[BBerryPowerUser]

I know you can find fault with any carrier. Some of the threads here show that point clearly.

I was with T-Mobile for 10 years. I joined them when the network was garbage, BUT, they had UMA on Berry, so I lived with poor coverage in trade for being able to get unlimited VOIP from home, office and when traveling- especially in Europe. It was FREE to call the US via UMA when you were in Europe back then with T-Mo although they told you it was not. But over the years, I just couldn't live with the high price (my bill was $200 a month and kept climbing), the poor coverage, and the dropped UMA calls that started after a while. UMA for me was rally losing the shine it once had, as was the whole TMo experience.

SO, I decided to go MVNO and jumped on Simple Mobile because they had Blackberry BIS included at no charge for $40 a month, $35 with prepay with credit card. I lived with them for 4 years. MVNO's don't roam. They have no bells and whistles like Visual Voice Mail or Tethering, and they have very poorly trained Customer Service that sometimes barely speaks English. When I upgraded to a 9900 from a 9780, my account got screwed up and BIS was removed permanently. No one could figure out how to put it back.

So I walked into an ATT store with my unloced 9900 and within 5 minutes had a working ATT BlackBerry 9900. To my surprise it was the easiest thing I had ever done in Cellular. I soon realized that the phone worked EVERYWHERE. At home, at the office, on trips, in my basement, in my car (I drive an all aluminum Audi and cell phones are not good in that car). No more dropped calls? Are you kidding me? I was used to two or three drops a day. Full Bars and 4g just about everywhere? Amazing. Who needs WiFi, other than for saving data for when truly mobile. The only thing I did not like is that I had an unlocked T-Mo phone and could not pull 3g or 4g with it on ATT's network. So I changed to an ATT 9900 and now my world is a happy one.

When I call Customer Service I get someone in America, not India. I get treated like a king. Granted, I'm a small business customer, and maybe that has something to do with it, but I have not had a single problem. And my bill is small. $50 a month for a business account and 1 gig of High speed (plenty for a 9900).

As I posted, I know you can find fault in any carrier. Lord knows I found fault in T-Mo and certainly with Simple Mobile. But all in all, I'm absolutely delighted with ATT.

[scrannel]

Have three lines on t-mo and one on at&t. On t-mo we have one phone on IMS wifi-calling; one on UMA and one on Kineto wifi-calling. Those three lines together cost less than $200/mo (one is backup phone with no data plan). (Average around $195). Have very few dropped calls on any. Wifi-calling kills when we travel. T-mo overseas rate cannot be beat. Hopefully at&t will implement wifi-calling as they claim because our at&t account is expensive, especially overseas.

Oh yeah, when I call t-mo I always get a domestic rep, and they are especially good with BBerry. Never got India. Though, I like India...

[sedalia066]

My family stays with AT&T for customer service. The telephone reps have always been courteous and knowledgeable. Not so much in the stores although the latest bricks and mortar was very good. Our four lines share data with no significant complaints.

C000C6078 Bits for links to world news and views, technology and science postings.

[BBerryPowerUser]

Have three lines on t-mo and one on at&t. On t-mo we have one phone on IMS wifi-calling; one on UMA and one on Kineto wifi-calling. Those three lines together cost less than $200/mo (one is backup phone with no data plan). (Average around $195). Have very few dropped calls on any. Wifi-calling kills when we travel. T-mo overseas rate cannot be beat. Hopefully at&t will implement wifi-calling as they claim because our at&t account is expensive, especially overseas.

Oh yeah, when I call t-mo I always get a domestic rep, and they are especially good with BBerry. Never got India. Though, I like India...

Oh yes. Don't get me wrong. I like India. And Indian food is one of my very favorite dishes.

It's just that when I called, time after time, I was at an overseas "English as a 2nd Language" call center. I think they route you based on certain criteria and I was in the "Send him overseas" list. The reps were courteous, but there was definitely a language barrier. When you plead with them to "Send you the BlackBerry Service Books" and they insist that the manuals for phones can be found online, you have a communication problem.

When I had my 9780, UMA in my office was pretty good. I still dropped calls now and then, but UMA in France or England was fantastic. And, at 30,000 feet with SkyFi, I could send text messages no problem, just no phone calls.

The problem is, my office and my home are on the cusp of T-Mo 3g/4g coverage and have been for years. The phone constantly cycles between NO SERVICE - EDGE - 3G - 4G - NO SERVICE. It's frustrating to say the least. This has been the case with 4 different phones.
ATT is 5 bars solid 4g even in my basement at home or in the board room at my office.

I also travel a lot to Western NY (south of Buffalo) and West Virginia. T-Mo has no coverage in these areas at all, and the best you will get on roaming is EDGE. It's ATT Territory to be sure.

If I went to Canada and/or Mexico often, then T-Mo would be the carrier period. How can you beat the North American Plan? I don't travel to Canada much any longer. Just a few times a year, so it's no biggy. I'll just get the BIS roaming for a few days and then shut it off.

Yes, ATT needs Transparent VOIP calling on their Cellular network. I miss that. UMA for me was the only reason I stayed with T-Mo, because their Cell Network just did not work for me.

