I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile — and it’s been a total disaster so far

[AmericanMike]

I have experienced Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile. I will say I didn't really have coverage issues with Verizon or T-Mobile, but even now I have one bar sitting at my desk at home in Raleigh NC!!

Switched to T-Mobile two years ago and not only saved money but had excellent coverage on drives to Canada and then free text and some free data once in Canada. Same free perks when we went to Jamaica. Had to pay $35 for roaming in Italy that worked for a month. Totally happy. Now just switched to home internet from Spectrum. Loving it.

 

[bcrichster]

I do occasional Android Development for BlissROMs , Drove for Uber, active member in Waze, Etc. My experience with the Carriers is that VZW has great coverage indeed, but their devices are trash. Straight up, including any of their branded iPhones or even the Google Pixels that are MEANT for development and installing desired custom ROMs (Operating Systems with mega options). They are locked down tighter than Ft. Knox, No customs allowed. Ever. I had been a Boost Mobile customer for almost 20y before switching to Metro/T-Mo due to Boost towers getting shut down everywhere (Yes, that was dirty of T-Mo). I used to avoid MetroPCS like the plague as their coverage used to be nonexistent once you left the city you had bought your phone in but the coverage has improved dramatically after being purchased by T-Mobile and seems to have expanded exponentially after purchasing Sprint and rolling out 5G. The coverages and speeds are seeming impressive, so long as you don't use any iPhones. VZW service is also egregiously expensive to commit when such devices are so inherently restricted, plus all their surprise fees they tack on the bills sent to ppl. I'll stick with Metro/T-Mo services as they don't roll out APN changes every 4mo like VZW, which also makes using a Custom ROM almost impossibly pointless, regardless of SIM card specs.

 

[bakaoppai]

Thats insane. I RV full time all over the US including the middle of nowhere on a mountain and in the woods. I have never not had a signal. Tmobile is by the beat. I know they do t actually care about me but I've had the best customer support from the almost every tome as well. Like really kind people. I've been given discounts free months you name jt.

 

[kshensley71]

I travel a lot and have used all of the major carriers, ATT was the worst, Verizon was fine for in the US, but my best experience has been with T Mobile. I get the same coverage and speeds everywhere I go in the US with T Mobile, never had an issue, but I also get pretty solid international coverage which I didn't get with Verizon. I also use Global unlocked phones so I don't know if that helps, mainly Samsung or OnePlus. I had a coworker that said he had issues with his iPhone when he switched carriers and bought a new phone and it solved his issues.

 

[kep55]

We've been on T-Mobile's Magenta plan for several years. At one time we had no choice but to use Frontier's facetiously named "Broadband" service, which crashed as often as a NASCAR racer. We'd tether our devices to our T-Mobile phones and got faster speeds, almost no drops, and could still & receive phone calls. And this was over their LTE network where the closes tower was 4 miles away. Several people I worked with had Verizon and the only reason they stayed with it was because verizon gave them a discount through our employer.

 

[leester2]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile as my phone carrier, and I've experienced too many drop calls and slow internet connections since making the move.

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile — and it’s been a total disaster so far : Read more

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile — and it’s been the best thing I have ever done. I was with Verizon for more than 20 years but I could not get a good signal at my distillery in the middle of Dallas, Texas. I tried all the services that were available, but nothing worked. T-Mobile offered me a free wireless router to act as a cell tower and it worked perfectly. I went to Dubai last year, used my phone tones for a whole week and my total bill was only $1.20. I just got back from London, Scotland, Wales and Ireland for three weeks and my total bill was $0.80. T-Mobile is the best and it works great in Dallas, Texas. And coming soon, it will even connect to a satellite if no cell towers are available.

 

[szhosain]

My experience with T-Mobile (primarily here in the SF Bay Area and when travelling overseas) has been fine!

I was a Verizon user (started with GTE Mobilenet in 1991) for many, many years before switching. And the experience has been perfectly fine for my family and I.

I am particularly happy with their pricing for international travel - free text, free 2G/3G data, and low-cost voice $0.20 / minute, in the countries I travel to. Verizon would not match the pricing (even though I had been a customer for 20 years), wanted me to pay daily rates to "rent" a global phone (to access GSM networks), and the pricing for data was/is still too high.

