Considering Jumping From Sprint GS2 to AT&T GS3 But Have Some Questions. (Detroiters Most Wanted.)
Living in the post-Apocalyptic cow town of metro Detroit has meant three years of slow 3G* and over two years of not having 4G despite paying the original "EVO Tax" and now that AT&T has lit up the LTE, I'm thinking it's time to jump ship. However, as I've been with Sprint and am used to how things work with them, I have several questions that I'd appreciate real-live Detroiters with similar habits and usage areas to provide some enlightenment about.
• This is probably the most complicated question: I go to Toronto at least once a year for a four-day weekend. With Sprint's Canada roaming add-on, for a pro-rated $3 per month (costs me 60 cents) I get 20 cent per minute calling (one-third of the usual 60 cent rate) while in the Great White North. The people I usually meet up with all have cell phones and I've always relied on texting to coordinate meetups, etc. Texting was free and immediate with Sprint, but if I'm on Google Voice that means needing a data connection and other than coffee shops, there is darn little open and free wifi to be found in Downtown Toronto, so I'm SOL unless someone has a suggestion.
If I unlock my phone, are their reasonably priced pay-as-you-go/prepaid SIMs I can use or is there a pro-rated rate for partial month's usage of AT&T texting or what? Surely someone from Detroit or Buffalo goes to Canuckia. What do you folks do?
• Texting on AT&T is a fraking ripoff at $20/mo. considering a heavy month for me is probably less than 300 texts. I was thinking of using Google Voice for texting, but is it possible to absolutely block incoming texts from coming over the carrier? I want to keep my old phone #, but if text mailing lists like free Redbox codes are pointing to that number, I don't want to get tagged for incoming messages. My searching has only found things about blocking particular numbers like stalkers, not globally. Is this doable online when I have an account or will I need to call customer support?
• How have speeds been, both for the new LTE and the old 3G/H+ networks? While I get in the ballpark of 1100 kbps down and 750 kbps up around my home, work is a disaster with 325 kbps down/100 kbps up typical and slower common. (I live in Berkley; work in Allen Park/Dearborn; and my g/f is on the East Side/Grosse Pointe area.) ANSWERED
• How hard is it to stay under the data cap? I average 1.5-2 GB per month on Sprint's slow-ass slow pipes, so I figure I'll go higher on a decent connection. I plan on using wifi as much as possible (home, g/f's, bars I hang have hot spots), don't do much if any streaming other than the odd YouTube video (i.e. not likely to consume a lot of Pandora or Netflix), and can impose data caps via ICS. Not that huge a concern.
• Does the Amazon App Store for Android work on the GS3? I know AT&T were dicks about allowing outside markets on their phones, but it appears they've backed off. Have they and are other sources like Getjar, etc. allowed? ANSWERED
If I think of anything else, I'll add on here. Thanks in advance!
* Yeah, yeah, unlimited data. What good is having an ocean to drink from but only a coffee stirrer to drink through? Gimme the fire hose and let me worry about cutting myself off!
Living in the post-Apocalyptic cow town of metro Detroit has meant three years of slow 3G* and over two years of not having 4G despite paying the original "EVO Tax" and now that AT&T has lit up the LTE, I'm thinking it's time to jump ship. However, as I've been with Sprint and am used to how things work with them, I have several questions that I'd appreciate real-live Detroiters with similar habits and usage areas to provide some enlightenment about.
• This is probably the most complicated question: I go to Toronto at least once a year for a four-day weekend. With Sprint's Canada roaming add-on, for a pro-rated $3 per month (costs me 60 cents) I get 20 cent per minute calling (one-third of the usual 60 cent rate) while in the Great White North. The people I usually meet up with all have cell phones and I've always relied on texting to coordinate meetups, etc. Texting was free and immediate with Sprint, but if I'm on Google Voice that means needing a data connection and other than coffee shops, there is darn little open and free wifi to be found in Downtown Toronto, so I'm SOL unless someone has a suggestion.
If I unlock my phone, are their reasonably priced pay-as-you-go/prepaid SIMs I can use or is there a pro-rated rate for partial month's usage of AT&T texting or what? Surely someone from Detroit or Buffalo goes to Canuckia. What do you folks do?
• Texting on AT&T is a fraking ripoff at $20/mo. considering a heavy month for me is probably less than 300 texts. I was thinking of using Google Voice for texting, but is it possible to absolutely block incoming texts from coming over the carrier? I want to keep my old phone #, but if text mailing lists like free Redbox codes are pointing to that number, I don't want to get tagged for incoming messages. My searching has only found things about blocking particular numbers like stalkers, not globally. Is this doable online when I have an account or will I need to call customer support?
If I think of anything else, I'll add on here. Thanks in advance!
* Yeah, yeah, unlimited data. What good is having an ocean to drink from but only a coffee stirrer to drink through? Gimme the fire hose and let me worry about cutting myself off!
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