Develop Bugs

Does T-mobile GS3 work on ATT HSPA+?

Hi, im new, 2nd post (1st thread)
So heres some background info, I have AT&T but i work for t-mobile. Had my AT&T GS2 phone stolen by a t-mobile customer and the company I work for are great people and decided to replace my GS2 with a t-mobile gs3 for $100. They even offered me a dealer line to go with it (I get unlimited everything [NO THROTTLING] for $22 a month)
So heres my question. I know for sure that it wouldnt connect to AT&T LTE but for whatever reason if I decide to unlock and use it on my AT&T plan, does it have the proper bands required to connect to AT&T's HSPA+ network or would I be running edge?
I know all iphone's used on T-Mobile only run EDGE. (Coming later this fall they will be able to connect to t-mobile's 4g HSPA+ network)
Anybody have a clue?

I'm pretty sure it would work on atnt 3g speeds
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

It will work. The T999 has support for 1900 Mhz hspa+, which is the AT&T band.

Thanks. Much appreciated.

Confirmed working. I unlocked my T999. I have 2 sim cards, StraightTalk and Tmobile monthly 4G. I travel a lot, so depending on which carrier gives me the best signal that's what I would use. Usually, StraightTalk would give me the better signals...although Tmobile still gives me faster data speeds. just thought id share .02.

2Phonez said:
Hi, im new, 2nd post (1st thread)
So heres some background info, I have AT&T but i work for t-mobile. Had my AT&T GS2 phone stolen by a t-mobile customer and the company I work for are great people and decided to replace my GS2 with a t-mobile gs3 for $100. They even offered me a dealer line to go with it (I get unlimited everything [NO THROTTLING] for $22 a month)
So heres my question. I know for sure that it wouldnt connect to AT&T LTE but for whatever reason if I decide to unlock and use it on my AT&T plan, does it have the proper bands required to connect to AT&T's HSPA+ network or would I be running edge?
I know all iphone's used on T-Mobile only run EDGE. (Coming later this fall they will be able to connect to t-mobile's 4g HSPA+ network)
Anybody have a clue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but i think is funny that you wotk for tmobile and get att instead lol, i would do it too,att has better service im on tmobile cause is cheaper tho
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Tmobile has a faster 4g network where im at (New Jersey)

22 dollars? What crazy plan is this
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

babymatteo said:
Confirmed working. I unlocked my T999. I have 2 sim cards, StraightTalk and Tmobile monthly 4G. I travel a lot, so depending on which carrier gives me the best signal that's what I would use. Usually, StraightTalk would give me the better signals...although Tmobile still gives me faster data speeds. just thought id share .02.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I'm waking up this thread as I have the T999 phone and recently switched to Straight Talk SIM (AT&T).
I only get EDGE on the phone using my Straight Talk SIM.
Is there anything I need to do with the phone? It runs the latest stock, not rooted or modified as such. It is carrier unlocked.

I unlocked my t999 and using it on my contract att plan, getting hspa+ atm, just check the bands that it supports, which are 850mhz 1900mhz for att's 3.5g(not 4g) LTE is 4G.

elaxsjo said:
Hi, I'm waking up this thread as I have the T999 phone and recently switched to Straight Talk SIM (AT&T).
I only get EDGE on the phone using my Straight Talk SIM.
Is there anything I need to do with the phone? It runs the latest stock, not rooted or modified as such. It is carrier unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got straight talk att and I get hspa+.
Sent from my Calculator with Android.

jose makalolot said:
I also got straight talk att and I get hspa+.
Sent from my Calculator with Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What apn settings do you use? I plugged my ATT sim into an unlocked SGH-T999 today with the ST APN settings and only get 3G. Speed isn't bad - 1164k down/1041 up, but I would like to tap into the HSPA+ if possible.

