T-Mobile has a Huge Amount of Work to Do

T-Mobile's issue is that they don't know how to run a company. Their customer service is horrible and their coverage is non existent.

I will never go back. Ever.

T-Mobile's still seems shell shocked the merger with ATT failed. Sure, Deutch telecom received a huge cash infusion from the deal falling apart. However, T-Mobile appears to have had no contingency plan in place. Merely, Deutch telecom banked on the notion that the deal was a surefire close and killed all strategic planning. Now that we all are aware of their fate, T-Mobile is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Sure, the idea of unsubsidized phones to save money is inventive, but isn't groundbreaking.

20 dollars a month x 24 months is 480 dollars. Seeing the phone will cost you probably 500 or 600 for the latest model, you're good as locked into their service. That's unless, and highly improbably, they're going to sell jailbroke phones capable of going to another carrier. The odds other carriers are going to support the device is slim.

Here in the states, GSM is simply not as prevalent. It doesn't have the same coverage. The coverage that it does have, is barely acceptable at best. I'm continually amazed that it thrives at all. This article seems like proof that large swaths of the country simply don't have the coverage that CDMA based tech does.

Really don't see the point in continuing TDMA based headache inducing (for me anyway...), radio interfering (ever held a GSM/TDMA based phone near speakers when it rings?) mess of a technology.

T-Mobile is making some bold moves, and it looks like they think they can play in the big leagues. That's great, but, in order to compete with AT&T and VZW, you have to have a network that competes with them. Yeah, I know that people will say that T-Mobile users can roam in many places on other networks, so they don't need as much native coverage. Yes, they can, but it's a bad solution for two reasons: first, because that roaming could go away if contracts expire, and second, because, in those areas, T-Mobile can't sign up customers of its own. This second point matters, not only because it limits the numbers of customers T-Mobile can get, but it also is important because families and other groups of people often get the same carrier to take advantage of M2M. If some folks can't get a particular carrier because they don't have coverage, that lessens the chance that others will go for that carrier, even if they could get service.

For many years, T-Mobile has focused on urban areas, but I think they've hit their growth limit for that kind of business model. If they want to become a top-tier carrier, they have to build the infrastructure to match other top-tier carriers.

There are a number of issues TMO has:

1. TMO frequencies (while they now have MHz) are higher, not the juicy low frew spectrum like T and VZW have, so in rural areas this will require new equipment (like Sprint) to have a shot at similar coverage.
2. Verizon had "clear 700 Mhz" spectrum so it could simply lay out it's LTE and not have to refarm. Every other company has to do the juggling act, even AT&T. Impact: cost, time to market
3. TMO has to shift from 1700 to 1900 for 3G so it can then have roaming agreements w/ T in areas that it does not cover (or wont for a while) Even when that is done, 1700 will still need to retain 3G for backward compatibility, and that will slow LTE bandwidth for a number of years.
4. MetroPCS will give them the spectrum to cover the northeast adequately, so it will need to shut down the CDMA network ASAP. Put bluntly the NorthEast is where they can make the most revenue and it is the smallest landwise, so they will concentrate on that.
5. Customer service - Lipstick on a pig. To make the company look more valuable for AT&T, they lowered opex cost, and that means customer service went into the sh**tter. It's an easy fix, $$$.
6. As to roaming agreements, as part of the breakup T is FORCED to allow roaming agreements, so they know what those timelines are.

So all can complain, but there is significant work to be done, and DT still needs to run the numbers because there will be 4 MAJOR carriers competing for POPs, and that is too many. One of them will go away, and Softbank is not going to allow that to happen, so who is left? For those who study economics, it is VERY rare the more than 3 competitors in a commodity (which this is) market survive in a steady state.

Also, if TMO harmonizes frequencies w/ T on 3G they can shudder their 3G network faster (roaming agreements) and concentrate on rolling out LTE and in fact they will be rolling out LTE-advanced which is one step ahead of the other carriers, so watch out. It's a shell game. The next battle will be to have phones that can carry all of these LTE frequencies and LTE types.

They still think they are still in Europe with a small mass of land to cover.

It seems to me that since t mobile no longer subsides phone, they will sell less because people will be less willing to upgrade on the installment plan or will just get att phones of eBay and use them on mobile .

It's the only option for people who don't want your carrier to completely control you. That's changing slow now with Verizon's SIM card enabled 4G LTE network (they state they allow you to bring your own devices now)- but they won't allow anyone to bring over CDMA devices. Smh

I think selling loans for phones will be a good replacement for subsidies, and maybe make them some more money.

