Dish now OUT of Bankruptcy - Business as Usual

[HipKat]

We're in NY and we can now. We're an AT&T retailer and have been selling AT&T Internet Air for a few months. It's $35 a month if you're an AT&T post paid subscriber, $55 a month if you're not a subscriber.

I don't think I ever knew you were in NY

 

[rvvaquero]

there's a forum called howard forums. It's all about phone companies

I agree that's where this phone company discussion probably should be. I've been visiting howardforums twice a day for over 20 years, discovered lot's of really good deals and info there. However, whereas they used to have hundreds of contributors daily, it's now down to less than a dozen regulars and a couple of negative moderators. The site is on it's last legs. I think most participants have moved to reddit.

Just saying.

 

[EarDemon]

It happened just recently, I think about four months ago.

We're in eastern upstate NY and AT&T is pretty good, for the most part it's 5G+. T-Mobile is definitely the fastest but not the best coverage, AT&T is next fastest with the best overall coverage and Verizon is the slowest with the worst coverage.

We're also looking forward to the new bands coming online.

Well that is good news! Around here AT&T mid-band is only in the big suburbs and what I would call 'rural cities', a small city in a rural county that is usually the county seat. There are many rural towers I'm seeing 1.5 - 2 Gbps on with T-Mobile where AT&T is LTE only. And Verizon is humming along at 1 Gbps or a little higher on c-band.

I know I've said this many times, but my ultimate plan one day is to get a commercial grade 5G router that supports dual SIM and have T-Mobile and FirstNet SIMs activated. I want to wait until their are units that can support n14 and n79. I can't see spending well over $1000 on something that will be gimped in a couple of years.

 

[EarDemon]

Wow ,who would of thought there was this much to talk about when it came to phone companies?

There's a ton to talk about. It's just most people are ignorant when it comes to their hopeless addiction to their phones and spend a lot of time on them but have no idea how the signal gets from point A to B thinking they work on magic, wishes and unicorn farts. They only care when they are at an event with thousands of other people and can't do their tick tocks and Snapgrams and their $1500 shiny toys are useless, I really don't give a damn about phones themselves but I have a tremendous interest in the underlying technology.

I always have Signal Check Pro and Network Cell Info open, looking to see what I'm connected to and watch the levels fluctuate as I move around as environmental variables change.

On my FirstNet line, Signal Check Pro would only show the indepth info for the LTE anchor bands when on 5G on my Pixel Fold 9 & 10. On the Pixel Fold 11 it shows everything. Not sure why the change, it has nothing to do with SA v NSA. When I saw that, it was like Christmas morning for me.

I'm not perfect, but I'm getting pretty good where I can drive by a tower and know which provider(s) is on it and can pick out each provider by the rack.

 

[Almighty1]

Sorry, I meant Consolidated. That's who provided my DSL when I lived there and the tech who installed it told me they provide the backhaul to that tower. People's has only been in town for two years, maybe less.

DSL is a different animal as it depends which ISP you used as there was also Northpoint, Rythms and Covad as many others who acted as data CLECs depending on the flavor of DSL and if it was symmetrical or asymmetrical. Even with backhauls, there can be more than one backhaul which may or may not using different transport providers so Consolidated could have just been one of the many for redundancy in case one had issues like a fiber cut. We have fiber cabinets from what was GTE Hawaiiantel, Time Warner Telecom Hawaii and GST Hawaii.

 

[Almighty1]

One ringy dingy, two ringy dingies...

And then there is the "Thank you for using AT&T where we reach out and touch someone!"

 

[Almighty1]

There's a ton to talk about. It's just most people are ignorant when it comes to their hopeless addiction to their phones and spend a lot of time on them but have no idea how the signal gets from point A to B thinking they work on magic, wishes and unicorn farts. They only care when they are at an event with thousands of other people and can't do their tick tocks and Snapgrams and their $1500 shiny toys are useless, I really don't give a damn about phones themselves but I have a tremendous interest in the underlying technology.

I always have Signal Check Pro and Network Cell Info open, looking to see what I'm connected to and watch the levels fluctuate as I move around as environmental variables change.

On my FirstNet line, Signal Check Pro would only show the indepth info for the LTE anchor bands when on 5G on my Pixel Fold 9 & 10. On the Pixel Fold 11 it shows everything. Not sure why the change, it has nothing to do with SA v NSA. When I saw that, it was like Christmas morning for me.

