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T-Mobile.... worth saving a few bucks?

H

Head Space

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2008
5
0
So my current cell phone contract is up this month and I really would love to get an iPhone. I know some of these questions are already answered elsewhere in the forum... I simply would like to get some straight answers from people in the same position.

Is it really worth going with T-Mobile, jailbreaking, and running on edge (19.99) or the 5.99 deal in order to save a few bucks? This would be great if so.... but any experiences.. pros and cons you could offer would be greatly helpful. I think I could do t-mobile for around 50 bucks whereas ATT would be upwards of $80. In addition I really don't like ATT all that much.... and myfavs is great option.... anyway voice up on your stance on this. Thanks
 
Already having switched from Verizon to T Mobile because of the egregious costs ($140-160/month for 900 min and data), I had been on TMobile for about 8 months on a Blackberry Pearl.

Finally broke down and bought a 2G iPhone from the ATT store as a "gift for someone else" in March of this year, before the 3G came out.

I have had great service, except for the poorly implemented jailbreaking methods I used before (ZiPhone then went to Pwnage). I have been stable on 2.1 for a few months now and would not go over to ATT.

I pay $20 for the T Mobile Hotspot Access ("Unlimited"~Although I do not know the actual theoretical limit) and have 5 MyFaves on my favorites list on the iPhone.

Edge access is ok for me, although I would like 3G speeds. It has not deployed here in Denver as of yet, and the iPhone 3G is incompatible with the TMobile spectrum anyway, so no iPhone 3G for me.

To sum up my experience, it is worth it to have seamless integration with my multiple macs, and love having the full internet experience (w/o flash however) at my fingertips. BTW, customer service is great.
 
Also, if you use T-Mobile, Visual Voicemail doesn't work I believe. Can anyone confirm? I'm pretty sure about this...
 
MacDuck said:
Already having switched from Verizon to T Mobile because of the egregious costs ($140-160/month for 900 min and data), I had been on TMobile for about 8 months on a Blackberry Pearl.

Finally broke down and bought a 2G iPhone from the ATT store as a "gift for someone else" in March of this year, before the 3G came out.

I have had great service, except for the poorly implemented jailbreaking methods I used before (ZiPhone then went to Pwnage). I have been stable on 2.1 for a few months now and would not go over to ATT.

I pay $20 for the T Mobile Hotspot Access ("Unlimited"~Although I do not know the actual theoretical limit) and have 5 MyFaves on my favorites list on the iPhone.

Edge access is ok for me, although I would like 3G speeds. It has not deployed here in Denver as of yet, and the iPhone 3G is incompatible with the TMobile spectrum anyway, so no iPhone 3G for me.

To sum up my experience, it is worth it to have seamless integration with my multiple macs, and love having the full internet experience (w/o flash however) at my fingertips. BTW, customer service is great.
Click to expand...

Is this pre-paid or do you get a bill monthly?? Are you only paying $20 or is this in additional to a voiceplan?
 
MacDuck said:
Edge access is ok for me, although I would like 3G speeds. It has not deployed here in Denver as of yet, and the iPhone 3G is incompatible with the TMobile spectrum anyway, so no iPhone 3G for me.
Click to expand...

I was under the assumption the iPhone 3g would work on the t-mobile network. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, as far as visual Voice Mail goes... is that just simply knowing who left messages? Seems like a nice feature.. but not a deal breaker. I guess I'm really on the fence.. is it worth the extra 20 bucks a month to have full ATT access, or a good trade off to save 20 bucks a month and still enjoy a myriad of features and fun that the iPhone offers up even though the speeds will be slower.

Anyone know how well Fring works over T-mobile network? Or does Fring use Wi-Fi??
 
Head Space said:
I was under the assumption the iPhone 3g would work on the t-mobile network. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, as far as visual Voice Mail goes... is that just simply knowing who left messages? Seems like a nice feature.. but not a deal breaker. I guess I'm really on the fence.. is it worth the extra 20 bucks a month to have full ATT access, or a good trade off to save 20 bucks a month and still enjoy a myriad of features and fun that the iPhone offers up even though the speeds will be slower.

Anyone know how well Fring works over T-mobile network? Or does Fring use Wi-Fi??
Click to expand...

Visual voice mail lets you see each of the individual voice messages as an "audio clip" where you can fast forward rewind, and delete them individually. This feature does not work with the iPhone on T-Mobile, but it will alert you to new voice messages. Also I am using my iPhone 3g on T-Mobile right now. You just have to put in one of the Geyvey sim cards or something similar to trick the phone until the dev team releases a software unlock.
 
jmann4489 said:
Visual voice mail lets you see each of the individual voice messages as an "audio clip" where you can fast forward rewind, and delete them individually. This feature does not work with the iPhone on T-Mobile, but it will alert you to new voice messages. Also I am using my iPhone 3g on T-Mobile right now. You just have to put in one of the Geyvey sim cards or something similar to trick the phone until the dev team releases a software unlock.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the Dev team will come up with something soon.

Here's my next question... I notice that if you purchase a G1 Andriod, they require a specific internet package(24.99), But they also offer 19.99 internet, and 5.99. What WORKS.. or at least what works for you?
 
The $20 is what I am paying in addition to a voice plan (I currently have 2 phone lines with MyFaves-my wife uses the other one.)

From what I gathered here on various posts about the 3G and the T-Mobile 3G network, the 3G iPhone uses a different frequency than the one T-Mobile uses, e.g. no 3G iPhone 3G speeds on T-Mobile. The 3G iPhone can "work" on T-Mobile, but only on voice calls and at EDGE data speeds- and no visual voicemail.
 
Head Space said:
I'm sure the Dev team will come up with something soon.

Here's my next question... I notice that if you purchase a G1 Andriod, they require a specific internet package(24.99), But they also offer 19.99 internet, and 5.99. What WORKS.. or at least what works for you?
Click to expand...

The phone has nothing to do with the capability of visual voice mail. T-Mobile doesn't have a system in place on their network to make a feature like this possible. The dev team can't do anything to enable this feature outside of AT&T.

The G1 probably requires a special type of internet, like the sidekick does. That is most likely why they have a specific internet package. I use the t-mobile web $5.99 package and it works perfectly. There is not any reason to pay more.

MacDuck said:
The $20 is what I am paying in addition to a voice plan (I currently have 2 phone lines with MyFaves-my wife uses the other one.)

From what I gathered here on various posts about the 3G and the T-Mobile 3G network, the 3G iPhone uses a different frequency than the one T-Mobile uses, e.g. no 3G iPhone 3G speeds on T-Mobile. The 3G iPhone can "work" on T-Mobile, but only on voice calls and at EDGE data speeds- and no visual voicemail.
Click to expand...

Unless you have extra money laying around, I don't see why people pay $20 extra a month for that package. There might be a slight speed increase but I doubt that it is noticeable.
 
jmann4489 said:
The G1 probably requires a special type of internet, like the sidekick does. That is most likely why they have a specific internet package. I use the t-mobile web $5.99 package and it works perfectly. There is not any reason to pay more.


Unless you have extra money laying around, I don't see why people pay $20 extra a month for that package. There might be a slight speed increase but I doubt that it is noticeable.
Click to expand...

Muchos Gracias!! I really just wanted a straight up answer from someone using the service. I will be getting my iPhone next week! :D :D :D :apple:
 
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