Just one nitpick - unlocking a phone allows it to be used with a different provider's SIM. Which network a particular SIM can use (and which towers on that network) is a contractual thing between providers. IOW, you get the same towers on ST with an AT&T or TMobile SIM because ST has contracted to use that "pseudo-network" (a combination of both carriers' towers).
If you take a look at the quote by mixtape86 he was correlating rooting with allowing the phone to be used on Tmobile's network. I was pointing out to him that unlocking is what allows someone to use a phone on a different network (so context-wise Tmobile would accurately be labeled a different network).
I still think what I said is correct considering the context and a more clearer definition overall. The flaw with your definition is that a not all phones need to be unlocked to be used with a different sim provider. Case in point would be that H2O, AirVoice, Red Pocket and Jolt are all different sim providers yet all these sim cards will work on a locked ATT phone just fine.
Nevertheless, I understand what you were saying.
Edit: Also the fact that ST sends you a different sim card depending on whether you have an ATT or Tmobile phone further indicates that what is important when unlocking is the underlining network the sim is associated with.
I still think what I said is correct considering the context and a more clearer definition overall. The flaw with your definition is that a not all phones need to be unlocked to be used with a different sim provider.
Different SIM provider? I agree. Different SIM? No.
IOW, you can use an ST (SIM provider - they provided you with the AT&T or TMobile AT&T SIM in an AT&T locked phone to use the TMobile network (on those TMobile towers that ST customers can use).
Case in point would be that H2O, AirVoice, Red Pocket and Jolt are all different sim providers yet all these sim cards will work on a locked ATT phone just fine.
Because they're AT&T SIMs being used in a phone locked to AT&T. Who mails you the SIM is irrelevant to the phone.
Edit: Also the fact that ST sends you a different sim card depending on whether you have an ATT or Tmobile phone further indicates that what is important when unlocking is the underlining network the sim is associated with.
If you have a locked phone, a SIM from a different carrier (not a SIM sent to you by a different operator - the SIM is an AT&T SIM, not an ST SIM) will give you the bad SIM message, which is why you have the choice of an AT&T or TMobile SIM. If you have an unlocked phone, which SIM you put in it - from ST - makes no difference. The phone will "roam" to whichever tower it should be using from that location since, on that level, that's the local "ST tower" - the one ST has a contract to have its customers use.
Jailbreaking/rooting is an OS thing - nothing to do with the "phone" part of the phone (except that some app you want to use for the phone might need root access). Unlocking allows you to use what would otherwise be "foreign" SIMs in the phone. Which towers you can use depends on the operator's (ST is an operator) contract with the carrier (AT&T is a carrier). Whether you can get 2G/3G/4G speeds depends on whose tower you're on and which carrier the phone was physically set up for. (Nothing you can do will change an 850 radio to a 700 radio.) Four totally different things that most users get confused with as soon as they start to think about the situation. (Users on HF - the "user in the street" probably doesn't know enough to begin to get confused.)
Different SIM provider? I agree. Different SIM? No.
All I will do is answer the above with your own quote...
Originally Posted by W2PMX
Just one nitpick - unlocking a phone allows it to be used with a different provider's SIM.
H2O, AirVoice, Red Pocket and Jolt are all different sim providers with different sims (none are ATT sims) yet they work with ATT locked phones because their sims are all programmed to use the same network (ATT). Next time know what you said not what you meant to say. And when you make a mistake it is okay to say so. No need to try to rewrite history.
Originally Posted by W2PMX
IOW, you can use an ST (SIM provider - they provided you with the AT&T or TMobile AT&T SIM in an AT&T locked phone to use the TMobile network (on those TMobile towers that ST customers can use).
What you are describing here is called Roaming. Roaming is different from unlocking. I do not need to unlock my phone to be able to roam on Tmobile when my phone is locked to ATT's network. What is required is a roaming agreement between the carriers.
Originally Posted by W2PMX
Unlocking allows you to use what would otherwise be "foreign" SIMs in the phone. Which towers you can use depends on the operator's (ST is an operator) contract with the carrier (AT&T is a carrier).
The sim is just a chip that holds the information about the network and how to connect to it. So its the network that matters. H2O, AirVoice, Red Pocket and Jolt all have different sims (none are labeled as ATT) but they are all programmed to use the same network (ATT). No one says I am unlocking my phone so I can use "foreign SIMs" in it. This is a newly-invented terminology you are using to try to justify your earlier bad choice of words. And which towers you use depends (a) on what network you are on and (b) on the operator's roaming agreements.
