Any T-Mobile Users

[awol50]

Originally Posted by WRP

Thank You. I was thinking of switching. I love Verizon but it is double the price.

Try total wireless. They use Verizon. 2 lines for $60. Share 15 GB data and unlimited talk and text

[smiller]

Originally Posted by awol50

Try total wireless. They use Verizon. 2 lines for $60. Share 15 GB data and unlimited talk and text

Yes, and add-on data is only $10 for 5 GB, and it never expires as long as you maintain continuous service. Boom.us is another good Verizon MVNO (reseller) alternative.

Verizon MVNO's provide much better pricing than Verizon and a good way to have your cake and eat it too. The only downside is that MVNO service may not include all Verizon extended domestic roaming areas, but this limitation doesn't affect very many. And Verizon used to limit MVNOs to 5 mbps download speeds (which for most purposes is plenty fast enough), but even this limitation seems to be going away and many users on Total, Boom, and other Verizon MVNOs have been reporting that they are now seeing unthrottled speeds.

In short, except for a few limited circumstances there's really no need to pay 2X or more to Verizon for the same service.

[Pirate]

Originally Posted by awol50

Try total wireless. They use Verizon. 2 lines for $60. Share 15 GB data and unlimited talk and text

Any tethering restrictions with total wireless?

[EMEdmond]

I have T-Mobile and it often works better, both as a hotspot and just for calls, than my work Verizon phone does. We go to Canada (Quebec) quite often and I usually wind up just using my personal phone (T-Mobile) for data/wifi hotspot to all our computers including my work computer as well as for conference calls.

That said, outside of Quebec I don't have much experience away from built-up areas.

We are researching our first RV and plan on going full time early next year. The answer to this question matters a lot to me as I will still be working and will need reliable cell/data for work. I know that T-Mobile is always improving but was thinking about switching to Verizon. Then I started reading a lot of posts from people who had Verizon and were skunked because the majority of other RVers also had Verizon and so overloaded the towers. One thing I think is sure, no one solution will completely solve the problem. We will probably always need more than one provider.

Anyone with actual experience have any insight?

[WRP]

Thanks everyone for your input .

[WRP]

I just came from out west 99 percent of the time I had service with Verizon.

[smiller]

Originally Posted by Pirate

Any tethering restrictions with total wireless?

That's an interesting question since oddly enough Total Wireless doesn't seem to address it anywhere on its web site or in the T&Cs. It seems to be a 'don't ask - don't tell' situation, but you are probably on your own as to setting it up on your phone. Native tethering might not work depending on what kind of phone you have, but even if not the pdaNet app almost always gets you USB tethering.

If you don't want to go that route Boom.us is another inexpensive Verizon MVNO and they do explicitly allow tethering.

[wilsoncd35]

I don't have a lot of experience with T-Mobile service for I am a new customer and I live in their hometown. So, service is obviously going to be good here.

If you have not already then consider buying your phone outright and 'unlocked'. I know the higher end smartphones can be quite expensive. However, with your unlocked phone you can easily switch between two carriers. AT&T and T-Mobile or Verizon and Sprint. Depends on the phone.

You might use T-Mobile but go AT&T for a month or two to get coverage in a remote area. AT&T GoPhone is great for this and you can buy the SIM in a pharmacy or grocery (T-Mobile too for that matter).

T-Mobile and AT&T are GSM cell services. They give you the SIM card to insert into your phone. So, you can switch between two SIMs yourself, restart your phone, and done. Again, you need an unlocked and compatible phone for this.

Verizon and Sprint are a bit different. If you can figure out how to switch between the two carriers then great. It often takes some Verizon and Sprint insider knowledge and it is different per phone.

If you go the unlocked phone route then consider buying from smile.amazon.com, newegg.com, or another online source. A phone store salesperson may tell you the phone is unlocked when it actually is not. If you have a phone and service now that you received under contract then before you cancel service go to their support site and read about unlocking the phone. Some provide a way to do it online (AT&T I think). Some you will have to call in to have it done.

[70ChevelleSS]

Originally Posted by Waywards

Had T-Mobile and hated it. If you have Comcast cable or Internet, Xfinity Mobile is hard to beat. Uses the Verizon network plus it locks onto Xfinity networks when possible reducing data charges.

The Xfinity deal isn't all that cheap unless you have one of their top TV and internet packages. $45 a month for unlimited data if you're already giving them a bunch of money. Otherwise it's $65 a month which isn't a great deal. You can download the Xfinity Hotspot app to your phone and connect to any Xfinity hotspot if you're an Xfinity customer, don't need their mobile service.

We have T-Mobile and as everyone has said their coverage in rural areas is not as good as Verizon or AT&T. Having said that it is improving all the time. You also need a newer phone that works well with their LTE network. Makes, as I found out, a huge difference in coverage. Their LTE download speeds are also close to 3 times what Verizons are. Not saying T-Mobile will meet everyone's needs as everyone has different needs. With new Samsung phones we're pleased with the coverage and the price. As a note, $10 credit if you use less than 2gig, that's per phone on their unlimited plan. Also get Netflix free, T-Mobile pays the bill.

