[Q]How's T-Mobile Service & their Wifi-Calling? - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note II

Hi Guys, I posted similar post on N7100 asking about T-Mobile Service but since this is actual T-Mobile forum, I thought I could get better feedbacks.
I'm currently with AT&T and service isn't that bad other than extremely expensive plans and slow data speed on my Galaxy i9300. Most of the time on H+ I barely get 1 mbps so I'm thinking of jumping on carrier branded Note 2 with LTE/4G.
I would like to know how are your service with T-Mobile? I know it really depends on locations but generally is it good or bad? Also how is their Wifi-Calling? I absolutely need this since I won't be getting service at home. (AT&T is same, so I have MicroCell setup) Wifi-Calling seems lot more convenient since Wifi is every where now days. I know I could go to T-Mobile store and do 14 days trial but I rather skip that hassle and ask this awesome community
Hopefully I didn't take too much of your time! Thank you~

That is up to your coverage map but I would say that if your having issues with AT&T's hspa+ then T-mobile might not be a great choice but it all depends where you travel... The wifi-calling is an added bonus that I like to have! Definitely look up your address and see what "color" you live in and talk in and that will tell ya... I get fine service even when I only have one bar of signal strength but I'm sure that it varies by location and phone. Where I live AT&T has a much faster hspa+ network than T-mobile does but this is kind of a "dummy" line for me to play with... LOL I just have the $30 Walmart prepaid plan..

shojus said:
That is up to your coverage map but I would say that if your having issues with AT&T's hspa+ then T-mobile might not be a great choice but it all depends where you travel... The wifi-calling is an added bonus that I like to have! Definitely look up your address and see what "color" you live in and talk in and that will tell ya... I get fine service even when I only have one bar of signal strength but I'm sure that it varies by location and phone. Where I live AT&T has a much faster hspa+ network than T-mobile does but this is kind of a "dummy" line for me to play with... LOL I just have the $30 Walmart prepaid plan..
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Both carrier supposedly have good coverages where I live but I don't get any reception inside of home, which is pretty lame and drives me nuts!
I keep hearing wifi-calling being buggy on note 2? How's your experience with that?

I'm getting 15mb/s where i live (NYC and Long Island). Better than At&t and Verizon overall, especially for the price and free mobile hotspot. I have better service then other providers here too. WiFi Calling is also great

zen0s said:
Both carrier supposedly have good coverages where I live but I don't get any reception inside of home, which is pretty lame and drives me nuts!
I keep hearing wifi-calling being buggy on note 2? How's your experience with that?
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Wifi calling worked great with my note 2 until I lost my phone this morning!! Grrr

shojus said:
Wifi calling worked great with my note 2 until I lost my phone this morning!! Grrr
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What...!? O_O someone stole your phone? Omfg I'm so sorry to hear that man... I hope you had insurance on it, or hopefully gps tracking will help find your phone

wifi calling has worked great on my Note2 and was part of the reason I switched to T-Mobile... Verizon has 4G LTE where I am at currently; however, if they are having issues with their 4G network it is a huge PITA.... sending texts/calling over wifi is a huge bonus and definitely comes in handy

zen0s said:
Hi Guys, I posted similar post on N7100 asking about T-Mobile Service but since this is actual T-Mobile forum, I thought I could get better feedbacks. ...
Wifi-Calling seems lot more convenient since Wifi is every where now days. I know I could go to T-Mobile store and do 14 days trial but I rather skip that hassle and ask this awesome community
Hopefully I didn't take too much of your time! Thank you~
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Click to collapse
Wifi Calling is awesome if you can get a good wifi signal. At my home I get the speeds in my signature (11Mb/s down 4Mb/s up) and live in a full 4G coverage area. Where I used to live I barely got 2 bars of edge, which in that case I would use wifi calling exclusively. You do need a pretty strong signal with wifi calling (at least 2 bars) and a decent upload rate. Other that that it's great. I'd also recommend setting the preferred call method to cell (above wifi). That way you'll use cell always unless you have no coverage, then wifi calling will kick in, and it's very nice to see wifi calling when no one else can get a signal! Like others have said, check the coverage map! Where I live in Michigan AT&T stinks, my parents have them and can't get a signal anywhere. They are very jealous at my house when they have no signal and I have full 4G goodness! :good:

