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How many have switched to Tmobile are you happy?

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I've got a Test Drive phone coming in on Friday to give it a shot. I'm expecting a mixed bag as far as reception. They have wifi calling which will be an immediate improvement over Verizon for me since I have zero reception with Verizon but excellent wifi coverage. But when I travel it's mostly in rural interstates so I'm guessing I'm going to take a hit there.
 
vi edit said:
I've got a Test Drive phone coming in on Friday to give it a shot. I'm expecting a mixed bag as far as reception. They have wifi calling which will be an immediate improvement over Verizon for me since I have zero reception with Verizon but excellent wifi coverage. But when I travel it's mostly in rural interstates so I'm guessing I'm going to take a hit there.
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Slightly off-topic, but does Verizon still sell their network extender that allows you to make WiFi calling in your house? I have one of those (paid $90 on Amazon for a refurb unit) and it works pretty well. Just an idea if TMobile doesn't work out for you.
 
DaveStall said:
Slightly off-topic, but does Verizon still sell their network extender that allows you to make WiFi calling in your house? I have one of those (paid $90 on Amazon for a refurb unit) and it works pretty well. Just an idea if TMobile doesn't work out for you.
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I have one of those, but the issue is that you need a window for the GPS unit. I don't have that. I'm down a dark, dank hallway with zero outside access to the real world. Plus you need access to the network to configure it and work won't let that happen.
 
vi edit said:
I have one of those, but the issue is that you need a window for the GPS unit. I don't have that. I'm down a dark, dank hallway with zero outside access to the real world. Plus you need access to the network to configure it and work won't let that happen.
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Ahh .. got it. I was thinking for home usage anyhow, not for work. And I agree, the window part is a serious pain.
 
holden j caufield said:
Tmobile has a similar cell spot they give to you for free.
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I had one. It was the biggest pain in the ass to return.
1. They don't send you the labels until you ask them several times.
2. When you do send it back they don't process it correctly, so you're billed for the full amount. I think it was like 375 or something like that.
3. I had to go through several calls to get this crap off when I returned the device in time and their warehouse failed to process it.

Just because of that inconvenience i don't think I'll get one from them ever again.
 
My "test drive" phone came in yesterday. Had it up and running in about 30 minutes. It's an iPhone5s and I get one to two "dots" of reception around my house. In one part of the house I can pull 10mb down on LTE. In another it's up to almost 30mb down and 10 meg up. Pretty crazy. So far I've tried it over half the town and one of my two offices and it's worked very well. Voice quality over LTE is much better than Verizon. Will give the Wifi calling a shot next week when I'm in my dungeon office.

So far, I'm impressed. I even moved the pre-paid SIM over to my Verizon Droid Turbo and that was fairly painless after a quick google to find APN settings. It worked fine in my house for voice, data and SMS.
 
vi edit said:
Voice quality over LTE is much better than Verizon.
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This was my first surprise with TMobile. I too came from Verizon and was shocked that voice calling was *gasp* actually usable!

When you have service, they are great, but I do find it to be spotty at times, just like everyone says, once you get out into rural areas. Also, oddly enough, it was really bad in the LaGuardia airport.. not sure if it had something to do with the thousands of people stuck there when I was (during a big blizzard recently).

I may try prepaid Cricket next month to see how that is.
 
gregulator said:
This was my first surprise with TMobile. I too came from Verizon and was shocked that voice calling was *gasp* actually usable!

When you have service, they are great, but I do find it to be spotty at times, just like everyone says, once you get out into rural areas. Also, oddly enough, it was really bad in the LaGuardia airport.. not sure if it had something to do with the thousands of people stuck there when I was (during a big blizzard recently).

I may try prepaid Cricket next month to see how that is.
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Agreed. Voice quality is fantastic. If you have a signal.
 
After switching to T-mobile over a year ago I would say I am satisfied. I occasionally enter a building and sigh, knowing that I would have reception with Verizon and maybe AT&T. But usually I'm happier to be saving money.

I have made really good use out of HD Voice and free international calling. So there are definitely positives beyond just cost saving.
 
For some reason LTE penetrates buildings better and VoLTE tmobile is way better than verizon, att. I can get VoLTE on the default Tmobile rom on the xperia but on the existenz ultimate ROM I can't get VoLTE working. Oh well looks like I have to run stock.

On Jan 2 they switched me over to a new plan same pricing etc they even gave me upgrades. Have to say their customer service is understandable and very good. I won't go back to ATT or Verizon having dealth with CS at both.
 
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Medikit said:
After switching to T-mobile over a year ago I would say I am satisfied. I occasionally enter a building and sigh, knowing that I would have reception with Verizon and maybe AT&T. But usually I'm happier to be saving money.

I have made really good use out of HD Voice and free international calling. So there are definitely positives beyond just cost saving.
Click to expand...

Does your phone have LTE and VoLTE. LTE quality for me is really good. Eventhough on network signal info it says my LTE signal is -115dbm 20 asu I get good signal vs HSPA+ -110 dbm 2 asu I get very chopping voice. I'm getting very useble LTE signal in parts of the house that HSPA+ signal was very weak (had a nexus 4 before that did not have LTE).

