TMO Boston

I intend to update this thread with some speed/reception stats as soon as we get our sim cards, but first, I wanted to explain my extremely pleasant experience, over the phone, with TMO.

My first concern was a Best Buy FAN discount. As much as I searched, I couldn't really find concrete information on whether or not they provided a discount and, if they did, what that ultimately amounts to. They allow for a 15% discount and all they need to do is send and email to your employee email. This discount was the saving grace, as I assumed they didn't offer it. We currently have 21% with AT&T, but with this 15%, it actually makes it cheaper than AT&T even if we DO plan to buy phones through TMO (note: the phone monthly payment isn't effected by the discount).

I was asked why I was switching, told them it was basically price. I also told them that we had TMO years ago, and were ultimately happy with customer service (this hasn't changed ) but reception was abysmal. He did mention they've changed a lot, but also grabbed a handful of zip codes in order to verify if there would be quality reception in the areas we frequent. As it turns out, eastern New England is basically blanketed (which I knew), so I am not terribly worried.

As far as buying sims, they are $10 a piece, and activation fees were waived. I thought that was fair. At the end of the day, I never paid for a sim with AT&T or VZW, but there was always a $30+ activation fee (sometimes I got those waived too), so this wasn't bad.

Where we were paying $215 per month for three lines, we will now be paying $112 (both numbers are post tax). That's $103 savings per month, for those that cannot count. Even if we all got top tier new phones, we would still be saving $43 a month. Sweet deal.

I also wanted to note that they give you a 30 day trial period, much like everyone else. If you don't like the service, you get refunded the sim costs, but still pay the prorated costs of the service. We plan on giving TMO a test run while still keeping our current lines.

 

This is why we aren't porting or canceling anything before giving it a run. Ironic that the only time I hear anyone say anything about the Boston area is after I made an order. I asked a few times before, no dice. Oh well, no worried. All I stand to lose is some time.

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I swapped the phone out, so yes, it should support their HSPA+ network.

 

That's terrible. We have LTE on both Verizon and AT&T everywhere we go. I have seen edge ONCE on AT&T when traveling further north into NH (to grab some maple syrup lol). Oh well, at least I am ready for the pain.

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I forgot to mention that I have read a lot about TMO getting unlimited roaming on AT&T's network due to the failed merger. I asked about this. The specific information was as follows:

Unlimited texts/voice while roaming so long as you don't spend the majority of your time on the roaming network. The rep didn't have a specific definition, but he basically said I would have to either move to said location permanently, or spend months and months at a time at said location.

Now, about the data, that is still unlimited, but will be throttled at different rates. If you buy their unlimited plan, you get 200mb roaming per month; 2GB plan gives you 50mb roaming; standard 500mb plan gives you 10mb roaming.

What does this mean? This isn't anywhere near as good as what people on these forums made it out to be, at least not based on what the rep told me. One cannot get TMO and expect to just roam unlimited data permanently. That's just not how it works.

 

Where were you when I had questions a few weeks ago?!?!!

 

Interesting you should say that. My wife has had a lot more issues with Verizon in this area than I have with AT&T. I started a thread, and a handful of people chimed in about it, also from the area. Long story short, she will often be on LTE and data will just completely drop out.

 

I decided that I wanted to test TMobile side by side with AT&T, and they just started selling the Lumia 520 for $130 off contract. No LTE, but since TMO doesn't have LTE in Boston yet (supposedly it IS coming this month to greater Boston/Cambridge), that wasn't a deal breaker for my test. Truth be told, I had intentions of testing and returning the phone, but I found a guy in Cambridge selling his for $100. I offered him $80, he took the deal, and that was that. If I can get the phone unlocked after 7 days, even if I don't stick with TMO, an $80 throw away phone for when I don't want to get my nicer phones trashed (i.e. beach, amusement parks, etc.) is totally worth it. I am going to write a review in the "other" section on the phone for those who are interested. To be quite frank, it blows me away how good this thing is at $130 (even better at $80 HAHAHA )

Anyway, still haven't gotten my sims, but the guy who sold me this gave me the sim in the box, so I called to activate it. They did that after some excruciating explaining on my end on what is was I was trying to do, but then gave me some strange 978 number (and I was wanting a 508). I pointed out I never got to choose my numbers, and they told me they can change them for $15 per line. Huh? They kept repeating that unless I was getting harassing phone calls or something, number changes cost $15 per line no matter what. After about 20 minutes of explaining to them that I NEVER picked phone numbers (apparently my sims are activated currently as they sit in an envelope en route to me... strange) they finally agreed to changing one number for free. Again, what? I am not wanting to change numbers. I am just wanting to pick a 508 number, like I as promised in the beginning. So, after another ten or so minutes, they decided to transfer me to the "buyer's remorse" line. I kid you not, that is what they called it. Luckily I explained everything to the nice lady ONCE, she changed all of the numbers like I asked, waived all fees, and that was that. She was unable to explain to my why exactly the lines were activated on the 31 of May (the day I ordered over the phone), but she clearly saw that none of them had been used thus far and that I hadn't created an online account, thus it was obvious I never had a chance to review my phone numbers.

As far as reception goes, inside the house (we live in an old mill turned into lofts) I drop to 2G and four bars. If I am near a window, or in the gym (which is basically all windows) I still get strong 4G signal. Outside I have 4G (HSPA+) and four bars. I haven't had a chance yet to check around the city for data. I will note that both AT&T and VZW get a pretty strong LTE signal where we live, be it inside, in the gym, or outside. Every once in a while I will see my (AT&T) line drop to 4G, but that is rare. I am going to attempt to do some side by side by side (TMO, AT&T, VZW) shots to show what reception is like. I will keep this thread updated.

 

Here are some screenshots outside our house. We live near-ish Fenway. Won't give a more exact location for obvious reasons (but will do in future pics that won't let rapists know where my sexy butt lives ).

Unfortunately you can't see the signal within the app (even when you try to drag it down), so I snapped a pic of the homescreen as well as the app.

Click to enlarge. Another thing to point out is this phone doesn't do TMobile's faster HSPA+, while the iPhone 4S+ should handle it, no problem.

 

Made it up to Salem, NH yesterday!


And then Methuen, MA. Basically the same geographical location, but since I was there, decided it was worth chronicling. Notice the battery drain. It's awful. This would not have been due to poor reception, either.

 

I got them in today. I popped one in to see if if worked but I am hesitant in leaving it for a terribly long time as my number, where I can be contacted,especially by work regarding patients, is linked to AT&T. What I can say is that reception indoors is definitely worse than AT&T and Verizon.

I did a little more testing today on the windows phone too, but the speed test app kept crashing. I rebooted, reinstalled, etc but nothing I did fixed the problem. I'll likely have some more time this weekend to actually take the iPhone out for a spin with the TMO sim intact.