Related

Sending back my Tmobile TP2

not because i dont like the phone, but because i found tmobile's service to be vastly inferior compared to ATT. I have a way to get unlimited minutes via google voice, so i need fave 5, so i think i'll be switching to verizon.
Any eta on when the verizon TP2 comes out?
What exactly do you mean by vastly inferior? I think T-Mobiles serive is great and very cheap but it's all about the area you are in. You should always go with the carrier who has the best coverage in your area.
i'm in the MD/DC/VA area.
i'm driving through areas that tmobile reports Great coverage, but i'm still experiencing dropped calls, breaking up of reception, no 3g service (it drops to edge, or G). sometimes i can't transmit ANY data
when it works, it works great, but as i'm on the road quite a bit (realtor), i need something that i can talk on reliably. ATT isn't supposed to be that great, but i definitely value their service over what i got with tmobile. i'll have to wait for verizon
i thought tmobile would be a great option just because of their costs, but the service degradation isn't worth the savings to me.
Ever since one of my old jobs, something became quite obvious to me. No matter what service you have, if you are getting **** service, the price is of no relevance. **** is **** at any price.
I have no problems with it here in Southern California, but I do understand your needs. The one on Verizon won't be out till I think they were saying Oct or something like that.
kidvi said:
i'm in the MD/DC/VA area.
i'm driving through areas that tmobile reports Great coverage, but i'm still experiencing dropped calls, breaking up of reception, no 3g service (it drops to edge, or G). sometimes i can't transmit ANY data
when it works, it works great, but as i'm on the road quite a bit (realtor), i need something that i can talk on reliably. ATT isn't supposed to be that great, but i definitely value their service over what i got with tmobile. i'll have to wait for verizon
i thought tmobile would be a great option just because of their costs, but the service degradation isn't worth the savings to me.
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Should have filed a service request for more 3g towers in your area, Thats what I did
tarroyo said:
Should have filed a service request for more 3g towers in your area, Thats what I did
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Did it help? I don't know anyone that has had to do this, so no experience with it.
I am in the same situation, I am trying out the TMobile but here in Puerto Rico is not 3g yet but I really like the phone and Att doesnt look that are going to release it soon, if they actually are going to do it... ???
They're only focusing on more densly populated areas at the moment.
TheMan42 said:
tmobile doesnt and will not currently honor requests for 3G service in specific areas, and if youre having your doubts about my infomration, i work for the company. They're only focusing on more densly populated areas at the moment.
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Thanks for the info. Do they consider Puerto Rico a populated area? Do you know when they are going to launch it here?
According to T-mo I should be getting 3 bars (NOT) in my house but if I even pick up the TP2 I have no signal. I have repeatedly called to complain and all my neighbors also called with T-Mo to complain so after 4 months of *****ing they claim they are buying space on a tower close to me in 120 days (we shall see)...Tj
petitioning for better service isnt an option for me as i am within my trial period, and by the time they would act on it (if at all) the tp2 will be out on all the other carriers
gehzumteufel said:
Did it help? I don't know anyone that has had to do this, so no experience with it.
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It did 3 more towers were installed in my area, went from having 1 bar to full bars!
kidvi said:
petitioning for better service isnt an option for me as i am within my trial period, and by the time they would act on it (if at all) the tp2 will be out on all the other carriers
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I disagree, it took three weeks at most not months
tarroyo said:
It did 3 more towers were installed in my area, went from having 1 bar to full bars!
