T-mobile cell/broadband offer from Radio Shack - too good to be true??

[cmac2012]

I pop into Radio Shack today. I've been thinking about changing from Verizon to AT&T as they have an offer for a land line to your house to be then coupled to in house wi-fi, available for $30 a month if you have an AT&T cell account.

I've been hesitating to go for the normal broad band anywhere wi-fi from Verizon or AT&T as it's $60 a month and there's a limit on usage, or pay more.

Anyway, whattayaknow, the sales lady available is one hot babe, but the offer she tells me about is hotter. She claims that they have a deal with T Mobile that only goes with the Sony Ericsson TM506 where I get 1000 monthly minutes, the fave 4 or 5 thingy, AND unlimited web with the phone as modem for $50 a month. This is way better than anything else I've found. And, the camera is free with 2 year contract.

I'm with Verizon now, have an older Moto V710, a bit large by modern standards, crappy camera, and 450 minutes a month for $49 and I've gone over 2 or 3 months in a row and will do so again this month w/o major rationing.

The Bay Area maps for T-Mobile coverage are pretty good and I'm right on the verge of biting this apple.

I can't find the offer on Radio Shack's website but I sorta doubt the lady would try to hose me. I mean, if I have it in writing, it must be right, no?

[lietuviai]

The only reason I have Verizon is their coverage. I could not get the same coverage from T-mobile when I had them. It was terrible.
I think all mobile plans have a trial period so if you find that T-mobile doesn't deliver, you can all ways go back.

[Wodnek]

Using Tmobile's edge network for broadband is very slow. It is twice the speed of dial up, but doesnt make a good substitute for broadband.

[cmac2012]

Hmmm . . .

The lady claimed they had a test demonstration that day and that it was way fast. Of course, she gets a sales commission. She claimed that youtube videos would load and play right away w/o the little spinning asterisk thingy.

If I could see a hands on demonstration, I'd feel a lot better.

[pawoSD]

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Hmmm . . .

The lady claimed they had a test demonstration that day and that it was way fast. Of course, she gets a sales commission. She claimed that youtube videos would load and play right away w/o the little spinning asterisk thingy.

If I could see a hands on demonstration, I'd feel a lot better.

If it is only running at 2x dial up....that'd be about 8-10kb a second. Massively slower than the 100kb/sec+ you can get with AT&T or Verizon....I can download a 2 meg app to my verizon phone in about 5-10 seconds....very fast.

I would surely want to see a real demonstration to believe it was that fast.

[cmac2012]

I just found this:

EDGE's maximum speed is considered to be 236.8 kbit/s, which is called Class 10. The Samsung t809 cellular phone sold by T-Mobile can handle this Class 10 bandwidth.

236 kbits does not sound fast. Sometimes I get stuck on 1 mbyte on this or that wifi system and it's doable but not way speedy.

Damn.

[Hogweed]

Originally Posted by lietuviai

The only reason I have Verizon is their coverage. I could not get the same coverage from T-mobile when I had them. It was terrible.
I think all mobile plans have a trial period so if you find that T-mobile doesn't deliver, you can all ways go back.

ditto. the coverage map for tmobil (and sprint/nextel) looks great but the reality is different. they usually let you try it out for 15 days to see if the coverage is sufficient

[iwrock]

So, your planning on tethering the T-Mo phone for internet? Or are they running a dedicated line out to your home?


The T-Mo 3G is pretty good. I played on a friends G1, and the internet seemed just as fast as the 3G on my ATT Blackberry Bold.


I would ask the T-Mo rep to demo the tethering, so that you can get a feel for the internet speed. I have an ATT 3G card, and with 4 bars of service, it still feels slower than my comcast connection.

We have 3G in Sacramento too. I should see my friend later today, and I will ask him to run a speed test to see how fast it is.

[cmac2012]

Originally Posted by iwrock

So, your planning on tethering the T-Mo phone for internet? Or are they running a dedicated line out to your home?

The T-Mo 3G is pretty good. I played on a friends G1, and the internet seemed just as fast as the 3G on my ATT Blackberry Bold.

I would ask the T-Mo rep to demo the tethering, so that you can get a feel for the internet speed. I have an ATT 3G card, and with 4 bars of service, it still feels slower than my comcast connection.

We have 3G in Sacramento too. I should see my friend later today, and I will ask him to run a speed test to see how fast it is.

That's good news - for the price they're offering, I'm not going to expect the fastest of the fast, I just don't want dinosaur speeds - my nephew in IT tells me that EDGE speeds are about 3 to 5 times faster than dial up but I gather, as Med Mech points out, that's not operational. I went into Radio Shack today and they say it is indeed a 3G network but that they don't when and if there will be another demo, as the one they had was from a T-mobile rep. I'm going to call other Radio Shacks and T-mobile to see if any others are happening.

They claim the offer is Radio Shack only, which might be true, and that it might only be good through tomorrow. I know, could be BS arm twisting, OTOH, if this is as fast as the AT&T and Verizon 3G, the price is good.

And tethering is the concept they spoke of - the dedicated line deal was with AT&T for an extra $30 over the cell contract, but I'd be looking at $100 a month with an iPhone, at least $70 - to $75 with a 450 minute contract on a simpler phone. I'm reading that T-mobile has good customer service ratings. I might do this with a bit more research.

[pawoSD]

There will always be higher latency over a cellular connection than on a broadband DSL/Cable connection.

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by pawoSD

There will always be higher latency over a cellular connection than on a broadband DSL/Cable connection.

Not true, the reason for latency on a wireless connection is inferior switching equipment theoretically wireless should be faster with less latency.

[iwrock]

So, is the connection better or worse with the foil hat on??


O_o

[cmac2012]

Originally Posted by iwrock

So, is the connection better or worse with the foil hat on??


O_o

I'm going to have to rely on your experience. You tell me.

[cmac2012]

This is wild. I thought using the phone as a modem would quickly drain the battery. It does not. I've been using it a lot today and my battery is still nearly full, if I can believe the icon and it's been pretty accurate so far.

I just popped into youtube and videos load in a hurry. Maybe 5 seconds and I got Renee Zellweger looking sexy on screen.

Now if I can get the software updates for the phone I'm hoping for, I'm going to come out like roses. Even if I can't, still not a bad deal.

Bubba score.

[cmac2012]

OK. My last post on this thing.



Good enough.