I tried out my T-Mobile Sim in my unlocked 4S last week and briefly got 3G to display. It didn't take long to change back to edge. This was 84th and I-25 in Thornton Colorado.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
T-Mobile/GoSmart Mobile 3G on iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S/5 Confirmed Areas
- Thread starter Satnam1989
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I tried out my T-Mobile Sim in my unlocked 4S last week and briefly got 3G to display. It didn't take long to change back to edge. This was 84th and I-25 in Thornton Colorado.
I thought I'd test TMO in my area so I bought a SIM and signed up for a pay by the day pre-paid. I haven't taken it out as I just got the SIM today but in my Brooklyn apartment, I got a 3G signal from TMO. (Disclaimer: I live in a garden apartment in a brownstone aka bad signal in the apartment.)
Attached is the speed test. Top is AT&T, bottom is TMO. I was pretty surprised. I think I'm going to test it around the city this week as well as when I travel to Seattle later in the week and see what I end up with.
![Photo Mar 05, 11 57 46 PM.jpg]( "Photo Mar 05, 11 57 46 PM.jpg")
Attached is the speed test. Top is AT&T, bottom is TMO. I was pretty surprised. I think I'm going to test it around the city this week as well as when I travel to Seattle later in the week and see what I end up with.
Anyone here from Orange County California with iPhone unlocked for tmobile how's the speed here?
Willing to buy one this summer
Willing to buy one this summer
Thanks so much dude! I live around East Dallas I believe but this was awesome information thank you
I didn't think T-Mobile would extend the 3G that far away from Dallas. Waxahachie isn't exactly five minute down the road.
I switched to T-Mobile last night and I think my Edge speeds are terrible. I'm getting like 300-400 ms pings, 0.12 Mbps down, and 0.05 Mbps up. Is that normal, do i need to tweak a setting, or is it because I'm porting over from ST and I'm on a temporary number?
Last edited:
Those are typical for Edge speeds which is 2G. If they haven't redone your area you won't see 3G speeds which is what people are getting 4-5 Mbps.
Yeah, one town over from where I live has been refarmed, as my icon said 3G instead of E. Been awhile since I had Edge speeds and didn't know if that was normal for Edge or subpar even for Edge.
Not to hijack the thread, but for those of you that need good coverage or don't use a lot of data, have you thought about NET10 AT&T? You can get a SIM for $1 on eBay, or $0.25 on Amazon with a purhchase of $30 or more, and it's $50 (or $45 with auto-refill) for unlimited talk/text and 1.5GB of data. I have the Straight Talk version that's "unlimited" (1.5GB or so then throttled), unfortunately they don't sell it anymore. If you really want Straight Talk, you can buy an E71 and just use the SIM from that, but the phone is $50.
But I do like T-Mobile, though. Unfortunately, PCS 3G is still spotty in my area. I didn't notice much progress during the winter, but it seems to be moving again recently. I do really like how the pings are equivalent to LTE in many areas. Not sure if that will last once more people start using it though.
----------
You know, those speeds are equivalent to Sprint "3G" speeds in some areas, so it's not as bad as you think.
But I do like T-Mobile, though. Unfortunately, PCS 3G is still spotty in my area. I didn't notice much progress during the winter, but it seems to be moving again recently. I do really like how the pings are equivalent to LTE in many areas. Not sure if that will last once more people start using it though.
----------
You know, those speeds are equivalent to Sprint "3G" speeds in some areas, so it's not as bad as you think.
Last edited:
Lol dude The only advantage I see in Net10 over ST is that you can stream, can't you?
I'm on straight talk and I go to at least 2.5 gig every month, I don't stream so when it's slowed I can just call and they'll reset my speed. Easy peasy, that's when Tmobile comes in, it's the best of both worlds. Only trouble is- Reframing
Is New York City confirmed yet? There's a lot of pages to sift through...
Yeah Tmobile announced NYC as a refarmed market at the end of December last year.
Can anyone confirm that within CY2013 All TMO iPhone users will eventually see at least 3G speeds?
If I missed this info already posted, apologies.
If I missed this info already posted, apologies.
No, T-mobile will still have edge for quite a while. Most of the areas that they are refarming already have 3G.
right now they are working on mainly the city's be it big or small (hence why some of you are catching 3G in small city's) and the further you go away from them the greater chances of you getting 2G/E only.
Is it consistently 3G, though, in those big cities? Like say, NYC?
I notice Tmobile says they're got NYC refarmed, including all boroughs, but you can never be sure. I've heard stories that the 3G is spotty at best in NYC with unlocked iPhones, and HSPA+ is almost non-existent or very rare.
It should be but if you are in a area with highrises you are definitely going to see some signal loss and/or low speeds....it happens in just about all major cities. As far as NYC I cant say but I have read in many places where people have confirmed to get 3G in NYC consistently. I can speak for Chicago that we do get 3G in a good 20-30mile radius to downtown.
Thanks for the info. I guess there's only one way to find out. Thankfully Apple has a nice 30 day return policy on unlocked iPhones. Plenty of time to test.
The 3GS isn't capable of the higher hspa+ speeds. It will only do a theoretical maximum of 7.2 Mbps download which translates to about 2-4 Mbps in real world usage. Decent 3G speeds but not 4G HSPA+.