iPhone 6s Supports T-Mobile Extended Range LTE on 700MHz Spectrum

[wildcat88]

If they actually have a coverage map that looks like what they tout here, I MAY switch. But, as usual I will believe it when my coverage indicator states LTE just a few miles down the road.

That's definitely not their LTE map, that's their "full coverage" map... including areas with only EDGE service and partner roaming. Having it all in dark pink is very deceptive.

For one thing, T-mobile has no towers in the entire state of Wyoming, its all roaming on ATT and other carriers, and definitely not LTE.

 

[wildcat88]

I'm french, but if was American I would be on T-Mobile. How stupid can people be to be on Verizon or AT&T (especially knowing that they steal or your data to sell them to advertisers or give them to the NSA?)

Because T-mobile still has worse service coverage than Verizon in many parts of the US, especially the US West Coast. I know, I'm with them right now and extremely frustrated. The map in this article is incorrectly labelled as "LTE coverage", but its actually just their full voice coverage area, including large swathes of the country where all you can do is roam on voice and SMS, but get little or no data coverage at all.

Even in large cities, like Phoenix where I live, T-mobile isn't allowed to expand their 700 mhz LTE, because a television station occupies that frequency and is grandfathered in. So my T-mobile iPhone 6 basically doesn't work indoors, and goes dead or loses data connection whenever I'm in the shadow of a tall building outdoors.

 

[wildcat88]

I may leave AT&T next year and jump onto Tmobile. I would lose my lucrative FAN discount and unlimited data but with all of the music freedom and greater building penetration with band 12 it may be enough for me to just do that (and I still have another year to go before my contract is up so who knows what else Tmobile will announce).

Make sure you are actually in a Band 12 area though. That map is simply T-mobiles voice coverage. Their Band 12 service areas are far more limited, and are completely nonexistent (due to TV stations owning bandwidth) in major cities like Chicago and Phoenix.

 

[wildcat88]

It should. The lower frequency has better building penetration, provided that band 12 is live in your area. Band 12 is the *only* reason I'm going to upgrade again this year, although TMo's $12 off on the Jump on Demand helped there, which works out to be $216 off the full price of a 6s. I just might be camping out at TMo for the 6s next week to get my still sealed in box iPhone 6 traded in

Chicago is one of the major markets where T-mobile can't use Band 12, because there is a TV station that is camped out on that frequency and is grandfathered into it by the FCC. Phoenix (where I live) is another major market where T-mobile is basically out of luck for expanding Band 12 coverage.

 

[wildcat88]

I often get no reception on T Mobile when in many buildings downtown Chicago, though I see people with ATT and Verizon using theirs just fine. Wonder if this will resolve that or not.

No, because Chicago is one of the markets where T-mobile can't offer 700 mhz Band 12 LTE, because that frequency is locally controlled by a TV station.

See the map of "protected" TV stations here, where T-mobile is not allowed to broadcast on Band 12:
http://ae2.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-700-mhz-spectrum.html

I'm like you, here in Phoenix - I can't get any indoor coverage on T-mobile at work (right in the middle of downtown), although my colleagues with Verizon and ATT do just fine.

 

[benji888]

I should have mentioned I did this with my wife's phone when we switched to T-Mobile and got her phone on JUMP. I just had to wait until after my first bill for the system to "catch up" to our plan.

So, one thing missing here is the cost of JUMP! Correct me if I'm wrong, but, you don't just "sign up" for JUMP, it cost $15/mo., does it not? So we're really talking about:

$15/mo. JUMP +
$20/mo. for the iphone
= $35/mo. + your phone & data plan.

So, it really costs $35/mo. if you include what JUMP costs:
x 18 months = $630

Can someone with T-mo & JUMP clarify this?

So I'm currently a T-Mobile customer without JUMP and with a 6. If I sign up for the JUMP program when getting a 6S will I be able to trade in the 6S a year later for a 7? I think I saw somewhere you had to hold for 18 months before upgrade.

And will T-Mobile offer me cash for the 6? Otherwise I'll sell on my own.

I'm trying to compare the T-Mobile offers to the new Apple $33/month program (assuming I will want to upgrade every year).

Me too!

