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Considering a switch of carriers.

I'm currently on Verizon, 4 lines together with my family.
I'm hitting some bad times financially so my parents are paying for it, I'm trying to save some money for them though, so I was considering switching to TMobile or Sprint.
I need some real time advice on their services and data coverage.
3G and "4G" speeds, what the signal is like, etc.
I know about their phones so I'm worrying about that later.
I've heard bad things about both carriers' speeds and signals but I'm sure that depends on where you live, hence I need real discussion from different people.
I live in central NC if that helps.
I'm not too keen on AT&T but if anyone has anything to add about them, go ahead, I'll consider it.

I would change to Sprint, the best coverage prices and the network is decent.
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If you do go with sprint if u have an AOL email that's an additional 10%, off ur Bill
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You almost literally have to get someone with the service to come to your house to test. Verizon is a total dead zone at my house, but is decent a couple miles away.
Sprint has a 30 day money back guarantee so you might try them first.

bleach168 said:
You almost literally have to get someone with the service to come to your house to test. Verizon is a total dead zone at my house, but is decent a couple miles away.
Sprint has a 30 day money back guarantee so you might try them first.
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How do I go about just randomly trying them?

I feel your pain but with my job traveling Verizon is really the only choice for me.

I Am Marino said:
How do I go about just randomly trying them?
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Are any of your friends on T-Mobile or Sprint?

im on t-mobile its cheap and i get good signal at my house but if i go a few miles out of this area i lose coverage when i leave the town and i dont have any 3g/4g coverage in my area t-mobile is spotty about 3g/4g i dont get any 3g coverage unless i travel 30 minutes west of here to get any 3g signal depending on where u live i would check coverage maps if ur area has 3g/4g go ahead with t-mobile

Whoa man!
Periods. Use them.

I know what you mean..but it comes down to $40 for me per month for my family on Verizon...I personally was on ATT for 18 months..really bad service in all ways you can think of..now they are buying tmobile..be prepared for you r bills to go up as well with this merger...when/if it happens..Sprint has only 1 carrier and that is ClearWire with its 4g backbone support..so far their testing 4g speeds have been really badnot to mention here in California my wife ALWAYS made sure our bill with Sprint was where it was supposed to be..meaning we got bills for $600..then down to $0 due to their irresponsibility (2009) ..not much of a price between tmo/sprint when compared to Verizon..personally..its not worth nickel n diming as I did for my family for 18 months and we hated it..and didnt pay off at all..good luck with your choice..try to consider MetroPCS or BoostMobile (cheap pre pay)
(if you choose not to stay)
ST

If I had to choose between staying with Verizon and switching to AT&T ... for the price, I would definitely choose Verizon.
I would consider Sprint, but not T-Mobile since I've had more than one bad experience with them and also because they are being absorbed my AT&T.

I have a friend who has Sprint and my girlfriend has T Mobile
but I feel like I need more testing though.

jiggy79 said:
I would change to Sprint, the best coverage prices and the network is decent.
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+1
been with sprint since 1998. Good coverage, good service and competitive pricing.

Probably leaving T-Mobile.. any suggestions based on rooting options??

So I'm over T-Mobile and their crappy reception in my area.
I've had work tickets opened for trouble-shooting in my area and nothing..
I've written to corporate and was basically told either deal with it or pay the termination fee.. this 2 days after re-newing. Little did I know that you cant cancel as soon as you renew a contract, unlike when you open a new line (Thanks for NOT telling me that T-Mobile).
Anyhow, I'm probably gonna sell my Sensation, my wife's Galaxy S 4G, and our niece's Vibrant to pay the cancellation fees, and look to go elsewhere.
Verizon & Sprint seem to have the best reception in my area, but I like rooting my phones and I'd like to know, what phones or service have the more options when it comes to rooting??

wait... you are not even getting 2G ? as in EDGE?
you can certainly ROAM for free in the USA, back then when i was living there even when i get no 3G i can still roam just fine in 2G and get reception everywhere where 3G did not reach without additional charges

AllGamer said:
wait... you are not even getting 2G ? as in EDGE?
you can certainly ROAM for free in the USA, back then when i was living there even when i get no 3G i can still roam just fine in 2G and get reception everywhere where 3G did not reach without additional charges
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Well the reception is so choppy that in and around my condo, the reception goes from 4G to Edge, to nothing, to edge, and back n forth - ALL DAY around my place! I literally have to cross the street to receive a picture message!!
I've just had it with all that and the fact that I kinda got duped by the freakin Loyalty dept themselves, I'm over T-Mobile.

