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Hello,
I'm moving to the US (DC) after 8 yrs as an expat and I need a new phone + carrier. I'm coming from an iPhone 3GS I lost a month ago, but I've never experienced fast 3G, never been able to watch video on a phone, and no longer eat up voice minutes. Truth be told, I'm probably a value customer looking for a plan with more data than voice. And chances are I'll probably go abroad again in 2 years and would prefer to still be able to use this phone unlocked internationally.
Q1: Which carrier should I go with, ATT/Verizon/Tmobile/Sprint/USCellular?
Q2: Are there any prepaid plans that are a better fit?
many thanks!
mixersoft said:
Hello,
I'm moving to the US (DC) after 8 yrs as an expat and I need a new phone + carrier. I'm coming from an iPhone 3GS I lost a month ago, but I've never experienced fast 3G, never been able to watch video on a phone, and no longer eat up voice minutes. Truth be told, I'm probably a value customer looking for a plan with more data than voice. And chances are I'll probably go abroad again in 2 years and would prefer to still be able to use this phone unlocked internationally.
Q1: Which carrier should I go with, ATT/Verizon/Tmobile/Sprint/USCellular?
Q2: Are there any prepaid plans that are a better fit?
many thanks!
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My Family and I are ATT and Verizon customers. Both these carriers use a tiered billing system for Data Plans. $$ for 1GB/Month, $$ for 2GB/Month and so on. 3G is not as fast as you would think. A Streamed movie is smooth if your standing still and not using an over stressed cell tower, it's choppy if your moving (a car or train) as it loses speed when switching from one cell tower to the next.
As for unlocking the phone. You have a few options. In the US once your contract term is fulfilled (usually 2 years) you own the phone and a simple call to your carrier and they will unlock it for you or you can unlock the phone using third party software (Jail-breaking).
If anyone is looking to buy a Springboard, tmo has it for $299 and no contract.
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones...d&cell-phone=T-Mobile-SpringBoard-Prepaid-MBB
Thanks to Kueller at SD.
I am really interested in this.
One question though - I already have a smartphone plan with t-mo. I would like to simply use my smartphone SIM in this device, and be able to make voice calls. Is that possible? If not, I think I will pass.
JeremyNT said:
I am really interested in this.
One question though - I already have a smartphone plan with t-mo. I would like to simply use my smartphone SIM in this device, and be able to make voice calls. Is that possible? If not, I think I will pass.
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This has been answered numerous time already. Honeycomb has no phone capabilities but if you install ICS then you will have the ability to make a call but it seems that you won't have data. This is a limitation from TMobile and hopefully they will change this in the near future although I wouldn't hold my breath waiting.
Nice deal! I would cross the border and jump on this if it weren't for the fact that I already bought one used along with a leather case for $140 total. Add in the $30 repair for my stupid insertion of a microSD into the SIM slot, and $15 I will probably have to spend on an unlock, and I'm still coming out ahead at $185.
JeremyNT said:
I am really interested in this.
One question though - I already have a smartphone plan with t-mo. I would like to simply use my smartphone SIM in this device, and be able to make voice calls. Is that possible? If not, I think I will pass.
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Click to collapse
I can't speak for postpaid, but I have a prepaid SIM that I put on the $3/day voice/text/data plan. The SIM works in smartphones such as Galaxy Nexus and Nexus One, but when I put it into the Springboard it says invalid SIM. I think T-Mobile screens for the IMEI of its tablets and bans them from using the network on a phone plan.
I have a SGP621, been reading the posts on here but none seem to answer some of the questions I have. I do appologize if seems like some of this info I could just get myself by visiting the stores, unfortunately I have very bad experiences with AT&T sales reps, I always seem to have halfwits who know less about the phones and plans their selling then I do. plus I work almost every day, I dont have the time wait half an hour between each question so the the reps can all play "pass the question" in the hopes that the person to their left knows the answer. its irritating, frustrating, and your own personal experiences would give me a much better picture.
Also, it seems I'm one of the few who fall in the opposite category of what seems to be everyone else who bought the SGP621, I actually don't want to use it as a phone at all, I'm just tired of tethering. Ideally, I'd be happiest with a data only plan, even better if doing so could save me some cash.
