A friend recently asked whether it would be a good idea to switch cellular carriers or to 4G. He had an iPhone on AT&T on a "grandfathered" unlimited-data plan, and used its voice-plus-data feature often. He intends to stay with iOS, but is interesting in learning about Android (without buying another phone).
Since I have been using cell phones for nearly 20 years, this is a topic people have asked me about before. I realized other people might find my reasoning useful, so I decided to put put it into a blog. That meant editing it to make it a little more generic and introductory. Hopefully, most people will find it useful.
I live in suburban New Jersey, where coverage is very good. The state is home to major telecommunications companies and near a large market (New York City). Since it is a small state, that suggests it is easier to provide coverage, but its high population density means there are more people competing for the available "slots" on each cellphone tower. There are some "dead spots" without coverage, but that is to be expected when using wireless technologies such as cellular and WiFi.
-- Evan
When considering coverage, what is your "Use Case"?
- If it is dropped voice calls in the car, you might want to try out other carriers' phones (within a 14-day trial period) to see if you have better luck from the locations where you place or receive calls.
- Is it data, such as checking email during kids' soccer matches? Issues like 4G coverage, speeds and data caps would then play a role.
- Is it relatively consistent (home, work, school, soccer field) where you can try each place within a week, or do you travel to new client sites for work (where you cannot "pre-test" your coverage)?
It can make sense to keep an old phone to keep its unlimited data plan.
I also have an "old" phone, in my case an Android based on the original single-CPU Galaxy S architecture. It's not super-fast, but it has a great physical keyboard, and I'm also "grandfathered" for unlimited data on my carrier. Most carriers abolished unlimited data, so upgrading to a new phone would force me into a 2GB monthly data "cap" unless I paid full price for the phone (around $600).
Higher data caps than 2GB are available, but they cost more and are still caps. Incidentally, my usage is generally just below 2 GB/month, but I like the freedom in case I needed to upload photos, stream music, etc. When out of the house, I prefer NOT to use shared WiFi hotspots because they can be less secure than cellular 3G or 4G. Most people are probably less concerned about security, however.
Another factor is whether you get an employee company discount on service or accessories. If many of your friends are on the same carrier, calls to those people might not be counted toward your monthly airtime limits. There's also an incentive for an entire household to be on the same shared or family plan.
Keeping an old phone avoids the need to buy new accessories, such as cases, and even batteries (for phones where you can buy spares). Even for the iPhone (whose size changes relatively little), new ones can have new connectors or cases.
If you want to play with Android, a better bet might be WiFi-only tablet.
There are no carrier commitments, no data caps, etc, and the WiFi is quicker than cellular. However, without cellular service, you need a WiFi hotspot to use the internet and web-based apps. Some versions of Google Maps have supported caching so you can pre-load maps and navigation later when there is no coverage . The Nexus 7 is about $200 and it's gotten good reviews. You can even get a Bluetooth keyboard if your tasks require more intensive typing. Just remember that tablets sold at cellular stores typically include the cellular radio and the pricing and/or contract reflects that.
In theory, having 4G LTE in addition to 3G will improve coverage.
It's hard for me to determine if there are places which have 4G coverage but NOT 3G.. I have been pleasantly surprised at how broad the coverage-area is for Verizon's 4G LTE in the past year. AT&T is said to be doing the same, but I without an AT&T 4G phone, I can't really speak firsthand.
Ultimately, Verizon will be transitioning over the next few years to VoLTE (Voice-over-LTE), a 4G-only protocol, so that all their phones will eventually use 4G instead of 3G. However, that transition is still a few years away, and should not influence your decision in 2013 unless you typically keep a phone 5 years.
By the way, 4G's speed is excellent and can seem as fast as as WiFi. Given the choice between a phone with 4G and without it, I would get the 4G. Some say battery life is shorter on 4G than 3G, but I have not found that to be the case. On the other hand, if you have a limited plan, faster speeds means you can hit your 2GB data cap sooner. To help you manage all this, many phones and carriers let you track your data usage, and even use the device in 3G only mode if desired.
Coverage depends a lot on your location and the towers, so your experience may vary.
For example, I once worked someplace where my Sprint phone was the only one which got a signal, despite the fact that AT&T or Verizon were known for better coverage elsewhere. Still, this sort of situation tends to be the exception. Ask a variety of people where you live and work for their experience with their carriers.
In my opinion, Verizon has the best coverage, based my personal experience and things I have read. They have made reliability a priority, both with their marketing ("Can you hear me now?") and more significantly, with proactive infrastructure investments. Their 4G LTE is quick.
AT&T was hit by large data usage from the iPhone. Their initial response was to try to throttle that (for example, by blocking video-chat), and even encourage customers to use WiFi in crowded markets like New York City, Now, they are working to improve coverage, including upgrading their infrastructure to add 4G LTE.
T-Mobile is known to have a smaller coverage-area footprint than others, and I have found places where AT&T and Verizon got services but T-Mobile did not. To make up for decrease coverage, T-Mobile phones can make phone calls over WiFi using a technology called UMA (Unified Mobile Access). For example, you could use your T-Mobile phone at home (using your router) or at a McDonalds hotspot. (Other carriers' phones generally do NOT offer UMA.)
