Epic or T-Mo's HSPA+?

[cr3amy]

I, like I'm sure many people here, have a G1 and I have been looking for something to replace it with.

I was all ready to get an Epic for the last few weeks, but with all of these delays, other news was bound to come in. And of course, yesterday/today the news comes out that T-Mobile's first HSPA+ phone will be out this summer.


My G1 is deteriorating (it dies if I talk for more than a couple minutes without the power plugged in... even if it's not out of batteries), but I could probably last until August/September if I have to. I really want a hardware keyboard, but it's not the absolute biggest necessity for me... WiMax & HSPA+ have similar speed specs and neither one has too much more of a future, but HSPA+ has better battery life I hear?

What do I do? T-Mo says news should be out "in the coming weeks", but that's the same time frame that everybody here is expecting the Epic to arrive. Thoughts?

Monthly pricing is basically exactly the same for me on either network (besides the modest $50 or $100 ETF)... I live in LA if that makes any difference.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

I personally like Sprint over T-Mo, however, T-Mo is the only major carrier I've never had, but my sister does. I'm across the country in Florida and the service for T-Mo isn't as good, however, my area is supposed to have HSPA+ already, meanwhile 4G wimax was announce at launch of the Evo, and other areas not officially announced already have service and my area doesn't. I'm a little upset how slow Sprint is releasing 4G in South Florida, when Jax, Tampa and Daytona Beach already have a partial network already up and running. At this rate, Orlando will have it before Miami.

 

[jamex]

All I hear from people is how weak the Tmobile signal is. I was looking at the prices recently and they are actually higher than Sprint for less services. I thought they were suppose to be the cheaper one but guess I was wrong.

 

[cr3amy]

Rufflez - yeah, they are expanding Wimax pretty slowly, and this talk of them possibly switching to LTE and partnering with T-Mo won't speed things up at all. That said, LA's supposed to have it within a few months and there was already reports of Wimax being up here during testing phases a month ago.

Jamex - I've been with T-Mo for some time now, so I have the "loyalty" plan, which is unlimited mins for $50 + $30 for unlimited text/web. Their "Even Moar" plans aren't very good though... Also T-Mo's customer service is great. Any unexpected costs (accidentally texting a European phone number when I meet some hot British chick for example) just takes one call to wipe off.


This is really a tough decision. So far I'm leaning towards this: if the Epic is released before any other news of T-Mo's HSPA+ phone, I'll switch. If the news comes out first, I'll see what's more interesting.

 

[karnovaran]

If you're in an area with good T-Mobile coverage, they're excellent. I don't have HSPA+ yet, but my speed tests are routinely in the 3-4 mbps range, which is as good or better than most WiMax tests I've seen.

Their pricing is cheaper if you're willing to buy your phone outright and take an Even More Plus plan. My Nexus One plan is $60 for unlimited everything, no contract. The only reason I'm even contemplating switching is for a high-end Android QWERTY. Customer service, coverage, and pricing have been stellar.

EDIT: Since you're on T-Mo already, you probably know all of that. You have HSPA+ in LA already.. and rumor has it the HTC Vision may come to Magenta later this year. If you can hold out, it may be worth your while. Personally I'm too impatient for that.

 

[jamex]

My current plan with Sprint is 129.99 less a 27% discount for unlimited web, text and 1500 land line minutes to share. The same plan with less features off contract is 119.99 with tmobile but 159.99 with a contract for less features. The price is ridiculous for a contract. That's more than what Verizon charges and their network is top notch. Tmobile does not want to help pay for the phones.

 

[cr3amy]

karnovaran:
"If you're in an area with good T-Mobile coverage, they're excellent. I don't have HSPA+ yet, but my speed tests are routinely in the 3-4 mbps range, which is as good or better than most WiMax tests I've seen."
- Great coverage, but I hear the same for Sprint around here. 3-4 mbps? Daaaaamn...

"Their pricing is cheaper if you're willing to buy your phone outright and take an Even More Plus plan. My Nexus One plan is $60 for unlimited everything, no contract. The only reason I'm even contemplating switching is for a high-end Android QWERTY. Customer service, coverage, and pricing have been stellar."
- Interesting... I might have to contemplate this. I have $80/month with contract, but discounted phones. Will be interesting to see if I can get a 1-yr upgrade price if I threaten to switch to Sprint.

"and rumor has it the HTC Vision may come to Magenta later this year. If you can hold out, it may be worth your while. Personally I'm too impatient for that."
- The patience thing is starting to get to me.... agh. My phone blows! And I imagine the hacker community will be strong with the Samsungs on account of the worldwide & multi-carrier release. What to do...

 

[voghan]

I moved from hero on sprint to the vibrant on tmobile. Love the vibrant but sprint has a better network than tmobile where I work. I didn't like the evo and didn't want a keyboard phone. I'll take a look at the epic for my wife.

 

[caliskimmer]

I read somewhere that even though WiMax is expanding REALLY slowly, it actually has more potential than LTE in the long run. I don't know if it's true, but that was one article I read.

 

[IOWA]

I read somewhere that even though WiMax is expanding REALLY slowly, it actually has more potential than LTE in the long run. I don't know if it's true, but that was one article I read.

This is 100% true. Also, hspa+ is highly over rated. Hspa+ is highly vulnerable to tower crowding, as wimax/lte is not. For example, if you have *just 16* hspa+ devices accessing the tower at the ssame time, the speed cuts in half. If your over a mile or two from the tower, half the speed. The only reason tmo went hspa+ is they can't afford a 4g solution yet, and don't let their marketing fool you into thinking it works like 4G. It doesn't. And when they have hspa+ devices accessing the towers eventually, it will show.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[cr3amy]

Oh, very interesting, IOWA

But caliskimmer's question was whether or not WiMax has more potential than LTE, which I don't believe is true, right?

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

The benefit WiMax has over LTE is that its not ruled by the cellphone industry like LTE is. Its based under the IEEE.

 

[caliskimmer]

The benefit WiMax has over LTE is that its not ruled by the cellphone industry like LTE is. Its based under the IEEE.

True, it is 802.16 like wifi is 802.11. Wifi is good for short distances, but Wimax has a range of 30 miles and bases can be put on top of buildings. It can also be used well even with many obstacles in the way. So yeah, it is not ruled by a cellphone industry.

 

[IOWA]

True, it is 802.16 like wifi is 802.11. Wifi is good for short distances, but Wimax has a range of 30 miles and bases can be put on top of buildings. It can also be used well even with many obstacles in the way. So yeah, it is not ruled by a cellphone industry.

Not to mention WiMax 2, which blows everything, and I mean EVERYTHING out of the water, including LTE. Combine that with cheaper, faster deployment, the WiMax series is definitely better than the commercially owned LTE.

We also know that 802.16m will be significantly faster than its predecessor. WiMAX forum vice president Mohammad Shakouri says the goal is for the new WiMAX standard to deliver average downlink speeds of more than 100Mbps to users. In contrast, Sprint's initial Xohm WiMAX offering, which debuted commercially in 2008, delivered downlink speeds ranging between 3.7M to 5Mbps.

Watch for WiMAX 2 in 2011 - PCWorld

Now that's some serious speed.

 

[caliskimmer]

Not to mention WiMax 2, which blows everything, and I mean EVERYTHING out of the water, including LTE. Combine that with cheaper, faster deployment, the WiMax series is definitely better than the commercially owned LTE.



Watch for WiMAX 2 in 2011 - PCWorld

Now that's some serious speed.

YES! That's the potential I was talking about: Wimax 2 or 802.16m. Thanks for finding it!