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Carrier T-Mobile users - How is band 12 LTE?

In my experience with Band 12 it seems to work only when it's needed. Like I walked into Target on Friday and Saturday to test it. 4 bars the entire time! With my 6 Plus I'd drop to 4G and not even get LTE. At my home however I'm on the regular Band for LTE. Whenever I went into a building Band 12 would show up. And this was in buildings where I would get very very little service. I now do in fact get service.
 
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oftheheavens said:
I started a thread about this but didn't get any replies. I live in the DC Baltimore area and I don't have any more bars than I did with my 6 inside my house. One of the reasons I upgraded was for this new band thing, I am wondering though if it requires a carrier upgrade over the air or if it just really isn't that big of an improvement.
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Same for me. One of the main reasons I upgraded is because I thought I would get better reception but its been the same for me. Definitely disappointing.
 
Jessem1133 said:
I switched to T-Mobile a few weeks ago, and had ZERO service in my home, work, and several other places I frequent. Held out for the 6S for the supposed improved reception...and I was not disappointed. Great LTE service in all the locations I either had no service or edge just a few weeks prior. VERY happy!
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Did you use the SIM the came with the phone or you swapped your old SIM into the new phone?
 
I'm loving Band 12, no more spotty LTE connection in my work building. Consistent 2 circles with LTE for the past 3 days. I'm averaging a consistent 20mbps while my old 6 can barely keep the LTE connection for 3 minutes before dropping and connecting again. Minneapolis, MN here
 
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still on band 4 after doing the diag screen.
it's probably not activated in this area.

the map says there's band 12 tower visible in my area, so i wonder if tmo is waiting for more people with 6s before they activate that tower.
 
I should note for those asking, your phone will always prefer band 4, B12 will be just for when you are having low to no signal on B4.
In my case at my house I went from being on edge with the 6+ to having 2 dots of LTE on B12. That's a big change.
 
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and they want to call it "extended range lte" don't bet on any of these features. There is no difference.

And the new iPhone is supposed to have LTE advanced. That's a great announcement but you can't use that in the United States. Our speeds are not that fast.
 
I tried a couple of places I had very poor or no receptions on my 5s, deep inside my local Sam's club for one and in my home's basement for another. 2 dots now both places and people who get my calls say voice quality is now excellent where before it was marginal if I could connect at all. As a phone this is great and it the sole reason why I upgraded to the 6s, 5s was otherwise sufficient for my needs.

Data rates are not very good on band 12 so is a good reason t-mobile prefers band 4. I think it is a good strategy on t-mobile's part to use 12 as a backup when 4 is not working well. Use band 12 when needed also frees it up so it is available to everyone when it IS needed.

T-mobile is supposed to be using band 2 as well, but I haven't seen it when I check in field-test mode, just 4 and 12.

FYI: Band 2 (1900 MHz), Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz), Band 12 (700 MHz)
 
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BurgDog said:
I tried a couple of places I had very poor or no receptions on my 5s, deep inside my local Sam's club for one and in my home's basement for another. 2 dots now both places and people who get my calls say voice quality is now excellent where before it was marginal if I could connect at all. As a phone this is great and it the sole reason why I upgraded to the 6s, 5s was otherwise sufficient for my needs.

Data rates are not very good on band 12 so is a good reason t-mobile prefers band 4. I think it is a good strategy on t-mobile's part to use 12 as a backup when 4 is not working well. Use band 12 when needed also frees it up so it is available to everyone when it IS needed.

T-mobile is supposed to be using band 2 as well, but I haven't seen it when I check in field-test mode, just 4 and 12.

FYI: Band 2 (1900 MHz), Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz), Band 12 (700 MHz)
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They’re using LTE on Band 2 in rural/select areas only. I used to have a phone that supports Band 2 only, and it was like this: in the urban areas I’d have consistent HSPA+ (shows “4G” on the screen), in buildings that would sometimes drop to “E”. Then as I am leaving the city it would drop to permanent “E”, then to no signal, then all of a sudden “LTE” would come up! Then as you pass that particular tower it would drop to “E”/No Signal, and so on.
 