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Wow that is quite awesome. I should do the same in my area by my home. Signal is usually 1-2 bars, with it hovering around 1 bar more often than not.
I played with the TP2 on the T-Mobile 14 day trial. It was terrible! T-Mobile not the TP2! The phone is AWESOME!
Dropped calls, garbled calls, and the data is so slow you can’t get a connection half the time (browser timing out) and with Google maps the page refresh/update was so slow you would drive right off the page onto a blank screen even at moderate speeds around town. I travel around the country and it was no better anywhere. Even with 3G showing!
I’m with Verizon (not had hardly any issues with service) and plan to wait until they offer it, PLEASE DON’T START THE Verizon Vis …. Thing. Just stating an asked for opinion.
Rich
gehzumteufel said:
Ever since one of my old jobs, something became quite obvious to me. No matter what service you have, if you are getting **** service, the price is of no relevance. **** is **** at any price.
I have no problems with it here in Southern California, but I do understand your needs. The one on Verizon won't be out till I think they were saying Oct or something like that.
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Sprint is going to release the tp2 on Sept 8th so I don't think Verizon is going to release it no later than Sept.
Guess your mileage will vary...
Here in s fl, tmo works great for me. Had att some years ago, also good here. Tmo price and cs seems better to me. Got the unlimited loyal customer plan for $49.99month. Hard to beat that.
No dropped calls, ever, and the ph seems to ring for ever if I don't answer.
Web pages open fast.
I seem to get 3-4 bars H3g service most of the time around here. Never seen 5 bars though.
Here is a screen shot at my office showing 4 bars H3g.
Same thing here. I live in Tampa and I always have full bars with 3g. but then again I think Tampa is the 11th largest city in US so it would make sense we all have pretty good service over here. Most people here, that I know or come across have t-mobile. The only thing verizon is good for around here is Fios. what;s sprint? ;p; and at&t are for rich preppy kids who think theyre cool with their iphones. At least...thats the trend over here
apache1 said:
Guess your mileage will vary...
Here in s fl, tmo works great for me. Had att some years ago, also good here. Tmo price and cs seems better to me. Got the unlimited loyal customer plan for $49.99month. Hard to beat that.
No dropped calls, ever, and the ph seems to ring for ever if I don't answer.
Web pages open fast.
I seem to get 3-4 bars H3g service most of the time around here. Never seen 5 bars though.
Here is a screen shot at my office showing 4 bars H3g.
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apache1 said:
No dropped calls, ever, and the ph seems to ring for ever if I don't answer.
Web pages open fast.
I seem to get 3-4 bars H3g service most of the time around here. Never seen 5 bars though.
Here is a screen shot at my office showing 4 bars H3g.
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Your 4 bars is max signal, there isnt' a 5th bar.
btw, what is that a pic of for your background?
Rich W said:
I played with the TP2 on the T-Mobile 14 day trial. It was terrible! T-Mobile not the TP2! The phone is AWESOME!
Dropped calls, garbled calls, and the data is so slow you can’t get a connection half the time (browser timing out) and with Google maps the page refresh/update was so slow you would drive right off the page onto a blank screen even at moderate speeds around town. I travel around the country and it was no better anywhere. Even with 3G showing!
I’m with Verizon (not had hardly any issues with service) and plan to wait until they offer it, PLEASE DON’T START THE Verizon Vis …. Thing. Just stating an asked for opinion.
Rich
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thanks for the confirmation rich! i feel really bad because the customer service at tmobile is GREAT! unfortunately, the actual phone service wasn't good enough for my needs. i hate having to go back to at&t, but i guess i'm enslaved to them. i'm waiting for either verizon to get it, or att now as i know i will NEVER use sprint. i really wanted to use tmobile and hoped they would meet my needs

how's T-mobile connection in Chicago Area?

Thinking about switching to T-mobile in the SW Suburbs of Chicago; I'm on wifi most of the time, so data speed isnt important to me, but, we MUST have good phone call quality in our house.
Is this an issue for anyone in chicago land, or, if we get a phone that is "wifi capable", and we have a fast,strong, wifi network in our house, does this become a non issue?
We had ATT, which was no problem in the house, and recently switched to Sprint, with the hopes of a stong "Spark Network" here; well, one of our phones in Spark compatible, and works fine, but the other 2 phones are HTC One's, not spark "compatible", and have poor phone call quality and reception in the house. We are waiting on an AirRave front Sprint, but, if that doesnt work, we're ready to go to T-Mobile..
Sorry for this weird question here, but, I trust my buds on XDA to give a real report on stuff like this, NOT the people from T-Mobile
Thanks! :good:
What town are you in? I have excellent call quality in Posen/Oak Forest/Orland Park/Crestwood area. And LTE when available is super solid. Seen a best of 39MBPS in Ookla App. I also had ATT until recently. I really can say, that I'm happy I made the switch. I also know many ppl who are on sprint and constantly suffer from dropped calls and data connection issues, my house is a sprint problem area as well btw.
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I'm next to burr ridge/willowbrook, in an area called Timberlake.
My Sprint Airrave is supposed to be here tomorrow, and if it doesnt fix the problem, its tmobile and wifi calling for us!
We had Sprint for many years here, using an AirRave, and it was fine, but, a couple of years ago, their network went completely to hell, so we switched to ATT; after awhile, they were just bad to deal with, and Sprint announced this new Spark Network, in Chicago, so we thought, why not, its cheaper than ATT, and with this new network, it will be fine.
Problem is, if you dont have one of their 3 tri band phones,(which I have, but my wife/son do NOT), then making calls in some areas is horrible.
My wife works from home alot, and making calls for her is bad news, especially conference calls on Global Crossing, so if the Airrave, which uses wifi/internet to make calls, doesnt work, its t-mobile for us.
I understand that using wifi to make calls from you house with Tmobile is fantastic, and I have a great, Asus ac1900 wifi router in the house, which gives super fast and strong wifi, so I am sure that t-mobile wifi calls would be clear as a bell here!
thanks for the info :good:
wase4711 said:
I'm next to burr ridge/willowbrook, in an area called Timberlake.
My Sprint Airrave is supposed to be here tomorrow, and if it doesnt fix the problem, its tmobile and wifi calling for us!
We had Sprint for many years here, using an AirRave, and it was fine, but, a couple of years ago, their network went completely to hell, so we switched to ATT; after awhile, they were just bad to deal with, and Sprint announced this new Spark Network, in Chicago, so we thought, why not, its cheaper than ATT, and with this new network, it will be fine.
Problem is, if you dont have one of their 3 tri band phones,(which I have, but my wife/son do NOT), then making calls in some areas is horrible.
My wife works from home alot, and making calls for her is bad news, especially conference calls on Global Crossing, so if the Airrave, which uses wifi/internet to make calls, doesnt work, its t-mobile for us.
I understand that using wifi to make calls from you house with Tmobile is fantastic, and I have a great, Asus ac1900 wifi router in the house, which gives super fast and strong wifi, so I am sure that t-mobile wifi calls would be clear as a bell here!
thanks for the info :good:
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I live in Joliet, and I get great service. Always connected to LTE, and never lose signal. I get spotty service in my apartment, but that may be because I'm on the bottom floor of a 3 story building. It doesn't bother me though because wifi calling works like a charm!

how's T-mobile connection in Chicago Area?

Thinking about switching to T-mobile in the SW Suburbs of Chicago; I'm on wifi most of the time, so data speed isnt important to me, but, we MUST have good phone call quality in our house.
Is this an issue for anyone in chicago land, or, if we get a phone that is "wifi capable", and we have a fast,strong, wifi network in our house, does this become a non issue?
We had ATT, which was no problem in the house, and recently switched to Sprint, with the hopes of a stong "Spark Network" here; well, one of our phones in Spark compatible, and works fine, but the other 2 phones are HTC One's, not spark "compatible", and have poor phone call quality and reception in the house. We are waiting on an AirRave front Sprint, but, if that doesnt work, we're ready to go to T-Mobile..
Sorry for this weird question here, but, I trust my buds on XDA to give a real report on stuff like this, NOT the people from T-Mobile
Thanks!:good:
wase4711 said:
Thinking about switching to T-mobile in the SW Suburbs of Chicago; I'm on wifi most of the time, so data speed isnt important to me, but, we MUST have good phone call quality in our house.
Is this an issue for anyone in chicago land, or, if we get a phone that is "wifi capable", and we have a fast,strong, wifi network in our house, does this become a non issue?
We had ATT, which was no problem in the house, and recently switched to Sprint, with the hopes of a stong "Spark Network" here; well, one of our phones in Spark compatible, and works fine, but the other 2 phones are HTC One's, not spark "compatible", and have poor phone call quality and reception in the house. We are waiting on an AirRave front Sprint, but, if that doesnt work, we're ready to go to T-Mobile..
Sorry for this weird question here, but, I trust my buds on XDA to give a real report on stuff like this, NOT the people from T-Mobile
Thanks!:good:
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T-mobie has pretty solid service in chicago but if you are in the suburbs go with a wifi capable phone if you have prepaid as you cant roam on prepaid. With a wifi capable phone it wont be an issue.
that's what I thought; it looks like most of their high end phones are wifi capable, so that means perfect calls in a strong wifi house, right?
thanks again!
wase4711 said:
that's what I thought; it looks like most of their high end phones are wifi capable, so that means perfect calls in a strong wifi house, right?
thanks again!
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All T-Mobile smartphones have WiFi calling, so yeah as long as you're in good WiFi coverage you should be ok.. Just keep in mind it cannot switch out of WiFi calling while you are in a call, so if you get out of range during a call in WiFi, it will drop
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thanks, thats understandable..