AT&T questions:
Can I just get a data plan/add it as a tablet?
As a phone...would/could it be the same number as my normal phone? 2 separate numbers?
Jgonzo432 said:
Yeah, it's the same on the Z3TC. I didn't accept the download because I don't want my settings changed so I can't confirm if it has RedPocket , H2O and ATT etc...
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whats this about? is this necessary? what does it change?
How much is it to add to an existing family plan?
how much of a data usage increase do you see with this on your plan?
T-Mobile questions:
Roughly how much for the data only plan?
is it worth it considering I already have a plan with AT&T?
That's exactly what I have with tmobile... Data only... Twenty bucks a month for 1gb, and that does include the free music streaming service
Well incase anyone was wondering, I did actually have some time today. since I already have a mobile share plan with AT&T adding my tablet was pretty cheap.
Its $10 for a tablet (data only), $15 for a phone (phone+data)
When they stuck a sim card in my tablet, AT&T gets confused, classifying it as 2 different things on 2 different levels and thus they could not simply add it. Instead they had to use the serial from one of the instore display devices, so they gave me the option to classify it as a tablet or phone. Even though I was planning to go tablet, 5 dollar diff? i went phone. seems to be working fine so far.
Consider the $15/mo tablet data plan thru Harbor Mobile ($15 for 5GBs). They are simply reselling a T-Mo business line I believe and could prob go under and leave you hanging at any moment...but if you don't have a phone number to lose, who cares.
My wife was planning a trip abroad and we called Verizon to activate international service on Nexus 6P. The first person we talked to didn't know how to do it, so she connected us to the international department to activate the service. After nearly an hour, this guy said everything was setup for international service to work; however when she arrived first in Mexico, then South America, international calling was not working, so my wife called Verizon and was told that it was impossible for them to activate international calling on her phone, because it was not in their computer system. However, the computer system allows them to bill you for international service that doesn't exist. I have been a Verizon customer for 18 years; but now they treat their customers with pure contempt. So glad we bought new phones that aren't locked into a single carrier.
Can't wait to say "adios" for good to Big Red!
Pure contempt? You've gotta be kidding. It's clearly a technical issue with their system. If you're smart enough to buy a Nexus you should be smart enough to pick up a SIM when traveling anyway and not pay through the nose.
mdmogren said:
Pure contempt? You've gotta be kidding. It's clearly a technical issue with their system. If you're smart enough to buy a Nexus you should be smart enough to pick up a SIM when traveling anyway and not pay through the nose.
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She got a SIM from a local carrier a few days after arriving in her final destination country. Verizon's treatment of customers is utterly contemptible. If international service really can not be activated, then she should have been told that from the beginning. The international service expert from the international calling department simply lied; because he clearly did not know what else to do, or say. That is what I call "contempt".
VZW employees arent the brightest bulb. I would skip the. International service and just pick up a local carrier SIM card. In the UK, it will cost $40/month for 100MB, 100SMS, and 100 minutes meanwhile a local SIM at $25 will give me 3GB, and 500 local minutes and 1000 SMS or something. And if I went with a $40 SIM card, then it would of been like 7GB and double minutes and SMS.
PrevailNow said:
She got a SIM from a local carrier a few days after arriving in her final destination country. Verizon's treatment of customers is utterly contemptible. If international service really can not be activated, then she should have been told that from the beginning. The international service expert from the international calling department simply lied; because he clearly did not know what else to do, or say. That is what I call "contempt".
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entitled much? seriously the guys on the other end are limited to the tools and resources they have on hand. there's a high probability that they had not been asked to enable international roaming on this device (or at least the people who were part of this call) and they attempted to make do with what was available.
so they tried, they thought they had it working and it didn't. it sounds to me like the second go-around with the "impossible" conversation was worse than the first. at least they tried. i'm betting the second rep didn't even bother.
your wife did the right thing and in most cases, she would have had to do this with any other carrier anyway.
I would always opt to pick up a local sim card (language may be an issue, but they should activate it for you). When I went to Italy, I just got a local SIM, which is much cheaper, easier and you can get data with the plan.
if you had team mobile this wouldnt be an issue
In September i went to Spain, France and UK and worked just as here in states... not single problem.... as a matter of fact, i even got texts from TMo when crossing borders saying welcome to "X" country.
