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Ars wrote:In recent months, T-Mobile advertising has been laying into AT&T, criticizing the carrier for hobbling a hot phone with slow network speeds. Either that was a form of flirting, or AT&T decided it needed to silence those commercials once and for all. Today, AT&T announced a $39 billion deal with T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, that will see T-Mobile's customers and infrastructure become part of AT&T, creating the US' largest cellular carrier, and the only one to offer GSM phones.

For Deutsche Telekom, the deal solves a lot of the problems that T-Mobile faced as the fourth-largest carrier. It no longer has to maintain a large network and retail infrastructure to support a smaller carrier base, and won't face the enormous cost of upgrading that infrastructure to the coming LTE 4G standard. T-Mobile was the only one of the big carriers not to have a clear 4G plan in place; AT&T and Verizon have committed to LTE, while Sprint has been pushing WiMax.

...

I hardly knew ye.

Funny enough, I just switched from T-Mobile to AT&T. Ah well.

I almost kind of want to feel sorry for the people who switched from AT&T to T-Mobile, and laugh at the same time.

Ehh, I almost regret picking up the now-discontinued Vibrant when I did (end of October 2010)... almost.

Then again, I was switching from prepaid.

Crud. I've been using T-Mobile's prepaid plan for years. Plus, I've heard pretty much universally bad things about AT&T as a phone company. This could be very irritating for me.

And am I just behind the times with this "4G" thing? How long was 3G out? Just feels like it passed pretty quickly for how much hype it was getting.

Well I think they're exaggerating with the whole dropped call thing, or does that just apply to the Iphone? My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

Go 2 Hell wrote:My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

Pretty much every major carrier has rate plans for data, so I'm not sure what you're going on about.

Fuck, I just switched *away* from AT&T the year before last year . Granted, that was to get a G1, and android is now available (in gimped form).

General Zod wrote:

Go 2 Hell wrote:My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

Pretty much every major carrier has rate plans for data, so I'm not sure what you're going on about.

AFAIK, they haven't actually done so yet. Most will cap you after a point (I believe Sprint 4g is truly unlimited), although it is reasonably high. AT&T has the lowest cap at 2GB which is very easy to burn through, and they will bill you for another 2GB of data if you go over the limit. T-Mobile's limit is 5GB, and no overages, just throttling. This will do bad things to competition now that there will be only one GSM provider (albeit on incompatible 3g frequencies).

The thing that concerns me is that T-Mobile was the only provider allowing one to opt-out of the phone subsidy bullshit in exchange for lower rates :/ . I really dislike contracts, and if one tends to get brand-new phones on launch day, it's cheaper over the long run on T-Mobile than to go the subsidized route - this allows one to get phones like the Nexus which will never be carrier-subsidized by AT&T due to it allowing features unwanted by the carrier, w/o wasting the subsidy.

Oh, and the unofficial tolerance for limited tethering will probably go away too . And mandatory data plans even if you have fully paid off the phone will probably come. And AT&T&T probably won't unlock phones after 90 days (although that won't matter due to only one GSM provider in the US! ). AT&T&T will probably kill side-loading on Android too. I could go on forever about AT&T's customer hostile bullshit And of course rate hikes.

If this goes through I might possibly jump ship to Verizon or Sprint. If I'm going to pay a premium, might as well pay for more reliable service.

Edward Yee wrote:Ehh, I almost regret picking up the now-discontinued Vibrant when I did (end of October 2010)... almost.

Then again, I was switching from prepaid.

Warned you about the crappyness of the Vibrant

Pu-239 wrote:

General Zod wrote:

Go 2 Hell wrote:My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

Pretty much every major carrier has rate plans for data, so I'm not sure what you're going on about.

AFAIK, they haven't actually done so yet. Most will cap you after a point (I believe Sprint 4g is truly unlimited), although it is reasonably high. AT&T has the lowest cap at 2GB which is very easy to burn through, and they will bill you for another 2GB of data if you go over the limit. T-Mobile's limit is 5GB, and no overages, just throttling. This will do bad things to competition now that there will be only one GSM provider (albeit on incompatible 3g frequencies).

I haven't been able to burn through my cap on AT&T yet, but admittedly I don't use tethering or anything absurd.

Pu-239 wrote:

Edward Yee wrote:Ehh, I almost regret picking up the now-discontinued Vibrant when I did (end of October 2010)... almost.

