Anyone else kinda worried about coverage?

[Ricolando]

yea after looking at the coverage maps for both att and t-mobile it looks like att is more solid. I am still gonna try both though. and i ordered the SIM from straight talk last night and I was trying to use that code (SIMSAVE) but it wouldn't work! i tried it when ordering the sim and the $45 card together.

Let us know how you like it! Switching to a Nexus on a prepaid plan was a revelation for me, and I'll never go back to a standard carrier. I can't wait for the inevitable day we get prepaid LTE.

 

[bobjohnson201]

The Nexus 4. Sorry I didn't clarify. I received mine on Friday. I'm keeping my Sprint account open for another month or two while I fully test out AT&T and T-Mobile. I have trips to Vegas, NYC, and NC planned for December, so I'll put them all through their paces.

are you gonna stick with one network for a period of time and then try the other or are you gonna constantly alternate ?

 

[Citizen Coyote]

haha what are speeds are you getting?

When I can get WiMax working it's not too bad, anywhere from 3-6mbps. On 3G? It can range from 2mbps at the top end down to about 150kbps. It's usually less than 1000kbps.

 

[DC Wuff]

are you gonna stick with one network for a period of time and then try the other or are you gonna constantly alternate ?

I will be running the Nexus and the EVO LTE (and perhaps my work BB on pure AT&T) in parallel. But, based on the performance of my coworker's N4 in my office with the Straight Talk AT&T SIM this morning, I can tell you that T-Mo is already dead in the water for me. My coworker's N4 had a full 4-5 bars of coverage and blazing data (considering it wasn't LTE or WiFi). SpeedTest wasn't working due to a configuration problem, but the full AndroidCentral site loaded in about 3-5 seconds if that's any indication. Again, my T-Mo SIM has NO service here in my office.

 

[Mellimel22]

When I can get WiMax working it's not too bad, anywhere from 3-6mbps. On 3G? It can range from 2mbps at the top end down to about 150kbps. It's usually less than 1000kbps.

And those speeds are bad??? I get 1.5 on 3g which is enough and 10mb on wimax I'll report my lte speeds once my galaxy nexus gets here today

Sent from my EPIC WHITE SGS2 Rockin CM10 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[EnderTheThird]

I will be running the Nexus and the EVO LTE (and perhaps my work BB on pure AT&T) in parallel. But, based on the performance of my coworker's N4 in my office with the Straight Talk AT&T SIM this morning, I can tell you that T-Mo is already dead in the water for me. My coworker's N4 had a full 4-5 bars of coverage and blazing data (considering it wasn't LTE or WiFi). SpeedTest wasn't working due to a configuration problem, but the full AndroidCentral site loaded in about 3-5 seconds if that's any indication. Again, my T-Mo SIM has NO service here in my office.

Don't enter the Proxy info like Straight Talk tells you to; just leave that field blank. Enter the rest of the information as it says to on the Straight Talk site or card with your ST SIM (Name, APN, Port, MMSC, MMS Proxy, MMS Port). If you do that, the Speedtest app should work just fine.

I got my 8GB N4 delivered today, which unfortunately I had to box right back up so I could sell it to a friend who couldn't get an order in (at cost -- I'm not that much of a jerk!). But before I boxed it back up, I did a quick speed test in my house with my AT&T ST SIM: 164ms/5.3Mbit/1.4Mbit with full bars (did not show 4G/H+ though). My VZW Gnex, with 2 bars 4G LTE, gave me 84ms/6.1Mbit/4.1Mbit. VZW has given me 20-30+ Mbit speeds around Indianapolis, but overall I'm totally OK with those ST speeds at $45/mo.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Don't enter the Proxy info like Straight Talk tells you to; just leave that field blank. Enter the rest of the information as it says to on the Straight Talk site or card with your ST SIM (Name, APN, Port, MMSC, MMS Proxy, MMS Port). If you do that, the Speedtest app should work just fine.

Beat me to it. Yup, leave the "proxy" line in your APN blank. I've been doing that for a few months with ST AT&T without issue.

 

[bobjohnson201]

Beat me to it. Yup, leave the "proxy" line in your APN blank. I've been doing that for a few months with ST AT&T without issue.

this won't screw with the reception, will it?

 

[killroy420]

I wish everyone would mention the area they live in when talking about reception issues on the different carriers. Knowing how good the service is does me little good when I live in Oakland, CA. It would help put a lot of this conversation in perspective and allow us to find the most relevant info, because we all know that reception is extremely location specific.

Anyways, I myself am curious about anyone's experience with T-Mobile and ATT service in the Oakland/Fremont/San Jose area. I been stuck on Verizon for forever on a family plan and would like up save the fam some money, but I gotta know if we can talk reliably. Right now I plan on using the N4 to test out service on t mobile. If I find it to be crap, I will either return it to Google ( 30 return policy) or EBay it if the prices are still good; and then I'll just settle for a Note 2 ($700 off contract >_<).

Side....Note: why couldn't Verizon and Google come up with a Nexus Note? I would be in cell phone heaven...

I tried to think of something witty, but this is all I could come up with.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

this won't screw with the reception, will it?

No. Not at all. All it does is not funnel traffic through Straight Talk's proxy, which blocks some things (like Speedtest.net).

 

[natehoy]

I wish everyone would mention the area they live in when talking about reception issues on the different carriers. Knowing how good the service is does me little good when I live in Oakland, CA. It would help put a lot of this conversation in perspective and allow us to find the most relevant info, because we all know that reception is extremely location specific.

