That's what I'm saying if tmobile's coverage and plans work for you than go for it. But the information on that website, while being a "fact" is more like a "factoid"... No real bearing on actuality.
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Carrier T-Mobile is Fantastic!
- Thread starter crisg
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T-Mobile's "Fastest LTE" is a load of BS, as it's a highly misleading statement. If you look at speeds of AT&T's 4G network and T-Mobile's network over that same footprint, AT&T's is far faster, since T-Mobile has a lot of EDGE and no coverage. Fast LTE means nothing when your phone doesn't work half the time.
T-Mobiles speed certainly beats AT&T and Verizon here in Denver/Broomfield/Aurora Colorado. I frequently drive between these three cities and my iPhone/iPad never loses LTE now.
I tried Verizon on my iPad for a day and was lucky to get over 5Mbps, AT&T never gives me over 10Mbps. AT&T used to be 1bout 30-41Mbps back in July when they first enabled LTE in Denver and after a few months, it dropped down to right around 10. T-Mobile is constantly between 29-38Mbps lately. Even on my Nexus 4 on 4G, it is getting 20-30Mbps.
I'm happy that I live in an area where T-Mobile has worked hard to build their LTE network.
If you never leave NYC or some other major city, then it will work "everywhere".
Anyone who travels at all WILL hit huge dead spots.
T-Mobile is upgrading EDGE to LTE.
Edit: One of T-Mobile's Philadelphia engineers contacted me and is stating that improved coverage will come to my area on March 10th. I have already experienced LTE finally in my house and it looks like it will only get better.
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Good thing the places you live and "travel" don't apply to everyone. Talking in absolutes is always foolish regarding coverage of a given carrier. Your precious AT&T also has dead spots.
So far I've been impressed with the speeds when I actually do get service.
For whatever reason, we're finally having some rain in Southern California and it is completely deminishing my service. I've went from 2 bars LTE, to 1 bar 4G, and down to Edge. Really debating on canceling service, but I'm going to want to keep the device so I have to keep service for 40 days in order to get an unlock for the device since I traded in a blackberry to get the $200 credit and applied it to the phone so I don't want that to go to waste.
I don't think I can give up AT&T for T-Mobile yet because the service has only proven to be unreliable in my area so far. With AT&T, I get at least 3 bars on LTE wherever I go.
Update: Now I have no indication of LTE/4G/E lol.
For whatever reason, we're finally having some rain in Southern California and it is completely deminishing my service. I've went from 2 bars LTE, to 1 bar 4G, and down to Edge. Really debating on canceling service, but I'm going to want to keep the device so I have to keep service for 40 days in order to get an unlock for the device since I traded in a blackberry to get the $200 credit and applied it to the phone so I don't want that to go to waste.
I don't think I can give up AT&T for T-Mobile yet because the service has only proven to be unreliable in my area so far. With AT&T, I get at least 3 bars on LTE wherever I go.
Update: Now I have no indication of LTE/4G/E lol.
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T-Mobile is adding literally millions of new subscribers every quarter. I'm curious to see the effect of that on T-Mobile's network.
Where I live, Verizon deployed LTE back in 2011 (when hardly anyone had an LTE device), and the average speeds were great -- 20-30 Mbps.
Skip ahead three years, now almost everyone here has a LTE device, and the average speeds here for Verizon LTE have dropped to 3-5 Mbps.
T-Mobile is upgrading EDGE to LTE.
I hope they are. But the still have mostly EDGE. They have a long way to go even before their whole network is the size of AT&T's 4G network.
Ok, someone might live in Manhattan. However, anyone who travels WILL hit MASSIVE dead zones with T-Mobile. Saying that all carriers have dead spots is a true statement, but also a false equivalency. AT&T and Verizon both have several times the 4G coverage that T-Mobile has. While T-Mobile might have EDGE or no service for half or more of a trip, AT&T or Verizon will usually 3G or 4G have service most of the time, and recently, it's usually 4G. There's just no comparison. If you care about your phone actually working, you won't have T-Mobile. If you care about having more than 1xRTT speed, you won't have Sprint, since that's what you get when you're roaming on Verizon.
