[danfinger]

My T-mobile contract expires 7/8. I've been with them for over 8 years. Pretty happy with them but have never had a smart phone before.

I'm sold on the S3 and have been wanting a new phone for a while now. The question for me now is do I jump to another carrier since my contract is up soon or do I stick with T-MO?

I'm in San Francisco and don't really travel that much. I've heard nothing but horror stories from friends who have AT&T here in SF.

Is there a preferred carrier for SF?

[Jude526]

Check reviews in your area. People will talk about their experience. I don't have T-Mobile but if you're happy with them why switch? The grass isn't always greener on the other side. Stick with what suits your use and needs. Check out their smartphone plans.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk

[OMGLadyGaga]

The Mobile editor of engagdet has tmobile as her primary line in SF and seems really happy with it. Tmobile is also cheaper than ATT and Verizon, as I'm sure you're aware. Basically if it isn't broke don't fix it if you're happy with them. Plus there's always "perks" to being a long time customer with one of these carriers.

[jontalk]

I am also in the SF bay area, and would also chime in by asking how important LTE speed is to you.

TMo isn't going to have nearly as many LTE towers as ATT or Verizon. Since you've never owned a smart phone, this is a whole new world for you and speed is important to those of us that use them for many purposes.

I've been with ATT as long as you've been with TMo and while it's not ideal, the rollover minutes and simultaneous voice/data is unique, not to mention that the 3G and HSPA+ service is the fastest. The LTE speeds will vary with any carrier though I tested a Skyrocket here in Marin and it was doing over 15 mbps down and over 7 mbps upstream.. Some people in various parts of SF are getting speeds near double that and there are still more LTE towers coming online each month or so.

I've been an iPhone user for years, but am going to dump my iP3G for the GS3 or Skyrocket. I think you really need to wait until the carrier stores have the phone on demo and then you can play with them firsthand. I have an upgrade available now, and want to make the best decision which is you'll need also. This forum is awesome for learning the tons of things you can do with an Android phone, which are far beyond what's possible with an iPhone.

Also, ATT uses a GSM network which is the international standard as well.. Verizon is CDMA and Sprint is slow as molasses.. My two cents.

[tekhna]

Verizon.

Edit--Bay Area as well.

[danfinger]

I am also in the SF bay area

Great input, thanks! I've been reading this forum for the past few months. Was originally going to go with the G Nexus but the S3 and its SD card slot has me sold.

I will say the speed tests at the VZW store on the nexus were faster than the tests on the OneX at the AT&T store. Can't really say this is a 'real world' test since I suspect they have signal boosts in those stores. LTE speeds are definitely impressive on both but VZW got the edge most of the time.

I will certainly be leveraging my time with TMO to see what kind of deal they can swing to keep me. Who knows, maybe the wife will be getting a new phone too. thanks again.

[nkd]

I have At&T right now, and when someone says grass is not always greener on the other side, you better believe them.

I have had verizon but to be honest I love HSPA+ I get around 5-10mb on ATT and I am plenty happy with it. If you get good HSPA+ service with T-mobile in your area stay with them. T-mobile sucks in my area and they only have 2g and 2 miles away they have 4g, otherwise I would have tried them out.

Verizon service is great but I love HSPA network and battery life is night and day over LTE. I really don't even care if ATT never upgrades my area to LTE, I am sure they will but I am happy with their network speeds as of now. 5-10 mb throughout the day is not bad.

[Cubfan]

I have SERO Premium, which nobody can touch on price. So it's Sprint for me. Hopefully, the network improves like they say it will.

[Crispy]

I'm in the bay area as well, current Sprint customer. Since I barely get a GSM signal where I live, I'll probably choose Verizon.

[Mikest]

I'm in the bay area as well, current Sprint customer. Since I barely get a GSM signal where I live, I'll probably choose Verizon.

Its a CDMA network, no one gets a gsm signal on it.

[Crispy]

Its a CDMA network, no one gets a gsm signal on it.

You misunderstood me. I don't get GSM signal where I live e.g. on a Att/TMobile phone.

[Mellimel22]

I am also in the SF bay area, and would also chime in by asking how important LTE speed is to you.

TMo isn't going to have nearly as many LTE towers as ATT or Verizon. Since you've never owned a smart phone, this is a whole new world for you and speed is important to those of us that use them for many purposes.

I've been with ATT as long as you've been with TMo and while it's not ideal, the rollover minutes and simultaneous voice/data is unique, not to mention that the 3G and HSPA+ service is the fastest. The LTE speeds will vary with any carrier though I tested a Skyrocket here in Marin and it was doing over 15 mbps down and over 7 mbps upstream.. Some people in various parts of SF are getting speeds near double that and there are still more LTE towers coming online each month or so.

I've been an iPhone user for years, but am going to dump my iP3G for the GS3 or Skyrocket. I think you really need to wait until the carrier stores have the phone on demo and then you can play with them firsthand. I have an upgrade available now, and want to make the best decision which is you'll need also. This forum is awesome for learning the tons of things you can do with an Android phone, which are far beyond what's possible with an iPhone.

Also, ATT uses a GSM network which is the international standard as well.. Verizon is CDMA and Sprint is slow as molasses.. My two cents.

Maybe in the Bay area or your area but in my area 3G and wimax speeds is increasing everyday

Sent from my Nexus S 4g using Tapatalk 2

[MattMJB0188]

All the carriers really have more cons than pros.

AT&T

Possibly no 32GB version. Very, very congested HSPA+ network. Will have no way to turn off LTE.

Veriozn

Plans way too expensive and they don't stand out from the competition as they are axing their double data promo. When not in a 4G LTE coverage area they will have very slow 3G compared to AT&T's UMTS/HSPA+.

Sprint

Must I go on?

T-Mobile

Their version won't have LTE.

[Mellimel22]

If you're in a first round city for sprint lte than the SG3 is a good choice

Sent from my Nexus S 4g using Tapatalk 2

[nkd]

All the carriers really have more cons than pros.

AT&T

Possibly no 32GB version. Very, very congested HSPA+ network. Will have no way to turn off LTE.

Veriozn

Plans way too expensive and they don't stand out from the competition as they are axing their double data promo. When not in a 4G LTE coverage area they will have very slow 3G compared to AT&T's UMTS/HSPA+.

Sprint

Must I go on?

T-Mobile

Their version won't have LTE.

what congestion? I hit 5-10Mbps on HSPA+ on ATT all the time at home and work. Just ran a test and got 5.8

[Mikest]

You misunderstood me. I don't get GSM signal where I live e.g. on a Att/TMobile phone.

Yep I considered that after posting. Thats what I get for goofing off while at work.

[MattMJB0188]

what congestion? I hit 5-10Mbps on HSPA+ on ATT all the time at home and work. Just ran a test and got 5.8

Well at least in my area. I can easily pull 10Mbps on my SII late at night and during the day barely 2 down. Pings are also much higher in the day (by me).

[equishd]

Can i get some Orlando AT&T speed?

[RG129]

I live in SF and am currently on Sprint. Sprint has pretty good coverage here in SF. I get about 0.75-1.5MB DL speeds which are not comparable to the 4G speeds of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, but they work for most smartphone tasks (I've been able to watch YouTube, Netflix and have had Google Talk video chats). Plus LTE will be deployed in SF by the end of 2012 and will remain unlimited.

I actually don't have any friends that have an AT&T LTE phone, but AT&T service on iPhones still suck in SF, especially around the Haight and the Castro.

T-Mobile seems to work pretty good around the city, there's some bad building penetration in some of the dive bars around the city, but it's not so bad.

Verizon is probably the best and most reliable in terms of call quality and data speeds (their LTE is fully deployed), but the prices are just so high and I don't like their tiered data packages.

[Joe the Insider]

Verizon is light years ahead of the rest. The fact that people are even talking about tmobile is a complete joke. Speaking of a joke, can we discuss everyone's 4g coverage compared to Verizon? Verizon has over 230 markets and will have Double that by the end of this year. I'm sorry, but im a strong believer when it comes to you pay for what you get. At some point all carriers will be getting rid of unlimited data plans.

Coverage, speeds, phones and customer service is best under big red.

[Fraydog]

Looks like AT&T is doing better, but in SF, VZW is still the top choice.

[RG129]

Verizon is light years ahead of the rest. The fact that people are even talking about tmobile is a complete joke. Speaking of a joke, can we discuss everyone's 4g coverage compared to Verizon? Verizon has over 230 markets and will have Double that by the end of this year. I'm sorry, but im a strong believer when it comes to you pay for what you get. At some point all carriers will be getting rid of unlimited data plans.

Coverage, speeds, phones and customer service is best under big red.

Verizon is the best as a whole throughout the country, but in a dense, urban city like San Francisco, coverage is pretty much the same amongst all the carriers. Where the difference is, is in capacity. AT&T is having a hard time handling the congestion with all the iPhones in this small city. Also, during massive city events (Bay to Breakers, LoveParade, Pride, Outside Lands), AT&T and Verizon have a hard time having all their subscribers trying to use a few cell towers within the area. T-Mobile and Sprint have always handled those events fine.

[truthteller10]

I just put my order in at Tmobile..Too me its a no brainer to go with Tmobile and not verizon or ATT..You'll pay 50 bucks more per month and get less in terms of data amounts. The contract termination is only 200 bucks if you decide later that it isn't for you and you get 20 days to try it out. Too me Tmobile has the best deal around and at 5mbps who actually needs more on a smartphone?! All you need to stream high quality video is 2mbps without buffering.

[jdm4u]

I was with T-Mobile and switched to Sprint when my contract was up. When the GS3 releases, I am switching back to T-Mobile. Sprint is good, if you can connect to 4G. If not, the 3G is so slow that it's not even worth it. I have tested both GS2 phones, in my area, T-mobiles GS2 gets 8mbps download speeds, Sprints GS2 gets 10mbps on 4G wimax.. Similar speeds, but I prefer GSM phones over CDMA. I don't like being limited to only purchasing Sprint phones. Also, T-mobile would be cheaper too.

[danfinger]

Thanks everyone- I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and go with VZW. It just seems like they're the most future-proofed. I don't mind paying a little extra. I also get a 26% discount through my job so that will help.

TMO contract expires 7/8. Supposing I pre-order from VZW now and have my number ported, will I be able to use the phone I have now until I get the new one? Or does the porting process take time? thanks again,
~DF