Bad Coverage - What did I do wrong?

[jimmiekain]

Back in October I decided to switch from Sprint to T-Mobile.

I called Tmo and ordered a white 16gb Galaxy S III.

It arrived I called and followed the instructions of the rep to activate it.

Once activated I Noticed that I only had edge in and around my house even though when I put my address in the Tmo website they showed a map that said I was well within the 4G coverage area for Tmo.

After 4 days of bad coverage I decided to return the phone and cancel so I did.

YESTERDAY my cousin and his wife who have the exact same Galaxy S III on Tmo that I had where at my house and we ran some speed tests we noticed that his wife had 4g and was getting about 19mb down while he was on edge getting about 40kb down (like I was when I tried Tmo just 2 months ago)

We turned both on and off a few times and nothing changed. I've been w/ sprint forever so I am only familiar with CDMA and started looking to see if maybe there was a profile or PRL update and couldnt find any... What could be causing this? I'd love to switch to T-Mobile to save some money but how do I make the phone get good service like hers was?

 

[Jon_Doh]

First, T-Mobile and AT&T don't have the PRL thing - thank goodness. When you turn the phone off and then back on again it reregisters with the tower, sort of like the *228 thing with Verizon.

I don't know why you can't get 4G. Perhaps you had a defective phone. I can only suggest two things. First, go into carrier settings and make sure it's set to automatic both on carrier network and carrier band. Or you could force it to 3G/4G only to see if you can pick up 4G. Of course, that setting will leave you without coverage if you ever are in a non 4G area and need to be able to pick up Edge. The other thing is to go back to the store and try a different phone, either another S3 or another brand of phone.

 

[jimmiekain]

Hmm I tried turning it off and on a few times but to no avail.

I'm gonna try them out again next month. Thanks for your help.

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[egorre]

Try to dial *#2263* next time then select WCDMA then 1700. The other phone was probably picking up their GSM signal. T-Mobile's HSPA+42 network is on WCDMA 1700.

But like what Jon doh said, if your HSPA+ coverage is spotty in your area, you will get no service at all. Make sure HSPA+ is good in your area first so you can decide if you want to force it to HSPA+ all the time.

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[brkaras]

Hate to say it...but T Mobile is horrible plain and simple. My gf has T Mobile in Milwaukee WI and the coverage for 4g HSPA is garbage with 5-10 dropped calls a day and no internet coverage half the day. I have AT&T S3 with LTE coverage and I'm at 50-60 Mbps down and 30Mbps up. Never drop calls and with jelly bean my phone FLIES! I'm not trying to be that guy but just some food for thought when you think ill of AT&T and switch

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[egorre]

Hate to say it...but T Mobile is horrible plain and simple. My gf has T Mobile in Milwaukee WI and the coverage for 4g HSPA is garbage with 5-10 dropped calls a day and no internet coverage half the day. I have AT&T S3 with LTE coverage and I'm at 50-60 Mbps down and 30Mbps up. Never drop calls and with jelly bean my phone FLIES! I'm not trying to be that guy but just some food for thought when you think ill of AT&T and switch

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AT&T is good if you're covered good with LTE. If not, you'll drop to their slower HSPA+ network.

T-Mobile's best on large cities. Like say top 200 markets. That's where they shine the most. I live in one so I get pretty much a very good coverage inside and metro areas. And you know, if you're having a tough time with voice signal, you can always switch to wifi calling and place your call over your wifi for free!

If you really need a lot of data AT&T is out of the question. It's either Sprint or T-Mobile. But I've seen reports on root metrics that t-mo outperforms Sprint in most large cities as of now. T-Mobile's still comes out as the best value carrier out of 4 major carriers.

And it's only gonna be better since they are upgrading towers now for HSPA+ compatibility on iPhones and LTE rollout next year.

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[brkaras]

AT&T is good if you're covered good with LTE. If not, you'll drop to their slower HSPA+ network.

T-Mobile's best on large cities. Like say top 200 markets. That's where they shine the most. I live in one so I get pretty much a very good coverage inside and metro areas. And you know, if you're having a tough time with voice signal, you can always switch to wifi calling and place your call over your wifi for free!

If you really need a lot of data AT&T is out of the question. It's either Sprint or T-Mobile. But I've seen reports on root metrics that t-mo outperforms Sprint in most large cities as of now. T-Mobile's still comes out as the best value carrier out of 4 major carriers.

And it's only gonna be better since they are upgrading towers now for HSPA+ compatibility on iPhones and LTE rollout next year.

