That is exactly the problem. The launch day iphone 5 does not support all of the tmobile bands.
http://www.tmonews.com/2013/03/appl...bands-existing-devices-wont-have-aws-support/
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Carrier T-Mobile is Fantastic!
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That is exactly the problem. The launch day iphone 5 does not support all of the tmobile bands.
http://www.tmonews.com/2013/03/appl...bands-existing-devices-wont-have-aws-support/
Yea, majority though probably don't travel outside of their home area as often tho, I know many people my self who travel for living and those I always recommend Verizon or AT&T as thats the best as it can get. While others I do try to recommend AT&T, but have chosen to love T-Mobile regardless.
T-Mobile is awesome despite the sketchy coverage while traveling. Driving from Tampa to Chicago last year was terrible but it never really bothered me much. I'm not one to venture out of state that much per year anyway.
lol... where is he anyway? I miss him... He is more rational than this kid. "Have fun with little or no data service when you're traveling... I'll be cruising on HSPA+ or LTE here on AT&T. " What a childish comment.
T-Mobile just announced they are doing away with edge and 2G. This will be a fatal blow for Verizon and AT&T!
Another step in the right direction by T-Mobile: Upgrade 2G to 4G LTE!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57...pgrade-2g-network-to-4g-lte-takes-on-verizon/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57...pgrade-2g-network-to-4g-lte-takes-on-verizon/
Excellent news. This is what customers have been waiting to hear from them for a while. What would be the competitive advantage of VZW/AT&T at that point?
Probably that they still have better coverage?
T-Mobile isn't going to remove 2G/EDGE, they are going to add HSPA+/LTE towers on top of those from what I understand from the article. It will take T-Mobiel some time to finish playing catchup.
This is definitely the step in right direction!
I agree, they will still have overall better coverage. T-Mobile claims to offer coverage to 96% of Americans (though a significantly higher percentage of that is EDGE or lower), while AT&T claims something like 98%, and Verizon 99%. This goes a long way towards closing the gap though.
Covering 96% of Americans is different than covering 96% of the country. If you're a city dweller and as said above don't leave your home territory tmobile is for you. Travel anywhere off the beaten path, it's a judgement call.
Utterly meaningless if you don't also mention your data/voice/text allowances, carrier, and whether you're on 3G or LTE.
Plus you're getting ripped off on the phone; 16GB 5s unlocked SIM-free is US$650 (£390).
Just for grins though - your plan is roughly US$25/month and the amount you overpaid for your phone spread over over 24 months is about a US$7.60 offset, making your plan equivalent to $32.62
On my family plan this month's bill works out to US$31 per person. Less than your cost. Not sure how you paying MORE is "ridiculously cheap"...
MSRP is different in other countries and I think VAT might be included in the pricing. Tech tends to be priced higher in Europe across the board so it's not really practical to include that when comparing service costs. Indeed, how much is minimum wage and average income in the UK compared to the US?
I disagree. It's all part of the total-cost-of-ownership. Yes, VAT is probably included, the £549 price on apple.co.uk claims to include VAT so his lower price likely does also.
Anyway, you missed the (subtle) point I was making: it's silly to compare service costs in a vacuum. Does that £15 include LTE or just 3G? How much data? Minutes? Texts? Coverage?
Yes, it's entirely likely that UK service costs are lower; but also the coverage area is about the size of a couple US states and you're into international roaming as soon as you take a sunny beach vacation or mountain holiday.
I feel this is becoming a Galaxy vs iPhone thread. People who don't have both or have not used both shouldn't really have an opinion.
I just switched and will say that AT&T is 5-10% better but for me that doesn't justify a $25-45 convenience fee. Tho you can't say that AT&T or Verizon isn't a better service. Its just not what I need. I can care 2 ***** about calling Duck Dynasty country or some random place in the Boonies, that place in True Detective or that no one outside a horror movie wants to go.
1 month in and I am happy. The calls drop a little more than AT&T but both dropped once in a while for me. The 4G doesn't work in the subway in Boston but who cares. Its a 5-10 minute event for me.
I went from $115 for a 700 minute plan with 1 iPhone that had 200mbs, 1,000 text. The other 2 phones were basic. Plan I was looking to join was the $145 plan with 3 smart phones with 10gbs tho I saw that they have a 2gb 3 smart phone plan for $115.
I now pay $90 have 2 iPhones and 1 Windows phone. All have unlimited minutes, texting and 500mbs of Data. I also think I can text people abroad
. I have a ton of family in South America and Italy and will be trying that out soon. Usually just use to use Skype.
I am getting more for less. Sure it has a couple problems but not enough for me to justify paying more than 50% more a month for what I want or need. $90 is still very expensive compared to what friends tell me they pay for similar service in Europe, Asia and South America.
