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

bpeeps said:

What app is that in the screenshot?

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It's called DataMonitor. It's a jailbreak app available in the Big Boss repo.

The version I am using is iOS 6/7, but they might have updated it to iOS 8 by now.

The screenshots below are different because I'm using Eclipse on my iPhone (another JB tweak) and it turns my UI dark.

Truefan31 said:

I'm kinda mixed on this. I have unlimited data on T-Mobile (and att on my iPad). I still have fios at home though and use wifi. Sometimes you need wifi to download large files on iOS devices. My home is 75/75 with low pings. Great for downloading things off moviebox or streaming hd.

In public though I generally avoid wifi unless I'm not getting good reception. It's a privacy thing to me also.

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Yeah, I'm not using my phone for anything serious, but I just expect to have the service I'm paying for.

For any serious stuff I'm using my Macs. And as much as I can outside my home (with work being an exception right now) I stay on cellular.

Bearxor said:

I'm sick and tired of hearing that. You do not need to live "in the sticks" to have bad cell phone service.

I live in a large Charlotte suburb and I can't get anything except EDGE at my house on TMobile. And I certianly couldn't drive to Myrtle Beach and maintain HSPA service. TMobile has a lot of work still to do but hopefully, by the end of next year, they'll have the entire network footprint in LTE.

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EDIT: Never mind, I thought you said by the end of this year.

Bearxor said:

I'm sick and tired of hearing that. You do not need to live "in the sticks" to have bad cell phone service.

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You interpretation of my post is not what I meant. I wasn't suggesting TMO works great everywhere but rural areas. We all know that is not the case.

I was referencing the "choose Verizon over any others" position. There's a distinct, albeit perhaps subtle, difference.

I personally see no need to pay an extra $1000+/yr to Verizon to have LTE in Montana or various other rural areas that I will likely never find myself in or might only drive through once a year. $1000 isn't worth it to be able update Facebook on a skiing trip once a year for me. For those that have no other choice, I understand. However for me there's no point in paying extra to look at the pretty red map of the US when the majority of my time in spent in one region of the country (or flying when I travel out West).

Nor do I feel like monitoring data usage, being afraid to use my iPhone as intended, hunting down Wi-Fi hotspots, or paying massive overages. This is what Verizon offers for me and it's not worth the cost.

I dropped them like a bad habit last year and went back to T-Mobile. The unlimited data is great. I can use my iPhone as I please and never have to worry about turning off cellular data to conserve data (that's always been funny to me as if cellular data is water or electricity or something), chasing down unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots, or other random silliness. My bill is a set price each month since there are no risks of data overages and it's all a fraction of what I was paying Verizon.

It's always interesting to see Verizon tout high speed tests or adding capacity such as AWS and now PCS to increase their LTE speeds when their data plans are too limited to even get much usage out of it without paying ridiculous prices. Just running those speed tests alone eats huge chunks into users limited data plans. Higher speeds in the race to overages. It's contradictory. If it were really about bandwidth or "keeping the network from being bogged down" then Verizon (and AT&T) could throttle their users after reaching their limits rather than charge an overage. To me Verizon offers little value. I can think of better uses of that extra $1000+ each year.

deeddawg said:

You interpretation of my post is not what I meant. I wasn't suggesting TMO works great everywhere but rural areas. We all know that is not the case.

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then you really need to rephrase that because, otherwise, I don't know how to interpret things like "if you spend a lot of your time out in the sticks" and "it's foolish to pay a bunch extra for coverage in places someone never goes".

Your post makes it sound like TMo provides good coverage in most urban and suburban areas. And that's simply not in the case. I live in a city of 70,000 people that's like half covered by LTE and maybe 3/4 covered by HSPA. I just happen to live near the edge where it's right on that line of HSPA/EDGE. I can pull out of my neighborhood and go left and get LTE in a mile. I can go right and get EDGE in a mile. Thy still have a lot of work to do. Honestly, if I could just get HSPA everywhere i go I would switch to TMobile. I don't get LTE everywhere with AT&T. In fact, my entire "home areas" is HSPA+ on AT&T because the towers aren't owned by AT&T and someone else is in charge of updating them. But that's the difference. My entire home area is at LEAST HSPA+ on AT&T.

