XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.mobile.android   
   From: Ancient-of-Days@Heaven.Net   
      
   sms  asked   
   > The consumers that lack the critical thinking skills to evaluate   
   > coverage and reliability are the legal prey of companies that talk only   
   > about speed.   
      
   Am I getting a good deal or a terrible deal or the same deal as you get?   
      
   I'm not sure if I'm one of those customers who lack the critical thinking   
   skills you speak of, but I consider myself relatively intelligent (I have   
   very high test scores on every standardized test I ever took, for example).   
      
   I chose T-Mobile in the Santa Cruz mountains, which, admittedly, are in the   
   boonies (we have no cable, no water, no sewage, no gas for example). They   
   don't want to add infrastructure so we're zoned for 40 acres [16.2 hectares,   
   1.742e+6 sq feet] which means if you have 79 acres [32 hectares, 3.441x10^6   
   sq feet], you can still put only one house on that lot.   
      
   The only services we have are power and electrical (and phone but nobody has   
   a landline anymore) where it all must be underground from the last pole on   
   the street the house where nothing can be built within 100 feet of the road.   
      
   Given the fact I'm in the boonies, my numbers will likely be lower than   
   youers, where this is real time ad hoc signal strength data from my home.   
       
      
   Roughly, when I turn off the internal towers inside my house, I get in the   
   mid to high negative nineties on cellular signal strength (dBm).   
      
   Here is real time technical data on signal speed at home on my phone (Mbps).   
       
   Roughly, when I'm on 5G, I get around 100Mbps to about 300Mbps speeds.   
      
   When I'm on LTE, it seems to be about half the 5G speeds (they fluctuate).   
       
      
   The data is "unlimited" and it never stops, but T-Mobile says that they can   
   throttle if I go over 50GB/month on any one "congested tower", but that's   
   not going to happen anytime soon (I use about 1GB to 3GB a month lately).   
      
   The key point is that I'm miles from any carriers' cell tower (maybe ten by   
   road but maybe only four or so by LOS) so my signal should be as bad as   
   anyone's signal would be for a residential (but definitely rural) area.   
      
   Luckily the phone can roam for free as long as it can see any compatible   
   tower, whether I'm in the USA or traveling in Europe (I didn't check Canada   
   or Mexico).   
      
   I forgot to mention the free tethering/hotspotting (they call it the same   
   thing even as they're quite different to me) is only 5GB/month in the USA   
   and 0GB/month in Europe.   
      
   Overall, I think that explains my situation where I wonder if I'm one of   
   those people you speak of who don't evaluate the entire picture (based on my   
   needs).   
      
   How does your mobile plan & coverage & speed compare with mine?   
   Am I getting a good deal or a terrible deal or the same deal as you get?   
   --   
   Note I live in paradise so I don't vacation elsewhere as I can just hike in   
   the mountains and that's something most people have to drive to get to.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)