AllGamer said:
wait... you are not even getting 2G ? as in EDGE?
you can certainly ROAM for free in the USA, back then when i was living there even when i get no 3G i can still roam just fine in 2G and get reception everywhere where 3G did not reach without additional charges
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Before I moved all I got was gprs sometimes. Most times I had to use wifi calling to make a call or stand by the street to talk. People could get 3 bars of AT&T 3G in my house.
Now I've moved and get full T-Mob coverage, but the 3G speeds are worse than Sprint and Verizon.
We plan to drop them soon, especiallyvafter they changed our rate plan and tried to extend our contract another.year.behind our backs and charged us $50 in minutes overages because their MyAccount app shoes the wrong minute used value on every phone.
Then lied about the rate plan change and told me there was a note on the account saying we were notified. After cussing her out for about 5 minutes I hung up in her face and called back. The next person fixed it probably just tobget me off the phone. I was fuming.
I'm going back to AT&T. They had much better customer service and infnitely better coverage. I don't mind paying more for piece of mind. Also, I want true unlimited mobile to mobile calling. Not T-Mobiles gimp version cause no one else except the people on my plan has them, anyways.
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I would get a Sgs2 of you can (At&T) or the sprint one. If the big (bad) red is your thing then the Razr seems to be the best from my useage. I work near a red store and Have gone to 2 and tryed both the razr and the 720p HTC and the razr seems more use able to me, but the S2 on AT&T H+ was able to = or beat them in loading web and video. The HTC could not even play 1080p video right and the first one I tryed at the store near me booted up and before I could do anything it went off for good.( I have never seen a phone do that in a store.)
I like AT&T now even if my speeds of 3-5mb is not as good as the 2.5-15mbs of LTE. P.S Yes I did a speed test on cnet and my phone got 3.8 and the HTC got 2.5. I don't think was right, but you never know.

Well in your area it could be complicated would not use Sprint their service is unreliable, so pick your poison, ATT and get bumped off alot from over crowding or Verizon and get over charged and deal with cdma
BTW, I have a friend who owns a percentage in the Arsenal team.....
You could get a booster for your house, TMO offers them, or you can buy a grey market one and THAT will solve alot of your problems.
perroh said:
So I'm over T-Mobile and their crappy reception in my area.
I've had work tickets opened for trouble-shooting in my area and nothing..
I've written to corporate and was basically told either deal with it or pay the termination fee.. this 2 days after re-newing. Little did I know that you cant cancel as soon as you renew a contract, unlike when you open a new line (Thanks for NOT telling me that T-Mobile).
Anyhow, I'm probably gonna sell my Sensation, my wife's Galaxy S 4G, and our niece's Vibrant to pay the cancellation fees, and look to go elsewhere.
Verizon & Sprint seem to have the best reception in my area, but I like rooting my phones and I'd like to know, what phones or service have the more options when it comes to rooting??
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Any decent alternatives to Verizon in central new jersey?

Thinking about jumping ship. I am sick and tired of paying all this money and them treating us like this.
i had t-mobile back in the day and they absolutely sucked. but that was like years ago. i was wondering if there are any t-mobile, sprint, att customers who would recommend their service as a viable alternative to Big Red.

Sprint LTE is hitting central nj this year maybe even next month.

