Switched from AT&T to T-Mobile, some early observations.

Medion

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2012
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Just ported both of our numbers last night, so there are still some quirks. Also, YMMV due to location. I live in the Seattle-Tacoma area now, so mostly urban. I went from Puyallup to Bellevue today.

On AT&T, we generally had 3G/Faux-G everywhere we went. There were few dropdowns to Edge as in our previous location. However, there were several deadzones, some of which were extended. This was not acceptable. Calls would drop often on either of our phones. Her iPhone would throw up a "call terminated" error whereas my SGS2 would just get a circle with a line through it where the signal bar used to be. Many areas where we'd have full bars on 3G/H+ would yield data speeds in the dial-up range or no data at all due to congestion.

With T-Mobile, there are far more areas where we are on Edge. However, in those areas, service is fine and data is 100-200kb down and up, which is adequate for general usage. In areas where H+ was offered (more than half of where I've been so far), download speeds averaged 3mbps, or more than double the peak speeds I got from AT&T up here. Upload speeds were a tad better with an average of 3.3mbps. AT&T never broke up an upload speed of 500k in this area (and I would know, tethered off them constantly for 4 months).

My bill went from $129.99 before corporate discount and taxes, to $80.00 before corporate discount and taxes. The corporate discount is slightly larger on T-Mobile, percentage-wise, due to the way it's applied. That certainly helps. I'm also no longer doing something "not kosher" with a smartphone on Medianet. That would have brought my bill to $149.99 on AT&T after they caught me or after my next upgrade.

The only issues we have on T-MO right now are that my wife's iPhone hasn't gotten T-Mobile's new update yet that enables proper MMS, Apple VVM, and a few other features. That was supposed to go out this past Friday but will go out before the iPhone 5 TMO launch on the 12th. Our other issue is that reception in the first floor of our house sucks. I've called TMO and they're sending a tech out to our house to see if they can either analyze coverage up here and see if they need to make tower changes, or if they can just install a signal booster in our house. The latter should work fine given that upstairs/outdoor reception is fine, although Edge-only.

Bottom line is that, as in almost any carrier change, it's a case of pick your poison. But, if they can fix the indoor signal issue for us, then TMO would be better than AT&T even at the same price. Saving $50-$70/mo on 2-lines is just a massive bonus. And unlike their previous value plans that these new plans replaced, there is no contract (unless you decide to finance a phone through them). My wife will upgrade to the next iPhone model whenever it launches this year, and I'm still weighting my options on the Android side.
 
Glad it's working out for you as well. I switched 3 of my siblings lines on my verizon plan to tmobile due to the cost savings. I wish I could transfer my line to tmobile as well but due to work I travel a good quarter of the year and work in remote locations the vast majority of the time. Tmobile service just doesn't work well enough for me.

Went from paying verizon 250 a month to paying 80 for a tmobile value plan that has 3 smartphones with 1k minutes, unlimted text and 2gb of data per line. My verizon bill is now 65 for 1 smartphone with unlimited data. So ended up saving 100 a month!
 
Pretty sure BYOD was also available before the Uncarrier changes. The only major downside to their new plans so far is that the limited minutes options at even lower pricing have gone the way of the dodo. $60/month for 5 lines 1000 minutes shared with unlimited nights/weekends/mobile-to-mobile/texts from the free "Add a Line" promo could not be beat. And IIRC it was only another $10 per line for 2gb data for only the lines you want it on.
 
Pretty sure BYOD was also available before the Uncarrier changes. The only major downside to their new plans so far is that the limited minutes options at even lower pricing have gone the way of the dodo. $60/month for 5 lines 1000 minutes shared with unlimited nights/weekends/mobile-to-mobile/texts from the free "Add a Line" promo could not be beat. And IIRC it was only another $10 per line for 2gb data for only the lines you want it on.

Yea, that was going on for only a few months, Wish I would of jumped on the unlimited all for $80 (including 4g).

I'm going to be heading to Hawaii and wish I knew if TMO was good over there or not.
 
Pretty sure BYOD was also available before the Uncarrier changes. The only major downside to their new plans so far is that the limited minutes options at even lower pricing have gone the way of the dodo. $60/month for 5 lines 1000 minutes shared with unlimited nights/weekends/mobile-to-mobile/texts from the free "Add a Line" promo could not be beat. And IIRC it was only another $10 per line for 2gb data for only the lines you want it on.

I alluded to this in the first post. They did have BYOD plans before (and actually have had variants of it for several years). The key differences between their current plans and their former value plans are that the value plans were offered with your choice of either unlimited minutes, or 500 minutes (1000 for family plan), whereas the new plan is only offered with unlimited. Also, the value plans still required a 2-year contract with $200 ETF (even if you BYOD), but the new plans do not have this requirement. Lastly, the new plans include mobile hotspot on all tiers, rather than as a more expensive addon.

Yea, that was going on for only a few months, Wish I would of jumped on the unlimited all for $80 (including 4g).

I'm going to be heading to Hawaii and wish I knew if TMO was good over there or not.