[Q] GT-N7100 incorrectly shows roaming on T-Mobile USA

Hi,
I just received an unlocked International Galaxy Note II in the US. Ordered from Handtec in the UK, and the phone appears to be the French model. I have observed what I think is a problem when trying to use the phone on T-Mobile USA.
I put my T-Mobile USA SIM card in the phone, and the phone thinks I am roaming. Uhhhh no. It's a T-Mobile USA SIM card on the T-Mobile USA network. It is NOT roaming. Now, it probably doesn't have any impact beyond the "R" notifier, and a "Roaming" page which shows up on TouchWiz, but it DOES make me feel very uneasy. I have to enable "Data use while roaming" to be able to use data while on my home network!! It's crazy!
To those who will point out, yes, I know that T-Mobile USA has their 3G currently on the AWS 1700/2100 band, which the Note II does not support. I am therefore using EDGE with this phone. (Yes the data speeds suck, but T-Mobile's refarming will make this problem go away in the next few months). Even though I am on EDGE, I am not "roaming" unless the Note II's definition of roaming is different from mine. I am still on the home network, regardless of whether I am on 2G or 3G.
Has anyone else seen a problem like this?
If I can't figure this out in the next day or two, I may return the Note II and just wait another month or so for the T-Mobile US version. (Probably that's what I should do anyway, but I figured the GT-N7100 would get more developer support).
Hope someone can help!
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to add - I also have and unlocked international Note 1 GT-N7000 and an unlocked iPhone 4. Neither possess the T-Mobile USA 3G band, and neither of which show roaming when I'm using T-Mobile USA. So, either T-Mobile did some funky network work today which changed something, or there is something different (and possibly a bug) about how the Galaxy Note II determines if it's roaming.

Unfortunately I cannot be of any assistance to your issue, just wanted to comment however. I find it very odd that ALL Note II's don't work on every frequency. Bear with me, I'm under the impression that they are identical hardware wise, every version. So, maybe it's a simple matter of flashing a different radio.img? Not that there are any available currently, but there will be shortly. I hope (think) it will be similar to the ATT Note on Tmo. Hopefully it works out better though. We still don't know if the Tmo Note II will be HSPA+42 or not, but it will support next years Tmo LTE.
So, as of now, this is a little bit of a disappointment for Tmo customers looking for the N7100. Hope you can find a workaround for at least HSPA+21 soon :good:

ccampbell1 said:
Hi,
I just received an unlocked International Galaxy Note II in the US. Ordered from Handtec in the UK, and the phone appears to be the French model. I have observed what I think is a problem when trying to use the phone on T-Mobile USA.
I put my T-Mobile USA SIM card in the phone, and the phone thinks I am roaming. Uhhhh no. It's a T-Mobile USA SIM card on the T-Mobile USA network. It is NOT roaming. Now, it probably doesn't have any impact beyond the "R" notifier, and a "Roaming" page which shows up on TouchWiz, but it DOES make me feel very uneasy. I have to enable "Data use while roaming" to be able to use data while on my home network!! It's crazy!
To those who will point out, yes, I know that T-Mobile USA has their 3G currently on the AWS 1700/2100 band, which the Note II does not support. I am therefore using EDGE with this phone. (Yes the data speeds suck, but T-Mobile's refarming will make this problem go away in the next few months). Even though I am on EDGE, I am not "roaming" unless the Note II's definition of roaming is different from mine. I am still on the home network, regardless of whether I am on 2G or 3G.
Has anyone else seen a problem like this?
If I can't figure this out in the next day or two, I may return the Note II and just wait another month or so for the T-Mobile US version. (Probably that's what I should do anyway, but I figured the GT-N7100 would get more developer support).
Hope someone can help!
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to add - I also have and unlocked international Note 1 GT-N7000 and an unlocked iPhone 4. Neither possess the T-Mobile USA 3G band, and neither of which show roaming when I'm using T-Mobile USA. So, either T-Mobile did some funky network work today which changed something, or there is something different (and possibly a bug) about how the Galaxy Note II determines if it's roaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That happened to me as well using my International Galaxy S3, I dug into it for about a month and trust me, it's something with the phone detecting that it can't connect to the HSPA+ bands it supports, and when it "defaults" down to EDGE it considers it "Roaming". Stop digging for answers, I was at it for weeks, this is the reason.
You wont get charged for roaming or anything though, so use EDGE until T-Mobile's refarming finally happens; I waited for 2 months and nothing, so I jumped ship and got Straight Talk. I use over 15 GB of data a month, no throttling, $45 bucks. :good:
Hope this helps, because NO ONE gave me a straight answer, Dont even bother calling T-Mobile, they're of absolutely no help. I flashed all sorts of custom ROMs, Kernels, Network Tools, Diagnostics, etc. trying to figure it out. It's just the way these Samsung phones (GT-I9300 and N7100 by the looks of it) work when their 3G/HSPA+ bands are not supported.
Cheers!

