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T-Mobile and Verizon Are Basically Tied in Network Speeds and So-Called 'Availability'

I switched to TMo a few months ago and overall very happy with it. I do have instances where in some buildings, I have bad service... but I'd occasionally get that with Verizon too (just not quite as much). I switched because I began to hate Verizon for the terrible value/nickel and diming for features that are included on TMo. And don't get me started on the BS Verizon fees and costs. I spent hours with VZW trying to get them to fix my line discounts and excessive, vague fees to no avail. I get way more with TMo, for much less money, even after I had a 20% corporate discount I supposedly had through Verizon! I'll take a few random bad service moments over shady-ass VZW anyday. I think VZW thinks they are top dog and don't have to do crap to keep customers, so they just sit back and watch the money roll in.
 
1080p said:
No... just no.

Visit Northern Arizona and you will see why Verizon is better.
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Came here to say.. live in Denver, play in the rockies, T-Mobile is noticeably worse. My roomate has it and I would say I have signal about 75% of the time while we are snowboarding, he almost never has signal.
 
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I have both T-mobile and Verizon. T-mobile is hands down better in populated metro areas like NYC, LA, Chi, and etc. Verizon has too many dead spots. But if you're taking a road trip from state to state, Verizon will keep you covered in less populated areas.
 
I'm on T-Mobile and love it. haven't had any problems in NYC, NJ, SF, LA, FL, LA.
 
T-Mo still gets my business, but I have to say that as of late the quality of the network has declined. I drop more calls, random "all circuits are busy" errors, voice mail messages just showing up without the phone ever ringing and other annoyances.

They are expanding the network and that's great. It works super well overseas when I travel (and for pennies on a dollar versus AT&T). I just hope they focus on scaling the service to accommodate the growing install base. I believe that is where the problem is right now.
 
newyorkone said:
TMobile coverage and speeds are great in NYC and on a road trip all along the East Coast to FL and back last year. Service is even better now. You can pay a lot more, but you won't get more.
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NY is not the Northeast.

Come north to Massachusetts, NH, and Maine. T-Mobile is subpar across most of those states unless you're in the middle of a city.

Hardly equivalent to Verizon
 
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burgman said:
View attachment 687578
Yeah get back to us when you breakdown on a rural or mountain road and your TM phone just laughs at you. we all make choices to what's important, in the same location Tmobile is 4 to 8meg down because of tower congestion, I choose better service for not much more money. Cool things... YAY :)
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Hey I'm in Maine so we're all about the rural :)
I get reception everywhere I need and if go outside of my area I can borrow my parents straightalk phone
And hell if I was really worried about it, it'd still be cheaper for me to get a straight talk $10 a month phone
and keep the deals on T mobile than the pay the extra on verizon ;)
 
burgman said:
View attachment 687578
Yeah get back to us when you breakdown on a rural or mountain road and your TM phone just laughs at you. we all make choices to what's important, in the same location Tmobile is 4 to 8meg down because of tower congestion, I choose better service for not much more money. Cool things... YAY :)
Click to expand...

Many users really don't venture out into the rural areas.

I agree that those who live in those areas are left with fewer choices or really just Verizon, but that's another story altogether. The reality is this - If you can deploy a tower and serve millions of users or deploy the same tower at the same cost and serve thousands of users... which would you prefer as a business?

I doubt Verizon has it's latest 4G LTE service in rural areas. It's likely legacy 2G or maybe 3G service there. They are also a business and I'm sure they deploy their resources strategically as well to get the best bang for the buck.
 
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dlewis23 said:
I just left AT&T and went to T-Mobile and I have the opposite experience. Service in my house, service in Publix, Walmart etc etc.

In some places I get faster LTE in others its slower but overall its more consistent.
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I just switched to T-Mobile from AT&T as well. Granted I haven't traveled out of my home area yet, but data speeds are slightly better where I live on TMO. The real test will be when I travel since I have several trips planned over the next several months. But I do like the fact that I don't have to worry about monitoring my data, even though I don't use a ton anyway.
 
