Experiences with T-Mobile?

[Petra]

Does anyone around here who lives in So Cal (preferably the Palmdale/Lancaster area) have any experience with T-Mobile?

I've been considering picking up a Nexus 4, ditching Verizon, and going with one of T-Mobile's $30/month "unlimited" data plans (5GB HSPA+ 4G/month) with limited talk (100 minutes/month) but I don't have any experiences with T-Mobile... nor do I think I know anyone out here who's a T-Mobile customer. Why would I consider this, you ask? Because executing this course of action with two phones would save me about $500/year.

[lazyworm]

I don't know anything about your specific areas.

T-Mobile is okay if you have good coverage and sticks to areas with good coverage. If you travel a lot, you may get frustrated.

One thing to note is that you have ~14 days to change your mind after you
get a new phone and sign the contract. So you can go with that, test it
out before canceling your Verizon plan. If it doesn't work out you just need
to pay for your usage and you can walk away.

[Baconator]

I have t-mobile. My wife and I are on the "value plan." Less than $90 a month for two phones, 2 gb of data each (it's unlimited but throttled at 2gb), unlimited text, and like 1,000 minutes of talk I think.

I get great service everywhere I have been, so I am pretty happy. I have a GNex.

[12GAUGE]

I have been with Tmoble for years never have had a problem. Just signed another 2 year contract and picked up the new Nexus4.. Nice phone, very fast.

[ambiguous216]

You get what u pay for...Verizon has real 4 g lte...T-Mobile is still GSM slow slow slow internet...another thing too keep in mind is your contract gets renewed every time u change your plan...keep Verizon and upgrade to a 4g lte smarthphone...I love my Verizon service...they are the best hands down!!!

[Marcovich]

Not sure what ambiguous216 is talking about... I have the 4G unlimited from T-Mobile and 95% of the time run faster than 10 Mbps down and over 1.5 Mbps up... Last test I ran was 13.83 Mbps down and 1.83 Mbps up with a 74ms ping to the server. Seems pretty fast to me... Not sure what the Verizon average DL is.

My personal experience with T-Mobile has been pretty damn positive. Been with em for over 8 years and haven't had any customer service or phone service issues.

[Joe]

T Mobile 4G Is Actually hspa+. Is That Bad? No. I Get 15Mbps To 20Mbps Pretty Much Everywhere. faster Than All My Friends Phones On The Lte Networks They're On.

[only10x]

I connected an iphone5 2 weeks ago and the service is lousy
they told me that its because its not a tmobile phone so its missing certain 'antennas' :cough bs cough:

[Jet Setter]

SUCK! In Nor Cal, they are terrible. Poor reception, spotty service, bad call quality, and lots of dropped calls. I know this as my friends that have TMobile always have issues. On the plus side, they seem to still have a true unlimited plan compared to the big 2.

[Petra]

One thing to note is that you have ~14 days to change your mind after you
get a new phone and sign the contract. So you can go with that, test it
out before canceling your Verizon plan. If it doesn't work out you just need
to pay for your usage and you can walk away.

You get what u pay for...Verizon has real 4 g lte...T-Mobile is still GSM slow slow slow internet...another thing too keep in mind is your contract gets renewed every time u change your plan...keep Verizon and upgrade to a 4g lte smarthphone...I love my Verizon service...they are the best hands down!!!

The $30/month plan (5GB HSPA+ data, unlimited text, 100 minutes/month) that I'm looking at is a month-to-month (no contract) and I'd be buying the phones unsubsidized through the Google Play store. Honestly, I hate the phone subsidization and contract model because it nearly always costs more in the long run than just buying the damn phone and not having the cost of the phone worked into the service price. The cost of Verizon's service is the same regardless of whether they're subsidizing your phone or not (basically meaning that they're ripping you off if you bought your phone outright or keep your subsidized phone for longer than your contract term).

With Verizon, I'm currently on a Droid 3 (3G data only, grandfathered unlimited...but they'll take that away if I upgrade phones) and my wife just has a basic phone that's about 6 years old. Together they cost us $99/month before taxes ($112/month after taxes). Provided that T-Mobile's service isn't crap out here, we could go with two Nexus 4 phones for $60/month (before taxes), break even on the $600 purchase price of the two phones in a little more than a year, and then save just shy of $500 ($468) every year from there on out when compared to our current situation with Verizon (would save even more if you compared to two smartphones on Verizon).

[jsipe007]

Gotta say I looked into the T-Mobile plan and its quite appealing! Although I did read they don't have the greatest customer service. I live in Reno NV and am from Quincy CA. In Quincy, T-Mobile doesn't get good service at all but Verizon does. So I stuck with Verizon.

Speed wise in Reno, T-Mobile's 4g is fairly impressive. My friend gets around 8-10 megs down with a ping of 54ms. My Verizon phone gets 15 to 20 megs down and 37ms ping.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

[Baconator]

http://opensignal.com/network-coverage-maps/t-mobile-coverage-map.php

[Petra]

http://opensignal.com/network-covera...verage-map.php

Interesting site. I did run across another site like that one.... however, the problem with both sites is that the data is crowdsourced and very few people in the AV seem to be participating in such services (both sites suffer from a lack of regional data). That said, that site does indicate that there's a T-Mobile service tower pretty close to my house... so, that's a plus.

[border.bandito]

i've had T-mobile since 2001/02. i have 4 phones/lines on my contract (my phone, wifes phone and 2 for my parents).
great customer service and great company all around.
i have the unlimited data and calling plan (got it a few years ago when it was super cheap)...and my internet is fast as hell, so i dont agree with what a few others said.
fwiw, i did notice a HUGE difference in 4G speed once i switched from my BlackBerry to a Samsung Galaxy S3.

i would definitely recommend T-mobile.

[Iknownot]

I had T-mobile for years before switching to AT&T

Coverage was pretty good. There were a couple of dead spots here or there, but they have been fixed over the years (ATT finally upgraded their tower coverage after the iPhone got so popular. T-mobile uses ATTs network, or at least used to).

Customer service was great.

Before I switched (about 3 years ago) the customer service started to decline greatly. Part of the issue was T-mobile was going to be bought out at one point. I've still heard mixed things about CS since leaving from other people, though I still have family members on T-mobile and they are still happy overall.

I'd go on line and read some current reviews and see if the CS is back to the old standard or mixed. If CS is up to the old standard, I wouldn't hesitate to use T-mobile again, in terms of coverage and service in So Cal.