NEWS: AT&T, Verizon Racing To Rollout 4G Wireless

Super-high-speed LTE wireless infrastructure is expected to expand into mainstream networks in the next few years, analysts predict.

Reply to
John Navas
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John Navas wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

WOW, JOHN, HOW FAST WILL THIS WONDER OF TECHNOLOGY USE UP THE GODDAMNED

5GB/MONTH VERIZON WIRELESS USERS ARE ALLOWED TO USE?!!!!!

What bullshit....Bandwidth means NOTHING if you're NOT ALLOWED TO USE IT!

Just imagine what this wonderful bandwidth can eat per minute at 25 cents per MEGAbyte!

Reply to
Larry

On Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:20:46 -0600, Todd Allcock wrote in :

Right you are -- thanks for the tip! I switched packages. :D

Of course -- lucky you! But I like having unlimited messaging also. :D

Reply to
John Navas

Wecome aboard. Have you switched your primary line from AT&T, or is this anadditional line? AT&T still has better coverage nationally, but the local coverage where I live (in Denver) is excellent, and the value proposition is certainly hard to beat.

I keep a prepaid PagePlus phone (a Verizon reseller) in the glovebox "just in case" but mostly out of habit- I haven't needed it in a year, but for $2.50/month I keep it active. It never hurts to have an extra line, I guess...

I'll enjoy it while it lasts- rumors continue to swirl about T-Mo's intention to tighten up compliance with "proper" data plans technologically via IMEI detection. I use an unlocked AT&T Tilt smartphone as my primary device, so T-Mo will likely inform me I can't use it on a non-smartphone data plan at some point. We'll see how convincing I can be with customer service if/when that day comes, since there were no such restrictions when I first chose that data plan five or six years ago...

Reply to
Todd Allcock

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:19:11 -0600, Todd Allcock wrote in :

I switched my primary line from AT&T to T-Mobile not too long ago when I noticed how good the coverage (especially 3G) had become in areas I care about, in addition to the superior customer service, more flexible options, and better value proposition.

I likewise keep a backup phone in my car, but it's not currently activated, since it can always be used for 911 calls.

I tried my T-Mobile SIM in a Sony Ericsson GC82 EGPRS (EDGE) card, and got a message that my (dumb phone) plan needed to be upgraded to use it. (I plan to hack my Sony Ericsson TM506 3G phone, which I purchased unlocked, to enable tethering instead.)

Reply to
John Navas

John Navas wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Didn't you used to boast that ATT/Cingular had the best coverage, hands down?

Reply to
John Blutarsky

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 19:53:32 +0000 (UTC), John Blutarsky wrote in :

I actually said Cingular had very good coverage in areas I care about even before the AT&T Wireless merger, which improved to the best coverage in the areas I care about as a result of the merger. Since then T-Mobile has upgraded the old Cingular network to where it is now competitive with the AT&T network in areas I care about. AT&T still has the best coverage in areas I care about, but the difference is now small enough to be outweighed by other factors for me.

Reply to
John Navas

A perfectly good option. I'm a sucker for ubiquitous email, however, and a PagePlus users currently enjoy a Verizon loophole that allows unlimited Quick2Net (1G) data that conveniently "forgets: to count against your plan minutes, so my ancient eBay sourced WinMo flip smartphone can poll for email hourly at an excruciatingly slow 14.4kbps when I'm out of T-Mo coverage, and via a Funambol (SyncML server) I can keep my contacts and calendar data synced wirelessly with my "real" smartphone on T-Mo, making switching to the prepaid as seamless as possible. Certainly overkill for the once a year I need to whip it out, (T-Mo has no roaming partner in Grand Lake, Colorado where we go once a year or so) but I manage to find other uses for a spare phone, like temporary service as a contact number for Craigslist or classified ads that I can leave a "sorry we already sold it" greeting on after selling the item and shut it off until the next time it's needed.

Yeah, they've rigged the new plans to trigger a "compliance" message when switching devices- so far they've left most of the $6 plan users alone, but I suspect it's only a matter of time. Hopefully the ancient TOS I'm playing under will keep me safe from that, but who knows. The desire for a higher ARPU is a powerful intoxicant for businesses! ;-)

That is the darling T-Mo phone of the moment for those wanting to tether via

3G on the cheap. It's supposedly pretty easy to do, particularly with early production versions, and will be a potential solution if T-Mo drops the hammer on my plan, though I shudder at the thought of going back to separate devices again. (On the other hand, the Tilt runing tethered via BT at 3G speeds would be nice- although it's a 3G device, it's not compatible with T-Mo's oddball AWS 1700MHz 3G frequencies, so I'm "stuck on the EDGE" as they say!) Being forced to pay $25/month for data would be a significant rate hike for me, since it'd likely also apply to my wife's unlocked iPhone 2G, which is also enjoying grandfathered $6 data.
Reply to
Todd Allcock

One T-Mo rep I spoke with recently congratulated me on my "fantastic" grandfathered "t-Zones Talk 'n' Text" rate plan (stemming from the days of VoiceStream, when it was the "iStream Talk 'n' Text" plan), and reassured me (but please do *not* take this as gospel) that T-Mo would

*never* do away with any given customer's rate plan, or change its terms, ever: "that's be bad business," she said. We can only hope she was right.

Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

How often do you have to recharge its battery to keep it usable? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? ... ?

Good luck to us *all* on that score :-) . Cheers,

-- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 14:47:14 -0600, "Todd Allcock" wrote in :

Great idea -- thanks. I've got a previously unused Net10 phone I might just use that way.

Actually 1700 (uplink) / 2100 (downlink), and while 2100 is used outside the USA for 3G, T-Mobile 2100 is different than non-USA 2100 (because USA 2100 is already in use for other purposes).

AT&T is likewise an "oddball" with UMTS over 850 / 1900, harder radio to implement.

I'm personally happy to have the additional close spectrum instead of trying to cram 3G into prior spectrum.

Cute. ;)

Reply to
John Navas

On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:30:53 GMT, tlvp wrote in :

Power options:

  • Car charger

  • Emergency charger that uses ubiquitous AA alkaline batteries

  • USB cable for powering phone from a laptop

  • Eton hand crank emergency radio with phone power adapter

Reply to
John Navas

Actually the US 2100 downlink frequencies (2110-2155) are the same as the rest-of-the-world 2100 band (2110-2170), or at least a subset. The problem was that the rest-of-the-world uplink frequencies (1920-1980) are almost the same as the US 1900 MHz band downlink, so the AWS band got an incompatible uplink frequency.

In fact most of the high frequency cell tower sector antennas sold now cover a frequency range of 1710-2170 MHz, so the same antenna can be used in the US for the AWS and PCS bands and in Europe for the DCS (1800) and IMT (2100) bands.

Note that a number of European countries have begun to use 900 MHz for rural UMTS (Scandinavia and France for sure) because it is cheaper to get full coverage, while Australia and New Zealand use UMTS850 in addition to UMTS2100 for about the same reason. Many new phones outside the US are dual-band (or tri-band, now) UMTS and about the same level of complexity as AT&T phones.

Dennis Ferguson

Reply to
Dennis Ferguson

I recharge it every "now and then" (probably monthly,) partially to keep the battery up, and also to keep it updated with the latest contacts and calendar info, which it receives over-the-air. The battery always has a bar or two of life even after a month without a charge (although it was an eBay purchase of a six year old phone, it came with a new battery, luckily.)

Also, it's not like I get caught outside of T-Mobile areas often or unawares- I tend to charge the prepaid prior to long road trips, vacations, or anytime I'm going to a known "program area" (e.g. the aforementioned Grand Lake, CO.)

Besides having a car charger on board, I also have an "emergency" solar- cell charger with internal auxiliary battery in the car with a USB-socket as output, so it can recharge any device with a USB charge/sync cable (phones, PDAs, iPods/Zunes, etc.) In a real pinch I can drag that charger with me if I need to use a "dead" cellphone away from the car.

Reply to
Todd Allcock

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 14:47:14 -0600, "Todd Allcock" wrote in :

Turns out tethering is easy without hacking on current TM-506 firmware over Bluetooth -- just configure Network Sharing in the phone with Windows user account Username, Password and Workgroup, and make a PAN (Personal Area Network) connection from Windows to the phone (Access Point, not Direct Connection), and voila! (Tested with my Lenovo ThinkPad T41 running Windows XP, and standard TM-506 firmware R3DA030. I am a very happy camper!

Reply to
John Navas

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:08:11 -0700, John Navas wrote in :

p.s. I've been pretty happy with the T-Mobile network coverage I've found, and this past weekend I had the opportunity to test it against AT&T while sailing 4-8 miles offshore from San Francisco to Drake's Bay. Neither carrier was perfect, but both had fairly good and roughly comparable coverage over most of the route. Only the AT&T phone was able to get any coverage in Drake's Bay itself , but that coverage was extremely weak and erratic, suitable only for an occasional text message. On the other hand, the T-Mobile phone got better signal than the AT&T phone a couple of miles southeast of Drake's Bay. Overall it was pretty much a draw.

AT&T phone: Blackberry T-Mobile phone: Sony Ericsson TM-506

p.p.s. Regardless of coverage, would never depend on cell phones for safety at sea -- the boat is equipped with VHF+DSC, automatic EPIRB and SPOT Satellite Messenger.

Reply to
John Navas

Thanks for the report- apparently hacking is needed for DUN, but anything I'd want to tether (PCs, Windows Mobile devices) all support BT PAN, so I wouldn't need to bother with DUN.

Thanks again!

Reply to
Todd Allcock

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