Best US network for my unlocked iPhone 4

[SnapperUK]

I am going to the States (CA) next month for work and want to use my factory unlocked iPhone 4 on a local network while I am their.
Anyone got thoughts on which network offers the best package. Obviously I just want to pick up a SIM and pre-pay.
But it would be great to get data as well as call at a reasonable rate.
Am I able to use any network... Or is Verizon a different system?
Thanks

 

[saving107]

The iPhone is only officially supported by AT&T in the use, but can be jailbroken to work on T-Mobiles EDGE network.

As far as your options, thats it, AT&T or T-Mobile are the only two that support GSM in the U.S.

 

[lg2k7]

He said factory unlocked. Tmobile will be cheaper

 

[mad-dog-one]

If you are doing prepaid without a contract on an unlocked iPhone 4, you will be in the perfect position to try various providers and see which works best. Most of the rest of us in the US, with non-jail broken iPhones, are locked to AT&T, so we only know one carrier.

 

[kevink2]

But ATT will be faster for data than TMobile unless you aren't in an ATT 3G area.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

You will have just two choices of carriers since your phone operates on the GSM system. AT&T and T-Mobile. On AT&T you will have 3G speeds, whereas T-Mobile will be much slower using EDGE 2G speed.

AT&T is not the horrible network Apple fanboys make it out to be. It's just that Apple has never made a good phone. The chip they use is inferior thus the poor phone performance.

I carry an AT&T BlackBerry for work & an iPhone 4 as my personal phone. I travel extensively and always have great phone performance from the BlackBerry especially on places the iPhone is useless. It's been that way ever since Apple first iPhone. I've had every iPhone since day one, and it's obvious that Apple would rather blame AT&T than take responsibility and build a good phone. As a result of the massive number of whining fanboys, they've convinced most people that AT&T is the culprit, after all Apple is perfect (not).

 

[Dyspareunia]

You will have just two choices of carriers since your phone operates on the GSM system. AT&T and T-Mobile. On AT&T you will have 3G speeds, whereas T-Mobile will be much slower using EDGE 2G speed.

AT&T is not the horrible network Apple fanboys make it out to be. It's just that Apple has never made a good phone. The chip they use is inferior thus the poor phone performance.

I carry an AT&T BlackBerry for work & an iPhone 4 as my personal phone. I travel extensively and always have great phone performance from the BlackBerry especially on places the iPhone is useless. It's been that way ever since Apple first iPhone. I've had every iPhone since day one, and it's obvious that Apple would rather blame AT&T than take responsibility and build a good phone. As a result of the massive number of whining fanboys, they've convinced most people that AT&T is the culprit, after all Apple is perfect (not).

Whoa, slow down there on your tone of defending AT&T and criticism on Apple's part of "not making a good phone". Of interest, if you actually leave the USA to use the iPhone 4, you'll be surprised to find that the iPhone's inferior chip as you mention isn't so inferior, but rather not quite ideally designed for the USA! Having used the iPhone 4 in Asia and parts of Europe, I can assure you that the signal attenuation issue is seriously limited to mostly the USA! Now, I'm not an AT&T hater, in fact I've had them since they were known as PacBell Wireless, before Cingular, before the new at&t and I've even preferred their network over VoiceStream (the name for T-Mo before it became T-Mo) on the east coast. However, the issues AT&T are having now are several fold. One is it's the sole provider for the iPhone, so it's a victim of its own exclusivity with Apple and of the extreme success/popularity of the iPhone. This translates to their network/towers all getting savagely gang-raked by the ever expanding population of rabid iPhone users. Another issue, if I recall reading a macrumors article awhile back exposing the rather tumultuous relationship between Apple and AT&T over the Infineon chip found in the iPhone. AT&T was and IS a good network, it just needs to bulk up it's infrastructure/network and all will be better. They say they are doing their best to buff up backhaul and throw up more antennas, but only time will tell. It'll be interesting to see, when the next generation iPhone which will supposedly incorporate the Qualcomm chips, if things will get better or worse.

Here is the excerpt, from: https://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/19/behind-the-scenes-of-the-apple-atandt-relationship/

"The report points to Apple's choice of Infineon for the cellular communication hardware in the original iPhone as an example of the tensions between the two companies. Infineon had traditionally been focused on the European market where cellular towers are located more closely together than they typically are in the U.S. But when AT&T asked Apple to work together on making Infineon's hardware in the iPhone work better with AT&T's U.S.-style cell site configurations, Apple reportedly declined, saying "No, you resolve them. They're not our problem. They're your problem.""

 

[wirelessmacuser]

Whoa, slow down there on your tone of defending AT&T and criticism on Apple's part of "not making a good phone". Of interest, if you actually leave the USA to use the iPhone 4, you'll be surprised to find that the iPhone's inferior chip as you mention isn't so inferior, but rather not quite ideally designed for the USA!

I'm not defending AT&T. I don't defend any company. I'm just sharing the facts of the matter when it comes to AT&T and Apple in the USA. Period.

If every other phone I've ever had in the ten years I've used AT&T, works just fine, then common sense would tell anyone that it's the iPhone...

The fact that Apple doesn't care to build a phone that works well in it's own market is very revealing. What it proves is that their marketing genius can convince anyone to buy a product no matter how it performs.

 

[Fabienne]

Check any smaller carriers you might be able to use. In Cincinnati there is a "Cincinnati Bell" which charges really cheap rates, unlimited data plans, and has no trouble hooking up your jailbroken phone with their system. The down side is that you will be running on EDGE and you will be shocked at the sloooooooow of it all compared to 3G, but it works.

You might be able to use a "baby Bell" in your area in California. Most of them are thrilled to get a new customer who wants to use their services and will be very helpful in telling you where to go and who to talk to to iron out any problems which might pop up.

 

[Daveoc64]

Having used the iPhone 4 in Asia and parts of Europe, I can assure you that the signal attenuation issue is seriously limited to mostly the USA!

Having used the iPhone 4 since day one exclusively in Europe I can tell you that it's not seriously limited to the USA.