I am done with this back and forth banter. Everyone can read the comments and decide for themselves. This is not even what the thread is about anyway...
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Sorry to have started a disagreement between dubba and W2PMX. I don't know much about unlocking, so I can't really comment, but the previous owner used a T-Mobile family plan sim card in the phone (unless he was lying). So to understand this correctly, rooting does not necessarily unlock a phone, but it may be one of the necessary steps in order to to unlock?
Originally Posted by dubba
ATT & Tmobile do not use identical frequencies for 3G/HSPA. For 2G/EDGE they both use the 850 & 1900mhz bands. For HSPA, ATT uses 850 & 1900mhz while Tmobile uses AWS 1700mhz band.
I have an I777 and it only supports HSPA on ATT's network. Using it on Tmobile you will only get EDGE speeds.
In that case, I will probably be going with the AT&T sim card in order to take advantage HSPA. Does Straight Talk also use AT&T's HSPA+? Besides from LTE, HSPA+ is the fastest data offered on GSM I believe. That would make my decision to switch much easier too .
So while voice quality is crystal clear on my current Virgin Mobile phone (Optimus V), and I will miss it, I will not be missing the slow/unreliable data. If what dubba is saying is true, than this AT&T Galaxy S2 will be stuck on EDGE if I go with a T-Mobile sim, which makes the decision for me. I don't use a lot of data, but when I do, I prefer ...something a lot faster.
Below are the speeds I've accumulated on Virgin Mobile. As long as ST is faster than these, I will probably be jumping aboard soon . Also, Sayreville is not 1200 miles away from me, it's actually under 30 miles. However, I think Virgin Mobile redirects their data out west for some reason. I recall reading that.
Noon:
9:00PM:
3:00AM:
Today at 2:00PM:
Also, strangely enough, when I went on vacation to AZ, I got speeds much faster than my area:
Sorry to have started a disagreement between dubba and W2PMX. I don't know much about unlocking, so I can't really comment, but the previous owner used a T-Mobile family plan sim card in the phone (unless he was lying). So to understand this correctly, rooting does not necessarily unlock a phone, but it may be one of the necessary steps in order to to unlock?
In that case, I will probably be going with the AT&T sim card in order to take advantage HSPA. Does Straight Talk also use AT&T's HSPA+? Besides from LTE, HSPA+ is the fastest data offered on GSM I believe. That would make my decision to switch much easier too .
So while voice quality is crystal clear on my current Virgin Mobile phone (Optimus V), and I will miss it, I will not be missing the slow/unreliable data. If what dubba is saying is true, than this AT&T Galaxy S2 will be stuck on EDGE if I go with a T-Mobile sim, which makes the decision for me. I don't use a lot of data, but when I do, I prefer ...something a lot faster.
Below are the speeds I've accumulated on Virgin Mobile. As long as ST is faster than these, I will probably be jumping aboard soon . Also, Sayreville is not 1200 miles away from me, it's actually under 30 miles. However, I think Virgin Mobile redirects their data out west for some reason. I recall reading that.
Noon
9:00PM:
3:00AM:
Today at 2:00PM:
Also, strangely enough, when I went on vacation to AZ, I got speeds much faster than my area:
They both use HSPA.
the difference is that ATT has decided to move on to a LTE, for real 4G speeds, while T Mo is advancing the speeds on HSPA to comparable speed of LTE. LTE is not sold on prepaid as of now.
[QUOTE=mixtape86;14724066]Sorry to have started a disagreement between dubba and W2PMX. I don't know much about unlocking, so I can't really comment, but the previous owner used a T-Mobile family plan sim card in the phone (unless he was lying). So to understand this correctly, rooting does not necessarily unlock a phone, but it may be one of the necessary steps in order to to unlock?
In that case, I will probably be going with the AT&T sim card in order to take advantage HSPA. Does Straight Talk also use AT&T's HSPA+? Besides from LTE, HSPA+ is the fastest data offered on GSM I believe. That would make my decision to switch much easier too .
So while voice quality is crystal clear on my current Virgin Mobile phone (Optimus V), and I will miss it, I will not be missing the slow/unreliable data. If what dubba is saying is true, than this AT&T Galaxy S2 will be stuck on EDGE if I go with a T-Mobile sim, which makes the decision for me. I don't use a lot of data, but when I do, I prefer ...something a lot faster.[QUOTE]
ATT is better for you, dont need to unlock the phone, rooted is different from unlocking.