Warned you about the crappyness of the Vibrant

Ehh, I don't find it "crappy"... just the sort of thing I would have waited a few months for to bypass in favor of the Galaxy S 4G (which my assistant manager has). Then again, a T-Mobile rep told me not to bother with the Galaxy S 4G since I already had most of the perks of it anyway, and I'd just physically modify the Vibrant to support a front-facing camera (FFC) if that feature was ever actually that important*.

If I had to switch it'd most likely be to Sprint -- forget Verizon pricing (I think around $140/month after taxes for what I'm doing around $90/month with T-Mobile?).

* It's not, considering how few people I know that could video chat -- only four familiar friends with smartphones at all, much less FFC-equipped ones (they're all using the Vibrant too).

Edward Yee wrote:

Pu-239 wrote:

Edward Yee wrote:Ehh, I almost regret picking up the now-discontinued Vibrant when I did (end of October 2010)... almost.

Warned you about the crappyness of the Vibrant

Ehh, I don't find it "crappy"... just the sort of thing I would have waited a few months for to bypass in favor of the Galaxy S 4G (which my assistant manager has). Then again, a T-Mobile rep told me not to bother with the Galaxy S 4G since I already had most of the perks of it anyway, and I'd just physically modify the Vibrant to support a front-facing camera (FFC) if that feature was ever actually that important*.

If I had to switch it'd most likely be to Sprint -- forget Verizon pricing (I think around $140/month after taxes for what I'm doing around $90/month with T-Mobile?).

* It's not, considering how few people I know that could video chat -- only four familiar friends with smartphones at all, much less FFC-equipped ones (they're all using the Vibrant too).

*Shrug* I just kinda hate my sister's vibrant software-wise - Touchwiz is the worst thing ever. I guess one's mileage may vary.


Sprint would be a consideration, but their financial shape isn't that great either. And I've heard terrible things about their customer service.

Right now I'm paying 109$/month for 3 lines, 2 w/ data on contractless EMP - do grandfathered plans tend to stick even when off-contract?

Pu-239 wrote:Sprint would be a consideration, but their financial shape isn't that great either. And I've heard terrible things about their customer service.

Their customer service is all off-shore. Talking to a Sprint customer service rep is frequently an exercise in whether or not you can restrain yourself from threatening to kill the rep and all their descendants down to the tenth generation (factors contributing to self-restraint include the fact that the customer service rep might not actually understand English well enough to understand that you are threatening them.) As a result, Sprint is notorious for user churn. Which is a shame, because their 4G plan is the only plan that is reasonable.

General Zod wrote:

Go 2 Hell wrote:My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

Pretty much every major carrier has rate plans for data, so I'm not sure what you're going on about.

Other carriers also offer real unlimited plans (Like Sprint and Verizon) rather than stick a 10 gig cap on the plan and call it unlimited.
AT&T's network is fine for most things but their major problem is if something goes wrong as they have at present only three US call centers one of which is their Tier 2 shop in Michigan and one standard Tier 1 center in Ohio and California. There other seven call centers are spread around the Philippines and is understaffed by manages meaning if you call and you don't convince them to transfer you to Tier 2 in Michigan your stuck dealing with script reading people who could care less, or script reading people who don't happen to speak much English. (AT&T unlike Verizon or Sprint have gone 100% outsourcing for their Tech support calls for wireless, it's why their service is so terrible because companies get an AT&T contract to provide phone back support and then lose it a year later when another contractor underbids them and they jump ship,it means lots of re-training and the fact anyone you speak to with the except of the rare Tier 2 or Manager will have less than two years experience at best)

Sprint and Verizon maintain around a 40/60 or 65/35 split between corporate call centers and for hire call centers. AT&T it's 5/95

*Edit
@ GrandMasterTerwynn
Sprint does have three American call centers in Kentucky, Florida and Washington State, don't know where their Tier 2 place is but they do have American centers you can still get to.

Well, so long to my pre-paid sim card i have on my unlocked 3GS. I assume after a year is up and they expire, I won't be able to refill them. Looks like its back to having a pre-paid dumb phone; I'm certainly not getting locked into any long term contracts with ridiculous data rates.

I'm really glad I jumped the AT&T shark to Verizon. I didn't really seriously consider T-Mobile, although it was cheaper, as Verizon's service is light years better here on Long Island than either AT&T or T-Mobile. Now I'm *really* glad I didn't. AT&T's service is godfuckinawful. I may pay a little more for Verizon, but they've been nothing but pleasant and helpful with me so far.

