Ok so I know I'm a noob when it comes to some things on here, but I think this is a legitimate question so bare with me.
Basically, I have to move back home to Trenton, FL because of personal family issues. The problem is that I get absolutely NO service from T-Mobile over there. (It's horrible) I have a rooted and unlocked G2x for T-Mobile/ATT. My question is; can I simply purchase an ATT sim card and use their network back home without having to shut off my T-Mobile account and switch to ATT? From what I've researched, I'm pretty sure it's possible to "Borrow" service from ATT's towers over there with an unlocked T-Mobile phone and a data plan, but I'm not 100% sure. It's not a huge deal, but I'd like to know the answer before I actually move. Thanks!
Can someone please give me an accurate answer?
In short, no. If you want to use Att's cell towers but have a tmo subscription that would be considered roaming. If you had an att SIM you'd have to have service from them, it wouldn't be service from tmo. You could get some sort of roaming plan (I think) from tmo that would allow you access to the att towers.
I appreciate the help, but I'm pretty sure I have roaming from T-mobile. At least, I think I do, cause I think I've roamed before cause I've seen the symbols E and G on my service bar before. Hopefully this is good news! So I guess I'll just have to ask T-Mobile and see what's up.
The t-Mobile rep told me that wherever there is no tmo service you will piggy back on att's network for free. I've done it with both att and cellular one.
Call them and ask to be sure. But you shouldn't need to get a new att sim.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Wouldn't bother calling about this...
1) To roam onto AT&T's network, they would have to have a roaming agreement in place. They only pay for roaming agreements in areas where A) They realllly realllly need to have coverage, and B) They don't already have coverage. If T-Mobile already has coverage in an area, they won't pay for an AT&T Roaming agreement. Even if it is bad coverage.
2) If you put an AT&T Sim in the an unlocked phone, then it will have nothing to do with T-Mobile while the AT&T Sim is in there... that is, as said above, you would need to have a service plan with AT&T and as such a new phone number, bill, etc...
3) You can't add a special roaming plan. They don't exist. You get all the roaming that's available already. Now, if you go OVERSEAS that's different - you have to call to add INTERNATIONAL roaming, but that's done so you don't get charged for international roaming without having been warned first. But for within the US, no, you can't get additional roaming on your T-Mobile plan...
The sad thing is, Roaming used to be a lot more common. Wireless services have gotten so competitive, however, that many of those old roaming agreements are dead and gone. Nobody's willing to share their networks any more.
If you bought an AT&T SIM and use that in the G2x, then you would simply be an AT&T customer, except I don't think G2x supports AT&T's 3g band, so you'll just have EDGE.
If T-Mobile doesn't have coverage where you're going, you can call them and terminate your service with T-Mobile, provided that you have proof that you moved there, and T-Mobile has zero coverage in the town you moved to. Otherwise, either keep your TMO account alive, or you have to pay a contract termination fee.
Damn guys I'm glad you told me all of this, especially the part about proving where I'm moving. That's awesome, now I don't have to pay two cell phone bills. Hells yes.
Related
So I've been searching and searching with no definitive info- I have a mytouch 4G with T-mo. In my area the only other GSM carrier is AT&T and I know that T-mo doesn't roam to AT&T, but if I unlock my sim, would that help me get around that? All I really want is to stay with T-mo and just roam onto AT&T where T-mo doesn't cover- it's only about 20% of the places I go to where I need to roam.
Thoughts???
mountainboy said:
So I've been searching and searching with no definitive info- I have a mytouch 4G with T-mo. In my area the only other GSM carrier is AT&T and I know that T-mo doesn't roam to AT&T, but if I unlock my sim, would that help me get around that? All I really want is to stay with T-mo and just roam onto AT&T where T-mo doesn't cover- it's only about 20% of the places I go to where I need to roam.
Thoughts???
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Unlocking your GSM phone will only allow you to use another carrier's SIM card in your phone. So let's say you want to keep your phone but you want to go over to AT&T or you're traveling in another country. You can use a different SIM card in your phone. Yes, there is an app to force roaming called Roam Control. Your phone doesn't have to be unlocked. HOWEVER, you will be charged roaming fees. T-Mobile and AT&T don't have any roaming agreements like Sprint and Verizon do, so you'll end up paying out the ass. It adds up quick.