I'm in central jersey, on t-mobile.. like it a lot
connection is pretty much always good, and data speed is great

georgei11 said:
I'm in central jersey, on t-mobile.. like it a lot
connection is pretty much always good, and data speed is great
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+1
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

Jackson is a service black hole, as you probably already know. The town basically banned towers from being constructed, it's a nightmare. Surprisingly, T-Mobile has decent service in Jackson, my AT&T service is fine, Sprint's was a bit iffy there. My experiences have been along County Line Road, where I have family.
Outside of Jackson, I'd highly recommend AT&T. Sprint's 3G data varies wildly, anywhere from 2mb/s down in Brick, to maybe 200k in Holmdel. Since AT&T upgraded our area, I'm getting about 5mb down during the day, a high of 7-8mb down at night.
For the record, if you don't care about LTE, Straight Talk works GREAT around us. Same speed as AT&T's normal service, for $45/month.

Questions about att service

What's up guys some of you know me some don't, but I am looking for a new carrier and device to build my roms for, so I want to ask you guys what you like about att and what you don't. I need something different from vzw mainly because of price, but I want to also try out a different user base I've been building roms for vzw based devices for year's now and it seems like they are dying out fast forums are dead no real dev support so tell me your opinions guys, and let ne know if you would like to see ne around thanks
Newt
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Get Tmobile. And unlock the HOX. Best combination IMO.
From my sexy white, Nocturnaled HTC One X

theking_13 said:
Get Tmobile. And unlock the HOX. Best combination IMO.
From my sexy white, Nocturnaled HTC One X
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Cool, enjoy your EDGE!
@OP- I have had nothing but great experiences with AT&T. Their plans are decently priced, their LTE is fast as hell, and their customer service reps are easily manipulated.

at&t data speeds are better. Prices are pretty good. Versus Verizon. Customer service is also pretty good, I always get them to refund my activation fees, lol. Plus we have a nice community and need more devs.
Please join us.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Get T-Mobile and a One S. AT&T is too damn expensive.
They also have an annoying threashold set for voice activity detection on their calls resulting in an audible mute whenever someone stops talking for half a second. Most people don't notice it, but I do. It honestly feels like you're talking to someone on a walkie talkie... This doesn't happen when I'm using T-Mobile. So... What I'm trying to say is call quality blows, and I also get dropped calls a lot...
Update: and LTE isn't even available in most decent cities. There are only like 11 locations in the USA.
Sent from mobile

At&t lte is awesome and as already stated att reps are pretty easy to manipulate I can't tell how many times I've gotten them to credit my account for various charges. The one x has a great community very friendly for the most part and the phone itself is solid. We have a handful of great devs and they seam to work well together when it comes to sharing and helping each other out. You would be a very welcome addition to the community.
Sent from my Nocturnalized Beast

newtoroot said:
What's up guys some of you know me some don't, but I am looking for a new carrier and device to build my roms for, so I want to ask you guys what you like about att and what you don't. I need something different from vzw mainly because of price, but I want to also try out a different user base I've been building roms for vzw based devices for year's now and it seems like they are dying out fast forums are dead no real dev support so tell me your opinions guys, and let ne know if you would like to see ne around thanks
Newt
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
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I remember you from the Rezound. I'm sure everyone would love to have you developing for the One X. You're stuff was great.

ECEXCURSION said:
Get T-Mobile and a One S. AT&T is too damn expensive.
They also have an annoying threashold set for voice activity detection on their calls resulting in an audible mute whenever someone stops talking for half a second. Most people don't notice it, but I do. It honestly feels like you're talking to someone on a walkie talkie... This doesn't happen when I'm using T-Mobile. So... What I'm trying to say is call quality blows, and I also get dropped calls a lot...
Update: and LTE isn't even available in most decent cities. There are only like 11 locations in the USA.
Sent from mobile
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I have great call quality and that mute is kinda nice. I think it's built into the phones myself, since my gpas flip phone never does this. Cuts out background noise.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I am pleased with the att coverage. Customer service is pretty good also. I usually get to upgrade every 6 months just have to call and ask them and I don't even make threats to leave. They just talk to a mananger and its all good.
I am sure your aware of this but not all service is great in all areas. I'm in south Louisiana where att is great and Verizon blows. As I'm positive Verizon is boss in some areas where att is crap. So research your area before switching.
Sent from my HTC One™ X, an WCX Illuminati 4G LTE smartphone

