T-Mobile service in northern MN

[Big Dave2]

I went into a radio shack store today because I was thinking of upgrading my 5 year old phone to a newer one with all working buttons unlike the one I have now!

The guy at the store told me that he heard T-Mobile lost it's contract with cellular 1 which he says is owned by AT&T so he thinks my T-Mobile phone will no longer roam when I go up north out of T-Mobile's coverage range.

Has anyone else heard this or had any experience with this? The coverage map on T-Mobile's HSOforum is still the same, showing roaming coverage in Remer where I hunt. I don't want to upgrade my phone and have to sign a 2 year contract if I won't be able to use my phone when I go up north.

[jwhjr]

My friend's dad who lives in Outing had T-Mobile that worked great, and then all of a sudden he couldn't get any signal. He got the same story from them about not renewing the lease on the AT&T tower. I think this was about 4-5 months ago if I remember correctly. They let him out of his contract because of it and he switched to a different carrier.

[bobbymalone]

not sure of cell coverage up there, but i recommend that you buy a used phone, if you are fine with a 5 year old phone with stuck buttons you can make a nice upgrade for a half or a third of the price of a new phone and without signing a new contract. with t-mobile you just have to slip the SIM card in and you are good to go.

I like to drown my phones from time to time so i buy used phones exclusively. take a look on one of those online auction websites.

of course if you can't get service up there you are gonna have to sign a new contract with somebody else.

[chad austin]

I was up at LOW in December and absolutely no coverage with T-Mobile.

My buddy has AT&T and I had to use his phone.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Verizon rocks up north. I'm ditching T-Mobile in July when my contract is up.

[leech~~]

I went into a radio shack store today because I was thinking of upgrading my 5 year old phone to a newer one with all working buttons unlike the one I have now!

The guy at the store told me that he heard T-Mobile lost it's contract with cellular 1 which he says is owned by AT&T so he thinks my T-Mobile phone will no longer roam when I go up north out of T-Mobile's coverage range.

Has anyone else heard this or had any experience with this? The coverage map on T-Mobile's HSOforum is still the same, showing roaming coverage in Remer where I hunt. I don't want to upgrade my phone and have to sign a 2 year contract if I won't be able to use my phone when I go up north.

I had T-Mobile and could not get my buddy at his cabin on Washburn lake up by Remer-Outing from my camper on Lake Edwards in Merrifield. We dumped it and went to Sprint, now I call him right from inside his cabin instead of him trying to run out on the dock or into town to hookup. I've also called my wife from Oak Isle on LOW and from out on Burntside lake up in Ely. I only got the phone to call for help if needed when up hunting or fishing and now I feel a lot better about changing!

[deadeye]

Verizon does pretty good up north from what I have experienced. I even had service all the way out to the border on Basswood. Everywhere else I have been; NW, N Central, NE, ect it has never let me down.

[RussC]

I get T-Mobile in town here and roam on AT&T outside of town. Haven't had any problems with roaming/connection other than AT&T service being garbage around here compared to Verizon.

[hoggs222]

No problems with T-Mobile in the Cook/Orr area when I go there.

[Big Dave2]

I think I'm going to wait on upgrading anything until I go up north this summer and see how the service is. The main areas I go to are Remer and Hill City. Hill City should have T-Mobile service but Remer is always a roaming situation.

I'd love to switch to Verizon but I would have to pay about $45 more per month than I do now for my shared plan with my wife. I'm grandfathered in on a T-Mobile plan that no longer exists for $49.99 + $5 for texting. Verizons cheapest plan with voice and texting is $99.00.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I'll give you a great deal on a car, however it only works in town... get the point

[Jim Almquist]

If you decide on switching make sure to go in and talk to someone because if you look online only you will not see all of the plans that they can offer. The wife has a plan with Verizon that is 300 min. of talk and 250 text msg. for $35.00 and that is including tax.

[Big Dave2]

If you decide on switching make sure to go in and talk to someone because if you look online only you will not see all of the plans that they can offer. The wife has a plan with Verizon that is 300 min. of talk and 250 text msg. for $35.00 and that is including tax.

But is that an old plan that no longer exists and she is grandfathered in?

[Jim Almquist]

Dave she might have been grandfathered in from her Unicel plan but she has changed her plan to add texting since it became Verizon and she is not under any contract right now. If all else fails just tell them you want that plan if they want you for a customer or you going to talk to AT&T and see what they have to offer. My best guess is that they will work with you just to get you as a customer.

[DTro]

Dave, I'm pretty sure Verizon lowered that 99 price to 69 just recently.

[echotrail]

We had a Verizon plan until last week. My wife and I shared 300 talk minutes per month with 2 phones for $64. ($768 per yr.) We had not updated our phones for over 3 years and when we went to do so they required a new 2 year contract and said we have to add on a $10 per mo. texting/internet plan per phone. (What happened to just talking on a phone). We used 780 minutes last year, 20% of the 3600 we paid for, so we dumped Verizon and got a T-mobile pre-paid plan: 2 phones, 1,000 minutes for each phone for 1 year, no contract for $340.00. I spend 4 weeks of the year in the Crane Lake/Kab area and couldn't get a Verizon signal unless I drove close to 16 miles so if T-Mobile doesn't work at all up there I haven't lost much.

[Big Dave2]

Dave, I'm pretty sure Verizon lowered that 99 price to 69 just recently.

Darren, I believe that is just the "unlimited" individual plan. We have a shared minute plan with only 400 minutes because we don't use our cell phones all that much.

[bassNspear]

I have t mobile, and when i go to cass lake a few times a year for fishing, it works great! Sometimes depending on where i am in the cabins that we stay in, i loose service, but put it by a window, and im full bars!