I just switched and will say that AT&T is 5-10% better but for me that doesn't justify a $25-45 convenience fee. Tho you can't say that AT&T or Verizon isn't a better service. Its just not what I need. I can care 2 ***** about calling Duck Dynasty country or some random place in the Boonies, that place in True Detective or that no one outside a horror movie wants to go.
1 month in and I am happy. The calls drop a little more than AT&T but both dropped once in a while for me. The 4G doesn't work in the subway in Boston but who cares. Its a 5-10 minute event for me.
I went from $115 for a 700 minute plan with 1 iPhone that had 200mbs, 1,000 text. The other 2 phones were basic. Plan I was looking to join was the $145 plan with 3 smart phones with 10gbs tho I saw that they have a 2gb 3 smart phone plan for $115.
I now pay $90 have 2 iPhones and 1 Windows phone. All have unlimited minutes, texting and 500mbs of Data. I also think I can text people abroad
. I have a ton of family in South America and Italy and will be trying that out soon. Usually just use to use Skype. I am getting more for less. Sure it has a couple problems but not enough for me to justify paying more than 50% more a month for what I want or need. $90 is still very expensive compared to what friends tell me they pay for similar service in Europe, Asia and South America.
I agree. Although I would imagine that most of Tmobiles newer subscribers are defecting from some carrier or another, so most people have experience with at least one other carrier I would imagine. As far as some users who bash on tmobile because "they suck" or because "nobody uses Tmobile" I find it comical that they are even posting in this thread.
I don't think anyone disagrees with the fact that Verizon or ATT has superior rural coverage, or perhaps even a more superior network. But the fact of the matter is, T mobile is a great alternative to those other carriers particularly in urban markets. I never find myself without coverage and the data speeds are great where I spend 99% of my time.
There must be some unknown reason why I or anybody else should spend $10-15 dollars extra (maybe more) to get LTE in places that I may never travel, or where I go that 1% of the time. I fail to see why people take such offense when they find someone who uses another cell carrier.
As for the price difference between the networks in the US and those overseas, I think the simple answer is the fact that the US is such a massive amount of land. Texas alone is the same size or even bigger, than many other countries. Considering that the Companies here must cover not only Texas, but 49 other states is at least partially to blame for the increased price. Im sure many of us would like to see lower prices here in the US, myself included. But the only way that is ever going to happen is through competition. The moves Tmobile has made thus far is a step in the right direction, hopefully a resurgent Sprint can follow and maybe one day we'll see a change.
I don't think anyone disagrees with the fact that Verizon or ATT has superior rural coverage, or perhaps even a more superior network. But the fact of the matter is, T mobile is a great alternative to those other carriers particularly in urban markets. I never find myself without coverage and the data speeds are great where I spend 99% of my time.
There must be some unknown reason why I or anybody else should spend $10-15 dollars extra (maybe more) to get LTE in places that I may never travel, or where I go that 1% of the time. I fail to see why people take such offense when they find someone who uses another cell carrier.
As for the price difference between the networks in the US and those overseas, I think the simple answer is the fact that the US is such a massive amount of land. Texas alone is the same size or even bigger, than many other countries. Considering that the Companies here must cover not only Texas, but 49 other states is at least partially to blame for the increased price. Im sure many of us would like to see lower prices here in the US, myself included. But the only way that is ever going to happen is through competition. The moves Tmobile has made thus far is a step in the right direction, hopefully a resurgent Sprint can follow and maybe one day we'll see a change.
There are always bottom scrapers who will use an inferior service to save a few bucks, or who never travel anywhere anyways. That doesn't make T-Mobile suck any less.
1. I'll believe it when I see it.
2. If they actually do that, they will be in much better shape. If they couple that with fully using their AT&T roaming agreement, they would be in very good shape. However, if they leave the big holes in their map, they will only be moderately better off, and still not competing with the big boys.
True indeed, no one said 96% of people covered = 96% of the US landmass. That's pretty obvious. Not even Verizon covers that much of the geographic US. That's the reason why none of the carriers speak in percentage of land covered when they boast about their coverage.
The announcement to upgrade to LTE from 2G applies to their ENTIRE native network footprint. The "if you're a city dweller..." is applicable to their CURRENT LTE footprint. The places where there is absolutely no T-Mobile coverage at all is mostly limited to extreme rural areas and not "everything outside a major city".
So for the very small percentage of Americans who are regularly commuting in places like Montana, WV, Nebraska, rural east Texas, northern Maine, etc. by all means they are justified in throwing all that extra money at Verizon. If you look at the major complaints about T-Mobile's current network, it's usually not "no service" at all, but rather "2G or GPRS" outside metro areas. Their planned upgrade addresses that issue. If anything you should be happy because it would put immense pressure on Verizon to restructure their plans to be more competitive.