Crap, thanks for the reply, I really wish I could find some way around this...I checked out that roam control the other day, but it's only for CDMA phones- sure got my hopes up though.
mountainboy said:
Crap, thanks for the reply, I really wish I could find some way around this...I checked out that roam control the other day, but it's only for CDMA phones- sure got my hopes up though.
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Sorry about that. I'm on Sprint and I don't get service in my house so I force roaming on Verizon since it's included (and Verizon roams on Sprint). I didn't know it was CDMA only.
interested in this as well, currently my carrier allows free roaming onto tmobile and I would like to force roam onto them
I have an unlocked skyrocket running the latest version of the PAC ROM, UVMC6 radio, and I have a Net10 T-Mobile SIM card with their $50/month unlimited service. So far I am relatively pleased, but I would like to know if there is a way to force the phone to use the ATT towers. This is because ATT is better at my house than T-mobile. I have tried flashing different ATT radios and attempted to register on an att tower but it always fails. When I have a att radio installed I can see t-mobile and att, but I cant register to either. When I have a tmobile radio I can only see and register to a t-moble tower. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Austin Bartz
I don't want to be mean, but please think logically of what you are asking.
You are paying to use T-mobile's network
AT&T is not T-mobile
AT&T is not getting any of your money
It is like saying, I pay gym A to use gym A, but gym B is closer so I should be able to go there as well without having to pay gym B anything.
The only way to use AT&T towers would be if you are an AT&T customer, or if T-mobile and AT&T merge or ever have some sort of tower sharing agreement.
TheRabbit2 said:
I don't want to be mean, but please think logically of what you are asking.
You are paying to use T-mobile's network
AT&T is not T-mobile
AT&T is not getting any of your money
It is like saying, I pay gym A to use gym A, but gym B is closer so I should be able to go there as well without having to pay gym B anything.
The only way to use AT&T towers would be if you are an AT&T customer, or if T-mobile and AT&T merge or ever have some sort of tower sharing agreement.
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I realize that, what I thought is that it would be like if the phone was roaming.
saleenman95 said:
I realize that, what I thought is that it would be like if the phone was roaming.
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My T-Mobile micro SIM was working on AT&T this past weekend. I was getting 4G on ATT and edge on Tmo.
I broke my current phone "optimus zone" and i am looking for a new phone so i decided to get the galaxy s3 well im on verizon prepaid so i need a galaxy s3 that will work on prepaid verizonm and i need it to be rooted so i can use as a hotspot. i did some research and found that the i535 can be flashed to verizon prepaid "I Think" and it can also be rooted.
so i did some looking on ebay and found 3 things
1 i535 verizon unlocked - i looked at what a unlocked phone was and found out it just means it can be used with any compatable service provider. Can this be used with verizon and if so how?
2 i535 verizon - If i got this one can it be flashed to verizon prepaid? Can it get 4g on prepaid?
3 i710 sprint - i already ordered a sprint flashed to verizon prepaid one and found out u needed add on apps to use the sms and it cant get 4g so im woundering , if the' i535 verizon would be a better choice. i would have to learn to flash but thats no big deal.. i havent recieved the one i ordered yet but when i do i think im going to return it...
I have looked all over and can not figure out if the verizon i535 will get 4g after its flashed to verizon prepaid and i havent found out 100% that it can be flashed to verizon prepaid. Im posative it can be rooted i think lol. Or can i buy a unlocked i535 and use it on verizon prepaid somehow, easier than learning to flash???
Just sign up with Page Plus. They've been offering Verizon 4G LTE for a month now
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
I can't get survice with anyone but verizon i dout page will work in my area. And I'm not really really consurned about 4g i just hate to have a sprint phone that only gets 3g if the same phone on another carrier can get 4g... but i just need to know yes pr no can the i535 be flashed to prepaid verizon?? And if it can it be used on 4g or only 3g like the sprint one after flash... i live in a rural area and i bairley get signal as it is... i hear that this page plus provider uses verizon towers.. i don't understand does that mean it will get the exact same signal as verizon prepaid cuz that's thr ONLY provider i can use.. pleas let me knoq if the i535 can be flashed to prepaid verizon and can it get 4g yes or no please let me know I'm without a phone and really need to know what to do... i feel like i made a mistake buying the sprint one...
