What service/plan should I get?

Where in Iowa are you located? I was in Ames for four years. Both Verizon and AT&T are well established with lte there as well as Des Moines. You will have 4g on most major highways with AT&T and 3G with Verizon. Once you get rural, which happens FAST out there, you drop to edge and 1x or no data at all. We did go to Iowa city a few times and the situation was pretty much the same. By th way, we tried sprint, don't do it, unless you are a masochist.

As far as your data usage, based in what you listed, 500mb won't cut it. You are going to want 2gb at least. You may not hit 2gb each month, but you'll almost certainly go over 1 gb. My wife's usage is right around 1.2gb a month and her habits are about on par with what you say yours are in terms of how she uses her phone.

 

I have the 2GB plan for peace of mind.

I routinely use 400-700MB.

iCloud syncing, web browsing, maps, location and address lookups, messaging, sending photos, Facebook, etc. Avoid music/video except on rare occaions.

Could squeeze into 500MB but it would be tight, and risky.

Music adds up quicker than you would expect. 128kbps audio, could be 54MB per hour, a 4 hour study session could set you back 200MB alone. 6hr a day at work, might be 1.6GB per week.

 

If you go Houston or Chicago, I wouldn't worry one second about TMobile. There is the added bonus with them that you don't sign a contract anyway, so they are less of a risk to try.

Congrats on your acceptance. What do you plan to study?

 

Everybody can only judge by their own personal habits. I always buy the phone Sim free and then have the option to move as my needs change. Costs me about £15 a month.

 

2 GB of data on an iPhone for a college kid isn't much. I'd go with AT&T because they offer a 3GB data plan for less than Verizon's 2 GB of data. You'd be surprised how quickly data usage adds up on a monthly basis. I was on AT&T's 3 GB plan and always felt so restricted in what I could do. Now I'm with T-Mobile and routinely go 8-10GB a month of Data.

 

If you buy an iPhone unlocked, you can use it on any GSM provider including T-Mobile and AT&T. It would also be cheaper to use an unlocked with T-Mobile because they base their rates off of whether or not you have paid off a phone. In your case you bough outright and have nothing to pay off. AT&T charges the same rate regardless of contract phase. T-Mobile will be cheaper hands down.

FWIW I have Verizon.
Good luck with your acceptance.

Kevin

 

The one that provides the coverage you need in the areas you need it.

Ask around locally. Do not rely on coverage maps.

Usage is a subjective matter -- not a per-device matter. If you don't know how much you'll need then guesstimate and pick the next plan up for some headroom (or adjust for the amount of safety margin you want) and monitor your usage very closely for the first few months and adjust as needed. If only one data plan suited every person then we wouldn't have the selection of plans out there.

It's impossible to say for certain but probably not for what you're describing. I'd suggest starting with 1-2GB's.

That is precisely the point of an unlocked device. However, keep in mind that you can't use it with any carrier. VZW and Sprint won't activate devices that aren't their own on their networks.

You can answer this yourself by looking at at&t's site. IIRC there's only one rate for plans regardless of whether you take a subsidy or not.

 

Have you considered buying the iPhone 5 at full price ($649 + taxes) and get set up on Wal-Mart's Straighttalk? You get unlimited everything for $45 per month on Verizon network. Or you can get an unlocked GSM version and get set up with one of AT&T prepaid services such as H2O Wireless which offers unlimited talk & text + 500MB for $50 or 2GB for $60. It'll save you money in the long-term.

 

my wife is from nebraska, near the iowa border. she had verizon, native to the area, and i am from new jersey and had at&t at the time. when i was in most of the area, hours outside of omaha, i was roaming on vaiero since there was no native at&t. my suggestion, if there is equal markets of at&t and verizon in your area, may be best to go with verizon. from what i saw, at&t only has sporadic coverage in main areas, yet doesnt have native coverage in others. at some points, i had no service while she did. i have since switched to verizon for their larger LTE network and am pleased with it so far.

your best way to research it is to take a good look at both carriers coverage maps for the areas where you will be, especially compare LTE coverage. at&t's maps out there vs verizons are very different. much different than the same maps would be for instance around me in NJ. like i said, given the rural areas you may be traveling through in iowa, verizon may be the better choice.