GSM networks in California

[Ararat]

Hi all,

I'm about to head to the US for the first time to visit family, and I just checked out the roaming rates from my mobile phone carrier (needless to say, I would rather be cut off from the world than pay those rates).

My relatives over there are with Verizon, but that's out of the question on my phone, as they're a CDMA carrier, so I'm left with either AT&T or T-Mobile, and I'm wondering which is better both in terms of value, and coverage.

I will be mainly in Burbank and Reseda (which I believe is a suburb of Los Angeles). I suspect I will be visiting some tourist attractions, but not going anywhere rural. I don't need astronomical speeds, just relatively reliable service.

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S2 (international version), and I will be using it to make the occasional call (to let ppl know where I am etc), but also as a mobile hotspot for my notebook and tablet (I have heard from my cousin that in the US providers charge an extra fee to allow this, which sounds absurd to me, is it true? and how exactly do they plan to stop me if I don't pay the fee?).

Any input would be appreciated. (I'm mainly looking at pre-paid options as I will only be there for 12 days).

 

[hans007]

at&t is quite good in los angeles. and his awful in the bay area / San Francisco. you are going to be in la so either should be fine. if you want data though T-Mobile uses 3g bands that won't work on most euro GSM phones like yours.

you'll want at&t. you'll will have to pay for the hot spot though you might be able to get around it if you root and tether with an app. though I've heard the carriers are using packet inspection or something to stop this... I had a rooted and modded cdma phone and Verizon seemed to cut off my tether attempts after 3-4 min when I tried it ...

 

[ponyo]

You won't have a problem tethering. You have the international Galaxy SII with the built-in tethering and AT&T doesn't have your phone IMEI in their database. So don't pay for a tethering plan. You can tether for free.

 

[pm]

First off, the US cell phone market doesn't work like a lot of the rest of the world. By international standards, it's expensive and the amount of prepaid options is very limited.

If you use T-Mobile prepaid, you will be stuck on EDGE (~100kb/s). But you can walk into a T-Mobile store or one of the larger stores like Walmart or Target, get a prepaid SIM from T-Mobile, tether all you want, and it will cost about $24 for 12 days.
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-by-the-day-cell-phone-plans

For AT&T. You can use their GoPhone prepaid system and, as ponyo said, you aren't in their IMEI database as a smartphone so you can do what you want. Go into an AT&T store or Walmart or Target, buy a SIM and do their prepaid system and sign up for their plan. Since you aren't in the IMEI database, you shouldn't have to worry about tethering issues - but to answer your quesiton, what they do is send you a text message telling you that you are using a feature that you need to pay more for, and then automatically sign you up for it, and if you don't have the amount of money in the prepaid account to pay for it, it shuts off your cell phone access. But again, you should be ok. I think you can do the $0.10/min plan, and then get a 500MB data package for $25 and the whole thing should be around $30.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-pho...1&WT.svl=title

 

[Ararat]

Alright, thanks guys. Looks like AT&T it is.

$25 for 500MB seems an astronomical amount, but I am only paying for it once, so I can't complain.

Appreciate the assistance.

 

[pm]

Alright, thanks guys. Looks like AT&T it is.

$25 for 500MB seems an astronomical amount, but I am only paying for it once, so I can't complain.

Appreciate the assistance.

You can complain... Anyone in the US who has seen how it works elsewhere will sympathize with you.

 

[Ararat]

You can complain... Anyone in the US who has seen how it works elsewhere will sympathize with you.

I would have thought you guys would have it better than we do in Australia, due to having a higher population density, and having 4 major carriers (vs our 3).

But I am told that you have to pay upfront fees for a new phone even when you sign a new contract, and that receiving calls/messages costs YOU as well as the person sending it?

 

[pm]

I would have thought you guys would have it better than we do in Australia, due to having a higher population density, and having 4 major carriers (vs our 3).

But I am told that you have to pay upfront fees for a new phone even when you sign a new contract, and that receiving calls/messages costs YOU as well as the person sending it?

Yes, and yes. Actually, the first isn't totally true. You can get "free" contract phones, but for a lot of them, yeah, you pay a lot upfront. Like the Nexus Galaxy from Verizon right now is USD$300 subsidized... USD$300 upfront to get locked into a 2 year contract... what a deal.

When I was last in Australia I thought the cell phone situation was pretty good - it's certainly a step up from the US. I think we used Telestra, and I was pretty happy. The US and Canada both have crazy expensive systems. And, yeah, you'd think "this is the US, cell phones were invented here, if anyone would have a great, cheap, vibrant cell phone market, the US will" and then you get here and discover that it's really expensive, and fair bit less flexible than in lots of other countries and wonder what went wrong.

 

[ImDonly1]

I would have thought you guys would have it better than we do in Australia, due to having a higher population density, and having 4 major carriers (vs our 3).

But I am told that you have to pay upfront fees for a new phone even when you sign a new contract, and that receiving calls/messages costs YOU as well as the person sending it?

You can prepaid providers that use the ATT network like Jolt Wireless and Red Pocket. Google for their website address. I think they offer unlimited talk, text, and 250 MB of data for $50? All you need is a SIM card, which you can order now. I think you can even get one on eBay for $1.

Not sure how much the prepaid ATT plan you are looking at is.

 

[Ararat]

When I was last in Australia I thought the cell phone situation was pretty good - it's certainly a step up from the US. I think we used Telestra, and I was pretty happy. The US and Canada both have crazy expensive systems.

