Talk:United States/@comment-26674008-20160303074940/@comment-72.90.75.7-20160324055800

AT&T isn’t necessarily “adding” band 12….they are making it (as required by the FCC) so that their band 17 network is flagged as band 12 so its more compatible. Long story short Band 12 includes Band 17 but if the network is only flagged as Band 17 band 12 devices won’t be able to use it…somewhat moot since any device that supports B12 probably supports B17 by now. It is indeed confusing, I’ve read about the topic extensively though and have contributed to some articles on here to try and clear up some confusion but its been a bit. I use Verizon but obviously that’s not an option if you are visiting the US….that said I have used T-Mobile and AT&T pre-paid SIM’s, T-Mobile was the easiest to set up and since their LTE Bands are 1700 and 1900 (B4 and B2) plus now B12 700MHz its less confusing…basically you can get away with only having a 1900MHz 3G device as long as you have LTE 1700 and preferably LTE 1900…T-Mobile really pushes their 1900MHz LTE network to the max on all major highways and interstates, I did extensive testing with it and found it to be very reliable back in 2013 and even more so now. For anyone looking to visit the US planning to stay in a big city I would say T-Mobile is a great option, in building coverage might suffer but in big cities they really work to mitigate this…if you are staying in a more rural area then AT&T is really your only choice…maybe Verizon will offer pre-paid SIM only in the future but even then until they start refarming 850MHz for LTE Band 13 is as rare as unicorn poop!