Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Carrier Switching to Sprint from T-Mobile - good or bad idea?

A

Anthony T

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 10, 2008
1,021
132
I'm a new T-Mobile customer as of September. I have an iPhone 6S Plus 64GB and their unlimited talk/text/high speed data plan. I have a $20 monthly discount on my bill through my employer, and my bill is still $100 a month due to my EIP.

I've noticed that I haven't been using much data, so unlimited isn't really necessary for me, but it's just nice to have. I'd probably be good with 6GB of data a month.

With Sprint's new 50% off plan, I could get my bill under $60 a month with 6GB of data with a 6S 64GB (I'm thinking of downgrading to the regular 6S, I feel like the Plus is too big for me).

I live on Long Island and I haven't heard too many great things about Sprint's service, but from what I understand, they are improving it. Is the $40 month in savings worth sacrificing the coverage? I've been pretty happy with T-Mobile's so far, but $40 a month would be helpful for me, being a broke college student who will have to start paying off student loans this year. :-X
 
What part of long Island? I live in Brooklyn and go to deer Park to see my grandmother there and service is pretty good.
 
If you like the coverage you already have, you should consider MetroPCS's $50 for 5GB or $60 for unlimited LTE with no extra charges (and no additional tax). They use T-Mobile's network, and you can bring your own phone.

Sprint's plans always have a lot of caveats to them, plus their LTE network is the worst from the four big carriers overall (not sure about Long Island, though).
 
  • Like
Reactions: LordLamberson
Andres Cantu said:
If you like the coverage you already have, you should consider MetroPCS's $50 for 5GB or $60 for unlimited LTE with no extra charges (and no additional tax). They use T-Mobile's network, and you can bring your own phone.

Sprint's plans always have a lot of caveats to them, plus their LTE network is the worst from the four big carriers overall (not sure about Long Island, though).
Click to expand...


T-Mobile sucks IMHO. Horrible customer service and Meh coverage. Sprint for the most part Is way faster than t-mobile.
 
Andres Cantu said:
J.D. Power and Associates would beg to differ. But we're just giving opinions so that the OP can make an informed decision.
Click to expand...


I couldn't care less about what JD power says. People say sprint sucks but coverage for me is decent and half the price of T-Mobile. Actually for $10 more you can get Verizon. I was spending $130 for T-Mobile for unlimited 4G data amd an iPad on my plan with the $70 a month plan with a note 4 payment plan. For 10gb with Verizon I got a note 4, and an iPad for $144 a month. Paying about $90 with an iPhone 6 plus on lease with unlimited data ( not their new throttled plans)
 
Closingracer said:
T-Mobile sucks IMHO. Horrible customer service and Meh coverage. Sprint for the most part Is way faster than t-mobile.
Click to expand...
My experience has been the opposite.

I left Sprint for T-Mobile after 16 years when I could no longer make phone calls. Coverage in Phoenix is spotty and it's only by late last year that I was actually able to stream music from home to work in my ten minute drive.

No Band 26 because APS is sitting on it and no Band 41. I had an iPhone 5 in September 2012 that was 3G only for a year because Sprint had no LTE in Phoenix when they sold the phone. I had to drive to the first and only operating LTE tower in August 2013 just to get LTE.

Does Sprint suck outside of Phoenix, no. I hear it's very good in Chicago and other places. And it's pretty good in places here in Phoenix. But none of those are places I go to very much and the farther west you go from Central Ave. the crappier it gets.

T-Mobile on the other hand has been solid, both in coverage and signal. The reps treated me very well and customer care has been excellent.

It comes down to where you are. No single carrier (not even Verizon) is good everywhere.
[doublepost=1456073310][/doublepost]
Closingracer said:
I couldn't care less about what JD power says. People say sprint sucks but coverage for me is decent and half the price of T-Mobile. Actually for $10 more you can get Verizon. I was spending $130 for T-Mobile for unlimited 4G data amd an iPad on my plan with the $70 a month plan with a note 4 payment plan. For 10gb with Verizon I got a note 4, and an iPad for $144 a month. Paying about $90 with an iPhone 6 plus on lease with unlimited data ( not their new throttled plans)
Click to expand...
I'm paying slightly less than I was on Sprint and I have two unlocked iPhones and two iPad Air 2's. In comparison, I had two locked iPhones and two crappy (but FREE) Android garbage tablets on Sprint.
 
