Dropping Verizon for T-Mobile

[NickS VR4]

I'm nearly certain. According to the coverage map, I have excellent coverage for 4G LTE at my house. I travel frequently, and they have unlimited data world wide with unlimited minutes world wide.

The only thing holding me back is that I have grandfathered Unlimited Data on Verizon. I'm worried if I switch I won't like their coverage (dropped calls, maps not actually accurate, etc) and I won't be able to get my Verizon unlimited back again.

Anyone have opinions on the T-Mobile service as of recently? Anyone in the NYC area?

[stealthee]

If you look at the true coverage map you will see that Tmobile isn't as good as they advertise. They advertise "nationwide coverage" but their nationwide coverage is not 4g coverage.

T-Mobile Coverage Maps - 2G,3G and 4G LTE Coverage Map | OpenSignalmaps - OpenSignal (http://opensignal.com/network-coverage-maps/t-mobile-coverage-map.php)

[Alex3000gt]

Alls I know is that I had zero cell signal along I65 in Kentucky with Verizon.

The entire state.

[stealthee]

Alls I know is that I had zero cell signal along I65 in Kentucky with Verizon.

The entire state.

Kentucky and West Virginia sometimes get spotty for Verizon. If I recall Verizon doesn't officially offer service in West Virginia so the same may apply for Kentucky.

[arm0red1]

Fyi beauty of tmobs is no contract, so start service with an old compatible phone and see how you like it, if things go south- drop it.

You may have an extra large bill for a month, but verizon will drop you off their unlimited if you so much as utter "my plan"

(I was prev grandfathered in like you, i had also a corp discount for a company i prev used to work for, i left the company ergo lost the discount, but according to Verizon that counted as a change to my contract and I got booted from the grandfathered plan.)Tried staying on board with their newer limited plan anyway to just give it the benefit of the doubt but.......

- they retrodated my data use for when I was still on the unlimited grandfather plan for that month and THEN applied it to my new limited plan's balance .

-from there they said I had exceeded my limit and charged me 200 bucks for going over for my data amount by xyz amount.

...........i litearally was on the new plan 2 days before I got the bill and was capped on my data.

I never dropped a company so fast for that kind of gouging. I signed on with tmobile and couldnt be happier. No contracts, unlimited data, even for the lower tier plans (they just throttle when you hit your high speed cap) and If you consider how fast they're coming up to speed in the last few years with the new ceo, I'm liking the prospects.

So much cheaper

[Rom3BreaK]

I was considering doing the same, but dropping AT&T. I don't excessively use my phone/never hit my data cap, but im still using my first smart phone and thinking about updating to the galaxy s5. I stumbled across this interesting read when researching features:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2455011,00.asp

I also live/work in the tri-state area. I almost made this exact same thread...

Sent from my Motorola Atrix

[NickS VR4]

If you look at the true coverage map you will see that Tmobile isn't as good as they advertise. They advertise "nationwide coverage" but their nationwide coverage is not 4g coverage.

T-Mobile Coverage Maps - 2G,3G and 4G LTE Coverage Map | OpenSignalmaps - OpenSignal (http://opensignal.com/network-coverage-maps/t-mobile-coverage-map.php)

I tried this map before, and it only shows coverage on actual highways. It doesn't go into detail around my house. Also when I uncheck any of the 2g/3g/4g options, the entire coverage map disappears.

It appears there is a tower in my town though, because according to T-Mobile, I am in the strongest area.

[NickS VR4]

I was considering doing the same, but dropping AT&T. I don't excessively use my phone/never hit my data cap, but im still using my first smart phone and thinking about updating to the galaxy s5. I stumbled across this interesting read when researching features:

The Samsung Galaxy S5's Most Dangerous Feature | News & Opinion | PCMag.com (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2455011,00.asp)

I also live/work in the tri-state area. I almost made this exact same thread...

Sent from my Motorola Atrix

I disagree with the article. Download booster means that you have access to Wifi. Why use both, when you can just leave wifi on, and be 100% on that when its available. Download booster would be more for those with unlimited data that just want faster download speeds.

Also, a lot of the wifi locations listed probably require some sort of log on before you can actually download data with them.

[sketch]

i've been using t-mobile for ~10 years now without issue. the places where i've notice where i have little to no coverage while traveling around the country were also spotty at best for my companions on sprint, verizon, etc. sometime 5-6 years ago I was traveling from boston to southern NJ and was able to tether my laptop to my cellphone and play poker online the entire trip with only one drop in connection (at the CT & RI border).

I also live in the north east, which generally has great coverage for all of the major cell carriers.
If you have an android phone with t-mobile, you have built in wifi calling (and texting) which gives you service whenever you are connected to a wireless network. this is different from a hotspot in one regard - if you were to go between cell tower and hotspot while on a call, the connection will carry over. if you were to go between wifi and cell tower (i.e. you move out of wifi range), the call will drop. only a minor nuisance at best.

with all this being said, T-mobile is currently the most progressive of all of the cell carriers that i have found, both on the customer & customer service sides as well as with their own infrastructure. AFAIK they are the first US cell carrier moving toward supporting LTE-A (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced) support and improving/expanding their current national infrastructure. LTE-A (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G#LTE_Advanced) is the next step toward legitimate 4G coverage. what is currently called "4G LTE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G#Forerunner_versions)" is more accurately actually named 3GPP Long Term Evolution as it is an advancement of 3G protocol.

tl; dr t-mobile is good.

[sergechronos]

Most carriers will let you try it for a couple days and return it if the service isn't acceptable (sometimes for free, sometimes they prorate for just the days that you used.)

I tried T-mobile here in East TN, but in the more rural areas it was crapola. Just not much GSM coverage out here.