Either that or you and I have very different ideas of what "in the sticks" really means.

eyoungren said:

It's called DataMonitor. It's a jailbreak app available in the Big Boss repo.

The version I am using is iOS 6/7, but they might have updated it to iOS 8 by now.

The screenshots below are different because I'm using Eclipse on my iPhone (another JB tweak) and it turns my UI dark.

Click to expand...

Aw crap, I gotta JB to get it. I usually JB my iPad, but don't bother with the iPhone anymore. Thanks for the info.

Bearxor said:

then you really need to rephrase that

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No, it's perfectly clear in the context of the post to which I replied.

You're taking my words out of context and applying them to something else.

Take a step back and consider that I was replying to someone claiming Verizon is the only logical choice of carrier. In that context my response is very clear and perfectly comprehensible.

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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By having "truly unlimited" LTE data with Sprint?

deeddawg said:

No, it's perfectly clear in the context of the post to which I replied.

You're taking my words out of context and applying them to something else.

Take a step back and consider that I was replying to someone claiming Verizon is the only logical choice of carrier. In that context my response is very clear and perfectly comprehensible.

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Ok, I don't want to take someone out of context and I want to give everyone a fair shake. So here's the complete original post you replied to.

Apple Trees said:

I prefer having LTE over EDGE and GPRS on my iPhone so that's why I'm on Verizon with unlimited LTE data. T-Mobile barely even qualifies as a national 4G data carrier with all that 2G between cities. Unlimited EDGE for cheap or pay more for reliable LTE? I'll take reliability.

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So, what I don't see in the post is a mention of spending "a lot of time out in the sticks".

To me, it seems like you're only willing to acknowledge Verizon as an acceptable alternative carrier provide you only "spend a lot of time out in the sticks" for which the person you've quoted gave no indication that it was the case. At least within the confines of this thread.

deeddawg said:

If you spend a lot of your time out in the sticks then that can makes sense.

On the other hand it's foolish to pay a bunch extra for coverage in places someone never goes.

Just curious, do you work for Verizon? The content of your posts makes it seem that way given the hyperbole and tendency to jump into non-Verizon threads with recommendation for Verizon. Just saying what it looks like from here.

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Not in the sticks, just occasionally travel around the southeastern united states and Texas mainly. T-Mobile and AT&T just don't get the job done when it comes to reliability. Sprint is so pathetic that I wouldn't even use it if they payed me.

I guess the other guys are decent if you're mostly confined to your home urban area.

Haha no I do not work for Verizon. I've just used the other carriers extensively enough to know which ones are good and which ones aren't. I could never get by in this day and age seeing EDGE GPRS or 1x on my phone. I haven't even seen 3g in over a year except for a trip to the mountains over the summer. Its all blazing fast LTE anything less than at least 3G is absolutely unacceptable in 2014. We are paying tons of money to these carriers every year and Verizon is the only one that has proven to be worth it. Always pouring tons of money into their network while carriers like Sprint twiddled their thumbs for years.

I gave up my unlimited on Verizon a couple months a go and went with the double offer from AT&T with the 15->30GB plan. Me, my wife and stepson share it. I'm certainly the heaviest user of the family. Looking at my past usage I rarely went over 10GB's and averaged 5-8. My wife and stepson average around a gig combined. Since I switched from Spotify to Beats that has went down since the quality is a bit lower. Wifi at home but cellular data everywhere else. Overtime I'm sure the usage will grow. I have a mifi in my work car that I can use but currently don't since it's Alltel. Within a couple months it'll be AT&T so if my usage does increase I can use it to cancel that out.

T-Mobile has pretty poor coverage in my area so that's pretty useless to me but it is a good deal.

scaredpoet said:

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.

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I'm on T-Mobile for the past week. I was able to get by prior but I felt that I was limiting everything I did. Feels good you just be able to use the phone now.