In 2010 and 2011, their customer support was ranked the highest. Then the AT&T deal made it all go to crap so now they are at the bottom. I've been with TMo since they were still VoiceStream. I've never had a single problem with their customer support because I've never had to use them. My bills always correct. My calls go through. There's no problem. The only time that I ever call them is to upgrade phones and/or plans. Call, say "Cancel" even though I have no intentions to, talk to retentions since they are the ones that can actually haggle on price/services/plans and they've always practically bend over backwards for me.

As for calling area, yeah, it's limited. If you want service in BFE, they aren't the company for you. 99.5% of my time is in major metro areas where cell coverage is not a problem. If you go in with the expectation that it's not universal coverage, and you're bill is significantly less than the other guys because of it, then it's fine.

I've never left. Ever.

I use prepaid GSM, either AT&T or T-mobile and GSM coverage overall is not as bad as you make it sound.

AT&T's GSM coverage is fairly widespread they cover 98% of the population, mostly with 3G or greater.

Only Verizon has more native coverage than AT&T. Sprint's native coverage is closer to T-mobile than AT&T but Sprint roams on the Verizon network.

T-mobile's GSM coverage is considerably less, but it works very well for people in populated suburban and urban markets.
I live in NJ and have no problems with T-mobile coverage and always have 3G/4G.

GSM worldwide is much much more prevalent than CDMA, with GSM you get better phone selection and more no contract options because of easily swapable sim cards.

It's $20 maximum a month, you're allowed to put as much down as you want, and the balance is divided equally over 20 or 24 months (I forget which it is). For instance, if you buy a generation old smartphone for $400 and put $100 down, it's $12.50 a month extra over 24 months. You're only as locked in to them as you want, and it's no different then previously. If you don't want to be locked in at all, go prepaid and pay full price up front. No lock in, but you also don't get free financing.Tmo has always had a fairly liberal SIM unlock policy. Even with that being the official policy, them bending the rules isn't unheard of if you are a customer in good standing. Just tell them you are going overseas and want to use the phone with a carrier there.

The other carrier supporting it is going to depend on what the phone supports. If the frequencies are compatible, there's no reason why it wouldn't work.

Selling the zero interest loans for phones is actually over the course of a contact cheaper for the customer and T-mobile.

It's a very good alternative, more carriers should provide it as an option, but most other carriers won't give up the extra cash they make on higher monthly bills that come with phone subsidies.

The part of Iowa I grew up in does not have native T-Mobile coverage, it is covered by a subsidiary called Iowa Wireless (now called iWireless) and if you travel outside the IWS ares, you roam on T-Mobile.

Verizon, Sprint, AT&T along with US Cellular have native coverage in that area. VZW even has good coverage outside of Cedar Rapids city limits (Robins area, which is very rural) as we had to go all the way there on the school bus to drop my friend off before coming back into town and VZW had good coverage there (this was back in 2001-2002 when I was in high school and cell phones only had voice and text-only messaging). My phone back then was a VZW prepaid Nokia 5185 and I had a Green Bay Packers faceplate on it (I still have the faceplate somewhere in my junk but the phone has since been discarded). I am wondering if that area today is covered by LTE or if it is EVDO-Rev A or even still 1xRTT considering the rural nature of that area. I used to go to camp at Camp Courageous of Iowa (special needs camp) and it was outside of Monticello, IA (I am willing to bet that the cell reception there is very spotty, especially on national carriers or is extended network). It is near Pictured Rocks county park.

The value plans are $20 cheaper than the classic plans. The most they finance is $20 a month. See a connection there? The net bill at the end of the month is the same or less for a customer without the subsidy then it is if they were subsidized on the current classic plan.

The benefit by going without subsidies is that it simplifies their plans by getting rid of 1/2 of them. If a customer wants to keep their own phone, not finance it, or get it from a 3rd party, they are able to and save.

xmarklive, Customers can pick up a phone cheap at Walmart. They recently had the Samsung Galaxy S-II on sale for $299 but there are others cheap as $39!

Don't forget that 3G GSM is WCDMA. CDMA on it's own is now old technologically.

Not sure about that considering various international markets have 4 to 6 carriers and a plethora of resellers.

The problem with our market is that its become an oligopoly. Tmobile is only a few dollars cheaper than the rest of them or is going down the unlimited equals value route too, that so many of our budget carriers are obsessed with.

In fact, when it comes to prepaid, Tmobile is very expensive. When AT&T and Verizon MNVO offer cheaper rates, the management should realize that they have strategy and pricing problem. Heck, in Tmobile's case, have they learned nothing from their other divisions like the UK.

With the exception of T-Mobile, no other carrier offers a discount for BYOD.

True, though you can get BYOD on AT&T if you go through a mvno.