Closingracer said:
I couldn't care less about what JD power says. People say sprint sucks but coverage for me is decent and half the price of T-Mobile. Actually for $10 more you can get Verizon. I was spending $130 for T-Mobile for unlimited 4G data amd an iPad on my plan with the $70 a month plan with a note 4 payment plan. For 10gb with Verizon I got a note 4, and an iPad for $144 a month. Paying about $90 with an iPhone 6 plus on lease with unlimited data ( not their new throttled plans)
Click to expand...
When you're by yourself, T-Mobile is not as good a deal as when you have four lines for $100 like I do. Also, I consider all of the Uncarrier perks to be worth it. Other carriers don't offer many of them and charge you when you go over your at a limit (and force you to share a data bucket).

Let's face it, T-Mobile is changing and has changed the industry for the better.
 
Anthony T said:
I'm a new T-Mobile customer as of September. I have an iPhone 6S Plus 64GB and their unlimited talk/text/high speed data plan. I have a $20 monthly discount on my bill through my employer, and my bill is still $100 a month due to my EIP.

I've noticed that I haven't been using much data, so unlimited isn't really necessary for me, but it's just nice to have. I'd probably be good with 6GB of data a month.

With Sprint's new 50% off plan, I could get my bill under $60 a month with 6GB of data with a 6S 64GB (I'm thinking of downgrading to the regular 6S, I feel like the Plus is too big for me).

I live on Long Island and I haven't heard too many great things about Sprint's service, but from what I understand, they are improving it. Is the $40 month in savings worth sacrificing the coverage? I've been pretty happy with T-Mobile's so far, but $40 a month would be helpful for me, being a broke college student who will have to start paying off student loans this year. :-X
Click to expand...
According to http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans.html you could go to the 6GB data plan for $65 per month. Not sure what that would be with your discount and your EIP.

Also I've been reading about how sprint has been "improving" their network since the Evo 4G days, and that released in 2010. I can't say that I would recommend them at all.
[doublepost=1456077327][/doublepost]
Closingracer said:
T-Mobile sucks IMHO. Horrible customer service and Meh coverage. Sprint for the most part Is way faster than t-mobile.
Click to expand...
I've heard this about every carrier. You could change this to X sucks and Y is better. I understand it's your opinion and is a perfectly valid opinion, but this isn't the general consensus. Usually it's Sprint sucks and insert other carrier is better. Again, not discrediting what you're saying but carriers are so hit or miss it's ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: LordLamberson and ToroidalZeus
You say you live on Long Island now and service through Sprint isn't great, but they're improving it? I would never switch to a carrier who is "improving" service near my home. Improvements can take time and in some cases too much time. Why move from a carrier that is working for you to one that may work for you later?

As for the bill, I get the savings but is the savings worth not being able to really use your phone? I make calls with my phone, so that is pretty much a no brainer for me.
 
eyoungren said:
My experience has been the opposite.

I left Sprint for T-Mobile after 16 years when I could no longer make phone calls. Coverage in Phoenix is spotty and it's only by late last year that I was actually able to stream music from home to work in my ten minute drive.

No Band 26 because APS is sitting on it and no Band 41. I had an iPhone 5 in September 2012 that was 3G only for a year because Sprint had no LTE in Phoenix when they sold the phone. I had to drive to the first and only operating LTE tower in August 2013 just to get LTE.

Does Sprint suck outside of Phoenix, no. I hear it's very good in Chicago and other places. And it's pretty good in places here in Phoenix. But none of those are places I go to very much and the farther west you go from Central Ave. the crappier it gets.

T-Mobile on the other hand has been solid, both in coverage and signal. The reps treated me very well and customer care has been excellent.

It comes down to where you are. No single carrier (not even Verizon) is good everywhere.
[doublepost=1456073310][/doublepost]
I'm paying slightly less than I was on Sprint and I have two unlocked iPhones and two iPad Air 2's. In comparison, I had two locked iPhones and two crappy (but FREE) Android garbage tablets on Sprint.
Click to expand...