Love my G3, hate T-Mobile

So what are my choices for other carriers? I know verizon has different radio bands... Is ATT a possibility? I'm reaching the end of my patience with TMO.
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You've probably heard it before but I think Straight Talk is a great choice if you only need 3gb of high speed data. I just recently switched from TMO to ST using the ATT sim card. It works virtually flawlessly and I've had atleast 4g everywhere I've went (NW Georgia to E Kentucky so far). I got fed up with TMO when I left GA for work for the first time. It worked great in my little corner with flawless 4g LTE. However, as soon as I left and started travelling for work I got stuck with 2g service or wifi only. 2g is abysmal on TMO. It actually functions on ATT the few times I've had it.
So that's my suggestion. Paying off the phones and getting them unlocked was a fairly simple process as well.
I'll be switching to ATT service myself soon. Since T-Mobile wont' stand behind their products with my cracked phone they sold me. LG wants me to hold my phone hostage and then decide if it's actually a problem. Also annoyed by the fact that if you don't have LTE or HSPA service with TMUS, you basically have a dumb phone. And honestly, texts don't even function half the time outisde of their 3G/LTE areas.
Mnorton1228 said:
You've probably heard it before but I think Straight Talk is a great choice if you only need 3gb of high speed data. I just recently switched from TMO to ST using the ATT sim card. It works virtually flawlessly and I've had atleast 4g everywhere I've went (NW Georgia to E Kentucky so far). I got fed up with TMO when I left GA for work for the first time. It worked great in my little corner with flawless 4g LTE. However, as soon as I left and started travelling for work I got stuck with 2g service or wifi only. 2g is abysmal on TMO. It actually functions on ATT the few times I've had it.
So that's my suggestion. Paying off the phones and getting them unlocked was a fairly simple process as well.
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Is the tmo g3 radio compatible with ATT and ST for 4G LTE service?
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decaturbob said:
So what are my choices for other carriers? I know verizon has different radio bands... Is ATT a possibility? I'm reaching the end of my patience with TMO.
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So what exactly is your problem with tmobile, you never stated.
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I would never leave t mobile. Fix your issue with phone. If u pay off you still have issue on att. So fix what is bad. Lg and all the phone makers are the same. That us why you deal with t mobile for fix.
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decaturbob said:
Is the tmo g3 radio compatible with ATT and ST for 4G LTE service?
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No, LTE service on the D851 ONLY works with T-Mobile, but you will get the other bands ("4G"/3G/2G) with AT&T.
BACARDILIMON said:
I would never leave t mobile. Fix your issue with phone. If u pay off you still have issue on att. So fix what is bad. Lg and all the phone makers are the same. That us why you deal with t mobile for fix.
NOTE 4
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I have NO issues with my G3 its T-Mobile. Their coverage is plain bad, no fixing that until they double the amount of cell towers. I looked at their coverage map before changing over and nowhere did it indicate the dead zones that we have found and TMO acknowledges. My wife has zero coverage in her office and would have to go a block or better to make a call and she works in Springfield where you would expect at least 2G everywhere but there are major dead zones. Major interstates lack complete coverage. I can understand state highways and secondary roads but interstates? T-Mobile messed my ETF reimbursement up, additionally T-Mobile "lost" my trade-in phones that they have had since first week of August....their online system sucks, I couldn't process an order and I spent almost 2 hrs working with their IT folks who finally gave up and acknowledge their portal has some issues. My Sim card faulted out and its gonna take 7-10 business days to get the replacement from T-Mobile as they wanted to charge me $25 for expedited delivery that the online chat people couldn't process as that must be charged to a credit card and not to my account WTF!!! I would have to call customer service and waste another hour of time to make that happen....screw that, I order one off of Amazon and paid for one day delivery...total cost $14 of delivery and shipping.....and I still don't have the T-Mobile free replacement Sim yet. I figure I have wasted 12hrs at least dealing with T-Mobile on problems on their side. I get alot of "we are sorry"......why asking what other carriers will my TMO G3 will 100% function on as I know it won't with verizon because of the radio bands
