[k72]

My parents have been using their new 640s for a few days, but my dad discovered today that his office is a dead spot on Tmobile. His phone works outside, but not inside the building like his Sprint phone did. WiFi calling is not an option at his office, so they're looking at returning their phones. Are there any settings on the 640 or to do with Tmobile that may help his reception?

[xandros9]

Maybe a personal signal booster thing? But other than that, you can't just get around a dead spot.

[voidcomp]

Unfortunately no. Find the service that works first, then the phone to support it. They may have better luck with the AT&T version.

[pankaj981]

If AT&T works in his office and your father is price conscious then check Cricket Wireless.

[stevesu]

This is a common issue in the past decade. When building office buildings, they are using glass that doesn't allow a wireless signal to pass through. This is because (from what I remember), folks used to sit outside of Microsoft and use scanners to try and get secrets.
To mitigate the cell signals also not passing through the windows, carriers have to install a cell tower on the top of said building. This becomes costly for obvious reasons. So purchasing another cell phone from T-Mo won't solve his issue, he'd have to change carriers.
You can have your father call t-mo and request a cell tower. He can step outside for phone calls. He can use any number of apps available, like Skype, WhatsApp or my new favorite - Viber.

[k72]

He says there are ATT repeaters the company uses for this issue, but when he tries to choose that network manually, he's still not getting a signal.

[stevesu]

I think ATT and T-Mo use a different bandwidth. The IT department or T-Mo might have a working solution for him. And have better, more specific data for him...although my explanation could hold true.

[Eric J F]

T-Mobile gave us a free signal booster that goes inside our house, which is only a half-mile or so from the nearest tower. Our house is brick veneer with a metal roof, so reception was terrible. Now we get 5 bars inside, but it's only 4G; LTE apparently isn't boosted by this device.

The booster consists of two units- one goes inside a window that intercepts a good signal; the other somewhere else inside a distance away. If they're considering this option, it may take some experimenting with placement for the best results.

T-Mobile didn't hesitate in offering the booster, but then I'd complained about the poor reception a few times before.

[Eric J F]

Re: The bandwidth issue. I understand that T-Mobile's assigned bands are known to poorly penetrate buildings. As mentioned above, AT&T's signals are able to make it through, so if the signal booster doesn't help, they don't have much choice.

[k72]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate it. So then my next question, not being familiar with ATT, are the off-the-rack WalMart ATT phones compatible on a regular non-prepaid ATT plan like the T-Mobile ones?

[libra89]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate it. So then my next question, not being familiar with ATT, are the off-the-rack WalMart ATT phones compatible on a regular non-prepaid ATT plan like the T-Mobile ones?

Yes they are. No unlocking required. Just do NOT put in the GoPhone sim before doing so.

[aybarrap1]

Yes they are. No unlocking required. Just do NOT put in the GoPhone sim before doing so.

Yep. Before you even power up the phone, just insert an AT&T post paid sim then power on for first time. Should work without a hitch.

Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

[HoosierDaddy]

I'd try real hard to avoid a CDMA phone like Sprint supports. Maybe switch from T-Mobile to a GSM carrier with a closer tower and maybe keep the phone. But try to get a GSM carrier regardless of the phone they end up with.

[faith3935]

Same. I always bought AT&T, Cricket or Net 10 phone and get them unlocked as I like to have options when it comes to looking for prepaid carriers because you can find good deals on prepaid at times but I may look into a unlocked dual Sim phone in the future so I can use one carrier for talk and text and the other for data.

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[faith3935]

Cricket sucks in comparison to AT&T even though AT&T bought out Cricket.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

[pankaj981]

Cricket sucks in comparison to AT&T even though AT&T bought out Cricket.

Care to elaborate? (Outside of capped LTE)