farfromovin said:
Unfortunately I cannot be of any assistance to your issue, just wanted to comment however. I find it very odd that ALL Note II's don't work on every frequency. Bear with me, I'm under the impression that they are identical hardware wise, every version. So, maybe it's a simple matter of flashing a different radio.img? Not that there are any available currently, but there will be shortly. I hope (think) it will be similar to the ATT Note on Tmo. Hopefully it works out better though. We still don't know if the Tmo Note II will be HSPA+42 or not, but it will support next years Tmo LTE.
So, as of now, this is a little bit of a disappointment for Tmo customers looking for the N7100. Hope you can find a workaround for at least HSPA+21 soon :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
farfromovin,
I agree it's a complete pain why one model can't work worldwide - or even between carriers in one country, the US!! I'm not sure that all the revisions are the exact same hardware though. Certainly the different revisions will support different LTE bands from one another, different 3G bands (ie T-Mobile USA) and even different technologies (VZW, Sprint, US Cellular CDMA). Whether there is one uber radio chip that's the same in all versions, with different bits enabled here and there, I don't know. I would doubt that a chip currently exists to support all GSM, UMTS, LTE and CDMA bands in the one, but you never know.
I really cannot wait (getting super sick of it) until T-Mobile's 1900MHz refarming, and finally all UMTS/HSPA phones will work on pretty much any UMTS/HSPA network worldwide. But just as we finally get 3G harmony, LTE comes along with a zillion different bands, and we're back to where we were at the start of GSM, and the start of UMTS - all over again.
As far as getting the GT-N7100 to work on T-Mobile AWS bands - unless the radio supports that band somewhere, and can be enabled by some hacky flashing, I don't think there's much chance. I followed a thread for a while which was trying to do that for the original GT-N7000 and it ended up nowhere unfortunately.
I'd be very, very surprised if the T-Mobile US official Note II did not support DC-HSPA +42. Given how TMO pushes that, I don't think they'd sell a phone without it these days. I'm kind of surprised the GT-N7100 doesn't have it, to be honest, but I guess it's not yet that widespread, and most carriers will bypass it to go to LTE.
Cheers!

Ars-Hexis said:
That happened to me as well using my International Galaxy S3, I dug into it for about a month and trust me, it's something with the phone detecting that it can't connect to the HSPA+ bands it supports, and when it "defaults" down to EDGE it considers it "Roaming". Stop digging for answers, I was at it for weeks, this is the reason.
You wont get charged for roaming or anything though, so use EDGE until T-Mobile's refarming finally happens; I waited for 2 months and nothing, so I jumped ship and got Straight Talk. I use over 15 GB of data a month, no throttling, $45 bucks. :good:
Hope this helps, because NO ONE gave me a straight answer, Dont even bother calling T-Mobile, they're of absolutely no help. I flashed all sorts of custom ROMs, Kernels, Network Tools, Diagnostics, etc. trying to figure it out. It's just the way these Samsung phones (GT-I9300 and N7100 by the looks of it) work when their 3G/HSPA+ bands are not supported.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Ars-Hexis,
Thanks so much for the reply. I googled about the same issue on the i9300 as you mentioned - and sure enough a couple of threads on androidcentral, and tmobile support - and all with pretty much a bunch of people going "what?" I think you're right, and this is either some crazy change which Samsung has made to the "S3" generation of phones, or it's an unintended bug which was introduced. I contacted Samsung support on twitter but I'm sure they'll tell me to go away since this is an international model and not sold or supported in the US.
I would love to have this properly reported to Samsung though because it is NOT correct behaviour, and I'm sure it does not meet the 3GPP standard behaviour. These phones' definition of "roaming" is frankly wrong. It's possible they know about the bug but don't care about it too much, because it only affects the minority of importers or travelers, and then only on the very few networks which use AWS band for 3G.
The phone and data works fine of course, so it's really a cosmetic annoyance. However, if I was actually outside TMO's network without knowing it (maybe camping on to some network on the Canadian border or something) then I'd never know if I was actually roaming or not. So the phone's roaming indicator, by being permanently false, is useless in the times when I'm actually roaming. Since this is not a likely scenario for me to be on the Canadian border and roaming onto an AWS-only network any time soon, I'll not worry too much about it.
Yes, I'm really sick waiting on this refarming. It's a huge undertaking of course, so I understand why. I do have a Straight Talk AT&T SIM which I got for my Galaxy Note 1, however I don't use it often for several reasons: haven't ported my number to it, am wary about data throttling or cut-off, and I find the data hit or miss on Straight Talk anyway. I heard stories about people being warned or cut off after 100MB in any day, but if you're saying 15GB and no throttling, it may be something I want to put to the test!
Thanks a lot for your reply! It's nice to know I'm not crazy!
Cheers!