Coverage for Verizon vs. AT&T varies quite a bit in some locations, so I'd check with friends, coworkers, etc. and try to get a feel for coverage quality in your general area, and places you visit frequently.
Just as example, in my home/work area (Boston suburbs) the reception for both VZN and AT&T is very good. But for other places, such as a ski are in NH that I occasionally visit, reception is non-existent (both voice and data, no signal at all) on AT&T while my friends on VZN have great voice and data reception. Just anecdotally, I find this situation to be the case more often than not, where VZN has more consistent coverage than AT&T. When I was on a camping trip with friends to Alabama last fall, I had no data on AT&T, and could barely get a voice call out (with signal breaking up, and dropping calls) while my VZN friends were enjoying great voice reception and full 3G. Given, it was a pretty rural area. But coverage in your local area should definitely be considered when looking at changing carriers.
Another consideration is if you do any foreign travel, and intend to roam on your local carrier. The vast majority of customers never do this, or not frequently enough to matter. But I travel quite a bit for work, and its one of the main reasons I stay with AT&T. CDMA is simply not used in most parts of the world, and VZN's selection or "world" phones (with GSM compatibility) is very limited. Roaming service on AT&T has been consistently great, in a variety of foreign countries. Funny thing, both coworkers I was traveling with to Germany recently were on VZN, and had big issues with service during the trip. They had to use my AT&T phone to call VZN customer support (which I obviously gave them sh_t about). First off, the phones weren't setup right for international roaming, which was probably more my companies fault, and not VZN. But even after they had things up and running, they lost service the next day. VZN claimed it was a fire at a nearby Vodaphone switching station that was interrupting service in the whole area. But my AT&T phone was also connected to Vodaphone, and was working just fine. I ribbed my coworkers yet again: "Can you hear me now???" :victory:
Again, the foreign travel thing doesn't apply to a great many people. But if it applies to you, I'd say that AT&T wins in that category.

Att service and customer service had been great since switching from Verizon 6Yrs ago. LTE is fast when available, and hspa+ is a fast fallback also.
I don't get static or bad reception in los angeles, san Francisco or Denver. Except in the mountains sometimes.
Phones are cheaper than Verizon and tmobile.
Go for it.
Sent from my HTC One X

ECEXCURSION said:
Get T-Mobile and a One S. AT&T is too damn expensive.
They also have an annoying threashold set for voice activity detection on their calls resulting in an audible mute whenever someone stops talking for half a second. Most people don't notice it, but I do. It honestly feels like you're talking to someone on a walkie talkie... This doesn't happen when I'm using T-Mobile. So... What I'm trying to say is call quality blows, and I also get dropped calls a lot...
Update: and LTE isn't even available in most decent cities. There are only like 11 locations in the USA.
Sent from mobile
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And I can say the same about my in laws and their T-Mobile service here. But they're grandfathered in to a cheap rate even after they got smartphones last year.
Only way to find out is to test drive the service carrier for the 14 or 30 days they allow.
Sent from my HTC One X

I've been on AT&T since the Cingular acquisition. NY Metro area and Long Island NY, with extensive travel to other metropolitan (70%), rural (20%), and international (10%) locales. Rarely a complaint. Reasonable pricing and very accommodating customer service. They always had the newest and coolest phones, but that playing field's been kind of leveled now. I can honestly say that I don't ever plan on leaving AT&T. I've never had a problem with muting - but voicemail eliminates recorded dead airtime (not an issue to me).

