norm join:2012-10-18 Pittsburgh, PA |
norm
Member
2014-Apr-18 9:52 am
Switching next weekI have a Nexus 5 on order and am switching from Verizon to T-Mobile next week. I'm excited. I really hope T-Mobile doesn't suck for me! | |
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| amarryatVerizon FiOS join:2005-05-02 Marshfield, MA |
Re: Switching next weekI switched last august after 15 years with VZW. Love what Legere is doing. This past year has seen more changes in the industry than the past 10 years combined. It was stagnant, now it's vibrant. My coverage definitely suffered, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. BTW I was in your area on business quite a few times in the fall (Shippingport) and T-Mobile has zero coverage there FYI. | |
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| | (Software) pfSense Asus RT-AC68 Asus RT-AC66
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Re: Switching next weekI love my T-mobile phone and speeds, I have good coverage in 99% of places I go so I'm happy. When T-mobile rolls out it's 700 Mhz spectrum, which they have in my area their coverage will be just as good in the tri-state area as AT&T or Verizon.
Though I know all areas don't have the kind of t-mobile coverage I have so it's still not a carrier for everyone. But hopefully with their turnaround and growth, they will expand. they already are turning focus to upgrading edge areas , which I don't have any around me, but will help more rural users a lot. | |
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| | norm join:2012-10-18 Pittsburgh, PA |
to amarryat
I've not been to Shippingport, PA specifically but I have been to the same county - Beaver - and I don't think it matters what carrier you have. Right now I have an AT&T phone and a Verizon phone. Both phones have terrible coverage outside of the immediate Pittsburgh area it seems like. Too many hills and lack of population, I guess. I am hoping the coverage map provided by t-mobile is accurate. I work from home full-time and it says my area has excellent coverage. | |
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itguy05
Member
2014-Apr-18 10:42 am
Re: Switching next weekCould be ok. I'm testing T-Mo in our area and plenty of areas they say "no service" I'll get 1-2 bars. Heck, I live in a "dead zone" according to them and can get 3-5 bars in the house and hold a call in our basement. Although we're in a GPRS/EDGE/HSPA/LTE area so I bounce from cell to cell a lot.
You may want to check out sensorly.com for user generated coverage maps. | |
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| | | | amarryatVerizon FiOS join:2005-05-02 Marshfield, MA |
Re: Switching next weekSome of that Sensorly data in the Moon to Shippingport area for T-Mobile was from me. | |
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| | | amarryat |
to norm
If it says excellent, you'll be okay. But in Shippingport, T-Mobile's coverage map says "satisfactory" I think. But there is zero coverage where I was and for miles around there. However both Verizon and AT&T had 5 bars of signal there on my colleagues phones. Back in Moon, T-Mobile had LTE. | |
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to norm
said by norm: I've not been to Shippingport, PA specifically but I have been to the same county - Beaver
said by norm: - and I don't think it matters what carrier you have. Right now I have an AT&T phone and a Verizon phone. Both phones have terrible coverage outside of the immediate Pittsburgh area it seems like. Too many hills and lack of population, I guess.
In the Pgh. region. VZW nee Bell Atlantic ROCKS! I don't know where your going in that region, but I've had EXCELLENT coverage there for decades. It rocks! And I've been to all the backwaters of Beaver, Washington, Westmo, Greene, and more counties.. Never had an issue with a VZW phone. Others, sure, nothing but paperweights.. ESPECIALLY deuTschMobile. In Dormont and my area down the road, and any other metro area, no problems. Outside that, paperweight. Till deuTschMobile fixes their #1 problem Coverage, COVERAGE, COVERAGEAND Brings back CARLY! They will be an also ran. | |
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| | | | norm join:2012-10-18 Pittsburgh, PA |
norm
Member
2014-Apr-20 8:35 pm
Re: Switching next weeksaid by TuxRaiderPen2:said by norm: I've not been to Shippingport, PA specifically but I have been to the same county - Beaver
said by norm: - and I don't think it matters what carrier you have. Right now I have an AT&T phone and a Verizon phone. Both phones have terrible coverage outside of the immediate Pittsburgh area it seems like. Too many hills and lack of population, I guess.