[anon(5364777)]

I was with tmobile before. And just like op..no indoor or store coverage. Random spotty service.

Att is miles ahead. It was a massive difference,

I just wish att had a solid long distance plan with Canada just like tmo and now sprint.

[scrannel]

Oh yes. Don't get me wrong. I like India. And Indian food is one of my very favorite dishes.

It's just that when I called, time after time, I was at an overseas "English as a 2nd Language" call center. I think they route you based on certain criteria and I was in the "Send him overseas" list. The reps were courteous, but there was definitely a language barrier. When you plead with them to "Send you the BlackBerry Service Books" and they insist that the manuals for phones can be found online, you have a communication problem.

When I had my 9780, UMA in my office was pretty good. I still dropped calls now and then, but UMA in France or England was fantastic. And, at 30,000 feet with SkyFi, I could send text messages no problem, just no phone calls.

The problem is, my office and my home are on the cusp of T-Mo 3g/4g coverage and have been for years. The phone constantly cycles between NO SERVICE - EDGE - 3G - 4G - NO SERVICE. It's frustrating to say the least. This has been the case with 4 different phones.
ATT is 5 bars solid 4g even in my basement at home or in the board room at my office.

I also travel a lot to Western NY (south of Buffalo) and West Virginia. T-Mo has no coverage in these areas at all, and the best you will get on roaming is EDGE. It's ATT Territory to be sure.

If I went to Canada and/or Mexico often, then T-Mo would be the carrier period. How can you beat the North American Plan? I don't travel to Canada much any longer. Just a few times a year, so it's no biggy. I'll just get the BIS roaming for a few days and then shut it off.

Yes, ATT needs Transparent VOIP calling on their Cellular network. I miss that. UMA for me was the only reason I stayed with T-Mo, because their Cell Network just did not work for me.

I get it. I have no service from any carriers at home. Wifi-calling (topped off with the free Asus router from T-mo) makes cell calls work. In my case, in So. Cali, service in T-mo is excellent, and when back in Vermont, I roam on at&t no sweat. But I am overseas a lot and wifi-calling just plain kills.

(When I was a kid traveling through India -- when there were no cell phones -- you'd have to find a post office, stand in line to give them the number you wanted, then go have a seat. For a LONG AZZ time. While you waited with a zillion others, it was this fantastic tele-com rave. People from all over India and the world trying to make a call! Food vendors literally making a career off this weirdness... social media will never replace human contact.)

[o4liberty]

I switched to AT&T over a year ago and so far it's the pricing plans that are better. Verizon still has the edge on coverage and reliability.

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[Hergildedcage74]

I moved too I with them since t month was omni point here in NYC. Glad we did too

Posted via CB10

[cngriffin]

Does AT&T still provide BIS? I've been thinking about moving to them for my Bold 9900.

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[Mister Xiado]

BIS service is still available on AT&T; it's just that OS 10 BlackBerry phones don't use it. You can even use an 8310 still, but 2G service is in the process of being gutted for more LTE, so the time that a 2G phone will work is limited. Anywho, for the foreseeable future, UMTS BlackBerry phones will continue to have BIS and BES support. Just make certain you update the BlackBerry you're using with BIS, and disconnect your old one. It would be like finding a single spaghetti noodle in a linguini warehouse, finding someone who knows ANYTHING about BlackBerry services with any provider now, mainly due to the EXTREMELY high levels of distress caused by working in a call center.

With any carrier, you're going to have good and bad support. Such is the nature of the beast that is customer service. Everyone cannot be an expert in everything, and the average tenure is pretty low. There's not much time to learn through experience, and no free time to learn what isn't absolutely necessary in the majority of calls.

[anon(9714514)]

I've had all of the big 4 carriers and att has been the best by far. I couldn't imagine having any other carrier. Very glad I made the switch to att. Even in many rural spots my att phones gets signal while my buddies Verizon phone can't keep up. There are 3 things I had with Verizon that I don't have with att. 1)higher prices, 2)data that didn't work frequently, and 3)a company that gave me the shaft quite often.

So far att has been great.

[Rasheed White]

no unlimited data plan with att

Posted via CB10

[black-dash]

Yea I love my AT&T prepaid plan: 1.5gbs of data, unlimited talk and text for $45/month. $40 with auto refill. Being that I have wifi nearly anywhere I go, and that I have a Blackberry, I rarely go over my data allotment. Coverage everywhere I need it as well.

Posted via CB10

[BBerryPowerUser]

Yea I love my AT&T prepaid plan: 1.5gbs of data, unlimited talk and text for $45/month. $40 with auto refill. Being that I have wifi nearly anywhere I go, and that I have a Blackberry, I rarely go over my data allotment. Coverage everywhere I need it as well.