No contest!!

 

[M Weaver]

I've got Google Fi and The service used to be extraordinary but it relied on three carriers. It had an occasional hiccup switching between carriers but you could generally always manage to make calls and use data. Since they have reduced the service to T-Mobile only, it's been horrendously bad.

I think if you are in a good T-Mobile coverage area and don't move around much, your coverage will be okay but there seems to be some sort of issue with moving from cell to cell and maintaining a good connection. You may have bars of signal but there's little throughput. I've seen exceptionally strong signal but data speeds that are essentially 2G from 20 years ago instead of the 5G lots of signal that my phone is saying that I have. The only thing that resolves it is going into airplane mode and then reestablishing a connection. If you're moving down the road and relying on data, it's a major major inconvenience.

I'm sure that some people will say that it's because of the pixel phone or that it's Google Fi but the problem exists for most people that I know that use T-Mobile and are on the road very much. The Genesis 5G phone from dish works better in more places than does the T-Mobile phone but I know that that's a crap shoot because of the financial stability of dish right now. They have though seem to have a network that has cobbled together something better than what T-Mobile offers in Southern Illinois. Your results may vary between both carriers but I'm traveling all the time and I'll tell you that T-Mobile is a pain these days.

 

[jeffc73oc]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile a while back amd it's been great. I was paying $160 for 2 lines capped at 8GB data and now $140 for 4 lines unlimited. My speeds here in So Cal average 400Mpbs and I've seen 700 occasionally. The only issue I've had is where I live. If I do a speed test coming up to the driveway of my complex, I'll get easily 300 to 400 mbps But as soon as I get about 50 feet into my driveway, it literally dropped to 10mpbs. Luckily I have high-speed internet through spectrum in my house, but I've complained and they said oh, they're working on a tower in your area. I'm like for the last three years?

 

[schwaka]

I switched from Tmobile to Verizon back in 2007 because Verizon put up a 3G tower in my area while Tmobile was still on 2G, switched back to Tmobile in 2013 because Verizon is expensive, and kept Tmobile until 2021 when I switched to Spectrum's mobile service that uses Verizon towers because it was cheaper (I think I was paying around $50 a month for Tmobile, and Spectrum was $30.)

I've never really had connection issues on either Tmobile or Verizon, but how well each worked heavily depended on the area. I remember being in a hospital and having full bars with Tmobile, but another patient with Verizon was only getting 1 bar, but I've also been in areas where my connection wasn't great, and someone with Verizon had no issues.

 

[BossGolfer]

Same as others. I had a Tmobile "TCL" REVVL 5G that worked fine..good speeds no dropped connections etc. The screen got shattered and I picked up an unlocked Samsung A23 5G and nothing but problems..many similar to the ones you reported. I went back to the REVVL and voila...all good again. I have sent the A23 in for service...I am kind of expecting the same problems. We will see. It seems T-mobile has to be matched up with the right phone.

 

[kimsart]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile as my phone carrier, and I've experienced too many drop calls and slow internet connections since making the move.

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile — and it’s been a total disaster so far : Read more

We were loyal T-Mobile customers for over 10. After we switched from Sprint for the exact issues you described, our T-MOBILE service was rock solid. Until they merged with Sprint. Then we started having the same old dropped calls, failed calls, dead areas that spanned miles in our city.

So, we switched to Spectrum Mobile. The cable company's mobile service piggyback on Verizon and our service is Vastly better. In 2 months I can could 2 connection issues. That's months. Not days. I couldn't go 2 days on the merged T-Mobile & Sprint networks without dropped and failed calls. Not even mention ing their dropped data.

 

[lkenned33]

I switched from ATT to Tmobile almost a year ago. The service is moderate when I'm home, but anytime I'm on the road traveling the service is non-existent. I complained in their forums so much that they have stopped sending them to me. ATT had great service except for our internet. We should have kept the cell service and only changed our internet provider.

 

[mgnm]

Just the opposite of my experience in New Mexico. Last 10 cross country drives showed no difference but TMO is cheaper.

