Who has T-Mobile? How is your cell service?

[vinotinto]

I have been with AT&T since the original unlimited data plan. My kids have service with Tracfone and are using our old iPhones.

My iPhone 6 is 3 years old and my kids iPhones are even older than that. They all work just fine, but my 13-year old wants a newer phone and wants more data. I was looking at the AT&T plans and they are expensive. I pay about $80/month for my line after all taxes and fees.

T-Mobile has some attractive deals, particularly because we travel a lot. We travel internationally anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks every year, and that is included in texting and 2G data.

When I enter my address in the coverage map, it says coverage is "good," and makes it sound like outside is OK, but inside there may be some issues. Well, that's no good. So, if you have T-Mobile, how is your service? And does it work indoors? Seems silly to have a phone that may not work inside...

 

[wdwfan51]

My husband and I switched from AT&T to T Mobile last year. We live in Delaware, spend a bit of time in Florida -plus my husband uses his phone for work speaking with people up and down the east coast. We really haven’t noticed any difference over AT&T except the price.(He is over 55, so we pay $60 a month for unlimited talk,text and data) We have been quite happy with T Mobile. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Klayfish]

What works for one person will have no bearing at all as to how it will work for you. Cell coverage is very area specific. The carriers should all have heat maps that show where they have towers, use other companies towers, etc... Check and see their coverage in the area you live and/or will travel to. We have Cricket Wireless and they're great, but that doesn't mean they'd work for someone living 800 miles from here.

Not trying to be negative, but the answer will depend entirely on where you live.

 

[justafigment27]

We switched from AT&T to T-Mobile last fall and have not had problems or noticed a difference in service. We have four lines of unlimited text, talk and data. We live in an area that is listed as excellent coverage. My daughter went to Japan and the international aspect of the plan worked great ... she used her phone all the time to text us, text her classmates she was traveling with and to send us pictures. Our bill was an extra $0.88 that month because she called us twice to say a quick hello.

However, we do have problems at my Mom’s house about an hour north of us. Her area is listed as fair coverage and it is very spotty indoors ... I have had to go outdoors more than once to get a text to go through. I would not want T-Mobile at her house. We had trouble with AT&T there too though.

 

[Antaniasmom]

What works for one person will have no bearing at all as to how it will work for you. Cell coverage is very area specific. The carriers should all have heat maps that show where they have towers, use other companies towers, etc... Check and see their coverage in the area you live and/or will travel to. We have Cricket Wireless and they're great, but that doesn't mean they'd work for someone living 800 miles from here.

Not trying to be negative, but the answer will depend entirely on where you live.

This... I would ask people in your area if they have Tmobile and how their service is. Before we moved from CT my service was always full bars, except on some backroads.. but otherwise good. Now in NC I do have some issues inside-- for some odd reason I get better service upstairs? And sometimes it's spotty while we're driving. I will say I think I get a lot of bang for my buck. Unlimited data on 3 phones plus 10 GB Hotspot and I pay 135/mo.
DH has Sprint unlimited and pays 70/month but his service is always excellent and the last phone he got 2.5 yrs ago, I literally swiped my debit card at Best Buy for $1.06 for an Iphone that was 1 model behind the current phone out. Unfortunately, you cannot get those kind of phone deals with Tmobile. My advice, do your research and find what will work best for you! Good Luck!!

 

[natfrac]

We've had T Mobile for years and we've always had decent service where we live in Oregon. Also, we've never noticed a reception issue when we travel. Since we're older, we get a great deal--$60 a month for two unlimited talk/text/data lines.

 

[Anthony1971]

In general if you will get about the same type of service with ATT and Tmobile as they both work on the GSM network Sprint and Verizon work on the CDMA network and will be similar as well. within each network there are several bands that transmit some areas receive certain bands better than others to keep it simple. then comes the phones some phones can receive all bands and some cheaper phones few.... but even if you have a universal phone that does not mean the band available in your area will be 3G or 4G it could be 2G which means your phone will not be that great... so it is all as above it may work well it may not you can't ask about a carrier unless it is your neighbors and you are willing to pony up for a better phone as this can make a world of difference as well. As far as international you will need to speak with each carrier for your needs for example Sprint is owned by Soft bank as of now which is Japan based so their rates in Japan are very cheap....

 

[MomToOne]

I've had T-Mobile for years, generally it's fine. I'm in a fairly large city so plenty of towers in the area. I've also had generally good service when I travel, but then again I tend to only go to large cities.

But right now, I have nearly unusable data speeds at home due to some hardware problem they are having. I reported the problem a week and a half ago, and while I had to jump through a few hoops at first (reset the phone, yada, yada), they pretty quickly turned it over to engineering. I've had to pester them for updates, but at least they actually looked into it and figured out the problem is on their end and are waiting for the necessary hardware replacement. I just got a message from one rep I worked on it with asking me to test the speed again - hopefully that indicates they have it fixed. I'm at work, so I won't be able to test the speed and confirm it until I get home tonight. While I don't like having issues, I have been happy with T-Mobiles response to them when they happen.

 

[Amandaj0831]

I had T mobile for 3 years and never had major issues. We had some minor issues when driving on vacation and it dropped a few places in my building- nothing I couldnt deal with. They do nothing as far as phones for existing customers and so we switched to Sprint and our bill was cut by about 50 and the service is better. I no longer drop calls. Plus they were running a special where I got 200 gift card for switching on top of paying off our phones.

