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Is T-Mobile for me?
- Thread starter Cchs229
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Downtown and around Lake Merritt, the service is fine. In some parts of East Oakland and San Leandro, the coverage gets spottier. Haven't checked the data speeds out that way since late last year, and I know that T-Mobile's LTE coverage in the Bay Area has expanded a lot since that time.
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I'd love to jump to TM, but at my house I get one bar of LTE and it flips back and forth between that and 4G. The coverage map says I'm in excellent LTE coverage. So much for "excellent" coverage.
Try running a speed test to see what the actual performance is (T-Mobile won't count most speed test apps against your data cap). T-Mobile's coverage maps do not distinguish between "4G"/HSPA+ and LTE, and never have. 4G/HSPA+ is more than fast enough for most smartphone tasks, and in a strong coverage area can be faster than a weaker LTE signal.
IIRC, the number of "bars" for T-Mobile refers to the voice signal, not the data network. And LTE does not carry voice data, so the number of "bars" has no bearing on the data signal quality if you pick up a LTE signal.
I'd love to jump to TM, but at my house I get one bar of LTE and it flips back and forth between that and 4G. The coverage map says I'm in excellent LTE coverage. So much for "excellent" coverage.
and with the new iOS 8, T-Mobile offers WiFi-calling with iPhone so that should help with coverage inside your house and anywhere with WiFi.
what are you getting in speedtest.net app? you have 4G and LTE so it shouldn't be a problem in service.
I agree. It says I'm in excellent lte coverage. However I'm getting a lot of E coverage and rare 1 bar of LTE. when I run a speed test I get about speeds under 2 Mbps. So tmobile isn't a serious consideration for me.
What poor service are you referring to?
My house is also on a block where the data signal flips between 4G and LTE. But, the actual "4G"/HSPA+ data speed can hit close to 8 Mbps, which is not far off from the 10 Mbps speeds that I get on my block when receiving a LTE signal. Go north less a mile, and the LTE speeds reach 35 Mbps.
your post earlier stated you get 4G and LTE inside your place...nothing about E coverage..
As I said, T-Mobile does not separate 4G/HSPA+ from LTE, and the one bar refers to the voice signal not the data signal. Network quality can really vary from one location to another. As indicated above, the speeds I get at home are a lot lower than when I go less than a mile away.
Anyway, it looks like you've already run the speed test, and under 2 Mbps is indeed marginal speed if you need the data at home. It's usable for basic functions, but not if you're doing any tethering, video, or screen sharing.
The best way to find out if it's for you is to get a pre-paid sim and use it where you need it. That's how I figured out that it's not for me. No service at home, bad at work. Great everywhere else (like between 15-30mbps!!). But I spend a lot of time at work or at home so it's a no-go for TMO for me at this time. I'm hoping they keep making their network better...or my next apartment will be in a good service area. hahaha.
Bingo. Having to off-load your service just because TMo can't provide working service at your home is pathetic at best. There is no reason to consider TMo at that point.
I am spending weekends at the south jersey shore and no issues down here either
I got one of those free 200 MB of data sims for my iPad just to test out the signal. I have 0 signal whatsoever at my house. I really wanted to switch to TMobile. I guess it is good that AT&T is offering better pricing now.
At least you were smart enough to test it first. Most just switch because the cost savings.
Were you able to pick up a LTE or "4G"/HSPA+ signal anywhere else? I ask because the earlier iPad models did not support T-Mobile's AWS band, which carries both LTE and HSPA+ signals on their network. If you're using anything older than an iPad 4, then it's not compatible with most of T-Mobile's high speed data signals.
If you indeed have an older iPad, it might be a better idea just to do the test drive and confirm what signal you can actually pick up with the latest baseband.
Serious question: if the only places you aren't getting a good signal is at home or at work and WiFi calling works as well as everyone says, is it really that important? Outside almost everywhere else I've needed to go, it's been fine. I've checked in w/ people in other cities that I travel to regularly to ask about their service and they all seem very happy with it.
So I guess I'm reconsidering TMO if anyone can speak on the WiFi calling features a little more. I keep hearing good things. Does it really work even if you have zero bars?
So I guess I'm reconsidering TMO if anyone can speak on the WiFi calling features a little more. I keep hearing good things. Does it really work even if you have zero bars?
Caveat here is that wi-fi calling on T-Mobile won't arrive for the iPhone until iOS 8 is released.
I agree that having a strong cell signal at home or at work is less relevant if you already connect via wi-fi. Nice thing about wi-fi calling is that you can use it in an area with zero cell coverage, so long as you have a network connection via wi-fi. Plus, I believe that wi-fi calling is already HDVoice compatible.
It is iPad mini w/retina so it should support all of the bands. And I have used it on vacation before and gotten LTE. Just where I live I get nothing. Looking at the coverage map, it shows my entire area as a combination of Satisfactory and 2G so I really wasn't expecting anything anyway. It is just weird that like 2 miles down the road, it shows excellent coverage which is why I wanted to test it out.
Understood. I wouldn't switch until the new phone came out anyway but I'm on the iOS8 beta now if I did. Good to know that the WiFi calling gets high endorsements. I wish I could try it out with pre-paid.
I love T-Mobile and it's company values, but the service sucks where I live. So I will wait until it's improved in the Sacramento area.
Most recent trip from NY to Milwaukee, Wisconsin coverage was spotting but at the same time it was very good....hard to explain...anyways if they listed a city/town as having LTE then I got LTE in that area and at least 50 miles out from it...I frequently picked up LTE in the middle of nothing where the fall back was plain ol' GPRS so they were serious about upgrading EDGE only sites to LTE. Once I got to western indiana into Chicago, I had LTE from within Chicago all the way to Milwaukee with 4 to 5 bars, dropped to DC-HSPA+ once on I-94 but I was watching Netflix on my phone and my sister was using my tablet to watch Netflix as well (on one connection) all up and down I-94 with no hiccups. I've never wanted to cheer a carrier on this much because their coverage grows every day! Except of course at my house :/ I'm right at the fringe of HSPA+ and EDGE, usually roams onto an AT&T HSPA+ cell site glaring at me from my bed room window about 600-800 meters away....almost want to call T-Mobile and ask them if they can put up a site since that AT&T site has a free rack open and its meant as a capacity booster for my old highschool across from me and I know allot of kids use T-Mobile. Anyways I've got a T-Mobile hotsot with an external antenna port and I plan to test out if I can pull in the signal with a Yagi to determine whether the coverage really is getting closer...when I go into town about 3/4th's of a mile I get DC-HSPA+ and download speeds of 15mbps during peak hours....
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