Switched to T-mobile

[rhamersley]

Those that are on secondary mobile company plans need to realize you are using 1 of the 4 major carriers service tower still and should find out which it is. I have used all but t-mobile service in the past. My daughter had t-mobile and only had service within any city. Verizon was the best back in the early to mid 2000s and just went down hill from there sprint/nextel was so hit and miss just like t-mobile...att had alot of dead spots but got so much better as time went on. Late 2010 Verizon got bad with drop calls and such, so i left them and the old flip phone behine for straight talk using AT&T towers. Was good but couple years with them, service became terrible with straight talks phone settings. Dropped them for cricket for 3 phones at $90 a month with 10gb of data. The problem with secondary carriers is that everyone else has priority over you when it comes to data use, so if you have internet at home...make sure you're connected to home wifi.

I know Pure Talk uses the AT&T towers. Had to make sure of that because my parents spend 4-5 months in Florida each year and didn't want to take a chance since their trailer has really good reception with those. I've never had much issue with the AT&T service either. Must be where I hang out, I suppose.

 

[Ziggidy]

I'm in the position now where I'm leaving my job and need to get a phone. Verizon is what we use and it's been fine for me but pricing the same plan out with them vs T-Mobile or Mint mobile is very different. I'm fine with slowing down a partner carrier which I guess is how I'd describe Mint on T-mobile's network.

How do you think you'll like the bonuses you get with T-mobile? Tickets, AAA, auto rentals, hotels? It seems like that's a small portion of what the extra cost goes to per month but if you use it, worth it.

I use the Shell discount whenever possible.

 

[Ark]

Ended up buying a phone that didn't require bumping to T-Mobile. But, the phone technically can, and my third party carrier will send you a SIM for their network if you want it. So I could just network hop if I were to move somewhere Verizon doesn't work so good.

I remember the old days where Verizon was the only one with any kind of rural presence. It'll be super cool if the whole orbital cell tower thing gets off the ground.

 

[bobzilla]

Don't forget that T-mobile bought up all the sprint towers in an effort to get more coverage along with tons of new 5G towers. That's how we ended up with them for both phone and home 5G. NO ONE offered fast internet options. TDS (almost as bad as the OTHER tds) offered DSL but because of our distance to the node was only able to reach 5Mb downloads. Really hard to do ANYTHING at those speeds.

Customer service overall has been good. The 5G tower we have is almost 2 years old and it is starting to get hot and shutdown randomly. Contacted their CS and they said "OK, got you in here. Just take it to your nearest store and they have all the information to just swap it out."

 

[Destro]

I have had T-Mobile for about 3 years (after Sprint). I might be in the minority but I HATE the service. Always seems other people have service at times I don't.

The redeeming quality is I pay $70 a month for true unlimited on 2 lines w/free Hulu. When that changes, I will change.

 

[bobzilla]

I have had T-Mobile for about 3 years (after Sprint). I might be in the minority but I HATE the service. Always seems other people have service at times I don't.

The redeeming quality is I pay $70 a month for true unlimited on 2 lines w/free Hulu. When that changes, I will change.

Curious, android or apple? My friend who started with an android had terrible service. Switched to a newer iPhail and all the places she didn't have service did now.

 

[red_zr24x4]

Curious, android or apple? My friend who started with an android had terrible service. Switched to a newer iPhail and all the places she didn't have service did now.

Our service sucks with 1 Android and 1 IPhone
So it doesn't matter which platform

 

[BugI02]

With the understanding I'm just parroting what I was told and don't know if it's true: Verizon rolled out into more rural areas in a big way when 4G was the current hot new thing and got the best network in the vast majority of rural areas. T-mobile lagged behind in investing in their network, but when they did dump a bunch of money in to it, it was 5G time.

So, *supposedly* you have a better chance of getting good reception on a Verizon 4G network in rural areas but a better chance with T-mobile if you are on 5G.

What is confirmed to be true is T-mobile has a partnership with SpaceX to put the equivalent of cell towers in space via allowing cell connection with SpaceX's low earth orbit satellites. It's probably still 2-5 years out from full commerical roll out, but they've been working on it for awhile now. The first phase is supposed to allow text messaging from anywhere in the US you can see the sky. Honestly, that's a big deal for me. I'm in areas with no cell coverage at all reasonably often and rely on someone back home to call me in as missing if I don't hit certain communication checks. (If you don't hear from me by X time on Y day, call for help and have them look for me in this area)

I can tell you that T-mobile had strong 4G signals in Joshua Tree NP as well as around the Salton Sea in extreme southern Cali and all over the San Jacinto Mountains and the Big Bear Lake area. Joshua Tree and Salton are pretty sparsely populated. Within about 30 miles of PSP in any direction we had good 5G signal

I haven't been anywhere in the lower 48 in the last 7 or 8 years where signal was a problem. I do have to use wifi calling in my house because it is brick and the neighbors like their towers to be heard and not seen, so they're off at the edge of town

 

[BugI02]

Curious, android or apple? My friend who started with an android had terrible service. Switched to a newer iPhail and all the places she didn't have service did now.

This^^^, my latest iPhone can do things with 1 bar that my older phone could barely do with 3

 

[rkwhyte2]

I've been with Tmobile for over 20 years and for me the coverage just keeps getting better. Have 4 lines (2 android, 2 iphones) for $120/Mo unlimited everything.

 

[Jsomerset]

I have ATT and have been with them since cell one days back around 1995-96 time frame. Only kick was a dead spot from a couple miles north of st.rd.13 and st.rd.37 about a half mile south of st.rd. 24 on st.rd. 13 in the early days. None of the other carriers, well sprint, verison & t-moblie anyway has dependable cell phone coverage and absolutely no internet coverage where i live. When i have visitors they had to use my hot spot on the att. I have Unlimited internet but is actually 22gb before the threat of slowing down but they have never throttled me. I use up my allotment early in the month watching youtube mainly. Also i have unlimited text, HBO MAX and 17 gig of data as a hot spot for less than $100 a month. As far as coverage goes i was driving between Wabash and south side of indianapolis round trip daily.
P.S. they will hammer you for going over your hot spot limit @ $10 a gig.