The fact he had this issues, clearly shows that the VZW wasnt willing to remediate the immediate issue this customer had while away. People tell u to pick a local sim card, but that is simply not the best option nowadays. If u get one at local airport is wayyyyyy too expensive. If you are there already, how can you get proper information on where to go get one besides there. Waste of time, money and resources.
Its like currency exchange.. people tell you to get it done locally, WRONG, it averages 30% fee on top of the current rate.
Fact remains, customer was proactive, was traveling on expectations that no issues should arise, and when the issue did presented itself, no real solution was provided. Switch to TMo or some other carrier.
chaco81 said:
if you had team mobile this wouldnt be an issue
In September i went to Spain, France and UK and worked just as here in states... not single problem.... as a matter of fact, i even got texts from TMo when crossing borders saying welcome to "X" country.
The fact he had this issues, clearly shows that the VZW wasnt willing to remediate the immediate issue this customer had while away. People tell u to pick a local sim card, but that is simply not the best option nowadays. If u get one at local airport is wayyyyyy too expensive. If you are there already, how can you get proper information on where to go get one besides there. Waste of time, money and resources.
Its like currency exchange.. people tell you to get it done locally, WRONG, it averages 30% fee on top of the current rate.
Fact remains, customer was proactive, was traveling on expectations that no issues should arise, and when the issue did presented itself, no real solution was provided. Switch to TMo or some other carrier.
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WHY YOU HAS MY PICTURE?! haha jk jk
The Stig 04 said:
WHY YOU HAS MY PICTURE?! haha jk jk
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you have mines, you are the 4th Stig!
lol
mdmogren said:
If you're smart enough to buy a Nexus you should be smart enough to pick up a SIM when traveling anyway and not pay through the nose.
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Local SIMs are overrated. In some countries the red tape to get a local SIM is not trivial and can be a big hassle. You also have to figure out what the best deals are, stores to go and all that. Also, if you are in the country for just a couple of days it's just too much work. The way to go is crearly that your home carrier offered reasonable roaming charges, which is starting to happen.
I've used Project Fi while roaming internationally with the 6P and it's amazing to do country hopping without even thinking about this stuff. You just turn your phone wherever you are, and it works.
I left Verizon due to the horrible customer service. I'm a person, not a rock in your boot that you step on all day long. It's like pulling teeth with them.
Every call is a struggle. They're literally the Comcast of the mobile phone world. I dreaded having to call big red. Like you have to mentally prepare yourself for whatever's about to happen.
Now I'm with T-Mobile and they have great customer service. I just have 1 dead spot on the way to work. Front start to finish I'm without service for about 8 seconds flat. Besides that? No real difference. Besides the lower bill, and all the fun stuff that T-Mobile does for customers now.
RHChan84 said:
VZW employees arent the brightest bulb. I would skip the. International service and just pick up a local carrier SIM card. In the UK, it will cost $40/month for 100MB, 100SMS, and 100 minutes meanwhile a local SIM at $25 will give me 3GB, and 500 local minutes and 1000 SMS or something. And if I went with a $40 SIM card, then it would of been like 7GB and double minutes and SMS.
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Exactly. The UK is great and so is Japan. I was shocked at the 4G data speeds in the UK on EE. Sim cost like $20-$30 for 3gb of data and fast data at that. We get ripped a new one on cell service here. I think Canada gets ripped even more.
bartolo5 said:
Local SIMs are overrated. In some countries the red tape to get a local SIM is not trivial and can be a big hassle. You also have to figure out what the best deals are, stores to go and all that. Also, if you are in the country for just a couple of days it's just too much work. The way to go is crearly that your home carrier offered reasonable roaming charges, which is starting to happen.
I've used Project Fi while roaming internationally with the 6P and it's amazing to do country hopping without even thinking about this stuff. You just turn your phone wherever you are, and it works.
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Project Fi or T-mobile look nice for international, however, I strongly disagree with your statement that Local SIMs are overrated. IIRC speeds are capped at 256kbps which is fine for e-mail and light browsing but that is slooooowww.
