Prepaid: If You Can't Beat 'em, Buy 'em

T-Mobile announced it wants to eliminate the prepaid competition by buying Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile. This is a new trend among the Big 3 carriers. T-Mobile has already acquired Metro PCS and plan to raise those prices for their new Metro by T-Mobile. Verizon has already acquired all the America Movil prepaids and after shutting down a few, we expect they'll also start raising those prices, too. AT&T has been a little less aggressive with their purchase of Cricket Wireless which has settled into the position of their low-cost entry into the field.

Instead of complaining about the behavior of the major carriers, we'd like to point out the other prepaids that are still providing a competitive service and are not owned by the larger cellular companies. We have web pages dedicated to these independent carriers at Budget Prepaid Carriers and the smaller Secondary Prepaids. Some of these are extraordinary bargains and some have a enticing box of features, including roaming outside the US. Some have impressed us enough to set aside a "Reviewers' Choice" category which highlights Prepaids that outperform the others.

The US Department of Justice has questioned T-Mobile's proposed acquisitions, so the purchases may not be a slam dunk. In the meantime, we have no reason to avoid these acquired carriers, but keep track of your charges and be ready to flee if you see a price increase or a loss of features. We'll help you make your escape.

New Joys of Prepaid

We've been recently re-designing our Mountain Prepaid web site to reflect all the changes in the prepaid landscape. Now that the TracFone Prepaids from America Movil have been acquired by Verizon there have been a few adjustments. GoSmart was limited to 3G coverage and 3G coverage is going away. We recommend moving from GoSmart to Simple Mobile to enjoy a similar experience. And Page Plus, which is limited to 4G LTE and below, isn't getting any love, so we're advising Page Plus customers to switch to Net10 or Twigby.

An even bigger change is that prepaid plan prices have been going down, while postpaid plans have been increasing, mostly with a subtle rise in fees. While some prepaid plans have also increased in price, it looks like none of them have risen for with existing plans. We might assume that plans available today may not be available tomorrow. So, with prepaid plans starting as low as $5 per month, now may be the best time to go prepaid.

One of the new additions to our prepaid web site is a prepaid price comparison chart that helps you match the amount of Data to the best price. We also help you find which prepaid operates on which network, and which ones operate outside the US. It's being updated each day, especially as we switch over the family's phones to new prepaid services.

Voice Mail Access Numbers

Want to leave a voice mail message without ringing a user's phone, or access your own voice mail messages without your wireless phone? We have the list of Voice Mail Access Numbers. This has become a sensitive issue as commercial interests are trying to use use this list to advertise, or 'spam', you. As the original need for these numbers is reduced, we maintain the only Free list of voice mail access numbers. These numbers may give you access to your carrier's local cellular voice mail system. 

The list is arranged alphabetically by state. The numbers are designed to access your own voice mail messages, but may also enable you to leave a message for a wireless customer without ringing their phone. Because there are sensitivity issues (but not privacy) with using this these numbers, we limit this list for personal use only.

• VOICE MAIL ACCESS NUMBERS

Same Network, Different Carrier

At The Cellular Back Door we maintain the list of separate, "alternative" companies that use the same wireless networks as the major carriers, but at a lower price. It's your way to use, say, Verizon Wireless, without paying Verizon's prices. You can choose your favorite prepaid carrier and see what network they use, or you can choose the network, like AT&T, and see what carriers operate on that network, for less. You get your phone, plan and customer service from these alternative companies instead of the underlying carrier. Some use more than one network and some allow you to choose your network.

Check the whole list, or start with your favorite full-priced carrier:

• AT&T
  
  
• T-MOBILE
  
  
• VERIZON

T-Mobile Wireless Internet: Google Challenges

We are beginning our 4th month of living with T-Mobile Wireless Home Internet. We've had some 20-something visitors the past few weeks, and the lack of a data cap has been really helpful. However, the gateway seems to have difficulty in accessing various Google features. Most are minor problems, but one major one is the inability to access Gmail. Not all the time, but often enough to be a concern, and, what's even more disturbing, it may not connect right when you need it the most.

An example of a fatal error is when you are trying to log in to a secure or 2FA web site and suddenly your email does not work.  You're stuck. My son says he gets around it by logging out and then back in to the Wi-Fi.  My connection uses an ethernet cable. Unplugging or rebooting is not convenient.

Every ISP has its plusses and minuses and T-Mobile Wireless Internet is no exception. Each of our 3 home broadband services (not including our phones) have something we hate. You need to decide on your least offensive choice. I am hearing from users who are thrilled to have an alternative to their cable internet provider. They have already decided their most offensive choice.

