I've been on ST with the TMo SIM since the BYOD program was released about ~9 months ago. Came over from Simple Mobile's $40 faux-3G plan; ironically, ST recently purchased Simple Mobile.
I selected the Tmo SIM at the time on account that I had a Tmo Nexus One (3G on 1700Mhz) and was limited to the Tmo network to retain 3G speeds. I've since moved on to the Nexus 4 this month.
Tmo rolled out a decent HSPA+ network over the last two years, and it's not uncommon for me to reach 13-15Mbps in good coverage areas.
My only criticism of Tmo is that of consistency. The AT&T network tends to have a good blanket of 3G throughout the country. Tmo OTOH concentrates their HSPA+ coverage in more populous areas, which leaves EDGE and even GPRS as the only data connectivity along country roads and 1-light towns. So, the HSPA+ speed is awesome, where you can find it.
If you travel a lot, AT&T may be a better bet. But if you're in a city, suburbs, exurbs, etc, you can blow away your friends' AT&T speeds with Tmo HSPA+.
Final shot: Yeah, LTE is awesome, but there eventually comes a point of diminishing returns on responsiveness and productivity with regard to wireless speed. An additional 10Mbps on an already-fast 10Mbps connection will not make you twice as productive. For this reason, I find the whole LTE-over-HSPA+ argument moot.
ADDENDUM: The gains Tmo made from the failed AT&T merger are indeed real and tangible. My N1 and N4 both show "3G" when not showing "H+" or "E" icons, where the N1 did not do this, say, 6 months ago. It leads me to speculate that Tmo has been able to provision their network devices to leverage AT&T 3G towers where they could not before. Also, ST and Tmo now effortlessly roam AT&T EDGE in places where Tmo used to yield "No Service" before (such as in the northern part of Lower Michigan). So, in many ways, it often now feels like the Tmo network is more like "AT&T-plus", where we get AT&T in previously-weak Tmo areas, and HSPA+ in places where AT&T 3G lags. Again, who needs LTE?
I selected the Tmo SIM at the time on account that I had a Tmo Nexus One (3G on 1700Mhz) and was limited to the Tmo network to retain 3G speeds. I've since moved on to the Nexus 4 this month.
Tmo rolled out a decent HSPA+ network over the last two years, and it's not uncommon for me to reach 13-15Mbps in good coverage areas.
My only criticism of Tmo is that of consistency. The AT&T network tends to have a good blanket of 3G throughout the country. Tmo OTOH concentrates their HSPA+ coverage in more populous areas, which leaves EDGE and even GPRS as the only data connectivity along country roads and 1-light towns. So, the HSPA+ speed is awesome, where you can find it.
If you travel a lot, AT&T may be a better bet. But if you're in a city, suburbs, exurbs, etc, you can blow away your friends' AT&T speeds with Tmo HSPA+.
Final shot: Yeah, LTE is awesome, but there eventually comes a point of diminishing returns on responsiveness and productivity with regard to wireless speed. An additional 10Mbps on an already-fast 10Mbps connection will not make you twice as productive. For this reason, I find the whole LTE-over-HSPA+ argument moot.
ADDENDUM: The gains Tmo made from the failed AT&T merger are indeed real and tangible. My N1 and N4 both show "3G" when not showing "H+" or "E" icons, where the N1 did not do this, say, 6 months ago. It leads me to speculate that Tmo has been able to provision their network devices to leverage AT&T 3G towers where they could not before. Also, ST and Tmo now effortlessly roam AT&T EDGE in places where Tmo used to yield "No Service" before (such as in the northern part of Lower Michigan). So, in many ways, it often now feels like the Tmo network is more like "AT&T-plus", where we get AT&T in previously-weak Tmo areas, and HSPA+ in places where AT&T 3G lags. Again, who needs LTE?
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram