Re: 5G map

On 4/6/2022 8:44 PM, RJH wrote:
> On 7 Apr 2022 at 2:03:44 AM, nospam <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> unlimited *2g* speeds. keep in mind that it's *free*.
> 
> Thank you for those figures.
> 
> It's not fair for him to say bad things about one carrier whose unlimited
> data is free while the other carriers charge $10 a day for faster data.
> 
> How much is the same slow data on those other carriers (AT&T & Verizon)?

No included slow data on AT&T or Verizon.

"Free" is not the really the right adjective. "Included" is the right 
adjective.

It is true that T-Mobile tries to compensate for their other issues by 
including extras. Besides the included international SMS and 2G data, 
you also get basic Netflix and "T-Mobile Tuesday" giveaways and 
discounts which in the past have included discounted movie tickets, free 
Taco Bell tacos, free blankets, free bento boxes, a free Burger King 
Whopper, etc. (see <https://www.tmonews.com/tag/t-mobile-tuesdays> for a 
list of past deals).

It's not unfair to point out the fact that the 2G data is so slow that 
it's not much benefit when traveling, and I've personally experienced 
this on T-Mobile, as well as having been on two trips where I ended up 
letting others tether to my phone's hotspot which provided high speed 
data because they could not use the low-speed data for applications like 
Facebook or for sending photos.

128 Kb/s or 256 Kb/s might have been fine when all people did was send 
e-mail, but if you want to web browse, use a navigation application that 
depends on data, or send photos, then it would not be practical.

Experienced travelers, paying for their own service, will buy a prepaid 
SIM card for the country or region they are visiting. This has become 
much easier and more practical, as well as less expensive, with the 
advent of eSIMs since there's no need to search for a prepaid SIM card 
when you arrive in a country or order one online from Amazon where the 
cost will be much higher. These are data-only cards but with the advent 
of VOIP this is not a big deal. What you want to do, before you leave on 
a trip, is to forward your native mobile number to your Google Voice 
number. You can also receive SMS on your Google Voice number, but you 
can't send SMS to foreign numbers using Google Voice. However this is of 
little consequence in most countries since SMS is not widely used, 
people use WhatsApp (Europe, India, Central and South America) or WeChat 
(China), or Line (Taiwan), or Viber.

Since all recent vintage iPhones support eSIMs, it's easy to try it out. 
For Android phones that lack eSIM support you can add eSIM support for 
less than $25 (2 eSIM profiles) <https://esim.me/>.