Tmobile calls out the iPhone 4

[rudeguy]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...ch-4g-commercial-slams-the-iphone-2010-11.DTL


WOW

The myTouch is a great phone and all but....is it good enough to callout the IP4 with?

 

[vshah]

i found the ad pretty funny, especially that they're ripping on the mac vs. pc ads.

 

[Pliablemoose]

They don't have much of a choice, when the iPhone goes to Verizon, TMobile is pretty well screwed.

They aren't the cheapest option any longer with Virgin's plans, they don't have much for compelling products that aren't on other carriers, the prepaid business is labor intensive & has pretty regular churn, ATT has a better and faster network, everyone's calling them out over the "4G" claims, and DT isn't exactly putting the resources behind TMobile to make them a compelling carrier, the only reason I stayed is my grandfathered plan and hacked data for $9.

I put my kids on Virgin, and got an EVO.

I just canceled my last line of service with them a minute ago, I felt like a traitor, their customer service was/is awesome, and bent over backwards more times than I can count to make me happy

 

[zerocool84]

They don't have much of a choice, when the iPhone goes to Verizon, TMobile is pretty well screwed.

They aren't the cheapest option any longer with Virgin's plans, they don't have much for compelling products that aren't on other carriers, the prepaid business is labor intensive & has pretty regular churn, ATT has a better and faster network, everyone's calling them out over the "4G" claims, and DT isn't exactly putting the resources behind TMobile to make them a compelling carrier, the only reason I stayed is my grandfathered plan and hacked data for $9.

I put my kids on Virgin, and got an EVO.

I just canceled my last line of service with them a minute ago, I felt like a traitor, their customer service was/is awesome, and bent over backwards more times than I can count to make me happy

There's lots of people that seem to be happy with T-Mobile but I'm glad I left them. Their coverage really is horrible compared to the other big guys.

 

[ponyo]

You want to be associated with the best. iPhone is the best.

I dont get people picking on T-mobile 4g as not real 4g. Everyone is going to have "fake" 4g. LTE is not really 4g. WiMax is not real 4g. Yet people pick on T-mobile for not having real 4g when their real world speed is faster than Sprint's 4g. Tmobile is the fastest out of the big 4 right now.

 

[zerocool84]

You want to be associated with the best. iPhone is the best.

I dont get people picking on T-mobile 4g as not real 4g. Everyone is going to have "fake" 4g. LTE is not really 4g. WiMax is not real 4g. Yet people pick on T-mobile for not having real 4g when their real world speed is faster than Sprint's 4g. Tmobile is the fastest out of the big 4 right now.

Their real world 4G isn't faster. Mobile speeds have too many variations but real world it still isn't faster.

 

[rudeguy]

You want to be associated with the best. iPhone is the best.

I dont get people picking on T-mobile 4g as not real 4g. Everyone is going to have "fake" 4g. LTE is not really 4g. WiMax is not real 4g. Yet people pick on T-mobile for not having real 4g when their real world speed is faster than Sprint's 4g. Tmobile is the fastest out of the big 4 right now.

As long as it gives me faster than 3G speeds, why would I care? Thats like the basement dwellers that complain about models having fake boobs. Something is better than nothing, right?

But really...Iphone is the best? Lets not get that debate going again.

 

[akugami]

T-Mobile doesn't even have 4G, though technically neither will AT&T and Verizon even with their LTE network.

As for Facetime...not Apple's fault. JB'ed iPhones have proven it can work over 3G. More likely is AT&T vetoing this feature because AT&T would be crippled by widespread video calls.

T-Mobile is not a bad company but their coverage is lacking compared to Verizon and AT&T. AT&T gets much better coverage in my house, especially in the first floor and basement which gives T-Mobile fits for some reason. I get full bars on T-Mobile at the front door of my house, soon as I walk in, it drops to 2 bars, go into the basement, no signal. AT&T, 3 bars in the basement.

I can understand these commercials. All commercials are full of half-truths but as a former T-Mobile subscriber, if their network was better I wouldn't have left.

 

[rudeguy]

LOL^^^^

Yeah..Tmo's network sucks because it doesn't work in your basement. You do realize there are more people in the world than just you, right?

