Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Brent0n

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 17, 2023
193
205
Let's ask the question in 2024, how's your carrier? How long have you had them?

Also, I'm curious how often you're connected to mid-band 5G. Let me know.

Midband usually is 5G+ for AT&T, 5GUW for Verizon, and 5G UC for T-Mobile.
 
I've got T-Mobile. I've had them since late 2020, when I got tired of AT&T giving us the runaround where I used to live. I can't count the # of times I told them "Look - there's a difference between signal strength and band saturation."

Tried T-Mobile...and it was fantastic. Moved from the Ozarks in MO to VA (north of Richmond), and I've got 5GUC probably 95% of the time, and very occasionally 4G LTE.
 
Three UK...been with them since 2013.

I live in a small-ish village, so there's no 5G coverage here yet. 4G is fast enough for me anyway, so I'm not bothered.
 
September 1999-September 2015: Sprint.

September 2015 to present: T-Mobile.

My plan automatically includes 5G just because there are no speed tiers (only deprioritization after a certain amount of data), but I only have 4G phones (2x iPhone 11 Pro Max, 2x iPhone SE2).

Played the LTE guinea pig for Sprint when they rolled out LTE and got shafted with 3G only for three years (on an LTE iPhone 5). Had/have no intention of playing 5G guinea pig while T-Mobile completes rolling out 5G. LTE averages 80+ down in the places I am so I'm good with that. We'll upgrade to 5G capable phones in about a year or two.
 
Last edited:
I'm on the T-Mobile since the Sprint merger. 5G is consistent here. I haven't seen 4G LTE for almost two years.

2022 iPhone SE holds on to 5G signal really well.
 
VZW (had Sprint before that) and never looking back. Best coverage in my home area (Southern New England) with lots of 5G-UW.
 
VZW For good portion of 15 years. Hate them. They outsourced all their cust service off shore and its truly awful. I did switch to SPrint for a year in there but that was a disaster. Im in central Massachusetts. Really want to change but have 4 lines an iPad and a watch I’d need to move. Too lazy to just do it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999
Skinny (NZ) since 2013. I have no idea whether the 5G is "mid-band" but it seems to connect whenever I'm in town proper. There's next to nothing at home, but I have Wi-Fi calling.

Edit: It looks like Skinny uses 2300 and 3500 MHz, which from what I can tell are mid-band.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999
I had Verizon for about 20 years and just switched to Visible +. It's been good so far. Since it's owned by Verizon and uses the same network, the coverage has been the same. I get 5G UW quite often and saving about $50/month.

I also visit the UK often and my carrier is EE there. Hoping they will be accommodating eSIMs on the Pay-as-You-Go plans when I upgrade from my 13 Pro Max in a few years.
 
I've been on T-Mobile was close to 2 months now. I like it, much better than Verizon. I hope I can get the free MLB.TV package though, which was one reason I switched.
 
Verizon 2004-2013
Sprint/T-mobile 2013-2023
Currently on $25/month Visible plan

I’m super happy with the savings and the performance has been better than my personal experience with T-mobile. No complaints.
 
Let's ask the question in 2024, how's your carrier? How long have you had them?
T-Mobile 2002-2007.

AT&T 2007-2013.

T-Mobile 2013-2023

January 1st switched to Visible basic $20/month for 24 months.

It's been great. I have zero need for priority data as when I'm out and about my phone is for calling and texting and occasional web browsing.

5G seems very good when I speed test it for curiosity but I honestly turn off 5G on any phone I get. The speed is overkill for was I need and the battery life trade-off isn't worth it to me.
 
US Cellular since 1996-97. Currently have 4 lines at $172 a month.

I am looking to potentially switch soon.. Shame I can never get T-Mobile's Network Pass to work or I'd probably go there.
Ouch. I'm paying around $240 a month, but that's for eight lines. A small, but very real reason I left Sprint in 2015 was they were charging me close to $200 for four lines. And two of those lines had 1GB capped data!

Granted, my current T-Mob plan is grandfathered (I've been on the same Simple Choice plan since I joined in 2015). The era of T-Mob customers with $50 bills for 10+ lines is over though. In the last couple years T-Mobile had stopped offering LOUs (Lines On Us), which are free line promos, and attaching more conditions to the ones they do offer. Lots of long time customers just kept collecting free lines over the years, which is how you get what I mentioned.

And of course the current plans are going to be more expensive - in comparison to older plans. You might get a good deal compared to your current plan, but if I were to move to the plans being offered right now my pricing would be around $350 or so.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: _Mitchan1999
T-Mobile 2002-2007.

AT&T 2007-2013.

T-Mobile 2013-2023

January 1st switched to Visible basic $20/month for 24 months.

It's been great. I have zero need for priority data as when I'm out and about my phone is for calling and texting and occasional web browsing.

5G seems very good when I speed test it for curiosity but I honestly turn off 5G on any phone I get. The speed is overkill for was I need and the battery life trade-off isn't worth it to me.
I agree. The bandwith 5G pushes for the most part is not needed. It's more about capacity.
I do need my songs to stream seamlessly. Nothing worse then buffering music in the car.
 
I agree. The bandwith 5G pushes for the most part is not needed. It's more about capacity.
I do need my songs to stream seamlessly. Nothing worse then buffering music in the car.
One of the reasons I started to despise Sprint in late 2013 when they were rolling LTE out in my area - in a very haphazard and spotty manner. It was (and remained) up to the merger with T-Mobile a network of swiss cheese. My job during those years was 20 minutes from home in the city next to mine. All surface street driving and I couldn't go two minutes without buffering.

Worse, Sprint had two towers that served the building I worked in. They upgraded the north tower to LTE, but took 6+ months to get to the south tower. And my desk was in the south end of the building. I had to go up to the front to get LTE.

I have no love for Sprint.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.