Sent from my LG-VS410PP using XDA Free mobile app
If they're truly Verizon towers I'd say page plus should work fine. I was told however by a guy with a local shop (I live in the boonies), that because we have so many towers around here that are owned by a regional carrier appalacian wireless that have an agreement with Big Red, that page plus would Roam more whereas Selectel wouldn't. Now, I don't know if the guy was telling the truth or not. I do know from Selectel's website that if you sign someone up to selectel and that person continues to use Selectel and re-ups through the website or whereever, the original person who signed you up gets a cut of the profits. Page Plus may not offer such a deal, so I don't actually know 100% either way. I'm looking to find something cheaper than Big Red myself. I have two phones with them at the moment with a bill of 105.00 or 107.00 but with only 250Mb of data and 1GB free for a year. I can get by with little to no data, I really don't use much, but I'd like to have it available should I need to go out of town and use the internet or use navigation which I suspect would drink the data. I know you can pre download maps with many apps these days though.
Let me know what you find out. I have the Verizon sch-i535 sgs3 with a broken power button but otherwise it's a good phone. Still does what I need it to, and development hasn't stopped yet, it's still going pretty strong on the aosp side..
Edit: I recently had my phone flashed to selectel wireless. If you have a cdma phone you can do the activation from their website. However, I think it must be a phone without a sim such as a DX or DX2. a cdma only phone. I had to take my s3 to a local selectel dealer who did the flash and got me on selectel. I went with selectel because it will roam on the regional towers in my area albiet voice and texting only not data. So, when roaming I won't have data. Pageplus from what I've read on both their site and another forum will roam but they will charge you quite a bit to do so. If you don't have the issue of roaming like I do and are near verizon towers all the time, I'd probably go with another MVNO.
I tried tracfone BYOP with my DX2 and spent a small fortune in service and gas going from here to there trying to get it activated. First they said to go to a town about 25min away from home. I did this and no dice. I called them twice using a wifi app (hangouts) and spent about 4 hours in this town trying to get the activation to work to no avail. I called again from home and was told to go to another town about an hour away. The next day I did just that. They had me dial *22891 *22801 this time activation went smooth and I was able to use data and make and receive calls perfectly. If I had known this in the closer town it would have worked there but the rep never told me that. To top things off when I got home I had no service at all. Zip None. When I called I was told that a BYOP android phone would not roam on the regional towers although a feature phone would. I was also told incorrectly I believe that if I had purchased an android tracfone from a local store that it would roam. This too from what I've read is incorrect. No android tracfone will roam on regional towers, they will only work on genuine verizon towers. I was hoping to purchase the moto e from ebay with a 400min card which tripled to 1200 min for 99 bucks. This would have been a great deal since the 400 min card alone is around 90. I never did find out the entire truth about roaming with tracfone android phones. But from what I read on the other forum and another site dedicated to tracfones, that they would not roam period. What a freaking ripoff. The same goes for a lot of other MVNO's they simply won't roam. Even Verizon perpaid phones won't work on any towers other than verizon. Again, this came from someone who supposedly had experience with this.
The bottom line is beware of MVNO's if you require roaming. Straight talk may or may not work I do not know if they roam or not. But either way selectel was cheaper. Granted it sucks that I can't get data when roaming but at least I can make and receive calls and texts. At least SMS. I haven't tried MMS and I'm guessing it won't work due to it requiring data. Remember your results may vary and I'd certainly like to hear from others who use a MVNO that is Verizon based. Or even MVNO that is ATT based ATT's coverage map says there's coverage in my area, and i know there is across the stateline where I live. A friend used to have an ATT phone a few years back and he had zero service when he crossed the line by about a half a mile, probably out of range of the ATT tower. He now has NET10 using ATT and has the same coverage.
Good luck and keep me posted please on this.
Thanks
I don't wunt page plus i need to be able to use on verizons prepayed network... can the i535 be flashed to prepayed verizon.. or is there some way to use a verizon sim to get prepayed please let me know thank you
Sent from my LG-VS410PP using XDA Free mobile app
I have the Sprint HTC U11, so am I stuck on only Sprint with this phone? The phone is currently rooted, with an unlocked bootloader. Can I pay it off, unlock it, flash another carrier radio/rom/etc and be on a better network, and fully functional using all frequency bands for that carrier? I read somewhere the hardware is the same for Sprint and Unlocked variants, has this been confirmed? I really hope there is a way to take this phone somewhere else, since the only carrier that offers it on installments is unfortunately Sprint. I initially tried to buy the thing through HTC.com using the PayPal finance option, but they did not approve me for whatever reason.
