My iPhone SE 2020, unlocked, up to date, no previous T-Mo account, unused eSIM, wouldn't work with the Network test drive. Kept getting message "Ut-oh, something went wrong....." No one in Customer Service could help solve the issue, most were unaware of the test drive. A corporate store manager spent an hour with me in person, checking my phone and trying to get someone in tech support to help, with no success. So my test drive was successful in a way. It showed what I can expect to run into if I have technical problems at T-Mobile.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
You Can Now Test T-Mobile's Network Using an App and eSIM
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As much as I want to leave AT&T for being an awful company, Magenta’s coverage where I’m at just isn’t up to par. It’s a real bummer.
Now to try up in the sticks where my parents retired to. AT&T and Verizon go blow for blow up there, though usually I’m able to pull LTE where Verizon barely had 3G.
Now to try up in the sticks where my parents retired to. AT&T and Verizon go blow for blow up there, though usually I’m able to pull LTE where Verizon barely had 3G.
Neither AT&T nor T-Mo have acceptable signal in my apartment.
So I got gigabutts and a big router.
Being a 14 yr Sprint customer, I found T-Mobile's network pretty much indistinguishable from Sprint's. At the beginning of the month, I did what I should've done a long time ago and went to Verizon (which actually saves me $13-15/mo.........had a grandfathered Unlimited plan w/Sprint and am now on 'Start Unlimited' w/Verizon)
I don’t really see how this could backfire. If you try this out and it’s not good enough for you, then you don’t switch to their network and T-Mobile doesn’t get your business. If this didn’t exist, you may have switched to T-Mobile, then found out it doesn’t work for you, switch back, and T-Mobile still doesn’t get your business.
This is great for people in areas where T-Mobile is actually good, who thought about switching but never pulled the trigger because they were worried about coverage. I feel like this can only help them, and if they find out people are abusing the system, they can always take it away or give less data in the trial.
Verizon and AT&T aren't desperate for customers...
It took t-mobile 4 months to get reliable and consistent 5g working for me. Signed up in march and 5g would be anywhere from 125MB to not functional at all. Finally this week it seems to have settled into a consistent 150mb.
When I reached out to t-mobile I got the standard 'modernization' of the tower response and promised it would be resolved in a few weeks. Weeks turned into months and I was finally told by someone at Tmobile that their stuff is broken and they don't know when it would get fixed.
Your situation may be different.
Tempted, but Tmobiles coverage in my area isn't the same as Verizons. I hate being on Verizon, Tmobile has much better deals, but I also need to actually be able to get and make phone calls.
One neat thing that I discovered in the trial so far is that you can go to "Network Selection" under Cellular settings and turn off Automatic, then pick Sprint! When I did this, I had slightly better signal where I was, even though it still said "T-Mobile" by the bars.
Data performance was about the same, but it seems you can bounce between the actual T-mobile network and the old Sprint network if you want to.
Wifi calling sucks, I've never had much luck with it. I have a weird house, maybe something in how it was built I don't know, but as soon as I enter into the house Verizon reception goes to 1 bar and drops calls, outside the house it's 1-2 bars and solid. I called Verizon and they gave me a free network extender which actually works quite well. While the network extender technically uses wifi internet, you actually turn wifi calling off on your phone and at least to the phone it appears as cellular. I haven't had any of the issues I used to have with wifi calling like poor quality, echoing, dropped calls, etc.
That speed looks good but I'd have to see it in SoCal.
10GB is where I'd definitely find a hiccup. Currently, I have 30GB for hotspot (per line) and we use most of it, especially when we travel. 200+ is pretty good for 5G but I'd be curious what it's like in/around a metro area. For us in LA County (SGV), 5G and 4G LTE (or "5Ge" in ATT-land) were nearly identical until a few weeks ago except for upstream (higher on 5G, usually).
Anecdotally, I really want to try is hotspot on mmWave the next time I'm in a metro area that has it. This was while picking up tacos in Downtown LA (La Calle Olvera) a few weeks ago....
pleasantly surprised in the DC/MD/VA area, havent used T-Mobile but had it on my drive to work this morning and streaming Rogan on Spotify both ways, Never lost a signal, they certainly have improved. Not sure i can switch from reliable AT&T, but not bad T-Mobile
thought I would give it a try....same crap speeds I was getting months ago using their test drive hotspot. where I am now at home, I can get over 100+ Mbps down on Verizon. Sometimes at night I can get almost 200+.
Same for me. Verizon kicks T-Mobile a**. That’s why I won’t leave them.thought I would give it a try....same crap speeds I was getting months ago using their test drive hotspot. where I am now at home, I can get over 100+ Mbps down on Verizon. Sometimes at night I can get almost 200+.
This is outstanding. I’ve been wanting to try TMOB again. Had them 10 years ago or so and coverage was so-so. App install and service setup was a breeze. Easy to switch from Primary (ATTMO) to Secondary (TMOB) and vice versa. After a couple days the in-house coverage for TMOB is rather bleak for me. ATTMO wins hands down. Outside TMOB is better but not dramatically so. This is a great way to test drive without much hassle. Otherwise you’d go off of coverage maps or other users and be rather stuck if it didn’t work out when an actual switch was made.
After a few days of playing with t-Mobile it’s got me worried, not the service is better but that it’s worse then my sprint CDMA. Coverage is spotty and data is slower or nonexistent after switching back-and-forth and comparing speeds. There’s a 4G option instead of LTE and that has no data at all where I’m at with T-Mobile.
When Sprint finally sends everybody a GSM sim and discontinues the CDMA networks will our service be as lousy as T-Mobile is now? I hope not, because if it is I’ll have to move to another carrier.
When Sprint finally sends everybody a GSM sim and discontinues the CDMA networks will our service be as lousy as T-Mobile is now? I hope not, because if it is I’ll have to move to another carrier.
What will likely happen is they will add the bands they were using for CDMA before to be LTE or 5G bands. So service should be even better than before.When Sprint finally sends everybody a GSM sim and discontinues the CDMA networks will our service be as lousy as T-Mobile is now? I hope not, because if it is I’ll have to move to another carrier.
Has anybody tried this? Any down side? Does it mess with iMessage or anything like that?
T-Mobile has made it easier than ever for iPhone owners contemplating a carrier switch to test out its network, adding eSIM support to its existing Test Drive Program.
As noted by Light Reading (via The Verge), those who have an iPhone that supports eSIM can download the T-Mobile Network Test Drive app to try out the T-Mobile network, a feature that T-Mobile rolled out last week.
T-Mobile says that the T-Mobile Network Test Drive gives customers up to 30 days or 30GB of high-speed data along with unlimited talk and text for free, while maintaining their current phone number and carrier.
To facilitate this, T-Mobile provides a temporary number that can be used for calls and texts if so desired, though by default, a customer's primary number with an existing network provider will be used for calls and texts.
The Network Test Drive app works with the iPhone XS and newer, as eSIM capabilities are required to use it. The iPhone used for the test must be unlocked, it must be on iOS 14.5 or higher, and an eSIM cannot be in use for a customer's existing provider.
Those who want to sign up can download the T-Mobile Network Test Drive app from the App Store, following the installation and activation instructions from there.
T-Mobile has long offered a Test Drive service to allow customers to try its data network before committing, but prior to the introduction of the eSIM (and for those without eSIM functionality), T-Mobile mailed out hotspot devices.
Article Link: You Can Now Test T-Mobile's Network Using an App and eSIM
