have an iphone 4 running on Straight Talk. The phone needs to be unlocked and you can do that by getting someone with an ATT plan to get an unlock code for you, or you can buy one from ebay for about $4.
I use the ST $45 unlimited plan ($48 with tax) and it works very well for me. I can often find $45 cards for $38 on ebay as well.
I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile prepaid a couple of months ago and been very happy with the service and obviously the money savings. Not being locked into a particular phone or carrier is a great feeling in itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vmaxnc
T-mobile just went to no-contract plans. I'm on a business plan, but my part of that bill went down ~$15. We need to see how it all shakes out but that means I'm paying ~$28 for unlimited everything. The only negative is that I went from 2g of data to 500Mb before the speed drops off. I use so little data that won't affect me at all. My limited understanding is that the personal plans have streamlined as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DawnW
I went to prepaid about 6 months ago. I have an iphone 4 running on Straight Talk. The phone needs to be unlocked and you can do that by getting someone with an ATT plan to get an unlock code for you, or you can buy one from ebay for about $4.
WH, Vmax, and Dawn, thank you for your contributions .
Looking forward, more than ever, to getting out of my current contract.
I appreciate the tip on T-Mobile. I think highly of their service, though I heard that the hold times for customer service are nightmarish?
Verizon and others use CDMA as wireless technology and as you know this does not use SIM cards.
Starting with the 4G/LTE generation of phones, the CDMA carriers use SIM cards. For the most part you still can't use an AT&T or T-Mobile phone on Verizon or Sprint, though.
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