JustLok said:
decaturbob said:
Is the tmo g3 radio compatible with ATT and ST for 4G LTE service?
/QUOTE]
No, LTE service on the D851 ONLY works with T-Mobile, but you will get the other bands ("4G"/3G/2G) with AT&T.
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I may need to consider this then and thank you. 4G is better than what my wife gets with TMO....
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Personaly, I love T-mo. I switched from Verizon and am saving a boat load. I think it's absolutely wonderful how they've effectively turned every WiFi hotspot into a cell tower. In Charlotte nc, I've run into some areas where i rome but it's usually in a big building and there's always some WiFi. Their CEO has a great mindset imo and their customer service is always responsive as nice to me.
decaturbob said:
I have NO issues with my G3 its T-Mobile. Their coverage is plain bad, no fixing that until they double the amount of cell towers. I looked at their coverage map before changing over and nowhere did it indicate the dead zones that we have found and TMO acknowledges. My wife has zero coverage in her office and would have to go a block or better to make a call and she works in Springfield where you would expect at least 2G everywhere but there are major dead zones. Major interstates lack complete coverage. I can understand state highways and secondary roads but interstates? T-Mobile messed my ETF reimbursement up, additionally T-Mobile "lost" my trade-in phones that they have had since first week of August....their online system sucks, I couldn't process an order and I spent almost 2 hrs working with their IT folks who finally gave up and acknowledge their portal has some issues. My Sim card faulted out and its gonna take 7-10 business days to get the replacement from T-Mobile as they wanted to charge me $25 for expedited delivery that the online chat people couldn't process as that must be charged to a credit card and not to my account WTF!!! I would have to call customer service and waste another hour of time to make that happen....screw that, I order one off of Amazon and paid for one day delivery...total cost $14 of delivery and shipping.....and I still don't have the T-Mobile free replacement Sim yet. I figure I have wasted 12hrs at least dealing with T-Mobile on problems on their side. I get alot of "we are sorry"......why asking what other carriers will my TMO G3 will 100% function on as I know it won't with verizon because of the radio bands
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Hand in the phones and go to another carrier. If any fees they will pay for them.
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allin1der said:
You guys make the most technically complicated tasks... SO EASY!!!!!!
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What state you live in
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Just my two cents, I have a dead spot on Verizon near home but tmo is fine. Also I love their international approach free 2g and texting, and I'm in Europe every month. Would have cost hundreds more on vzw. So far here in north east haven't noticed coverage ant worse than the other guys but haven't travelled the midwest or south yet.
Oh, and free music streaming.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Free mobile app
BACARDILIMON said:
Hand in the phones and go to another carrier. If any fees they will pay for them.
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What state you live in
NOTE 4
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Illinois.
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JustLok said:
No, LTE service on the D851 ONLY works with T-Mobile, but you will get the other bands ("4G"/3G/2G) with AT&T.
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This is both correct and incorrect. You'll get a few of the LTE bands from ATT(2 and 4 to be exact). I can confirm that that's true. The most obvious indicator is that the symbols on my phone change from 4g to 4gLTE depending on if I'm covered. I can also run speed tests and see a difference. 4g I get 1-2mbps and LTE I get 7-9mbps. Not perfect but I'm not using my phone for any heavy data usage either. As long as I can browse reddit and stuff from my phone I'm good.
As for "just sticking with a carrier"... Um... NO. Absolutely not. If you're not able to make phone calls or are dependent upon finding free wifi to make a call then I don't think it's worth the money. I don't know what that guys talking about but he's obviously missed the point of this discussion.
Look into Straight Talk, Net10, or Cricket. All work on the ATT network and all will give you just as good of a price as TMO. Cricket offers 10gb of data for 55$ a month. Net10 does something similar I believe. I went with ST just because of the convenience. ST and Net10 are both owned by Tracfone so regardless of who you use it's going to be the same thing. Cricket is actually an ATT owned company. There is some literature floating around the web saying that Tracfone phones will allow you to roam on other carriers services but I'm not sure how true that is or if that even matters anymore.