Locking means the phone is locked to a network, like ATT or TMo, unlocking the phone means a sim card for another network can be used. You dont need to bother with this stuff, you have an excellent phone enjoy yourself, and the speeds on ATT will be atleast 3-4 times better than your posted VM speeds.]
ST uses ATT hspa network for the ATT sims; and uses Tmo HSPA for the Tmo sims, they will roam on each others networks for voice only, there wont be data roaming on the other network.
I think I'd rank the carriers call quality Tmobile > Sprint > Verizon, and a distant last AT&T.
There is an exception with Verizon, if you force EVRC or QCELP, it's definitely the clearest. I have forced QCELP and it sounds like an ISDN line.
For me it's T-Mobile, insert-random-carrier-here, AT&T and Sprint in dead last. Sprint's calls here are always accompanied by random chirps and fax-like noises. It's the reason why I chose to pay their ETF and switch to a prepaid service, making sure it wasn't a Sprint-based MVNO.
Everyone is in a different boat depending on where they are. For me, its T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint. Both T-Mobile and AT&T have better (dBm signal) here than Verizon or Sprint, which plays an important factor.
However, since the iPhone 4 is not a "4G" device, and my Galaxy S2 is, does that mean that my speeds will be even faster?
Also, while I already have an AT&T Galaxy S2 that I just picked up, and probably won't be trading it for a T-Mobile phone anytime soon, I noticed that T-Mobile has a $50 monthly plan for unlimited text, unlimited talk, and 4G web. The catch is that you only the first 100MB are at 4G speed, which is a little lame.
So I'm wondering if the Straight Talk BYOD T-Mobile sim card will have speeds comparable to T-Mobile's "4G" HSPA+, or just their 3G speeds. Meaning, if both ST and T-Mobile themselves offer unlimited data and voice on prepaid plans, but the actual T-Mobile plan only offers "4G" speeds for the first 100MB, does ST offer "4G" for the whole month, or does ST only utilize the 3G network and not the "4G" HSPA+ speeds?
I'm just wondering because T-Mobile's website claims their "4G" HSPA+ network has speeds of 8Mbps with peak speeds of 20Mbps, and AT&T users have reported anywhere from 5Mbps to 20Mbps.
So my buddy's iPhone 4 is fast than what I have now, but is it his non 4G phone that is limiting his speeds to 2Mbps, or is that Straight Talk?
Sorry if that was confusing! I tried to type it as clear as possible!
Id be aware that many people are having issues with the data on the ATT BYOD sim right now, not sure if the tmobile sim is in the same boat but it's possible.
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Originally Posted by money69
Id be aware that many people are having issues with the data on the ATT BYOD sim right now, not sure if the tmobile sim is in the same boat but it's possible.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention, I had no idea that there were problems with the AT&T network at this time. That is a little discouraging. I love my Samsung Galaxy S2, but if service is going to be questionable on at&t, I'm debating if I should exchange it for a T Mobile phone.
So many factors come into play when discussing network speeds, you really have to trial and error if you are bound and determined to get the fasted speed for your area. Right underneath the tower(s) with minimal network traffic, T-mobile (fuax) 4G is gonna usually be faster than AT&T HSPA+. Some places AT&T will be faster due to signal variations, network load and such. It just all depends.
For most people in the real world, several megs/sec is plenty fast for what they need a cell phone for, and you should be able to easily get that with either of the ST sims. It is not like you are gonna get away with gigs and gigs of usage on Straight Talk anyway. Before you worry about it, get the phone you already paid for up and running and you almost certainly are gonna be happy with it. If not then you can look into making a change.
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Originally Posted by spekkio
So many factors come into play when discussing network speeds, you really have to trial and error if you are bound and determined to get the fasted speed for your area. Right underneath the tower(s) with minimal network traffic, T-mobile (fuax) 4G is gonna usually be faster than AT&T HSPA+. Some places AT&T will be faster due to signal variations, network load and such. It just all depends.
For most people in the real world, several megs/sec is plenty fast for what they need a cell phone for, and you should be able to easily get that with either of the ST sims. It is not like you are gonna get away with gigs and gigs of usage on Straight Talk anyway. Before you worry about it, get the phone you already paid for up and running and you almost certainly are gonna be happy with it. If not then you can look into making a change.
That is a great point. I guess I was just a little hesitant because I've been stuck with such slow data speeds for a while now. I didn't want to make a jump until I knew what was the best option for me. If you see my data speeds posted above, I should definitely be happy with whatever improvements I see lol. I was just drawn in by a T-Mobile 4G commercial.
Originally Posted by W2PMX
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