Are simple mobile edge and Tmobile edge speeds the same since on the same network?

[Crav4Speed]

Just be careful with that 'streaming' it is officially against ST Terms of Service.

I know That's the only thing that's got me worrying. I mean, I don't stream on a daily basis but once in a while, when I'm driving and there's nothing good on the radio and I'm tired of all downloaded songs on my phone, I'll fire up TuneIn for a 20 minute commute through my Bluetooth radio. I'm hoping that with using a "T-Mo" sim, they would be a little more lenient than with "AT&T" sims. I'm averaging around 1.3 to 1.7 MB per month currently with Simple Mobile without using wifi at all. We'll see how it goes and if I get the dreaded call from Straight Talk.

Hey, thanks for sharing that information.

Could it be possible that they throttle the speeds less in some areas?
The "4G" speeds I'm getting aren't close to what my friends get with T-Mobile using the same phone so there is definitely something going on with them. You're speeds are adequate but what if for the same price of $60 you'd get a bit higher speeds and an honest mention of 2GB of 4G speeds and then throttled down to 2G speeds. The ping is really high on every speedtest I do and I don't pass the 1 Mbps mark on most tests though I've hit 1.5 on more than several tests.

That's what T-Mobile would give you over Simple Mobile minus the International Text / $5 Calling.
The international text is useless unless the other party has free international text as well because they are always afraid to respond and incur charges.

I'm off to T-Mobile next month and keep us updated on how it goes with Straight Talk. I called their customer service department today to ask what the difference between "Add a service plan NOW" and "Add a service plan to RESERVE" and the Filipino I spoke to had no clue. So I asked "let's say I want to put a pin of $45 now in the middle of my month but I want it to only go into effect when my month is over, which option should I do and what's the difference between the two" - she didn't know the difference and then I just gave up and disconnected the call. Hope not all the agents are that dumb. Does anyone know the difference between the two? I got my dad Straight Talk a week ago and trying to figure out how to add a service plan once I buy it from Walmart.

THANKS!

I absolutely see your point Danny. I noticed you said you were in NYC and so am I. Actually, I'm in northern Queens but I travel all over the city for work, my service usually is okay. I really can't tell if it's degradation of service or data throttling but the speeds are definitely not consistent around the city. Switching from AT&T postpaid, I didn't expect to get stellar service from a T-Mo mvno so I didn't have high hopes in the first place and unless I'm deep inside a building, surprisingly, the T-Mo network has been working great for me.

I'm not so worried now switching to Straight Talk (T-Mo) as I've had good experiences with Simple Mobile and I'd expect the network to be the same. The way I understand the reserve is that it basically lets you stack cards or pins or whatever they call them and whenever you need more, the amount is automatically deducted from the reserve. With "unlimited" monthly plans, it just deducts from the reserve for the next month's service. So, for the $30 plan, if you finish your 1000 min or 1000 text or 30 MB web, ST will deduct another $30 from your reserve to keep going. For the $45 plan, at the end of the month, it will automatically deduct $45 for the new month. Sort of like auto-refill, except you prepay instead of giving them your credit card. I will be porting out at the end of next week so I will keep you updated on how everything goes!

[DannyNY]

I know That's the only thing that's got me worrying. I mean, I don't stream on a daily basis but once in a while, when I'm driving and there's nothing good on the radio and I'm tired of all downloaded songs on my phone, I'll fire up TuneIn for a 20 minute commute through my Bluetooth radio. I'm hoping that with using a "T-Mo" sim, they would be a little more lenient than with "AT&T" sims. I'm averaging around 1.3 to 1.7 MB per month currently with Simple Mobile without using wifi at all. We'll see how it goes and if I get the dreaded call from Straight Talk.


I absolutely see your point Danny. I noticed you said you were in NYC and so am I. Actually, I'm in northern Queens but I travel all over the city for work, my service usually is okay. I really can't tell if it's degradation of service or data throttling but the speeds are definitely not consistent around the city. Switching from AT&T postpaid, I didn't expect to get stellar service from a T-Mo mvno so I didn't have high hopes in the first place and unless I'm deep inside a building, surprisingly, the T-Mo network has been working great for me.

I'm not so worried now switching to Straight Talk (T-Mo) as I've had good experiences with Simple Mobile and I'd expect the network to be the same. The way I understand the reserve is that it basically lets you stack cards or pins or whatever they call them and whenever you need more, the amount is automatically deducted from the reserve. With "unlimited" monthly plans, it just deducts from the reserve for the next month's service. So, for the $30 plan, if you finish your 1000 min or 1000 text or 30 MB web, ST will deduct another $30 from your reserve to keep going. For the $45 plan, at the end of the month, it will automatically deduct $45 for the new month. Sort of like auto-refill, except you prepay instead of giving them your credit card. I will be porting out at the end of next week so I will keep you updated on how everything goes!

