Carrier T-Mobile is Fantastic!

[panzer06]

Actually I have 3 lines and we use roughly just over 1.8GB in total, but my concern is more the coverage then it is the cost. If I can not make a call or access data, there is no point in me switching anyway. I do understand there are those who will benefit greatly from T-Mobile, however most of us will not. I do not think that even if VZ and AT&T decided to do what T-Mob has with no contract, we will be any better off than we are now, they just are all trying to rub the sub-pricing off on us, so I can see them not doing reduced sub pricing and keeping the same cost for their plans, they pay a lot when they sell an iphone 5 for example, so push cost off to consumers, and they will make more $

AT&T, Verizon & Sprint have always charged full price even if you brought your own gear so there was no reason not to take the subsidized phone if you knew you wanted to stay 2 years.

While price isn't a primary concern for you, there are countless people for whom price is a significant consideration, especially those who want to move to smartphones and don't want to pay $300+ per month for a hand full of lines. I understand in your area T-Mobile may be insufficient but I'd wager there are plenty of people (in your area) who would trade mediocre coverage at times for a significantly lower bill. Also not being tied to a contract is a great benefit because if it get's too bad, you can sell your phones and move to AT&T or Verizon.

Just look at how many millions of customers are still on Sprint and their coverage and dropped calls are worse than anyone right now. And the pay more (than T-Mobile) for the service too.

Cheers,

 

[kmichalec]

I switch From ATT to Tmobile yesterday and I couldn't have been happier . Call quality and data are fantastic compare to ATT

What area, samven?

 

[blairh]

I am with T-Mobile in NYC, they are pretty good, I get 4G pretty much everywhere, and LTE in a handful of locations, I travel frequently between Queens, Brooklyn and Lower/Midtown Manhattan. Speeds are decent, and I am satisfied with their service.

So far there have been an area or two where there is EDGE, that was inside a section of a huge BJ's store, which I wasn't really expecting there to be 4G or LTE service. I wouldn't call the service spotty, but more like a boundary in this case. I also go to school in a building with thick concrete walls, unfortunately getting the AWS iPhone did not solve the data coverage issue there, there seems to be GPRS service in there where O shows, which is worse than EDGE. If anybody else is in NYC, the 57th Street station on the F line which does have wireless service seems to only give me EDGE.

So other than those few locations, and switching to an AWS iPhone, I haven't seen EDGE in quite a while anywhere else.

If we are talking call quality, I had gotten a taste of AT&T, their signal strength is definitely higher inside buildings. T-Mobile's signal strength is still lower despite these improved data services, which is anywhere from 1-3 bars lower. Calls do sometimes get garbled if the signal strength isn't good. Thankfully, thats not frequent. In my opinion, AT&T and Verizon would be ideal as a business class carrier, T-Mobile is fine for casual conversations with family/friends.

Why does T-Mobile struggle so much with indoor calls? I see this stated by countless others. Really troubling IMO.

 

[rockitdog]

Why does T-Mobile struggle so much with indoor calls? I see this stated by countless others. Really troubling IMO.

With T-Mo's Android phones they have a nice feature that uses wifi networks for calls so if you do struggle indoors as long as you have a wifi connection you don't have any issues. Wish they would have included that on their AWS iPhones.

----------

What area, samven?

And you get to pay full price your phone (unless you brought your own unlocked device)!!! Lame! I think the whole non-subsidized price is being massively overblown and people aren't really figuring out that when you put money down on a phone you are undercontract until it's paid off. Just because they don't have a contract for service, the minute you get a T-Mobile device, you have a contract to pay full price for that entire phone.

----------

Why do TMo fans think that an AWS iPhone makes it better? Yes, you can connect to the AWS network, but let's not pretend that it is perfect. The network is still super spotty.

Your such a troll! A pathetic troll, but a troll nontheless! AWS support makes worlds of difference for a lot of people who were on Edge on their phones and now get pretty good speeds because of the AWS band. The network might not be for you but it works for a lot of others so why be a jerk about it?

----------

You can only account for some outskirts of Boston. I can account for a lot of cities and surrounding areas and they are not even close to being spoty. There is a world outside Boston.

Just ignore him. He's a professional troll like many others have pointed out to me on here. He's just looking for reaction.

 

[samven582]

What area, samven?

