My 30 day T-Mobile Challenge

[pc747]

In April of this year we tossed around an idea. We wanted to provide the community with some information that would do some real world comparisons, so we could all make better informed decisions when it comes to services and purchases. The reality is that we are all different. Each of us uses our phones for different reasons, and we all live in different parts of the country as well. Though we may be different we can take articles and stories and use the info provided to help us make better decisions.

We are now in an era where smart phones dominate the wireless market, but they also dominate the landline market. More people own and rely on our smart phones for communication than any other form of communication. Because of that, wireless companies and carriers are booming in the market place. This is good for the economy and the employees they are able to employ, but when all is said and done, we need to make the best decisions with our dollars especially with the carriers locking us into long term contracts.

In the next 30 days I will be putting T-mobile's service to the test. In the area I am located, I have used Verizon's LTE as well as AT&T. Since I currently have an AT&T device I will be putting it up against T-Mobile. Despite this new test, I want to share that since I moved to AT&T, I have not missed Verizon one bit. My LTE speeds were equal to (and in some areas exceeded) Verizon's service. Dropped calls has also been a non issue for me.

I must add that I live in a major city in the South (will not disclose my location for privacy reason), but I plan on driving to the areas that are on the fringe to see how T-Mobile's coverage fares. So, over the next few weeks, I will be posting screen shots as well as discussing how I used my device, and how well it handled. In the next couple of day I will be posting real world speed tests of my LTE on AT&T to have a baseline comparison. So, let us begin.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

I'm interested in how this goes.

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

 

[azules9780]

As am I.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

I'm with Tmo now and just to be honest,as long as I stay with in city limits I'm fine but outside is where it starts to hurt.

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

 

[Crankintopwater69]

I took a trip up the hwy just to see mom which is about a hour and I stayed on edge the whole time.But that same trip taken when I was with VZW was 4G all the way never not once did I drop 4G signal.

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

 

[Crankintopwater69]

That hurt my S pen typing that.Thank goodness this site has nothing to do with VZW.I wouldn't want them to know how reliable their service is.

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

 

[jntdroid]

I took a trip up the hwy just to see mom which is about a hour and I stayed on edge the whole time.But that same trip taken when I was with VZW was 4G all the way never not once did I drop 4G signal.

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

Exact same scenario for us - only difference is we should've had edge based on the maps, but we had nothing... no talk/text... nothing.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

The sad part is,I would've never revealed this if it wasn't for this thread.

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

 

[Crankintopwater69]

Thankz pc747,I'm gonna see if I can't get him banned. :-D

Sent from my Note 3 rockin Jelly Bean 4.3

 

[DesktopDevin]

Not even going to bother even thinking about going to the T, don't even have to leave my house to find out.

The wife has a T mobile feature phone , it never picks up a signal at home and struggles to keep a signal when on the road.

Pisses me off greatly trying to get a hold of her , have to wait until she gets my voicemail and she stays put to keep a good signal and call me back.

I want to bounce that thing off of the driveway even more than my nexus. Still waiting on a new phone from vzw that will excite me enough to justify paying for it off contract so I can keep my unlimited plan.

I had hopes for the moto x but those has been dashed looking into the htc one max maybe. I'll wait for the reviews though ...not going to get burned by the hype like I did with my nexus.

 

[Fuzzball]

pc747, for it to be a fair test, use a phone that has AWS bands that support HSPA+ and LTE. You may want to get a T-Mobile branded phone just to check out WiFi calling as well.

I've been using T-Mobile for months now and am quite happy with it. I save about $50/mo compared to VZW. That's a big savings and I can forgive some short comings. I haven't had a major problem with coverage. A month ago I went to an area that has not been refarmed, but had solid EDGE. For my maping and light internet needs it wasn't a major slow down. However I did encounter some EDGE spots here and there on my vacation at Disney World and it reminded me of slow EV-DO on VZW; I'm told that coverage and speed is hit and miss regardless of the carrier.

Overall the coverage hasn't been a problem in Greater Atlanta. Inside my work, signals don't penetrate as well. This isn't as big of a deal because I've got WiFi at work and the T-Mobile branded phone I have has WiFi calling built in; if it can't get a decent signal, it switches voice and txt to WiFi so it hasn't been a big deal. Without that key feature, I probably would have looked at another carrier. In other buildings where VZW was spotty or barely any signal, I still had a functional signal.

Right now T-Mobile is refarming their spectrum. They're taking their bands, upgrading the cell sites, and balancing HSPA+ and LTE about 50/50 on all of their bands. I believe they're on track to be done about the end of the year. After that, hopefully they will start expanding coverage. I'm pretty sure their CEO is aware of that and he seems like the kind of guy that would kick things into high gear.

 

[jntdroid]

So how's day 2 and 3 been? I grabbed a Nexus 5 yesterday so I'll likely be trying out Tmo again...

I'm trying to figure out, though, if T-Mobile's prepaid uses the exact same network as their post-paid network. It appears so, but they've changed so many things over the last 6 months I can't see for sure.

 

[azules9780]

Good question jntdroid. Does it use the same network for both and my next question is, if I buy assn unlocked version of the nexus 5 from Google, will it use all of T-Mobiles networks. Meaning HSPA+ and LTE that are T-Mobile specific?

 

[jntdroid]

Good question jntdroid. Does it use the same network for both and my next question is, if I buy assn unlocked version of the nexus 5 from Google, will it use all of T-Mobiles networks. Meaning HSPA+ and LTE that are T-Mobile specific?

That last part I know for sure is a yes. There were actually some questions yesterday about how compatible it would be with AT&T, but there's no question about the compatibility with T-Mobile.

 

[pc747]

So how's day 2 and 3 been? I grabbed a Nexus 5 yesterday so I'll likely be trying out Tmo again...

I'm trying to figure out, though, if T-Mobile's prepaid uses the exact same network as their post-paid network. It appears so, but they've changed so many things over the last 6 months I can't see for sure.

LTE has been the same. Which has really made it tough for me to rely on during the day. Especially at work. I ordered a nexus 5 but canceled my order will elaborate on that later.

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