For Data, How do you get by without being on T-Mobile?

I'm on T-Mobile now, but I didn't fare too bad on AT&T. I had a lot of Wifi at work and at home though. I was able to keep it uner 5GB every month.

nouveau-apple said:

T-Mobile appears to be the only carrier with unlimited LTE. Everyone else caps you or has you paying too much, but they also don't offer unlimited. My first month on T-Mobile I used 20GB. The month wasn't even up yet. And that was just me using it casually.

So then I started thinking, why was I ever on ATT? It only offers like 5GB. They seem to divvy it out. :/ ?

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My current usage pattern is 4 - 5GB per month. I am not going out of my way to use more data to just prove a point. AT&T's unlimited (5GB) is the best bang for my buck now, not enough gradient for me to move. Now if T-Mobile offered true unlimited for $10 - $15; that would be something.

I don't know how you manage to use so much data on an iPad.

But anyway, I could add my iPad to my 20 GB mobile share plan if I needed more than 5GB.

It really depends on the usage. With a family mobile share plan we can get away with just 10GB per month as I am the only power user and I don't stream much media. I used to have unlimited but rarely went over 5gb so I just decided to drop it in order to save more money per month.

Unlimited LTE means nothing without coverage so that's why I'm not a T-Mobile customer. I have a plan with 20GB with two lines and it's $110 with a FAN discount so don't feel sorry for me. You get what you pay for.

nouveau-apple said:

T-Mobile appears to be the only carrier with unlimited LTE. Everyone else caps you or has you paying too much, but they also don't offer unlimited. My first month on T-Mobile I used 20GB. The month wasn't even up yet. And that was just me using it casually.

So then I started thinking, why was I ever on ATT? It only offers like 5GB. They seem to divvy it out. :/ ?

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Do me a favor and do not mention what you just said to Sprint! I wouldn't want to be forced off my UD plan that I have had for the last six years!

Oh wait…Sprint still has UD!

I have 10+1GB promo (VZW MOE)... shared among four lines... we never seem to use it up. My quarter is usually under 1GB. WIFI certainly helps.

nouveau-apple said:

T-Mobile appears to be the only carrier with unlimited LTE. Everyone else caps you or has you paying too much, but they also don't offer unlimited. My first month on T-Mobile I used 20GB. The month wasn't even up yet. And that was just me using it casually.

So then I started thinking, why was I ever on ATT? It only offers like 5GB. They seem to divvy it out. :/ ?

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If you have already use 20Gb you are not a casual user.

I prefer ATT because having a good signal and coverage everywhere I go is more important than unlimited data. I use between 3-7GB a month and ATT has never throttled me. 20 Gb?, no way I could use that much, nor even want to try. If you think you are casual, what do you consider heavy?

Newtons Apple said:

If you have already use 20Gb you are not a casual user.

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I would argue instead that you simply aren't a Sprint customer.

I know people who have Sprint unlimited data and use their phones for their home ISPs. I know people that routinely pull down over 150GB a month. Sprint's never had any issue with that.

Before Network Vision my wife and I routinely pulled down 10-15GB per month and that was simple phone use and not tethering or streaming movies.

But we leave our phones on 24/7 and don't worry about anything on our phones that calls out for data. We've never had to worry about it.

eyoungren said:

I would argue instead that you simply aren't a Sprint customer.

I know people who have Sprint unlimited data and use their phones for their home ISPs. I know people that routinely pull down over 150GB a month. Sprint's never had any issue with that.

Before Network Vision my wife and I routinely pulled down 10-15GB per month and that was simple phone use and not tethering or streaming movies.

But we leave our phones on 24/7 and don't worry about anything on our phones that calls out for data. We've never had to worry about it.

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Out of all the carriers, Sprint is the only one with the downside that the moment you get a call your whole data connection will drop.

Me being a big multitasker, I require voice and data simultaneously, and sometimes when ordering something over the phone, you need to check your e-mail to verify the order without having to hang up the phone.