Vendetta-NY said:
I've been on AT&T since the Cingular acquisition. NY Metro area and Long Island NY, with extensive travel to other metropolitan (70%), rural (20%), and international (10%) locales. Rarely a complaint. Reasonable pricing and very accommodating customer service. They always had the newest and coolest phones, but that playing field's been kind of leveled now. I can honestly say that I don't ever plan on leaving AT&T. I've never had a problem with muting - but voicemail eliminates recorded dead airtime (not an issue to me).
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I had LTE for 2 days a week ago on at&t on long island. Now it's mysteriously shut off.
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Joooin us att is fine and vzw is certainly not better. Everyone thinks att ducks but I live in a obscure town and I get lte
Sent from my One X using xda premium

AT&T LTE is on in my area and it rocks. As far as AT&T as a company, I've been with them since it was my local Bell South, then Cingular, then AT&T. Aside from a few quirks here and there, I've always been relatively satisfied and the customer service is usually pretty good.
The One X is a great device. I had the international version, which broke after 2 weeks. I sent it back to HTC America where after two months they told me it couldn't be repaired due to injunctions on importing the parts to the US, at which point they sent me the AT&T LTE version. I was naturally pissed, but that anger quickly dissipated as soon as the lady at AT&T handed me my phone and I saw the 4G LTE logo.
The more devs the better, of course we want you here!

This may be of interest to you as well the one x will be reduced to $99 with contract on July 29th that is a steal for this device
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1798227
Sent from my Nocturnalized Beast

It's highly dependent on where you live. If you have AT&T LTE service where you are, it's no contest. But if you don't, or often travel to rural areas, it's more of a toss-up. Verizon simply has a bigger coverage area.
If you travel outside the US, forget Verizon. There's nothing like having your phone "just work" halfway around the world. (But do investigate AT&T's global plans if you do this a lot.)
I'm going to agree with what's been said about AT&T's customer service. I think they must have some kind of corporate inferiority complex about people leaving for Verizon, because I've found they will usually do what it takes to keep you happy.
I came from Verizon before I got an iPhone, and I never liked the degree to which they kept everything so locked down. Based on the encrypted bootloader they just slapped on their SGS3, this clearly hasn't changed.

jayv81 said:
Customer service is pretty good also. I usually get to upgrade every 6 months just have to call and ask them and I don't even make threats to leave. They just talk to a mananger and its all good.
Sent from my HTC One™ X, an WCX Illuminati 4G LTE smartphone
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What do you say to the manager?

Thanks for your comments guys... I'm checking into things this week... You may see me around
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verizon vs tmobile

I've been with verizon since 2000 and never really had an choice to change since they always had the best service in my area. I've never liked at&t and the rep for tmobile has been its known for prepaid and shotty service. Thing is now, I see more and more people moving over to tmobile and are loving it. Its cheaper per month than verizon and service in my area in NJ is pretty much the same as verizons. Plus there are some features like the wifi calling, the hspa+ coverage, lte. that make it pretty attractive. But the kicker on whats making me consider the change is the phone selection. Verizon seems to always be lagging behind and I'm tired of having to wait for new phones to hit verizon and for updates to be released. Has anyone else thought about a move?

topaz330 said:
I've been with verizon since 2000 and never really had an choice to change since they always had the best service in my area. I've never liked at&t and the rep for tmobile has been its known for prepaid and shotty service. Thing is now, I see more and more people moving over to tmobile and are loving it. Its cheaper per month than verizon and service in my area in NJ is pretty much the same as verizons. Plus there are some features like the wifi calling, the hspa+ coverage, lte. that make it pretty attractive. But the kicker on whats making me consider the change is the phone selection. Verizon seems to always be lagging behind and I'm tired of having to wait for new phones to hit verizon and for updates to be released. Has anyone else thought about a move?
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I'm probably going to switch to their pre-paid service when my contract is up. I want a Nexus.... Verizon doesn't seem to be getting another any time soon.

