My wife and I shifted to Tmobile last year with the availability of the 5s. Sadly, our experiences do not seem to match up with the glowing reports on this board.... We frequently drop to Edge connections in areas that should be LTE service, and in many instances get 'no service' in places that you would not expect (Boston Logan airport, for example). Talked with the Tmobile tech support folks and they are blaming the phone, but given the fact that both of our iPhones have the same issues, am uncertain. On the road this week, in Pine Mountain, GA, and getting 'no service' at Callaway Gardens, occasionally getting 1 or 2 bars of Edge. Don't really want to go back to AT&T as I was hoping to actually use the iPhone tethering plan with Tmobile. Am wondering if anyone else has been experiencing this 'no service' or 'drop to Edge' situation?
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Tmobile 5s reception problems?
- Thread starter Tomb01
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Have done some screen captures of various locations, and here's one from the Rental car facility at Boston Logan in December of last year... Very frustrating to be trying to call my wife at the terminal when there is 'no service' for Tmobile at the rental car turn in...
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Home zip: 76034
Here's my home zip code of 76034, at my house which the Tmobile coverage map shows as 'Excellent' LTE service. Guess I should be glad that at least I get 3 or 4 bars of 'Edge' network. Commonly flips over to 4G and back, sometimes without physically moving the phone...
Here's my home zip code of 76034, at my house which the Tmobile coverage map shows as 'Excellent' LTE service. Guess I should be glad that at least I get 3 or 4 bars of 'Edge' network. Commonly flips over to 4G and back, sometimes without physically moving the phone...
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Honolulu...
Was fortunate enough to get to vacation in Hawaii this past Christmas. Once again, in the middle of Honolulu, with their map showing 'Excellent' LTE service, I get 'no service', And at the resort we stayed at on the West side of the island (also showing 'Excellent' service on their coverage map) 3 bars of Edge...
Was fortunate enough to get to vacation in Hawaii this past Christmas. Once again, in the middle of Honolulu, with their map showing 'Excellent' LTE service, I get 'no service', And at the resort we stayed at on the West side of the island (also showing 'Excellent' service on their coverage map) 3 bars of Edge...
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Blaming the phone
Tmobile is blaming the iPhone... Will see. They told me they could send a 'refurbished' replacement in 7-10 days, but suggested that as I have Applecare on the phone it would likely be faster to go to the Apple Store, and I expect I'll get a new one there.
Would be less skeptical about it being the phone if my wife's new 5s wasn't having identical problems in the same locations. When Momma's unhappy, ain't NOBODY happy... Sigh.
AT&T has a new plan, will have to investigate it.
Tmobile is blaming the iPhone... Will see. They told me they could send a 'refurbished' replacement in 7-10 days, but suggested that as I have Applecare on the phone it would likely be faster to go to the Apple Store, and I expect I'll get a new one there.
Would be less skeptical about it being the phone if my wife's new 5s wasn't having identical problems in the same locations. When Momma's unhappy, ain't NOBODY happy... Sigh.
AT&T has a new plan, will have to investigate it.
I think DSLReports.com is a good place to go and cross post as well as the TMO forums. Reason being is that it would be interesting to see other people's experience in your zip code and of course in Hawaii where you vacationed. If the service map shows excellent coverage and you're getting EDGE then clearly something is wrong. Oddly, I would hope it was the phone that was wonky and not the network. It would be easier to fix the phone than to hope for TMO to fix their network.
Right, and I'd be happy to think that it was a 'hand off' problem, but it happens in a fairly diverse set of areas where they supposedly have (according to their coverage map) Excellent or Very Good 4G LTE coverage. My home zip code is completely covered by Excellent or Very Good 4G LTE, I can see no reason whatsoever to 'hand off' to an Edge signal.
Will head over to dslreports and start up a thread there, too. good idea to evaluate other possible folks in my zip code's experiences...
And I agree that I hope it is the phone... Will report back next week when I get mine replaced.
Dude its NOT your phone. The AWS frequencies TMO uses do not play nicely with iPhones. I had an iPhone 4S and 5S, the 4S only supports 1900mhz 3G and my signal was always much stronger on that versus the 3G AWS signal on my 5S.
In places where my 5S on TMO would show 3 bars of 4G, my 4S would always show 5. On the contrary, TMO Android devices worked much better and gave me much better service on TMO. I remember clearly that my iPhone 5S would only give me 3 bars of EDGE and the Note 3 gave me 3 bars of 4G in the exact same spot.
WHAT DID WE LEARN TODAY? Iphones work no where as well as they do on AT&T. PERIOD.
No go back to AT&T before you pull your hair out.
