The official VM Defectors thread

[dreamsINdigital]

At which point does an increase in speed become negligible in real world use though? I can't imagine anything above 10 Mbps to actually feel any faster than just showing an impressive speed test.

Spec-wise, the Sensation sounds perfect except for the HSPA14. What I like is that it's one of the most popular developer-supported devices over at XDA. Hopefully other phones drop in price by the time I'm ready to jump ship. I'm not looking to spend more than $250 on a T-mobile phone.

[TheCellphoneGuy]

I'm in Brooklyn most of the time, and Manhattan other times. In BK, 2-4mbps is pretty normal. In MH, I get anywhere from 1-6mbps. Haven't done too much playing around with different radios/RILs though. Threw the latest and called it a day. Other people in MH seem to report even higher speeds of 7-9mbps, so hmm.. maybe I do need to experiment with different radios. The TMO official ICS release for the Sensation is due "soon"

Either way, I'd be thrilled with a steady 1mbps even. And ~100-150ms latencies? Hell yeah.

No TMO prepaid reception in the subway though. Not sure if ATT has service, and TMO prepaiders are missing out or not.

Actually, there is T-Mobile and AT&T service at some subway stations, but it's still very limited. It works on both prepaid and postpaid (I tested it), since it's still their native network.

They're expected to cover all subway stations, by 2016.

Verizon, Sprint and Metro PCS, haven't announced any plans to expand their coverage to NYC subway stations, at the moment.

Source:
http://www.mobileburn.com/chtml/mobi...vice-next-week

+

Personal experience.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using HowardForums

[ziddey]

The TMO ICS update is set to drop in two days. Hopefully, that'll mean we can have reliable wifi calling again. Indeed, latency and fluidity matter more than raw bandwidth, both of which are better with TMO in many areas, compared to VM. If you want real good latency though, LTE is the way to go. HSPA ain't too bad though.

Lots going on in the Sensation world, but besides the sense roms (4.0 excluded), there's still always bugs/sacrifices. I'd say the Sensation dev crowd would be complete if we had flawless AOSPs.

[dreamsINdigital]

The TMO ICS update is set to drop in two days. Hopefully, that'll mean we can have reliable wifi calling again.

Does wifi calling work on T-mobile prepaid?

[ziddey]

Yes, but it still uses airtime. Still good when you don't have strong TMO signal, or want to try and save battery being wifi only.

On the Sensation though, ICS roms tend to have issues with wifi calling. Hopefully, the official release will fix these issues. Also, I'm losing time at about a minute an hour when on wifi calling (not that it even works reliably right now).

Still good though when you have wifi but no signal.

[ncatron]

Porting my wife out of VM to Straight Talk w/ iPhone. Her constant (justified) complaints over voice coverage, poor data speed, and poor devices (OpV & Triumph) made it worth paying the extra. Even giving up a grandfathered $25 plan b/c she wants to keep the number. Sometimes there's a reason things are cheap.

[vmobi]

Wirelessly posted (Virgin Mobile HTC WFS: Opera/9.80 (Android; Opera Mini/7.29703/27.1662; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 Version/11.10)

Porting my wife out of VM to Straight Talk w/ iPhone. Her constant (justified) complaints over voice coverage, poor data speed, and poor devices (OpV & Triumph) made it worth paying the extra. Even giving up a grandfathered $25 plan b/c she wants to keep the number. Sometimes there's a reason things are cheap.

Wow, an iPhone on ST. That's nice.
Will it be on the at&t or VZW network?
You might want to steer clear of t-mobiles edge coverage areas, they seem to be the root of massive customer defections on that carrier.

It's a good thing this is prepaid, and you will not be required to pay an ETF. You might also want to sell your VM phone and recoup some funds. Contact cs and see if they will provide you with some bonus minutes to the new subscriber if you decide to sell it, or donate your phone to some charity.

[QE2]

I searched but didn't see a HF thread on it so....

Has anyone here tried TMo's $45 Family Mobile plan? I know that the data is only 250MB of "3g", but TMo's two $30 plans just won't cut it for me (either all data or all voice). You can use any unlocked or TMo phone, and there are no overages or streaming prohibitions (even though the 3g limit is low).

