At&t 3g Vs. T-mobile Edge In The Us.

[Lavachild]

I am currently a t-mobile customer and love their customer support and their service. I am thinking of switching to ATT for the 3G since it looks like T-Mobile may not have 3G available for the TYTN II in the US. Any thoughts? Advantages/Disadvantages of each carrier?

[JonnoB]

I also have a TyTN II, but am keeping it on T-Mobile. The reason is that I have a great family plan that cannot be beat. We have 5 phones. I pay the base rate plus $10 for each additional phone. I have the unlimited data plan at $20 and the other 4 phones are getting push mail with the T-Zones 5.99 plan. Someday, T-zones may not work anymore, but until then - this is a great deal. I also get unlimited text/mms for $10/month that covers all 5 phones. With 3 of the 5 phones in the hands of teens, that is an awesome deal. If AT&T could get me unlimited push email and web access, unlimited texting, free mobile to mobile, free nights and weekends and 1000 shared minutes over 5 phones for less than $100/month - I would jump ship.

To be honest, EDGE is not that bad and at the times where I find myself needing greater speeds (Sling Player, etc), I have access to WiFi (grocery store, gym, around the house, office, cafe, etc)

[Lavachild]

my edge is fast but i just wonder how much faster 3g is. Just found out that 3g for att isnt available in my area anyhow :( What is push email? I put my pop email settings in to get mail and it updates every 60 mins and if i have deleted mail from my outlook it will no longer show up on my phone. Can I setup push email this way since i am assuming push email is where it goes to your phone as you get it?

[JonnoB]

What is push email?

From Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_e-mail):

Push e-mail is used to describe e-mail systems that provide an "always-on" capability, in which new e-mail is instantly and actively transferred (pushed) as it arrives by the mail delivery agent (MDA) (commonly called mail server) to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the e-mail client. Most of today's clients are smartphones.

Basically, instead of having your device poll every hour, you get email the moment it comes in. Also, if you get email less frequently than every hour, there is no reason to waste battery and poll when none is there. It is now considered the holy grail of always connected mobile devices and the reason why devices like the Blackberry have become so popular. Now that it is built into WM5 and above to work with Exchange, WM devices are quickly becoming a standard work tool in the office. I could not live without it.

[Lavachild]

so if i use a pop email from an isp then i cant use this feature correct? i would have to setup an exchange server?

[flexte]

the only reason i use the kaiser over my nokia e61 is because of its ability to stream music and tv with its high speed data capabilities. I tried the att's speed for 1 day and had to bite the bullet and sign up with them. i still have my tmobile plan because i get so many minutes with my plan. once my rollover minutes start to accumulate i can leave tmobile.