In the Pgh. region. VZW nee Bell Atlantic ROCKS! I don't know where your going in that region, but I've had EXCELLENT coverage there for decades. It rocks! And I've been to all the backwaters of Beaver, Washington, Westmo, Greene, and more counties.. Never had an issue with a VZW phone. Others, sure, nothing but paperweights.. ESPECIALLY deuTschMobile. In Dormont and my area down the road, and any other metro area, no problems. Outside that, paperweight. Till deuTschMobile fixes their #1 problem Coverage, COVERAGE, COVERAGEAND Brings back CARLY! They will be an also ran. I work from home in the Mt Lebanon area. I used to travel a lot but job changes nixed that. I think t-mobile will work out well. I hope... | |
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| | ka @frontiernet.net |
ka to amarryat
Anon
2014-Apr-18 11:24 am
to amarryat
Im with you. I was an avid Verizon supporter. I was grandfathered for unlimited data. But they kept putting restrictions on new phones and having additional lines. The coverage sucks for Tmobile admittedly (visited my parents on Maui and it said they had coverage, but there were deadspots). But in Portland, OR, coverage is good. Go TMobile. Hope they get more 700Mhz in Oregon from Vulcan wireless or buy 600Mhz next year for the entire country! | |
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Mr Guy
Anon
2014-Apr-18 8:27 pm
Re: Switching next weeksaid by ka : Hope they get more 700Mhz in Oregon from Vulcan wireless or buy 600Mhz next year for the entire country! T-Mobile does not care about anywhere outside the big cities. They have spectrum for rural areas now they just choose to not service those areas. Getting 600 MHz spectrum won't change that. if you don't have T-Mobile service now you're not going to have in 10 years. | |
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| | | | WhatNow Premium Member join:2009-05-06 Charlotte, NC |
WhatNow
Premium Member
2014-Apr-19 11:13 am
Re: Switching next weekThat may not be true I know they are going upgrades in the small town rural area I work in. It may not be AT&T or Verizon coverage but they are increasing their foot print. It takes time to get new antennas on line. The same could be said about AT&T and Verizon a few years ago. That is why Verizon bought most of Alltel and AT&T bought the rest. It filled in holes. It just takes a year or longer to make the changes at at thousands of towers across the US. The other change for many carriers is when one carrier at a multi-carrier tower goes to fiber it is there for the other carriers to switch too when they do an upgrade. | |
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to Mr Guy
That's what I don't get...instead of fighting for scraps in the city, why doesn't T-Mobile (and by extension, Sprint) go rural?
They'd have a captive, loyal, audience that would put up with nearly whatever level of service T-Mobile would be willing to provide, sounds like a win-win to me.
Or, they can keep dealing with the cities where people have tons of choice and at any time can say "forget this I'm switching back to AT&T/Sprint/Verizon/any of a million MVNOs that operate in my area". | |
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to Mr Guy
That's not really true or and you sure don't know the future. It's a result of the fact that T-mobile has no sub 1 Ghz spectrum until the recent purchase of 700Mhz from Verizon and that's only in certain markets and the fact that it's the smallest of the 4 carrier's.
They have in the past put a focus on urban areas because that is where they get the most bang for their buck and they need to be profitable to get the money to grow and It costs too much to build out the tower density you need with no sub 1 Ghz frequency in rural areas. Sprint, AT&T or Verizon wouldn't have been able to afford it either when they were smaller carrier's without access to lower spectrum.
This year and next year they are already starting to push the focus outside of their core urban areas by planning to upgrade all 2G only areas to LTE. The 700 Mhz spectrum will help in some areas to grow coverage. But they really need to get a decent amount of the 600 Mhz spectrum at auction to grow their rural coverage. | |
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| morboComplete Your Transaction join:2002-01-22 00000 |
to norm
I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and the Nexus 5 (from Google Play). Besides saving about $100 a month, 4G speeds with T-Mobile are improved over what Verizon had slowed to. I also enjoy the HD Voice when talking to another T-Mobile customer with a compatible handset on the same tower. | |
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PghTMobiler to norm
Anon
2014-Apr-18 6:17 pm
to norm
I switched to T-Mobile in October of last year, live and work in the Pittsburgh area, and also travel for business including international travel. I can't say more good things about using T-Mobile, I am a VERY satisfied customer. | |
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| | norm join:2012-10-18 Pittsburgh, PA |
norm
Member
2014-Apr-19 11:18 am
Re: Switching next weeksaid by PghTMobiler :I switched to T-Mobile in October of last year, live and work in the Pittsburgh area, and also travel for business including international travel. I can't say more good things about using T-Mobile, I am a VERY satisfied customer. That's awesome to hear. My girlfriend received her phone already, mine should be here in a few days. We're going to switch at the same time though so no personal experience yet. | |
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| SeleniaGentoo Convert Premium Member join:2006-09-22 Fort Smith, AR |
to norm
Look at their coverage map. I was happy with them in Massachusetts but then I moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas. City of 100k people and 2G in the entire area. This sucked for me before I got my Cox cable internet. Now it doesn't suck so bad and I decided to stay with them. Coverage of said 2G is very good here and voice quality still sticks it to AT&T, plus I like what the CEO has been doing with the company, which I can't say of the other big 3. So deciding to still support them, though I do hope they meet their goal of covering all 2G areas with LTE by mid 2015. | |
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ATLnexus to norm
Anon
2014-Apr-18 11:15 pm
to norm
I dropped VZW after more than 15 years. I'm now on T-Mobile with a Nexus 5. Its only been 3 weeks but so far so good. | |
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Hyperbole
Anon
2014-Apr-18 10:09 am
AT&T grows 28% to TMO 15% and this is a TMO win?? Why?Looks like consumer advocates are over-reaching for a consumer victory if they think TMO 15% growth is better than a purported consumer unfriendly AT&T's 28% growth.