I had T-Mobile from 2002 until 2009 when I changed to AT&T. Had AT&T until 2014 when I went back to T-Mobile. Changed to Verizon in late 2014 and then Sprint in early 2015. So far I'll rate them from best to worse this way in terms of coverage and price: Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and than T-Mobile. In terms of coverage only : AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile. In Deer Park T-Mobile is fairly good but at my home in Brooklyn Meh. Unlimited LTE with t-mobile will cost at least $90 now I believe? I swore to never use T-Mobile ever again with their horrible customer service. Had to pay 2 months bills even with no service since I had no phone and I waited until the registered that I returned a phone I bought.
 
Closingracer said:
I had T-Mobile from 2002 until 2009 when I changed to AT&T. Had AT&T until 2014 when I went back to T-Mobile. Changed to Verizon in late 2014 and then Sprint in early 2015. So far I'll rate them from best to worse this way in terms of coverage and price: Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and than T-Mobile. In terms of coverage only : AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile. In Deer Park T-Mobile is fairly good but at my home in Brooklyn Meh. Unlimited LTE with t-mobile will cost at least $90 now I believe? I swore to never use T-Mobile ever again with their horrible customer service. Had to pay 2 months bills even with no service since I had no phone and I waited until the registered that I returned a phone I bought.
Click to expand...
My wife and I have been on exactly two carriers.

Sprint from 1999 to September 2015 and now T-Mobile. In that time, Sprint's customer service has been either mediocre or bad. They had me on hold once for over 3 hours. I stayed on hold because I was at work, I had a charger and I was determined that they were going to answer my call.

Sprint third party stores are the worst. They present themselves as Sprint, but aren't bound by any rules Sprint uses for corporate employees. I was late on a bill pay once and almost had my service cut off because a third party Sprint employee screwed up my payment (which was on time when I paid it).

Coverage was ok until I got my iPhone 5, but I had noticed it steadily getting worse on my HTC Touch Pro which is a 3G only phone.

We finally had to go when we couldn't make phone calls. T-Mobile has been excellent in every way except for how they handle shipping and returns. Now, THAT is one thing I could ask them to improve.
 
eyoungren said:
My wife and I have been on exactly two carriers.

Sprint from 1999 to September 2015 and now T-Mobile. In that time, Sprint's customer service has been either mediocre or bad. They had me on hold once for over 3 hours. I stayed on hold because I was at work, I had a charger and I was determined that they were going to answer my call.

Sprint third party stores are the worst. They present themselves as Sprint, but aren't bound by any rules Sprint uses for corporate employees. I was late on a bill pay once and almost had my service cut off because a third party Sprint employee screwed up my payment (which was on time when I paid it).

Coverage was ok until I got my iPhone 5, but I had noticed it steadily getting worse on my HTC Touch Pro which is a 3G only phone.

We finally had to go when we couldn't make phone calls. T-Mobile has been excellent in every way except for how they handle shipping and returns. Now, THAT is one thing I could ask them to improve.
Click to expand...



I had to call sprint a few times and they were great. Had an issue with the trade in program where they pay the ETF or plan where I used the wrong email address and they fixed the issue easily.



I live in NYC so service is pretty good with speeds as high at 40 mbps. I got higher with Verizon and AT&T but at double the price
 
Closingracer said:
I had to call sprint a few times and they were great. Had an issue with the trade in program where they pay the ETF or plan where I used the wrong email address and they fixed the issue easily.



I live in NYC so service is pretty good with speeds as high at 40 mbps. I got higher with Verizon and AT&T but at double the price
Click to expand...
NYC is a good market for Sprint. They've been able to do well there so far, although it was a bit rocky in the beginning.

I'm glad it's working for you. We'd have stayed with Sprint ourselves if calls hadn't started failing. It was getting better. Slowly, but better. Unfortunately, when you're paying for a service and you can't call, text or use data there's a problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Closingracer
Closingracer said:
I live in NYC so service is pretty good with speeds as high at 40 mbps. I got higher with Verizon and AT&T but at double the price
Click to expand...
Wow i only get 5 mbps and maximum 10 in my city (close to the size of New York yet not as congested). Is something wrong with my phone?