I've been going the cheap route and getting unlocked VZ or ATT phones or using my nexus 4. An actual tmobile phone with wifi calling/VoLTE has done wonders for my experience and I find coverage/call quality much better. At least get a phone a that has all the supported t-mobile bands.

I should follow my old rule, if you use something everyday, don't try and save money on the equipment.
 
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I bought a Nexus 4 back in September of 2013 to use with TMobile's $30/mo prepaid plan (100 minutes, unlimited text, 5GB data) and I've been pretty satisfied with it (I'm in NYC). The only time I wish I had Verizon service was when I traveled out to the middle of nowhere, Illinois and I had no service in much of the corn fields and small towns I passed (or very slow service in a town), but that problem was mostly solved with an offline GPS app (NavFree).
 
They have been progressively bad since they had that huge influx of subscribers.

When I first switched from Verizon to T-Mobile I had no issues. Now it's super spotty and I get dead spots.

However, it is really had to beat two lines, unlimited everything for $100.
 
My test drive ended yesterday. I work in a place that has epicly horrible cellular reception but excellent wifi coverage. It was enlightening being able to actually send and receive text messages and calls while at work 😛

I had good reception all around town. It was only when I went into a large store like Sams Club that my signal tanked. I had no coverage while my wife on Verizon had 3 bars still. So there's definite gaps. Also did not have a chance to drive through the sticks where it's very rural to see how bad coverage is. I think I'm going to grab a cheap little Lumia 635 and sign up for the $50 a month plan. My employer does not offer a call phone and instead offers a stipend with the catch of having to install Airwatch. I'll use this as my daily driver for work and call and completely remove any work stuff from my personal device.

Oh and I checked with T-mobile and my employer still gets a 15% discount on plans. The $50 simple choice plan is closer to $40 a month. Not a terrible price. Worth it for the music streaming on vacations 🙂
 
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If anyone is still reading this and is setup to do T-Mobile referrals, PM me in the next hour or two and I'll give you my info to do a referral for the $25.


🙂
 
Sorry to revive an old thread but I just wanted to share that throttling on T-Mo's HSPA+ I experienced is now gone. I was not sure at first because it'd been such a long while (1.5+ years). It's been a few days and the speed has been consistently good at 10~20 Mbps down, in contrast to 1.5/1.5 Mbps (up/down).
 
vi edit said:
My test drive ended yesterday. I work in a place that has epicly horrible cellular reception but excellent wifi coverage. It was enlightening being able to actually send and receive text messages and calls while at work 😛

I had good reception all around town. It was only when I went into a large store like Sams Club that my signal tanked. I had no coverage while my wife on Verizon had 3 bars still. So there's definite gaps. Also did not have a chance to drive through the sticks where it's very rural to see how bad coverage is. I think I'm going to grab a cheap little Lumia 635 and sign up for the $50 a month plan. My employer does not offer a call phone and instead offers a stipend with the catch of having to install Airwatch. I'll use this as my daily driver for work and call and completely remove any work stuff from my personal device.

Oh and I checked with T-mobile and my employer still gets a 15% discount on plans. The $50 simple choice plan is closer to $40 a month. Not a terrible price. Worth it for the music streaming on vacations 🙂
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who do you work for if you dont mind me asking.
 
Switched from Verizon to TMobile in November for personal use.

I have found coverage spotty indoors, esp in the lower floor of multi-floor/s buildings.

I have found coverage spotty even on Caltrain in the SFBA, esp through southern Palo Alto and much of Mountain View as well as on some spots on the peninsula.

My understanding is that TMobile has far fewer cell phone/data towers and your proximity to them is crucial to your reception. I'd concede that this "goes without saying" but Verizon seems to have so much tower coverage that this has to be spoken of and considered.

Based on this, I'm not sure I could recommend TMobile for business use; the coverage is just too inconsistent.

I'd err on the side of Verizon if the survival of my business depended on it, esp if you can more-or-less pass the price difference onto your shareholders/clients/customers which is what most businesses do anyway, and not just for defensible operating expenses...
 
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gadgetprostitute said:
My understanding is that TMobile has far fewer cell phone/data towers and your proximity to them is crucial to your reception. I'd concede that this "goes without saying" but Verizon seems to have so much tower coverage that this has to be spoken of and considered.
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actually, T-mobile has more towers than Verizon (or att), but each of their towers cover less area (than Verizon/att)

problem is that T-mobile uses higher frequency bands. Higher frequency means the signal doesn't travel as far (which alludes to your proximity issues)... in urban areas, this is great, because T-mobile needs more towers to cover the same city = more backhaul per area = more backhaul per customer, but bad in rural areas.

T-mobile plans to cover a lot more this year (with their newly purchased 700mhz low-band frequency, and expanding to new areas)

Not sure how this is attainable, but they've been promising and making big targets (zero LTE at early 2013, and a lot of LTE coverage 2 years later)

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holden j caufield said:
I keep hearing they might roll out 700mhz? Not even sure my phone does that band though
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TMO Band 12 / 700 mhz phones
- Nexus 6
- Xperia Z3 (needs an update from TMO to unlock)
- Samsung Note 4, Note Edge

I'm pretty sure I read Samsung S6/S6 Edge and HTC M9 will have it as well.
 
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