I have gotten local SIMs in Argentina, Spain, Japan, and the UK in the recent past and I am so happy I did. Speeds were fantastic and it was cheaper if not the same price as Fi would have been.
The only upsides to Fi are if you are country hopping and/or only overseas for a day or so.
Doing research on who is the best carrier for the price in X country takes a minute or two.
EE speedtest in the UK attached.
But I do wish it was supposed for VZW and the 6P since I do quick trips like Mexico where I'm not going to venture off go look for a SIM for two days. And it's a company meeting so I will be busy those days.
joderme said:
Exactly. The UK is great and so is Japan. I was shocked at the 4G data speeds in the UK on EE. Sim cost like $20-$30 for 3gb of data and fast data at that. We get ripped a new one on cell service here. I think Canada gets ripped even more.
Project Fi or T-mobile look nice for international, however, I strongly disagree with your statement that Local SIMs are overrated. IIRC speeds are capped at 256kbps which is fine for e-mail and light browsing but that is slooooowww.
I have gotten local SIMs in Argentina, Spain, Japan, and the UK in the recent past and I am so happy I did. Speeds were fantastic and it was cheaper if not the same price as Fi would have been.
The only upsides to Fi are if you are country hopping and/or only overseas for a day or so.
Doing research on who is the best carrier for the price in X country takes a minute or two.
EE speedtest in the UK attached.
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Don't get me wrong, I go the local SIM route often, but only if I'm going to stay more than 5 days in a place. I do country hopping often, 2-3 days and moving on, and it's just not worth the hassle for me. 256kbps is slow indeed, but better than nothing. The verizon deal of $10/day and use your data looks good to me in those scenarios where you are just going to be a few days in a country although their country list at the moment is fairly limited.
I'm sorry to have to ask this. I REALLY want to stick with my Note 2. But, unfortunately, there is no lollipop ROM where everything I need just works, and there is no kitkat rom that is both stable and debloated. I keep going back and forth from rom to rom to rom, but can't find one that I'm happy with for the long term.
I'd like my next phone to be unlockable, or at the very least rootable. And, I don't want to spend the insane amount of money on a dev version. So, any suggestions?
Same boat. I've been running Wilson's LP on my NOTE2 and probably still have to do a hard reboot at least once a day. Even the DEV solution isn't much for the newer phones because the development is driven by such a small audience the communities will never be as robust as unlocked bootloader phones. Seriously considering jumping ship to T-Mo but it is SO much more expensive compared to having 10 lines in a corporate plan and shared data. A T-Mo coverage is awful at my house.
Think I'm just going to ride the non-upgrade wave until I can't stand my Note2 anymore - maybe something will be different in the market 12 months from now.
X3 on that, I am not sure what to get if I were to do a VZW upgrade as well. I would love to be able to go with a GSM carrier, but VZW has the best service in my area as well.
Anything with an unlocked boot loader from HTC, Moto, or other brands?
I'm in the same boat as well. I try every lollipop rom out there but I just keep reverting back to Jedix20 since it's the most stable rom I've used.
I'm looking at the blackberry priv. But I'm waiting till Verizon to get them unless I get the att version since I have straight talk now.
I was thinking, since I am stuck with VZW, a Nexus?
I've been wanting to upgrade for a while now, really considering the nexus or LG's V10 with their 2560x1440 screens, but the note 3's a big draw too..... There's (apparently) no verizon phone that's rootable/romable AND has a 2560x1440 5.3"++ screen, micro SD slot, and removable battery? (quad/hex/octo core, 3++GB ram, 32GB++ internal, ideally, too!)
Finally giving up my Note 2 as well and going with this http://www.amazon.com/Honor-5X-Meta...=UTF8&qid=1454231963&sr=1-2&keywords=Honor+5x
Very inexpensive, $199, for what you get. It should arrive Monday and they've already released the kernel to xda for rom development. Can't wait. This Note 2 has been a beast since I picked it up on release day. I don't think it ever really been off for an extended period of time since then. Love this phone. Now my 3 year old can love it, lol.
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That Honor looks like a nice phone.
You can even put in an external SD is a bonus, wonder how the battery life is?
