• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

[Travel] T-Mobile Connectivity: Disappointed

Petrah

Petrah

Psychotic Female
We've recently been doing quite a bit of traveling. Back in August we traveled from Chicago to Gatlinburg Tennessee. We barely had any T-Mobile connectivity at all. Most of the time our phones had us on AT&T towers almost the entire way there, while we were there, and on the way back (we drove). :mad:

Back in December we took a flight to DC where we rented a car and drove to Charleston West Virginia to see Keith Urban. From the time we got off the plane till the time we got to the concert we had no T-Mobile connection. Sometimes we had E on AT&T towers, but that's as fast as things went the entire time. I was livid sitting in the civic center watching all these iPhone users on AT&T posting pictures of Keith Urban to their friends on G+ and FB while I was stuck with no connection. :mad:

We just got back yesterday from a 1 week vacation, only this time we decided to test the AT&T network (we signed up with Straight Talk, which I'll refer to as AT&T since that's the sim we chose). Since we were meeting my daughter there, we went ahead and got a 30 day sim from AT&T for my old Google Edition Galaxy Nexus and allowed her to use that phone so she could call, text and FB with her friends. We barely had T-Mobile connectivity even in Orlando. The AT&T connection on her phone was always full of bars with a good strong connection. After Universal Studios for 3 days we hopped a plane to Charlotte North Carolina and then to Louisville Kentucky where we then got a rental car and drove for 4 hours to Knoxville Tennessee to see Keith Urban again. We barely had any T-Mobile connectivity. The Galaxy Nexus had a good strong AT&T connection the entire time. While I was able to this time post pictures of the concert to my social sites, the T-Mobile connection sat on Edge and was annoyingly slow. :mad:

There were a few times where the GPS unit we had couldn't locate an address so we had to use the routing with Google Maps. Pfft. Not on the S4's with T-Mobile. We had to use the Galaxy Nexus with AT&T to get to where we needed to be.

Phones used during our trip:
Stock Google Edition Galaxy S4
Rooted w/CyanogenMod 11 Google Edition Galaxy S4
Rooted w/CyanogenMod 11 Google Edition Galaxy Nexus

Since we love to travel from time to time, we are seriously considering switching to AT&T. At this point it's no longer about the price or weather or not we have to sign a contract. We want good solid connectivity where ever we decide to travel (even up in the deep mountains of Tennessee AT&T works where T-Mobile is none existent).

If you do not travel and have a great T-Mobile connection, stick with T-Mobile. If you travel then being on T-Mobile is no different than being on Virgin Mobile/Sprint. It's crap. Verizon or AT&T will keep you connected for traveling.
 
Verizon has the best coverage out of the big four but you will be paying extra for that coverage. Same with AT&T except they don't have the coverage of Verizon but still have the same high prices.

It's all in the user. If you travel a lot, T-Mobile might not be the best choice for you. You might need to pay a little more money a month and switch to Verizon.

I get great 4G coverage in Columbus Ohio and I don't travel a lot. I travel to Michigan every so often to see family but it's not worth the extra money to switch to Verizon just so I get good coverage for the two or three days I'm there.

You also might want to go prepaid and get a separate phone for when you travel. Load it up with 500 minutes that doesn't expire (not sure which company does it) and use that when you travel. That way you're not locked into a 2 year agreement and still can keep T-Mobile.
 
chong67 said:
The only network where you can get 4G/LTE on the highway in between cities is Verizon.
Click to expand...

Correct. Which is why they cost more than the other carriers. They put money into more towers thus have the coverage the common traveler needs.

I just don't see paying $20-$30 more a month for this coverage when I rarely travel. I mean yes Verizon kicks T-Mobiles ass for 4G coverage but there are too many other things to worry about than getting fast internet on the road... like putting food on the table for my family.
 
That stinks. I don't travel much if at all within the US. All of my traveling is done abroad. Haven't had any issues yet outside of the US (fingers crossed).
 
Coverage just depends on where you are. Until a couple of years ago, I spent most days on the road in rural areas, mostly within 200 miles or so. In my area T-Mobile has very good coverage in the boonies. Only AT&T is maybe a little better. Verizon is poor in the country, Sprint is terrible. So farmers around here all use T-Mobile or AT&T.
 
You absolutely can travel with T-Mobile. It just takes a little planning. If you think you will need directions, get those before you leave and it will stay on your phone and you can turn on navigation even in a place with no network. GPS will still work and your phone will already have the directions on your phone. I traveled between the SF bay area and Vegas twice in the last month (driving) and I put my phone on airplane mode most of the time (because I don't want it to lose battery searching for signal) and got directions just fine.

As for concerts, I don't mean to be insensitive but when I go to a concert, I want to enjoy the concert rather than be reading comments on my posts on FB or G+. I can always post pictures when I get back to an area with signal.

Now if your travel destinations are more often rural than urban, yes T-Mobile isn't for you. But if you're traveling from city to city, you should be just fine.
 
Not to be mean but he doesn't want too he wants a network that works when he wants it too not play around its weakness like people who say they get great battery but have to have it in airplane mode when they aren't using at all.
 
