Thinking about leaving VZW for T-Mobile

[new optimus]

Not a bad deal for $45. I've seen t-mobile and AT&T Sims but didn't know they had all 4. Nice.

As I mentioned though you could not take your verizon s4 and expect to use it under straight talk/verizon towers, they dont let those phones on the network.

They limit the cdma byod to old 3g only phones. Or at least they did, but heck this could have changed too.

Though from what I have been reading the verizon s4 does have both att and t mobile gsm frequencies, so you could technically put a att sim into the verizon s4 and run straight talk on it.

 

[Peaches037]

For those of you who are looking to switch to T-Mobile but have a contract you can't afford to break.. Here is an interesting rumor to look into.

Peaches Galaxy Note III

 

[Bodycount]

I really hope Sprint doesn't merge with T-Mobile. My work uses Sprint for their cellular phone service and everyone who has one always complains about dropped calls or not getting texts for hours then all of a sudden five show up at once. My work had to buy a booster network that runs off IP just so people would have signal in all of our buildings.

 

[Shabbypenguin]

its rumored to help families switch. youll need to trade in your previous carriers devices and it will be a credit on your tmobile bill, not actually paying the etf.

 

[kate]

its rumored to help families switch. youll need to trade in your previous carriers devices and it will be a credit on your tmobile bill, not actually paying the etf.

If I was a year into a contract I'm not sure I would want to trade in a $600 phone (that could be sold for $400) to have T-Mobile pay my ~$200 ETF.

I wonder how many people will buy a cheap used phone to trade in instead, and if T-Mobile would be able to verify which phone you were using.

 

[new optimus]

I agree, and depending on the phone like the S4 you could just reuse it with t mobiles service too.

 

[mogelijk]

If this ends up being Uncarrier 4.0, it will be interesting to see the details. For those worried about having more phones that they can sell for more, it isn't like T-Mobile is going to require you to use the program -- so sell your current phone (or keep it) and go ahead and make the move.

I also suspect that the plan will not require you to turn in a phone for every new line, if you do want to take advantage. Instead, my guess would be that you could turn in the cheap phones for credit, but keep your better phones. Again, it will be interesting to see what the details are.

I also question how cost efficient it will be to buy a phone to turn in for credit, though maybe it will be if they require you to turn in a phone for every line you're starting (though I doubt it). I say this because T-Mobile will likely require you to purchase a phone for every phone you turn in; meaning if you want to keep using your old phone, and buy one to turn in, you would then be required to buy another phone you wouldn't use. I suppose if it is worth it depends on how much you pay for the phone you are turning in, and how much credit you get for turning it in.

 

[trophynuts]

i bought a prepaid Tmo sim today to try out for 30 days. As expected the signal is really bad at my house. All carriers have issues here. Tmo's is a little worse than VZW's though. I have another spot in town i want to try out and compare. I'm using the sim in my VZW Iphone5. So i'm not getting LTE only 4G and below. I'm fine with that though. LTE isn't as important to me as being able to make a phone call.

 

[jhawkkw]

i bought a prepaid Tmo sim today to try out for 30 days. As expected the signal is really bad at my house. All carriers have issues here. Tmo's is a little worse than VZW's though. I have another spot in town i want to try out and compare. I'm using the sim in my VZW Iphone5. So i'm not getting LTE only 4G and below. I'm fine with that though. LTE isn't as important to me as being able to make a phone call.

The reason you probably only get 2G is because the Verizon iPhone 5 doesn't support T-Mobile's main HSPA frequency. T-Mobile calls HSPA "4G" even though it's really only 3G (AT&T does the same thing). The Verizon iPhone 5 only supports 1900MHz HSPA which is the secondary band only available in areas with LTE coverage. Since it doesn't support the 1700/2100 HSPA frequency, and there's no LTE there, you'll only get EDGE. You should try using a device that supports this frequency before you rush to judgement about the coverage there because it might turn out you're well covered (like their map says).

 

[trophynuts]

Maybe you're missing my point. Which is overall for voice calls the signal is worse on Tmo. I don't care about accessing HSPA+ or LTE at this time. As that is mainly for data. When i'm at home i'm on WiFi but i would like to know i can make a stable phone call. Currently with VZW i have a network extender at my home that remedies that. Without it i would get 1 bar of VZW edge service, With Tmo it fluctuates between 1 bar of 2G and the words "no service". Also i get great Tmo 4G service when i'm in the city area.

 

[Shabbypenguin]

inside my house i have terrible tmobile coverage myself, i use the wifi-calling on tmobile phones to remedy that. once im outside of my place and go anywhere else i have amazing 4g coverage. so as long as i have wifi working well im set at home

 

[trophynuts]

inside my house i have terrible tmobile coverage myself, i use the wifi-calling on tmobile phones to remedy that. once im outside of my place and go anywhere else i have amazing 4g coverage. so as long as i have wifi working well im set at home

let me ask you this. what do you do when you are away from home or wifi , lets say a non rural area ( maybe think a back road going somewhere ) how do you make calls then if the service is bad? Is it something that you just deal with? do you have areas that are actually so bad it says "no service" for your signal?

 

[Shabbypenguin]

there is where i do everything, i dont really travel outside of that red box much. the most i travel is about an hour south for xmas/thanksgiving etc and even there i have lte coverage. as i said im lucky enough i am covered as soon as i step away from my house, inside i have wifi and wifi calling. as a stay at home dad with my wife taking the car to work 9-6 every day, doesnt leave much time when im not on my home wifi .

the only place i go is wadley alabama that has no cell service except cell southern linc, and i dont think ill be going back within a few years.

