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Please don't use T-Mobile's $30 a month prepaid for road trips.

fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
Damn.

I just drove ~2000 miles from California to Colorado and I think I may have had reception for about 5% of that total length.

Most of the time it was roaming on AT&T's network, so I couldn't access phone or internet. And when I COULD access internet it was either in G or EVDO and it was practically useless. We're talking sub-1KB/s speeds. Not even good enough for GoogleMaps searches unless you wait for a LONG time.

I knew that T-Mobile had the weakest coverage in the nation, but I had no idea that it was THAT weak.

There are also plenty of times when it says I'm on the T-Mobile network, yet the signal strength icon on my Nexus is grayed out (instead of blue) and nothing works. Not sure what's up with that.
 
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TMobile has a lot going for it right now, but rural coverage is not one of them.

This is one reason to use Straight Talk and have a TMo SIM and a AT&T SIM. You could at least (or could, anyways) switch between them.
 
There is a cap on how much roaming data Tmobile allows on at&t at least. I know because when my wife goes to West Virginia to visit her family, I get text alerts that she's nearing her roaming data alottment - as there is no tmobile coverage there.
 
Jeraden said:
There is a cap on how much roaming data Tmobile allows on at&t at least. I know because when my wife goes to West Virginia to visit her family, I get text alerts that she's nearing her roaming data alottment - as there is no tmobile coverage there.
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I'm talking about the $30 prepaid plan. They may allow roaming on a contract plan, but I wasn't able to get it on my prepaid.
 
No poopies (edited because mods dislike explicatives) sherlock. Why would anyone put a tower up where maybe 2 people a month are going to use it?

(Note: T-Mo VOICE coverage including roaming)
attachment.php


(Note: T-Mo NATIVE coverage)
attachment.php
 
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shortylickens said:
I have no trouble roaming on AT&T.

I think its just you.
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You mean as an AT&T customer, or a Tmo customer roaming on AT&T's network. Also, are you a pre-paid or post-paid customer?

For some reason I didn't think Tmo prepaid even allowed voice roaming...damn surprised it allowed any data roaming at all.

And yeah, the Rockies and rural Northwest are pretty much the worst coverage area in the country for all carriers.
 
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T-Mobile city rivals all AT&T and Verizon and beats Sprint but its rural is non existent. I get full 3G with Verizon from LA to Vegas. My friends with Sprint get nothing. You get what you pay for.
 
AznAnarchy99 said:
T-Mobile city rivals all AT&T and Verizon and beats Sprint but its rural is non existent. I get full 3G with Verizon from LA to Vegas. My friends with Sprint get nothing. You get what you pay for.
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Over here Verizon is the only carrier that works underground in the metro. I think AT&T now works too, but Verizon has worked for years.
 
dagamer34 said:
You didn't know that T-Mobile pre-paid = no data roaming? There's a reason it's $30. :whiste:
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That's great and I think they have the right to charge for it, but there is no reason to pay for premium if you don't have the need for travel
 
i use tmobiles prepaid data for my hotspot, i dont get data roaming but to be honest i dont really care. the network is only strong enough for calls and texts, i wouldnt be able to do anything on it even if it was allowed.
 
You aren't allowed to roam on pre-paid, which is why you are grayed out often whilst traveling. Even on post-paid, your roaming allowance is like 1% of your total allowance. So you will likely burn through your roaming allowance in a matter of minutes with google maps.

With that said, Verizon is the only network you should use if you travel a lot. It's the most expensive carrier for a reason - they have rock solid coverage across the U.S.
 
fuzzybabybunny said:
By your logic AT&T would have no coverage in any of the areas that I got coverage along the way.

I'm here:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/Paragon_Media_Storage/Screenshot_2013-04-02-13-54-30.png

According to T-Mobile's coverage map for prepaid, I should be getting:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/Paragon_Media_Storage/TMobile Prepaid.JPG
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I do understand your frustration. For example, the carrier coverage maps at my home when we built it two years ago all showed we had 3g coverage from the big 3. I can tell you from experience that Verizon was barely adequate, and as far as data, bounced between 1x and 3g depending on where you stood. AT&T bounced between GPRS and EDGE if I was lucky to get a signal at all. T-Mo was capable of getting EDGE, but I was on a non T-Mo phone at the time so things were not optimal.

We live maybe 5 miles from a visible tower too.

Today, it's much better. My wife has no issues with VZW coverage at home. I have not tried AT&T or T-Mo, but I suspect they will be better as well.

Simply put, those coverage maps are pretty much bunk. They're even worse for prepaid coverage. At best with prepaid, you can maybe hope for VOICE roaming, and that's it. There's a reason it's cheap.
 
bonkers325 said:
. . . With that said, Verizon is the only network you should use if you travel a lot. It's the most expensive carrier for a reason - they have rock solid coverage across the U.S.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with that. This is especially true in less urban areas.
 
bonkers325 said:
snip

With that said, Verizon is the only network you should use if you travel a lot. It's the most expensive carrier for a reason - they have rock solid coverage across the U.S.
Click to expand...

corkyg said:
I totally agree with that. This is especially true in less urban areas.
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Considering I was able to play Pandora from Chicago IL>Iowa>Nebraska>Wyoming>Utah>Idaho>Oregon>Seattle WA the entire time save for a couple breaks in the mountains of Wyoming, I had service all throughout. This was ATT post-paid by the way.
 
I've used t mobile $30 a month plan for a long time and finally got rid of it. The signal inside buildings is terrible and like you said if you travel you're lucky to get signal half the time. Depending on what you need data wise you'd be better off switching to page plus (Verizon pre paid) I sold my nexus and bought a droid RAZR and I'm much happier then i was before.
 
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