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If you have a device that is on the sprint network, how could it be a good transition? Is t-mobile going to buy replacement cars for folks with automobiles that use the sprint network for connectivity? Shutting down any LTE network at this point is way too early.
I had an iphone SE (first gen) that my son used on TMobile for years before we switched to ATT for my wife's discount, so I suppose it would depend on the device, really. Reasonably sure that any iPhone bought through Sprint will continue receiving service, unless it's a REALLY old device.

Having said that, I am certain this will negatively effect some percentage of their customers. But I am also certain that TMO has looked at those numbers, which would be incredibly easy to do. Everything sees EOL at some point. I am still lamenting my first gen apple watch as having been a pretty poor purchase compared to really anything that came after.
 
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Good, I wish T-Mobile would shutdown their 2G and 3G networks while they were at it and refarm everything for 5G.

Between n71 and Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum T-Mobile is doing a solid job rolling out 5G unlike some others.
 
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I had sprint for years with a business plan. Went to the store to upgrade phones for me and wife. I was advised to switch to the T-Mobile SIM for better network and promised my plan would not change. As soon as I got home I had an email welcoming me to a new T-mobile plan which was way more expensive. Hours on the phone with Customer Service and I cannot go back to my old plan because it is no longer offered. Beware if your are going to switch. In general I would stay away from Sprint and T-Mobile. I have only had poor experiences.
 
I had an iphone SE (first gen) that my son used on TMobile for years before we switched to ATT for my wife's discount, so I suppose it would depend on the device, really. Reasonably sure that any iPhone bought through Sprint will continue receiving service, unless it's a REALLY old device.

Having said that, I am certain this will negatively effect some percentage of their customers. But I am also certain that TMO has looked at those numbers, which would be incredibly easy to do. Everything sees EOL at some point. I am still lamenting my first gen apple watch as having been a pretty poor purchase compared to really anything that came after.

But with a phone you can change the SIM (assuming it is unlocked, and supports both flavors of network). Not so easy to do with something like a car, appliance, etc.
 
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Sprint has been easily the best carrier I've had in my area. T-Mobile's coverage on both voice and data is hot garbage where I live. So not looking forward to this.

I know Sprint has it's detractors. And it's far from perfect. But it's been the best option for me for quite awhile. Hope T-Mobile can up their game by the time they shut down Sprint's service here.
 
I'm using dual sim with Verizon and T-Mobile. I'm hoping to get to the point where I can just rely on one carrier. T-Mobile roams on different networks and does what it can to keep me connected where as I do not see it often with Verizon.

iOS does an awful job at switching between the 2 automatically when signal on my primary line is unusable.

393268AD-84BF-4F6D-97F2-31D6FE2E7C64.jpeg
 
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I live just on the edge of a large metro area with a booming (well, pre-pandemic) tourism industry. Once you venture outside the tourist traps its pretty much a crap shoot as to who will provide decent signal. One of the reasons I went with Sprint in the beginning (back in..2006? 2007? Its been awhile..) was they were the only company that provided any kind of signal at my apartment. Fast forward a bit and it seemed every place I moved afterwards (on the outer edges of suburbia), NO ONE could provide any kind of signal at my place. My friends with Verizon and AT&T couldn't even make a call--at least with Sprint I could do that!--on a whim a I tested T-Mobile and while I had service in my apartment, I kept dropping calls every time I had to go to in the larger city. I think I had them 14 days before I canceled and went back to using Sprint.

Fast forward a bit, I bought a house a little further out on the literal edge of the area. If you go north, east, or west from my place there's nothing but rural land for upward of 15 miles. I wasn't shocked at all when I found out no one had service at my home, not even our real estate agent. But Spectrum's Gigabit service was available here so I didn't stress it much. Lately, I've been doing a bit of international travel (why does it seem like every year I have a wedding to go to?) and T-Mobile's Magenta and Magenta Plus plans had some very nice benefits--nothing that would lower our monthly bill much, but the international texting and data was looking nice--so we went ahead and merged our lines over when I bought the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Imagine my surprise when I got a 5G signal upstairs and an LTE signal in my basement. For the first time in years, I don't have to rely on wifi to do anything at my home (I still do, I mean...the gigabit service from Spectrum is far faster than anything T-Mobile can throw in my part of the US right now) but when the power goes out now, I can actually stream Netflix or other streaming services to my iPad or iPhone.