I really love T-Mobile. I have had the best customer service with them. When I had my Z2s I had issues with the overheating problem and I went through 3 phones and ended up talking to their tech department. They informed me its a known issue and I could try another one. Seems great to me, just had a phone that overheated (not T-Mobiles fault).
I have told many people that reception is quite spotty. I live in Washington and service is great along the I5 corridor but once you start to stray too far off you will lose service. But in data speeds none of my friends with other carriers have come close. I routinley hit speeds of at least 35 mbps.
I can completely understand where most people do have issues. I just use my phone as a mini computer though. I probably use >200 min a month.
decaturbob said:
Illinois.
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I hate to say it, but you live in the worst area of the country for cell service (other than the Montana mountains, where there's no coverage at all). All four carriers' networks are really thin, and even Verizon's mighty network has holes where they roam onto partner networks there. Unless you live in Chicago, coverage is pretty spotty as soon as you leave the city limits of any town, no matter what carrier you pick. All I can tell you is talk to people who have usage patterns like yours and get their opinions, because blindly switching may end up getting you the same or worse coverage depending on your location.
Illrigger said:
I hate to say it, but you live in the worst area of the country for cell service (other than the Montana mountains, where there's no coverage at all). All four carriers' networks are really thin, and even Verizon's mighty network has holes where they roam onto partner networks there. Unless you live in Chicago, coverage is pretty spotty as soon as you leave the city limits of any town, no matter what carrier you pick. All I can tell you is talk to people who have usage patterns like yours and get their opinions, because blindly switching may end up getting you the same or worse coverage depending on your location.
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I had verizon for years but got tired of paying thru the nose.. No small decision to go to TMO and based on their coverage map we should have been OK.... But their map is essentially a lie. I spent an hour on phone with tmo thru 3 levels of management who understood if their map is fake and/or the tmo cell phones they sold us can't receive their signals then this situation is going to take a turn for the worse.
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Hopefully G3 will get band 12, but it's OK if it's not because I have AWS repeater installed and it works fine.
I refuse to get Note 4 because it does not support Trad Chinese. I'd go for Z3 or even G4 instead.
decaturbob said:
I had verizon for years but got tired of paying thru the nose.. No small decision to go to TMO and based on their coverage map we should have been OK.... But their map is essentially a lie. I spent an hour on phone with tmo thru 3 levels of management who understood if their map is fake and/or the tmo cell phones they sold us can't receive their signals then this situation is going to take a turn for the worse.
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I lived in the IA/IL corridor area for a few years and pretty much every carrier had issues. Verizon was the best in the city, but would drop to 2G in many areas outside the city, or go dead completely. AT&T was a little better from what my co-workers were saying but again they were on 2G once you left the highway corridors. This was before the LTE rollout, so things may be better, but considering that LTE is GSM, and GSM is pretty short range from the towers (vs CDMA, anyway), I would not make any big bets. You can try your luck with either; you will probably get more consistent service with both, but I would not count on them being overly fast once you are away from the cities and highways.
decaturbob said:
Illinois.
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First off, hi from the north of you. I'm by the Kankakee area. I do have a buddy that does work at a T-mo corp store in Bradley that has been saying that the area I live and lower Illinois is getting the tower upgrades in Q1 2015. He's trying to get some more info for me since I too live a dead T-Mo area (I get no signal in my office). I maybe stopping in tomorrow if my wife wants to jump to the Note 4. If he's working, I'll ask him if he found out anything more about the IL tower upgrades. I'll let know you if he has any other news.
Edit: Decatur should have LTE coverage for T-Mo looking at sensorly.com. You should check and see about getting a LTE signal booster from T-Mo. Check out sensorly.com to even find what carrier does have the best coverage for you.

