Anyone in Los Angeles jumping over to T-Mobile from At&t with iPhone 5?

[MrXiro]

With these new contract free plans I'm really curious about hopping over to T-Mobile for the price. A family plan of 5 would go down from $200 a month to just $110 with double the (unthrottled) data included, free tethering and no overages.

Anyone in the Los Angeles Area make the switch?

I understand that my At&t iPhone 5 doesn't have AWS (though I don't fully grasp what AWS is, is that HD voice?) but will I lose anything else switching carriers?

Also how is the reception/data speed/usage for T-mobile on the iPhone 5 in this area? LTE?

Thanks!

 

[CEmajr]

Using your AT&T iPhone 5 you're going to get a kind of spotty and somewhat less reliable 4G signal. Indoor data signal will be worse as well compared to the Tmobile iPhone 5.

Of course ymmv depending on your area so you could try it out for a few days and if it's not good then just sell your AT&T iPhones for the Tmobile ones.

Edit
AWS is the 1700/2100 frequency Tmobile using for their 3G/4G network. It's what the coverage maps on their website show. With the AT&T iPhone you would be relying on areas that they have refarmed their network to support 1900mhz 3G/4G. The coverage is much smaller and the building penetration is worse. There are no official coverage maps for this network yet.

 

[upnorth85]

For the best experience on T-mobile I would recommend the newer iPhone 5 model with AWS. T-mobile's 1700/2100 AWS coverage is pretty good. Their 1900 Mhz PCS coverage is very sparse and shoddy. Because Apple allowed the AWS frequency, T-mobile's enthusiasm to complete the 1900 Mhz refarming has gone down and they are putting more energy in to LTE deployment. But LA is a large areas and it is best to get a pre-paid SIM and try it out before taking a decision.

With these new contract free plans I'm really curious about hopping over to T-Mobile for the price. A family plan of 5 would go down from $200 a month to just $110 with double the (unthrottled) data included, free tethering and no overages.

Anyone in the Los Angeles Area make the switch?

I understand that my At&t iPhone 5 doesn't have AWS (though I don't fully grasp what AWS is, is that HD voice?) but will I lose anything else switching carriers?

Also how is the reception/data speed/usage for T-mobile on the iPhone 5 in this area? LTE?

Thanks!

 

[osofast240sx]

T-Mobile runs 3G/4G on AWS and PCS. On AWS it's 1700mhz(upload)/2100Mhz(download) on PCS it's 1900Mhz. Also T-Mobile is reframing its 3G/4G from AWS onto its PCS network to free up frequency for LTE. T-Mobile is currently reframing 3G/4G onto PCS and rolling out LTE onto AWS.