Of course, growth in customers is GOOD for both companies, but treating a smaller growth rate as a big win sounds like some groups are buying in to TMO PR hyperbole. | |
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6 recommendations |
Re: AT&T grows 28% to TMO 15% and this is a TMO win?? Why?What parts of "TMO's growth gained," "'at&t's growth slowed" and "not staggering" did you miss?
Jim | |
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Hyperbole
Anon
2014-Apr-18 12:43 pm
Re: AT&T grows 28% to TMO 15% and this is a TMO win?? Why?said by jseymour: What parts of "TMO's growth gained," "'at&t's growth slowed" and "not staggering" did you miss? I didn't miss any of it. And what part of 28% growth is better than 15% growth did you miss? | |
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| | | Jim Kirk Premium Member join:2005-12-09 49985 |
Jim Kirk
Premium Member
2014-Apr-18 10:11 pm
Re: AT&T grows 28% to TMO 15% and this is a TMO win?? Why?Still own that AT&T stock, TK? | |
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| (Software) pfSense Asus RT-AC68 Asus RT-AC66
2 recommendations |
to Hyperbole
It's good because T-mobile is picking up steam and gaining more customer's faster. The fact that their growth rate is increasing shows they are doing the right things to get more subscribers. No one said T-mobile was the #1 carrier, just that it signals that they are doing the right thing | |
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| | openbox9 Premium Member join:2004-01-26 71144 |
openbox9
Premium Member
2014-Apr-18 7:54 pm
Re: AT&T grows 28% to TMO 15% and this is a TMO win?? Why?said by MovieLover76:The fact that their growth rate is increasing shows they are doing the right things to get more subscribers. Any customer adds are good. Lets see what churn rates are with the big two to see if T-mobile is affecting them. | |
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| | | WhatNow Premium Member join:2009-05-06 Charlotte, NC |
WhatNow
Premium Member
2014-Apr-19 11:27 am
Re: AT&T grows 28% to TMO 15% and this is a TMO win?? Why?The only problem TMO may have is are they losing money on each gain. You can do that to build a base but at some point you have to make money. It is nice to see TMO shake the bushes. Hope they keep it up. | |
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to Hyperbole
It would be surprising to see most of that growth in the post paid category. Prepaid accounts are growing by leaps & bounds (probably attributable to the youth market)-- since the 2-year contract subsidies are going the way of the dinosaur, yet ETF fees are double what they were 10 years ago( eg, $100 - 200 subsidy, yet $300 - $400 ETF, WTF). You get better terms renting a car than signing up for a cell phone contract.
Either way, neither company seems to have cut prices enough to SUSTAIN growth. They don't seem to compete with tracfone allowing smart phones on their $20 -$100 tri month or $100 -$200 yearly plans which have buckets of minutes, texts & data. You would have thought TMO would do this on their MetroPCS, but nothing yet.. they are too busy buying customers out of their ETFs.. However, I don't see enough of a cost saving to keep customers loyal, especially if the QOS declines. AT&T sees the end game.. TMO won't have enough cash to BUILD and buy out customers for long... one or both will have to stop over time... and this only serves the customer interest for a short time, so take advantage of it if it benefits you.. I'm sure ATT matches prices on a case-by-case basis too which is inclusive of that 28% number.
Verizon plays the same game as the retail gasoline station.. up like a rocket, down like a feather in terms of pricing. When you own ~36% of the marketplace you tend to have a bigger cushion. So far it's yet to hurt them because AT&T tends to rubber stamp most price and/or terms of service collusion. How long the FCC and/or DOJ will let this go unchecked remains a mystery... | |
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1 recommendation |
Interesting Conversation w/a VZW Rep The Other DayI was doing some plan maintenance for the Corporate wireless plan, the other day, when I was offered something that VZW never used to offer. I chuckled and said to the CSR "You guys never used to offer that. That's funny. You know who's responsible for that?" There was a pause, then the CSR said "T-Mobile?" Jim | |
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Guzzler
Member
2014-Apr-18 10:26 am
CarefullI'm with T-horrible.