I see it is dual sim, does it actually work on Verizon, if it does it would be the first one that ever did?
Keep us updated, I would love to have dual sim phone.
Droid_Nut said:
That Honor looks like a nice phone.
You can even put in an external SD is a bonus, wonder how the battery life is?
I see it is dual sim, does it actually work on Verizon, if it does it would be the first one that ever did?
Keep us updated, I would love to have dual sim phone.
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I don't believe it will work on big red. I dropped big red a couple of months back. We were still grandfathered with our unlimited data and they were going to charge us $20 more a month per line. That would have put us over $400. That ain't happening. Switched us all to StraightTalk and pay $150 a month now. Since you cam use Verizon phonesvon StraightTalk now it made it easy. Bought this honor 5x since I'm not held down by red anymore and can use different sim cards like the rest of the world. You can put 2 sims in it and an SD card at the same time. I've heard that's pretty rare to have that capability. Love the phone so far, but I've only had it for about 6 hrs now.
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k9cop said:
I don't believe it will work on big red. I dropped big red a couple of months back. We were still grandfathered with our unlimited data and they were going to charge us $20 more a month per line. That would have put us over $400. That ain't happening. Switched us all to StraightTalk and pay $150 a month now. Since you cam use Verizon phonesvon StraightTalk now it made it easy. Bought this honor 5x since I'm not held down by red anymore and can use different sim cards like the rest of the world. You can put 2 sims in it and an SD card at the same time. I've heard that's pretty rare to have that capability. Love the phone so far, but I've only had it for about 6 hrs now.
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After I posted I checked things a little closer, and found no mention of it working on VZW. I hear the customer service with StraightTalk is terrible? But can you get a StraightTalk sim, and be on the actual VZW CDMA Network, or at least use the same towers? I tried a Lenovo Zuk Z1 with AT&T pay as you go, and the service did not compare to the VZW in my area, otherwise, I would have switched all my phones to an AT&T contract plan. My ZUK was a dual sim as well, but I eventually sent it back to the seller for a full refund with no questions asked.
Droid_Nut said:
After I posted I checked things a little closer, and found no mention of it working on VZW. I hear the customer service with StraightTalk is terrible? But can you get a StraightTalk sim, and be on the actual VZW CDMA Network, or at least use the same towers? I tried a Lenovo Zuk Z1 with AT&T pay as you go, and the service did not compare to the VZW in my area, otherwise, I would have switched all my phones to an AT&T contract plan. My ZUK was a dual sim as well, but I eventually sent it back to the seller for a full refund with no questions asked.
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Yes StraightTalk does have CDMA sim cards now. Months ago I switched over my Verizon Note 2 to a ST sim and it US d the same towers. It even showed Verizon as the network. And yes, their customer service is horrible. I'm not sure what country it is with, but its really lacking. As long as you don't have any issues ST is great. lol Unfortunately I've had to call them a few times and it was a very memorable event. Guess you can't expect much for unlimited everything for $45 a month. Only the first 5 GB is at 4g speed. I'm onvwifi for 90% of the time, so it doesn't really affect me.
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k9cop said:
Yes StraightTalk does have CDMA sim cards now. Months ago I switched over my Verizon Note 2 to a ST sim and it US d the same towers. It even showed Verizon as the network. And yes, their customer service is horrible. I'm not sure what country it is with, but its really lacking. As long as you don't have any issues ST is great. lol Unfortunately I've had to call them a few times and it was a very memorable event. Guess you can't expect much for unlimited everything for $45 a month. Only the first 5 GB is at 4g speed. I'm onvwifi for 90% of the time, so it doesn't really affect me.
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I assume that Honor is a GSM phone anyways right? So is straight talk using the same towers as VZW to put out a GSM signal? What about 4G, are you able to get that with Straight Talk? I was never able to get that with my Zuk on the AT&T plan.
Ubuntu Phone
http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/
Honor 5X is GSM and Straighttalk will default to AT&T towers, deal breaker for me, like every other dual sim phone.
Personally I'd go for the Nexus 5x. I don't personally own it yet. But it will be my next phone and I'm buying it straight from Google so vzw can't bend me over with a bill the size of china