[www.wired.com]

It's about time.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

[www.macrumors.com]

Notably, T-Mobile says it will be the only U.S. carrier to support the 'Wideband Audio' feature of the iPhone 5, calling it 'HD Voice'.

T-Mobile is also offering the iPhone 4S for $70 down and $20 per month for 24 months, and the iPhone 4 for $15 down and $15 per month for 24 months.

The carrier will charge a base rate of $50 per month for unlimited talk, text and 3G data, plus 500MB of 4G data. Customers can add 2GB of 4G data for $10/month per line, or $20/month for unlimited 4G. Additional lines have a base rate of $30/month for the first, and $10/month for each additional. The company officially rolled out 4G LTE service today in Baltimore; Houston; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Phoenix; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington, D.C.

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Ways to improve web conference image and sound quality. [forums.macresource.com]

Gonna merge this with the thread below, since they are about the same thing.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

How is T-Mobile's coverage, compared with Verizon's?

Our Verizon phones (antique, stupid phones) are elegible for upgrades next month, and the contracts are over this summer. I figure it's time to join the 21st century and get smart phones. But the welter of carriers and plans is rather overwhelming. Easiest will be just to go to the Verizon store and sign up for a couple of iPhones. But it probably won't be the cheapest. . .

BTW, Apple fanboy Rush Limbaugh says there's going to be an iPhone update in June. True? Should we wait?

/Mr Lynn

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"Hillbilly at Harvard"
Honky-tonk Country and Bluegrass
Founded in 1948 by Pappy Ben Minnich
Saturdays 9am - 1pm Eastern
WHRB-FM, Cambridge, MA
Streaming at [www.WHRB.org]
Be there!
The HAH weblog: [hillbillyatharvard.wordpress.com]

Topical weblog: [walkingcreekworld.wordpress.com]

On the river in Saxonville.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 12:44PM by mrlynn.

Quote
mrlynn
How is T-Mobile's coverage, compared with Verizon's?

Our Verizon phones (antique, stupid phones) are elegible for upgrades next month, and the contracts are over this summer. I figure it's time to join the 21st century and get smart phones. But the welter of carriers and plans is rather overwhelming. Easiest will be just to go to the Verizon store and sign up for a couple of iPhones. But it probably won't be the cheapest. . .

BTW, Apple fanboy Rush Limbaugh says there's going to be an iPhone update in June. True? Should we wait?

/Mr Lynn

TMobile's coverage pales in comparison to Verizon.
If you want iPhones on Verizon, you might consider getting one from Straight Talk, if you want a 5, or get a used Verizon 4 or 4s and activate on Page Plus, which uses Verizon's network.
In any event, you would be better off waiting till after the next version of the iPhone comes out, IMHO.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 01:16PM by rgG.

Quote
rgG
. . . In any event, you would be better off waiting till after the next version of the iPhone comes out, IMHO.

Hmm. . . This source says it will be a Q3 release, i.e. after June:

[www.phonearena.com]

If it's as far off as September, we may not want to wait. My wife is making noises about getting medical databases on the 'phone'. She's had patients who could look up drugs faster than she could!

/Mr Lynn



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 01:26PM by mrlynn.

Quote
mrlynn
How is T-Mobile's coverage, compared with Verizon's?

Our Verizon phones (antique, stupid phones) are elegible for upgrades next month, and the contracts are over this summer. I figure it's time to join the 21st century and get smart phones. But the welter of carriers and plans is rather overwhelming. Easiest will be just to go to the Verizon store and sign up for a couple of iPhones. But it probably won't be the cheapest. . .

BTW, Apple fanboy Rush Limbaugh says there's going to be an iPhone update in June. True? Should we wait?

/Mr Lynn

You may want to look at VZW's web site to see if you can land a better deal. Mrs. Poochie and I are public employees and we are eligible for a 15% discount on our VZW iPhone plans. It comes to $80/person for 700 mins, unltd txt 2 GB/ea of data, including taxes & fees.

VZW has excellent coverage in my area, so that is a big draw for us.

Quote
mrlynn

Quote
rgG
. . . In any event, you would be better off waiting till after the next version of the iPhone comes out, IMHO.

Hmm. . . This source says it will be a Q3 release, i.e. after June:

[www.phonearena.com]

If it's as far off as September, we may not want to wait. My wife is making noises about getting medical databases on the 'phone'. She's had patients who could look up drugs faster than she could!

/Mr Lynn

Then, I would go with buying a couple of used iPhone 4 phones and activate on Page Plus. Since you are new to smart phones, the 4 will be a great first smart phone. I still have my iPhone 4, on Page Plus, and it in no way feels outdated. You will probably be able to get an iPhone 4 for around $200, and you will be paying $30 a month, for each phone, with no taxes or fees or contracts. After the new phone comes out, you can decide if you want/need to upgrade and still sell your iPhone 4 for not much less than you paid for them.

The $30 a month plan gets you 1200 minutes, 3000 texts, and 500GB of data, for each phone. They have other plans, if you need more minutes, texts, or data.

Edit: oops, 500MB not GB.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 03:54PM by rgG.

Quote
the_poochies

Quote
mrlynn
How is T-Mobile's coverage, compared with Verizon's?

Our Verizon phones (antique, stupid phones) are elegible for upgrades next month, and the contracts are over this summer. I figure it's time to join the 21st century and get smart phones. But the welter of carriers and plans is rather overwhelming. Easiest will be just to go to the Verizon store and sign up for a couple of iPhones. But it probably won't be the cheapest. . .

