Should I go with AT&T or TMobile sim?

**mrtrance** · 06-21-2012, 07:54 PM

Here's my situation. Right now I'm on month to month with Tmobile (out of contract) but pyaing $75/mo for 600 min/1000 text/unlimited data using a Samsung Vibrant. The coverage is decent, but do I get dead spots a few places around town where my dad who has AT&T service gets coverage pretty much everywhere.

So I was thinking of porting over my number to ST and getting a Tmobile SIM for time being since I would cut my bill by $30/mo. Then what I want to do is get a AT&T Samusng Galaxy SII or (even the new SIII) and then switch over to the AT&T ST sim since I won't have any sort of dead spots like I do no with my Tmobile service.

One question I had was is it possible to do switch between AT&T and TMobile sims say after 1 month you don't like the coverage and then next month move over to the other one? It would just be buying the sim again for the one that I want to switch over and then just refill before the new month starts correct?

My other concern is with the data speeds. Is the AT&T one alot slower compared to the Tmobile one on ST? Also are both sims capped at around 2GB a month?

Any feedback?

**maestroteague** · 06-21-2012, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by mrtrance

One question I had was is it possible to do switch between AT&T and TMobile sims say after 1 month you don't like the coverage and then next month move over to the other one? It would just be buying the sim again for the one that I want to switch over and then just refill before the new month starts correct?

My other concern is with the data speeds. Is the AT&T one alot slower compared to the Tmobile one on ST? Also are both sims capped at around 2GB a month?

Any feedback?

Yes, you can switch to the other sim, you will just have to buy a new sim. You can switch your account over to the new sim and should be able to transfer any remaining time on your month to the new sim. However, if you were to want to switch back to tmobile on ST, you'd have to buy another sim- you can't reuse the one that you transferred from.

A to the data speeds, with all things being equal (signal levels, etc.), tmobile is faster than AT&T, but I have found AT&T's speeds to be quite sufficient. All will depend on phone, location, coverage. You will get the same as post-paid AT&T, so just ask your dad. With the limits, there is no known difference in the limit between the two networks. There is speculation that tmobile is more lenient, and gives more flexibility, but there has been no proof of that on a large scale. 2GB limit is the "safe" limit. Some have done more, and gotten away with it, but on the whole, this is the safe limit.

**yoshiki2** · 06-21-2012, 10:00 PM

On t-mo ou can use around 3 gigabytes. Faster speeds, voice quality is better... but there will be some dead spots. ( I can lie with that).
I wouldnt use more than 1 gigabyte on ATT if you want to keep your number.

**maestroteague** · 06-21-2012, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by yoshiki2

On t-mo ou can use around 3 gigabytes. Faster speeds, voice quality is better... but there will be some dead spots. ( I can lie with that).
I wouldnt use more than 1 gigabyte on ATT if you want to keep your number.

I'e read almost every post on this forum since I switched in February, and this is the first time I have ever seen anyone recommend only using 1GB, and have never seen anyone else say 3GB on tmobile. Don't scare people with random numbers that have never been used by anyone else. The "accepted" limits are 100MB a day and 2GB a month.

**mrtrance** · 06-22-2012, 03:27 AM

Thanks everyone for your feedback. So pretty easy to switch between either Sims just the cost of buying a new one.

So is the T-Mobile sim service with ST like postpaid T-Mobile similar to ATT postpaid? Will I lose the visual voicemail if I go with T-Mobile sim from ST?

Also when porting my number over to ST I was reading on other threads that we should first port to Google voice and port from there to ST. Is there any issue with just porting directly to ST from my current T-Mobile service?

Any advice from those that have done it and what was your experience?

**yoshiki2** · 06-22-2012, 05:16 AM

My gf was using using straight (att) some time ago and she was warned about breaking tos rules. She moved to boost.. couldn't live with those speeds. Came back to use straight talk with t-mo sim and she's been ok for a while. Cannot tell anything more than that.

**maestroteague** · 06-22-2012, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by mrtrance

Thanks everyone for your feedback. So pretty easy to switch between either Sims just the cost of buying a new one.

