T-Mobile

[Hugh.vines@att.net]

Does anyone have T-Mobile that have noticed better reception since the merger with sprint. I’m thinking of changing. Verizon and Att are really bad at my house but good on the road.

[Beau388]

We have been using T-mobile since we moved to San Antonio three years ago. Never had a problem in all our travels. The coverage is spotty if you get far from the Interstates. Sometimes, the signal is weak but good enough for a call. Our plan ($43 per month) does not include data, only voice and text.

[The_Breeze]

I concur though have had two bad experiences in 2 yrs on the road - Floyd, VA; completely cut off and McKinney COE in Acworth, GA was near useless.

If you do go this route, look into the Magenta plan. I'm grandfathered into the 55+ plan that's been replaced with Magent. Unlimited talk, text, data is one price.

https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/magenta

[lwmcguire]

I have a Verizon and a GSM phone

Many times the GSM has little or no signal out in the boon docks

If you need excellent reception all the time then unfortunately there is still just one choice

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by Beau388

We have been using T-mobile since we moved to San Antonio three years ago. Never had a problem in all our travels. The coverage is spotty if you get far from the Interstates. Sometimes, the signal is weak but good enough for a call. Our plan ($43 per month) does not include data, only voice and text.

Is that $43 for a single, no data line??

[Beau388]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Is that $43 for a single, no data line??

Nope - two phones, two phone numbers, same account with only voice and text, no data. We use a Zte mobley (ATT) hotspot for data.

[JGallagher]

I concur with The Breeze's comments.


We have had the 55+ T-mobile plan for several years.
$60/month all included. Two lines, two phone numbers.
Unlimited talk, text and data and...unlimited free texts and (slow speed) data internationally! Very happy, especially when we travel abroad.



It's a great plan and I recently saw an ad on TV for similar. You may have to call them an ask for it.


From what I understand, Verizon probably has better coverage in the remote areas but it has not been enough of an issue for us to compel us to switch.


James

[RadioRanger]

Originally Posted by Hugh.vines@att.net

Does anyone have T-Mobile that have noticed better reception since the merger with sprint. I’m thinking of changing. Verizon and Att are really bad at my house but good on the road.

There really will not be a change for Sprint customers for a while. They just bought Sprint. There is an incredible amount of work to do to merge the two networks. It is not like throwing a switch.

They have announced that Sprint customers that have phones that are compatible with some of the T-Mobile bands, may be able to roam at some time soon.

I haev had a Verizon phone for work. Now it was moved to T-mobile. I have to say I am not impressed with the voice quality. At times there is a lot of latency and voice quality issues. This is while I have good signal. Their data seems to work fine though. I'm sticking with Verizon on my personal phone. It just always works.

[Travelin' Texans]

My son is always switching cell service trying to find the cheapest with his last try was with T Mobile. He kept bragging to me what a good deal urging us to switch til he found he couldn't place/receive a call in his house, always had to go outside to use it. After a couple months he went back to Verizon again & has quit bargain hunting.
We've had Verizon for a very long time & while fulltimers had only 2 places across the country we weren't able to get a signal. It may be more pricey than others but if it always works it's worth it.

[dkoldman]

I guess it depends on your angle. In Dallas area & we had AT&T Wireless since the beginning of wireless. Wireless service was good and no issues to us but yes they would drop, or not be available at times, But that has got to be true for ANYBODY? None of the carriers make the telecommunication equipment.

Our issue is that AT&T was too gimmicky, always changing something with our plan, increasing rates and playing games with new phones and/or data plans. We switched to T-Mobile about 7 years ago and our wireless life has been a breeze. We NEVER have to call T-Mobile about ANY issues with phone bill charges, or service. They don't care where we buy our phones, so none of our 5 lines have the inflated rates that is actually paying for phones that most people think they are getting free. With that said we tend to keep our phones longer, or until lost or damaged. When in RV at park with no free WiFi; we stream movies to our TV in when we don't wish to pay $5/day plus for WiFi. I am sure if u drive long enough, and far enough you will find a dead spot, but I don't know how you base your carrier on that alone? In most cases they share the equipment anyway when it is available.

Disclaimer: I have not used AT&T in 7 years. If their Customer Service has changed my apologies, but I would not go back to them if my current bill was cut in half, in few years; it would likely be double what I have now. My biggest fear now is what Sprint may mean to T-Mobile?

[The_Breeze]

The race for practical application of coverage may be over. The focus seems to have turned toward speed.

I was streaming an Xfinity channel over my T-Mobile connection. I launch Task Manager's Performance tab to watch the traffic.

I saw 29.3 Mbps. Subsequent calls degraded and went as low as 600 Kbps. The average over a 1hr program was 896 Kbps without a stutter.

I'll take it.

[bojanlora]

Sprint and tmobile run on different sequences and use different technologies. T-Mobile has been upgrading a lot in the last couple of years.

We got a tmobile plan (ultra.mobile 50gb day / $49) to use with an old Android phone to use as a hotspot and it's worked really well.

Honestly thinking of moving all phones to it

[HarryS]

Originally Posted by bojanlora

Sprint and tmobile run on different sequences and use different technologies. T-Mobile has been upgrading a lot in the last couple of years.

True. Sprint is CDMA, and T-Mobile is GSM. Different technologies entirely. All Apple devices now can use both technologies, I'm not sure about Android phones.

[Hugh.vines@att.net]

Unlocked phones can use both

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by Hugh.vines@att.net

Unlocked phones can use both

Whether a phone is unlocked or not has nothing to do with the technology it is capable of using. Unlocked just means it is not tied to a single provider. A locked AT&T phone means it can only be used on AT&T's plans, nobody else's.

[Hugh.vines@att.net]

Unlocked S8 s10. S20. Can be used with all that’s all I know I have all three and att and sprint sim cards

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by Hugh.vines@att.net

Unlocked S8 s10. S20. Can be used with all that’s all I know I have all three and att and sprint sim cards

And if you wanted to you could activate those phones on a Verizon plan with a Verizon SIM card IF they support the LTE bands (frequencies) that Verizon uses because those phones are unlocked. CDMA/GSM, etc is old technology and doesn't apply to anything 4G or higher, but different carriers use different bands for their 4G+ technology, so the phone still has to be compatible with the carrier's bands.

On the other hand, if you bought a "subsidized" phone from Verizon to use with a 2 year commitment plan, it is locked to the Verizon network and you could not activate it on another carrier's plan even if it supported their bands until Verizon agreed you had satisfied your commitment and unlocked your phone.

[HarryS]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

CDMA/GSM, etc is old technology and doesn't apply to anything 4G or higher, but different carriers use different bands for their 4G+ technology, so the phone still has to be compatible with the carrier's bands.

Good to know. Thanks