BTW, Apple fanboy Rush Limbaugh says there's going to be an iPhone update in June. True? Should we wait?

/Mr Lynn

You may want to look at VZW's web site to see if you can land a better deal. Mrs. Poochie and I are public employees and we are eligible for a 15% discount on our VZW iPhone plans. It comes to $80/person for 700 mins, unltd txt 2 GB/ea of data, including taxes & fees.

VZW has excellent coverage in my area, so that is a big draw for us.

That is still $20 per line more than Tmobile after your discount.

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C(-)ris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throwback Thursday Signature:

The $30 a month plan gets you 1200 minutes, 3000 texts, and 500GB of data, for each phone. They have other plans, if you need more minutes, texts, or data.

did you say 500 GB? perhaps 500 MB

No coverage in my area

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Athens, OH

Quote
space-time
The $30 a month plan gets you 1200 minutes, 3000 texts, and 500GB of data, for each phone. They have other plans, if you need more minutes, texts, or data.

did you say 500 GB? perhaps 500 MB

Yeah, my bad. 500MB.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Quote
rgG
If you want iPhones on Verizon, you might consider getting one from Straight Talk, if you want a 5, or get a used Verizon 4 or 4s and activate on Page Plus, which uses Verizon's network.

I thought Straight Talk supported byop on AT&T or T-Mobile these days? Or possibly only T-Mobile at this point.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 07:49PM by silvarios.

if coverage is what you need, you want VzW/PPC.
If you can deal with UMA/WiFi Calling, I've found that T-Mos coverage works fine for me 99% of the time.
My 2yo HTC does pretty much anything an iPho 4S does, and on T-Mo for a lot less than either ATT or VzW. I have custom ROM'd it, so it has alot less bloat than most phones on any carrier.
I do still have a PPC 6yo LG flip as back up, $10 every 4 months.

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!#$@@$#!

If there are spelling issues, please pardon, Owen the cat is sitting on my keyboard.

Quote
silvarios

Quote
rgG
If you want iPhones on Verizon, you might consider getting one from Straight Talk, if you want a 5, or get a used Verizon 4 or 4s and activate on Page Plus, which uses Verizon's network.

I thought Straight Talk supported byop on AT&T or T-Mobile these days? Or possibly only T-Mobile at this point.

StraightTalk sells their own version of the iPhone 5, and it runs on Verizon, not AT&T, but it only runs at 3G speeds, not LTE. They also sell the 4 and 4S, which also run on Verizon's network, but they are full priced new phones, and you can get a used 4 or 4S for a lot less and then activate on PP, but if you want new, you can also buy those from ST. You will have to order any ST iPhones from Walmart as they don't sell the iPhones except through Wally.

The BYOP from ST is only for TMobile, right now, unless you can find an unactivated AT&T SIM on eBay or Amazon or someplace. There has been a report that ST is going to start letting you activated your own 3G Verizon iPhones and Androids, so expanding the BYOP to the Verizon network. This was supposed to happen today, but has been delayed, so who knows if it will actually happen, later this week, as they have said.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Quote
rgG
StraightTalk sells their own version of the iPhone 5, and it runs on Verizon, not AT&T, but it only runs at 3G speeds, not LTE. They also sell the 4 and 4S, which also run on Verizon's network, but they are full priced new phones, and you can get a used 4 or 4S for a lot less and then activate on PP, but if you want new, you can also buy those from ST. You will have to order any ST iPhones from Walmart as they don't sell the iPhones except through Wally.

Okay, got it. I thought you were saying you could bring out of contract Verizon iPhones over to StraightTalk, but as you noted, that's not live yet (ever?). Spaced out for a moment, but I dig it. If you want an iPhone with Verizon coverage, but not Verizon prices, you can go to StraightTalk. Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 09:42PM by silvarios.

If T-Mobile gets WiFi calling working on their iPhones, I will seriously consider going back to T-Mobile from AT&T for my next iPhone. AT&T's coverage and data network really are pretty awful (in Los Angeles). My friend with a Sprint iPhone often gets better service because at least his phone will roam onto Verizon!

So, really not much to lose with T-Mobile for me. Their coverage in town is fine and when you get in sketchier areas, it should roam onto AT&T and if AT&T doesn't have coverage, well, then I wouldn't have had service to begin with!

I got a galaxy s3 and a new contract from T Mobile 10 days ago.



you're welcome!

Quote
Joey Cupcakes
I got a galaxy s3 and a new contract from T Mobile 10 days ago.



you're welcome!

Takin' one for the team!

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

[www.tuaw.com]

Engadget covered T-Mobile's Un-Carrier event yesterday and was able to get some hands-on time with an iPhone 5 connected to the carrier's new LTE network. The team from Engadget did what most good techies would do -- they fired up Ookla's SpeedTest app to see how T-Mobile's flavor of LTE performed.

Engadget tested the LTE network with two different iPhone 5 handsets and recorded download speeds between 18 and 26 Mbps. Upload speeds clocked in at a respectable 10 Mbps and ping times were under 50ms. These early numbers are promising, but it remains to be seen what happens to these speeds when thousands of subscribers start to surf and stream at the same time. Nonetheless, it's nice to see another carrier enter the LTE market with affordable wireless plans and low upfront payment options for phones.

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