 

[Touchdown1]

I set up my pixel 6 phone using it's dual sims, Verizon physical sim and T Mobile virtual sim. Extensive testing around MA showed both carriers worked well, T Mobile worked better on upper part Cape Cod, Verizon was strong enough elsewhere although in rural central MA neither was consistently good. I also have a house in Pompano Beach FL, T Mobile was definitely better there. T Mobile seems to have better 5 G coverage, but that didn't really translate into significantly better real life usage results (I actually did A/B comparisons in web searches to test performance and did not rely on the LTE/5 G bar indicators on the phone to determine performance, although I observed the bars, I actually ran page load time comparisons).

I then took a cross country drive from Massachusetts to North Dakota. Cross country results showed similarly that in some areas one carrier would work better than the other. I would say in general cross country T Mobile was better, and I would be able to call, text, and search using T Mobile when my traveling companions phones had little or no service on Verizon. But - in the less populated areas in the Dakotas there was zero T Mobile service. The total lack of service over wide areas proved to me that for someone who roams a lot, Verizon is the absolute choice.

The T Mobile price was better, although not so good during my test period because I have multiple Verizon lines and only the one T mobile line so I was not able to get the volume discount, with multiple accounts T Mobile would be cheaper and provide more extra perks.

In the end, after a 3 month trial period I dumped T Mobile and kept Verizon that I had for several years.

 

[JCartier]

We too are in the same boat and looking to switch back to Verizon ASAP. We have 11 months left on our contract. When we first switched our 3 phones to T-Mobile, also adding a home internet box, connectivity was acceptable. Over the last year, the 5G signal in our area has degraded tremendously to the point we are losing signal in parts of of home and areas at work 2 miles away. We are to the point where text messages do not send, calls drop regularly, and home internet speed is now partially reliable. I called T-Mobile tech support and reset the phone alon my end and the connection on the T-Mobile carrier end...we had great service for 8 hours. After that, we were back in the stone age one again. Almost like they throttled our connection similar to cable cable TV carrier activities. In my opinion, T-Mobile is definitely now refered to as T-Maybe.

 

[cybermaven]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile as my phone carrier, and I've experienced too many drop calls and slow internet connections since making the move.

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile — and it’s been a total disaster so far : Read more

I have had the totally opposite experience. I live in the boonies of Northern Florida, and the 5G internet is a godsend. I loved it so much that I switched my cell service from Verizon to T-Mobile as well. Their package deals and over 55 savings made it financially worth it too. The process was seamless. The service is great for both internet and cell signals. T-Mobile has been noted as the best choice for those who live the RV life and live off-grid lifestyles, so that may explain the difference in experience. Good luck, and I hope you find some service satisfaction,

 

[pmerritt]

Some of the issues you experienced could have been mitigated by using wifi calling. I get it that doesn't help if you're on the road but I said some... not all.

 

[Boomdizzle]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile about a year ago and have had the complete opposite experience. Verizon's coverage and speed since switching to 5g in central Ohio has been absolute trash to the point that when you aren't on 5G, LTE is completely unusable and 5g is constantly going in and out of coverage just driving around the area. The last straw was a vacation to Hilton Head where neither of our phones could hold a hotspot connection the entire way down, the week we were there or on the way back much less work as normal phones while we were there and on LTE.

I switched to T-Mobile when we got back and it is a night and day difference not only for speed when connected to 5G but using LTE when I'm not. I currently have Verizon for a work phone so I have them side by side quite often and it is shocking still how much better coverage, speed and stability there is with T-Mobile here compared to Verizon.

 

[MisterBill]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile a little over a year ago. I was fed up with having to pay $10 a day per phone to use my phone when we traveled out of the country (and also having to remember to be in airplane mode to avoid it). Also wanted to upgrade my Samsung S10 but didn't want to commit to Verizon for another three years as they now do the "free" phone payoff over. My experience has been mainly positive. Yes, I notice dead zones, even in my own neighborhood, but it really only affects me when I'm streaming SiriusXM. But Verizon had dead zones, too, especially in one shopping center I shop at frequently. The perks I get from T-Mobile are excellent, Netflix is included (although it's with ads, and no way to pay for a second household). I also get Apple TV for free and could get a year of Hulu, but my son already has a subscription, so I haven't signed up for it yet. And the Tuesday freebies are nice, sometimes great. Oh yeah, and my bill is cheaper.

And when we travel, my wife and I both have phone service with no daily fee, which is great.