Hey, glad to see someone on here who lives in NYC as well! I live in Brooklyn but I also travel all over the city and have been getting speeds from 600 kbps up to 1.5 mbps using Simple Mobile's $60 4G plan, it does vary.

With that said, the service has been fantastic and calls work everywhere. I don't have any complaints on the coverage as I can honestly say it beats out the Sprint postpaid I had for the last 3 years! Sprint kept going in and out and data was so slow at times that I wouldn't even want to use it. Not to mention I would get voicemails without calls a lot on Sprint. So as crazy as this may sound, Simple Mobile prepaid is better for me than Sprint postpaid all over NYC!
Simple Mobile 4G plan is throttled to 2.0 Mbps though max - they are absolutely not providing the speeds that T-Mobile provide. I have friends with T-Mobile who get really great speeds here in NYC so there is something going on with Simple Mobile.

I haven't found any info on Straight Talk with a T-Mobile sim but I think it will be very similiar to T-Mobile prepaid as far as speeds are concerned. Maybe they will throttle and not suspend after 2 GB? I wonder if anyone can answer this. It does make sense to pay $45 instead of $60 and get roaming and perhaps better speeds on Straight Talk than Simple Mobile. Should be a smooth transition for you. Do keep me updated on how it goes and how the speeds are. Also, has Simple Mobile ever shut down your data? I'm approaching 1 GB soon and it's almost 10 days into the cycle.

[Crav4Speed]

Also, has Simple Mobile ever shut down your data? I'm approaching 1 GB soon and it's almost 10 days into the cycle.

Nope, but I have definitely been throttled after 2 GB... The most I ever used in a month was a little under 3 GB. The last GB was throttled to around 500-600 kbps.

[DannyNY]

Nope, but I have definitely been throttled after 2 GB... The most I ever used in a month was a little under 3 GB. The last GB was throttled to around 500-600 kbps.

Simple Mobile doesn't throttle to 500-600 kbps after a certain amount of GB's...I have never heard of such a thing.
They suspend your data after 2 GB's from what people have been saying and if they were going to throttle after 2 GB then it would be EDGE speeds like T-Mobile does, not faster than T-Mobile since they are a MVNO and they can't give you better offerings on data than the ones they are purchasing it from.
I got 500-600 kbps from the very first day of the $60 plan.
Maybe you were given fast speeds in error and then brought down to what the real 4G speeds are.
I'm approaching 1 GB now and will soon enough find out when they actually suspend the data.
I have never gotten anything over 2 Mbps on the $60 "4G" plan. It's almost always 500-600 kbps with bursts of 1.0-1.5 mbps here and there.

[nicraz]

Simple Mobile doesn't throttle to 500-600 kbps after a certain amount of GB's...I have never heard of such a thing.
They suspend your data after 2 GB's from what people have been saying and if they were going to throttle after 2 GB then it would be EDGE speeds like T-Mobile does, not faster than T-Mobile since they are a MVNO and they can't give you better offerings on data than the ones they are purchasing it from.
I got 500-600 kbps from the very first day of the $60 plan.
Maybe you were given fast speeds in error and then brought down to what the real 4G speeds are.
I'm approaching 1 GB now and will soon enough find out when they actually suspend the data.
I have never gotten anything over 2 Mbps on the $60 "4G" plan. It's almost always 500-600 kbps with bursts of 1.0-1.5 mbps here and there.

I don't know if you have mentioned this before, but what phone are you using? Is it T-Mobile branded?

[DannyNY]

I don't know if you have mentioned this before, but what phone are you using? Is it T-Mobile branded?

Good question, but the fact I'm getting above EDGE speeds means it can only be a T-Mobile branded phone as in order to get 3G the 1700 MHZ AWS frequency band must be on the handset.

It's only a matter of time before I find out everything - when Simple Mobile suspend, how fast the speeds will be when I actually have T-Mobile.
I'm switching to T-Mobile at the end of this billing cycle and if say T-Mobile also provides such slow speeds then Simple Mobile won't be the blame and I will post that their "4G" plan is the same as T-Mobile's though I believe that isn't going to be the case.

[Crav4Speed]

Simple Mobile doesn't throttle to 500-600 kbps after a certain amount of GB's...I have never heard of such a thing.
They suspend your data after 2 GB's from what people have been saying and if they were going to throttle after 2 GB then it would be EDGE speeds like T-Mobile does, not faster than T-Mobile since they are a MVNO and they can't give you better offerings on data than the ones they are purchasing it from.
I got 500-600 kbps from the very first day of the $60 plan.
Maybe you were given fast speeds in error and then brought down to what the real 4G speeds are.
I'm approaching 1 GB now and will soon enough find out when they actually suspend the data.
I have never gotten anything over 2 Mbps on the $60 "4G" plan. It's almost always 500-600 kbps with bursts of 1.0-1.5 mbps here and there.

Well, my experience of 3 months straight of going over 2 GB and close to 3 GB says that I was not suspended, but throttled instead. I haven't heard anything from Simple Mobile... not a text, not a phone call... nothing! All the best to you, Danny.

