Sunday, November 20, 2016

AT&T vs T-Mobile

I had been an AT&T customer for many, many years. The whole family shared a large data plan and we often used their international data packages on our frequent trips to London and Cabo. 

But recently, despite my many efforts to reduce data costs while traveling, our data bills while abroad became ridiculous.   I would use wifi at the hotel and the office and frankly not even use my "US" phone for email or browsing and still end up with data charges in the hundreds of dollars. 

 

At the same time, my family plan continues to come short each month of our needs and there is no next step cost effective plan for increasing the data package. 

So on the advice of a good tech savvy friend, I made the switch to T-Mobile's ONE plan. $75 per month all in for unlimited data (without AT&T's throttling) including SD streaming (on a small iPhone, do you need HD) and international data ("up to LTE" speeds). 

I have to say I was skeptical. I was worried I would have crappy voice service/signal around LA and terrible data speeds in London. 

However, it has turned out to be a great experience both for voice and data both locally and while traveling. Frankly, I should have done it years ago. 

If you really need HD video streamed or guaranteed faster speeds while traveling, they have a plan for the ($25 surcharge for ONE PLUS). 

If you have data cost issues at home or while traveling, I highly recommend giving T-Mobile a try.