Band 12 speed test I did earlier today.
 

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tallboy1 said:
tried this out today at work and i've gotten 1-2 dots LTE service in the building and not once did the signal drop to 4G!
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Same here at my office building. My prior iPhone 6 used to drop to 4G several times a day while at work, but today my new 6s Plus never did even once. I stayed at 1-2 dots of LTE at all times.
 
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Applejuiced said:
Oh boy, that's like 6 locations in the whole US that shows band12 spectrum available.
Damn, hate to say it but Tmobile coverage is a joke compared to the big 2.
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This is only a map of 700Mhz spectrum.

LOL Band 12 is NOT the fastest network for T-Mobile.. Here is band 4.. Which is what you really want children, and its not 700Mhz, and.. this completely destroys AT&T and Verizon.

https://flic.kr/p/yeHLGH]T-Mobile LTE Band 4 Seattle[/url] by https://www.flickr.com/photos/burningcoals/]Shaun[/url], on Flickr
 
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Buringcoals said:
This is only a map of 700Mhz spectrum.

LOL Band 12 is NOT the fastest network for T-Mobile.. Here is band 4.. Which is what you really want children, and its not 700Mhz, and.. this completely destroys AT&T and Verizon.

https://flic.kr/p/yeHLGH]T-Mobile LTE Band 4 Seattle[/url] by https://www.flickr.com/photos/burningcoals/]Shaun[/url], on Flickr
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Children?

And you are mistaken. I would much prefer consistent LTE connectivity with lower latency over high speeds that I cannot take full advantage of on a mobile device.
 
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Buringcoals said:
This is only a map of 700Mhz spectrum.

LOL Band 12 is NOT the fastest network for T-Mobile.. Here is band 4.. Which is what you really want children, and its not 700Mhz, and.. this completely destroys AT&T and Verizon.

https://flic.kr/p/yeHLGH]T-Mobile LTE Band 4 Seattle[/url] by https://www.flickr.com/photos/burningcoals/]Shaun[/url], on Flickr
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>over 100MBps downlink

Is it even possible for the “usual” LTE, even under favorable conditions? I mean, everyone can look up the theoretical maximum, but just from experience, I’ve never seen real life download speeds match those. Might it be that T-Mobile has switched on band aggregation in that area, so that your phone is using bands 4+12?
 
T Mobile Twitter support told me to use the new SIM that came with the phone. I then managed to get 10mb down instead of 1mb down in my bedroom but sometimes it switches back to band 4.

Hoping to see those fast speeds when I go outside today!
 
Here in NYC I'm seeing speeds of 25 Mbps+ whereas before with my iPhone 6 on T-mobile I've only got 7-10 Mbps max...

I take the hudson river ferry to work and whereas before my iPhone 6 pretty much had no service along the route, now my new iPhone 6s maintains 2-3 bars of LTE throughout the entire boat ride across the river - with full browsing and internet functionality along the way. This is new.

I did not run field test to verify which band I was on but I can confidently say I've seen a tangible, real world improvement in my day to day life with the 6s' new antenna and band options. Good job Apple. :apple:
 
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DMaki650 said:
In my experience with Band 12 it seems to work only when it's needed. Like I walked into Target on Friday and Saturday to test it. 4 bars the entire time! With my 6 Plus I'd drop to 4G and not even get LTE. At my home however I'm on the regular Band for LTE. Whenever I went into a building Band 12 would show up. And this was in buildings where I would get very very little service. I now do in fact get service.
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Can you tell me how you know you're on band 12 versus something else?

Edit: never mind 🙂
 
Applejuiced said:
Oh boy, that's like 6 locations in the whole US that shows band12 spectrum available.
Damn, hate to say it but Tmobile coverage is a joke compared to the big 2.
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T-Mobile is behind. But that nap does only show band 12. And band 12 is only a small fraction of their map. It's like comparing their entire map to ATT's band 30 (which they're just rolling out).

It's not in contention that ATT and Verizon both healthily beat TMO in coverage. But it's not as bad as that nap makes it look since that's not the entire picture.
 
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