Hauppauge, Ny

 

[panzer06]

snip

And you get to pay full price your phone (unless you brought your own unlocked device)!!! Lame! I think the whole non-subsidized price is being massively overblown and people aren't really figuring out that when you put money down on a phone you are undercontract until it's paid off. Just because they don't have a contract for service, the minute you get a T-Mobile device, you have a contract to pay full price for that entire phone.

snip

This is actually a good thing. It's how things work in most parts of the world. Decoupling the phone costs from the service results in significantly lower cell phone bills. Our bill for 5 lines is half what we paid for Sprint service and everyone has a Smartphone. 3 were new, 1 existing and 1 purchased used.

Also, I wish people would stop saying this is a contract. Yes it is a financial contract (a 24 month no interest loan) but the service can be terminated at any time and the loan will be called due. The phones can then be sold off to cover much of the remaining balance.

The advantage here is you get a break on the monthly service because you brought the device just like they do in Europe and Asia. Sprint, AT&T and Verizon charge the exact same thing regardless of whether you bring your own device. Sprint even signs customers up for 2 years just to get a line even if you bring your own device. With these other carriers when the contract is up they don't reduce the bill now that the subsidy is retired, they keep charging the same thing no matter how long you're with them.

Cheers,

 

[Wicked1]

AT&T, Verizon & Sprint have always charged full price even if you brought your own gear so there was no reason not to take the subsidized phone if you knew you wanted to stay 2 years.

While price isn't a primary concern for you, there are countless people for whom price is a significant consideration, especially those who want to move to smartphones and don't want to pay $300+ per month for a hand full of lines. I understand in your area T-Mobile may be insufficient but I'd wager there are plenty of people (in your area) who would trade mediocre coverage at times for a significantly lower bill. Also not being tied to a contract is a great benefit because if it get's too bad, you can sell your phones and move to AT&T or Verizon.

Just look at how many millions of customers are still on Sprint and their coverage and dropped calls are worse than anyone right now. And the pay more (than T-Mobile) for the service too.

Cheers,

Yep, agreed, but like you mentioned, to me Price is a consideration, however for me, if I had to pay a little more for better service, then it is worth it, if I were paying a little less for mediocre service not so bad, but to pay T-Mob $150.00 per month for 3 lines which is slightly lower then my bill now, and to have 1/2 the service, I can not do it.

I also understand that is why there is a huge market for the Pre Paid stuff, my sons friends do not have the best phones and some have pre paid gear, so I try to explain to him that only because I am in IT do you have the service and gear that you have, if it was not part of my job, you would still have a flip phone. you should of seen the look I got when I said that...

 

[keitarou]

Just wish T-Mobile would have some promo paying ETF. So many would change in a heartbeat. I know I would. Dang ETF's.

 

[panzer06]

Just wish T-Mobile would have some promo paying ETF. So many would change in a heartbeat. I know I would. Dang ETF's.

I tried hanging on until Oct to avoid the ETF on my Sprint lines but gave up and paid $400. Sold all the Sprint phones and covered it. Annoying but worked just fine. A T-Mobile promo better than the $50 per line if you buy a phone and port your number promo would be nice.

Cheers,

 

[dw3bb10]

Just wish T-Mobile would have some promo paying ETF. So many would change in a heartbeat. I know I would. Dang ETF's.

Why would they EVER do that when theres no security that you will even stay with them? No contracts, -__________-.

 

[keitarou]

Why would they EVER do that when theres no security that you will even stay with them? No contracts, -__________-.

I don't know... to get more customers? If they have confidence keeping customers than I don't see why not. But yes, it's a long shot.

 

[krravi]

I recently switched to T-Mobile last weekend.

Reason? AT&T was ripping me off with $140/month for my service. The same service is $60.00 with T-mobile.

I know T-Mobile coverage isn't as good as AT&T or Verizon. But *coverage* only matters to the places you live, visit and go occasionally. In that aspect T-Mobile has excellent coverage 99% of where I am and want to be. But some places I visit often the coverage is zero inside the house but 2 bars outside the house.

So... T-Mobile has this gem of a feature that no one else has called "Wi-Fi Calling". Which means, If you are on WiFi you can enable that feature and all your Cellular calls will be routed through your WIFI network to your cellphone. You can make and recieve calls like you are on a cell network. Your plan minutes still apply.

So what phones support that feature? Only Androids!

So I ditched my trusty iPhone 4S and got an Samsung Galaxy S4. Loving it so far.

 

[PsstGreek]

So... T-Mobile has this gem of a feature that no one else has called "Wi-Fi Calling". Which means, If you are on WiFi you can enable that feature and all your Cellular calls will be routed through your WIFI network to your cellphone. You can make and recieve calls like you are on a cell network. Your plan minutes still apply.

So what phones support that feature? Only Androids!