So is the T-Mobile sim service with ST like postpaid T-Mobile similar to ATT postpaid? Will I lose the visual voicemail if I go with T-Mobile sim from ST?

Also when porting my number over to ST I was reading on other threads that we should first port to Google voice and port from there to ST. Is there any issue with just porting directly to ST from my current T-Mobile service?

Any advice from those that have done it and what was your experience?

Tmobile coverage is prepaid coverage feature set, not postpaid like AT&T sim. You will indeed lose visual voicemail on tmobile, but it works on AT&T. Tmobile sim will roam to AT&T and other carriers that AM has agreements with, but the feature set (visual voicemail, conditional call forwarding, etc.) are not included with the tmobile sim.
As far as porting, DO NOT port to GV and then to ST. There is no problem porting directly to ST. What some have advocated is to port to GV and use call forwarding to your ST assigned number. The problem is porting out of GV if you ever want to do that. It can take over a week for a port out of GV to complete, and you can get partial port until then where some things work and some don't. So your calls may work but texts lost completely, going to neither the old phone nor the new one, during that week. Again, a lot of people suggest porting TO GV, and the leaving it there forever, just forwarding to whatever carrier you happen to want to use, and that makes it easy to switch to another carrier if you want to, and no threat of losing your number. But again, conditional call forwarding doesn't work on tmobile sim, just on AT&T.

**ryanpa** · 06-22-2012, 07:29 AM

You can keep your Samsung Vibrant and get the AT&T version sim card from ST to get full 3G speed because the Vibrant supports AT&T 3G, but of course you have to unlock the Vibrant.

Originally Posted by mrtrance

Here's my situation. Right now I'm on month to month with Tmobile (out of contract) but pyaing $75/mo for 600 min/1000 text/unlimited data using a Samsung Vibrant. The coverage is decent, but do I get dead spots a few places around town where my dad who has AT&T service gets coverage pretty much everywhere.

So I was thinking of porting over my number to ST and getting a Tmobile SIM for time being since I would cut my bill by $30/mo. Then what I want to do is get a AT&T Samusng Galaxy SII or (even the new SIII) and then switch over to the AT&T ST sim since I won't have any sort of dead spots like I do no with my Tmobile service.

One question I had was is it possible to do switch between AT&T and TMobile sims say after 1 month you don't like the coverage and then next month move over to the other one? It would just be buying the sim again for the one that I want to switch over and then just refill before the new month starts correct?

My other concern is with the data speeds. Is the AT&T one alot slower compared to the Tmobile one on ST? Also are both sims capped at around 2GB a month?

Any feedback?

**mrtrance** · 06-22-2012, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by ryanpa

You can keep your Samsung Vibrant and get the AT&T version sim card from ST to get full 3G speed because the Vibrant supports AT&T 3G, but of course you have to unlock the Vibrant.

My Vibrant is unlocked along time ago when I requested the unlock code from Tmobile since I was going to Europe for vacation.

So using my Vibrant on ATT ST service I would be getting the 3-4 Mbps downloads then. But if I get a 4G phone (like the Galaxy SII or SIII) then I could utilize the higher download speeds in the 10-15 Mbps range. Is that correct?

So typically the Tmobile branded phones will work with 3G on ATT, but the other way around it won't work since the ATT phones lack the 1700 band correct?

So if I go with the ATT sim on my vibrant I do I get VM and call forwarding still or not?

With the ATT sim will I be able to roam as well if I hit places where there is no service on ATT?

**ndtv88** · 06-22-2012, 12:50 PM

there are 2 4g's
one is hspa- which is what att and tmo have- speeds of 3-7mbps on att, and 5-10 on Tmo.
other is LTE- this is the "real" 4G with spped of 10-25mbps- att is changing some markets and Tmo will do this in the future, you will not get these speeds on ST or any of the prepaid plans, these are currently for contracted customers on ATT/Vzn only.

There are bands for data, that are different for Tmo and ATT, some rare phones have both, most dont.
check on GSM arena, to see what band your phone has.

Roam on voice and text yes, data depends it could be either there or not, may be on edge speed or 3g, bcoz this depends on your phone and what network you are roaming on, location etc, St/tracfone have multiple roaming agreements with regional GSM carriers in addition to TMo and ATT .