Fuck.... so there's going to be just one GSM telco in the future? WTF??? Fuck monopoly.

Cecelia5578 wrote:Well, so long to my pre-paid sim card i have on my unlocked 3GS. I assume after a year is up and they expire, I won't be able to refill them. Looks like its back to having a pre-paid dumb phone; I'm certainly not getting locked into any long term contracts with ridiculous data rates.

That's right. According to AT&T T-Mobile customers with 3G phones will have to have them replaced with AT&T 3G phones.

I should've been clearer-I have a 3GS unlocked with a T Mobile pre paid sim card that only offers voice, not data plans. How will this affect me?

Cecelia5578 wrote:I should've been clearer-I have a 3GS unlocked with a T Mobile pre paid sim card that only offers voice, not data plans. How will this affect me?

In theory T-Mobile is going to remain independently operated. In practice I'd say you've got a few more months til you can begin panicking.

My guess has been that, since my minutes are prepaid till next year, (and the news reports have been saying that even if it's approved it'll probably take that long to get things moving) I'm good until then. The voice for both AT&T and tmobile are both gsm, right? The question then becomes what happens to tmobile's prepaid plans.

Cecelia5578 wrote:My guess has been that, since my minutes are prepaid till next year, (and the news reports have been saying that even if it's approved it'll probably take that long to get things moving) I'm good until then. The voice for both AT&T and tmobile are both gsm, right? The question then becomes what happens to tmobile's prepaid plans.

It's all GSM, only T-Mobile uses a weird 3G data band that no one else on Earth uses. The voice band is the same for GSM globally, and that lets you get 2G data (which you don't use). I strongly recommend against Verizon, after they tried to renew the contract for my dead grandmother - after getting a certified copy of the death certificate.

TimothyC wrote:

Cecelia5578 wrote:My guess has been that, since my minutes are prepaid till next year, (and the news reports have been saying that even if it's approved it'll probably take that long to get things moving) I'm good until then. The voice for both AT&T and tmobile are both gsm, right? The question then becomes what happens to tmobile's prepaid plans.

It's all GSM, only T-Mobile uses a weird 3G data band that no one else on Earth uses. The voice band is the same for GSM globally, and that lets you get 2G data (which you don't use). I strongly recommend against Verizon, after they tried to renew the contract for my dead grandmother - after getting a certified copy of the death certificate.

Minor quibble- Wind Mobile in Canada uses the same 3g spectrum.

Go 2 Hell wrote:Well I think they're exaggerating with the whole dropped call thing, or does that just apply to the Iphone? My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

YMMV of course, but I have daily dropped calls with AT&T for several months. It gets to the point where if it's one AT&T phone to another we call, test with one or two words, then disconnect and reconnect because it didn't make a proper connection

AMT wrote:

Go 2 Hell wrote:Well I think they're exaggerating with the whole dropped call thing, or does that just apply to the Iphone? My only beef with AT&T is that they charge for the amount of data you can use for a month. $15 for 200MB a month and $25 for 2GB.

YMMV of course, but I have daily dropped calls with AT&T for several months. It gets to the point where if it's one AT&T phone to another we call, test with one or two words, then disconnect and reconnect because it didn't make a proper connection

I've never experienced dropped calls but I've had plenty of problems getting a good signal in my apartment (very annoying). Fortunately I don't actually talk on the phone much so it's a minor issue for me.

General Zod wrote:
I've never experienced dropped calls but I've had plenty of problems getting a good signal in my apartment (very annoying). Fortunately I don't actually talk on the phone much so it's a minor issue for me.

Translation:I don't use my phone to make phone calls therefor it's not a problem that AT&T's phone service is so shitty.
AT&T's real problem is the way they have set out there networks in most non-major cities is not based on any sort of planning towards maintaining 3-4 bars no matter where you are but they keep going till the calls start dropping then go five miles more and build a tower. This ensures many deadzones and large segments of the user base constantly being in a one or two bar area that ensures even someone walking between you and the tower or changing rooms is enough to drop the call. Using an AT&T phone in DC I there are two dozen places where I had to basically trianglate where the nearest tower was by moving around till I found the spot with 1 bars would become one bars and occasional two bars then face that direction with my phone in order to maintain good connection.