ccampbell1 said:
Hey Ars-Hexis,
Thanks so much for the reply. I googled about the same issue on the i9300 as you mentioned - and sure enough a couple of threads on androidcentral, and tmobile support - and all with pretty much a bunch of people going "what?" I think you're right, and this is either some crazy change which Samsung has made to the "S3" generation of phones, or it's an unintended bug which was introduced. I contacted Samsung support on twitter but I'm sure they'll tell me to go away since this is an international model and not sold or supported in the US.
I would love to have this properly reported to Samsung though because it is NOT correct behaviour, and I'm sure it does not meet the 3GPP standard behaviour. These phones' definition of "roaming" is frankly wrong. It's possible they know about the bug but don't care about it too much, because it only affects the minority of importers or travelers, and then only on the very few networks which use AWS band for 3G.
The phone and data works fine of course, so it's really a cosmetic annoyance. However, if I was actually outside TMO's network without knowing it (maybe camping on to some network on the Canadian border or something) then I'd never know if I was actually roaming or not. So the phone's roaming indicator, by being permanently false, is useless in the times when I'm actually roaming. Since this is not a likely scenario for me to be on the Canadian border and roaming onto an AWS-only network any time soon, I'll not worry too much about it.
Yes, I'm really sick waiting on this refarming. It's a huge undertaking of course, so I understand why. I do have a Straight Talk AT&T SIM which I got for my Galaxy Note 1, however I don't use it often for several reasons: haven't ported my number to it, am wary about data throttling or cut-off, and I find the data hit or miss on Straight Talk anyway. I heard stories about people being warned or cut off after 100MB in any day, but if you're saying 15GB and no throttling, it may be something I want to put to the test!
Thanks a lot for your reply! It's nice to know I'm not crazy!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there! Sorry I hadn't answered in such a long time. We'll actually I've found that the S3 (sold it) and the Note 2 (own it) some how cannot be tracked for data usage correctly by straight talk. It's quite interesting... I ported my number over from T-Mobile, so if you have an S3 with a T-mobile prepaid sim... I think you have nothing to lose! I'm in Dallas and regularly get around 3-4Mbits/S during high usage hours and 6-7Mbits/S after 7 pm when network usage goes down.
There have been 2 occasions over the past 2 months where I'm throttled for like an hour and suddenly it gets uncapped on its own (?!?!?) lol. Last month I used about 25 GB... It's insane. Btw, if you if get throttled for real (happened to me once), you can just call them and say your "Internets is slow" (act technologically challenged) and they'll reset it.
Ah 1 last thing: I got the at&T ST sim card when I switched.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-N7100 using XDA Premium HD app

I just got my International Note 2 today, and I am using it on the T-Mobile network also. I am seeing that I am roaming but my data is off and I am just using wifi. I have turned off my phone and back on again and its still showing. But after reading this whole thread I am getting that is a bug or something along those lines is that correct? Thanks.

I really need to know
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

roaming
I am on prepaid tmobile and I have Roaming sign only in areas where I used to loose signal with my old phone . Basically when I go in Garage underground my signal starts getting weaker and weaker and then roaming kiks in and signal is up all the way . T-mobile does not charges for local roaming . If you use USA tmobile and you are in usa you are fine . My texts and voice are still the same rate for me . When I had Chinese rom it was showing all the time , now I flashed German t-mobile and R shows only sometime , but it does not bother me .
Hope this helps .

I too have a Note II (GT-N7100) I purchased in Thailand in December. I use it on the T-Mobile network and have the same issues with the "R" symbol. I am located in Tampa Bay area, Florida.
T-Mobile was indicating to me in January that this was an issue in weaker signal areas for their data network as they prepare to refarm it. Don't know if this explanation is entirely accurate, but I find in my local area that the R symbol goes away in certain areas and it behaves "normally". This includes the area where my T-Mobile office is located. It seems to be somewhat of a patchwork network, and for some reasons certain areas cause it to go into the Roaming mode.
I was just on a trip with stops in Los Amgeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia and noted the same behavior in some of those cities: Getting normal signal indications in some places, and Roaming in others.

[Q] Straight Talk - At&T vs T-mobile Questions

Hi all I have a few questions I am hoping someone can answer. I currently have a At&T i717 Note I am using on Straight Talk with a AT&T sim card.
I am getting ok speeds with it and good indoor building coverage. It is unlocked and I had been using it on contract with T-mobile with much better speeds but I couldn't use it at work being in a concrete hospital low building permeability. I am now trying to decide which Note II to buy that will work for me best.
My questions are as follows:
1. Does the Note II use mini sim, or nano sim like the iphone or normal size like the Note i717. Currently Straight Talk only offers mini sim cards for At&t coverage map and not T-mobile (yet I am contacting them to see if they are planning on offering this).
2. Is it difficult to cut down a sim to be the correct size for the Note II if I do want to buy the T-mobile Note II and use it on Straight Talk (faster speeds in my area).
3. Will the AT&T Note II have the ability to be unlocked and used on HSPA+ on Tmobile with flash of different modems like the Note I was modded to do (or without modding)? Or are the radios/modems already compatible on both At&T and Tmobile HSPA+ networks.
I am kinda confused and unsure of what I should do. I want to sell my Note i717 and use the money for Note II but don't want to make the wrong decision between the two options I have listed. I may end up going back on contract with Tmobile with a family member but I would like not to.
4. One more question not specific to the Note but does anyone have any input on credit checks and down payments for AT&T, I have poor credit from when I was younger and made some stupid financial decisions but my job offers 22% discount for AT&T plans which it would be nice for me to take advantage of being able to then use LTE. It would be a $50 on Straight Talk vs. $75 on AT&T (LTE). I probably would be willing to pay the extra $25 a month if I don't have some outrageous down payment. I will check with AT&T directly when I can but was looking for any input from fellow Note II lovers.
Thanks in advance for any help!
IMPIMMS (AMANDA)

I am currently using the unlocked note 2 on straight talk. I tried to cut down my regular sim ti micro but I failed. So I ordered a new micro sim from straight talk. Speeds are good as is coverage. Average about 6mbps+ Sadly I dont know the answers to your other questions.....hope this helped!
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
---------- Post added at 06:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:44 AM ----------
Also ypu can get a sim cutter on ebay pretty cheap.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

Don't use T-Mobile
I recently signed up for Straight Talk. Since my phone was an unlocked T-Mobile phone, I ordered a Straight Talk SIM. My service is horrible. I rarely get 3G, mostly edge. Even the cell service is poor. I have put a non Straight Talk AT&T SIM in my phone and get a constant 3G. So I have ordered a Straight Talk AT&T SIM; will start using the first of November. Hopefully the bad service I have received is the T-Mobile SIM and not Straight Talk.

Just a heads up I was using my note on straight talk and I wanted to use the SIM in my note 2. The people at my local T-Mobile store were nice enough to cut the SIM for me even though I was not using their service. A lot of their stores have SIM cutters for people who are trying to run iPhones on their network.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

Edge
purplepizza said:
I recently signed up for Straight Talk. Since my phone was an unlocked T-Mobile phone, I ordered a Straight Talk SIM. My service is horrible. I rarely get 3G, mostly edge. Even the cell service is poor. I have put a non Straight Talk AT&T SIM in my phone and get a constant 3G. So I have ordered a Straight Talk AT&T SIM; will start using the first of November. Hopefully the bad service I have received is the T-Mobile SIM and not Straight Talk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats because the unlocked international verion of the phone will only work on the HSPA+ that ATT and Stright talk both have. Consider yourself lucky to see a 3g Signal if your on Tmobile because from my understanding it only works on EDGE with Tmobile:highfive:

purplepizza said:
I recently signed up for Straight Talk. Since my phone was an unlocked T-Mobile phone, I ordered a Straight Talk SIM. My service is horrible. I rarely get 3G, mostly edge. Even the cell service is poor. I have put a non Straight Talk AT&T SIM in my phone and get a constant 3G. So I have ordered a Straight Talk AT&T SIM; will start using the first of November. Hopefully the bad service I have received is the T-Mobile SIM and not Straight Talk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has been posted all over this forum that the international version of the Note 2, if used on T-Mo will only get Edge data in 99% of the nation. The only places where you will see 3G or H+ is in those areas where T-Mobile has already refarmed its 1900 MHz spectrum (because that's the band that the international Note 2 has). I have heard some parts of Washington state, Las Vegas, Chicago and NYC have it.
But if the OP buys the T-Mobile variant, he would be able to get H+ at very good speeds (depending on where he is).