I'm not perfect, but I'm getting pretty good where I can drive by a tower and know which provider(s) is on it and can pick out each provider by the rack.

Yes because it's the same like people who could not use computers if there was not the GUI. Give them Unix and they can't even do the basics.

Even here in California in the older days, those who had Pacific Bell Mobile Services or MCI which used PBMS or T-Mobile which used PBMS towers or Sprint PCS or AT&T GSM in the older days, they could buy the best phones that were not U.S. models and it would be nothing more than a paperweight most of the time due to lack of signal.

People pay too much attention to bars and not the actual signal strengh which is measured in dBm (decibel-milliwatts). And then lots of people do not even realize that the best phones are those that works not when the signal is strong but when there is almost no signal. As even the same model phone would not be exactly the same as they just have to meet the spec, some will perform better because it will exceed the minimum specs required.

then there is the power output which is measured in Watts that also would determine if one will have a usable signal or not when the signal is low.

 

[Almighty1]

there's a forum called howard forums. It's all about phone companies

Yes and people will usually call it HoFo. For Internet, it was dslreports which I believe finally disappeared as there is nothing newer than January 2025 as the site was running on it's own for years.

 

[Almighty1]

I agree that's where this phone company discussion probably should be. I've been visiting howardforums twice a day for over 20 years, discovered lot's of really good deals and info there. However, whereas they used to have hundreds of contributors daily, it's now down to less than a dozen regulars and a couple of negative moderators. The site is on it's last legs. I think most participants have moved to reddit.

Just saying.

Yes, that's true. I haven't visited it for quite some time and it seems like while US Mobile seems to be famous elsewhere, it's not on HoFo as people there seem to question if it's really as good as people claim it is. I forgot if DSLReports which is valuable for internet service providers and also to a certain extent, at least with XFinity mobile included wireless phone company discussions as well.

 

[comfortably_numb]

US Mobile seems to be famous elsewhere

I use US Mobile and it's fabulous, option to use any of the Big 3 and the customer service is outstanding.

 

[Almighty1]

I use US Mobile and it's fabulous, option to use any of the Big 3 and the customer service is outstanding.

Yeah, it seems like it's the best choice and one does not have to regret picking a carrier and be stuck to one network when they have access to all the networks out there.

One of these days when I have more time, I will have to learn what QCI is and what the number translates to as that seems to be something in US Mobile discussions on both reddit and HoFo and even from the CEO himself.

 

[EarDemon]

QCI = Quality of Service Class Indicator.
The lower the number the better.

Each provider makes up their own QCI structure. It's generally first responder, post paid, pre paid, MVNO in that order from highest priority to lowest, but there are a ton of caveats and scenarios. As far as I know, there is nothing definitive put out by the providers themselves on this, only what people have been able to piece together. Basically outside of First Responder plans, the more you pay the higher priority you have. There's a reason that super cheap plan on an MVNO exists, because you are getting the table scraps and a neutered network experience versus those who pay more. You get what you pay for. T-Mobile implements network slicing for Business Plans and T-Priority, which is a whole different topic.



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-NzUxAkE1g

 

[navychop]

You get what you pay for.

Not always. But you sure aren't going to get MORE than you paid for!

 

[dishstaller]

Not always. But you sure aren't going to get MORE than you paid for!

That should be on a bumper sticker.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I have a TMO Business account and (supposedly) get QCI 6 on my data-only lines, which is better than USM. I also get access to Passpoint, which is WIFI in large venues. For instance I was at a charity gala at a big casino resort last night and my TMO line automatically logged into Passpoint. That's something you only get on postpaid AFAIK.

For USM I'm using "Verizon towers," and that's my primary voice line, so QCI doesn't matter as much. For my primary voice line I need coverage and dependability, not fast data.

Being able to utilitize dual esims makes all this possible.

 

[rvvaquero]

Basically outside of First Responder plans, the more you pay the higher priority you have. There's a reason that super cheap plan on an MVNO exists, because you are getting the table scraps and a neutered network experience versus those who pay more.

That's certainly what the Big 3 want you to believe. I was on Verizon postpaid for decades on QCI 8, which is the best you can get on a non-Firstnet consumer plan. I'm now on USMobile Starter Unlimited Warp (Verizon) for $22.50 month.........on QCI 8.

