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benji888

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
1,890
410
United States
T-Mobile...who has T-Mobile? I'm seriously considering switching to T-mobile from AT&T, sometime before year's end when I get iPhone 6 (4.7). I've had AT&T for 10 years and I'm over them. I'm sure T-mobile is fine in the city, but, help me out, I'll make it easy, just comment with a letter:

A) T-mobile is great at home (in the city) and when I travel, just as good as AT&T or Verizon was.
B) T-mobile is great at home, and works when out of town, but data can be slow.
C) T-mobile is great at home, but sucks out of town.
D) T-mobile sucks don't do it!
Just give me a letter if you use T-mobile now. They have better plans than AT&T and they are all very competitive right now as far as getting a new phone, so, this may happen sooner, but, I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks! :)
 
I know you didnt ask for it but I am going to give you a detailed explanation of my experience, as I just swithched to T-Mobile from ATT.

The pre-order fiasco was NUTS, but at the end of the day, I got my phone on launch day without any problems.

T-Mobile is giving me $352 for my ATT iPhone 5S, AND they are paying off my ETF on ATT for my line on top of the trade in ($650 total for sending in my phone!!)

Coverage on T-Mobile is a mixed bag; there are times when I'm driving where I have E data speeds and even very small bursts of times when there is no service (very rare though.). When the device connects to LTE though the speeds are unreal. It is SUPER FAST on T-Mobile LTE networks. I would say I have had an LTE connection about 70% of the time and I tested it this weekend driving all over central florida. The remaining time i'd say 20% of the time is a 4G connection, 8% is an E connection, and the remaining 2% is no service at all. Overall I am very happy with the coverage.

I have completely unlimited high speed LTE data (true unlimited), unlimited talk and text, and JUMP which includes insurance that is very close in comparison to Applecare+ with the added benefit of basically getting an annual phone upgrade, all for about $130 for 3 lines of service. When you add the cost of the phone payments, I'm paying about $30-$40 less than I was for AT&T.

Hope this helps your decision. I'm loving my choice to switch after being very nervous at first.
 
T-Mobile...who has T-Mobile? I'm seriously considering switching to T-mobile from AT&T, sometime before year's end when I get iPhone 6 (4.7). I've had AT&T for 10 years and I'm over them. I'm sure T-mobile is fine in the city, but, help me out, I'll make it easy, just comment with a letter:

A) T-mobile is great at home (in the city) and when I travel, just as good as AT&T or Verizon was.
B) T-mobile is great at home, and works when out of town, but data can be slow.
C) T-mobile is great at home, but sucks out of town.
D) T-mobile sucks don't do it!
Just give me a letter if you use T-mobile now. They have better plans than AT&T and they are all very competitive right now as far as getting a new phone, so, this may happen sooner, but, I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks! :)

E) T-mobile is great at home (in the city) but it is hit or miss, not close to the coverage in many suburbs. You could easily do a $30 prepaid to test it out with your current phone.
 
Try their Test Drive program and see if in a week T-Mobile works for you. Sure you'll only get a 5s, but it'll give you an idea of how the network works in your area.
 
Loving T-Mobile. I'm on a family plan paying $16 a person for unlimited minutes, text, and data (LTE speed only up to 1GB, but unlimited LTE is only $30 more). Have to buy phones at full price but the monthly cost is so low that it's more than worth it.

As for international plans, T-Mobile simply gives you unlimited international 3G data for free in 100+ countries. Just went to Europe with T-Mobile and it just plain worked the whole time. No overages when I got back. It was wonderful.

It works fine at home or around town. LTE most of the time. I'm in Utah.
 
Switched from Verizon about a year ago, and Tmobile is just as good in areas where I commute to often i.e. Denver, CO and throughout Texas.

Amazing service, great speed, great CS [ in general ] and pricing is very reasonable all things considered.
 
T-Mobile...who has T-Mobile? I'm seriously considering switching to T-mobile from AT&T, sometime before year's end when I get iPhone 6 (4.7). I've had AT&T for 10 years and I'm over them. I'm sure T-mobile is fine in the city, but, help me out, I'll make it easy, just comment with a letter:

A) T-mobile is great at home (in the city) and when I travel, just as good as AT&T or Verizon was.
B) T-mobile is great at home, and works when out of town, but data can be slow.
C) T-mobile is great at home, but sucks out of town.
D) T-mobile sucks don't do it!
Just give me a letter if you use T-mobile now. They have better plans than AT&T and they are all very competitive right now as far as getting a new phone, so, this may happen sooner, but, I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks! :)

As far as coverage, I think it depends on your area. My brother in NYC gets great coverage everywhere, my sister in Chicago gets great coverage almost everywhere. In Indianapolis, coverage seems pretty good but I live about an hour away and I get poor coverage on one side of town. I also get incredibly poor service inside my house but wifi calling and the cellspot router will fix that, I'm hoping, when I receive those devices. I spend 80% of my time on wifi so it's been do-able. Free international texting and data and unlimited (high speed throttled at 2.5gb) data were the big draws for us. Hubby has been spending a lot of time abroad lately so him being able to just use his t-mobile phone has saved a lot of hassle and money.
 