 

[zerocool84]

LOL^^^^

Yeah..Tmo's network sucks because it doesn't work in your basement. You do realize there are more people in the world than just you, right?

Well T-Mobile doesn't have the same size network as the other three but at least they don't charge you horrible pricing for their lack of huge network network like AT&T does.

 

[rudeguy]

Well T-Mobile doesn't have the same size network as the other three but at least they don't charge you horrible pricing for their lack of huge network network like AT&T does.

Cell phone coverage is always YMMV. But seriously....to say a phone company's network is crap because it doesn't work in your basement? Idiotic comments like that make me so glad that I don't sling cell phones anymore.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Cell phone coverage is always YMMV. But seriously....to say a phone company's network is crap because it doesn't work in your basement? Idiotic comments like that make me so glad that I don't sling cell phones anymore.

I dumped them because the signal wouldn't get into the literally lead lined rooms I work in

 

[zerocool84]

I dumped them because the signal wouldn't get into the literally lead lined rooms I work in

lol does any signal get in there???

 

[rudeguy]

lol does any signal get in there???

he made a directional antenna out of his...

er....

N/M. This forum is worksafe

 

[Pliablemoose]

lol does any signal get in there???

Not sure of the specifics, but they installed some kind of booster that gives Sprint & Verizon users 5 bars everywhere on the building, it drops down to 2 or 3 in my area, but we get a signal.

It's likely giving us all cancer

 

[zerocool84]

Not sure of the specifics, but they installed some kind of booster that gives Sprint & Verizon users 5 bars everywhere on the building, it drops down to 2 or 3 in my area, but we get a signal.

It's likely giving us all cancer

Well at least Superman can't peek in on you guys.

 

[ponyo]

Their real world 4G isn't faster. Mobile speeds have too many variations but real world it still isn't faster.

I had Clear 4g mobile internet for about 6 months. Even with max 10 bars, I think the most I ever got was about 5 megs down/ 1 meg up. Most of the time it was 3 megs down/ 1 meg up. With T-mobile, I hit over 6 megs down/ 2.5 megs up. About double of what I was getting with Wimax at full signal.

 

[Cuda1447]

They don't have much of a choice, when the iPhone goes to Verizon, TMobile is pretty well screwed.

They aren't the cheapest option any longer with Virgin's plans, they don't have much for compelling products that aren't on other carriers, the prepaid business is labor intensive & has pretty regular churn, ATT has a better and faster network, everyone's calling them out over the "4G" claims, and DT isn't exactly putting the resources behind TMobile to make them a compelling carrier, the only reason I stayed is my grandfathered plan and hacked data for $9.

I put my kids on Virgin, and got an EVO.

I just canceled my last line of service with them a minute ago, I felt like a traitor, their customer service was/is awesome, and bent over backwards more times than I can count to make me happy

Oh dear. The Iphone going to verizon won't change a thing. The hype on the iphone is dying down tremendously. Android is the new hot thing. Even so, people who wanted the Iphone already have it. I don't think opening it on verizon is going to steal many T-Mobile customers.

As for compelling products. Well there is really only one phone that you could say is compelling and on one carrier, that's the Iphone. Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile don't fall into that category. That said, T-Mobile has the largest android lineup (the hottest OS right now) as well as a good host of other high quality phones.

As for AT&T having a faster network... uh NO! I won't argue that ATT's network isn't larger, but it's certainly not faster. T-Mobile HSPA+ is blazing fast, in fact its the fastest in the country right now... and by a large margin. Not sure where you get the idea that ATT is faster.

As for T-Mobile being called out for 4G... well no ones network is 4G. T-Mobile is finally just playing the game that all the others have played for years. Marketing is an evil game and T-Mobile is finally embracing that a little bit. LTE isn't 4G, WiMAX isn't 4G HSPA+ isn't 4G, but all three of the other carriers are calling theirs 4G, so there is no reason T-Mobile shouldn't call theirs 4G.

Oh & T-Mo doens't charge an extra $10 for their 4G speeds and it is backwards compatible with their old phones. Sprints isn't. We don't know about ATT or Verizon since there's isn't even out yet.