 

[NYCHitman1]

there is where i do everything, i dont really travel outside of that red box much. the most i travel is about an hour south for xmas/thanksgiving etc and even there i have lte coverage. as i said im lucky enough i am covered as soon as i step away from my house, inside i have wifi and wifi calling. as a stay at home dad with my wife taking the car to work 9-6 every day, doesnt leave much time when im not on my home wifi .

the only place i go is wadley alabama that has no cell service except cell southern linc, and i dont think ill be going back within a few years.

I have to agree. I don't travel to rural areas. I'm always in a major metropolitan area where service is never an issue. The fact is that I haven't been anywhere yet that has made me second guess signing up with T-Mo. I have lightning fast LTE everywhere I go, plus the ability to use mobile data (HSPA/HSPA+) while on a phone call. Even when I go overseas, I love the fact that I can just pop a SIM into my phone and not have to worry about being phoneless.

 

[new optimus]

I have to agree. I don't travel to rural areas. I'm always in a major metropolitan area where service is never an issue. The fact is that I haven't been anywhere yet that has made me second guess signing up with T-Mo. I have lightning fast LTE everywhere I go, plus the ability to use mobile data (HSPA/HSPA+) while on a phone call. Even when I go overseas, I love the fact that I can just pop a SIM into my phone and not have to worry about being phoneless.

I too mainly stay in Jacksonville Florida, and the service is excellent. I have traveled down I95 and I4 through Orlando and over to Tampa, I have gone down to Miami I have lost 3g, Phone was on edge in some of the areas, but I never lost phone service.

 

[trophynuts]

there is where i do everything, i dont really travel outside of that red box much. the most i travel is about an hour south for xmas/thanksgiving etc and even there i have lte coverage. as i said im lucky enough i am covered as soon as i step away from my house, inside i have wifi and wifi calling. as a stay at home dad with my wife taking the car to work 9-6 every day, doesnt leave much time when im not on my home wifi .

the only place i go is wadley alabama that has no cell service except cell southern linc, and i dont think ill be going back within a few years.

thanks for the info...side note. I used to go down to Indian Rocks Beach every year in the summer for family Vacay. I had an uncle that lived there.

I have to agree. I don't travel to rural areas. I'm always in a major metropolitan area where service is never an issue. The fact is that I haven't been anywhere yet that has made me second guess signing up with T-Mo. I have lightning fast LTE everywhere I go, plus the ability to use mobile data (HSPA/HSPA+) while on a phone call. Even when I go overseas, I love the fact that I can just pop a SIM into my phone and not have to worry about being phoneless.

I travel out of the country too so this also is on my mind. However i can already use other carrier sims in my VZW Iphone5 now. I have done it in Germany and when I was in Korea and Australia i could have done it there also. I think though with T Mo the international benefits are better/cheaper than VZW.

 

[NYCHitman1]

I travel out of the country too so this also is on my mind. However i can already use other carrier sims in my VZW Iphone5 now. I have done it in Germany and when I was in Korea and Australia i could have done it there also. I think though with T Mo the international benefits are better/cheaper than VZW.

Can't go wrong with no additional roaming charges

 

[trophynuts]

Can't go wrong with no additional roaming charges

true..which is why i don't use my phone internationally with my VZW sim. In germany i bought a 25Euro prepaid nano sim from a local VodaFone store. Worked like a champ and VZW didn't know the difference.

 

[LuvMusic]

true..which is why i don't use my phone internationally with my VZW sim. In germany i bought a 25Euro prepaid nano sim from a local VodaFone store. Worked like a champ and VZW didn't know the difference.

Left VZW for TMo yesterday, mainly to take advantage of free international roaming and data......much easier this way versus rotating SIM cards.

Live in the Chicago area and did a speed test last night in my house with my new TMo phone (Xperia Z1s). Got 26Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. So, down speed looks great....up speed not so good, I suspect TMo is working on it.....though I don't need uploading very often.

 

[NYCHitman1]

Left VZW for TMo yesterday, mainly to take advantage of free international roaming and data......much easier this way versus rotating SIM cards.

Live in the Chicago area and did a speed test last night in my house with my new TMo phone (Xperia Z1s). Got 26Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. So, down speed looks great....up speed not so good, I suspect TMo is working on it.....though I don't need uploading very often.

Let me know how you like that Z1s, I was curious how the camera would perform.

 

[DirtyDee]

Left VZW for TMo yesterday, mainly to take advantage of free international roaming and data......much easier this way versus rotating SIM cards.

Live in the Chicago area and did a speed test last night in my house with my new TMo phone (Xperia Z1s). Got 26Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. So, down speed looks great....up speed not so good, I suspect TMo is working on it.....though I don't need uploading very often.

You sure you were on LTE or h+42 because looks a lot like h+42

 

[LuvMusic]

You sure you were on LTE or h+42 because looks a lot like h+42

Well the indicator in the status bar indicated 4G. Just tested again and got similar download speeds but uploads improved to 3 Mbps.

 

[Bodycount]

Well the indicator in the status bar indicated 4G. Just tested again and got similar download speeds but uploads improved to 3 Mbps.

reboot the phone and try it again. I know with mine bandwidth speed slows down the longer the phone is on without a reboot. When I first got my Note 3, I tested it over wifi and at work I was seeing 120 meg download and 50 meg upload speeds. Tested it the next week and both were under 5 meg until I rebooted which it went back up again.

 

[new optimus]

Well the indicator in the status bar indicated 4G. Just tested again and got similar download speeds but uploads improved to 3 Mbps.

You need to look at the about phone information, many pure android roms are putting 4g up for lte but most tmobile/att are still using 4g to mean hspa, they use 4gLTE for lte.

This was with my systemui.apk edited so 4glte would show in the status bar

 

[Bodycount]

My network keeps switching from UMTS to HSPA+. Back and forth.

No clue why.