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Carrier AIO wireless vs T-mobile Chicagoland

M

mlody

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 11, 2012
1,592
1,220
Windy City
My wife is currently with T-Mobile (been with them for over a decade). She is on un-carrier plan and have basic smartphone line (500MB) for $50, and international package for $10 - after taxes, etc. it comes up to under $75 each month. Her iPhone is the T-Mobile iPhone 5 and since we paid outright, it is already unlocked and ready to be used with any GSM carrier.

The problem is, she is barely cutting with 500MB plan and would like to have more data- at least another 500MB or 1GB. If I bump up the T-Mobile plan to 2.5GB, we would be looking at around $85 bill after taxes, etc.

Instead of dumping more money into T-Mobile, which has very spotty and non-existing in building coverage, I am considering AIO for her. It seems like, for $65, she could have had 2GB of fast data, international calling and domestic unlimited calling and texting.

Is there a catch to this deal? We could be potentially saving $240 a year? How is ATT/AIO coverage compared to T-Mobile in Chicago and suburbs? Has anyone converted from T-Mobile to AIO? Are there any hidden limits or catches? I know we wouldn't be risking much as we have no contract with T-Mobile, so trying them out for a month is a likely possibility, at if possible, I would like to do my due diligence before making any changes with her service. I appreciate any information.

Thank You
 
D

Demonface

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2012
696
71
Jersey/Miami
mlody said:
My wife is currently with T-Mobile (been with them for over a decade). She is on un-carrier plan and have basic smartphone line (500MB) for $50, and international package for $10 - after taxes, etc. it comes up to under $75 each month. Her iPhone is the T-Mobile iPhone 5 and since we paid outright, it is already unlocked and ready to be used with any GSM carrier.

The problem is, she is barely cutting with 500MB plan and would like to have more data- at least another 500MB or 1GB. If I bump up the T-Mobile plan to 2.5GB, we would be looking at around $85 bill after taxes, etc.

Instead of dumping more money into T-Mobile, which has very spotty and non-existing in building coverage, I am considering AIO for her. It seems like, for $65, she could have had 2GB of fast data, international calling and domestic unlimited calling and texting.

Is there a catch to this deal? We could be potentially saving $240 a year? How is ATT/AIO coverage compared to T-Mobile in Chicago and suburbs? Has anyone converted from T-Mobile to AIO? Are there any hidden limits or catches? I know we wouldn't be risking much as we have no contract with T-Mobile, so trying them out for a month is a likely possibility, at if possible, I would like to do my due diligence before making any changes with her service. I appreciate any information.

Thank You
Click to expand...

ATT's Coverage is great where I live , It depends on where you reside. There is also Straighttalk Wireless , & Simple Mobile . They are both good companies . ST Wireless is about 45.00/Month and I think SM is 40.00/month and SM uses T-Mobile while ST uses ATT & T-Mobile towers.
 
S

Satnam1989

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2011
1,200
0
Illinois
mlody said:
My wife is currently with T-Mobile (been with them for over a decade). She is on un-carrier plan and have basic smartphone line (500MB) for $50, and international package for $10 - after taxes, etc. it comes up to under $75 each month. Her iPhone is the T-Mobile iPhone 5 and since we paid outright, it is already unlocked and ready to be used with any GSM carrier.

The problem is, she is barely cutting with 500MB plan and would like to have more data- at least another 500MB or 1GB. If I bump up the T-Mobile plan to 2.5GB, we would be looking at around $85 bill after taxes, etc.

Instead of dumping more money into T-Mobile, which has very spotty and non-existing in building coverage, I am considering AIO for her. It seems like, for $65, she could have had 2GB of fast data, international calling and domestic unlimited calling and texting.

Is there a catch to this deal? We could be potentially saving $240 a year? How is ATT/AIO coverage compared to T-Mobile in Chicago and suburbs? Has anyone converted from T-Mobile to AIO? Are there any hidden limits or catches? I know we wouldn't be risking much as we have no contract with T-Mobile, so trying them out for a month is a likely possibility, at if possible, I would like to do my due diligence before making any changes with her service. I appreciate any information.

Thank You
Click to expand...

Like the other guy said -- go with ST - LTE and you can use 2-3GB/month comfortably without stressing - don't go over 3GB tho as they sometimes get upset. check my thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1356525/

I posted speed test results from my ST line in Chicago, IL

AIO isn't worth the money for $55 you can get same service for $45 on Straight Talk, AIO is directly owned by AT&T - so they charge more than they should....they launched it just to compete with T-Mobile rather than Straight talk cause AT&T makes good money from Straight Talk customers due to its popularity.
 
C

Col Ronson

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2008
619
2
yeah straight talk if you want more data for sure.

AIO is the same AT&T network but they throttle LTE to 8Mbps...pretty pathetic imho.
 
M

mlody

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 11, 2012
1,592
1,220
Windy City
It looks like Straigh Talk is the carrier for us. for $60 we can have a little over 2 GB of data (to be on the safe side) and everything else all unlimited.

Few questions since this is the first time I would be dealing with pre-paid and ST;

- from what I heard here and there about Straight Talk, there were problems with iPhones and visual voice, mms messaging etc - has this all been fixed and is working %100 as expected?
- is tinketing with the phone still required to get some of the components to work, or will everything work %100 upon inserting Straigh Talk sim card?
- what is the easiest way to know if I have straigh talk ATT or T-mobile sim card? the main reasons I want to leave t-mobile is for coverage, so I want to ensure that whatever the sim card we receive from ST it is not T-mobile based.
- can you setup autopayment for ST and forget about it - sort of like postpaid service?
- Can we talk to Walmart and port and set the phone while at the store?

Thank you for all the info
 
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