I recently, on a whim, bought an iPad Pro and set it up on Verizon. They had an excellent deal at the time compared to T-Mobile and yet once again my device is practically married to WiFi unless I head into town. Whereas T-Mobile has some pretty decent 5G speeds on the major (extremely rural) 10 mile stretch of road east between my house and the closest "large" city.

I have noticed that they seem to be working on the towers in earnest though. There are parts of "downtown" (a three block section of town with a ton of local shops) where the 5G signal cuts in and out whereas it hadn't before. I'm chalking that up to growing pains, though.
 
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In San Francisco, Sprint LTE Band 41 is the only band that gets any usuable reception up here at 800 feet above sea level.

There’s not a lot of places to add cell sites unless the carriers use the large TV / FM tower nearby (Sutro Tower.) It’s only Sprint who does.* As such, Sprint’s LTE facilities ensure my neighborhood has coverage.

Hopefully T-Mobile keeps the cell site when they refarm the spectrum. Otherwise, there’s no service at my house.

*Judging by the last 10 years of building permits I pulled for the tower - only Sprint adding LTE antennas in 2016; and also my personal experience with a T-Mobile LTE iPad, Verizon iPhone 6S+ for Work, AT&T LTE in a Chevrolet Bolt EV, and my original iPhone SE on Sprint.
 
Sprint and T-Mobile were the only two providers that could ever get me service at my house. I had Sprint before the first iPhone was released and switched to AT&T for the first iPhone. To this day I still can't get AT&T or Verizon at my house without having to switch to WiFi.

I still have my old Treo 650 that I used with Sprint before coming to the iPhone.
 
Not here. Sprint is the best - I have Verizon (for work) and now T-Mobile (SIM swap). Sprint was by FAR the most reliable and fastest :/
Not up here. I started on Sprint back when they called their data Vision and left for AT&T in 2009 for an iPhone 3G.

I know exactly one person on Sprint and I’m so happy that they’re finally going to get pushed off of their ancient green bubble phone.
I c wat u did thar
 
Compared with AirTouch (now Verizon), PacBell (now AT&T), and LA Cellular (also now AT&T), you got absolutely none of that, and buying a cell phone was like buying a car in those days (e.g., triplicate forms, deep credit check, security deposits, etc.) so Sprint was an "easy sell" for most people, even if the coverage was abysmal
There were other good carriers back then, too. They just weren't big nation-wide companies (funny how that works). I got on Voicestream in '99. I also got first incoming minute free on them. My plan was only $20/mo. You could tell the carriers really wanted people on at a $40/mo plan or more back then by how they tiered the service plans, but the $20 was fine for me. I don't remember what I paid for the inital startup/deposit, but it was low, like less than $100. The contract was only one year, and it didn't auto-renew iirc.

That year is the only time I have *ever* been under contract with a wireless carrier. I wasn't a person who dropped my phone every few months (but phones were more rugged back then, too). If I needed to replace my phone I bought a used one off eBay and since I was on a GSM carrier I just moved my SIM card over. I disabled the internal phonebook on the phones so all my contacts saved to the SIM card and moved easily with me. VoiceStream was bought by T-Mobile and I've been with them since then. Always on grandfathered cheap plans and counted as a post-paid customer.
 
we consolidated our phones (from ATT and Verizon) to T-Mobile for the cost savings a few months back. Yes, they
paid off my phone, but we will be switching back to Verizon in the future. Call drops are terrible.
 
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So much for a "merger". Shut down a good network and replace it with crap. Thank you T-Mobile, for making me switch to Verizon 🤮. Out of the four, Sprint was the best I had.
How is Sprint a good network? I worked for Sprint 20 years ago, and it was crap. It was still crap when T-Mobile merged with Sprint.

Sprint’s cellular service has always been a complete and utter disaster.
 
we consolidated our phones (from ATT and Verizon) to T-Mobile for the cost savings a few months back. Yes, they
paid off my phone, but we will be switching back to Verizon in the future. Call drops are terrible.
It’s funny because I switched to T-Mobile 4 years ago, and I am not having any dropped calls at all. I guess it depends on where you are. I used to live in Greensboro, NC, and my Verizon service was absolutely terrible. Calls were dropping all the time. I couldn’t have one phone conversation without a call dropping, and it happened in multiple places in the city. Verizon replaced my phone three times, but the calls were still dropping.

I switched to AT&T while I was in Greensboro when I got my first iPhone in 2009, and my calls were no longer dropping with AT&T.

So, when I moved to a neighboring state and later switched from AT&T to T-Mobile I didn’t experience any difference in coverage between AT&T and T-Mobile. I would recommend sticking with T-Mobile through this migration.
 
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