I have never had Sprint until the HTC U11 and if the U11 were offered via carrier installments on ANY other carrier, I still wouldn't have picked Sprint. I thought I knew what to expect from their so called "coverage" but wow was I mistaken. To call their service bad is a profound understatement. I have never hated a cellular carrier so much until now. Not only is their network coverage spotty, slow and ill, when the power goes out, so does the Sprint service, which leaves me completely helpless in a potential emergency situation.
Check out this thread here for SIM Unlock
https://forum.xda-developers.com/u11/how-to/sprint-sim-unlock-t3619042
Does the power go out a lot where you live? If the power outage is large scale and being close to a cell tower of course your coverage would be affected, that's no fault of Sprint. been a Sprint customer for over 20 years, but I guess living in the Tri-state area coverage is not an issue for me.
the Sprint U11 does have the same hardware, but you would need S-OFF (not available yet) to change CID/MID & flash another RUU or firmware, or you could do what schmeggy929 recommended & unlock SIM then use another carriers SIM for service.
Storms are frequent here, so yes. However Sprints tower is visible from my house and I get full signal. On Vzw, and Tmo I never had a great signal but when the power went out I'd still be able to use it even with a low signal. Sprint I can't even call 911 during power outages, the signal vanishes and I can't even roam to dial 911... If I sim unlock the phone will it get proper frequency bands for other carriers without flashing firmware and a rom, etc? I figured not having S-off would prevent me from using all the necessary bands, it's been a while since I had to do something like this... I hope we get S-off soon.
I have T-Mobile, they will buy you out of your contract with Sprint. I have brought over several family members from other carriers to T-Mobile and they love it. I would suggest calling T-Mobile and seeing what your options are. Once you unlock the SIM you can use with whatever carrier.
Sprint may not be too great in your area, but in my area I get great speed and coverage. My work phone is with Verizon, it is no better.
Sent from my unknown using XDA Labs
If it worked well enough to justify the price I'd keep it. After losing signal in and outdoors in more places than I could count, and after being in several areas where 5 bars of signal resulted in 56k dial up speeds I was irritated. But after talking to customer service yesterday, I'm done with them. 1% within Verizon or hell even Tmobile, it's an absolute lie. If Sprint won't even own up to their own problems with power outages causing service to vanish, then they're never going to improve. CS was rude and insulting repeatedly the last several times too, insisting that their coverage was supreme and I was somehow wrong.
We all know 5G is garbage, 4G is fine and 80mb down was fine, but we bought two $1400 paperweights. I even disabled 5G and I have 2 bars and drop calls EVERYWHERE.
Sprint told me that there was an issue getting sprint people on Tmobile and that I needed to go to Tmobile and have them wipe my phone and put a Tmobile Sim.
I'm not comfortable with this but I'm pissed that I'm stuck with this ****ty service. Every time I pass a cell tower my call drops and I have no "mobile network" for miles. Sprint swears getting a Tmobile Sim will fix it but Tmobile has always been a crappy carrier and NO ONE around here has ever had it.
Is doing this a bad idea? I'm told we can't go back to sprint if they do this switch..
Thank you
AprilAr said:
We all know 5G is garbage, 4G is fine and 80mb down was fine, but we bought two $1400 paperweights. I even disabled 5G and I have 2 bars and drop calls EVERYWHERE.
Sprint told me that there was an issue getting sprint people on Tmobile and that I needed to go to Tmobile and have them wipe my phone and put a Tmobile Sim.
I'm not comfortable with this but I'm pissed that I'm stuck with this ****ty service. Every time I pass a cell tower my call drops and I have no "mobile network" for miles. Sprint swears getting a Tmobile Sim will fix it but Tmobile has always been a crappy carrier and NO ONE around here has ever had it.
Is doing this a bad idea? I'm told we can't go back to sprint if they do this switch..
Thank you
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Don't know where you are, but around here (southwest Missouri), Sprint has always been very spotty. I've had T-Mo for the last five years and have used it all over Oklahoma and Missouri. Ive used in in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. Chicago, Illinois. Northern Arkansas. Parts of Kentucky. Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee. Birmingham, Alabama. Orlando, Melbourne, Tamba Bay, and Clearwater, Florida. And all the roads connecting those places. And I've had great luck with T-Mobile. There's dead spots for sure, but for awhile my work phone was ATT, my personal was T-Mobile, and my hotspot was Verizon. They usually all had the same service and dead spots in the same areas.
AprilAr said:
We all know 5G is garbage, 4G is fine and 80mb down was fine, but we bought two $1400 paperweights. I even disabled 5G and I have 2 bars and drop calls EVERYWHERE.
