T-mobile - does it still suck?

[border.bandito]

i've had all 3; Verizon, Tmobile and Sprint. So i can speak from true experience.
*note; i reside in San Diego and travel all of SoCal for work/pleasure. I also occasionally travel outside of CA for work (all major CONUS cities and Hawaii as well) so I can speak for coverage in NY, DC, Pitts, Chicago, Hawaii, etc.


Verizon= extremely high priced but they do ultimately have the best overall coverage.
i have to admit the best quality about Verizon is that I got darn near full coverage deep out in the mountains and other uncivilized areas where all other carriers didnt even get .0001 of a bar.

Sprint= SUCKS. period. end thread/ whatever. I wouldnt use Sprint if they paid me to use them.

Tmobile= best overall plan value, specially if you have multiple lines. coverage wise, in all civilized areas, they are solid. but the minute you get out in the open country or deep mountains, forget about it.
i have 4 lines with unlimited talk/text and 10G of data for $100 flat. with insurance for my S5, taxes and all the government surcharges i'm at about $120/month

AT&T= cant say from experience, but every single person i know who has AT&T complains about them and is/are about to drop them.

[DavidR310]

Strange cuz I used to live in a rural area, and only my friends with tmobile and AT&T got service...

That is strange. Both of those are very poor service out here in the desert. Verizon is better but pricey. I feel if I break down I would need the coverage to call for help.

When driving up to Idaho this summer, my Verizon phone got way better coverage than my Dad's boost phone.

[Catalyst81]

I work in the industry doing site acquisition for one of the carriers and in my opinion below is the most accurate assessment of them all. I'd place AT&T below Verizon but usually better than the other carriers for coverage. It's always area specific, but generally tmobile and sometimes sprint can compete in urban areas. Moving to the more rural areas is where you generally see the biggest difference.

i've had all 3; Verizon, Tmobile and Sprint. So i can speak from true experience.
*note; i reside in San Diego and travel all of SoCal for work/pleasure. I also occasionally travel outside of CA for work (all major CONUS cities and Hawaii as well) so I can speak for coverage in NY, DC, Pitts, Chicago, Hawaii, etc.


Verizon= extremely high priced but they do ultimately have the best overall coverage.
i have to admit the best quality about Verizon is that I got darn near full coverage deep out in the mountains and other uncivilized areas where all other carriers didnt even get .0001 of a bar.

Sprint= SUCKS. period. end thread/ whatever. I wouldnt use Sprint if they paid me to use them.

Tmobile= best overall plan value, specially if you have multiple lines. coverage wise, in all civilized areas, they are solid. but the minute you get out in the open country or deep mountains, forget about it.
i have 4 lines with unlimited talk/text and 10G of data for $100 flat. with insurance for my S5, taxes and all the government surcharges i'm at about $120/month

AT&T= cant say from experience, but every single person i know who has AT&T complains about them and is/are about to drop them.

[Frisco3Gun]

T-mobile is awesome. I always was an AT&T customer, and dealt with their reps for my family. Customer service is only okay. I switched to T-mobile almost a year ago and haven't looked back. Despite some early issues with my phones' radio bands (easily fixed with a new phone), I halved my bill and never receive any junk from AT&T. 5 people on a plan, unlimited calling/texting/enough 4G (and unlimited 2G) all for about $160 after taxes. This is what economists call perfect competition in the marketplace.

[cesarnono13]

Don't forget about Metro PCS. They were the first in the country to implement 4G data and because of the merger, they now use both their antennas as well as T-Mobiles'.

[Watchur6]

I left verizon for t mobile earlier this year. I am happy so far. I pay significantly less for 2 lines, unlimited data on one and 1gig free data on the other. As long as you spend most of your time in the city you should be fine. If you live in a rural area then I don't recomend it, you won't get very good service. The 4GLTE is top noch. Also, if you don't get great service then you can activate wifi calling (which is free), given that there is a wifi available. You'll also be able to use your phone as a hotspot if you get the unlimited plan, they'll give you up to 3 gigs (that's what I got).

[the86d]

I left Verizon while paying around $200 for 2 phones (before they tried to make their pricing more competitive) with unlimited everything for Sprint @ about half that rate, and couldn't get data to keep flowing, just like Virgin Mobile, just a data-crawl for no reason at all. A coworker has AT&T and his data sucks BAD, ALL THE TIME.

I went to T-mobile and WiFi calling at work solved all my issues, but the SideKick4g Android-rehash sucked BAD, but got the lady one, it was the worst phone I ever had from any provider including Virgin Mobile, but they didn't care, and I had to front the cost of new phones, THEN all went good. The WiFi calling on the Sidekick 4g was just like a land-line, but not so on my current phone.

I am paying about $150 for 3 phones w/T-mo and might jump on the 4@$100 deal so I have have a spare phone for when one of ours dies (backup emergency line at the house?). The best thing about T-Mobile is that AFAIK you can STILL drop in a dumb-phone SIM in a smartphone (providing the SIM is compat, and unlike every other of the 4 main cell-providers) they STILL won't force you to get data just because it is a smartphone, you can just use a smartphone as a dumb phone unless WiFi is available if you have kids that don't need data, so you can give kids your old smartphone with no data plan.

