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We all know for nationwide coverage Verizon and AT&T are the only carriers one should look for and the key word there is "Nationwide" but,
But doesn't T-Mobile claim "Nationwide 4G?" They're not even remotely close to living up to that claim...

Nationwide-4G-LTE.jpg


where I'm T-Mobile is the best (coverage wise and cost wise) and since I'm 57 years old and use to travel with car Radio and 8-tracks :) I really don't mind Edge or no service while I'm driving since again the key word there is "Driving" and not playing with my phone :D.
Valid point, but you're acting like people just sit around and Facebook, while driving. That isn't the case. When's the last time people actually used CDs in their cars? It's all digital now. I can't stream Spotify/Pandora/Slacker to my cars with EDGE/GPRS.

And you don't mind No Service while driving? Really? What happens if something happens to your car? You can't even call someone. It's pretty damn unsafe.

BTW where I'm I honestly can't remember/tell when was the last time I saw Edge on my screen or it could be because of my eye sight or age:rolleyes:.
Come over to the Northeast.

I-95 is one of the busiest highways in the nation. I can't even maintain a 100% HSPA connection between Boston and DC on T-Mobile. EDGE/GPRS is all over the place on major highways. AT&T/VZW have near 100% LTE coverage of I-95 from Maine to Florida. T-Mobile is not even 100% EDGE on that entire stretch.

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- One thing VZW/AT&T users can thank T-Mobile for is pressuring their carrier of choice to reduce prices and change their plans. The US telecom industry has come a long way over the past 2 years in terms of what they offer compared to before and you can primarily thank T-Mobile for that.

Yup, we can thank for T-Moblie for all the marketing non-sense that they've been spewing for the last year or so.
 
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Yup, we can thank for T-Moblie for all the marketing non-sense that they've been spewing for the last year or so.

Why are you so negative about Tmobile?
Its not marketing nonsense.
They did change the whole US wireless carrier scene whether you like to admit it or not. And now you and everyone else has more choices, cheaper plans, contract and non contract plans and cheaper monthly dues if you bring your own device or pay off your device.
All that was never going to happen on its own by the 2 big carriers if they were not forced to follow the way T Mobile shook the industry.
Even if they don't have good coverage or completely suck in your are and many other areas they did us all a favor even those not on Tmobiles network;)
Unless you enjoy paying high prices, keep paying more money for less services, while they are coming out with more and more limitations, having less options and plans to choose from and get nickeled and dimed over everything then I guess the way the 2 big carriers were 2 years ago was just perfect for ya.:D
 
Unless you enjoy paying high prices, keep paying more money for less services, coming out with more and more limitations, having less options to choose from and get nickeled and dimed over everything then I guess the way the 2 big carriers were 2 years ago was just perfect for ya.:D

Unlike T-Mobile, AT&T/VZW have been investing billions upon billions of dollars into their networks year after year. The "high" prices we're paying actually go somewhere.

If T-Mobile keeps squeezing their margins lower (with a lower ARPU), where will they get the money to invest into their network? They already have a lower ARPU than VZW/AT&T and even Sprint. And it's going to keep going down.

If AT&T/VZW fall into the trap of squeezing margins lower, network quality will only get worse, not better. Have you noticed how the lower-tier carriers seem to run inferior networks to the big 2? There's a reason for that. Money...
 
Unlike T-Mobile, AT&T/VZW have been investing billions upon billions of dollars into their networks year after year. The "high" prices we're paying actually go somewhere.

If T-Mobile keeps squeezing their margins lower (with a lower ARPU), where will they get the money to invest into their network? They already have a lower ARPU than VZW/AT&T and even Sprint. And it's going to keep going down.

If AT&T/VZW fall into the trap of squeezing margins lower, network quality will only get worse, not better. Have you noticed how the lower-tier carriers seem to run inferior networks to the big 2? There's a reason for that. Money...

Ok so according to you they should have kept charging and doing what they were doing years ago.
None of this change is a positive for you?
You feel bad about the 2 big carriers with billions of profits each year:D
 
Unlike T-Mobile, AT&T/VZW have been investing billions upon billions of dollars into their networks year after year. The "high" prices we're paying actually go somewhere.

If T-Mobile keeps squeezing their margins lower (with a lower ARPU), where will they get the money to invest into their network? They already have a lower ARPU than VZW/AT&T and even Sprint. And it's going to keep going down.

If AT&T/VZW fall into the trap of squeezing margins lower, network quality will only get worse, not better. Have you noticed how the lower-tier carriers seem to run inferior networks to the big 2? There's a reason for that. Money...