When my friend visited he had over 70 mbps with T-Mobile
 
Closingracer said:
T-Mobile sucks IMHO. Horrible customer service and Meh coverage. Sprint for the most part Is way faster than t-mobile.
Click to expand...
I've had great customer service and phenomenal speeds ... twice as fast as Verizon in my area. It really depends on the service quality in your area and whether you get a douche bag on the phone that day or not. I've had nothing but pleasant experiences with their customer service ... well ... when I had them. I'm using Project Fi now which uses both T-Mobile and Sprint (and Wi-Fi).
 
How about at&t gophone? $55/month including taxes gets you 5 GB of data and rollover incase you don't use it all. After the 5 GB is up, you get throttled to 128 kbps or you can pay $10 for another 1 GB.
 
eyoungren said:
NYC is a good market for Sprint. They've been able to do well there so far, although it was a bit rocky in the beginning.

I'm glad it's working for you. We'd have stayed with Sprint ourselves if calls hadn't started failing. It was getting better. Slowly, but better. Unfortunately, when you're paying for a service and you can't call, text or use data there's a problem.
Click to expand...


Yeah if you don't travel a lot and don't use it for phone calls sprint is a good carrier of you're looking to save some money. I've traveled with sprint and it's spotty in some places outside on highways bit overall I'm happy with the service. Going to LA next week so I'll see how good or bad it is there.


For me the deal breaker for me with t-mobile is that it sucks inside and sometimes worse than sprint. In Brooklyn the MTA ( agency who controls the subway lines and buses) hasnt put cellphone service in any of the Brooklyn subway stations but sprint is the only one who gives me service at my station. Yeah isn't a selling point but I like it. Sprint for me with my iPhone has their 800mhz network up while t-mobile has yet to use their 700mhz frequency up yet in nyc and I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 at the time which did support band 12 which is their 700mhz


Edit: just want to clarify my first thought.... I use my phone rarely for phone calls and 90% of what I do is texting with some Skype calls. Whenever I have used the phone as a phone using ios default app I never had any issues with dropped calls with sprint personally
 
Last edited:
The very best plan out there if you don't need many minutes is the Walmart $30 per month plan. 5gb LTE data from T-Mobile, unlimited texts, 100 minutes. It's prepaid so no financing the phones, but it's the best deal going for the service. They sell the packs with the SIM card at Walmart in the T-Mobile section. If you're looking for cheap and a good amount of data, that's your plan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dsr2
T-Mobile's $30 prepaid plan is what I use. I get 5 GB or LTE, Unlimited Text, and 100 minutes of talk. Great plan for my needs. That is the best deal I can find, it might work for you too!
 
  • Like
Reactions: dsr2
If Sprint is anything like the other carriers they will let you test the network. Someone else should be able to chime in, but I would think you could tell Sprint you want to try the network and go from there before canceling or porting. You can even use your TMO phone... if you have had your line longer than 40 days they will unlock your device. I just learned of this two days ago, and they unlocked all three of our phones on installment plans (we are customers since late August). You just need to have the IMEI of your device and they can do it over chat. Took me five minutes
------------
Anthony T said:
I have a $20 monthly discount on my bill through my employer, and my bill is still $100 a month due to my EIP.
Click to expand...

I also wanted to ask you about this, if I may. It's not related to the thread so much, but when we joined I was told there were no employer discounts. How do you check this? Would you mind telling me how you went about adding a discount to your account?

THIS is the best I have been able to find which is basically a $25 mail in reabte in the form of a prepaid card after every handset. Better than nothing, but I'd rather have the $20 a month lol.
 
Last edited:
We are improving our network and from my personal experience, it has gotten better where I live and from what I have heard from people living within your area, OP. Check your PM.
 
lordofthereef said:
If Sprint is anything like the other carriers they will let you test the network. Someone else should be able to chime in, but I would think you could tell Sprint you want to try the network and go from there before canceling or porting.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately…no.

Sprint does not do test drives. You do have the standard 14 days, but there's a restocking fee if you return the device(s).

Also, be aware that Sprint counts all days in that 14 day period. It's not a 14 business day period as some have mistaken it to be - to their detriment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lordofthereef and GoldenDust
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back