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Review by ksharp250 See Profile

  • Location: York, York, PA, USA
  • Cost: $210 per month (24 month contract)
Very competitive priced multi-line plans, great overall price value
Very spotty/poor 4G LTE network coverage, most areas actually EDGE
Great price value for still very limited 4G LTE coverage

I switched to T-Mobile because my wife and 3 step-sons already had service through them and were in a current 4 line family plan contract for 24 months. I was on Verizon Wireless. Even before the switch over, I noticed that my Verizon connection in the York PA area was much more stable of a 3G/4G Data than all of their "supposed to be" 4G LTE smartphones/network. However my line alone with Verizon was costing us $128 a month plus her 4 line $175 a month. By adding a 5th line to her plan, we now pay a total of $225 a month for 5 lines. The voice quality is excellent, I have never experienced a dropped text or a missed call. Its trying to use mobile data playing a game or anything intensive that I see Tmobile's less than desirable experience.

THE GOOD:

Unlimited voice calling nationwide, and unlimited text messaging (including SMS/MMS messaging) across 5 devices for a solid flat price of $225 a month. They also state "*Unlimited" 2 GB data shared across 4 devices. This works out to being able to advertise "*Unlimited" data, talk and text for $45 a month per phone. That is VERY hard to beat with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint.

THE BAD:

"*Unlimited" 2GB Data on most all plans is VERY much up to interpretation. That gets split across 4 lines in our case leaving a monthly allotment of just 500 MB per phone before heavy throttling (EDGE network) kicks in. In most cases, TMobile does not have very many towers of their own with 4G LTE and must rely on piggy-backing off AT&T or Verizon towers to service "4G" in our area. Your device also matters very much, I have an older Samsung Exhibit II 4G phone and despite having a "4G" display, the actual data rate is very much sub-par. My sons newer Galaxy S3 performs more along the lines of what you expect of a true 4G...when he gets it. 500 MB of data is nothing; and no where near enough. If you want an actual 2 GB of data allotment per line, it will cost an additional $10 a month per line. We have that on my 5th line. But to get 5 lines with 2 GB per line, our monthly bill would edge closer to $270 a month.

THE UGLY:

The Ugly Truth Tmobile reps and stores will not tell you is this.

Because of no subsidized devices, your bill will heavily be affected by how much of the phone you pay for up front and how much you pay over the course of the 24 month contract. We have 4 $400+ value smartphones on our plan that was never paid for with more than $30 down. So we pay about $16-24 a month per device in "Equipment charges" until it is paid off. That accounts for almost 35% of our monthly cost.

They are very much behind their competitors in regards to 4G LTE network deployment and coverage. Most times the 4G LTE spectrum they offer customers is not their own but coming off a tower owned and operated by AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. Because of this, TMobile can market to customers that they offer 4G coverage on the coverage map that they have, but alot of that coverage is not from their own internally owned spectrum or towers.

Unlimited data is not true all-you-can-eat unlimited. You initially get 500 MB to 2 GB of 4G speed data (depending on your plan) per monthly bill cycle. When its up, you switch over to heavily throttled and restricted 2G EDGE speed. While that may still allow you to check Facebook or load up your online bank account app without too much issue, if you are like me and love to stream Pandora, Slacker Radio or play a graphic intensive Mobile Game...forget it. Wait until you can switch to WiFi.

Your overall Tmobile network experience will VERY MUCH depend on the device you own and use. All 4G phones are not created equal. Advances in processors, memory and radio technology improves with each new generation of smartphone. I have owned and used several devices in the past 2 years and you really do get what you pay for. The iPhone (any version 4 thru 5S) is by far the best WiFi device I have ever used. The 4G LTE speed data connection is very battery intensive on Tmobile because of the lack of true 4G everywhere, and the phone constant tower switching and going from 4G to Edge as I travel the 25 mile radius from my home. The newer Samsung Galaxy (3S and 4S) are really good experiences as well, but also suffer battery consumption from the constant network flip-flop it has to run. Older devices (2 years or older) are very poor performers on TMobile. My Galaxy Exhibit II cant spend 24 hours on a full batter and is on E (Edge) more often than it is 4G. And even when in a known TMobile 4G area, if I try and use Pandora or anything on the 4G, its spotty and poor performing.

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