More T-Mobile Home Internet

In our ongoing internet access comparison, we cancelled the cable internet.  I can't tell you how oppressive it feels to have a data cap.  For a few weeks we measured daily usage and found it within the cap, but just like the old days of limited cellular minutes, there's that nagging feeling of knowing you might go over your allocation, even if you can afford it. That cap in not hanging over a our heads with T-Mobile Home Internet.

Now in the 3rd month of our T-Mobile Wireless Home Internet experience, a few changes have been noted, the first of which is that we are now using the 1700/2100 MHz cellular band as our primary channel, instead of the legacy 1900 MHz band. Also, the upload speeds have slowed, topping out at 10 Mbps. Is that a new upload 'cap' or is it the result of now using the 1700 MHz band?  Either way, it is still almost double of what the cable internet provides and well within our needs.

We have learned to live with the infrequent hiccups on some web pages. We want this to work. Problems of downloads that won't start are cured by Refreshing the page one time or more. There have also been improvements by accessing one of the router's different Wi-Fi channels. 

We have learned to live with the somewhat irregular connections to streaming services such as Hulu and Sling with performance depending on the viewing device. There are few problems using Android or Amazon Fire, but TV sets using only the, say, Samsung streaming system, can be quite buggy, but at least usable.  Sling says it's a TV compatibility issue. As before, this may depend on factors other than your internet access, but the experience is different than with the cable and DSL modems.

Improving the T-Mobile Wireless Home Internet

This is an addendum to the T-Mobile Wireless Home Internet Review. After evaluating the gateway unit in one location of our home for a month, we then tried to make improvements by moving the unit around the house. Of course there are physical limitations, and what do you do if you want to connect an ethernet cable to the unit. For our controlled test we hooked up a laptop to the ethernet connector to read the gateway dashboard and do a reliable speed test. Keep in the mind, the unit can be located on a window and operate with nothing more than its power cable.

We proposed that a stronger cellular signal would yield a better internet connection. Only one window yielded a better signal on the gateway bar graph so that was the one we used for the comparison. We did get a better cellular signal and a better signal to noise ratio (SNR). The primary section connected at 1.7 GHz with the secondary section connected at 2.5 GHz, based on the bands shown in the dashboard. But several speed tests showed a noticeably slower download. It was useable but maxed out at 50 to 60 Mbps.

We then moved the unit to a convenient shelf next to, but not in, the window. We got a gangbusters 5G (secondary) signal, but still the download speeds remained below the 50's. In some tests the upload was faster. In the picture shown here of the gateway with its cover removed, you can see the 5G antennas grouped in a stack of 4 directional antennas, spaced in 4 sides around the unit. Keeping this in mind helps you orient the unit, with no antennas on the side with the connectors. Rotating the gateway a few degrees may give you a better signal (RSSI).

Our conclusions are that while we could get a stronger cellular signal, it may not yield a better download speed. Moving the gateway back to its original window location on the 2nd floor brought us back to 100+Mbps download speeds as well a convenient connection to the household ethernet connections. There's also the issue that some locations may not provide good Wi-Fi coverage in your home.

While in its original window location, we also moved the gateway back and forth and changed its azimuth to maximize signals, and found that 6 inches and 45° made a noticeable difference. We also took a walk around the home and yard to make sure we didn't sacrifice Wi-Fi coverage. Nokia offers a mesh solution with additional units that can be located around your home to cure Wi-Fi dead spots.

This assessment could mean that a stronger, and potentially more reliable, cellular signal may be a tradeoff for a weaker signal but a faster connection. We're contemplating drilling a hole in the floor for a new ethernet cable and giving the new location a 30-day evaluation. If you don't need an ethernet connection you would have more flexibility in locating the unit.

T-Mobile Wireless Home Internet Updates

 As part of our continuing evaluation of T-Mobile's Wireless Home Internet, we have made the following changes to our original review.

• T-Mobile has admitted they're having trouble properly connecting to streaming services like Hulu which may explain our sketchy connection to Sling.
• The households where T-Mobile is encouraging connections are located in areas with low-density wireless usage. If you live in a congested urban area you may be out of luck. If you're in a rural area with T-Mobile 5G coverage, you may be golden
• Our family gamer played a data-intense game on cable internet and then the same game on the T-Mobile wireless gateway and found the experience similar. Once in a while there was hiccup in play on the T-Mobile gateway, but not enough to keep from enjoying the game.
• Losing 5G service, which is weaker than the 4G LTE connection, seems to happen from time to time, slowing service.
• T-Mobile's lack of data caps and price increases have been confirmed.