T-mobile is gonna have to do much better than that to get me to jump off of my unlimited data plan with Verizon
 
fourthtunz said:
If it's only about connection..then maybe Verizon wins but all the other perks you get from
T-mobile more than make up for anything you get from verizon
Binge on, data stash, free wifi on planes, and all the other cool things Tmobile gives you.
Verizon just comes off as a greedy corporation.
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Those perks are worthless when you don't have coverage. So if you never go outside of a major city T-Mobile is great, but if you ever travel to rural areas or even drive cross country on the interstate you won't have good service. I'd rather have coverage while driving across the country than free wifi when I'm flying across the country.
 
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Haha! Look at all the Verizon customers crying and complaining! Maybe TM isn't as good yet, but it's clear they are catching up. They also offer hard to beat deals. Not sure why anyone would be mad at that.
 
T-Mobile user here and I can confirm you that their service still terrible. Legere is good in marketing his service but he's a big liar. Obviously majority of the population lives in a bigger city and that this network analysis just looks good on paper. T-Mobile problem is not that they have enough coverage it's because of the lack of low band frequency. Once you're inside building and the walls is your enemy. Just imagine when you're in the room inside the building that added walls made it worst. They promised the Band 12 but only in certain cities and not yet fully implemented. I've been in AT&T and T-Mobile is not there yet traveling with AT&T the difference is night and day.
 
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iMi said:
Many users really don't venture out into the rural areas.

I agree that those who live in those areas are left with fewer choices or really just Verizon, but that's another story altogether. The reality is this - If you can deploy a tower and serve millions of users or deploy the same tower at the same cost and serve thousands of users... which would you prefer as a business?

I doubt Verizon has it's latest 4G LTE service in rural areas. It's likely legacy 2G or maybe 3G service there. They are also a business and I'm sure they deploy their resources strategically as well to get the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...
And you would be wrong in Verizon's case but ok.
 
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1080p said:
No... just no.

Visit Northern Arizona and you will see why Verizon is better.
Click to expand...

LOL. My T-Mobile is better than Verizon on the left side of my house, near the river creek to the south side of the eastern sierras.
 
mrkramer said:
Those perks are worthless when you don't have coverage. So if you never go outside of a major city T-Mobile is great, but if you ever travel to rural areas or even drive cross country on the interstate you won't have good service. I'd rather have coverage while driving across the country than free wifi when I'm flying across the country.
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I guess its horses for courses :)
I have all of the coverage and perks that I've needed for the 6 months I've had T mobile and I'm in Maine
so for me it's all good!
Binge on and data stash are awesome too and none of the surprises of Verizon ;)
 
christophermdia said:
What this doesn't account for is the fact they are measuring signal in a great wide open space. I am on ATT now, but tried Verizon for a year ... the second I stepped into any store, whether it was a grocery store, or Target, whatever, signal either went from LTE to 3G and most times, 1 bar to no signal. I never knew how much I relied on my phone when I was in a store like a supermarket to call and find out whether or not we needed milk, or whatever ... for a while I said, well ill just connect to the areas wifi and use FaceTime, but was too inconvenient. The reason that ATT doesn't win out the speed in most of these cities is congestion, not because the speed doesn't match up.
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Honestly I think AT&T is as good or better than Verizon overall now. Verizon's "fall back" is their horribly slow 3G. AT&T's "fall back" is their snappy HSPA+, which has coverage as broad as Verizon's, and has better roaming agreements in a lot of regions. AT&T's just not quite as fast as both Tmo or VZW in these tests, and isn't a part of the marketing pissing match that's going on between them.
 
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jntdroid said:
LTE availability does not equal coverage - T-Mobile still can't touch Verizon in actual coverage. The title and usage of the word "coverage" is a bit misleading...
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Beyond a bit misleading... I'd call it an outright lie. If you cant get a good signal on TMO or Verizon, you aren't going to use them, and as such NOT be in this so-called "coverage" number. I can tell you that both TMO and Verizon suck in my area... but you wouldn't know that from their fake "coverage" numbers.
 
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