VM and call forwarding yes.

**Kmarkg** · 06-22-2012, 01:15 PM

FYI - I have an AT&T SIMM and visual voicemail doesn't work with AT&T either. Good old fashioned call in for messages. I do believe that I roam on T-mobile and so I would think the reverse would happen.

**Pabster** · 06-22-2012, 01:22 PM

Visual Voicemail on iPhone won't work, the server is behind an APN accessible to postpaid customers only.

**mrtrance** · 06-22-2012, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by ndtv88

there are 2 4g's
one is hspa- which is what att and tmo have- speeds of 3-7mbps on att, and 5-10 on Tmo.
other is LTE- this is the "real" 4G with spped of 10-25mbps- att is changing some markets and Tmo will do this in the future, you will not get these speeds on ST or any of the prepaid plans, these are currently for contracted customers on ATT/Vzn only.

There are bands for data, that are different for Tmo and ATT, some rare phones have both, most dont.
check on GSM arena, to see what band your phone has.

Roam on voice and text yes, data depends it could be either there or not, may be on edge speed or 3g, bcoz this depends on your phone and what network you are roaming on, location etc, St/tracfone have multiple roaming agreements with regional GSM carriers in addition to TMo and ATT .

VM and call forwarding yes.

Thanks for that clarification. So I know Tmobile 4g service uses the 1700 band and ATT I believe is 1900 band and a few places 850 band if I'm not mistaken.

So the Vibrant has the following bands: GSM 850 GSM 900 GSM 1800 GSM 1900 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 2100

Since the Vibrant does not have the "WCDMA 1900" I won't be able to get ATT 4G with ST ATT sim, but just 3G on ATT (like 300-500kbps). But if I get the ST Tmobile sim then I can get 4G speed (since it uses 1700 band and this phone has that) so speeds will be 5-10mbps correct?

Now if I got the Galaxy SII or SIII from Tmobile then those phones would be able to do 4G speeds from ATT sim on ST service since the SII has WCDMA 850 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 1900 WCDMA 2100 and SIII has WCDMA 850 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 1900.

Is my understanding correct here?

**mrtrance** · 06-23-2012, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by mrtrance

Thanks for that clarification. So I know Tmobile 4g service uses the 1700 band and ATT I believe is 1900 band and a few places 850 band if I'm not mistaken.

So the Vibrant has the following bands: GSM 850 GSM 900 GSM 1800 GSM 1900 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 2100

Since the Vibrant does not have the "WCDMA 1900" I won't be able to get ATT 4G with ST ATT sim, but just 3G on ATT (like 300-500kbps). But if I get the ST Tmobile sim then I can get 4G speed (since it uses 1700 band and this phone has that) so speeds will be 5-10mbps correct?

Now if I got the Galaxy SII or SIII from Tmobile then those phones would be able to do 4G speeds from ATT sim on ST service since the SII has WCDMA 850 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 1900 WCDMA 2100 and SIII has WCDMA 850 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 1900.

Is my understanding correct here?

Anyone can give me some feedback on this?

**Wireless Junkie** · 06-25-2012, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by mrtrance

Thanks for that clarification. So I know Tmobile 4g service uses the 1700 band and ATT I believe is 1900 band and a few places 850 band if I'm not mistaken.

So the Vibrant has the following bands: GSM 850 GSM 900 GSM 1800 GSM 1900 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 2100

Since the Vibrant does not have the "WCDMA 1900" I won't be able to get ATT 4G with ST ATT sim, but just 3G on ATT (like 300-500kbps). But if I get the ST Tmobile sim then I can get 4G speed (since it uses 1700 band and this phone has that) so speeds will be 5-10mbps correct?

Now if I got the Galaxy SII or SIII from Tmobile then those phones would be able to do 4G speeds from ATT sim on ST service since the SII has WCDMA 850 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 1900 WCDMA 2100 and SIII has WCDMA 850 WCDMA 1700 WCDMA 1900.

Is my understanding correct here?

The majority of att is 850mhz

- Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note on AT&T 4G