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legaleye3000

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
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I have an ATT iPhone 7 Plus and am thinking about switching to TMobile. Can I simply unlock the phone and use it on T-Mobile? Are the bands on a ATT version iPhone and TMO version iPhone the same for the 7 Plus? Thanks.
 
I have an ATT iPhone 7 Plus and am thinking about switching to TMobile. Can I simply unlock the phone and use it on T-Mobile? Are the bands on a ATT version iPhone and TMO version iPhone the same for the 7 Plus? Thanks.
Please do not change to TMobile as you will regret it. TMobile can offer such a good price because they only can offer customers a small portion of great services of what ATT and Verizon have offered. You will experience signal issues in buildings, basements, elevators and some areas. TMobile offers many perks to substitute or compensateany unfavorable limitations of their customers experience so their customers.Switching to TMobile is not recommended unless they are in par with Verizon and ATT in ALL network aspects.
 
...alright then. I'll spare you a lecture and actually answer your question, or at least attempt to.

As far as I know, for the 7 models, yes- you should be able to unlock a T-Mo iPhone and use it on ATT and vice versa. Where thing should get more complicated is when you try to use one of those on Verizon or Sprint, which I believe is not possible for the 7's.

See the image for Apple's disclaimer on the T-mobile model.
 

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Please do not change to TMobile as you will regret it. TMobile can offer such a good price because they only can offer customers a small portion of great services of what ATT and Verizon have offered. You will experience signal issues in buildings, basements, elevators and some areas. TMobile offers many perks to substitute or compensateany unfavorable limitations of their customers experience so their customers.Switching to TMobile is not recommended unless they are in par with Verizon and ATT in ALL network aspects.

What?
I guess the rest of the 72 million Tmobile subscribers all get bad service according to you.
You have no idea what carrier works good or not in his local area and places he frequents the most, save your AT&T and Verizon advertisements and bias.

OP yes, once you have the AT&T iphone 7 unlocked it will work fine on Tmobile.
 
Please do not change to TMobile as you will regret it. TMobile can offer such a good price because they only can offer customers a small portion of great services of what ATT and Verizon have offered. You will experience signal issues in buildings, basements, elevators and some areas. TMobile offers many perks to substitute or compensateany unfavorable limitations of their customers experience so their customers.Switching to TMobile is not recommended unless they are in par with Verizon and ATT in ALL network aspects.

I'm a happy T-Mobile customer and have literally not experienced any of the issues you described.

OP, as long as your iPhone is unlocked, it's as simple as getting a T-Mobile SIM and dropping it in your phone and porting your number over.
 
Please do not change to TMobile as you will regret it. TMobile can offer such a good price because they only can offer customers a small portion of great services of what ATT and Verizon have offered. You will experience signal issues in buildings, basements, elevators and some areas. TMobile offers many perks to substitute or compensateany unfavorable limitations of their customers experience so their customers.Switching to TMobile is not recommended unless they are in par with Verizon and ATT in ALL network aspects.
OP asked a question that has a specific, factual answer.

You replied with a personal opinion about a topic the OP didn't ask about.

Your experience has no relation to mine, except if you want to sub the word "Sprint" for "T-Mobile".
 
Yes, ATT unlocked my 7+ when I paid it off and switched to T-Mobile.

I'm paying about $40 less per month with T-Mobile, but have noticed a significant drop in quality from ATT.

Will probably try Verizon or ATT again if the offer any promotional deals.
 
So I ported my number to Tmobile. Then I logged in online to pay off my balance of the installment plan on the phone. It wouldn't let me. When I called ATT, they said I have to wait until the end of my bill cycle before I can pay off the phone in order to get an unlock code. That's 3 weeks away! I have an android backup phone I can use for 3 weeks, but that's ridiculous!
 
So I ported my number to Tmobile. Then I logged in online to pay off my balance of the installment plan on the phone. It wouldn't let me. When I called ATT, they said I have to wait until the end of my bill cycle before I can pay off the phone in order to get an unlock code. That's 3 weeks away! I have an android backup phone I can use for 3 weeks, but that's ridiculous!

No, that's nonsense what they told you.
I would call them and tell them you want to pay off the balance of your phone right now.
And as soon as you pay it off have them submit an unlock request.
You ported out of them so now they're going to start giving you the run around and do their best to make this as painful as possible for you.
I went through the same nightmare before with AT&T.
Speak to a supervisor and see if they can help you. If you see you're not getting anywhere and you wasting your time speaking to unhelpful reps stop calling them.
Go straight here and file a formal complain.
https://www.bbb.org/
Higher up AT&T corporate support should contact you within a day or so and take care of your situation the way it should have been handled in the first place.
 
I have an ATT iPhone 7 Plus and am thinking about switching to TMobile. Can I simply unlock the phone and use it on T-Mobile? Are the bands on a ATT version iPhone and TMO version iPhone the same for the 7 Plus? Thanks.
DON'T DO IT!!!!! IF you live in So Cal. Don't. I got SCREWED. I had a grandfathered account, was with At&T since cellphones were invented and I lost all of it transferring to T-Mobile. I recently switched to take advantage of their 3 Lines for $100 (no taxes or fees) which I thought was an AMAZING deal. Well, my data speeds went from 60mbps to 1mbps. No joke. I couldn't make calls and the internet was butt ass slow. You-tube? nope didn't work. I went to my local store to complain and while I was in the store I tested the data. It leaped to 55+mbps! I told the guy you must have a repeater in the building and he adamantly denied it. I literally stepped outside of the store and my data dropped to 12mbps. 100ft from there, 1mbps. They are shady MFr's. Needless to say, I went back to AT&T and now pay more than what I was paying before AND I lost my unlimited data plan. Worst mistake ever. DON'T DO IT.
 
DON'T DO IT!!!!! IF you live in So Cal. Don't. I got SCREWED. I had a grandfathered account, was with At&T since cellphones were invented and I lost all of it transferring to T-Mobile. I recently switched to take advantage of their 3 Lines for $100 (no taxes or fees) which I thought was an AMAZING deal. Well, my data speeds went from 60mbps to 1mbps. No joke. I couldn't make calls and the internet was butt ass slow. You-tube? nope didn't work. I went to my local store to complain and while I was in the store I tested the data. It leaped to 55+mbps! I told the guy you must have a repeater in the building and he adamantly denied it. I literally stepped outside of the store and my data dropped to 12mbps. 100ft from there, 1mbps. They are shady MFr's. Needless to say, I went back to AT&T and now pay more than what I was paying before AND I lost my unlimited data plan. Worst mistake ever. DON'T DO IT.
Interesting. My parents live in SoCal (I lived there for 20 years), San Gorgonio Pass area between Palm Springs and Redlands (Riverside County).

We visited in December and T-Mob's network was screaming fast.
 
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DON'T DO IT!!!!! IF you live in So Cal. Don't. I got SCREWED. I had a grandfathered account, was with At&T since cellphones were invented and I lost all of it transferring to T-Mobile. I recently switched to take advantage of their 3 Lines for $100 (no taxes or fees) which I thought was an AMAZING deal. Well, my data speeds went from 60mbps to 1mbps. No joke. I couldn't make calls and the internet was butt ass slow. You-tube? nope didn't work. I went to my local store to complain and while I was in the store I tested the data. It leaped to 55+mbps! I told the guy you must have a repeater in the building and he adamantly denied it. I literally stepped outside of the store and my data dropped to 12mbps. 100ft from there, 1mbps. They are shady MFr's. Needless to say, I went back to AT&T and now pay more than what I was paying before AND I lost my unlimited data plan. Worst mistake ever. DON'T DO IT.

I live in SoCal. My Speedtest says other wise.
 
Word to the wise.

BEFORE you switch carriers, pay off the phone. And make sure it is unlocked.

To assume you can do all of this in one day is an open invitation to problems. Why go that route?
 
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When I switched from ATT to T-mo a few years ago, I had similar issues. ATT did not make it easy to switch. Every time I spoke to someone about the issues, they tried to convince me to stay. Finally, I told them I was switching because of their endless cycle of constant hurdles to close my account and amazingly, everything got done in 5 mins. o_O

I've been plenty happy with t-mobile. Sure, there are weak spots (I hit a few driving up the 5 from Portland to Seattle) but that is way offset by the international texting, and carryover data, and the fact my bill is 60% less.
 
DON'T DO IT!!!!! IF you live in So Cal. Don't. I got SCREWED. I had a grandfathered account, was with At&T since cellphones were invented and I lost all of it transferring to T-Mobile. I recently switched to take advantage of their 3 Lines for $100 (no taxes or fees) which I thought was an AMAZING deal. Well, my data speeds went from 60mbps to 1mbps. No joke. I couldn't make calls and the internet was butt ass slow. You-tube? nope didn't work. I went to my local store to complain and while I was in the store I tested the data. It leaped to 55+mbps! I told the guy you must have a repeater in the building and he adamantly denied it. I literally stepped outside of the store and my data dropped to 12mbps. 100ft from there, 1mbps. They are shady MFr's. Needless to say, I went back to AT&T and now pay more than what I was paying before AND I lost my unlimited data plan. Worst mistake ever. DON'T DO IT.

Get me a violin :D
You lost your grandfathered unlimited plan and guess what? Every carrier is now offering unlimited data plan.
Tmobile is a great choice for many people. Individual results will vary for every carrier but if you think AT&T or verizon is great everywhere and at any US location you're dreaming.
Keep paying an arm and a leg with AT&T if it makes you feel better.
 
I have been with T Mobile since 1997 when it was called Powertel. The thing about coverage is that all carriers have bad spots or areas of congestion. In the metro Atlanta area where I live I have no issues at all. I work night shift and work in the northern fringes of the metro Atlanta area. I can get 100 Mbps down easily. There a lot of people where I live and T Mobile easily compares to Verizon and AT&T. I also have colleagues who switched over from AT&T with their iPhone 7 and 7s's after getting them unlocked and they have had no issues. Granted I am sure if I went way off into the Ga countryside I may see little to no coverage but I kinda expect that with any carrier.
 
The few months last year I had T-Mobile I didn't have speed issues. It was a few small dead spots where calls would drop that annoyed me.

I guess, after all finally trying another carrier after many years with ATT, I think I should find a perfect carrier. Which doesn't exist. I have Verizon now (for phone, just changed to T-Mobile for iPad). Slower than T-Mobile was, doesn't drop. But at work it occasionally drops to 3G, which is very slow data.
 
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The few months last year I had T-Mobile I didn't have speed issues. It was a few small dead spots where calls would drop that annoyed me.

I guess, after all finally trying another carrier after many years with ATT, I think I should find a perfect carrier. Which doesn't exist. I have Verizon now (for phone, just changed to T-Mobile for iPad). Slower than T-Mobile was, doesn't drop. But at work it occasionally drops to 3G, which is very slow data.

Pretty much, no carrier is perfect everywhere.
Every carrier will have dead zones or places that the service is crowded, or drops down to 3G, or the data speed at some locations is slow etc..
Find out what works best for you in the places you frequent the most and take into account obviously the options that comes with your plan and monthly price and figure out what suits your needs.
 
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