I'm kinda in the same predicament as the OP... I'm using an original at&t note with an At&t straight talk sim card. I would love to go down to tmobile tomorrow and pick up a Note 2 .. unlock it and throw my sim in it.. but will it work? I can wait till Nov. 9th for the At&t version but if they will work the same I'd like to jump on it now.

Does LTE work
I heard it works with Att LTE is that true can anyone confirm?

Ive heard the note 2 for tmobile is the exact same hardware as the at&t. Not sure how accurate this is, i got that from tmonews. So the tmobile variant also has lte support but is disabled i believe.
That being said, if they are the same harfware with just different model#s to identify the carrier, i would think the at&t version should also have hspa compatible with tmobile, but might just be disabled. Again, this is based on what i read in tmonews.com regarding the tmobile version.
Hope this helps

Hey guys,
Not trying to hi-jack this thread but I have a similar question:
I had Windows Phone on the ATT network. I switched to Straight Talk a month ago by just switching out the sim cards. The phone & service worked great except straight talk does not support windows phone because you can't edit the APN setting in Windows Phone because they are automatic. It was time for a new phone anyways so I went on ebay and found a new phone unlocked on the T-mobile network. I put the straight talk sim in the new phone and now I am getting a lot of problems with sending & recieving text etc. The major problem I have is I keep getting a text message that says +1121611611 (2288 Error Invalid Number, Please resend using a valid 10 digit mobile number or valid short code. This is continuous day & night and will not stop and runs my battery down. Is it possible that I can't use a T-mobile phone with a AT&T version Straight Talk sim?

Techngro said:
It has been posted all over this forum that the international version of the Note 2, if used on T-Mo will only get Edge data in 99% of the nation. The only places where you will see 3G or H+ is in those areas where T-Mobile has already refarmed its 1900 MHz spectrum (because that's the band that the international Note 2 has). I have heard some parts of Washington state, Las Vegas, Chicago and NYC have it.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that explains why I see 3G in Seattle.

I plan on switching to straight talk in April I want to get a note 2 but I have 4 problems
1. Which company will offer the best service ATT or TM?
2. If I get ($$$) Phone is there a way to get insurance/Warranty that will cover me it in case ANYTHING happens? Would Square Trade Do it?
3. Will all the features work?
4. Which sim card should I get ATT, Straight talk or Tmobile?

spawn1980 said:
I plan on switching to straight talk in April I want to get a note 2 but I have 4 problems
1. Which company will offer the best service ATT or TM?
2. If I get ($$$) Phone is there a way to get insurance/Warranty that will cover me it in case ANYTHING happens? Would Square Trade Do it?
3. Will all the features work?
4. Which sim card should I get ATT, Straight talk or Tmobile?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, why dig up this old thread to post in, it's last post was in October. But I do have to thank you because you obviously did search first.
TMobile is out of the question if you are looking to buy an international Note2 (N7100). You will be only able to use 2G on it unless you are in one of a handful of cities. So if you want to use TMobile, your best option is to buy a TMobile version of the Note2.
As for if you should use TMobile or ATT, no one can answer that for you. You have to talk to people in your area about how their service is, dropped calls and data speeds. As a general rule ATT has better nationwide coverage but there are many places where TMobile has great service and data speeds too.
Insureance, how many times have you dropped your phone in the last year? I put a TPU case on my Note1 and dropped many times and never had it break but some people have them break on the first drop. Up to you, I think it's waste money.

Would love to know if the att note 2 will get lte if on straight talk
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

tmobile note 2 contract is up, can I go no contract with it?
I have a note 2 that I got when I was still under contract, im curious if I can go monthly no contract and still use it. Probably through t mobile still until something better comes along, so I don't have to be locked in a contract. Because it sucked.

I have Note 2 N7100. International unlocked version bought from Newegg in Nov of 2012. I have used Straighttalk (AT&T SIM) the whole time. I have had them cut off my data twice so far because of TOS. Says you cant stream music/video, use P2P, and other crap. Basicly they say you can only browse. But let me be clear, I was using 5GB+ each time they cut me off so yea, it was my fault, I know what unlimited means and it's unlimited. Each month they cut it off, I got it turned back on no issues. Now for the last month, my speed has bee HORRIBLE all month. I have used under 500MB thus far but its bad. My wife, who has Nexus 4 and uses a concistant 500MB - 1GB/month and has her ST account totally seperate has the same issue. So does my neighbor and two co-workers, we are getting horrible speeds for the past month or so. So I am seriously concidering AT&T thier ungoddly bounty for service starting next month. I get a discount at work so it equals out to about $70/month, same as the others. I loved ST but it's gotten really bad...
BTW, I bought a TM SIM from TM last week and it was 2G from work to home. I live in Birmingham AL. there is a few miles of good 3G on the interstate but thats it. Hope this helps

