Have loved T-Mobile since 2014 when my family switched from Verizon and they paid off over $900 worth of 2-year contracts on five iPhones for us. Their network has improved noticeably since then, too, at least here in Colorado. If you give it a shot, be sure to get an iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, or SE (assuming you're getting an iPhone, which seems safe on MacRumors), as their antennas support Band 12 spectrum, meaning they support all of T-Mobile's network, unlike the 6/6 Plus and earlier.
As others have said, it's kind of cool (and kind of pathetic) that my phone's LTE is often faster than the Comcast wifi that monopolizes Colorado. And frankly, they keep giving me free and discounted stuff- music and video apps stream free, I have 20 GB of rollover data stashed up, and since I got my 6s Plus during the promotion they were doing at launch, my monthly payment on my phone is discounted $7 ($23/month instead of $30/month).
Full disclosure, as of August last year I work at T-Mobile, so if I sound like a salesman, well... I am.
But seriously, I applied for the job because I had such a great experience as a customer. I wouldn't even consider going back.
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They've made 100x more of an effort to improve their network than Sprint has.
T-Mobile is able to offer services to customers at a lower cost while adding features like wi-fi calling, buyouts of other contracts, binge on, music freedom, jump!, and more because they aren't the carrier with the best coverage, but the carrier is good enough for 80% of the American population (the other 20% live in the boonies). If T-Mobile made that extra effort to cover the extra 1/5 of the nation who live in the middle of nowhere, T-Mobile wouldn't be able to offer those kinds of services at a lower price than the two big boys. T-Mobile has passed their savings of not having to build or rent cell towers in the middle of nowhere onto the customer while slowly expanding their coverage where the majority of people live. I hope T-Mobile never gets up to the coverage of AT&T and Verizon, because then they'd become just as greedy they are.
This is partly true- they definitely cut costs in a lot of ways (Binge On, for example, lowers your video resolution to 480p, which gets customers unlimited video streaming while in actuality freeing up a lot of bandwidth on the network). But now that they have so many people switching from their old carrier, they are reinvesting it in their network- they're building 70 towers in Colorado alone in 2016.
In a way, we've already seen your point about "becoming just as greedy as the big boys" (paraphrased) come to fruition. T-Mobile's value proposition used to be that they could typically beat the competitor's prices- now the pricing is more on par with AT&T's, except that you get way more data, Music Freedom/Binge On/Data Stash/etc type perks, and no risk of overages. So it's more of a "more for your money" model, which I'm perfectly happy with.
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I recently made the move from AT&T to T-Mobile with my 5S, and it's a "struggle" getting used to the degraded/lost service. Since the experience is more inconvenient than impossible to live with, I am holding out for the 7+ (which, judging by the other forums, makes me a freak). For sure, I am betting on the improved phone/network compatibility to get my service experience back to normal, or better.
The iPhone 5s doesn't support Band 12 spectrum, which T-Mobile recently acquired and has been building into their network for the past year. My mom had similar issues with the 5s on T-Mobile's network, unfortunately, but she's said her experience on the network has changed dramatically since she got a 6s (which DOES support Band 12).
So in short, you're quite right that the presumed iPhone 7 Plus Apple is releasing this year should give you a much better experience. Hope it works out for you!