Switch or stay

Thinking of jumping ship to TMO, for the simple fact I can get root on all my devices. No contract, unlimited everything. Where I am hoping I don't have any issues with service. I am curious to know what the thoughts of everyone. Pro's Con's of switching/staying and or buying a TMO N4 to use on ATT network..
Thanks
pestilencec11 said:
Thinking of jumping ship to TMO, for the simple fact I can get root on all my devices. No contract, unlimited everything. Where I am hoping I don't have any issues with service. I am curious to know what the thoughts of everyone. Pro's Con's of switching/staying and or buying a TMO N4 to use on ATT network..
Thanks
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If you can, I would do the switch IMO. I did it and it was the best solution for me and I couldn't be more happier.
I travel a lot and have had issues with T-mobile working everywhere that ATT does so that is not an option for me, but I have only had this phone for a few days so I am going to go exchange it for the N6 on thursday, that is my solution.
I Stay with AT&T Travel a lot and services always The Best, T-Mobile Not that great when traveling i would know since i travel with a friend and he has T-Mobile Note 4 and loses connection a lot while i am still Connected!
I travel a lot, and T-Mobile sucks badly in MANY areas I go, so ended up going back to AT&T.
If you have good coverage in areas you go, then get T-mobile as they have good plans and are more consumer friendly.
If not, then don't.
I was coming here to make just this thread.
I want to know about using a tmo phone on at&t. what kind of coverage am I giving up
Thanks for the replies everyone, I am in fact testing both phones as we speak on both carriers. Good thing is I have 14 days to test out TMO basically. Seems some areas are about the same coverage wise and some favor ATT and some favor TMO. I am lucky I don't have to travel a lot. I am pretty much situated in the major metro areas.
Going to do more research on a few more things.
I left vzw for tmo last February and it lasted all of two weeks. First time I left Cincinnati and tried streaming music I was met with insufficient data speeds or no connection at all. Took my Nexus 5's to ATT and it was a great choice. If you're a student that rarely leaves the city it could work, but if you travel at all our just value knowing that wherever you go you'll probably have good data, tmo is a bad choice.
I'd switch to tmobile. Can't beat root and custom roms:
I'm in Austin and the att and tmobile service is the same.
Android_Monsters said:
I'd switch to tmobile. Can't beat root and custom roms:
I'm in Austin and the att and tmobile service is the same.
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I can tell you from personal experience that if you go 10 miles outside of Austin you will have no data service with T-Mobile.
Heck I would lose data even staying on interstate going from Austin to Dallas. Let alone any back roads.
But whatever. If it works for you, then cool!
Good service is much more important to me than the phone itself, so I stay with ATT. I'm definitely considering bringing a Tmobile note 4 over to ATT though, that seems like the best solution. Those new $45 go phone plans don't look bad at all.
I was able to walk into a Tmo store and tell them my brother has Tmo and is coming into Texas for Thanksgiving and I wanted to give him an early Christmas present. They didn't even open the box. They even gave me a T-shirt and some other trinkets. Now I'm using it on AT&T with no problems.
JasonJoel said:
I can tell you from personal experience that if you go 10 miles outside of Austin you will have no data service with T-Mobile.
Heck I would lose data even staying on interstate going from Austin to Dallas. Let alone any back roads.
But whatever. If it works for you, then cool!
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Yup lot's don't know this but the T-Mobile device does fail areas to pickup AT&T Services, With that said i would stay with the AT&T Is fast as hell as it is already and i seen it with my friend we were both in Denver he didn't have a connection on his T-Mobile from AT&T And i did have connection both same phones but mines AT&T His T-Mobile with AT&T Service and he was shocked seeing i have connection and he doesn't So he turned in The T-mobile and got himself the AT&T One and all is good Now!
Venom0642 said:
Yup lot's don't know this but the T-Mobile device does fail areas to pickup AT&T Services, With that said i would stay with the AT&T Is fast as hell as it is already and i seen it with my friend we were both in Denver he didn't have a connection on his T-Mobile from AT&T And i did have connection both same phones but mines AT&T His T-Mobile with AT&T Service and he was shocked seeing i have connection and he doesn't So he turned in The T-mobile and got himself the AT&T One and all is good Now!
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Is this is an issue with everyone? I have a Tmo prepaid note 4 from bestbuy.com on its way and that is pretty disconcerting, I thought people didn't have issues with connection on AT&T.
BklynNetschamps said:
Is this is an issue with everyone? I have a Tmo prepaid note 4 from bestbuy.com on its way and that is pretty disconcerting, I thought people didn't have issues with connection on AT&T.
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My kids both have N4 AT&T version and I have Tmo version. I get better signal and speed than they do side by side. I wouldn't worry about it.

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