T-Mobile's ARPU was higher a couple of years ago but they were non competitive and bleeding subscribers like crazy every quarter. With VZW/AT&T owning almost all of the low band spectrum, what do you think they should've done instead? Continue on their path towards insolvency?

Their network is inferior. They restructured their plans/pricing in order to compete with the Big 2 for subscribers since they can't compete on coverage. ARPU is lower but there are many more users and growing rapidly with each quarter. This seems to be a better long term strategy than maintaining their higher ARPU from a few years ago with a shrinking user base. Their shareholders seem pleased with their moves as well.

From what I've seen it looks like the Uncarrier stuff has made them far more successful and put pressure on the Big 2 to offer better plans for subscribers. You're just about the only person I've seen who is is unhappy about AT&T lowering their rates.

Also you've seen the margins of AT&T and Verizon from a couple of years ago. You're delusional if you think those insane margins are required in order for them to have enough money to invest in their networks. They were making way more than enough profit to have money for network infrastructure. If there is an article about how lowering rates recently has caused AT&T/VZW problems when it comes to having money to invest in their networks then please link me to it.
 
Ok so according to you they should have kept charging and doing what they were doing years ago.
None of this change is a positive for you?
You feel bad about the 2 big carriers with billions of profits each year:D

You're moving the goal posts to suit your argument. How typical.

I never said they should keep charging what they do. I'm saying that they aren't "evil" for charging more. There's a damn good reason why they're charging more than Sprint/TMo. They have faster data speeds, more coverage, and better reliability.

The T-Mo gang have the "cheaper is better" mentality stuck in their minds. Cheaper doesn't mean better. AT&T/VZW are not evil for charging what they do.

If their margins get smaller and smaller, I have no problem betting that network investment and quality will start to degrade rapidly.

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With VZW/AT&T owning almost all of the low band spectrum, what do you think they should've done instead?

Deployed a denser cell-grid to compete with the carriers that had low-band spectrum.

That can't be the go-to excuse for T-Mobile's short comings year after year. Look at Sprint. They're deploying nationwide LTE on PCS and they're going a solid job at it (the speed at which they're deploying is another can of worms I'm not getting into). If Sprint can do it, why can't T-Mobile?

AT&T and VZW have a handful of markets where they only own high freq spectrum and guess what? They're not sitting around using it as an excuse. They increased the density of their sites to cope with it. Parts of NH and Phoenix are just two of the many examples of high-freq markets.

From what I've seen it looks like the Uncarrier stuff has made them far more successful and put pressure on the Big 2 to offer better plans for subscribers. You're just about the only person I've seen who is is unhappy about AT&T lowering their rates.

Except they really haven't... Switching my entire plan to MSV doesn't save me a penny. It ends up being more and I loose my unlimited plan.

Programs, like Jump and Next are scams. Switching to T-Mobile doesn't save me anything either. Factoring in EIP on top of the family plans doesn't make TMo a value anymore. On top of that, I'm stuck with a worthless network that is predominately 2G at about the same price as AT&T.
 
You're moving the goal posts to suit your argument. How typical.

I never said they should keep charging what they do. I'm saying that they aren't "evil" for charging more. There's a damn good reason why they're charging more than Sprint/TMo. They have faster data speeds, more coverage, and better reliability.

The T-Mo gang have the "cheaper is better" mentality stuck in their minds. Cheaper doesn't mean better. AT&T/VZW are not evil for charging what they do.

If their margins get smaller and smaller, I have no problem betting that network investment and quality will start to degrade rapidly.

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Deployed a denser cell-grid to compete with the carriers that had low-band spectrum.

That can't be the go-to excuse for T-Mobile's short comings year after year. Look at Sprint. They're deploying nationwide LTE on PCS and they're going a solid job at it (the speed at which they're deploying is another can of worms I'm not getting into). If Sprint can do it, why can't T-Mobile?

AT&T and VZW have a handful of markets where they only own high freq spectrum and guess what? They're not sitting around using it as an excuse. They increased the density of their sites to cope with it. Parts of NH and Phoenix are just two of the many examples of high-freq markets.



Except they really haven't... Switching my entire plan to MSV doesn't save me a penny. It ends up being more and I loose my unlimited plan.

Programs, like Jump and Next are scams. Switching to T-Mobile doesn't save me anything either. Factoring in EIP on top of the family plans doesn't make TMo a value anymore. On top of that, I'm stuck with a worthless network that is predominately 2G at about the same price as AT&T.

Well it seems your concerns will be mostly resolved once they complete their planned upgrade of their EDGE/GPRS areas to LTE. While I personally have my doubts about them being able to meet their deadline on this, if it indeed does happen like they say then I imagine it would eliminate most complaints about their network sans the building penetration in areas where they don't own 700mhz. That means LTE along almost all of I-95. So they seem to be on the right track.
 
