Any reason this phone wouldn't work on T-Mobile prepaid?

[bassmanxu]

Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900A 16GB AT&T Branded SM-G900A-BLACK

My wife wants to upgrade her phone and uses T-Mo prepaid now. GS5 is $660 through T-Mo and I would buy this GS5 outright assuming it will work on the T-Mo network. The supported cellular bands seem to suggest it would work, but I want to be sure before I buy one. Many thanks in advance.

 

[Crashdamage]

That phone will not work on T-Mobile 3G (UMTS) or HSPA+ 4G. It will work for T-Mobile LTE channels 2/4, but not channel 12 which is T-Mobile's new 700Mhz A Block service. So how successfully it will work for you will depend on what LTE channels T-Mobile uses in your area and whether or not 3G and HSPA+ 4G matter to you. It would matter to me.

Why not just buy a fully T-Mobile compatible model? As a bonus, I think they're fully AT&T compatible so it would be easier to sell later on.

Android since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.

 

[bassmanxu]

Thanks for the response. I think the answer to your question is, for whatever reason the T-Mobile model is more expensive. So in this case it was purely a $$ thing that I was interested in the AT&T version, but I totally agree that it makes sense to buy a fully compatible model. Thanks again.