 

[fmj77]

AH! Soon to be StarLink country!

Starlink Mobile or SpaceX Mobile maybe?

 

[navychop]

Yes.

 

[EarDemon]

That's certainly what the Big 3 want you to believe. I was on Verizon postpaid for decades on QCI 8, which is the best you can get on a non-Firstnet consumer plan. I'm now on USMobile Starter Unlimited Warp (Verizon) for $22.50 month.........on QCI 8.

View attachment 195540

View attachment 195541

Looks like you get deprioritized after 70 GB of data on that plan, it's now QCI 9 and only 10 GB of hotspot data. If that works for you, that is great.

However as a data hog, I would not be willing to live with those restrictions for a primary or secondary line. I do well over 100 GB per month on both T-Mobile and FirstNet, plus the hotspot usage. Verizon is a a play line for mmWave and sniffing out SA 5G.

What US Mobile is doing is very impressive, if I was a normie and cost was an issue I might consider it. Google announced they have added a second provider back to Fi, they haven't confirmed if it's Verizon or AT&T, but everyone seems to think it's VZ, so US Mobile is getting a semi competitor.

 

[Almighty1]

Interesting about the QCI, I think the whole reason I was confused is the number starts from 6 and not below 6. But in reality, if someone gets consistent high speeds 24/7/365 on whatever networks they are using, would the QCI really matter?

Nothing happened to QCI 1 through 5—they are just hidden from view because they are reserved for network system functions and real-time infrastructure, not general mobile internet data. [1]
According to the official 3GPP Wireless Specifications, the QoS Class Identifier (QCI) scale is designed so that the lower the number, the higher the priority. Because general web browsing, video streaming, and app downloads are flexible enough to survive minor network delays, they are assigned to the bottom-tier "Non-Guaranteed Bit Rate" (Non-GBR) profile bucket, which covers numbers 6 through 9. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The elusive QCI 1–5 tiers are Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) and core signaling profiles. They are hard-coded at the tower infrastructure level for life-safety services, system operations, and live voice data. If a general phone plan was assigned a QCI between 1 and 5, web browsing traffic would actively choke out active voice calls and core tower operations. [1, 2, 3, 4]

What QCI 1 through 5 Actually Do

• • QCI 1 (Conversational Voice): Reserved entirely for VoLTE/VoNR audio data. It guarantees steady bandwidth and commands an enforced delay limit under 100ms. If your general internet usage shared this tier, an app update could instantly cause live phone calls to drop or stutter. [1, 2, 3, 4]
  • QCI 2 (Conversational Video): Hard-coded for live video telephony (like carrier-native video calling) and highly interactive, low-latency mobile infrastructure. [1]
  • QCI 3 (Real-Time Gaming / Critical GBR Data): Dedicated to specialized real-time data streaming applications requiring an incredibly tight 50ms packet delay budget. [1]
  • QCI 4 (Non-Conversational Video): Assigned for pre-buffered, high-priority streaming infrastructure or managed carrier video services that still require guaranteed network bandwidth.
  • QCI 5 (IMS Signaling): The most critical non-voice tier. It handles the fundamental under-the-hood carrier signaling that registers your phone to the tower, handles SMS delivery routing, and processes SIP call invites. If QCI 5 experiences congestion, your phone loses its connection to the cell network entirely. [1, 2]

The Consumer Landscape (QCI 6–9)
Because the first five tiers keep the network functional, carriers distribute consumer mobile internet data plans across the remaining slots: [1, 2]

QCI Level	Network Priority	Typical Plan Assignments
QCI 6	Highest Consumer Tier	Standard T-Mobile Postpaid plans, high-tier AT&T Business lines, and select first-responder data services.
QCI 7	Premium Consumer Tier	AT&T Turbo/Elite plans and standard mid-tier MVNOs like Mint Mobile or Metro.
QCI 8	Standard Priority Tier	Standard Verizon Postpaid plans, base AT&T Postpaid plans, and premium MVNO tiers (like Xfinity Mobile or Visible+).
QCI 9	Lowest / Deprioritized Tier	Base prepaid services (Visible Base, Unlimited Welcome), home internet routers, and users who exceed their monthly data caps.

So it seems QCI 9 is what happens when you use up the data at the 5G speeds.