T-mobile switch?

[meerkat]

Since T-mobile is willing to pay for my early termination fee and their plans are much cheaper, why wouldn't I convert. what am I missing?

I understand their coverage map is smaller, but it looks like they cover most of MN. anyone with t-mobile have any issues in the Twin Cities?

[minky]

Nope no problems in the twin cities.

Most places I get good reception.

Lake of the Woods is one place that I don't.

Over all I am happy with T Mobile.

[meerkat]

do you get the 4G/LTE speeds?

[harvey lee]

I have a friend who has T Mobile and has had numerous issues with a signal for the past year. he has not had any service for the past week and they cannot tell him when it will be restored. He does not live in the metro, 45 minutes to the west of the metro.

I believe he said it was a local tower issue. From the times he has complained to me, I would never go to T Mobile. Verizon is not perfect by any means but far better for me than T Mobile.

I know my brother in Oka has T mobile and has been more than happy with his service and he travels throughout the country year round.

Guess it sepends on where on is located.

[expl]

Yeah tmobile kinda sucks.if your north of the metro half hour forty minutes your signal will suffer,mille lacs in the summertime forget it.they also charge 4-500$ for the better phones and you pay full price,limited roaming and data usage while roaming,there is tradeoffs to the cheaper bill to think about so do a good investigation,i wish i had before they got me for a 580$ phone i could have purchased for 100$ bucks a week later.

[Alagnak]

They are great if u never leave black top roads.

[delcecchi]

Yeah tmobile kinda sucks.if your north of the metro half hour forty minutes your signal will suffer,mille lacs in the summertime forget it.they also charge 4-500$ for the better phones and you pay full price,limited roaming and data usage while roaming,there is tradeoffs to the cheaper bill to think about so do a good investigation,i wish i had before they got me for a 580$ phone i could have purchased for 100$ bucks a week later.

To get the phone for 100 you had to sign a 2 year contract at an inflated price. And the inflated price remains after the 2 years is up.

[bobbymalone]

I've had Tmobile for years and don't really have any complaints. I don't seem to have any service issues anymore than anyone else --- I don't really expect that my phone is going to work in the BWCA. In populated areas I don't have a problem and I when I'm up north or something I think it's about 50/50 on I don't get service but my verizon friend does or I get service and my verizon friend doesn't. At least PHONE service... that's really my concern. Strangely, me and the ATT people are the only people that get service in the basement dungeon where we work in St. Paul.

I also like that Tmobile's GSM network has a SIM card... When my phone gets soaked or otherwise ruined I just pop the SIM, stick it in my old phone and I'm good to go. They have also always been supportive of my habit of buying a used phone from hsolist or whatever and just sticking my sim card in. There is no calling and activating and whatever else to switch phones. I've never been on the new phone / upgrade phone / renew contract / whatever game that personally I think is for suckers. $580 for a phone or $100 for a phone where you are really paying for it over 2 years with your contract... either way i think its for suckers.

I also think 4G/LTE coverage is mostly a gimmick. Unless I'm downloading something huge, I don't think it really matters. I'm fine with waiting an extra half second for a HSOforum to load if I'm outside the 4G/LTE coverage area. If I was downloading 100MB files and likely to need to do so all over the country, I might be more excited about coverage maps. As it is I'm in great 4G coverage within a 25 mile radius of the cities which is where I'm at 95% of the time. I don't care that verizon offers 4g service in the florida everglades.

Also, contrary to the above poster, I get service all over Mille Lacs.

[brian6715]

I had T-Mobile for 4 years, NEVER again. They actually cancelled my contract for me after I showed them that the phone never worked when we lived in Fairmont. It was a hassle but I am glad they did it, they even sent a guy down to our house to drive around and test the signal (the map said we should have gotten service, they didn't believe us). I had T-Mobile in Duluth, Faribault, and Fairmont. It would never work in any basement and would constantly drop calls (with 3 different phones, never a smart phone though). My sister has it in Winona, and you can forget about being able to call her because her phone rarely has service.

I switched to Verizon and went over 3 months without dropping a call. There is no comparison in Minnesota. You do pay less with T-Mobile, but after remember how frustrated I was after each dropped call or not having service when my friends did, I could never bring myself to go back no matter how much money I save.

I now have service everywhere, even on LOTW.

If you never leave the metro area, or don't get further north than Mille Lacs, T-Mobile will probably serve your needs. However, if you go west, southeast, or north of the metro, forget about it.

[expl]

Oh yeah,I now know most of the tricks of their trade,I just thought they would have treated me better since I have been a customer with them since before they were even tmobile.i complained and not in a bad way just one that made them realize they treted a longtime customer like dump.I should be a board member for as long as ive put up with their dump i told them.they gave me 10 bucks a month off my bill for a year.A drop in the bucket compared to the 14,000 dollars they agreed i have paid them over the years.Do your reasearch,once i pay this rippoff phone off im gone.

[bobbymalone]

Oh yeah,I now know most of the tricks of their trade,I just thought they would have treated me better since I have been a customer with them since before they were even tmobile.i complained and not in a bad way just one that made them realize they treted a longtime customer like dump.

Phone service, TV service, internet, etc. They all seem like better deals for new customers rather than long term customers.

Do yourself a favor and find your own phone and lose the stupid contracts.

[walleye29us]

I have been with T mobil for 8 years. No problems at all in the cities, but no signal at our cabin up north just west of Sandstone Mn. My dad has Verizon and gets good service at the cabin and everywhere else. If you really need service up north you will find many dead spots.