I switched to T-mo last year and got the iPhone 6, even though no band 12. It would really help to have band 12, depending on where I am, sometimes I get reception inside buildings, other times, I lose it. With band 12 I have more chances of getting reception inside. (No, I do not have JUMP, I pay $27/mo. for 128G iphone 6, + my phone & data plan.)

 

[nouveau-apple]

Previous iPhones have carrier aggregation/LTE-A. AT&T and T-Mobile have it active in many areas.

What's "carrier aggregation/LTE-A" sounds like that fast talking to me. That was pretty slick.

 

[wildcat88]

That map isn't LTE coverage, its simply their entire voice coverage area, including partner roaming and EDGE areas.

This is their actual LTE coverage map, including Band 12 areas, right now. Most of the magenta area on the original map is shown below as gray 2G or partner areas, especially in the West:

 

[nouveau-apple]

Whoa now these carriers are lying. Why are they so deceptive.

 

[Shanpdx]

Whoa now these carriers are lying. Why are they so deceptive.

yes and no; US land area is so huge, like i said in one of the post, t-mobile is improving its network whenever it can. att/verizon still makes lots of profit and hold ton of spectrum.

being the third carrier, it can only do so much and it fits the customer who it targets.

 

[Shanpdx]

That map isn't LTE coverage, its simply their entire voice coverage area, including partner roaming and EDGE areas.

This is their actual LTE coverage map, including Band 12 areas, right now. Most of the magenta area is actually gray 2G or partner areas, especially in the West:

and it is much better than two years back! (t-mobile coverage).

 

[LSUstang05]

So, one thing missing here is the cost of JUMP! Correct me if I'm wrong, but, you don't just "sign up" for JUMP, it cost $15/mo., does it not? So we're really talking about:

$15/mo. JUMP +
$20/mo. for the iphone
= $35/mo. + your phone & data plan.

So, it really costs $35/mo. if you include what JUMP costs:
x 18 months = $630

Can someone with T-mo & JUMP clarify this?

It does cost, but not the $15/month you're thinking.

My bill is as follows:

$10/mo. JUMP! (includes Premium Handset Protection and Lookout Mobile Security Premium according to my bill)
$50/mo. Plan (Simple Choice Plan: Unlimited Talk + Text)
$10/mo. Data Service (3GB High Speed Data)
FREE Data Stash (10GB)
FREE WiFi Calling
Phone charges per month are $37.57

Total Bill: $107.57

ETA:
This is current bill charges. I fully expect my bill to actually decrease by upgrading to the new iPhone 6S.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Verizon supports non-CDMA voice?

Yes... VoLTE is the GSM/3GPP standard and Verizon (and AT&T) was a very integral player in its development and codification. It doesn't hand off anyway since they never did 1x Advanced. You'd be LTE-only on the device, but they're pretty confident in their coverage.

 

[iolinux333]

The T-Mobile 6S won't work on Verizon because, unlike the 6, the 6S is bifurcated into CDMA and non-CDMA versions. If you are a T-Mobile customer you should get the Verizon 6S. If you are an AT&T customer you should probably still get the Verizon 6S unless you're in one of the few markets where band 30 is deployed.

i use more ATT than Tmobile. i know there's not much band 30 now, but what about a year from now?

 

[Tomb01]

That's definitely not their LTE map, that's their "full coverage" map... including areas with only EDGE service and partner roaming. Having it all in dark pink is very deceptive.

For one thing, T-mobile has no towers in the entire state of Wyoming, its all roaming on ATT and other carriers, and definitely not LTE.

Be skeptical of the T-Mobile coverage maps. I live in a zip code that shows 'excellent' 4G/LTE coverage (76034) but get 'no service' in my local grocery store and post office. In the heart of that 'excellent LTE' coverage area. If I drive through that area, I lose connectivity and my Pandora music feed drops. Am hoping this new frequency will fix the problem, but until it is proven, do NOT believe the coverage map. Have lots of iPhone screen captures of my lack of signal in both my post office and local grocery store in the middle of my 'verified' 4G/LTE area for T-Mobile.

 

[JAT]

So, one thing missing here is the cost of JUMP! Correct me if I'm wrong, but, you don't just "sign up" for JUMP, it cost $15/mo., does it not? So we're really talking about:

$15/mo. JUMP +
$20/mo. for the iphone
= $35/mo. + your phone & data plan.