Straight Talk has lost out on AT&T for whatever reason(s). They don't offer the AT&T Sims on their site anymore. There are some left on eBay but the sellers have doubled the price or more. The day is supposedly coming that new AT&T Straight Talk Sims will no longer activate. ST has also downgraded the unlimited data on AT&T to 1.5 GB a month. Tmobile sucks in my area. I hope to never have to use it again.

sholsten said:
Straight Talk has lost out on AT&T for whatever reason(s). They don't offer the AT&T Sims on their site anymore. There are some left on eBay but the sellers have doubled the price or more. The day is supposedly coming that new AT&T Straight Talk Sims will no longer activate. ST has also downgraded the unlimited data on AT&T to 1.5 GB a month. Tmobile sucks in my area. I hope to never have to use it again.
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Where is your source that it is only 1.5 gigabytes with AT&T now
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Here's one
http://androidheadlines.com/2013/02/straight-talks-unlimited-data-not-so-unlimited-anymore.html

so i recently just moved from boston to ohio (44820 zip) while i was in boston i used tmobile. however when i came to ohio i noticed i was always using 2g via att. tmobile has no service in this town. so heres my dilemma...i signed up with sprint and to be honest im (no 4g lte and 3g sucks) wanting to dump them. honestly i will pay the etf for both phones (note 2 and optimus g). i just want out!
so im trying to decide what to do...is straight talk or net 10 the way to go? do they both use att or tmobile. i have searched but if i understand correctly att runs net 10 and straight talk runs tmobile. but do they roam on each other?
any help would be awesome! i truly would love prepaid with unlimited data.
look up my zip and you will see tmobile is a no go. so now its att but which mvno and i need unlimited 3 or 4g...
thanks!!!

Pre paid sim card (USA)

Hello ,
I'm heading over to Miami at the end of march to go to umf and would like to get what I guess is a pre paid sim card for my unlocked note 2. I'm looking for what I would call pay as you go , top it up with some minutes and data. Any price guide lines or carrier recommendations for this?
Thanks,
J
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

I'm also looking into prepaid plans for this phone (gt-n7100, french model). From what I gather, this model will work on AT&T and get hspa+ and it will work on T-mobile and get 2g speeds in most of the country with some (rare) places getting 4-g. You can get straight talk compatible cards designed for phones from either network. The straight-talk AT&T cards have been discontinued, but are still available on ebay for $50ish. There is also a company called net10 that says they support AT&T phones, so you could probably get the hspa+ speeds with them, as well. On straight talk, the data is supposed to be unlimited, but some people are saying AT&T phones get limited to 2GB. On net10, the fine print says something about full-speed data being limited to 1.5GB.
So far, these are the only options I've looked at. I'd be happy to hear about other prepaid sim options in the USA for the GT-n7100.
edit
After some looking around, I see that t-mobile has some project going on where they are "refarming" some of their 2g towers to 1900mhz hspa+. This would allow our phone to operate at better-than-2g speeds. From looking at youtube videos, there's are quite a few people with unlocked phones on t-mobile showing off some pretty good 3g speeds. If you don't happen to be in an area that has been refarmed, you'd be stuck at the 2g speeds. I got ahold of somebody from t-mobile's tech support to ask about which areas have been upgraded so far, and she was a complete idiot. I guess the only way to know if you are in one of the magic areas is to pop in one of their sim cards and see what happens.

Capped at 2G by T-Mobile?

I bought 2x Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phones off newegg for $650 each. These are unlocked phones, specifically, this device:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16875176414
The data service for just about everyone I've tried sucks horribly. I decided to give T-Mobile a try since they offer 4G HSPA+ 42 in this area.
The person in the store says that I can buy prepaid sim cards. I wind up ordering them over the phone since they only cost $1 instead of $30 for a microsim if you order it that way. The website says I can get 2GB of 4G data per month for $60. I pay my $66 and change after tax.
Immediately, I notice I am getting crappy 2G / Edge comparable speeds. I call customer service and they tell me that because the phones are unlocked and not bought from T-Mobile that 2G / Edge is the maximum speed I can get and that 4G speeds are not possible without purchasing a phone direct from T-Mobile. Neither the person in the store, nor the person that sold me the sim over the phone mentioned this and they are refusing a refund.
Is there any truth to what they are saying about not being able to get 4G if I don't purchase direct from the service provider. Are there any work arounds?
I'm burning with rage right now.
Thanks,
-Bob