Unless I'm mistaken, there was no unlimited all plan for $80. They had a single line plan that was unlimited talk, text, and 4G data for $69.99. Their current version of this plan is $70 flat, but also includes 500MB of mobile hotspot (instead of being a separate addon).

Their unlimited all for 2 lines was $119.99, and is now $120 flat, but again, includes 500MB per line of mobile hotspot.
 
I am happy with T-Mobile. Me and My G/F have the family plan with 2 lines, shared 1500 pool, (with wifi calling we rarely go past 200 mins combined) unlimited text, and 2GB of full speed of data per phone for 90$ a month. It would be about 75$ a month without phone protection plan. I plan to drop these soon. I can't wait till T-Mobile ramps up LTE. I am pissed I did not upgrade my data to unlimited data for 10$ more but I think that option is now gone :(
 
Tmobile put up a site to force download the carrier update

Link? Last I heard, they delayed it and it won't be out until Monday. T-Mobile even brought down the related support site.
 
tmobile.com/isetup

I figured that is what you meant. That is not the carrier update. That is just a profile. It helps with MMS, but does not fix Apple VVM, nor does it help with connectivity.
 
As a recent AT&T to T-Mobile convert, I have had an excellent experience...

If you, like I, spend 99% of your time in the New York metro area, the *only* recommendation from me is to drop *whatever* carrier you have and go T-Mobile (preferably to the $30 100 min/unlimited data plan). TMO's coverage is impeccable in the NYC area, and the speeds are simply awesome...

I'm not speaking for anyone else, but if you are in the NYC area, there is no competition
 
tmobile.com/isetup

The real update got pushed today. Settings --> General --> about brought up the popup, though iTunes is supposed to work as well. My wife's iPhone 4s now works just fine on TMO.

We'll find out Thursday what they're doing with our indoor coverage issue.
 
The real update got pushed today. Settings --> General --> about brought up the popup, though iTunes is supposed to work as well. My wife's iPhone 4s now works just fine on TMO.

We'll find out Thursday what they're doing with our indoor coverage issue.

There isn't anything they can do. It's their spectrum. It's not good at penetrating walls.
 
The real update got pushed today. Settings --> General --> about brought up the popup, though iTunes is supposed to work as well. My wife's iPhone 4s now works just fine on TMO.

We'll find out Thursday what they're doing with our indoor coverage issue.

Thats a typical issue with TMO from what I'm seeing.

If you are in anything else other then a typical house hold you are going to get some bad singals.
 
Thats a typical issue with TMO from what I'm seeing.

If you are in anything else other then a typical house hold you are going to get some bad singals.

Even then they aren't good. I really fail to understand their network though. Where I live I have poor 4G service, but occasionally, it works great. I think maybe in the Dallas area they don't have enough towers. Just too many people on them.
 
As a recent AT&T to T-Mobile convert, I have had an excellent experience...

If you, like I, spend 99% of your time in the New York metro area, the *only* recommendation from me is to drop *whatever* carrier you have and go T-Mobile (preferably to the $30 100 min/unlimited data plan). TMO's coverage is impeccable in the NYC area, and the speeds are simply awesome...

I'm not speaking for anyone else, but if you are in the NYC area, there is no competition

It's not so peachy on the NJ side of the river. I literally look at the empire state building every day and all of my friends have more issues on T-Mo than I do on Verizon.

Thats a typical issue with TMO from what I'm seeing.

If you are in anything else other then a typical house hold you are going to get some bad singals.

I never understood why they never rolled out a Femtocell solution. Every other carrier did except T-Mobile. The only thing they did that was similar was "Wi-Fi Calling" but that requires special software on the phone side.
 
They used to have their own branded Linksys router that didn't need a software solution on the phone, but yeah, they should have released a femtocell.

In NJ, I LOVED the speed of T-Mo, but yeah, coverage was horrendous. I lived in Asbury Park, then Brick, and I'd have more dropped calls in a week than I did in 5 years on Sprint. A friend of mine would literally go from 10mb/s, then walk down the block and only get edge. I'd love to see how they are now that I'm further north, but my GF refuses to switch. She teaches in one of the worst areas of Newark and I want her to have emergency cell coverage at ALL times. Not risking safety for $50/month, or a few extra MB/s

Honestly, I think the dealbreaker was the lack of indoor signal for me. Walk into a target, go more than 50 feet deep, and get ZERO coverage. The day I discovered this, I had to call a bunch of people while inside shopping, and I kept having to walk in and out. Completely annoying.
 
I really hope TMO does fix that, as not areas seem to be hit, but why don't they support femtocell? that is just so dumb.
 
Today I had to use transit. Hour and a half commute by train and bus. Bus ride was mostly Edge while train ride was mostly HSPA+. In neither case did I drop a signal. Edge was tolerable for my light browsing. By comparison, AT&T was typically HSPA+, but dead zones were too much. I'm not liking the spotty 3G coverage, but I can live with 100% Edge coverage if I have to. My problem is the in-home coverage. If that can be fixed in an efficient manner (IE, me not spending $300-$500 for a repeater), I'm happy.
 
