Other Connectivity > Cellphones, Providers, and Plans > [Need Info] Thinking of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile

[Need Info] Thinking of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile

They seem to have awesome 3g and 4g HSPA+ coverage by you, and in california in general. If your in a 3g or better area, they generally rock. If you go into the rural areas, and are in 2g, well, many if not most are in GPRS (slow!) but that shouldn't be a big deal in california.
Check out »compass.t-mobile.com for coverage, and make sure they have data coverage in areas you go.
If you do go with t-mobile, do your best to get one of the newer phones that support at&t's 3g and/or HSPA(+) bands like the amaze 4g or samsung galaxy s II. (There are more) cause of the new at&t 3g roaming agreement coming soon.
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The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. The day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Alden Nowlan

Thanks for the information. I am still open to other comments because this is a big decision because of the 2 year commitments if I do change.

If you pay full price for the phone, you could go no contract. I think the monthly rate is cheaper but no device discounts. It's a regular plan.

reply to loadmaster
Unless you're getting smartphones the change won't affect you as t-mobile has great 2g service.
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I found the key to success but somebody changed the lock.

reply to loadmaster
I suggest you look at their prepaid plans, they even include data if you want it, and are around $20 cheaper per month as you're not repaying back the "equipment/upgrade discount" with a contract plan. You can even bring an existing phone however higher data speeds might not be compatible, or buy a new one. It all depends if you want to return to playing the contract game, and paying an extra $20 a month even if you might no longer be in a contract. The reason I went to prepaid was this, owned my phones, I have two t-mobile phones, and I wanted to pay less per month. I'm still on a older prepaid plan, and I can keep my account alive for another year for as little as $10 a year, or roughly $.80 a month, using it more like a cheap pager.
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I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.

reply to loadmaster
Check their coverage map for places where you will be the most, as was posted above. If you go with T-Mobile, you have 30 days to change your mind and cancel service and return phones in CA, so it's worth a shot.

However, IMO, AT&T has better overall coverage than T-Mobile.
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PR is back in town

reply to loadmaster

If they block it like they do on prepaid, i won't be too disappointed. Prepaid includes ONLY voice, sms and mms roaming. No data otherwise. I got past the data blocking in 5 minutes. lmao! (Was living near I wireless land, partially owned by t-mobile but considered roaming)
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The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. The day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Alden Nowlan

reply to loadmaster
I had AT&T since about 2004 when they were still ATT Wireless (before the merger with Cingular) when their service was excellent. I continued with Cingular/ATT despite the fact that the service was getting worse all the time. I have no way of knowing whether this was due to fact that they are not competent to run a properly working GSM network or whether they deliberately degraded service for people like me who stayed on their cheap old ATT Wireless plans. I know that there where technical challenges with the Cingular/ATT merger in California due to the fact that the pre-merger Cingular GSM network was a joint venture with T-Mobile (who became sole owner of that network) but it shouldn't have taken 5 years to resolve them. After all, the pre-merger ATT Wireless network was working fine for me.

When I got too fed up with lost connections and missed calls, rather then relying on coverage maps I went to a T-Mobile store and got myself a $10 prepaid SIM to test my phone in all those locations where I most use it. With the same phone and at the same location with ATT I got full bars that would change to "no signal" as soon as I tried to make a call while with T-Mobile I got only 1 or 2 bars but could use the phone without any problems. I changed to T-Mobile soon after and have been kicking myself for not having made that switch earlier.

I have since switched to a smart phone and as a result use data as well (mostly news and email). I doubt that the roaming allocations will have any impact for me since I have data roaming turned off on my phone. I seem to be able to get data everywhere but sometimes only at Edge speeds.
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reply to loadmaster
T-Mobile is selling their prepaid sim for $2 on their website.
»prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prep···tion-Kit

Difference between prepaid and postpaid coverage on T-Mobile is relatively small. Thus, you could add some minutes to the prepaid sim's account and get a good idea about coverage.

You could probably even use your existing phone. Just call up At&t and tell them you are traveling and need the phone unlocked. They will then give you instructions and an unlock code so you can try the T-Mobile sim.

Prepaid = Voice, text, and mms while roaming. NO DATA
Just a heads up. Check compass.t-mobile.com to see if there is any roaming where you go. Make sure you check the data coverage too. More and more they are launching 3g/4g only areas. (no 2g) and those areas generally don't show in voice maps but do in data maps. (a lot in the west)
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The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. The day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Alden Nowlan

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to this post. The information you posted is very helpful.

Hello, get the iPhone you will LOVE it.

reply to loadmaster
I live San Jose and have been with TMO for about 3 years. I've gone through numerous phone varrieties (Symbian, Windows Phone, Addroid). I currently have an HTC Sensation 4G. I have always purchased my phones outright and an therefore have never been on a 2-year contract. I'll say that TMO coverage is pretty good; however, I have never gotten great speeds with any of my phones. Downloads speeds with the HTC sensation (according to speedtest app) have never been above 1Mbps. I have recently been thinking about switching back to AT&T (which I had before TMO) now that they have LTE coverage in our area.

reply to loadmaster
I'm switching too,been on that service since...94..just can't stand the smartphone/data plans..need a flat rate carrier.