Anyone jumping ship from AT&T to T-Mobile?

[anon(5335877)]

One question comes to mind, now that Tmo has the "almighty" iphone will they continue to refarm their network since that was the reason for it in the first place?

Yes, as long as they own enough spectrum in that area. They can't really put up their LTE network unless they do the refarm first.

 

[theefman]

Yes, as long as they own enough spectrum in that area. They can't really put up their LTE network unless they do the refarm first.

Thanks, didn't know it tied into their LTE rollout as well. That'll help with my imported device.

 

[anon(5335877)]

Thanks, didn't know it tied into their LTE rollout as well. That'll help with my imported device.

Yes, because right now their AWS (1700/2100) spectrum (in places that haven't been refarmed yet) is all used up by their 4G HSPA+ network. If they don't free some of that AWS spectrum up, then they have no extra spectrum to use for LTE. So they move some of that HSPA+ network (usually half of the capacity) over to their PCS (1900) spectrum. They make space on the PCS spectrum by reducing the amount of spectrum 2G uses, since less and less people are using 2G only phones.



A chart if that helps. "Today" on this chart was near the beginning of 2012.

If the MetroPCS merger gains shareholder approval, it'll help things by giving T-Mobile more spectrum (and in turn more capacity) to work with.

 

[Alex Rodriguez]

My neighbor's son works at T-Mobile. T-Mobile has been re-farmed in Chicago to cover AT&T 3G data. He told me he has signed up quite a few AT&T customers that brought their own AT&T phones. He told me they get 5.0 Mbps down and 0.750 Mbps up.

Remember that the phone has to be unlock to work in T-mobile network, I found this video of an ATT unlock phone running on T-mobile network and the speed it gets is not 3G . The speed it gets is HSPA+ (AKA 4G) . All depends of the area where you live.You have to google what markets are refarmed.

T-Mobile 4G/HSPA+ on AT&T Phones (CONFIRMED) - YouTube

 

[palandri]

I just switch my wife and I over to T-Mobile. We're in Chicago:

with a pentaband phone I am getting 11680 down and 1164 up
with a quad band phone I am getting 7299 down and 689 up

 

[Bryan Miller3]

I have the 900 and I live in central Virginia. It was unlocked so I slapped it on T-Mobile... the signal is OK but I don't pic up 4g that good. My amaze 4g does a better job... idle... but I like the phone.

 

[hengst2404]

Well, as I had mentioned back in April, today I called AT&T, got my unlock code, drove to my T-Mobile and got the new sim card, unlocked my phone and ported my number over. I live in the Washington D.,C. Northern Virginia area and my 920 has 4G access and coverage. I am very pleased. I am sure it helps to be living in an area that T-Mobile has covered pretty well.