Hey All,
I recently switched my unlocked iPhone 5 from T-mobile's $30 UNT/UNT/100 prepaid plan to Aio. For those who aren't familiar, Aio is an at&t owned mvno that operates on their full LTE network (though no roaming, I believe). I thought I'd give anyone researching their options my full impression.
From the $30 T-mobile plan (which netted out to about $33 after tax), I switched to an aio plan for $45. It has only 2.5gb of full-speed data (rather than T-Mobile's 5gb), but unlimited calling (rather than 100 minutes) and the same unlimited texting. And, it's $45 after tax, with a $25 referral bonus after 2 months. Figured I'd give it a try.
The first hurdle that it needed to overcome is native iPhone support (something carriers like StraightTalk and Net10 struggle with.) AIO nails it; visual voicemail working flawlessly, MMS without issue. Basically it acts like a native carrier; the same integration T-mobile finally got a year ago.
The second thing to note is LTE. Everywhere. There is simply no comparing at&t's network to T-mobile's. T's will drop to edge if you walk too far into a grocery store, one where you have LTE outside. Aio's LTE just stays connected, and it's everywhere. I live about an hour outside the Philly metro area, and there are a good few places where T-mobile has struggling edge or no service at all. Aio's LTE feels like a pervasive virus. I haven't seen it drop to 4G yet. Really, exactly what I was looking for.
Third are the drawbacks. The data is halved, and is ~$10 more a month. But I'm a pretty full user of everything you can do on an iPhone, and only averaging about 2gb a month. Also, you're a second class citizen on at&t, meaning HSPA is throttled to 4mbps, and LTE to 8mbps. But outside of the speedtest app, this has no real world impact. iMessages send as rapidly as on wifi, Netflix streams in high quality very quickly, and everything just works without flaw.
And on a side note, it's nice to not to have to worry about minutes any more. I felt like turning on Dawson's Creek and cracking open a Frutopia every time I had to think about the 10 or 15 minutes I had left that month.
There you have it. Aio's seeming great, and I'm without a tinge of regret. I really like what T-mobile is doing for the US cellular industry, and I was proud to be a customer, but not at the sacrifice of my own connectivity.
I recently switched my unlocked iPhone 5 from T-mobile's $30 UNT/UNT/100 prepaid plan to Aio. For those who aren't familiar, Aio is an at&t owned mvno that operates on their full LTE network (though no roaming, I believe). I thought I'd give anyone researching their options my full impression.
From the $30 T-mobile plan (which netted out to about $33 after tax), I switched to an aio plan for $45. It has only 2.5gb of full-speed data (rather than T-Mobile's 5gb), but unlimited calling (rather than 100 minutes) and the same unlimited texting. And, it's $45 after tax, with a $25 referral bonus after 2 months. Figured I'd give it a try.
The first hurdle that it needed to overcome is native iPhone support (something carriers like StraightTalk and Net10 struggle with.) AIO nails it; visual voicemail working flawlessly, MMS without issue. Basically it acts like a native carrier; the same integration T-mobile finally got a year ago.
The second thing to note is LTE. Everywhere. There is simply no comparing at&t's network to T-mobile's. T's will drop to edge if you walk too far into a grocery store, one where you have LTE outside. Aio's LTE just stays connected, and it's everywhere. I live about an hour outside the Philly metro area, and there are a good few places where T-mobile has struggling edge or no service at all. Aio's LTE feels like a pervasive virus. I haven't seen it drop to 4G yet. Really, exactly what I was looking for.
Third are the drawbacks. The data is halved, and is ~$10 more a month. But I'm a pretty full user of everything you can do on an iPhone, and only averaging about 2gb a month. Also, you're a second class citizen on at&t, meaning HSPA is throttled to 4mbps, and LTE to 8mbps. But outside of the speedtest app, this has no real world impact. iMessages send as rapidly as on wifi, Netflix streams in high quality very quickly, and everything just works without flaw.
And on a side note, it's nice to not to have to worry about minutes any more. I felt like turning on Dawson's Creek and cracking open a Frutopia every time I had to think about the 10 or 15 minutes I had left that month.
There you have it. Aio's seeming great, and I'm without a tinge of regret. I really like what T-mobile is doing for the US cellular industry, and I was proud to be a customer, but not at the sacrifice of my own connectivity.
