Thinking of switching from VZ to TM - thoughts from those who made the switch?

I live in upstate (Greenville) SC and am thinking of switching to T-Mobile from VZ. I've been with VZ almost forever and have had no complaints, but I want to keep my unlimited data and can't really spring the $650 for a phone at the moment. I notice that TM is good in metro cities, which is where I spend the bulk of my time, but weak in "flyover country" or on interstates in between metro cities. I do a fair amount of driving, half of it with my kids, and it's been nice with VZ to have the 4G the whole way so they can stream music or watch movies. I'm noticing that between here and ATL, for example, TM is mostly 2G. Is there a possibility or plan for them to expand to those areas? That's really my only concern with switching is losing that 4G, or even 3G, on the interstates.

Those of you who have switched, what's your general opinion at this point? Signal, data, service, etc. Much appreciated!

I would seriously look into getting first hand experience with their service in your area or at least test drive a friend's phone to be sure the service meets your expectations.

I am in Chicago and after my wife's coworker had bad experiences with T-Mobile in our area (came from Verizon) I decided it was not worth the switch for me. Your area may not have the same issues though

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I'm in Cincinnati, Moved to Tmo after being with Big Red for over 6 years.

While I expected to not have as good signal, the cost savings was worth the few issues.
In the city, works fine. Along the Interstate, works ok, I can make and receive calls.

What I can't put up with and has no issue with geography, is the absolute $HITTY service I have gotten from Tmo.

I bought 2 HTC One S's. At the time these were Tmo's premier phones.

We switched for 2 reasons, price and WiFi Calling.

Wifi calling never worked on the HTC One S with Ice Cream Sandwich. Call Tmo, and they would play dumb and say they never heard of the issue. Go online and AC and every other Android site complained about the issue, But Tmo........ What problem?

Then JellyBean comes out. The clouds parted, the angels sang (Ohhhhhhhhhh). After almost a year our phones WORKED !!!!!

I was actually getting my monies worth !!!!

for 2 months.

Then they did an update :(

And a Problem that Tmo says never existed, suddenly appeared AGAIN.

What did the JB Update do? TURNS OFF THE WIFI RADIO WHEN THE SCREEN GOES DARK.

Now Tmo says that is the way it is supposed to work and there is never going to be another update and if I don't like it I can get another phone.


I could NEVER nor would I EVER recommend Tmo to anyone.

Maybe the playstore version of their "Premier" phone works better as you don't have to deal with their "Customer Service"

Depends on area. I switched and in Jacksonville Florida it is amazing. I have coverage all over town and kill amazing LTE and HSPA speeds. So worth it for me switching from Sprint... But really it does depend on your area. Get first base experience for sure.

Sent from my T-Mobile HTC One using AC Forums.

I am testing t-mobile's network right now and I came from Verizon. It is definitely noticeably worse coverage wise but overall not too bad. If you're curious get a used nexus 4 or just buy a new one and give it a try for a month (that's exactly what I am doing).

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

I didn't switch from VZW, but I do drive the I-85 corridor down to Atlanta from time to time. There are many EDGE-only service areas on this route, so watching movies on a T-Mobile device probably won't happen. I rarely stream music while I drive but what I noticed the two times that I tried to was that when I started the music stream in a 4G area (not the I-85 corridor), I could maintain the stream as I went into an EDGE-only area. When I tried to restart my music stream in an EDGE-only service area, I could not stream my music at all.

Originally Posted by ahamick

I would seriously look into getting first hand experience with their service in your area or at least test drive a friend's phone to be sure the service meets your expectations.

I am in Chicago and after my wife's coworker had bad experiences with T-Mobile in our area (came from Verizon) I decided it was not worth the switch for me. Your area may not have the same issues though

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T-Mobile has been excellent in Chicago where I'm at. I avg almost 30 mb down.

Sent from my T-Mobile LG Escape using Tapatalk 2

I just switched from T-Mo to big orange. I've had excellent signal coverage in the Vallejo-Fairfield are but when I am in San Francisco I am having signal issues. Don't know if it was because more people are using it here in the city. Another thing is the signal strength inside buildings like Safeway and here at my work. I am sitting just beside the window but I only get 1 bar most of the times and it is only 4G. One time, I was outside in the middle of San Francisco and I was on EDGE. What's the deal with that? When I first tried T-Mo, I was using the Nexus 4, signal issue was the problem. I then switched to S4 and still signal issues were the problem. Then I switched again to Note 2 but still same problem, signal issues. My co-worker who is using Boostmobile has signal even from the basement of our building. After 5 months, I left T-Mo for AT&T. Though I miss the "Unlimited" plan, having signal issues most of the time wasn't worth staying with T-Mo. I have a mobile hot spot from T-Mo and I tried loading credits into it to see if the signal has improved, still nothing. If they improve their signal reception, then I might go back to them.

I switched from VZW to TMO in July and it's the best decision I ever made. Went from 1 smartphone with unlimited data and 1 dumb phone for $116/month to 2 smartphones (1 with unlimited 1 with 500 megs) for $90 /month (10% corp discount). As you can see from my avatar, I go through alot of data. That's as of today and I still have 9 days left in my billing cycle.

I'm in Riverside, CA and LTE is very good here. Some places are better than others. I get anywhere from 10 to 30 megs down.

T-Mobile has dead zones and poor building penetration.
Nothing you can do about it, and no way to know until you try out a phone in the places you spend the most time.

The only way to really know is by using the service. Don't trust their maps of coverage, as there are a lot of variables that determine coverage.

T-Mobile has a month to month plan. If you can take advantage of that with a cheap device you can possibly get an idea of what you'll be in for.

Good luck on your choice.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Originally Posted by gone down south

T-Mobile has dead zones and poor building penetration.
Nothing you can do about it, and no way to know until you try out a phone in the places you spend the most time.

ALL carriers have dead zones and places where they don't penetrate very well. That's nothing unique to Tmobile. Just depends on the area.

Well, I went ahead and made the switch and, overall, am pretty happy with it. My data speeds are actually faster with my Samsung Galaxy S4 on TMO than they were on my HTC Thunderbolt on VZ. Data speed is great in my town (Greenville SC) where I get 4G/LTE everywhere. I don't get a signal at all in my office, but we have WiFi. Atlanta was no problem - picked up 4G around Buford/Gainesville area and then had LTE in Atlanta, but between Greenville and Atlanta I was on the Edge network (2G) which slowed down streaming, but still permitted my Google Nav to work. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the switch so far. Like GadgetGator said, all carriers have dead zones, but TMO seems to be a little worse in some buildings (no signal in Barnes & Noble, for example, but I can use their WiFi if I need).

And I was able to get my G4 AND keep my unlimited data, etc. Something I couldn't do with VZ, who didn't really seem to care that much whether I stayed or went.

Btw, the best resource I've found for checking signal and data coverage is Sensorly.com. Very good, accurate information that is user-driven and not carrier-provided. One thing I've found is that every carrier seems to have their strong areas and weak areas. Highly recommend you check the Sensorly site first to make sure you're covered as you need.

Originally Posted by cheeta186

I am testing t-mobile's network right now and I came from Verizon. It is definitely noticeably worse coverage wise but overall not too bad. If you're curious get a used nexus 4 or just buy a new one and give it a try for a month (that's exactly what I am doing).

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

Doing the same. I'm on VZW right now paying about 210 for 3 phone, just got my new Nexus 4 in today, just waiting for my T-mo sim to come in so i can test it. Straight Talk with ATT is plan B.