 

[NKHarris329]

We switched from AT&T to T-Mobile about a year and a half ago. We live near Houston, TX and travel to south Louisiana (Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans) a few times a year. Inside, all our calls are over WiFi so that hasn't been an issue. In general this is what we are finding -

In Urban and Suburban areas the services are nearly identical. There are one or two dead spots that we have run into (similar to AT&T but results in a few more dropped calls rather than just having to wait until we are out of that area). One area that was a dead spot has disappeared in the time we have had T-Mobile.

In rural areas service can be a bit hit or miss. My husband's brothers go on a yearly boy's weekend/fishing trip and initially we could only text during the weekend (and even that was a bit spotty). HOWEVER this year we were able to have phone conversations though they broke up a bit. It was definitely an improvement.

IMO T-Mobile is at about 90% of what AT&T's service is.... and for the cost savings I'm fine with the minor reduction. The service has improved in the short time we have been with T-Mobile, and their customer service has been excellent.

 

[hsmamato2]

What works for one person will have no bearing at all as to how it will work for you. Cell coverage is very area specific. The carriers should all have heat maps that show where they have towers, use other companies towers, etc... Check and see their coverage in the area you live and/or will travel to. We have Cricket Wireless and they're great, but that doesn't mean they'd work for someone living 800 miles from here.

Not trying to be negative, but the answer will depend entirely on where you live.

where I live TMobile is the biggest joke...and anyone who tries it quickly switches.... At&T is ok,and Verizon is tops. it all depends on where you'll use it most.

 

[pigletliz]

What works for one person will have no bearing at all as to how it will work for you. Cell coverage is very area specific. The carriers should all have heat maps that show where they have towers, use other companies towers, etc... Check and see their coverage in the area you live and/or will travel to. We have Cricket Wireless and they're great, but that doesn't mean they'd work for someone living 800 miles from here.

Not trying to be negative, but the answer will depend entirely on where you live.

So true!! It works well near my home, but when I visit family, I may as well try using a tin can and string. They must not have a tower for miles.

 

[vinotinto]

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I am trying to find someone in my area (right in the middle of Atlanta) that has TMobile to see how their experience is here, but I can't find anyone! Everyone has Verizon or AT&T!

I also want to understand how is the service when traveling, which is why hearing your experiences across the country is so helpful. My DH has had issues with Verizon when we go to Puerto Rico, but AT&T works perfectly for me there. I travel there at least one week each year and need my phone to work.

 

[2China2009]

I am a Cricket Fan. Switched about 18mos ago and was doing prepaid with Walmart for $50. I love my android. My daughter and I are on the same plan together. Unlimited talk and text and 5GB data for 65/mos. My daughter just upgraded her phone to a better one and it should last her through high school. We are super pleased with the service and travel a lot across the US. 4 lines would be $100/mos. Great coverage every where. No contracts. Best budget phone for us.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We left T-Mobile for AT&T about 10 years ago because the coverage was so bad. We live in Louisville, KY and my DH had to travel up into Indiana for work a lot and he had NO service for huge chunks of time.

 

[HHISand]

My husband and daughter have had T-Mobile for years (I have a work phone on Verizon). We do a lot of travel and when they first got them years ago, there was some spotty coverage. However, they have not had any problems for a number of years. As someone said earlier in this thread, coverage for you may vary. Your best bet is probably to get someone who currently has T-Mobile to come to your house and make a call (to see how good your coverage is).

 

[JAMIESMITH]

We switched from AT&T to Straight Talk last year. The service is exactly the same, but the price is much less. CSpire and T Mobile don’t work at our home at all, but Verizon does. We are in a very rural part of Mississippi.

 

[scard192]

Have had T-Mobile in MA for almost 4 years. I live in a brick townhouse and everyone who lives here has service issues inside except for those who have Verizon. We went with TMobile because at the time only they and Sprint had wifi calling. My phone is set up "wifi calling preferred" or something like that so no issues at home. Also work in a brick building, away from any windows. Almost every co-worker who does not have a window nearby for all cell service providers has no service.BUT, I have Comcast for my cable/internet/phone and they kept sending me e-mails about their wifi hotspots. Turns out there is a hotspot in my office building so when I am at work, I am using the hotspot for data and calling.

Other than home and work, I have no issues with T-Mobile.
I am on a family plan with DD, DSIL, DGD and we are paying $105/month for the 4 lines; unlimited text, calling, 2GB on data, throttled after that, but none of us even come close to 2GB.

 

[Albort]

We left T-Mobile for AT&T about 10 years ago because the coverage was so bad. We live in Louisville, KY and my DH had to travel up into Indiana for work a lot and he had NO service for huge chunks of time.

T mobile has been expanding pretty rapidly in the past 5 years. if you are fed up with AT&T, they could be a viable carrier again.
Like many said, its very location dependent. In California, within cities, it works super well. When you travel out of the cities, it goes completely dead. I use both AT&T and T-Mobile services, AT&T although sometimes have low signal, it still works very well in rural areas. T-mobile, half the time is no service.

It is also dependent on your phone as well. T-mobile has a very strong signal called Band 12. great penetration power, but only newer cellphones have this band available to use. So if your current phone has bad services, it might worth considering getting a new one.

 

[tasha99]

We have T-mobile and coverage is very spotty in my area. It still works okay for us because we use wifi calling at home (without having internet service, this wouldn't be an option). We like it because we're at a good grandfathered price/plan. Going to kick all my kids off in less than a year when DH turns 55 and do the 2 for $60 plan, though.

And i agree that it's far too location dependent for "how's your service" to be much help, even within the same city. I couldn't get a signal in my husband's Manhattan apartment, we think due to other buildings blocking reception. Even in the middle of NYC, you could get a signal in one apartment, but not another 3 doors over.