Anyways, I myself am curious about anyone's experience with T-Mobile and ATT service in the Oakland/Fremont/San Jose area. I been stuck on Verizon for forever on a family plan and would like up save the fam some money, but I gotta know if we can talk reliably. Right now I plan on using the N4 to test out service on t mobile. If I find it to be crap, I will either return it to Google ( 30 return policy) or EBay it if the prices are still good; and then I'll just settle for a Note 2 ($700 off contract >_<).

Side....Note: why couldn't Verizon and Google come up with a Nexus Note? I would be in cell phone heaven...

I tried to think of something witty, but this is all I could come up with.

Your best bet is to go with either the carrier maps or a user-contributed coverage map like Sensorly.

Add far as Verizon getting a nexus again, it's been discussed quite a lot, but Verizon and nexus are the antitheses of each other and that will be true until they implement a standard that allows open standards based handsets on their network. Maybe when VoLTE becomes the standard. Maybe.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[killroy420]

Add far as Verizon getting a nexus again, it's been discussed quite a lot, but Verizon and nexus are the antitheses of each other and that will be true until they implement a standard that allows open standards based handsets on their network. Maybe when VoLTE becomes the standard. Maybe.

That was just my daydream...my forite hardware/software/carrier performance. I know it won't happen, but a man can dream...

I tried to think of something witty, but this is all I could come up with.

 

[MERCDROID]

I actually just switched from Verizon to the Family Mobile (T-Mobile) plan through Walmart. Haven't had any issues so far with coverage. I dropped my first call a few days ago, though . But, for $45/ month, I get Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data. I get 250MB of HSPA+ data, and then it's throttled to Edge speeds. But, I'm on Wifi most of the time, so I have yet to even hit 50MB. Overall, I am very satisfied. Porting my number to Google Voice was a breeze. So, in the future, if I decide to try out Straight Talk, or get the $30 plan through T Mobile's website, I can just stop paying the bill and be on my way!! NO MORE ETFS!!!

 

[jroc]

I would try testing the service yourself before switching, don't go by what the coverage maps say.

This absolutely. According to the coverage map, I have great coverage on Verizon where I live. BUT....real world use...its a bad reception area. For most thing concerning these phones, real world use is the only true way to tell. Here's the kicker....AT&T might actually be better than Verizon in my area. It has to be as good. My PS Vita using AT&T data gets better data reception in my apt. than any smartphone I had/have on Verizon.

 

[bobjohnson201]

I actually just switched from Verizon to the Family Mobile (T-Mobile) plan through Walmart. Haven't had any issues so far with coverage. I dropped my first call a few days ago, though . But, for $45/ month, I get Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data. I get 250MB of HSPA+ data, and then it's throttled to Edge speeds. But, I'm on Wifi most of the time, so I have yet to even hit 50MB. Overall, I am very satisfied. Porting my number to Google Voice was a breeze. So, in the future, if I decide to try out Straight Talk, or get the $30 plan through T Mobile's website, I can just stop paying the bill and be on my way!! NO MORE ETFS!!!

i believe i saw a sign in my family walmart saying "straight talk - powered by tmobile with up to 250mb of high data speeds". does this mean if i try straight talk at&t (not tmobile), i will only get 250mb of unthrottled data?

 

[MERCDROID]

i believe i saw a sign in my family walmart saying "straight talk - powered by tmobile with up to 250mb of high data speeds". does this mean if i try straight talk at&t (not tmobile), i will only get 250mb of unthrottled data?

That's a great question; I wish I had an answer . Nothing I have says Straight Talk on it, though. But, from what I've heard here and around the web, Straight Talk (AT&T) throttles you depending on the market where you most use your phone. There's no concrete cap on data; and no there's information in their user guides, or on their website about when you are throttled, and to what extent. So, as far as I know, you have unlimited data on their terms. But, the average user reports getting throttled between 2 and 3GB, if that helps any.

 

[LNWJ]

I switched from Sprint to Straight Talk ATT and coverage has been better. Data speeds in the sticks are 200-2000Kb. I was getting 73Kb on Sprint .

Call quality is excellent. YMMV

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[bobjohnson201]

Originally Posted by bobjohnson201
i believe i saw a sign in my family walmart saying "straight talk - powered by tmobile with up to 250mb of high data speeds". does this mean if i try straight talk at&t (not tmobile), i will only get 250mb of unthrottled data?

That's a great question; I wish I had an answer . Nothing I have says Straight Talk on it, though. But, from what I've heard here and around the web, Straight Talk (AT&T) throttles you depending on the market where you most use your phone. There's no concrete cap on data; and no there's information in their user guides, or on their website about when you are throttled, and to what extent. So, as far as I know, you have unlimited data on their terms. But, the average user reports getting throttled between 2 and 3GB, if that helps any.

yea i would think that the throttling would differ since they are different networks. maybe someone else knows the answer to this?

 

[Ricolando]

I haven't gotten throttled yet, and I've had them for months. However, I rarely use more than 2-3 GB of data a month since there's wifi almost everywhere I go. I used to be terrified of leaving my unlimited Sprint service, but once I started using ST and had a phone with Android 4.X that could track usage I realized that I use way less data than I thought. That's not everyone's case obviously, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of us use a lot less than we think. Now if you're watching youtube/Netflix all the time, constantly streaming Pandora, and uploading a ton of photos each day you might have issues, but you'll have that with any carrier (except Sprint) these days so you might as well pay a lot less per month for the same service.

 

[bobjohnson201]

No. Not at all. All it does is not funnel traffic through Straight Talk's proxy, which blocks some things (like Speedtest.net).

hey andrew, I read this (How to set up the right APN on your Nexus 4 | Android Central) and see that there proxy line on straight talk att has stuff. do i leave that blank or..?