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My verizon speed is about 55/35. I've posted several screenshots of late. Coverage depends on what square inch of land you're on, and verizon and ATT cover several more square inches than tmobile.
My point is that as a network becomes more utilized, unless the carrier continues to add resources, the performance of the network declines.
Verizon setup LTE where I live (VA's largest metro area) back in 2011 and doesn't appear to have touched it until a month of two ago. Speeds went from great to piss-poor.
Will T-Mobile's network do the same with the sudden influx of literally millions of new customers?
Personally, I could deal with T-Mobile's smaller 4G/LTE network. I don't travel that much, and the coverage is extremely good where I am. If I'm stuck with Edge for an hour or two of my road trip, I could live with it just fine especially for how rarely I go out of my local T-Mobile coverage.
This certainly isn't for everyone, but a lot of people overlook what T-Mobile is trying to do: target customers like me. I'm sure there are a few of us out there.
The only reason I don't have T-Mobile is because I wouldn't save much, if any, money on T-Mobile compared to what I have now.
T-Mobile can be considerably cheaper than the big 2. A lot of people are okay with not having the absolute best network if they can save money. But luckily for some people, T-Mobile works just as good (and or better) as the other carriers work in some areas.
This certainly isn't for everyone, but a lot of people overlook what T-Mobile is trying to do: target customers like me. I'm sure there are a few of us out there.
The only reason I don't have T-Mobile is because I wouldn't save much, if any, money on T-Mobile compared to what I have now.
T-Mobile can be considerably cheaper than the big 2. A lot of people are okay with not having the absolute best network if they can save money. But luckily for some people, T-Mobile works just as good (and or better) as the other carriers work in some areas.
If it happened to verizon, it will happen to tmobile, the larger network the more difficult it us to go back and retune. If tmobile doesn't increase it's footprint, I will be easier to adjust resources. If tmobile increases it's footprint and subscribed base, the inevitable slowdown will occur.
In my area lte is blazing, we'll see what the future brings.
True verizon and AT&T have better overall coverage and as you can see no one in this thread said anything to the contrary. Point of the topic is that "T-mobile is fantastic" for some people not that "T-Mobile has better coverage than Verizon". I drive all over the southeast and have coverage almost wherever I go. I fly everywhere else and also have service in those cities. Some people might be driving to West Virginia or Nebraska and need service in those areas, I don't and don't ever plan to so Verizon having LTE in the boonies doesn't have any value to me. I'm sure there are several others in the same situation.
They've just announced that they're expanding their LTE footprint this year so maybe your area will be one of the ones upgraded and you can switch and say "T-Mobile is fantastic" is well.
I tried tmobile for a few weeks and their service is ok. it's their building penetration that got me to switch to aio......immediately drop to edge at work and at several restaurants here in Daytona beach. I hope they fix this bc that 30$ plan is perfect for me.
Agreed. In any type of building my coverage dwindles down to 1 bar, even sometimes dropping from LTE down to 4g or E. My signal was all wonky yesterday because it was raining. Had no idea that weather could really mess with the reception like it did on my T-Mobile phone. My AT&T iPhone 5 was sticking at 3 bars LTE and my T-Mobile iPhone 5s going from LTE to 4G to E to sometimes not having any indicator at all.
I think for now, I can't give up AT&T until they fix the penetration since I'm in a building a good portion of the day. I do like what I see from T-Mobile as a company and want to see them further improve their network.
Tmobile works perfect for me here in the Seattle area, I get LTE about 90% of the time, 4g the other 10%.
I also don't care about coverage out of the city because I don't really care about not having service 20/365 days per year when I go camping, sometimes it's even a good thing.
They are also planning to upgrade the LTE here to 20+20 MHz LTE so that will be blazing fast.