2-3% LTE population coverage difference definitely minimizes the value of paying extra $1000/yr or so to Verizon every month for most people. Take a look at the coverage maps and notice the areas of the country where there is absolutely no T-Mobile coverage. That geographical area of coverage is much more than "off the beaten path".
EDIT: On another note, one thing I will add is that those who want unlimited data should probably get it sooner rather than later. Someone has to pay for these upgrades and I have a feeling T-Mobile might raise the price again or get rid of it altogether in the future.
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Really don't need u to believe it. Yeah u seem like a troll. Again because of tmobile the other 3 are changing their services. I know it kills u to think a lowly carrier with only 40+million can affect the us industry as a whole but that's exactly what's happening. Again, why are u in this thread? If u want start your own saying how much you think tmobile sucks.
By commute times, absolutely. Mean commute time for US workers is less than 30 minutes, and less than 8 percent have a commute time of an hour or more. Considering the traffic congestion in most urban areas, this would imply that you have a "majority of the people" who don't travel a great distance from where they live on a daily basis.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acs-15.pdf
T-Mobile's prepaid and contract-free options provided the final reasons for my pulling the trigger on a smartphone.
Smartphones are fine, but I did not want to get locked into a two-year contract or pay through the nose every month for a halfway decent data allotment. Since the iPhone had very few prepaid options until relatively recently, and I wanted to stay with iOS (already own two iPads and iPod touches), I stayed on the sidelines until the market moved more in my direction.
Since going to an iPhone and T-Mobile's $30 100 min/5GB prepaid plan, I've found the service wanting in very few situations. Only on long road trips where I'm passing through rural areas does T-Mobile's data service cut out. But, even on AT&T (I use their pay-per-use data plan on my iPad), the data coverage has gaps in these same rural areas. I suppose Verizon would have better coverage, but I don't travel often enough to justify the much higher costs for their service.
Otherwise, in metro areas, the data and voice coverage has been fine with T-Mobile. I've been very happy with the service, tech support, and the fact that their plan gave me exactly what I was looking for (i.e., low voice minutes, high data allotment). As a customer, if someone's willing to do that, they get my business.
Smartphones are fine, but I did not want to get locked into a two-year contract or pay through the nose every month for a halfway decent data allotment. Since the iPhone had very few prepaid options until relatively recently, and I wanted to stay with iOS (already own two iPads and iPod touches), I stayed on the sidelines until the market moved more in my direction.
Since going to an iPhone and T-Mobile's $30 100 min/5GB prepaid plan, I've found the service wanting in very few situations. Only on long road trips where I'm passing through rural areas does T-Mobile's data service cut out. But, even on AT&T (I use their pay-per-use data plan on my iPad), the data coverage has gaps in these same rural areas. I suppose Verizon would have better coverage, but I don't travel often enough to justify the much higher costs for their service.
Otherwise, in metro areas, the data and voice coverage has been fine with T-Mobile. I've been very happy with the service, tech support, and the fact that their plan gave me exactly what I was looking for (i.e., low voice minutes, high data allotment). As a customer, if someone's willing to do that, they get my business.
Most people I know buy cell service based on their needs, not their daily commute as you are stuck once you enter into an agreement.
Sure my daily commute is 30 minutes, but at random times I could be anyplace in the USA and I want cell phone service.
Well if you want cell service anywhere in the USA then none of the none of the carriers are going to do it for you. you're going to need also a set sleeve for your iPhone, that's being totally covered.
I would assume that someone's daily commute factors into "their needs" in a big way.
And the daily commute points to where people are likeliest to spend a big chunk of their time on any given day. The tieback to T-Mobile is that their service deficiencies apply in situations (i.e., non-metro areas) that are least likely to impact an average customer at a given moment. Even if you're traveling to some random US place, the odds are that you will wind up in a metro area, where T-Mobile coverage is generally good. If you must have rural service, even if you do not venture into those areas on a regular basis, then you pay for what you get.
With T-Mobile, you are not "stuck" into any agreement. Bring your own unlocked device, pop in a TMo SIM card, and you're good to go. If the service isn't to your liking, then cancel it and move the phone over to AT&T or any compatible MVNO service. It's really that simple. Having that option available is exactly why I went with TMo when I finally bought a smartphone last year.
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My 5s bill last month cost me $79. I used 33gb of data as I watched a couple of champions league matches via fox soccer 2go app. I stream podcasts on the regular.
I also used bbm, fb, twitter, and gpswhile hanging out in Vancouver bc. Texts too of course.
I love tmobile. You coverage nerds who seem to live and die by cell coverage can argue all you want.
I also used bbm, fb, twitter, and gpswhile hanging out in Vancouver bc. Texts too of course.
I love tmobile. You coverage nerds who seem to live and die by cell coverage can argue all you want.
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