I would definitely go with Tmobile for better phone selection & price, but the service in my area is below average. Hopefully LTE rolls out to my area then I'll jump ships.
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I have to jump ship Verizon breaking my bank bad got to pay a fortune to keep service . I gotta switch back to my iPhone I know -_- and go to T-Mobile prepaid because they have the 1900 MHz support in my area
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If you go to a T-Mobile store they might be able to help you pay for your ETF fee, at least that's what they did for me. I would have to pay Verizon 150, but the rep just credited my T-Mobile account 100$ when I switched. He told me that this is something every store has a budget for. It's definitely worth a shot just asking the rep. It's saved me quite a bit of money so far (even if coverage isn't perfect)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I had T-Mobile and really liked 'em. They were NOT cheaper, I'm able to get on VZW's Old Fart Plan and it was just $5/mo more than the T-Mo plan I had.
CS is about equal with both except for T-Mo's prepaid which gets you people who speak no intelligible English, with postpaid you get good CS.
Coverage, very close to zero with T-Mo, everywhere I went. Only spotty coverage in the largest cities, VZW has 3g or better everywhere I travelled.
A phone that can't make a call until you find a Starbucks with free WiFi isn't useful to me.
Have your car break down on California 371 in the middle of the Cahuilla Indian Reservation? You're 50 miles from ANY T-Mo signal and you've got 2 - 3 bars with Verizon.
I really liked T-Mo but it wasn't usable for me.

for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.

I don't like Verizon's pricing, phone selection, and the hassle required to unlock their phones for international use.
That being said, I switched from t mobile to Verizon in 07 for one reason: coverage. I use to live in Philadelphia in an 5 floor apartment with a T-Mobile store like three blocks away. No coverage in my apartment unless I kept the phone by the window.
Now I live and work in north nj and Verizon is the only reliable wireless carrier (by word of mouth). Not sure how much has changed in six years but I would leave Verizon if anyone had coverage close to the theirs

topaz330 said:
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
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I tried 2 weeks ago, just to test their service and see how it was since I haven't been with them for 1 year and a half and its still sucky. They do have 4G (HSPA+) in my area now but I get 1 bar of it and when it dont get a strong signal it'll go to Edge. I hear a nearby area "might" get LTE in late June so that means my area "might" get it late 2013. I'm just waiting to see what happens...my contract is up in November for Verizon

My buddy has tmo and hates the service. He doesn't get service with his phone and winds up using his Verizon work phone 90 percent of the time to make calls.
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I had Verizon before I switched to T-Mobile. T-Mobile is cheaper, has just as good of support and a good selection of phones. However, Verizon does have better service so if you travel frequently expect some dead zones.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

I used to have T-mo and I loved it! The reception in my area was incredible. I moved to verizon and it's still in the same category in satisfaction. T-mo is a lot cheaper than verizon, so I would give it a try. You're not going to regret it. Sim cards are the best.