TMO also supports Wifi Calling on iOS8. So if you're home or somewhere with wifi but low cell signal your phone will still be fully functional.
 
Thanks for the responses!

E) T-mobile is great at home (in the city) but it is hit or miss, not close to the coverage in many suburbs. You could easily do a $30 prepaid to test it out with your current phone.
Nice idea, but, I have a 2-year old iPhone 5, Apple updated the HSPA+ frequencies in the iPhone 5 hardware 1 1/2 years ago (Apr '13) to be compatible with T-Mobile, then officially made iPhone 5 available for T-Mobile, (so iPhone 5 wouldn't get EDGE in those areas instead.), so mine won't give me the whole picture.
Try their Test Drive program and see if in a week T-Mobile works for you. Sure you'll only get a 5s, but it'll give you an idea of how the network works in your area.
I'll be moving (by January) also, and I travel, so, just trying to get a general idea of people's experience w/T-Mobile.
TMO also supports Wifi Calling on iOS8. So if you're home or somewhere with wifi but low cell signal your phone will still be fully functional.
Yes, this and the wifi box they are including helps with the fact they aren't up there with AT&T & verizon on coverage yet.


I was listening to a podcast about iPhone 6 and they talked about carriers too, one on T-Mobile mentioned that iPhone 6 isn't compatible with some of T-Mobile's new frequencies...From wikipedia: "On February 25, 2014, T-Mobile announced in their Q4 2013 earnings call that their 4G LTE network covers 209 million people in 273 metro areas. They also plan to start rolling out their 700 MHz A-Block spectrum by the end of 2014, which by the end of the roll out will cover 158 million people. This spectrum will lead to improved LTE coverage overall in these areas, particularly indoors.[66]"

This is really the only negative: The 700 MHz A-Block spectrum of LTE is channel 12...this channel is absent from the list of channels iPhone 6 is compatible with :( this is disappointing, this frequency is supposed to penetrate buildings better than their other frequencies, but, mainly, I'll be missing out on LTE in these areas. :( I'm surprised Apple isn't keeping up with this, they upgraded iPhone 5 with a minor update in April '13 to add T-Mobile HSPA+ frequency, so that iPhone 5 could get this instead of EDGE where LTE wasn't yet available, and that's when Apple made iPhone officially available to T-Mobile. http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/ (700 b & c listed (ch 13, 14), but not 700 a (ch 12)).

(more from wikipedia): "On March 13, 2014, T-Mobile announced a new plan to upgrade its entire 2G/EDGE network to 4G LTE. They expect 50% to be done by the end of 2014, and it to be "substantially complete" by the middle of 2015.[67]"

On the other hand, they are updating and expanding coverage quickly, and no one has said to me that T-Mobile sucks. Wifi calling, wifi hotspots, and the wifi handoff box all help also...plus the fact that the LTE they do have is faster than AT&T (sometimes AT&T's LTE feels slower than 3/4G). So, I think coverage will only get better. Since AT&T's merger acquisition didn't go through, T-Mobile has really been improving. (I'm glad, if that had gone through, Verizon would have bought Sprint also, and, (either way) I think cell service prices would have gone up for everyone.)

I'm leaning more toward switching. Now I prefer to buy an unlocked iPhone 6, and keep my iPhone 5 as iPod touch & spare camera, so, sometime this October -December.

Anyone else want to chime in?
 
Love my $30 prepaid plan.
Great lte signal, no drop calls. VoLte will be sweet also.
Im in the Bay Area.
 
1. Buy unlocked iPhone 6/6+.
2. Sign up for the $30 pre-paid 100 minutes/5GB LTE monthly plan on T-Mobile.com.
3. Buy a sim card with $90 in credit for only $29 on eBay.
4. Transfer the $90 to your new T-Mobile account.
5. PROFIT


Pre-paid is the way to go. No taxes, ever! The $30 plan is great if you don't talk that much. If you do like to talk, each additional minute is only .10. I loaded up on the eBay sim cards and I'm getting close to 70% off my service. $10 monthly.
 
T-Mobile...who has T-Mobile? I'm seriously considering switching to T-mobile from AT&T, sometime before year's end when I get iPhone 6 (4.7). I've had AT&T for 10 years and I'm over them. I'm sure T-mobile is fine in the city, but, help me out, I'll make it easy, just comment with a letter:

A) T-mobile is great at home (in the city) and when I travel, just as good as AT&T or Verizon was.
B) T-mobile is great at home, and works when out of town, but data can be slow.
C) T-mobile is great at home, but sucks out of town.
D) T-mobile sucks don't do it!
Just give me a letter if you use T-mobile now. They have better plans than AT&T and they are all very competitive right now as far as getting a new phone, so, this may happen sooner, but, I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks! :)

My experience is mostly B. Works as well as or better than AT&T/VZW in and around my metro area. Traveling between cities I usually have service but EDGE. I'd recommend trying out the Test Drive if you can before deciding whether to switch.
 
I switched last Friday because I met a T-Mobile customer in line who was tethering to my Mac so we could watch live cable. We did this all nite. I was like, I have to get unlimited. I have used 12 gb since Friday. I absolutely love it. Plus I'll be in London in December and January and that wifi calling and international data will come in handy.
 
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