Hate all you want on T-Mobile, but they are the most affordable of the major carriers. They have the fastest network with some really nice phones. They also have the best customer service in teh industry. Sorry if they dont work in your basement though. You do have WiFi right? Connect to that and use the new Mytouch 4G or G2's wifi calling app. Problem solved.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I almost stayed for the UMA calling with Android, but the WiFi in my hospital goes down for days at a time, I don't know wtf goes wrong, but getting the open WiFi back up is pretty low on IT's priority list...

 

[Bateluer]

T-Mobile better drop some serious cash into upgrading to LTE in the near future, or massive increases in robustness of their HSPA+ network. They cannot stay relevant with their network lagging so badly.

 

[MrX8503]

T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is faster than 3G, so I don't have a big problem with them claiming 4G....even though LTE is still not 4G.

I thought the commercial was amusing, but like all other companies taking a stab at the iPhone, I'm willing to bet the video chat on the mytouch is choppy at best.

A lot of people rag on iPhone's facetime, but facetime on the iPhone is silky smooth. Qik and Fring is absolute garbage. In any case, there's "Tango", which is an app on all platforms and is better than Fring/Qik. So the videochat only on wifi is now moot.

 

[pm]

First let me say that I am a long-time fan of T-Mobile. I love their customer service people - and their prices.

But I have to disagree with some of what you wrote.

As for AT&T having a faster network... uh NO! I won't argue that ATT's network isn't larger, but it's certainly not faster. T-Mobile HSPA+ is blazing fast, in fact its the fastest in the country right now... and by a large margin. Not sure where you get the idea that ATT is faster.

While T-Mobile's bandwidth is theoretically higher, it's real-world data rates have been shown to be slower in multiple published tests. Consumer Reports, Gizmodo, PC World - they show AT&T as having the highest real-world bandwidth.
http://gizmodo.com/5428343/our-2009-12+city-3g-data-mega-test-att-won
http://www.pcworld.com/article/1895...rlds_second_3g_wireless_performance_test.html

If you have more recent data showing T-Mobile trumping everyone in the real world from a respected source, then I'd love to see it.

As for T-Mobile being called out for 4G... well no ones network is 4G. T-Mobile is finally just playing the game that all the others have played for years. Marketing is an evil game and T-Mobile is finally embracing that a little bit. LTE isn't 4G, WiMAX isn't 4G HSPA+ isn't 4G, but all three of the other carriers are calling theirs 4G, so there is no reason T-Mobile shouldn't call theirs 4G.

While it's technically true that neither LTE nor WiMax are truly 4G technologies, they are both very close to the final 4G specification requirements and the final specification requirements will be designed to be backwards compatible with LTE that's being currently deployed. So while it's true that LTE isn't 4G, saying that HSPA+ is 4G is a significant stretch of the truth. You can say that one marketing lie is the same as another but I don't think it is. LTE and WiMax are very close to the final 4G spec - they are extremely close and basically failed on technicalities (can't scale to 40MHz bandwidth, and their local wireless data rates don't meet spec, are two... but they are close).. But the protocol will remain the same. Meanwhile HSPA+ is a souped up 3G spec and has no hope of coming close to the 4G requirements..

 

[akugami]

LOL^^^^

Yeah..Tmo's network sucks because it doesn't work in your basement. You do realize there are more people in the world than just you, right?

Cell phone coverage is always YMMV. But seriously....to say a phone company's network is crap because it doesn't work in your basement? Idiotic comments like that make me so glad that I don't sling cell phones anymore.

No doubt, but as with all usage scenarios, it's a YMMV thing. No offense but I don't care if your (or anybody's) particular coverage is great with T-Mobile, I only care about my own reception. It's not just the reception in the first floor and basement of my house, there are areas where I just didn't get good reception with T-Mobile. And FWIW, at my job they switched to T-Mobile for the cheaper plans from AT&T and are experiencing a higher volume of dropped calls.

 

[kaerflog]

I'm a T-mobile customer and will likely be one for 2 more yrs since I added 2 more people on my plan but T-mobile coverage is really lacking.
I decided to stay with them because of GSM and its so cheap with the family plan.
I like the fact I can move my sim from phones to phones instantly.
I'm actually using an IP4 now.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i havent researched this but i thought they didnt really have 4g. isnt what theyre doing by calling their phone "the 4g" seriously deceptive. it would be like toyota naming one of their cars "the testerossa"