In my experience a few years ago, Sprint's coverage had been somewhere better than T-Mobile and somewhat worse than AT&T and Verizon.
Your best bet with coverage could be to try out a carrier's device in the areas where you live, work and commute, and see if it works well. If not, return it within the 14-day window. (Be sure to find out whether there is any "restocking fee", such as 15% at some electronics stores.)
Other carriers
As for the other major carriers, both Sprint and T-Mobile have needed to compete with the bigger ones by offering either better pricing, features, or technology.
T-Mobile probably has the fairest pricing system. Most other big carriers encourage you to take out a 2-year contract in return for what may be a lower price (say $200) on what would be a $400 to $600 phone. But even after the 2 years are done and the phone is paid-off, your monthly payments do not drop. With T-Mobile, it's a bit more "honest" because some of their plans separate the phone-device-payments from the service charges, so they stop after the phone has been paid-off and your monthly bill goes down.
T-Mobile originally labeled their fast 3G HSDPA service as "4G" because its 42 Mbps speeds were comparable to those of 4G LTE. They are now upgrading to regular 4G LTE service.
Unfortunately, while Sprint once offered cutting-edge technical advances, they dropped the ball in recent years. Their innovations included the first web-browsing phones back in 2000, early camera phones, the first 4G (WiMax), and even some 3D-camera phones. Despite being 4G, however, WiMax was slow, and Sprint is now replacing it with LTE.
There are smaller carriers known as MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), such as Boost, MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile. MVNOs do not own their wireless infrastructure, and instead provide service over the networks of other carriers (such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc.).
MVNO's have very competitive prices, and their plans often require no long-term contract. Still, you need to be careful about data caps and roaming. Often, they will promise "unlimited" 4G data, but after some limit (say 1 GB in a month), the data speed is slowed to 3G speeds until the next billing cycle. Even "big" carriers can have similar policies on unlimited plans, though the limits may be higher. It is always good to read the fine print on company websites, or speak with tech support and sales people.
This year (2013), the big carriers introduced plans where people can trade-in their phones sooner (every year, every 6 months, etc), but it's probably a bad bet for most people (compared with other options).
Some other considerations which might influence your decision-making:
For their 3G service, AT&T, T-Mobile and most of the world uses GSM. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. The 2 3G technologies are mostly incompatible. There are some "World Phones" which can be switched between CDMA and GSM.
GSM supports simultaneous voice-and-data, so you could search the web while talking to someone. CDMA does NOT.
Since my phones have mostly been CDMA, I have not generally used simultaneous voice-and-data. 4G LTE is supposed to provide that capability, although I have read conflicting reports over whether phones sold actually have their hardware configured to support that. (Some have said the 4G iPhones do NOT.)
On the other hand, CDMA's "soft-handoff" means fewer dropped calls because they connect to the 2nd cell site BEFORE the 1st one is disconnected, unlike GSM. If you make a lot of voice calls, this could be important. With CDMA, I have rarely had calls drop.
GSM phones also use a removable SIM chip which stores the phone number and can then be used in a different handset. Or, you could buy a different SIM to use in your phone (to use a different carrier's plan or have a different phone number). Most US phones only support one SIM at a time, so only the SIM in the phone can actually receive calls. (The others would go to voicemail.)
While 4G LTE sounds like it should be inter-operable between carriers, progress on this has been slow. 4G LTE is SIM-based like GSM, so in theory you can swap SIMs and go from AT&T 4G LTE to T-Mobile 4G LTE or Verizon 4G LTE. As of 2013, the reality is less satisfying. Carriers normally "SIM-lock" their phones so people cannot buy a phone on contract at a $200-discount, quit after a month, and activate it on a competitor. Early Termination Fees "ETF"s serve a similar purpose.
There are exceptions -- if you are customer "in good standing", they might "unlock" it for you after 6 months if you needed to travel to Europe. After you have had a phone for 2 years and it has been paid off, you "deserve" to have it unlocked, but carriers typically will not do this unless you ask them.
Even on 4G, carriers sometimes different frequencies for their service (700 MHz, 1700 MHz, etc), making phones incompatible. Multi-band phones (such as "pentaband" phones) can handle many different frequencies. Still, they are sometimes programmed or SIM-locked to keep them on only one carrier. For instance, you could buy a 4G phone for $699 with no contract/commitment, and find it was still "locked" into only using the carrier who sold it. While some US carriers agreed to open their 4G spectrum to customer's other devices, this issue is still working its way through the appropriate regulatory agencies and courts.
On different note, most carriers have prohibit "tethering", where you use your cellphone as a wireless modem for a device like a tablet. Even when some now allow it, it is only on capped-plans (not unlimited). Since a laptop computer can use data faster than a cellphone, you can hit the 2G cap sooner.
Other resources:
I have also found Android Central ( http://www.androidcentral.com/ ) to be a great resource for all sorts of smartphone and cellular issues. They have similar websites for other phone platforms including iPhone/iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, under the Mobile Nations umbrella ( http://www.mobilenations.com/ ).
Copyright © 2013 Evan Brody - All rights reserved.
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