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Not true sir. When I was on HSPA I was getting 8-10 Mbps down and 2-3 Mbps up. On their 3g I was still ok cause no one really has 3g around this state. On top of giving us LTE in WI rural areas they covered edge with HSPA. I dunno maybe we are spoiled in WI but AT&T has been the lone ranger in WI for land lines since the 40's and cell service since the 80's. I have no complaints

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[egorre]

Not true sir. When I was on HSPA I was getting 8-10 Mbps down and 2-3 Mbps up. On their 3g I was still ok cause no one really has 3g around this state. On top of giving us LTE in WI rural areas they covered edge with HSPA. I dunno maybe we are spoiled in WI but AT&T has been the lone ranger in WI for land lines since the 40's and cell service since the 80's. I have no complaints

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that looks great for at&t
sounds like they have HSPA+21 in your area. Not bad.

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[acreoaeneas]

The bad coverage might be due to T-Mobile's refarming of it's network. They're trying to get the iPhone 5 onto the network next year with LTE on the AWS CDMA 1700 Mhz band and moving (somewhat complete?) HSPA+ ("4G") onto the current GSM only 1900 Mhz band.

Also if you are not near a major city, you're coverage for Tmo's 4G might be spotty or non-existent.

 

[brkaras]

that looks great for at&t
sounds like they have HSPA+21 in your area. Not bad.

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Yes they do. They are launching LTE advanced as we speak in my area with 40 new LTE towers just in the Milwaukee metro area alone

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[egorre]

Yes they do. They are launching LTE advanced as we speak in my area with 40 new LTE towers just in the Milwaukee metro area alone

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AFAIK no carrier is deploying LTE advanced yet. AT&T and VZW are on release 8, Sprint is using Release 9 and T-Mobile is doing release 10 LTE advanced next year. AT&T is rumored to do release 10 too second half next year and I think I read an article about Verizon hitting capacity limits in 2013 and they're looking for a newer technology. Maybe "5G?" Mobile tech world is getting crazier and crazier every year lol.

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[brkaras]

AFAIK no carrier is deploying LTE advanced yet. AT&T and VZW are on release 8, Sprint is using Release 9 and T-Mobile is doing release 10 LTE advanced next year. AT&T is rumored to do release 10 too second half next year and I think I read an article about Verizon hitting capacity limits in 2013 and they're looking for a newer technology. Maybe "5G?" Mobile tech world is getting crazier and crazier every year lol.

Sent from my SGH-T889

Maybe I used wrong term...with the new towers going up they are preparing for the launch. Whether they do it in the first part of next year or late...I dunno but the regional VP of At&t Wisconsin and Illinois said that is the plan for next year but that could all change with 5g being a possibility. Who knows

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[VDub2174]

Being happy with Sprint for so long made me forget what it was like looking for a wireless provider. T-Mobile and AT&T are the top contenders for me as of right now. Both coverage maps show me being in a strong 4G area. I was thinking of just getting a prepaid phone from T-Mobile to check out the network strength around me before committing.

As for the "5G" talk, I was actually thinking about that today. I have a feeling in a year or two we're going to see more G's

 

[jimmiekain]

I heard T-Mobile has done some upgrades to the 1900mhz spectrum in my area and that now instead of dropping to edge I will be on 3g/4g.

If I use a Nexus 4 will I need to do anything to the settings to make it work on both T-Mo 1700 and 1900 or will it just always pick whichever is best?

 

[egorre]

I heard T-Mobile has done some upgrades to the 1900mhz spectrum in my area and that now instead of dropping to edge I will be on 3g/4g.

If I use a Nexus 4 will I need to do anything to the settings to make it work on both T-Mo 1700 and 1900 or will it just always pick whichever is best?

t-mo defaults at 1700. but you can force which band you want to use

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[jimmiekain]

t-mo defaults at 1700. but you can force which band you want to use

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Does this mean it won't automatically go to 1900 and that I just won't have service if I enter an area with no 1700?

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[IAmSixNine]

Being happy with Sprint for so long made me forget what it was like looking for a wireless provider. T-Mobile and AT&T are the top contenders for me as of right now. Both coverage maps show me being in a strong 4G area. I was thinking of just getting a prepaid phone from T-Mobile to check out the network strength around me before committing.

As for the "5G" talk, I was actually thinking about that today. I have a feeling in a year or two we're going to see more G's

Great minds think alike.
I stopped by a TMO store Friday and picked up a SIM card to test with a couple of TMO phones i have. GS2 and HTC ONE S.
I have been with Sprint for 10 years but since mid December i have had many calls not make it to my phone and now my data speeds are worse then before Network Vision. A month ago i got 4-8megs down on LTE in my office, now i struggle to get 1 meg down on their NEW LTE network. Thats also been tested on my GS3 and EVO LTE.
SO like you im testing the waters with TMO. Hoping to finalize by the end of the week if my testing goes well.