You're moving the goal posts to suit your argument. How typical.

I never said they should keep charging what they do. I'm saying that they aren't "evil" for charging more. There's a damn good reason why they're charging more than Sprint/TMo. They have faster data speeds, more coverage, and better reliability.

The T-Mo gang have the "cheaper is better" mentality stuck in their minds. Cheaper doesn't mean better. AT&T/VZW are not evil for charging what they do.

If their margins get smaller and smaller, I have no problem betting that network investment and quality will start to degrade rapidly.

----------



Deployed a denser cell-grid to compete with the carriers that had low-band spectrum.

That can't be the go-to excuse for T-Mobile's short comings year after year. Look at Sprint. They're deploying nationwide LTE on PCS and they're going a solid job at it (the speed at which they're deploying is another can of worms I'm not getting into). If Sprint can do it, why can't T-Mobile?

AT&T and VZW have a handful of markets where they only own high freq spectrum and guess what? They're not sitting around using it as an excuse. They increased the density of their sites to cope with it. Parts of NH and Phoenix are just two of the many examples of high-freq markets.



Except they really haven't... Switching my entire plan to MSV doesn't save me a penny. It ends up being more and I loose my unlimited plan.

Programs, like Jump and Next are scams. Switching to T-Mobile doesn't save me anything either. Factoring in EIP on top of the family plans doesn't make TMo a value anymore. On top of that, I'm stuck with a worthless network that is predominately 2G at about the same price as AT&T.

Trust me they will be ok.
Don't lose any sleep over their billion quorterly earnings. :D
Their network will be fine.
 
Why are you so negative about Tmobile?
Its not marketing nonsense.
They did change the whole US wireless carrier scene whether you like to admit it or not. And now you and everyone else has more choices, cheaper plans, contract and non contract plans and cheaper monthly dues if you bring your own device or pay off your device.
All that was never going to happen on its own by the 2 big carriers if they were not forced to follow the way T Mobile shook the industry.
Even if they don't have good coverage or completely suck in your are and many other areas they did us all a favor even those not on Tmobiles network;)
Unless you enjoy paying high prices, keep paying more money for less services, while they are coming out with more and more limitations, having less options and plans to choose from and get nickeled and dimed over everything then I guess the way the 2 big carriers were 2 years ago was just perfect for ya.:D

Yep, it wasn't until T-Mobile improved their prepaid offerings and went contract-free that I even considered buying a smartphone. I wanted to own my device outright and I did not want a contract. T-Mobile was the first major carrier to provide real cost benefit and flexibility to consumers who paid for their devices in full.

It's not even debatable that T-Mobile got the ball rolling, and mobile consumers are much better off now than they were two years ago. If AT&T did merge with T-Mobile, does anyone believe that we would have seen the variety of contract-free, BYOD, and family plan options that current exist?

I went with T-Mobile because they offered a plan that met my exact needs at a very low cost. If it turned out that their network shortcomings were not worth the cost savings, the competition has now enabled multiple options from other carriers that I can live with.

Because I'm not under contract and have an unlocked phone, I can leave T-Mobile at any time. But, it says a lot that I've stayed with them even though the competing options are now much better than before.
 
Well said.
If AT&T had bought tmobile none of this would ever had happened.
Then eventually verizon would have eaten up Sprint and with no competition and only 2 major players left we would be getting 2 bad duopolies that charged and did whatever they wanted with the US wireless industry.
 
Valid point, but you're acting like people just sit around and Facebook, while driving. That isn't the case. When's the last time people actually used CDs in their cars? It's all digital now. I can't stream Spotify/Pandora/Slacker to my cars with EDGE/GPRS.

Actually, I have no problem streaming Pandora and iTunes Radio over T-Mobile's EDGE... a theoretical maximum of 128kbps is plenty for FM-quality streaming audio.
 
When's the last time people actually used CDs in their cars? It's all digital now. I can't stream Spotify/Pandora/Slacker to my cars with EDGE/GPRS.

.


2 points,

1. I among others still use cd's, higher quality audio is provided by cd, no streaming service has quality to match cd. And good luck going through a dead zone streaming...

2. Cd's ARE digital.

Look on the back of one, it says "compact disc DIGITAL audio"
 
2 points,

1. I among others still use cd's, higher quality audio is provided by cd, no streaming service has quality to match cd. And good luck going through a dead zone streaming...

2. Cd's ARE digital.

Look on the back of one, it says "compact disc DIGITAL audio"

I second this. As my car can take flash, DVD mp3 or cd I do use a variety of formats.
 