The whole point of my post was to point out that it's possible, not that it's perfect. Of course there are tradeoffs, price being one of them. But there are no such thing as a perfect network, and a little planning can go a long way.
 
yfan said:
You absolutely can travel with T-Mobile. It just takes a little planning. If you think you will need directions, get those before you leave and it will stay on your phone and you can turn on navigation even in a place with no network. GPS will still work and your phone will already have the directions on your phone. I traveled between the SF bay area and Vegas twice in the last month (driving) and I put my phone on airplane mode most of the time (because I don't want it to lose battery searching for signal) and got directions just fine.

.
Click to expand...


that is a good solution. Unless you have to take an unknown detour. The phone won't reroute it only caches the route you picked.
 
trophynuts said:
that is a good solution. Unless you have to take an unknown detour. The phone won't reroute it only caches the route you picked.
Click to expand...

Actually it can cache maps of entire states and countries if you want. But yes, people don't do that. But you're assuming that you'll get off track on an unplanned detour, have no sense of direction, AND have no reception or a town in view. All of those factors are unlikely to happen simultaneously, even with T-Mobile's coverage.
 
yfan said:
You absolutely can travel with T-Mobile. It just takes a little planning. If you think you will need directions, get those before you leave and it will stay on your phone and you can turn on navigation even in a place with no network. GPS will still work and your phone will already have the directions on your phone. I traveled between the SF bay area and Vegas twice in the last month (driving) and I put my phone on airplane mode most of the time (because I don't want it to lose battery searching for signal) and got directions just fine.
Click to expand...

The way of doing things that is best for me is to have a solid working connection when I travel. Workarounds are for those who are happy to settle with what they get rather than what they pay for.

yfan said:
As for concerts, I don't mean to be insensitive but when I go to a concert, I want to enjoy the concert rather than be reading comments on my posts on FB or G+. I can always post pictures when I get back to an area with signal.
Click to expand...

Not to be insensitive, but my comments about weather or not I could do what I want at the concerts I pay for so that I could share my enjoyment live with my friends and family wasn't about you. ;)

yfan said:
Now if your travel destinations are more often rural than urban, yes T-Mobile isn't for you. But if you're traveling from city to city, you should be just fine.
Click to expand...

Traveling from city to city with my boyfriend and daughter while using T-Mobile wasn't "just fine". The connection was terrible on this trip and the last 2 trips. Hence my original post. :)
 
Petrah said:
The way of doing things that is best for me is to have a solid working connection when I travel. Workarounds are for those who are happy to settle with what they get rather than what they pay for.
Click to expand...
What you pay for with T-Mobile IS their coverage. Their coverage is not a secret. And actually, everyone compromises in one way or another. If you go with Straight Talk and ever need customer service, good luck. That is a compromise you will make. However, if Straight Talk with an AT&T SIM works better for you, no one is telling you to stick with T-Mobile despite what works best for you. But let's not act like you're not trading one compromise for another, though the compromise you are trading to may be more acceptable to you.

My point, once again, wasn't that driving with T-Mobile coverage is perfect, but that it's doable. Yes, it involves compromise, but that's a compromise I'm willing to make.

Petrah said:
Not to be insensitive, but my comments about weather or not I could do what I want at the concerts I pay for so that I could share my enjoyment live with my friends and family wasn't about you. ;)
Click to expand...
Certainly, everyone understood from your first post that you did not begin this thread to ask for help, but to offer opinion. You can't suddenly be surprised that others offer their opinions as well. :D

You have the right to want to enjoy your entertainment live with your family and friends and seek out a mobile service that enables you to do so, and I have the right to say that I have better things to do AT a concert I pay for - as in actually enjoying the concert rather than lighting up social networks.

Petrah said:
Traveling from city to city with my boyfriend and daughter while using T-Mobile wasn't "just fine". The connection was terrible on this trip and the last 2 trips. Hence my original post. :)
Click to expand...
Right, but then you made a blanket statement that if you travel, T-Mobile is "crap." A more precise statement would be that in *your* travel cases, T-Mobile coverage has been "crap." Assuming that applies to everyone (by making that blanket statement) is what I objected to.
 
Actually it was two people with two phones on T MOBILE that had no connection on 90% of 3 different vacations. This was from Chicago to Washington to Virginia all the way down to Florida, back to North Carolina and on to Tennessee and back to Chicago. I had 99% perfect connectivity on the third phone while on an AT&T connection. That sums up my original post.
 
@Petrah: My experience, with T-Mobile traveling around the Midwest from Colorado to Minnesota to Oklahoma and most everywhere in between has been much different than yours. Signal is available almost 100% along interstates and maybe 90% along other major highways. In the boonies it varies widely, but is generally good within 100 miles of the Kansas City area. AT&T is slighty better in rural areas, Verizon not so much and Sprint just sucks.

I spend a lot of time on the road and I'm very satisfied with T-Mobile coverage.
 
T-Mobile and their EDGE can be painful if you travel a lot. Especially in rural areas. It works great for me because I'm mostly in metro areas or flying between them. Even while I'm on the road I do at least have signal for good voice/text. It's just mostly EDGE for data. I'm pretty satisfied with the coverage for what I'm paying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom