Best USA prepaid SIM for very occasional data use? - Page 2

inquisitor · 02-01-2013, 21:12

That one supports UMTS on 850, 900, 1900 and 2100 Mhz, of which only 850 and 1900 MHz are used in the US. Apart from few regional carriers only AT&T and T-Mobile run UMTS on these frequencies, though T-Mobile has only recently started deploying UMTS to their 1900MHz spectrum and so coverage is limited. For an indicative coverage map of T-Mobile's UMTS1900 network see Sightings of T-Mobile 3G/4G/HSPA+ coverage on 1900MHz (PCS/UMTS band II)

Stu · 02-01-2013, 21:16

Many of those locations just went live within the last ten days. TMobile is making this refarming operation a priority.

It is hard to say what is acceptable for this individual. He is talking about occasionally use and he'll probably be ok with it if he lives in Florida and unhappy if he lives in Indiana.

inquisitor · 03-01-2013, 00:30

You shoud be aware that what T-Mobile USA calls 3G and 4G is in fact the very same network using the same radio technology called UMTS, which originally provided data rates of just 0.384 MBit/s but was increased over the time using backward-compatible enhanced data transmission modes called HSPA and HSPA+. At some point T-Mobile decided that, despite everybody else calls UMTS networks "3G" regardless of which HSPA category has been implemented, they should market their network as 4G where it supports 42 MBit/s. Unfortunately they were even ablte to convince the ITU to accept this misnomer.
That said your Galaxy Tablet will work flawlessly on what T-Mobile calls a 4G network, you will simply not get more than 21 MBit/s because your device doesn't support more. Even if it supported those 42 Mbit/s I doubt you would observe a difference as long as you don't start huge downloads in the middle of the night when the local network is uncongested.
The real fourth generation technology which deserves to be called 4G is LTE which at this time is still pretty immature and at this time offers little to no advantage over UMTS. So don't get fooled by the worldwide 4G hype.

rfranzq · **Other Possibilities -** 03-01-2013, 00:34

Depending on how soon you need this, there is supposed to be another option this 'January'.
Ultra Mobile's Ultra rate is [supposedly as found in their printed material] 4.9c/MB for data.

I am working on a post for here about 5 newish T-Mobile MVNOs.
One reason I am holding back is one is supposed to have PAYGO in 'January'. With 4.9c/MB data.

	(#1)
inquisitor (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Professionist Posts: 1,399 Join Date: 15 Nov 2006 Country:	02-01-2013, 21:12 That one supports UMTS on 850, 900, 1900 and 2100 Mhz, of which only 850 and 1900 MHz are used in the US. Apart from few regional carriers only AT&T and T-Mobile run UMTS on these frequencies, though T-Mobile has only recently started deploying UMTS to their 1900MHz spectrum and so coverage is limited. For an indicative coverage map of T-Mobile's UMTS1900 network see Sightings of T-Mobile 3G/4G/HSPA+ coverage on 1900MHz (PCS/UMTS band II) terminals: Samsung: Galaxy S5 DuoS (G900FD); BLU: Win HD LTE; Nokia: 1200; Asus: Fonepad 7 ME372CG; Huawei data: E3372, Vodafone R201, K3765, E1762; postpaid: O2 on Business XL; prepaid: DE: Aldi Talk, Lidl; UK: 3; BG: MTel, vivacom; RU: MTS; RS: MTS; UAE: du Tourist SIM; INT'L: toggle mobile VoIP: sipgate.de (German DID); sipgate.co.uk (British DID); ukddi.com (British DID); sipcall.ch (Swiss DID); megafon.bg (Bulgarian DID); InterVoip.com

	(#2)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	02-01-2013, 21:16 Many of those locations just went live within the last ten days. TMobile is making this refarming operation a priority. It is hard to say what is acceptable for this individual. He is talking about occasionally use and he'll probably be ok with it if he lives in Florida and unhappy if he lives in Indiana.

	(#3)
inquisitor (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Professionist Posts: 1,399 Join Date: 15 Nov 2006 Country:	03-01-2013, 00:30 You shoud be aware that what T-Mobile USA calls 3G and 4G is in fact the very same network using the same radio technology called UMTS, which originally provided data rates of just 0.384 MBit/s but was increased over the time using backward-compatible enhanced data transmission modes called HSPA and HSPA+. At some point T-Mobile decided that, despite everybody else calls UMTS networks "3G" regardless of which HSPA category has been implemented, they should market their network as 4G where it supports 42 MBit/s. Unfortunately they were even ablte to convince the ITU to accept this misnomer. That said your Galaxy Tablet will work flawlessly on what T-Mobile calls a 4G network, you will simply not get more than 21 MBit/s because your device doesn't support more. Even if it supported those 42 Mbit/s I doubt you would observe a difference as long as you don't start huge downloads in the middle of the night when the local network is uncongested. The real fourth generation technology which deserves to be called 4G is LTE which at this time is still pretty immature and at this time offers little to no advantage over UMTS. So don't get fooled by the worldwide 4G hype. terminals: Samsung: Galaxy S5 DuoS (G900FD); BLU: Win HD LTE; Nokia: 1200; Asus: Fonepad 7 ME372CG; Huawei data: E3372, Vodafone R201, K3765, E1762; postpaid: O2 on Business XL; prepaid: DE: Aldi Talk, Lidl; UK: 3; BG: MTel, vivacom; RU: MTS; RS: MTS; UAE: du Tourist SIM; INT'L: toggle mobile VoIP: sipgate.de (German DID); sipgate.co.uk (British DID); ukddi.com (British DID); sipcall.ch (Swiss DID); megafon.bg (Bulgarian DID); InterVoip.com

	(#4)
rfranzq (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Specialist Posts: 774 Join Date: 21 Apr 2009 Country:	Other Possibilities - 03-01-2013, 00:34 Depending on how soon you need this, there is supposed to be another option this 'January'. Ultra Mobile's Ultra rate is [supposedly as found in their printed material] 4.9c/MB for data. I am working on a post for here about 5 newish T-Mobile MVNOs. One reason I am holding back is one is supposed to have PAYGO in 'January'. With 4.9c/MB data.