I recently jumped from Verizon to T-Mobile and pretty much all comments thus far are justified.
topaz330 said:
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
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They've added -some- sites in recent times, but the "re-farm" you seem to have heard about is primarily a massive equipment refresh for about 85% of the existing WCDMA sites. Unlike Sprint's Network Vision or AT&T's "add an LTE panel to an 8 year old WCDMA site" rollout, T-Mobile is doing a -complete- equipment refresh on said sites using either Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Base Station solutions or Ericsson's Antenna Integrated Radio setups. For the sites that get the new equipment, coverage could see a 10-15% improvement in coverage and in-building penetration due to each of the NSN/Ericsson setups having the radio at tower-top.
T-Mobile will do you well if you are a city-rat. The lack of rural expansion pre-AT&T failed merger was due to the cost of infrastructure and backhaul when the only spectrum you have is high-frequency (PCS/AWS). Even in areas of excellent coverage, there's still a few limitations: Deep inside buildings, attenuation -will- eat the signal. Terrain is another big one that affects all carriers... if you happen to be in a place where terrain blocks your line of sight, you're not gonna get a good signal. Now, the equipment refresh is to facilitate LTE, as both setups are capable of LTE-A out of the box. T-Mobile had to sit on their hands for 18mo and not do any proactive system/coverage upgrades due to the AT&T merger debacle, but it was a good thing as now that they have the money and spectrum from both the merger fallout and MetroPCS plus new equipment, they're good to go. So, depending on where you live, work, and play, T-Mobile could potentially be great...
but...
bbqsfire said:
My buddy has tmo and hates the service. He doesn't get service with his phone and winds up using his Verizon work phone 90 percent of the time to make calls.
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MiG8GT said:
I had Verizon before I switched to T-Mobile. T-Mobile is cheaper, has just as good of support and a good selection of phones. However, Verizon does have better service so if you travel frequently expect some dead zones.
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Unfortunately, when all you have is high-frequency spectrum to use and a network that hasn't seen significant expansion since 2009, this is going to happen. As with all carriers, one man's perfect signal might have a crap signal from another carrier in the exact same spot. Happened to me: with Verizon, could pull 30mbit LTE from bed, but at work I could kill an entire charge with light use because the phone had crap signal on all 3 services (1x EVDO and LTE(whose average speedtest at the desk was 2-3mbit down)). Meanwhile, terrain eats T-Mobile's WCDMA signal at my house(edge only), but I pull 3x the speeds on T-Mobile because of a near perfect signal than I could with Verizon at work.
If you have a friend with T-Mobile, treat'em to lunch and ask them to take a ride around town with ya to see how the service is where you go. Another option is to borrow someone's unused, unlocked T-Mobile phone and grab a sim, sign up for the $30 100min/unlim data&text online and carry that around with you for a bit.
For someone like me who -rarely- leaves metro areas when I travel, T-Mobile is great. For you, it could be different, just take the "ZOMG SPOTTY COVERAGE TMO SUCKS" with a grain of salt, and understand that no carrier is perfect everywhere, even if those comments for that individual are justified.
Forgot to add: T-Mobile won't see any WCDMA expansion for the foreseeable future since their current focus is on the equipment refresh on existing sites. The next round of expansion will come after the 600MHz auction next year.
Shoot me an IM/PM if you have any more questions.

Opposite for me, since Tmo coverage is awful for even making calls in a lot of areas where I live. I agree that they are easier to deal with, but lack of coverage in a lot of areas in Kentucky and Ohio nix them for me.

rushless said:
Opposite for me, since Tmo coverage is awful for even making calls in a lot of areas where I live. I agree that they are easier to deal with, but lack of coverage in a lot of areas in Kentucky and Ohio nix them for me.
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yes, I have Vzw, for two reasons, one they have good coverage nearly everywhere in the us and two data speeds are good. important if you need t use Google Navigator.

topaz330 said:
for those that had coverage issues how long ago did you have tmobile? I heard coverage recently got better and that they are aggressively expanding to more towers across the country.
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I have a T-Mobile S3 and Verizon Z10 for work, Verizon Bionic and TB for personal.
I get better coverage and internet speed on my Verizon devices than my T-Mobile.
I'm in Chester County, PA.

coverage
You could always do a bit of research for your expected area to see what the coverage is like across the various carriers.
www dot opensignal dot com
As if the captchas and relogins aren't enough, I can't friggin post links either.

I've started to take a hard look at T-Mobile and seriously thinking of switching when my contract end on Verizon. I live in southern NH and work in MA. There are T-Mobile 4G towers close to my house and work, but my commute would be mostly 2G.
Comparably, Verizon is mostly 4G in the area, a strong 4G signal at work, but at home I rarely get a 4G signal and half the time the phone will drop because of poor signal strength. There are 3G spots and some bare areas on my commute.
My step-son has T-Mobile and he get a strong 4G signal at our house. He also says he mostly has phone service in the area(drop spots) and data is mostly 2G. When you get closer to the highways or bigger tows / cities there is better service.

Verizon
T-Mobile is awesome, if you live in a coverage area, work in a coverage area, and/or go to school in a coverage area. Also, if you DO NOT EVER plan on traveling, or, at least, taking your phone with you when you go.... Their coverage is horrible compared to Verizon, but their prices are nicer, the packages are more appealing, and prepaid is way better. Really, it's just all up to you, and what you want.

I never had any problems while traveling with t mobile service I have gone from one end of the country to another with mine when I had them before and I'm looking to switch back only switched because I wanted to give Verizon a try not liking them way to pricey and crappy phone selection
Sent from my SCH-I535