There's bad areas and dead spots with every carrier. Don't drink the verizon koolaid that fast.
Wifi calling is great to have on any carrier in the world. It's a bonus option to those that have it available.

Yeah in the end a feature is better than no feature. It's just that with Verizon I can't think of many occasions where I would use it since the network is so robust.
 
In the Bay Area, T-Mobile's coverage is very good and with the majority now LTE. Only in certain areas around Oakland and around some of the pricier neighborhoods along the peninsula (where residents will raise a **** storm over any proposed new cell towers) have I found spottier coverage.

I have no service at work while inside (San Francisco) and one bar of "4G" while at home (Berkeley). Previously, I would get 2-5 bars LTE and 5 bars LTE in the same places, respectively, with AT&T.

They made a whole bunch of changes that keep the phone from swapping back and forth from "4G" and LTE constantly, which really killed the battery, and that helped a bit.

But the network is still much much worse than AT&Ts out here. That's part of why AT&T costs more than 2x a month for the same service. On the other hand t-mobile gives me unlimited data + hotspot, plus free international data and texting (had I had AT&T when I was in the UK over the summer and used the same amount of data, my bill would have been >$1000)
 
I never said they should keep charging what they do. I'm saying that they aren't "evil" for charging more. There's a damn good reason why they're charging more than Sprint/TMo. They have faster data speeds, more coverage, and better reliability.

It's easy to parrot marketing hype, but I will say that as a former AT&T customer (7 years) who has switched to T-Mobile, I can say that I am enjoying faster data speeds on T-Mobile than I did when I left AT&T. AT&T used t have faster speeds, but the advantage quickly died down, perhaps as more devices began using it.

As for coverage: That's always a personal experience. For many people - 50 million and climbing, in fact - T-Mobile coverage is adequate to keep them around.

The T-Mo gang have the "cheaper is better" mentality stuck in their minds. Cheaper doesn't mean better. AT&T/VZW are not evil for charging what they do.

Cheaper doesn't mean better for everyone. That said, most expensive doesn't mean best, either.

If their margins get smaller and smaller, I have no problem betting that network investment and quality will start to degrade rapidly.

Fortuantely, there are market forces to dictate that. As long as AT&T and Verizon charge a price that is acceptable to their user base for the quality of service they provide, they will be just fine. If they raise prices too much, it'll be their fault, and solely their fault, for pricing themselves out of the market.

By the way, for the all the talk about higher prices means more capital investment, AT&T disagrees.
 
I have been a 10+ year Tmobile member, if someone would like to be referred so that both us can enjoy the unlimited LTE data deal for both of us, please PM me!!!! Thannk
 
Well how can you not like the company based on that! Really they may still not have the coverage of the bigger guys but they are improving every day and its something I notice. They are the underdog and I think the US has a special likening to the underdog. John is also a hilarious dude but he's very real.

Heh, I miss it when Cingular and T-mobile were the underdogs (when I picked my plan it was before smartphones were even all that predominant if you even saw them and Cingular and T-mobile both were priced close to each other but Cingular had better coverage which is why I went with them).

But, T-mobile certainly is being very aggressive/hungry. Good for those who don't go with them either cause honestly, I'm betting anything people are starting to notice (well at least you see a lot of noise about them on this forum and people talkign about leaving their carrier for them here). And AT&T and Verizon can't really ignore them when people start leaving for them. I bet one reason AT&T hasn't outright stopped grandfathering the unlimited is because fear of losing those customers (like me) who are still clinging tightly to them (Verizon feels they can coast on their reputation of having the best coverage). And they're right. If they kicked me off my unlimited, T-mobile has way better options for me than what AT&T offers, I'd leave AT&T for T-mobile. And I'm probably one of AT&T's more loyal customers, been with them for 12 years and never seen a reason to leave.
 
Unlimited LTE + $25 for you and me

Any new customer need referral? (account must have been opened within the last 30 days, but it says 60 and even 90 days in other places, however it seems like only 30 qualifies. But we can still try)

Create an account here and use me as your referrer - mm.p7510@gmail.com

Or email me at mm.p7510@gmail.com the email address you associated (or about to) with referral.t-mobile.com and I'll send you referral invite

Within 48 hours we both will have unlimited LTE and $25 6 weeks later.

Thanks
 
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Actually, I have no problem streaming Pandora and iTunes Radio over T-Mobile's EDGE... a theoretical maximum of 128kbps is plenty for FM-quality streaming audio.

Same here, I travel the state routes and am able to stream pandora with no interruptions. Thank you T Mobile legacy networks!
 
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