Funny, most here consider Telstra to be crazy expensive at about ~2x the cost of other carriers. But then, they do have the best network (not a big deal in cities, but if you go to the outback 1000km's from another human being, Telstra is your only option).

I think I'm looking at the $3/day unlimited option from t-mobile (with 400MB/day data), or AT&T's $25 plan + $25 data plan (either directly from AT&T or from one of their prepaid partners.

 

[ew915]

If you are not crazy about voice tmo has the $30/month plan with 5Gb of data and 100 min along with unlimited txt. You can use data for voice so not a big deal.

 

[Madwand1]

I think I'm looking at the $3/day unlimited option from t-mobile (with 400MB/day data)

I think you'll get 2G speeds only on T-Mobile, as they need AWS 1700 for 3G. So you should spend at most $2/day + setup, or go with another provider.

 

[Rottie]

Reseda area where I am at now has the worse AT&T coverage!! I was told that Reseda area has a better with Verzion!

Anyway enjoy your vacation here!

 

[hans007]

Reseda area where I am at now has the worse AT&T coverage!! I was told that Reseda area has a better with Verzion!

Anyway enjoy your vacation here!

granted all the carriers are relatively expensive in america.

but you do get what you pay for in this case at least relatively.

i've had virgin mobile, t-mobile and verizon in the last year or so. and verizon is light years!!!!! better than those other 2. at&t might actually be the worst which is why i never even bothered with them (in LA i guess at&T is ok, but in the bay area it is by far the most god awful carrier).

i suppose for me, verizon is the least of the evils seeing as their service actually works. i was in SF the other day and it even works in the subway / light rail everywhere. you can barely use t-mobile in the bay in a car , let alone a subway.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

shrug. i dont really get many congestion issues on AT&T anymore in the SF Bay Area.

The fact that you can't get reception in the subway is characteristic of many places like NYC as well. It's a testament to America's backwardass cell phone networks. I've been using 3G data in Taiwan since my first smartphone in 2008. That's just how bad this country is. Anyway, it's not really an AT&T issue because no one gets cell reception on BART when underground. I believe a few stations like Oakland and stuff get reception, but otherwise... tough luck.

AT&T has a lot of reception issues in the sense that the signal gets low in some places, but overall the congestion/lag/whatever comes with cell networks is comparable to what I see in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

[hans007]

Reseda area where I am at now has the worse AT&T coverage!! I was told that Reseda area has a better with Verzion!

Anyway enjoy your vacation here!

shrug. i dont really get many congestion issues on AT&T anymore in the SF Bay Area.

The fact that you can't get reception in the subway is characteristic of many places like NYC as well. It's a testament to America's backwardass cell phone networks. I've been using 3G data in Taiwan since my first smartphone in 2008. That's just how bad this country is. Anyway, it's not really an AT&T issue because no one gets cell reception on BART when underground. I believe a few stations like Oakland and stuff get reception, but otherwise... tough luck.

AT&T has a lot of reception issues in the sense that the signal gets low in some places, but overall the congestion/lag/whatever comes with cell networks is comparable to what I see in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

i guess it depends on where in SF. if you are in the actual city at&t has some really really bad spots. was there last weekend, and my friend was getting 0 reception in a lot of areas, couldn't even get calls or texts let alone data on a 4S. that rarely happens with verizon unless we are in a basement. then again SF city is one of the worst case scenarios for at&t. at&t seems ok in the silicon valley area at least.

 

[Ararat]

Interesting...

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/12/unlo...ing-on-t-mobiles-3g-network-its-true-sort-of/

Too recent to expect to see it, and EDGE is too slow to take the chance. My phone supports 3G on 850/900/1900/2100MHz bands, but not 1700MHz. T-Mobile does apparently have a 1900MHz band, but not everywhere.

For those discussing Verizon, that's all well and good, but I CAN'T use it on my own equipment (as I suspect is true of almost anyone visiting the US). Our last CDMA network shut down over 5 years ago, and I suspect it would have been more of a hassle to connect to such a network (as opposed to just popping in a SIM).

 

[Ararat]

The fact that you can't get reception in the subway is characteristic of many places like NYC as well. It's a testament to America's backwardass cell phone networks. I've been using 3G data in Taiwan since my first smartphone in 2008. That's just how bad this country is. Anyway, it's not really an AT&T issue because no one gets cell reception on BART when underground. I believe a few stations like Oakland and stuff get reception, but otherwise... tough luck.

I'm amazed that those countries can get reception in the subway... shows what technology can do. We can get reception just fine in our subway stations, but on the train itself between subway stations... good luck.

 

[Ararat]

If I'm reading it correctly, according to this map here:

http://specmap.sequence-omega.net/

T-mobile does have a 1900MHz network operational in the LA area. I think my best bet is to walk into a T-Mobile store, and ask 'can i stick a SIM into my phone to see if I can get 3G reception on it'.

Otherwise, I'm off to AT&T.

 

[hans007]

shrug. i dont really get many congestion issues on AT&T anymore in the SF Bay Area.

The fact that you can't get reception in the subway is characteristic of many places like NYC as well. It's a testament to America's backwardass cell phone networks. I've been using 3G data in Taiwan since my first smartphone in 2008. That's just how bad this country is. Anyway, it's not really an AT&T issue because no one gets cell reception on BART when underground. I believe a few stations like Oakland and stuff get reception, but otherwise... tough luck.

AT&T has a lot of reception issues in the sense that the signal gets low in some places, but overall the congestion/lag/whatever comes with cell networks is comparable to what I see in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Bart added Verizon reception last year. works system wide now even underground.