Is T-Mobile just as good as ATT?

[pcguys]

I just switched to ATT 3 weeks ago from Sprint because sprint 3G downloads had sunken to a ridiculous 87kbps/sec in Philadelphia.

I'm absolutely delighted with ATT. I'm getting 2 - 5 meg down just about all the time. The call quality is awesome on my new Galaxy S3's.

When I mentioned to a friend that I switched to ATT, her first reaction was: WOW! They're really expensive.

It made me feel extravagant and wasteful.

Is T-Mobile (her carrier) just as good?

Does T-Mobile charge less because you get less? (coverage, quality, reliability?)

Is it ok I'm on ATT?

Do I need to feel guilty paying this much for my three S3's (soon to be on the ATT Shared 6 gig/month plan?)

Thoughts?

Mike

 

[sniktawm]

I've been a happy AT&T customer for almost 10 years. They never let me down. They have more towers than T-Mobile, so you should have reliable coverage. LTE is super fast. It drains more battery, but is so worth it. Plus, they have fantastic phones.

I've always had a good experience with customer service. Here's a tip: Don't be demanding. Be kind and considerate and they will help you to the best of their ability.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727

 

[KreepyKen]

I think you can easily look at it as a "you get what you pay for" situation. Sprint is cheap and unlimited, but they easily have the worst network in the US. They are the only major carrier I have never used because they have no coverage in any place I've ever lived.

For me, Verizon is the most expensive...by quite a bit. I chose to stay with AT&T when I got my SGS III. Verizon has about 5 times the LTE coverage of AT&T. But Verizon has the most horrible customer service ever. I have been very happy with AT&T's customer service. And if you find yourself in an AT&T LTE area, it is freaking blazingly fast.

Sprint and T-Mobile are both about to start implementing LTE service. T-Mobile is actually skipping this generation LTE and going straight to LTE-Advanced (which is technically the ONLY true 4G service there is). If T-Mobile can get it out there and cover a large portion of the country with it, I will seriously consider going back to them when my contract ends in 2 years.

So long story short, don't feel guilty. AT&T is less expensive (usually) than Verizon, has better customer service, and has a very fast LTE network with HSPA+ backhaul, so bit for byte is probably faster than Verizon's service (just not as widespread).

 

[Razelus]

In complete agreement with KreepyKen.

 

[jcp007]

Been with AT&T for 17 years. Started with a bag phone when it was still Bell South Mobility.

 

[taylorz_412]

I think you can easily look at it as a "you get what you pay for" situation. Sprint is cheap and unlimited, but they easily have the worst network in the US. They are the only major carrier I have never used because they have no coverage in any place I've ever lived.

For me, Verizon is the most expensive...by quite a bit. I chose to stay with AT&T when I got my SGS III. Verizon has about 5 times the LTE coverage of AT&T. But Verizon has the most horrible customer service ever. I have been very happy with AT&T's customer service. And if you find yourself in an AT&T LTE area, it is freaking blazingly fast.

Sprint and T-Mobile are both about to start implementing LTE service. T-Mobile is actually skipping this generation LTE and going straight to LTE-Advanced (which is technically the ONLY true 4G service there is). If T-Mobile can get it out there and cover a large portion of the country with it, I will seriously consider going back to them when my contract ends in 2 years.

So long story short, don't feel guilty. AT&T is less expensive (usually) than Verizon, has better customer service, and has a very fast LTE network with HSPA+ backhaul, so bit for byte is probably faster than Verizon's service (just not as widespread).

I disagree about customer service they usually get you whatever you want ..at least in my case but vzw def ain't cheap but I need service every where I go and Verizon is the only carrier that can provide that

GSIII VZW via tapatalk 2

 

[eagle63]

Don't feel guilty. That said, I recently faced the same decision as you and I ended up going with tmobile. (I too couldn't take sprint's slow data speeds any more) Where I live, tmobile has very good coverage, though in many places they do not. AT&T still has more rural coverage here, but for me it wasn't worth the extra money.

So far I'm happy with tmobile but AT&T was my 2nd choice. Bottom line is: if you're happy with the service and the price fits your budget, then there's no need to feel guilty or second guess yourself.

 

[paul-c]

T-Mobile doesn't have LTE yet, so I'd say AT&T gets the edge in my book. And as stated above, if you think AT&T is expensive, you should see what things cost on Verizon.

 

[cgardnervt]

Like everyone says! You get what you pay for!

Tmo is great is your in a good city coverage and never really wanna leave that city. To be honest I would go with what you like best.

I have been on Sprint's dialup network for 5-6 years and it sucked. Sorry but 200K just isnt cutting it! ATT's HSPA+ is great. 5-7meg down at most times of the day. Coverage is a lot better and by battery life sky rocket! CS has also been great both at the ATT corp store and 611! I think I have found my home for a cell provider for a while now!

 

[anon62607]

I was quite happy on T-Mobile in Portland about two years ago and as far as that goes it hasn't changed. Bandwidth was quite good for HSPA and it was relatively less expensive than anyone else. Unfortunately I have to travel for work sometimes and I started noticing once outside the medium to large cities you are often on EDGE, which is unbearably slow these days.

AT&T is better about coverage in smaller cities and rural areas but I do notice that there are stretches of I-5 where I don't get reliable T-Mobile or AT&T coverage. Verizon seems all around best (but also most expensive) these days. It seems that you are well covered pretty much everywhere by the least EDVO rev A and in medium to larger cities you often have LTE now.



Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[LadiJae]

I switched from Sprint to ATT the day after Christmas, and loving it.

Sprint was cheaper for a reason!

~Jae, Tap'n on my White Samsung Galaxy S3~

 

[20blks]

I think you can easily look at it as a "you get what you pay for" situation. Sprint is cheap and unlimited, but they easily have the worst network in the US. They are the only major carrier I have never used because they have no coverage in any place I've ever lived.

For me, Verizon is the most expensive...by quite a bit. I chose to stay with AT&T when I got my SGS III. Verizon has about 5 times the LTE coverage of AT&T. But Verizon has the most horrible customer service ever. I have been very happy with AT&T's customer service. And if you find yourself in an AT&T LTE area, it is freaking blazingly fast.

Sprint and T-Mobile are both about to start implementing LTE service. T-Mobile is actually skipping this generation LTE and going straight to LTE-Advanced (which is technically the ONLY true 4G service there is). If T-Mobile can get it out there and cover a large portion of the country with it, I will seriously consider going back to them when my contract ends in 2 years.

So long story short, don't feel guilty. AT&T is less expensive (usually) than Verizon, has better customer service, and has a very fast LTE network with HSPA+ backhaul, so bit for byte is probably faster than Verizon's service (just not as widespread).

No one needs to respond after this. You said it all

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Android Central Forums

 

[iN8ter]

I think you can easily look at it as a "you get what you pay for" situation. Sprint is cheap and unlimited, but they easily have the worst network in the US. They are the only major carrier I have never used because they have no coverage in any place I've ever lived.

For me, Verizon is the most expensive...by quite a bit. I chose to stay with AT&T when I got my SGS III. Verizon has about 5 times the LTE coverage of AT&T. But Verizon has the most horrible customer service ever. I have been very happy with AT&T's customer service. And if you find yourself in an AT&T LTE area, it is freaking blazingly fast.

Sprint and T-Mobile are both about to start implementing LTE service. T-Mobile is actually skipping this generation LTE and going straight to LTE-Advanced (which is technically the ONLY true 4G service there is). If T-Mobile can get it out there and cover a large portion of the country with it, I will seriously consider going back to them when my contract ends in 2 years.

So long story short, don't feel guilty. AT&T is less expensive (usually) than Verizon, has better customer service, and has a very fast LTE network with HSPA+ backhaul, so bit for byte is probably faster than Verizon's service (just not as widespread).

This. Verizon has more LTE coverage, but drive 15 miles and you might find yourself back on CDMA which is pretty LULZ compared to AT&T's HSPA+ service they fall back onto.

As for T-Mobile their coverage is terrible compared to AT&T and a lot of their markets are conjested. In the T-Mobile HSPA+ market here I got slower speeds than the average Verizon CDMA 3G user and often my speeds were below 300kbps.. And by often I mean OFTEN. I've never had fast 3G speeds onT-Mobile in any place where I've lived, and 2/3 places (my old home and my parents' place) I didn't even have EDGE coverage.

If you travel, T-Mobile is a bad option (compared to Verizon or AT&T) unless you travel to set places where their coverage is known to be good, and by Air. If you often drive (or worse, ride in the passenger seat) or commute by train (Amtrak, etc.), then the coverage gaps will make you want to throw your phone out of a window.

Sprint is a non-factor to me these days.

 

[pcguys]

Excellent responses. This makes me feel much better about my ATT decision.

No more guilt !!!

Thanks everyone!

Mike

 

[natehoy]

Go to Sensorly.com and pull up the coverage maps for AT&T 2G+3G, then pull them up for T-Mobile 2G+3G. These are user-contributed maps, so while they will be by necessity incomplete (there's an Android app that allows you to fix that - hint, hint!) they will also be pretty accurate where the data exists.

 

[snookiesnoo]

Verizon has WAY more than five times the LTE of AT&T. AT&T is just getting started with LTE and they are historically slow and cheap about putting up new towers. Verizon has a huge lead in LTE and they know it hence their high prices. Its going to be a very long time before Sprint has any amount of LTE assuming they stay in business that long and have the revenue to keep putting up towers. Forget anything but HSPA+ from T-Mobile. They are struggling badly and said if the merger with AT&T didn't go through they probably would not make it. HSPA+ isn't horrible but they have far fewer towers and its no LTE thats for sure. If you have an LTE phone it makes very little sense to go with anyone but Verizon if you travel at all.

AT&T

Verizon has about 5 times the LTE coverage of AT&T. But Verizon has the most horrible customer service ever. I have been very happy with AT&T's customer service. And if you find yourself in an AT&T LTE area, it is freaking blazingly fast.

Sprint and T-Mobile are both about to start implementing LTE service. T-Mobile is actually skipping this generation LTE and going straight to LTE-Advanced (which is technically the ONLY true 4G service there is). If T-Mobile can get it out there and cover a large portion of the country with it, I will seriously consider going back to them when my contract ends in 2 years.

So long story short, don't feel guilty. AT&T is less expensive (usually) than Verizon, has better customer service, and has a very fast LTE network with HSPA+ backhaul, so bit for byte is probably faster than Verizon's service (just not as widespread).

 

[jcp007]

AT&T has LTE and TMO does not. I like AT&T also because there are no hassles in using it overseas as most of the planet is on GSM.

 

[pcguys]

Like getting the last word much?

 

[barskin]

Well, I'm probably one of the older posters here - I signed up with Alexander Graham Bell, himself. Barump bump.

 

[jcp007]

Like getting the last word much?

The last word is usually best.