Here is a screenshot of the LTE service I get at my school.(Todd Beamer high school)
I also don't care about coverage out of the city because I don't really care about not having service 20/365 days per year when I go camping, sometimes it's even a good thing.
They are also planning to upgrade the LTE here to 20+20 MHz LTE so that will be blazing fast.
Here is a screenshot of the LTE service I get at my school.(Todd Beamer high school)
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T-Mobile is Fantastic!
Hello everyone! Can someone please help me out with something? I use to have Verizon and I just switched over to T-Mobile. At my work site, I use to get 4 to 5 dots of LTE when I had Verizon. Before I switched to T-Mobile I made sure they had LTE coverage at my work site. The coverage map on T-Mobile.com shows it has "Excellent" LTE coverage. We'll come to find out, I don't get any LTE at all. Edge or basic 4G is what I get. Never have I seen LTE. I been working with T-Mobile about the issue and I have a ticket that is currently open with them. I have a couple of pictures of the actual Tower and I am wondering if someone can confirm if they are LTE antennas. The Tower is shared with Verizon.
Thanks!
Hello everyone! Can someone please help me out with something? I use to have Verizon and I just switched over to T-Mobile. At my work site, I use to get 4 to 5 dots of LTE when I had Verizon. Before I switched to T-Mobile I made sure they had LTE coverage at my work site. The coverage map on T-Mobile.com shows it has "Excellent" LTE coverage. We'll come to find out, I don't get any LTE at all. Edge or basic 4G is what I get. Never have I seen LTE. I been working with T-Mobile about the issue and I have a ticket that is currently open with them. I have a couple of pictures of the actual Tower and I am wondering if someone can confirm if they are LTE antennas. The Tower is shared with Verizon.
Thanks!
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This isn't about coverage, it's about needs. If I could get away with less expensive coverage, I would. But I can't, so T-Mobile, sprint and AT&T will probably never see my business.
It's the report that says tmobile has the fastest LTE. That is laughable based on a comparison of the coverage area of tmobile vs the other big two.
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It's this argument that "it's not that bad" that isn't correct. It IS that bad. And it's not West Virginia or Nebraska. Look at places like Connecticut and Rhode Island, small, populated states, with huge T-Mobile coverage holes, and mostly EDGE coverage where it does exist. Meanwhile, AT&T has 100% LTE coverage.
^^^This.
So it's not about coverage but it's about coverage?
Again, the report says "fastest LTE", not "most LTE". Verizon clearly has the most LTE coverage and this is common knowledge. Nowhere in this thread has anyone stated anything to the contrary.
You say you drive all over the country, and in such case the higher rates of Verizon service are necessary and justified for you. The users in this thread are just stating that T-Mobile has great service and meets their needs in the places they live and travel.
If I needed coverage in underpopulated areas where the other 3 carriers don't offer it, I would've stayed on Verizon too. But I don't and I also like freely using my iPhone unthrottled and unlimited and Verizon no longer offers that to customers.
Kudos to whatever works for you.
Again you're making a broad statement based on your individual travel needs. This is a 17 page thread of people satisfied with their experience and I'm sure all of them don't live in downtown LA, NYC, Miami, etc. If doesn't work for you then by all means stick with AT&T. I personally can't think of any occasions where I'm going to find myself driving around RI nor Connecticut on a daily basis so I see no point in paying an extra $1000/yr to be on AT&T when they're offering similar service to TMO in my area. Obviously coverage in your area is different.
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I'm not the only one that finds the concept of the report bogus (and that is my IMO). T-Mobile may have the fastest AVERAGE LTE, but the speed depends on what square inch of land you are standing on, e.g. I posted my LTE speed a few posts up.
What good does it do anyone to know the average LTE speed of tmobile beats the other carriers, but the square inch of land you are on, you are barely able to make a voice call, much less do a speed test?
And this is in no way meant to take away what works for tmobiles customers. My comment was directed toward that bogus report.
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