Sprint told me that there was an issue getting sprint people on Tmobile and that I needed to go to Tmobile and have them wipe my phone and put a Tmobile Sim.
I'm not comfortable with this but I'm pissed that I'm stuck with this ****ty service. Every time I pass a cell tower my call drops and I have no "mobile network" for miles. Sprint swears getting a Tmobile Sim will fix it but Tmobile has always been a crappy carrier and NO ONE around here has ever had it.
Is doing this a bad idea? I'm told we can't go back to sprint if they do this switch..
Thank you
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Sprint *is* t-mobile now. If you're on sprint you're on t-mobile and the company is going to try to make them one-in-the-same moving forward. You're basically saying that you don't want a sprint/t-mobile SIM and want to stick with your sprint/t-mobile SIM. They own all the same towers now so service is the same. They likely mean just get a newer SIM with the newer 4G and 5G support, a SIM that can use *all* the tower types.... It doesn't matter if it's "t mobile" or "sprint". They are the same thing now. If you walk into a sprint store. It's a T-Mobile store. You are already on t-mobile's service, it's just with an outdated SIM that can only use older sprint towers. The new SIM also would support the newer iterations of "4G" and have better coverage. 4G or 5G doesn't matter so much as you're going to want a new sim regardless for maximum service coverage in either.
AprilAr said:
We all know 5G is garbage,
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No, we don't.
Tmobile has always been a crappy carrier
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I've had T-Mobile for several years and I'm pleased with their coverage, customer service, and price.
I have sprint service and after the galaxy note 20 ultra software update, my signal had been spotty on 5g. I went to settings, then general management, then reset, then reset network setting. After I did that, my signal and internet speed has been great. Warning, you will lose all your saved wifi and Bluetooth pairings, but you can set all of them back up. It's worth it.
Time to move on to another carrier , you have plenty of choices in america ??
I read verizon was refarming their network for better coverage. But hey all carriers claim this bs anyway.
Gary02468 said:
No, we don't.
I've had T-Mobile for several years and I'm pleased with their coverage, customer service, and price.
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I'm glad your 5G signal gives you more than 2mg download, in West Virginia it does not. Nor does it work in Virginia, Maryland or Washington DC but 4G is flawless.
Thanks for the responses everyone. Tmobile doesn't work well in West Virginia and Sprint has always been the go to.
I feel as if I was misled. I recorded the conversation where they said "Sprint towers remain online, we will only be inheriting Tmobile towers." but all Sprint towers went offline here hence no service and only being on roam 24/7.
That night, we dropped $2800 on branded phones. I'm about to just unlock it, root it, get rid of the bloatware and hope for the best.
As of right now, I received a $300 account credit as we do not have service here and they can see on the map where it's black. I hope they get it together and are able to fix the network by the time the credit runs out. Worst case scenario a manager in corporate did agree to cancel our contracts and return the phones even though we got them on launch day. I'll have to wait and see how things pan out.
Totes sucks lol almost faster than my home internet. I have an unlocked running a sprint sim, I only seem to get tmo bands anymore very rarely do I pick up sprint bands even with a sprint airrave device nearby
AprilAr said:
I'm glad your 5G signal gives you more than 2mg download[. ]In West Virginia it does not. Nor does it work in Virginia, Maryland or Washington DC but 4G is flawless.
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I do see now when I look at the T-Mobile coverage map that there are huge black regions that I'm pretty sure weren't previously depicted. I haven't had difficulty yet myself, but I'm sorry you're without coverage.
I feel as if I was misled. I recorded the conversation where they said "Sprint towers remain online, we will only be inheriting Tmobile towers." but all Sprint towers went offline here hence no service and only being on roam 24/7.
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Keeping a record of tech conversations is indeed good (online chat rather that voice works best). But even better is to never trust assurances by tech reps, because they're often not knowledgeable and may pass along rumors or made-up answers. If they tell you something important, ask politely how they know and where you can find confirmation. (That's actually a good practice when dealing with almost anyone about almost anything important.)
TMO = T hird world M obile O perations.
Even more insult to injury for us USA users as we cannot get a proper dual SIM device that will work with two carriers. I have TMO and Verizon. I've been able to use two lines from these carriers since 2018 on my iPhone XS Max. Even though Samsung claims the S20 Ultra and Note 20 Ultra have esim capability they simply don't work in this fashion.