You'd probably be better off with StraightTalk. $45 for unlimited calls and texts, data is unlimited as long as you don't abuse it. You can order a T-Mobile SIM from their website and use it with any T-Mobile phone or unlocked phone.

[JDubTrey]

This came out of nowhere:

Voyager Mobile today announced that its no-contract wireless services will be available starting May 15. Voyager is a new company that has leased access to Sprint's EVDO 3G and WiMax 4G networks and is offering two service plans. The first plan costs $19 per month and includes unlimited talk and text. The second plan costs $39 per month and includes unlimited talk, text, and data. Both plans are pre-paid, but do not include local, state, and federal taxes. According to Voyager, the company will sell most of the popular Android devices that are available from Sprint, such as the Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy Epic 4G Touch, Motorola XPRT, and others. Voyager Mobile will also offer two USB dongles, a mobile hotspot, and Android-based tablets from HTC and ZTE. The company will have a web-based sales footprint in 18 states on May 15, and will eventually be available across the U.S. in the coming weeks. Voyager Mobile hopes its products will be available in various nationwide retail locations in the future.

http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=10422

http://mobile.voyagertelecom.com/

There HAS to be a catch here...... Throttled at 100MB? No streaming? Something....

[mfrerkes]

Sometimes there's a reason things are cheap.

Sprint's 3G network is pretty sad. Over-loaded and under-powered. I've stuck with my $25 plan due mostly to economic necessity. It really is not worth much more than that.

[503ducati]

This came out of nowhere:



http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=10422

http://mobile.voyagertelecom.com/

There HAS to be a catch here...... Throttled at 100MB? No streaming? Something....

Added some more info from press release: http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...9#post14808079

[mustafu]

Got my wife defected now too, she was on the old $40 a month. Final straw for her was that the speeds were so abysmal that Facebook wouldn't even load. She's a generally light user and should be safe from the ST ban hammer. Was a no brainer coming from a $40 VM plan. On a side note, her now ceased complaining about it is priceless to me.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express

[pitflyer]

Just re-upped for a month on my Virgin Mobile Mifi grandfathered on the $40 unlimited plan.. they gave me $20 free credit so I threw another $20 on the fire to see if anything's better. It's not. Terrible data speeds of around 300kbps down, while TMobile and AT&T in the exact same area easily tops 2M regularly.

Now that TMobile is coming out with competitive data plans (3.5 GBs for 30 days, 60 days if you refill at Walmart) $40 for 'unlimited' data at 'high speed' for up to 2.5gbs is pretty lame.

[IsLand_BoY]

Sprint's 3G network is pretty sad. Over-loaded and under-powered. I've stuck with my $25 plan due mostly to economic necessity. It really is not worth much more than that.

There must not be as many Sprint users where I live then, because 3G speeds are good. Not one dropped call, coverage is good, and data speeds are always around 1mb down. There are a TON of T-Mobile users though as we're an original VoiceStream market, and there were problems with capacity for a while.

I have to agree with the "sometimes there's a reason things are cheap" though - I went through the infamous data outages with VM and had to do airplane mode all day long and it was just a spare phone for me!

[dharding]

Well, it's been a miserable year and a half on VM with respect to data, and I finally got tired of it. With the fact that now upgrading to any of the forthcoming phones would have sacked my $25 plan anyway, I figured now was the time to go. The LG Optimus V was an "ok" phone, but sluggish and anemic from a horsepower standpoint, and my aging eyes and fat fingers have never felt at home on a screen that tiny.

Here in the wilds of central Illinois, I don't know that I *EVER* got more than 500k down anywhere in town, most of the time it was 150-250, and data service was completely unavailable at home.

I'm now rocking an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note, enjoying my first day on Straight Talk (AT&T) for $45 a month (yes, I know all about the bastards and the unwritten 100mb-per-day limit or they schittkann you, but I have Watchdog 3G set to warn me whenever I hit 70MB in a day).

Here at home (outside of city limits, poor coverage on ANY carrier) where I never had VM data, on 3 speedtests tonight, I had two between 800k and 900k down and one at 1900k down. Regardless of how you slice it, I get better data here at home with ATT than I even got in the center of town under VM.

So the LG Optimus V is wiped, now to round up all the extra accessories I have floating around and package it on CL.

See you in the funny papers...

P.S. The Galaxy Note is OMFG gor-JUSS!!!