Anyone here on T-Mobile?

[Ollie]

Does it give you any indication that you are on Att towers?

 

[mountainbikermark]

Yes. Here at the part I've got circled in the screen shot it normally read T-Mobile but was reading AT&T in Beckley West Virginia. You have to do the notification pull down to see it. My G2 didn't say the network at the top the way this Note says at the top in the notification area.

 

[Ollie]

Good to hear. I will see what's up once I get back to the U.S.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Good to hear. I will see what's up once I get back to the U.S.

I'm be honest I don't know what wild hair got up my butt because I was very content with T-Mobile as far as reception, customer service and the plan/price I had.
I think I got spooked when I needed call service and had none for a long stretch of highway. My oldest daughter got rear ended by a tractor trailer over 400 miles from home, I needed to stay in contact with her, hospital, police, insurance company, etc and for a couple of hours both T-Mobile and Verizon (my wife's iPhone) were dead except where mine was roaming on AT&T while I was trying to get to her. She's fine btw, not a scratch on her. Car was crushed from front seats back (had she had any passengers in the back seat they'd be road kill). I moved away from Verizon because they failed when I needed reception on many occasions in the past so I guess I got spooked again.

 

[Ollie]

ATT is the best as far as off the beaten path reception goes. I've tried all of the major carriers and none of them hold a candle to AT&T's service areas regardless of what their fancy online coverage maps say.

When we travel the U.S. for work most carriers are represented. Usually AT&T beats them all.

I'm leaving them simply due to pricing and will use a prepaid sim the next time we are all in the boonies.

If I didn't have so many phone lines I would have stayed.

 

[WildcatRudy]

I am torn at the moment. I got sick of Verizon's cost inflating month by month, and wound up wanting a Nexus 4, which led me to T-Mobile. I went with the little-known (at the time) $30/month prepaid plan, with 5GB data, unlimited text and only 100 minutes of voice. I have to agree with @mountainbikermark that having no coverage out in rural areas is not so comforting. I'm not worried about 911--I still have my HTC Thunderbolt, and can plug it in to make a free 911 call if there is an emergency. But I took a trip to the east coast this past summer and used navigation the entire way. I had to keep my Nexus 7 continually powered on and running so I did not lose Google Nav. Before the trip, I saved maps all along the way, but while the maps did help and navigation worked OK, I could not zoom in if needed (not unless I zoomed in when I saved the map). And there are still cities where TMo has no coverage, like Bar Harbor, Maine. In some cases I had limited phone service through other networks, but data was tough.

100 minutes isn't an issue though. I've had decent luck calling using Google Hangouts. It also lets me access my additional Google Voice numbers. At home I have a good WiFi connection, but I've used a Hangouts voice call over TMo's data network when I have a good signal, and it works well enough to carry on a conversation most of the time. I do get some dead spots indoors, in places where my daughter's phone gets a strong signal.

So while I like the prepaid plan, the price, TMo's customer service, etc., that lack of signal is bothersome at times. The other Nexus 4 in the house is also getting very strange (shuts itself down far too often), and it drops calls. So, a phone and carrier change may be in order.

 

[Ollie]

I've not had any issues so far. I was a bit concerned about it since I've always read about their subpar coverage. I've traveled a bit since we made the Tmobile switch and have only run across one area where my signal dropped to two bars.

I've also been paying close attention to whether or not my phone is switching over to AT&T towers during those travels (to avoid data roaming fees) and it has never left the Tmo network.

Check out Nokia's Here map application in the playstore. It will download maps prior to your travels so you don't have to worry about them. In the U.S. you can opt to download individual States before departure.