Even then they aren't good. I really fail to understand their network though. Where I live I have poor 4G service, but occasionally, it works great. I think maybe in the Dallas area they don't have enough towers. Just too many people on them.

Heres why I left Sprint in Dallas/Fort Worth...it was bullshit.

sprint_speed_slow.jpg
 
As a recent AT&T to T-Mobile convert, I have had an excellent experience...

If you, like I, spend 99% of your time in the New York metro area, the *only* recommendation from me is to drop *whatever* carrier you have and go T-Mobile (preferably to the $30 100 min/unlimited data plan). TMO's coverage is impeccable in the NYC area, and the speeds are simply awesome...

I'm not speaking for anyone else, but if you are in the NYC area, there is no competition

Im amazed and really happy for you, but my experience has been the complete opposite. I dumped TMO this year for ATT. My TMO reception in NYC was terrible. In almost every building I lost signal completely. On the FDR drive I had complete dead spots. I really like them and have always liked the Bring your own, but right now ATT gives me better service.
 
Im amazed and really happy for you, but my experience has been the complete opposite. I dumped TMO this year for ATT. My TMO reception in NYC was terrible. In almost every building I lost signal completely. On the FDR drive I had complete dead spots. I really like them and have always liked the Bring your own, but right now ATT gives me better service.

Yikes, sorry to hear about your bad experience. Outdoors I've had nothing but an impeccable signal.... same indoors, but maybe it has to do with my building being airy and having lots of windows?

Either way, TMO has been a massive step up in terms of performance and pricing for me... I hope they can expand coverage and building penetration with their MetroPCS merger so others can hop on as well...
 
AT&T blows where I'm at. T-Mobile blows a little worse. Stuck with Verizon here.
 
Heres why I left Sprint in Dallas/Fort Worth...it was bullshit.

sprint_speed_slow.jpg

Hah, at least you can post actual data speeds from Sprint there. In Irving, most of the time, Tmobile data doesn't even work. Sprint is horrible though, I will definitely concede that. Tmobile has pockets in the DFW area where they are good.
 
I have been with T-mobile going on 8 years and I have never had any issues with call quality. Data service is generally excellent in the twin cities area and getting better where I work (30 miles out) I can watch netflix on my phone at work so I am pleased.
 
So, as I've mentioned before, my ONLY issue with service was in-home signal. Also, that issue is more confined to one side of the house (so I have a way to avoid it), and it's worse on my wife's iPhone than on my SGS2 (no surprise there). So, I made a few calls to T-Mobile, and aside from being very kind, they clearly had no idea what they're talking about. In regards to their signal booster, they told me;
  • you qualify
  • you absolutely do not qualify
  • You do qualify but your account is too new
  • We are out of stock until summer
  • T-Mobile doesn't offer them anymore and will not be offering them

On top of that, I was offered a $20 service credit for my trouble. However, we got off that topic, and when I came back to it, the rep said, "Well, you're being reasonable, and since you're not planning to cancel your account, I can't give you the credit." I about shit myself. I simply said, "Well, then, asshole, I can be unreasonable. Cancel the account, N-O-W." I figured he wouldn't.

I was right. He gave me a $20 service credit and shipped me the signal booster. So, there's the lesson. If you're not getting anywhere with T-Mobile customer service, be a prick. They seem to like the abuse.
 
Wow, I dont have any problems with the service, but your post makes it tempting to get a free $20, lol....

I wont though, that would be a dick move on my part :)
 
Wow, I dont have any problems with the service, but your post makes it tempting to get a free $20, lol....

I wont though, that would be a dick move on my part :)

It would be.

I originally called to inquire about the signal booster. The weak signal doesn't affect me much because my phone has a stronger radio, and I have faux-G at work. My wife, however, is a stay-at-home mom. Most of her calls originate from the house. She needs a decent signal.

I called to inquire about the signal booster. We went over it a few times and I am personally convinced that it won't work. States that it requires 1-bar of 3G service, but we only have Edge up here. Still, they offered me $20 in-lieu of it, so when they reneged on that, I got pissed. I really only called back to get the $20. Didn't expect them to send me the signal booster.

Still, I am curious to try it out. If it pulls a 3G signal but can't transfer it, that means we're still on 1700/2100 up here (not refarmed). So, we can then expect 1900 up here sometime soon-ish. Also, the new iPhone on TMO does support AWS 3G. So, it's safe to say that the 5s/6 would as well, which is what my wife would upgrade to. So, if I can get a 3G signal on the hill of any kind, that lets me know that things will get better.
 
AT&T blows where I'm at. T-Mobile blows a little worse. Stuck with Verizon here.


Yepper same here. Sprint is kidna here but is spotty as hell. Not enough money in the world to go back to US Cellular so Verizon it is. ATT and Tmobile around here is full on roaming if they get a signal at all.
 
Keep in mind YMMV, primarily based on geographical region.

A friend has T Mobile in the Boston area and hates the crap out of the coverage.

I've found that around here Verizon Wireless is your best bet.


Verizon >>>> AT&T > T-Mobile > Sprint

At least around here.
 
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