Seems to me, most business travelers bounce between metro areas, where TMo has great coverage.
NYC, Atl, LA, Boston.
But maybe that's only my view of a fortune500 tech sector work.
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Carrier Your Thoughts on T-Mobile
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NYC, Atl, LA, Boston.
But maybe that's only my view of a fortune500 tech sector work.
a] unlimited data truly for $70/month
b] if you pay $70/month for unlimited data, plus $25/month for a phone payment for 2 years, that's about $100/month. For ATT, if you pay $100 a month, then you only get 1-2GB data tops. The phone payment doesn't make it more expensive than ATT/Verizon. ATT/Verizon already factors in the subsidized phone payments into your monthly plan anyways, you just don't see it. After all, they have to recoup the cost somehow for selling you a $650 phone for $200.
c]i live in Erie, PA. Tmobile has LTE here, ATT doesn't.
d] once you fufill the payments for 2 years, your monthly bill drops to $70/month. Unless you buy your phone in full, then your bill is already $70/month.
e] what larger deposit? you don't need any deposit if you have good credit, same with basically every other cell provider. Hardly bait and switch.
f] free unlimited roaming. I traveled to Canada and Australia in the past month. While the speeds are slow, for free, its awesome. i used like 400mb roaming and didnt pay a cent. Good enough for facebook/twitter/imessage. If i want faster internet, i pop a local sim into my iPad and tether. Regular SMS texting back home is free too, and is very handy.
Bottom line, its cheaper than ATT. If you stay in urban areas, you will mostly get good LTE/4G reception. It's only when you go on roadtrips across the country, go into deep buildings, or enter rural areas where the coverage will suck. The network isn't the greatest, but for the price, its hard to pass it up. I'd be paying basically $140+ on AT&T or Verizon for similar services.
T-Mobile made a strategic business decision to foucs their networks on where people are concentrated not where they aren't. 250 million + people are currently covered with good to great data speeds with T-Mobile. I think that it was a good move on their part. Sure Joe Farmer in Po-dunk Idaho isn't going to get good service with T-Mobile but that's what Verizon is for. I traveled up to Northern Wisconsin last summer and my T-Mobile service crapped out 2 hours into my 5 hour drive but I'm ok with that because it was one weekend out of an entire summer. There are certainly trade-offs with T-Mobile and that is one of them. The other is having fast speeds and an uncongested network when I'm in their service area (which I am 99% of the time).
If somebody needs better coverage, at a good price and is fine with using 2GB of data..... why not use Straight Talk with their at&t compatible sim card?
It really makes perfect sense from all of the praises here on MR, unless you need to finance the phone through t-mobile or do not want to bother with a pre-paid service.
My wife's contract with Verizon is up next month, and I will most likely be setting her up with ST. Of course T-Mobile will be the backup in case she does not like it for whatever reason.
PS- Just wanted to add that between Verizon, at&t & T-Mobile, T-Mobile definitely has the advantage for the single user that does not need a family plan. The individual plans from Verizon & at&t are ridiculous!!
It really makes perfect sense from all of the praises here on MR, unless you need to finance the phone through t-mobile or do not want to bother with a pre-paid service.
My wife's contract with Verizon is up next month, and I will most likely be setting her up with ST. Of course T-Mobile will be the backup in case she does not like it for whatever reason.
PS- Just wanted to add that between Verizon, at&t & T-Mobile, T-Mobile definitely has the advantage for the single user that does not need a family plan. The individual plans from Verizon & at&t are ridiculous!!
Interesting you should say that. Isn't that a feature missing from the actual phone and not a provider issue? And I mean the UMA function that I had on my Blackberry and that my iPhone 5 doesn't support. So there is nothing for T-Mobile to put on. It's an Apple (hardware) issue that they don't support UMA.
If you're just looking at VoIP look at the combination of google voice + talkatone. Works for me without issues on T-Mobile (it's actually independent of the provider, you can even turn the connection to wifi only).
And in general I would also add that people interested in switching providers should make sure they have the most compatible version of the iPhone. Not all iPhones are the same. I think I remember that the iPhone 5 comes in 4 different versions alone supporting different network frequencies and combinations thereof. When T-mobile started selling the iPhone 5 Apple actually came out with an updated version to support their G4 and/or LTE frequencies that previous versions woudn't support. So if anyone brought an iPhone from elsewhere and is experiencing coverage issues it could be that they have an older device that is not 100% compatible with all frequencies. Same can happen when traveling abroad.
Thanks for the input. I don't know enough to say if UMA is an hardware or a software thing. But I do remember reading it some where that it can be made using either software or hardware.
As for your suggestion using google voice + talkatone. The problem is I don't want to have to deal with multiple numbers, I have had the same number for the last 12 years and I'd like to keep it that way (that is also one of the advantage of using UMA). I'd like to be able to call people on one number and have them call me back on the same number. So far, the best solution I found was use to Vonage, it will actually show up the call as from your phone number.
Also, another possible future issue of using google voice, say that you have it all setup and you got your google number going and all. But what if google decided to kill this pet project? I would hate to have to email all my friends/colleagues/associates and tell them that I have yet again switched to a different number. Lastly, I have nothing against the google voice + talkatone method, is just that it'd be nice if there is a simpler (UMA like) wifi calling solution out there.
I get it. I rarely ever use(d) the feature(UMA or now through google voice). It's one of the things you give up when switching to an iphone. And yes, I'm 99% sure it's a hardware issue and that there is no "app" that would allow for what you and I want.
On the bright side though I like my T-mobile international plan. I can call anywhere in the world for a flat $10 a month. I use that a lot. Rates while abroad are also pretty decent. And if you need to talk longer you can always call back with the wifi/talkatone route from say a hotel room or so. Yes, a bit more cumbersome than UMA. However, not all wifi routers support UMA so in many ways it's not ideal either.
I have several thoughts, most of what you've posted is pure guesswork or speculation. I use both AT&T and T-Mobile.
The LTE speed on my T-Mobile account has become much faster since they completed the network in my geographical area, and is 10% greater than AT&T.
The deposit is based on your credit, not some arbitrary number they pull out of a hat. My credit is stellar, therefore I'm not asked to pay a deposit. I never have been, and even better with their latest changes their's no contract either. I don't pay any activation fee, no cancellation fees (ETF) or anything other than the Plan, tax, and that's that.
In my area I save over $30 per month compared to a plan that caps me at 3GB of data on AT&T, but provides me unlimited data with NO throttling on T-Mobile.
Looking back after several years of using both, they have excellent track records with me.
Better go to the online T-Mobil forum below and look at some of the complaints
http://support.t-mobile.com/communi...atus[published]~objecttype~objecttype[thread]
http://support.t-mobile.com/communi...atus[published]~objecttype~objecttype[thread]
Major hubs in the Northeast are Boston, NYC, and DC. I travel between the three all the time by car. In between all the cities is a mess of EDGE and GPRS on TMobile. Spotty HSPA and LTE.
AT&T and VZW have LTE on the whole trip. I can go from Maine to DC and never loose LTE with either.
What are the T-Mobile "partner" networks? ATT?
In Wilmington, NC there is TMobile LTE coverage (new hanover county). The surrounding counties are listed as partner coverage.
ATT is decent around Wilmington, so will it just use ATT once it moves off of TMobile coverage?
In Wilmington, NC there is TMobile LTE coverage (new hanover county). The surrounding counties are listed as partner coverage.
ATT is decent around Wilmington, so will it just use ATT once it moves off of TMobile coverage?
