Hi, I'm with Verizon now and has been member on this forum couple months. But I'm newbie to any GSM phone thread like this. Though I am happy with Verizon so far overall, I'm concerned with their 4G LTE plan in terms of cost and coverage.
So please forgive me if this is stupid question for you with T-mobile or AT&T. Does HSPA+ phones have the antenna compatible with both HSPA+ and HSPA? And does 3G HSPA phones work fine in the HSPA+ covered area with just lower speed? I know that Sprint 4G WiMax requires separate antenna in the phones like EVO, Epic and it should be separately turned on. Looks like 4G LTE from Verizon seems to work in the similar fashion and would require separate antenna. I heard that turning on WiMax in Evo drains battery like crazy. So I'm considering switch to GSM carrier for 4G service in the future if they don't suffer such problem. I would appreciate your feedbacks.
Basically, the G2 for Tmo has HSPA, so it can have 4g(HSPA and HSPA+) 3g, 2g(edge) and 1g
I used that before while traveling and it was no point in trying to get on the internet. And also, if you were to leave 4g coverage area, the phone would switch to the lower connection automatically, but the phone may try to find 3g/4g and don't switch if you're at like the edge of the coverage, so you may need to manually go to settings and check the box '2g only' if it doesn't switch.
A 3g only phone would get greater speeds in an HSPA covered area. They won't be as fast as the other 4g phones, but you will get faster download speeds. And same thing applies, they get 3g, 2g, and 1g
And the 4g does not significantly drain your battery. I leave my G2 on 4g all the time, and after playing apps here and there, browsing the web, texting, downloading hourly updates, by the end of the day I'd have between 20-40% battery remaining. And this is on about a 12-hour day. Oh and I leave bluetooth and GPS on.
And BTW, your question wasn't stupid. I don't know anything about Verizon and Sprint's way of doing things.
And another good thing about Tmo and AT&T is that the phones are interchangeable with each other. So you can get a Tmo phone and use it on AT&T and vice-versa, of course, you'd need to get it unlocked and all that, but yea. I stated that so if you want an AT&T phone, but don't want to pay an AT&T bill. And getting a new phone is as simple as buying the phone and putting your SIM card in the new phone. You can even move your contacts to the SIM card. I mean, don't you need to go to the Verizon or Sprint store to change phones?