For those that are lucky enough to live in an area with good Sprint coverage and use it as their Internet, I can imagine it would be of great annoyance to constantly have your internet completely disconnect on you the moment you get a call.

eyoungren said:

I would argue instead that you simply aren't a Sprint customer.

I know people who have Sprint unlimited data and use their phones for their home ISPs. I know people that routinely pull down over 150GB a month. Sprint's never had any issue with that.

Before Network Vision my wife and I routinely pulled down 10-15GB per month and that was simple phone use and not tethering or streaming movies.

But we leave our phones on 24/7 and don't worry about anything on our phones that calls out for data. We've never had to worry about it.

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I have never had to worry either.

Given up on a Blackberry?

ag29 said:

Out of all the carriers, Sprint is the only one with the downside that the moment you get a call your whole data connection will drop.

Me being a big multitasker, I require voice and data simultaneously, and sometimes when ordering something over the phone, you need to check your e-mail to verify the order without having to hang up the phone.

For those that are lucky enough to live in an area with good Sprint coverage and use it as their Internet, I can imagine it would be of great annoyance to constantly have your internet completely disconnect on you the moment you get a call.

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Yeah, I get that. That's a CDMA limitation. Verizon has managed to work around it, but Sprint still has a ways to go.

Even Spark enabled phones can't do it yet.

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Newtons Apple said:

Given up on a Blackberry?

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Sorry, that one went over my head. If we had a discussion on Blackberrys, can you remind me of what we were talking about?

I primarily use WiFi at home.

nouveau-apple said:

T-Mobile appears to be the only carrier with unlimited LTE. Everyone else caps you or has you paying too much, but they also don't offer unlimited. My first month on T-Mobile I used 20GB. The month wasn't even up yet. And that was just me using it casually.

So then I started thinking, why was I ever on ATT? It only offers like 5GB. They seem to divvy it out. :/ ?

Click to expand...

How is it possible to use 20 GB in 1 month?? I have trouble using 200 MB, but then again I don't waste time on my phone. I have a full-time job, wife, and kids, and prefer spending my time with them, not playing on my phone.

SHirsch999 said:

How is it possible to use 20 GB in 1 month?? I have trouble using 200 MB, but then again I don't waste time on my phone. I have a full-time job, wife, and kids, and prefer spending my time with them, not playing on my phone.

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Here's my usage so far this month. Note that most of it's on WiFi because Sprint's coverage is crap.

This is without tethering or streaming video. Just normal use.

One particular offender I can think of is that I have three different apps/tweaks (my iPhone is jailbroken) grabbing data every 15 minutes. That happens whether I am handling my phone or not and I'm not handling my phone overmuch because like you I have a full time job, a wife and kids.

But, I also have plenty more apps that call out for data at various intervals too, Mail being one of them (over eight email accounts). And my phone is on 24/7.

It's relatively easy to use 20GB in one month:

- Steaming music ( Internet radio, Spotify, Pandora, etc. )
- Occasional video ( Youtube, Netflix, live stream )
- Sharing images / videos ( Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, iMessages etc. )
- Browsing image heavy sites, for example the Zite or Flipboard app
- Downloading apps or app data
- Tethering

I'm on a 200MB plan and I get by fine. Mostly use Wifi at home and at my university. I'm not a very heavy user of multimedia/social networking though so that also contributes to my minimal data use. The only reason why I'm still on 200MB is because it still costs less than the mobile share plans offered by AT&T (for my family at least).

hharzer said:

It's relatively easy to use 20GB in one month:

- Steaming music ( Internet radio, Spotify, Pandora, etc. )
- Occasional video ( Youtube, Netflix, live stream )
- Sharing images / videos ( Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, iMessages etc. )
- Browsing image heavy sites, for example the Zite or Flipboard app
- Downloading apps or app data
- Tethering

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Sure but where are you where there's absolutely no WiFi to do all of this? The most data I use on a regular basis is streaming music while I'm driving.

