Thinking about moving to T-Mobile

[Beast of Haeven]

Me and my wife are thinking of moving to T-Mobile in Sacramento. At the moment we're on two separate plans and we were planning on heading to Verizon this weekend to try and see what we can do to join and get our bills down. She was recently convinced that we should move to T-Mobile because the coverage will be the same in town and the speeds are better.

Concern 1.
My brother switched to T-Mobile a few years ago when I was still in LA and his speeds were consistently faster than mine but my coverage was consistently better in all areas we went to. Does anyone have experience with t-Mobiles coverage in Sacramento?

Concern 2.
I'm a grandfathered unlimited data user who regularly uses 75g a month with no tethering. My usage is high due to watching a lot of HD content like 24hr races and interviews. T-Mobile now doesn't count youtube content as data, but does anyone know if Metrotube is seen as youtube on T-Mobiles backend, or is counted as regular data? Will I be throttled due to my high usage?

Concern 3.
Phone availability is another concern of mine. I understand T-Mobile doesn't offer many windows phone but they allow you to bring phones over. However, I've seen in a few cases features were unavailable as a result of the phone not being native to T-Mobile. Is this mainly a non issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

[xrs22]

I'm in Fresno, well Madera actually, and thought of going tmo route. They have nice plans but the coverage was the problem. You can do a loaner phone from them and try their service for a trial. That's what I did anyway but we couldn't send anything in our house or even the same room.

 

[Guytronic]

I'm on T-Mobile close to Sacramento (Roseville)
LTE in the metro area is fast and solid.
No problems at popular spots in and around such as malls, restaurants, downtown, along freeways and in most open places.
Coverage is actually quite good on I-80 all the way to Reno.
For some crazy reason we have a dead area right here where I live so I had to get the booster from T-Mo.

I'm on an old single line 5GB/unlimited they've never capped me on overages.
They warned me once on tethering.
We aren't intense data users however.

The Windows phone selection from T-Mobile is very limited right now.
I'm using a Sony Xperia Z1s on their network at present which I'm happy with.
I bought the T-Mobile Alcatel to try WM10 which I am not very happy with.
Unlocked phones are a great option on the network.
With unbranded you won't have T-Mo Wi-Fi calling.

 

[libra89]

The Windows phone selection from T-Mobile is very limited right now.
I'm using a Sony Xperia Z1s on their network at present which I'm happy with.
I bought the T-Mobile Alcatel to try WM10 which I am not very happy with.
Unlocked phones are a great option on the network.
With unbranded you won't have T-Mo Wi-Fi calling.

To add to the great info that Guytronic has provided, no unlocked Windows phones will have WiFi calling. However, the Nexus 5x and 6p, Moto X Pure Edition and unlocked iPhones work and will give WiFi calling if the hardware supports it (it starts with the 5c).

 

[Beast of Haeven]

Good to know. How about throttling? I just spoke with a friends family member who works at Verizon. There's no way to get my bill down realistically. My only options are to stick it out or switch to T-Mobile. My last concern is the amount of data I consume monthly is abnormal. So does T-Mobile throttle?

 

[RumoredNow]

Yes they do... It's Unlimited w/ a high speed cap. You can draw as much as you want, but LTE/H+ is counted towards the cap for high speed.

A bonus for you is that some streaming services don't count toward the cap. Check T-Mo site for which services.

Throttling knocks you down to EDGE.

 

[Beast of Haeven]

Interesting. After a little research it seems like I'd get throttled after 21gigs. Thanks for the info folks. I'll most likely use my wife as a guanine pig to test the network for a few months.

 

[Scorpio5x0]

I recently switched to T-Mobile from Verizon. I gave up my grandfathered unlimited data and jumped on T-Mobile's 4 Unlimited Data plan for $150. I could no longer justify the cost of Verizon, A year ago I would not have made the switch due to concerns over coverage. T-Mobile's coverage has improved tremendously over the last year with their 700MHz towers.

T-Mobile does not throttle your speed. When you reach 21 gigs of usage, they will give other lines priority over you to a tower. What you will see is an increase in latency and lag.

As far as phones, they promote bring your own phone. I chose to go with the unlocked 950XL and 950. I would go unlocked, regardless of phone, just to remove T-Mobile as the middle man for updates. The only thing that I would keep in mind, is make sure the phone you purchase has the 700MHz bands, to take advantage of the coverage.

 

[RumoredNow]

The only thing that I would keep in mind, is make sure the phone you purchase has the 700MHz bands, to take advantage of the coverage.

That's important. Band 12 LTE in the 700MHz frequency will penetrate better inside and free you from relying on WiFi calling. You can't get T-Mo WiFi calling on a phone not branded to them. At least not a Windows Phone... iPhone and some select Android handsets are the exception to the rule.

 

[Beast of Haeven]

I recently switched to T-Mobile from Verizon. I gave up my grandfathered unlimited data and jumped on T-Mobile's 4 Unlimited Data plan for $150. I could no longer justify the cost of Verizon, A year ago I would not have made the switch due to concerns over coverage. T-Mobile's coverage has improved tremendously over the last year with their 700MHz towers.

T-Mobile does not throttle your speed. When you reach 21 gigs of usage, they will give other lines priority over you to a tower. What you will see is an increase in latency and lag.

As far as phones, they promote bring your own phone. I chose to go with the unlocked 950XL and 950. I would go unlocked, regardless of phone, just to remove T-Mobile as the middle man for updates. The only thing that I would keep in mind, is make sure the phone you purchase has the 700MHz bands, to take advantage of the coverage.

Thanks for the input. My wife is throwing in the towel and it looks like we'll head to T-Mobile to have her switch over on Saturday. I don't mind the tower priority if that's the case. I can attest to the 700mhz penetration as well. My wife has literally no signal at her job but everyone on T-Mobile can send and receive calls with no issues.

 

[coolj40041]

Hello. I have relatives in Sacramento and never have issues when visiting them and driving around CA...except when I go north of SF around Santa Rosa and the forests/mountains between there and Sacramento. But never had an issue in Sacramento, driving between Roseville, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove, downtown, and West Sac areas. I have a 2 line, unlimited LTE + 7GB hotspot for each line for $100 a month. The sweet deals come out between Oct-Dec so if you do go TMobile, be on the lookout for a new plan during the holiday season. Also check out MetroPCS since they run on the same network and are sometimes cheaper, but usually with the lower data plans.

 

[Beast of Haeven]

Made the switch this past weekend. A friend who was in my shoes a few years ago convinced me I'd have no worries if I made the move. I tried the fix for mms but it doesn't seem to work due to the option to change mms setting not being available. Oh well there's more than one way to skin a cat!

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[Scorpio5x0]

If you are on W10M then the MMS setting is under Cellular & Sim settings, then go into Sim settings. You should be able to add the MMS APN towards the bottom. I got it working on a Lumia Icon after switching over to T-Mobile.

 

[jasqid]

Originally posted by RumoredNow

Originally Posted by Scorpio5x0
The only thing that I would keep in mind, is make sure the phone you purchase has the 700MHz bands, to take advantage of the coverage.

That's important. Band 12 LTE in the 700MHz frequency will penetrate better inside and free you from relying on WiFi calling. You can't get T-Mo WiFi calling on a phone not branded to them. At least not a Windows Phone... iPhone and some select Android handsets are the exception to the rule.

Oh man. Thank you for this. I use WiFi calling a lot since switching to tmo at my office. The signal is really poor in my building and activate that on my tmo iPhone. This is a deal breaker for me come back to wm with an unlocked. Device. Unless they change that?.