[smiller]

There are a lot of T-Mo haters out there but I think many do not realize how much their coverage has improved over the last 24 months, and now it's really quite good in most areas, often exceeding Verizon and AT&T in download speeds. They do not currently have coverage in some rural areas, particularly the intermountain west, but this will be changing over the next 12-24 month as they build out their new nationwide 600 MHz spectrum. This is really prime spectrum 'real estate' as the low frequency will allow better rural and indoor penetration, as Verizon and AT&T enjoy now with their legacy low-band spectrum. When the build-out is complete T-Mobile has the potential to match or exceed the big players in terms of 'everywhere' coverage so the competition will be good for all of us.

As above, in order to get the most out of T-Mobile it is important that you have a relatively recent (within the last few years) device to ensure that you have Band 12 coverage, and also anyone considering T-Mobile and buying a new device should make sure that it also supports the new 600 MHz band (Band 71), only a few devices do so far (this won't matter at all today but will starting in the next year or two.) Any T-Mobile rep should be able to guide you through this.

[halfprice]

Originally Posted by smiller

There are a lot of T-Mo haters out there but I think many do not realize how much their coverage has improved over the last 24 months, and now it's really quite good in most areas, often exceeding Verizon and AT&T in download speeds. They do not currently have coverage in some rural areas, particularly the intermountain west, but this will be changing over the next 12-24 month as they build out their new nationwide 600 MHz spectrum. This is really prime spectrum 'real estate' as the low frequency will allow better rural and indoor penetration, as Verizon and AT&T enjoy now with their legacy low-band spectrum. When the build-out is complete T-Mobile has the potential to match or exceed the big players in terms of 'everywhere' coverage so the competition will be good for all of us.

As above, in order to get the most out of T-Mobile it is important that you have a relatively recent (within the last few years) device to ensure that you have Band 12 coverage, and also anyone considering T-Mobile and buying a new device should make sure that it also supports the new 600 MHz band (Band 71), only a few devices do so far (this won't matter at all today but will starting in the next year or two.) Any T-Mobile rep should be able to guide you through this.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. I not getting rid of Verizon until my phone or my wife's phone dies. When one of them dies I'll have to get serious about what to do. Its good to here T Mobile is doing a lot of upgrades on their system. The over 55 year old for $60 is very inviting and unfortunately the Netflicks deal doesnt come with this plan .

My main concern is mobile calling in case of emergency. Data-internet isnt that important to me. Nice to have for google maps but I can live without it DW would agrue that one with me.

Hopefully our 2 year old Samsungs will last another year or two then Ill make a move.

Jerry

[computerguy]

TMobile is improved recently but still a distant third to Verizon (first without question) and ATT (solid 2nd)
Also, with TMobile you need the newer iPhone (7) for band 12 (better coverage). Over the next 12-24 month it will get better also but you'll need a new phone that has not even been released so far.
Sooooo, I would not switch at this time if I were the OP.
Another note, if you NEED coverage and are going to full time and going to be in some rural areas you should have all 3 carriers and a setup that will be able to boost/capture weak signals. There is no one carrier for all locations

[boyland]

we are from the central indiana area and travel local and across the country.

We have Tmobile (metropcs) ATT and verizon.

For a variety of reasons which i will not cover here we generally keep all the services lit.

Rural indiana Tmobile in certain areas is better than the others, verizon is better than the others in other places. ATT generally works in most places but often slower speed to tmobile.
Examples:
At the lake near rockville Indiana ATT barely works, tmobile works without issues and verizon is 1x no data.

At my actual house Tmobile works fine, Verizon is better, and ATT barely works I live listening distance to I 65 north of Indianapolis.


So with that being said we drove all the way to florida and Washington DC using the tmobile phone as a music broadcaster. In both cases the service never dropped.

I cannot speak for every area but generally over the years verizon has had better service than others, i actually think Tmobile has closed the gap and for the money is probably better than ATT.

I suspect we will always maintain one verizon phone and one other service phone

that is my 2 cents

[brucemcdou]

Originally Posted by halfprice

Verizon is looking better and better after reading all these opinions

Just to present a counter-factual, we have Verizon with unlimited data on both our personal iPhones and iPads, and ATT on my work phone. While I agree that Verizon is probably better/best overall (certainly every review I read says so) even with Verizon you won't get a cell connection absolutely everywhere across the USA. We frequently visit a couple of campgrounds here in the Bay Area (the center of the Tech world for crying out loud) and we can't get a signal on Verizon in the bottom of a valley or certain remote locations on the coast. And we've had no coverage in mountainous areas of Idaho, Montana, Colorado, etc., but no coverage on ATT either.

Just depends on where you travel and camp - we like to get off the main highways and away from cities when we go out in the RV and one downside to that is limited or no coverage.