I’ve joined T-Mobile USA as a customer in this summer of 2011, months after the proposed merger plans.

Prior to going with T-Mobile, I considered AT&T Mobility, Sprint, MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless. My primary concern in selection was getting a phone with software upgrade and potential resale potential, a good network, and getting the cheapest overall price possible (free phone with expensive contract is no good). If it was going to be Android, it had to have the raw hardware specs above most other Android phones on the market, for the greatest re-use potential; at the same time, it had to not be overpriced, such as not to have a significant value loss right at the beginning of the ownership.

I talked to a sales guy from Sprint in the local mall, telling him that I’m interested in Google Voice, that being the reason why I’m checking out Sprint. I’ve tried their HTC Evo 3D, and played with it for a few minutes. We’ve talked quite a lot about various options and stuff, but the guy failed to provide any details whatsoever about GV, but overall did offer a competitive discount on the phone and service. Still, service was too expensive compared to T-Mo, coverage was poor and no GSM/UMTS goodness. As a point for coverage comparison, I was using the I-80 in Nevada, and I think the consensus was that I’d get voice roaming, but no coverage whatsoever. Not like I go there often, but if and when I do, I’d expect coverage.

Virgin’s 35 dollar plans with unlimited internet are pretty cool, however, phones are really underspec’ed and not cheap either; bad Sprint’s coverage, the deal would only be worth if you plan on using one crappy phone for more than 2 years (or if you really need a LOT of data and wouldn’t want to be capped at 2G speeds with T-Mo once you reach the limit). The 300 mins in the 35 dollar plan is kinda low, so, can’t plan on having any extended phone conversations or any kind of interviews or whatnot.

AT&T is just very expensive for data: I’d go with the 200MB plan for 15$, but then I’d risk paying much more than 25$ should I ever go overage. And 25$ for 2GB of mobile internet you hardly use is just too much of a price to pay, where you’d still be psychologically limited in your use, fearing the overage fees.

Verizon is just not competitive; besides, their data network is like the slowest, and doesn’t even work if you take a call!

MetroPCS was interesting at the surface, but, based on my final T-Mo selection, still not competitive and even considerably more expensive than T-Mo, since you have to pay for phone full price, plus it’s no GSM/UMTS.

What was my final selection? T-Mobile myTouch 4G, entirely free with no taxes charged during a limited promotion (regularly retails with a triple-digit price-tag with a 2-year contract), and the 49-dollar plan with unlimited internet that includes 200MB of 4G, and with free unlimited WiFi Calling, and with an SMS block (I use Google Voice, so why should I pay extra to any carrier for SMS if I already pay for internet data?). I’m absolutely convinced that it’s the best deal around however you take it, especially if you factor in the price of the phone with great specs (1GHz proc, 768MB RAM, 4GB ROM + 8GB microSD; most other Android phones, even those that are dual-core, still only have 512MB RAM), you’re effectively getting the service for even lower than the bargain 35 dollars that Virgin would charge you, yet you’re still getting a much better network and a much better phone with hardware specs better than that of iPhone 4 (alas, with a really crappy software, though). Too bad that 10-dollar unlimited data is not offered anymore; still, even with the 20 dollar data package, the deal would still be very competitive (even on price alone) with any other value carrier mentioned above.

I can definitely say that I’m pretty happy with T-Mobile service and the value that they provide. Not so much in the Android OS itself, which I still find very buggy, cumbersome and with very bad user interface and power management, as well as either complete lack or continued delay of official software updates. So, the phone itself doesn’t really compare with iPhone on the software side: even with stock software and no third-party stuff installed the battery life could not be any more poorer, I nearly always have to charge it every day, whereas iPhone 4 would last for days with moderate use. Still, a thousand or two dollars cheaper than iPhone 4 on AT&T over the two-year period, the whole deal seems pretty attractive. The stock phone even has free WiFi Hotspot, which you can use to power other iOS devices without even having to pay any extra fees (the phone is dumb enough to just allow it to work, although they’re supposedly check for the User-Agent string in HTTP traffic, and would attempt to bother you should you tether your computers without paying extra for Tethering).

…

So, what’s up with all the talk that people don’t want to join T-Mobile just because of AT&T merge plans? I was personally confronted by the Sprint salesman after me telling him that I’m planning to join either T-Mo or Sprint at that time, and, he’s like, “not doing very good with T-Mo”. This is entirely unfounded! First off, T-Mobile with UMTS are doing better than Sprint’s WiMax, so, who are you to say? What I get with T-Mo is a free fully-spec’ed phone with awesome service contract at a really cheap price, overall being the absolute best offer all around. And there’s no way the FCC provisions would allow AT&T to simply ruin the network within a year or two even if AT&T gets T-Mobile. And what will happen after your two-year contract is up? With effectively not having paid anything for the phone (literally 0 dollars at sign up — even the best of T-Mo’s phone have promotions all the time that make them free), T-Mobile customer’s options are entirely open: I can either decide to pay up more and join up on the new offers of AT&T et al., or might even still be able to exercise my awesomely cheap plan, that you basically can’t get from any other provider even if you bring your own phone with you! The 49 dollars price tag for some decent voice package plus overage-free (unlimited) data, is just awesome!

And if you think your T-Mo phone value goes exactly to zero should the company ever be dissolved right after your now-new contract is up, think again: all phones are quad band GSM now, so whereas T-Mo’s 3G-with-4G-speeds AWS UMTS band can only be used on T-Mo and with a few operators in Canada, the GSM EDGE part of the phone, as well as the Android and WiFi, can be used just about anywhere in the world, so even in the unlikely event that the network as we know it shuts down prematurely, you’d still have the option of cashing in on your free phone!

So, all those allegations that T-Mobile is merely going downhill are just unfounded and cannot hold water. There’s not a better time to join T-Mobile if you are satisfied with their coverage and speeds. And both are pretty good. Besides, if the AT&T deal fails, they’re even supposed to get a better roaming agreement with AT&T, extra spectrum for LTE deployment and cash. I can’t see a single valid reason, other than pure speculation, on why the merger prospective makes it a bad time to join T-Mobile. T-Mobile For The Win!