I mean I -have- used 15+ GB of data, but I was really trying to do so, basically using as much data as I could wherever I could.

As for the OP, I have a better question: for Data, how do you get by not having coverage in anywhere but major cities? See, different people have different conditions.

Tmo music unlimited is awesome.

SomeGuyDude said:

Sure but where are you where there's absolutely no WiFi to do all of this?

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I never understand this question. Maybe it's because I've had unlimited data for so long.

Why would you use WiFi if you have and are paying for unlimited data?

eyoungren said:

I never understand this question. Maybe it's because I've had unlimited data for so long.

Why would you use WiFi if you have and are paying for unlimited data?

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What you're missing is that your data plan isn't somehow giving you an advantage if you're using it in places that have an alternate connection available that DOESN'T require being on a service with an exceptionally small coverage area.

What benefit does the unlimited data plan have for me when I'm only using it in places where I had an internet connection anyway? Like... okay, so you're on LTE and I'm on WiFi, we're both accomplishing the same task and I have plenty of data to use when I'm not able to use said WiFi.

Would I prefer T-mo and its unlimited data? Obviously. Extra flexibility is always preferable, but given that I'm in Northeast PA working in tons of areas with absolutely zero signal, it's not exactly helpful.

That's the T-Mo/AT&T conundrum: do you go with limited access to full coverage or full access to limited coverage?

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techiebug said:

Tmo music unlimited is awesome.

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The funny thing is when T-Mo introduced that (when I used them) I immediately dropped my data plan to 3GB. Almost ALL of my LTE usage is music.

ssl0408 said:

Unlimited LTE means nothing without coverage so that's why I'm not a T-Mobile customer. I have a plan with 20GB with two lines and it's $110 with a FAN discount so don't feel sorry for me. You get what you pay for.

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I agree, although I find that coverage wise, T-Mobile is usually pretty good, it's just that most of their coverage is still 2G that it's unusable for data.

eyoungren said:

I never understand this question. Maybe it's because I've had unlimited data for so long.

Why would you use WiFi if you have and are paying for unlimited data?

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Exactly. I tend to use WiFi at home simple because it's much faster than the 1-2 bars of LTE I get, but I love not having to search for WiFi whenever I go out.

SomeGuyDude said:

What you're missing is that your data plan isn't somehow giving you an advantage if you're using it in places that have an alternate connection available that DOESN'T require being on a service with an exceptionally small coverage area.

What benefit does the unlimited data plan have for me when I'm only using it in places where I had an internet connection anyway? Like... okay, so you're on LTE and I'm on WiFi, we're both accomplishing the same task and I have plenty of data to use when I'm not able to use said WiFi.

Would I prefer T-mo and its unlimited data? Obviously. Extra flexibility is always preferable, but given that I'm in Northeast PA working in tons of areas with absolutely zero signal, it's not exactly helpful.

That's the T-Mo/AT&T conundrum: do you go with limited access to full coverage or full access to limited coverage?

Click to expand...

Coming from a perspective of metered data or throttling at a certain point if you have a UD plan that throttles I can get your point.

Most of my data is on WiFi, but that's not because I choose to use WiFi. It's because Sprint's coverage and speeds suck now. But that was not always the case.

I didn't have to take to WiFi until September 2012. For three and a half years we never had any issues on 3G and despite having WiFi at home and other places we stayed on cellular data.

Right now I pay Sprint $211 a month to use the WiFi I have at home that I ALREADY pay Cox $232 for. I'm not getting what I am paying for.


If I solely used WiFi everywhere and turned off cellular so there was no data use at all when off WiFi then I'd be paying Sprint that much money for what now? Phone calls?

No, I'm paying Sprint for unlimited data (they take $20 a month in premium data fees whether I use data or not anyway), not for the use of paid or free WiFi (such as at Starbucks or work).