Question about switching carrier's

[ra4oasis]

Hi everybody. I'm using the purchase of my iPhone 6 as a reason to switch carriers, from AT&T to T-Mobile. I'm going to be saving like $30 bucks a month, so we'll see how the service is. Anyway, my number was ported over and everything, but do I need to do anything else to cancel my service with AT&T? Or when T-Mobile ported the number over, is that enough? Switching carriers is new to me, so just making sure I cross my t's and dot the i's. Thanks!

 

[ROLLTIDE1]

tmobile will do everything for you. I feel like you made a huge mistake especially if you travel cause T-mobile often times does not have service once you leave a city and Edge is everywhere

 

[ra4oasis]

Okay thanks.

We'll see if I made a mistake, I don't know yet. I live in a rather large city, close to downtown, and so far it's been fine. I don't travel THAT much really, maybe once per year. T-Mobile offering wifi calling was a huge selling point, because I work in a basement where there is zero cell reception, regardless of your carrier. Besides, if I end up hating T-Mobile, I can always pay my phones off, and go back to AT&T, since I'm not under contract.

 

[winterny]

It's also all about where you travel -- if you travel to major cities, T-Mo may do better than AT&T.

If you travel international, T-Mo will do much better.

If you travel to rural Georgia, ATT will obviously win.

 

[CEmajr]

Hi everybody. I'm using the purchase of my iPhone 6 as a reason to switch carriers, from AT&T to T-Mobile. I'm going to be saving like $30 bucks a month, so we'll see how the service is. Anyway, my number was ported over and everything, but do I need to do anything else to cancel my service with AT&T? Or when T-Mobile ported the number over, is that enough? Switching carriers is new to me, so just making sure I cross my t's and dot the i's. Thanks!

Once the number is ported the AT&T service is automatically canceled.

 

[sholzer]

Wait and do a test drive before switching. After looking at their coverage maps I was thinking about switching because the coverage looked like it would work for me and I wanted to take advantage of the unlimited data. But after doing a test drive, I found out that their coverage definitely does not work for me lol. There is decent T-mo LTE coverage, but at my house, I'm stuck to edge. I work in DC, and while their LTE is blazing fast here, I am again stuck to edge inside my work building. What's the point of unlimited data/saving money if you can never use it?

EDIT: oops. just read the OP in its entirety. I hope it works out for you. Still good advice IMO for others thinking about switching.

 

[winterny]

As far as the "No coverage where I live / work" thing goes.

Just a well thought out one-week trial on T-Mo after >10 years on ATT.

* With AT&T, the towers by me are very overloaded, and leads to slow data and dropped calls. Because of the overload, they use all available spectrum, so the microcell's spectrum overlaps with the macrocell -- so during peak hours, even the microcell will drop calls!

* AT&T has no Wi-Fi Voice, so I'm just screwed at home

* AT&T does work at my office, though.

* AT&T drops calls while I drive in Miami.

* Data speeds, in general, are pretty low -- there are a few areas with good speeds, but generally it is slow and high latency, and things like Facetime Audio or Skype are impossible.

T-Mobile:

* Good signal at home (but like I said, who cares since I use WiFi) -- at least it's nice for backup.

* Dead zone inside office building

* WiFi Voice fixes the dead zone problem

* Great speeds driving around

* Facetime Audio works fine while driving (Over LTE)

* Phone calls on 5S (which are using 3G/UMTS) -- I have had a drop, but it is well publicized that T-Mobile is only really working on their LTE network at this point

* iPhone 6 has VoLTE, so UMTS issues are no longer a concern in Miami.

* HD Audio (even on UMTS) sounds much much better than AT&T's codec

* Places I have traveled in the last year include: NYC, San Jose, Atlanta, Phoenix, Las Vegas. T-Mobile has great coverage in all of those places. The one part of my travels that would have been a problem was a drive from Phoenix to Grand Canyon -- and even AT&T barely had coverage there, so no difference.

Yeah, going out to rural georgia or northern florida will probably be a problem on T-Mobile -- so for that reason I am keeping Verizon on my tablet for when I travel, and my wife is keeping AT&T (redundancy). For my phone, I will prefer T-Mo on my daily basis at home.


If I change my mind -- no contract, and I can always port away.

 

[H2K03]

AT&T will send you a final bill showing ETF if applicable and then you can submit it to T-Mobile for reimbursement.