[DannyNY]

Well, my experience of 3 months straight of going over 2 GB and close to 3 GB says that I was not suspended, but throttled instead. I haven't heard anything from Simple Mobile... not a text, not a phone call... nothing! All the best to you, Danny.

Wow, thanks for clarifying!
I didn't know that for the last 3 months you have had no issues with data suspension.
Maybe Simple Mobile is truly unlimited then!?

If this is the case then there is no need for me to bad mouth Simple Mobile in regards to their "Unlimited" plans.
Perhaps they recently changed their policy on suspension and have finally got their act together.
If they throttle after 2GB it is perfectly acceptable as that's what other carriers do even on postpaid.
Even if they throttle to 120 kbps after 2GB then the plan can still be considered to be unlimited.

The only beef we can come up with now is that their 3G plans are really 2G and their 4G plans are really 3G, but what can one expect with a MVNO.

So that will leave Straight Talk & Net10 as the only ones who still advertise unlimited that is really limited and suspended.

Thanks for the info, I'm sure anyone who signs up with Simple Mobile now will find it useful.

[nicraz]

Good question, but the fact I'm getting above EDGE speeds means it can only be a T-Mobile branded phone as in order to get 3G the 1700 MHZ AWS frequency band must be on the handset.

It's only a matter of time before I find out everything - when Simple Mobile suspend, how fast the speeds will be when I actually have T-Mobile.
I'm switching to T-Mobile at the end of this billing cycle and if say T-Mobile also provides such slow speeds then Simple Mobile won't be the blame and I will post that their "4G" plan is the same as T-Mobile's though I believe that isn't going to be the case.

Oh ok, I just wanted to make sure. I'm using an AT&T branded HTC phone on the $40 plan and I hit about 200 kbps. I'm usually connected to a Wi-Fi network both at work and at home so I that's why it doesn't bother me too much.

[DannyNY]

Oh ok, I just wanted to make sure. I'm using an AT&T branded HTC phone on the $40 plan and I hit about 200 kbps. I'm usually connected to a Wi-Fi network both at work and at home so I that's why it doesn't bother me too much.

Well at $40 ($38 after Calling Mart discount) a month for unlimited talk+text+2G data you can't go wrong!
This is the cheapest you'd find and no one can come close to it.
If you don't need 3G speeds and don't care for the fast data speeds and want to pay the cheapest rate possible for such an unlimited plan then Simple Mobile is definitely the way to go!

[nicraz]

Well at $40 ($38 after Calling Mart discount) a month for unlimited talk+text+2G data you can't go wrong!
This is the cheapest you'd find and no one can come close to it.
If you don't need 3G speeds and don't care for the fast data speeds and want to pay the cheapest rate possible for such an unlimited plan then Simple Mobile is definitely the way to go!

Yep. I usually buy my pin on PinZoo or CallingMart, whichever has the biggest discount. I also use international texting to text a few relatives that are out of the country. I think Straight Talk doesn't support international texting so that's why I decided to stick with Simple Mobile for now.

[fonezfonz]

SM has the cheapest unlimited everything in the biz. ST has the cheapest unlimited everything with 3g data in the biz. It's the user's choice...

[kimco31st]

Speeds aren't throttled by region. The throttling SOC is set to a specific speed and when that SOC is applied to your account, that is the max speed you will get.

People need to remember that your speeds will vary depending on your location to your tower. Try a speed inside, then go outside, you will probably see a difference in that alone.

[DannyNY]

Speeds aren't throttled by region. The throttling SOC is set to a specific speed and when that SOC is applied to your account, that is the max speed you will get.

People need to remember that your speeds will vary depending on your location to your tower. Try a speed inside, then go outside, you will probably see a difference in that alone.

Simple Mobile's throttling is 120 Kbps while T-Mobile's throttling is an unusable 60 Kbps.
Those are speeds once the throttling system kicks in, but in regards to what speeds you will get when you hit an EDGE tower for example - both are the exact same as they run on the same network obviously.

[marksatterfield]

My take...

Tmo is decent, don't seem to fib the truth at all. For $50/mo, you get blazing fast 4G, I was getting 6Mbps/2Mbps with latency between 100 & 200 ms with huge outliers, like I my last SpeetTest is 1659ms... yuck.

But... after your first 100Mbyte (yeah, not much), your speed drops dismally. Pings remain the same, but speed is down to around 110 Kbps/110 Kbps.

It is important to note in all this that you are not being throttled to a 2G data connection. Your radio and stack are still 4G. Tmo is just throttling your data to 110Kbps. I think they should just say that, instead of "Oh, you'll get 2G speed", because I think it is really confusing to people.

Simple Mobile -- I've heard that Simple Mobile throttles to 250kbps, which is twice as fast as the throttled Tmo. But posters above have said that SM cuts off data after 250MBytes. Which is it?