[delcecchi]

For voice, Tmobile roams on ATT. ATT bought Cellular1 which had a pretty good presence in outstate. If you are on west end of Vermilion, ATT/tmobile is the trick. I don't know about data, roaming is different for data.

[UKCM]

If you are in the twin cities. Tmobile 4G LTE is great. Outside of the twin cities look at the map. Brainerd appears to be covered. I have a cabin on Osakis, Tmobile phone coverage is mostly there, I can not rely on texts getting through there, Coverage is 'Edge' not 4g LTE or even 3g. My buddies with Verizon get 4G LTE just fine. When work was on ATT I at least got 3G there. Outside of the twin cities my opinion on T Mobile is simple. IT SUCKS!

[delcecchi]

Aren't texts carried over the voice network? I can text with my low end dumb Nokia that has no data plan.

[Big Dave2]

I've had T-Mobile for quite a few years and have been thinking about switching for most of those years. Should have never stayed with them so long because of the poor service at my house but the rates are a little better than Verizon. I'll probably be switching soon.

[DTro]

4G/LTE a gimmick? Ever try watching a decent video, Facetime/Skype, or decent streaming of music over 3G? The difference from 3G is huge. I know so many people who have had issues with T-Mobile (coverage and customer service) and pretty much nobody with Verizon or ATT.

I HATE the high bills from Verizon, but the service is rock solid.

[bobbymalone]

4G/LTE a gimmick? Ever try watching a decent video, Facetime/Skype, or decent streaming of music over 3G? The difference from 3G is huge. I know so many people who have had issues with T-Mobile (coverage and customer service) and pretty much nobody with Verizon or ATT.

I HATE the high bills from Verizon, but the service is rock solid.

Yes, I realize it's much faster. I think the gimmick is selling it on coverage maps for the entire US when 99.99% of people really just need local service. If you have Verizon because the coverage map shows it's great in places you'll never be, you may have been duped.

I've never needed to skype or watch youtube while on Lake of the Woods. I suppose the capability is nice, if that's your thing though. It's not for me, so it isn't a selling point. I'd rather forego the "best service", settle for the "good enough service" and I've likely got $600 more in my bank acct at the end of the year.

I'm fine with my Tmobile. 4 bars on Winni this weekend, which was fine for calling/texting the wife. We didn't skype though. I only got 2g internet Worked for checking the weather. It actually said I had 4g internet, but it was roaming on ATT's tower and I suspect I was throttled down to 2g speeds. I did download the reg book from the MN DNR HSOforum. Took about 5 minutes to download at around 1 MB a minute. The world did not end.

[meerkat]

Thanks everyone for responding,

anyone in the Lake Vermillion area with Tmobile? I'm not too concerned with data coverage, I just want the phone to work.

[delcecchi]

Thanks everyone for responding,

anyone in the Lake Vermillion area with Tmobile? I'm not too concerned with data coverage, I just want the phone to work.

On the west end, we have t-mobile and it works fine, since it roams on ATT. ATT has towers near Cook and near Frazier Bay. ATT would be better if you want data, since roaming rules for data aren't the same as voice.

I get voice coverage pretty much everywhere.

[fishersofmen]

Yes, I realize it's much faster. I think the gimmick is selling it on coverage maps for the entire US when 99.99% of people really just need local service. If you have Verizon because the coverage map shows it's great in places you'll never be, you may have been duped.

I've never needed to skype or watch youtube while on Lake of the Woods. I suppose the capability is nice, if that's your thing though. It's not for me, so it isn't a selling point. I'd rather forego the "best service", settle for the "good enough service" and I've likely got $600 more in my bank acct at the end of the year.

I'm fine with my Tmobile. 4 bars on Winni this weekend, which was fine for calling/texting the wife. We didn't skype though. I only got 2g internet Worked for checking the weather. It actually said I had 4g internet, but it was roaming on ATT's tower and I suspect I was throttled down to 2g speeds. I did download the reg book from the MN DNR HSOforum. Took about 5 minutes to download at around 1 MB a minute. The world did not end.

I'm fine with it too. I had Verizon for years and yes the service was great but the cost is nauseating. We switched around a year ago and we are saving a fortune. For 4 phones with unlimited everything it is 165 after all the taxes. I know several people who are paying over 100 for 1 phone through Verizon. Bought like new phones on-line for a huge discount and no contract. I work all over the west metro and never lose calls.

[OnAFly]

I've thought about switching from T Mobile to Verizon. Right now I'm paying about $85 a month for 2Gb data or something like that. I looked up Verizon's equivalent plan and it looked like it was ~$120. It this right?

[delcecchi]

I think they have prepaid plans which are significatly cheaper, especially if you have a phone you can use already.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I've had Tmo forever. Mostly good except when roaming data on AT&T expires while I'm wanting to check the weather on Kab

It doesn't work well in my house, but their phones also use wifi calling so I'm always connected in some way.

I also like the sim card gsm phones as mentioned previously for the reasons stated. I buy near new used phones, save a ton and have been mostly satisfied.

I hate the lack of coverage driving north on 35 to Duluth though. Hard to beleive the service can be so bad on a major freeway system. Roam, roam, roam, which makes it hard to use the free hotspot to run the iPad.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I should add that I lose coverage at times for no reason. Signal goes from full bars to zip for no reason. It comes back, but what the heck?

I'm not saying it does it all the time, but enough to make me wonder.