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T-Mobile dropped calls

bbates123

bbates123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 2, 2010
874
762
Perhaps this isn't the right forum, but ever since I got an iPhone 6 and switched to T-Mobile I'm dropping calls constantly. And this is in major urban areas (Dallas and Ft Myers) where I have lots of bars. I know Tmo has a reputation for bad coverage, but I don't think it's a coverage issue. Could it be something with the new phone, or IOS? I did have T-Mobile years ago before I switched to AT&T and never had this issue. Just wondering if anybody else is experiencing this.
 
The iPhone is well known to have the worst reception and Tower hand offs on Tmobile :-(.
 
T-Mobile is the best coverage all around I have experienced out of the four carriers.

Maybe reset your phone or exchange it?
 
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Not surprised. It is T-Mobile after all.

Try disabling VoLTE in the settings and see if calls are dropping?
 
Might be some tower work going on in your area. Call CS and they should be able to tell you. It happened to me about a year ago around here when they were upgrading the towers to LTE and then after a few days things were back to normal.
 
Try resetting your network settings. Sometimes you end up bringing crap over when you restore from a backup. If that doesn't work, call T-Mobile. They may want to try issuing you a new SIM card.
 
I tried T-Mo twice and it was the worst ever!

Me and a friend drove to Atlanta and he had no service with T-Mo except when near the big cities. My AT&T never lost reception the whole trip!
 
If you were outdoors and traveling by car at the time of the drops, If you noticed your phone handing off from LTE to Edge, the issue was probably caused by VoLTE. You can disable this by setting LTE to "Data Only" instead of "Voice and Data"

If you are indoors when you are having these drops, have you tried enabling WiFi Voice? Currently all sub-1ghz spectrum is monopolized by AT&T and Verizon, and the 1.7, 1.9/2.x ghz spectrum used by T-Mobile and Sprint has a harder time penetrating buildings. WiFi Voice completely eliminates this issue if you have access to WiFi, but obviously this is a problem if you do not. In the next 9 months, T-Mobile will have 700Mhz launched in many markets (but not everywhere), and this situation will be greatly improved.


I also recently switched to T-Mobile from over a decade at AT&T, and got an iPhone 6+. I live in Miami.

The amount of dropped calls I had on AT&T was quite annoying, and T-Mobile has been considerably better. The sound quality of T-Mobile's HD Voice is also a very nice contrast to the robot-voice on AT&T.

Where both AT&T and T-Mobile have signal, I typically saw LTE speeds on AT&T of 1-3 Mbps, and 15-25Mbps on T-Mobile.

Some places that were fine on AT&T are dead on T-Mobile (eg: Aventura and Bal Harbor malls), but others that were dead on AT&T are fine on T-Mobile (various local restaurants, the local Winn Dixie, etc).

Personally, I think overall the service is better in my normal stomping ground, and 'good enough' everywhere else until next year when things are all rolled out -- and I'm tired of paying evil companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast, and whenever I have a choice, I will avoid buying services from them.

YMMV if you can stick it out until next year or not.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I tried T-Mo twice and it was the worst ever!

Me and a friend drove to Atlanta and he had no service with T-Mo except when near the big cities. My AT&T never lost reception the whole trip!
Click to expand...

T-Mobile has grown by leaps and bounds lately. Especially this year. I just switched from AT&T in February and I have coverage in more places than I did with AT&T. Located in San Antonio, Texas. If you haven't tried T-mobile's network this year, you can't really compare them.
 
T-Mobile dropped calls

Newtons Apple said:
I tried T-Mo twice and it was the worst ever!



Me and a friend drove to Atlanta and he had no service with T-Mo except when near the big cities. My AT&T never lost reception the whole trip!
Click to expand...


But it's so cheap! Who cares if my phone doesn't work when I'm traveling. It's not needed then.

And it's the same around here. Not close to NYC or Boston? Forget about using your TMO line.
 
AutoUnion39 said:
But it's so cheap! Who cares if my phone doesn't work when I'm traveling. It's not needed then.

And it's the same around here. Not close to NYC or Boston? Forget about using your TMO line.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, to me having phone service is important, all the time!

When I went outside and got like 15 emails and 4 missed calls, I found T-Mo was not working at my office and it was located in an area that showed EXCELLENT on T-Mo's service map!

No service might be good for you but not me.

----------
bryan85 said:
T-Mobile has grown by leaps and bounds lately. Especially this year. I just switched from AT&T in February and I have coverage in more places than I did with AT&T. Located in San Antonio, Texas. If you haven't tried T-mobile's network this year, you can't really compare them.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but I have no intention in trying T-Mo. Like I said my friend had to use my phone multiple times because his T-Mo phones had NO SERVICE most of the time on the highway!:(
 
AutoUnion39 said:
Not surprised. It is T-Mobile after all.
Click to expand...

Other than Hating T-Mobile, you may not be aware that carriers coverage area varies geographically and therefore it's important to choose the carrier with coverage in the area you'll be using the phone in.

I have a AT&T work issued phone as well as my personal iP6+ which is my T-Mobile phone. Both get very good connectivity and clear call quality in my area. I find pricing far less on T-Mobile and it's as fast on LTE unlimited as AT&T.
 
AutoUnion39 said:
But it's so cheap! Who cares if my phone doesn't work when I'm traveling. It's not needed then.

And it's the same around here. Not close to NYC or Boston? Forget about using your TMO line.
Click to expand...

I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile, and cost wasn't even remotely a concern -- I am reimbursed 100% by my company and can choose whomever I want.

T-Mobile has far superior coverage to AT&T in Miami.
T-Mobile has unlimited international data (yeah, only 2G speeds, but this is all I generally need for Google Maps to locate my hotel / wherever I am going / read my email)
T-Mobile has WiFi Voice which guarantees perfect voice quality in places that both AT&T and Verizon have no coverage due to dense walls (eg: my office).
T-Mobile deploys more data capacity per user than any other carrier in the USA, on average (so you will tend to get better speeds on T-Mobile, as long as there is coverage).
T-Mobile is the only network that supports HD Voice nationwide on it's 3G as well as VoLTE networks.

I haven't traveled domestically since I switched, though I do travel quite a bit, and will of course be critical if it doesn't work for me -- but based on friends who have switched to T-Mobile in the last year, they have found acceptable coverage in similar travel patterns.

As others have said, T-Mobile in the past was obviously a low-cost carrier who's only benefit was the price -- that is simply not even remotely the case today. Yes, their coverage is still less than AT&T and Verizon in rural areas (though it is rapidly improving), but their performance in their covered areas is far superior to AT&T for Data, and far superior to both AT&T and Verizon for Voice quality.
 
Last edited:
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I went into my cellular settings and noticed that LTE was set for both voice and data. So if you're set to use VoLTE and you switch from LTE to 4G that that would cause the call to drop, then I'm fairly certain that's what my problem is. It seems like when this happens I'm no longer on LTE, though I may still have 2 or 3 bars.

I'll try changing this setting to data only to see what happens. I do use wifi calling at home and I love it...that's one of the main reasons I switched to Tmo, because I could barely get a call inside my house with AT&T. The wifi calling has completely eliminated that issue.
 
i had t mobile for a week now and so far i'm loving it no dropped calls what's so ever i'm using a iPhone 5s waiting for a iPhone 6 plus to me att was worst and i was getting way more dropped calls from them.
 
Since I changed the VoLTE settings, so far no dropped calls. Yay!
 
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