The ONLY real drawback to T-Mobile that I have seen is that the selection of phones is limited for people who prefer physical keyboards, but I understand other providers are doing the same. I can get stuff done 3x as fast as someone with only a screen/virtual keyboard (especially those people with the crappy little iPhruity portrait-only WiFi paraphrase-enter'ers), not to mention I can correct about 3x quicker if I typo... as I have cursor keys. (Launcher Pro FTW!)

(Be advised that if you root, then drop a custom ROM on a T-Mobile phone there is no WiFi calling anymore...)

[redrex]

T-mobile in the central valley (Stanislaus) is not an option, at least if you want to get any data and you are not in Modesto or a few other city type areas.

We moved from the bay area to Newman two years ago. Right before the move we re'upped with T-mobile. Two years before that we ditched verizon do to cost and BS. BS as in, "OH you want to use the gps that came with your phone? Well we disabled it and will only turn it on if you pay us $5 more a month. F' that. Trouble is that V has the best, bar none, voice service in the area. We went from no dropped calls to sporadic dropped calls but at half the price and with unlimited* data on T-mobile.

Then we move out here. LOVE it out here, but t-mobile sucks. you can get voice most places but the dropped called trippled and any where not urban means NO DATA. Not even at my house on the edge of town. So we break contract "lack of service clause" and go to AT&T. Costs more the T-mobile but the sound quality is better and data is good enough that I could stream you tube music vids for the kids everywhere we go. However if I have to listen to Frozen once more I may switch back to T-mobile.

[pitbull30]

Are you going to start a AT&T thread ? They have decent coverage IMO but they jack up your bill constantly. I do like their internet though.

Test them all in your area and cancel as needed.

[Ricky-Ray]

All depends on where you live. I'm in the San Gabriel valley and T-Mobile works fine for me. When I go to the westside towards Santa Monica and such, reception is decent.

I've been with T-Mobile for over 10 years and have been pretty satisfied with them.

[mavericksun]

Borrow someone's phone or try out the service to see how well it works with what you need. I believe they do have a 30 return policy here in CA. I used to switch between AT&T and t-mobile but given up on AT&T. t-mobile has some issues with deeper penetration in concrete structures but then most do anyways unless they install indoor repeaters. Even rural coverage can vary. Years ago, I drove with a friend from NYC to Seattle, there were a few places that I had t-mobile reception while the verizon phone my friend has was just a useless brick. Even at my home, I had some reception issues are certain parts of the house, t-mobile lent me a cel-fi unit to install at home, the reception issue went away. If you have one of t-mobile branded phones, the wifi calling should work out pretty well indoors.

[Jet Setter]

They suck - enough said...

Seriously, my friends that have their service always have reception issues. There is always a problem with the coverage. Go with AT&T or Verizon.

[-hanko]

Don't forget about Metro PCS. They were the first in the country to implement 4G data and because of the merger, they now use both their antennas as well as T-Mobiles'.

...maybe because they were acquired by TMO?

The best bang for the buck, assuming you have coverage where you live / work /run around is T-Mobile. You don't get "free" phones, but those who offer them bill you more monthly, so after 2 years or so your free phone wasn't free anyway...i.e., you'll have a larger monthly bill for the same services.

Carriers in California have, under law, a 30-day bring back policy with no early termination fees. Obviously, you pay for usage during the 30 days and bring the equipment back with its original packaging and walk away. Be aware that the 30 day limit doesn't mean 31 days. Cost is a little north of $70 a month for both of us.

We've got a family plan with unlimited minutes, sms, and 2gB of internet each...plenty if you've got a computer with internet. Plan has no overage charges but if I exceed my 2gB my service gets slowed down a bit. More than plenty of bandwidth for plenty of email and a bit of web every day.

The MOST important criteria when selecting a phone vendor is coverage, you've got troubles if you cant figure that out in a month.

Wife and I have had TMO for around 8 years. Coverage with them is as good or better than Verizon where we live...not quite as good in the boondocks on a highway run from Boise to the SF bay area. We each have an old Verizon phone in the car with a cig lighter cord. Any phone can connect you to 911 if you need it, whether or not you still have an account with the carrier.

In areas where we backpack with no phone service, we carry a SPOT locator for balls-to-the-wall emergencies.

ATT is the suckage around here for coverage. Sprint is worse...old network and not much going on in network improvements.

hth

[the86d]

Try before you buy:

http://explore.t-mobile.com/test-drive-free-trial

The only dead-spot I have noticed with T-Mobile is also a dead-spot for Sprint, and Verizon data too...

You get the best deal on NEW T-Mobile phones via eBay... and you won't have to overpay, not get on a payment plan, unless you put them on credit.
T-Mobile has treated me right, but the drawback was data was REAL slow north of Bakersfield...

[vliberatore]

OP if you haven't purchased yet, PM me and I can check the Sprint coverage in your area as well as see if I can get you a discount on a plan.