Got a pretty good deal today

[MikeSouth]

got an EVO 4g phone from sprint....the phone was 200.00 bucks after a 100 dollar rebate.

yes I had to sign a 2 year contract BUT

unlimited text, voice and data 69.00 a month, less a 25% discount because I once worked for home depot as a consultant

so the plan came to 51.50 a month

Thats a buck fifty more than boost mobile 3G and I got 4G....well I have it if it ever gets here....

and because I bitched that my signal was weak at my house I got an airave and no charge with no monthly fee.

I expect even Clark Howard would agree thats a reasonable deal, contract or not.

y'all agree or did i get sold a bill of goods? (I have 30 days to cancel)

[sarettah]

got an EVO 4g phone from sprint....the phone was 200.00 bucks after a 100 dollar rebate.

yes I had to sign a 2 year contract BUT

unlimited text, voice and data 69.00 a month, less a 25% discount because I once worked for home depot as a consultant

so the plan came to 51.50 a month

Thats a buck fifty more than boost mobile 3G and I got 4G....well I have it if it ever gets here....

and because I bitched that my signal was weak at my house I got an airave and no charge with no monthly fee.

I expect even Clark Howard would agree thats a reasonable deal, contract or not.

y'all agree or did i get sold a bill of goods? (I have 30 days to cancel)

I've been shopping and that actually sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

I have to change, mine is way too much for what I get :(

I hate changing that sort of shit, just fucking tedious.

[MikeSouth]

the key is tell em yer a consultant to home depot or an employee thats a 25% discount here in atlanta anyway.

but you have to ask for the 69 a month deal. and the discount

the free airave works if you tell them reception in your house sucks...which in mine it really does

Im pretty sure I couldn't have gotten a better deal because going with boost mobile and unlocking the evo would have cost over 400 for the phone and 50 a month for 3G from boost mobile....and that was the best price I could find

[Hell Puppy]

Good price point on the plan, and if you have coverage at the places you're at most commonly you'll likely be happy. And Evo's not a bad phone.

But if you wanna know where the gotcha is, there's a few things anyone shopping for 4G needs to know...

First off, as always, the international organizations who set standards for things move at the typical glacial pace of political entities. This means they don't finalize standards as fast as companies come out with new technology. And speed hungry consumers don't wait.

This is a time honored tradition going back at least to the days of modems. Even at lowly 9600 bps you had at least 3 competing proprietary methods of doing it 3 years before the "V.32" standard was approved by what was then known as CCITT.

So "4G" isn't a standard right now, it's a marketing term that has no specific technology or even speed requirement associated with it. As a marketing term it simply means to the wireless companies and their consumers that it is "faster than 3G".

This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but know what "4G" means to each of the big four and what to expect. At a high level, here's how I see 'em:

Sprint -- Sprint uses Clear's WIMAX for their 4G. This is actually the slowest of the 4G offerings out there in terms of phone to tower radio speeds. Your EVO is kind of unique in that it uses Sprint's CDMA network for voice, but kicks over to Clear for data. You'll find yourself having voice in places where you do not have data if you get outside the cities where Clear is. The fly in the ointment here is Clear is out of money, and Sprint isn't in a position to give them any more. So the data side isn't going to be expanding very quickly anytime soon. This is also a dead end technology, it's as fast as it will ever get.

Verizon -- Verizon's 4G is LTE. This would be the current state of the art, and currently is pushing up over 30Mbps. The catch? Only thing out right now that supports it is a laptop card. Phones are coming, BUT LTE is not backwards compatible. If you pay the big bucks f or Verizon, you likely want them because they are the only company that will spend the bucks to provide coverage in a corn field in the middle of Iowa. Their LTE network is currently big city coverage only. That's the only place these phones will work.

T-Mobile -- T-Mobile's 4G is based on HSPA+ technology extending GSM. Their claims of "largest" 4G network are accurate as it covers almost their entire footprint and is fully backwards compatible. Current speeds are 21Mbps with most POPs upgraded to 42Mbps by summer. In cities where this is already done, it's clocking faster than Verizon's LTE. T-Mobile was late to the game with 3G, but this actually means all new network gear and back haul. And the chick in the commercials is smoking hot. The catch? T-Mobile's network is using the old AWS spectrum, penetration in buildings in areas of weak coverage can by iffy. BUT, T-Mobile is also the only carrier supporting UMA, so this means if you buy a device that supports Wifi Calling (most of current android offerings) your phone can use your wifi signal for calling and texting as well as data.

AT&T -- AT&T's 4G is also HSPA+ on GSM. Same as T-Mobile? Nope, different frequency for one thing, so the two aren't directly compatible. But where speed is concerned, AT&T has a big catch. They can give you HSPA+ speeds (up to 21Mbps) via radio from phone to tower, but most of their back haul is still based on old school ma bell copper not fiber. Can you say bottleneck? Realistically expect no more speed from their 4G than you get from their 3G for that reason.

[MikeSouth]

good info man I always wondered what all that really meant...so far I like the evo...its got some sweet apps and its fast enough for what I do with it. I used it tethered to my laptop at a hotel this weekend...with 5 bars and a 4g signal I got 2Mbits down and 1 Up which is fine by me. For my main connection at home I use a 24mbit uverse...wish they would raise the upload speed on that beyond the 3mbits but.....

So far Im cool with sprint, got the airrave today gonna hook it up...be interesting to see if that significantly impacts my uverse speeds.

[softball]

Damn....I feel like such a luddite. I use my cell phone...for a phone.

[MikeSouth]

interesting the airave only works on voice, data doesnt go through it, saw no impact on speeds even while talking on the phone.