Evaluating T-Mobile in North Jersey/NY

[EstaVidaLoca]

Of course, this is easy. AT&T has LTE everywhere in Boston. Hell, when they launched LTE, it covered a huge portion of Eastern Mass and they didn't deploy some half-assed network, like TMobile, where you would only get LTE some places. It went from the Mass/NH border all the way to Providence.

I know this for a fact because Boston was an LTE launch market for AT&T and I picked up my Skyrocket the day the network went live. VZW is similar. I can drive hundreds of miles on both VZW and AT&T and stay on LTE, but TMobile? some HSPA+ and mostly EDGE.

You can't lump in Sprint and TMo with the big two. Hell, Sprint's LTE deployment is more pathetic than TMo's refarming. LTE has been delayed here for months and they only have some parts of the city done

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LMAO. You can't possible believe those coverage maps are 100% accurate. They are merely projections based on the amount of towers in an area. I know strips of interstate 10 that are shown as covered by every major carrier on the maps and you'll see no service for miles regardless of the branding on the back of your phone.

 

[2298754]

LMAO. You can't possible believe those coverage maps are 100% accurate. They are merely projections based on the amount of towers in an area. I know strips of interstate 10 that are shown as covered by every major carrier on the maps and you'll see no service for miles regardless of the branding on the back of your phone.

They're pretty damm accurate. If you want to stay in denial that's fine with me. I travel tons around the Northeast for work and get LTE where ever Im supposed to. Unlike TMo, which lied about refarming being done in Boston.

 

[MVRL]

downtown Manhattan, I recently acquired the updated A1428, and the signal has vastly improved. I went from getting only 1 bar of Edge or even no service to 2~3 bars of 4G in buildings. Outside of buildings, I get constant 4G coverage.

 

[CEmajr]

LMAO. You can't possible believe those coverage maps are 100% accurate. They are merely projections based on the amount of towers in an area. I know strips of interstate 10 that are shown as covered by every major carrier on the maps and you'll see no service for miles regardless of the branding on the back of your phone.

I agree they are definitely NOT accurate. AT&T/Verizon coverage maps just show a blanket of coverage for entire areas where they have service and totally ignore dead spots where there is still Edge or 1X in the area. I also don't like the fact that they don't offer any tool to show how strong your data signal strength will be in certain areas.

Back in 2011 when I went to AT&T to get the 4S I checked out their coverage maps. Charlotte was totally blanketed in HSPA+ according to the maps yet on my school campus, Edge. Sometimes on 85 near the airport, Edge. In my house, 1-2 bars. Yet there is nothing on their coverage maps to let you know where these dead or weak signal areas are. Just blanket "perfect" coverage.

Verizon, switched to them December 2012 for the iPhone 5 and because they had the most LTE. Took the iPhone home, as soon as I drive in the parking lot outside my apartment LTE turns to 3G and signal dropped to 1-2 bars. Went inside and the phone immediately drops to 1 bar and wildly switches between 3G, LTE, and O. Also draining the hell out of the battery and making voice calls almost unusable unless I went near my windows in the living room. Yet when I called to ask them why their map shows perfect blanket coverage when it isn't, they claimed it was the building. When I asked why is the signal still terrible even when outside the building she said they just have some dead spots sometimes. Well why not show them on the coverage maps so that users can know where to expect them?

The maps don't give users any clue as to how strong their signal will really be in an area. Just perfect coverage all over the city if you go by them. T-Mobile does have an inferior high speed network footprint compared to the big 2 but when I look at the coverage maps at least I get a generally good idea of where I can expect to have 2G or 4G and with approximately how many bars of signal too. My apartment is in the dark green area of their coverage map and as so I usually get 18-25mbps down here while at work I'm in one of the lighter green areas and data speeds are around 12mbps with around 3 bars of signal. The couple times of year when I visit my hometown, it's Edge just like the map shows. Pretty accurate.

No comments on Sprint because the network is just horrible. Even on their coverage maps they have a disclaimer that the coverage is only shown for how strong your signal will be outside.

 

[bozzykid]

They're pretty damm accurate. If you want to stay in denial that's fine with me. I travel tons around the Northeast for work and get LTE where ever Im supposed to. Unlike TMo, which lied about refarming being done in Boston.

I believe T-Mobile hasn't updated their coverage maps since last October or November. Apparently internally they have updated maps but for some reason the public web site hasn't been updated in a long time.