So, it really costs $35/mo. if you include what JUMP costs:
x 18 months = $630

Can someone with T-mo & JUMP clarify this?

There are two programs. Jump is $10/month, like another poster indicated. What is being discussed is Jump On Demand, which starts at $15/month, each phone is a different price. They are lowering the iPhone price for a limited time for the 6s. And each of these plans have different features. There is a comparison page on their website that explains it. Actually, they have a THIRD program called Start or something.

 

[patent10021]

I'm pasting a question from my thread because it relates to this thread and there are no answers.

I thought I'd be able to use a Canadian/American factory unlocked iPhone 6 Plus on China Mobile 4G but nope. Only 2G cause the bands are different. China Unicom 4G was no problem though. I don't like China Unicom but oh well. At least I could get a 4G contract and also China Unicom is 150mbps and China Mobile is 100mbps so all turned out ok.

But these new iPhones 6Ss apparently have 23 bands. Does this mean the new north American iP6S could work on China Mobile 4G?

 

[BeSweeet]

Because T-mobile still has worse service coverage than Verizon in many parts of the US, especially the US West Coast. I know, I'm with them right now and extremely frustrated. The map in this article is incorrectly labelled as "LTE coverage", but its actually just their full voice coverage area, including large swathes of the country where all you can do is roam on voice and SMS, but get little or no data coverage at all.

At one point earlier this year, they did mention building out a native network in all of those areas, in one way or another.

Be skeptical of the T-Mobile coverage maps. I live in a zip code that shows 'excellent' 4G/LTE coverage (76034) but get 'no service' in my local grocery store and post office. In the heart of that 'excellent LTE' coverage area. If I drive through that area, I lose connectivity and my Pandora music feed drops. Am hoping this new frequency will fix the problem, but until it is proven, do NOT believe the coverage map. Have lots of iPhone screen captures of my lack of signal in both my post office and local grocery store in the middle of my 'verified' 4G/LTE area for T-Mobile.

How long ago were you checking? They don't label anything as "excellent" anymore.

Their "verified" thing is certainly questionable, though. For example, if an area says "verified," it may have just been an old 2G spot that was verified that's on a very fringe LTE area.

 

[Handsome Bacon]

T-Mobile love them and hate them. If you drive a lot, there are some MAJOR dead spots on I-95 and I-75 in the south. Like miles and miles of "no service", and they're definitely spottier with data. I love their attitude and love the underdog, so I stick with them.

 

[gaanee]

So is A1633/1634 better than A1687/1688 and close to a world phone since it has band 30. and can you use on Verizon? I read on some website that Verizon will allow customers to bring their own phones.

 

[littyboy]

I get 0 reception in the hospitals that I work in. I wonder if this will improve it..... too must $$$ to risk

 

[Truefan31]

So is A1633/1634 better than A1687/1688 and close to a world phone since it has band 30. and can you use on Verizon? I read on some website that Verizon will allow customers to bring their own phones.

Thats the question were all trying to figure out. I did see this

http://mobile.pcmag.com/news/59765-...rrier-choices?origref=https://www.google.com/

 

[lordofthereef]

I'm liking what I'm seeing... Had T-Mobile, and the coverage ended at my doorstep. Driveway? Fine. 1 bar. Cross the threshold, searching....

(This was before they had WiFi calling, but we were in a suburb of Portland, OR)

We actually just recently switched. Same issue as you but wifi calling works flawlessly. I've never noticed an issue and I speak to my wife every night in her drive home from work. I'll be honest, I'll be happy when I don't HAVE to rely on wifi though

 

[lordofthereef]

I get 0 reception in the hospitals that I work in. I wonder if this will improve it..... too must $$$ to risk

All you'd really be risking is a credit check. You can sign up for an extra line, try it out, and if it sucks, return it in under a month and you're golden didn't spend a dime.

 

[lordofthereef]

For those interested, check this map. It's an unofficial page but intaglios at least glean some info about your area. From what I read Boston is already lit up (where the map says its just on its way). This is the best map I have found. AFAIK there is no official tmobile map likely because they are I the middle of what seems
To be a substantial rollout.
http://www.tmonews.com/700mhz-lte-map/