In places where my 5S on TMO would show 3 bars of 4G, my 4S would always show 5. On the contrary, TMO Android devices worked much better and gave me much better service on TMO. I remember clearly that my iPhone 5S would only give me 3 bars of EDGE and the Note 3 gave me 3 bars of 4G in the exact same spot.
WHAT DID WE LEARN TODAY? Iphones work no where as well as they do on AT&T. PERIOD.
No go back to AT&T before you pull your hair out.
Meanwhile, my wife's 5S works just fine on T-Mobile here in Chicago. I can post some screen shots of signal strength if someone wants.
It will still always be weaker with AWS frequencies versus AT&T's 700/850/1900 bands.
As inexpensive and forward thinking as T-mobile has been recently, I feel that they have been massively over-hyped. T-mobile has great service in NYC, but unfortunately in the other places I travel their signal leaves much to be desired--if it exists at all. That's why I'm stuck on AT&T for the forseeable future despite how tempting their domestic and international plans are.
A lot of users from the Boston area here on the forums have said their reception isn't very good with T-Mobile. It's most likely a carrier issue on their end. Good thing you can easily take your phones to AT&T.
I agree. T-Mobile right now is way over hyped. John Legere and their advertizing campaign have done a great job of that. Now, don't get me wrong, In many places T-Mobile 4G LTE is amazing, but again, I am curious to see how they handle the load of everyone upgrading to LTE devices within the next year, and see how capacity holds.
I recently visited a T-Mobile store in my area where the LTE build out is complete, and ran some LTE speeds tests. 1Mbps to 7Mpbs. I ran Sprint LTE in the same area, which is not officially launched with only 2 LTE towers in the area, and did an average of 3-11 Mbps.
So again, nothing amazing like 30 Mbps DL like the commercials praise. And this will only get more interesting as the network takes on more and more LTE devices.
T-Mobile is usually decent in the cities, but go outside of the city, and LTE is just a distant memory. T-Mobile still.. has a long way to go.
The problem is NOT the phone.
T-Mobile is great in terms of price, and I make use of them on my iPad Air for the free data and the occasional on-demand pass when I need it. But they CANNOT be relied on for reliable coverage everywhere. The coverage map, as you have seen, is highly optimistic.
T-Mobiel is just fine if you're lucky enough to be covered where you live and work. But if you travel, you WILL see their shortcomings pretty quickly.
T-Mobile is great in terms of price, and I make use of them on my iPad Air for the free data and the occasional on-demand pass when I need it. But they CANNOT be relied on for reliable coverage everywhere. The coverage map, as you have seen, is highly optimistic.
T-Mobiel is just fine if you're lucky enough to be covered where you live and work. But if you travel, you WILL see their shortcomings pretty quickly.
Well, I can definitely tell you TMO is problematic for myself, and some others, in the Boston area. It's disappointing. Really wanted to make the switch. Oh well.
Customers have a short period to try out their Carrier, and if not up to expectations, you can drop them and go else where. This is what I and many have done, so as not to be LOCKED in for a two year contract..
Had Sprint for a couple of hours and it went back after noticing the poor data coverage even after the Sprint Rep praised Sprint. Took an offer from T-Mobile and they said the same thing that you will love it. I canceled T-Mobil after one day.
This is what all should do. Try it out in your local area first and never, ever believe a rep that claims the coverage is great.
Had Sprint for a couple of hours and it went back after noticing the poor data coverage even after the Sprint Rep praised Sprint. Took an offer from T-Mobile and they said the same thing that you will love it. I canceled T-Mobil after one day.
This is what all should do. Try it out in your local area first and never, ever believe a rep that claims the coverage is great.
Customers have a short period to try out their Carrier, and if not up to expectations, you can drop them and go else where. This is what I and many have done, so as not to be LOCKED in for a two year contract..
Had Sprint for a couple of hours and it went back after noticing the poor data coverage even after the Sprint Rep praised Sprint. Took an offer from T-Mobile and they said the same thing that you will love it. I canceled T-Mobil after one day.
This is what all should do. Try it out in your local area first and never, ever believe a rep that claims the coverage is great.
good advice, but not really for this thread I wouldn't think. LOL
I ported my number from Verizon to T-Mobil, returned next day. Had no issues in the return to verizon either. Did everything by phone call to a great rep at Verizon. Told him I screwed up when he asked for the reason on the return to Verizon. It took a fair amount of his time to get it straighten out, and he had to call me back. He actually did call back to finalize in porting my version number that I ported to T-Mobil than back again without any charges what so ever....
I ported from verizon to tmobile, had lots of issues and then ported to AT&T. Super happy! AT&T is the superior carrier in my area and I also got 200 per line to port from tmobile, worked out pretty good. I will have to come up with my own verizon etf but the money I am refunded from tmobile from my phones I traded will pay for that.