So I ditched my trusty iPhone 4S and got an Samsung Galaxy S4. Loving it so far.

I would love for the iPhone 5 to get this.

 

[gkarris]

I was paying $56 for 1,000 min Voice + 1,000 Text + unlimited EDGE (now 3G in on my 3GS).

Now, I get for $50 Unlimited Voice & Text and 500MB High Speed (but still only 3G on my 3GS) and unlimited lower speed (ha ha, 3G anyways).

Great service, gosh it's been over 10 years now....

 

[krravi]

I would love for the iPhone 5 to get this.

Yeah its great.The WIFI calling does eat your battery little bit, but keep a charger handy.

Plus you can be anywhere in the world and as far as you have WiFi you are like in the US. Pretty cool.

AT&T has a device that you can install in your house(femtocell) and it costs $160.00 or so... But, T-Mobile has built that feature right into the phone.

So that sealed the deal for me for the switch.

They say the Wi-FI calling feature is a OS level integration and iOS is not going to have it anytime soon. This can change, of course. But right now I am liking my Galaxy S4. The big size is something I am still getting used to, but love the screen real estate and its snappy.

 

[RedCoil]

Is there any chance that T-mobile will be expanding their HSPA+ coverage any time soon or are the just focused on deploying LTE now? I'd love to make the switch, but they only have EDGE in my city. The other three carriers all have 4g networks here, so I don't know what's holding T-mobile up.

 

[osofast240sx]

Is there any chance that T-mobile will be expanding their HSPA+ coverage any time soon or are the just focused on deploying LTE now? I'd love to make the switch, but they only have EDGE in my city. The other three carriers all have 4g networks here, so I don't know what's holding T-mobile up.

What's your location?

 

[RedCoil]

What's your location?

Fargo, ND.

 

[CEmajr]

Tmobile doesn't even have native coverage in ND do they? You probably won't be getting anything from them out there for a long time.

 

[SONiC5]

I wish I had T-Mobile right about now, Sprint annoys me.

 

[RedCoil]

Tmobile doesn't even have native coverage in ND do they? You probably won't be getting anything from them out there for a long time.

They have native coverage in the main cities, it's just EDGE only. I know the Fargo area isn't huge, but it's around 200k people and growing fast. I've done some searching and couldn't find anything indicating they intended to expand their HSPA network. I guess I was just hoping some one knew otherwise.

 

[krravi]

They have native coverage in the main cities, it's just EDGE only. I know the Fargo area isn't huge, but it's around 200k people and growing fast. I've done some searching and couldn't find anything indicating they intended to expand their HSPA network. I guess I was just hoping some one knew otherwise.

They are doing a big push to increase 4G coverage by the end of this year. I was talking to a tech support and he said they are busy deploying towers so they can cover 200 million americans by the end of this year.

Not sure how much of it is true.

 

[CEmajr]

They are doing a big push to increase 4G coverage by the end of this year. I was talking to a tech support and he said they are busy deploying towers so they can cover 200 million americans by the end of this year.

Not sure how much of it is true.

That is correct but it doesn't address the concerns for people in an Edge only market like Fargo. They already cover 220 million with their "4G" HSPA+, the covering 200 million by the end of the year is in regards to their 4G LTE rollout which overlaps with areas that already have HSPA+. Nothing has been stated on when the Edge only areas will be upgraded.

 

[krravi]

That is correct but it doesn't address the concerns for people in an Edge only market like Fargo. They already cover 220 million with their "4G" HSPA+, the covering 200 million by the end of the year is in regards to their 4G LTE rollout which overlaps with areas that already have HSPA+. Nothing has been stated on when the Edge only areas will be upgraded.

Oh I see.. didn't know that. Well I am on EDGE when I go to the edge of the city which is a bummer.

When I asked this to the tech support I told him that their roaming partner coverage is great when it comes to voice but data sucks. He said that they also have high speed roaming data coverage and he seemed puzzled.

I have this app called 'OpenSignal' that tells you a good amount of information about your nearest tower and its capabilities. I often find myself using that and submitting the report that way we can have *real* stats and not some made up marketing maps from the company.

 

[kmichalec]

Just wish T-Mobile would have some promo paying ETF. So many would change in a heartbeat. I know I would. Dang ETF's.

keitarou,

If you are seriously interested in switching, go to a store and talk to a rep. I had $600 in EFT from AT&T, and managed to get one rep to offer me half ($300) in credit, but then found another rep who was able to offer me the full amount (and then some). All my EFT's are covered, and I'm switching right now as we speak.

Just ask them. Some will do it.