GSM Buzz only happens in the Cellular band. PCS, which TMo uses, isn't susceptible to that.

True - but many GSM based service providers still use the older frequencies / channels for calls, esp. and more often in areas as the article describes; where there's no other choice.

On the flip side, CDMA based carriers employ the same tricks - in many cases, voice traffic can be separate from data channel, but not both at once.

As for worldwide coverage, yes, it's the "global standard for mobile" (GSM). Still, I must be sensitive to some of the implementations of it. Serious headaches resulted from use of GSM and/or TDMA based devices, and I don't ever want to deal with one again.

Sure, SIM card idea is neat in that it frees you from caring what device is in use, but it's a double edged sword too - if your phone gets stolen or lost, anyone can pick it up and use their card in it.

Hmm, swear I've got some old blackberries in a box that would say otherwise...

...and it's not AT&T or Verizon.

T-Mobile owns spectrum in two bands: PCS and AWS. Neither is good for rural coverage. Sprint has done an admirable job using their PCS in some rural markets, but T-Mobile has never gone heavily after those markets, and unfortunately I don't think it'll start doing so any time soon.

One poster mentioned mobile-to-mobile. M2M is dead. Unlimited voice to anyone is so cheap for the networks to provide that they're doing it to everyone...T-Mobile's Go Smart Mobile brand is offering unlimited voice and text for $30 per month. Verizon and AT&T include unlimited voice and texting on their shared plans. Sprint does not, but as a user of a Sprint smartphone plan, I hardly use any minutes because calls to any cell phone don't cost me.

In any case, T-Mobile is primarily an urban carrier. They have a lot in common with CricKet or MetroPCS, except they're national rather than regional. If you want coverage in semi-rural/rural markets (which includes all of Alaska, ND/SD, etc.), you'll be roaming. Now one can debate what that roaming should entail (I say that T-Mobile should lease, for cheap, their spectrum to their roaming partners in those areas so that it isn't going to waste), but the fact is that T-Mobile can't build a rural network to its standards (lots of backhaul, cell spacing tight enough to support AWS LTE) in anything more sparsely populated than a suburb.

Do I like this model? Sort of. As a customer, not really...I can't switch to T-Mobile because they've got GPRS where I spend 10-20% of my time (west of Austin, north of San Antonio). They could have 20x20 LTE in Austin with unlimited everything for $70 per month (plus phone costs...I don't care because I'd just get a Nexus 4) and it'd still be a hard decision. But, for folks who stay in cities 95% of the time it's not such a big deal, and that's why T-Mobile has the number of customers that it has now. And, thanks to the iPhone and network upgrades, they'll get more.

The global IMEI blocking list is going to solve the lost and stolen GSM phone issue. They're working on the America one now, and will push it globally soon. So they can't even ship your stolen phone overseas and have it work.

Well, would be nice if they actually started building out for sure.. Having ATT/Verizon as the two main providers in my area sucks.. Sprint has roaming for voice, but data is a no go at this station...

I have to say that in my experiences, T-Mo's customer service is very good. At one point, I got into a financial bind and needed extra minutes, and they gave them to me - twice! - free of charge.

I doubt that the Death Star, or VZ would have ever been so generous. +1 for T-mobile.

At least as of 2010 (the last time anyone I know even tried), VZW would gladly give you like "60 bonus minutes" a month for 6 months if you called in and said you were going to go over your minutes.

Most people don't even count minutes anymore, so I doubt this is too much of an issue, but back when minutes were at a premium (I did exactly this a few times in 2002-2005), they would always do it if you just called and politely asked.

Dunno who wrote this report and mention Nevada and Utah, but AT&T prepaid has absolutely no GSM coverage on I-80 in Nevada; T-Mobile does have native coverage, and AT&T post-paid customers indeed roam on T-Mo there. Not UMTS, but better than nothing; plus, it's not like that many people live there to warrant the expensive upgrades; EDGE would do for now, they could as well skip UMTS, and go straight with LTE on I-80 in Nevada (once other markets go live, that is).

Completely agree, T-mobile's spectrum is best suited for more urban markets. I think they should continue to focus on the more populated areas, like the Northeast where their coverage is good and they can probably steal some iphone users from Verizon,AT&T or Sprint. And were upgrades are more likely to net them more users per mile covered.

Once they get back on their feet, maybe they can look into lower frequency spectrum and rural coverage, but to focus on that now would just be a waste of money and resources.

Although, Due to the quality of the 4G network I wouldn't put them in the same boat as metropcs or boost as their networks tend to be very unimpressive.
I get speeds from 6 - 12mbps normally, which is a night and day difference from carrier's like metropcs. T-mobile does know who they are and for users like me, they are a great value.