All I can say is DON'T buy a phone from them. They are notorious for ending support (EOL) for a phone faster than any other carrier if the phone didn't sell well. This includes firmware and OS updates. | |
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itguy05
Member
2014-Apr-18 10:40 am
Re: Carefullsaid by Guzzler:I'm with T-horrible.
All I can say is DON'T buy a phone from them. They are notorious for ending support (EOL) for a phone faster than any other carrier if the phone didn't sell well. This includes firmware and OS updates. So buy an iPhone or a Nexus and problem solved. | |
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Re: CarefullIndeed. Even Samsung Galaxy S / Note series phones have gotten pretty decent support over time. You don't need to buy a brand new phone to get up-to-date support either. The Nexus 4 is still a great phone, supports LTE on T-Mobile (unofficially. got root?), and sees strong support to this day from Google and the Android Community. Speedtest from Nexus 4: Proof Shot 1Proof Shot 2 | |
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to itguy05
Or a HTC 1 and a S4 or S5 ! Done | |
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1 recommendation |
We lose money on every sale......but we make it up in volume!
While T-Mo's market shakeup (yeah, right) is fun for bloggers and pundits to write about, it's mostly a last-ditch attempt to keep T-Mobile from going under in a sea of Sprintesque coverage and performance failures. Funny part is while they continue to try to lure new customers they continue to treat the ones they have (me, for instance) like crap. | |
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FureverFurryRIP Daphne: 3/12/05 - 6/19/12 Premium Member join:2012-02-20 49xxx Zoom 5341J ARRIS WBM760 Vonage VDV-21
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Love T-mobile !!Only recently "switched" (if you want to call it that, from Net10 prepaid) and I love, love, love my service via contract with them. Customer service/tech support has been 99% fantastic: friendly, knowledgeable and well -- great. Just one numpty person, but that happens. I *did* have to call them alot as I am a smartphone newbie.
Only bit of discouragement is that a lot of their "test" phones for troubleshooting have not upgraded to KitKat so it makes for a bit of a challenge.
I give them kudu's for both going the extra mile for customer service AND having decent rate plans. I have their $70/mo unlimited data.
My biggest complaint is their gosh awful 'hold' music. If you're young and like "bouncy" and loud music, you'll love it. Otherwise, ask your CSR to put you on a silent hold, lol. | |
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Mr Guy
Anon
2014-Apr-18 4:44 pm
Losing money is working?Gains 1.6 million customers in quarter 4 still lost $20 mil. Verizon gained the same 1.6 million made $5 billion. Which company actually has future? The fact they had to jack up unlimited plan rates 14% and get rid of corporate discounts shows it's NOT working very well. Also I'm not sure how forcing customer to pay full price for their devices is "customer friendly". Oh gee thanks T-Mobile for making me paying an extra $400 for my device. How nice of you. | |
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bkerensaBenjamin Kerensa join:2002-07-14 Portland, OR |
T-Mobile is crazy.... Crazy goodI have to say I have been with AT&T which was decent but spotty where I needed it and cost a lot. Then Sprint which was cheaper but terrible everywhere I went and so I had been seeing the T-Mobile Deal to buy out my ETF and switch and was skeptical.
We ended up switching to T-Mobile last week and I now have better service in all the places I go and the pricing is really decent and especially once you pay off your phone. Plus they gave us a free year of tablet data.
So far a great experience! | |
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happy
Anon
2014-Apr-19 10:28 am
Happy CamperI was having audio related issues with my phone when the tech noticed that my signal was not great. I live in a 1950's home with plaster walls built out of chicken wire. I was offered a Cel-Fi network booster without even knowing they provided such a thing and now I get constant 5 bars both inside and outside my home. I could not be happier with their support. | |
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misael maya
Anon
2014-Apr-20 7:29 am
T Mobile is greatI had T Mobile since last January | |
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nexus 5 user
Anon
2014-Apr-20 5:05 pm
nexus 5I have the n5 and its a beast of a phone. The only thing that sucks is cell coverage in my area. A free signal booster from T-Mobile changed that real quick. | |
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(Software) pfSense Asus RT-AC68 Asus RT-AC66
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I'm a happy camperCoverage in NJ is great, LTE everywhere I go normally. And it's faster than any other carrier in my area. a little farther out I once and awhile drop to HSPA and very very rarely 2G. T-mobile coverage isn't for everyone, in all places but they are working on growing coverage and upgrading 2G areas to LTE. | |
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