Posted via CB10

I have one phone on Simple Mobile, and MVNO of T-Mo. I get 10 Gig of 4g LTE and unlimited Talk and Text for $50 per month prepaid with direct billing. $.55 if you don't direct bill to Credit Card.
Nice, but the problem is it's an MVNO, so NO roaming at all outside of T-Mo's network, and if you have any problem, your call is going to be routed well overseas. I can't pin down the accent, but if I were to guess, I'd say somewhere in the Ukraine. Simple Mobile offers BIS still, but mine suddenly stopped and I had to go to ATT to get it again because the Customer Service at Simple Mobile could not figure it out for me. They just apologized. I still use my BlackBerry Q5 on Simple Mobile and it's fine.

ATT with my 9900 is a rock. 4G solid everywhere and the best Customer Service I have ever seen. Granted, I'm a Small Business Account, so I get the Business Service Center when I call, but it's amazingly good, and in the U.S.

[black-dash]

I have one phone on Simple Mobile, and MVNO of T-Mo. I get 10 Gig of 4g LTE and unlimited Talk and Text for $50 per month prepaid with direct billing. $.55 if you don't direct bill to Credit Card.
Nice, but the problem is it's an MVNO, so NO roaming at all outside of T-Mo's network, and if you have any problem, your call is going to be routed well overseas. I can't pin down the accent, but if I were to guess, I'd say somewhere in the Ukraine. Simple Mobile offers BIS still, but mine suddenly stopped and I had to go to ATT to get it again because the Customer Service at Simple Mobile could not figure it out for me. They just apologized. I still use my BlackBerry Q5 on Simple Mobile and it's fine.

ATT with my 9900 is a rock. 4G solid everywhere and the best Customer Service I have ever seen. Granted, I'm a Small Business Account, so I get the Business Service Center when I call, but it's amazingly good, and in the U.S.

Man, that sucks about the BIS ordeal. Have you tried Straight Talk? I know they are able to use AT&T's towers as well, and for cheap. I had considered it, but you know what they say...."If it isn't broke"....you're probably going to break it. haha. I have rarely had a reason to call customer service, they were beyond exceptional for the times I have, and those were mistakes on my own behalf.

[Jay Wright2]

Yea I love my AT&T prepaid plan: 1.5gbs of data, unlimited talk and text for $45/month. $40 with auto refill. Being that I have wifi nearly anywhere I go, and that I have a Blackberry, I rarely go over my data allotment. Coverage everywhere I need it as well.

Posted via CB10

Yup..same plan. I really like AT&T..had Verizon for a couple years, but my bill was continuously sky high. Verizon coverage is Great, but AT&T is right there with them, far as coverage goes, and you can't beat that low monthly bill!

🍻 Cheers!

The BlackBerry Guy

[black-dash]

Yup..same plan. I really like AT&T..had Verizon for a couple years, but my bill was continuously sky high. Verizon coverage is Great, but AT&T is right there with them, far as coverage goes, and you can't beat that low monthly bill!

�� Cheers!

The BlackBerry Guy

Exactly.

[boobookittyfk]

AWS HSPA (T-Mo 9900 supports only AWS 4G band) has horrible circa 2012 coverage as they started launching PCS HSPA+ with modernized antennas that improved coverage and reliability on top of the PCS spectrum traveling further than AWS, and stopped rolling out AWS HSPA as a result. ex. my market only has AWS HSPA on 75% of the cell sites.

Around June 2015, they got rid of AWS HSPA altogether so your BB 9900 was running on spectrum starved (to have the most PCS allocated to HSPA) GSM service. If you held on to your AWS 9900 for this long no wonder you had so many dropped calls. You definitely were going in and out of AWS HSPA to PCS GSM and once AWS HSPA was dropped all you had left was "skinny" GSM that is primarily just kept for M2M connections now.

Now, it is imperative that you have a Band 12 LTE phone as this is 700MHz and solves T-Mobile's indoor/rural coverage problems even more than the PCS HSPA refarming and cell site modernization. Deployment is still growing in phases so it's not an overnight fix but in NYC and NJ alone coverage has improved tremendously.


TL ; DR once again, it wasn't the network, it was your old phone. An AT&T Blackberry 9900 would perform much better than than an old T-Mobile 9900 at this point, and the AT&T 9900 still would be a far cry from a Band 12 LTE phone. So if you desire the 9900, AT&T is better overall because they are more concerned with having an all HSPA network than an all LTE network (which is what Verizon and T-Mobile are quickly moving towards). However, your experience with the T-Mobile network is circa 2012... and that's why it sucked so bad. I recently had a T-Mo 9900 and lost 4G driving down the street because they stopped expanding AWS HSPA years ago. My S7e had full 4G LTE.

[BBerryPowerUser]

Does AT&T still provide BIS? I've been thinking about moving to them for my Bold 9900.

Posted via CB10

Wow, I'm so sorry I missed this question so long ago, but YES, ATT offeres BIS and it is included free, no additional charge.
My 9900 on ATT is so rock solid it's ridiculous. Truly. I have yet to be in an area of the US where I didn't have at least 3 bars of service, and mostly it's full bars 95 percent of the time.

BTW, you don't need to ask for BIS at ATT. When you activate your phone based on the IMEI number, they will set up BIS for you automatically if the phone requires it, at no additional charge.