r0b126 said:
I bought 2x Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phones off newegg for $650 each. These are unlocked phones, specifically, this device:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16875176414
The data service for just about everyone I've tried sucks horribly. I decided to give T-Mobile a try since they offer 4G HSPA+ 42 in this area.
The person in the store says that I can buy prepaid sim cards. I wind up ordering them over the phone since they only cost $1 instead of $30 for a microsim if you order it that way. The website says I can get 2GB of 4G data per month for $60. I pay my $66 and change after tax.
Immediately, I notice I am getting crappy 2G / Edge comparable speeds. I call customer service and they tell me that because the phones are unlocked and not bought from T-Mobile that 2G / Edge is the maximum speed I can get and that 4G speeds are not possible without purchasing a phone direct from T-Mobile. Neither the person in the store, nor the person that sold me the sim over the phone mentioned this and they are refusing a refund.
Is there any truth to what they are saying about not being able to get 4G if I don't purchase direct from the service provider. Are there any work arounds?
I'm burning with rage right now.
Thanks,
-Bob
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They told you right about the Edge. Our phones don't use the band that T-Mobile uses for 3G.

what about 4G? and are there any work arounds for this? How is t-mobile selling the galaxy note 2 to its customers with the 4g service?
Are there any providers that offer faster than 2G / Edge for Galaxy Note 2?
Also, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875176414
I posted a bad link in the original thread earlier

Kno you will have to ... go with Att .. man and there prepaid is not as good as Tmoble ..... Blahhhhhhhhhh that sucks
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

I use Straight Talk with AT&T and it has 3G. Thing is AT&T & ST are parting ways. You can only find Straight Talk AT&T Sim cards on Walmart.com & eBay now, and they're going fast. Straight will only be using T-Mobile and that will suck. I'll change so fast their heads will spin if they try to force me from AT&T to T-Mobile.

Although the International Note II's don't have same bands as Tmobiles HSPA+ and you normally will only get 2g/Edge, if you are one of the lucky ones in a TMobile refarmed area you should get HSPA.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ----------
T-Mobile's version of the Note 2 has the HSPA+/4G band for their specific network which the N7105 doesnt have..
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

Well A) you've bought an n7100 which doesn't support dc-HSDPA anyway so you'd only get up to 21 instead of 42mbps
B) you bought it without checking if it supports the radio bands you need for your carrier, which it doesn't, which is why you're only getting 2g speeds. It's nothing to do with t mobile capping you to 2g
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

r0b126 said:
Immediately, I notice I am getting crappy 2G / Edge comparable speeds. I call customer service and they tell me that because the phones are unlocked and not bought from T-Mobile that 2G / Edge is the maximum speed I can get and that 4G speeds are not possible without purchasing a phone direct from T-Mobile. Neither the person in the store, nor the person that sold me the sim over the phone mentioned this and they are refusing a refund.
Is there any truth to what they are saying about not being able to get 4G if I don't purchase direct from the service provider. Are there any work arounds?
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Click to collapse
Wow, lots of wrong information both there and in this thread.
This is a quick post so some of my numbers might be wrong, but here's the basics:
Two years ago, t-mobile's 3G/4G relied on the 1700 band, which the N7100 doesn't support.
To make a long story short, t-mobile is using 1700 for LTE, and moving their 3G onto the univerally supported 1900 band, which works on our N7100 and most international phones.
This is a gradual rollout. If your area has been 'moved', you'll get 3G. And by gradual I mean one tower at a time.
I don't think they expect full US 1900 3G till end of 2013.
It's only recently that NY had enough 1900 band support that I have now decided to move over to t-mobile.
we might not support 4200, I did some random spot testing and I think I was only getting 2100.
Previously, with my note 1, I had to dump t-mobile and go to AT&T which fully supports 1900.
- Frank

I went to Dallas the other day and brought the Tmobile sim with me. The my speed changed from E to H+ (sometimes 3G) and the data connection was considerably faster than 2g or 3g, but I frequently get a message stating, "You have lost data connectivity because y".... the rest of the message is cut off and I haven't found a way to read the entire thing because touching it brings me to a settings screen and trying to move the text by swiping or sliding clears the message.