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Sunday, October 7, 2012

Simple Mobile vs Straight Talk

Hi this is The Asian Apple God coming at you with two service providers that just may be what you need if you're looking to cut down on cellular costs. T-Mobile has revamped their T-Mobile Girl into a speedy, kickass, icon and Simple Mobile, a cellular company that utilizes T-Mobile's cell towers, have also revamped their cellular service speeds. Straight Talk and Simple Mobile have been known for their iconic "$40" or "$45" unlimited talk, text and data packages. $40 from Simple Mobile and $45 from Straight Talk. But it's that time and age where you just need more money, but don't need to be spending it on high cell phone bills, and you have decided to go a cheaper route. You're stuck between these great companies, and you believe they are the same. Right? Wrong. I mentioned earlier that Simple Mobile utilizes T-Mobile's Cell Towers for Service and data speeds at up to 4G. Straight Talk utilizes AT&T towers for Data Connection. However, Straight talk does not currently support 4G speeds. In order for you to fully utilize Simple Mobile's 3g and 4G data downloads and upload speeds, you will need a T-Mobile 4g approved device. What does this mean EXACTLY? This means that T-Mobile's Phones uses a 1700/2100mhz Band. Something AT&T phones do not support. The HTC one S for example, utilizes 1700/2100mhz band. This means that the device shouldn't have trouble connecting to a 4G signal. However, you will only get 3g and 4G signal where it is provided. Towers are still expanding, however, you still will need to be in a large city such as LA, Portland (OR), NYC, Miami (FL), etc. You can log onto Simple Mobile's Website to see if your area has 3g or 4g or both. What if you have a device that says it's got a 2100mhz band? That still isn't good enough. The device needs to have a 1700/2100 mhz band. Not either or. Now we have that cleared up, lets say you have the flagship HTC One X device from AT&T. That will not work on the Simple Mobile 4G data connection. In fact, the fastest you'd get at download speeds is EDGE. The HTC One X however should work on Straight Talk's network because it utilizes the AT&T towers. iPhone 4 and 4S should work with the Simple Mobile Device, but again, look up your device on Phone Arena or consult your manuel for further information regarding your specific device. Thank you for taking your time to research this, and please understand that if you are getting EDGE on your device, you need to check your bands. If you do not have 1700/2100mhz band, you will not connect to anything higher than EDGE. If that's the case, I would recommend Straight Talk. If they do not provide a micro-sim, you can easily purchase one from Ebay or "eye-ball" it. Although, I do not recommend "guessing" as you may damage your Sim and you may end up needing to purchase another. If you have further questions regarding cellular service and data speeds, I will answer them in my next blog. Thank you and have a great day!